MIMETIC ASSOCIATIONS 



103 



able iromNeptis lermanni, Auriv., and both are described from the Congo State. They are 

 figured together on Plate I in ' Rhopalocera Aethiopica 



Neptis woodwardi, E. M. Sharpe, is an interesting form which presents a distinct approach 

 to the Amaiiris echeria and alhimacidata association, having an ochreous bar on the hind- 

 wings and white spots on the primaries. The connexion of this species with the albimaculata 

 group was indicated by Neave in Trans. Ent. Soc, 1906, p. 214, and examples from Kikuyu 

 and the north-east shore of Lake Victoria Nyanza have been examined by Professor Poulton 

 (see Trans. Ent. Soc, 1908, p. 512) who shows that the more eastern examples, coming from 

 a country where the influence of the Danaines is at its strongest, have larger white spots on 

 the fore-wings, and the ochreous band on the hind-wing is very much more developed, 

 almost amounting to a patch in the female. In both localities the females show a greater 

 modification towards the Danaine pattern than do the males. 



An Acraeine appearance is presented by the underside of the Lycaenid Catochrysops 

 mashima, which has a pale tawny ground-colour and a number of black spots causing it to 

 resemble Acraea encedon. Several Hesperidae have also a marked Acraeine appearance on 

 the underside, notably Abantis tettensis, Kedestes macomo, and Baoris netopha. The bright 

 orange-coloured Lycaenid, Deloneura millari, Trim., as also the D. immaculata of the same 

 author, resemble certain Liparid moths. D. millari is figured and described by Trimen in 

 Trans. Ent. Soc, 1906, p. 69, together with the moth Euproctis punctifera, Walk., with which 

 it is associated. Mr. Millar, who took the insects together, states that the moth and butterfly 

 are quite indistinguishable on the wing, both the flight and appearance being the same. 

 The insects occur at Durban and the author notes that the butterfly has evidently hitherto 

 escaped observation by its resemblance to this common moth. 



The moth Aletis hclcita is often accompanied by the Hypsid moth Phaegorista similis, 

 Walk., as previously noted, and also by a species of Neiiroxena which closely resembles it. 

 In the former the hind-wing is without the white spots, but the effect is obtained by white 

 internervular marks on the fringes. The latter species has a small black spot in the discal 

 area of the hind-wing. 



A very remarkable species of moth, Hihrildes neavei, Hampson, is bisexually mimetic 

 and corresponds to the two sexes of Acraea anemosa. Pentila kirhyi is accompanied at 

 Sierra Leone by a moth of the genus Geodena. The latter is white with a black spot in the 

 middle of each wing, and mimics the Lycaenid very closely. 



Further knowledge of the African Lepidoptera will doubtless bring to light many new 

 instances of mimetic resemblance. Many species of the closely allied genera Euphaedra and 

 Euryphene resemble each other very closely, whilst some species of Charaxes appear to have 

 polymorphic forms of female which resemble other species of the same genus. These cases 

 are, however, extremely intricate, and it would be premature to attempt to deal with them 

 at the present time, and we may therefore pass on from the foregoing descriptions to certain 

 further considerations of the subject as a whole. 



