DRURYA ZALMOXIS. 



Papilio Zalmoxis, Hewitson, "111. of New Species of Exotic Butterflies," Vol. III., p. 6. pi. i, f. 18 (1862). 

 „ „ W. F. Kirby, " Syn. Cat. Diurn. Lepid., p. 564 (1871)." 



A. R. Wallace, Address delivered to the Biological Section of the British Association, Glasgow, 1876, page 3. 

 W. F. Kirby, " Cat. of Coll. of Diurn. Lepid., formed by the late W. C. Hewitson, p. 13 (1879). 

 „ Staiidinger and Schatz. Exotische Schmetterlinge, Vol. II., PI. 7 (1888). 



Ornithoptera Zalmoxis, Fickert, " Ueber die Zeichn. der Gatt. Ornithoptera," p. 754 (1889). 



„ ? , Staiidinger, " Iris. Deutsche Ent. Zeitschrift," Band 5, p. 268 (1892). 



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



Papilio Zalmoxis, W. F. Kirby, "Handbook to the Order Lepidoptera," V. 2, p. 268 (1896). 



The first example of this species was received in 1861 

 from Old Calabar, by Mr. S. Stevens, as Mr. Hewitson 

 tells us ; and the specimen was in such a state of decom- 

 position that the body, except the outer covering of the 

 abdomen, was completely gone. The rich colour natural 

 to the wings had also suffered a great change, so that at 

 the time it could only be surmised from an examination 

 of the unique example, that the true tints had greatly 

 faded into the olive-blue green of Mr. Hewitson's figure. 

 Of course, as usual, this specimen was a $ . It is always 

 most difficult to obtain the 5 2 of any of the Lepidoptera : 

 hence, even at the present time there are multitudes of 

 species of butterflies and moths of which we only possess 

 the males. A large number of examples of this fine 

 Acrseoid-looking Papilio came to hand during subsequent 

 years, but the discovery of the female has been a com- 

 paratively recent achievement, and it is still very rarely 

 found in collections. 



At a time when so little was known of the Ornithoptera, 

 it was a very natural thing to describe Zalmoxis as a 

 Papilio ; although the fact that no true Papilio had 

 hitherto been found with a yellow abdomen, might have 

 suggested a closer affinity to the Ornithoptera than to the 

 Papilios. And we find it in Kirby's catalogue placed 

 away almost at the end of the Papilios among _ some 

 species of African and American things with which it 

 seems to me to have no relationship. But of late years 

 Staiidinger and Schatz, and Fickert and others began 

 to suspect its true relationship with the Ornithoptera, 

 and Staiidinger placed it in the genus Ornithoptera as 

 that genus was at the time by him regarded. 



But whilst it seems impossible to consider this species 

 as belonging to any other group than that of the Ornithop- 

 tera, I have felt justified, for reasons given _ in the 

 diagnosis of the genus Drurya, to place it provisionally 

 as a member of that genus, being unwilling to make a 

 new genus for its reception, as may some day be found 

 necessary. Its true position is therefore assigned to the 

 head of the Ornithoptera instead of the end of the 

 Papilios. 



The fig. in Hewitson's work gives but a faint idea of 

 the wonderful beauty of this species, either in colour or 

 details ; the thorax, head, and base of the wings, and the 

 outer margin of the hind wings being in themsevles a 

 feast of quiet loveliness, while the play of colour on the 

 surface of the wing, as the insect is turned about, is quite 

 as interesting as in any example of the Ornithoptera. 



Preliminary to a fuller description of this species and 

 its varieties, I will quote in full Mr. Hewitson's diagnosis 



made from the unique example then known to him, 



which as the type form is now in the British Museum. 



" Upperside dull green; with the margins, the ner- 

 vures, and rays between the nervures, black. Anterior 

 wing with the apex broadly black. Posterior wing with 

 the outer margin broadly black, with a sub-marginal 

 band of 12 green spots in pairs ; the abdomen orange." 



" Underside with the nervures and rays between them, 

 black. Anterior wing, grey-white, with the apex broadly 

 rufous-brown. Posterior wing rufous-brown ; the base, 

 orange : with the nervures upon it very black : the cell, 

 which is traversed longitudinally by two black lines, and 

 a portion of the abdominal margin, white ; the outer 

 margin with a narrow border of black ; the sub-marginal 

 spots as above, but white. Expan., 6? inches. Hab. 

 Calabar." 



Mr. Hewitson's figure and description did not so 

 greatly misrepresent the appearance of the species in its 

 pristine perfection as one might at first suppose by view- 

 ing a small series of the insect, as may be understood by 

 a reference to plate iii, fig. 3 $ of this work, which is an 

 accurate representation of a var. in my own collection. 

 I have seen several other examples which are coloured in 

 a similar manner, and it is difficult to imagine that this 

 is due to damp or any other deteriorating cause. This 

 var. came from the Gaboon, but what part of that 

 district I am unable to say. 



The olive-green blue of the primaries is suffused to- 

 wards the base of the wings with a subdued golden sheen : 

 is very brilliant, and extends also to the sub-marginal 

 band of 12 blue-green spots — when viewed opposite the 

 light is much more brilliant than I have represented it in 

 my figure. 



But the general appearance of the colour in the shade 

 or a subdued light, is more that of some of those species 

 of Romalcosoma or Euryphene which are found at Old 

 Calabar and in West Africa. In this fact there may be a 

 special purpose of utility, even if such example had a 

 tendency to discolour while living, which might possibly 

 be the case. The discoidal cell of the secondaries has 

 no trace of the 2 longitudinal black lines which are a 

 prominent feature of the undersurface mentioned by 

 Hewitson, though in some examples of the normal blue 

 forms these lines are repeated on the upper surface as 

 dotted faintly-black curved longitudinal marks ; the base 

 of all the wings, and along (inside) the abdominal fold or 

 gutter (as Westwood called it) is furnished with long light 

 silky hairs, as is also the thorax and base of the 

 abdomen. The amount of black at the apex of the 

 Primaries is greater and broader than we generally find 

 in the bluer examples, and the submarginal black band 

 of the hind wings is also much broader ; the white spots 



