I88S.] MR. O. SALVIN ON ORNITHOPrERA VICTORIvE. 1 17 



collection from the Solomon Islands, made almost exclusively in the 

 island of Guadalcanar. In it are examples of both sexes of an Orni- 

 thoptera closely aUied to the Maleita insect ; but on comparison we 

 find that the males differ in several points, so much so that we con- 

 sidered it desirable that the Maleita and Guadalcanar forms should 

 bear different names. The differences are not great, it is true ; but 

 that there should be any is only in conformity with what we find in 

 a very considerable number of other species of Butterflies, all of 

 which go to pro^e that the productions of Guadalcanar and Maleita 

 are, to a large extent, modifications of one another. These differ- 

 ences I have pointed out below. 



The females from eaoh island hardly differ appreciably from one 

 another, though the submarginal sy)ots of botb wings are perhaps 

 larger in the Maleita form ; it therefore becomes an important ques- 

 tion where the typical female was obtained. Mr. Gray gave us little 

 help upon this point, stating that it came from one of the islands of 

 the South Pacific, mentioning the Solomon Islands as one of the 

 places where it might have been taken. John Macgillivray was the 

 naturalist who failed in H.M.SS. 'Rattlesnake' and ' Herald,' and it 

 was by him that the type was sent to the British Museum. 



The ' Rattlesnake ' did not visit the Solomon Islands, but the 

 ' Herald,' cortmianded by Capt. Denham, was there in 1854-5.5. 

 Through the kindness of Capt. Wharton, the Hydrographer to the 

 Admiralty, I have had an op;tortunity of seeing the chart prepared 

 by Capt. Denham on which the route of the 'Herald' is laid down. 

 From this it appears that the ship touched at Wanderer Bay on the 

 south coast of Guadalcanar, and at Makira on the south coast of 

 San Cristoval, and that she never approached Maleita at all. 

 Now, so far as we know, ro species of Ornithoptera, not even tlie 

 wide-ranging O. urvilliana, occurs on San Cristoval ; hence it 

 becomes practically certain that Macsillivray obtained the tvpe of 

 O. victories at Wanderer Bay, Guadalcanar. 



It thus follows that the males now brought us from Aola, on the 

 north side of this island, are males of the true O. victoria, and that 

 the Maleita form is the one requiring another name. 



The two forms may he described as follows : — 



1. Ornithoptera regin.b, sp. n. 



Ornithoptera victoriee, Salv. & Godm. P. Z. S. 1887, p. 190 

 (bt March), d ; H. G. Smith, Ann. & Mag. N. H. 1887, xix. 

 p. 445, S ; id. Rhop. Ex. Ornithopt. pi. i. c? $ (nee G. R. Gray). 



c? . Wings deep black ; base of the primaries, except the costa, 

 with a large patch of golden green, the outer margin of which is irre- 

 gular and ill defined and reaches to within a quarter of an inch of the 

 end of the cell ; towards the apex is a large subtriangular golden 

 patch ; parallel to the inner margin and near the anal angle is an 

 elongated stigma similar to that of O. prinmus and its allies. Tiie 

 secondaries, almost from the costal margin to bevond the cell, are 

 rich golden green, the distal part of the cell beingblack, though the 

 nervures closing it are green. There are also three contiguous 



