174 



MORPHO HELENOR. 



PLATE XXI. 



Godart Pap. Helenor, Cramer, PI. 86, fig. A, B ; Herbst. 



Pap. PI. 26, fig. 1,2-, Esper. Papillon's Exotiques, PI. 42, 

 fig. 2. 



This affords an example of that section of the genus 

 in which the upper wings are more or less concave 

 on the outer margin, and the inferior pair without 

 any prolongation behind. They are almost exclu- 

 sively South American. M . Helenor expands from 

 four to five inches ; surface black, with a broad band 

 of silvery blue or violet blue, extending from the 

 middle of the anterior margin to the anal extremity ; 

 sometimes rather narrow and well defined on the 

 inner edge, at other times enlarged to within a short 

 distance of the base of the wings ; at the anterior 

 extremity of this band, on the costa, there is an 

 oblique white patch, and beyond it, on the upper 

 wings, a single row of small white spots in the male, 

 and two in the female. The secondary wings have 

 an indistinct row of red crescents near the hinder 

 margin, and the sinuosities in all the wings are 

 white. The colour beneath is dark brown, the upper 

 wings with three large ocelli having a white pupil 

 surrounded with ferruginous and violet, the iris yel- 



