GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob: wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
* Equites Trojani.—Fabr.
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.