14 MR. H.J. ELWES ON THE GKNUS PARNASSIUS. [Jail. 19, 



lation. Some of this substance I was able to pull out witli a pin, 

 but it began to harden immediately on exposure to tlie atmos|)here, 

 and became quite brittle, and of a yellowish colour. From this I 

 am led to think that the male supplies the material of which the 

 'pouch' is made, and that the female has really very little to do 

 with making the ' [)Ouch ' at all. 



" Besides the copulations before mentioned, three others took 

 place, two being remarkable for the time they lasted, viz. G hours 30 

 minutes, and 6 hours 25 minutes. 



"So far as I have been able to see, the 'pouch' of the female is 

 of no use whatever after copulation. 



"Although the food-plant of this species was in the gauze cage, 

 not one egg was laid upon it but all were laid upon the gauze." 



Partly owing to the fiict that nearly all the species were happily 

 unknown to the older authors, and partly because no one has yet 

 attempted to divide the genus, its synonymy and literature is much 

 more simple than in some genera. ITerrich-Schaffer, Obertiiiir, 

 Felder, and Slaudinger have all published more or less comj)lete cata- 

 logues of Pornassitts, of which the last is the most accurate and valu- 

 able for the European species known to him. The principal authors 

 who have described the various species are Menetries, Eversmann, and 

 Gray ; but I need not refer here to their various writings, which are 

 cited under the various species they described. The characters 

 upon which most, if not all, previous writers have principally relied 

 for the detinition of the various species, namely, the pattern of the 

 markings and the number and position of the black or red spots and 

 ocelli, are, however, far too variable in most cases to be trustworthy. 

 A very uniform style of coloration and pattern prevails throughout 

 the genus, and though tlie affinities of most of the species to each 

 other are more or less traceable by these characters, yet I have pre- 

 ferred myself to trust to the much more permanent, invariable, and 

 important characters of the antennae, fringes, and pouches of the 

 females. Though these characters are not absolutely invariable, 

 yet, as far as I can see from the examination of large series, they are 

 nmch more so than colours or markings ; and the pouch alone is so 

 good a structural character, as to be invaluable for the jiurpose of 

 classification. 



But I have not described the form of these pouches in words, 

 because the illustrations make it unnecessary ; and though I have 

 not, as I should have wished, been able to figure the pouch in every 

 individual species, with the corresponding organs of the male, on 

 account of the excessive number of plates that would have been 

 required, yet all the most characteristic and remarkable have been 

 accurately drawn by Mr. E. Wilson, of Cambridge, on a uniform 

 scale of ^. 



As far as I have observed, the difference between the clasping 

 organs of the male in different species is trifling compared with the 

 difference between the pouches of the female ; and it will be a most 

 ' Cf. note by Prof. Howes, above, p. 10. 



