OCR Text |
Show 966 . DR. A. G. BUTLER ON BUTTERFLIES [Nov. 28, blazing sun until my net reached me, fully three quarters of an hour." The two specimens are of much interest, as they clear up one of the greatest muddles which has been made over any species of Lyccenidce:--In 1891 Rogenhofer described a butterfly which was quite unknown to English entomologists under the name of " Chrysophanus peculiaris " ; naturally nobody expected a Cato-chrysops to be called a Chrysophanus. In 1892 Dr. Holland described the same species in the ' Entomologist' under the name of Lyccena perpulchra; in 1893 I described a male from Wasin and a female from the Victoria Nyanza as Castalius hypoleucus; and in 1894 Mr. Trimen described G. peculiaris again under tbe name of Lyccena exclusa. Dr. Holland subsequently pointed out that G. hypoleucus and L. exclusa were synonymous with his L. perpulchra. In 1898 Mr. Trimen received some large examples from Mashunaland which he rightly stated to be identical with our Nyanza female ; but instead of adopting my name for this form, he called it Lyccena gigantea, stating that I had confounded the female with that sex of L. perpulchra (entirely overlooking the fact that the Nyanza female was described by me as the type of that sex of Castalius hypoleucus). At the commencement of the present year, when working out the species of Chrysophanus, I recognized C. peculiaris Rogenh. as the oldest name for the present species, aud entered it in my paper on Mr. Crawshay's last collection. Professor Aurivillius also recognized Rogenhofer's species in his ' Rhopalocera iEthiopica,' where, however, he retained Mr. Trimen's name for the larger form, ignoring the fact that my female unquestionably takes priority. The two examples now sent home by Mr. Crawshay are quite intermediate in character between the large and small forms, the colouring of the upper surface agreeing most nearly with C. peculiaris $ , the expanse of wing being nevertheless equal to that of m y Victoria Nyanza female. Like the latter and a worn and faded female from Zomba (which Trimen refers to as the Nyasa female), they have from one to two extra black spots in the discal series on the under surface of the primaries; the black discocellular spot is smaller than in the little Zomba female, but varies in size in the two examples. It is absolutely impossible to say that these examples belong to one form rather than to the other, and I do not doubt that they represent an intermediate phase between C. liypoleucus=gigantea the wet phase, and C. peculiaris the dry phase, of one and the same species. 23. AZANUS NATALENSIS Trim. d,Tana River, 3800 feet, 16th January, 1899. "The only specimen seen" (R. C). 24. AZANUS ZENA Moore (Lyccena macalenga, Trim.). 6, Kitwi, 4000 feet, 30th December, 1898. |