836 DK. A. G. BUTLEn ox [Nov. 16, 



being, as my friend Mr. Triinen assures me, of considerable rarity, 

 and one or two eitlier only recently added or new to the known 

 fauna of iSoulh Africa. 



Keferring to his first consignment, Mr. Marshall writes (Estcourt, 

 Natal, 20th October 189f)) : — " I am forwarding you by this mail 

 a small sample of the butterflies that I have been taking since my 

 arrival in Natal, and I hope you will find some useful and 

 interesting specimens among them. 



" Butterflies have not been b}^ any means plentiful so far, as I only 

 arrived just in time to get the fag-end of the winter broods, and 

 the summer forms are only just beginning to put in an occasional 

 appearance — October being an essentially ' intermediate ' month 

 in this particular locality. Estcourt is n-jt a strikingly rich place, 

 but we get some rare local species here. However, to-morrow I am 

 off for a fortnight's collecting on the Tugela River in the ' thorn ' 

 district, which is a good locality, especially for Pieridce, and I hope 

 I shall be able to send you a few nice intermediate seasonal speci- 

 mens before long." Then follow notes on many of the species. 

 " I shall be glad to see how far you agree or disagree with my 

 nomenclature of the specimens sent." 



lu a letter dated " 14th December, 1896," he writes: — " I am 

 sending you by this mail a second small instalment of butterflies, 

 some of which I expect you will be glad to have. My trip to the 

 Tugela was somewhat of a disappointment, as insects were unusually 

 scarce down there owing to the prolonged drought. However, I 

 managed to get a good number of the commoner Pieridce, and, what 

 is more, I succeeded in breeding Teracohis au.vo from eggs laid by 

 an indubitable T. topha, which decidedly settles, in my opinion, 

 the seasonal dimorphism question in the South-African species of 

 that genus." [The remainder of this letter consists of field-notes.] 



In my opinion the description of T. topha refers to an inter- 

 mediate form between the wet-season form T. aitxo and the dry- 

 season form T. hei^lcamma, having almost the outline of the former 

 but approaching the latter in tlie coloration and marking of the 

 under surface. Mr. . Marshall's practical experiment proA^es the 

 truth of the opinion expressed by Mr. Mansel Weale in 1877, 

 based upon the fact that both T. auxo and T. leisknmma deposited 

 their eggs in the same manner upon the same bush and were 

 produced from exactly similar larva? at different times of the 

 year. 



In a letter dated from Malvern, 17th April, Mr. Marshall 

 writes: — " I am sending you to-day two small boxes of butterflies, 

 one of which also contains a few moths. I was glad to be able to 

 get you a specimen of what I consider to be the dry-season form 

 of Acrcea anacreon \ as I was afraid I should be too early for them 

 at the Karkloof ; but, as you will notice, the dry- season forms in 

 that locality appear a good month or six weeks before they do 

 down here, though the seasons are to all appearance precisely the 



' Not includefl, however, in this consignment.— A. G. B. 



