| OCR Text |
Show 14 MR. H. J. ELWES ON THE GENUS PARNASSIUS. [Jail. 1 J, lation. Some of this substance I was able to pull out with a pin, but it began to harden immediately on exposure to the atmosphere, and became quite brittle, and of a yellowish colour. From this I am led to think that the male supplies the material of which the 'pouch' is made, and that the female has really very little to do with making the 'pouch' at all. " Besides the copulations before mentioned, three others took place, two being remarkable for the time they lasted, viz. 6 hours 30 minutes, and 6 hours 25 minutes. "So far as I have been able to see, the ' pouch' of the female is of no use whatever after copulation. "Although the food-plant of this species was in the gauze cage, not one egg was laid upon it but all were laid upon the gauze." Partly owing to the fact that nearly all the species were happily unknown to the older authors, and partly because no one has yet attempted to divide the genus, its synonymy and literature is much more simple than in some genera. Herrich-Schaffer, Oberthiir, Felder, and Staudinger have all published more or less complete catalogues of Parnassius, of which the last is the most accurate and valuable for the European species known to him. The principal authors whohave described the various species are Menetries, Eversmann, and Gray ; but I need not refer here to their various writings, which are cited under the various species they described. The characters upon which most, if not all, previous writers have principally relied for the definition of the various species, namely, the pattern of the markings and the number and position of the black or red spots and ocelli, are, however, far too variable in most cases to be trustworthy. A very uniform style of coloration and pattern prevails throughout the genus, and though the affinities of most of the species to each other are more or less traceable by these characters, yet I have preferred myself to trust to the much more permanent, invariable, and important characters of the antennae, fringes, and pouches of the females. Though these characters are not absolutely invariable, yet, as far as I can see from the examination of large series, they are much more so than colours or markings ; and the pouch alone is so good a structural character, as to be invaluable for the purpose of classification. But I have not described the form of these pouches in words, because the illustrations make it unnecessary ; and though I have not, as I should have wished, been able to figure the pouch in every individual species, with the corresponding organs of the male, on account of the excessive number of plates that would have been required, yet all the most characteristic and remarkable have been accurately drawn by Mr. E. Wilson, of Cambridge, on a uniform scale of j-. As far as I have observed, the difference between the clasping organs of the male in different species is trifling compared with the difference between the pouches of the female; and it will be a most 1 Cf. note by Prof. Howes, above, p. 10. |
