ButterJJies of Southern Africa. 339 



distinguished by the more produced and angnlatcd fove- 

 wings and by the greater prominence of the projection in 

 the hindwings. The markings of the upperside are all 

 larger, paler, and more fulvons than in Lahdaca ; in the 

 forewings the conspicuous disco-cellular bar is a feature 

 wanting in the West African species, -which, moreover, 

 possesses a dull-fulvous irregular marking (between large 

 discal spot and sub-median nervure) absent in Laius ; and 

 in the hindwings, the transverse bar is nearly straight 

 instead of arched or concave interiorly, as in Lahdaca, 

 and the separate spot between the sub-costal nervures is 

 peculiar to Laius. As regards the underside, the brief 

 diagnosis of Lahdaca (/. c.) applies fairly to that of the 

 more strongly-marked ^ s of the South African insect ; 

 but there is so much variation shown in the colouring of 

 the under-surface of the wings in the $ that this point is 

 not one of the first importance. 



The genus Lihjjtliea, so widely distributed over the 

 earth, yet containing so very few species, w\as not appa- 

 rently known to possess any African representative until 

 Westwood (/. c.) in 1851 described and figured the species 

 from Sierra Leone already mentioned. In 1866, I de- 

 scribed (Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., Ser. III. Vol. V.,p. 337) 

 as L. Cini/ras a scarce Lihythea, inhabiting Mauritius 

 and Madagascar, and noted at the same time that ]\Ir. 

 Waller, of the Zambesi Mission, had shown me a Lihythea 

 taken near the Shire River, which I judged from recol- 

 lection might be the same species. Since the discovery 

 of the South African Lihythea^ however, and especially 

 looking to the fact of its occurrence at Quilimane, not 

 far north of the Zambesi Delta, I have little doubt that 

 Mr. Waller's specimen was probably referable to Laius, 

 and not to Cinyrus.* 



* The African lAbythecB appear to be distinguished by the prominence 

 and situation of the projecting point on the hindwings from most others 

 of the genus, both Labdaca and Laius possessing it at the extremity 

 of the 1st median nervule; while in the European and American species 

 the chief projection of outline is not great and is at tlie anal angle itself 

 (end of sub-median nervure). The only specimens of the Madagascar and 

 Mauritius L. Cinyrus that I have seen are both too much broken to tell 

 the real form of the hindwings in this res]icct ; but the species is evidently 

 so nearly allied to the sjiecies of the Cuntincnt of Africa, that ]irobably 

 it has the same outline of wings. The Indian MyrrJia and LcpUa have 

 rounded hindwings ; but Wallace (Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1S()'J, p. S-'Jo) 

 notes that the Ceram L. Narlna resembles the African Lahdaca; and 

 L. antipoda, Boisd., from Macassar, Luzon and New Caledonia, is figured 

 by Eelder with a decided projection in the same situation as that presented 

 by the African species. 



