NYMPHALIN.E. 233 



being more violaceous than usual, while in some rare instances the 

 blue is very pale and suffused. 



There are few such striking contrasts of colour among the South-African 

 butterflies as that of the blue and red on the upper side of this beautiful 

 species. I did not know the butterfly in life until June 1865, when I was 

 delighted at beholding it basking in the sunshine on the Berea Eoad at 

 D'Urban, Natal. During my subsequent visit, in the summer of 1867, I mot 

 with many specimens, chiefly in open hilly country. Though constantly to be 

 seen flitting about Avith its congeners, Odavia, Arcliesia, and Pelasgis, I have 

 noticed that Sesamus has a greater liking than any of them for shady places, 

 preferring to settle under a bank or in some deep road-cutting. Colonel 

 Bowker records an interesting note of the extent to which this habit is carried 

 at the end of autumn, when he has found Sesamus congregated in some 

 number under rocks and in holes of dry banks, as many as twenty-nine indi- 

 viduals having been captured at once by placing a net over the hole and 

 disturbing them. The very dark bronzy-green under side is well adapted 

 for concealment in such spots ; but why the butterflies of this species should 

 assemble in this manner is not very apparent. 



In connection with the remarks given above under Precis Odavia, respect- 

 ing certain curious individuals exhibiting characters allied to those of P. 

 Sesamus, I here call attention to some examples in which, though on the 

 whole the characters of the latter species predominate, there are features 

 unmistakably approximating them to Odavia. These two examples ( $ and 

 5 ) were taken by Colonel Bowker in December 1865, within a few days of 

 each other, near the Mounted Police Post on the Eiver Tsomo, in Kaffraria 

 Proper. They want on the upper side the blue basal irroration ; the central 

 fascia is red, tinged with violaceous (instead of blue), and only separated from 

 the ordinary red band — which is scarcely macular — by a narrow suff'used fus- 

 cous ray ; the two rows of blue marks in the hind-marginal border are very 

 much reduced (especially in the $ specimen, where they have quite lost the 

 form of lunules) ; and in the fore-wing the discoidal cell is marked as in Odavia 

 with two red striae, one near base very small and almost obsolete, the other 

 near extremity of cell and very conspicuous. On the under side, the discal 

 area beyond middle is clouded with pale-red, obscured with bronzy-green near 

 costa of both wings ; the basal region is less bronzy, with the markings more 

 distinct, and in the discoidal cell of the fore-wing are two pale-reddish striae. 



A third South-African specimen (wliich I noted in the British Museum 

 Collection in 1867 as "presented by R. C. Townshend, Esq.") much resembled 

 the two just described, but was smaller, and the red colouring of the upper 

 side was without violaceous lustre. On the under side of the hind-wing, the 

 basal markings and the inner marginal border to submedian nervure were 

 reddish — a feature presented by the Natal specimen near Odavia figured on 

 my Plate IV. 



In several of the characters just mentioned these three examples resemble 

 the West-African P. Amestris, Dru., but differ remarkably in the possession of 

 the central red fascia on the upper side. 



Taking these specimens in association with those noted under P. Odavia, 

 and bearing in mind Mr. Streatfeild's capture of the united sexes, it seems only 

 reasonable to conclude that they are the hybrid progeny of two such difi'erent- 

 looking species as Odavia and Sesamus. 



Localities of Precis Sesamus. 



I. South Africa. 

 B. Cape Colony. 



h. Eastern Districts. — Perie Bush, King William's Town (/. H. 

 Bowker). 



