6o 



AFRICAN MIMETIC BUTTERFLIES 



round and one linear black spot below the costal, three black streaks in the cell, and one 

 below the median. There is a white spot in the fore- wing cell at the point where the sub- 

 costal bends downwards. As will be seen from the figure, the female is greatly modified 

 in the direction of the white-spotted forms of A. echeria. The species occurs in British 

 and German East Africa, Kikuyu, and Ruwenzori region. 



PAPILIO HOMEYERI. 



Plotz, Stet. Ent. Zeit., xli, p. 306 (1880). 

 Karsch (neumanni), Ent. Nachr., xxi, p. 225 (1895). 

 Oberthiir {tanganikae) , Bull. Ent. Fr., p. 190, ff. 8, 9 (1897). 

 Aurivillius, Rhop. Aeth., p. 469 (1898). 



Plate V, Fig. 11, 5. 



The female of this Papilio is not easy to distinguish from that of P. jacksoni. The 

 male has the submarginal white spots in the fore- wing much larger, and the cell spot is visible 

 on the upperside. There is also an indistinct whitish streak just below the origin of the 

 last two subcostal branches. Judging from the examples I have examined, the most constant 

 difference between the females is the usually browner ground-colour in homeyeri, in which 

 respect it corresponds to the brown form of A . echeria. The species extends further west than 

 jacksoni. The specimen figured was received from German East Africa, but it is also found 

 in Angola. The female P. homeyeri is a very perfect mimic of A. echeria. There is no better 

 illustration of the attractive force of this Amauris and its ally A. alhimaculata than the 

 examination of a collection showing the Danaine species, together with P. jacksoni, P. 

 homeyeri, P. dardanus cenea ? /. cenea, H. duhius f. mima, and H. dinarcha, together with some 

 of the more ochreous-tinted specimens of P. echerioides. For various reasons these species 

 have not been thus grouped together on the plates in the present work, but an examination 

 of the figures will give an idea of the close resemblance which obtains between the forms 

 named. ^ The male P. homeyeri is black. The fore-wings have usually eight and sometimes 

 only seven white spots arranged in a broad submarginal gradually widening band, parallel to 

 the hind-margin. The second spot is the smallest (sometimes absent), the seventh is very 

 large and wide (twice as wide as in jacksoni), and is separated from the eighth or inner- 

 marginal spot only by the submedian nervure. There is a smaU white horizontal mark near 

 the end of the cell, and another, usually larger, beyond the cell and above the upper radial. 

 The hind- wings have a discal white band about twice the width of that in P. echerioides, and 

 there is a submarginal row of small white spots sometimes obsolescent, and placed very much 

 nearer to the margin than the corresponding spots in P. echerioides. The red-brown basal 

 area of the hind-wing underside is smaller than in P. echerioides. There is one round and one 

 linear black spot above the subcostal, three black lines in the cell and one below the median. 



The foregoing species of Papilio are undoubtedly very closely allied, the comparative 

 lack of any characteristic distinction between the females being very remarkable. 



There are two other butterflies of this group of Papilios, viz. P. zoroastres, Druce, and 

 P. preussius, Karsch. Of the latter I have examined the original figures and there appears 

 to be little to distinguish the male from that of P. homeyeri, whilst the female might be either 

 that species or P. echerioides. The spots on the fore-wing are said to be yellowish rather 

 than white. P. zoroastres was described from a male, and I have not been able to find 

 a specimen or description of the female. 



1 Lack of space has prevented a figure of H. dinarcha being included, see pp. 63 and 64. 



