19 



green, shading to bright coppery. The anterior of these 

 is narrow at the base and becomes gradually wider until 

 near the apex of the wing, where it suddenly narrows ; 

 the lower follows a direction parallel to the inner margin 

 until near the anal angle, gradually widening to this 

 point, where it is bent abruptly upwards, and extends 

 parallel to the outer margin more than half its length. 

 Hind wings small subtriangular, the anterior and outer 

 margins rounded ; satiny green with coppery reflections, 

 the limb narrowly black, the outer margin with one or 

 more spots between the veins ; anal margin black, deeply 

 fringed with orange hairs. 



" Below, the fore wings have the limb black, broadest 

 on the costa towards the apex, bearing a green spot and 

 two green streaks ; the disc green, divided by black veins, 

 and bearing a subcontinuous row of five black spots 

 between the middle and outer margin. 



" Hind wings golden green — the golden colour pre- 

 dominating — externally, the anterior and outer margins 

 black with a row of six black spots beyond the middle of 

 the wing, the central spots sometimes preceded by an 

 orange dash ; the anal angle broadly golden yellow. 



" Head and thorax black, the latter with a long golden 

 vitta above, and a blood-coloured patch on each side 

 beneath the base of the wings. Abdomen golden yellow. 



" The 6* flies high and abundantly in Darnley Island, 

 among the cocoanut groves." 



" S Wings black brown ; anterior with a rather broad 

 oblique very pale buff bar across the discoidal cell, near 

 its extremity, beneath which are three other irregular 

 spots of the same colour ; followed by nine submarginal 

 spots of the same colour, the four anterior of which are 

 elongated ; the hind wings marked beyond the middle 

 with a large dirty whitish buff patch, divided by the veins, 

 extending to the anal angle, and bearing four smaller 

 dark brown spots. The wings on the underside are 

 coloured as above, the colour of the pale marking of the 

 hind wings being clearer, with a yellow shade beyond the 

 dark spots. The thorax has a short, brilliant green dash 

 on the upper side, and the sides beneath the wings are 

 brilliant crimson. Abdomen, above, dirty buff ; beneath, 

 golden yellow with black dots. 



" Habitat, Cape York, N.E. New Holland, Darnley 

 Island, Torres Straits." 



See Westwood, Cabinet of Oriental Entomology, page 

 23, plate 11. 



De Haan, " de Verscheidenheid van Priamus, afgebeeld 

 in de Reis van Freycinet,"* thus characterises a species 

 which is either Poseidon or Pronomus : — 



" Kleiner den Priamus, heeft zij 6' vlugt. Op de boven- 

 vleugels de bruine vlek onder de middelader langer, 

 beginnende reeds aan de Vierde ader. De middelader is 

 groen gezoomd. De ondervleugels hebben op het groene 

 veld geene zwarte punten. Aan de onderzijd toonen de 

 bovenvleugels en de middelcel eene groen vlek, welke 

 derselver half lengte bereikt, en de groen vlekken tusschen 

 de eerste de aders zijn door eenen breederen zwarten 



• The varieties of Priamus, from figures in the " Voyage of de Freycinet," pi. 83, 

 , s . 3, page 183. 



band van elkander afgezonderd. De analhoek der tweede 

 vleugels is geel, met eene Kleine zwarte vlek ; het middel- 

 vlak is geelachtig groen ; de goudgele randvlekken 

 tusschen de eerste aders ontbreken ; de zes zwarte 

 vlekken zijn Kleiner." 



" This species is smaller than Priamus, and has an 

 expansion of wings of six inches ; the upper wings with a 

 brown spot under the middle vein longer, and beginning 

 at the fourth vein (or branch) ; the middle vein is sprinkled 

 with green ; the under wings have no black spots in the 

 grass-green area ; on the under surface the front wings 

 have the middle cell showing a green spot, which extends 

 half its length, and the green spots between the veins are 

 separated from each other by a wider black band ; the 

 anal angle of the second (lower) wing is yellow, with a 

 small black spot ; the central spot is yellowish-green ; 

 the golden yellow marginal spots between the first veins 

 are missing ; the six black spots are smaller. 



Wallace (Trans. Linn. Soc, Vol. xxv., page 36) notes 

 some Ornithoptera from Dorey, Salwatty, on the south- 

 west coast of New Guinea, taken by himself, as var. b. of 

 Poseidon, and remarks : " these agree very closely with 

 0. Poseidon as figured by Westwood ; they differ indi- 

 vidually in the same manner as the last, and also in the 

 length of the lower discocellular nervure on the under 

 wings. They have generally no golden spots beneath the 

 wings. They vary also in the outline of the under wings, 

 the outer and anal angles being more acute in some speci- 

 mens than in others. Some have the under wings of a 

 uniform green entirely without spots, while others have a 

 range of black spots more or less fully developed." 



Mr. Sidney Olliff, of the Australian Museum, in his 

 interesting little Entomological pamphlet on Australian 

 butterflies, p. 39, says " At Darnley Island, when in the 

 Chevert, Mr. W. Macleay obtained the larva of the form 

 of 0. Priamus known as O. Poseidon, and I find that 

 agrees in every particular with the caterpillar of the form 

 0. Pronomus, recently described by Mr. Matthew, from 

 Thursday Island. Indeed there appears to be very little 

 difference, except in minute points of colour, between 

 these larvae and that of the very distinct species 0. 

 Urvilliana from the Duke of York Iskmds." 



To this it may be said that the close similarity or 

 apparent identity of two or more caterpillars may not 

 always be found to prove that they will all produce the 

 same species, though we generally assume that they will ; 

 for example, the larvae of the European geometer moth 

 Abraxas glossulariata, so common in many parts of 

 England, varies only a little in colour and markings 

 among a large number of examples, but the imagosor 

 perfect insects are subject to a very considerable variation 

 in depth of colour and arrangements of the markings of 

 the wings, so that we rarely find two examples that are 

 absolutely alike ; and occasionally the amount of differ- 

 entiation is so great that if they were brought from a 

 distant country, and their life history unknown the extreme 

 varieties would be accommodated with a distinct specific 

 name. And again, ad contra, there are considerable 

 differences between the larvae of the Noctuid species 

 Acronycta psi and A. tridens, while it is really difficult, if 

 not impossible, to separate the species from a long series 

 of the perfect insects, though some people think they can 

 do so. 



The ? 2 of Poisedon and its allies vary so much more 



