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SOUTH AFEICA 
and taking flight. This dark olive-brown beetle is less conspicuous 
on the white flower than might be expected owing to the small white 
spots, with which it is relieved, breaking up the mass of its ground¬ 
colour. I should be quite prepared to learn that Macroma cognata, 
a beautiful chocolate-brown and canary-yellow Cetoniid, that we took 
on the wing at Durban and East London—where in truth it was 
obvious enough—finds concealment when on an appropriate back¬ 
ground, by the broken pattern on its back. Another entomologist 
had discovered the attractive powers of the Dombeya before we did 
—the yellowish-grey, yellow-marked Chamaeleon dilepis, Leach, ?; 
it was surprising that so large an animal could be so inconspicuous. 
The other flowering shrub was a species of Combretum [Hat. Ord. 
Combretaceae], with spikes of yellowish-green flowers having the 
superficial appearance of catkins. This was especially attractive; it 
was frequented by Acraea doubledayi , but the Lycaenid Axiocerces 
harpax settled on it in large numbers, and seven specimens, five of 
them males, were secured; they closely resembled when so settled 
the curiously formed dry seed-vessels of the Combretum , of which 
many remained on the bush. 
Other Lycaenids at the same flowers were Crudaria leroma , 
Wallgr., of which only two were obtained, together with single 
specimens of Tarucus telicanus, and Aloeides (?) taiJcosama, Wallgr., 
<J. With these butterflies were numbers of other insects, con¬ 
spicuous among them the bright coral-red Braconid, Iphiaulax whitei, 
its smoky-black wings bearing a scarlet (or yellowish) triangle on the 
costa, and the large blue-winged pedunculated Wasp Eumenes dy seller a , 
Sauss., var. Here Dr. Dixey took with the common Icaria cinda , 
a male of the new species Myzine rufo-nigra, Bingh. 1 The 
Mason-bee Chalicodoma coelocera , Smith, was taken at a flowering 
shrub, whether Combretum or some other is uncertain, but be that as 
it may, the Combretum certainly produced an unnamed Bug and 
sundry Flies : Bhynchomyia sp., Exoprosopa sp., and E. (?) lar, Fabr. 
Apart from those found on or about flowers, insects were scarce, 
and it took a good deal of work to secure the following butterflies:— 
Teracolus topha, a female; T. antigone , Boisd., a female which flew 
slowly near the ground without settling; T. annae , a female; T. 
achine , two males, and Terias brigitta , a male and two females, the 
former less “dry” than the latter. Certain dark, yellow-striped 
Grasshopper larvae were seen on the stems of Combretum and other 
shrubs; they were truly gregarious, and were observed to advance 
and halt together as if drilled. 
1 See footnote, p. 182, supra. 
