54 SOUTH-AFEICAX BUTTERFLIES. 



This ■well-known butterfly is an abundant species in nearly all parts of 

 "South Africa, but seems much less common near Cape Town than elsewhere. 

 Its size and boldly-contrasted colours, in conjunction with its rather slow flight 

 and habit of frequenting open ground and gardens, render it a very conspicuous 

 object. Though so indifferent to concealment, I have often noticed that, when 

 conscious of being pursued, it very considerably increases its speed, and exhibits 

 very respectable powers of flight. Apart from the unpalatable nature which 

 renders it distasteful to insect-eaters, there can be no doubt that the wide pre- 

 valence of Chrysi;ppus is largely due to the circumstance that its larva afl'ects 

 chiefly, if not solely, asclepiad plants, which very few, if any, herbivorous 

 mammals will feed upon. 



I have met with the butterfly on the wing from November to May ; Mr. 

 "W". S. M. D'Urban noticed it in British Kaflraria from December to July. 



The larva is very conspicuous, and hves fully exposed on its food-plants. In 

 walking, the first pair of filaments is kept in continual slow motion backward and 

 forward, each filament moving alternately ; but the other pairs are motionless. 



I have not found the variable colouring of the pupa to accord with its im- 

 mediate environment, though I have allowed the larvae in confinement free 

 choice of various convenient surfaces for pupation, with the view of ascertaining 

 whether there was any relation between the green or reddish tint and the 

 colouring of adjacent objects. It seems not improbable that this brilliant pupa 

 stands in no need of special protection, but, like the imago (and apparently the 

 larva also), is avoided by insectivorous animals. 



The African specimens of Clirysippus difler from the Asiatic in their deeper 

 red ground-colour, narrower subapical white bar in the fore-wings, and (usually) 

 smaller and fewer white dots in the hind-marginal black borders. 



The Variety Alcijppus, Cr., Avith white suffused hind-wings but ordinary 

 fore-wings, prevails very largely on the Western Coast of Xorth-Tropical Africa, 

 while on the Eastern Coast, and in Abyssinia, Xubia, ifec, the Variety Doj-i^jJMS 

 appears to be as common as the type-form. 



In South Africa the former is not uncommon, but the white on the hind- 

 wings is less developed as a rule. Doripipus, on the contrary, is seldom met 

 with, and the only example I possess was taken by the late Mr. M'Ken at 

 D'Urban, Natal. It is a $, considerably larger than King's figure {op. cit.), 

 with very little sign of the hind-wing's white suffusion, and much less fuscous 

 clouding on costa of fore-wing, but with a good deal of the dusky tint over the 

 basal half of both wings shown in Klug's Var. $ (fig. 5). 

 *pfe Mr. A. G. Butler (Proc. Zool. Soc.LoncL, 1S84, pp. 480, 481) has published 

 Major Terbury's notes on D. Clirysippus at Aden, from which it appears that 

 both the above-named varieties occur there commonly in company with the 

 typical form, and that_the latter and the variety Dorippus were very frequently 

 taken in coitu. 



This Danais is very accurately mimicked by the J Diadema Misippus 

 (Linn.), even its varieties Alcij^pus and i)o?7^p2<s being copied by corresponding 

 varieties of the $ Diadema. Less exact but very obvious mimickers are the 

 form of the $ Papilio Cenea (Stoll), named Trophonius by Westwood, and 

 the $ Argynnis Niplie (Linn.) The latter butterfly, so common in India and 

 China, is recorded by M Ch. Oberthiir among the species taken in Abyssinia 

 by the Marchese Antinori in 1877. 



The very extensive range of D. Chrysippus is as follows, viz. : — 



I. South Africa. 

 B. Cape Colony. 



a. Western Districts. — Cape Town. Caledon (Genadendal : G. 

 Hettarscli). "Worcester. Eobertson. Victoria West (Kenhart : 

 F. Chiitenden). Oudtshoorn {Adams). Knysna and Pletten- 

 berg Bay. Ookiep, Namaqualand District (Z. Perinyuey). 



