MIMETIC ASSOCIATIONS 



8r 



This exceedingly variable Acraea has a very wide range extending from Sierra Leone 

 to Uganda. The majority of the males from the neighbourhood of Entebbe resemble Fig. 9 

 in the arrangement of the markings, but the light areas are of a pale ochreous colour, and 

 in the female these markings are white. In one female the sub-apical bar is white, whilst 

 the inner-marginal patch and discal portion of the hind-wing are ochreous and much reduced 

 in area. A female from Sierra Leone has the dark hind-wing border reddish-brown, and the 

 nervules and rays black. The black and white female is that figured by Doubleday and 

 Hewitson under the name of carmentis. This form undoubtedly mimics the black and white 

 Planemas, and is synaposematic with P. epaea, P. alcinoe, &c. The most interesting variety 

 of the female is that illustrated on Plate VIII. Here the sub-apical bar, the inner-marginal 

 patch, and the greater part of the hind- wings have all developed the tawny orange of Planema 

 tellus. This peculiar form has been taken at Entebbe by Dr. Wiggins in company with its 

 model and also with the peculiar form of A. encedon previously described (p. 36). It is not, 

 however, confined to the east, as there exists in the Hope Museum at Oxford an example 

 of the same variety with the tawny areas somewhat richer in colour, which was taken in 

 West Africa. This example is not easily distinguishable from the male Planema epaea. 

 It seems appropriate here to note the remarkable parallel between the varieties of A. jodutta 

 and Acraea esebria. Each variety of A. jodutta is represented by a corresponding form 

 of A. esebria and without the opportunity of comparing long series it is not always an easy 

 matter to assign individual examples to their respective species. A comparison between 

 large numbers of specimens shows that in A. esebria the sub-apical bar of the fore- wing is 

 smaller, more clearly defined, and more distinctly divided by the nervules, whilst the marginal 

 border of the hind- wings is narrower and very clearly defined. A. esebria is essentially 

 a South African insect, though some of the varieties are found in Angola. 



ACRAEA ALTHOFFL 



Dewitz, Ent. Nachr., xv, p. 102, pi. i, f. 5 (1889). * 

 Aurivillius (rubrofasciata), Ent. Tidskr., xvi, p. in (1895). 

 — Rhop. Aeth., p. 107, 1898. 



Smith and Kirby, Rhop. Exot., Acraea, pi. 8, ff. 3, 4 (1901). 



Plate VIII, Fig. 12, j var. 

 This Acraea has at least three varieties of female. The form nearest to the male in 

 pattern has been described to me by Mr. H. H. Druce. The male is slightly larger 

 than Fig. 12. The ground-colour is brownish-black. The fore-wing has a sub-apical 

 bar of a brick-red colour, rather nearer to the end of the cell than to the apex, and 

 consisting of one large spot beginning below the subcostal, and divided by the nervules, 

 and a small separate spot slightly dusted with pale yellow, and placed between the second 

 and third median nervules. A red streak occupying the lower half of the cell, very narrow 

 at the base, and widening suddenly beyond the middle so as to reach the subcostal ; and 

 a red discal band extending from the second median to the inner-margin, and deeply indented 

 on the basal side above the first median. The hind- wings with a narrow discal curved band 

 of pale yellow, extending from the costa a little beyond the middle to the middle of the 

 inner-margin. Dark internervular rays on the marginal border, bifurcate distally, and 

 enclosing elongate paler spots. A few small black spots on the dark basal patch. On the 

 underside the fore-wing is pale red with a sinuous discal band of dark brown. The sub- 

 apical bar much paler than on the upperside, and the apical and hind-marginal areas dark 

 ochreous with black internervular rays bifurcated on the margin and enclosing pale spots. 

 Tw^o black spots in the cell, the first small, the second elongated, transverse, and extending 

 from the subcostal to the median. A black spot above and a little beyond the origin of the 



1200 L 



