' ?9 SEP 1906 



NOYITATES ZOOLOGICAE. 



Vol. XIII. AUGUST, 1906. No. 3. 



A REVISION OF THE AMERICAN PAPILIOS. 



By the HON. WALTER ROTHSCHILD, Ph.D., and KABL JORDAN, Ph.D. 



AFTER the pnblication, in 189.5, of the Revision of the Papilios of the Eastern 

 Hemisphere, exclusive of Africa, we intended to coutiune the work by 

 revising also the Pajiilios of the Aethiopian Region and of America. However, 

 we soon found that the material at onr disposal from these regions was not 

 extensive enough, and therefore pcstponed the researches. We knew our task 

 to be s])ecially difficult with some groups of American Papilios, which are either 

 so variable individually or present such slight external specific differences that, in 

 the absence of breeding from the egg, a comparison of long series of specimens 

 appeared to us necessary to render the conclusions reliable. Since 1895 the 

 collection of Lepidoptera in the Tring IVIuseum has been steadily increased, so 

 that, after the issue of the Revision of the Sphingidae in April 1903, we considered 

 the material large enough to base upon it a Revision of the American Papilios. 

 We undertook the work the more readily, as we were assured of the kind assistance 

 of several friends who were willing to place the material in their collections at 

 our disposal for the purpose of this Revision. Many of the deficiencies in our 

 collection have thus been made good, and the number of specimens compared has 

 been rendered considerable in the case of most species. We take this opportunity 

 of tendering our very best thanks to all who have so kindly assisted us. 



The collection of the British Museum, containing the types of the numerous 

 names given to Papilios by Doublcday, Gray, Hewitson, and others, and the 

 collection of Mr. F. Ducane Godman, comprising not only a large Central American 

 material, but also many South American forms which are rare in collections, have 

 been of the greatest help to us. We have also examined the specimens in the 

 large collections of Messrs. H. Grose-Smith, H. Druce, and H. J. Adams, as well 

 as the Hopeian collection at Oxford, all of which contain material which it was 

 very important for us to see. Of Continental collections we have visited those 

 of Monsieur Paul Dognin, the Paris Museum, and Mon.sieur Charles Oberlhiir ; 

 and Dr. Rebel has been kind enough to send us some of the types of Kollar and 

 Felder contained in the Hofmuseum at Vienna. The most valuable assistance has 

 been rendered to us by Monsienr Charles Oberthlir, whose magnificent collection 

 comprises, in addition to the numerous specimens described by Boisduval, and 

 others described by Lucas, a very large recent material, among which there are 

 a number of forms which we have not seen in other collections, several being 

 undescribcd. 



We have further been assisted in our task of clearing up the synonymy by 

 photographs of some Godartiau types preserved in the Royal Scottish Museum 

 at Edinburgh, and of some llopflerian specimens iu the Berlin Museum, and we 



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