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Show 1891.] FROM SOUTH-WESTERN APRTCA. 73 14. ACRCEA RAHIRA, Boisd. Acrcea rahira, Boisd. Faune Ent. de Madag. etc. p. 33, pi. 5. ff. 4, 5 (1833); Mabille, in Grandid. Hist. Nat. etc. Madag., Lep. i. p. 110, and ii. pi. 11. ff. 9, 10 [ $ ] (1885-87). Ehanda (September), Otiembora (November), and Okavango River (December). Four male and two female specimens. The males are all much paler than the typical more southern examples, especially the two from Ehanda, which are pale ochre-yellow without any rufous tint except near the hind margins on the upperside ; and all four possess on the upperside of the fore wings a narrow almost whitish space immediately beyond the subapical transverse series of black spots. In one of the Ehanda males the black spots generally are well developed ; but in the other, and in two from the Okavango, they are much smaller than usual; in the first-named example the inner discocellular spot of the fore wings is sharply crescentic instead of roughly ovate. On the underside all the males show the black markings smaller and fainter, especially the transverse streak on the lower disk of the hind wings. The two females are also considerably paler than the more southern ones, but their spots are not smaller. The yellower of the two has a black streak between the terminal discocellular spot and the third spot of the macular subapical bar1. I have noted (South-African Butterflies, i. p. 167) a Kaffrarian female in which the same character occurs, accompanied by other aberrant markings in the fore wings2. The doubt expressed by the original describer of this species as to its actual occurrence in Madagascar has not yet been satisfactorily disposed of. Mabille (loc. cit.) observes that collections received from Madagascar " ne la contiennent presque jamais," but that it has been taken " dans ces demiers temps " near Tama-tave and in the north-east of the island. He gives, however, no authority for either habitat, nor is any authenticated locality stated for the two assumed Madagascar examples in his own possession, or for those noted as having been seen in various collections. In South Africa A. rahira is a singularly abundant species (even among its gregarious congeners) wherever it occurs, and is also one of the slowest and most low-flying, and if it really inhabits Madagascar its great rarity there is rather difficult to account for. The female figured by Mabille is in tint and markings nearer to Mr. Eriksson's examples than to those inhabiting the Cape, Natal, and Transvaal. 1 Vide supra, p. 72, for an exactly corresponding marking in a male Acrcea stenobea. 2 A far more aberrant female example was taken by Mr. F. 0. Selous on the Shashani River in Matabele-land in 1882. All the black spots on both surfaces are in this specimen greatly enlarged and elongated, but especially those of the hind wings (which are normally as small), the basal ones more particularly being immensely larger and confluent. |