NYMPHALIN.E. 
279 
Between the Inaria form and tlie ordinary $ very numerous grada- 
I tions appear, some examples retaining part of the apical blackish as 
; well as the white markings, others presenting the white markings only, 
and some again exhibiting merely a part of the latter in varying 
degrees of distinctness. 
The $ often presents a whitish suffusion on the disc of the hind- 
i wing, chiefly about the median nervure and its nervules ; this seems to 
I be more frequent in the Inaria form and the specimens more or less 
I approaching it. 
I Laeva. — Fuscous-brown on back ; sides dull-greenish, with two 
: longitudinal dull- red streaks (of which the upper one is the broader) ; 
i all the legs red. Head dull-red, with two rather long, divergent, 
\ spinose, black horns. Body beset throughout with blackish branched 
spines, tinged with pale-red at their bases. Feeds on Porhdaca oleracea 
and P. qiiadrifida (M. E. Barber). 
Pupa. — (Plate I. fig. 5.) Brownish yellow-ochreous, varied with 
very dark-brown ; abdominal segments rather closely ringed with fine 
fuscous parallel lines ; back of thorax irregularly patched with very 
' dark-brown ; wing-covers all dark- brown except for some ochreous 
I spotting near extremity. 
The above description of the larva is from a drawing sent to me 
by Mrs. Barber in the year 1867; that of the ptipa is from a specimen 
I obtained at Maritzburg, Natal, in April of that year, and from two 
others (which produced respectively a $ and a $ of the Inaria form) 
sent to me in March 1870 by Colonel Bowker from Maseru, Basuto- 
land. One of the latter is represented in my figure. 
Judging from the figures given in Moore's lefidoptcra of Ceylon, 
i the Cingalese larva is of much duller colouring, the back and upper 
sides being given as ochreous-brown, the lower sides very dark-brown ; 
j the head and pro-legs dull ochre-yellowish, and the spines of the body 
' almost the same colour but paler. The Cingalese inqKi is also darker 
and more uniform in colouring ; but the South- African one is variable 
in this respect, a figure of Mrs. Barber's representing it as of a pale 
greyish-brown without dark variegation. 
This well-known and widely-ranging species is generally distributed over 
South Africa, except in the S.W. of the Cape Colony, where it only occurs as 
a straggler, a few examples even reaching Cape Town in seasons when the 
i insect is numerous. The ^ varies scarcely at all, except in size and in the 
depth of the under-surface colouring, while the $ , as above noted, is highly 
variable within certain limits. Misippus is a bold and active insect, frequent- 
ing flowers in gardens and open spots, and often settling on the ground. The 
latter habit is more practised by the , who thus shows off his expanded 
purple-ringed wings to much advantage. Colonel Bowker has noted, near 
D'Urban, with what persistence a (J will continue to occupy one particular 
spot. In one instance, when a ^ so guarding a little space of about ten 
yards square, and beating off other ^ s who intruded, was captured, Colonel 
Bowker found, the next day, that another had taken possession of the 
vacant station. He suggests that possibly the presence of a $ pupa almost 
