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Show 26 MR. H. J. ELWES ON THE GENUS PARNASSIUS. [Jan. 19, smintheus from the egg in Virginia. He states that the eggs hatched in the last days of winter, but will not eat Sedum leaves. He is certain that the eggs of this species do not hatch naturally till spring. He says that the newly hatched larvae are most singular creatures, bearing no resemblance to any members of the Papilionidse which he has seen. They are thickly studded with small tubercles in rows, and each of these gives out several short curved black hairs. They look something like caterpillars of Argynnis, but are different from these also. Reakirt, in Proc. Phil. Ent. Soc. vi. p. 129, describes " eight very closely allied, but perfectly distinct and seemingly constant forms " of P. smintheus. He says : - " I think it highly probable that both P. smintheus and P. nomion are derivatives from the same parent stem, the former being yet in process of segregation, while the latter, most probably the older form, has passed through its transitional stages, and now presents only constant specific diagnostics. The chain of closely linked varieties of P. smintheus, of which the highest (sayi) approximates to nomion, would seem to corroborate this supposition." He goes on to describe a remarkable female form, and says that the only apparently constant diagnostic which he has detected in the species is the seemingly regular situation and form of the four basal spots on the under surface of the hind wings, in which it differs strongly from nomion, the only species he knows which closely approximates certain forms of the male and female. " Mr. Ridings captured this fine species in July, solely within the mountain districts, usually when settled on the flowers of some tree, and always near the edge of a watercourse. It is abundant, but of difficult capture, not only from the natural obstacles interposed, but also from its very high and quick flight, this commonly ranging from four to eight yards above the head." The form figured and described by Mene'tries as sedakovi (Men. Enum. p. 71, 1.1. fig. 1), from Irkutsk, of which I have seen the type, is very like some of the Altai specimens, as are some of those from Kamschatka; whilst what was described as corybas by Fischer, from the same country, which I have also seen in the St. Petersburg Museum, are more like European specimens. I also possess a specimen which I can only refer to this species, from Kodiak in the North Pacific. There is evidently much to learn as to its distribution and variation in Eastern Asia, cf. Stett. ent. Zeit. 1881, p. 275. Zeller, reviewing Edwards's ' Butterflies of North America' in Stett. ent. Zeit. 1874, pp. 433, 434, says that smintheus certainly belongs as well as intermedius to P. delius, and quotes Zincken to the effect that a beautiful drawing of female P. delius taken near St. Peter and Paul in Kamschatka by Dr. Langsdorf in 1804, does not show the least difference from Swiss specimens. Zeller, in the same journal for 1872, p. 119, quotes Dietze to the effect that the eggs of fresh specimens of P. delius found on the Splugen pass on August 14, hatched in 14 days under the heat of an Italian sun. This seems to prove what I have before suggested, that P. delius must pass a considerable part of its larval existence in autumn. |