PREFACE 



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•The appearance in 191 2 of Mr. H. Eltringham's splen- 

 did monograph on the Acraeine butterflies of Africa h) 

 occupying 374 pages of the ' Transactions of the Entomo- 

 logical Society', and accompanied by 16 plates, enabled me 

 to repeat the convenient practise of ten years ago and 

 issue a volume of Reports devoted to African Natural 

 History. Volume III (1903) was in like manner rendered 

 possible by the joint paper of Mr. Guy A. K. Marshall and 

 the Professor, occupying 298 pages of the same Transac- 

 tions for 1902, and accompanied by 15 plates. It is a 

 further convenience to their respective volumes of Reports 

 that both papers were granted separate indices by the 

 Society. 



It has been impossible in the present volume to restrict 

 • the whole of the subject-matter to Africa and its islands. 

 Mr. Eltnnghams monograph {3) contains a supplement on 

 the few Acraeas known to exist in the Oriental Region 

 and the late Col. Bingham's second paper (,o) contains the 

 descnpfon of 5 Australian Aculeate Hymenoptera. These 

 are the only exceptions. 



Two other papers are concerned with the African 

 Acraeas-(,) in which Mr. Eltringham describes the forms 

 and -distribution of two remarkably variable species, and 

 (4) where Dr. G. D. H. Carpenter gives an account of the 

 extraordmary resemblances between the larvae of certain 

 spec.es in this distasteful group. Another paper (5) by 

 Dr. Carpenter gives the life-history of that wonderful poly- 

 morphic m.mic of the Acrze^iS-Pseud^^aea eurytm kobleyi 

 The account of this long-hoped-for experiment in breeding 



