The first of these is taken from Cramer, who calls it _Pap. Rhipheus_, from an unaccountable idea that it was the same species as one figured by Drury, under that name. He imagines that this latter figure was made from a mutilated specimen, in which the tails had been broken off, and that _his_, consequently, represented the insect in its perfect state. Every succeeding writer, so far as we can discover, has taken up this idea, without the precaution of investigating its correctness. Now it follows that if the two species were the same, the posterior wings of _Cramer's_, would be spotted like those of _Drury's_, yet they are essentially different: a piece of paper, put over to hide the tails in our present figure, which may then be compared with the next, will at once explain our meaning: but setting this aside, Cramer expressly asserts that his insect has the Antennæ "_sans boutons_", and "_comme filiformes_", and very justly compares it with our _Leilus Surinamensis_, "_mas plus encore_," with _Pap. Orontes_, L. (_Orontes Noctuïdes_, Sw.) the immediate type to which it leads. How totally inapplicable this account is to Drury's insect, will be presently shewn. Cramer has most correctly given the immediate affinities of this insect. We have no space to state our reasons for considering it, at present, as a true _Leilus_; although with six tails, instead of _two_. It may _possibly_, however, be the fifth, or natatorial type, which in our synopsis of the genus at Pl. 125, we have not ventured to indicate. We have never seen, or even heard of a specimen in modern cabinets; that figured by Cramer, was found at Chandernagor, in Bengal, and was in the rich collection of M. Gigot d'Orcy. * * * * * * [Illustration: RHIPHEUS _Dasycephalus. Sw._] RHIPHEUS dasycephalus. _Round-winged Emerald Butterfly_ ---- SPECIFIC CHARACTER. Wings black, varied with numerous irregular lines of emerald green; posterior with the internal and anal angle, deep blood-red, shining with gold and spotted with black. Papilio Rhipheus. Drury. Ins. 2, p. 40, pl. 23, 1. 2. ---- If the imagination was taxed to invent, or to concentrate into one figure all that was splendid, lovely, or rare in the insect world, Nature would far exceed the poor invention of man by the production of this incomparably splendid creature; its rarity also is so great, that but one specimen has ever been seen: this was brought from China, and in 1773, belonged to a Captain May, of Hammersmith: with whom it was seen by Drury, and drawn by Harris. It is not however, on this account only that we have been induced to copy this figure, but because its illustration will clear up one of the most intricate and perplexing questions, that has hitherto impeded the natural arrangement of the Linnæn _Papiliones_, and even of the whole order of Lepidoptera.