742 JOlHyAL, BOMBAY XATUJRAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXL 



Besides the question of distribution there is also a question of the 

 affinities of the foodplant, Chloroxi/lon. It has been stated that 

 tlie larvfe of the genus Papilio in India or, to narrow the 

 ■question down further, of the genus as composed of the groups of 

 Papilio mentioned in these papers more particularly, feed upon 

 plants belonging to certain well-defined botanical families, each 

 group being absolutely limited to one family in particular. These 

 families are Anonacece, Biotacetv, Aristolochiacece , Lauracece, all with 

 aromotic leaves which make it easy enough as a rule to place them 

 where they botanically belong. The Satin-wood is generallj^ placed 

 by botanists in another family, the Mellacece where, evidently, 

 the butterfly thinks it should not be. It has been mentioned 

 before, also, that Papilio demoleus larva was once found on this 

 plant in the Bijapur District of the Bombay Presidenc}" ; causing, 

 at the time, considerable surprise as the foodplants of that larva 

 were, as evinced by thousands bred in different localities at all 

 times of the year, all rutaceous. This led later to enquiry into 

 the affinities of the plant which, probably owing to ignorance, 

 ended in no definite result until the following statement presented 

 itself in Brandis' " Indian Trees ", viz. : " Engler in Engler u. 

 Prantl iii. 4, 171 places Chloroxylon under Rutacece chiefly on 

 account of the translucent glands in the leaves, which form one of 

 the distinguishing characters of that order." From wdiich, 

 backed tip by a careful comparison of the descriptions of Chloroxylon 

 with some of the genera of Rutacece, the probabilities are that 

 Papilio crino knows more about real affinities in plants than bota- 

 nists — except Engler. 



There are butterflies of the same sort as huddha and crino in 

 Burma and the Malaj^an Region. P. palinnrus, F. from Burma, 

 Malay ]-*eninsula, Sumatra, Borneo and Banguey Island is like 

 the former but has the band on the hind wing narrower and is 

 generally smaller; it has subspecies in Palawan ((ingustatus, Stand.) 

 and in the Phillipine Islands (daidalus, Feld.) ; P. hlumei, Boisd. is 

 a line species inhabiting Celebes, with rather broad blue-green 

 bands to both wings and blue-green tails. The green of our two 

 species shows peacock-blue in certain lights, violet in others ; when 

 flying in the sun it appears always very brilliant metallic green. 



