1879.1 MR. E. R. ALSTON ON ACANTHOMYS .LEUCOPUS. 6.15

29. Ornismya Zongirostrk, #Orb. & Lafr. Syn. Av. ii. p. 29. Guarayos (0.). No specimen in Paris Museum (Elliot, 1. c.).

30. Noctua ferox, d’Orb. & Lafr. Syn. AT. i. p. 8 ; d’Orb. Voy. Ois. p. 127.

Prov. Chiquitos (0.). 31- Ihycter gymnocephaks, d’Orb. & Lafr. Syn. Av. i. p. 2; d’Orb.

Cochabamba (0.). Voy. Ois. p. 50.

3. On the Acanthomys leucopus of Gray. By EDWARD R. ALSTON, P.L.S., F.Z.S., &c.

[Received June 3,1579.1

I n the first part of Prof. Schlegel’s new periodical, ‘Notes from the Royal Zoological Museum of the Netherlands at Leyden,’ Dr. F. A. Jentink identifies two specimens of a spiny Rat from Celebes with the North-Australian species described by the late Dr. Gray under the name of Acanthomys leucopus ’. The specific identity of a Mus from Celebes with one from the continent of Australia seemed so unlikelJr that I suspected that Dr. Jeutink might have been misled by Gray’s very insufficient description ; and I was consequently induced to reexamine the types in the British Museum. A comparison of the description given below with that of Dr. Jentink will show that the two species are evidently quite distinct, the Celebes animal being a fourth smaller than the Australian, with much smaller feet, and having the tail longer than the head and body, thinly haired and tufted, instead of shorter and naked.

I n a note to my report on the Rev. G. Brown’s collection, I re- marked that Gray’s speciea belonged to the restricted genus Z u s and not to Acnnthomys, Lesson (=Acornye, Geoffroy), and that it mould require to be renamed, the specific name being preoccupied by the common North-American White-footed Mouse, the Mu8 leu- copus (Rafinesque) of Desmarest and other writers, Hesperomys leu- copus of’ more recent zoologists’. Dr. Jeutink also places the Aus- tralian species in the genus Mus, but on different grounds; he rejects the genus Acomys or Acanthomys altogether, as being founded merely on the superficial charac$er of the possession of spinous hairs. But that group was founded by the older Geoffroy on the Nus cahirinus of Desmarest ; and it has been restricted by subsequent writers to the small group of Ethiopian Mures in which a spiny coat is combined with marked cranial peculiarities, notably with shallow pterygoid fosm, very small incisive foramina and slightly developed coronoid processes ’.

1 P. 8.8. 1867, p. 595. P. 8.5.1877, p. 124, footnote. Cf: Peters, Reise n. Mozambique, i . p. 161 ; &ton, P. 8. S. 1876, p. 83.

646 MR. E . R. ALSTON ON ACANTHOMYS LEUCOPUS. [June 17.

Although Dr. Jentink places the species in tbe genus B u s , h e re- tains Gray’s specific name on the grouna that Mus Zeucopus (Raf.) has since been separated as a Hesperomys. In this I cannot agree ; because a species has been removed to a new genus its name does not become unoccupied in the old one. Surely Dr. Jentink would not think it admissible to name a new Mouse Jfqs aquaticus because the Linnmm Mus aquaticus has been separated as an Ar- vicola? Nor can I see any analogy in his further suggestion that “ i f Alston objects to the name of this species he should also reject the name Uromys rufescens, and adopt the specific name muscivora, Pierson Ramsay, because, under the name of Mus rufescens, a Mouse was already described by Gray.’’ The cases will only be parallel when Dr. Jentink can prore that my U r o m y s rufescensl is a true Mus, and does not belong to the perfectly distinct genus Uromys. When he has shown this 1 will readily withdraw my name in favour of Mr. Ramsay’s.

The following is a fuller description than Gray’s of the North- Australian Spiny Rat, which I propose to call

Mus TERRIE-REGINZ, sp. n. Acanthomys leucopus, Gray, P. Z. S. 1867, p. 598 (descr. orig.,

vide suprii). - Mus leucops, Jentink, Notes fr. Leyden Bfus. i. p. 8 (part., nec Uesmarest).

Fur stiff and harsh both above and below, most of the hairs being developed into flattened channelled spines; on the back are many longer cylindrical hairs. Whiskers weak, not longer than the head, mixed black and white. Ears rather large, rounded, perfectly naked. Feet remarkably large and stout. Tail considerably shorter than the head and body, naked, the scattered minute hairs being hardly visible to the naked e je . Colour above dark reddish brow$, the spiny hairs being dusky, tipped with rufons, the longer hairs black; lips, lower parts of cheeks, chin, breast, belly, inside of limbs, and feet yellowish white3; tail dusky, irregularly marked with yellowish patches and rings.

Measurements of type specimens (a, an adult, and 6, a young female) :-

a.

Length of head and body .... 8-25 = 210 ,, tail ............. 7.10 = 180 ,, ear.. ............ -75 = 20 ,, hind foot ........ 1-57 = 40

in. millims.

P. 2. S. 1877, p. 124, pl. xviii. Not p q p h brom as stated by Gray. The yellowish tinge may be due to t he spirit in which the spechens are

preserved.

1879.1 MR. w. L. DISTANT O N AFRICAN PAPILIONES. 647

ill. millirus. 6. Length of head and body .... 7.10 = 180

,, tail.. ............ 6-30 = 160 ,, ear . . ............ -65 = 18 ,, hind foot ........ 1.00 = 26

Hub. Cape York, Queensland (Dumen, A h . Brit.), Dr. Jentink's Celebes Mouse, my Mus 6rowni from Duke-of-York

Island', and Ti. terra-reyina, are all nearly related, although per- fectly distinct; and allied species will doubtless be discovered in other parts of the Eastern Archipelago.

4. On some African Species of the Lepidopterous Genus Papilio. By W. L. DISTANT.

[Received June 7, 1879.1

(Plate XLVII.) The following short paper gives some notes taken during an

examination recently made of the fine collection of African Papiliones in the collection of hIr. F. J. Horniman. Most of the West- Africaa specimens hare been obtained from the Calabar district (Isubu, Xongo-ma-lobah, Calabar) ; and these are peculiarly inter- esting as marking a district of which the insect fauna differs in many slight respects, though seldom specifically, from that of the neighbouring district of the Gold Coast. I have been forced to this conclusion not only from the examination of the Butterflies of this genus, but from having already worked out large collections of Hemiptera from the same locality, and from information supplied me by accomplished Coleopterists as to the insects of their own order. From Sierra. Leone the divergence of the Calabar district is much greater, many insects being peculiar to each locality.

PAPILIO OPHIDOCEPEALUS, Oberthur, Etudes d'Entomologie, p. 13 (1S7S).

M. Uberthur has given the above name to the S.-African form figured by Trimea as P. menestheus (Rhop. bfr.-Austr. t. 2 . f. 1). h long series in this collection from both S. and E. Africa shows the characters to be quite constant ; and a 9 P. menestheus from the Calabar district agrees with the typical characters of the d of that species as figured by Drury.

PAPILIO HORXIMANI, n. sp. (Plate XLVII. figs. 1,2 d,3 51 .) 6 . Wings above black, marginal fringe streaked with pale sulphur-

yellow. Fore n ings with a straight, oblique, transverse, green famia, o u l j divided by the nervules, estending from just iuside lower apical portion of discoidal cell to about centre of' interior margin. Above

P. 8. S. 1877, p. 123.