196 SOUTH- AFKICAX BUTTERFLIES. 



slender, — first pair, at about middle of tlieir inner edge, with a stout 

 (often acuminate) process ; tarsi very long (especially first joint), con- 

 siderably longer than tibite, densely spinulose beneath, — the claws 

 large, rather straight, simple. 



AMomcn rather stout, of moderate length or rather long, thickened 

 posteriorly ; anal plates in $ usually large and conspicuous. 



Laeva. — Eather thick, often more or less swollen on third thoracic 

 seo-ment, and thence abruptly attenuated to head ; usually smooth, but 

 in some "roups armed with numerous curved fleshy tubercular pro- 

 cesses ; head small, smooth ; penultimate segment often more or less 

 bifid dorsally into small acute prominences ; exsertile Y-shaped ten- 

 tacle on back of first thoracic segment usually rather long; thoracic 

 segments sometimes each with a pair of short filamentous processes 

 superiorly and laterally. 



PurA. — Very variable in form ; rarely almost straight, usually 

 with abdomen more or less curved, and thorax and head more or less 

 bent backward. Head usually bifid (often very deeply), sometimes 

 truncate, round, and blunted. Dorso-thoracic prominence sometimes 

 produced into a forward-pointing process. Abdomen often dorsally 

 armed with tubercles, which are sometimes developed into conspicuous 

 processes. 



For number, diversity, and beauty of its species, the great genus 

 Papilio, even if we withdraw from it the magnificent and barely 

 separable group Ornithoj^teru, stands unrivalled. So conspicuous and 

 prominent a feature are its members in the butterfly life of the tropics 

 and adjacent latitudes, that they have been for considerably more than 

 a century more extensively collected and better known generally than 

 any others of their tribe. Though modern investigations have shown 

 that structurally their affinity to the Heterocera prevents their any 

 lono-er being regarded as the highest or most specialised butterflies, 

 they stood for so long at the head of the Order, that they have 

 received more study and examination than any other Lepidoptera. 



After comparing the catalogues published by Boisduval (1836), 

 Doubleday (1847), G. R Gray (1852 and 1856), C. and R. Felder 

 (1864), Kirby (1871 and 1877), and C. Obertlmr (1879), I think 

 that the species of Fajnlio may fairly be held to exceed four hundred 

 in number. Notwithstanding their very great diversity in outline, 

 colouring, and pattern, the generic characters throughout this large 

 assemblage offer but little modification ; and I agree with the great 

 majority of lepidopterists that it is impossible to break up Papilio 

 into satisfactory genera. At the same time, as remarked by Mr. 

 Distant {PJiop. McJay., p. 323), the genus is readily divisible 

 into well-marked groups ; and Loisduval, the Folders,^ and Wal- 



1 Ad. C. li. Soc. Zool.-Bot. Vindoh., xiv. (1S64). This is the most elaborate of the 

 published investigations of the structural characters ; but it is, in my opinion, carried into 

 a minute analysis more refined than natural. There are no fewer than seventy-five sections 



