TRANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



OF 



LONDON 



For the Yeah 1912. 



I. A Monogrnph of the African species of the Genns 

 Acraea, Fah., with a su'piylenient on those of the Oriental 

 Hegion. By Harry Eltringham, MA., F.Z.S. 



[Read November Ist, 1911.] 



Plates I— XVI. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In the study of biological problems, it is of the utmost 

 importance that adequate information should be available 

 in regard to the affinities, variability, and geographical 

 distribution of the forms of life which may be useful as 

 material for such investigations. A mere list of described 

 " species," without any more intimate knowledge of the 

 inter-relationships of the forms so designated, can be but 

 of small service as a storehouse of reference, just as a 

 collection of specimens, however extensive, unless accu- 

 rately labelled with essential data, can furnish little more 

 than an exhibition of the beautiful or curious in nature. 

 The older naturalists, secure in the comfortable belief in 

 the fixity of species, occupied themselves with the com- 

 pilation of voluminous catalogues of all the forms then 

 known to them, the result being a mere list of 

 names, which in too many cases leave considerable doubt 

 as to the identity of the forms to which they are as- 

 signed. The necessity for specialisation having once been 

 realised, no facts concerning the creatures studied are 

 TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1912. — PART I. (.JULY) B 



