ENTOMOLOGY.
PLATE XXVII.
FIGURE I.
PAPILIO ZACYNTHUS
ZACYNTHUS’S BUTTERFLY.
Order
Lepidoptera.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob: wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings indented, black: a spot on the anterior pair green and white: and one on the posterior wings palmated and sanguineous.
Papilio Zacynthus: alis dentatis nigris: anticis macula viridi alba, posticis palmata sanguinea.—Fabr. Ent. Syst. T. 3. p. 1. p. 15. n. 46.
Papilio Zacynthus.—Jon. fig. pict. 1 tab. 22.
It cannot fail to prove satisfactory to the Naturalist to be informed that we have the same sanction for presenting the annexed figure as that of the true Papilio Zacynthus of Fabricius, as that to which we have several times adverted upon other similar occasions in the progress of the present publication, namely the hand-writing of that celebrated Entomologist, inscribed upon the original drawings of Mr. Jones. This is indeed a circumstance to which we cannot advert too frequently in our references, since it is upon that authority alone that we are now enabled to determine with any degree of precision nearly the whole of those new species of Papiliones, the existence of which has been made known throughout Europe by the classic writings of that author, but of which no other evidence is now extant; for most of the collections existing at the time Fabricius was in England, and to which he refers, have been long since dispersed, and but for the care of the late Mr. Jones of Chelsea, who had preserved these invaluable authorities to the scientific world, the labours even of Fabricius in this department had become comparatively of very little value.
Papilio Zacynthus is a species of the first family of Papiliones, the Equites Trojani. It has much the habit of Papilio Æneas, a well known insect, described by Linnæus, and which is figured by Roesel, Seba, Jablonsky, and some other authors; but upon an attentive comparison it will be found to be very different. Its great similarity renders it of more importance to point out precisely the difference that prevails between them, and this the present figure it is presumed will render distinctly obvious.
In the species P. Zacanthus the wings are black: in the middle of the first pair is a large spot composed of two distinct colours, the anterior part being white, the posterior green, but on the underside the spot appears entirely white. Papilio Æneas has also a spot of green upon the anterior wings but without any portion of white. Papilio Æneas is a native of India, Papilio Zacynthus is from the Brasils.
FIGURE II.
PAPILIO DIMAS
DIMAS’S BUTTERFLY.
Order
Lepidoptera.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob: wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings indented: above and beneath black: on the anterior pair, a white spot divided by veins: on the posterior pair a palmate sanguineous spot.
Papilio Dimas: alis dentatis concoloribus nigris anticis macula alba venis divisa, posticis sanguinea palmata.—Fabr. Ent. Syst. T. 3. p. 1. p. 16. n. 47.
Papilio Dimas—Jon. fig. pict. 1. tab. 23.
This, like the preceding, is a species we have been enabled to determine from the Fabrician MS. and the drawings of Mr. Jones. Fabricius, it appears, was not entirely decided in his mind whether the two Papiliones figured by Cramer, plate 29 fig. E, under the name of Hyppason, and that in the same plate, fig. F, named Euristeus, ought in reality to be considered as appertaining to this species; and preferring the name of Dimas which had been previously given to it by Mr. Jones, he has described it under that name, allowing the references to Cramer, above quoted, to remain as synonyms. The Naturalist may rely with implicit confidence upon its being the Papilio Dimas of Jones and Fabricius.
This is rather larger than the former, the general colour black: on the anterior wings, in the middle, is a large white spot, so situated upon the junction of the ribs that they pass distinctly through it and give the appearance of a spot cleft at the sutures. The sanguineous palmate spot on the posterior wings is six cleft: and besides this there is a small spot of red upon the scollops, between the dentations at the margin of the posterior wings. The colours and spots appear beneath as above, but only paler.
Papilio Dimas is a native of Brazil, and bears a near affinity to Papilio Anchises.