Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 
23 5 
CHECK LIST OF THE LEPIDOPTERA=RHOPALOCERA OF THE 
TRANSVAAL, WITH NOTES ON SOME OF THE SPECIES. 
By C. T. Swierstra, First Assistant. 
The first record of Lepidoptera-Rhopalocera from the Transvaal dates 
back from 1875, when H. D. Wallengren published his “ Insecta 
Transvaaliensia ” in the Oefversigt of Kongl. Vetenskapa-Academiens 
Forhandlinger, pp. 83-137, 1875, based on a collection made by N. Per- 
son. After that, Trimen, in his work on South African Lepidoptera- 
Rhopalocera, recorded and described many species from this Colony. 
Still later W. L. Distant published in his “ Naturalist in the Trans- 
vaal,” 1892, a list of his captures, recording 73 species and varieties. 
In 1898, after having spent another three years in the Transvaal, 
Mr. Distant published a list, “ Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist.” (7), 1, p. 47 
(1898), in which he was able to record 238 species. In that same year 
Aurivillius published his work ” Rhopalocera Aethiopica,” in which 
several species are recorded from the Transvaal, but excluding the 
Hesperidae. 
In the present list the number of species and varieties occurring 
m this Colony has reached 316, showing an increase above the highest 
total, 239, that of W, L. Distant, of not less than 78 species. 
Mr. Distant’s remarks, made some eleven years ago, r ‘ Ann. Mag. 
Nat. Hist.” (7), 1, p. 48, “ that this list will doubtless be increased 
when the warm and unhealthy north-eastern regions of the State have 
been visited by a good collector,” applies equally well to the present 
circumstances. When one takes into consideration that most of the 
species lately described from the Transvaal are from localities in the 
eastern part and also from the so-called “ bushveld,” which are 
hitherto visited by an occasional collector only, one can quite under- 
stand that we expect still further interesting discoveries when these 
parts will be thoroughly explored. 
In the so-called “ low country ” and part of the bushveld of the 
Transvaal our butterfly fauna is most abundant, and among the woods 
which border our rivers, or up the creeks in the different mountain 
ranges of the east and north-east occur our sub-tropical species, for 
instance, the fine Papilio ojPudicejPialus , Char axes hrutus and many 
more. That part of the Transvaal has a Lepidoptera fauna quite 
different from that of the “ high veld,” which shows that our fauna 
can really be divided into two distinct regions, the bushveld or middle 
veld linking these two together. The high veld is of a uniform 
altitude, between 5,000 and 6,000 feet; its vast, almost unbroken, 
grassy plains gives one at once the idea of a poor field for a Lepidop- 
teralogist ; but when once past this plain, coming down into the low 
country, along the banks of' the many rivers and creeks, gay with the 
colour of the many different species of butterflies, conditions have 
completely altered, and although our low country cannot compare in 
richness of Lepidoptera life wth Durban or Lourenco Marques, 
it is there that our Lepidoptera fauna has reached its highest develop- 
ment . 
