1897.] BUTTERFLIES OF THE GENUS TERACOLUS. 19 



describes thus: — "below all four wings are white, with black 

 marginal spots aud the costa of hind wings orange at base." 

 Mr. Trimen contends that as T. speciosa has the hind wings 

 yellow below, it cannot be this species ; but I have seen not a 

 few specimens in which the yellow is reduced to but the faintest 

 tinge, and which would thus very well suit the description ; more- 

 over the hind-marginal spots are a normal feature in T. speciosa, 

 but whenever they occur in T.jalone, which is very seldom, they 

 are always accompanied by strong black neuration and a distinct 

 blackish discal ray from costa, to which striking features no refer- 

 ence is made by Godart. But Mr. Trimen's chief contention is 

 that at the time when Godart described his insect there were no 

 Europeans in Natal, ^vhich is the only locality where T. speciosa 

 has been found at the present day. Godart gives no locality for 

 his specimen ; but this argument does not seem sufficiently cogent 

 to induce me to apply his name to a species which clearly does 

 not agree with his description, when we know of another species 

 which suits it reasonably well \ 



T. ione, as here restricted, is a very local insect, being only known 

 at pi'esent from the coast-belt of ^^atal, and is replaced a short 

 distance inland by the wide-ranging and variable T.pMegyas, But). 

 ( =:JaIone, But!.). T.jobina, Butl., is the dry-season form of T. ione. 



^ [The point here discussed cannot now be settled ; only probabilities can be 

 weighed, in conjunction with the comparison of an incomplete description with 

 the known varieties of the two nearly related forms in question. Perhaps I 

 may here quote what I published in 1889 (S. Afr. Butt. iii. p. 103): — "It is 

 not practicable to determine with certainty the exact form of male upon which 

 Godart (foe. cit.) founded his Pieris ione, his description being too brief and no 

 locality being given ; but as he describes the underside as white, and as it is 

 improbable that he should have had before him in the year 1818 any of the 

 more locally restricted Southern forms, I consider it judicious to regard as the 

 typical T. ione the form [ione of Eeiche and of Hopffer,,/«fo«e of Butler, &c.] I 

 have above described, which has a very wide Tropical African range, extending 

 northward to the White Nile on the east and to Senegal on the west." As 

 regards Godart's description of the underside of the hind wings, it should be 

 observed that his words are " avec des points marginaux noirdtres," which 

 means that those markings are very small and blackish — not that they are 

 "black spots" as translated by Mr. Marshall. This is clear from Godart's 

 describing, just before, the corresponding larger niarkings on the upperside 

 of the hind wings as " une suite de taches noires." It would thus appear that 

 in Godart's insect the underside mai-ginal marks were mere blackish dots, and 

 it is reasonable to suppose that the other blackish features — the discal ray 

 and the neuration — were correspondingly reduced. I may note that in the 

 Mozambique male figured by Hopffer (Peters' Eeise Mossamb. t. xxi. figs. 1 & 2), 

 although the discal ray is reduced to some very faint brownish traces and the 

 black neuration is extremely fine, there are yet three diffuse blackish spots on 

 the nervules along the upper half of the hind margin. As a fact, all tlie 

 markings in question are highly variable ; and it is not more remarkable that 

 Godart should liave omitted to mention the discal ray and neuration if he had 

 a faintly-marked example before him, than it is — supposing, on the other hand, 

 that his type was the Natalian form T. speciosus — that he fails to note the costal 

 commencement of the discal ray, which in that form is always well-marked and 

 the most conspicuous marking on the underside. 



Godart gives no locality for his Pieris ione ; but Boisduval — who states (Spec. 

 G^n., Pref. p. ix, 1836) that he had been able to verify a number of Godart's 



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