Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Foreign Butterflies.djvu/167

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139

HELICONIA FLORA.


PLATE XII. Figs. 1 and 2.


Godart.—Pap. Flora, Cramer, Pl. 257, fig. B, C


The above plate affords examples of that division of the Heliconian butterflies, in which the greater proportion of the wings is denuded of scales and transparent. H. Flora of Cramer very closely resembles H. Ægle (Fabr.), and may possibly prove a mere variety of that species. It expands nearly two inches. The upper wings are black with two transparent bands, that next the base very large, lying parallel with the costa as far as the middle, and then descending obliquely towards the posterior angle, divided by a transverse black stripe, and a longitudinal nervure of the same colour; the second band macular, and placed near the apex. The under wings are transparent, the whole of the outer border surrounded by a black stripe, which is divided towards the angle by a fulvous line; the nervures black. Under side similar in design to the upper, but the whole of the outer border of the wings surrounded by a rust-coloured line, and the extreme