48 
PAPILIO ASTERIOIDES. 
ilie geographical range of Asterius and congeners is as follows : — the ordinary form of 
Asterius, with but little variation, occurs from Canada to Florida, inclusive, and from Maine 
westward to the Rocky Mountains ; in Newfoundland is Brevicauda; the southern coast of 
Labrador and Island ot Anticosti produce Anticostiensis ; Colorado, and probably other of the 
western territories, has Indra and Asterius, and, finally, in Mexico and Central America are 
Asterioides and Sadalus. 
P. Bairdii, another variety or closely allied species, which I have not yet had opportunity 
to closely examine, was taken also in Mexico. 
In view' of the above premises, I must adhere to my first belief^ that Indra and Sad- 
alus are true species ; Asterioides, I have not a particle of doubt, is the tropical form of Asterius, 
and Anticostiensis may be the sub- Arctic, Avhilst Brevicauda, if it be not identical with the 
latter, is a segregated type peculiar to Newfoundland. 
It is curious to note, that whilst Asterius, occupying a vast extent of country lying inter- 
mediate between those in which Anticostiensis and Asterioides, Ac., are found, should have 
the macular bands on wings of female almost obsolete, whilst the contrary is the case in the 
extreme northern and southern forms which unite in the peculiarity of the female having the 
bands of as great and greater width than in the male. Thus it is strange to see hoAV extremes; 
meet, and how W'onderfully, like “ a circle that ever returneth into the self-same spot,” are 
the works of nature brought to harmonize under the unerring direction of the Great Master. 
All my examples of Asterius d ? from Peninsular Florida are without the round black 
spot situated in the division of macular band of primaries nearest the costa ; in all the 
specimens of Asterius from other localities that I have ever seen, also of Indra, Sadalus and 
Anticostiensis this spot is prominent, in the majority of instances it is so large as to divide the 
yellow space into two parts. 
The macular band of primaries in the d Asterius above alluded to, from Florida, is of 
greater width than in any examples I have yet seen from other localities. The females present 
no other differences from examples found elsewhere than in the absence of the black spot 
alluded to. 
Three other curious varieties of Asterius have came under my observation ; the first, and 
perhaps most remarkable of which, is the one described by Mr. Grote under the name of 
Papilio Calverleyi,* from a male captured in Queens County, Long Island, August, 18G3; a 
female Avas subsequently taken by Mr. T. L. Mead in Florida. It is a beautiful insect, the 
same size and form as Asterius, and with the same dorsal and lateral spots on the body; the 
wings have the basal halt black and the outer halt yellow 7 , inclining to orange on a portion of 
the secondaries ; a very narrow black marginal band ; faint indications of sub-marginal lunules. 
Lnder surface nearly the same as above, but with more orange on secondaries; male and 
female resemble each other closely. Messrs. W. H. Edw'ards and Grote contend it is distinct 
from Asterius ; for my part, I think it a most interesting variety of that species. 
The second example in Mr. T. L. Mead’s collection is an undoubted female, but is 
marked precisely as in the male. 
*Grote, Proc. Ent. Soc., Phil., II, p. 441, (18G4.) 
Mead, Am. Nat., Ill, p. 332, <?• (1869.) 
