602 Rearing of Sat amis. Hesperus in England. 



was ignorant of its peculiar rarity at the time he parted 

 with it to Mr. Priaulx. The specimen I have seen in this 

 gentleman's possession, who has a considerable collection of 

 insects from various parts of the world, and has already formed 

 a very respectable British cabinet. — Wm. Arnold Bromfield, 

 M.D. Sept. 1836. 



Rearing of Saturnia, ? Hesperus {J&ombyx Hesper. Linn.) 

 in England. — Mr. Humphreys of No. 13. New Road, 

 Southampton, has succeeded in rearing the exquisitely beau- 

 tiful South American Atlas moth (Saturnia ? Hesperus, 

 2?6mbyx Hesp. Linn.) in this country, and in considerable 

 numbers. The insects were brought over in chrysalis, upon 

 his return from a surveying expedition to Brazil ; and from 

 the moths disclosed he obtained abundance of eggs ; and had, 

 when I first saw them (Aug. 11.), some dozens of young and 

 healthy larvae, which at this moment (Sept. 2.) are, for the 

 most part, full grown, and approaching the period of their 

 transformation into the pupa state. Unlike our European 

 Saturnia, the caterpillars of which change their colour, and 

 even form, at every successive change of skin, those of the 

 American species are nearly similar in respect to hue through- 

 out this state of their existence. When full grown, they are 

 about 4 in. long, and very thick ; of a fine pea-green, with 

 several scarlet tubercles on each segment of the body, ter- 

 minating in star-like fascicles of the same colour. The sides 

 are covered with long shaggy hair of an ash grey; and near 

 the anal extremity, encircling the last pair of holders, is a 

 fillet of a bright yellow colour, adding greatly to the beauty 

 of the larva, which feeds, with Mr. Humphreys, on the 

 leaves of the castor oil plant (jRicinus communis), cultivated 

 in his garden for that purpose. The transformation from the 

 egg to the pupa is effected within the space of about six 

 weeks ; and, what is singular, in an insect of the lepidop- 

 terous order, inhabiting a tropical climate, where the imago 

 is usually disclosed after a few weeks at farthest, our Saturnia 

 does not assume its final shape till towards June of the year 

 following that in which it was hatched from the egg.* Can 

 this be the result of change of climate alone ? If so, it is 

 a wonderful instance of adaptation to casual circumstances, 

 under which not one in ten thousand of the species would 

 ever find itself placed. The moth is very active; feeds freely 

 in confinement ; and no artificial heat is requisite to bring 

 the insect forward when excluded from the ovum. Madame 

 Merian [Ins. Sur. 9 tab. lii.) represents the larva feeding on the 



* Madame Merian states her caterpillars of this species to have spun up 

 on the 18th of February ; and the imago to have come forth so early as the 

 1 1th of March. (Ins. Sur., tab. lii.) 



