I04 
SOUTH-AFRICAN BUTTEEFLIES. 
springing from edge of subcostal nervure ; discoidal cell very short, ' 
rather broad, obliquely truncate terminally by the almost continuous ' 
disco-cellular nervules. Fore-legs of ^ small, but quite noticeable, with 
the femur short, slender, and finely hairy, but with the tibia and tarsus j 
densely hairy ; those of ^ much larger and longer, and very finely hairy | 
throughout. Middle and hind legs moderately stout, clothed with scales ; j 
tibial spurs short. Abdomen in $ rather elongated, and tufted with 
hair at the end. 
This genus of numerous closely-related species is characteristic of , 
the Old- World Tropics, extending from the West-African coast to 
Australia, only a few species occurring in extra-tropical countries, one j 
of them inhabiting Japan. About half of the ninety species recorded 
are natives of South-Eastern Asia and the Indo-Malayan Islands, while | 
Australia (including the Austro-Malayan Islands) and Africa nearly 
equally divide the remaining half. Westwood {Gen. Diurn. Zep., ii. 
p. 393) has pointed out that the genus is divisible into two groups, — j 
one with only the costal nervure of the fore-wings swollen basally, and 
with the $ badge borne on the.submedian nervure of the same wings, — ;, 
the other with the median and submedian nervures also swollen, and j 
with the badge borne on the subcostal nervure of the hind-wings."^ All 
the African species appear to belong to the latter division. 
These butterflies are of medium size and obscure-brown colouring j 
(varied in some Eastern species with fulvous-ochreous), with submarginal 
ocellated spots more numerous and distinct on the under than on the 
upper side of the wings. The fore-wings usually bear only two of these 
ocelli, the lower of which is almost always considerably the larger of 
the two. The two South- African species that I have seen in life fre- 
quent wooded spots, if. Sajitza — which is by far the commoner and 
more widely distributed — preferring shady spots in woods, and M. per- 
spicua more open localities on the outskirts. I am not aware of the 
haunts of M. Simonsii, a singular pale yellow-ochreous form, which 
appears just to penetrate extra-tropical South Africa, but in all pro- 
bability it is also a sylvan butterfly. The flight of Safitzcc and Fer- 
spicuct is extremely weak and low, and interrupted by frequent settling 
on the ground or on herbage. 
It must have been in error that the little M. Nareissus, Fab., so 
abundant in Mauritius, was recorded as a native of Natal, no specimen 
having occurred in any of the numerous collections from various parts 
of that colony which I have examined daring the past twenty-two 
years. 
1 Mr. Moore's genera Orsotrkena and Cahjsismc [Lep, Ceylon, i. pp. 20, 22) seem respec- 
tively to correspond with these two groups. The Japanese M. Perdiccas, Hewits., links the 
two divisions, presenting the three swollen nervules and i badge in the fore-wings, and cdso 
the 6 badge in the hind-wings. 
