OCR Text |
Show 1894.] MANICA, SOUTH-EAST AFRICA. 73 typical form, and not, as might have been anticipated, of the form (with paler, larger-spotted underside) prevalent throughout the greater part of Eastern South Africa. 141. PYRGUS DROMUS, Plotz. Pyrgus dromus, Plotz, Mitt, naturw. Ver. Neu-Vorpomm. u. Eugen, 1884, p. 6. n. 13. A male taken at Umtali on 8th March. ] 42. PYRGUS ELMA, Trim.1 Pyrgus elma, Trim. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 3rd ser. i. p. 288 (1862). . One example, apparently a female, from Christmas Pass. Genus THYMELICUS, Herr.-Schaff. 143. THYMELICUS WALLENGRENII, Trim. Thymelicus wallengrenii, Trim. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1883, p. 361; and S.-Afr. Butt. iii. p. 304. n. 341, pi. xi. fig. 7 [ $ ] (1889). Three specimens from Mineni Valley, taken from 9th to 22nd March. This species was hitherto known to me from Natal and Zululand only. 144. THYMELICUS CATENAS (Hewits.). Cyclopides capenas, Hewits. Descr. New Sp. Hesp. ii. p. 43. n. 7 (1868); and Exot. Butt. v. p. Ill, pi. 59. tigs. 2, 3 [ 3 ] (1874). Var. Cyclopides derbice, Hewits. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (4) xx. p. 327 (1877). A male from Christmas Pass, taken on 6th February, and four males and a female from Mineni Valley, taken from 8th to 14th March. AU these examples belong to the form without yellow neuration on apical half of the hind margin on the upperside, so agreeing with the description of C. derbice, Hewits. In one male the upperside spots are much reduced in size and of duller yellow. The female has the upperside of a less dark brown and its spots larger. This Butterfly was originally described from Zambesi specimens, and the var. derbice from examples taken on Lake Nyassa by Messrs. Thelwall and Simons. It is distinguishable from its near ally the South-African T. macomo, Trim., by its darker upperside, with 1 The Butterfly from Togo! and, N. West-Tropical Africa, referred to P. elma by Karsch (Berl. ent. Zeitschr. xxxviii. p. 245, n. 177, 1893), appears from the figure (pi. vi. fig. 12) to be of a distinct species. This figure shows the upperside of a more uniform dark tint, with more inclination to a rufous tone; the median vitreous spots in the fore wings are larger and whiter, and the median white bar of the hind wings is prolonged superiorly almost to the costa and is acuminate at its inferior extremity. On the underside the colouring is much darker and has a reddish tinge; in the fore wings the submarginal whitish streak is wanting, and in the hind wings the median white stripe is more irregular and the inner marginal border is pale brown instead of whitish. |