PREFACE. 



This Monograph is the result of the author's desire to leave behind him some memorial of his life-long love for 

 the marvellous and varied works with which our God has so abundantly stored and adorned this beautiful world. He 

 was anxious to leave something which should be permanently useful to all those who cared to study at least one small 

 part of those creations which the author (while he fully accepts and rejoices in the teachings of Evolution) nevertheless 

 regards as the crystalised thoughts of our loving Creator. The author had no particular ambition in employing his 

 pen and pencil, to attain to more than this ; feeling as he does that it is impossible for anyone to propose to himself 

 any worthier task than to try and make the world a little richer in some way, intellectually or spiritually, for his having 

 been an inhabitant of it. He hoped that (whilst he was very poorly equipped with financial resources) by doing the 

 whole work of this monograph with his own hands and brain, he would be able to make it pay its expenses, which he 

 was aware could not be small. As a matter of fact, even under these conditious the work thus far has cost very much 

 more than has been received for it, and the labour involved has been much greater than was expected, and these have 

 been two of the many difficulties which have tended to delay the completion of it for so much longer a period than 

 the author anticipated. 



For several years preceding the commencement of this undertaking the author had contemplated monograph- 

 ing some special group of marine or land shells, or some particular family of butterflies or moths (for either of which he 

 could find plenty of materials in his own collection as the nuclei of a more extensive survey), and publishing it himself at as 

 small a price as possible. But as it is always so much easier to originate ideas than to carry them out, the author 

 was continually reminded by unhappy experience that such an undertaking, with his limited resources, could not be 

 entered upon with a light heart, even if it were to be attempted at all. However as the years passed, and he was unwilling 

 to delay indefinitely, he decided to forego the larger idea which he had in his mind, and which some conchological 

 friends were anxious he should enter upon, and by selecting some very small group of butterflies which had not been too 

 exhaustively worked up, to endeavour to produce as complete an illustrative monograph of that group as he was able, 

 limiting it to a definite and not excessive number of parts. The Ornithoptera seemed to afford just the subject for his 

 purpose. They were not very numerous in species, they were very magnificent in character (next to the morphos, the 

 most beautiful of butterflies), and no monograph of what was then called a genus existed. Several of the varieties had 

 only been described without figures, or figures of both sexes did not exist ; these descriptions and figures were scattered 

 far and wide through the pages of Entomological literature, adorning such works as Cramer's " Papilio Exotica" 

 Felder's " Reise Novare," Wesiwood's " Cabinet of Oriental Entomology ," Doubleday and HeW-itsoh's " Genera, 1 ' Gray's 

 " Catalogue of Lepidopterous Insects of the British Museum, 7 ' Boisduval's " Species General" " The Voyage of the Astrolabe" 

 and the Transactions and Proceedings of Societies, British and Foreign. Many of the figures adorning these works 

 were magnificent, and all the descriptions most useful and instructive — albeit the very long latin diagnoses of Felder 

 were trying to the ordinary student. But a great number of synonyms had unavoidably been created ; slight new 

 varieties were continually being described as species, and there was much confusion with regard to the sexes, so that 

 some of the species did not always get their proper mates — a grave irregularity which it was most desirable should be 

 remedied at the earliest possible moment. To the ordinary student in any department of zoology it is ever most diffi- 

 cult, if he have no big or costly library of his own, to obtain the information which he requires about his special subject 

 of investigation : often much time and labour have to be expended, and the results are still unsatisfactory. Monographs 

 have a very special raison d'etre. They supply a very urgent need, if they are properly written ; and so it seemed to the 

 author that he could wisely employ his time and energies in the preparation of an illustrated monograph which 

 should, within the covers of one or two volumes, furnish to the student of the Ornithoptera a fairly exhaustive view 

 of the subject up to the date of completion, with illustrations of each form so accurate that it should be easy to 

 determine any species of the group with sufficient facility to render such a work welcome. 



In the year 1884 the author spoke of his proposal to his friend the late Philip Henry Gosse, F.R.S., and the 

 well-known author of some delightful works on marine and land zoology, and whose paper " On the Clasping-organs 

 Ancillary to Generation in certain groups of the Lepidoptera," published in the Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., in April, 

 1883, included his investigations of this subject in 12 species of Ornithoptera.* The following extract from his letter 

 contains Mr. Gosse's reply : 



" Sandhurst, Torquay, 11/1/84. 



" My dear Friend, 



I rejoice with you in the acquisition of 2 Ornithopt. Brookeana. Your projected monograph of the genus will, I 

 am sure, if carried out, be very valuable. If I be alive and well at the time, I shall think it a privilege to be a subscriber. 

 Meanwhile, would it be of any use to you to have a number of examples of 0. Remus, Haliphron, and Leda (Wall.), in 

 battered condition, for anatomical examination ? I have several of each from Celebes, utterly worthless for the cabinet, 



which I would gladly give you "Yours, &c, 



"P. H. Gosse." 



•The species treated of are D. Zalmoxis, pages 269, 271, 272, 276, 278, 324, with figs. 25-28, PI. XXXII. O. Richmondia, pages 278, 281, 284, with fig. 5, PI. XXVI. 

 Aruana pages 271. 274, 275. 281, 282, with figs. 1-3. PI. XXVI. 0. Pronomus, pages 281, 283, fig. 4. PI. XXVI. T. Broohmna, pages 275, 281, 291, figs. 5-8, PI. XXVII. 

 P. Remus, pages 277, 28J, 293, 335, figs. 12-20, PI. XXVII. P. Haliphron, pages 270, 277, 281, 284, 335, figs. 6, 7, PI. XXVI. P. Darsius, pages 281, 286, 23 7 . figs. 8-n, PI. 

 XXVI. P. Rhadamanthus, pages 269. 271, 281, 289. figs. 12-16, PI. XXVI. P.Amphrysus, pages 276, 281, figs. 9-11, PI. XXVII. P. Hclizcon, pages 281, 290, figs. 1, 2, PI. XXVII. 

 P. Heliaconoides, pages 281, 290, figs. 3, 4, PI. XXVII. In addition to his own masterly treatment of this subject Mr. Gosse quotes from De Haau's Bijdraasn tot de Remits des 

 Papilionidca, in the " Verhandelingen over de natuurlijke geschiedenis der Nederlandsche overzeesche bezittingen (Trans, regarding the Nat. Hist, of the Dutch Over-the-Sea 

 Possessions,") giving references to P. Amphrysus. which are illustrated in that paper by 3 figs. ; and also from Dr. Burmeister's Lepid. d. 1. Rep. Arg„ p. 21. 



