32{; RHOPALOCERA MALAYAN A. 



peculiar form, coloiu- and distribution " ; l)ut these alone can only be considered as of subgeneric 



value. 



Ornithoptcru is not an extensive genus, and the difficulty of estimating the number of its 

 species is enhanced by the divergent views held by different entomologists as to whether many 

 of its members should be considered as species or varieties.* Taking the analytical view, and 

 looking at all the distinct forms as species, we find that these are between thirty and forty in 

 number, and are truly Eastern, or rather almost Malayan, in distribution. Omithoptera is 

 found in Continental India, Ceylon, the Andaman Islands, Burma, the Malay Peninsula, 

 throughout the length and breadth of the Malayan Ai-chipelago, — as far east as the Duke of 

 York Island and New Ireland, — and in Australia. 



There are several distinct colour types in the genus, of which the yellow and black, 

 dominant in this fauna, is confined to the Indo-Malayan region, whilst 0. hrookeana still forms 

 a section by itself, f 



A. Ontrr mm-ijiii of antinor wimjs more or less concarelij sinuate. 

 a. E.rtri'iiic hiixra nf ivifii/^ IxiirdHi fringrd with carmine. 



1. Ornithoptera rhadamanthus. (Tab. XXVII. «, fig. 5 <? , small var.) 



< hnitliopta-ii Hhiiiliiiitiintlius, liciisiluval (part), Sp. Gen. i. p. 180, n. 8 (1836); Gosse, Traus. Liuu. Soc. ser. 2, 



Zool. vol. ii. p. 289 (1882). 

 Papilio [Oniithiptcra) rluidamantlim, cle Nicev. J. A. S. Beng. vol. lii. p. 98, n. 255 (1883). 

 < h-iiithoiitem niuKlanianthii.i, var. Tlmmxiinii, Bates, Thompson's Straits of Malacca, p. 516 (1875). 



Male. Anterior wings sooty black, the nervules more or less broadly margined with greyish, fringe 

 alternately greyish and black ; posterior wings bright and pale golden yellow, the neuratiou, costal margin 

 (broadest at base), abdominal margin, and outer margin (inwardly scalloj)ed, and with the last three 

 scalloped spots divided Ijy the median nervules inwardly margined with powdery fuscous) black. Wings 

 beneath as above, but anterior wings with the greyish markings more distinct than above, and tinged with 

 yellowish towards inner margin ; posterior wings with the powdery fuscous near anal angle much less 

 distinct than above, and with two contiguous black spots above anal angle ; extreme bases of both wings 

 beneath edged with carmine. Head and pronotum black, the last with a narrow anterior carmine collar ; 

 abdomen above fuscous, with the segmental incisures ochraceous and the anal valves greyish ; thorax 

 beneath and legs black ; abdomen beneath yellow. 



'■'■'■ Prof. Westwood has made some true observations ou this point: — "Another difficulty, imkuowu to the older 



writers has arisen ii'om the exploration of numerous adjacent localities, which, whilst it has added greatly to our 



knowledge of new and quite distinct species, has also shown that the wide geographical range of a species is often attended 

 with the development of slightly modified races, which have l.)y some writers been indifferently regarded as distinct species, 

 or have been sunk to the rank of local varieties. Thus, of the gigantic types of the diurnal Lepidoptera, which, from their size, 

 have been well named OrniiJiopterus, and which are natives of the East, we find the single species Papilio Priamus, in 

 Mr. Kirby's Catalogue, made to comprise not fewer than seventeen of these local forms. These have been specifically named 

 and regarded by others as distinct species" (Trans. Linn. Soc. ser. 2, Zool. vol. i. p. 150). 



+ Amongst the most beautiful of the species may be raentioned the 0. urviUiana, described by Gucrin-Meueville, m 1829, 

 from specimens obtained in New Ireland during the voyage of the ' Coquiile,' and of wliich nothing more was known tiU 

 1877, when specmiens were sent home fi-om that island by the Bev. G. Brown. The male in this species is of a lovely blue 

 colour. Another splendid species is the 0. croesus, discovered by Mr. Wallace in the island of Batchian, and described by that 

 naturalist, the males of which are " velvety black and fiery orange." Mr. Wallace describes the excitement under which he 

 first captured this entomological prize : — " On taking it out of my net, and opening the glorious wings, my heart began to beat 

 violently, the blood rushed to my head, and I felt much more like fainting than 1 have done when m ajipreheusion of 

 immediate death" ('The Malay Ai-cliipel:igo, 3rd ed. p. oo6j. These are the sensations of the searchers for "hid treasures" in 

 Palestine, and Dr. Thompson tells us that he has "heard of diggers actually faintuig when they have come upon even a single 

 coin" ('The Land and the Book,' p. 135). 



