296 Mr. Bet lull ic- Baker on Revision of the genus Tarucus. 



Tarucus thespis, L. 



Papilio fhespis, Linnaeus, Mus. Ind. Ner., p. 318, N. 136 

 (1761) ; id. Syst. Nat., p. 791, N. 236 (1767). 



This species is very close to T. boivkeri, but differs in 

 the following particulars. It is of a decidedly brighter 

 and clearer blue on the upperside, and has quite narrow 

 almost linear black borders, the fringes are longer and 

 more definitely tessellated ; it has not in the secondaries 

 a terminal row of spots as obtains in howkeri. On the 

 underside the predominant colour is brown, not whitish 

 as in Trimen's insect. The markings are similar, but 

 decidedly larger and the terminal row of spots, well marked 

 in howkeri, is lacking in thespis. In the primaries the fold 

 and inner marginal area is entirely brown, except for quite 

 a small whitish patch at the tornus ; the tail is little more 

 than a dentition in the fringe. 



The $ is almost entirely brown above in both wings 

 with no white areas, as in bowkeri, but with a slight, 

 restricted, basal blue suffusion, which, in the secondaries, 

 extends to the inner marginal area; a small white spot 

 edges exteriorly the spot closing the cell and has three 

 or sometimes two white spots beyond it. 



It occurs in Cape Colony, where it is widely distributed 

 over the eastern and western districts, and has also been 

 recorded from Natal. 



The genitalia are of the same type as bowkeri, the clasps being 

 large and long, but easily diflerentiated. The tegunien is distinctly 

 different; it is much smaller, with a very narrow apex, and very 

 much smaller and slenderer side lobes, whilst the falces are longer 

 and much more slender ; the aedoeagus originates of moderate size, 

 but very rapidly widens up to the zone, where it is suddenly excised 

 and tapers more gradually to a point, this front portion being half 

 as long again as the rear part. The vesica is a beautiful object, 

 its orifice being elegantly trumpet-shaped, and being very finely 

 shagreened all over; the virgae excitatae are absent, but the 

 tectorius is developed in a modified form, somewhat as in bowkeri. 



Explanation of Plates XIV-XX. 



[See ExplanalioH facing the Plates.] 



