( 22 ) 



and the latter had replied that in East Africa alciojye appeared 

 to be represented by the alicia of Grose-Smith and Kirby (errone- 

 ously described as a/'^ane»ia),that the alleged male (type) of this 

 latter species was in fact a female, and that in all probability 

 the East African female alciope would be found to have white 

 hind-wings. Acting on this suggestion he had examined 

 various Acraeas from the neighbourhood of Entebbe, and found 

 that Acraea aurivillii, Staud., common in that region was 

 always female.* He had then visited Tring, where he found 

 that Dr. Jordan had alread}', some time previously, associated 

 aurivillii with alciope. It was found that the alleged male alicia 

 of Grose-Smith and Kirby was in fact an aberrant female, and 

 that the female which had been described as such was not dis- 

 tinguishable from aitrivillii. A visit to the National Collection 

 showed that there aurivillii had been associated with alcio])e 

 though less definitely, and that Mr. Heron had, with character- 

 istic insight, supplied a note to the effect that the supposed 

 male alicia was probably a form of female. The result of the 

 whole investigation was that in alciojie we had an extremely 

 interesting and complicated case of mimicry. In West Africa 

 the female alciope was in an unstable condition, but, generally 

 speaking, mimicked a male Planema which was probably a 

 form of salvini. At Sierra Leone the pattern of the female 

 was fairly constant, but at Fernando Po intermediate varieties 

 were found, one example he had seen having the fore-wings of 

 the Western type and the hind-wings almost as in aurivillii. 



[Ixviii 

 Passing across to Uganda, whilst the male remained the same, 

 the female became established in the form hitherto known as 

 aurivillii, and was a very perfect mimic of Planema poggei, 

 Dew., one of the commonest species of that genus at Entebbe. 

 It was very remarkable that in aurivillii there w'as a complete 

 development of the brown patch at the base of the hind-wing 

 underside. This brown patch is especially noticeable in many 

 species of Planema and also in their mimics. The case was 

 f urther complicated by the fact that in West Africa the male 

 alciope formed the model of the female Mimacraea fulvaria, 



* In the hurry of his departure for Africa, Mr. Neave erroneously 

 descrihed the examples of «K?'a77i?ii in the Wigp;ins collection (Novit. Zoo!., 

 Vol. II, 1904) as males. They are certainly Ifmalcs, as are all the speci- 

 mens, some fifty or more, examined by me. — H. E. 



