﻿POMPEOPTERA HALIPHRON. 



Ornithoptera Haliphron 3 , Boisduval, Spec. Gen. Lepid. I., p. 181, n. 9, (1836). 



n .1 3 $ , Felder, Lepidopterologische Fragmente, p. 37, Taf. ii., f. 2, 3, (1859). 



h ii J 2 . Felder, Wien. Ent. Mon. IV., p. 98, n. 52, t. 2, f. 23, 25, (i860), 



ii .. Wallace, Tr. Linn. Soc. Vol. XXV., p. 40, n. 14, (1866). 



Papillo Haliphron 3 ? , Felder, Verh. z. b. Ges. Wien. p. 291, n. 25, and p. 334, n. 20, (1864). 

 W. F. Kirby, Syn. Cat. Diurn. Lepid. p. 519, (1871). 

 Piepers and Snellen, Tijdschr. v. Ent. XXL, p. 37, n. 147, (1878). 

 Ornithoptera Haliphron 3 , Standinger and Schatz, Exot. Schmett. I., p. 5, t. 2, (1884). 

 11 ., Ribbe, Iris III., p. 39 (larva and pupae), (1890). 



11 1 1 Fickert, Ueber die Zeichn. der Gatt. Ornith. p. 734, n. 4 ; and p. 743, (1893). 



Troides Haliphron J ?,W. Rothschild, Novitates Zoologies, Vol. II., p. 206, n. 13, type (a), (1895). 

 [Ornithoptera Amphimedon 3 *, Doubld. Westw. and Hewitson, Gen. D. L. t. 1, f. 2 (1846). 



.1 » S \ Gray, Cat. Lep. Ins. Brit. Mus. I., p. 5, n. ii, (1852), (as a synonym of P. Darsius).] 



The 6* of this graceful species is somewhat suggestive 

 of the $ of Vandepolli and its variety Honrathiana, although 

 the yellow area of the posterior wings is considerably less 

 in extent, and with a few exceptions not occupying any 

 part of the discoidal cell. In Vandepolli 3-5ths of the 

 cell are yellow, in Haliphron when any yellow is found 

 within the cell it is only either as a narrow yellow spot or 

 mark at the distal end, varying from half the width to the 

 whole width. Sometimes only a faint rudiment of this 

 spot is present ; and the two wings are nearly always 

 asymmetrical in this particular. The adnervular rays on 

 the anterior wings are whiter and rather more conspicuous 

 than in Vandepolli ; they are also rather narrower in shape. 

 The posterior wings are suggestive of those of Plato — 

 though that species is perhaps more like Vandepolli in 

 some respects, and its ? suggests the S of Haliphron. 

 Other species or forms slightly resembling Haliphron in 

 the male sex are Doherty's Naias, and Robiir's Iris on the 

 posterior wings — though, of course each is abundantly 

 differentiated from Haliphron or Vandepolli. Nor must 

 we omit to recall the fact that while the inferior wing 

 patterns of Vandepolli and Darsius have much in common — 

 there is also a less close resemblance between the latter 

 and Haliphron. In Haliphron, Darsius, Vandepolli, and 

 Honrathiana, the conical internervular discal band of 

 black marks is always present on the wings of the females, 

 varying in length and width, 'tis true, and generally 

 uniting at their bases with the apices of the outer marginal 

 lunations on the upper surfaces of the wings, but more 

 or less separated from them on the under surfaces. The 

 intercellular dark portions of the $ upper wings of 

 Darsius, Plato, Honrathiana, Plateni, and Dohertyi, all 

 terminate with a pair of more or less long dark dentations 

 near the end of the cell, longest in Haliphron ; while in 

 Pompeus, Nerias, and Vandepolli (the type form) there are 

 no dentate terminals to the intercellular dark areas ; so 

 that in these respects Vandepolli and Honrathiana take 

 after distinct groups of anterior wing patterns — a very 

 curious circumstance ! 



S . The costa is much less arched than in Vandepolli, 

 and the posterior margin much less rounded ; the interior 

 margin is only slightly curved, being nearly straight, and 

 well exhibiting the scalene-triangular form of the wing. 

 Colour of the wing deep velvety black, with the adnervular 

 grey rays only very moderately seen ; the whole of the 

 discoidal cell is black, and the veins are all fairly stout. 



Undersurface more or less brownish black — not so velvety 

 as above, with the pattern similar to that of the upper 

 surface, except that the adnervular rays are whiter and 

 more distinct, they are 8 in number, extending from the 

 3rd subcostal to the 3rd median branch ; the distal 

 third of the cell is also greyish white, with long central 

 coalesced dentations, and the 4 pseudoneura fairly dis- 

 tinct — (the 2nd passing through the fine grey white 

 central streak of the black dentation). 



The veins are not so stout as in some species, but 

 sufficiently distinct on both surfaces ; the median nervules 

 running through the adnervular rays are themselves as 

 usual more strongly accentuated by being slightly bor- 

 dered with black, especially on the upper surface. The 

 posterior wings velvety black-brown, with a discal trans- 

 verse broad patch of brilliant yellow, divided by four of 

 the nervules ; in some specimens a small yellow spot or 

 blotch is found close within the distal end of the cell, 

 generally of a different shape and size on each wing of the 

 example : sometimes this mark is absent, and the cell is 

 immaculate, and sometimes a moderately broad transverse 

 mark of yellow runs parallel with the discocellular nervules 

 within the cell — thereby forming a part of the entire 

 yellow discal band or area of the wing. By reason of the 

 narrowness of this yellow area the wing from the end of 

 the cell to the base, with the whole of the inner margin, 

 and from the and median nervule, and also a very broad 

 hind submarginal portion of the wing are velvety black ; 

 the under surface is exactly similar to that above. The 

 black on the upper side is shot with a delicate olive- 

 greenish sheen, and on the underside with a bluish-green 

 sheen ; the fringe lunules are whitish and very slight, 

 being almost invisible on the anterior wings ; from the 

 posterior wings they are quite absent. 



The head is black ; the eyes are castaneous ; the thorax 

 pilose black, and abdomen rather a light brown. The 

 pronotal red collar of the thorax (or neck) very distinct 

 in some examples. The pectoral scarlet or coccineous 

 spots are small, but extend to over the whole surface of 

 the metathorax ; the abdominal marginal fringe of hairs 

 is moderately extensive, and the hairs black and fairly 

 long. 



Length of costa in 5 examples in the Author's Museum 

 varies from 65 to 72 mms. Length of abdomen or an- 



"These two on the authority of W. Rothschild's " Novitates Zoologies." 



