PAPILIONIN"^. 
197 
lace/ have treated it with more or less detail from tliis point of 
view. 
Tropical South America is richest in these fine insects, and next 
to it stands the Malayan Archipelago, the two regions together yield- 
ing nearly half the known species. Tropical Asia is considerably less 
productive, except along the Himalaya, having produced about seventy 
species. The Ethiopian Kegion (including twelve from Madagascar 
and the Mascarene Islands) has hitherto yielded sixty-two. In com- 
parison with the foregoing, the Palaearctic and ISTearctic Eegions and 
the Australian continent are exceedingly poor, each producing under 
twenty species. 
Nearly all the species of Fajnlio are above the middle size, 
and many of them very large butterflies. The smallest known kind 
appears to be F. Triopas, Godt., from Cayenne and the Lower Amazons, 
which expands rather under 2^ inches ; while the largest, P. Antimachus, 
Drury, from the Gaboon and Cameroons, measures 7-g- to inches 
across the wing. 
The African species are conveniently arranged in nine groups, repre- 
sented by the following well-known species, viz., P. Poclalirius, Linn, 
(not Ethiopian ; — P. Policenes, Cram., typical in Africa), P. Leonidas, 
Fab., P. Demoleus^ Linn., P. Nireus, Linn., P. Ilerope, Cram., P. Hesperus^ 
Westw., P. Zenobia, Eab., P. Anterior, Drury, P. Antimachus, Drury. 
All but the last two groups have representatives in South Africa, and 
may be distinguished as follows : — 
Group i. — Policenes, Cram., representative. Sexes alike. Head 
broad, tufted frontally ; antennae short, with a thick abruptly-formed 
club. Fore-wings very produced apically, so as to have a long hind- 
margin and a short inner margin ; hind- wings very produced inferiorly, 
and with a long, almost straight, sword-shaped tail on third median 
nervule ; inner-marginal fold of hind-wings in J often supporting a 
long brush of radiating hair. Black, with common sub-basal stripes, 
a discal macular band, and a submarginal row of spots, pale green. 
(Four species : P. Policenes, Cram., P. Anthetcs, Cram., P. Portliaon, 
He wits, P, Colonna, Ward.) 
Group 2. — Leonid.as, Fab., representative. Near Group i. Sexes 
alike. Head broader ; antennae stouter, with broader more abruptly- 
formed club. Fore-wings with apical portion much elongated, but 
rounded off ; hind-margin much more concave in middle ; inner margin 
considerably longer ; first branch of subcostal nervure very short and 
slender, running into costal nervure. Hind-wings rounded, not (or but 
and exceedingly numerous sub-sections ; and the small value of some of these may be esti- 
mated from the fact that the S Papilio Merope is placed in Sub-section C. of Section Iv,, 
while its 9 , P. Hippocoon, figures in Sub-section B. of Section Ivii. 
^ "On the Phenomena of Variation and Geographical Distribution, as illustrated by 
the Papilionidca of the Malayan region" {Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., xxv., 1865). 
