The exceeding richness of the Malayan region in these fine insects is seen by comparing the number of species found in the different tropical regions of the earth. From all Africa only 33 species of Papilio are known; but as several are still undescribed in collections, we may raise their number to about 40. In all tropical Asia there are at present described only 65 species, and I have seen in collections but two or three which have not yet been named. In South America, south of Panama, there are 120 species, or about the same number as I make in the Malayan region; but the area of the two countries is very different; for while South America (even excluding Patagonia) contains 5,000,000 square miles, a line encircling the whole of the Malayan islands would only include an area of 2,700,000 square miles, of which the land-area would be about 1,000,000 square miles. This superior richness is partly real and partly apparent. The breaking up of a district into small isolated portions, as in an archipelago, seems highly favourable to the segregation and perpetuation of local peculiarities in certain groups; so that a species which on a continent might have a wide range, and whose local forms, if any, would be so connected together that it would be impossible to separate them, may become by isolation reduced to a number of such clearly defined and constant forms that we are obliged to count them as species. From this point of view, therefore, the superior number of Malayan species may be considered as apparent only. Its true superiority is shown, on the other hand, by the possession of three genera and twenty groups of Papilionidæ against a single genus and eight groups in South America, and also by the much greater average size of the Malayan species. In most other families, however, the reverse is the case, the South American Nymphalidæ, Satyridæ, and Erycinidæ far surpassing those of the East in number, variety, and beauty.
The following list, exhibiting the range and distribution of each group, will enable us to study more easily their internal and external relations.
Ornithoptera.
Papilio.
Leptocircus.
This Table shows the great affinity of the Malayan with the Indian Papilionidæ, only three out of the nineteen groups ranging beyond, into Africa, Europe, or America. The limitation of groups to the Indo-Malayan or Austro-Malayan divisions of the archipelago, which is so well marked in the higher animals (see ‘Journal of Linnean Society,’ vol. iv. 172, and ‘Journal of the Royal Geographical Society,’ 1863, p. 230), is much less conspicuous in insects, but is shown in some degree by the Papilionidæ. The following groups are either almost or entirely restricted to one portion of the Archipelago:—
The remaining groups, which range over the whole archipelago, are, in many cases, insects of very powerful flight, or they frequent open places and the sea-beach, and are thus more likely to get blown from island to island. The fact that three such characteristic groups as those of Priamus, Ulysses, and Erechtheus are strictly limited to the Australian region of the archipelago, while five other groups are with equal strictness confined to the Indian region, is a strong corroboration of that division which has been founded almost entirely on the distribution of Mammalia and Birds.
If the various Malayan islands have undergone recent changes of level, and if any of them have been more closely united within the period of existing species than they are now, we may expect to find indications of such changes in community of species between islands now widely separated; while those islands which have long remained isolated would have had time to acquire peculiar forms by a slow and natural process of modification.
An examination of the relations of the species of the adjacent islands will thus enable us to correct opinions formed from a mere consideration of their relative positions. For example, looking at a map of the archipelago, it is almost impossible to avoid the idea that Java and Sumatra have been recently united; their present proximity is so great, and they have such an obvious resemblance in their volcanic structure. Yet there can be little doubt that this opinion is erroneous, and that Sumatra has had a more recent and more intimate connexion with Borneo than it has had with Java. This is strikingly shown by the mammals of these islands—very few of the species of Java and Sumatra being identical, while a considerable number are common to Sumatra and Borneo. The birds show a somewhat similar relationship; and we shall find that the group of insects we are now treating of tells exactly the same tale. Thus:—
| Sumatra | 21 sp. | 20 sp. common to both islands; |
| Borneo | 29 sp. | |
| Sumatra | 21 sp. | 11 sp. common to both islands; |
| Java | 27 sp. | |
| Borneo | 29 sp. | 20 sp. common to both islands; |
| Java | 27 sp. |
showing that both Sumatra and Java have a much closer relationship to Borneo than they have each other—a most singular and interesting result when we consider the wide separation of Borneo from them both, and its very different structure. The evidence furnished by a single group of insects would have had but little weight on a point of such magnitude if standing alone; but coming as it does to confirm deductions drawn from whole classes of the higher animals, it must be admitted to have considerable value.
