Balterjliesfrom British Central Africa. 375 



22. Acrcea anacreon, var. homba, ab., Grose-Smith. 



? , Mandala, lltli April, 1899. 



In this curious example the basal area of the primaries and 

 nearly the whole surface of the secondaries are suffused with 

 smoky purplish. 



23. Acrcea natalica, Boisd. 



(^ c? ) between Chiromo and Katunga, 6th April ; i^ c? ? , 

 between Katunga and Mandala, 8th April ; c? ? , Mandala, 

 11th April. 



24. Pardopsis punctatissima, Boisd. 

 Mandala, Uth April, 1899. 



Lycaenidae. 



25. Tingra amenaida^ Hewits. 



Mandala, 10th April, 1899. 



As I hold that the true Pentila is identical with Para- 

 pontia (having P. utidularis as its type), I retain the use of 

 Tingra for the present genus. T. amenaida is an extremely 

 variable species, including, according to my judgment, 

 T. momhasce, T. nero = hertha, T. Lastly and T. Preussi— 

 hinaris ; it varies enormously in one locality, and it varies 

 locally. We possess all the above-named forms, none of 

 which seem to me entitled to be regarded as distinct species. 

 The variety T. nyassana is founded upon examples in which 

 the spots on the under surface are small, but in some examples 

 the spots are much larger on the under than on the upper 

 surface. T. Preussi appears to me distinct from T. i^etreia^ 

 and to be merely an ochreous and little spotted variety of 

 T. amenaida. The ground-colour of the wings in this species 

 varies quite as much as the width of the borders and the 

 number or size of spots. Thus, from the Nyasa country we 

 have primaries deep orange, secondaries smoky greyish brown ; 

 wings reddish orange, the primaries semitransparent and 

 slightly greyish ; all the wings deep ochreous, slightly 

 suffused with grey ; all the wings clear bright ochreous : to 

 name and separate all such variations would be mere trifling, 

 because it is hardly possible to get two examples that are 

 quite alike. 



