MIMETIC ASSOCIATIONS 



45 



but that all the females were from the west coast only, and none of the Uganda specimens 

 had females definitely assigned to them. The Acraea from Uganda which was represented 

 by females only, and which could be associated with A. alciope, was A. aurivillii. I there- 

 fore consulted with Dr. Jordan on the subject, and he very kindly assisted me to make 

 an examination of the very large amount of material in the Tring Museum, where I found 

 that he had already placed alciope and aurivillii together as closely associated. An examina- 

 tion of the types of Planema alicia, Smith and Kirby, also showed that the alleged male 

 of that species was in fact a female. The material in the National Collection was then 

 examined, and the same species were there found to be closely associated. The result of 

 the whole investigation was therefore that A. aurivillii, Staud., is the eastern female of 

 A . alciope. The Planema alicia of Smith and Kirby cannot stand, since it is not a Planema 

 but an Acraea ; there is already an Acraea alicia, Sharpe, the alleged male is a female, and 

 the specimen described as a female is not separable from A . aurivillii. The supposed male 

 A. alicia is a female variety which occasionally occurs at Entebbe. We thus have the very 

 remarkable result that the female A. alciope in the West has become modified in mimetic 

 association with a Planema which is probably a form of P. salvini, whilst in the East the 

 aurivillii form is developed in mimicry of Planema poggei. With regard to the western 

 female, specimens from Fernando Po seem to show nearly every gradation from the western 

 type to something very near A . aurivillii, which latter was originally described from inner 

 Cameroon. Amongst the forms examined the following varieties may be specially mentioned. 



1. The ochreous colour of the male extends nearly all over the hind- wings, leaving only 

 the dark internervular rays and a faint dusting of black scales on the margin. The fore- 

 wing hind-marginal black becomes dentated into the ochreous colour, and the dark basal 

 area is much broken up and suffused. 



2. The fore- wing band is almost as in aurivillii, and the hind- wing margin is beginning 

 to be more pronounced. 



3. The fore-wing band is almost white. The hind-wing band is also white, and all 

 the other pale markings whitish. 



4. The fore-wing band is still much broken up, especially by a row of irregular black 

 spots in the middle of the wing. (These spots survive in aurivillii on the underside as dark 

 markings on the basal side of the yellow bar). In this specimen the hind- wing remains white, 

 and the example is almost perfectly intermediate between the Planemoid West African 

 female and the aurivillii form. All the above four examples were taken at Fernando Po. 



5. A specimen from Ashanti in which the fore- wings are like those of Fig. 23, Plate III, 

 but the hind- wings are whitish. This is probably an aberration. All the other Gold Coast 

 specimens are more like Fig. 23, and reddish rather than ochreous. 



The subspecies schecana described from a male by Rothschild and Jordan is an Abyssinian 

 form, somewhat paler than the western male, and with a wider black border in the hind- wing. 



With the kind assistance of Dr. Jordan I have drawn up the following table of the 

 forms of Acraea alciope : — 



ACRAEA ALCIOPE. 



alciope alciope. Ashanti to Upper Congo. ? always tawny. Band of fore-wing often 

 obsolescent. At Fernando Po ? very unstable and presenting numerous varieties 

 ( = cydonia. Ward, = macarina, Butler) . 



alciope aurivillii. Inner Cameroon to Uganda. ? = aurivillii. Stand., white band 

 on hind-wings. Has a female variety with tawny hind-wings. 



alciope schecana. R. & J., Abyssinia. (Descr. from one a^). 



