Alfred
Russel Wallace : Alfred Wallace : A. R. Wallace :
Russel Wallace : Alfred Russell Wallace (sic)
Description
of a New Species of Ornithoptera.
Ornithoptera Brookiana. Wallace. (S16: 1855)
Editor Charles H. Smith's
Note: A note communicated to the Entomological Society of London meeting
of 2 April 1855, and printed in their Proceedings series later
that year. Original pagination indicated within double brackets. To link
directly to this page, connect with: http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/wallace/S016.htm
[[p.
104]] "Expansion 6 ½ inches. Wings very much elongated; black,
with a horizontal band of brilliant silky green. On the upper side this
band is formed of seven spots [[p. 105]] of
a subtriangular form, the bases of the four outer being nearly confluent,
and of the three inner quite so, forming a straight line across the centre
of the wing; the attenuated apex of each spot very nearly reaches the
outer margin at each nervule. On the lower wings the green band occupies
the centre half, and has its upper margin tinged with purple. The lower
wings are finely white-edged. There are some azure atoms near the base
of the upper wings. The collar is crimson, and the thorax and abdomen
(?) black. Beneath black, upper wings with the green spots opposite the
bases of those above, small and notched, the basal one with brilliant
purple reflexions, also a purple streak on the anterior margin at the
base. Lower wings with a submarginal row of diamond-shaped whitish spots
divided by the nervures; base of wings with two elongated patches of brilliant
purple. Body obliquely banded with crimson; abdomen black.
"Hab. N.W. Coast of
Borneo.
"This magnificent insect is a
most interesting addition to the genus Ornithoptera. The green-marked species have
hitherto been found only in N. Australia, New Guinea and the Moluccas, and all
those yet known so much resemble each other in their style of marking,
that most of them have been considered as varieties of the original Papilio
Priamus of Linnæus. Our new species is therefore remarkable on two
accounts; first, as offering a quite new style of colouring in the genus
to which it belongs; and, secondly, by extending the range of the green-marked
Ornithopteræ to the N.W. extremity of Borneo. As it has not been
met with by the Dutch naturalists, who have explored much of the S. and
S.W. of the island, it is probably confined to the N.W. coast. My specimen
(kindly given me by Captain Brooke Brooke) came from the Rejang river;
but I have myself once seen it on the wing near Sarawak. I have named
it after Sir J. Brooke, whose benevolent government of the country in
which it was discovered every true Englishman must admire.
--"Alfred
R. Wallace."
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