VOL. XVII. LONDON, ONT., APRIL, 1885. No. 4 



DESCRIPTION OF SOME OF THE PREPARATORY STAGES 



OF PARNASSIUS SMINTHEUS, Doubl., AND OF 



P. CLODIUS, Men. 



BY W. H. EDWARDS, COALBURGH, W. VA. 



P. Smintheus. 



Mr. W. L. Courtis, in 1883, sent me many eggs of this species, laid 

 by females confined with Sedum. All the butterflies were of the variety 

 Hcrmodur, H. Edw., the females being very black. I related Mr. 

 Courtis's observations in Papilio III., p. 158. The eggs were forwarded 

 to Dr. H. S. Jewett, Dayton, Ohio, in default of ice here, and were placed 

 in an ice box in that town, and so remained till late in Jan., '84. I 

 received them 28th. Two days after, several of the eggs were found to 

 have hatched, the day being warm, 55° Far. at noon. I gave the larvae 

 leaves of our wild Sedum, and also of some cultivated sorts that I had 

 brought together for the purpose. Three days later the wild leaves were 

 noticed eaten or nibbled a little, the other sorts not all. In former years, 

 at least twice, I had had these larvae out of egg, and they refused our 

 Sedum and starved. In the present case, little holes were eaten on the 

 upper side of leaf, half way through the fleshy part. Several larvae died 

 speedily, but a few did well. On 5th Feb'y, two were visibly stouter than 

 the rest. On 6th, I happened on some larvae feeding, this time at the 

 edges of the leaves. On 8th, the two largest began to swell at second 

 segment ; on loth, one of these died in the effort to moult, the time from 

 the egg being 11 days. On 12th, the other larva passed ist moult, at 13 

 days. On 15th, a third passed same moult ; next day another, and I was 

 fortunate in seeing the process. Before this moult I endeavored to make 

 the larvae disclose the tentacles on second segment, and did so in some 

 cases by pressing on the dorsum of segments after 2 with flat side of a 

 pin. Teasing with the point of the pin effected nothing. The tentacles 

 were stubby and very short, a mere lump of brownish-yellow color, with- 

 out prongs. It was rather a tentacle, than tentacles. On i8th, another 

 passed ist moult. By pressing on dorsum, the tentacles after first moult 



