LEPIDOPTERA. 



87 



admiral (L. Camilla), its wings being brown with a row of lunate orange marks 

 near the hinder margin of the lower wings. The arrangement of the white bars 

 on the upper wings is the same as that of the British form, but these are almost 

 obliterated in the male sex. The under side is of a beautiful orange-yellow colour, 

 broken with white, and elsewhere suffused with various shades of purplish and 

 bluish grey. 



Closely allied to the admirals are the mango-butterflies (Euthalia), which are 

 almost entirely confined to India, the Malay Peninsula, and the adjacent islands. 

 They measure from 2 to 4 inches across the wings, and the larvae feed on the 

 leaves of the mango. An illustration of the black mango-butterfly (Eu. lubentina) 

 will be found on the coloured Plate, No. 2 from the top right corner. The 

 emperors (Apatura) are widely distributed over the world, except in Africa. Two 

 species alone are found in Europe, and these are much more brilliant insects than 

 the majority of the temperate species. The caterpillars are not hairy, but smooth, 

 and bear a pair of horns on the 

 head, as also does the chrysalis. 

 In Britain the purple emperor 

 (A. iris) is confined to the 

 southern counties of England. 

 Its strong purple -shot, white- 

 banded wings, 3 inches in expanse, 

 carry it with a grand sweeping 

 flight far above the highest oak- 

 trees, whence it descends, alas 

 for imperial predilection, to a 

 savoury banquet of putrid flesh, 

 set out in some suitable locality. 

 The caterpillar feeds upon the 

 sallow, and the perfect insect 

 appears in July. 



Passing over many genera, 

 containing some of the loveliest 

 foreign forms, we reach the sub- 

 family Morphinai, in which the 

 caterpillars are remarkable for 

 their bifurcate tail and notched 

 or bifid head. The species of the 

 typical genus are giant butter- 

 flies of almost every hue, the 

 most conspicuous being of a 



dazzling metallic sky-blue. Their long, satiny wings bear them aloft far out of 

 the reach of the collector's net. In the annexed illustration is figured, from the 

 under side, the resplendent ptolemy {Morplio neoptolemus). The upper side is 

 rich black brown, with broad transverse blue bands, shot with delicate lilac across 

 both wings. A pair of white spots are conspicuous on the tip of the fore-wing. 



We have now to briefly notice a number of much less brightly coloured 



RESPLENDENT PTOLEMY (nat. size). 



