26 PAPILIONIDjE. 



Genus VI. PARNASSIUS Latr. 



Latr. Hist. Nat. des Crust et Ins. xiv. 110. (1805). 



Doritis Fab. Syst. Gloss, (ined.). 

 * 



Parnassis Hubn. Verz. bek. Schmett 90. (1816). 



Pieris Schrank. 



Head small, very hairy. 



Eyes oval, not prominent. 



Maxillce of moderate length. 



Labial Palpi distinctly triarticulate ; the joints nearly equal, the basal one curved. 



Antenna? short, gradually clavate, not arched. 

 Thorax rather stout, very hairy. 



Anterior Wings subtriangular, rounded externally, diaphanous. Subcostal nervure terminating in 

 only four nervules ; of which one is thrown oft* beyond the middle of the cell, the second a little 

 before its end, the third about half-way between the cell and the apex of the wing. Upper 

 disco-cellular and baseo-median nervules both wanting. 



Posterior Wings elongate, ovate, emarginate internally, without any abdominal folds, subdiaphanous. 

 Precostal nervure not branched. 



Legs short. Anterior Tibiae with a short flat spur. Tarsi longer than the tibiae ; basal joints about 

 equal to the rest combined ; second, third, and fourth progressively shorter ; fifth longer than the 

 second. Claws simple ; inner very sharp, long, grooved internally ; outer about two thirds the 

 length of the inner; the points directed inward ; base of the claws with a horny projection. 

 Abdomen short, stout, very hairy, terminated in the females by a corneous pouch or plate. 



Larva cylindric, slightly tuberculate. 

 Pupa cylindrieo-eonic, subfolliculate. 



This genus may be known from all the other Papilionidae by the structure of the anterior wings, in which one 

 subcostal nervule, apparently the first, is wanting. This character, anil its more distinctly triarticulate palpi, separate 

 it from Doritis on the one hand, and Eurycus on the other. 



There is a striking resemblance in the markings of the anterior wings in this genus and in Eurycus, more especially 

 in the round black spots in the middle of, and at the end of, the cell. In fact Eurycus may be viewed as the Australian 

 representative of Parnassius. 



Until lately this genus was supposed to be confined to the Old World, though Boisduval hazarded a conjecture that 

 it might possibly occur in the Rocky Mountains of America, a conjecture which has proved to be correct, as the Earl of 

 Derby's collector, Mr. Burke, discovered the species which I have named P. Smintheus, on the summits of those 

 mountains, in the summer of 1845. This species is more closely allied to some Caucasian, than to any European, 

 species. 



