1894.J MAJSICA, SOUTH-E-iST AFBICA. 15 



tract from the pen of my friend Mr. Selous. It will probably be 

 new to many who are well acquainted with his name as an explorer, 

 a hunter, and a pioneer, to learn that Mr. JSelous has not by any 

 means restricted himself to large game, but has for many years 

 kept an eye upon such " small deer " as the entomologist loves. 

 From time to time I have had the pleasui-e of recording many 

 specimens of his collecting, but the highlands of the South-African 

 Interior generally are poor in Lt-pidoptera ; and it was not until 

 the beginning of last year that Mr. Selous found himself at the 

 best season m an exceptionally rich field, and with characteristic 

 energy set to work to make the most of the opportunity. To 

 construct in the brief space of three months fi-om 60 to 70 miles 

 of waggon-road in Tropical Africa, with tslw Mashuna labour and 

 very scant European superintendence, and in the height of summer, 

 is a task well calculated to tax to their utmost the powers of any 

 man, however inured to such exertions ; and it is amazing how 

 Mr. Selous found both time and strength enough to form such a 

 fine entomological collection and to note locahty and date for 

 every specimen. 



Mr. Selous writes as follows : — 



" I reached Umtali from Sahsbury at the end of January, 1892, 

 at the height of the rainy season, having been sent down by the 

 British South Africa Companj' to constritct a road from Umtali to 

 Chimoia's Kraal. This work occupied me for three months — the 

 three best months of the year, as it happened, for collecting 

 insects — and during that period 1 devoted every spare hour of 

 every single day to the diligent coUectiug of Butterflies and 

 Beetles '. 



" I commenced to collect immediately upon leaving UmtaU 

 township. Umtali hes at a height of about 3800 feet above the 

 sea-level in an open grassy valley surrounded by hills. The river 

 Umtali flows just below the township. Beyond this river the road 

 lies through an open grassy country to the foot of Christmas Pass, 

 and then at once commences to ascend to the top of the Pass 

 through shady cuttings bordering swift-running little streams 

 shaded by trees and ferns. The hiU-sides are all covered with 

 open forest. Although all the conditions seemed so favourable for 



mineni (p. 72) is in my opinion the Geratrichia stellata of Mabille ; and Pam- 

 phila sitnbazo (p. 74) is Pamphila ranoha of Westwood (wliich ia a species of 

 Osmodes). In Plate IV. my Peripli/mi johnstoni is figured as Physcmneura pione 

 of Godman (this identification is, I think, correct ; the genus Physcmneura being 

 new to me), but Mr. Godman 's figure is somewhat heavily coloured, and thus 

 I failed to remember it. Mr. Trimen and I have both figured the male, 

 Godman the female. Mr. Trimen, on the same Plate, figures Precis simia, 

 Wallengr., which appears to me to be the insect described by me some years 

 ago as Junonia micromera (Ann. & Mag, Nat. Hist. ser. 4, xviii. p. 482), but 

 this name is not quoted as a synonym, either in this paper or in Mr. Trimen's 

 work on South African Butterflies." — Ed. 



^ My coUeague, Mr. Louis Peringuey, has mounted and arranged the 

 Coleoptera collected by Mr. Selous. He finds 166 species, represented by 510 

 examples, and provisionally recognizes 15 species as probably new to science. 



