BUTTERFLIES. 



587 



hind-wings. To the Pieridw belong our garden whites, clouded yellows, 

 orange tip, and brimstone butterflies, etc. The largest butterflies of this 

 family are the great East Indian orange tips of the genus Hebomoia, Hiibner. 

 They measure live or six inches across the wings, which are much shorter and 

 broader in proportion than in our common orange tip, Euchloe cardamines 

 (Linn.), which is one of the prettiest and most admired of our vernal insects. 

 The Equitidw, or swallow-tails, are a family of very handsome butterflies, 

 many of which possess the long tails to the hind-wings from whence they 

 derive their English name. Our only British species is the well-known swallow- 

 tail butterfly Eques ma- 

 c/iaon(Linn. ),at present 

 almost confined, with 

 us, to the fen districts 

 of Norfolk, though 

 formerly much more 

 abundant. It is black 

 and yellow, with a large 

 red spot on the lower 

 part of the hind- wings, 

 and measures about 

 four inches in expanse. 

 The green caterpillar, 

 with black spots and 

 bands, and a retractile 

 fork on the neck, feeds 

 on fennel, carrot, and 

 other umbelliferous 

 plants. We have fig- 

 ured an allied species, 

 Equesalexanor(EspQr.\ 

 distinguished by the 

 continuous black band near the base of the wings, which is found in the 

 mountains of South Europe. To this family belong the great bird- winged 

 butterflies, Ornithoptera (Boisd.), of the East Indies and the Eastern Archi- 

 pelago. They share, with the Morphiuce, the distinction of being among the 

 largest butterflies in the world, measuring from three to nine or ten inches 

 in expanse ; but usually about six or seven. They are long-winged butter- 

 flies, with black fore-wings and yellow hind- wings ; or with large green, blue, 

 or orange longitudinal bands on the dark fore-wings, and the hind-wings 

 mostly of the colour of the bands. The larvae are covered with rather long 

 and thick fleshy spines, but have always the retractile fork on the neck, which 

 is one of the most characteristic marks of the Equitidce. Another interest- 

 ing genus is Parnassius (Latr.). These are satiny- white butterflies, slightly 

 transparent towards the edges, with black spots, and generally also round 

 red spots, more or less centred with white, on the hind-wings, at least. They 

 are mountain butterflies, and are most numerous in Central Asia ; though 

 three species inhabit the Swiss Alps, the commonest being Parnassius apollo 

 (Linn.), which must be well known to everyone who has ever collected butter- 

 flies in Switzerland. These might easily be mistaken for Pieridcz, but that the 

 inner margin of the hind-wings is not gutter-shaped, as it generally is in the 

 Pieridre, and the internal nervure, which is very conspicuous in the Pieridce, 

 is wholly absent in all the Equitidce. 



Fig. 71. SWALLOW-TAIL (Eques alexanor). Nat. size. 



