ol4< MR. TRIMEN ON MIMETIC ANALOGIES AMONG AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 



as that by Diadema Boliua, but it is sufficiently near to deceive the collector when the 

 butterfly is on the wing. Until they settled on flowers, when the tremulous motion of 

 the wings at once betrayed their disguise, I mistook both the examples of this Pa/pilio 

 that I captured for Chrysip-pus. 



In Western Africa (Ashanti) occurs a fine Nymphalide, Romaleosoma Mens, Dru., 

 the colouring and pattern of the female of which show a strong, but far from exact 

 resemblance to those of B. Chrysippus, the principal element of difi^ereuee being the 

 possession by Eleiis of a broad black band, containing conspicuous white spots, which 

 l)orders the hind wings. There is, however, in the British Mu^seum, a variety of the 

 ? Metis, from Congo (in 6° S. lat.j, which more nearly approaches the aspect of Chry- 

 sippus. Compared with the type-form, it is smaller, and with more elongated fore wings ; 

 the ground-colour is redder and clearer ; the apical black of the fore wings occupies a 

 smaller space, while its white bar is broader ; and the border of tlie hind wings is nar- 

 rower, though still broad and conspicuous*. Congo is one of the known habitats of 

 Chrysippus. 



6. AcR^A Gba, Eab. 



S Papilio Gea, Fab. Sp. lus. ii. p. 32. 

 P. Epea, Cram. Pap. Exot. pi. 230. figs. B, C. 

 S Papilio lodutta, Fah. Ent. Syst. iii. 1. p. 175. 

 J , ? . Acnea Gea, Godt. Euc. Meth. ix. p. 238. 



I have no doubt that Godart rightly considered the lodutta of Fabricius to be the 

 ? of that author's Gea, as the difference in colour of the pale bands is the only distinction, 

 and there are several instances of allied Acrcece in which the fulvous or yellow markings 

 of the male are replaced by white in the female. Doubleday (' Gen. Diurn. Lep.' 

 p. 141) gives the Timandra of Jones's ' Icones ' as the female of Gea, while Godart 

 refers it to E. Euryta, Linn. The specimens named Tima»dr a inilie National Collection 

 agree well with Fabricius's description of lodutta, and are evidently females of Gea. 



The male has been received from Ashanti, Calabar, and Congo ; the female from Sierra 

 Leone and Calabar. Two other butterflies inhabiting both Ashanti and Calabar are 

 close mimickers of this Acrcea, viz. Fanopea Sirce, Dru., and the female JPapilio Cynorta, 

 Fab. ( = P. BoisduvaUiamis, WestAV.)!. In i\iQ Panopea, the imitation is twofold, the 

 differing male and female of the Acrcea being copied by the corresponding sexes of the 

 mimicker ; but in the Papilio it is the female only that copies (very exactly) the female 

 Gea, the male being of a very different pattern as regards the fore wings. In addition to 



* Danals Chnjsijypus is not without its mimickers among the eastern NympliaUda', the most remarkable of -whicli 

 are the Javan Cethosia Penthesilea, Cr., and the female of Argi/niiis Niphe, Linn., inhabiting India and China. 

 The Cethosia differs widely from Chrysippvs on the under surface, but the upperside is a very close copy, both in 

 pattern and eoloiu's, of that of the Danais, differing only in the possession of a submarginal row of spots in the hind 

 wings. The case of the $ Argynnis is the more interesting from the fact of the sexes being so dissimilar, the male 

 being of the ordinary colouring of the genus. 



t I have elsewhere discussed the grounds for considering P. Boisduvallianus to be the female of Cynorta (see 

 Tram. Ent. Soc). 



