1 62 SOUTH- AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 
1847) mentioned " Idmais Vesta, Boisd., ined.," as having been figured 
in Doubleday and Westwood's " Genera" (pi. 7, f. 5) as the $ of Chry- 
sonome, Klug (Symh. Phys., t. vii. ff. 9-1 1). I accordingly described 
(Rho2h Afr. Aust,, i. p. 62, n. 41, i 862) the British Museum specimens 
(from Congo), from which the " Genera " figure was taken, as probably 
Vesta, Boisd. Mr. W. F. Kirby, in 1869, pointed out to me that 
Doubleday 's butterfly was quite distinct both from Chrysoiiome, Klug, 
and also from the Abyssinian Vesta, Reiche {o]j. cit., supra), and in his 
Synonymic Catalogue (1871) he gave the species the name of Idmais 
Hewitsoni. I subsequently found, however, that Hopffer had previously 
{Peters Eeise n. Mossamhique, pp. 362—363, 1862) done the same, but 
had named Doubleday 's species /. Douhledayi. 
Vesta, Reiche, described from Abyssinian specimens, is unquestion-? 
ably identical with the South-African examples here described. It 
may at once be distinguished from the Congo ally {Douhledayi, Hopffer) 
by its conspicuous black central band across the upper side of the hind- 
wings, but the other black markings are very similar, Boidoledayi hold- 
ing an intermediate position between Vesta and the much smaller and 
duller Cliry sonome, Klug, with dusky almost unmarked upper side of 
hind-wings, from Dongola.-^ 
I find that the basal white of the upper side (in conjunction with 
a yellower general ground-colour) is usually more developed in $ speci- 
mens from tracts within or near the Southern Tropic than in those 
inhabiting Natal ; the palest $ s also (some nearly white) come from 
the same tracts. 
The Variety A. is linked to the type-form by ^ s and a ^ from the 
Tugela River and Delagoa Bay, in which the under-side colouration is 
dull and suffused, and the crossing bands grey, but the reddish tint not 
decided. Colonel Bowker, on 30th July 1878, took at the mouth of 
the Tugela a very pronounced $ of the variety in company with the $ 
of the intermediate form. This dull creamy-reddish suffusion of the 
under side appears to be a tendency widely prevalent throughout the 
greater part of the genus Teracolus. 
I only once fell in with this species during my stay in Natal, on the 12th 
March 1867, at a spot of limited extent in the rough thorny country called 
the " Dooms," near Greytown, where I took several specimens about flowers at 
a steep bank by the roadside. It was very conspicuous on the wing, and but for 
the roughness of the rocky ground would have been easy to capture, not flying 
at all swiftly At the end of March 1880, Colonel Bowker took several exam- 
ples near the junction of the Mooi and Tugela Rivers, and, on 2d April, the 
sexes in copula. All these examples were of the type-form, and the $ and ? 
taken paired were both noticeable for the heaviness of their black markings on 
the upper side. Mr. John L. Fry brought me specimens taken in the interior 
at the Makloutse River on the 20th April, and at Tati on the 20th May 1887. 
^ Mr. Butler records this species as also inhabiting Somaliland. See Proc. Zool. Soc. 
Lond., 1885, p. 768. 
