492 Rev. K, St. Aiibyn Rogers' Bionomic Notes on 



and has given me every help in tracing out the relationships 

 of the whole series. 



I propose in the first place to convey some idea of the 

 character and seasons of the various localities. These 



are- 



(1) Mombasa and the Coast hills. 



(2) Taveta and Kilimanjaro. 



(3) Kikuyu. 



(1) Moiiibasa and the Coast hills. 



The climate of this area is typically tropical : the 

 elevation hardly reaches 1000 ft., except in the case of 

 single hills such as Mangea, which is 1600 ft. The air is 

 moist and the temperature high throughout the whole year. 



There are two wet seasons, lasting roughly during 

 April-June and November-December, in the year, and 

 the driest season is January-March, at which period the 

 temperature is highest. It is rather singular that a family 

 of Bdenois scvcrina, Cram., which was bred at IMonibasa 

 during this season belonged entirely to the wet season 

 phase. In fact the seasonal forms of Ficrinie are most 

 puzzling and unaccountable. For instance, all the 

 specimens of Pinacopteryx liliana, Gr.-Sm., which I took 

 at Taveta during the long dry season, belonged to the wet 

 phase, whilst I took a good series of the dry phase at 

 Mombasa at the beginning of July before the rains were 

 over, in an exceptionally wet year. 



This coast region is for the most part open cultivated 

 country with extensive patches of woodland and some low 

 forest. It is generally well watered at the southern end, 

 of which Rabai is the centre. Further north it is much 

 drier and becomes greatly parched at the end of the hot 

 dry season ; but I have not been able to do much collecting 

 in this district. All along the coast the hills rise rapidly, 

 leaving a narrow strip of littoral about 10 miles wide in 

 most places. These hills do not reach a greater elevation 

 than 1200 ft., except Mangea, which is 1600 ft. The 

 greater part of my collecting has been done in these coast 

 hills where the large black-and-white Amauris-cenirQ^ 

 combination is highly characteristic, and the important 

 association centring round the larger red black-marked 

 Acreeas is also very much in evidence. 



