284 ME. P. H. GOSSE ON THE CLASPING-OKGANS 



The scapkium may have been accidentally lost ; but tbe peculiarities in the uncus and 

 penis are considerable, and, if these prove to be constant, are good distinctions between 

 this form and its fellows. 



Ornpthoptera richmondia, G. R. Gray. (Plate XXVI. fig. 5.) 



Here the harpe diverges from the preceding forms. The disk is considerably wider 

 and shorter, without any sensible diminution into a neck, and it shows a distinct 

 tendency to that form, which I have compared to an open hand bent back from the wrist, 

 conspicuous in the black and yellow species of the genus, but which is scarcely seen in 

 the Priarnoid races. The teeth are crowded along the truncate extremity (the " fingers"), 

 and within (on the " palm "), and more on one side than on the other ; but, whereas, in 

 .Pronomus and Arrucma, the main crowding is at the left corner (as looked at), here, in 

 Richmondia, it is at the right. The teeth, though minute, are seen, when viewed at the 

 proper angle, to be curved, acute, glittering spines ; their number is about fifty. 



The uncus and scaphium are as in Arrucma ; but the former is somewhat more curved. 

 The penis also agrees fairly ; but the expansion (in one examined) was much less 

 corrugated, and had a broader, more truncate point. The organ was manifestly empty, 

 as my lens reached for some distance up the interior. But another example was 

 full, to swelling, throughout its whole length, on the inferior side, with the singular 

 white pulp, which also had filled the expanded lips, and reached to some distance 

 beyond. Moreover, as I had removed the valve from this example, with a slight jerk, 

 there had been projected from it a compact sinning white globule of this same matter, as 

 large as a rape-seed, which I have every reason to believe had originally borne the same 

 relation to the penis as the like knob represented in my illustration of P. Doubledayi in 

 PI. XXXII. fig. 18. 



*■&■ 



Ornithoptera Halipiiron, Boisd. (Plate XXVI. figs. & 7.) 



Outline of valve rotundo-triangular, the sides much rounded, occasionally so as to 

 approach the circular form. Prom the tip projects a minute horny point, which bends 

 inward, towards the opposite valve. Interiorly, the margins slightly overlap, and the 

 edges are sparsely set with short hairs. The concavity is smooth, not polished. 



The harpe occupies the middle of the valve, and is a flattened tube (?) of rufous, trans- 

 parent, highly polished chitiue. It springs from a wide base, like the trunk of a tree, 

 which, on one side, adheres to the base of the valve, and, on the other, to a stout angular 

 projection at the bottom of the abdominal cavity. Thence it pursues the concavity of the 

 valve, narrowing as it proceeds, adhering to the lining-membrane, and scarcely elevated 

 above it, till about two thirds of the length of the valve are reached; here the chitinous 

 column is detached from the lining, and rises sensibly from it. It is here narrowed to 

 a sort of neck, then abruptly widens to a broad ovate disk, studded all round its margin 

 with stout sharp glittering teeth, fifteen or sixteen in number, all of which point inward 

 Avhen the valve is closed. 



The armed disk is abruptly bent backward, and a little to one side. It may not 

 inaptly be compared to an open hand, bent back upon the wrist of a naked arm, as far 



