THE SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLIES 



By Austin H. Clark 

 United States National Museum 



[With 14 plates] 

 INTRODUCTION 



Most generally familiar of all the various types of butterflies to 

 those who live in the tropical and temperate legions of the world are 

 the so-called " swallowtails." In very many places they are the most 

 conspicuous of all the insects — indeed the most conspicuous of all the 

 forms of animal life except the birds. 



Alfred Kussell Wallace wrote that the swallowtails occur in the 

 greatest profusion in South America, northern India, and the Malay 

 islands, and here they actually become a not unimportant feature 

 in the scenery. Particularly in the Malay islands the giants of the 

 group, the great " bird-wings " or ornithopteras, may frequently be 

 seen about the borders of the cultivated and the forest districts, where 

 their large size, stately flight, and gorgeous coloring render them 

 even more conspicuous than the generality of birds. 



Sir Joseph Hooker, in his Himalayan journals, says of the swal- 

 lowtails in India : 



By far the most striking feature consisted in the amazing quantity of 

 superb butterflies, large tropical swallowtails, black, with scarlet or yellow on 

 their wings. They were seen everywhere sailing majestically through the still 

 hot air, or fluttering from one scorching rock to another, and especially loving 

 to settle on the damp sand of the river edge ; where they sat by thousands, with 

 erect wings, balancing themselves with a rocking motion as their heavy sails 

 inclined themselves to one side or the other, resembling a crowded fleet of 

 yachts on a calm day. 



Nearly all the swallowtails are large, and not a few are very 

 large — in fact, the largest of all the butterflies are members of this 

 group. Most of them are marked with strongly contrasting col- 

 ors — black or dark brown with white, red, yellow, blue, or green, 

 or two or more of these in combination — and many have iridescent 

 or metallic spots, or patches of metallic scales. Some have the 

 upper surface of the wings largely, or even almost wholly vividly 



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