In the present instance, as in many others that will occur during the progress of this undertaking, we have the pleasure of introducing to the attention of the Naturalist, a species of the Papilio tribe, no less distinguished for its beauty than its rarity; and one, moreover, that has never been before depicted in the work of any author.
This magnificent Papilio, for to this appellation it is entitled truly, was one among the number of those rarities of the insect race which Fabricius met with in the Entomological Cabinets of the English Naturalists, when he paid a visit to this country about the year 1792, and the descriptions of which constitute a most invaluable and extensive portion of the work which he published subsequently upon the continent, under the title of Entomologia Systematica. Fabricius saw the drawing of this insect in the Collectanea of Paintings formed by the ingenious hand of that indefatigable and liberal Naturalist the late William Jones, Esq. of Chelsea, and was so delighted with its grandeur, as an insect altogether undescribed, that he determined upon assigning to it some name of pre-eminent distinction. The tribe of insects to which it naturally appertains in systematic classification, is that of the Equites Achivi; all the species of which are named after the Greeks, and more especially of those commemorated in the Iliad and the Odyssey: the heroes of the Trojan war. This rule determined his choice, and we may readily conceive his admiration of the species from the name selected upon this occasion, Papilio Homerus. If Homer had no claim to be considered as a Greek, he had sang the achievements of the Grecian heroes, and had mourned the fall of Troy; and Fabricius disposed alike to compliment the immortal bard, and define the species by an appellation more than usually superlative, has consecrated it to the memory of that ancient poet.
If we advert to the writings of Fabricius, it will be found that this author refers for a figure of this fine Papilio solely to the Paintings of Mr. Jones. The reference is to the eighth drawing of the first volume of his collectanea. This is perfectly correct, the figure occurs in that collection of paintings as Fabricius states, and in the part described. We have not only seen it there with the name assigned to it in Entomologia Systematica Papilio Homerus inscribed in the hand-writing of Fabricius, but are at this time in possession of an exact copy of that drawing, taken by the express permission of its former very worthy proprietor; and it is from this copy of the original drawing so inscribed by Fabricius himself, that the very beautiful figure is taken which accompanies the present description.
Notwithstanding the general accuracy with which Fabricius has related the local circumstances connected with the history of the insects which he describes, there are occasionally errors in this respect it must be satisfactory to many of our readers to have corrected: errors, which, owing to the lapse of time and death of those distinguished Naturalists which Fabricius had the happiness of meeting with in England, we may venture to presume, without vanity, can be now corrected only through the medium of our assistance. The celebrity of Fabricius throughout Europe as one of the best informed Entomologists of the last century, renders it even of no small importance to correct the most trivial oversights he has committed; and this consideration will, we trust, afford us some apology for that minuteness, if not prolixity with which it may be requisite occasionally to relate particulars of a local nature, in order to correct such errors. An instance of this kind occurs in the note annexed to the Fabrician description of the Papilio now before us; in stating the local circumstances connected with its history, Fabricius says Habitat in America. Dom Latham. There is obviously an oversight in this passage, for we well know that the Fabrician description of this species was taken from the figure in the series of drawings painted by Mr. Jones, which has been already mentioned; the original of the figure now presented by us to the attention of our readers; and that the specimen of the insect itself from which that painting was taken was preserved at the time Fabricius described it in the celebrated collection of the late Mr. Dru Drury. As we had the pleasure of Mr. Drury’s acquaintance, as well as that of Mr. Jones, and had an unreserved access to the information and cabinets of both, we are enabled to speak upon this circumstance with confidence. The example of Papilio Homerus in the cabinet of Mr. Drury was perfectly familiar to us, it was ourselves who wrote the name Homerus, annexed to this insect in that cabinet; and so far as our recollection serves at the distant period of five and twenty years, Mr. Drury stated to us that he had received this individual specimen from the Island of Jamaica. We are in possession of the Entomological manuscripts of this venerable author, but among those we have in vain sought for any positive confirmation of this distant recollection. It appears certain that Mr. Drury had not entered it under the name of Homerus in his catalogue after we had communicated that name to him; and which we did upon the authority of the Fabrician manuscripts annexed to the drawings of Mr. Jones. At the time Mr. Drury received this insect from his correspondent it was assuredly a nameless species, and was probably entered as such, with a number only; such omissions in the nomenclature being, of course, usual when the species proved to be undescribed, till proper names could be assigned to them. A gentleman of the name of Keuchan, and another of the name of Whiting, appear from these entries to be the only correspondents who furnished Mr. Drury with Papiliones of Jamaica; it was probably from the former that he obtained this majestic species; and that Mr. Drury obtained it about the year 1777. This habitat would justify Fabricius in describing the insect as a native of America, although if the conclusion be correct, it might have been stated more distinctly as a native of that island.
At the dissolution of the fine collection of that indefatigable Entomologist, Mr. Drury, which took place by public sale in the month of May, 1805, this beautiful insect was purchased by another very eminent collector, Mr. John Francillon, at the price of four pounds sterling,[[13]] and subsequently at the death of this last mentioned individual, which happened in the year 1817, it passed with many others of the more costly rarities into the cabinet of Alexander Mc’Leay, Esq. S.L.S. &c.
With respect to the Fabrician reference to the cabinet of Dr. Latham, for it is to the cabinet of the venerable Ornithologist of that name the reference applies, we believe it is also in our power to explain its origin, having occasionally, through the kindness of its proprietor, consulted that cabinet, and finally, in conformity with his permission, written a catalogue of its contents. In that cabinet we certainly observed a Papilio allied to P. Homerus, but yet so far remote from it, that we could not venture to pronounce it the same; it may be a variety of the species, but is assuredly not the insect painted by Mr. Jones to which the synonyms of Fabricius allude.
Papilio Homerus is represented in its natural size in the annexed plate. Its colours are various and very beautifully disposed: the ground or prevailing colour is a deep or dark brown with a broad stripe of a yellowish hue across the middle of each wing, forming very nearly a band of that peculiar kind distinguished among Naturalists by the appellation of a common band. There is also a large and somewhat quadrangular spot of the same flavous colour upon the disk within and contiguous to the band, and beyond, towards the apex, a small sub-angular band composed of smaller flavous spots. Behind the yellow band, across the disk of the posterior wings, are a series of blue spots composed of many little shining points, which in the aggregate form a distinct spot of an ovate form, most brilliant towards the centre and paler towards the edge. And finally, there are three distinct sublunate spots of red on each posterior wing, one at the anal angle, and the other two at the posterior margin, one of which is situated on each side near the base of the tail. Beneath, the anterior wings are uniformly dark with a single pale or whitish marginal spot at the tip; the lower wings of a fuscous colour with seven ocellar spots of black, the iris of which are rufous.
