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Show 1886.] MR. H. J. ELWES ON THE GENUS PARNASSIUS. 39 brood, which, has hybernated in the pupa: of this fact I have no manner of doubt." In another letter he says, " W h e n coming over the Rhotangpass about October 10, 1874,1 saw numbers of the larvae of P. hardwickei on the low herbage, and have no doubt myself but that some of this species hybernate as butterflies, but by far the greater number in the pupa; that this insect is double-brooded no one who knows its habits disputes; the larva feeds on various species of Saxifrage." In another letter Capt. Young says, "In the outer Himalaya (I speak of Kulu only) P. hardwickei does not vary ; but in the interior it varies from typical hardwickei, through light and dark grey, to the high-level form charino." Capt. Lang says, in P. Z. S. 1865, p. 488, that this species in Kunawur commences at the Runang pass, becoming commoner as we travel south and west towards Lower Kunawur and Simla, not extending nearer the plains than Simla, however. It is tolerably abundant on the Mahasoo ridge, near Simla, on bare grassy hilltops, just clear of oak-woods; grassy open downs it certainly affects, and at high elevation, 8000 feet. It has a strong but slow flight, somewhat like that of Pieris, keeping low over the rocks which crop up amongst the grass." The form of the pouch in this species separates it widely from any other of the genus (see Plate II. fig. 5). The fringes of the wings are white and long, the antennae black. P. DELPHIUS. Parnassius delphius, Evers. Bull. Mosc. 1843, hi. p. 540, t. 7. fig. 1 a, b. Var. namagana, Stgr. M S S . P. staudingeri, Haas, Berl. ent. Zeit. 1882, p. 163, t. 11. figs. 7, 8, 8 a. Var. infernalis, Stgr. M S S. I think there can be little doubt that P. delphius and P. staudingeri are one species, and time will show whether the Himalayan ally, P. stoliczkanus, can be separated from them ; but from whatever point of view they are regarded, these three form a very natural group, differing widely from all other species in the form of the pouch, which, though it has some analogy with that of P. hardwickii in being divided into two lobes, is, as the plate shows, quite unique in form. P. delphius was first described from the Tarbagatai range by Eversmann with P. clarius and P. actius ; and it should be noted that though he says these species came from the southern slopes of the Altai Mountains, yet Kindermann, who collected in the true Altai Mountains, is quoted by Lederer in Zool.-Bot. Ver. Wien, 1853, p. 353, as follows :-" It will perhaps be wondered that I did not find in the district I explored (which lies on the upper Irtisch between Ust Kamenogorsk and Ust-buchtarminsk) the species described bv Eversmann in the Moscow Bulletin as from the Altai. These, however, do not inhabit the Altai, but are only indigenous 700-1000 versts to the south, and were collected by Herr Schrenck, |