8 
SOUTH-AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 
of Inoderate length, slender, clothed with scales ; tibiae slightly, tarsi 
very bristly ; terminal spurs of middle and hind tibiae very small. 
Ahcloinen very slender, elongate, arched, laterally compressed. 
This is a very well-marked genus, containing a few closely-allied 
species, and having a very wide range over the tropical and sub-tropical 
regions of the Old World, from Western Africa to North- Western 
Australia. Its extreme slenderness of structure, long abdomen, and 
contour of wings give it a strong resemblance to the Palsearctic genus 
Leucopliasia — which it also resembles in its plain white livery, some- 
times blackish-tipped in the fore-wings — but it is widely different in 
neuration, having only two instead of five subcostal nervules in the 
fore-wings, and very large instead of extremely small discoidal cells. 
On the whole, Pontia appears to be most nearly related to the small 
Australian genus Elodina, Felder, which presents very similar neura- 
tion as well as colouring, but has the apex of the fore-wings pointed, 
and the first subcostal nervule of the hind-wings originating near the 
extremity of the discoidal cell. Next to Elodina, the genus Terias 
comes nearest to Fontia. 
In habits the Pontim greatly resemble the European Leiico]ohasice. 
They frequent wooded places and flit feebly about bushes and herbage, 
preferring shade to sunshine. 
Besides P. Alcesta (Cram.), which is the only species known to 
occur in South Africa, the Ethiopian Region yields P. Medusa (Cram.),-^ 
a larger form from the Gold Coast with greenish under-side markings, 
and two from Madagascar — one of which {P. sylvicola, Boisd.) is 
exceedingly close to Alcesta, while the other (of a singularly pure 
white) appears to be undescribed. 
239. (1.) Pontia Alcesta, (Cramer). 
Papilio Alcesta, Cram., Pap. Exot., iv. pi. ccclxxix. f. a (1782). 
Papilio Narica, Fab., Ent. Syst., iii. i, p. 187, n. 578 (1793). 
Pontia Narica, Boisd., Sp. Gen. Lep., i. p. 432, n. 3 (1836); App. Voy. 
Deleg. Afr. Aust., p. 586 (1847). 
Pontia Alcesta, WdllgYw., K. Sv. Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1857; Lep. Rhop. 
Caffr., p. 6. 
Pontia Alcesta, Trim., Rhop. Afr. Aust., i. p. 26, n. 12 (1862). 
„ „ Hopff., Peters' Reise Mossamb., Ins., p. 349. 
Plate X. fig. i ($). 
Ex;p. al, I in. 5-9 lin. 
Pure-iuhite ; fore-wing luith a hlackish apical hordes' and a blackish 
discal spot. Fore-iving : costal margin irregularly hatched and speckled 
with blackish to about middle, and sometimes very sparsely speckled 
beyond middle ; apical border moderately wide at apex, but attenuated 
to a point at its commencement on costa at extremity of first sub- 
costal nervure, and similarly at its hind-marginal termination (which 
1 Pap. Exot., ii. pi, cl. fig. F (1779). 
