NOVITATES ZOOLOUICAE XXXVIl. l'J32. 181 REVISIONAL NOTES ON THE GENERA ABISARA AND SARIBIA (LEP. RIODINIDAE), WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES. By N. D. RILEY. (Plate II.) T^HE following notes are the outcome of a revision and rearrangement of the ■'■ African lliodinidae in the British Museum and in the Tring Museum, Lord Rothschild having kindly placed at luy disposal the whole of his material. All the species and varieties hitherto known are dealt with by Amivillius in Vol. XIII of the Macmlepidoptera of the World, to which reference should be made. I. ABISARA. 1. Abisara gerontes Fab. (1781). The Fabrician type specimen, a male, is preserved in the Banltsian Cabinet in the British Museum. It belongs to the ordinary West Coast form and has been correctly identified by most authors, e.g. by Aurivillius in Seitz, xiii, p. 295. Its occurrence in Sierra Leone appears doubtful ; it is found, with certainty, however, in the coastal districts of S. Nigeria and the Cameroons. Farther south the typical subspecies gives way to another, but the species appears to be confined entirely to the tropical rain forest areas : — A. gerontes gabunica subsp. nov. (Plate II, fig. l). (J$. In the development of the apical ocellus this subspecies is intermediate between typical gerontes and the Ugandan A. simulacris (see below). It is, however, a much larger insect (expanse 38-40 mm. as compared with 35-38 mm.) and has the dark groiuid colour of the tyf)ical West Coast form. The principal difference is in the white band. On the forewing this shows little or no con-traction towards the inner margin, not infrequently attaining there a width of 6-8 mm. On the hindwing it is similarly expanded, not sharply triangular as in typical geronies ; it practically reaches the margin in area 3 and extends well around the ocellate spot on either side, and its inner edge is more or less evenly curved in such a manner as to leave the base of area 6 largely black. The underside diiierences are the same as those of the upjierside. As in typical gerontes, there is in tlie J a conspicuous subtriangular basal patch of modified scales on the hindwing upperside, extending from the base as far as the white band, and from the costa to the anterior edge of the cell ; and the corresponding black patch on the underside of the forewing is also present. Holotype ^ and allotype $ " Gabun," ex Crowley Coll. Further material consists of 1 c^, 2 $ from Ogowe River, 1890 (L. Gazengel) ; 2 J Niari-Quouillou, Station de Loudema, Route de Loango a Brazzaville (Jacquot).
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