
f 507 j 
XV. Observations on the Uraniide, a Family of Lepidopterous Insects, with a Synopsis 
of the Family and « Monograph of Coronidia, one of the Genera of which it is 
composed. By J. O. Wustwoop, M.A., F.LS., &e. 
(Piates LXXXV.-LX XXVIII.) 
Received March 18th, read April 16th, 1878. 
IT is now more than forty years ago since there appeared in the Transactions of this 
Society a memoir by Mr. W. S. MacLeay, and a notice in the ‘ Annales’ of the French 
Entomological Society by M. Boisduval, in which were first made known the trans- 
formations of two of the most splendid of Lepidopterous insects. These insects had, 
up to that time, been regarded by most writers as butterflies, but were proved, by the 
details then made known, to belong to the Heterocerous division of the order, although 
their day-flying habits, and the extraordinary brilliancy of their colours, had naturally 
led to their having been considered as belonging to the Rhopalocera or true butterflies. 
M. Boisduval has well described one of these insects as ‘‘ce magnifique Lépidopteére, 
le plus beau de la création.” Hence, as well as in consequence of the singular manner 
in which systematic writers on the order have treated the position of the different 
members of the group to which these brilliant insects belong, and their interesting 
metamorphoses, it will not be considered irrelevant to the special subject of this me- 
moir to enter into some details upon the subject, more especially as some very difficult 
questions as to the rules of nomenclature are involved in the inquiry. 
Amongst the species of his great genus Papilio, containing the whole of the day- 
flying Lepidoptera, Linnzus introduced Papilio leilus, P. orontes, P. patroclus, and P. 
lunus, to which were added in the last century Papilio rhipheus by Drury, and P. 
sloanus and P. empedocles by Cramer. Another species belonging to this group was 
added by Cramer, but regarded by him as a moth, under the name of Phalena orithea. 
In 1807 there appeared in the sixth volume of IIliger’s Magazine a posthumous 
sketch of the proposed division of the Lepidoptera into genera by Fabricius, who had 
previous to his death published his separate works on the Coleoptera (Hleutherata, 
F.), Hymenoptera (Piezata, F.), Diptera (Antliata, ¥.), and Hemiptera (Rhyngota, F.), 
in which each of these orders of insects had been cut up into very numerous genera. 
In this sketch of the Lepidoptera’ Fabricius placed at the head of the order (followed 
by the other numerous genera of butterflies) his new genus Urania, shortly charac- 
1 Mr. J. G. Children published an English abstract of the proposed system of Fabricius in the ‘ Philosophical 
Magazine and Annals’ for February 1830. 
Vou. X.—ParT xl. No. 1.—Jume 1st, 1879. 44 
