4N^^ AND ^^^/i^ 



JOURNAL OF VARIATION. 



Vol. VII. No. 5. December 1st, 1895. 



CALLIMORPHA HERA. 



By J. W. TUTT, F.E.S. 



Everyone, I suppose, knows the history of Calliuiorpha hem as a 

 British insect — how, some thirty years ago, a specimen was taken at 

 light, followed some years afterwards by a great haul, which almost 

 every British collector believed to have had a Continental origin. 

 Unfortunately circumstances pointed very strongly to this, and it was 

 generally assumed that the specimens were either bred directly 

 from foreign pup^e, or that the moth had been laid down in one of 

 its early stages, and captured on its emergence later in the season. 

 However, we know that circumstantial evidence is not always to be 

 relied upon, and in this case it would appear from facts that have 

 come to light more recently that C. hera has long had a haunt in the 

 Starcross district of Devonshire. 



Many well-known lepidopterists have captured the imago in its 

 native wilds. Eggs have been obtained in plenty, and the insect has 

 been bred in considerable numbers, and it must be a poor collection 

 that does not contain a more or less complete series of this charming 

 insect, whilst the entomologist who has not seen the larva must either 

 live far from those centres where insect collectors most do congregate, 

 or be quite out of touch with his entomological brethren. 



It is not given to everyone to see C. hera in its restricted haunts in 

 Britain, or to beat it out from the hedges in which, in Devonshire, it 

 appears to love to hide. Nor is it well that those who can revel in 

 the sunshine, and see this lovely insect lazily sucking nectar from the 

 eupatorium flowers in its Continental haunts, should waste their 

 time, ruin their patience, use up their energy with a beating-stick, 

 put up with a never-ending series of unwished-for shoAver-baths, in 

 order to add a ragged- winged specimen to their cabinets ; for it must 

 be owned that the captured specimens are rarely in good condition, and 

 that were it not for the readiness with which the females lay eggs, 

 and the comparative ease with which the larvae are reared, we should 

 have but few good series of British specimens in our collections. For 

 myself, I prefer to sit under the shade of a thick walnut or ash tree, and 

 watch the insect in dozens taking its natural morning flight, or 

 sucking its noon-day meal from the clumps of eupatorium, Alpine 

 thistle, or other favoured Hower. 



