1886.] MR. H. J. ELWES ON THE GENUS PARNASSIUS. 51 



motion, not unlike that of many Hesperidse, taking short flights, 

 settling frequently, and being very easy to capture. 



In 'Canadian Entomologist' Mr. Edwards describes the eggs of this 

 species as a little larger than those of P. smintheus, of the same shape, 

 covered in the same way with a crust of hexagons ; colour pale coffee- 

 brown : laid on species of Sedum. The young larva is not distin- 

 guishable in shape, markings, or colour from those of P. smintheus. 

 Some of the eggs brought by Mr. Mead in September from Nevada 

 hatched in a warm room in February, but the larvae, though fed on 

 Sedum, which some eat pretty well, soon died. 



P. CLARIUS. 



Parnassius clarius, Eversm. Bull. Mosc. 1843, iii. p. 539, t. ix. 

 f. n-c; Stgr. Stett. ent. Zeit. 1881, p. 258. 



This species was discovered by Schrenck, in the Tarbagatai 

 Mountains, and described by Eversmann, and has since been found by 

 Kindermann between Ustkamenogorsk and Ustbuchtarmnisk in the 

 Altai, and by Haberhauer at moderate elevations near Dschemine near 

 Saisan, in Central Asia. Dr. Staudinger says of the specimens from 

 this place that they are not so strongly marked as those from the 

 Altai, and that the yellow spot on the inner border of the hind wing is 

 wanting, and in one female the yellow ocelli of the hind wing are 

 entirely wanting. The blackish band on the fore wing beyond the cell 

 is also absent, giving the specimen quite the appearance of P. mne- 

 mosyne, which is found neither in the Tarbagatai, Altai, or Alatau 

 Mountains, but appears again in the mountains of Samarkand. 

 Dr. Staudinger thinks that P. clarius is very close to the North- 

 American P. dodius, but that the yellowish instead of red ocelli well 

 distinguish it. I would, however, remark that some Altai specimens 

 of P. clarius, which I received from Herr Tancre, have the ocelli 

 rather red than yellow, and that the best character by which the two 

 species may be separated is the form of the pouch, which in P. cla- 

 rius, though quite of the same character, is much longer than in any 

 specimens of P. dodius I have seen. 



Little or nothing is known about the habits of this species, and 

 its range does not seem to extend far to the east or west. 



A variety named dentatus in some German collections does not 

 appear to have any marked characters, and the iiame was perhaps 

 given rather for commercial than scientific purposes. Names of this 

 class which have been largely adopted by professional horticulturists, 

 seem likely to become also prevalent among mercantile lepidopterists, 

 and should be treated as they deserve, when discovered. Scientific 

 collectors owe so much to commercial enterprise both in plants 

 and insects, that we must not criticize these practices too severely ; 

 but as soon as the love of science becomes obscured by the love 

 of gain, and species-making becomes profitable to the pocket, 

 natuialists must be doubly careful before they accept novelties of 

 this nature. 



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