22 2 SOUTH-AFKICAN BUTTEEFLIES. 



it of the singular seasonal form Prorsa of the European Araschnia Levana (L.) 

 The elongation of the wings, comhined Avith the fuscous and white colouring, 

 give it much the appearance of a small Neptis?- 



The only South-African specimen of this butterfly that I have seen is a $ 

 sent to me by the late Mr. E. C. Buxton in 1874, with the note that it had 

 been captured at D'Urban, JSTatal, iu the previous year, and was the only indi- 

 vidual met with. This example agrees in all respects with specimens from 

 Tropical Western Africa. 



Localities of Precis Sophia. 



I. South Africa. 

 E. Natal. 



a. Coast Districts. — D'Urban {E. C. Buxton). 



II. Other African Eegions. 

 B. North Tropical. 



a. Western Coast.— Fernando Po (Coll. Brit. ISIus.) Gold Coast 



(/. M. FasJi). Sierra Leone (Coll. Brit Mus.) 

 h. Eastern Coast. — "Abyssinia: Lake Tsana (Raffmy)." — Oberthiir. 



67. (2.) Precis Cloantha, (Cramer). 



$ Papilio Cloantha, Cram., Pap. Exot., iii. t. cccxxxviii., ff. a, b (17S2). 



? Vanessa Cloantha, Godt., Enc. Meth., ix. p. 322, n. 61 (181 9). 

 (j ,, ,, Chenu., Enc. d'Hist. Nat. -Pap., pi. 26, f. 3 (1852). 



(J 5 Jiinonia Cloantha, Trim., Khop. Afr. Aust., i. p. 137, n. 83 (1862). 



Exp. al., 2 in. 3—9^ Hn. 



Brighter or duller warm orange-ocJireous ; ivith transverse hlacJc 

 streaJcs, and llue-centred hlack ocelli. 



^ A splendid purple lustre, strongest over basal half of wings, is 

 visible in certain lights. Fore-iving : base clouded with black, nar- 

 rowly so on costa, more widely on median nervure, and extending 

 nearly to middle on inner margin ; two moderately-broad, transverse, 

 black streaks in discoidal cell, the outer one closing cell ; a similar 

 streak beyond middle, between subcostal nervure and third median 

 nervule, which, interrupted on the latter nervule, is continued thence 

 by an irregular streak, inclining inwardly, to submedian nervure, where 

 it joins the black clouding from base ; in some distinctly-marked speci- 

 mens, the streak closing cell is also, though interrupted at insertion of 

 second median nervule, produced to join basal black ; beyond the striee 

 a black mark on costa commences a row of six black, blue-centred ocelli, 

 of which the first three are contiguous, the largest and lowest ocellus 

 being between second and first median nervules, — the line of spots 

 being parallel to hind-margin ; beyond ocelli a transverse, thin, inter- 

 rupted, macular, black streak, broader and more continuous on costa and 



1 M. Oberthiir mentions (Etudes cVEnt, iii. (Oct. 1878), p. 27) that this variety occurs, 

 and that some examples exhibit the passage between the different colorations. He does 

 not say, however, whether the variety in question obtains in the female as well as in the 

 male. 



