hinder wings corresponds to the surface, but the green is of a more golden hue, and the circular spots larger, and seven in number. The antennæ, head, and thorax, black—the latter with a central line and two posterior spots of golden green; breast spotted with red on the sides; abdomen bright yellow.
The female is considerably larger, frequently measuring nearly eight inches between the tips of the wings. The prevailing colour is dark brown, deepening towards the extremities of the wings; the upper pair traversed by a macular band of impure white, the spots unequal and generally interrupted or notched; the hinder pair having a curved row of six large wedge-shaped spots behind, of a whitish colour powdered with black, the base tinged with yellow, and each with an orbicular black spot in the centre. Head and thorax entirely black, the abdomen whitish yellow above and deep yellow beneath.
Varieties of both sexes have occurred, for there seems little reason to doubt that the insect figured by Guerin (Voyage de la Coquille, Ins., pl. 13, fig. 1 and 2) under the name of P. urvillianus, is a variety of the male, while a female variety is described by Boisduval[1]. In the former, the green of the superior wings is replaced by violet-blue of a very brilliant tint, and in the hinder part that colour runs in a broad stripe along the nervures, dilating
- ↑ Voyage de l'Astrolabe, Ent., pl. 4, fig. 1 and 2.
