304 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [November, 



and buff in color, the rest are brickish red, the same as the two situated 

 between the median and submedian nervures of the male; underside of 

 secondaries the markings are the same as in the male, the tails are one- 

 fourth of an inch longer than in the male. 



Of this extremely rare butterfly I had the good fortune lately 

 to procure a fine female from my collector in Jamaica, and, to the 

 best of my knowledge, it is the only example of this sex in North 

 American collections. This Papilio always seemed to be of the 

 greatest rarity from Fabricius to the present time, and Fabricius 

 himself seemed to have been unacquainted with the true P. pelaus, 

 as he referred it to Cramer's P. torqualus (" Cr. Pap. Exot. pk 

 177, figs. A and B"). Is it possible that Cramer's figures are so 

 extremely poor that they (P. torquatns) will answer for any cau- 

 dated species of Papilio? We are therefore indebted to the un- 

 tiring energies of the late Joseph O. Westwood for its rediscovery, 

 for after it (P. pelaus Fab.) had slept in the vault of oblivion for 

 fifty years Mr. Westwood found a specimen that agreed with the 

 description of P. pelaus Fab. in Mr. Edward Doubleday's col- 

 lection. He, Mr. Westwood, then figured it as P. pelaus Fab., 

 with some doubt, in his admirable " Arcana Entomologica, " pi. 

 18, figs, i and 2. Later on (p. 107, "Arc. En 1 -.") he assured 

 himself that he was right in his discovery by finding P. pelaus 

 figured in Mr. Jones' unpublished drawings, vol i, pi. 32, that 

 are in the British Museum Library, so I doubt if the female has 

 ever been recorded until now. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS for October, was mailed September 30, 1895. 



