1886.] MR. H. J. ELWES ON THE GENUS PARNASSIUS. 25 



Montana, by Mr. Courtis, is so interesting that I copy it from 

 ' Papilio,' vol. iii. p. 158. 



Mr. W. H. Edwards is here speaking of P. sniin/heus, var. 

 hermodur, H. Edw., and says : — " These Montana examples of both 

 sexes are veiy large, considerably beyond the average of sminfheus 

 from Colorado, some males and females reaching 2-70 inches. 

 Several of the females are very black, there being little of the yellow- 

 white ground left, and that principally in cells of primaries and on 

 disks of secondaries. The red spots are of extraordinary size. I 

 should have taken the female for a distinct species had not the male 

 been so like and often indistinguishable from the Colorado males of 

 smintlieus, though larger. Some of them have the spots orange as 

 in var. behrii. 



" Several of loth sexes I cannot distinguish from a pair of P. inter- 

 medius setit me by Dr. Staudinger as Menetries^ species from Siberia. 

 These are the examples which are not melanic, and in which the 

 marginal borders of both wings are transparent. I have a female 

 of the same form taken on Mt. Bradley, California, by Mr. James 

 Behrens '. 



" Mr. Courtis at my suggestion shut up some females with Sedian, 

 on which smintheus has been known to lay, and obtained 140 eggs. 

 Mr. Courtis says, 'Most of these eggs came from females that mated 

 after I caught them. The others would not lay, although I kept 

 them shut up with several males until they nearly starved.' " 



This is a most curious fact, as I found that P. mnemosyne, and 

 Mr. Thompson found that P. apollo, mated freely in captivity ; but 

 Mr. Edwards says this is the first instance he has heard of in which 

 butterflies have mated in captivity. 



"Mr. Courtis goes on to say: — -'The virgin females seemed to have 

 the end of abdomen a light green horn instead of black, but after 

 mating I noticed they turned black.' This seems to throw doubt 

 on either Mr. Courtis's accuracy of observation, or to prove that the 

 development of the pouch is not as in P. apollo. He goes on to say : — 

 • I think they lay on the roots of plants, as the females always drop 

 to the ground, climb up a stalk, and fly away. Those in confinement 

 climbed sticks and window frames, laying eggs as they went. They 

 curved their bodies round and put an egg on whatever they touched, 

 except the Sedum ; I made one lay on it by keeping her moving from 

 one piece to another, but she seemed much excited, and as soon as I 

 put her on grass and sticks she laid every few minutes.' In a later 

 letter, 5th of August, Mr. Courtis writes, ' I noticed a female 

 Parnassius alight on a piece of Sedum, drop to the ground, climb up 

 and lay an egg either on the leaves or roots or on the ground. I 

 could not find the egg, though I saw her go through the motion of 

 laying.' " 



Mr. W. H. Edwards has tried without success to breed P. 



^ I bave received a pair from this locality, through the kindness of Mr. H. 

 Edwards, and can only say of the female that I can hardly distinguish it from 

 small examples of discobolus from Turkestan. The difference between the two 

 sexes 18 most marked, the male being very like those from the Altai Mountains. 



