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



smintheus from the egg in Virginia. He states that the eggs hatched 

 in the last days of winter, bnt will not eat Sedum leaves. He is 

 certain that the eggs of this species do not hatch naturally till spring. 

 He says that the newly hatched larvae are most singular creatures, 

 bearing no resemblance to any members of the Papilionida; which 

 he has seen. They are thickly studded with small tubercles in rows, 

 and each of these gives out several short curved black hairs. They 

 look something like caterpillars oi Argynnis, but are different from 

 these also. 



Reakirt, in Proc. Phil. Ent. Soc. vi. p. 129, describes " eight very 

 closely allied, but perfectly distinct and seemingly constant forms " 

 of P. smintheus. He says : — " I think it highly probable that both 

 P. smitithvHS and P. nomion are derivatives from the same parent stem, 

 the former being yet in process of segregation, while the latter, most 

 probably the older form, has passed through its transitional stages, 

 and now presents onW constant specific diagnostics. The chain of 

 closely linked varieties of P. smintheus, of which the highest {sayi) 

 approximates to notnion, would seem to corroborate this supposition." 

 He goes on to describe a remarkable female form, and says that 

 the only apparently constant diagnostic which he has detected in the 

 species is the seemingly regular situation and form of the four basal 

 spots on the under surfjice of the hind wings, in whicii it differs 

 strongly from nomion, the only species he knows whicli closely 

 approximates certain forms of the male and female. 



" Mr. Ridings captured this fine species in July, solely within the 

 mountain districts, usually when settled on the flowers of some tree, 

 and always near the edge of a watercourse. It is abundant, but of 

 difficult capture, not only from the natural obstacles inteiposed, but 

 also from its verj' high and quick flight, this commonly ranging 

 from four to eight yards above the head." 



The form figured and described by Menetries as sedakovi (Men. 

 Enum. p. 71, 1. 1. fig. 1), from Irkutsk, of which I have seen the type, 

 is very like some of tl)e Altai specimens, as are some of those from 

 Kamschatka ; whilst what was described as corybas by Fischer, from 

 the same country, which I have also seen in the St. Petersburg 

 Museum, are more like European specimens. I also possess a speci- 

 men which I can only refer to tliis species, from Kodiak in the North 

 Pacific. There is evidently much to learn as to its distribution and 

 variation in Eastern Asia, cf. Stett. ent. Zeit. 1881, p. "27^^- 



Zeller, reviewing Edwards's ' Butterflies of North America' in Stett. 

 ent. Zeit. 1874, pp. 433, 434, says that smintheus certainly belongs 

 as well as intermedius to P. delius, and quotes Zincken to the effect 

 that a beautiful drawing of female P. delius taken near St. Peter and 

 Paul in Kamschatka by Dr. Langsdorf in 1804, does not show the 

 least difference from Swiss sjiecimens. 



Zeller, in the same journal for 1872, p. 119, quotes Dietze to the 

 effect that the eggs of fresh specimens of P. delius found on the 

 Splugen pass on August 14, hatched in 14 days under the heat of an 

 Italian sun. This seems to prove what I have before suggested, that 

 P. delius must pass a considerable part of its larval existence in autumn. 



