476 MR. H. W. BATES ON INSECTS FROM MADAGASCAR. [Nov. 24, 



taken merely as a sketch of an hypothesis under which labourers 

 in the field of Madagascarene and African zoology may, if they 

 choose, collect and apply their facts. 



Order LEPIDOPTERA. 



1 . Papilio phorbanta, Linn. 



This species, of which there is one example only in the collection, 

 is stated by Dr. Boisduval, our chief authority on the Lepidoptera 

 of this part of the world, to be peculiar to Mauritius, and to be the 

 only one of its group found in this island. If it be really a native of 

 Madagascar, it will make the third species of this most beautiful 

 and distinct section of the genus Papilio occurring there. The dis- 

 tribution of the group, which may be called the " wirews-group," 

 after the best-known species belonging to it, shows how close is the 

 relationship of the Madagascar fauna to those of the neighbouring 

 islands and continental Africa — no near relative of any of the forms 

 being found in other parts of the world. We are now acquainted 

 with seven species comprised in it ; these are — 



(1) P. cAaropM«(Westwood). Known only from the Gold Coast, 

 Western Africa. 



(2) P. oribazus (Boisd.). A near relative of P. charo'pus, pecu- 

 liar to Madagascar. 



(3) P. nireus (Linn.). Found commonly from Tropical Western 

 Africa to Plettenberg Bay, near the Cape of Good Hope. 



(4) P. bromius (Doubleday). Closely allied to P. nireus, and 

 found only in Ashantee. 



(5) P. phorbanta (Linn.). Known hitherto only from Mauritius. 



(6) P.epiphorbasl^oisA.). Intermediate in many points between 

 P. phorbanta and P. disparilis, and peculiar to Madagascar. 



(7) P. disparilis (Boisd.). Distinguished by the great disparity 

 in colour of the sexes, and known only from the Island of Bourbon. 



It must be remarked that these species do not constitute a series 

 of compact and independent forms ; for they are very unequally re- 

 lated in their specific characters, and the chief uiember of the group, 

 P. nireus, is subject to great local modification, so much so that four 

 species have been made of it by different authors*. 



2. Terias desjardinsii (c?), Boisd. Faun. Entom. de Mada- 

 gascar, p. 22, pi. 2. f. 6. 



Boisduval states that the female of this species is unknown. An 

 example of this sex occurs in the present collection. It differs from 

 the male in being a little larger and of a paler hue, with a broad 

 dark-brown apical border to the fore wing, and the hind wing without 

 border. Beneath, the only difference from the male is the presence 

 of a reddish spot near the apex of the fore wing. 



* The different forms of P. nireus constitute two species in G. R. Gray's ' List of 

 Papilionidae of the British Museum ' (1856). The whole are reunited under one 

 by the latest authority, Trimen, in his ' Rhopalocera Africae Australis,' Cape Town, 

 1862. 



