42 
SOUTH-AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 
one-fourth (4 out of 15) being peculiar, while the Satyrinm have less 
than one-fourth (2 out of 9) ; but in species the latter show a much 
larger proportion of peculiar forms, nearly three-fourths (21 out of 29) 
being known only from the Sub-Region, while among the Lycccnidce 
rather less than two-thirds (7 5 out of 116) are peculiar. 
There can be no doubt that, with the exception of the eastern 
coast-belt, from about the Kei River to Delagoa Bay and Inhambane, 
Southern Africa is very scantily supplied with butterflies. Here and 
there some more productive spots, such as a river-bank, a flowery 
hummock or " kopje," or a patch of dense scrub in a ravine, will 
occur ; but taking the great area generally, notwithstanding its 
temperate climate and its wealth in many parts of flowering plants, 
butterflies are certainly rare, both in species and in individuals. The 
country is, indeed, too bare and dry, and too little wooded, to afibrd 
the conditions of food and shelter most favourable to butterfly life ; 
and it is only near the coast of Kafirland, Natal, Zululand, and farther 
northward, where the warm Indian Ocean current appears to produce 
conditions quite tropical in character, that there is anything striking 
either in the aspect or abandance of the Rhopalocera. So accustomed 
are we to associate butterflies with flowers, that I well remember how 
much the dearth of those insects surprised and disappointed me when 
first I contrasted it with the unrivalled variety and beauty of the flora 
of the Cape district.-^ A residence of nearly twenty-five years (with 
the exception of five intervals of from four to thirteen months on leave 
of absence) at Cape Town, during which a great part of my leisure has 
been devoted to the subject, enables me to state with some certainty 
that the species inhabiting the neighbourhood, including the entire 
peninsula and a radius of twelve miles at least to the northward and 
eastward, do not number more than forty-seven. This remarkable 
poverty of butterflies is rendered the more striking from the circum- 
stance that twenty-nine of the species are small Lyccenidce (22) and 
Hesperidce (7), and that the bulk of the remainder consists of sombre 
Satyrinm (10) of medium size. The Acrminm are represented by 
Acrcea Horta only, and the Nymplmlinw by none but the ubiquitous 
Fyrameis Cardui ; and the only other species at all conspicuous from 
either size or colouring are Danais Chrysippus (not common), Meneris 
Tidhaghia^ Capys Alphmiis (very local), Pieris Hellica (the solitary 
representative of its genus), Colias Electra, and Papilio Demoleus. 
Six stragglers occasionally make their appearance in the summer 
and autumn months, viz., Junonia Cehre^ie, Diadema Misippus, Pieris 
Mesentina, Pronia capensis, Callidryas Plorella, and a species of Tera- 
colus ; but all are found only rarely and singly, and of the last named 
^ I believe that when the Cape flora comes under investigation as regards fertilisation 
by insect agency, it will be found that a great proportion of its large and brilliant blossoms 
are adapted for the visits of Diptera, and a good part of the remainder for those of Hymen- 
optera. The great number of densely hairy flower-frequenting Coleoptera in South Africa 
must also play a large part in plant fertilisation. 
