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.

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 GNIDUS36.
PLATE XXIV. Figs. 1 and 2, Fem.

The genus Helicopis was proposed by Fabricius in his Systema Glossatarum, and he refers to the species above mentioned as one of its typical forms. Although its characters are sufficiently distinctive, it was long confounded with other groups to which it has little relation. It belongs to that section of the diurnal lepidoptera in which the caterpillars are short and depressed, having some resemblance to an oniscus, whence they are called onisciform. The palpi are rather long and slender, and the terminal joint is nearly naked or free from scales. In Helicopis the antennÆ terminate in a slightly curved club: the anterior legs are much shorter than the others and clothed with hairs; hinder margin of the anterior wings convex and entire, the corresponding margin of the posterior with six linear tails, the central one much longer than the rest; discoidal cell of the posterior wings open behind; claws very minute. Caterpillar thickly clothed with soft hairs, the chrysalis suspended by the tail, and having a band round the middle.

The best known and most common species of this genus is H. Cupido, which is rather smaller than H. Gnidus. The former is commonly named the Golden-spot, and the latter the Silver-spot Butterfly. The wings of H. Gnidus, in the male, are white on both sides, with a slight tinge of yellow at the base, and the outer margin black. At the hinder extremity of the secondary wings there is a row of narrow white marks, which is double at the anal angle; tails black on both sides, the two longest ones tipped with white. The upper wings beneath have a white line dividing the black border behind the middle, and the under pair are ornamented with twenty-one silvery spots, three of which at either extremity are elongated and placed on a white ground, while the rest are insulated and on a ferruginous ground; all of them edged with black. The female is larger than the sex just described, and differs in having a larger fulvous space at the base of the wings, and in having it bounded externally on the under side of the upper pair by a wide black patch; the greater part of the surface of the hinder wings is black, and the posterior row of white crescents is simple: body white, the thorax yellow; antennÆ black, ringed with white.

The caterpillar is white, and clothed with long hairs of the same colour; the head yellow, surmounted by a tuft of red hairs. It feeds on the leaves of the passion-flower, and changes into a brown chrysalis, which has a tuft of red hairs at the head and tail.

This species, as well as H. Cupido, is a native of Surinam.

ERYCINA OCTAVIUS.
PLATE XXIV. Fig. 3.

Pap. Octavius, Fabr. Mant.—Pap. Faunus, Fabr. Species.—Pap. Chorineus, Cramer, Pl. 59, fig. A.

As the above genus at present stands, it contains many insects which have but little affinity to each other, as may be seen by comparing the present figure with that on the following plate, both of which have been usually assigned a place in it. If we have not altered this arrangement, it is not because we do not regard it as improper, but from a reluctance to introduce many partial changes, in a place where it would be irrelevant to enter at length on the general subject of classification. The relation which groups bear to each other can be satisfactorily shown only by treating of the whole; and insulated changes are the less desirable at present, as a general arrangement of the whole class will speedily be laid before the public by an individual who has long directed his attention to the subject. The above-named species belongs to a group in which the upper wings are triangular, and the inferior very much elongated, truncated towards the anal angle, and exteriorly drawn out into a long narrow tail. With the exception of the dark bands and occasional crimson spots, the whole wings are transparent. E. octavius expands about an inch and a half. The upper wings are transparent, the whole of the outer margin, and a band running obliquely across the middle, black. Under wings transparent anteriorly, the remainder, including the tail, black; the anal angle with a large crimson patch. The tail is very narrow, and somewhat whitish on the outer edge and at the tip. The under side resembles the upper, except that the red spots are each marked with two white points.

Found in Surinam.

ERYCINA MELIBÆUS.
PLATE XXV. Figs. 1 and 2.

Pap. E. A. MelibÆus, Fabr.—Herbst. Pap. Pl. 59, fig. 4, 5.—Pap. Pyretus, Cramer, Pl. 144, fig. A, B.

This beautiful insect belongs to that division of Erycina which has opaque wings, and a short obtuse tail to the hinder pair. It is about two inches in extent of wing. The surface is uniform dark brown, with a bright red oblique band running across the middle of both wings, and a large crescent of the same colour near the origin of the tail. On the inner side of the upper wings there is the appearance of another oblique red band, but it is obsolete except at the hinder margin. The under side forms a striking contrast with the surface, the ground colour being black, with two brilliant blue bands, the outer one very broad, the interior somewhat macular, and terminating behind in a red point. Body brown above and black beneath.

Like most of the species constituting the genus Erycina, it is a native of the new world, occurring in greatest plenty in Surinam and Brazil.

LOXURA ALCIDES.
PLATE XXV. Fig. 3.

