been described by Godart, or of Fabricius having described any species so nearly allied to it as his P. Curius. By an examination of the original specimen of P. Curius in the Banksian cabinet, which, however, is not labelled in the hand-writing of Fabricius; and also of Jones's drawing from which Donovan's figure was taken, my suspicion was turned to certainty; and it only remains for me to endeavour to point out to other entomologists the characters by which the two species may be distinguished.
The Fabrician description[1] is alone quite sufficient to point out one decided character of the true Curius, but does not indicate all the distinctions between the two species; and I shall therefore give a more detailed account of them, using the Fabrician name for the Northern Indian species, to which of right it belongs, and Zinken's name, Meges, for the Javanese species commonly known as L. Curius.
In L. Curius the band which crosses the middle of the anterior wing is externally curved, and of an opaque white towards the base of the wing, but the outer half is perfectly hyaline, with the nervures black. In the white portion of the band the nervures are concolorous, except the subcostal, which is black. The hyaline space crossed by the black nervures which occupies the outer portion of these wings, is smaller than in L. Meges, the black border being broader, especially at the apex, where it leaves only a small oval hyaline spot between the last branches of the subcostal nervure. The band of the posterior wings is narrower than that of the anterior, and of the same opaque white as that portion of the latter to which it corresponds.
In L. Meges, the band of the anterior wings has its margins more nearly parallel, is of a glaucous hue, and has all the nervures concolorous; that of the posterior is rather broader and of the same colour, and whilst in L. Curius it is the inner margin of this band which most nearly coincides with that of the anterior wings, in L. Meges it is just the reverse. The anal angle of the posterior wings and the base of the tails are less powdered with whitish in L. Meges than in L. Curius.
The accompanying woodcuts very nearly express the characters which distinguish the two species, though perhaps there is rather too marked a difference in the form of the posterior wings, which however are much more indented in L. Curius than in L. Meges. It will be needless to give a formal description of the two species, I shall there-
- ↑ "Alis caudatis, concoloribus, atris; anticis fasciis cluabus hyalinis; posticis unica albâ: and it is rather singular to read this below Godart's specific character—"alis subconcoloribus, nigris, fasciâ, ommuni glaucâ: anticis ante apicem hyalinis."
