( 22 ) 



Acherontia utropoa, Walker, Cat. Le/p. Ilet. B.M. viii. p. 234. n. 1 (185G) (partim) ; Leech, Proc. 

 Znnl. Soc. Land. p. 587. n. 29 (1888)"^(= slijx = medusa; Japan, China) ; id., 7V. Eid. Soc. 

 Land. p. 118. n. 89 (1889) (= medusa = sty x ; Kiukiang) ; Mabille, Hull. Snc. Ent. Franc 

 p. 234 (1889) (p. parte) ; Leech, Tr. Ent. Soc. Loud. p. 274. n. 32 (1898) (Japan ; Gensan ; = 

 sti/.r = medusa ; syn. partim) ; Battel, in Riihl, Grox^schm. ii. p. 24 (1899) (p. parte). 



Aihi luiitta (iriel Boisduval, I.e. sub syn. (187.0) (noui. max. supervac). 



.Iclirniiilia salanas, Cuisine, Bull. Soc. Ent. Fr. p. 234 (1889) {satanas = alropos ! Darjiling). 



Acherontia alropos var. stijx, Staudinger & Reb., Cat. Lep. ed. iii. p. 98. n. 717" (1901). 



S ? . The structural differences between atropos and styx as pointed out below 

 have entirely been overlooiied by those authors, cited above, who maintained that 

 the two insects are the same species, though these differences are obvious enough, 

 if one compares the species side by side. The insects are also constantly dis- 

 tinguishable in pattern. Atropos cannot even be called an Aethiopian representative 

 of the Indo-Malayan styx, for it is by no means nearer related to styx tlian it is 

 to luchesis, agreeing with the former in the hindwing having no black subbasal 

 area, with the latter in the black-banded abdominal sternites, the denser spinose 

 outerside of the foretarsus, and the stouter antenna of the 6- 



The skull-mark of the thorax is anteriorly narrower than in atropos, and not 

 constricted in the middle ; it is more a likeness of the Neanderthal Schiidel than 

 of the skull of a Caucasian with well-developed cranium. The narrowness of the 

 cranial part, so to speak, is due to the greater anterior width of the mesothoracic 

 tegula in styx, and the constriction of the mark in atropos is partly due to the 

 tegnla being widened behind. The abdominal sternites, which, in atropos, are 

 always provided with broad black basal bands, bear in styx only small mesial basal 

 spots. The anterior tibia is marked with yellow buff, and the tarsi are not ringed 

 with white but with buff. The black subbasal line of the forewing above is less 

 curved distad in the cell. The under surface is paler yellow than in atropos. 



The individual variability is not inconsiderable. The skull-mark is often black 

 with a pale ochraceous edge, in other individuals it is nearly tawny ochraceous ; 

 it is on the whole more uniform in colour than in lachesis and atropos. The black 

 bands at the apices of the abdominal tergites are more or less dilated laterally as 

 a rule, sometimes so strongly that they touch each other, at least on the proximal 

 segments. In a good many individuals, however, the dilatation of the bands is 

 not considerable, sometimes very slight. The bluish white line of the metanotum 

 is always jiresent, and rather conspicuous in good specimens. The white or huffish 

 sn1)basal and discal interspaces between the black dentate lines of the forewing are 

 generally not so pronounced as iu atropos ; the stigma is huffish. The discal black 

 baud of the upperside of the hindwing, on the whole more proximal than in atropos 

 and more straight, has not disappeared entirely in any of the specimens examined, 

 but it is reduced in width and length in many examples ; the black outer band of 

 the same wing is mostly more deeply incised between the veins than iu atropos, 

 often separated into vein-streaks, which are connected with one another by diffuse 

 black scaling. On the underside of the forewing there is in most specimens a 

 blackish cloud in the cell along M proximally of middle ; the discal third of wing 

 is generally much shaded with black ; there are two discal bauds and the trace of 

 a third ; the second is often rather indistinct, seldom not present as a band or line, 

 the first varies iu position, standing sometimes close to the cell. The stigma of 

 the hindwing is occasionally obliterated ; the discal band touches the stigma in 

 some individuals. Size very variable, the smallest specimens from Central and 

 Western C'hina. 



