( 417 ) 



■polyxenes americxs Koll., giving Costa Rica as loealit}'. An itinerant German 

 dealer, Heyne, sold as P. astivioidrn specimens lie had received from Messrs. 

 Standinger and Bang-Haas without locality labels. Heyne, following a custom 

 of collectors and dealers, ticketed his specimens Costa Rica, the locality whence 

 astcrioidcs had been recorded by Strecker (such specimens with a label in 

 Heyne's handwriting are iu the Tring Museum). Eimer described and figured as 

 P. asterioides similar specimens, giving as locality Mexico, these specimens 

 having been received either from Heyne or direct from Standinger and Bang-Haas. 

 Now, all these individuals are neither the asterioidcs of Reakirt nor of Strecker, 

 but are nnmistakably Cuban specimens of P. pob/xeni's. The locality Costa 

 Rica and Mexico for them is "manufactured." We add that the error was not 

 made by Messrs. Standinger and Bang-Haas ; however, that firm is much to 

 blame in selling their specimens without locality labels on the pins. 



Fabrication of localities is even nowadays going on. Wc mention the following 

 instance as a warning to other lejiidopterists. Two specimens of what was said 

 to be PajiUio oregonia were offered to us by an American dealer, who had received 

 them from a correspondent who apparently loves the dollar more than his honour. 

 On receipt of the specimens we found them to be Old World P. machaon, one being 

 a Sikkim individual, the other a British specimen ! The specimens are labelled 

 " Plumas ( 'o., California, May '03." AVe are keeping them as a memento, an 

 additional label giving the necessary explanation. 



With the publication of (Jramer's Papilloits E.roti'pies the number of known 

 forms of exotic Lepidoptera increased enormously.* Though the descriptions are 

 useless and the figures not always good, very few of the numerous new Papilios 

 are not sufficiently well represented for identification. Only one of Cramer's 

 American Pajiilios has remained doubtful to ns. This is P. eiiristevs, the figure 

 of which does not agree with any specimen which we have seen. The fignre is 

 coarse, and may be erroneous, but it is also possible that the insect has not been 

 rediscovered. Some of Cramer's American Papilios are very rare in collections, 

 his specimens being mostly from Surinam, whence no extensive collections of 

 butterflies have been seut in recent years. Collecting in the French and Dutch 

 Guianas is difficult, we hear, owing to the extensiveTbrests without roads and 

 the impenetrable swamps, the only means of exploring the interior being by 

 means of canoes. Moreover, the butterflies, some species excepted, do not appear 

 in such great numbers of individuals as elsewhere, having to be searched for. 



Jablonsky's Natursystem aller Tnsehten, continued by Herbst, introduces in 

 the volumes devoted to Lepidoptera some original matter and many copies from 

 Cramer, and contains also several artefacts. The figure which Esper named 

 later P. pclcides, and usually considered fictitious, may have been taken from 

 an actual specimen ; but nothing of the kind exists now iu collections. 



Far more critical than any of his predecessors and contemporaries was Esper, 

 in whose work Die Ausliindiscl/rm Sc/imetterl/»f/e (l~84 — 1801) all the species of 

 Papilio which he considered distinct are dej)icted. The dates of issue of the 

 work are given by Anrivillius in 1882. t The lengthy text accomjiauying the 

 jilates is difficult to understand for a non-German, being full of provincialisms 

 and now antiqnated words, the meaning of which the foreigner does not find 



* The copy in the Tring ^Inscum contains the original covers bearing the years of issue. We obtained 

 this valuable copy from the library of the late J. H. Leech. 



\__Heccimo Critica, in K. Sv. Vet. Alt. Ilandl. xis. 5. p. 182 (1882). 



