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Show 36 ON THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE GENUS TERACOLUS. [Jan. 19, a pure white underside, and here, too, we can find every gradation of colouring linking it to T.phlegetonla. But I can find no sufficient reason for separating T. nouna (Luc.) from antlgone, the only difference being that the black borders are reduced and the variable inner marginal bar and the black spot on inner edge of apical patch, both of which are evanescent in T. antlgone, have quite disappeared in nouna. The latter, again, seems to me identical with T.jamesl, Butl, heugllnl (Feld.), and evagore (Klug). In the arid climate of Arabia T. evagore appears to be the normal wet-season form, the dry-season form being probably T. saxeus, Swinh., which only differs in having a pink underside. Of the two specimens of T.gelasinus in the British Museum, one has the underside pure white while the other is sparsely irrorated with grey ; on the upperside of fore wings they have no inner marginal bar, but the spot on inner edge of patch is distinct. They thus form an interesting link between T. antlgone and the southern dry form, being also intermediate in locality, as they come from Angola. With regard to some of the other variations which have been described as species: T. mlnans is a variable form ranging across the Continent in Central Africa ; it is white below, and the upperside markings show practically every gradation from T. evagore to phlegetonla. T. comptus, from Kilimanjaro, has the transverse bar narrow and sometimes very faint, the spot in apical patch ill-defined, and the marginal spots in hind wing separate but distinct. T. conlger, from the West Coast (Accra), is very similar, but has the trausverse bar a little stronger and the nervular spots in hind wing larger and triangular in shape. T. glycera is founded on a single male of T. mlnans (labelled ? Africa), which while retaining the inner marginal bar has lost the black spot in patch ; the border in hind wings is broad and somewhat diffuse inwardly. T. blfasciata I cannot distinguish from T. mlnans, and, as I have noted above, the male of Col. Swinhoe's T. xanthus and the female of T. odysseus are clearly attributable to this form. T. Interruptus, from Angola and S.W. Africa, much resembles T. comptus, but has the spot in apical patch better defined and the nervular spots in hind wing are united into a broad border. T. lucullus, from Angola and V. Nyanza, are only lightly marked specimens of T. phlegetonia, and T. emlnl is founded on a single male from Central Africa, in which the black borders are a little deeper than in typical T. phlegetonia. 72. TERACOLUS NIVEUS. Teracolus niveus, Butler, Proc. Zool. Soc. p. 177, pl xviii fie 1 (1881). r 6" Teracolus candidus, Butler, ibid. p. 178, pl. xviii. fig. 2 (1881). An insular form of T. evagore, confined to the island of Socotra. It is a variable species, showing a strong tendency to lose the red apical patch, and the more extreme examples in this direction have been separated by Mr. Butler under the name T. candidus but without sufficient justification, I think. |