NOTES ON COLLECTING. 47 



groups with short proboseids, such as the Lachneids (Lasiocainpids), 

 Attacids (Saturnians), etc., and probably rapidly gained, whilst less easy 

 to get rid of. The ancestral Sphingid, in this case, would have a pupa 

 more like that of Ceratomia aiinnitor or those of various Sesiads, 

 so far as the proboscis is concerned, i.e., reaching to the ends of 

 the wing-cases and keeping them separate. Whatever form of 

 ancestral tree may result therefrom, such pupte as those of Ceratomia, 

 Darapaa, many Sesiads, etc., may be ancestral to those in which the 

 backward movement of the head exists, but cannot have them for 

 ancestors. 



Even as regards wing-form, we find the angled wings so frequently 

 in the less evolved forms, and so rarely in the most so, that there is, 

 we think, rather more ground for believing the primitive Sphmgid to 

 have had angled wings than that it had not. The angled wing has lent 

 itself well to imitations of leaves, etc., but angulation is by no means 

 necessary to such imitation, as we see in many other families, and 

 even in the Sphingides themselves, so that its occurrence, in several 

 different branches, requires some other explanation than such mimicry ; 

 and very especially needs it when these angled forms are placed at the 

 summits of the pedigrees, as our authors place most of them. 

 (2o be concluded.) 



:^OTES ON COLLECTING, Etc. 



Hybernation of Platyptilia acanthodactyla, Hb., and Stenoptilia 

 zoPHODACTYLA, Dup. — In auswcr to Mr. Tutt's queries about these species 

 (antea, vol. xv., p. 301), I have no doubt whatever, as the result of a close 

 acquaintance with Platijptilia acanthodactijla extending over upwards 

 of 20 years, in the course of which I must have bred and captured fully 

 600 specimens, that this insect hybernates in the imaginal state. Larvae 

 may be found near the south coast at any time from the latter part 

 of July, till about mid-October ; I have met with them on October 5th 

 — the latest date on which I have searched for them — and they were 

 then by no means almost fullfed. In my experience, these autumn- 

 feeding larvffi invariably push on to reach the imaginal state before 

 winter sets in, and the moths resulting from them show no inclination 

 to oviposit, or die off. In 1892, from pupae and larvae collected in this 

 district, August 15th to October 5th, the imagines continued to 

 emerge from August 23rd till November 18th, whilst last year (1902) a 

 series of moths was bred, October 2nd to 25th, from pupae and larvae met 

 with in South Devon, September 25th to October 1st. In these 

 instances, more especially in the latter, the last emergences would 

 certainly have taken place somewhat later than was the case, had not 

 the backward pupae been kept in warm living rooms. In face of these 

 facts and others of a similar nature, it does not at all surprise me to 

 hear that a female captured by Mr. Tutt, in Piedmont, so early as 

 August, should have laid some eggs whilst on the setting-board, for she 

 doubtless knew there was time for another brood before the advent of 

 winter. '■= I fully expect that the fexnales that one meets with during 



* Part of our doubt was due to the fact that the locality where the species was 

 taken is situated among high mountains, fully 3500ft. above sea-level, where one 

 expects that, by October, the ground is under snow, and a late brood somewhat 

 improbable. Still there may, of course, be such. — Eu. 



