1886.] MR. H.J. ELWES ON THE GENUS PARNASSIUS. 37 
other, and the same may be said of those which I possess from 
Tibet, collected by Lang, and from Murghi, Ladak, 17,000 feet, both 
of which are males, like those in the British Museum. I have, in 
fact, of this species only one doubtful female, which was taken near 
the Shigri glacier in Lahoul, at 13,000 feet, on August 25, 1884, 
the abdomen of which is too much damaged for determination; a 
single pair from Ladak lent me from the Indian Museum, Calcutta ; 
and three pairs of the small variety sithimensis, which I received 
through native collectors from the Chumbi valley on the Tibetan 
frontier of Sikkim, and which agree absolutely with the Shigri speci- 
men in fringes and antennee. All the females from the Sikkim 
locality, of which I have received several, agree perfectly in the pouch 
of the female, which is without a keel, like the one figured here 
(Plate II. fig. 1), and seem to differ only in being of a smaller 
size than those from Tibet, Ladak, and the north-west. 
I cannot hear of any variation in the pouch of P. actius, which is 
keeled and indistinguishable in form from that of P. discobolus ; and 
am certain that the female of the species figured by Oberthiir as Bois- 
duval’stype also has a keel, so that the following points seem clear :— 
Ist, that Boisduval confounded two species in his description, of 
which one (my actius, var. himalayensis) has a keeled pouch, and 
the other, jacquemonti verus, has not. 
2nd, that actius, var. rhodius, of Honrath,=epaphus, Oberthiir, 
may be either P. actius or P. jacquemonti, as no reference to the 
female is made by either author, and the figures of the male cannot 
be distinguished from P. jacquemonti. 
The habits of the insect are little known, but the notes of Capt. 
Lang quoted by Moore may be applicable to the true P. jacquemontt. 
He says, P. Z. 8. 1865, p. 488 :—“‘It replaces P. hardwickei on the 
high passes of Upper Kunawur, Spiti, and Tibet. I first saw it on 
the Kongma pass, leading from Kunawur into the Chinese province 
of Gughe in Tibet, at an altitude of 18,000 feet. This pass is 16,000 
feet, but I ascended its flank another 2000 feet to enjoy the far view 
over the distant Tibetan ranges, brown and treeless, closed to Euro- 
pean foot, and backward among the sharp icy pinnacles of our own more 
familar Himalayan ranges ; and here [ saw this Parnassius coursing 
rapidly up and down the frozen snow-beds, where beaches as it were 
of boulders and stones cropped out. What could tempt Parnassius 
there I know not, for I saw not a Sedum, nor a Saaifraga, nor any 
other vegetation. I met this Parnassius again at high elevations, in 
similar situations along the confines of Kunawur and Tibet. It 
does not occur apparently with the next” (P. hardwickei). 
In Sikkim it also occurs at great elevations and flies in August 
and September. I took myself, on the 20th September, 1870, a pair 
of this species in copuld, on an unnamed pass above 18,000 feet 
elevation, by which I crossed from the Upper Lachoong valley in 
Sikkim to the Cholamoo lake in Tibet. These specimens were given 
to the late Mr. Atkinson, and now stand in the Hewitson Collection 
as P. simo, along with one genuine example of that very distinct 
species from Ladak, 
