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flying round are broken, and few of these." On 4th July, Mr. Courtis 

 had written: "A few days ago I took a walk, and saw hundreds of the 

 Parnassius, and caught, 10 or 12, but they were all males except one, 

 which was so injured that it died. To-day I went to the mountains and 

 took 40 or 5o,and have several of them tied up in netting with Sedum. 

 One pair have mated, so that I hope to send you some eggs. The 

 season is very short. I think all the butterflies come at one time, like 

 the flowers. Spring and fall flowers are only a week or two apart 

 here. The females of these Parnassius are much harder to find than 

 the males, as they are hid in the grass." On July 8th: "I went out 

 this morning and took 20 or more pairs,and watched the females. They 

 all seem to fly to the ground, and either lay on the ground or in the 

 grass roots. I could not find the eggs, thouga I saw them drop them 

 somewhere among the dry sticks. I have a large number now tied up, 

 but they will not lay. Some which were tied up, on being let loose, 

 laid at once on grass and anywhere. This species is very common, 

 hundreds of it on every hill-side." Again: "The Parnassius come 

 about ist July, and now, 28th July, have almost entirely disappeared. 

 The Sedum is the most common flower on the rocky hills." 



Mr. Mead, in 1878, when in California and Nevada, obtained num- 

 bers of eggs of jP. Baldur and of 6'/////////^//i",by shutting the females up 

 with Sedum. On three several occasions I have had caterpillars of one 

 or other of there species hatch here at Coalburgh,in last days of winter, 

 but have lost all of them. They were supplied with Sedum leaves, but 

 refused to eat, I thought they might require the flowers when first 

 hatched, and shall endeavor to retard the hatching of the eggs I now 

 have till I can give them Sedum in flower. But G. M. Mollinger 

 writes me that the eggs of F. Apollo, in Switzerland, hatch late in the 

 fall, and the young larvae hybernate ; awaking in early spring, and 

 eating the leaves of Sedum. not the flowers. It is certain however that 

 our species do not hatch till spring, the eggs hybernating. Both Mr. 

 Mead and myself have carried the eggs into mid-winter, or through 

 the winter, with no artificial retardation. It is probable that the larvae 

 come forth as soon as the snow melts, feed on Sedum, and mature 

 about middle of June^then remaining in pupae till early in July.* The 

 newly hatched larvae are singular creatures, bearing no resemblance 

 to any members of the Papilionidae which I have ever seen. They 

 are thickly studded with small tubercles in rows, and each of these 

 gives out several short curved black hairs. They look something like 

 caterpillars of Argynnis but are very different from these also. I do 

 not think, judging from the t%^ and young larva, as I know them, and 

 by the mature larva and chrysalis, as figured in books, that Parnassius 

 has any right among the Papilionidae. Under a system in which the 

 preparatory stages were considered, and in the future we shall have 

 to come to that, it would stand a long way from the Papilionidae. The 



*See But., N. A., vol I, for Mr. Mead's remarks on habits of Smintheus, as ob- 

 served in Colorado, in 1871. I also quote remarks by Schaeffer, who believed the 

 larvae of Apollo hatched in the Spring. Also authors on the pouch at end of abdomen 

 of female. Von Siebold thinks it must be formed during copulation ; Schaeffer says it 

 was on all the females bred by him. 



