MIMETIC ASSOCIATIONS 



71 



wings. As a rule the colours in this sex have a generally paler and more faded appearance, 

 and the basal spots in the hind-wing are smaller, though in one example the basal spots are 

 as distinct as in the male, and in one male the discal and basal reddish-ochreous is as pale 

 as in the female. So far as I am aware the species is entirely confined to West Africa, in the 

 region of Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast. Its only mimic, and that a very close one, is 

 Pseudacraea striata. 



PSEUDACRAEA STRIATA. 



Butler, Cist. Ent., i, p. 215 (1874). 



Hewitson (Diadema eurytus), Diadema, pi. 3, f. g (1868). 

 Aurivillius, Rhop. Aeth., p. 177 (1898). 



Plate VI, Fig. 16. 



A figure of this Pseudacraea appears on Plate III [Diadema) of Hewitson's beautiful 

 series of figures of tropical butterflies, together with the male and female Pseudacraea 

 eurytus and the female Pseudacraea ruhama. All these forms were considered by the author 

 to be varieties of one species, and it was their remarkable resemblance to species of Planema 

 which caused him to break through his usual reserve and comment upon their similarity 

 in a passage to which I have referred elsewhere (p. 105). 



I have seen some twenty examples of this species. The specimen figured is in my own 

 collection, and three others are in the Hope Department at Oxford, one being a female. 

 The species is rather variable, my own example being a nearer approach to vestalis than 

 the Oxford specimens, which are rather darker and somewhat devoid of the characteristic 

 yellow suffusion of the Planema. The female is rather larger and paler than the male. The 

 specimen figured was received from Sierra Leone. 



THE PLANEMA EPAEA GROUP. 



PLANEMA EPAEA. 



Cramer, Pap. Exot., iii, p. 64, pi. 230, ff. B, c (1779). 

 Fabricius [gea), Spec. Ins., ii, p. 32 (1781). 

 Aurivillius, Synonymy, Rhop. Aeth., p. 119 (1898). 



Plate VII, Fig. I o^, 2 ?. 



Planema epaea is sexually dimorphic, the reddish areas in the male being replaced by 

 white in the female. It is essentially a West African form, and it is probable that the males 

 and females, as is frequently the case in dimorphic species, do not habitually fly together. 

 I have examined a long series of both sexes and the markings appear to be extremely constant, 

 the only difference being a shght variation in the richness of the colours, which may perhaps 

 be due to variations in the age of the specimens when captured. The brown triangular 

 mark at the base of the wing on the female underside is very characteristic of the Planemas, 

 especially of the black and white forms, and is very faithfully reproduced in most of their 

 mimics. 



PSEUDACRAEA EURYTUS. 



Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, p. 487 (1758). 

 Clerck, Icon. Ins. 2, pi. 31, f. 4 (1764). 

 Linnaeus {euryta), Mus. L. Ulr., p. 221 

 (1764). 



Drury {a^ hirce), 111. Exot. Ins., iii, p. 37, pi. 28, 

 ff. 3, 4 (1782). 



Westwood {d^ gea),m Drury, 1. c, ed. 2, p. 38, 



pi. 28. ff. 3, 4 (1837). 

 Butler (5 var. epigea), Cist. Ent., i, p. 216 (1874). 

 Aurivillius (5 ab. bicolor), Rhop. Aeth., p. 176 



(1898). 



— Synonymy, Rhop. Aeth., p. 176 (1898). 



Plate VII, Fig. 40^, 5 



