NOTES OX THE n.VBITS OF HYT.KS (dKTLEPHILa) ET'PHORBI.T: . 07 



by stretching " dairy " cloth over a wooden frame. In this I placed 

 some Euphorbia pcjihis planted in a box, and some bottles containing 

 flowers smeared with honey, on which the moths fed freely. This 

 case was kept in the open on dry nights, but during the day and on 

 wet or rough nights it was placed in a shed. The imagines appeared 

 to be strictly crepuscular in their flight, feeding on the wing or knocking 

 themselves to pieces against the case from 6.30 p.m. till about 9.15 p.m. 

 I frequently looked at them at 10 p.m. or 10. oO p.m., but they were then 

 always resting, generally in a corner, and. as a rule, in a very drowsy 

 condition. They would then even allow themselves to be touched, but 

 clung very firmly to their resting-place, sometimes only with one or two 

 legs, the rest drawn up close to the body. They probably flew again 

 at dawn, but, on several occasions, I noticed that some of them were in 

 the same situation and position on the following morning as they had 

 been in when I left them the night before. Some even, on occasions, 

 were disinclined to fly during the evening, merely crawling away when 

 disturbed by the flight of another. It was a very pleasing sight to 

 watch the males on the wing sucking the honey from the flow^ers. 

 They w^ould sometimes make use of one or two legs to steady them- 

 selves while hovering above the flowers, but usually the legs hung 

 straight down. When the tongue was inserted in the flowers it was 

 often bent at almost a right angle, being nearly straight for the first 

 half of its length and then taking a sudden bend downwards to the 

 flower. The thorax of the moth was almost always above and over 

 the top of the flower — nearly perpendicular to it. The moths would 

 sometimes remain at the same flower for two or three minutes. Whilst 

 hovering, the humming of the wings w^as distinctly audible. If, while 

 hovering, a moth was obsei'ved in profile with the base of the nearer pair 

 of wings on the same level as the eye of the spectator, the underside 

 of the wings alone was observed, as though the Avings, while vibrating, 

 passed through only 45 degrees of the circle on each side of the per- 

 pendicular. The moths knocked the scales oft' the back of the thorax 

 by flying up and down the sides of the case wnth the dorsum pressed 

 closely to the cloth covering, or by suddenly rising up and striking the 

 top of the case in their efforts to escape. They also wore dow-n the 

 wings to mere stumps, but they could fly as long as the stumps were 

 of equal size, and not less than an inch in length. 



The female flew very little, though her wings were fully expanded. 

 One morning I found her in close proximity to one of the males, as 

 though they had just paired. On July 19th a male died, and a second 

 one on the following day. Thus, when I placed the female in the case 

 there w-ere three males present. On August 1st the female died. I 

 then set free one male, which w^as still in good condition ; the other 

 two by this time were unable to fly. The female might, perhaps, 

 have lived longer, but owing to the defective tongue she was unable 

 to feed. 



A day or two later I discovered that the female, ignoring the spurge 

 plant, had laid two ova side by side on the bottom of the case. One 

 of these hatched on August lOth, and the little black larva was found 

 crawling on the outside of the cage. It had not eaten the eggshell. 

 The first change of skin took place on August 17th. The larva still 

 remained dark, but exhibited some yellow lateral patches. It reminded 

 me strongly of a very dark larva of Celerio {Deilephila) tjalUi, butthehorn 



