Volume 18, Plate V / Entomology (Insects)

Leptocircus Curius & Thais Medesicaste

1. Lepto­circus Curius. A genus founded by Swainson for a singular insect resembling an Erycina but allied to the true Papiliones, with thick head and body, short abdomen, large eyes, and clubbed antennae curving upward. The wings expand about an inch and a half, the forewings half black with a green band and half transparent, the hindwings black edged with white and drawn into long curved tails; the female has white wing-bands, and it comes from Siam and Java.
2. Thais Mede­sicaste. A genus confined to southern Europe, north Africa, and Asia Minor, all moderate-sized and known by yellow wings spotted red and black with a dark festooned border; the caterpillars are short, spined, and feed solitarily on Aristolochia. The figured species, possibly a variety of T. Rumina, is pale ochreous yellow with black marginal bands enclosing yellow and red spots, three red basal spots on the hindwings, and occurs in Languedoc near Digne.