African Siiecies of the Genus Acraea. 1 1 



occurred at the beginning and end of the dry season, show 

 a variable and intermediate condition. In Angola wet and 

 dry examples have been taken together in September which 

 is the beginning of the rains, so that the correspondence of 

 the forms is here not well marked. Black females bear 

 Hate January to April, and September to November. 

 February, March, and April are the wettest months, but 

 the rainfall is extremely variable in different years, and 

 also differs greatly in different localities. Thus inner 

 Angola is within the 40-inch line, but towards the coast 

 there are three distinct belts of decreasing; rainfall, the 

 mean at Loanda being only one-sixth of that at Comber 

 Station (6° 16' S., 15° 17' E., alt. 3,100 ft.). 



A. petraea and A. aglaonice correspond fairly well with 

 the seasons, the latter tending to lose the subapical 

 translucent fore-wing spots in the dry season. A. equator- 

 ialis varies very little in the male sex, but the females 

 may be either yellow like the male, or grey, with an 

 incipient fore-wing subapical pale bar. A long series 

 taken near Kisumu in November, December, January, 

 and March shows great variation in this respect. Whilst in 

 this locality these months are amongst the wettest, there 

 is no month in which rain does not fall, the minimum being 

 1"77 in. in July, and the maximnm 7'09 in December. 



A. caldarena is rather variable. Marshall refers to the 

 wet-season males in Mashonaland as having a brisjhter 

 pink ground-colour, whilst Neave speaks of this feature 

 as characteristic of the specimens he took in the " hot 

 dry Luaogwa Valley." Unfortunately this pink colour fades 

 rapidly, and cabinet specimens rarely furnish good illustra- 

 tions of this particular feature. September (dry) males 

 from Mashonaland have a brownish basal suffusion and 

 January (wet) specimens are without this character. 

 March (wet) examples usually have the basal bji'own. 

 All the females corresponding to the above have the 

 ground-colour brownish. Ft. Jameson examples taken 

 in March (wet) have grey and white females and ochreous 

 males. On the Alala plateau both wet and dry forms 

 are found in November (early rains). February (wet) 

 specimens from Angoniland include both pink and ochre- 

 ous males, the females being dark but not grey and white. 

 Kisumu examples taken in November (wet) are both pink 

 and ochreous, with and without basal brown, thus showing 

 a lack of differentiation similar to that in equatorialis. 



