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Show 30 MR. H. J. ELWES ON THE GENUS PARNASSIUS. [Jan. 19, the Siberian form of P. apollo known as hesebolus. In fact Staudinger says he received some specimens which are intermediate between discobolus and actius, and may be hybrids of them in his opinion ; while Alpheraky describes a form which he thinks is a hybrid between hesebolus and discobolus, and states in confirmation of this theory that he found a male of the former in copula with a female of the latter. I confess that after careful examination of Dr. Staudinger's series, as well as of those I have received from him and M . Alpheraky, I can find no constant characters; forthe absence of the red spot atfbase of hind wings is not constant, as Schilde, in Ent. Nachrichten, 1884, p. 334, observes; and even if it was in some species, it is certainly not in discobolus or actius. I see nothing in the pouch, fringe, or antennae to make this form worthy of separation, though it is almost impossible, on the other hand, to say to what it should be joined, unless it is P. actius ; and some of the American specimens of P. smintheus are also exceedingly close. Alpheraky found it in all parts of the Thian Shan which he visited, at elevations of 3500 to 11,000 feet, from the 15th of May throughout the summer, the specimens found at high elevations being smaller, less richly coloured, and more like those of the Alatau Mountains, which Staudinger has separated as var. minor. What Staudinger describes as ab. $ nigricans seems, according to Alpheraky, to be a not uncommon form of the female at low elevations. It is simply a form in which the wings are very diaphanous and covered with black scales to such an extent that when on the wing they seem black. The yellowish tint which very fresh specimens of Parnassius (especially females) often show is found in discobolus; and I noted in one specimen in Dr. Staudinger's collection that the fringes of the fore wings are blackish, whilst others had a very strong resemblance to nomion, but could apparently be certainly distinguished by the fringes of the hind wings, which are never so distinctly chequered as in that species. P. ACTIUS, var. HIMALAYENSIS. Parnassius jacquemonti, Blanch. Jacquemont's Voy. p. 16, t. i. figs. 3, 4 ; Moore, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 257 ; Oberthur, Et. Ent. liv. iv. 1879, p. 23, t. ii. fig. 5 ; Honrath, Berl. ent. Zeit. 1885, p. 274. Though it is very difficult to say what this species may be, I think it certain that it is not the P. jacquemonti of Boisduval, on account of the remarkable difference in the pouch, which I have pointed out in alluding to that species. Neither Moore, Gray, Blanchard, Honrath, nor Oberthur seems, however, to have paid any attention to Boisduval's description of the pouch, or, if they did, failed to understand the importance of this character. The extreme rarity of female specimens of the true P. jacquemonti in museums has doubtless prevented other writers from distinguishing the form now under notice from the much rarer and more inaccessible species |
