Part 8

Pap. Remus, Fabr. Godart, Cramer, 135, A, 136, A, and 386, A, B.--Pap. hypolithus, var. Cramer, 10, A, B, 11, A, B.

One of the largest species, the expansion of the wings sometimes measuring nearly eight inches. The superior pair are black, with a slight greenish reflection, and having a broad greyish-white stripe running along each side of the secondary nervures. The inferior wings are dark grey on the surface, and of a shining white on the under side, the latter having a black sinuated border interrupted by seven irregular spots of golden-yellow diminishing in size as they approach the abdominal margin. In the female, which is the sex represented on the adjoining plate, the golden-yellow spots are much larger, somewhat wedge-shaped, and each of them, except the outermost, marked with a large oval black spot. The abdomen is bright yellow above, paler on the under side, and irregularly spotted with black; the head, thorax, breast, and antennæ entirely of the latter colour.

The native country of this elegant species is the island of Amboina.

GENUS PAPILIO.

Passing from the Ornithoptera, which may be esteemed the chiefs and princes of their race, we now come to the Papilios, properly so called, some of which are scarcely inferior in their dimensions and imposing aspect. Such, at least, is the case with P. Antimachus and P. Antenor, which besides their large size, partake of some of the other characters of the group just referred to, and thus form the passage from it to Papilio. But the great majority are of very inferior size, and many of them so dissimilar in aspect that they might be thought to afford sufficient distinctions for arranging them in numerous different genera. On a close examination, however, the species are found to be so intimately allied in all essential parts of structure, that the most judicious systematists have not attempted to separate them. Such authors as have followed an opposite course, Hubner for example, have proved by no means successful in establishing sub-divisions; and the only effect of such a proceeding is to encumber the subject with a number of generic names without eliciting a more philosophical arrangement, or one better adapted to aid the student. As at present constituted, the genus is compact and natural; and if it were broken up by attaching undue importance to very subordinate characters, no partial change would suffice; for any principle that might be thought to justify the establishment of one genus, would render it necessary, if consistently acted upon, to create not fewer than thirty or forty. One of the most obvious differences among the species is the presence or absence of a tail; but an arrangement founded on this circumstance, separates, by a wide interval, kinds which are in other respects most closely allied. Nay, the tail itself is often more or less developed in the same species, being sometimes distinct in the one sex while it is inconspicuous or wanting in the other; its value as a diagnosis of genera is thus in a great measure destroyed.

Considerable differences likewise prevail in the appearance of the caterpillars, but these are too imperfectly known to be made the groundwork of an arrangement, even if they were likely to be available for such a purpose by indicating natural groups or affording additional means of characterising them. “Some of them,” says Dr. Boisduval, “such as those of Machaon, Alexanor, Asterias, are cylindrical and smooth; others (Crassus, Philenor), are protected with rather long fleshy prominences; in a very great number (Pammon, Memnon, Chalchas, &c.) the two first segments are attenuated, and capable of being retracted under the third and fourth, which are dilated and often ornamented with ocular spots analogous to those presented by many of the Sphingides; others are short and thick, and furnished with numerous rather short fleshy points; finally, there are some (Podalirius, Ajax, Antiphates) which somewhat resemble snails in shape. The caterpillars of Papilio may be distinguished from those of other genera belonging to the same tribe by the following characters:--They differ from those of Ornithoptera in their retractile tentaculum not being enclosed in two exterior cases; from those of Thais, in the projections which they sometimes present being never hispid at the extremity; and from those of Parnassius, in the body being always free from pubescence; but it is more particularly from the characters drawn from the chrysalis and perfect insect that this last genus is distinguished from Papilio.”

The perfect insects are characterised by very short palpi not passing beyond the eyes, all the joints very indistinct, the third quite invisible; antennæ pretty long, the club slightly curved upwards; abdomen pretty large, the anal valves in the male of moderate size; wings rather strong, the inferior pair having the abdominal margin folded upwards and leaving the abdomen free, their exterior border more or less dentated, and often prolonged posteriorly into a tail.

According to the above definition, the genus comprehends rather upwards of 220 species. They are distributed over almost every quarter of the globe, but are by far most abundant in intertropical countries. They are more numerous in the new continent than the old, but the difference is by no means considerable. In the former, Brazil alone produces between forty and fifty species; in the latter, the greatest number occur in the islands of the Indian Archipelago, already referred to as the native country of the magnificent Ornithoptera. The continental parts of India, China, Java, &c. likewise possess many fine species, and a few are found in New Holland. Europe is exceedingly poor in insects belonging to this group, there being only four indigenous kinds. These are P. Xuthus, P. Alexanor, P. Machaon, and P. Podalirius; the two latter, which are the most common, are well known to extend to Britain.

