Ml If rillfllMIMMIl 



Mr. Barns' Collections and Aspects 

 of Butterfly Life in Africa. 



By G. Talbot, F.E.S. 



The country traversed by Mr. and Mrs. Barns was calculated to yield 

 some novelties in butterflies and moths. The Katanga district of the 

 Belgian Congo, the region around Lake Kivu, and the Ituri Forest, 

 have not received so much attention from the entomologist as the 

 better-known regions of the west, the south, East Africa and Uganda. 

 The dense forest region of the Congo hinterland still holds many 

 surprises for the butterfly and moth collector. The existence of an 

 unknown species of giant Papilio, already referred to by Mr. Barns, 

 must be considered as one of the most wonderful butterfly discoveries 

 of recent years. Mr. Barns is once again in Africa in quest of this 

 rare insect, but at the time of writing no specimens have been seen. 

 Confirmation of the existence of this butterfly has been supplied by 

 my friend Monsieur F. le Cerf of the Paris Museum. 



A certain Sergeant Monceaux (now Captain), when employed on 

 the Franco-Liberian Boundary Commission for the dehmitation of the 

 frontier between Liberia and French Guinea, made a collection of 

 over 4,000 Lepidoptera which he brought to the Paris Museum. He 

 stated as having seen m the region of the L'pper Sasandra River a 

 large butterfly drinking at a pool of water on the road. It closed and 

 opened its wings alternately, and the observer was able to get fairly 

 close to it before it flew away. The sergeant stated that the wings 

 of this butterfly were very long and for the greater part of a brilliant 

 blue colour. 



Monsieur le Cerf showed Sergeant Monceaux several species in 

 the museum including P. zalnioxis, but he recognised none of them as 

 being the insect he had seen. The sergeant pulled out some other 

 drawers and seeing P. antimachus, exclaimed : " C'est commc cctic 

 esplce Id, mais avcc bcaiicoup dc bleu brillant ct encore plus grand." 

 (It is like that species there, but with a lot of bright blue and still 

 larger.) 



This butterfly has been observed also on two occasions in Nigeria. 



The total number of specimens collected by Mr. and Mrs. Barns 

 was 4,300. These comprise over 760 distinct forms of butterflies, 

 and considerably more than 250 species of moths Most of these 

 have been worked out, and we have described as new to science, 78 

 forms of butterflies and 57 moths, with one moth forming the type 



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