GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob: wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
**** Heliconii.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings oblong entire, black with somewhat hyaline spots: posterior pair with a yellow spot at the base, and two at the anal angle.
Papilio Belladonna: alis oblongis integerrimis atris sub-hyalino maculatis: posticis macula baseos anguloque ani maculis duobus flavis.
Papilio Belladonna: alis oblongis integerrimis atris: anticis hyalino punctatis, posticis flavo maculatis. Fabr. Ent. Syst. T. 3. p. 1. p. 180.
Papilio Belladonna. Jon. fig. pict. 3. tab. 37. fig. 2.
Statura P. Pasithoe at major. Corpus nigrum abdominis marginibus cinereis. Alæ atræ, cinereo punctatæ. Subtus concolores at lineola maculaque baseos albis. Posticæ atræ, flavo maculatæ macula baseos angulique ani majoribus. Subtus fere concolores.
A figure of this very rare and probably unique insect cannot fail, it is presumed, of proving an acceptable addition to the collectanea of the Entomologist: it is the only representation of the species now extant, and has been ascertained upon the authority of the only document we now possess of the insect intended in the Fabrician writings under the appellation of Papilio Hel. Belladonna.
Fabricius, as it appears from his references in his Entomologia Systematica, met with the drawings of this species in the collection of Mr. Jones, whose cabinet also possessed the original specimen from which the drawing was taken. It is from this individual example in the cabinet of Mr. Jones that the delineation in the annexed plate is copied.
This curious Papilio is one of the larger species of the Heliconi tribe to which it appertains. The wings are a blueish black, and rather closely studded with sub-hyaline or transparent spots, which are minutely speckled with black: those on the anterior wings are somewhat sagittate and disposed into two irregular bands towards the exterior half of the wings: those on the posterior wings are rather larger and more inclining to an ovate form; and three of the largest, namely, one at the base, and two at the anal angle, are of a bright yellow colour. The inner limb of the wing is grey inclining to yellowish. The head and thorax are black; the abdomen black with the sides pale yellow. The spots being semitransparent the appearance on the underside in a great degree corresponds with that above: there is a small difference, because instead of one yellowish spot at the base of the posterior wing, there are two, another smaller than that which appears at the base of that wing on the upper surface being situated below it. We have been more minute in the description of these spots, because upon an attentive comparison of the insect in Mr. Jones’s Cabinet, with the Fabrician description, we perceive some small deficiency in the latter, a circumstance, it must be confessed, of rare occurrence in this author, but unquestionably worthy of our notice and correction, as it is the only authority upon which the species must in future rest.
The country of this interesting insect is unknown; it is remotely conjectured only that it may be Africa. The insect is represented with its wings expanded upon a sprig of
ERICA PARMENTARIA,
an elegant vegetable production of the Cape of Good Hope.
36
London. Published by E. Donovan & Mess.rs Simpkin & Marshall, April 1, 1823.