1891.] FROM SOUTH-WESTERN AFRICA. 63 



Subfamily Acr^in^e. 

 Genus AcrtEA, Fabr. 

 4. AcR^A ATOLMis, "Westw. (Plate VIII. figs. 1 d , 2, 3 $ , 4 c? .) 



c? . Acrcea atolmis, Westw., App. Gates' ' Matabele-land, &c.' 

 p. 343, pi. F. flF. 3, 4 (1881). 



Var. 5 . Acrcea acontias, Westw. 1. c. p. 345, pi. F. ff. 7, 8. 



Ornrora (1st to 25th August, and [var. acontias] November), 

 Ehanda (26th August to 30th September), Otiembora (20th Novem- 

 ber to 2nd December [var. acontias]), and Okavango River (Decem- 

 ber [var. acontiasj). 



The male figured and described by Prof. Westwood was evidently 

 not only faded (the fate of all red Acrcece within a few months after 

 death) but discoloured. The twenty male examples collected by 

 Mr. Eriksson, exhibited, on 16th July, 1888 (from ten to eleven 

 months after capture), an upperside of uniform vivid vermilion-red 

 with a very slight rosy surface-gloss ; while on the underside the 

 greater part of the fore wing and the basal internervular marks of 

 the hind wing were of a soft rose-pink, and the internervular rays 

 in the outer part of both wings were reddish orange (as shown in 

 Westwood's figure of the underside of the female Acontias). Judging 

 from my experience of other red Acrcece, the living A. atolmis must 

 be of extreme brilliancy of colour, seeing how exceptionally rich and 

 intense the red remains in specimens nearly a year old. 



The spots on the upperside of the male present considerable 

 variation in size and development : in the fore wing, the spot nearest 

 the posterior angle varies much in size, and in three examples is 

 obsolescent, and in four other specimens there is a small additional 

 subbasal spot below median nervure, while two of the last-mentioned 

 four, and two other examples, also display a more or less distinct 

 inner-marginal spot (as usual in the var. acontias) beyond the 

 middle ; in the hind wing both the subbasal and median series of 

 small spots exhibit every gradation from full development and 

 number (4 and 6 respectively) to fragmentary indication by two or 

 three scarcely perceptible dots. On the underside this variation is 

 not so great, the basal and subbasal spots of the hind wing especially 

 being pretty constant. 



The female, of which 10 examples were taken by Mr. Eriksson, 

 agrees with the most strongly-marked males in all the black spots, 

 but exhibits an entirely opposite constancy in those markings ; only 

 one of the two occasional additional spots (that on inner margin of 

 fore wing) occurring in one specimen. The colouring is, however, 

 not only very different from that of the male but also highly variable, 

 from dull reddish ochreous to almost ashy brownish grey, the 

 intermediate examples being dull ochreous-brown with a rufous 

 tinge. In the fore wing, the apical area is duller and also marked 

 by indistinct internervular dull ochreous rays, while on the inner 

 edge (immediately beyond the four or five upper spots of the discal 

 series) there is an oblique ill-defined bar of paler ground-colour, 

 which becomes more expressed in the darker examples, until in the 



