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Show 24 MR. H. J. ELWES ON THE GENUS PARNASSIUS. [Jan. ) 1884, in hopes of being able to find larvae or pupae, but was disappointed in this, as on other occasions, though I took many males and several freshly emerged females. One pair were taken in copula at about 11.30 A.M., but separated in the net, and the female pouch was developed and hard, leading me to suppose that it was not the copulation of a virgin female, or that the act was already complete when I found them. The males flew backwards and forwards over a space of about 200 yards by 40, where their food-plant was most abundant; hut unless chased flew at a slow pace, and frequently settled ; the females flew but seldom, and settled for several minutes at a time on the plants of Saxifraga. I did not observe them in the act of laying, though eggs were visible externally in one or more specimen." The egg appears identical with that of P. smintheus, figured by Edwards in the « Butterflies of North America.' I returned to Brieg in May 1885, hoping to find the larva in the same place ; but in this season the snow was still unmelted on May 26th, and lay two feet deep over the place where the butterfly had been common on July 1st in the previous season. This leads me to think that P. delius, like P. apollo and probably P. mnemosyne, passes some parts of its larval existence in the autumn, and remains dormant under the snow during 6 to 8 months, according to the elevation. I have found the butterfly as early as the end of June, both near Bergun and at Pontresina, and it may be found at higher altitudes up to 7000 or 8000 feet throughout July and August. . .' . . i, The variation to which this species is subject consists principally in the number and size of the red ocelli. The male has sometimes one, but usually two, red spots on the fore wing beyond the cell: the one on the costa is almost always present, and there is sometimes a black, and very rarely a red spot as well, near the middle of the hind margin of the fore wing. The fringe of the wings is sometimes plain white, and sometimes more or less distinctly marked with black at the end of the veins. In the variety intermedius, from the Altai Mountains, these black markings on the fringe are much more regular and constant. In female specimens, as in the American form smintheus, there are generally two, sometimes one, and rarely three, red spots beyond the cell. In one specimen in m y collection, and in one figured by Meyer-Diir, these three spots are almost confluent, forming a short bar edged with black. The size of Swiss specimens varies from 2*50 to 1*80 inches ; the Altai specimens average about 2*25 ; in American specimens the largest I have are of the so-called var. hermodur, from the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, which are 2*40 to 2 5 0 inches across the wings, and the smallest, from Colorado, measure 2'10 to 1'80 inches. With regard to the American form smintheus, such a full and excellent account of its habits has been given by M r. W . H. Edwards in Butt. N. A. vol. i. pp. 21-26, that I need say but little ; a further account of its habits as observed in the Judith Mountains, |