Part 9

_N. Etheocles_ is a native of Africa, and is found chiefly on the coast of Guinea. It is nearly of the size of _C. Jasius_; the surface greenish-black, with a broad white band running obliquely across the middle of the wings; on the primary wings this band is divided into spots and contracted anteriorly, having a group of three or four small white spots on the inner side near its origin. Besides the white band, which is regular and continuous, the under wings have a row of white crescents parallel with the hinder border, succeeded by a black line, the border itself of a lighter green than the general ground colour, and having a few rust-coloured crescent-shaped marks. On the under side the prevailing colour is pale brown, somewhat glossy, with a white band similar to that described; three ocellated spots are observable at the base of the upper wings, and in the same situation on the other pair are three black transverse lines edged with blue. The internal angle of the superior wings bears a double black spot, and a series of violet lunules runs along the hinder border of the under wings; the border itself green marked with a row of black points.

NYMPHALIS TIRIDATES.

PLATE XVII. Fig. 2 and 3.

Pap. Tiridates, _Fabr. Cramer_, Pl. 161, fig. A, B; _Drury’s Insects_, iii. Pl. 23, fig. 1, 2; _Donov. Insects of India_, Part iii. Pl. 2, fig. 3.

Extent of the wings nearly four inches, the surface very dark blue approaching to black, the nervures brown; beyond the middle are two transverse rows of small round spots of pale blue, and along the hinder margin a series of small dull yellow crescents. The ground colour beneath is brownish-grey, somewhat glossy; the superior wings having a few transverse waved streaks of black edged with blue towards the base, then a few yellow streaks succeeded by a pretty regular row of yellow spots, and on the internal angle are two black spots, partially or wholly surrounded with blue and surmounted by yellow crescents: under wings marked in a manner somewhat similar to the upper pair at the base; the hinder margin with a continuous row of violet ocellated spots, preceded and followed by a row of yellow lunules; tails rather short and slender, brown; body dark brown above with four whitish points on the head, the under side inclining to yellow, antennæ black, the palpi yellow beneath.

Found in the islands of Java and Amboina.

PERIDROMIA ARETHUSA.

PLATE XVIII. Fig. 1, _Fem._

This genus has lately been proposed for the reception of a few species formerly classed among the _Nymphales_. They are remarkable for having the surface covered with blue markings on a dark ground, and in other respects seem to be entitled to generic distinction. The neuration of the wings presents the annexed arrangement.--The caterpillar (at least of _P. Amphinome_) bears some resemblance to that of _Morpho_. It is long and attenuated behind, the anal extremity deeply forked, and the head armed with eight strong unequal spines, resembling a kind of coronet. The chrysalis is elongated, bifid anteriorly, and having a series of dorsal spines. They are natives of the New World. The male of the species above referred to is of a deep black colour on the surface, with a silky gloss, sprinkled with numerous small blue spots; the female is larger, and besides markings similar to those of the male, has a broad white band in the middle of each of the superior wings lying obliquely, and terminating in a point. The whole of the under side, in both sexes, is shining brown with a very slight tinge of green; the hinder wings with ten rounded bright red spots, three near the base, two on the interior edge, and five forming a row on the hinder margin towards the anal angle. The white band is likewise conspicuous on the under side of the female, and in place of it, in the male, there is a bluish interrupted oblique line; body black above and spotted with blue; brown beneath, with red spots on the breast.

This beautiful species is a native of Brazil.

PERIDROMIA AMPHINOME.

PLATE XVIII. Fig. 2.

Pap. Amphinome, _Linn. Cramer_, Pl. 54, fig. E, F.--_Roesel’s Ins._ i, Pl. 10, fig. 1, 2; _Merian, Ins. Surin._ Pl. 8.--Le Papier Marbré de la Chine, _Daubenton_, Pl. enl. 92, fig. 7, 8.

