10 MR. H. J. ELWES ON THE GENUS PARNASSIU^. [Jail. 19, 



comiminication from him, and he is only able at present to supply 

 the following note ■ — 



"The as!^umption that the pouch of the female Parnassius performs 

 a definite function after copulation, appears in all cases to have been, 

 without doubt, suggested mainly by its scoop-like shape, no less 

 than by its constant characters and relations and its persistence after 

 coition. This assumption originated with Iloger, who believed the 

 pouch to have been concerned in oviposition, describing it, in fact, 

 as a veritable ovipositor, 'zuerst im Hinterleibe diescr Schmetter- 

 linge fertig verborgen.' V. Siebold' first successfully disjiosed of 

 this view, and showed that the structure in question was a secretion, 

 believed by him to be derived from the male, and to be functional 

 in prolonging the coitus". I cannot agree with him that this is 

 the case, the adhesion of the copulating individuals being assured 

 by tlie hook-like claspers of the male. The pouch is densest in the 

 vicinity of the female genital orilice, and its detailed structure 

 conforms internally to the ventrolateral parts of the male genital 

 funnel. In view of this, the fact that it is impossible, in dit^scction 

 of specimens procured during copulation, to remove tlie pouch 

 without bringing away the internal generative apparatus of tlie 

 female, points, to my mind, to a direct connection between that 

 apparatus and the pouch itself. It suggests the |)robabihty of an 

 origin of the same from the body of the female, and not of the male 

 as is generally supposed. 1 cannot accej)!, the view ' that the 

 pouch is composed of hardened cases of adherent spermatojihores," 

 and the only supposition which seems to me thus far possible is that 

 it represents a viscid secretion, poured out most probablv by the 

 female during copulation, which — instead of slowly ditsintegrating or 

 otherwise disappearing, as do similar coagulable and non-coagulable 

 secretions functional among other animals as accessories to the conju- 

 gative act^ — is hardened on exposure to the atmosphere. It persists 

 as a cast of the male genital apparatus, which may be carried by the 

 female until the day of her death, a token of the cousununation of 

 her existence *. 



"The above remarks a})))ly to P. apollo, one pair of which species, 

 preserved during a copulation of 7.5 minutes' duration, I have alone 

 examined. My best thanks are due to Mr. Elwes for these speci- 

 mens and others, upon which I hope shortly to be engaged." 



But though to Von Siebold the credit is principally due of calling 

 attention to this organ, yet no one seems to have carried his obser- 

 vations any further, though Mr. W. II. Edwards, with Dr. Ilagcn's 

 assistance, gave a summary of Von Siebold's paper in the 'Butter- 

 flies of North America' several years ago, and Dr. Buimeister has 



' Zeitschr. f. Wissensch. Zoologie, vol. iii. 1851 ; also ' Entoinolog. Zeitung,' 

 same year. 



^ Loc. cit. p. 55. 



' Macalister, 'Introduction to Animal Morphology,' vol. i. p. 412, 1876. 

 Prof. Macalister inCorms me by letter that his material was in a " very dilapi- 

 dated state." 



■* Coiif. v. Siebold, /. c. p. 5fi. 



