| OCR Text |
Show 68 MR. R. TRIMEN ON BUTTERFLIES [Jan. 20, enlarged spots of hind-marginal border very pale yellowish. Fore wing: apical area somewhat tinged with orange-ochreous ; apical aud hind-marginal edging reduced to a very fine black line, immediately preceded by an interrupted thin streak of very pale yellowish; spots as on upperside. Hind wing: a general pinkish suffusion, stronger near base, fades into very pale yellowish a little before hind-marginal border ; basal pale yellowish patch marked by five very conspicuous black spots, viz. two (cellular and infra-cellular) close to base, and three (the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of a strongly curved, almost continuous series of four) subbasal; 6th and 7th spots of discal series more distinct than on upperside ; pale spots of hind-marginal border sharply defined and very conspicuous. 5 . Paler, duller (in one of the two examples not reddish) ; fore wing with a brownish tinge throughout, and with a wide basal fuscous shade; hind wing with basal blackish not so dark, but extending to costa and to subbasal crescentic cellular spot; markings as in male. U N D E R S I D E . - A s in male, but in the duller specimen much fainter in tint, and in the brighter one with the pale yellowish preceding hind-marginal border of hind wing wider. No abdominal appendage in the brighter specimen, but a singularly large one in the duller specimen, with such strong anteriorly-recurved lateral expansions as to resemble a short, very broad, partly unrolled haustellum of Acherontia. In addition to the various distinctions from A. axina mentioned in the foregoing description, A. onerata in both sexes differs in its smaller size, less produced fore wings, and (more especially in the male) much shorter and blunter abdomen ; the small spot on costa at base is also wanting in both fore and hind wings ; and the internervular subapical fuscous striae are absent in the fore wings. The male A. onerata also wants the basal fuscous clouding of the fore wings and the white terminal half of the abdomen-both conspicuous features in the male A. axina. Okavango River (December). Three examples: a male and two females. 9. ACRCEA ASEMA, Hewits. (Plate VIII. figs. 9 8, 10, 10 a $ .) Acrceu asema, Hewits. Ent. M . Mag. xiv. p. 52 (1877). Omrora (August), Ehanda (August and September), Humbe (October), and Otiembora (20th November to 3rd December). Twelve male and seven female examples. As the late Mr. Hewitson (loc. cit.) did not sufficiently describe this species, and as the butterfly seems to be still scarce in collections, I think it well to give the following description of both sexes :- Exp. al.(S)\ in. 9| lin. to 2 in. 1 \ lin.x; ( $ ) 1 in. 9 lin. to 2 in. 3 . Yellow-ochreous (without any red tinge), tvith small black spots ; bases conspicuously but not very broadly suffused with black; hind-marginal black border linear in fore wing (except at apex), but 1 Of two dwarfed males, one (from Humbe) expands no more than 1 in. 7i lin., and another (from Otiembora) only 1 in. 5 lin. |
