2 Mr. R. Trimen on Larvae of Hamanumida daedalus, 



delay in finding the larva of one of the most generally 

 distributed of Tropical-African butterflies ; and it is 

 worthy of note that the discovery has occurred at what 

 appears to be the extreme southern limit of the range of 

 the species, viz. the Coast of Natal, where the butterfly is 

 by no means common. The Hamanumida presents a 

 method of protective resemblance for long well known in 

 the case of the allied Indian genera Adolias {Euthalia) 

 and Symphacdra, and more recently in that of the related 

 African genus Ewpliaedra ; but the larva of the Notodontid 

 Ho'plitis 'phyllocam'pa, n. sp., offers an entirely distinct mode 

 of concealment, effected by a special adaptation of the 

 combined three hinder abdominal segments — held erect 

 and reversed in the attitude so characteristic of many 

 Notodontid larva — in direct imitation of the leaf of the 

 food -plant. 



Family NYMPHALIDAE. 



Sub-family NYMPHALINAE. 



Larva of Hamanumida dacdalus (Fab.), Plate I, fig. 1. 



Length 1 in. 5 lin. ; vpidth generally 2i lin., but head and first 

 thoracic segment and anal segment only 2 lin. 



Head unarmed ; but on each succeeding segment, except first 

 thoracic and anal segments, a latero-dorsal pair of long horizontally- 

 projecting spines (10 pairs in all), tapering to a point and closely 

 clothed with rather long fine bristles — which become shorter and 

 sparser near tip. The first pair of these spines is directed forwards 

 so as to obscure the outline of the first thoracic segment and of the 

 head ; the second and third pairs incline somewhat forward ; the 

 fourth, fifth, and sixth are nearly at right angles with the body ; 

 but the seventh, eiglith, and ninth are increasingly inclined back- 

 ward, and the tenth decidedly so. All the spines are about 4 lin. in 

 length. 



Along medio-dorsal line, a little anterior to bases of each pair of 

 spines (except first, second, and tenth pairs), are two small elongate 

 black spots rather widely apart from each other. 



As regards colouring, the example under notice has suffered dis- 

 coloration in formalin, being of a dull greenish-brown, whereas 

 Mr. Millar describes it in life as "green, with a yellow stripe down 

 middle of back." The spines, however, retain much more green 

 than the budy, and their bristles are blackish or white in about 

 equal numbers. 



