; j 



MR. TRIMEN ON MIMETIC ANALOGIES AMONG AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 509 



(lat. 33° 59' S., long. 23° 3' E.) to Port Natal, the inquiry naturally arises, where is the 

 female of the tropical Meropet One might have been at a loss here, were it not for 

 another, and still rarer, isolated ? JPapilio which is found in Southern Africa, viz. P. 

 Eippocoon, Fab. (=-P. Westermanni, Boisd.), and which appears to be rather commoner 

 on the western coast. This butterfly closely resembles Danais Niavius, Linn., a common 

 species, which also inhabits tropical Africa and Natal. Eippocoon is brought from Hi- 

 same localities as Merope in Western Africa, but is very much scarcer in collections. 

 The markings already mentioned as common to Merope and Cenea recur in Eippocoon ; 

 and some remarkable intermediate southern examples in my collection appear to indicate 

 some of the stages by which Eippocoon' s broad white markings may have been gradually 

 modified in the direction of the dominant southern Dannie, D.Echeria, until so different 

 a form as Cenea was the result. In various collections, I have examined fourteen speci- 

 mens of Eippocoon, all of which are females. 



A third remarkable JPapilio must be placed as another form of the ? Merope, viz. 

 P. Dionysos, Doubl.*, a very rare insect inhabiting Western Africa. I had long 

 regarded this butterfly as probably connected with the curious scries of forms under 

 consideration, even when I knew r it only from the figure in the 'Genera of Diurnal 



4 



Lepidoptera ;' and my opinion has been strengthened by an examination of the type 

 specimen in Mr. Hewitson's collection f. That example, as well as another larger speci- 

 men recently received by Mr. Ilewitson from Old Calabar, is a female. These two 

 specimens come nearer to P. Ilippocoon than to any other butterfly ; but their colouring 

 is very singular, the larger white space of the fore wings extending the whole length of 

 the inner margin, and being scarcely separated from the subapical white bar by .some 

 blackish scaling, while the hind wings are wholly warm yellow-ochreous, except tin 



white-spotted black hind-marginal bordering. On the underside, however, the dull ochre 

 margins of the wings, and the internervular streaks, are like those of Eippocoon ; and 

 the apical spot in the fore wings, as well as the markings of the body, present no 

 difference. But the strongest proof of the most intimate affinity between the two forms 

 is afforded by a third female specimen, which accompanied that just mentioned from 

 Old Calabar; for in this example the characters of Eippocoon and Dionysos are 

 unmistakably blended, the markings of the fore wings being precisely those of the former 

 (except that the inner marginal white extends rather further into the wings), while th< 

 yellow tint of the hind wines, though paler, is like that of the type Dionysos. 



The fourth form of the ? Merope is that described and figured by Professor A\ est- 

 wood % under the name of Fapilio Trophonius, and suggested by him as possibly the 

 female of P. Cenea §. In this form the markings quite agree in size and shape with 



Diur 



' * ta ke this opportunity of recording my warmest act 

 tfewitson has given me unlimited access to his fine col 

 Calvin, Mr. Wallace, and Professor Westwood for similar 



courtesy and liberality with 



Arcana Entomologica, i. p. 163, pi. 39. figs. 1,2. m^ . , and 



TMs view of the sexe Z adoptea by Doubleday, without query, in the , Genera ^^^^^ 



*l> ..-'.._ * . : . . .- .■ ^,.,f^ thn error in Part I. of my Unopalotera. 



§ 

 u Pon this 



without 



