Entomological Society. 6621 



Mr. Stevens communicated the following extracts from a letter received by him 

 from Mr. A. R. Wallace, dated Batchian, January 28, 1859 :— 



" T had determined to leave here about this time, but two circumstances decided 

 me to prolong ray stay— firsts I succeeded at last in taking the magnificent new 

 Ornithoptera, and, secondly, I obtained positive information of the existence here of a 

 second species of Paradisea, apparently more beautiful and curious than the one I have 

 obtained. You may perhaps imagine my excitement when, after seeing it only two 

 or three times in three months, I at length took a male Ornithoptera. When I took 

 it out of my net, and opened its gorgeous wings, I was nearer fainting with delight 

 and excitement than I have ever been in my life ; my heart beat violently, and the 

 blood rushed to my head, leaving a headache for the rest of the day. The insect 

 surpassed my expectations, being, though allied to Priaraus, perfectly new, distinct, 

 and of a most gorgeous and unique colour ; it is a fiery golden orange, changing, 

 when viewed obliquely, to opaline-yellow and green, It is, I think, the finest of the 

 Ornithoptera, and consequently the finest butterfly in the ivorldP Besides the colour, 

 it differs much in markings from all of the Priamus group. Soon after I first took it 

 I set one of my men to search for it daily, giving him a premium on every specimen, 

 good or bad, he takes ; he consequently works hard from early morn to dewy eve, and 

 occasionally brings home one ; unfortunately several of them are in bad condition. I 

 also occasionally take the lovely Papilio Telemachus, n. s. 



" I have sent off a small box containing four males, one female, and one young 

 bird of the new Batchian Paradisea, besides one red-ticketed private specimen ; six 

 males and five females of the new Ornithoptera, and seven Papilio Telemachus. 



"Tell Mr. Gray and Mr. Gould that the Paradisea had better not be described 

 yet, as I am making great exertions to get the second species, evidently of the same 

 genus, which will enable a generic character to be more accurately given. The but- 

 terflies, I trust, will be both figured, male and female, either in Mr. Hewitson's book 

 or in Ent. Soc. Trans. For the Ornithoptera I propose Croesus as a good name. 

 Butterflies are scarce ; good beetles turn up occasionally, but nothing very grand. I 

 hare now a handsome series of Buprestidae, and a remarkably pretty lot of Longi- 

 corns ; one of my last acquisitions is a grand bronzy Tmesisternus, 1^ inch long, a 

 single specimen only. In almost all orders, and in birds, there is a deficiency of spe- 

 cies ; yet there are so many pretty and brilliant things, and a few so grand and new, 

 that on the whole I am inclined to think my Batchian collection will be the best 

 I have made anywhere. 



" Another reason which may induce me to stay perhaps two or three months 

 longer at Batchian is that I have had no fever here, which I have never been free 

 from two months at a time for the last two years before; and I may therefore hope to 

 get my health well established for my next journey to New Guinea. 



" The butterflies will make a show-box which will, I think, be admired almost as 

 much as the birds of Paradise." 



Mr. Westwood observed that he had little doubt the male Ornithoptera of which 

 Mr. Wallace had given such a glowing description, in the letter just read, was the 

 Ornithoptera Tithonus of De Haan, figured on the first plate of his fine work on the 

 4 Insects of the Dutch Settlements,' the hitherto unique specimen of which is in the 

 Leyden Museum, and was seen by Mr. Westwood on his visit last year ; he had also 

 little doubt that the female would prove to be the 0. Victoria of G. R. Gray, figured, 

 some time since, in the ' Proceedings of the Linnean Society,' from a specimen taken 



