190 MR. SALVIN ON ORNITHOPTERA VICTORIA. [Mar. 1, 



Mr. Salvin, on behalf of Mr. F. D. Godman, exhibited a pair of 

 Ornithoptera victoria;, the male of which had been hitherto unde- 

 scribed. These specimens had been obtained at the end of May 

 1886. by Mr. C. M. Woodford, at North-West Bay, Maleita Island, 

 one of the Solomon group. The female had been known many 

 years, having been described by the late G. R. Gray from a specimen 

 obtained by John MacGillivray, but the locality where it was captured 

 was not recorded. The hind wings of the female were more produced 

 than is usual in this section of Ornithoptera ; and this had led to the 

 suggestion that O. victorice might prove to be the female of 

 O. tithonus, de Haan ; but tlie description which follows this note 

 shows that 0. tithonus differs widely from 0. victorice, not only in 

 colour but also in several remarkable points of structure. The cell 

 of the primaries was very peculiarly formed, being very wide towards 

 its distal end, the middle and upper discocellular nervures being very 

 long ; the lower discocellular was also long, but was ranged in line 

 with the sections of the median as in true Papilio ; the second and 

 third sections of the median, especially the latter, were very short, 

 so that the short median branches and the median itself beyond the 

 cell lay very close together. The cell of the secondaries was very 

 long and narrow, though normal in the female. 



Mr. Salvin read the following description of the male insect : — 



The wings are deep black ; tlie primaries, except the costa, have 

 a large patch of golden green, the outer margin of which is irregular 

 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. priamus and its allies. The secon- 

 daries, almost from the costal margin to beyond the cell, are rich 

 golden green, the distal part of the cell being black, though the 

 nervures closing it are green. There are also three contiguous 

 submarginal golden-green spots, whereof the two nearest the anal 

 angle have a large central patch of golden yellow. Beneath, the 

 wings are shining golden green, with the nervures, margins, a large 

 subtriangular patch over the end of the cell of the primaries, a 

 series of submarginal spots at the end of each secondary nervure, 

 and two lunate spots on either side of the lower radial of the prim- 

 aries black. 



The antennae and prothorax are black ; the abdomen ochraceous 

 grey, with a double row of spots on either side and a ventral median 

 line black. 



The primaries are narrow, with hardly any perceptible anal angle, 

 the outer and inner margins meeting in a continuous regular curve. 

 The secondaries are elongated and narrow, and the inner margiu 

 deeply incised ; the elongated hairs of the inner margin are pale 

 yellow. 



Mr. Godman also sent a specimen of a male Ornithoptera 

 tithonus from the island of Waigiou for comparison ; and it was at 

 once obvious how very distinct this species and O. victorice were. 



Mr. Woodford, who captured these specimens, had made a large 



