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Show 52 MR. H. J. ELWES ON THE GENUS PARNASSIUS. [Jan. 19, P. NORDMANNI. Parnassiusnordmanni, Men., Nordmann, Bull. Mosc. 1851, p. 423, t. xiii. figs. 1-3. Var. minima, Honrath, Berl. ent. Zeit. 1885, p. 272, t. viii. figs. 2, 2 a. P. clarius, Herr.-Schaff. Pap. Eur. t. liv. figs. 257, 258. This species appears to have a limited range, being confined to certain districts north and south of the Caucasus, where it seems to represent its near ally, P. clarius. The two species have, in fact, little to distinguish them except colour; but in the type specimens of P. nordmanni which I have examined I find the neck is covered with yellow hairs, whilst the palpi and hair of the head, legs, and feet are black, and this is the case in other specimens which I have seen. In one specimen in the St. Petersburg Museum, collected by Haberhauer, and in another which I possess, and which from their small size I believe to be from Daghestan (var. minima), the palpi and hair of the head and neck are white. In P. clarius the body and legs are greyish ; but perhaps the pouch affords the best distinction, as in P. clarius it is very long behind, and opens rather upwards ; whilst in P. nordmanni it is much shorter behind, and cut off in a different way at the opening. Nordmann says of this species that it flies with P. delius in the highest mountains of Adshara in July. He took it in some numbers on the road from Osurgeti in Georgia direct over the Somlia Mountains to Achalzich, on the slope of the peak called Dshuaruto. Since then no one except Haberhauer seems to have taken it south of the Caucasus, and we have no details of his captures ; but Christoph, in his account of his explorations in Daghestan, Hor. Ent. Ross. xii. p. 17, says that it flew on the bare stone-covered slopes of the mountain Bazardjusi, at 13,000 feet elevation. The specimens I have seen from here are all much smaller than those from Georgia, and have been separated by Honrath as " var. minima." Menetries, in his Catalogue, gives Akbasia as a locality, and the Grand Duke Nicholas, in his Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of the Caucasus, says it is found at Kourouch in Daghestan. It remains, however, a rare insect in collections, and its distribution is obscure. EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. All the objects are magnified 5 times, except the eggs. Pl/ATE I Fig. 1. Side view of pouch of a female P. apollo, from Eperies, Hungary. 2. The same, from behind. 3. Side view of clasping-organs of male P. apollo, from Brunnen, Lucerne, taken June 27, 1884. Denuded of hair whilst fresh. 4. End view of same when exposed. 5. Claspers detached from their position. 6. Valves seen from below, when detached. 7. Point of one of the valves, seen from akne. 8. Penis. |