1878.] 7 



So far as I am aware, the above are the ouly specimens known to 

 exist in any collection. "With the exception of Drury's type and Mr. 

 Henley G-rose Smith's specimen, I have examined them all carefully. 

 Those in the collections of Messrs. Ward, Hewitson, Chapman, and 

 Horniman are all males ; and, judging by Donovan's figure, made from 

 Drury's type, and from the description given to me of Mr. Smith's 

 specimen, I have no hesitation in concluding they belong to the same 

 sex. Whether the female, as in so many of the African Bhopalocera, 

 differs from the male, either in form or colour, or, like its allied species 

 P. Zalmoxis, is in all respects similar to the male, is at present matter 

 for conjecture, and we must wait patiently for some fortunate capture 

 before we can speak with certainty regarding it. 



Prom the measurements I have given, it will be seen that the 

 species varies greatly in size. The differently shaped markings and 

 spots on the wings are also subject to considerable variation. 



In their " Species Lepidoptei'orum hucusque descriptfe," C. & E. 

 Telder place P. Antimachus beside P. Ridley anus, with which they con- 

 sider it has a true affinity. An exhaustive examination of both has 

 failed to convince me that they have any affinity which is based upon 

 structure. They have, it is true, a general resemblance to each other 

 in coloration and markings on the wings and bodies, but the antennae 

 of the two species are totally different. In P. Ridley anus, and, indeed, 

 in almost every one of the species of the group to which it has hitherto 

 been referred, viz., group 15 of Boisduval, the antennae are short and 

 suddenly clavate, almost rounded at the points ; whereas those of P. 

 Antimachus are long, thicken gradually, and terminate abruptly. If 

 this species has any close ally, I believe it to be P. Zalmoxis, which, 

 though so different in colour, varies but slightly iu the shape of the 

 wings, and is possessed of exactly tbe same kind of anteunge. There 

 appears to me to be good reason for concluding at present, and until 

 we have further knowledge upon the subject, that these two species 

 represent a transition group between the Ornitliopterce and the true 

 Ra/piliones. 



Of the habits of P. Antimachus nothing is known beyond what is 

 recorded by Drury, as communicated to him by Smeathmau. From 

 his account we gather that it is seen only at mid-day, and flies very 

 rapidly, frequenting only the upper branches of the trees, from whence 

 it darts and glances from one branch to another, sometimes settling 

 upon the lower branches, but never descending nearer to the ground 

 than the height of eight feet. In curious connection with this ac- 

 count of the habits of P. Antimachus, there occurs a passage in a letter 



