MR. TRIMEN ON MIMETIC ANALOGIES AMONG AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 515 



the localities named, tlie PaplUo has also heeu found at Sierra Leone and the Gaboon, 

 at the former of which places the Acraa occurs. 



There is a difference in the outline of the wings between the male and female of Acnec 

 Gea, as in manj^ other species of the same genus ; and this discrepancy is reproduced in 

 Pauopea Hlrce, the female of Avhich has the fore wings blunter and broader than those 

 of the male. So deceptive is the mimicry of the S Gea, by the S Hirce, that Godart 

 [loc. cit.) quotes Drury's figure of the latter as a representation of the AcrcBa. In the; 

 Linnean collection there is a specimen of the Panopea labelled " Acrcea Gea, Fab." ; 

 and I found an example associated with a specimen of the same Acrcea in the Banksian 

 Collection at the Bi'itish Museum. The figure of " Enrijta" in Clerck's ' Iconcs ' 

 (t. 31. f. 180), to which Linnc refers in the twelfth edition of the ' Systema Natune,' is 

 evidently drawn from a female of the same Panopea*. 



This species of Panopea further presents several varieties of the female, which agree with 

 no known examples of Acrcea Gea, l)ut, strangely enough, are very fair imitators of certain 

 varieties of an allied species, A. Euryta, occurring in the localities (Calabar and Congo) 

 which they inhabit t. In the British Museum there is an interesting specimen of the 

 female Hlrce, in which the bands, though paler, are coloured like those of the male. 

 This example only bears the label "West Africa," and I am therefore unable to state 

 whether this apparently rare form of the female occurs in company with that which is 

 white-banded. 



Most of the examples of Melanitis PJiegea, Fab., a member of the Eurytelidce, are 

 mimickers of Acrcea Euryta ; but a female specimen, from Ashanti, in the National Col- 

 lection (which is, I believe, the type of 31. Bammakoo, Westw. Gen. D. Lep. pi. 68. f. 3) 

 bears a nearer resemblance to the female A. Gea in the position of the subapical bar of 

 the fore wings, and in the extension of the white band of the hind wings over the inner 

 margin of the fore wings. 



7. AcR^A EuRYTA, Linn. 



AcrcEci Eunjfa, Syst. Nat. ii. p. 757. n. 69 ; Cram. Pap. Exot. pi. 233. figs. A, B. 



This is a most variable species in both sexes. Mr. ITe-oitson has recently (October, 

 1867) devoted two plates of his ' Exotic Butterflies ' to the delin(>ation of the principal 

 varieties!. It is not unlikely that a knowledge of the stations and habits of these but- 



* Mr. Butler, who kindly pointed this out to me, has suggested that the Panopea should stand as P. Enn/ttts, Clcrcli, 

 this name being older than Drury's. But it seems clear that Clerek figured the insect in the belief that it was Linne's 

 Em-i/ta, which is an Acrera ; and it thus appears to me desirable, espcciaUy with the view of avoiding confusion in 

 names, to retain the appellation of IHrir for the Panopea. Linne's description, too, as Mr. Hewitson remarks (' Ex. 

 Butt.' Oct. 1867). accords with the Jcrera, notwithstanding that he quotes Clerck's figure. 



t Mr. Hewitson, who has already, in his ' Exotic Butterflies ' (part for October, 18(57) dehneated the varieties of 

 Acra;a Emnjia, and in whose collection 1 saw these singular varieties of P. Ilhre, is about to pulilish tlie latter also ; 

 and I therefore refrain from more particularly describing the imitations in question. 



t After examining Mr. Hewitson's fine series of this butterfly. I am disposed to agi-ee with liim that it is at present 

 impossible to separate the numerous forms which he has figured, with the excei)lion of the fenuile shown in tlic 

 second plate, fig. 29, which appears to be a distinct species. 



4 B 2 



