26 MR. H. J. ELWES ON THE GENUS PARNAssIvs. [Jan. 19, 
smintheus from the egg in Virginia. He states that the eggs hatched 
in the last days of winter, but will not eat Sedum leaves. He is 
certain that the eggs of this species do not hatch naturally till spring. 
He says that the newly hatched larvee are most singular creatures, 
bearing no resemblance to any members of the Papilionide which 
he has 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 different from 
these also. 
Reakirt, in Proc. Phil. Ent. Soe. vi. p. 129, describes “ eight very 
closely allied, but perfectly distinct and seemingly constant forms ”’ 
of P. smintheus. He says :-—‘‘I think it highly probable that both 
P. smintheus and P. nomion are derivatives from the same parent stem, 
the former being yet in process of segregation, while the latter, most 
probably the older form, has passed through its transitional stages, 
and now presents only constant specific diagnostics. The chain of 
closely linked varieties of P. smintheus, of which the highest (sayz) 
approximates to nomion, would seem to corroborate this supposition.” 
He goes on to describe a remarkable female form, and says that 
the only apparently constant diagnostic which he has detected in the 
species is the seemingly regular situation and form of the four basal 
spots on the under surface of the hind wings, in which it differs 
strongly from nomion, the only species he knows which closely 
approximates certain forms of the male and female. 
«« Mr. Ridings captured this fine species in July, solely within the 
mountain districts, usually when settled on the flowers of some tree, 
and always near the edge of a watercourse. It is abundant, but of 
difficult capture, not only from the natural obstacles interposed, but 
also from its very high and quick flight, this commonly ranging 
from four to eight yards above the head.” 
The form figured and described by Méné¢tries as sedakovi (Men. 
Enum. p. 71, t.1. fig. 1), from Irkutsk, of which I have seen the type, 
is very like some of the Altai specimens, as are some of those from 
Kamschatka ; whilst what was described as corybas by Fischer, from 
the same country, which I have also seen in the St. Petersburg 
Museum, are more like European specimens. I also possess a speci- 
men which I can only refer to this species, from Kodiak in the North 
Pacific. There is evidently much to learn as to its distribution and 
variation in Eastern Asia, cf. Stett. ent. Zeit. 1881, p. 275. 
Zeller, reviewing Edwards’s ‘ Butterflies of North America’ in Stett. 
ent. Zeit. 1874, pp. 433, 434, says that smintheus certainly belongs 
as well as intermedius to P. delius, and quotes Zincken to the effect 
that a beautiful drawing of female P. de/ius taken near St. Peter and 
Paul in Kamschatka by Dr. Langsdorf in 1804, does not show the 
least difference from Swiss specimens. 
Zeller, in the same journal for 1872, p. 119, quotes Dietze to the 
effect that the eggs of fresh specimens of P. delius found on the 
Splugen pass on August 14, hatched in 14 days under the heat of an 
Italian sun. This seems to prove what I have before suggested, that 
P.delius must pass a considerable part of its larval existence in autumn. 
