LEPIDOPTERA. 
§7 
admiral {L. Camilla), its wings being brown with a row of lunate orange marks 
near the hinder margin of the lower wings. The arrangement of the white bars 
on the upper wings is the same as that of the British form, but these are almost 
obliterated in the male sex. The under side is of a beautiful orange-yellow colour, 
broken with white, and elsewhere suffused with various shades of purplish and 
bluish grey. 
Closely allied to the admirals are the mango-butterflies ( Euthalia ), which are 
almost entirely confined to India, the Malay Peninsula, and the adjacent islands. 
They measure from 2 to 4 inches across the wings, and the larvae feed on the 
leaves of the mango. An illustration of the black mango-butterfly (Eu. lubentina) 
will be found on the coloured Plate, No. 2 from the top right corner. The 
emperors {Apatura) are widely distributed over the world, except in Africa. Two 
species alone are found in Europe, and these are much more brilliant insects than 
the majority of the temperate species. The caterpillars are not hairy, but smooth, 
and bear a pair of horns on the 
head, as also does the chrysalis. 
In Britain the purple emperor 
(A. iris) is confined to the 
southern counties of England. 
Its strong purple-shot, white- 
banded wings, 3 inches in expanse, 
carry it with a grand sweeping 
flight far above the highest oak- 
trees, whence it descends, alas 
for imperial predilection, to a 
savoury banquet of putrid flesh, 
set out in some suitable locality. 
The caterpillar feeds upon the 
sallow, and the perfect insect 
appears in July. 
Passing over many genera, 
containing some of the loveliest 
foreign forms, we reach the sub¬ 
family Morphines, in which the 
caterpillars are remarkable for 
their bifurcate tail and notched 
or bifid head. The species of the 
genus are giant butter¬ 
flies of almost every hue, the 
most conspicuous being of a 
dazzling metallic sky-blue. Their long, satiny wings bear them aloft far out of 
the reach of the collector’s net. I 11 the annexed illustration is figured, from the 
under side, the resplendent ptolemy (Morplto neoptolemus). The upper side is 
rich black brown, with broad transverse blue bands, shot with delicate lilac across 
both wings. A pair of white spots are conspicuous on the tip of the fore-wing. 
We have now to briefly notice a number of much less brightly coloured 
RESPLENDENT PTOLEMY (nat. size). 
