Generic Type L. Melite.
Specific Character.
L. (Mas.) alis flavis; anteriore suprà nigrâ, fasciâ obliquâ flavâ, et lineâ, basali transversâ, margine posteriore flavo. (Fœm.) Alis suprà albis; anteriore apice stigmateque marginali obliquo nigris; posteriore suprà nigro marginatâ, subtùs (in utroque sexu) flavescente, lineis duabus transversis fuscis.
Male. Wings yellow, anterior above black, with an oblique yellow band and transverse basal line; posterior margin yellow. Fem. Wings above white; anterior, with the tips and marginal oblique stigma black. Posterior, above margined with black; beneath (in both sexes) yellow, with two transverse brown lines.
Papilio Melite. Fab. Ent. Syst. 160, 494. Cramer, tab. 153. C. D.
The remarkable size of the under wings in the male insects of this genus will distinguish them even to a casual observer as forming a natural group. They are all natives of South America, where I discovered nine species. The females differ most strikingly, and have hitherto been mistaken by authors not only for distinct species, but as belonging to different genera.
Their natural situation will be among the Pieridæ, with whose general habit they accord.
The female of this species resembles Pap. Licinia of Cramer, except in having a short black stigma in the middle of the anterior border of the fore wings, pointing obliquely to the exterior margin. Cramer's insect, however, is the female of another undescribed species in my cabinet.
The under side of the posterior wings in both sexes is the same.