66 RHOPALOCERA AFRICA AUSTRALIS. 



44. Eronia Buquetii. 



Callidryas Buquetii, Boisd., Sp. Gen. Lep., I, p. 607, n. 1. 



Eronia Buquetii, Boisd., App. Voy. de Deleg., p. 588. 



Expands 2 in. 2 lin. 2 in. 5 lin. 



$ . Greenish-white, not lustrous ; spotless. Fore-wing : 

 costa from base tinged with faint reddish-brown ; the apex 

 and hind-margin varying from being just edged with a faint 

 brownish tint, scarcely perceptible at all on hind-margin, to 

 possessing a blackish marginal band, two lines in width at 

 apex, and extending to anal angle, gradually narrowing to a 

 point. Hind-wing : wholly without marking of any kind. 

 UNDER-SIDE. Greenish-white, with a shining pinkish gloss. 

 Fore-wing : costa very narrowly and faintly edged with pale- 

 brownish ; apex more glossy than rest of wing, tinted with 

 greenish-yellow, and irrorated with indistinct brownish atoms. 

 Hind-wing : all of the same glossy appearance as apex of 

 fore-wing, and indistinctly irrorated ; a rather large, pale- 

 ferruginous, white-centred, disco-cellular spot, with a whitish 

 space immediately succeeding it ; costa at base tinged with 

 vivid pale-green, which extends more faintly to a little before 

 middle. 



? . Wings more truncate : apex of fore-wing more obtuse. 

 Whiter than $ , less greenish ; entirely spotless. UNDER- 

 SIDE. Slightly more yellowish : brownish irrorations more 

 conspicuous. (Described from a single ? specimen in Mr. 

 D'Urban's collection.) 



Woods. 



January (e) March (m). June, 1861 (D'Urban). 



It is worthy of remark that this species, which is of wide distribution on 

 the African continent, appears to have lost the black marginal band of the 

 fore- wing as it extended Southward. Specimens from Sierra Leone have 

 the band conspicuous enough; those found in Congo present it in a much 

 narrower and paler form ; while the examples I captured on the South 

 coast presented the faintest and narrowest edging of brown. Three spe- 

 cimens from Natal, in the South African Museum, seem to carry out this 

 peculiarity of variation, for they possess a dusky-brownish apical bordering 

 of moderate width, extending narrowly along hind-margin, in one specimen 

 almost to anal angle. 



Abundant as this insect was a Plettenberg Bay, I never saw a single 

 female specimen. So rapid and erratic is its flight, that E found it almost 

 useless to attempt to capture it on the wing. But, by taking my stand 

 near a blue- clustered mass of Plumbago Capensis, in the bright stillness of 

 the noonday heat, I succeeded in taking as many as I wanted of this rapid 

 Butterfly ; as they almost invariably, after careering over the trees and 

 open spots, made for the tubular blue flowers, and took a sip of honey 

 before starting off again. Even when the insects have settled, however, 

 the collector must not pause to take aim, but strike the very moment they 

 stop ; for their pause is the briefest of the brief, as I very soon discovered. 

 Only one was taken at Knysna during my stay, in a garden clese to the 