Bears considerable resemblance to the preceding on the upper side, the ground colour being glossy black, the whole surface variegated with waved streaks and spots of greenish-blue; these markings frequently assume the appearance of hieroglyphics, and towards the hinder margin of the inferior wings they indistinctly represent a series of oval ocelli. Both sexes have a broad oblique white band across the upper wings, but it is sinuated on the edges, while in the female of _P. Arethusa_ the edges are always entire. On the under side the general colour is brown; the upper wings with a triangular red patch at the base, the colour between this and the central white band is black glossed with green; beyond the white band are two rows of white points, one of them lying along the margin. The under wings have the anterior half red, that colour divided by rays of greenish-black, which occupies the whole of the hinder portion, except where it is interrupted by a few whitish spots. Body coloured like the wings above, greyish beneath, the breast red.

We are indebted to Madam Merian for a representation of the caterpillar, the peculiar appendages of which have been already mentioned. The colour of its body is a delicate green, with longitudinal rays alternately blue and yellow; the pectoral legs black; the head dull yellow. It feeds on the _Jasminum Indicum_. The chrysalis is of a yellow colour.

The insect inhabits various parts of South America, in some places rather plentifully.

MARIUS THETIS.

PLATE XIX. Fig. 1[34].

Pap. Thetis, _Fabr._--Nymph. Thetis, _Godart_.--Pap. Petreus, _Cramer_, Pl. 87, fig. D, E; _Stoll’s Supp._ Pl. 2, fig. 2, A, (caterpillar), fig. 2, B, (chrysalis); _Swainson’s Zool. Illus._ Pls. 59 and 110.

This singular looking insect is distinguished generically by the peculiar shape of the wings, and the equally remarkable appearance of the caterpillar. Of the former the posterior edge of the primary pair is concave, and the apex is distinctly truncated; the same edge of the secondary wings has two long linear tails, the anal one shorter and curved outwards, the external long, obtuse at the extremity, and turned somewhat obliquely outwards. The caterpillar is naked, with four long fleshy filaments on the back, and two others projecting from the hinder part of the head; the chrysalis likewise with several projecting filaments.

The Marius butterfly is a native of Guiana and Brazil. The colour of the upper side is tawny, varying somewhat in the shade according to the sex, the surface traversed by three black narrow lines, running obliquely from the anterior to the abdominal margin: near the base, and between the second and third lines are the rudiments of two others, and the costa is likewise black, as well as the posterior margin behind the middle: the under wings are black along the hinder edge, and likewise the tails, and on the anal angle are a few whitish crescents placed over two black points surrounded by a white circle. The colour of the under side is rusty-brown, glossed with violet and pale green, and across the middle of both wings there is a dark oblique line, having a series of black ocellated spots behind it.

The following description of the caterpillar and chrysalis is given by Stoll:--“The head of this beautifully coloured caterpillar is dull yellow, with two short rays and small spots of black. The head is furnished with two long black spines garnished with short stiff hairs. The first five segments of the body are reddish-brown, spotted with black. The belly is white, and the anterior legs black. The rest of the body is reddish-brown; but from the sixth to the eleventh segment, the back is of a beautiful yellow, and bordered on the sides with short black and white rays. The back is armed with four long spines, the last of which, placed on the eleventh segment, is curved backwards, and very similar to the horns with which most of the caterpillars of the Sphinges are provided. The intermediate and posterior legs are yellow. It feeds on the leaves of the Cashew tree (_Anacardium occidentale_), and transforms into a perpendicular chrysalis of a yellow colour, spotted with black, garnished with black spines on the head, thorax, and back. When the butterfly is about to appear, the yellow colour changes into white.[35]”

FABIUS HIPPONA.

PLATE XIX. Fig. 2.

Pap. Hippona, _Fabr._, _Donovan, Insects of India_.--Pap. Fabius, _Drury’s Ins._ iii. Pl. 16, fig. 1, 2; _Cramer_, Pl. 90, fig. C, D; _Stoll’s Supp._ (caterpillar and chrysalis.)

This species presents another remarkable form, bearing some analogy to the preceding, but at once distinguished by having only one tail. The hinder margin of the superior wings is dilated, in the middle, into an acute angle; the same margin of the hinder pair is cut in a square form towards the anal angle, and is furnished with an oblique lengthened tail rounded at the extremity. The caterpillar tapers lightly towards the hinder extremity, and has two short obtuse horns on the hinder part of the head. The chrysalis is very short and thick, and without any angular projections.

