The Priam butterfly is found in the islands of Amboina, Rawack, and Ceram. It has been observed to hover about the Mangifera Indica in preference to other trees, and it has hence been conjectured that it deposits its eggs on the leaves, and that they constitute the food of the caterpillar. It never occurs in large numbers, and is hence somewhat rare in collections. Specimens of both sexes are preserved in the valuable collection of insects belonging to the Edinburgh University Museum.
ORNITHOPTERA REMUS.
PLATE 1. Fig. 2.
Pap. Remus, Fabr. Godart, Cramer, 135, A, 136, A, and 386, A, B.—Pap. hypolithus, var. Cramer, 10, A, B, 11, A, B.
One of the largest species, the expansion of the wings sometimes measuring nearly eight inches. The superior pair are black, with a slight greenish reflection, and having a broad greyish-white stripe running along each side of the secondary nervures. The inferior wings are dark grey on the surface, and of a shining white on the under side, the latter having a black sinuated border interrupted by seven irregular spots of golden-yellow diminishing in size as they approach the abdominal margin. In the female, which is the sex represented on the adjoining plate, the golden-yellow spots are much larger, somewhat wedge-shaped, and each of them, except the outermost, marked with a large oval black spot. The abdomen is bright yellow above, paler on the under side, and irregularly spotted with black; the head, thorax, breast, and antennæ entirely of the latter colour.
The native country of this elegant species is the island of Amboina.
Genus PAPILIO.
Passing from the Ornithoptera, which may be esteemed the chiefs and princes of their race, we now come to the Papilios, properly so called, some of which are scarcely inferior in their dimensions and imposing aspect. Such, at least, is the case with P. Antimachus and P. Antenor, which besides their large size, partake of some of the other characters of the group just referred to, and thus form the passage from it to Papilio. But the great majority are of very inferior size, and many of them so dissimilar in aspect that they might be thought to afford sufficient distinctions for arranging them in numerous different genera. On a close examination, however, the species are found to be so intimately allied in all essential parts of structure, that the most judicious systematists have not attempted to separate them. Such authors as have followed an opposite course, Hubner for example, have proved by no means successful in establishing sub-divisions; and the only effect of such a proceeding is to encumber the subject with a number of generic names without eliciting a more philosophical arrangement, or one better adapted to aid the student. As at present constituted, the genus is compact and natural; and if it were broken up by attaching undue importance to very subordinate characters, no partial change would suffice; for any principle that might be thought to justify the establishment of one genus, would render it necessary, if consistently acted upon, to create not fewer than thirty or forty. One of the most obvious differences among the species is the presence or absence of a tail; but an arrangement founded on this circumstance, separates, by a wide interval, kinds which are in other respects most closely allied. Nay, the tail itself is often more or less developed in the same species, being sometimes distinct in the one sex while it is inconspicuous or wanting in the other; its value as a diagnosis of genera is thus in a great measure destroyed.
Considerable differences likewise prevail in the appearance of the caterpillars, but these are too imperfectly known to be made the groundwork of an arrangement, even if they were likely to be available for such a purpose by indicating natural groups or affording additional means of characterising them. “Some of them,” says Dr. Boisduval, “such as those of Machaon, Alexanor, Asterias, are cylindrical and smooth; others (Crassus, Philenor), are protected with rather long fleshy prominences; in a very great number (Pammon, Memnon, Chalchas, &c.) the two first segments are attenuated, and capable of being retracted under the third and fourth, which are dilated and often ornamented with ocular spots analogous to those presented by many of the Sphingides; others are short and thick, and furnished with numerous rather short fleshy points; finally, there are some (Podalirius, Ajax, Antiphates) which somewhat resemble snails in shape. The caterpillars of Papilio may be distinguished from those of other genera belonging to the same tribe by the following characters:—They differ from those of Ornithoptera in their retractile tentaculum not being enclosed in two exterior cases; from those of Thais, in the projections which they sometimes present being never hispid at the extremity; and from those of Parnassius, in the body being always free from pubescence; but it is more particularly from the characters drawn from the chrysalis and perfect insect that this last genus is distinguished from Papilio[29].”
The perfect insects are characterised by very short palpi not passing beyond the eyes, all the joints very indistinct, the third quite invisible; antennæ pretty long, the club slightly curved upwards; abdomen pretty large, the anal valves in the male of moderate size; wings rather strong, the inferior pair having the abdominal margin folded upwards and leaving the abdomen free, their exterior border more or less dentated, and often prolonged posteriorly into a tail.