12 SOUTH-AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 
specimen of T. Brigitta, (Cram.). The Cingalese larva of Ilecabe is 
depicted as pale yellowish-green with a dark-brown head, and the pupa 
as dark purplish-brown. The larv« of this genus are stated by Double- 
day (Gen. D. Lcp., i. p. 78) and Thwaites {Lep. Ceylon, i. p. 119) to 
feed on Leguminosce. 
Terias is a very extensive genus of closely-allied forms, occurring 
throughout the tropical and sub-tropical zones of both hemispheres, and 
in America extending as far northward as Virginia and Pennsylvania in 
the United States. It finds, however, by far its largest development in 
America (South and Central), whence about half the recorded species 
have been received ; and in the second place comes the Indian region, 
yielding some thirty species. The Australian and African regions seem 
about equally poor in comparison, some twelve forms being known to 
inhabit each of them. I recognise seven forms as natives of South 
Africa, but am very doubtful as to the actual limits which can be 
defined as separating them in the " sjDecies " sense. 
The difficulty of dealing satisfactorily with the numerous forms of 
Terias is admitted by all lepidopterists, and has been the subject of 
comment by E. Doubleday (op. cit.), Bates' (Journ. of JEnt., 1861, p. 
245), Butler (loc. cit., and Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1 886, p. 212), and 
Distant (op. cit.). Bates has pointed out the extreme similarity of 
certain forms inhabiting such widely separated countries as St. Domingo 
(West Indies) and the Malayan Archipelago ; and as regards variation 
in one and the same locality, Butler (Trans. Ent. Soc. Loncl., 1880, p. 
197, pi. vi.) has described and figured a series of seventeen (selected 
from no less than i 54) examples taken at Nikko in Japan, exhibiting 
every gradation, "from the most heavily-bordered of the Japanese 
representative of T. Hecabe to the palest T. Manclarina, in which the 
border has practically disappeared." In connection wdth this remark- 
able case, it is most interesting to note that the late Mr. H. Pryer has 
recorded (o'p. cit., 1882, p. 488) his having bred in Ja^oan from eggs 
laid by Mandarina all the broader-bordered variations (11) figured by 
Butler, and also his having personally observed that Mandarina and 
the narrow-bordered variations that approach it are merely the autumnal 
brood of the same butterfly. Butler inclined to attribute this exces- 
sive variation to the crossing of various races of Terias,^ but Mr. 
Pryer's experience certainly seems to show that it is a case of seasonal 
dimorphism in a transitional condition. 
The butterflies of this genus are all below the medium size, and 
some of them very small ; their normal colouring and pattern are very 
simple, consisting of some tint of yellow or orange (a few species are 
white), with a black border that is sometimes confined to the fore-wings. 
This black border altogether disappears in some forms, while in many 
it is very broad in the fore-wings. Several species, both in the Old 
1 A case of a Zoe having been captured in copula with a 9 2\ Brigitta, is noted 
below, p. 1 6. 