We may determine in a similar manner the relations of the different Papuan Islands to New Guinea. Of thirteen species of Papilionidæ obtained in the Aru Islands, five were also found in New Guinea, and eight not. Of nine species obtained at Waigiou, five were New Guinea, and four not. The five species found at Mysol were all New Guinea species. Mysol, therefore, has closer relations to New Guinea than the other islands; and this is corroborated by the distribution of the birds, of which I will only now give one instance. The Paradise Bird found in Mysol is the common New Guinea species, while the Aru Islands and Waigiou have each a species peculiar to themselves.
The large island of Borneo, which contains more species of Papilionidæ than any other in the archipelago, has nevertheless only two peculiar to itself; and it is quite possible, and even probable, that one of these may be found in Sumatra or Java. The last-named island has also two species peculiar to it; Sumatra has not one, and the peninsula of Malacca only one. The identity of species is even greater than in birds or in most other groups of insects, and points very strongly to a recent connexion of the whole with each other and the continent. But when we pass to the next island (Celebes), separated from them by a strait not wider than that which divides them from each other, we have a striking contrast; for with a total number of species less than either Borneo or Java, no less than eighteen are absolutely restricted to it. Further east, the large islands of Ceram and New Guinea have only three species peculiar to each, and Timor has five. We shall have to look, not to single islands, but to whole groups, in order to obtain an amount of individuality comparable with that of Celebes. For example, the extensive group comprising the large islands of Java, Borneo, and Sumatra, with the peninsula of Malacca, possessing altogether 45 species, has about 21, or less than half, peculiar to it; the numerous group of the Philippines possess 21 species, of which 16 are peculiar; the seven chief islands of the Moluccas have 27, of which 12 are peculiar; and the whole of the Papuan Islands, with an equal number of species, have 17 peculiar. Comparable with the most isolated of these groups is Celebes, with its 24 species, of which the large proportion of 18 are peculiar. We see, therefore, that the opinion I have already expressed, in the papers before quoted, of the high degree of isolation and the remarkable distinctive features of this interesting island, is fully borne out by the examination of this conspicuous family of insects. A single straggling island, with a few small satellites, it is zoologically of equal importance with extensive groups of islands many times as large as itself; and standing in the very centre of the archipelago, surrounded on every side with islets connecting it with the larger groups, and which seem to afford the greatest facilities for the migration and intercommunication of their respective productions, it yet stands out conspicuous with a character of its own in every department of nature, and presents peculiarities which are, I believe, without a parallel in any similar locality on the globe.
Briefly to summarize these peculiarities, Celebes possesses three genera of mammals (out of the very small number which inhabit it) which are of singular and isolated forms, viz., Cynopithecus, a tailless Ape allied to the Baboons; Anoa, a straight-horned Antelope of obscure affinities, but quite unlike anything else in the whole archipelago or in India; and Babirusa, an altogether abnormal wild Pig. With a rather limited bird population, Celebes has an immense preponderance of species confined to it, and has also five remarkable genera (Meropogon, Streptocitta, Enodes, Scissirostrum, and Megacephalon) entirely restricted to its narrow limits, as well as two others (Prioniturus and Basilornis) which only range to a single island beyond it.
Mr. Smith’s elaborate tables of the distribution of Malayan Hymenoptera (see ‘Proc. Linn. Soc.’ Zool. vol. vii.) show that, out of the large number of 301 species collected in Celebes, 190 (or nearly two-thirds) were absolutely restricted to it, although Borneo, on one side, and the various islands of the Moluccas on the other, were equally well explored by me; and no less than twelve of the genera are not found in any other island of the archipelago. I have just shown in the present paper that, in the Papilionidæ, it has far more species of its own than any other island, and a greater proportion of peculiar species than many of the large groups of islands in the archipelago—and that it gives to a large number of the species and varieties which inhabit it, 1st, an increase of size, and, 2nd, a peculiar modification in the form of the wings, which stamp upon the most dissimilar insects a mark distinctive of their common birth-place.
What, I would ask, are we to do with phenomena such as these? Are we to rest content with that very simple, but at the same time very unsatisfying explanation, that all these insects and other animals were created exactly as they are, and originally placed exactly where they are, by the inscrutable will of their Creator, and that we have nothing to do but to register the facts and wonder? Was this single island selected for a fantastic display of creative power, merely to excite a child-like and unreasoning admiration? Is all this appearance of gradual modification by the action of natural causes—a modification the successive steps of which we can almost trace—all delusive? Is this harmony between the most diverse groups, all presenting analogous phenomena, and indicating a dependence upon physical changes of which we have independent evidence, all false testimony? If I could think so, the study of nature would have lost for me its greatest charm. I should feel as would the geologist, if you could convince him that his interpretation of the earth’s past history was all a delusion—that strata were never formed in the primeval ocean, and that the fossils he so carefully collects and studies are no true record of a former living world, but were all created just as they now are, and in the rocks where he now finds them.
