42 RHOPALOCERA AFRICA AUSTRAL1S. 



Genus ANTHOCHARIS. 



Anthocharis, Boisd. 

 Pieris (pars), Boisd. 

 Euchloe, Aphrodite, Hubn. 

 Mancipium (pars), Horsf. 



IMAGO. Closely allied to Pieris. Head of moderate size : 

 eyes prominent, smooth ; palpi rather more compressed than 

 in the last Genus ; antennas shorter, the club rather more 

 abruptly formed. Thorax robust, clothed with silky hair. 

 For e -wing s : costa not quite so arched as in Pieris; apex 

 more rounded, particularly in the females of some species ; 

 hind-margin nearly straight, or more or less convex. Hind- 

 wings very much rounded ; hind-margin slightly more den- 

 tate than in Pieris. Abdomen very slender in males ; 

 generally a little more elongate than in the last-mentioned 

 Genus. 



PUPA. " Boat-shaped, being widest in the middle and 

 narrowing gradually to both ends." Duncan, Brit. Butt. 



This Genus, as far as I am aware, is better represented in 

 Southern Africa than in any other part of the world. The 

 species comprised in it are some of the most elegant and 

 beautiful Butterflies known, though not attaining to any 

 great size. The great character of the Genus, in point of 

 marking, is a more or less triangular large patch of bright 

 colour occupying the apical portion of fore-wings. The 

 colour of this apical marking is most commonly some shade 

 of bright red or orange, often with a lovely rosy gloss ; but 

 in the handsome A. lone it is of a lustrous pinkish-violet, 

 and in A. Eris of a peculiar dull greyish-yellow. No less 

 than fourteen species are enumerated as South African, but 

 two of these, I think, possess but a doubtful claim to the 

 rank of species. As, however, I know nothing of the earlier 

 states of any of the species, and the extreme similarity of 

 many of the females renders it a difficult matter to distin- 

 guish between them, I can only give the several species as at 

 present recognised, until more experience enables me to 

 speak more decidedly concerning them. Woods and their 

 outskirts are the favourite haunts of the species of Antho- 

 charis, whose flight is commonly more rapid and long-sus- 

 tained than that of the various kinds of Pieris. Unless very 

 close to the observer the bright-red apex is all but invisible 

 when the insect is on the wing. Any instances of the male 

 and female being taken in copula should be carefully noted, 

 and the insects labelled distinctively at once ; as nothing, 

 next to the careful rearing of the Butterflies from Cater- 