Loxura includes a few species formerly referred to Myrina, and, like the latter, is distinguished from the allied genera by the extraordinary length of the palpi which rise conspicuously above the head, and are, in fact, nearly half the length of the antennÆ. The wings are entire on the edges, and the hinder pair are prolonged each into a single tail, placed obliquely. The antennÆ increase gradually towards the apex into a lengthened club, and all the ambulatory legs are of the same form in both sexes. The species represented is a native of Guinea. The extent of the wings is about an inch and three-quarters. On the upper side the wings are dark brown, sprinkled very thickly towards the base with shining violet-blue atoms, making the whole inner half of the wings appear of that colour, and the outer margin of the posterior pair behind the middle, as well as the lengthened tail, are of the same hue. Towards the extremity of the upper wings there is a transverse band of a rusty-red colour, but it is very indistinctly defined. Beneath, the colour is tan-brown as far as the middle of the wings, where there is a narrow yellow line running across the whole surface in the posterior, but abbreviated in the anterior, and placed rather beyond the middle, the space beyond this band covered with a kind of greyish dust. Body brown, the thorax clothed with hairs of the same colour as the base of the wings, antennÆ blackish, annulated with white on the under side.

This is an African insect, and seems to be confined to the coast of Guinea. Pap. Corax of Cramer (Pl. 379, fig. D, E) seems to be a variety of the female. The individual figured by Boisduval (Spec. Gen. Pl. 22) appears to differ considerably from Cramer’s figures, as well as Fabricius’ and Godart’s description: it is represented as having a distinct ocellus at the base of the tail.

POLYOMMATUS MARSYAS.
PLATE XXVI. Figs. 1 and 2, Male.

Notwithstanding the numerous groups which have been recently withdrawn from this genus, it still includes a great variety of modifications of form which would amply justify further subdivision. Even the few examples which have been selected for illustration might afford the types of more than one group; but, for the reasons already mentioned, we prefer presenting them according to Latreille’s arrangement. Most of these insects are beneath the middle size, they are usually adorned with very beautiful colours on the surface, and ornamented with ocelliform spots beneath, a circumstance which has suggested the name. They are distinguished from the immediately preceding genera by having the palpi of ordinary length, or rather short, and all the legs complete, or adapted for walking, in both sexes. The group to which the first species represented belongs, has the costa of the upper wings more or less arched, particularly towards the base, and the hinder margin of the same wings is very slightly concave, especially in the male. The hinder wings have two linear narrow tails towards the anal angle. P. Marsyas is a native of Brazil, Guiana, and some other countries of South America. It is greenish-blue on the upper side, changing with the direction of the incident light into violet, the costa and apical angle of the upper wings widely black. Beneath the colour is lilac, glossy, with seven or eight small black spots, surrounded by a white circle, scattered over the disk of each wing; the anal angle bluish-green, with two short white transverse streaks and two pretty large black spots; tails black with the extremity white, the outer one about half the length of the other. Body blue above and whitish beneath. The antennÆ, as in most of the Polyommati, are black with pale rings.

POLYOMMATUS ENDYMION.
PLATE XXVI. Figs. 3, 4, Fem.

Pap. P. R. Endymion, Fabr. Herbst. Pap. Pl. 298, fig. 1, 2. Pap. regalis, Cramer, Pl. 72. fig. E, F. (Fem).

The outline of this richly-ornamented insect perfectly corresponds to that of the preceding species, except that the hinder margin of the upper wings is scarcely concave. The whole disk is very brilliant blue with a tinge of green, surrounded by a black border, which is wide and sinuated on its inner edge in the female, and narrow in the other sex. The anal angle of each of the hinder wings bears a large blood-red mark, and the tails are black tipped with white. On the under side the green hue predominates, and the whole is thickly-powdered as it were with gold dust, giving it a very rich appearance. Near the middle both wings are traversed by a distinct black line, angular posteriorly, and bordered externally by pale blue: behind this, on the under wings, there is a broad deep red or ferruginous band, paler towards its hinder edge and sprinkled with blue atoms: the outer margin of all the wings is darker than the interior. Expansion of the wings about two inches.

POLYOMMATUS VENUS.
PLATE XXVII. Figs. 1, 2.

This beautiful little insect is not unlike the preceding both in its form and colours. It belongs to a section of Polyommatus, in which the upper wings of the male are marked with an orbicular spot, of a cottony appearance, and frequently a good deal impressed. The expansion of the wings does not exceed an inch and a half. The colour of the surface is brilliant blue, the costa and outer margin of the wings black, and the disk of each marked with two ferruginous points in the male. Beneath, the colour is likewise green, richly glossed with golden yellow, the anterior portion of the under wings transversely streaked with narrow black marks. The tails are wholly black.

All the examples hitherto brought to Europe seem to be from Surinam.

POLYOMMATUS ACHÆUS.
PLATE XXVII. Figs. 3, 4.

Hisperia R. AchÆus, Fabr.—Pap. AchÆus, Cramer, Pl. 352, fig. G, H.—Herbst. Pap. Pl. 297, figs. 3, 4.

Nearly the same size as P. Venus, and also a native of Surinam. Upper side dark brown, the superior wings with two oval yellow spots on the disk of each, and two transverse curved streaks of the same colour on the inferior, the anal angle with a ferruginous spot. Under side yellow, with numerous ferruginous patches, each of which is ornamented with several small spots of golden-yellow, the outer border with a continuous ferruginous band bearing a series of golden-yellow elongated spots. Body brown above and yellowish beneath.

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