The butterfly expands from three to three and a half inches, and is coloured somewhat in the manner of certain kinds of Heliconia. The upper wings are black above with two broad bands, that next the base tawny-red, the exterior one yellow, sinuated and oblique, extending from the costa to the projecting angle on the hinder margin of the wing; near the apex are likewise two or three yellow spots. Posterior wings black, with a tawny-red stripe along the anterior border, and a few white linear marks running transversely along the hinder margin between the tail and anal angle. Beneath, the surface is rust-brown, with pale clouds and transverse bands on the upper wings, and violet reflections on the under pair. Body ferruginous above and brown beneath.

The caterpillar is accurately figured by Stoll, in his valuable Supplement to Cramer’s work. It is of a dull green, with a brown or nearly black ray on the back, and spots and short stripes of the same colour on the sides. The head is black, with green rays; on the upper part are two, and on each side of the anterior part of the first segment, three small rounded yellow spots. It feeds on the leaves of a species of Piperis, but only during the night, concealing itself in the day by rolling a portion of the leaf round its body, in order to protect it from the sun. The chrysalis is greyish, tinged with flesh-colour, and marked with small brown spots.

The insect occurs in Guiana, Brazil, &c.

CATAGRAMMA CONDOMANUS.

PLATE XX. Figs. 1 and 2.

Pap. Astarte, _Cramer_, Pl. 256, fig. C, D--Nymph. Condomanus, _Godart_.--Catagramma Condomanus, _Boisd._

This genus includes a pretty group of _Nymphalidæ_, which are mostly of small size, and marked with annular lines of bright colours on the under side of the inferior wings. They are pretty closely allied to _Hipparchia_, but are natives of the new world. The wings are ample, and all of them rounded on the posterior edges. In the species referred to, the colour of the surface is black, glossed with violet, the upper wings with two wide transverse red bands, one near the base, the other beyond the middle; on the under wings the interior band is continued nearly to the hinder margin. The under side of the superior wings resembles the surface, but the costa is yellow at the base, and a narrow blue line runs along the outer margin. The under wings are black beneath, having a large oval yellow ring on the disk, enclosing three pale blue points and a short yellow streak: behind this ring there is a curved row of blue dots, succeeded by a yellow line running parallel with the hinder border, and not far from it: at the base of the wing there is likewise a yellow streak, and the sinuosities on the hinder edge are white.

The individual figured differs slightly from most other examples, in as much as it has two small white spots on the surface of the hinder wings near the anal angle.

This species inhabits Brazil and Surinam.

CATAGRAMMA PYRAMUS.

PLATE XX. Figs. 3 and 4.

Pap. Pyramus, _Drury’s Insects_, iii. Pl. 23, fig. 3, 4, (Male); _Stoll’s Supp._ Pl. 32, fig. 3, and 3 C.

This prettily coloured butterfly measures about an inch and three-quarters between the tips of the wings. The surface is black, finely tinged with violet, with a broad central common band of bright red, not extending either to the costa or hinder extremity. The under side of the upper wings nearly corresponds to the surface, but they are grey at the base and tip, and near the latter there is an undulating blue line: the under wings dark brown sprinkled with grey, with two whitish spots towards the base, without any vestige of a red band, a curved row of ocellated spots behind the middle, and a waved blue line near the extremity.

The female is black on the surface without any violet reflection, and the red band, which is narrower than in the male, does not extend to the secondary wings. This insect is a native of Brazil. We have placed it in the genus _Catagramma_, without knowing what limits are assigned to the group so called by the continental entomologists, as the name only has yet been published. Perhaps it rather belongs to the division named _Hipparchia_.

GENUS MORPHO.

