From the ANNALS AND MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY, 

 Ser. 6, Vol. xix., January 1807. 



On the Sexes of Charaxes mixtus, Rothschild. 

 By A. G. BUTLER, Ph.D. &c. 



In my late revision of the genus Charaxes (Journ. Linn. Soc., 

 Zool. vol. xxv. p. 377) I placed G. mixtus, Roths., as a variety of 

 C. tiridates, remarking : " There can be no doubt, I think, that 

 the prominence of the white centres to the blue spots, unless proved 

 to be peculiar to one locality only, can hardly indicate even a 

 distinct race. Mr. Rothschild insists that the true female of 

 C. mixtus resembles the male ! " 



Recently Mr. Rothschild brought the type of his female C. mixtus 

 to the Museum, but, unhappily, I was away ill. Mr. Heron, how- 

 ever, made a careful coloured drawing of it, which, on my return, 

 he showed me. Directly I looked at it I was convinced, by the 

 form of the wings alone, that it was a female, though with the 

 colouring of a male ! * Mr. Rothschild was therefore quite correct 

 as to the sex of his type of C. mixtus $ . Whether the latter is 

 more than a dimorphic form of C. tiridates can only be satisfac- 

 torily decided by those who have an opportunity of studying it in 

 life and breeding it ; but there are several other species of Charaxes 

 which have two well-defined forms of females, whilst the males 

 differ in much the same way as those of C. mixtus and C. tiridates^. 

 I hardly think G. mixtus can be a seasonal form, on account of its 

 great rarity, whilst C. tiridates is one of the most abundant of the 

 blue Charaxes of West Africa ; but I think it may be a rare di- 

 morphic form of C. tiridates $ . The differences in the male alone 

 would not strike anybody as of great importance they are less 

 than one notes between the acknowledged varieties of many species ; 

 nevertheless, if they should be proved to be constant, I would be 

 the last to refuse to recognize their importance, for I am well aware 

 that characters which in one group of butterflies are valueless are 

 quite constant and reliable in another. 



* An extremely surprising thing in this group, where the female 

 differences are usually very pronounced, 

 t C. Hollandii and C. Dewitzi, 



