A remarkable and recently discovered swallow-tailed butterfly.
The third family is represented in Britain by three very distinct sections of rather small butterflies, the largest of which scarcely measures more than an inch and a half across the wings. These are the Hair-streaks (brown, with light lines on the under surface of the wings, and a short tail on the hind wings, except in the Green Hair-streak, so named from the green under surface of the wings); the small Blue Butterflies, which generally have brown females; and the Coppers, the only common species of which measures about an inch across the wings. The fore wings are bright coppery red, with dark brown spots and borders, and the hind wings are dark brown, with a coppery red border, spotted outside with black. The small copper butterfly and some of the blues are common in meadows and gardens.
Many of the members of the fourth family are of a white or yellow colour, among which are the destructive White Cabbage-butterflies, three species of which are very common in England, where they may be seen in every garden throughout the summer. The photograph on page [716] represents one of these at rest. A prettier species is the Orange-tip, which is common in spring. The underside of the hind wings is mottled with green; and there is a bright orange spot before the tip of the fore wing, both above and below. Some of the South American butterflies of this family much resemble the Long-winged Butterflies of the same country.
Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S., Milford-on-Sea.
AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES.
Emerging from their pupæ.
The family of the Swallow-tailed Butterflies includes a considerable number of large and handsome species, but they are not numerous in Europe, and only one black-and-yellow species, measuring 3 inches across the wings, is found in England, where it is now almost confined to the fens of the south-eastern counties; its green caterpillar, with transverse black bands spotted with orange, feeds on carrot, fennel, and other similar plants. All the caterpillars of this family are remarkable for possessing a retractile fork on the neck; but the butterflies do not all possess the long appendage to the hind wings which has given some of them the name of Swallow-tails. Thus it is wanting in most of the great Bird-winged Butterflies of the Eastern Islands, one of which, the Crœsus Butterfly, is represented in the Coloured Plate. The great difference between the sexes is well worth noting. The female is considerably larger than the male, but in the coloured figure the former has been reduced, owing to the exigencies of space. Mr. A. R. Wallace writes as follows of the capture of the first specimen:—
Photo by J. Edwards] [Colesborne.