I must here express my own belief that none of these phenomena, however apparently isolated pr insignificant, can ever stand alone—that not the wing of a butterfly can change in form, or vary in colour, except in harmony with, and as a part of, the grand march of nature. I believe, therefore, that all the curious phenomena I have just recapitulated are immediately dependent on the last series of changes, organic and inorganic, in these regions; and as the phenomena presented by the island of Celebes differ from those of all the surrounding islands, it can, I conceive, only be because the past history of Celebes has been to some extent unique and different from theirs. We must have much more evidence to determine exactly in what that difference has consisted. At present, I only see my way clear to one deduction, viz., that Celebes represents one of the oldest parts of the archipelago, that it has been formerly more completely isolated both from India and from Australia than it is now, and that, amid all the mutations it has undergone, a relic or substratum of the fauna and flora of some more ancient land has been here preserved to us.
It is only since my return home, and since I have been able to compare the productions of Celebes side by side with those of the surrounding islands, that I have been fully impressed with their peculiarity, and the great interest that attaches to them. The plants and the reptiles are still almost unknown; and it is to be hoped that some enterprising naturalist may soon devote himself to their study. The geology of the country would also be well worth exploring, and its recent fossils would be of especial interest as elucidating the changes which have led to its present anomalous condition. This island stands, as it were, upon the boundary-line between two worlds. On one side is that ancient Australian fauna which preserves to the present day the facies of an early geological epoch; on the other is the rich and varied fauna of Asia, which seems to contain, in every class and order, the most perfect and highly organized animals. Celebes has relations to both, yet strictly belongs to neither; it possesses characteristics which are altogether its own; and I am convinced that no single island upon the globe would so well repay a careful and detailed research into its past and present history.
In the following catalogue of the Malayan species of Papilionidæ I have included those from Woodlark Island, collected by M. Montrouzier, as that island comes fairly within the limits of the archipelago; while I exclude New Caledonia as belonging more to the Australian and Pacific fauna. I have given full particulars of the variation of the several species, and have described all new species, forms, varieties, and undescribed sexes. The distribution of each species is noted chiefly from my own observations[11]. As the full synonymy and references to almost every work on Lepidoptera are given in the British Museum List of Papilionidæ, I have not thought it necessary to do more than to refer to a good figure and description in well-known works; and I have quoted Boisduval’s ‘Species Général des Lépidoptères’ throughout. In all cases, however, where I have myself corrected the synonymy, or determined sexes which had been before improperly located, I have given much fuller references.
11. Species collected by myself have (Wall.) after the localities where I have found them.
I have found it necessary to describe and name twenty new species, and to separate six or seven more which have been hitherto considered as varieties or sexes of other species. I have also described and separated twenty-five local forms or races, and twenty polymorphous forms or sexes, as well as several simple varieties. On the other hand, I have reduced fourteen species, which figure in some of our latest lists, to the rank of sexes or local or polymorphic forms of other species. For convenience of reference, I add a list of these, with a reference to the page where will be found the reasons for not adopting them.
| Ornithoptera Pronomus, G. R. Gray, | = O. Poseidon, Db. (var.), p. 36. |
| Ornithoptera Archideus, G. R. Gray, | = O. Poseidon, Db. (var.), p. 36. |
| Ornithoptera Euphorion, G. R. Gray, | = O. Poseidon, Db. (♀ var.), p. 36. |
| Ornithoptera Amphimedon, Cr., | = O. Helena, L. ♀, p. 38. |
| Papilio Hegemon, G. R. Gray, | = P. Polyphontes, Bd., p. 43. |
| Papilio Melanides, De Haan, | = P. Theseus, Fab. (♀ form), p. 53. |
| Papilio Romulus, Cr., | = P. Pammon, L. (♀ form), p. 52. |
| Papilio Rumanzovia, Eschsch., | = P. Emalthion, Hübn. (♀ form), p. 48. |
| Papilio Polytes, L., | = P. Pammon, L., ♀, p. 51. |
| Papilio Orophanes, Bd., | = P. Ambrax, Bd., ♀, p. 54. |
| Papilio Elyros, G. R. Gray, | = P. Alphenor, Cr. (♀ form), p. 53. |
| Papilio Amanga, Bd., | = P. Ormenus, Guér. (♀ form), p. 55. |
| Papilio Onesimus, Hewits., | = P. Ormenus, Guér. (♀ form), p. 55. |
| Papilio Drusius, Cr., | = P. Gambrisius, Cr., ♀, p. 58. |
As the arrangement of the species of Papilio which I have adopted in this paper is somewhat new, and I hope will be found to be more natural than those which have been previously used, I here add lists of the Indian and Australian species arranged in the same manner. Those already included in my Malayan list will be indicated thus, (Mal.), and printed in italics.
