Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Foreign Butterflies.djvu/101

Rh many of the Sphingides; others are short and thick, and furnished with numerous rather short fleshy points; finally, there are some (Podalirius, Ajax, Antiphates) which somewhat resemble snails in shape. The caterpillars of Papilio may be distinguished from those of other genera belonging to the same tribe by the following characters:—They differ from those of Ornithoptera in their retractile tentaculum not being enclosed in two exterior cases; from those of Thais, in the projections which they sometimes present being never hispid at the extremity; and from those of Parnassius, in the body being always free from pubescence; but it is more particularly from the characters drawn from the chrysalis and perfect insect that this last genus is distinguished from Papilio ."

The perfect insects are characterised by very short palpi not passing beyond the eyes, all the joints very indistinct, the third quite invisible; antennæ pretty long, the club slightly curved upwards; abdomen pretty large, the anal valves in the male of moderate size; wings rather strong, the inferior pair having the abdominal margin folded upwards and leaving the abdomen free, their exterior border more or less dentated, and often prolonged posteriorly into a tail.

According to the above definition, the genus comprehends rather upwards of 220 species. They are distributed over almost every quarter of the globe,