146 
SOUTH-AFRICAE' BUTTERFLIES. 
This species is extremely variable in tlie markings of tlie ^ and in 
the colouring of tlie The following is a very striking 
Aberration. — $ FoT'e-wing entirehj d^dl-blaek ; hind-wing with black 
border much widened, and inwardly suffused. Under side. — Fore- 
wing : basal area tinged with dull-red to about middle, with traces of 
a few spots. Hind-wing : hind-marginal border much suffused, so a& 
almost to obliterate both the yellowish- white spots it contains and the 
reddish marks bounding it inwardly. 
Hob. — Pinetown, Natal (J. H. Bowker, June 1 8 8 i ). In the col- 
lection of the South- African Museum, 
The Querimha specimens figured by Hopffer {loc. cit.) are smaller, paleiy 
and with much less pronounced dark markings, especially in the , than the 
jSTatalian type-form, with the single exception that the dark borders in the ^ 
are rather broader. The $ is thus an approach to the more northern variety 
figured by M. Obertbiir, who must, I imagine, be mistaken in the statement 
(op. cit.) that the sexes of this variety are " absolument semblables entre eux,'^ 
the white subapical bar of the fore-wing being very constant in all the $ 
Petrcea that I have seen, whatever varying tint the ground-colour might 
present. 
There is no known South-African Acrgea that A. Petrma closely resembleSy 
but it is not distantly related to A. Cepheus (Linn.), a native of Angola, which 
has, however, a very much broader hind-marginal dark border in the fore- 
wings.^ A feature very distinctive of Petrsea is the ivide distance i7i the hind- 
wings of the transverse row of spots from the hind-mar gin^ the row being strictly 
not discal, but median. 
A. Petrcea is abundant round D'Urban, Port Natal, vfhere I found it con- 
stantly on the wing from the end of January to the l>eginning of April 1867. 
It keeps to woods and their immediate neighbourhood ; and a company of the 
sloMdy-flying, richly- coloured males in the full sunshine, conspicuous on a 
background of intensely green foliage, is a striking sight, not easily forgotten. 
Localities of Acrma Petrcea. 
I. South Africa, 
E. Natal 
a. Coast Districts. — D'Urban. 
b. Upper Districts. — Pietermaritzburg {Miss Colenso and W. Hayes). 
11. Other African Regions, 
A. South Tropical 
a. AVestern Coast. — " Angola {Pogge) and Chinchoxo (Falhenstein)." 
— Dewitz. 
b. Eastern Coast. — "Querimha." — Hopffer. "Tcliouaka {A. Raf- 
/?•«?/)."— Oberthiir. 
1 The specimens noted as A. Cepheus by Mr. A. G. Butler {Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist, 
Dec. 1875, p. 395), brought from Natal by Mr. Burrowes, and presented to the British 
Museum, are unquestionably examples of A. Petrcea. 
