Zoological Illustrations, Volume 1: or, Original Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare, or Interesting Animals — John Shaqi
Zoological Illustrations, Volume 1: or, Original Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare, or Interesting AnimalsSwainson, William
Science
Zoological Illustrations, Volume 1: or, Original Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare, or Interesting Animals
Swainson, William
Animals -- Pictorial works
Antennae cylindrical, thickest near the middle, the terminal half
subulate; articulations numerous, very short, hardly perceptible. Palpi
thick, scaly; frontal side obtuse; lateral sides compressed; the
margins externally fringed with hair; the last joint naked, lengthened,
nearly horizontal, linear, compressed. Eyes (in the male) very large.
Body (in the male) of seven joints, the last with a transverse,
slightly emarginate, truncate appendage above; and two obtuse recurved
hooks below, concealed by a tuft of hair; the first and last segment
shortest. Body in the female with the last joint lengthened and
pointed.
* * * * *
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
_I. alis supra fuscis, basi nitide-caerulea, posticis aurantio
marginatis, subtus rufo-fusco nebulosis, basi puncto nigro: anticis (in
maribus) basi aurantiis, macula nigra tomentosa._
Wings above fuscous, shining blue at their base; posterior margined
with orange; beneath clouded with rufous and brown, and a black dot at
the base of the posterior wings. Anterior wings (in the male) orange at
the base, and a large velvet-like spot of black.
* * * * *
The resplendent and changeable azure blue which ornaments the body and part
of the wings in this very singular insect, can be but ill expressed in the
figure. It is one of the many new and interesting subjects in entomology
discovered in Java by Dr. Horsfield; and by his kindness and liberality I
am enabled to add the figures of the caterpillar and chrysalis, which were
copied out of a fine series of drawings made in Java under his own eye:
they do not appear to differ in their formation from others of this family,
although the perfect insect possesses such striking and peculiar generic
characters; one of the many facts which prove the impossibility of making
the _Larvae_ a primary consideration in forming the genera of Lepidoptera.
This is a rare insect, I have therefore been obliged to leave the generic
character imperfect, as the dissection of the mouth, &c. would destroy the
specimen. The posterior margin in the wings of the male is sinuated; in the
female it is nearly straight; the underside of the wings in both sexes is
the same; the anterior pair reddish-brown, paler in the middle; the tip and
posterior margin whitish: inferior wings reddish-orange towards the inner
margin, with an obsolete central curved band of the same, and a black dot
at the base of the inferior wings. The head, palpi, and thorax are margined
with orange, less conspicuous in the female.
Our knowledge of the genus _Hesperia_ of Latreille (under which the present
insect would come) is little more than what was known of _Scarabaeus_
twenty years ago; nor has Fabricius even noticed one half of the species
figured by Cramer. The larva feeds on
GAERTNERA _Javensis_
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