( 429 ) ON SOME NEW LEPIDOPTERA EROM THE EAST. By the HON. WALTER ROTHSCHILD, Ph.D., and K. .JORDAN, Ph.D. PAPILIONIDAE. 1-Troides meridionalis. (J Triiides paradheua meridionalis Rothschild, Nov. ZoOL, FV. p. 180. n. 3 (1897). WHEN describing this insect in April 1S97 I had only one ?. The distin-guishing characters presented by that individual did not seem to me to justify a specific separation of meruHonalis from paraclixeus. Towards the end of 1897 I received a second ? , caught at the south-eastern extremity of New Gninea, near, or not far from, Samarai. Mr. A. S. Meek, who has for years been sending us very fine collections from the Papuan region, succeeded in capturing a third ?, and had also the great luck of discovering the S . The three ? ? are all alike, except in small details. The c?, however, is very different from what I expected it to be. As in geographical races of Papilioninae the ? ? are generally much more different than the <?<?, the latter being often indistinguishable (compare, for instance, Troides ti.thonus u-aii/eiiensis and fif/ioni/s), I presumed that the <? of meridionalis would be essentially the same as that of /jaradiseus. I was, therefore, very much astonished, when receiving Mr. Meek's fine capture, to find that the cj of meridionalis presented such striking differences from /mradiseiis in the shape, colour, and venation of the wings that 1 could not hesitate to regard tncridioiialis as specifically distinct. The forewing is narrower than in paradiseiis, its distal margin nearly straight, the anterior green streak is narrower, the posterior one wider, entering the cell and distally running up to the anterior one ; on the tmderside the forewing has a broad black band, beginning at the costal margin before the middle of the cell, running to upjjcr angle of cell, and thence to the disc, being distally limited by veins R' and R', the yellowish green scaling between these veins reduced to two small submarginal spots ; the yellowish streaks between the subcostals also reduced, the apex of the wing being black, with an ill-defined green streak of dispersed scales between SC^ and SC and a few more green scales behind SC*. The outlines and neuration of the hindwings of T. paradiseus (A) and meridionalis (B) are represented by the accompanying diagrams. The wing of meridionalis is more reduced in size than that of paradiseus, narrower, the distal margin is gently concave ; the tail is shorter, not gradually narrowing to the tij), but dilated before the apex ; the out-line of the dilated portion when flattened out is as in figure, but apjiears in the specimen, on superficial examination, to be rhombiform, the tail being twisted ; the anal angle is not produced ; the fringe of hairs upon the abdominal fold is much longer, and not so dense. In neuration
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