Much might be said on the affinities which connect this with several other genera. Among the most striking is that existing between them and the Noctuæ (N. Patroclus Fab.) by means of Pap. Leilus Lin. which thus stands between the night and the day-flying Lepidoptera. Many of the insects placed in our division of Græci caudati, are allied to Danaus Lat. by the larva of both having retractile hornshaped processes, and the two genera seem still further connected by Papilio similis and dissimilis in one group, and by P. Priamus in the other; while the clear winged species from New Holland seem to indicate an affinity with the Heliconiæ.
The laborious and important investigations of M. Savigny into the structure of the mouth of these insects are too well known, to require a more particular notice in this slight sketch of the subject.
PAPILIO Polymetus.
Specific Character.
P. (Trojani orbiculares) alis atris; superis fasciâ breviori (fœminæ albâ) anticè albâ, posticè cyaneâ, inferis dentatis, maculâ coccineâ quadripartitâ.
Papilio (T. orb.) wings black, superior, with a short white band, which is blue at the base (in the female entirely white); inferior dentated, with a four cleft crimson spot.
Papilio Polymetus. Godart in Ency. Meth. vol. ix. p. 35. no. 28.
First described by M. Godart; unless, indeed, it may hereafter prove a variety of P. Lycander (Cramer, Pl. 29. C. D.) which approaches as near to the male, as P. Hippason does to the female. The first sex is here represented at the upper and under figures; the middle is of the female, which M. Godart has not described. It is a native of Brazil; I found it at Bahia only in certain woods, and subsequently met with a variety in the province of Rio Janeiro, differing only in being much larger.