1886.] MR. H. J. ELWES ON THE GENUS PARNASSIUS. 37 



other, and the same may be said of those which I possess from 

 Tibet, collected by Lang, and from Murghi, Ladak, 17,000 feet, both 

 of which are males, like those iu the British Museum. I have, in 

 fact, of this species only one doubtful female, which was taken near 

 the Shigri glacier in Lahoul, at 13,000 feet, on August 25, 1884, 

 the abdomen of which is too much damaged for determination ; a 

 single pair from Ladak lent me from the Indian Museum, Calcutta ; 

 and three pairs of the small variety sikkimensis, which I received 

 through native collectors from the Chumbi valley on the Tibetan 

 frontier of Sikkim, and which agree absolutely with the Shigri speci- 

 men in fringes and antennae. All the females from the Sikkim 

 locality, of wliich I have received several, agree perfectly in the pouch 

 of the female, which is without a keel, like the one figured here 

 (Plate IL fig. 1), and seem to differ only in being of a smaller 

 size than those from Tibet, Ladak, and the north-west. 



I cannot hear of anv variation in the pouch of P. actius, which is 

 keeled and indistinguishable in form from that of P. discobolus ; and 

 am certain that the female of the species figured by Oberthiir as Bois- 

 duval's type also has a keel, so that the following points seem clear : — 

 1st, that Boisduval confounded two species in his description, of 

 which one (my actius, var. himalai/ensis) has a keeled pouch, and 

 the other, jacquemonti verus, has not. 



2nd, that actius, var. 7-Jiodius, of Honrath,=epapAMS, Oberthiir, 

 may be either P. actius or P. jacquemonti, as no reference to the 

 female is made by either author, and the figures of the male cannot 

 be distinguished from P. jacquemonti. 



The habits of the insect are little known, but the notes of Capt. 

 Lang quoted by Moore may be applicable to the true P. jacquemonti. 

 He says, P. Z. S. 1865, p. 488 : — "It replaces P. hardwickei on the 

 high passes of Upper Kunawur, Spiti, and Tibet. I first saw it on 

 the Kongma pass, leading from Kunawur into the Chinese province 

 of Gughe in Tibet, at an altitude of J 8,000 feet. This pass is 1 6,000 

 feet, but I ascended its flank another 2000 feet to enjoy the far view 

 over the distant Tibetan ranges, brown and treeless, closed to Euro- 

 pean foot, and backward among the sharp icy pinnacles of our own more 

 familar Himalayan ranges ; and here I saw this Par?iassius coursing 

 rapidly up and down the frozen snow-beds, where beaches as it were 

 of boulders and stones cropped out. "What could tempt Parnassiua 

 there I know not, for I saw not a Sedum, nor a Baxifraga, nor any 

 other vegetation. I met this Parnassius again at high elevations, iu 

 similar situations along the confines of Kunawur and Tibet. It 

 does not occur apparently with the next " (P. hardwickei). 



In Sikkim it also occurs at great elevations and flies in August 

 and September. I took myself, on the 20tb September, 1870, a pair 

 of this species in copula, on an unnamed pass above 18,000 feet 

 elevation, by which I crossed from the Upper Lachoong valley in 

 Sikkim to the Cholamoo lake in Tibet. These specimens were given 

 to the late Mr. Atkinson, and now stand in the Hewitson Collection 

 as P. simo, along with one genuine example of that very distinct 

 species from Ladak. 



