PIERIN.E. 
6i 
observations of Colonel Yerbuiy and others, to be largely a seasonal 
modification, the spring brood being the more deeply coloured.^ Mr. 
Butler (P. Z. S. Zond., 1886, p. 374) has separated the darker brood 
as Belenois auriginea. 
As regards the name of Lordaca applied by the late Mr. F. Walker 
to specimens from the African side of the Red Sea, no lepidopterist 
can doubt that his description is strictly applicable to the ordinary $ 
of the African Mcscntina. The same must be remarked concerning 
Pinacopteryx Syrinx of Wallengren, from Damaraland, which was 
referred by its author in 1872 {K. Sv. Vetensk.-Akad. Fdrhandl., p. 
44) to F. Gidica, Godt., as a probable variety; but in 1875 (o^a cit., 
p. 90) to P. Sevcrina, (Oram.), — the previous reference to Gidica being 
ascribed " lajjso typographico." 
I had lately (in October 1886) the opportunity of examining the 
fine series, Asiatic and African, of this butterfly in the British Museum 
collection, and noticed that the smallest specimens were from Damascus, 
Huswah (Aden), and Somaliland ; a ^ from Madagascar was also 
smaller than usual. 2 The forty examples were separated into six sets, 
of which the second only was named Mescntina (three Indian speci- 
mens), the third (ten Indian specimens) " Lordaca, Walk.," and the 
fourth (eight Asiatic and five African specimens) Lordaca, Walk. 
The sixth set (eight African) bore the name of Agrippina, Feld., but 
the latter, as I have pointed out (p. 70 infra), is really a slight variation 
of the ^ Severina, Cram. I could not discover any satisfactory char- 
acters by which this instructive series could be regarded as forming 
more than one species. 
The as pointed out by Oberthtlr (A7in. Mus. Civ. Genov., xv. 
1880, p. 150), exhibits much variation in the development of the 
curved black streak at the extremity of the discoidal cell of the fore- 
wings, especially on the upper side, where the thin superior part of 
the streak is often more or less evanescent, or even wanting altogether 
in some examples. 
The ^, besides the variation in ground-colour above described, 
varies considerably in the development of the black markings generally ; 
as regards the clouded neuration of the under side of the hind- wings, 
the most strongly marked specimen I have seen is one taken at Delagoa 
Bay by Mrs. Monteiro. 
Larva. — Pale-yellow, greenish on the back ; a broad, brownish, 
lateral stripe from head to tail ; head pinkish ; a few short hairs near 
head and along the sides. 
^ The Ceylon representative, Taprolana, Moore, seems to be constantly darker than the 
Indian Mescntina. Even in the i I have found no case in which the white spots of the 
dark borders are not greatly reduced or partly obsolete on the upper side, and a similar 
deficiency is observable in both sexes as regards the under side. The yellow of the under 
side is also remarkably deep and rich, often inclining to orange, in both sexes. 
'-^ A dwarf ? , taken near Grahamstown, Cape Colony, by Mrs. Barber, is only an inch 
and a half across the expanded wings. 
