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XI. Ayi Accomit of a Collection of Rhopalocera made on 

 the Anambara Greek in Nigeria, West Afriea. By 

 Percy I. Lathy, F.E.S. 



[Read February 4tli, 1903.] 



Plate VIII. 



The collection of Rhopalocera dealt with in the following 

 pages is the largest that has yet been made on the Niger 

 River; in all it contaius two hundred and twenty-six 

 species, twelve of which are nndescribed. 



Messrs. Godman, Salvin, and Druce, P.Z.S., 1884, pp. 

 219-229, and Mr. G. H. Carpenter, Proc. R. Dubl. Soc. (2) 

 8, pp. 301-310, 1895, have written two papers on Lepi- 

 doptera from this district; these two papers enumerate 

 seventy-two species, seventeen of which are not in the 

 collection here described, the names of these I give later. 



I am indebted to Mr. Alex. J. Braham, the collector, for 

 the following information on the district. 



The Anambara Creek flows into the Niger River just 

 above Asaba; the mouth of the creek is about three 

 hundred miles from Forcados, and it extends (navigably) 

 about a hundred miles inland. The whole country is flat, 

 with only a few slight hills about sixty to eighty metres 

 above sea-level ; the banks of the waterways are densely 

 clothed with forest and undergrowth, away from the water 

 open bush prevails. The vegetation is chiefly of mush- 

 room growth, soft sap trees of the " paw-paw " type, 

 mingled largely with cocoanut and date-palms; ebony 

 and mahogany are also to be found, and small mangroves 

 are in profusion; orchids are rarely seen in flower, in fact 

 flowers, the majority of which are glaring yellow in colour, 

 are seldom seen. The rainfall is very heavy, the difference 

 in the height of the rivers in wet and dry seasons being 

 as much as sixty feet ; in the wet season the whole 

 country is practically under water, the high forest trees 

 appearing merely as bushes on its surface. 



The season may be divided as follows : middle of 

 January to May intensely hot and damp, with many fierce 

 tornadoes; the weather is then cooler till July, when the 

 TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1903.— PART II. (JUNE) 



