1902.] SOUTU-AFIIICAN LEriDOPTERA. 305 



point of a leaf ; the lateral margins form a yellowish ridge from 

 head to anal extremity, and are much expanded laterally at the 

 point where the wing-covers are broadest ; a thin raised median 

 Jine dorsally and ventrally helps to complete the resemblance, by 

 its likeness to the midrib of a leaf. 



Mr. G. F. Leigh, F.E.S., has given me the following informa- 

 tion, and is, I believe, the only person who has bred P. dardanus 

 from ova in Natal. 



A specimen of the common form of the female in Natal (P. cenea, 

 PL XXVI. fig. 12) was captured and placed in confinement, 

 and laid 42 eggs, 37 of which pupated and produced 17 male 

 and 20 female insects. The eggs are white, and are generally 

 laid on the underside of a leaf, not more than two eggs being 

 deposited on one branch ; the larval stages occupied one month, 

 and the pupal stage fourteen days. 



The species is double-brooded, larvae having been found in 

 February and in May, and probably they may be found in other 

 months as well. 



It wdll be seen from this that the female (from which Mr. Leigh 

 bred his specimens from the egg) was one of the form which 

 was described by Stoll as P. cmiea, this being the form of the 

 female most commonly met with in the Durban district, and 

 that which appears to mimic Amauris echeria Stoll. Among the 

 female imagines that resulted, there were, besides this form, 

 also specimens of a form of female near the form described by 

 Fabricius as P. Tiippocoon^ this being a rarer form of the female in 

 Natal (Plate XXVI. fig. 13); this form diifers from the typical 

 form of P. hifppocoon from West Africa mainly in having a larger 

 area of white on the hind wing than the latter, being modified in 

 imitation of its model Amauris dominicanus Trimen (a local race 

 of the West- African Amauris niavius Linnteus), which is also 

 distinguished from the West- African form by having a larger area 

 of white on the hind wing. 



The males also differ from West- African specimens of P. dar- 

 danus in having the black discal spots and the marginal lunules 

 on the upperside of the hind wing coalesced into continuous 

 black discal fascite, and in the discal band on the underside of 

 the hind wing being tinged with rust-colour instead of fuscous ; 

 they were also, as a general rule, a good deal smaller. 



Mr. R. Trimen records the South- African form as a distinct 

 species under the name of P. cenea Stoll (South- African Butter- 

 flies, iii. p. 243. n. 313), while Professor Aurivillius (Rhopalocera 

 ^^thiopica, p. 465. n. 8) considers P. cenea to be a " forma 

 geographica " of P. dardanus. 



The species is subject to ahnost endless variation, the difier- 

 ences given above between the South- and West-African races 

 being by no means constant, and it appears to the writer impos- 

 sible to divide them except as subspecies or local races. 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1892, Vol. II. No. XX. 20 



