V 

 38 MR. ■R.TRIMEtf ON BUTTERFLIES FROM [Jan. 16, 



case of this species, as of so many others ; but the little material 

 available favours the supposition that fas in the case of many 

 Satyrince and Lyccenidce) the warmly-tinted conspicuously marked 

 underside denotes the summer or wet-season brood (where con- 

 cealment is of less importance among the herbage of that season), 

 and the obscure underside almost devoid of markings the brood of 

 the winter or dry season, when the open-ground vegetation is 

 wanting or thoroughly withered. 



In connection with this point, however, the published observa- 

 tions of Mr. D. G. Eutherford (Proc. Ent. Soc. Loud. 1878, 

 p. xlii) and Mr. W. L. Distant (Nat. in the Transvaal, 1892, 

 pp. 41, 42) — both of whom were acquainted with this species in 

 life — should be considered. The former notes that this Butterfly 

 always settles on the ground with closed wings, and that the 

 underside colouring not only was eminently protective from its 

 close resemblance to the colour of the soil, but was found in the 

 various districts inhabited by the insect to vary in accordance 

 with the particular tint of the soil characteristic of a district. 

 Mr. Distant, on the contrary, though agreeing as to the insect's 

 settling on open ground, states that he invariably found it resting 

 with wings expanded, and " nearly always on greyish-coloured 

 rocks or slaty-hued paths, with which the colour of the upper 

 surface of the wings wonderfully assimilated." He adds that 

 " large tracts of bare ground of a reddish-brown colour exist with 

 which the under surface of the wings would be in perfect unison ; 

 but though I watched for months to see a specimen thus situated, 

 and with its wings vertically closed, I never succeeded in doing 

 so." On reading Mr. Distant's letter to the above effect published 

 in 'Nature' of 26th February, 1891, I wrote to him suggesting 

 that (1) the differences in the underside might be seasonal, and 

 (2) that possibly the upperside might be protective in the wet 

 and the underside in the dry season : I also intimated that all 

 analogy pointed to the underside being protective when the insect 

 is really cct rest, not merely settling at intervals. To this latter 

 view I adhere ; but as regards the second of my suggestions, 

 Mr. Distant's observation that the habits of H. dcedalus were " uni- 

 form in the Transvaal in both the dry and wet seasons " would 

 indicate that even during the winter the underside colouring 

 would not in that country be protective. Mr. Distant does not 

 mention whether the underside differs seasonally in the Transvaal, 

 but two examples ( rf and 5 ) taken by Mr. W. Morant near Pretoria 

 in March 1872 are both of the brighter colouring with moderately 

 developed white spots, as is also a solitary example taken near 

 Durban, Natal, in February 1883 by Col. Bowker. 



Genus Charaxes, Ochs. 

 58. Charaxes zoolina (Westw.). 



Nymphalis zoolina, Westw. Gen. D. Lep. pi. liii. fig. 1 (1850). 

 The two specimens (rfnnd?) were taken at Christmas Pass. 



