Üí-
I ’ i
4 m M X " ' 13 1:® ' ' . I f e f :
t ë ' ,
P A P I L I O R H E T E N O R .
S P E C I F I C C H A R A C T E R
AND
S Y N O N Y M S .
Wings indented: above ihining blue; beneath clouded, and marked with brown fpots.
P a p ilio R h e te n o r . Cram. Inf. 6. tab. 15. ß g . A . B.
Suh. Hiß. Inf. tab. 13. ß g . ].
Su/z. et Roem. p . 68.
P a p il io M e n e l a u s ; alis dentatis: fupra ccemleis nitidiffimis, fubtus nebulofis; punftis fufcis.
Linn. Syß. Nat. 2. 748. 20.
Moft naturalifts are undetermined whether Papilio Menelaus and the fuppofed variety, Papilio Rhetenor,
ftiould not be confidered diftinft fpecies. The colour o f the upper fide is nearly the fame in both infefts;
but the under fides are very different. The Linnsean defcription o f the male, P. Menelaus, agrees with
Papilio Rhetenor, and probably he confidered them the two fexes o f one infeft. Fabricius would certainly
have made a new fpecies o f it, if he had not been of the fame opinion. We have both infefts before us,
and ftiould moft affuredly make a new fpecies of P. Rhetenor, as Cramer and Sulzer have done, i f the
authority o f thc laft work o f Fabricius were not oppofed to us.
Papilio Menelaus is a native of South America. Sulzer’s fpecimen o f Papilio Rhetenor came from
China. Foreign Entomologifts. for this and other reafons, have confidered tliem diftinft fpecies. The
curious in infeéts, fays Cramer, call this butterfly Le Satiné hku oblong, to diltinguifli it from P. Menelaus,
or Le Satiné bleu vulgaire.—Cramer has alfo given a third and much fmaller kind o f thele blue butterflies,
Pap. Adonis, which Fabricius alfo confiders a variety o f Menelaus.
Whatever effeft the artift can produce by a combination of the moft brilliant colours employed iu
painting, he muft Ihrink from comparifon o f it with this fplendid creature. It is impoflible to find in any
part of the animal creation colours more beautiful or changeable. Pale blue is the principal colour, but
new tints meet the eye in every direftion, varying from a filvery green to the deepeft purple; and the
whole furface glittering with the refpleiulence of highly poliihed metal.
Í! ■
■«1 :
i r i i
1
u *