Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Foreign Butterflies.djvu/70

68 species (that of Papilio Protesilaus), is likewise clothed with plumose spines, two of which at the hinder extremity are much longer than the rest, and terminate in an appendage like a star. Equally remarkable with any of these is the caterpillar of one of the Nymphalidæ (Adoleas Aconthea), which has a series of long filiform bodies projecting from each side, thickly clothed laterally with hairs of considerable length diminishing gradually to the extremity, which is armed with a few minute spines.

As might be expected, great diversity likewise prevails in the appearance of the chrysalides; but to these it will be more convenient hereafter to refer, in the preliminary notices to the respective genera. One of the most remarkable, however, may be mentioned, that of Morpho Menelaus, which has the nasal prominence of the prothorax produced into a long curved horn, which extends to the middle of the abdomen. In another species of the same group, the head is obtuse, projects considerably, and is curved upwards at the extremity, exactly like the beak of an ancient galley.

Our acquaintance with the geographical distribution of the diurnal lepidoptera was long very imperfect, and it may yet be said to be very far from complete. The older naturalists seem to have been but little alive to the importance of the subject, and even if it had been otherwise, the means they possessed for illustrating it were comparatively limited. Those who had opportunities of collecting specimens in foreign countries, valued them merely as