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Show 1896.] BUTTERFLIES O F T H E F A M I L Y HESPERIID^E. 67 224. B. ILIAS, Ploetz. (Plate V. fig. 17.) Hesperia ilias, Ploetz, S. E. Z. vol. xl. p. 355 (1879). Hab. Guinea (Ploetz) ; Gaboon. What I take to be the Hesperia ilias of Ploetz-forming my conclusion from the description of the species given by the author and from a copy of his unpublished drawing of the same-is the insect figured on the Plate, It comes nearer meeting the requirements alike of description and of figure than any other West- African species known to m e in nature. 225. B. XYLOS, Mab. (Plate II. fig. 13.) Pamphila xylos, Mab. Ann. Soc. Ent. France, (6) vol. x. p. 31, pi. iii. fig. 8 (±890). Hab. Gaboon, Cameroons, Sierra Leone. Mons. Mabille (I. c.) states that he has sufficiently characterized this species in the ' Bulletin ' of the preceding year, and contents himself therefore with a figure. B y reference to the ' Bulletin ' for 1889, I discover that his memory was at fault. He did not describe P.xylos in the ' Bulletin' of the year before. Our only knowledge of the species, therefore, must be derived from the figure given in the plate, which, fortunately, is quite recognizable. It represents a damaged male of a species which is quite common on the tropical western coast of Africa. I have a long series of specimens in which, singularly enough, the females are more numerous than the males. The figure given by Mons. Mabille is that of a male minus the abdomen. The female which is represented in the plate does not differ materially in the location and style of the marking from the male, but is generally much larger. I discovered that Mons. Mabille had mingled with this species, in his collection and that of Dr. Staudinger, specimens of the following species, which is abundantly distinct, though presenting a superficial likeness. 226. B. ALBERTI, sp. nov. (Plate II. fig. 21.) 3. Body and appendages black. Abdomen produced beyond the anal angle of the secondaries. The wings on the upperside are black, with whitish fringes, those of the primaries checkered with black at the ends of the nervules. There are no spots on the secondaries. The primaries are ornamented with three small subapical spots in the usual position, by two large and conspicuous subquadrate spots, one on either side of vein 3 at its origin, the upper one being the smaller of the two. In many specimens there is also a small and faint spot on cell 1, just below the large subquadrate spot on cell 2. On the underside, the wings are marked precisely as on the upperside, save that the inner margin of the primaries is pale, and in some specimens there are traces of an obsolete series of pale submarginal markings on the secondaries. 9 The female is marked hke the male, save that on the under- |
