820 DR. A. G. BUTLER ON LEPIDOPTERA [Nov. 17, 



camped at Bandawe about the last day of October, 1885. Bandawe, 

 I might here mention, is a terrible spot for thunderstorms. 



" In Henya, the valley of the Upper Lunyina Eiver, 3300 feet 

 alt., on the mean, some fifty miles S.W. of Deep Bay, the early 

 rains fall about the beginning of November and the rainy season 

 ends about the beginning of May, though there may be, and very 

 often are, a good few showers after that. 



" On the Konde plains, which commence about thirty miles 

 north of Deep Bay and extend to the lofty Wakinga Mountains 

 in German territory, the rains are a week or two later than at 

 Deep Bay. At Karonga, the terminus of the so-called Nyasa- 

 Tanganyika " road " (no road in reality exists it is only a native 

 track), the first rains do not fall before the beginning of December, 

 as a rule. The dry season there commences at the beginning of 

 May, or possibly a little earlier, according to the phase of the 

 moon. 



"The Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau: rains commence in Novem- 

 ber, about the beginning of the month on the escarpments of the 

 plateau, and about a fortnight later halfway across, and last until 

 the end of April. The rainfall is very heavy, especially at the 

 extremities of the plateau : nevertheless, towards the end of the 

 dry season, much of it is a desert almost, for want of water. 



"In the Loangwa Eiver valley, Senga, some seven or eight 

 days' journeying on foot S. W. of Karonga, the preliminary rains 

 commence in September ; and, I believe, the rainy season lasts till 

 May, though I was not there to see this for myself. In August, 

 1895, I found the Loangwa valley completely burnt up ; on 

 September 10th we had rain, also on one or two days subsequently. 



" In the Eastern watershed of the Congo, i. e. on Lake Mweru, 

 and in Kabwiri and Itawa, the preliminary rains fall in September, 

 and the rainy season lasts on into May. During my period of 

 residence on Lake Mweru, I found the rainy season of 1891-1892 

 ended May 6th on the level of the Lake ; a fortnight later on the 

 plateau to the eastward: the preliminary rains of 3892-1893 

 again began on September 4th, some three weeks earlier than was 

 the case in 1891." 



All Mr. Crawshay's captures having been carefully dated, it will 

 now be possible for any Lepidopterists, by going through my 

 published papers, to discover whether a form was obtained in the 

 dry or wet season ; in any case it is certain that some of the 

 supposed distinctly seasonal forms were all captured at the same 

 spot on the same day, and (to judge by their excellent condition) 

 must have emerged from, the pupa about the same time ; but I am 

 told that this fact does not militate against the view that they are 

 dry- and wet-season forms! Personally, I fail to understand how 

 an insect which flies abundantly in the middle of the rainy season 

 can be called a " dry-season form "; I can only suppose that the 

 expression " dry season " is not to be understood literally, but 

 merely as indicating a type of form and colouring prevalent 

 during the dry season, though often occurring during the rains. 

 14] 



