RHETUS  Cramerii. 
a a 
. GENERIC CHARACTER. 
Larva and Pupa unknown. 
Wings triangular; the posterior lengthened and rather acutely 
tailed. Antenne with the club linear-fuciform. Palpi cylindrical, 
elongate, porrect, incurved, remote, naked; the second joint re- 
markably long. Anterior feet in the male short and very hairy; 
in the female longer, naked, and furnished with minute claws. 
Wings, when at rest, horizontal. 
Types.—Pap. Rhetus. Periander.—( Cramer.) 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 
Wings black, with two white subhyaline bands, both sides alike ; 
posterior wings elongated, vivid blue, acutely tailed, with a 
transverse sub-lunular band at the anal angle. 
Papilio Rhetus. Cramer. pl. 63, f. c. 
Se 
Tuts is one of the rarest and most splendid lepidopterous 
insects of Brazil. We were once fortunate in capturing 
six specimens, fluttering over a shrub in the early morning 
sun, during our encampment in the Forest of Urupeé, in 
the Province of Bahia: but we never again met with this 
charming creature. 
The perfect insect has been figured in the costly, but 
truly valuable, work of Cramer; yet as neither the larva or 
pupa are known, we cannot determine on its natural group. 
Its relations, as suggested by the perfect insect, appear to 
be these. We consider the analogy between the groups 
respectively containing P. Podalirius, and Marius (Cr.), 
to be immediate and direct: the form of the last type, and 
much of its general structure, is seen in our insect ; but the 
details will not admit of a further similitude. Among the 
Ericine we again detect this form in P. Corineus and 
Dorylus (Cr.), and continuing the comparison, we see the 
antennx, palpi, and feet (in one sex) of Rhetus, accurately 
represented in those of P. imperialis (Cr.), among the 
Thecladx. We therefore suspect, that the real affinities of 
our insect lie between the two last groups: It seems 
moreover to have a strong analogy with Leilus. The upper 
figure is of the male, the under of the female. 
