NYMPHALINyE. 195 



Localities of Atclla Columhina. 



I. South Africa. 

 E. Natal. 



a. Coast Districts. — D'Urban (/. H. Bowlier and W. D. Gooch), 



II. Other African Eegions. 



A. South Tropical. 



a. Western Coast. — Angola : Brit. Mus. 



B. North Tropical. 



a. Western Coast. — Camaroon ; Old Calabar; Sierra Leone: Brit. 



Mus. "Gaboon (Theori7i)." — Aurivillius. 



b. Eastern Coast. — "Abyssinia (Shoa : Antinori).^'' — Oberthtir \_A. 



Eurytis]. 



Genus LACHNOPTERA. 

 Laclmoptera, E. Doubl., Gen. Diurn. Lep., i. p. 161 (1848). 



Imago, — Closely allied to Atella, Doubl. Palin with the second 

 joint not grooved, less swollen, more hairy beneath ; antennce with a 

 longer, narrower, less flattened, not spoon-shaped club. Fore-ivings 

 more markedly produced apically, and more prominent towards posterior 

 angle ; hind-margin more sinuate ; costa more arched ; discoidal cell 

 broader ; lower disco-cellular nervule better developed, much longer, 

 straighter, joining median nervure before origin of the second nervule. 

 Hind-ivings considerably longer in lower half, angulated bluntly at 

 extremity of third median nervule ; anal angle square and prominent, 

 not rounded off; inner margins more prominent, and foi^ming a more 

 complete groove as far as end of internal nervure, but beyond that 

 point more emarginate ; discoidal cell fully open, the lower disco- 

 cellular nervule being quite obsolete ; in ^ a conspicuous roughly- 

 ovate silky patch near costa and ajoex. 



It is questionable whether the differences above noted are sufficient 

 to warrant the generic separation from Atella of the two species com- 

 prised in Lachnoptera ; but the butterflies in question, apart from the 

 striking sexual badge in the male, have a peculiar /acit'5, owing to the 

 length and truncate form of the hind-wings. 



The group is limited to Africa, and was founded by Doubleday on 

 P. lole, Fed)., a species ranging from Sierra Leone to the Gaboon. 

 Until 1874 I was not aware that any South- African representative 

 existed ; but in that year Mr. W. D. Gooch sent me a drawing of an 

 indubitable ^ Lachnoptera, taken in Natal, and not long afterwards the 

 specimen itself. I did not wish to found a new species on a single 

 example of one sex, and it was not until 1879 that I had the pleasure 

 of receiving from the same entomologist a pair of the butterflies captured 

 by himself on the Natal coast. Colonel Bowker has since been most 

 successful in obtaining numerous examples of both sexes in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Pinetown. 



