VANESSA ANACARDII.Plate IV. fig. 1, 2. Order: Lepidoptera. Section: Diurna. Family: NymphalidÆ, Swains. Genus. Vanessa, Fabricius, Latr. God. Hamadryades, HÜbn. Papilio (Nymph. Gemmat.) Drury. (Dan. Cand.) Linn. Vanessa Anacardii. Alis subdentatis; suprÀ margaritaceis extimumque versÙs nigro punctatis, anticis falcatis, posticis extÙs caudatis ocelloque ad angulum ani notatis. (Expans. Alar. 3 unc. 9 lin.) Syn. Papilio (Dan. Cand.) Anacardii, Linn. Syst. Nat. 11. 758. No. 74.? Fabr. Ent. Syst. 1. p. 183. 567.? Papilio (Nymph. Gemm.) Parrhasius, Drury, App. vol. 3. Papilio Æthiops, Pal. Beauv. Lep. pl. 3. fig. 1. 2. Papillon Opale, Pal. Beauv. texte. p. 22. Vanessa Aglatonice, Latr. God. Enc. MÉth. ix. p. 299. 8. Habitat: Sierra Leone (Drury). "In Anacardio Americes," (Linn.) an recte? Upper Side. AntennÆ black. Thorax and abdomen dark green, the sides being white. Wings of a beautiful changeable colour, exhibiting, according to the direction in which the light falls upon them, a purple, red, blue, green, and white, the two latter being the predominant colours. Anterior wings, along the external edges, black, with two pale blueish spots thereon near the tips, and two round black spots on the light part of the wings near the lower corners. Posterior wings with two tails, and edged with a border of a brownish blue running from the upper to the abdominal corners, having thereon a row of small black angular marks placed between the tendons; three round black spots are also placed near the upper corners, the lowest being the smallest; and at the abdominal corners is a small eye, whose pupil is red, and iris black. Under Side. Palpi, breast, legs, and abdomen white. The beautiful changeable colour is not seen on this side, all the wings being of a pale green. The anterior having two small eyes, the pupil being red, the iris white; the smallest of which is placed near the tips, the other lower, and towards the middle of the wing. A round black spot is also placed on these wings near the body, which in the figure is hid. A shade of a darker green, resembling a line, rises on these wings near the middle, and, crossing the inferior ones, meets below the abdomen. Posterior wings with two little eyes, placed near the upper and abdominal corners, having a faint resemblance of a border of a brighter green placed along the external edges. Wings angulated. LinnÆus appears to have confounded this African insect with an American butterfly, figured by Mad. Merian, giving the name to the African species, with the additional habits of the American one. The copy of Drury's work, which belonged to LinnÆus, late in the library of Sir J. E. Smith (by whom the collections of the great Swede were purchased), and now in that of the LinnÆan Society, contains a pencil note, by its late possessor, of reference of this figure to the Anacardii of LinnÆus. |