it 



wing— sometimes nearly or quite absent. One example 

 from Lizard Island has all the wings nearly melanistic. 

 The anterior wing has really only 6 marks, and the 

 posterior wing only 3 accuminate marks almost obsolete, 

 and 3 sordid yellow submarginal patches. Hab. Queens- 

 land. 



The other examples of the type form Poseidon in the 

 British Museum may be thus tabulated : 



A ? . Very large bold marks in the cell, and on the 

 wing generally : the cell spots are well dusted with 

 atoms. The posterior wings bright grey-white, with nearly 

 equal sized subconical spots, and greyish -yellow beneath, 

 or warm creamy ochraceous-white on all the wings. 



A $ . The median green line of the anterior wing only 

 moderately broad. 



A $ . Near Kirschi — very dark, with bright white marks 

 on anterior wing : the cell mark not quite as broad and 

 regular as usual. Hind wings a very rich golden yellow, 

 subdued by grey dustings below the 4 large subconical 

 black spots ; the apical spot is of the same yellow, as are 

 the fringe lunules and the abdomen. Hab. Waigiou, 

 Dr. Platen. 



Twos 2 from Salwatty are lighter. The examples from 

 the Entrecasteaux Islands have the white marks of the 

 general size, but more subdued by the grey atoms ; in 

 one example the anterior wing-spots are almost obsolete. 



A <? from New Guinea is larger than the Australian 

 2 2 , with a broader median green vein line on the 

 anterior wing than usual. 



A 2 from the same locality with the hind wing yellow, 

 like Kirschi. 



Two 2 2 from Dorey with the posterior wings above 

 white and reddish-yellow : the cell marks of the anterior 

 wings strongly excised towards the base. 



The examples of the 2 2 from the Arfak Mountains of 

 New Guinea are very large: the 6* 6" are more like those 

 of A mana ; but one from Waigiou on the under surface 

 resembles Cassandra. 



There are also 5 females with their anterior cell-spots 

 large and more or less excised ; one is more square and 

 dusted Avith grey atoms. 



The <? $ from Duke of York Island are very large, and 

 very golden green on the under surface of the posterior 

 wings : the green subcostal band is narrow, and regular 

 in breadth ; the submarginal green band is broad and 

 undivided by the veinlets, in one example nearly to the 

 apex. 



Of 2 2 2 from Torres Straits, one example must be 

 referred to Aruana. One S from the same locality with 

 2 obliquely-placed elongated black spots on the hind 

 wing subdued by atoms ; the other examples with 3 orbi- 

 cular discal black spots. 



A 2 from Wokau (Aru Islands) with the anterior cell- 

 mark occupying nearly the whole area — being very large, 

 and continued by bluish-grey atoms towards the base. 



The 6* var. Oceanus, Felder, from the Aru Islands, is 

 bluish-green, with only one black discal oval mark. 



The females of Archideus are generally very large, and 

 warm reddish-brown in colour on all the wings — becoming 

 very light reddish-brown towards the apex of the anterior 

 wings : — still lighter on the same portion of the under 

 surface — though the rest of the wing area on the under 



surface is darker brown towards the base ; the posterior 

 wings on the same surface are almost equally light rufous- 

 brown from the base, and the darker parts are normally 

 dark brown on the submarginal areas. The result is that 

 on the under surface the veins all stand up very con- 

 spicuously on all the wings, but are barely visible on the 

 upper surface, except in the light or reddish-grey discal 

 area of the posterior wings — the grey being densely sub- 

 dued by the rufous-brown scales. The discocellular patch 

 is very large — and transversely straight on the basal side, 

 as in most of the forms of 0. Poseidon ; all the other 

 marks are large or prominent, and are all intensely sub- 

 dued by the rufous-brown atoms or scales. The size, 

 shape and number of the marks on the underside are the 

 same, but warm creamy-grey, with little or no scaling ; 

 on the posterior wings the discal light area is of the same 

 tint, but the apical mark, the next below, and all the 

 spaces below the discal black subconical spots are a 

 delicate ochraceous orange, sparsely scaled : — in some 

 examples this orange is not dusted or scaled. Two 

 examples before me from Waigiou, one in the coll. of 

 Mr. H. Grose-Smith, and the other in my own, answer 

 exactly to this description. 



A 2 of Poseidon in Mr. H. Grose-Smith's collection 

 from Waigiou (Wallace) is very dark brown on the upper 

 side — the veinlets scarcely visible ; the discocellular mark 

 is transversely long, rather narrow, and nearly straight on 

 both sides ; all the other marks are very pure in their 

 creamy-grey tone, and very prominent ; the hind wing 

 has a small light spot at the end of the cell, and the 

 discal light area is delicately graduated by the rufous- 

 brown scales till, below the discal black spots, it is an 

 equally-toned greyish rufous-brown. The marks on the 

 underside are similar — but the light discal area of the 

 hind wings is delicately suffused with lemon-orange. 



Another 2 in the same collection from Stevensort 

 Interior, one of Wallace's specimens, and one from Cape 

 York, in the Hope Museum at Oxford, are similar in 

 pattern : but the anterior cell-marks are broader, more 

 irregular in outline, and more or less scaled ; and there is 

 no posterior white cell spot. 



Messrs. Godman and Salvin, " Proc. Zool. Soc." 1878, 

 p. 647, in their article on Butterflies from New Guinea 

 (collected by Dr. Comrie, remark : — " Some of the 2 2 of 

 Poseidon from Possession Bay, have the primaries spotless 

 brown ; others show a trace of the light-coloured spot 

 near the end of the cell. The specimens from 

 d'Entrecasteaux Islands are strongly marked, indeed as 

 much so as a 2 example of 0. Aruana. The one 6* 

 seems to agree with the typical species ot Aruana, the 

 apical angle of the secondaries being perhaps rather less 

 acute ; but the difference is very slight. Comparing this 

 with Montrouzier's description of his O. Boisdicvalii, from 

 Woodlark Island (no great distance from Dr. Comrie's 

 locality) we find it agree in every respect." These there- 

 fore are evidently examples of Rothschild's aberration 

 Brunneus. 



VAR. BRUNNEUS. 



Troidei Priamus Poseidon, s ab, brunneus, Walter Rothschild, "Novitates 

 Zoologies," Vol. II., p. 189 (1895). 



2 . Anterior wings entirely spotless dark brown above, 

 with a slight very faint clouding of the portion of 

 the disc around the 3 median nervules ; the veins 

 fairly well shown ; but the median nervure from the 



