134 THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



insect. On enquiring into its history I was informed by Dr. Hele that 

 in Jiine last (1885) he had taken at rest upon a pine tree a crippled 

 female, which laid two fertile eggs, from which he obtained two larvie. 

 One of them died, but the other one was successfully photographed the 

 day before it went to earth. In addition to the specimens of Dr. Hele, 

 I saw one which was captured at rest near the church by the son of the 

 vicar. I may own that at one time I was sceptical as to the genuine- 

 ness of the title of this species as a British insect, and that before my 

 visit to Aldeburgh I regarded the alleged capture as a possible impos- 

 ture ; but incredulity has given place to conviction, and I con- 

 sider that the position of S. pinastrl in our fauna is materially 

 strengthened. It has, I have been informed, been suspected that it 

 may have been accidentally imported, or otherwise. I am positively 

 assured by Dr. Hele that there is no ground for believing that there has 

 been any attempt to acclimatise or artificially introduce the insect, and 

 as far as 1 am able to ascertain there is no e\idence of such an attempt. 

 Isolated specimens have, it is true, been captured at Ipswich and else- 

 where, but I may say that the spot where the largest number have 

 been taken is not favourable to the view of an artificial introduction, 

 it being inaccessible to dealers, who might have a motive to deceive, 

 and to the public generally. It is possible that N. phiastrl has for 

 centuries inhabited some of our pinewoods where it occurs now from 

 year to year ; but this must be an open question ; and it is, perhaps, 

 more probable that is has, like some of our other rare Sphinges, made 

 our country, from time to time, the land of its adoption. I submit 

 that although its appearance is, perhaps, more local, it has with them 

 an equal claim to be recognised as a British species." 



What Mr. Cooper said then remains perfectly true now ; we are 

 no nearer to any exact knowledge of the date when S. jiitiastri first 

 came to l^ritain, whether before the time that the North Sea separated 

 us from the Continent (a few thousands of years ago), whether with 

 the first artificial introduction of its food-plant into Suffolk (probably 

 several hundreds of years ago), or with a later importation of firs, or 

 by means of a more recent immigration. All these are things which 

 resolve themselves into guess-work, but have no scientific value 

 whatever. 



Mr. Cooper's note brought two other Scotch records from 

 Mr. Edwards, one of a larva found in " Mull, in September, 18G0, near 

 Achmaeroish," which produced an imago on July 24th, 1861 ; a second 

 larva being taken in the same wood in September, 1861, but this died. 



The publication of the Rev. E. N. Bloomfield's J.ixt of the 

 Lcpiihtptcra of Suff'iilh, brought us more news about Sjihi)t.r jiina.stri in 

 its Eastern county habitat. Here we learn of the occurrence of the 

 Tuddenham St. Martin specimen, captured in 1877, of two Waldring- 

 field specimens in 1878 and another in 1879, of one at Saxmundham 

 in 1879, and at Ipswich in 1881 and 1882. But Mr. Hele's note is 

 the interesting part of this entry. He writes: — "In July, 1881, a 

 specimen was taken in the Vicarage grounds here, on the wing, in the 

 vicinity of some honeysuckle. During the months of July and August 

 in the following year we captured about forty specimens in this 

 neighbourhood. We found them at rest on the trunks of the Scotch 

 firs, from four to about fourteen feet from the ground, in every aspect, 

 apparently without regard to wind or weather." Mr. Bloomtield adds 



