142 'June, 



Lophura pi/las, Cr. — " Harry has caught a beautiful little hawk-moth with his 

 hands. We had been watching it while Artliur ran for a net, when it dashed from 

 a rose tree to the ground, as if to hide itself, but Harry secured it ! " 



Sphingomorpha Monteironis, Butler (ante Vol. xxxiv, p. 240). [My correspond- 

 ent has dfivoted a great deal of attention to this species, and its special method of 

 damaging the fruit. She says :] — " I have been having a most wonderful harvest of 

 moths. The figs have spoiled with the damp and heat, and lie rotting on the 

 ground, and even those still upon the trees are mostly uneatable. At night the 

 trees are swarming with ' fruit-moths ' and numbers of other species. Last night I 

 went down just at dusk, taking my lantern, and had the good fortune to find a large 

 fruit-moth at work in the middle of a fig-tree, so intent that it did not notice either 

 me or my light. It was on the side of a fig, with its trunk boring into the fruit, 

 and seemed to bo sucking. If it had gone to the top it would have found a little 

 opening in the ripe fig, or if the weather had been damp, perhaps a crack in its side, 

 but this fellow was boring with its trunk. A large portion of our fruit, and es- 

 pecially of the peaches, is spoiled by rotting on the trees, and the only visible cause 

 is a tiny spot on the outside, evidently the mark of a perforation." [Later.] " It 

 was charming under the trees by lantern light, and one night in particular I 

 remember, when I caught the large moth with eyes {Caligramma Latona), the air 

 seemed full of moths, and the heavy fruit-moths banged at my light, coming again 

 and again to the charge. I must tell you that the fig, if over-ripe, or if the weather 

 is at all damp, bursts, and the smaller moths can generally find a place to suck at ; 

 but the fruit-moth seems to prefer to pierce a fresh place, even on cracked fruit, 

 leaving a little spot like a pin prick, but from that spot the fruit quickly decays ; 

 the peaches especially get a little rotten spot, and drop off at the slightest touch. 

 I have often wondered that the moth could pierce the rough rind of a not very ripe 

 St. Helena peach, but they spoil them when they are quite green. I am certain 

 that they pierce the fruit to suck the juice only, the trunk being used for this pur- 

 pose. I have watched many ; they will let me hold a light quite near to them." 



[It will be understood that the somewhat reiterated statements above have 

 reference to questions put by myself.] 



" The large, heavy, variously marked moths \^Achcea Lienardi, Bdv.] feed with 

 the ' fruit-moths,' often upon the same fig, but are shy, and I cannot watch them so 

 well. There are so many other species that it is hopeless to sort them out, but they 

 feed at the fruit, either that upon the tree, or on that fallen underneath, and I think 

 that they find a broken place in the skin. I wondered about Audea ochripennis, 

 but though it was common with llotiteironis for a little while at the fermented figs 

 upon the ground, as well as on the trees, it was shyer, and did not seem to come to 

 the peaches." 



[Other species at the fruit were indeed numerous : — Audea catocaJa, rarely ; 

 Serrodes inara, in two or three varieties ; Ericeia unangulata, Trigonodes ohstans 

 (more plentiful recently at flowers), Pseudophia Tirrhcea, not commonly ; Ophiusa 

 melicerta, O. harmonica, rarely, O. mormoides, 0. griselmargo, Hpsn., Maxula 

 capensis, once, Dgsgonia Faber, I'olydesma unibricola, P.umbrina, Anophia fatilega, 

 rarely, Agrotis segetum, A. biconica, A. spinifera, A. munda, Mentaxya amatura, 

 M. riniosa, rarely, M. decipiens, in plenty, M. atrosignnta, Axylia dividens, 

 Euplexia conducta, Lapkygma exigua, L. orbicularis, Eulaphygma abyssinica, 



