180 THE entomologist's record. 



completely lost, as they appear to be as near intermediate between the 

 sexes as between the species ; they evidently partake of the nature of 

 both sexes : as a proof, every insect of the genus Smerinthns, on 

 touching, discharges copiously a fluid, which in the <? is pure white, in 

 the ? of a yellow or ochre colour. This insect discharged, at the 

 same motion, first the white and then the ochre fluid quite distinct, and 

 this compound discharge was quite uniform in every specimen, which 

 is never the case in any true species or sex." Of the larvfe he notes 

 that, in the first stage, no difference was observable between them and 

 those of S. popiili, very little in the second, more in the third, whilst 

 finally they were more like larvai of S. oceUatns than of S. pojnili. The 

 pupae seemed to be exactly intermediate. Professor Westwood says 

 that Mr. House's is the first recorded statement of any satisfactory 

 result, and that his specimens incline much more to the 3' parent than 

 to the $ . Mr. Galliers ( Weekly InteUiyencer, vol. x.) bred a hybrid 

 from eggs of S. pojmli, fertilized by S. oceUoUis, the fore-wings of 

 which resembled those of the mother, except that they were much 

 darker, whilst the hind-wings resembled those of the father, the ocelli 

 being finely developed. In the Report of the British Association for 

 1870 is the following note by Mr. Edwin Birchall : — " The hybrid 

 moths were produced by the union of S. ocellatus ^ with S. popmli $ . 

 The larvje were barely distinguishable from those of S. populi, and 

 appeared healthy : but there must have been constitutional weakness, 

 for of sixteen which assumed the pupa state, only six produced moths ; 

 of these, three were males, two females, and one hermaphrodite. In 

 form and colouring the influence of the female parent predominates in 

 all the specimens, one only having the margin of the wings strongly 

 denticulated as in S. ocellatus. In the hermaphrodite specimen the 

 right antenna is pectinated, and the whole of the right side of the 

 insect presents the characters of S. ocellatus, the male parent, whilst 

 the left or female side differs from an ordinary $ S. populi only by a 

 little more brilliancy of colour. The generative organs were much 

 distorted, and there were no ova in the abdomen." There is an 

 evident blunder in the foregoing, probably a printer's error, for Mr. 

 Birchall would surely not speak of the wings of S. ocellatus as strongly 

 denticulated. Probably the sentence beginning "In form and colour- 

 ing " should be amended by the substitution of " male " for " female," 

 and of " S. populi" ior " S. ocellatus." In the Entomologist, vol. xiv., 

 is a figure of a hermaphrodite purchased by Mr. Briggs from Mr. 

 Birchall's collection, which is very possibly the identical specimen 

 alluded to in the foregoing extract. It would be difiicult to imagine a 

 greater jumble of the two species than the figure represents. Mr. 

 Kirby, in the November number of the same volume, says : " I was 

 under the impression that hermaphroditism was the usual character 

 of these hybrids ; and it has suggested itself to my mind as a 

 possibility, which I have not at present sufficient data either to prove or 

 disprove, that the sterility of hybrids in general may perhaps be partly 

 due to hybridism having a tendency to produce hermaphroditism." 

 In Ent. Record, vol. i., pp. 95 and 202 is an account by Mr. P. 

 Kirk of a successful rearing of hybrids from ^ S. ocellatus and $ 

 S. popmli. 



There are one or two points to which I should like to call attention. 

 First, for the eggs to bo fertile it seems necessary that the female 

 parent should be S. populi. This may be due to the difference in size 



