52 MR. H. J. ELWES ON THE GENUS PARNASSIUS. [Jan. 19, 



P. NORDMANNI. 



Parnassiusnordmanni, Men., Nordmann, Bull. Mosc. 1851, p. 423, 

 t. xiii. figs. 1-3. 



Var. minima, Honrath, Berl. ent. Zeit. 1885, p. 272, t. viii. 

 figs. 2, 2 a. 



P. clarius, Herr.-Schaff. Pap. Eur. t. liv. figs. 257, 258. 



This species appears to have a limited range, being confined to 

 certain districts north and south of the Caucasus, where it seems to 

 represent its near ally, P. clarius. 



The two species have, in fact, little to distinguish them except 

 colour ; but in the type specimens of P. nordmanni which I have 

 examined I find the neck is covered with yellow hairs, whilst the 

 palpi and hair of the head, legs, and feet are black, and this is the 

 case in other specimens which I have seen. In one specimen in the 

 St. Petersburg Museum, collected by Haberhauer, and in another 

 which I possess, and which from their small size I believe to be from 

 Daghestan (var. minima), the palpi and hair of the head and neck 

 are white. In P. clarius the body and legs are greyish ; but perhaps 

 the pouch affords the best distinction, as in P. clarius it is very long 

 behind, and opens rather upwards ; whilst in P. nordmanniit is much 

 shorter behind, and cut off in a different way at the opening. 



Nordmann says of this species that it flies with P. delius in the 

 highest mountains of Adshara in July. He took it in some numbers 

 on the road from Osurgeti in Georgia direct over the Somlia Moun- 

 tains to Achalzich, on the slope of the peak called Dshuaruto. 

 Since then no one except Haberhauer seems to have taken it south 

 of the Caucasus, and we have no details of his captures ; but Chris- 

 toph, in his account of his explorations in Daghestan, Hor. Ent. 

 Ross. xii. p. 17, says that it flew on the bare stone-covered slopes of 

 the mountain Bazardjusi, at 13,000 feet elevation. The specimens 

 I have seen from here are all much smaller than those from Georgia, 

 and have been separated by Honrath as "var. minima." Menetries, 

 in his Catalogue, gives Akbasia as a locality, and the Grand Duke 

 Nicholas, in his Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of the Caucasus, says 

 it is found at Kourouch in Daghestan. It remains, however, a rare 

 insect in collections, and its distribution is obscure. 



EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 



All the objects are magnified 5 times, except the eggs. 

 Plate I 



Pig. 1. Side view of pouch of a female P. apollo, from Eperies, Hungary. 



2. The same, from behind. 



3. Side -piew of clasping-organs of male P. apollo, from Brunnen, Lucerne 



taken June 27, 1884. Denuded of hair whilst fresh. ' 



4. End view of same when exposed. 



5. Claspers detached from their position. 



6. Valves seen from below, when detached. 



7. Point of one of the valves, seen from above. 



8. Penis. 