Fig. 1.
Anal valves of O. Amphrisius.
The characters in the larva and pupa which have been supposed to distinguish this genus from Papilio are erroneous, or at least do not exist in all the species. My own observations on O. Poseidon show that the larva has no “external sheath” to the thoracic tentacles, and that the suspending thread passes round the pupa, and is not “fastened on each side to a silky tubercle.” There remain therefore only the characters of the perfect insect, the most important of which are the anal valves in the male. These are very large, ovate or rounded, coriaceous, and not hairy, and are furnished with projecting points or spines (sometimes very conspicuous) which serve to attach the male more firmly to the female in copulâ. In several species I have observed, these points or hooks were buried in the protruded anal gland of the female, and thus effectually prevented the great weight of the insects causing them to separate upon suddenly taking flight. The great strength and size of these insects, the thick texture of their wings, their long curved and stout antennæ, their peculiar form, colour, and distribution, are the only other characters that separate them from Papilio. Though these may not perhaps be technically sufficient, I think it advisable and convenient to retain a genus so well known and long established.
Ornithoptera is pre-eminently a Malayan genus, seventeen species inhabiting the archipelago, one (Rhadamanthus, Bd.) India and China, one (Darsius, G. R. Gray) peculiar to Ceylon, one (Richmondia, G. R. Gray) North Australia. O. Victoriæ, G. R. Gray, from some island east of New Guinea, should probably be included in the Malayan list; and Æacus, Felder, from an unknown locality. The following are the well-established Malayan species.
1. Ornithoptera Priamus, Linnæus.
This may be at once distinguished from all the allied species with which it has been often confounded—in the male, by the more rounded and deeply scalloped hind wings, with larger black spots and a broader border, the upper wings with no green on the median nervure or its branches, and the sooty patch extending only to the second median nervule; in the female, by the very constant and peculiar light olive-brown colour, the absence of any spots in the discoidal cell of the upper wings, and the broad shallow scallops of the hinder margin.
Hab. Amboyna and Ceram, probably also Bouru (Wall.).
2. Ornithoptera Poseidon, Doubleday.
O. Poseidon, Db. Ann. of Nat. Hist. xvi. p. 173; Westwood, Cat. of Orient. Ent. pl. 11, 14.
The numerous specimens of Ornithoptera which I obtained in various parts of New Guinea and the adjacent islands show so much instability of form, colouring, and even of neuration, no two individuals being exactly alike, that I am obliged to include them all in one variable species, to which I believe must also be referred O. Pronomus, G. R. Gray, from Cape York, O. Euphorion, G. R. Gray, from North Australia, O. Archideus, G. R. Gray (ex Boisd.), erroneously said to be from Celebes, and O. Boisduvalii, Montrouzier, from Woodlark Island.
Var. a, Aru Islands (Wall.). O. Arruana, Feld. Lep. Frag. p. 24.
Individuals from this locality differ in the arrangement of the nervures; in some the third subcostal nervure of the upper wings branches from the same point with the upper disco-cellular, in others considerably beyond it; the points from which the subcostal nervures branch also vary. The amount of green colour on the median nervure and its branches varies. In some specimens there is a spot at the anal angle of lower wings beneath, agreeing with O. Pronomus, G. R. Gray; but this is generally wanting.
Var. b, Dorey, Salwatty, south-west coast of New Guinea (Wall.).
These agree very closely with O. Poseidon, as figured by Westwood; they differ individually in the same manner as the last, and also in the length of the lower disco-cellular nervure on the under wings. They have generally no golden spots beneath the wings. They vary also in the outline of the under wings, the outer and anal angles being more acute in some specimens than in others. Some have the under wings of a uniform green entirely without spots, while others have a range of black spots more or less fully developed.
