V. 



DRURYA ANTIMACHUS. 



Papilio Antimaohus 6* , Drury, Illustr. Exot. Ent., III. t. i (1782). 

 „ „ Esper, Ausl. Schm., t. 22, f. 2 (1785-98). 



„ „ Fabricius, Entom. Syst. Tome III., part 1, p. n, n. 31 (1793). 



„ „ Godt. Ency. Meth. IX., p. 28, n. 8 (1819). 



„ „ Donovan, Nat. Rep. III., t. 100, 101 (1825). 



„ „ Boisduval, Sp. Gen. p. 188, n. 1 (1836). 



„ „ Westwood, Edition of Drury's " 111. Exot. Ent." Vol. III., page 1, plate I. (1837). 



„ „ Chenu, Ency. d'Hist. Nat. Papillons, I., p. 38, pi. 15 (1855-6 ?). 



„ „ W. F. Kirby, Syn. Cat. Diur. Lep., p. 530, (1871). 



„ „ Rutherford, Ent. Monthly Mag. Vol. XV. p. 5 ; and Ent. Monthly Mag. V. 3 (New Series), p. 162 (1892). 



„ „ W. F. Kirby ,-Text Book of Ent. p. 160, pi. 53 (from Chenu), 1st Edit. (1885) ; 2nd Edit. (1892). 



Drurya Antimaohus, 6* ■ Aurivillius, Fjarilar fran Gaboon, p. 44 (in the Ent. Tidskrift), (1880). 



„ Staudinger and Schatz, Exotische Schm., pi. XIII. (1888). Also Schatz, Die Fam. und Gatt. der Tagfalter, p. 22 and p. 40, PI. II., fig. I, a, b, (1892). 



• „ Fickert, Ueber die Zeichn. der Gatt. Orn., p. 692, also p. 755. 



Drurya Antimaohus ? . Watkins, (brief description by) Ent. Mon. Mag. V. 3, (N. S.) p. 162 ; and PI. V., with neuration of Ant. Wing (internal nervure omitted), and figs, of 

 $ and S Anal Terminals (1892). 



This magnificent species, so singularly acrasoid in its 

 appearance, especially in the 5 , is evidently entitled to 

 stand at the head of the Ornithoptera, and with Zalmoxis 

 to which it is very closely allied, must represent the 1st 

 of the three great groups of the Ornithoptera, the 2nd 

 containing all the genera and species hitherto acknow- 

 ledged to be Ornithoptera, and the 3rd including the 

 whole of the rich series of the red and black papilios of 

 South and Central America, which should be called 

 Ornithopterina. In Kirby's Syn. Cat. Lep. Antimachus 

 is placed directly after Brookic.na, and before P. Ridleyanus, 

 White ; and it had till recently been regarded as occu- 

 pying its proper position as a link between the Orni- 

 thoptera and Papilios. But a careful consideration of 

 the characters of the Genera Pompeoptera and Drurya 

 should convince us that they are not nearly related, while 

 Drurya has little in common with the Ornithopterina ; and if 

 D. Antimachus is to be regarded as a true Papilio, it ought 

 to be placed after the Ornithopterina and not before them. 

 But in such a supposititious arrangement it would be 

 found that the abdomen was unlike those of Papilio in 

 character and colour, though it absolutely agrees in the 

 latter particular with the genus Ornithoptera. Indeed, 

 as may be seen by reference to the generic diagnosis at 

 the head of this article, the anal valves of the 6* are much 

 more like those of Ornithoptera than of Papilio, though 

 they differ in size and shape from each. The yellow 

 colour of the abdomen, which is found in the true Orni- 

 thoptera, is never met with so entirely in Papilio. But 

 more important still, while all the true Ornithoptera in 

 the $ sex, with the exception of those in the Genus 

 Schoenbergia, are furnished with a stigmatic brand, or 

 an abdominal fold or pouch containing androconia — 

 (the latter character being contiuned through the Or- 

 nithopterina,) in Drurya these characters are not 

 found, and it seems impossible to discover any 

 traces' of the so-called scent glands. The latter 

 facts, if taken alone, would give these genera a place 

 amono- some of the more advanced Papilios, but, con- 

 sidered with the characters mentioned _ above, they at 

 once fall into their true position as placed in this work. It 

 may be remarked here that some of the true Papilios, 

 such as Ulysses and others, possess a male brand on the 

 anterior wings, which is most like that of the genus 

 Ornithoptera, though very different in shape; while 



a curious patch of a similar nature is found near the base, 

 on the subcosta of the posterior wings of several of the 

 Pierinas ; and a costal fold containing androconia on the 

 anterior wings of several of the Hesperiidae, and also in 

 the same position in some Lycsenidae. 



So evidently did A ntimachus seem to demand for itself 

 a position distinct from Papilio that Aurivillius, in 1880, 

 made it the type of a new genus dedicated to the memory 

 of its original describer, Drury, and it soon found its 

 position almost or quite at the head of the Papilionime, 

 all the Genera from Tienopalpus to Leptocircus being 

 placed after, instead of before, the Ornithoptera and 

 Papilios— the wisdom of this sweeping change being justly 

 subject to criticism. 



This species was first described by Drury from a single 

 example of the $ , brought from Sierra Leone by Mr. 

 Smeathman in 1775. It appears that Drury's Insects 

 were sold in 1805, and it was then that Macleay pur- 

 chased the specimen (at that time absolutely unique), 

 which is supposed to have subsequently found its way to 

 the Sidney Museum in Australia. In 1864 a second 

 specimen was brought to England, having been taken by 

 Miss Dibbol, a missionary at Creek Town, Old Calabar. 

 A few years later Mr. Rogers (who was collecting for the 

 late W. C. Hewitson on the Gaboon), took a specimen 

 of the S , after 3 days' watching for it, and a little later on 

 a second example. These are in the Hewitson Collection, 

 now in the British Museum. About the same time Mr. 

 Chapman of Glasgow, found a fine specimen among the 

 contents of a couple of boxes brought home by his friend 

 the captain of an African trading vessel, from the Gaboon. 

 The expanse of this example was g A inches. A 

 smaller specimen, 8fths inches, was next taken by the 

 Rev. T. W. Thompson, of the Baptist Mission Settle- 

 ment at Ambas Bay, North of the Cameroons, and 

 another North of Sherboro' River ; these are in the 

 Horniman Museum. Not long after Mr H. Grose-Smith's 

 examples came from the Gaboon. Since that time 

 numerous examples of the $ have arrived from the Congo ; 

 and in the Museum of the Hon. W. Rothschild is a full 

 drawer, containing a perfectly magnificent series of 

 the $ , in splendid condition, and a fine example of the ? . 

 From the latter, and two of the noblest of the $ S\ have 



