54 THE MOTHS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



The common honeysuckle, or woodbine {Lojiicera pcricly- 

 ineuiC7}i) is the usual food, but in confinement the caterpillars 

 will eat the foliage of the cultivated kinds of Lonicera^ and, it is 

 stated, even snowberry {Symphori carpus racemosus). In rearing 

 it will, however, be safer to supply them with the ordinary food 

 wherever this is to be obtained. July and August are the 

 months in which to look for them. The chrysalis is blackish 

 brown, the skin is rather roughened, and the ring divisions are 

 paler brown. It is protected by a silken cocoon, the interior of 

 which is smooth, and the exterior coated with earth, etc. 



From mid-May to mid-June in average years, the moth is on 

 the wing. The blossoms of the rhododendron are its favourite 

 attraction, and the best time to see it at these flowers is on a 

 nice sunny morning between ten o'clock and midday. The 

 flowers of the bugle {AJiiga reptans) growing in meadows, wood- 

 ridings, on railway banks or hedgerows, are hardly less 

 attractive, but these are less easily worked than the higher 

 shrubs. The collector has simply to stand before the latter 

 and await the arrival of the active Bee Hawks. Among other 

 flowers that this moth has been observed to visit are those of 

 its own food plant ; ragged robins {Lychnis flos-ciiculi), ground 

 ivy {Ncpcta glechonid)^ and also blue-bell and primrose. 



The species is widely distributed and locally common through- 

 out England, but its northern range does not extend apparently 

 beyond Yorkshire. According to Kane it is absent from Ireland ; 

 and the reports of odd specimens from Scotland are probably 

 erroneous. Its distribution abroad extends over Europe, except 

 the most northern parts, a large portion of northern and central 

 Asia, and southwards to North Africa. 



Moses Harris, it may be mentioned, figured this moth in 

 1775 as "The Clear-winged Humming-bird Sphinx." 



