114 SOUTH- AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 



The variations of the under side in this species are so numerous, 

 and so finely graduated into each other, that it is impossible to fix upon 

 any variety properly so termed, i.e., a constant form differing from the 

 type. The ground-colour is tinged with ochre, pinkish-red, dark- 

 brown, or purple-grey ; the transverse stripes wanting, indicated by 

 detached dark blotches, or broadly shaded with dark-brown internally 

 (while the ground beyond them is very pale) ; the ocelli very con- 

 spicuous in both wings or one wing to their full number, half wanting, 

 ill-defined, without rings, without black, very indistinct, or barely 

 traceable as whitish or pale dots. The ocellus of upper side of fore- 

 wing is sometimes compounded of three black spots. The outline of 

 the wings also varies much, especially as regards the fore-iving, the 

 hind-margin of which presents every gradation between being almost 

 straight (save for a slight prominency in apical region), and the assump- 

 tion of an almost falcate form. 



Larva. — Bright yellow, shaded with greenish ; nine longitudinal 

 green streaks, viz., one central, dorsal ; and on each side two thin ones 

 (subdorsal' and lateral), one wider lateral, and one thin just above legs. 

 Cephalic horns divergent, projecting almost directly forward, only 

 slightly ascendant at extremity. Caudal processes about as long as 

 cephalic horns, but stouter at base, acuminate, and less divergent. 

 The surface generally is transversely ribbed, and very slightly pubescent. 

 Feeds on the " Bush Guinea Grass." 



Mr. W. D. Gooch sent me the notes and rough drawing from 

 which the above description is made. He observes that the Larva 

 was not uncommon on the Natal Coast, and was invariably found 

 on the under side of the leaves of its food-plant, generally at the 

 base with its head downward. Many of the specimens observed were 

 ichneumoned.-^ 



Pupa. — Mr. Gooch has given me no record of this stage. The 

 figures of the Indian and Cingalese specimens above quoted give the 

 pupa as green, rather paler on the wing-covers, which bear two or 

 three blackish lines, probably indicating some of the nervures. The 

 Indian pupa is represented as attached to a thin stalk, the Cingalese 

 to the edge of a broad leaf of a grass. 



In my RJiopalocera Africce Australis (I. c), I recorded my reasons for adding 

 Banlda, Fab., to the array of sjBonymes attaching to this exceedingly variable 

 species. In January of the following year {1867), Mr. A. G. Butler, in a paper 

 contributed to the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, retained Bankia 

 as a variety of Leda, and added to the list M. Helena, Westw., from " West 

 Africa." lie gave at the same time an interesting analysis of the various forms 



■^ It should be observed that the larva of the Oriental Leda is represented as greener 

 than Mr. Gooch describes that of the Natal Leda to be ; and also that in the figure in the 

 Lejndoptera of Ceylon, above quoted, the larva is depicted as having the cephalic horns 

 rusty-red and perpendicular instead of greenish -yellow and porrect, and as possessing on 

 each side of the face a vertical, black, outwardly white-edged stripe running from the base 

 of the horn. 



