INTRODUCTION. By Dr. A. Seitz. 
of Teracolus were smaller from day to day, so that within scarcely 6 weeks the size of the insects had 
diminished to less than half of the original dimensions; and I possess African Pierids which measure scarcely 
more than a third the size of specimens of the same species from the very same district. 
It is a natural consequence of adaptation in nature that in a part of the world like Africa, where 
the red-yellow of the dusty and rocky background plays the principal part among the colours of the 
landscape, in many districts constantly, in almost all during the summer drought, the Lepidoptera also wear 
these colours in all imaginable mixtures and shades. A good two-thirds of the African butterflies are of 
red-brown, yellow-brown or dark brown colour. Acraea, Dcmais, Mycalesis, Henotesia, Ypthima, Lachnoptera, 
Atella, many Precis, Cymothoe, even many Lycaenids (. Mimacraea , etc.) have brown or sandy yellow ground¬ 
colour. It is worthy of note that these are just the species that are particularly common, sometimes even 
abundant, whilst the other, often brilliantly coloured genera ( Charaxes, Papilio, Nepjtis, Hypolimnas, Euphaedra, etc.), 
although in many cases not rare, are yet of less general occurrence, so that they cannot so correctly be 
described as characteristic butterflies of Africa as those previously mentioned. 
A short time of appearance and flight of certain species of Lepidoptera is characteristic of many 
districts of Africa, especially in the southern part, and is due to the peculiarities of the climate. In the 
extreme south of the Palaearctic Region there are a large number of Lepidoptera which we meet with 
almost continuously all the year through; e. g. Chrysophanns phlaeas , Lycaena baetica, the species of Pararge, 
and others. A series of generations follow one another and are so intermingled that on the Mediterranean 
coast for instance there is scarcely a day in the year on which in the sunshine a Pararge megera for example 
might not cross our path. But we have the exact opposite in certain districts of Africa, such as the Gape. 
During a relatively small part of the year a species goes through its entire life-cycle, to the then following 
egg-, or more commonly pupa-state. This pupa then remains dormant for the rest of the year — often 
three-quarters — and without apparent progress in its development, until the short season of flight approaches. 
At the end of this the insects die off very quickly, so that in spite of the speed with which the ants make 
off with the bodies the dead insects may often be seen lying about as if sowed, and this without any 
sudden change in the weather to be a general cause of death. 
If we think of the enormous difference which separates the dry steppes of Africa from its luxuriant 
forest region, it is easy to understand why the distribution of the Ethiopian fauna is so unequal. We see 
this especially clearly when we consider the number of species by which the different families of Lepidoptera 
are represented in the Ethiopian Region. 
The Papilionids are represented by about 100 forms, but so unequally that there are large districts 
in Africa in which none at all occur. The only district of the Palaearctic region (except the smaller islands) 
where the genus Papilio is entirely absent is likewise African, namely Egypt. But although the parts of 
Africa which are absolutely devoid of Papilios are not very large, immense tracts of the Ethiopian Region 
possess only one species, namely Papilio demodocus, the sole representative of the genus which is of universal 
distribution in Africa. In contrast with these districts which are so poor in Papilios we find places on the 
tropical west coast where over a dozen Papilio- forms may be observed in one day, and which may therefore 
be compared for their richness in Swallowtails with the most prolific districts of South-East Asia or South 
America. But one peculiarity may always be noticed: that on the African continent the most protected 
Swallowtails, the Aristolochia-Papilios, are entirely wanting. There are on this account also no 
Papilio which appear to be modelled on other Papilio- species: a phenomenon which is of'such frequent 
occurrence in Asia and America that whole series of mimics occur in the genera Pharmacophagus and Papilio. — 
Op the island of Madagascar alone (which, especially in its higher animals, shows such a surprising approach 
to that of India that prehistoric hypotheses of all sorts have been based on it) occurs a butterfly — 
Papilio anterior — which has been referred to Pharmacephagus. Mention must also be made of Pap. antimachus, 
whose enormous & seems to present the somewhat contorted form of a gigantic Acraea. The much smaller 2 
however (for which sex mimicry has special importance) actually resembles a large Acraeid of the genus 
Planema, and it is therefore not necessary, in seeking after a model for P. antimachus, to assume an extinct 
giant Acraeid. In a very large Papilio of the west coast, Pap. zalmoxis, an equivalent is offered for the 
Aristolochia-Papilios of the group Ornithoptera, which are entirely wanting. The wholly unwarranted classi¬ 
fication of zalmoxis with the Ornithoptera- group was made on purely superficial grounds. 
The Pierids in Africa share with the Acraeids their dominance throughout the region. Characteristic 
of all the woodless districts of Africa is Teracolus, which flies very swiftly over the sand-hills and rocks of 
the desert and even occurs in large numbers where the want of water in a neighbourhood seems to preclude 
all vegetation. Nevertheless a caper bush or a crucifer squeezed in between two stones offers enough 
nourishment for the slender Pierids of this genus. — Very remarkable in appearance is also Pseudopontia, 
a fragile little insect with broad wings, completely rounded off. In its outer build as well as in the 
