NYMPHALIN^^. 
195 
Localities of Atella Columhina. 
I. South Africa. 
E. JSTatal. 
a. Coast Districts. — D'Urban (J. Bowlier and W. D. Gooch). 
II. Other African Regions. 
A. South Tropical. 
a. Western Coast. — Angola : Brit. Mus. 
B. North Tropical. 
a. Western Coast. — Camaroon ; Old Calabar; Sierra Leone: Brit. 
Mus. "Gaboon {Theoriii)^ — Aurivillius. 
h. Eastern Coast. — "Abyssinia (Shoa : AntinoTi)^ — Oberthiir \A. 
Eimjtis\. 
Genus LACHNOPTERA, 
Laclinoptera, E. Doubl., Gen. Diurn. Lep., i. p. 161 (1848). 
Imago. — Closely allied to Atella, Doubl. Palpi with the second 
joint not grooved, less swollen, more haiiy beneath ; antennce with a 
longer, narrower, less flattened, not spoon -shaped club. Fore-^vings 
more markedly produced apically, and more prominent towards posterior 
angle ; hind-margin more sinuate ; costa more arched ; discoidal cell 
broader ; lower disco-cellular nervule better developed, much longer, 
straighter, joining median nervure before origin of the second nervule. 
Hind-wings considerably longer in lower half, angulated bluntly at 
extremity of third median nervule ; anal angle square and prominent, 
not rounded off ; inner margins more prominent, and forming a more 
complete groove as far as end of internal nervure, but beyond that 
point more emarginate ; discoidal cell fully open, the lower disco- 
cellular nervule being quite obsolete ; in ^ a conspicuous roughly- 
ovate silky patch near costa and apex. 
It is questionable whether the differences above noted are sufficient 
to warrant the generic separation from Atella of the two species com- 
prised in Lachnoptera ; but the butterflies in question, apart from the 
striking sexual badge in the male, have a peculiar /acz^^s, owing to the 
length and truncate form of the hind- wings. 
The group is limited to Africa, and was founded by Doubled ay on 
P. lole, Fah., a species ranging from Sierra Leone to the Gaboon. 
Until 1874 I was not aware that any South- African representative 
existed ; but in that year Mr. W. D. Gooch sent me a drawing of an 
indubitable $ LacJmoptera, taken in Natal, and not long afterwards the 
specimen itself. I did not wish to found a new species on a single 
example of one sex, and it was not until 1879 that I had the pleasure 
of receiving from the same entomologist a pair of the butterflies captured 
by himself on the Natal coast. Colonel Bowker has since been most 
successful in obtaining numerous examples of both sexes in the neigh- 
bourhood of Pinetown. 