The butterflies arranged together under the above name are, in many respects, the most remarkable of any to which our attention has yet been directed. In size they are superior to all the other diurnal lepidopterous tribes, except the _Ornithoptera_, and many of them rival even that conspicuous group in their dimensions. Although surpassed by many others of their tribe in elegance of form and harmonious blending of colours, they afford examples of as rich tints as are to be found in any other natural objects. The blue which adorns the whole surface of _M. Menelaus_ and _Adonis_, has a beauty and lustre which it is impossible to witness without admiration. When flying under the blaze of a tropical sun, the brilliancy of the surface, as contrasted with the dark hue of the under side, as they are alternately displayed, must render them very striking objects. Most of them are from South America, but a few occur in the eastern parts of India and the great islands of the adjacent Archipelago.

The generic characters are more determinate than is the case with many others of this order. The antennæ are slender, linear throughout their whole length, or thickening so insensibly towards the extremity as to deviate but slightly from that shape. The palpi are placed close together, ascending, and clothed with scales, the terminal portion narrow and very much compressed: abdominal margin of the inferior wings curved downwards, and forming a deep groove for receiving the body. Discoidal cell of the posterior wings open behind; claws bifid. The caterpillars vary in form, as well as the chrysalides, and may probably, if more fully known, enable us to subdivide this family into more natural groups.

MORPHO HELENOR.

PLATE XXI.

_Godart._--Pap. Helenor, _Cramer_, Pl. 86, fig. A, B; _Herbst. Pap._ Pl. 26, fig. 1, 2; _Esper. Papillon’s Exotiques_, Pl. 42, fig. 2.

This affords an example of that section of the genus in which the upper wings are more or less concave on the outer margin, and the inferior pair without any prolongation behind. They are almost exclusively South American. _M. Helenor_ expands from four to five inches; surface black, with a broad band of silvery blue or violet blue, extending from the middle of the anterior margin to the anal extremity; sometimes rather narrow and well defined on the inner edge, at other times enlarged to within a short distance of the base of the wings; at the anterior extremity of this band, on the costa, there is an oblique white patch, and beyond it, on the upper wings, a single row of small white spots in the male, and two in the female. The secondary wings have an indistinct row of red crescents near the hinder margin, and the sinuosities in all the wings are white. The colour beneath is dark brown, the upper wings with three large ocelli having a white pupil surrounded with ferruginous and violet, the iris yellow, enclosed in a green circle which has a crescent of the same colour on the inner side; under wings with four similar ocelli, three of them contiguous, the interior one insulated. Towards the base of both wings are several transverse flexuose green stripes, and along the outer edge three greyish lines, more or less interrupted with red, especially in the hinder wings. The body is black above and brown beneath.

In the variety figured there are a few yellow streaks on the under side of the anterior wings, and a red stripe at the base of each wing; at the same time the three posterior ocelli are prolonged into a point, and a spurious ocellus is observable adjoining the anterior one.

Found not unfrequently in many countries of South America.

MORPHO ADONIS.

PLATE XXII. Fig. 1.

_Godart._--Pap. Adonis, _Cramer_, Pl. 61. fig. A, B; _Herbst. Pap._ Pl. 26, fig. 3, 4; _Esper. Pap. Exotiques_, Pl. 55, fig. 2.

As a specimen of that division of Morpho which has the upper wings scarcely or not at all concave on their outer edge, and the anal angle of the under pair prolonged into an obtuse rudimentary tail, we have represented a species of great beauty although inferior in size to many of its congeners, the expansion of the wings seldom exceeding three inches and a half. The surface of the male, when seen in certain directions, is of the most brilliant azure-blue, the whole of the exterior margin of the primary wings surrounded with black, and near the apex are two small white spots, the anterior one longitudinal, the other orbicular. In the female the blue colour has not such a high degree of lustre; the posterior margin is widely black, and bears two rows of white spots in the upper wings and one row in the under. On the under side the colour is greyish-brown, with several common oblique bands of a paler hue, and three or four oblong ocelli with a white pupil and a black iris surrounded by a yellow ring; the anal angle marked with short undulating black lines. Body brownish-black above, concolorous with the same face of the wings beneath.

Found in various parts of South America, but apparently most plentiful in Brazil and Guiana.

