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Show 1900.] FROM BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 915 6. CHARAXES ANSORGEL. 8. Charaxes ansorgei, Eothschild, Nov. Zool. iv. p. 181 (1897), v. pi. v. fig. 2 (1898). 2 . Considerably larger than the male : the basal area of the primaries much darker, maroon-reddish; the macular upright belt across the disk white, more or less washed with ochre tow7ards costa; three spots beyond the cell, the two uppermost maroon or deep sienna reddish, the lower spot, which almost touches the white belt, deep ochraceous ; the third spot of the transverse belt wanting, and the three subapical spots thrown farther out and continued, by the addition of three others, to near the first median branch : the secondaries differ but little from those of the male, excepting that the white belt is more regular and tapers away through the lilac and bluish area almost to the abdominal margin ; the tails are longer than in the male, the outer one being the longer (instead of the shorter) of the two ; on the under surface there is no difference worthy of note. Expanse of wings 106-7 millimetres. 2 2 > Boromo, Kikuyu forest, Dec. 16, 1899, and Jan. 22, 1900. Of the first specimen Mr. Crawshay says :-" Taken on the wing, when passing me, with a very lucky stroke of the net. As the specimen has the appearance of having lately emerged from its chrysalis, and was most carefully handled by me, I think the piece snipped from the right lower wing is probably the act of a bird." Of the second example he writes :-" Hovering over a bush in the most confiding manner and thus easily taken, doubtless in the act of depositing her ova, which on coming to disembowel her proved to be fully developed. Large rich yellow spherical ova, some twenty in number." This handsome Charaxes is entirely new to the Museum : I believe the male has hitherto been unique in the Eothschild collection, and the female is quite new. 7. CHARAXES ROS^E. Charaxes rosce, Butler, P. Z. S. 1895, p. 255. 8 . Euarka Eiver, 5500 feet, April 29, 1900. Mr. Crawshay has inadvertently labelled this as a female; he says of it:-" I think an insect well known to m e in days gone by in B. C. A.; taken feasting on the mud." As we have males from Zomba, it is possible that M r . Crawshay may have seen it; but the only male which he sent home wras of the allied C. manica, which differs above in having subapical spots on the primaries, and below in its much more glossy paler surface and less defined markings. Although Prof. Aurivillius is of opinion that the group of Charaxes with black males cannot be separated into w7ell-defined species by either sex, I have never found much difficulty in pairing the sexes since we have possessed a good series of specimens from various parts of Africa. I feel confident that w7hen these species come to be bred, the males will be found to be more constant to PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1900, No. LX. 60 |