Var. c, Waigiou (Wall.). Archideus, G. R. Gray, ♀.
This agrees with the last; but the male is of a more delicate green than any of the others, and has less of that colour on the median veins. On the under side there are no golden spots. The whole surface has a golden tinge, and the central portion of the lower wings is tinged with amber-brown.
The females of all the above vary extremely, much more even than the males, and from the same locality two specimens are rarely alike. The discoidal cell is in some specimens more than half occupied by a whitish patch, while in others there are only a few small spots. One of my specimens from Salwatty almost exactly agrees with that figured by Westwood (Cat. of Or. Ent. pl. 14) as from Cape York. One of the Waigiou specimens is the same as Archideus, G. R. G., figured by Boisduval (Voy. de l’Astrolabe, t. 4. f. 1, 2); and another, from New Guinea, differs very little from Euphorion, G. R. G. (Brit. Mus. Cat. Lep. pt. 1. pl. 2. f. 3), from North Australia.
From these facts I am led to conclude that we have here a variable form spread over an extensive area, and kept variable by the continual intercrossing of individuals, which would otherwise segregate into distinct and sharply defined races. The same area is inhabited by many species of birds common to all parts of it; and just as the birds of Ceram and Amboyna are almost all distinct species from those of New Guinea, so do we find those islands inhabited by the Ornithoptera Priamus, a well-marked and constant species, readily distinguishable in either sex from the inconstant forms of New Guinea proper. The same parallel holds in North Australia. Many New Guinea species of birds extend, with very slight variation, to the country about Cape York; but when we reach the Moreton Bay district all these have disappeared, and we find only true Australian species. So the variable forms of O. Poseidon reach North Australia and Cape York, while in the Moreton Bay district we find the comparatively well-marked species O. Richmondia. Similar causes, whether geographical or climatal, have thus produced an analogous distribution in these widely separated groups of animals.
3. Ornithoptera Crœsus, Felder.
O. Crœsus, Feld. Wien. Ent. Monats., Dec. 1859. O. Crœsus, G. R. Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 424.
Hab. Batchian (Moluccas) (Wall.).
Local form, a.—Male: has the orange colour of the upper surface of a much deeper fiery-red hue; on the under surface, the black spots of the lower wings are nearer the margin, and the yellow spots below them are entirely absent; there is also a green line between the subcostal nervure and the margin; on the under surface of the fore wings the green patch in the discoidal cell extends to its base, and is reflexed in a narrow line along its upper edge.
Female: differs still more from that sex in O. Crœsus; the white markings on all the wings are so large as almost to fill up the spaces between the veins, the lower part of the discoidal cell in both upper and under wings being also occupied with a whitish patch; the range of spots occupying the posterior margin are of a dusky yellow colour.
Hab. Ternate (♂), Gilolo (♀) (Wall.).
This well-marked local form is no doubt peculiar to Gilolo and the small adjacent islands, as the original species is to Batchian.
I was three months in the island of Batchian before I obtained a specimen of this fine insect, which I had seen once or twice only flying high in the air. I at length came upon it flying about a beautiful cinchonaceous shrub with white bracts and yellow flowers (Mussænda, sp.); and having cleared a path round about, I visited the place every morning on my way to the forest, and once or twice a week had the satisfaction of capturing a fine male specimen of O. Crœsus. The females were more plentiful and more easily caught. I afterwards sent out one of my men with a net every day to look after this insect only. He would stay out all day long, wandering up a broad rocky torrent, where the males flew up and down occasionally or settled on the rocks which just appeared above the water. He generally brought me one, and sometimes even two or three specimens; and thus, with those that I myself captured at the flowers, I secured a fine series of this richly coloured species.
4. Ornithoptera Tithonus, De Haan.
O. Tithonus, De Haan, Verh. Nat. Gesch. Ned. t. 1. f. 1.
Hab. S.W. Coast of New Guinea (Leyden Museum).
This remarkable species must be very rare, as I never saw it in any part of the New Guinea district that I visited; nor was it seen during the exploration, a few years ago, by a Dutch steamer which visited the part of the coast where the only specimen known was said to have been obtained.
5. Ornithoptera Urvilliana, Guérin.
Papilio Urvilliana, Guér. Voy. de la Coquille, Lép. t. 13. f. 1, 2, ♂.
O. Urvilliana, Boisd. Sp. Gén. Lép. p. 175.
Hab. New Ireland (Paris Museum).
