PAPILIO Nireus. 



Generic Character. — See PI. 92. 



Specific Character. 



P. {Gr. Ecai/d.) Alls nigris, fascid comrnuni maculisque liridibus ; 

 post ids dentatis breviter caudatis ; his subtits fascid subargented, 

 7Hfirginali, iiervis divisd. Godart. 



P. (Gr. Ecaud.) Wings black, with spots and a common band of 

 green; posterior wings dentated , obsoletely tailed, beneath 

 with a silvery marginal band, divided by the nerves. 



P. Nireus. Fab. Si/s. Ent. 3. p. 36. Godart Ency. Meth. 9. I. p. 48. 

 Drmy 2. pi. 4. Jig. i. 2. Cramer, p. 187. A.B. (jnas.) pi. 378. 

 F. G. (fern.) 



1 HAVE figured this insect, principally because it will fully 

 illustrate the first section (a.) in the arrangement of this 

 beautiful family proposed at plate 92. The two divisions 

 there adopted, after the manner of Linnaeus, {Grccci et Tro- 

 jani) 1 am fully aware, are purely artificial ; but the facility 

 this distribution will give to the student, in searching after a 

 particular species, is so obvious, that it need hardly be 

 pointed out. 



1 have only had the opportunity of examining the indivi- 

 dual from which the figure was taken. It is a male, having 

 the anal valves rather lengthened and obtuse, with a small 

 hook between them, which projects from the last segment of 

 the abdomen. This circumstaace proves the error of Cramer, 

 in having mistaken the sexes of this species, both of which 

 he seems to have figured. That which I apprehend is the 

 female (Cramer, pi. 378, fig. F. G.) I have not myself seen. 

 The blue-green on the upper surface of the wings is very 

 resplendent and changeable, and the palpi and thorax beneath 

 are covered with numerous whitish spots. 



On the under side of the inferior wings, near their base, 

 is a paler band, rayed with the nerves, and in some lights 

 shining with a pale silvery reflection. 



JVIr.Smeathman sent this species from Sierra Leone, in 

 Africa, to Mr. Drury. The locality, therefore, of India, given 

 by Linnaeus and Fabricius, must be incorrect. 



PI. 123. 



