4 3 



I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Philip Crowley, 

 of Croydon, for the opportunity of figuring this species 

 from his splendid collection. 



In the Colls, of Brit. Museum ; Messrs. Godman and 

 Salvin (where the type 2 is) ; Hon. Walter Rothschild ; 



M. Ch. Oberthiir, of Rennes ; the Author ; Mr. Crowley ; 

 Rev. Dr. Francis A. Walker ; Paris Museum, where the 

 type 3 is, Mr. C. J. Lambert, of Exeter, and many others. 



Most of the collections are enriched with a good series 

 of each sex. 



O. (PRIAMOPTERA) URVILLIANIA, Var. 



A 3 example of this species from Duke of York's 

 Island, belonging to the Hon. Walter Rothschild's col- 

 lection, is on the upper surface of a rich green blue, or 

 cerulean blue, set against the general discal black, the 

 latter being so intense by contrast as to produce a most 

 vivid effect of darkness to the eye, unrelieved by the light 

 sheen that is usually found on the black portions of many 

 of the Ornithoptera. When viewed opposite the light 

 the blue becomes very richly tinted at the edges with 

 green, and the general appearance begins to suggest a 

 close alliance with 0. Eummts, Rippon ; but if it be 

 examined against the light the lower wings become almost 

 purple blue, and the subcostal band a light dead cerulean 

 blue : more obliquely the lower wings and the marginal band 

 of the upper are violet, shot with a silvery opalescence, 

 and the subcostal band a pale dead lilac, with a sunny 

 opalescence. In some lights portions of the blue are of an 

 indescribable beauty, all of which, in every position, 

 heightens the glory of the golden yellow abdomen ; the 

 sexual brand is a very dark smoky brown, scarcely dis- 

 tinguishable in some positions from the black ; a couple 

 of orbicular black discal spots are found on the lower 

 wings between the first and second subcostal, and second 

 and discoidal branches ; as usual also the interior of the 

 discoidal cell from the base, and outward, is nearly black — 

 the blue scattered in atoms on the black, rather than the 

 black on the blue; the thoracic longitudinal mark is 

 beautifully formed, and of the splendid metallic blue green 

 I have mentioned before as found in the coleopterus 

 genera Eupholus and Cyphus, and also on the Pyrennean 

 Lamillicorne, Hoplia ccerulea. I shall give a plate for 

 the portraiture of this variety, though it is hopeless by any 

 art, however consummate, to worthily depict its marvel- 

 lous loveliness. The black of the Primaries, on the under 

 surface, is nearly as intense in some lights as above ; the 

 small discoidal blue patch, and all the blue discal marks 

 are of the same colour as above, except the long subcostal 

 streak, which is golden green — the blue marks are slightly 

 tinted green at their outer edge. The secondaries have 

 the usual 6 submarginal black spots ; the discoidal cell 

 and 5 of the spaces between the branches are blue as far 

 as the spots, the two upper spaces are green suffused with 

 blue, and all the spaces between the spots and the black 

 border are golden green. The abdominal marginal fringe 

 consists of long hairs somewhat like the light fur of some 

 vertebrate animal. 



Length of costa 84 mms. ; of antenna? or abdomen 

 32 mms. 



A ? accompanying the above var. is a very light soft 

 satiny brown colour on the Primaries, except at the outer 

 margin, the apex, and a little within the submarginal 

 white marks ; the same may be said of the secondaries, 

 except that darker brown is graduated upwards and towards 



the base till it is lost in the satiny light brown of the cell : 

 here, however, this light brown is seen through a 

 mass of long delicate hairs which extend from the base 

 and cover 2-3rds of the wing, [It is only in certain 

 positions that these hairs can be seen, and then it is found 

 that they stand up 3 or 4 mms. above the surface of the 

 wing.] Thewhite marks of the wings a sordid subdued white, 

 very indistinct in the cell of the upper wing ; in the space 

 between the 2nd and 3rd median nervules, above the 

 submarginal white wedge-shaped mark, is a peculiar semi- 

 obsolete clouded mark, somewhat like a small cirro- 

 cumulus cloud. 



The thorax is a direct contrast with the wings, being 

 black and pilose, with the structure and arrangements of the 

 hairs well defined ; this black extends from the base of 

 the wings along part of the costa, and helps to accentuate 

 the neuration, which is very strongly and boldly exhibited 

 on all the wings — though the submedian and internal 

 nervures are of the general satiny light brown of the wings. 



On the underside the primaries have the dark satiny 

 browns irregularly mixed ; the light markings very white 

 grey ; the discocellular mark much larger than on the 

 upper surface ; the fringe lunules are ochreous white. 

 The secondaries very light satiny brown ; marginal border 

 rich dark brown ; the sub-margin al spots of the same 

 colour ; the acuminate marks greyish fuscus white, the 

 two upper ones yellower ; fringe lunules of the same tint. 

 The abdomen is very robust (probably because the insect 

 was captured before she could deposit her Ova) ; light 

 grey above, a little fuscus on the last three segments, with 

 an interrupted smoky brown dorsal stripe. Subdorsal, 

 yellow, with large black lateral dots, and the segments 

 strongly defined subdorsally by black; the anal segments 

 and tuft are deeply red ochreous. 



Length of costa no mms.; of abdomen 4? mms.; 

 greatest width of abdomen 15 mms. 



Hab. Duke of York Island. 



In the museum of the Hon. Walter Rothschild, to whom 

 I am much indebted for the privilege of describing it, 

 and figuring these varieties. 



A 3 in my own museum is midway in colour between 

 the above 3 and the normal type figured in my first plate 

 from Mr. Crowley's collection, but is richly violet in one 

 position, with a pale greenish cserulean subcostal band ; 

 there are four suborbicular discal spots on the lower wing. 

 The black outer margin is very narrow on all the wings ; 

 the abdominal fringe a more burnt sienna colour than usual. 

 On the under surface of the Primaries the marks are green 

 blue, except the two upper ones, which are rich golden green 



