154 Claim of certain Lepidopterotis Insects 



climate favourable to their propagation? It cannot have 

 escaped the observation of those who have attentively con- 

 sidered the subject in reference to the soundness of Mr. 

 Stephens's views, that the recorded instances of the capture 

 of /SphinjT Carolina, T>vuvce^iy and quinquemaculata, with 

 otliers of the same genus, have occurred in parts of the king- 

 dom least favourable to the idea of their American import- 

 ation ; at Leeds, London, Sunderland, Isle of Wight, &c., 

 places on the southern and eastern parts of our island, inland 

 as well as on the coast, and very remote from ports the most 

 frequented by ships from the New World, as Bristol or Liver- 

 pool, in whose neighbourhood no examples of their discovery 

 have hitherto been cited. It may be remarked, enpassant, that 

 the soil of Great Britain is particularly rich in the family of 

 the SphiY)gid<^, as, with the exception of Deilephila ? nerii, 

 Deilephila Fes})ertilio, Hipj^phae, and Smerinthus quercus, 

 we possess (unless greatly mistaken) all the other European 

 species of this cliarralng group. 



As a proof of fallacy on my side, it may be said, if the 

 insects in question are truly indigenous, then should indigenous 

 plants be their common source of nutriment; whereas it is 

 distinctly stated by Abbot, and other authors, that the larva of 

 ^phin^ Drura^i feeds on the Convolvulus Battdtas; that of 

 jSphirLT quinquemaculata and Carolhia on the potato, to- 

 bacco, and Jamestown weed, which latter is, I believe, the 

 Datura Stramonium, now a naturalised plant in England, and 

 which I have seen growing in very sequestered places, most 

 abundantly, along with another American (ffiiothera biennis), 

 in the forest of Fontainebleau and also in Hungary. With 

 as much propriety may the title of our insect to American 

 origin be questioned, since, with the single exception of the 

 Jamestown weed, all the other plants asserted to serve as their 

 usual food are foreign to the United States; but the objection 

 is at best a very feeble one, when it is considered that many 

 Lepidoptera in our own country are rarely found as larvae 

 upon any other than foreign plants which adorn our gardens, 

 or minister to our necessities. Thus Acherontia A'tropo^ is 

 seldom found but feeding on the potato or the white jasmine 

 (Jfesminum officinale), though we know the elder and the 

 bitter-sweet (Manum Dulcamara) to be its proper food in 

 this country, if not equally grateful with the first. Again, 

 jSphinjT ligustri, a strictly European species, is as often found 

 on the lilac as on privet; and Deilephila? nerii is met with 

 occasionally in all the temperate countries of Europe, except 

 our own island, feeding constantly on that tender green-house 

 shrub the Cerium Oleander, nor is it know a to betray a par- 



