Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Foreign Butterflies.djvu/161

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135

HELICONIA ERATO.


PLATE XI. Fig. 1.


Godart.—Pap. Erato, Linn.—Heb. Ricini (Mas.), Fabr.—Pap. Amathusia, Cramer, Pl. 177, fig. F.


Extent of the wings about three inches; the ground colour deep black. Upper wings with three diverging rays of deep red at the base, the inferior one longest and extending rather beyond the middle; not far from the extremity of these rays there is a large discoidal patch of sulphur-yellow, unequally divided into two parts by a black bifurcated nervure; beyond this, near the apex, is a series of contiguous spots of the same colour, varying from two to five. Under wings with six deep red rays extending from the base towards the hinder margin, and behind the place where these terminate, an arched row of small blue spots. The colour beneath is dark brown; the upper wings marked nearly as on the surface, except that the costa at the base is alone tinged with red; under wings with eight diverging pale-red lines, and a row of whitish marks parallel with the hinder margin. Body black; the sides of the thorax and abdomen marked with small yellow