OF THE MALAYAN REGION. 35 



Catalogue of Malayan Papilionid^. 

 Ornithoptera (Boisd.). 



The characters in the larva and p2ipa which have been supposed to distinguish this 

 genus from Papilio are erroneous, or at least do not exist in all the species. My own 

 observations on 0. Foseidon show that the larva has no " external sheath " to the tho- 

 racic tentacles, and that the suspending thread passes round the pupa, and is not " fas- 

 tened on each side to a silky tubercle." There remain therefore only the characters of 

 the perfect insect, the most important of which are the anal valves in the male. These 

 are very large, ovate or rounded, coriaceous, and not hairy, and are furnished with pro- 

 jecting points or spines (sometimes very conspicuous) which serve Fig. i. 

 to attach the male more firmly to the female in copula. In 

 several species I have observed, these points or hooks were buried 

 in the protruded anal gland of the female, and thus effectually pre- 

 vented the great weight of the insects causing them to separate upon 

 suddenly taking flight. The great strength and size of these insects, 

 the thick texture of theii- wings, their long cur^d and stout an- Anai vaires of o. j«,;.;..m«s. 

 tennse, their peculiar form, coloiu% and distribution, are the only other characters that 

 separate them from Papilio. Though these may not perhaps be technically sufficient, I 

 think it advisable and convenient to retain a genus so well known and long established. 



Ornithoptera is pre-eminently a Malayan genus, seventeen species inhabiting the archi- 

 pelago, one {Hhaclamantlms, Bd.) India and China, one {Darsius, G. E. Gray) peculiar 

 to Ceylon, one {Bichmondia, G. B. Gray) North Australia. O. Victories, G, B. Gray, 

 from some island east of New Guinea, should probably be included in the Malayan list ; 

 and JEacus, Pelder, from an unknown locality. The following are the well-established 

 Malayan species. 



a. Friamus group. 



1. Ornithoptera Priamus, Linnaeus. 



6. Papilio Priamus, L. ; Cram. Pap. Ex. t. 23. f . A, B ; Godart, Enc. Meth. ix. p. 25. 0. Priamus, 



Bd. Sp. Gen. Lep. p. 173. 

 ? . P. Panthous, L.; Cram. Pap. Ex. t. 123. f. A, t. 124. f. A. 



This may be at once distinguished from all the allied species vnth. which it has been 

 often confounded — in the male, by the more rounded and deeply scalloped hind Avings, 

 with larger black spots and a broader border, the upper wings with no green on the 

 median nervui'e or its branches, and the sooty patch extending only to the second median 

 nervule ; in th.G female, by the very constant and peculiar light olive-brown colour, the 

 absence of any spots in the discoidal cell of the upper wings, and the broad shallow scal- 

 lops of the hinder margin. 



Hab. Amboyna and Ceram, probably also Bouru ( Wall.) . 



2. Ornithoptera Poseiiion, Doubleday. 



0. Poseidon, Db. Ann. of Nat. Hist. xvi. p. 173; Westwood, Cat. of Orient. Ent. pi. 11, 14. 



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