504 



PAPILIONID^. 



Parnassius przewalskii, an allied species, has been described by Alpheraky 

 from the Bourkhane-Bouddha mountains, Thibet (Rom. sur Lep. iii. p. 403, 

 1S87). 



Parnassius delphius. (Plate XXXIII. fig. 4, var. s .) 



Doritis delphius, Eversmann, Bull. Mosc. 1843, p. 541, pi. vii. figs. \a, b; Herr.-Schiiff. 



Schmett. Eur. i. figs. 638, 639 (1852). 

 Parnassius delphius, Lang, Butt. Eur. p. 24 (1884). 



Parnassius delphius, var. ehvesi, 'Entomologist,' xxvi., Suppl. p. 104 (1893). 



" Expands 24 2 inches. Whiter than adnts. The fore wings have three black streaks in the 

 discoidal cell. Two more external to this reaching from the costa ; below the exterior one is 

 a row of four black spots ; the apex is dusky. Hind wings with two very small red spots ; 

 a row of black spots runs parallel to the hind margin. On the underside there is a very 

 faint red spot at the inner margin of the hind wings (described from the tigure in H.-S.). 



" Ilahitat. Siberia." {Lang, 1. c.) 



Yar. elwesi, Leech. (Plate XXXIII. fig. 4, c? •) Male. Larger than any of the named forms 

 of P. delphius, but in some particulars it resembles var. transiens. It differs, however, from 

 that insect, as it also does from any variety of P. delphius that I have seen, in having a red 

 spot in the lower portion of the lai'ge black bar beyond the discoidal cell of primaries, and 

 a patch of black scales between the usual discoidal spots ; there are only the faintest possible 

 traces of a black spot above the inner margin. On the secondaries the black basal area is 

 deeply indented on its outer edge, and the marginal border is of uniform width throughout. 

 Fringe white, chequered on the primaries with black at the ends of the nervules. Under 

 surface glassy, with all the markings of upper surface faintly reproduced. 



Expanse, 80 millim. 



One example from the hig-h plateau to the north of Ta-chicn-lu. 



Although I have referred this insect to P. delphius, I recognize the possibility 

 of its proving to be a distinct species when a larger number of specimens, 

 including the female, are available for examination. 



P. delpJdus is an exceedingly variable species. Its headquarters appear to 

 be the Central-Asian district between Samarkand and Koiddja. It occurs in 

 the Ilindu-Kush under a form which Grum-Grsliimailo lias named var. Iiunza, 

 and is found at high altitudes in the N.W. Himalayas and S.E. Thibet, wlierc 

 it assumes the form known as var. sfoliczanus, Folder. The following forms of 

 tlic species have been described by various writers and most of them are figured 

 by Austaut in " T^es Parnassiens de la Fauiie Palearctique," — var. ou/mon- 

 f/ami.'i, Staudiugcr ; var. infcrnaUs, Stand.; var. ?7/?/s^r?s, (irum-CJrsliiinailo ; 

 var. cardinal, (jr.-(ir. ; var. staudimjcri, Bang Haas ; and var. iransieiis, Stand. 



The habits and variation of tlio spcnnes are discussed at considerable length 

 by Grum-Grshimaihj in Jtom. sur Lep. iv. 



