54 SOUTH-AFEICAN BUTTERFLIES. j 
This well-known butterfly is an abundant species in nearly all parts of i 
South Africa, but seems much less common near Cape Town than elsewhere. | 
Its size and boldly-contrasted colours, in conjunction with its rather slow flight 
and habit of frequenting open ground and gardens, render it a very conspicuous 
object. Though so indifferent to concealment, I have often noticed that, when 
conscious of being pursued, it very considerably increases its speed, and exhibits 
very respectable powers of flight. Apart from the unpalatable nature which 
renders it distasteful to insect-eaters, there can be no doubt that the wide pre- 
valence of Chrijsippus is largely due to the circumstance that its larva affects 
chiefly, if not solely, asclepiad plants, which very few, if any, herbivorous 
mammals will feed upon. 
I have met with the butterfly on the wing from November to May ; Mr. 
W. S. M. D'Urban noticed it in British Kafi'raria from December to July. 
The larva is very conspicuous, and lives fully exposed on its food-plants. In 
walking, the first pair of filaments is kept in continual sIoav motion backward and 
forward, each filament moving alternately ; but the other pairs are motionless. 
I have not found the variable colouring of the pupa to accord with its im- 
mediate environment, though I have allowed the larvae in confinement free 
choice of various convenient surfaces for pupation, with the view of ascertaining 
whether there was any relation between the green or reddish tint and the ' 
colouring of adjacent objects. It seems not improbable that this brilliant pupa 
stands in no need of special protection, but, like the imago (and apparently the 
larva also), is avoided by insectivorous animals. 
The African specimens of Clirysi'ppus differ from the Asiatic in their deeper 
red ground-colour, narrower subapical white bar in the fore-wings, and (usually) 
smaller and fewer white dots in the hind-marginal black borders. 
The Variety Alcij)pus, Cr., with white suffused hind-wings but ordinary 
fore-Avings, prevails very largely on the Western Coast of ISTorth-Tropical Africa, 
while on the Eastern Coast, and in Abyssinia, Nubia, &c., tliQ Y ixiiei j Dorij)2)US 
appears to be as common as the type-form. 
In South Africa the former is not uncommon, but the white on the hind- 
wings is less developed as a rule. Dorijjpus, on the contrary, is seldom met 
with, and the only example I possess was taken by the late Mr. M'Ken at 
D'Urban, Natal. It is a ? , considerably larger than King's figure (op. cit), 
with very little sign of the hind-wing's white suffusion, and much less fuscous 
clouding on costa of fore-wing, but with a good deal of the dusky tint over the 
basal half of both wings shown in King's Var. ^ (fig. 5). 
Mr. A. G. Butler {Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond.^ 1884, pp. 480, 481) has published 
Major Yerbury's notes on D. Clirysippus at Aden, from which it appears that 
both the above-named varieties occur there commonly in company with the 
typical form, and that Jhe latter and the variety Dorip;pus were very frequently 
taken in coitu. 
This jDanais is very accurately mimicked by the J Diadema Misippus 
(Linn.), even its varieties Alcippus and Dorijppus being copied by corresponding 
varieties of the $ Diadema. Less exact but very obvious mimickers are the 
form of the $ Papilio Cenea (Stoll), named Trophonius by Westwood, and 
the $ Argynms Niplie (Linn.) The latter butterfly, so common in India and 
China, is recorded by M. Ch. Oberthiir among the species taken in Abyssinia 
by the Marchese Antinori in 1877. 
The very extensive range of D. Chrysippus is as follows, viz. : — 
I. South Africa. | 
B. Cape Colony. 
a. Western Districts. — Cape Town. Caledon (Genadendal : G, 
Hettarscli). Worcester. Robertson. Victoria West (Kenhart : 
F, Cliittenden). Oudtshoorn {Adams). Knysna and Pletten- 
berg Bay. Ookiep, Namaqualand District {L. Peringuey). 