6. Ornithoptera Remus, Cramer.
Papilio Remus, Cr. Pap. Ex. t. 135. f. A, t. 136. f. A (♀), t. 386. f. A, B (♂); Fab. Syst. Ent. iii. 1. p. 11.
O. Remus, Bd. Sp. Gén. Lép. p. 176. Papilio Panthous ♂, Clerck, Icon. t. 18 (♀).
Hab. Amboyna, Ceram, Gilolo, Morty Island, Sulla Island, Celebes (Wall.).
The specimens above quoted agree well with Cramer’s figures. The female from the Sulla Islands differs only in having more yellow towards the anal angle of the lower wings. The specimens figured by Cramer in pls. 10, 11, under the name of “Hypolitus” seem to be a remarkable variety, in which the female has much of the character of the male. Messrs. Doubleday and G. R. Gray have adopted Panthous as the specific name of this insect; but this name was first used by Linnæus for the female of Priamus only, in the 10th ed. of the ‘Systema Naturæ’ (1758). Clerck (in 1759) adopted the name, but supposed he had found the male in the female of Remus. Linnæus, in Mus. Lud. Ulric. (1764), and in the 12th ed. of the ‘Systema Naturæ’ (1766), adopts this error, so far as referring to Clerck’s two figures; but in both these works his description refers only to the female of P. Priamus, indicating that the supposed other sex (P. Remus) was not known to him personally. The name of Panthous must therefore altogether drop, it having been applied to this species only through a double error—first, that of Linnæus, in supposing his Panthous to be distinct from Priamus, and then that of Clerck, in thinking that a female Remus was the male of the Linnean Panthous.
7. Ornithoptera Helena, Linnæus.
♂. P. Helena, Cram. Pap. Ex. t. 140. f. A, B. O. Helena, Boisd. Sp. Gén. Lép. p. 177.
♀. P. Amphimedon, Cram. Pap. Ex. t. 194. f. A. O. Amphimedon, Boisd. Sp. Gén. p. 176.
Hab. Amboyna and Ceram (Wall.).
The females from these localities are always sooty, with the spots and markings on the hinder wings of a dull buff-colour even in the freshest specimens.
a. Local form Bouruensis.—Male: exactly resembles the Amboyna specimens, except that the yellow patch is more variable in form and extent.
Female: nearly black, and with the markings on the lower wings almost as pure and deep yellow as in the males: size a little smaller than in the type.
Hab. Bouru (Wall.).
b. Local form Papuensis.—Female: sooty black, the two first branches of the subcostal nervure margined with whitish near their origin; markings of the lower wings of the same tint of orange-yellow as is O. Helena ♂, but not so glossy.
Male not known.
Hab. New Guinea, Salwatty (Wall.).
c. Local form Celebensis.—Male: wings a little more pointed than in O. Helena; yellow patch of lower wings extending nearer to the posterior margin, and bounded towards the abdominal margin by the first branch of the median nervure. Beneath, having the nervures between the discoidal cell and the outer border ashy-margined.
Female not known.
Hab. Macassar (Celebes) (Wall.).
Remarks.—Of these three local modifications of O. Helena, the first is very distinct in the female, but not separable in the male sex. Of the second and third, only one sex is known; and they may very probably prove to be well-marked species when more materials are obtained.
8. Ornithoptera Leda, n. s.
Male: upper wings elongate, triangular, glossy black, quite uniform and immaculate; the outer margin delicately white-marked at the termination of the nervures. Lower wings yellow, as in the allied species, with a black border about the same width as in O. Pompeus on the outer and abdominal margins, narrower on the inner margin; the posterior scalloping of the yellow patch not so deep as in O. Pompeus, and having a spot at the anal angle connected more or less with the margin.
The under surface differs from that of O. Pompeus by the ashy margins of the veins of the upper wings being entirely absent, and in having much less white on the outer edge. There are no submarginal spots except the anal one, much red at the base of the wings, and no black spots on the abdomen.
Female: this sex varies very much, some having the upper wings immaculate, while others have the veins about the end of the discoidal cell broadly margined with whitish. The marginal series of spots on the lower wings vary as they do in O. Pompeus and O. Amphrisius. The best distinction from O. Pompeus (♀) seems to be the more elongated wings, the less crenellated margin, and the more produced outer angle of the lower wings. The yellow patch is also of a deeper colour both on the upper and under surfaces.
Hab. Celebes (Macassar and Menado) (Wall.)
