LE PPDGOP TE fA. 

PAPILIO RHETENOR. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER 
AND 
SYNONYMS. 
Wings indented: above fhining blue; beneath clouded, and marked with brown {pots. 
Papitio Ruetenor. Cram. Inf. 6. tab. 15. fig. A. B. 
Sulz. Hift. Inf. tab. 13. fig. 1. 
Sulz. et Roem. p. 08. 
Papitio Menexaus: alis dentatis: fupra ceeruleis nitidiffimis, fubtus nebulofis: punétis fufcis. 
Linn. Syft. Nat. 2. 748. 20. 

Moft naturalifts are undetermined whether Papilio Menelaus and the fuppofed variety, Papilio Rhetenor, 
fhould not be confidered diftin&t fpecies. The colour of the upper fide is nearly the fame in both infects; 
but the under fides are very different. The Linnzan defcription of the male, P. Menelaus, agrees with 
Papilio Rhetenor, and probably he confidered them the two fexes of one infe@&. Fabricius would certainly 
have made a new fpecies of it, if he had not been of the fame opinion. We have both infects before us, 
and fhould moft affuredly make a new fpecies of P. Rhetenor, as Cramer and Sulzer have done, if the 
authority of the laft work of Fabricius were not oppofed to us. 
Papilio Menelaus is a native of South America. Sulzer’s fpecimen of Papilio Rhetenor came from 
China. Foreign Entomologifts, for this and other reafons, have confidered them diftinét {pecies. The 
curious in infects, fays Cramer, call this butterfly Le Satimé bleu oblong, to diftinguith it from P. Menelaus, 
or Le Satiné bleu vulgaire —Cramer has alfo given a third and much f{maller kind of thefe blue butterflies, 
Pap. Adonis, which F abricius alfo confiders a variety of Menelaus. 
Whatever effet the artift can produce by a combination of the moft brilliant colours employed in 
painting, he muft fhrink from comparifon of it with this {plendid creature. It is impoffible to find in any 
part of the animal creation colours more beautiful or changeable. Pale blue is the principal colour, but 
new tints meet the eye in every direction, varying from a filvery green to the deepeft purple; and the 
whole furface glittering with the refplendence of highly polifhed metal. 


















