Zoological Illustrations Series II/Plate 90
JASIA Athama.
JASIA Athama,
Athama Butterfly.
Tribe, Papiliones. Family, Nymphalidæ. Nobis.
Sub-Generic Character.
Lower wings, acutely bi-caudate; Antennæ, short, gradually thickening into a lengthened, cylindrical club, the tip nearly truncate; Palpi, projecting, and longer above, than is the head; their tips acute; their joints concealed by compact scales.
Type, Papilio Jasius. Auct.
Specific Character.
Wings above blackish, with a broad, common band, and an anterior spot of straw colour; beneath, having the band greenish, and margined with chesnut.
Papilio Athamas. Cramer, Pl. 89. f. C. D.
We can communicate but little on this elegant Butterfly, of which our figures represent the female: the other sex is known by having the straw coloured band much narrower; on the under surface this colour is prismatic; changing, in some lights, to a delicate pea green. The great size and thickness of the thorax, intimate a powerful and rapid flight. The group is Oriental; but one species, the beautiful and rare Pap. Jasius. Lin. we have captured in the Island of Sicily, the most southern part of Europe.
As we have not yet completed the analysis of this family of Butterflies, we know not the rank or true affinities of the present group. It is evidently either one of the lowest types of form, or a sub-genus. We have received both sexes of these insects from Java, where the species appears to be common. The resemblance of this group, to Rhetus and Marius, would seem to indicate points of strong natural analogy.
We adopt the original specific name of Cramer: for we cannot, at this moment, trace the species in the voluminous works of Fabricius.