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ON SOME NEW LEPIDOPTERA EROM THE EAST. 

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



PAPILIONIDAE. 

 1- Troides meridionalis. 



(J Triiides paradheua meridionalis Rothschild, Nov. ZoOL, FV. p. 180. n. 3 (1897). 



WHEN describing this insect in April 1S97 I had only one ?. The distin- 

 guishing characters presented by that individual did not seem to me to 

 justify a specific separation of meruHonalis from paraclixeus. Towards the end of 

 1897 I received a second ? , caught at the south-eastern extremity of New Gninea, 

 near, or not far from, Samarai. Mr. A. S. Meek, who has for years been sending 

 us very fine collections from the Papuan region, succeeded in capturing a third ?, 

 and had also the great luck of discovering the S . The three ? ? are all alike, 

 except in small details. The c?, however, is very different from what I expected it 

 to be. As in geographical races of Papilioninae the ? ? are generally much more 

 different than the <?<?, the latter being often indistinguishable (compare, for 

 instance, Troides ti.thonus u-aii/eiiensis and fif/ioni/s), I presumed that the <? of 

 meridionalis would be essentially the same as that of /jaradiseus. I was, therefore, 

 very much astonished, when receiving Mr. Meek's fine capture, to find that the cj of 

 meridionalis presented such striking differences from /mradiseiis in the shape, colour, 

 and venation of the wings that 1 could not hesitate to regard tncridioiialis as 

 specifically distinct. 



The forewing is narrower than in paradiseiis, its distal margin nearly straight, 

 the anterior green streak is narrower, the posterior one wider, entering the cell and 

 distally running up to the anterior one ; on the tmderside the forewing has a broad 

 black band, beginning at the costal margin before the middle of the cell, running 

 to upjjcr angle of cell, and thence to the disc, being distally limited by veins R' 

 and R', the yellowish green scaling between these veins reduced to two small 

 submarginal spots ; the yellowish streaks between the subcostals also reduced, the 

 apex of the wing being black, with an ill-defined green streak of dispersed scales 

 between SC^ and SC and a few more green scales behind SC*. 



The outlines and neuration of the hindwings of T. paradiseus (A) and 

 meridionalis (B) are represented by the 

 accompanying diagrams. The wing of 

 meridionalis is more reduced in size than 

 that of paradiseus, narrower, the distal 

 margin is gently concave ; the tail is 

 shorter, not gradually narrowing to the 

 tij), but dilated before the apex ; the out- 

 line of the dilated portion when flattened 

 out is as in figure, but apjiears in the 

 specimen, on superficial examination, to 

 be rhombiform, the tail being twisted ; 

 the anal angle is not produced ; the fringe 

 of hairs upon the abdominal fold is much 

 longer, and not so dense. In neuration 



