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Show 42 MR. H. J. ELWES ON THE GENUS PARNASSIUS. [Jan. 19, P. TENEDIUS. Parnassius tenedius, Eversm. Bull. Mosc. 1851, ii. p. 631 ; Men. in Schrenk's Amurl. vol. ii. Lep. p. 14, t. 1. fig. 3, $ . Of this remarkable species but little is known, though it has a wide range in Eastern Asia, and has been collected recently in some numbers by Herr Tancre's collector in some parts of the southern Altai Mountains, in April and May. Eversmann received it first from Irkutsk. I have a female specimen collected by Puzilo at Albasin on the Zeya river in upper Amurland. Menetries describes and figures a female from Olekminsk on the Lena river. I have seen specimens in the St. Petersburg Museum, collected by Czernakowsky on July 14, 1873, on the lower Tunguska. Major von Hedemann also collected this species at the Schilka, in the upper Amur region, in May. P. tenedius has a pouch-like appendage unlike that of any other of the genus, though it has some analogy to that of P. imperator. It is very delicate and wax-like in substance, open at the bottom and difficult to examine, but the figure I have given will explain its structure better than words. In a female collected by Maack, which I saw in the St. Petersburg Museum, the pouch is not developed, but eggs of apparently full size are visible inside the abdomen, and Ipossess another in which it is only partially developed; but the two perfect females in m y collection, together with at least five others which I have examined, all agree in the general form and substance of this curious appendage. See Plate II. fig. 9. The antennae are black, the fringes of the wings show a narrow black line distinctly edged with white. The hairy covering of the body is less abundant in the males of this species than in most other Parnassius; the number and size of the red markings vary just as in other species, but those from Amurland appear generally to have them most abundantly. Nothing is published as to the habits of this species, which is very scarce in collections at present. P. IMPERATOR. Parnassius imperator, Oberthiir, Bull. Soc. Ent. France, 1883, p. 79 ; Et. Ent. ix. p. 11, t. 1. fig. 4, $ . This splendid species at first sight presents the most remarkable resemblance to P. charltonius, but as soon as one examines the abdominal appendage, which in this case cannot be called a pouch, it is evident that a more different and peculiar structure cannot exist. I must refer my readers to the drawing (Plate III. fig. 4), as a description alone would give no true idea of its form, which, though in evidently very nearly allied to P. discobolus, and indeed hardly separable it. These specimens do not agree with the description above given, which makes me think that the name has probably been transferred from the original insect described above to what is now sent as P. romanovi. I have to thank the Grand Duke also for a pair of P. muzaffir, Gr. Grsh., which also appears to be a form of P. actius, and Herr Christoph informs me that P. charltonius was also included in M. Grumm Grshimailo's collection from the same region. |