3-21 i 



EHOPA LOCERA MALAY AN A, 



pecnliar form, colour and distribution ,r ; but these alone can only be considered as of subgenerie 

 value, 



Ornithoptera is not an extensi% T e genus, and the difficulty of estimating the number of its 

 species is enhanced by the divergent views held by different entomologists as to whether many 

 of its members should be considered as species or varieties.* Taking the analytical view, and 

 looking at all tbe distinct forms as species, we find that these are between thirty and forty in 

 number, and are truly Eastern, or rather almost Malayan, in distribution. Ornithoptera is 

 found in Continental India, Ceylon, the Andaman Islands, Burma, the Malay Peninsula, 

 throughout tbe length and breadth of the Malayan Archipelago, — as far east as the Duke of 

 York Island and New Ireland, — and in Australia. 



There are several distinct colour types in the genus, of which the yellow and black, 

 dominant in thia fauna, is confined to tbe In do- Malayan region, whilst Q. brooheana still forms 

 a section by itself, t 



A. Outer margin of anterior wings mors or I ma nmcarrltt ain-tuite. 

 a, E.rtn iitt' Ihwx of tvinas h> nth friittjM n ith oirmina. 



* 



1. Ornithoptera rhadamanthus. (Tab. XXVII.fi, tig. 5 6", small var.) 



< >rniifw[>tct *t lUmfhunanthm, Uoisduval (part), Sp. Gen, i, p. 180, n. 8 (1880); Gosse, Trans. Zaun. Soc. acr. 2, 



Zool. vol. ii. p. 289 (1888), 

 Papilia [OmithttpUra] rhadamanthm, de, NiceV, J. A. S, Beng. vol. Hi. p. 98, n, 255 1 1888). 

 t *mitJu>pt«ra ilhadamantku* t var. Thwmomi* Bates, Thompson s Straits of Malacca, p. 546 j 1875). 



Male* Anterior wings sooty black, tbe nervulea more or leaa broadly margined with greyish, fringe 

 alternately greyish and black ; posterior wings bright and pale golden yellow, the neuration, costal margin 

 (broadest ut base), abdominal margin, and outer margin (inwardly scalloped, and with the last three* 

 scalloped spots divided by the median nervules inwardly margined with powdery fuscous) black. Wings 

 beneath as above, but anterior \viug& with the greyish markings more distinct than above, and tinged with 

 yellowish towards Inner margin; posterior wings wita tbe powdery fuscous near anal angle much less 

 distinct than above, and with two contiguous black spots above anal angle; extreme bases of both wings 

 beneath edged with carmine. Head and pronotum black, the lust with a narrow anterior carmine collar ; 

 abdomen above fuscous, with the segmental incisures ochraceous and the anal valves greyish; thorax 

 beneath and legs black ; abdomen beneath yellow. 



* Prof. Westwood has ruade some true observations ou this point: — "Another difficulty, unknown to the older 



writers has arisen from die exploration of numerous adjacent localities, which, whilst it haw added greatly to our 



knowledge of now and quite distinct species, has also shown that the wide geographical range of a species fa often attended 

 with thy developing ut of slightly modi tied metis, which havo by some writers been mdiifurenily regarded as distinct species, 

 or have been sunk lit the rank of loeal varieties. Thus, of the gigantic types of the diurnal Lepidoptera, which, from their aizu-, 

 have been well named Ornithnptvru-a. and which are natives of the Last, we find the single species Papilia Priamm, in 

 Mr. Kirby's Catalogue, lomlr to comprise not fewer than seventeen of these Local forms. These have been specifically named 

 and rug tinted by others as distinct species 1 ' (Trans. Linn. Hoc. eer. 2, Zool. vol. i. p. 1615). 



\ Amongst the most beautiful of the species may be mentioned the 0. nrvilliana, described by Guerin Meneville, in 1899. 

 from spreiintma obtained m New Ireland during the voyage of the ' CoquilW and of which nothing more was known till 

 1877. when specimens were scot Uuou it .to thai jshind by the Ik- v. G. lirowu. The male in this species is of a lovely blue 

 colour. Another splendid species is the O. crattus, discovered by Air. Wallace in the island of liatehiau, and described by that 

 naturalist, the males of which ikre *♦ velvety black and fiery orange/' Mr. Wallace describes the excitement under which he 

 Utst captured this entoiuolngical pri/.v : — " On taking si out of my net. and opening the glorious wings, my heart began to beat 

 violently, the blood rushed to my head, and I iell nine I i iimre like fainting thun I have dniie when in apprehension of 

 immediate death" ('The Malay Arcdupelugo,. '3rd ed. p. These im* the sensations of tbo searchers for 11 hid treasurea" ill 



Palestine, mid Dr. Thompson tidls us that ho has "heard of diggers actually fainting when they have come upon even a single 

 coin - i' The Land and the liook, - p, lb.l.U 



