( 5 ) 



a greater proportion of females. There were great differences 

 in the duration of the larval stage, some individuals feeding 

 up very quickly, and others slowly, and also teiking longer to 

 change their skin and to pupate. I am certain that this also 

 happens in wild larvae. The duration of the pupal state, 

 however, varied very little. The first eight specimens bred 

 took as nearly as possible two months from ovum to imago. 

 At this time of the year I am sure the complete cycle would 

 not exceed six weeks, but the parent of this brood was 

 captured in our mid-winter (dry season), and consequently 

 the food-plant was very dried up until the rains of about the 

 last four days. This, in my opinion, accounts for the fact 

 that the larvae did not feed so freely as they would have done 

 at this time of the year. 



" I think this is a very interesting brood, and the results 

 undoubtedly show that the hippocoon form is the rarest of the 

 three female forms here, and this is really as it ought to be, 

 for Amauris dominicanus which it mimics is very scarce now. 

 xxxiv] 



Quite independently of this family, all collectors here now 

 find the hippocoon form is getting rarer in the wild state, 

 while trophonius is not so scarce. The very fine varieties, 

 Nos. 36 and 48, with a pattern including elements from all 

 the three other forms must now certainly rank as another 

 distinct female form, for I have bred two others this year. 

 One of these is in the Transvaal Government Museum, Pre- 

 toria, and the other Mr. A. D. Millar received in exchange. 

 Mr. Millar also captured a damaged specimen in his own 

 grounds, and another has been taken by Mr. Hay garth. 



"Most of the females in this lot seem to me to be rather 

 browner than usual on the underside. You will notice that 

 two of the trophonius forms resemble the parent in possessing 

 the brown suffusion of the white subapical bar of the fore- 

 wing.* One cenea is a nice variety with one of the spots on 

 the fore-wing brown instead of white.")" All the specimens, 

 with two or three exceptions, are larger than any I have bred 



* Careful examination of the set specimens reveals this character in all 

 the four trophonius offspring, see p. xxxviii. — E. B. P. 



t This character is also present in other specimens, see pp. xxxvii, 

 xxxviii. — E. B. P. 



