O. (PRIAMOPTERA) CRCESUS. 



Ornithoptera Croesus, Wallace, Proc. Ent. Soc. Ser. II. vol. V. p. 70 (1859). 

 0. Croesus, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1859), p. 424, t. 68, 69. 



, Feld. Wien. Ent. Mon. III. p. 3go, n. 31. t. 6 f. I. (1859). 



0. Croesus, local form, a. Wall. Trans. Linn, Soc. XXV. p. 37. n. 3. (1865). 



0. Priamus, var. m. Crcesus, Kirby, Syn. Cat. Diurn. Lepid. p. 518 (1871). 



0. Priamus, var. Crmsus, $ Staudinger und Schatz, Exotische Schmetterlinge, Band I. t. 1. f. 3. Band 2. p. 3. (1888). 



0. Croesus, Oberthiir, Etudes d'Entom. (Cat. Raissone de Papilionidae de la Coll. de Ch. Oberthiir,) p. 30. 



0. Priamus, var. Crcesus, Dr. C. Fickert, Ueber die Zeichnungsverhaltnisse der Gattung Ornithoptera (Zoologisch, Jabiichern.) p. 709, (li 



This glorious species was taken by Mr. A. R. Wallace, 

 in the forests of Batchian, early in the year 1859. His 

 description of its discovery and capture (Malay Archi- 

 pelago, Vol. II. pp. 50-5 1) is most interesting. He tells 

 us that during his very first walk into the forest he saw, 

 sitting on a leaf out of reach, a specimen of this insect. 

 It was the 2 . He was at once anxious to secure it, and 

 find its $ which was sure to be of great beauty. Two 

 months passed by, during which he only saw it once again, 

 and soon after the $ , flying high in the air at the mining 

 village. One day about the beginning of January he saw 

 one hovering over a species of Mussamda (a shrub with 

 large white leafy bracts and yellow flowers). On the two 

 following days he succeeded in capturing first a 2 , and 

 then a <?. On taking the $ from the net, he nearly 

 fainted with excitement and pleasure — so great was its 

 beauty. For some time after that he obtained (on clearing 

 the space round this shrub) an average of one specimen a 

 day — more than half being ? ? ; and more than half of the 

 remainder in very bad condition. In a better locality he 

 obtained more than a hundred of both sexes, including 

 about 20 very fine males, though only 5 or 6 were 

 absolutely perfect. His native collector caught these 

 chiefly in the bed of a large rocky stream descending from 

 the mountains to the sea, about a mile below the village. 



Since then, of course, a fair number of specimens have 

 been brought to Europe from other localities — some of 

 them bred (of which more later on) . 



The name Crcesus was proposed by its discoverer in his 

 letter Jan. 28th, 1859, published in the Proc. Ent. Soc. 

 for that year ; but was little more than a MS name till 

 in the same year Gray described the <? and gave figs, of 

 the two sexes, at the same time adopting Mr. Wallace's 

 nomenclature, with the intimation that otherwise he would 

 have dedicated it to its discover. In the same year also 

 Felder gave Latin descriptions of the $ and ? in the 

 Wiener Entomologische Monatschrift {Lepidopterologische 

 Fragmente, pp. 23-24) with a colored plate of the $ . At 

 the time of its discovery and till more was known of it, 

 Professor Westwood thought that the $ was perhaps 

 that of Tithonus (of De Haan) figured by the latter in the 



first plate of his " Insects of the Dutch Settlements," the 

 unique specimen of which was in the Leyden Museum ; 

 and that the 2 would prove to be the 0. Victoria of 

 G. R. Gray, figured in the Proc. Linn. Soc, from a spec- 

 imen in the Brit. Museum, and taken in one of the islands 

 of E. Archipelago. But the publication of descriptions 

 and figures soon proved conclusively that a new and won- 

 derful variety of the priamus group had been revealed. 

 It may be here remarked that the $ of Felders' Pegasus is 

 shot intensely with the Crcesus reflections, though in every 

 other respect it differs ; and that the ? of pegasus on the 

 upper side bears a resemblance to the ? of Crcesus. 



From Gray's and Felder's descriptions I venture to 

 compile, with additional remarks, what, I trust, will fully 

 portray the superficial characters of this species. 



" 6*. Primaries deep black, with the anterior band 

 widening towards the middle, and of a golden orange 

 colour, this colour also represented by an abbreviated 

 band at base of inner margin, and by a few scattered 

 specks on inner and outer margins." [The black colour 

 is a warm sepia graduating from the outer margin to a 

 deep velvety black at the base.] " Secondaries of a dull 

 orange colour, with some spots of King's yellow ; this 

 difference of colour is occasioned by the semi-transparency 

 of the more decided spots of the under surface of the 

 wings when the insect is held against the light ; the base, 

 subcostal, and median nervures, first subcostal nervures, 

 and the narrow edge of the outer margin are deep black. 

 A black spot is sometimes found between the 2nd and 1st 

 discoidal nervules. Underside of primaries most like 

 that of 0. Richmondia in form of markings, but they are 

 of a rich golden green. Underside of secondaries also 

 closely approaches that of 0. Richmondia, but it is of 

 golden green, with a lengthened spot of rich King's yellow 

 above the black spot between the costal nervure and the 

 first nervule, and a small spot below the black spot ; the 

 same kind of yellow spot above and below the black spot 

 in each space between the 1st and 2nd nervules and the 

 2nd and 1st discoidal nervules ; the next two black spots 

 with a yellow spot beneath each ; in the discoidal cell is 



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