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Show 38 MR. R. T R I M E N O N BUTTERFLIES F R O M [Jan. 16, case of this species, as of so many others ; but the little material available favours the supposition that (as in the case of many Satyrince and Lijccenidce) the wrarmly-tinted conspicuously marked underside denotes the summer or wet-season brood (where concealment is of less importance among the herbage of that season), and the obscure underside almost devoid of markings the brood of the winter or dry season, when the open-ground vegetation is wanting or thoroughly withered. In connection with this point, however, the published observations of Mr. D. G. Eutherford (Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1878, p. xlii) and Mr. W . L. Distant (Nat. in the Transvaal, 1892, pp. 41, 42)-both of whom were acquainted with this species in life-should be considered. The former notes that this Butterfly always settles on the ground with closed wings, and that the underside colouring not only was eminently protective from its close resemblance to the colour of the soil, but was found in the various districts inhabited by the insect to vary in accordance with the particular tint of the soil characteristic of a district. Mr. Distant, on the contrary, though agreeing as to the insect's settling on open ground, states that he invariably found it resting with wings expanded, and "nearly always on greyish-coloured rocks or slaty-hued paths, with which the colour of the upper surface of the wings wonderfully assimilated." He adds that " large tracts of bare ground of a reddish-brown colour exist with which the under surface of the wings wrould be in perfect unison; but though I wTatched for months to see a specimen thus situated, and with its wings vertically closed, I never succeeded in doing so." On reading Mr. Distant's letter to the above effect published in 'Nature' of 26th February, 1891, I wrote to him suggesting that (1) the differences in the underside might be seasonal, and (2) that possibly the upperside might be protective in the wet and the underside in the dry season; I also intimated that all analogy pointed to the underside being protective when the insect is really at rest, not merely settling at intervals. To this latter view I adhere ; but as regards the second of m y suggestions, Mr. Distant's observation that the habits of H. dcedcdus were " uniform in the Transvaal in both the dry and wet seasons " would indicate that even during the winter the underside colouring would not in that country be protective. Mr. Distant does not mention whether the underside differs seasonally in the Transvaal, but two examples ( d and $ ) taken by Mr. W . Morant near Pretoria in March 1872 are both of the brighter colouring with moderately developed white spots, as is also a solitary example taken near Durban, Natal, in February 1883 by Col. Bowker. Genus CHARAXES, Ochs. 58. C H A R A X E S ZOOLINA (Westw.). Nymphalis zoolina, Westw. Gen. D. Lep. pi. liii. fig. 1 (1850). The two specimens ( <5 and $ ) were taken at Christmas Pass. |