Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Foreign Butterflies.djvu/262

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202

URANIA SLOANUS.

PLATE XXIX. Fig. 1.


Godart.—Pap. Sloanus, Cramer, Pl. 85, fig. E, F.—Pap. Leilius. Var. Fabr.—Leilius Occidentalis, Swainson, Illus. Pl. 129.

Expands about two inches and a half or three inches; surface deep black; the upper wings each with six or seven transverse lines of golden green, and near the middle a band of that colour bifid (sometimes trifid) anteriorly. Under wings with a central band of bright coppery red, irregularly indented, the abdominal margin more or less gilded green; the tail black with a few emerald green spots. Design on the under side corresponding to that on the surface, the green paler. Body black above, with a dorsal line of golden green, and another on each side; brownish beneath.

This handsome species bears the name of the celebrated Sir Hans Sloane, the early historian of Jamaica, who figured it in his work (Pl. 239, fig. 11, 12). It is accounted a rare insect, and, we believe, has hitherto been found only in the West Indian Islands.