* 

 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 101 



NOTES ON PARNASSIUS CLODIUS. 



BY JOHN B. LEMBERT, YO SEMITE, CALA. 



After a journey of ten miles over snow and snowbanks from four to 



eight feet deep, I arrived in the latter part of June, on my summer and 



fall collecting ground on the Fuolumne Meadows, which lie on the edge 



of the area wherein the high Sierra species of Lepidoptera are most 



numerous. The Parnassius was one of the first I began to collect, as the 



butterflies had just commenced to issue, and were flying in the grassy 



and shaded timber-covered portions of a rocky side hill slope. After they 



were out a day or so they began to settle down on flowers to feed, and 



were then less difficult to catch. The first day I only caught three, and 



kept on adding a few more to that number every day. Towards three 



and four p. m. they camp for the night on low bushes and a low growing 

 sedge (Carex filifolia) and rise only when disturbed by ants or the collector 

 on his return towards camp. I have in this way taken a great many 

 females. On the 6th of July a $ after a hard chase up a rocky elevation 

 lit on the sand and walked upon a Phlox caespitosa and deposited an egg ; 

 she then flew to another and deposited an egg there also. I dug up both 

 plants and put them in a box, placing the insect in same box, but when I 

 got to camp she was missing. On July roth I secured an egg that a $ 

 laid on Carex filifolia. The same $ attempted to oviposit on so slender 

 a plant of Gayophytum diffiisum that it bent backwards down on the 

 ground, which caused her to fly on others with the same result. Shortly 

 after I saw several ? 's do the same thing. One female being driven into 

 a bush by a (^ , as soon as he left, she flew in a direct line to a large 

 boulder, and tacked an egg on its side. I marked the spot and secured 

 the egg, only to be crushed before I got home the next day, and the one 

 on the carex was also lost. Towards the latter part of July a 9 took to 

 ovipositing on the Pinus Murrayana burrs lying on the ground, and then 

 on carex. Not being able to find the eggs on the burrs^ I threw them 

 away. Not long after another 9 did the same thing, and finally alighted 

 on a piece of rotten wood. After she flew away these burrs gave the same 

 results as the preceding ones, and on the rotten wood I could see nothing 

 but a small crevice ; but on breaking the crevice open I found the egg. 

 This unravelled the mystery why I- could not find the eggs on the pine 

 burrs. 