9. Ornithoptera Pompeus, Cramer.
P. Pompeus, Cr. Pap. Ex. t. 25. f. A (♂). P. Minos, Cr. Pap. Ex. t. 195. f. A (♀). P. Heliacon, Fab. Ent. Syst. 3. i. p. 19, 60.
O. Heliacon, Boisd. Sp. Gén. Lép. p. 178.
Hab. Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Lombock (Wall.), India (var.).
Remark.—The form that occurs in India, in its more elongate wings and darker colouring, approaches very closely to O. Rhadamanthus.
10. Ornithoptera Nephereus, G. R. Gray.
P. Astenous, Eschscholtz, Voy. Kotzebue, t. 4. f. A, B, C. (nec Fab.).
O. Nephereus, G. R. G., List of Lep. B. M. Papilionidæ, p. 6.
Hab. Philippine Islands.
Remark.—This is quite distinct from O. Rhadamanthus, Bd., with which it has generally been identified.
11. Ornithoptera Magellanus, Felder.
O. Magellanus, Feld. Lep. Nov. Phil. p. 11.
Hab. North of Luzon (Philippines).
Remark.—This fine species has a beautiful opalescent glow on the lower wings when viewed obliquely.
12. Ornithoptera Criton, Felder.
O. Criton, Feld. Lep. Fragm. p. 49.
Hab. Batchian, Ternate, Gilolo, Morty Island (Wall.).
13. Ornithoptera Plato, n. s.
Male: resembles O. Criton in the form and extent of the yellow patch, but the upper wings differ in having the outer half of a lighter tint; on the under surface this outer half of the wing is of a light ash-colour. Abdomen almost wholly black beneath. No red patches at the base of the wings, or any red collar.
Female unknown.
Hab. Timor (Wall.).
This is a very distinct species, though at first sight resembling several others. I obtained a single male specimen only.
14. Ornithoptera Haliphron, Boisduval.
O. Haliphron, Bd. Sp. Gén. Lép. p. 181 (♂); Felder, Lep. Fragm. p. 37, Taf. ii. f. 2, 3 (♂, ♀).
Hab. Macassar (Celebes) (Wall.).
15. Ornithoptera Amphrisius, Cramer.
P. Amphrisius, Cr. Pap. Ex. t. 219. f. A; Godardt, Enc. Méth. ix. p. 27, pt.
O. Amphrisius, Bd. Sp. Gén. Lép. p. 178.
Hab. Malacca, Java, Borneo (Wall.).
This may be readily distinguished from the allied species by the upper wings in the male being yellow-marked, and by the absence of red spots at the base of the wings beneath in both sexes.
16. Ornithoptera Brookeana, Wallace.
O. Brookeana, Wall. Proc. Ent. Soc. 1855, p. 104; Hewitson, Ex. Butt. Papilionidæ, i. f. 1. Papilio Trogon, V. Voll. Tijdschrift voor Ent. 1860, p. 69, pl. 6.
Hab. Borneo (Sarawak) (Wall.), Sumatra (Leyden Museum).
Remarks.—I have been in much doubt about the position of this remarkable species, and was for some time inclined to place it among the Papilios. It agrees, however, far better with Ornithoptera in the form and stoutness of the wings, the long stout and curved antennæ, the red collar and patches at the base of the wings beneath, the abdominal fold, and the flight and general appearance. It is powerful on the wing, and occasionally settles on the ground in damp sunny places. It inhabits the interior of North-west Borneo and the mountains of West Sumatra. The female is unknown. It is peculiar in the great length of the discoidal cell of the wings and its altogether unique style of coloration, and must be considered as the type of a distinct group of the genus Ornithoptera.
This is without doubt the finest and most remarkable genus of Diurnal Lepidoptera. About 360 species are now known, all, except ten, being tropical or subtropical. I have given at p. 23 the characters of the sections and groups into which I divide the Malayan species.
17. Papilio Nox, Swainson.
P. Nox., Sw. Zool. Ill. pl. 102; Horsf. Lep. Ins. E. I. C. pl. 1. f. 1; Boisd. Sp. Gén. Lép. p. 277.
P. Neesius, Zink. Nov. Act. Acad. Nat. Cur. xv. t. 14. f. 1.
Hab. Java (♂, ♀) (Wall.), Penang (♂) (Brit. Mus.).
18. Papilio Noctis, Hewitson. Tab. V. fig. 1 (♂)[12].