| OCR Text |
Show 1896.] BUTTERFLIES O F T H E F A M I L Y HESPERIID^E. 61 Chapra mathias, Moore, Lep. Ceylon, vol. i. p. 169, pi. 70. figs. 1 a (1880-81). ? Pamphila ibara, Ploetz, S. E. Z. vol. xliv. p. 38 (1883). Pamphila octo-fenestrata, Saalm. Lep. von Madagascar, p. 108 (1884). Pamphila mathias, var. elegans, Mab. Grandid. Madgr. vol. xviii. p. 356, pi. lv. figs. 4, 4 a, 5 (1887). Pamphila mohopaani, Trim. S. Afr. Butt. vol. iii. p. 324 (1889). Pamphila insconspicua, Butl. P. Z. S. 1893, p. 672 ; Trim. P. Z. S. 1894, p. 76. Hab. Africa south of the Sahara, Madagascar, and adjacent islands. After a very full and thorough study of a great collection of specimens in m y possession, coming from all parts of the African continent, including examples from Abyssinia, Zanzibar, the Cape Colony, Angola, Gaboon, and Sierra Leone, and after a diligent comparison with long series before m e coming from various parts of continental Asia and the adjacent islands, I am forced to the conclusion, which has already been cautiously maintained by others, that the African insect commonly labelled in collections as mohopaani, Wallgr., is identical with the insect named mathias by Fabricius. The differences -which exist are in most cases merely differences of size, and without locality-labels to show whence the particular specimens come from it would be impossible to distinguish them. The specimens from the region of the Cape are generally a little larger than Indian examples, but I have not a few specimens among the three or four hundred examples of the African forms before me as I write which are as small as any I have from India. Indeed C. lodra, Ploetz, which Mons. Mabille maintains, in his correspondence with me, to be simply a small form of C. mathias, is smaller than any Indian examples I have in m y possession. I do not, however, quite agree with Mons. Mabille in his view, and prefer to still maintain lodra in this catalogue as a distinct species (v. infra). 209. C. LODRA, Ploetz. Pamphila lodra, Ploetz, S. E. Z. vol. xl. p. 355 (1879), vol. xliv. p. 45 (1884). Hab. Tropical West Africa (Gaboon, Cameroons). This is a diminutive reproduction at first sight of C. mathias, Fabr., but while the markings are exactly the same as in that species, it may be easily and invariably separated by attending to the fact not only that it is so small, but that the fringes are pure white,and the undersides of both the primaries and secondaries are dark hoary greyish brown. It may be that this form is, as has been suggested, a mere variety or local race of C. mathias, but until we know more about the facts I hesitate to sink the name of Ploetz as a synonym. |
