ILLUSTEATIVE OF NATURAL SELECTION. 173 



All these belong to the family of the Nymphalidse. 

 Many other genera of this family, as Diadema, Adolias, 

 Charaxes, and Cyrestis, as well as the entire families 

 of the Danaidse, SatyridaB, Lycsenidse, and Hesperidse, 

 present no examples of this peculiar form of the upper 

 wing in the Celebesian species. 



Local variations of Colour. In Amboyna and Ceram 

 the female of the large and handsome Ornithoptera 

 Helena has the large patch on the hind wings con- 

 stantly of a pale dull ochre or buff colour, while in 

 the scarcely distinguishable varieties from the adjacent 

 islands of Bouru and New Guinea, it is of a golden 

 yellow, hardly inferior in brilliancy to its colour in 

 the male sex. The female of Ornithoptera Priamus 

 (inhabiting Amboyna and Ceram exclusively) is of a 

 pale dusky brown tint, while in all the allied species the 

 same sex is nearly black with contrasted white mark- 

 ings. As a third example, the female of Papilio Ulysses 

 has the blue colour obscured by dull and dusky tints, 

 while in the closely allied species from the surrounding 

 islands, the females are of almost as brilliant an azure 

 blue as the males. A parallel case to this is the occur- 

 rence, in the small islands of Goram, Matabello, Ke, 

 and Aru, of several distinct species of Euplasa and 

 Diadema, having broad bands or patches of white, 

 which do not exist in any of the allied species from 

 the larger islands. These facts seem to indicate some 

 local influence in modifying colour, as unintelligible 

 and almost as remarkable as that which has resulted 

 in the modifications of form previously described. 



