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Show 1891.] FROM SOUTH-WESTERN AFRICA. 75 type, and all want (on both surfaces) the conspicuous white centre of the second and third fuscous spots in the discal row of the fore wings \ and (on the upperside) the paler cloud in the middle of the hind wings. In the females the dark underside markings are (with the exception of the common median streak) obsolescent2. In the Hewitson Collection specimens are recorded also from Lake Nyassa. 21. PRECIS OCTAVIA (Cram.). Papilio octavia, Cram. Pap. Exot. ii. t. cxxxv. ff. B, C (1777). Otiembora (November-December) and Okavango River (December). Two examples ; male and female. These specimens are of the southern form (which is larger and brighter in colour than the West-African type-form), and the male, though smaller than usual, is of unusual depth and richness of hue, especially on the underside. 22. PRECIS SESAMUS, Trim. Precis sesamus, Trim. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1883, p. 347 ; S.-Afr. Butt. i. p. 231, pi. 4. f. 3 (1887). Ehanda (August-September) and Omrora (November). Two male examples. Both are much broken; they are smaller than usual, and the Omrora specimen exhibits alliance with P. amestris (Drury) in the discal red band, which is more sinuate and macular on the upperside and better indicated on the underside than in ordinary P. sesamus. 23. PRECIS PELASGIS (Godart). Vanessa pelasgis, Godt. Enc. Meth. ix. Suppl. p. 820. n. 38,39 (1819). Okavango River (December). One male example. The only specimen is rather small, but richly coloured. On the upperside the common pale ochreous discal band is rather narrower, and the discocellular reddish and bluish striae are better developed than usual. On the underside the band is not so white, more creamy ; and the position of the upper part of the discocellular reddish stria of the upperside is indicated by a small but rather conspicuous violaceous-white mark. 24. PRECIS ARTAXIA (Hewits.). Junonia artaxia, Hewits. Exot. Butt. iii. p. 26, pi. 13. f. 6 (1864). Ehanda (August-September). One male example. 1 In a female from Mashuna-land, however, these white centres are well-marked. 2 Precis petersii, Dewitz (K. Leop.-Carol. Deutsch. Akad. Naturf. xh. p. 192, t. xxv. f. 14, 1879), founded on a single specimen collected by Pogge in Angola (lat. 10° S.), is almost certainly a slight variety of P. cuama, in which tbc dusky basal markings of the upperside are rather more developed, and the discal band of the underside is conspicuously paler. |
