32 MR. A. R. WALLACE ON THE PAPILIONID^ 



of the oldest parts of the archipelago, that it has been formerly more completely isolated 

 both from India and from Australia than it is now, and that, amid all the mutations it 

 has undergone, a relic or substratum of the fauna and flora of some more ancient land 

 has been here preserved to us. 



It is only since my return home, and since I have been able to compare the productions 

 of Celebes side by side with those of the surrounding islands, that I have been fully im- 

 pressed with their peculiarity, and the great interest that attaches to th^m. The plants 

 and the reptiles are still almost unknown ; and it is to be hoped that some enterprising 

 naturalist may soon devote himself to their study. The geology of the country would 

 also be well worth exploring, and its recent fossils would be of especial interest as elu- 

 cidating the changes which have led to its present anomalous condition. This island 

 stands, as it were, upon the boundary -Hne between two worlds. On one side is that 

 ancient Australian fauna which preserves to the present day the facies of an early geolo- 

 gical epoch ; on the other is the rich and varied fauna of Asia, which seems to contain, 

 in every class and order, the most perfect and highly organized animals. Celebes has 

 relations to both, yet strictly belongs to neither ; it possesses characteristics which are 

 altogether its own ; and I am convinced that no single island upon the globe would so 

 weU repay a careful and detailed research into its past and present history. 



In the following catalogue of the Malayan species of Papilionidse I have included those 

 from Woodlark Island, collected by M. Montx'ouzier, as that island comes fairly within 

 the limits of the archipelago ; while I exclude New Caledonia as belonging more to the 

 Australian and Pacific fauna. I have given full particulars of the variation of the 

 several species, and have described all new species, forms, varieties, and undescribed 

 sexes. The distribution of each species is noted chiefly from my own observations*. As 

 the fuU synonymy and references to almost every work on Lepidoptera are given in the 

 British Museum List of Papilionidse, I have not thought it necessary to do more than 

 to refer to a good figure and description in well-known works ; and I have quoted Bois- 

 duval's ' Species General des Lepidoptferes ' throughout. In all cases, however, where I 

 have myself corrected the synonymy, or determined sexes which had been before im- 

 properly located, I have given much fuller references. 



I have found it necessary to describe and name twenty new species, and to separate 

 six or seven more which have been hitherto considered as varieties or sexes of other 

 species. I have also described and separated twenty-five local forms or races, and 

 twenty polymorphous forms or sexes, as well as several simple varieties. On the other 

 hand, I have reduced fourteen species, which figure in some of our latest lists, to the 

 rank of sexes or local or polymorphic forms of other species. For convenience of reference, 

 I add a list of these, with a reference to the page where will be found the reasons for 

 not adopting them. 



Ornithoptcra Pronomus, G. R. Gray, = 0. Poseidon, Db. (var.), p. 36. 

 Ornithoptera Archideus, G. R. Gray, = 0. Poseidon, Db. (var.), p. 36. 

 Ornithoptera Euphorion, G. R. Gray, = 0. Poseidon, Db. (? var.), p. 36. 

 Ornithoptera Amphimedon, Cr., =0. Helena, L. S, p. 38. 



Papilio Ilegemon, G. R. Gray, =P. Polyphontes, Bd., p. 43. 

 * Species collected by myself have (Wall.) after the locaUties where I have found them. 



