20 MR. H. J. ELWES ON THE GENUS PARNASSIUS. [Jail. 19, 



probably owing to the number of collectors, but in most of its 

 habitats it is a common, and in many of them a very abundant 

 insect. 



It commences to fly in some of the warmer valleys of tlie Alps in 

 May ; I have taken it myself on May 25th on the Canton Wallis at 

 about 2500 feet, but this is a local occurrence, as Meyer-Diir gives 

 June 17 as the earliest date of its appearance, and on the same day 

 I found half-grown larvae at the same elevation. It continues to fly 

 for si.< weeks or two months, and fresh specimens may sometimes be 

 met with up to the first week in August. I think that elevation 

 has not so much to do with the time of its appearance as other 

 circumstances. I found fresh specimens in the Lower Bregalia 

 Valley near Chiavenna at 1200 feet in the end of June ; and six days 

 later I found it close to Pontresina, in the Engadine, at nearly (lOOO 

 feet. It prefers warm rocky slopes facing south and west, and is 

 rarely found in Switzerland on a north exposure, or in woods. 

 Meyer-Diir says that it seems to be wanting on the " Urgebirge," 

 and is only local on the " Molasse" formation. 



The flight of the insect is strong and sailing, but not rapid, and is 

 continued from eight or nine in the morning till four or five in the 

 afternoon. The females always appear in much smaller numbers 

 than the male, fly less, and settle more often ; with practice they 

 njay be distinguished on the wing. I am not aware that the insect 

 has been bred in confinement from the egg, nor can I say with 

 certainty whether the eggs are hatched in autumn or spring ; but I 

 believe that some i)art of tlie larval stage is passed in autumn '. 

 The larvae feed up in sj)ring on the young leaves of Sedum telejjkium 

 and Sedum album, and go into the pupa stage about fourteen days 

 previous to the appearance of the perfect insect. According to 

 Eeutti they feed only during sunshine, and I found them generally 

 two or three together on hot rocks where the food-plant was 

 abundant. When touched they curl up and miroll with strong 

 convulsions, and if well grown and healthy will live two or three 

 days in a closed box, as the larva and pupa were drawn by Miss 

 F. Woolward from specimens which I sent alive by post from 

 Erieg in Switzerland to England. I believe that the females in 

 this species, as in others, are almost invariably mated very soon 

 after their emergence from the pupa, as specimens in which the 

 pouch is not developed are but seldom found. I am not able to 

 say whether in a state of nature the eggs are laid on the food-plant 

 or not, but, according to Mr. Thomson, this is not the case in 

 confinement. 



The Rev. A. E. Eaton, in Ent. Mon. Mag. xix. p. 89, gives the 

 following note on stridulation in the female of P. apollo : — " In 

 the evening of July 23rd, whilst reclining on the grass near Bannio, 

 Val A.nzasca, a rustling as of a lizard or snake close to the back of 



^ W. H. Edwards in ' Papilio,' vol. iii. p. 159, says:—" But G. M. Mollinger 

 writes me that the eggs of P. apollo, iu Switzerland, hatch late in the fall, and 

 the young larvae hybernate ; awaking in early spring, and eating the leaves of 

 Sedum, not the flowers." 



