THE ELEPHANT. 49 



is pale greyish green with blackish bristles, and the head and 

 under surface are yellowish. 



It feeds, at night, in August and September, on bedstraw 

 growing in dry places. It will eat almost any sort of Galiu/n j 

 also willow herb i^Epilohiuni)^ and purple loosestrife [Lythnnn 

 sali carlo). 



The chrysalis is pale (3chreous brown sprinkled with darker 

 brown ; the wing cases and the ring divisions are also darker. 

 The body rings are furnished with reddish hooks. It is enclosed 

 in a cocoon similar to that of the Elephant, and usually is on 

 the ground. The early stages are figured in Plate 18. 



The moth, which chiefly affects drier localities than the next 

 species, is on the wing in May and June in the south of England, 

 and June and July in the north. It has a weakness for the 

 flowers of honeysuckle, and spur-\ alerian [Ccntraiithns), but will 

 take toll in the way of sweets wherever found, even from the 

 sugar patches of the nocturnal collector. Except that it does 

 not appear frequently in the Midlands, the species seems to be 

 widely distributed throughout the country. In Scotland its 

 range extends to Perthshire and Aberdeen ; and in Ireland it 

 is found all over the island, and is fairly plentiful in some 

 localities, but especially attached to the coast. 



Abroad, its distribution covers nearly the whole of Europe, and 

 eastward to north-eastern Asia Minor, Bithynia, and the Altai. 



The Elephant {Chcerocampa {Eumorpha) elpenor). 



The fore wings arc olive brown with two pinkish lines, both 

 shaded with dark olive brow n ; the first is rather broader than 

 the second, and terminates just above the centre of the wing and 

 near a white dot ; the second line runs from the white inner 

 margin to the tip of the wing, and the area beyond it is flushed 

 with pinkish ; there is a black mark at the base of the wings 

 and the fringes are pinkish. The hind wings are black on the 



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