90 



AFRICAN MIMETIC BUTTERFLIES 



of Teriomima resemble species of Terias, though the colour of the former is generally a more 

 tawny yellow. 



LIPTENA HOMEYERI. 



Dewitz, Berlin. Ent. Zeit., xxviii, p. i88, pi. i, ff. 3, 3a (1884). 

 Aurivillius, Rhop. Aeth., p. 278 (1898). 



Plate IX, Fig. 28. 



When viewed in the cabinet this butterfly does not appear to be a very obvious mimic 

 of Terias, and it is in such cases that the evidence of a naturalist who has seen the insects 

 in their habitual surroundings is of great value and interest. Mr. Neave, who took a long 

 series of L. homeyeri in North-East Rhodesia, informs me that it is most difficult to distin- 

 guish the difference in the shade of yellow when the insects are flying together. The species 

 appear to be common, and, as in many of these instances, the mimicry is probably Miillerian. 



LARINOPODA TERA. 



Hewitson, Ent. Mo. Mag., x, p. 125 (1873). 



Dewitz (soyauxii), Nov. Acta Ac. N. Cur. (41) ii, p. 201, pi. 26, f. 10 (1879). 

 Aurivillius, Rhop. Aeth., p. 273 (1898). 



Plate IX, Fig. 29. 



There are several white Lycaenidae which closely resemble small Pierines. L. tera 

 presents a very good example of this form of Lycaenid mimics. The specimen figured was 

 taken at Entebbe, where its model Leptosia medusa (Plate IX, Fig, 24) also found. Other 

 white species of the genus are L. lircea, Hew., which resembles L. tera, but the apex of the 

 fore- wing is blacker, L. aspidos, Druce, which is smaller and has a rather broad black apex, 

 and L. hrenda, Druce, which is only distinguishable from L. aspidos by the black spots in 

 the hind-wing. 



CITRINOPHILA ERASTUS. 



Hewitson, Exot. Butt., Pieris, pi. 8, f. 51 (1866). 



— Pentila and Liptena, p. 2, text (1873). 



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



— (5 flaveola), 1. c. 



Smith and Kirby, Rhop. Exot., Lycean. Af., p. 19, pi. 5, ff. i, 2, 3, 4, 5 (1888). 

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



Plate IX, Fig. 30, 5. 



In 1866 Hewitson figured a Pierine butterfly from the Gaboon River which he named 

 bernice, and which is now known as Mylothris bernice. It is creamy-white with a flush of 

 deep yellow at the base of the fore-wing costa. There is a narrow black line along the costa 

 widening towards the apex and continuing round the hind-margin, where it breaks into spots. 

 There are six black spots on the margin of the hind-wing, and the whole insect is not unlike 

 M. asphodelus figured on Plate IX, Fig. 11, but the yellow flush is confined to the costa. 

 Immediately above this figure is an illustration of Citrinophila erastus, which he describes 

 as Pieris erastus. No better testimony to the essentially Pierine appearance of this Lycaenid 

 could be found than the error of this famous butterfly artist. Hewitson, as is well known, 

 was bitterly opposed to the mimetic theory, and it must have been extremely trying to have 

 to subsequently acknowledge ' Pieris ' erastus as a Lycaenid, which he did seven years later, 

 assigning it without comment to his genus Liptena} I have described M. bernice above at 

 some length as it is this Pierine which erastus closely resembles. C. erastus appears to be 

 ^ It is of interest to note that the error was pointed out to Hewitson by Trimen in 1867. 



