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Show 1886.] MR. H. J. ELWES ON THE GENUS PARNASSIUS. 25 Montana, by Mr. Courtis, is so interesting that I copy it from ' Papilio,' vol. iii. p. 158. Mr. W . H. Edwards is here speaking of P. smintheus, var. hermodur, H. Edw., and says:-" These Montana examples of both sexes are very large, considerably beyond the average of smintheus from Colorado, some males and females reaching 2-70 inches. Several of the females are very black, there being little of the yellow-white ground left, and that principally in cells of primaries and on disks of secondaries. The red spots are of extraordinary size. I should have taken the female for a distinct species had not the male been so like and often indistinguishable fiom the Colorado males of smintheus, though larger. Some of them have the spots orange as in var. behrii. "Several of both sexes I cannot distinguish from a pair ofV. intermedius sent me by Dr. Staudinger as Meuetries' species from Siberia. These are the examples which are not melanic, and in which the marginal borders of both wings are transparent. I have a female of the same form taken on Mt. Bradley, California, by Mr. James Behrens '. " Mr. Courtis at m y suggestion s>hut up some females with Sedum, on which smintheus has been known to lay, and obtained 140 eggs. Mr. Courtis says, 'Most of these eggs came from females that mated alter I caught them. The others would not lay, although I kept them shut up with several males until they nearly starved.' " This is a most curious fact, as I found that P. mnemosyne, and Mr. Thompson found that /-". apollo, mated freely in captivity ; but Mr. Edwards says this is the first instance he has heard of in which butterflies have mated in captivity. "Mr. Courtis goes on to say:-'The virgin females seemed to have the end of abdomen a light green horn instead of black, but after mating I noticed they turned black.' This seems to throw doubt on either Mr. Courtis's accuracy of observation, or to prove that the development of the pouch is not as in P. apollo. H e goes on to say :- ' I think they lay on the roots of plants, as the females always drop to the ground, climb up a stalk, and fly away. Those in confinement climbed sticks and window frames, laying eggs as they went. They curved their bodies round and put an egg on whatever they touched, except the Sedum ; I made one lay on it by keeping her moving from one piece to another, but she seemed much excited, and as soon as I put her on grass and sticks she laid every few minutes.' In a later letter, 5th of August, Mr. Courtis writes, ' I noticed a female Parnassius alight on a piece of Sedum, drop to the ground, climb up and lay an egg either on the leaves or roots or on the ground. I could not find the egg, though I saw her go through the motion of laying. Mr. W . H. Edwards has tried without success to breed P. 1 I have received a pair from this locality, through the kindness of Mr. H. Edwards, and can only say of the female that I can hardly distinguish it from small examples of discobolus from Turkestan. The difference between the two sexes is most marked, the male being very like those from the Altai Mountains. |
