﻿P. HELENA, ABERRATION GROSE-SMITHI. 



$ . Anteriorwings intensely black. Undersurface as above 

 but slightly lighter, with a short elongate grey mark paral- 

 lel to the basal section of the median vein, and close to 

 the interno-median nervule. 



Posterior wings with intensely black, broad and irregu- 

 lar shaped bands enclosing the rich silky yellow areas of 

 the cell and disc. The veins are very stout and black ; at 

 the distal end of the cell are three black blotches or spots 

 of black atoms ; between the 2nd subcostal nervule and 

 the discocellular nervure is an interrupted elongate group 

 of black spots ; between the discocellular nervure and the 

 ist median nervule the black border indents its way close 

 up to the 2nd discocellular nervule, especially on the left 

 wing : all the other apices of the black marginal band are 

 irregularly dentate, and the yellow, as a dentation, encroa- 

 ches in the black at the 2nd median nervule. 



The undersurface is without these black marks ; the 

 black margin is somewhat narrower than above, more 

 equally dentate, the apices broadly subdued by the golden 

 yellow scales. 



Length of costa, 83 mms. 



The abdomen somewhat like that of Carolus. 



Habitat : New Guinea. 



A beautiful variety, in which the tendency seems to be 

 towards the formation of an entirely black pair of wings, 

 on the upper surface. 



Habitat : New Guinea. 



In the museum of Mr. H. Grose-Smith. 



Probably Dannat's Irregularis, described by him in the 

 Entomologist for 1897, P a g e 3 I2 > ma y be an aberration of 

 Helena, allied to the above. 



$ Var. from Borneo. In this variety the central area 

 of yellow, on the posterior wing, is much restricted and 

 narrower than in the preceding forms ; the yellow at the 

 distal end of the cell is only about i-5th of the total area ; 

 the yellow between the 2nd and 3rd median branches, 

 and also between the 2nd subcostal branch and the 



discocellular vein strongly indents the black border. The 

 two surfaces of each wing are absolutely alike. Length 

 of costa, 82 mms. 



Var. Bouruensis. The posterior wings have the adner- 

 vular rays considerably subdued by the brown scales, so 

 that they are barely visible except towards the outer 

 margin where they are all sufficiently grey ; on the under 

 surface they are much lighter and purer, as is the cell spot. 

 The posterior wing pattern is closely like that of the type 

 2 but arranged on a smaller scale. The undersurface 

 differs little from the upper, except that the yellow area 

 is much diluted with white, and that the black portions 

 are more or less clouded with white scales, as in the v. 

 Carolus <? . 



Length of costa, 94 mms. 



Habitat, the Island of Bouru, situated directly West 

 of Ceram and Amboyna. 



Any number of varieties and aberrations of Helena 

 probably may be met with. 



The diagnosis of the varieties Papuensis and Mel- 

 pomona will be found at pages 45, 46, and the figures of 

 each on plates 45 and 46 of this volume. 



A $ Var. from Celebes in the Author's Museum 

 closely resembles Mr. Grose-Smith's var. from Borneo. 

 Also $ 3- from Ceram and 2 2 from the same locality 

 in the Author's possession closely resemble the type form, 

 the length of the costa of the largest $ measuring 86 mms. 

 and of the largest 2 94 mms. 



Wallace remarks : 2 2 from Ceram and Amboyna are 

 always sooty, with the spots and markings on the hinder 

 wings of a dull buff-colour, even in the freshest speci- 

 mens ; " also that " the local form Celebensis $ has the 

 wings a little more pointed than in the type form ; the 

 yellow patch of lower wings extending nearer to the 

 posterior margin, and bounded towards the abdominal 

 margin by the first branch of the median nervure ; 

 beneath having the nervures between the discoidal cell 

 and the outer border ashy margined. 



Localities additional for the type, Island of Saparua ; 

 for Celebensis var., Minahasza and Salayer." 



18 



