''''■' 157 



visitor to our islamls. Of M.cse, Hio niosl inleresling is a ^T , a little fadotl in 

 colour, but otiierwisc in frood c-ondition witli the exception of a small piece out of 

 the apex of each forc-winn;, and the top of the head rubbed bare. It ia labelled 

 "Taken at Dover by Mr. Leplastrier " (C W. ]).), with a printed label at side, 

 "Dover, Mr. Le Plaistrier, Sept., 182S." The hitter date is almost; certainly 

 erroneous .IS regards the year, as the Hrst record of the capture of the imago of 

 C. nerii u\ our islands appears in the "Entomological Magazine" for 1833 (voh I, 

 p. 'o-lh) as follows:-" Dwcocer.y of Sphinx Nerii. in England. Sir,— Another 

 addition lias been made to our visiting Sphinglda; by the capture of the splendid 

 DeiUphila (may I call it ?) Nerii at Dover about ten days since. From the state 

 of the specimen, which I have this day examined, it must have been very recently 

 d^closed, the tips of its wings and Die top of its head alone being slightly injured 

 by its captor, a hidy residing in the above town. * * * J. F. Stephens, 

 Sept. IGth, 1833." The specimen now under consideration is slightly damaged in 

 precisely the same manner as above described. It seems also reasonable to suppose 

 that it was from this example that the beautiful Ggurc in Curtis' " British 

 Entomology," plate 626, was drawn. Curtis (/. c. fol. 626, p. 1) at the time this 

 plate was published (January, 1S37) apparently knew of only two British-taken 

 C. nerii, one of which was in the cabinet of his fellow-worker, J. C. Dale, and was 

 presumably lent to Iiini for the purpose of being figured. This figure, although 

 more fully and richly coloured than the moth is now after the lapse of nearly 

 three-quarters of a century, agrees with it in a remarkable and convincing manner 

 in all the minute details of the markings; and though Curtis states (I. c. fol. 626, 

 p. 2), " The fine specimen of the moth, which is a female, Mr. Leplastrier informed 

 me was taken by a poor man the latter end of September, 1834., near the pier at 

 Dover, and was brought to him alive," the antennae in the figure, which are very 

 faithfully represented, are obviously those of a <? . It therefore appears to me that 

 tliese two somewhat discrepant records refer to the capture at Dover of a single 

 specimen of C. nerii which came into the hands of the well-known collector 

 Mr. Lcplaistrier, and from him passed to J. C. Dale ; and that tliis, the first 

 example of this beautiful moth known to have been taken in Britain, has thus been 

 handed down to our time. 



The other four specimens of C. nerii in the collection are labelled as follows :— 

 One <?, old but perfect, " Honble. Miss Lushington, Sussex" (C. W. D.) ; u.^ , in 

 very good order, has two labels in C. W. Dale's handwriting, " Taken at Eastbourne 

 by a small boy from Bayswater, about 9.31) in the evening circling round a very 

 brilliant light. From the Bayswater Chronicle of Sept. 27th, 1884," and " K. Alfred, 

 Eastbourne, Sept. 24th, 1884, Cat. n. 17-333." One ? , very richly coloured, but 

 slightly rubbed on the thorax and with one antenna missing, the body being not 

 very neatly stuffed with cotton-wool, " From the colleen, of late Dr. Hunter, died 

 1892," at side "Hartlepool" ; and a very fine ? on a modern black pin, '« Clnero- 

 campa nerii, captured at Poplar, 20th Sept., 1888." 



C. ceZeWo, L.— Seven examples; of these a S,m surprisingly good condition, 

 considering its evident age, is without doubt the first recorded British specimen.' 

 Its label, in the same style and handwriting as those on many other insects 

 originally in A. H. Haworth's collection, and presumably written by him, is 

 "Celerio, Bunhill Fields, Fra." Stephens (III, Haust. I, p. 128) says, "The first 



