{ -rn ) 



between the costal and subcostal veins there stands a sul)marginal yellow sjiot which 

 varies in size and is seldom absent ; within the same cellule there is often also a discal 

 yellow mark. The subdiscal black spots are in most individuals not joined to the 

 marginal bonier of the wing, but this character is exceedingly variable in both helena 

 and Cerberus ; the number of those spots varies as in helena. 



A single female specimen from Banguey Island (in cull. iJr. t^tuudinger) is 

 remarkable in ha\ing the discal spot before the subcostal \ein of the hiudwings 

 enlarged, and the cellule in front of the abdominal fold filled up with yellow, the 

 subdiscal and submarginal black spots within this cellule being small and standing 

 separate from one another. The abdomen of this specimen is rather more e.xtended 

 yellow, the ventral black spots being very small. 



Another feraale in Dr. Staudinger's collection, from Xias, agrees in the pattern 

 of the forewiugs exactly with T. helena cerberus (Feld.) ; the subdiscal black markings 

 of the hiudwings are, howe\er, merged together with each other and with the black 

 border of the wing. 



Bab. N. India (Assam, Sikkim ; 18 cf, 28 J ) ; Bm-ma ; Malacca (1 J, 3 j); 

 Andaman Islands (1 J, 3 $ ) ; Sumatra (1 $ ) ; Nias (1 ? ) ; Natuna Islands (1 c?, 1 ? ); 

 Borneo (3 c?, 3 j) ; Banguey Island (in cull. Staudinger). 



Xotc. — Fickert, /.c. p. 732, says: " Ornithoptera cerberus kommt hauptsiichlich 

 in A'orderindien (Sikkim) vor, doch besitzt sie Stwudinger aus der Sormner'schew 

 Sammlung audi von Java (das hiesige zoologische Institut, welches ein grosseres 

 Material Orni'hopteren aus Java besitzt, hat sie nicht dorther). Staudinger mochie 

 deshalla cerberus nicht, wie Kirby es thut, als Localvarietat zu ponvpeus ziehen, da 

 zwei Localvarietaten nicht auf einer Insel, auch wenn sie so gross ist wie .Ia\a, 

 vorkommen kOnueii, cine Ansicht, welche ioh, vorausgesetzt dass cerberus wirklich 

 auf Java vorkommt, nur theilen kann." Fickert refers to Staudinger, whose opinion 

 about this question is expressed in Exot. Schmett. I. p. 4 (1884). As in the second 

 edition of Exot. Schmett. the same passage occurs, I cannot forbear to state that 

 Staudinger and Fickert are wrong in two points : — 



1. An i.sland "as large as Java" can not only be inhabited by two local forms 

 of the same species, but it can even produce two local forms. Messrs. Staudinger 

 and Fickert forget that the fauna of the mountains is different from that of the 

 lower districts, and that many mountain insects are local forms of the species of the 

 plains or hills ; thus T. amphrysus (Cram.) has at higher ele\-ations de\eloped into 

 T. amphrysus cuneifer (Oberth.). Fruhstorfer \^Ent. Nachr. \\. 169 (1895)] shows 

 tliat a good number of species are different in West and East Java. The species 

 inhabiting Eastern Sumatra, i.e. the plains and hills of Sumatra, are often represented 

 by local forms in the mountainous districts of M'estern Sumatra; the latter districts 

 are indeed as closely allied in their fauna to Java as to the faunae of Deli, Malacca, 

 and Borneo. Wallace's opinion that Sumatra belongs faunistically together with 

 Malacca and liorneo, and is well separated from Java, applies only to East Sumatra, 

 not to West Sumatra, and this explains why the islands near the west coast of 

 Sumatra (Engano, Nias; the fauna of the others we do not know) have so many 

 affinities to Java, not to " Sumatra," i.e. not to Eastern Sumatra. 



2. Though the specimens of Sommer's collection may have been wrongly labelled 

 — Staudinger says in a letter to us that he no longer believes them to be from 

 Ja\a — there occur specimens of cerberus which are not distinguishable from certain 

 examples of helena (L.) (= pompeus Cram.). But that agrees e.xactly with the 



