My Bornean Collections Of This Group Exceeded
Five Hundred Species.
My collection of butterflies was not large; but I obtained some
rare and very handsome insects, the most remarkable being the
Ornithoptera Brookeana, one of the most elegant species known.
This beautiful creature has very long and pointed wings, almost
resembling a sphinx moth in shape.
It is deep velvety black, with
a curved band of spots of a brilliant metallic-green colour
extending across the wings from tip to tip, each spot being
shaped exactly like a small triangular feather, and having very
much the effect of a row of the wing coverts of the Mexican
trogon, laid upon black velvet. The only other marks are a broad
neck-collar of vivid crimson, and a few delicate white touches on
the outer margins of the hind wings. This species, which was then
quite new and which I named after Sir James Brooke, was very
rare. It was seen occasionally flying swiftly in the clearings,
and now and then settling for an instant at puddles and muddy
places, so that I only succeeded in capturing two or three
specimens. In some other parts of the country I was assured it
was abundant, and a good many specimens have been sent to
England; but as yet all have been males, and we are quite unable
to conjecture what the female may be like, owing to the extreme
isolation of the species, and its want of close affinity to any
other known insect.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 56 of 419
Words from 14943 to 15193
of 114260
