2 6 OCT.,,, LIBRARY ' A list of the type-specimens of Ornithoptera (Lepidoptera : Papilionidae) in the British Museum (Natural History) fTG. Howarth Department of Entomology, British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD* Contents Synopsis 153 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . .153 List of type-specimens of Ornithoptera . . . . . . . 1 54 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . .167 References . . . . . . . . . . . . .167 Synopsis A detailed list is given of the type-material of 143 species, subspecies and infrasubspecific forms of Ornithoptera Boisduval (sensu lato) represented in the collection of the British Museum (Natural History). Six names have been synonymized (aphnea, burkei, eudamidas, eurysaces, phycia, sciara) and one sub-species (mixtum) is considered to be a probable feral hybrid. Introduction The present work is based on the recent recuration of the Museum's collections of this attractive group of Papilionidae which had not been touched since A. G. Gabriel reorganized the collection some 35 years ago. Since that time the Rothschild and Levick collections have been received and there has been a resurgence of interest in these magnificent insects. Consequently it is felt that a catalogue giving details of the type-material now in the British Museum (Natural History) would be of particular use and interest to students both at home and abroad. The collection is of almost unrivalled size, being housed in nearly 400 large glass-bottomed drawers and containing material examined and described by such authorities as Butler, Druce, Felder, Fruhstorfer, Gray, Rippon, Wallace, Joicey & Talbot and Rothschild & Jordan. When Lord Rothschild died in 1937 he bequeathed his museum at Tring, Hertfordshire, to the nation. His collection of Ornithoptera, apart from being almost as large as that at South Kensing-ton, was immensely rich in type-material for it contained not only the original material described by Walter Rothschild himself but also that of his curator Karl Jordan, who wrote the section devoted to the Indo-Australasian Papilionidae in Seitz's Macrolepidoptera of the World. The collection also contained the material collected and described by the Felders of Vienna as well as some of that dealt with by R. H. F. Rippon in his monumental Icones Ornithopterorum. Due to its importance scientifically all the Rothschild material has been kept together within the series wherever possible and is labelled 'Rothschild Bequest, B.M. 1939-1'. The Hans Fruhstorfer collection was received by the Museum in 1933 and was another which contained a very great deal of the type-material, almost all of which was described by Fruhstorfer himself. Martin (1922) wrote an interesting obituary of Fruhstorfer and Talbot provided extensive lists of types some seven months after Fruhstorfer's death. As Fruhstorfer was casual and irregular in his labelling of his type-material, which has caused some difficulties to workers in the past, it may help to give some information on this subject. In a letter to the Director of the Hill Museum, *Present address: Highview, 4 Clinton Rise, Beer, Seaton, Devon EX12 3DZ. Bull. Br. Mus. nat. Hist. (Ent.) 36 (3): 153-169 Issued 27 October 1977 153
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