Rhopalocera. 
Lepidoptera - 
-INSECTS.- 
255 
Ijim the finest combinations in that difficult branch of 
art colouring.’’* 
From the same book another anecdote may be given, 
which shows Stothard’s love of butterflies in an ento- 
mologist’s aspect. When painting the great staircase 
at Burleigh for the Marquis of Exeter, among the visi- 
tors “ was a certain dignitary of the church, who often 
joined Stothard on his summer evening rambles. On 
one occasion he happened to go out with his nippers 
and his net to catch butterflies and insects, when his 
clerical friend thought it became him to read him, very 
gravely, a lecture on the cruel and unchristian-like 
practice to which he was addicted. This reproof was 
received with meekness ; when going on a little further 
they came to a piece of water. The fish were making 
bubbles and rings in it by darting up to the surface to 
catch the flies. “Bless me !” exclaimed the divine, 
“ how plenty the fish are here ; I wish I had my rod 
with me.” Are you an angler, Mr. Stothard?” “ No,’’ 
replied Stothard, “ I have some doubts about angling, 
whether it may not be a cruel and unchristian-like 
practice, when we think of the worm, the hook, and 
the fish.”* 
The profusion of species of Butterflies on the Ama- 
zon about Ega and Santarem, where Mr. H. W. Bates 
has collected for many years, is surprising. Some of 
these Butterflies, such as the green Celoenis Dido and 
the tailed Theda Marsyas, are in profusion, while 
others are seldom met with to excite the attention or 
reward the diligence of the collector, who watches 
newly-opening flowers to catch such rarities as maj' 
settle on them. 
LEPIDOPTERA DIURNA— RHOPALOCERA 
(Butterjiies or Day-flying Lepidoptera). 
The first great section of the Lepidoptera contains 
the Butterflies, which are known to everybody by 
head-mark. Naturalists know them by many charac- 
ters, the chief of which is that the a-ntennse gradually 
thicken into a club at the end, whence they have derived 
one of their names — Rhopaloccra.-\ 
The following lines, written by Wordsworth in 1801, 
and placed in the edition of 1841 among the poems 
referring to the period of childhood, express much that 
every child has felt, though it took a great poet, but a 
simple-minded man, to write them : — ■ 
“ Stay near me — do not take thy flight — ' 
A little longer stay in sight. 
Much converse do I find in thee. 
Historian of my infancy. 
Float near me, do not yet depart, 
Dead times revive in thee ; 
Thou bring’st, gay creature as thou art, 
A solemn image to my heart — 
My father’s family. . . . 
Oh 1 pleasant, pleasant were the days— 
The time when in our childish plays 
My sister Emmeline and I 
Together chased the butterfly : 
A very hunter did I rush 
Upon the prey. With leaps and springs 
I followed on from brake to bush ; 
But she, God love her, feared to brush 
The dust from off its wings.” 
Family— PAPILIONID^. 
In the family Papilionida;,\ of which the Swallow- 
tail butterfly {Papilio Machaon) is a characteristic 
indigenous species, the wings are ample, and the dis- 
coidal cells are always closed ; the median nervule has 
apparently four branches, and the anterior tibiae have a 
stout spur about the middle, two characters which are 
* Life of Thomas Stothard, R.A., with personal reminiscences 
by Mrs. Bray, pp. 31, 32. 
^ a club ; and a horn. 
t The characters and much information about the various 
families of Diurnal Lepidoptera are derived from Doubleday, 
Hewitson, and Westwood’s Genera of Diurnal Lepidoptera. 
found in no other family. The larva is furnished with 
two retractile tentacula on the prothoracic segment, 
which the creature has the power of extending when 
irritated, evidently for the purpose of defence, as at 
that time they emit an aromatic but generally dis- 
agreeable odour. The chrysalis is braced, with the 
head bifid, square, or rounded, but never pointed. 
The finest and largest of the group have been placed 
in a genus named Ornithoptera, the species of which 
are found chiefly in the eastern Asiatic islands. The 
larva and pupa of the genus were first made known by 
the venerable Dr. Horsfield, who resided so long in 
Java, and did so much to investigate the natural his- 
tory of that fine island. The pupa has the peculiarity 
of not being surrounded by a transverse band, but is 
supported by a silken thread on each side, which is 
attached to a small lateral tubercle. 
In this genus comes the noble Priamus butterfly, 
the male of which has the front wings of a rich velvet 
black, with splendid satin green markings, the green 
varying in different lights ; the hind wings are green, 
with orange and black markings. The females of this, 
and indeed of most of the species, are brown, with 
dull white or yellowish markings. It is a native of 
Amboyna. 
P. Poseidon is a closely allied species, which was 
found on the voyage of H.M.S. Fly\)y Messrs. Jukes 
and John Macgillivray. It flew very high amongst 
the groups of cocoa-nut trees on Darnley Island be- 
tween New Guinea and Australia. The specimens 
they obtained are now in the British Museum. They 
were procured from the natives, who catch them and 
secure them by one end of a long thread, while they 
fasten the other end of the thread to their hair, allow- 
ing the butterflies to flutter round their heads. Mr. Gray 
has very lately described, under the name of Crcesus, a 
very fine Butterfly, in which, among other characters, 
the green of the Priamus is replaced by a fine yellow, 
which in certain lights is shot with tinges of green. 
’’’ Life of Thomas Stothard, <fec., p. 38. 
