MIMETIC ASSOCIATIONS 



89 



This butterfly extends from the Congo State to British East Africa. It is indistinguish- 

 able on the wing from Pardopsis pundatissima, which ranges from the Cape to Abyssinia. 

 I have selected P. amenaida as perhaps the best mimic of P. pundatissima, though many 

 other species of the genus are similarly marked, notably Pentila darensis, Neave, which 

 is difficult to distinguish on the upper surface from P. amenaida, but has a characteristic 

 marginal row of elongated black spots on the underside of both wings. It is found at Entebbe. 

 The southern Pentila tropicalis, Boisd., has very few spots, a paler ground-colour, and usually 

 a dark apical border, and resembles a Terias. The western Pentila abraxas is white with 

 black apices and a few black spots, and a reddish suffusion at the base of the wings, and 

 resembles a small Pierine. Pentila amenaida is accompanied at Taveta by a Geometrid moth, 

 Petovia dichroaria. Mr. Rogers describes them as very similar when on the wing. Marshall 

 describes the same moth as flying with and resembling Alaena amazoula in Natal. The 

 genus Pardopsis, of which the species pundatissima forms the model of P. amenaida, is one 

 of the three African genera of Acraeinae, and is represented by this single species. The genus 

 was founded by Trimen, who describes the species as having a low and weak flight, and 

 frequenting wooded spots. ^ In the present state of our knowledge of the distribution of the 

 species the Pentila would seem to have a wider range than the Pardopsis, and if this be the 

 case it would point to the mimicry being of a Miillerian character. In connexion with these 

 insects Rogers states (Trans. Ent. Soc, p. 534, 1908) that the Lycaenid gives the impression 

 of being itself protected. ' It is very fond of settling in little companies on low plants, and 

 if disturbed often opens its wings a few times without quitting the surface on which it is 

 resting. Its flight is very feeble indeed.' From this description there can be but little 

 doubt that the species is distasteful. 



CITRINOPHILA SIMILIS. 



Kirby, An. Nat. Hist. (5), xix, p. 366 (1887). 



Smith and Kirby, Rhop. Exot., iii, Lycaen. Af., p. 11, pi. 3, ff. i, 2 (1888). 

 Kirby (o^ marginalis), An. N. H. (5), xix, p. 368 (1887). 

 Smith and Kirby, Rhop. Exot. E., p. 13, pi. 3, ff. 5, 6 (1888). 

 Aurivillius, Rhop. Aeth., p. 269 (1898). 



Plate IX, Fig. 27. 



There is very little in the appearance of this butterfly to suggest its Lycaenid affinity. 

 The male was described by Kirby as C. marginalis, and the female as Teriomima similis. 

 The male has more black, especially on the fore- wing, where it projects along the discocellular 

 nervules. The only example I have seen is the female figured on Plate IX, which was taken 

 near Benin, in Southern Nigeria. It is a wonderful mimic of the common and ubiquitous 

 Terias brigitta, Cramer, an example of which from the same region is shown at Fig. 22. 



TERIOMIMA XANTHA. 



Grose Smith, Rhop. Exot. Lycaen. Af., p. 140, ff. 13, 14 (1901). 



Plate IX, Fig. 25. 



Though the colour of this Lycaenid is not quite so bright a yellow as in species of Terias, 

 it nevertheless presents a very close mimicry of the latter type of coloration, approximating 

 especially to that of Terias senegalensis, Boisd.,^ shown at Fig. 23. Several other forms 



1 For observations on the distastefulness of this floricola is restricted to examples from Madagascar, 

 species see p. 115. though the specimen figured might, so far as appear- 



2 In naming this species I have followed the plan ance goes, be termed floricola. I am indebted both 

 adopted by Butler in his revision of Terias (Ann. Mag. to Mr. Trimen and to Dr. Dixey for assistance on 

 Nat. Hist., 1898, vol. i, pp. 66, 67), where the name this point. 



1^ M 



