72 



AFRICAN MIMETIC BUTTERFLIES 



Pseudacraea eurytus exhibits a sexual dimorphism which exactly corresponds to that 

 of its model PI. epaea, and the mimicry is remarkably accurate on both surfaces. I have not 

 had an opportunity of examining a long series of this species, but it does not appear to be 

 liable to any important variation. The female variety epigea of Butler has the pale areas of 

 the same reddish-yellow as is found in the male. Though that author described it as a new 

 species, he suggested at the same time that it might only be a variety of the female eurytus, 

 and this view Professor Aurivillius has adopted. The female form bicolor of the latter author 

 has the fore-wings marked with white and the hind-wings with reddish-yellow. I have not 

 seen any other example of this form, and it is probably a singular aberration. Eurytus 

 occurs in the same localities as Planema epaea. The examples figured are from Sierra Leone. 



PAPILIO CYNORTA. 



Fabricius, Ent. Syst. (3), i, p. 37 (1793). 



Westwood, Arc. Ent., i, p. 151, pi. 40, ff. 3, 4 {1843). 



Boisduval {zeryntius), Spec. Gen. Lep., i, p. 370 (1836). 



Westwood (5 boisduvallianus), Arc. Ent., i, p. 151, pi. 40, ff. i, 2 (1843). 



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



Neave (peculiaris), Novit. Zool., xi, p. 342 (1904). 



Plate V, Fig. 17. Plate VII, Fig. 8. 



This species is a member of the group which includes P. echerioides, P. jacksoni, and 

 others in which, as has been indicated, many species are sexually dimorphic, and the females 

 mimetic. The tails of the hind- wings are absent in both sexes. The male P. cynorta is black, 

 with a pale cream-coloured band extending across both wings. In the fore-wing this band 

 is very narrow near the apex, and becomes wider towards the inner-margin, and is separated 

 into spots, wide apart at the apex but becoming more confluent towards the inner-margin. 

 The spots are eight in number, the first being situated between the last two branches of 

 the subcostal, and the second sometimes very small or obsolete. On the underside this band 

 is chalky white, and the ground-colour umber-brown. There is a conspicuous golden-brown 

 triangle at the base of the hind-wing, bearing two large black spots below the costal, three 

 black streaks in the cell, and a black streak beneath the median and submedian respectively. 

 The internervular rays are strongly marked in dark brown. 



The typical appearance of the western female may be gathered from Plate VII, which 

 also shows the close resemblance on both surfaces to Planema epaea ? . This female was 

 described and figured by the late Professor Westwood as Papilio boisduvallianus in his 

 ' Arcana Entomologica ', and it is remarkable that on the same plate he figures P. cynorta, 

 the two forms not being then known to be the sexes of the same species. On June 5, 1878, 

 Mr. D. G. Rutherford exhibited at the Entomological Society a specimen of a Papilio in 

 which the left side of the wings showed the markings, more or less interrupted, of the male 

 cynorta, whilst the right wings were those of boisduvallianus, thus confirming the relationship, 

 the probability of which was pointed out by Trimen in 1868. 



In some cases the female P. cynorta has a tawny suffusion in the hind-wings, this being 

 especially the case in a specimen I have examined from Toro in West Uganda. It also varies 

 somewhat in size,, some examples being considerably larger than the figure, on Plate VII. 

 The species has a very wide range, as might be expected, since there is no lack of feasible 

 models for the female form. On the west coast it occurs from Sierra Leone to Angola, and 

 also extends eastwards to Toro in Uganda. The female undergoes a remarkable change as 

 we proceed eastward, for although the typical western form occurs occasionally on the 

 east side, as in the tawny specimen above referred to, the usual eastern form is the peculiaris 



