348 SOUTH-AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 



glistening, with white transverse stripes. Fore-wing : white band pure 

 aud conspicuous, continued narrowly to submedian nervure ; outer row 

 of spots conspicuous, particularly the lower two ; hind-margin stained 

 with dull-yellow near anal angle. Hind-iuing : median stripe white, 

 though not so brilliant as that of fore-wing ; heyond band, and near 

 inner-margin hefore it, a silver-grey tint ; violet spots more lustrous 

 than in $ ; dull-yellow lunular streak beyond them more apparent, and 

 green- tinted at anal angle. 



This grand Charaxes inhabits the woods of the Cape Colony and of 

 Kaffraria Proper as far eastward as the Bashee River. In Natal it is 

 replaced by the closely-allied 0. Cithceron, Feld., which does not as yet appear 

 to have been taken elsewhere. The actual district in Kaffraria where 

 Xiphares gives place to Cithceron is not known. 



At Knysna and Plettenberg Bay I met with C. Xiphares not uncommonly 

 from the middle of December until the middle of May. Both sexes haunt 

 by preference the outskirts of woods, seeming to delight in short flights of 

 great velocity over open spaces, ending in a return to the tree stem or pro- 

 jecting twig they have quitted. The moist exudations on the trunks and 

 branches always attract this butterfly, and I have frequently seen three or 

 four specimens together busily engaged in drinking at one of these supplies 

 of moisture. I have more than once disturbed a $ at rest on quite a low 

 bush, but the $ , though occasionally descending to within a few feet of the 

 ground, never appears to settle except at a considerable height. Mrs. Barber 

 has often observed the $ at highlands near Grahamstown — and I noticed 

 examples there and at Mitford Park in 1870 — but singularly enough has 

 never seen the (J on the wing. Colonel Bowker, who forwarded several fine 

 examples of both sexes from Kaffraria Proper, noted the species as " rare " 

 on the Bashee River. Mr. W. 0. Scully, who has lately (1885) observed the 

 species in woods near Seymour (Eland's Post), found that a large number of 

 these butterflies were attracted by the sap exuding from a climbing composite 

 shrub, the stem of which he had wounded for the purpose. 



Localities of Charaxes Xiphares. 



I. South Africa. 



B. Cape Colony. 



a. Western Districts. — Knysna, Plettenberg Bay. 



b. Eastern Districts. — Grahamstown. Eland's Post, Stockenstrom 



(J. H. Boioker). 

 D. Kaffraria Proper. Bashee and Tsomo Rivers (./. H. Bowl-er). 



