3 6 



I am also under great obligation to Dr. A. Francis 

 Walker, F.Z.S., &c., for the privilege making one of his 

 two examples of the ? of this beautiful species the subject 

 of my figs. He will please to accept my thanks for his 

 kindness in the loan of the specimen, and for the knowledge 

 gained by an examination of the four examples of the 6* in 

 his very fine museum. 



Also to Messrs. Goodman and Salvin for liberal access 

 to their noble collection of diurnal Lepidoptera. 



Mr. Wallace, in Trans. Linn. Society, vol. xxv. p. 37, briefly 

 describes a local form " a'' of the <? from Ternate, which 

 is probably the same as I have described above from 

 Hewitson's coll. ; also of a ? from Gilolo or Djilolo in 

 which " the white markings on all the wings are so 

 large as almost to fill up all the spaces between the veins, 

 the lower part of the discoidal cell in both upper and 

 under wings being occupied with a whitish patch ; " and he 



adds " this well marked local form is no doubt peculiar to 

 Gl olo and the small adjacent islands, as the original is to 

 Batchian." The 6* is undoubtedly a transitional form 

 between Crcesus and Felder's Lydius ; but it may be 

 possible to show hereafter that the ? belongs to some 

 distinct species. 



As such a remarkable difference obtains between the 

 numerous specimens of this species now in our collections, 

 as regards the depth and intensity of the orange colour 

 of the S $ , i.e. from the lightest yellow with a red tint, to 

 the deep orange of Hewitson's specimens, it is not im- 

 probable that ultimately, as we obtain more material from 

 the localities of this and the following species, we shall 

 have to consider them as only meriting the single name 

 of Crcesus. At present, as will be seen in the next article, 

 the 5 of Lydius is so abnormal in appearance as to con- 

 siderably stand in the way, at least till the species is found 

 to be dimorphic. 



O. (PRIAMOPTERA) LYDIUS. 



Papilio Lydius, Felder Reise, Nov. Lep. I. p. 9. n. 5. t. 3 a, b. 1865 * 



* [Date 0/ the 2 figs, in this work, 1864.] 



Ornithoptera Priamus, var. lydius, Fickert, Ueber die Zeichnungsverhaltnisse der Gatt. Ornith. p. 711. taff. xx, f. 5. J [theft*, is reduced, and uncoloured.j 



0. Lydius, Oberthiir, Etudes d'Entom. [Cat. Raisonne de Papilionidas de la Coll. de Ch. Oberthiir]. p. 30. 



Papilio Priamus, v. Lydius, W. F. Kirby Syn. Cat. of Diurnal Lepidoptera p. 518. 1871. 



0. Priamus, var. Lydius, Staudinger und Schatz, Exotische Schmetterlinge, Band 2, p. 4 (1888). 



When Mr. Wallace discovered P. Crcesus it might well 

 have been thought that the ne plus ultra of splendour in 

 the forms of the Ornithoptera had been at last reached. 

 An insect that must have flashed in the sunshine like a 

 living flame at one moment and a brillant emerald at 

 another, could not expect to be surpassed in glory of 

 colour ! But Nature has always surprises in store for her 

 lovers, however much they may think they know of her. 

 In other words we may always be certain that however 

 wonderful may be the revelations of the Creator's mind, 

 there are ever greater held in store for us ! All we have to 

 do is to be ready to receive them, and reverently and 

 gratefully to adore the revealer. 



The species now claiming our attention is remarkable 

 for the fact that its splendour is more intense and wonder- 

 ful, the amount of contrast between the glowing orange 

 and the sunny lemon is greater, and the colour interfer- 

 ence is more developed in the male than in the 

 corresponding sex of Crcesus; while the female is quite 



unlike any other ? of the Priamus group, so much so 

 that below we shall have to suggest a special explanation 

 of the phenomenon. We may readily differ in our 

 opinion as to whether Lydius is a var. of Crcesus, or 

 the reverse. One thing is certain, that they are very 

 closely allied : being only local forms derived from 

 some common ancestor, the 2 of the present species 

 having been considerably modified in pattern to meet 

 some necessity of its environment. 



As the original description of this species by Felder is 

 in Latin, and I have, through the generosity of the Hon. 

 W. Rothschild, the privilege of re-figuring Lydius from 

 Felder's types, I thought it would be more useful to 

 redescribe the species, for the benefit of English students 

 who might not wish to wade through a long and masterly 

 description in Latin and German. This must be my 

 apology for going over ground that has already been 

 trodden by so able and profound an Entomologist as 

 Herr Rudolf Felder. 



