African Entomology 



butterfly or moth from an egg through its larval and pupal 

 stages to the mature insect without acknowledging that inquiry 

 into such a marvellous evolution may not one day lead to 

 astonishing results. 



There are lines of research open to the lepidopterist as 

 engrossing and no less important than those of the chemist, 

 for instance, amongst which may be mentioned inheritance, 

 variation, phylogeny, the evolution of wing pattern, data 

 bearing on the general question of the origin of species, and 

 the interpretation of the phenomena presented by mimetic 

 resemblance and geographical distribution. 



A Remarkable Butterfly. 

 As far as is certainly known at present, the Ornithoptera 

 group of Papilios is unrepresented in Africa, but from reports 

 that reach England from time to time it is thought that this 

 group may be represented or that a third species of giant 

 Papilios exists, similar to the antimacJms and zalmoxis, or 

 even perhaps a hybrid between these two. There is, for 

 instance, an authenticated report of such an insect having 

 been seen in Liberia which rather bears out my own experience 

 when crossing the higher Lindi River in the Stanleyville 

 district of the Belgian Congo. I was on my way to Stanley- 

 ville from a place named Irumu, near Lake Albert, and having 

 arrived at the Lindi River, which at this point is a good 

 two hundred yards wide, I was crossing it in a canoe when 

 from the opposite bank came flying towards me a large insect 

 of the aniimachus type but of heavier build and flight. It 

 circled over the water and round and above the canoe, where I 

 got a good look at it. The hind wings appeared to me to be a 

 rich brown, spotted and barred with black at the edges, the 



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