Family I. PAPILIONID^E. 



Antennae gradually clavate ; the club elongate, mostly more or less arched, sometimes slightly 



tapering towards the aj>ex. 

 Wings ample, the discoidal cells always closed ; the anterior wings mostly subtriangular, rarely falcate 



or rounded ; the lower discoidal nervule united to the third median, so as to appear to be a fourth 



median nervule ; the abdominal margin of the posterior wings excised, never forming a channel for 



the reception of the abdomen. 

 Legs all perfect. Anterior Tibia? with a stout spur about the middle ; the posterior tibia? with two 



spurs at the apex. Claws all simple*, without any pulvilli or other appendages. 



Larva stout, subcylindric ; the prothoracic segment furnished with two retractile tentacula. 

 Pupa braced, sometimes subfolliculate ; with the head bifid, square, subtruncate, or rounded, 

 never pointed. 



The Papilionidas may always be known by the apparently four-branched median nervule, and the spur on the anterior 

 tibia;, characters found in no other family. 



The simple claws have been often given as another character separating them from the next family, the Pieridse ; but 

 this character is not constant, though as yet we only know of one exception to it. This is in the genus Leptocircus, 

 consisting of only two species, so closely allied, that for many years they have been confounded together ; yet one has 

 the claws simple, the other deeply bifid. 



The typical genera mostly have the anterior wings subtriangular, but in Parnassius they approach the more rounded 

 form common in the next family. The posterior wings have the abdominal margin excised, often in the males folded 

 back upon the wing, the inside of this fold sometimes lined with a cottony substance ; this margin is never produced 

 under the abdomen, so as to form a cavity for its reception. 



The Larva? are furnished with two retractile tentacula on the prothoracic segment, which are extended when the 

 animal is irritated, and then exhale an aromatic, but mostly disagreeable, odour. 



The Pupa is braced or subfolliculate, varying much in form, but never having the head pointed, as in the next 

 family. 



The Papilionidse are closely allied, by means of Parnassius, to the Pieridse, and are generally considered to have some 

 affinity to the Hesperida?. The long palpi of Teinopalpus would suggest an affinity to the Nymphalidas, but there are 

 no other characters to connect them. 



Of the eight genera which compose this family, six seem confined to the Old World, and a seventh as yet is only 

 known to have one American species. Teinopalpus, Ornithoptera, and Leptocircus are purely Asiatic ; Eurycus is 

 Australian ; Thais and Doritis belong to what may be termed the Mediterranean fauna ; Parnassius is found in the 

 mountains of Europe, Asia, and America ; Papilio in every country between the arctic and antarctic circles, unless it 

 be the islands of the Pacific Ocean. 



* Except in Leptocircus Curius. 

 November, 1846. 



