272 Short Communications : — Insects. 



wings rustling like tinsel, adding not a little to the scene. 

 This lasted for about ten minutes, when at length one fell into 

 the water, apparently from exhaustion : and now was exhi- 

 bited the sagacity of the conqueror, who pounced upon his 

 back as he floated on the surface, and remained so for a little 

 while. During the whole of this exhibition the female con- 

 tinued to skim about in pursuit of prey, and seemingly not 

 taking the least interest in the affray. She was soon joined 

 by her companion, who had left his victim still struggling on 

 the surface, but without the power to rise, as he had deprived 

 him of his wings. Can this be called 'instinct ? What could 

 human reason have dictated to operate more effectually ? — 

 James Fennetk^ ( [n [ } 



Means to promote the obtaining Imagoes of the Death's-head 

 Moth from Larvae of it fed in Captivity. — In August, 1831, 

 I had several larvae of the above sphinx. I placed four of 

 them in a large flower-pot with a top made of gauze, or what 

 the milliners call catgut, in the form of a cone about 18 in. 

 high, so as to go over the pot. The pot was filled three parts 

 full of light moist earth ; and potato tops were put in for the 

 larvae to feed upon ; the top is easily taken off, to give them 

 fresh food, which I did every morning. One of the larvae went 

 into the earth on August 22., another on August 24., another 

 on September 2., and the other on September 5. ; after which I 

 took the pot into a small room where we had a fire every 

 day. When the earth appeared dry, I sprinkled it with 

 water made milkwarm, about two or three times in a week. 

 The result was, I had three fine specimens of the sphinx, in 

 exactly 56 days, or 8 weeks, from the time they went into 

 the earth ; namely, one on October 16., one on October 18., and 

 one on October 27. As the other did not come out at the 

 time, I disturbed it, and found the pupa quite alive. I placed 

 it again in the earth ; in a fortnight's time I looked at it, and 

 found it was dead ; on examination I found it had nearly 

 attained its full growth, and most probably, had it not been 

 disturbed in the first instance, would have become a perfect 

 imago. I breed some hundreds of lepidopterous insects of 

 different kinds, from the eggs and larvae, but never succeeded 

 with the death's-head moth in so short time before. My 

 opinion, derived from practical experience on the matter, is, 

 that the pupa of this moth should never be disturbed ; if it is, 

 not one in a hundred will become an imago. — Thomas Denny, 

 Dealer in Ornithology and Entomology. 4. Downing Terrace, 

 Cambridge. [Not the " Hill's Road, near Cambridge," as, 

 through misinformation, we gave the address in Vol. V. 

 p. 546. — J.D.~] 



