THE SPURGE HAWK. 37 



antenn;^ cases are covered with fine short blackish streaks ; tail 

 spike blackish, somewhat flattened, and the acute point black 

 (Plate I, Fig. i ; 14, Figs. 2, 2a). 



The moth usually emerges in June or July of the year 

 following pupation, but it may come out the same year; on the 

 other hand, it has been known to remain in the chrysalis for 

 two winters. Ur. Chapman has noted the emergence of the 

 moth eighteen days after the pupa was formed. 



Little, if anything, appears to have been known of this species 

 as an inhabitant of Britain until 1806, when Mr. Raddon, who 

 was staying at Instow, in N. Devon, had a caterpillar brought to 

 him by a fisherman. From that time, and up to 1814, a large 

 number of the caterpillars were obtained from Euphorbia 

 paralias growing on Braunton Burrows, a long stretch of sand- 

 hills on the north Devonshire coast, accessible from Barnstaple 

 or Ilfracombe, which, when I visited the locality some twenty- 

 five years ago, was greatly favoured by rabbits. One would 

 suppose that the Spurge Hawk caterpillars must have been 

 pretty abundant at the time Raddon made his observations, as 

 he states in a note on the subject published in the Entomological 

 Magazine for 1835, that on leaving the ground one evening at 

 dusk he hastily cut an armful of spurge, which he took home 

 and put in water. Next morning he " found the food covered 

 with not less than a hundred minute larva; about a day or two 

 old." This must ha\e happened prior to 18 14, because the 

 species seems to have entirely disappeared about that year. 

 The Rev. E. N. Bloomfield, in his catalogue of the Lepidoptera 

 of Suffolk, mentions a moth bred from a larva found near 

 Landguard Fort about 1865. He adds that the food plant was 

 then abundant there. At a meeting of the Entomological 

 Society of London held in October, 1876, a letter was read from 

 Mr. Higgins concerning the reported finding of the caterpillars 

 of this species in a locality near Harwich in 1873. It was 

 stated that the spurge {Euphorbia paralias)^ had not only been 