The first species selected to exemplify one of the prevailing forms of this important genus, is

PLATE 2.

1. Papilio Memnon. 2. Pap. Æneas. Lizars sc.

China. Surinam.]

PAPILIO MEMNON.

PLATE II. Fig. 1.

Linn. Fabr. Cramer, 91, C.--Papilio Agenor, Linn. Fabr. Cramer, 32, A, B.

The upper wings in this species expand about five inches; they are blackish and marked with numerous longitudinal rays of a greyish-ash colour, each of them having a large blood-red or ochrey-yellow triangular patch at the base. The inferior wings are waved on the hinder margin, and narrowly edged with white in the emarginations, the disk almost entirely occupied by a broad white band divided by the dark nervures, the hinder portion dusky with a series of deep-black spots of an ovate or rounded form, that placed on the anal angle smaller than the rest and encircled with fulvous, which colour extends to the extremity of the internal border; on the under side they are spotted with red or ochre-yellow at the base: body black, the prothorax marked with several white points.

The above description applies to one of the female varieties of P. Memnon, which was usually regarded as a distinct species and known by the name of Agenor. Indeed it is so unlike the male, that authors would probably never have thought of associating them, had they not been reared from the same description of caterpillar. The male is entirely without the basal red spot, and the dark ground colour has a greenish reflection; the upper wings have a red or ochreous spot at the base on the under side, and there are likewise four small red marks on the same part of the inferior wings: the latter are deep black anteriorly and cinereous behind; the cinereous portions containing two rows of deep black rounded spots, that next the anal angle encircled with yellow. P. Androgeos of Cramer (pl. 91, A. B.) is a variety of this sex, while the P. Anceus, and P. Laomedon, of the same iconographist are varieties of the female.

The caterpillar, which feeds on the different kinds of Citrus, is described by Dr. Horsfield as of a green colour, with an ocelliform lateral mark on the third segment, and a transverse white band; a band of pale green between the fourth and fifth segments, and an oblique white stripe on the eighth and ninth; the anal segment likewise of that colour. The anterior part of the body is considerably attenuated, similar to what is observed in the caterpillars of many of the Hawkmoths. Chrysalis green, reddish-yellow on the back.

This insect is found in China, and the islands of the Indian Ocean, and is rather a common species.

PAPILIO ÆNEAS.

PLATE II. Fig. 2.

Linn., Fabr., Cramer, Pl. 279, Figs. A, B, C, D.--Rösel Insect. vol. iv. Pl. 2, Fig. 2.--Godart, Encyclop. No. 24.--Boisduval, Spec. gener. 286, No. 112.

We have figured this insect as characteristic of a pretty extensive group of butterflies inhabiting South America, distinguished by a peculiar outline, and a certain similarity of design in the markings. The space between the tips of the anterior wings always exceeds by more than one half the space between the anterior edge of these wings and the hinder margin of the posterior pair; that is to say, the width of the insect, with its wings expanded, is more than double its length. The ground colour of the wings is generally deep black, with one or two insulated patches of some light colour on the disk of the anterior pair, and a large blood-red patch in the middle of the hinder wings; the latter deeply dentated on the margin, but without a tail. In P. Æneas the upper wings expand about three inches and a quarter: they are velvet-black, becoming lighter towards the apex, with a pretty large green spot, of a somewhat quadrangular shape, towards the interior border, surmounted by three smaller ones of an obscure white. Inferior wings likewise velvet-black, with a large discoidal patch, deep red anteriorly and carmine behind intersected by dark nervures; posterior margin with obtuse unequal dentations, the notches margined with red. Under side of the inferior wings with five oval, rose-coloured spots, placed in an irregular transverse line. Body black, the sides of the breast spotted with red.

The insect regarded as the female of this species differs greatly from the above: the wings are more rounded at the apex, and there is only a single spot, of shining green, on the upper pair: the notches of the hinder wings bordered with white.

This butterfly is found in greatest plenty in Surinam, but it likewise occurs in other quarters of South America.

The other species belonging to this group, easily recognised by their peculiar facies, are, P. Opleus, Hippason, Euristeus, Polymetus, Jacinthus, Eurymas, Eurymedes, Echelus, Ariarathes, Marcius, Numa (Boisd.), Cœlus (Lacordair), Arbates, Anchises, Dimas, Iphidamas, Arcas, and a few others.

PLATE 3.

Lizars sc. 1. Papilio Ascanius. 2. Pap. Paris.