OF THE MALAYAN REGION. 3 



Edward Doubleday, in his ' Genera of Diurnal Lepidoptera,' says, " The Papilionidse 

 may be known by the apparently four-branched median nervule and the spur on the 

 anterior tibiae, characters found in no other family." The four-branched median nervule 

 is a character so constant, so peculiar, and so well marked, as to enable a person to tell, 

 at a glance at the wings only of a butterfly, whether it does or does not belong to this 

 family ; and I am not aware that any other group of Butterflies, at all comparable to this 

 in extent and modifications of form, possesses a character in its neuration to which the 

 same degree of certainty can be attached. The spur on the anterior tibiae is also found 

 in some of the Hesperidae, and is therefore supposed to show a direct afiinity between the 

 two groups ; but I do not imagine it can counterbalance the differences in neuration and 

 in every other part of their organization. The most characteristic feature of the Papi- 

 lionidae, however, and that on which I think insufiicient stress has been laid, is undoubt- 

 edly the peculiar structure of the larvae. These all possess an extraox-dinary organ 

 situated on the neck, the well-known Y-shaped tentacle, which is entirely concealed in a 

 state of repose, but which is capable of being suddenly thrown out by the insect when 

 alarmed. When we consider this singular apparatus, which in some species is nearly 

 half an inch long, the arrangement of muscles for its protrusion and retraction, its per- 

 fect concealment during repose, its blood-red colour, and the suddenness with which it 

 can be thrown out, we must, I think, be led to the conclusion that it serves as a protec- 

 tion to the larva by startling and frightening away some enemy when about to seize 

 it, and is thus one of the causes which has led to the wide extension and maintained 

 the permanence of this now dominant group. Those who believe that such peculiar 

 structures can only have arisen by very minute successive variations, each one advan- 

 tageous to its possessor, must see, in the possession of such an organ by one group, and 

 its complete absence in every other, a proof of a very ancient origin and of very long- 

 continued modification. And such a positive structural addition to the organization of 

 the family, subserving an important function, seems to me alone sufiicient to warrant us 

 in considering the Papilionidae as the most highly developed portion of the whole order, 

 and thus in retaining it in the position which the size, strength, beauty, and general 

 structure of the perfect insects have been generally thought to deserve. 



The Papilionidae are pretty widely distributed over the earth, but are especially abun- 

 dant in the tropics, where they attain their maximum of size and beauty and the greatest 

 variety of form and colouring. South America, North India, and the Malay Islands are 

 the regions where these fine insects occur in the greatest profusion, and where they 

 actually become a not unimportant feature in the scenery. In the Malay Islands in par- 

 ticular the giant Ornithopterae may be frequently seen about the borders of the cultivated 

 and forest districts, their large size, stately flight, and gorgeous colouring rendering them 

 even more conspicuous than the generality of birds. In the shady suburbs of the town 

 of Malacca two large and handsome Papilios {Memnon and Nephelus) are not uncommon, 

 flapping with irregular flight along the roadway, or, in the early morning, expanding 

 their wings to the invigorating rays of the sun. In Amboyna and other towns of the 

 Moluccas, the magnificent Deiphobus and Severus, and occasionally even the azure-winged 

 Ulysses, frequent similar situations, fluttering about the orange-trees and flower-beds, or 



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