118 RHOPALOCERA AFRICJE AUSTRALIS, 



under-side of abdomen. Legs rather long and stout; the 

 first pair rather conspicuous, very hairy. Abdomen short, 

 about half the length of inner-margins of hind-wings. 



LARVA. Elongate, cylindrical, with distinctly marked 

 segments ; clothed with strong branched spines. 



PUPA. Moderately stout, angulated ; head rather bluntly 

 bifid ; ornamented with gilded spots and washes. 



This Genus contains two South African species, very 

 readily distinguishable ; P. Cardui, Linn. Sp., being salmon- 

 red varied with black ; and P. Hippomene, Boisd. Sp., having 

 a ground-colour of black, with a yellow-ochre bar on both 

 wings. 



The following remarks of Mr. Doubledav, in the " Genera 

 of Diurnal Lepidoptera," are interesting and worthy of quo- 

 tation. " I have dwelt particularly on the geographical 

 distribution of this Genus, so poor in species,* yet so uni- 

 versally distributed, presenting two distinct sections, species 

 of which are known to co-exist in almost every part of the 

 world, except the Southern parts of Africa and America ; 

 never, except in Australia, presenting more than two species 

 in the same district, and these generally of different sections. 

 Thus, Pyrameis Cardui has for its compatriot in Europe P. 

 Atalanta ; further South, in the Old World, P. Callirhoe ; 

 in Java, P. Dejeanii ; in Australia, P. Itea, and an unde- 

 scribed species, of which I have only seen the fragment in the 

 Collection of the British Museum ; in New Zealand, P. Itea 

 and P.Gonerilla ; in the Sandwich Islands P. Tammeana. At 

 the Cape of Good Hope and Sierra Leone, it (P. Cardui) 

 appears to be the only species of the Genus." Gen. Diurn. 

 Lep., p. 204. 



Mr. Doubleday either had not access to, or overlooked, M. 

 Boisduval's "Faune de Madagascar, &c.," or Pyrameis Hippo- 

 mene, figured therein, must have at once impressed him as 

 furnishing a further illustration of what he remarks on, with 

 reference to the islands of Mauritius and Bourbon ; P. Hippo- 

 mene belonging to the Atalanta section of the Genus, and P. 

 Cardui being a common inhabitant of the islands mentioned. 

 But the discovery of P. Hippomene as inhabiting the South of 

 Africa adds another evidence to the truth of what Mr. Double- 

 day advanced, by removing one of the exceptions he mentions, 

 which I have italicised in the quotation. The species of 

 Pyrameis are closely allied to the Genus Vanessa, Fab. They 

 are powerful fliers, but settle very frequently; so that, by the 



* Ten species are enumerated in the " Genera. JJ 



