119 



GENUS XVI. APATUKA. 



Fabricius. 



APA'TURA, a surname of Yenus, which she obtained from a trick she played 

 on some giants. Strabo. xi. 757. 



This is a genus of about some forty species, most of which are remarkable 

 for the splendid blue, or rather purple, gloss on the wings of the male. The 

 greatest number of species are South American, but some are found in Asia 

 and in the Malay Archipelago. Only two occur in Europe, and but one in 

 England. The tropical species rarely surpass our own either in size or 

 beauty, and are often much inferior to it in both respects. One other of the 

 family, Charaxes jasius, occurs in the South of Europe. The caterpillar 

 differs from that of Apatura, by having four horns on the head instead of 

 two ; and the hind-wings of the butterfly are furnished with two rather long 

 tails. 



The body and antennae of Apatura are thick, the eyes smooth, and the 

 hind-margin of the fore- wings concave. 



APATUEA IRIS. 

 Purple Emperor. 



IRIS, Linn. I'ris, the Eainbow, personified in Greek Mythology, into the 

 messenger of Juno, a young woman dressed in a robe of many colours, so 

 admirably beautiful that she has been justly called the daughter of Thaomas, 

 a poetical personage, whose name is derived from a Greek word that imports 

 to admire, and what is more admirable than that Bow, which is formed by 

 drops of water in a cloud opposite to the sun. 



The male butterfly above has that splendid glow of changing purple, which 

 gives him his name of the Purple Emperor. Both sexes are of a blackish- 

 brown on the upperside, and have a white band commencing at the middle of 

 the fore-wings, and crossing the hind-wings, at the inner margin. There is 

 also a curved row of white spots from the costa of the fore- wing to the anal 

 angle, and three smaller ones near the tip. Both wings have a few paler 

 mottlings, especially at the hind-margin, where they form a narrow irregular 

 band. There is a black eye-like spot in an orange ring near the anal angle 

 of the hind-wings. The underside is varied with different shades of grey, 

 brown, black, and tawny, the white markings the same as on the upperside ; 

 near the hinder angle of each wing is a black eye-like spot with a large blue 

 pupil in a tawny ring. The width across the wings varies from two inches 

 in the male, to three and a quarter inches in the female. This species varies 



