506 



PAPILIONID.E. 



insects ascend to higher altitudes, whence after pairing the females descend 

 again to the breeding-ground to deposit their eggs. This supposition is 

 based on my experience of an allied species, P. charltonius, of which I 

 captured some numbers in Baltistan, North-west Himalayas. There both 

 sexes were disporting themselves about the rugged grassy slopes on the very 

 edge of the snow-line. Their flight was exceedingly rapid, and they were 

 very difficult to capture, except when at rest on the rocks. In the hot gorges 

 some thousands of feet lower I took a few specimens, but they were all 

 females. The ground frequented at the higher elevation Avould be covered 

 with snoAV during the earlier stages of the insect. 



The variation of P. imperator is very similar to that of many others of the 

 genus. The ocelli on the upper portion of the submarginal area of second- 

 aries vary in colour from the deepest crimson to a palish orange, and the 

 white centre may be either very large or entu-ely absent ; these ocelli are 

 sometimes connected by a black streak. The blue subanal ocelli vary in 

 number from two to four, but two is the typical and more usual number. In 

 addition to his type of P. imperator, Oberthiir has figured on the same 

 plate (fig. 4 c) an aberration with four subanal ocelli. 



Occurs commonly at Ta-chien-lu, and more sparingly at Wa-shan and Wa- 

 ssu-kow in Western China. I have also received specimens from the high 

 Thibetan plateau beyond Ta-chien-lu, and most of the males of this species 

 that I have came from that locality. Grum-Grsliimailo (Horse Soc. Ent. Ross. 

 1801, p. 446) describes a form (var. mnsgeta) from the Amdo region. 



Parnassius citrinarius. (Plate XXXIII. figs. 6 j , 5 var. $ .) 



Parnassius citrinarius, Motscliulsky, Bull. Mosc. xxxix. p. 189 (18GG). 

 Parnassius rjlacialis, Butler, .Tourii. Linn. Soc, Zool. ix. p. 50 (18GG) ; Prycr, Rliop, 

 Nilion. p. 5, pi. iii. fig. 5 (188G). 



" Statura Pnrn. niuhhendorjii, Mcndtr., scd lircvior. Corporo iiic;ro, thoraco voiiircqno dc-nso citriiio- 

 villosis ; alia suhliyalinis, tcstaceo-alliiilis, nervis uigris, mcdiis iiigro pulvt rosis ; alis posticis 

 ba.si nigricautihus." {Motschuhl ij, I. e.) 



J', rjlacialis, Eutlor. — " A lac supra Ruldiyalinac, uUkc, vcnis uigris: anlicc apico liyaliuo : cclla 

 media fasciata fasciaquc brovi tcrminata, fasciis cinercis: posfcictc raargiuo abdominali late 

 nigro : corpus nigrum, ilioracc pruc fcrruginco ; abdoniino cinorco pilosato, a latere forru- 

 ginoo; antenna; nigrac. 



" Alie HuT)tu8 nitcntes : posticic margino abdominal! ciiicrco ; alKcr vclut supra: corpus nigrum, 



piliH ferrugincia sparsum. 

 " Alar, exp, unn. (UnlJer, I. c.) 



