May, 1927 
The Queensland Naturalist. 
37 
insect if tile situation allows such, holding up the end, 
and the butterfly or moth then flies upward, and with a 
rapid sweep and twist of the net it is secured. 
Papilio Aegeus Aegeus, Donovaar- 
This is the largest of our local butterflies. It is 
sexually dimorphic. The male having been described as 
P. erectheus and female P. aegeus by one of our earlier 
naturalists, the latter - name takes precedence as being 
first. 
The figures on the plates give a good general idea of 
its markings. The fore-wings of male are black, with 
white incisions, and a sub-apical band of white spots with 
slight creamy tinge. Hind wings also black, with white 
incisions, and a large central row of creamy white spots, 
divided by the nervures into six segments. There is also 
a tornal spot of bright orange red, more or less blue 
scaled above. The under-side is brighter as regards 
colour, being ornamented with a sub-marginal row of 
bright red spots followed by another of shining blue, 
more or less crescentic in shape, and again by a similar 
row of shining grey-green spots ; all these are very variable 
in size and colour, being sometimes very bright and distinct 
in some specimens; in others indistinct and wanting in 
rich colour, the orange, for instance, being dull, bricky 
red. The white sub-apical band of upper surface in fore- 
wings is reproduced, but the discal patch of liind-v ings is 
absent. But the chief beauty of the male is on the upper 
surface, which in perfect specimens is of an intense black, 
dusted all over with shining steely blue scales. In others 
the black is thickly sprinkled with coppery brown scales, 
especially along the nervures. The greater part of under- 
side is black, with blue gloss. 
The general colour of forewings in female is brownish 
at base and grey apically, but the latter sharply defined 
by the nervures, which are of same hue as the base ; the 
apex of cell has a large, irregular spot of grey _ The 
hind wings are basally brown, but towards margins ai e 
broadly black with incisions white tinged more or less 
with ochreous. Then follows a sub-marginal row of seven 
bright red lunate spots and a discal of four or more shin- 
ing blue. A large, irregular white spot occupies the centre 
of disk, reaching dorsum, above red tornal spot. The 
* Aegeus. — King of Athens, after whom the Aegean Sea is 
said to have been named; lived some 1200 years B.C. 
