During A Month's
Collecting, I Added Only Three Or Four New Species To My List Of
Birds, Although I Obtained Very Fine Specimens Of Many Which Were
Rare And Interesting.
In butterflies I was rather more
successful, obtaining several fine species quite new to me, and a
considerable number of very rare and beautiful insects.
I will
give here some account of two species of butterflies, which,
though very common in collections, present us with peculiarities
of the highest interest.
The first is the handsome Papilio memnon, a splendid butterfly of
a deep black colour, dotted over with lines and groups of scales
of a clear ashy blue. Its wings are five inches in expanse, and
the hind wings are rounded, with scalloped edges. This applies to
the males; but the females are very different, and vary so much
that they were once supposed to form several distinct species.
They may be divided into two groups - those which resemble the
male in shape, and, those which differ entirely from him in the
outline of the wings. The first vary much in colour, being often
nearly white with dusky yellow and red markings, but such
differences often occur in butterflies. The second group are much
more extraordinary, and would never be supposed to be the same
insect, since the hind wings are lengthened out into large spoon-
shaped tails, no rudiment of which is ever to be perceived in the
males or in the ordinary form of females. These tailed females
are never of the dark and blue-glossed tints which prevail in the
male and often occur in the females of the same form, but are
invariably ornamented with stripes and patches of white or buff,
occupying the larger part of the surface of the hind wings.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 179 of 419
Words from 48629 to 48925
of 114260
