TRANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



OF 



LONDON 



For the Year 1911. 



I. On the Forms and Geographical Bistrihition of Acraea 

 lycoa, Goclt., and Acraea johnstoni, Godm. By 

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



[Read June Ist, 1910.] 



Plates I, II, 



At a meeting of this Society on June 6th, 1906, a paper 

 was read by Professor Poulton, in part dealing with the 

 mimetic forms of Acraea johnstoni, Godm.* In this paper 

 the author sought to show that judging from the outward 

 characteristics, Acraea lycoa of West Africa gradually- 

 merged by intermediate gradations into Acraea johnstoni 

 of the east and south, the subject being considered with 

 special reference to the remarkable series of mimetic 

 modifications presented by the latter species. The final 

 conclusion then attained emphasised the extreme proba- 

 bility that the whole series of forms then associated under 

 the names of A. johnstoni, A. proteina, etc., must be 

 regarded as specifically identical with Acraea lycoa. 



In order that the true affinities of this complicated 

 association may be more accurately established, I have, 

 at Professor Poulton's suggestion, undertaken a micro- 

 scopical examination of the minute structure of the forms. 

 I have examined the whole of the material in the Hope 



* " Mimetic Forms of Papilio dardanus (merope) and Acraea 

 johnstoni," E. B. Poulton. Trans. Ent. See, p. 281 et seq., 1906. 

 TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1911. — PART I. (mAY) B 



