1886.] MR. H. J. ELWES ON THE GENUS PARNASSITJS. 43 



some degree analogous to that of P. tenedius, is utterly unlike that 

 of any known Parnassius. It is very curious that though M. Ober- 

 thlir has received many examples of the female, he has as yet no 

 male, as it will be most interesting to examine the clasping organs, in 

 order to see whether they differ from those of P. charltonius, which 

 I have figured, in as marked a manner as the female appendage 

 does ; M. Oberthiir, who figures this organ well, says that he has 

 two virgin females in which it is not developed. 



There is some variation in the number of the large blue ocelli on 

 the hind wing of this grand insect ; normally they are two in num- 

 ber, but one specimen figured by M. Oberthiir has two additional small 

 ones above, which gives it even a stronger resemblance to P. charl- 

 tonius, in which five is the usual number. The antennae are black, the 

 fringes of the fore wings black, edged with white, and of the hind 

 wings plain white. 



This grand species was discovered by the French missionary 

 bishop of Tibet, M. Felix Biet, at Ta-tsien-lo, a town near the 

 frontiers of China and Tibet, at about 7500 feet elevation, where 

 it flies all the summer, and may probably extend throughout that 

 very inaccessible tract of mountains which have yielded so many 

 zoological and botanical treasures to the researches of Abbe David, 

 and from whence so many new butterflies have recently been 

 described by M. Charles Oberthiir. 



P. CHARLTONIUS. 



Parnassius charltonius. Gray, Cat. Lep. Brit. Mus. p. 77, t. xii. 

 fig. 7, 6 (1852); Moore, Yarkand Mission, Lep. p. 5, t. 1. 

 fig. 3, $ . 



This splendid species must be considered, with P. imperator, as the 

 grandest of the whole genus. The superficial resemblance which it 

 bears to P. imperator first led me to study the question of the pouches 

 in this genus, which have been so much neglected, and which in this 

 species is so remarkable. 



First discovered by Major Charlton at Lapsang, in his journey in 

 Ladak, so memorable in the history of the genus, and figured by Gray, 

 along with P. acco, simo, jacquemonti, and hardwichei, P. charltonius 

 remains one of the rarest and least known of the genus. Dr. Sto- 

 liczka found it again at Kharbu, 13,000 feet, in the same province, 

 and the same naturalist during the Yarkand expedition obtained a 

 female. 



M. Lionel de Niceville and Capt. Young have both found it at 

 Koksir, below the Baralacha pass, in the province of Lahoul, from 

 12,000 to 14,000 feet elevation, where in some seasons it is not 

 uncommon from the middle of July to the middle of August, when 

 the females are still fresh. 



Having had the whole of the specimens collected by these gen- 

 tlemen under comparison, I find that, in this locality at least, they 

 vary less than most species. None have any red in the \isual spots 

 on the fore wing, but on the hind wing is a small red ocellus ringed 

 with black, and sometimes nearly obsolete, near the costa ; a large 



