PIERIN/E. 
9 
is usually a little above the extremity of third median nervule, but 
sometimes below it) ; inner edge of apical border irregularly excavate 
above and below upper radial nervule ; rarely a minute blackish spot at 
extremity of second median nervule, and occasionally another on inter- 
nervular fold below it ; discal spot rather large, sub-reniform, not far 
from hind-margin, its lower extremity on second median nervule and 
its upper one rather above third median nervule ; circumference of this 
spot not sharply defined, but somewhat suffused. Hind-wing : without 
marking, except on hind-marginal edge, where there is a series of 
minute inter-nervular blackish linear marks (sometimes all but imper- 
ceptible), and occasionally traces of a series of similar minute marks 
at extremities of nervules. Under side. — Hind-iving and narroiv 
costal, apical, and hind-marginal border of fore-wing more or less faintly 
tinged with straw-yellow, and sparsely hatched or freckled with short, 
thin, fuscous lineolm. Fore-wing : fuscous lineolge extend below costal 
border, more especially near base, where they cover about a third of 
discoidal cell as far as median nervure ; discal spot somewhat smaller 
and fainter than on upper side ; along hind-marginal edge a series of 
minute but very distinct inter-nervular blackish spots, of which between 
first median nervule and submedian nervure there are two. Hind- 
wing : lineolge pretty evenly distributed, but sparse generally beyond 
middle ; about middle, and about midway between middle and hind- 
margin, the lineolse tend more or less prominently to group themselves 
into two nearly straight and almost parallel obliquely transverse stri«, of 
■ which the outer is much more pronounced; a series of inter-nervular 
hind-marginal spots, quite as in fore- wing, but slightly larger. 
The sexes do not differ except in size, and in the $ having a rather broader 
apical border on the upper side of the fore-wing, and the under side usually 
paler in tint and less freckled. 
A dwarf , taken near Pinetown, in Natal, by Colonel Bowker, expands 
only I in. 2 J lin. In another $ ^ from the same locality, the discal blackish 
spot is on the upper side of the fore-wings much reduced, and on the under 
side obsolescent. 
I do not think that the Narica of Fabricius, in which the apical blackish 
tip of the fore-wing is wanting, or almost wanting, is separable from Alcesta ;^ 
the four specimens from West Africa (Ashanti, Gold Coast) which I examined 
in the British Museum do not in other respects exhibit any special feature, 
except in the rather closer freckling of the under side of the hind-wing. I 
find that South-African specimens of Alcesta almost always exhibit a smaller 
but better-defined discal spot on the fore-wings, and a yellower tinge on the 
under side of the hind-wings and border of the fore-wings than are found in 
recognised West- African examples of the species. jN'o South-African individual 
has come under my notice in which there was any failure of the apical fuscous 
border of the fore-wings. 
Alcesta, as found in Natal, Zululand, Delagoa Bay, and Querimba, and also 
in Western Africa, is very near Xipliia, Fab., inhabiting India, Ceylon, and 
part of the Indian Archipelago, but is distinguishable by having both the 
^ Cramer's very rough figure of the upper side apparently represents a $ with scarcely 
any apical border in the fore-wings. He notes the under side as wholly white, and gives the 
Guinea Coast as habitat. 
