LEPIDOPTERA. 
9i 
The Swallow-Tailed Group,— Family Papilionidje. 
This immense family includes the giant Ornithoptera, or bird-winged butter¬ 
flies of the tropics, the swallow-tails, Apollo butterflies, whites, brimstones, and 
many others. As mentioned above, this family and the next are characterised by 
the possession of six perfect legs in both sexes. The chrysalids of the present 
family are suspended by the tail and girdled with a thread of silk. The largest of 
the butterflies ( Ornithoptera ) belonging to this family measure nearly a foot across 
the expanded wings. The typical members of the family are the swallow-tails 
(.Papilionince ), which are large butterflies characterised generally by the presence of 
a long tail-like process to the hind- 
wings. Occasionally, however, as 
in the female of Papiliomerope, 
these appendages are wanting. 
The two uppermost figures of the 
illustration on p. 90 exhibit the 
scarce swallow-tail (P. podalirius), 
which is a large, strong insect with 
triangular front wings, and a long 
tail at the lower angle of the 
hinder pair. In colour the wings 
are pale yellow, with oblique trans¬ 
verse black bars. This splendid 
butterfly, although common in 
Southern Europe, North Africa, 
West Asia, and Persia, is only very 
rarely taken in England. The larvae 
feed on leaves of the sloe, apple, 
plum, and other orchard trees. The 
common swallow-tail (P. machaon) 
was formerly very abundant in the 
fen districts of England, but since 
these have been drained it has 
become scarcer. The four wings 
are sulphur-yellow, black at their 
base, with black veins, and hinder 
pair of the same colour, with a band black-veined white, with larva and chrysalis. 
of blue towards the margin, and a 
red spot on the inner angle, close to where the tail springs. The larva feeds on the 
common carrot. This species has a very wide range, occurring in the Kashmir 
Himalaya. Of the royal swallow-tail ( Tinopalpus imperialis), from Sikhim, a 
figure is given in No. 2 from the top left-hand corner of the coloured Plate. The 
females are less brilliantly coloured than the males, and have a pair of tails to each 
liind-wing. 
The whites, clouded yellows, orange-tips, brimstones, etc., represent the second 
subfamily ( Pierince ) of this assemblage, in which there are no tails to the hind- 
