42 SOUTH-AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 



one-fourth (4 out of 15) being peculiar, while the Satyrince have less 

 than one-fourth (2 out of 9) ; but in species the latter show a much 

 larger proportion of peculiar forms, nearly three-fourths (2 i out of 29) 

 being known only from the Sub-Region, while among the LycccnidcB 

 rather less than two-thirds (7 5 out of 116) are peculiar. 



There can be no doubt that, with the exception of the eastern 

 coast-belt, from about the Kei Eiver to Delagoa Bay and Inhambane, 

 Southern Africa is very scantily supplied with butterflies. Here and 

 there some more productive spots, such as a river-bank, a flowery 

 hummock or " kopje," or a patch of dense scrub in a ravine, will 

 occur ; but taking the great area generally, notwithstanding its 

 temperate climate and its wealth in many parts of flowering plants, 

 butterflies are certainly rare, both in species and in individuals. The 

 country is, indeed, too bare and dry, and too little wooded, to aSbrd 

 the conditions of food and shelter most favourable to butterfly life ; 

 and it is only near the coast of Kafirland, Natal, Zululand, and farther 

 northward, where the warm Indian Ocean current appears to produce 

 conditions quite tropical in character, that there is anything striking 

 either in the aspect or abundance of the Rhopalocera. So accustomed 

 are we to associate butterflies with flowers, that I well remember how 

 much the dearth of those insects surprised and disappointed me when 

 first I contrasted it with the unrivalled variety and beauty of the flora 

 of the Cape district.^ A residence of nearly twenty-five years (with 

 the exception of five intervals of from four to thirteen months on leave 

 of absence) at Cape Town, during which a great part of my leisure has 

 been devoted to the subject, enables me to state with some certainty 

 that the species inhabiting the neighbourhood, including the entire 

 peninsula and a radius of twelve miles at least to the northward and 

 eastward, do not number more than forty-seven. This remarkable 

 poverty of butterflies is rendered the more striking from the circum- 

 stance that twenty-nine of the species are small Lyccenidce (22) and 

 Hesperidce (7), and that the bulk of the remainder consists of sombre 

 Satyrince (10) of medium size. The Acrceince are represented by 

 Acrma Horta only, and the Nymphalinoi by none but the ubiquitous 

 Pyrameis Carclwi ; and the only other species at all conspicuous from 

 either size or colouring are Danais Chrysippiis (not common), Meiuris 

 Tulhaghia, Capys Alphceus {y&rj local), Pieris Hellica (the solitary 

 representative of its genus), Colias Electra, and Papilio Dcmoleus. 

 Six stragglers occasionally make their appearance in the summer 

 and autumn months, viz., Janonia Cehrene, Diadema Misippus, Pieris 

 Mesentina, Eronia capensis, Ccdlidryas Florella, and a species of Tera- 

 colus ; but all are found only rarely and singly, and of the last named 



1 I believe that when the Cape flora comes under investigation as regards fertilisation 

 by insect agency, it will be found that a great proportion of its large and brilliant blossoms 

 are adapted for the visits of Diptera, and a good part of the remainder for those of Hymen- 

 optera. The great number of densely hairy flower-frequenting Coleoptera in South Africa 

 must also play a large part in plant fertilisation. 



