f 2fi7 ) 



(i2. Papilio alcinous Klug [J, ?, larva, ])upa]. 



(J ? . Pajnlio uk-inous Klug, Neue SclinicIL Ju.i.-,Samml. Bei-Iin t. 1 ( J, ? ) (183(i) (Japan) ; De Haan, 

 Verh. Xat. Ge.srh. Xed. orerz. hez. p 26. t. 9. f. 13. 14 (larva, haec spec. ?) (1840) (Japan) ; Doubl. 

 Westw. & Hew., Gen. Diurn. Lej>. I. p. 9. n. 19 (1846) {j/.p. ; Japan, nee China) ; Gray, 

 Cat. Lep. Im. B. M. I. p. 12. n. 45 (1852) (Japan ; nee " var.") ; id., List Lep. Ins. B. M. I. 

 p. 14. n. 49 (1856) (Japan ; uec " var.") ; Horsf. & Moore, Git. Lrp. Ins. .Uus. E. L C. I. p. 95. 

 n. 193. t. 2. f. 6 (/.) (1857) (Japan ; nee "var.") ; VoUenhov., Tijihchr. r. FmI. III. p. 7-2. n. 12 

 (1860) (Japan); Feld., Verh. z. b. Ges. Wien p. 325. n. 479. & p. 374. d. 283 (1864) (Japan) : 

 Orza, Leji. Japnn. p. 11. n. 8. (1869) ; Oberth., El. d'Eid. IV. p. 42. n. 47. & p. 112. n. 47 (1879) 

 (Japan ; "Moupiu and Mandschourie " Inc. en: aiil siibsji. alt.) ; Elwes, /'. Z. S. p. K72 (1881); 

 Pryer, Tr. Ent. Sue. Lund p. 480 (1882) (Japan ; larva noticed) ; Standing. & Scliatz, Exot. 

 Schmett. I. p. 9 (1884) (Japan) ; Prycr, Bhop. Xi/i. p. 4. n. 5. t. 3. f . 3 ( ? ) (1886) (Japan) : 

 Leech, P. Z. H. p. 405. n. 6 (1887) (common all over Southern and Central Japan : summer 

 brood with longer tails); id., Tr. Ent. Sm: Limd. p. 115. n. 68 (1889) ("ah-inoiis Klug = 

 menciiis Feld. =; spathatiis Butl. — plutonius Oberth.") : id., BxMerJi. of China, etc. p. 539 (1893) 

 {p.p. ; nee China and Loo Choo Is.) : Seitz, Svc. Eat. X. p. 27 (1895). 



S ?  Papilio spatlialus Butler, Ann. May. X. II. (5). VII. p. 139 (1881) (Nippon). 



cJ ? . PapiUo haemotostictns Butler, I.e. p. 140 (1881) (Hakodate). 



This species ranges in three sub.specie.s over Japan (excejit the north), the 

 Loo Choo Islands, China (exclusive of the southern provinces), Thibet proper, 

 and has also been brought bj' native collectors [.see Ehves, Tr. Ent. Soc. Loud. 

 p. 424. n. 398 (1888)] from the interior of the Himalaya, probably from Bhutan. 

 Mr. Leech recognises two distinct species in his Butterfiies of China and Jujiuri — 

 P. alcinous Klug and plutonius Oberth. — and treats mencius Feld., spathatiis Butl., 

 and haeiiiatostictus Butl. as mere synonyms. Though I agree with Mr. Leech in 

 respect to spathatas and haematostictus, I disagree with him in respect to meacius 

 and plutonius. Felder's P. menciiis, which is based upon some female examples 

 from Ningpo, and some males without locality .still preserx'ed in the Felder 

 collection, and the figure of the male in Gray's Cai. Lep. Lns. B. M. I. t. 4. f. 3 

 (1852), diti'ers from P. alcinous Klug in the hairs of the front of the head being 

 parti}' black, partly red, while in P. alcinous Klug the hairs of the head are 

 invariably black. As the amount of red hairs on the head is inconstant, I think that 

 this distinguishing character is not important enough to render it necessary to treat 

 the Chinese alci'iwus as a distinct sjiecies; but still the difference is there, and we 

 must regard mencius as a subspecies at least. To this subspecies, P. alcinous 

 mendus Feld., not to typical alcinous Klug, belong the specimens from the Loo 

 Choo Islands. 



Oberthiir's P. plutonius exhibits also only one character by which it is (con- 

 stantly ?) distinguishable from P. alcinous — that is, the paler colour of the underside 

 of the hindwings; the outline of the hindwings oi plutonius is not at all constant, 

 and cannot serve to recognise all the specimens, which, according to the colom-, 

 belong to this form, as plutonius. If I treat mencius as a local form of alcinous, 

 not as a distinct species (and 1 suppose all entomologists will consent), I mu.st also 

 regard plutonius as a subspecies of alcinous. I am quite aware that plutonius and 

 menciiis occur in the same districts of M^estern China ; but as Mr. Elwes' collectors 

 found plutonius in the interior of the Himalaya, 1 feel quite certain that here, as in 

 so many ca.ses of Thibetian and Chinese insects, the respective areas of the two forms 

 overlap in the country west of the Yunling Mountains, a mountain range which 

 separates Thibet proper from China; plutonius will certainly b(> found as sole form 

 in Southern and Eastern Thibet (Kham. ^Minynk), just as mencius alone occius in 

 Central and Eastern China. 



