﻿TROGONOPTERA TROJANA. 



Ornithoptera Trojana, Honrath, Berliner Ent. Zeitschrift, Vol. XXXIII., p. 3 (1886). 

 „ Trojana [O. Brookiana var. ?] Staiidinger, Iris II. p. 4 (<? .) (1889). 



„ „ Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift, Band 2, p. 7, and p. 163 (1889). 



n „ „ „ „ " Lepid. der Insel Palawan."] 



0. Trojana, Fickert, Ueber die Zeichn. der Gatt. Ornith. p. 764 (1889). 

 0. Trojana, W. Watkins, Entomologist, No. 339, Vol. 24, with coloured plate. (1891). 

 0. Trojana, Semper, Philipp. Tagfal. p. 263, n. 384 (1891). 

 Troidei Trojanus, Rothschild, Novitates Zoologicae, V. II., p. 199 (1895). 

 „ Trojana, W. F. Kirby, "Nature," Vol. 51, p. 258, col. 1 (1895). 



The most northern of the groups of Islands which 

 compose the immense Indian Archipelago, is the 

 Philippines, a group that is situated between 5 and 20 

 N. lat., and 120 and 127 E. long. Between the 

 most northern of these islands Luzon and Formosa, 

 nearly in the same longitude, are the small Babuyanes 

 or Batanes, and the Bashee group ; the most southern 

 Island Magindanao is connected with Borneo by the 

 Sooloo group, running W.S.W. from the S.W. coast of 

 this great island to Capes Unsang and Labian in Borneo. 

 Farther north the Philippines are connected with Borneo 

 by a chain of islands and rocky islets extending north- 

 north-east and south-south-west between the Island of 

 Mindoro (of the Philippines) and Capes Inaruntang and 

 Sampanmangio in Borneo. This chain is the Palawan 

 or Paragoa islands, sometimes called the Archipelago of 

 Felicia. These islands separate the Mindoro from the 

 China Seas, which are connected by Mindoro Strait. 

 Both seas wash the western shores of this group. 

 Palawan or Paragoa is the largest island — for the rest of 

 the group are only mere islets. The whole group is com- 

 prised within lat. 8° 37' to n° 30' N., and long. 117 to 

 120 E. They had a population of 90,000 in 1887. 



The climate of the Philippines is equable, the ther- 

 mometer varying from 66° to 84 fahr. ; they are generally 

 well wooded, and the rainfall is very heavy. 



The Philippines are exceedingly rich in insects of all 

 orders, shells, both land and marine, and birds. And 

 although they were carefully explored by that distinguished 

 Conchologist, the late Mr. Hugh Cuming, especially for 

 shells, insects, and birds, and by whose labours the shell 

 fauna alone was brought up to 2,500 species of marine 

 and 451 species of land and freshwater shells, of 

 the marine Mr. Cuming estimated that at least 1,000 

 additional species would yet be discovered. Since then 

 other great collectors have been continually adding to our 

 knowledge of the richness of these islands ; and probably 

 a great deal of new and important work yet remains to be 

 done, if we are even to arrive at an approximate idea of 

 the full glory of the Philippine fauna. Almost the 

 most wonderful of all the Ornithoptera, P. Magellanus, 

 of Felder, is an inhabitant of this group. But it is in the 

 island of Palawan we must look for that splendid rival of 

 the Bornean and Sumatran T. Brookeana, that is to say 

 T. Trojana, the species now to be described, which may 

 or may not ultimately be found to be simply a highly 

 specialised local form of the former species, as it is yet 

 quite possible that in some other localities intermediate 

 and other specialised forms of Ornithoptera may yet be 

 found in some of these islands, or in the neighbouring 

 islets when they have been more exhaustively explored. 



$ . Primaries : Very velvety black ; neuration ob- 

 scurely seen ; the median nervure near the base is blue ; 

 with a series of 7 submarginal leaf-like marks of shot 

 green and blue, the terminals of the nervules passing 

 through them like the midrib of a leaf; seen opposite 

 the light these are golden green : obliquely against the 

 light, emerald blue, with a tinge of purple, according to 

 the position at which the wing is moved — one half of each 

 mark, generally the lower half, being most strongly blue ; 

 very obliquely, violet and green ; in other positions the 

 leaf-like markings are blue on the right wing, and golden 

 or silvery green on the left. All the marks are at their 

 base dotted with emerald atoms ; all the markings are 

 widely separated — somewhat graduated in size, the 

 lowest being nearly twice the size of the highest. 



Under surface. Wings a warmer and softer velvety 

 black, shading outwardly to a bluish -grey black on the 

 right wing, and a purplish ruddy-black on the left wing, 

 when slightly changed in position ; at the inner margin 

 with an opalescent and purplish sheen ; the veins are 

 fairly well accentuated, though their branches are very 

 delicately constructed; there are 7 elongate lenticular 

 silvery bluish-green marks, arranged in pairs on the disc, 

 the lower pair almost united at the base, the others 

 separated mostly at their apices, the wing-fold dividing 

 them : the top one is single, and they are all composed 

 chiefly of sapphire or emerald atoms ; a rich ultramarine 

 blue mark, subdued and modified by black and silvery- 

 green atoms, is situated between the 3rd median nervule 

 and the submedian fold, and extends from the base nearly 

 2-3rds to the outer margin, being indented at its termina- 

 tion ; a streak of deep ultramarine blue between the costa 

 and costal nervure, extending from the base to a little 

 more than i-3rd of the costal length. 



Secondaries. Velvety black, with a faint bluish-green 

 sheen towards the outer margin, and a purplish sheen 

 within the costal nervure ; a broad green discal band, 

 subject to the same beautiful variations of colour as are 

 the marks of the upper wing ; this band is divided rather 

 broadly, or indented by the discal black and the blackveins, 

 at the outer marginal portions: also irregularly curved 

 and graduated into the discal black by golden-blue atoms, 

 and towards the cell incurved, and graduated by atoms 

 of silvery blue-green. The slightest alteration of light or 

 position changes these glowing marks of colour so that 

 those on the right wing will be of a silvery olive, or almost 

 lost in a deep olive black shade, while those on the left 

 wing will assume a proportionately brilliant warm colour ; 

 the discoidal cell is a very rich ultramarine blue— most 

 intense on the veins, — and modified by black atoms, but 

 in some positions the blue is not visible at all — while in 

 others (viewed obliquely in a side light) it is very brilliant, 



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