GENUS PAVONIA.

The group composing this genus was separated from the preceding by Godart, chiefly on account of the discoidal cell in the secondary wings being closed. Besides this character the palpi are not so densely clothed with scales, and the inferior nervure of the upper wings is curved near its origin in the form of the letter S. The species very closely resemble the _Morphos_ in most other respects, but their colours are generally less brilliant. They are all from South America, and in that country they are far most abundant in Brazil. The caterpillars of several different kinds have been represented by Madam Merian, and, like those of _Morpho_, they differ from each other in their appearance and properties.

PAVONIA TEUCER.

PLATE XXII. Fig. 2.

Pap. Teucer, _Linn._--_Merian, Surinam Ins._ Pl. 23; _Cramer_, Pl. 51, fig. A, B.

Extent of the wings from five to six inches; the surface of the primary pair of a livid hue at the base and dark brown at the extremity, the latter colour traversed by a yellow flexuose line near the middle of the secondary wings, slate-blue anteriorly, and black behind. On the under side the wings are very richly mottled, the ground colour being light brown, variegated with numerous undulating black lines, the anterior pair with five very irregular yellowish-white transverse bands, and four ocellated spots near the apex, the hinder one larger than the others, surrounded by a yellow ring and having a white point within, not in the centre, but inclining to the inner side: the secondary pair with three broad indistinct whitish bands, and near the middle three ocelli, the intermediate one minute, the hinder very large and surmounted by a black arch. The body is dark brown above.

This insect inhabits an extensive tract of the warmer parts of South America.

ARPIDEA CHORINÆA.

PLATE XXIII.

Pap. Chorinæus, _Fabr._--Pap. Arcesilaus, _Cramer_, Pl. 294, fig. A, B (male), fig. C, D (fem.); _Stoll’s Supp._ Pl. 6, fig. 1 (caterpillar), fig. 1, A (chrysalis)--Satyrus Chorinæus, _Godart_.

Finding it impossible to include this insect, owing to its remarkable form, in any of the genera hitherto proposed, we have been under the necessity of assigning it a new name. Many of its characters seem to be quite peculiar both in the perfect and preparatory states. The species which makes the nearest approach to it is _Satyrus Philoctetes_, but the differences are considerable, as will be seen by comparing the adjoining figure with that insect. The costal line of the upper wings is very much arched, and the hinder margin is strongly falcate. The external edge of the under wings is likewise falcate posteriorly, and the anal angle is a little produced; the line from that point runs somewhat obliquely nearly to the middle of the hinder edge of the wing, where there is a broad obtuse oblique tail. This outline forms a broad, somewhat square figure, having perhaps rather a heavy appearance, but the curves are graceful. The caterpillar is naked, or covered only with short pubescence, thickest in the middle, and having two very long hairy appendages at the hinder extremity. The chrysalis is short, without any conspicuous projections, the abdominal portion very much incurved.

The colour of the surface in the above species is deep brown, darkest on the upper wings, which have a wide fulvous sinuated band, rather beyond the middle, commencing at the costa and reaching nearly to the opposite side, where it terminates in a point: the costa is likewise yellowish, and towards the apex there is a round white spot. Posterior wings of a lighter hue round the margin than on the disk, and near the hinder extremity an indistinct row of whitish points. On the under side all the wings are light brown and ash colour, covered with short waved lines of dark brown, and bearing several continuous transverse bands of the same colour, and towards the hinder margin of the inferior pair a row of pale rounded spots. Body brown; prothorax with a fulvous mark.

The caterpillar is very beautifully coloured. The body is reddish, inclining to violet, the sides of the belly and the legs dull yellow. Along the back there is a broad yellow band formed of confluent lozenge-shaped spots, each of them having a dusky line in the centre: head ferruginous, bordered and rayed with yellow. The anal fork is grey, with black ciliæ. This caterpillar feeds on the leaves of the sugar-cane, and changes into a pale brown chrysalis dotted with black, from which the butterfly emerges in about eleven days. The insect is a native of Surinam.

HELICOPIS GNIDUS[36].