* PLATE DXLI. 



Papilio Artaxerxes. Jon. M. S.—Pi6l. 6. tab. 44. fig. fi. 



Hesperia Artaxerxes: alis integerrimis nigris: anticis pun&o 

 medio albo, pofticis runs, fubtus margine albo 

 rufo punaato. Fabr. Ent. Syft. T. 3. p. I. 297. 

 129. 



Lycena Artaxerxes. Fabr* Syft. Glqffat. 



To the great aftoniihment of our Englim Collectors of Natural 

 Hiftory in the vicinity of the metropolis, Papilio Artaxerxes, an infe6t 

 heretofore efteemed of the higheft poflible rarity, has been lately 

 found in no very inconfiderable plenty in Britain : for this interesting 

 difcovery we are indebted to the fortunate refearches of our young and 

 very worthy friend, W. E. Leach, Efq. who met with it common on 

 Arthur's Seat near Edinburgh, and alfo on the Pentland Hills. 



A difcovery fo interefting in the annals of Entomology defervei 

 efpecial notice, because Papilio Artaxerxes was not merely efteemed 

 rare in this country ; on the continent it appears to be totally un- 

 known : their Entomologifts, till the time of Fabricius, have not men- 

 tioned it, nor had Fabricius himfelf ever feen an example of the 

 fpecies ; he derived his information folely from a drawing by the hand 

 of W. Jones, Efq. of Chelfea. The extreme accuracy of that deli- 

 neation, it muft be indeed allowed, would render it unneceffary for 

 Fabricius to confult the infect from which it was pourtrayed, but the 

 circumftance is mentioned in order to prove the rarity of the fpecies 

 as an European infeft ; and we cannot, it is prefumed, afford a more 

 decifive teftimony of its intereft in this refped than in ftating Fabricius, 

 its original defcriber, had never feen it. 



Papilio Artaxerxes is by no means striking in appearance ; it be- 

 comes important from the general eftimation of its fcarcity, and its claim 

 to connderation in this view is indubitable. In the beft of the Englim 



cabinets, 



