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Show •836 DR. A. G. BUTLER ON [N0V.T6, being, as my friend Mr. Trimen assures me, of considerable rarity, and one or two either only recently added or new to the known fauna of South Africa. Bef erring to his first consignment, Mr. Marshall writes (Estcourt, Natal, 20th October 1896):-"I am forwarding you by this mail a small sample of the butterflies that I have been taking since my arrival iu Natal, and I hope you will find some useful and interesting specimens among them. " Butterflies have not been by any means plentiful so far, as I only arrived just in time to get the fag-end of the winter broods, and the summer forms are only just beginning to put in an occasional appearance-October being an essentially ' intermediate' month i.U this particular locality. Estcourt is not a strikingly rich place, but we get some rare local species here. However, to-morrow I am off for a fortnight's collecting on the Tugela Biver in the ' thorn' district, which is a good locality, especially for Plericlce, and I hope I shall be able to send you a few nice intermediate seasonal specimens before long." Then follow notes on many of the species. " I shall be glad to see how far you agree or disagree with my nomenclature of the specimens sent." In a letter dated " 14th December, 1896," he writes:-" I am sending you by this mail a second small instalment of butterflies, some of which I expect you will be glad to have. My trip to the Tugela was somewhat of a disappointment, as insects were unusually scarce down there owing to the prolonged drought. However, I managed to get a good number of the commoner Plerldce, and, what is more, I succeeded in breeding Teracolus auxo from eggs laid by an indubitable T. topha, which decidedly settles, in my opinion, the seasonal dimorphism question in the South-African species of that genus." [The remainder of this letter consists of field-notes.] In m y opinion the description of T. topha refers to an intermediate form between the wet-season form T. auxo and the dry-season form T. kelskamma, having almost the outline of the former but approaching the latter in the coloration and marking of the under surface. Mr. Marshall's practical experiment proves the truth of the opinion expressed by Mr. Mansel Weale in 1877, based upon the fact that both T. auxo and T. kelskamma deposited their eggs in the same manner upon the same bush and were prodaced from exactly similar larva; at different times of the year. In a letter dated from Malvern, 17th April, Mr. Marshall writes:-" I am sending you to-day two small boxes of butterflies, one of which also contains a few moths. I was glad to be able to get you a specimen of what I consider to be the dry-season form of Acrcea anacreon l, as I was afraid I should be too early for tbem at tbe Karkloof ; but, as you will notice, the dry-season forms in that locality appear a good month or six weeks before they do down here, though the seasons are to all appearance precisely the 1 Not included, however, in this consignment.-A. G. B. |