1886.] MR. H. J. ELWES ON THE GENUS PARNASSIUS. 21 



my head made it desirable to look round to see what was going on 

 there ; an apparently drowsy P. apoKo, hanging by her fore feet to 

 a composite flower, was slowly flapping her wings, and scraping the 

 hinder pair with her four posterior legs, which were thrust back- 

 wards simultaneously each time that the wings opened. Obstruction 

 to the movement of the fore wings caused no hindrance to the 

 production of the sound, but when the hind wings also were held 

 firmly between the finger and thumb, the noise ceased. The insect 

 became so wide awake at this stage of the proceedings, that no 

 further observations could be made, but it seemed probable that 

 friction of the spines of the tibiae and tarsus over the wing-veins 

 largely contributed to the vibration of the wing-membrane." 



The usual manner of pupation of P. apollo is described as being 

 in a slight silken web among leaves, and this is confirmed by 

 Miss F. Woolvvard, to whom I sent Hving larvae to be figured. She 

 says : " The larva did not hang itself up in any way, and the pupa is 

 too fat and heavy for this to be likely. Tiie way in which the 

 larval skin was slipped off would seem to make it impossible. The 

 larva had a very scanty supply of silk, which it spread about at the 

 bottom of the box, making no attempt to enclose itself closely." 

 Tachler, however, in ' Bericht der St. Gallischen Gesellschaft,' 

 1869-70, p. 87, says that "two larvse of this species, instead of 

 pu[)ating in a light web among leaves, as is generally said to be the 

 case, went into pupa hanging to the gauze of the cage in which 

 they were confined." He thinks that this is a most abnormal 

 occurrence, and perhaps the observation requires confirmation. 

 These two larvae remained seventeen days in pupa, and took two 

 hours after emerging before the wings were fully formed. 



The variation which exists in this species is very great, both in 

 size and in the number and colour of the oceUi. 



The largest female that I have is of the variety hesebolus, Nord- 

 mann, from the Transili mountains, which measures 3'5 m. across the 

 wings. Another, from the Thian Shan, resembles it in size and colour. 

 These females and those from the Ural are much more overlaid with 

 black scales on both fore and hind wings than ordinary European 

 specimens, but I have a female from the Jura almost as dark. A 

 male from the Ural of the same variety measures 3"6, whilst eight 

 males from the Altai measure from 3-1 to 3-3 across. These males 

 are all more creamy in the ground-colour of their wings and less over- 

 laid with black scales than Swiss specimens, showing that the causes 

 which have induced the change of colour have acted on the sexes in 

 opposite directions. Seven specimens from Eperies in North Hungary 

 vary from 2-8 to 3'2 ; seven specimens from Norway and Sweden are 

 from 3'2 to 3*3. The largest Swiss specimens I have are from Brieg 

 and measure 3 to 3-1, whilst those from other parts of the Alps and 

 Jura do not exceed 2-8, and I have one from Dourbes only 2-1 

 across the wings. 



Specimens from the Sierra Nevada of Andalusia have the ocelli 

 yellowish instead of red, and this occurs rarely elsewhere. One or 

 two red spots beyond the cell of the fore wing as in P. delius occur 



