Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Foreign Butterflies.djvu/216

172 MORPHO.

butterflies arranged together under the above name are, in many respects, the most remarkable of any to which our attention has yet been directed. In size they are superior to all the other diurnal lepidopterous tribes, except the Ornithoptera, and many of them rival even that conspicuous group in their dimensions. Although surpassed by many others of their tribe in elegance of form and harmonious blending of colours, they afford examples of as rich tints as are to be found in any other natural objects. The blue which adorns the whole surface of M. Menelaus and Adonis, has a beauty and lustre which it is impossible to witness without admiration. When flying under the blaze of a tropical sun, the brilliancy of the surface, as contrasted with the dark hue of the under side, as they are alternately displayed, must render them very striking objects. Most of them are from South America, but a few occur in the eastern parts of India and the great islands of the adjacent Archipelago.

The generic characters are more determinate than is the case with many others of this order. The antennæ are slender, linear throughout their whole length, or thickening so insensibly towards the