Butterflies of Southern Africa. 107 
sence of any ochreous tinge in the white bai^s and the 
pinkish gloss of those markings, added to the Avidth of the 
central bar of the forewings, approximate the insect to the 
latter.* The white spots of the head, palpi, and back of 
thorax, are identical in the three species, and a tnft of 
ochreous hairs on the posterior region of the breast is also 
found in all of them. f 
The only example of this interesting Diadema known 
to me was taken by INIr. W. Morant, in a road cut 
through thick bush, about the middle of July. In reply 
to an inquiry from me, that gentleman states that the 
place of capture Avas one in which he had sometimes found 
Danais Ochlea. 
Hab. — Victoria County, Natal. — In the collection of 
W. Morant. 
Genus PsEUDACR^A, Westw. 
Pseiidacrcca imitator, n. sp. 
Exp. 2 in. \\\ lin. and 3 in. 2^ lin. 
Fuscous, loith t/ellowish-whife bands. Forewing : an 
oblique, narrow, sub-apical band, tolerably even and con- 
* In the South African Museum there is an unusually small $ Dia- 
dema mima (exp. al. 3 iinc.) -vvhich was received from Natal, and which 
presents several characters tending in the direction of D. deceptor. All 
the pale markings of the forewings are proportionately larger than usual, 
and the patch of the hindwings is M'hite, with an ochreous edging only. 
On the underside the colouring is that of B. mima, but there is a very 
faint trace of the pale ray which distinguishes D. decpptor. 
f With regard to the intimate affinity so apparent among the mimicking 
African Diademcp, I wish to place on record that D. mima, $ , and I). 
Anthedon, 5 , were taken in copula by Mr. H. C. Harford, in a wood on 
the Little Umblanga River, in Natal. On the receipt of the specimens so 
captured, I at first imagined that jMima and Anthedoii would turn out to 
be the constant sexes of one species ; but having subsequently examined 
with care all the specimens to which I have had access, I find that both 
sexes of each form exist. Of Mima I have determined (from a comparison 
of the fore-legs with those of the sexes of D. Misippvs) 11 ,^s and 5 $s, 
and of Anihedon (in the same manner) 14 ^s and 6 $ s. On examining 
the West African D. diihia and D. Anthedoii in the British JNIuseum, I 
found in like manner 2 (^ s and a J of each form. The case of the 
African Diademcc of this section ( Exiralia, Doubl. ) is a very remarkable 
one; for, unstable as their pseudo-specific characters would appear to be, 
they are unstable only in the direction of mimicking the peculiar Dana- 
ides (sect. Amauris, Hiibn.) inhabiting the same regions, following and 
reproducing even the slightest variations presented by the latter butterflies. 
It is scarcely possilile to doubt that these Diadema; are divergent forms of 
one parent species ; and, looking to their present paucity of numbers, and 
to their apparent dependence for very existence on closely copying every 
form presented by the abundant Danaides, the idea suggests itself that 
some advantage to them might result from such an instability of type 
as that to which unions between such different forms as Mima and An- 
thcdon would in all probability lead. 
