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Show 10 MR. H. J. ELWES ON THE GENUS PARNASS1US. [Jan. 19, communication from him, and he is only able at present to supply the following note :- "The assumption that the pouch of the female Parnassius performs a definite function after copulation, appears in all cases to have been, without doubt, suggested mainly by its scoop-like shape, no less than by its constant characters and relations and its persistence after coition. This assumption originated with Hoger, who believed the pouch to have been concerned in oviposition, describing it, in fact, as a veritable ovipositor, 'zuerst im Hinterleibe dieser Schmetter-linge fertig verborgen.' V. Siebold1 first successfully disposed of this view, and showed that the structure in question was a secretion, believed by him to be derived from the male, and to be functional in prolonging the coitus2. I cannot agree with him that this is the case, the adhesion of the copulating individuals being assured by the hook-like claspers of the male. The pouch is densest in the vicinity of the female genital orifice, and its detailed structure conforms internally to the ventrolateral parts of the male genital funnel. In view of this, the fact that it is impossible, in dissection of specimens procured during copulation, to remove the pouch without bringing away the internal generative apparatus of the female, points, to my mind, to a direct connection between that apparatus and the pouch itself. It suggests the probability of an origin of the same from the body of the female, and not of the male as is generally supposed. I cannot accept the view ' that the pouch is composed of hardened cases of adherent spermatophores,'3 and the only supposition which seems to me thus far possible is that it represents a viscid secretion, poured out most probably by the female during copulation, which-instead of slowly disintegrating or otherwise disappearing, as do similar coagulable and non-coagulable secretions functional among other animals as accessories to the conju-gative act-is hardened on exposure to the atmosphere. It persists as a cast of the male genital apparatus, which may be carried by the female until the day of her death, a token of the consummation of her existence 4. " The above remarks apply to P. apollo, one pair of which species, preserved during a copulation of 75 minutes' duration, I have alone examined. M y best thanks are due to Mr. Elwes for these specimens and others, upon which I hope shortly to be engaged." But though to Von Siebold the credit is principally due of calling attention to this organ, yet no one seems to have carried his observations any further, though Mr. W . H. Edwards, with Dr. Hagen's assistance, gave a summary of Von Siebold's paper in the ' Butterflies of North America' several years ago, and Dr. Burmeister has 1 Zeitschr. f. Wissensch. Zoologie, vol. iii. 1851 ; also ' Entomolog. Zeitung,' same year. 2 Loc. ctt. p. 55. 3 Macalisler, 'Introduction to Animal Morphology,' vol. i. p. 412. 1876. Prof. Macalister informs m e by letter that his material was in a " very dilapidated state." 4 Conf. v. Siebold, I. c. p. 56. |
