3i8 SOUTH- AFKICAN BUTTEEFLIES. 
aware that any species except G. Zoolina (Westw.) — wMcli Colonel 
Bowker found about a yellow-blossomed thistle in Kafiraria — resorts to 
flowers for food ; the moisture exuding from wounds in the trunks 
and branches of trees being the favourite drink of these butterflies, 
which are also attracted by damp earth, the droppings of animals, and 
even decomposing carcasses. Honey and the entomological " sugar " 
also readily entice some of the species. In velocity of flight the larger 
species of Cliaraxes excel all other butterflies ; and if it were not for 
their eagerness to drink, and their other constant habit of returning 
after a brief excursion to the same branch or bare twig which they 
fancy, the collector might almost despair of capturing them at all, espe- 
cially the males. Notwithstanding the thickness and rigidity of their 
wings, they soon fracture the extremities by fluttering among rough 
twigs in search of food or in pursuit of each other, and acquire a worn 
and tattered appearance, the slender tails of the hind-wings being earliest 
broken or lost altogether. In these appendages of the hind-wings 
there is considerable variety ; they are usually two in number on each 
wing, and situated on the third and first median nervules respectively ; 
but in G. Varanes (formerly included in the genus Philognoma) only 
that on the third nervule is present, and in the males of G. Zoolina 
and JVeanthes, while the females have two tails, there is but one on 
the first nervule.'^ 
As regards distribution in South Africa, the coast of Natal is appa- 
rently the centre of the group, ten of the fifteen species being knowu 
to me to occur there. Of the other five, G. Gasfor and Fhceus are 
recorded from Delagoa Bay only; G. Xipliarcs ranges from Knysna in 
the Cape Colony to the Bashee and Tsomo Rivers in Kaff*raria Proper ; 
(7. Fellas represents G, Saturnus in the Western Districts of the Cape ; 
and G. JaJiliisa, occurring in the east of the Colony, Kaffraria, and also 
on the Zambesi, is most probably a native of Natal and other inter- 
vening countries as well. Besides Xvphares, Felias, and Jahhcsa, only 
Ethcdion and Varanes inhabit the Cape Colony, extending westward as 
far as the George District, 
103. (1.) Oharaxes Zoolina, (Westw). 
$ Gliaraxes, n. sp., Angas, Kafirs lUustr., pi. xxx., f. 7 (1849). 
^ Nymphalis Zoolina^ Westw., Gen. Diurn. Lep., pi. liii. f. i (1850). 
„ Trim., Ehop. Afr. Aust., i. p. 178, n. 103; and((^) 
ii. p. 341 (1862 and 1866). 
Exp. al, ($) 2 in. 1-3 lin. ; ($) 2 in. 5-7 lin. 
$ Whitish-sulplmreous inclming to greenish^ with fuscous hind-mar- 
ginal border. Fore-iving : border very broad apically, reaching almost 
^ A similar sexual difference is observable in the Indian species Bernardus, Fab., and 
nearly allied forms, in which the tail on first median nervule is in both sexes much reduced, 
but smaller in the male ; while that on the third nervule, always very small and acute in 
the male, is elongated and blunt in the female. 
