DF.ILEPHILA GALII IN 1888. 251 



to most of the collections of his friends. This year it has been 

 taken in that locality by many hundreds, if not actually by 

 thousands. Again, in smaller numbers at Shoeburyness on the 

 Essex coast; also further north on the Suffolk coast; and at 

 Cromer in Norfolk. All this favours the "blown-over theory," 

 for those localities are next the Continent. These larvie have, 

 however, occurred this year numerously on the Wallase}' sand- 

 hills on the Cheshire coast, which is far away from continental 

 influence. This, be it marked, is one of the old localities for 

 iJe'ilcplilla gain. Perhaps my friends, who favour migration as a 

 solution of the problem, will suggest that some subtle instinct 

 orders a very small number of continental moths, of this species, 

 to proceed direct to Wallasey to deposit their eggs. This, it 

 must be allowed, is only an intermittent effort of instinct, for 

 they are not supposed to migrate annually. One can understand 

 the heredity instinct of migratory birds, because the young return 

 year after year for countless generations to the same locality 

 where they were hatched. That cause cannot be claimed for 

 unusual migi-ation of insects, with many years' interval. 



Perhaps the true moral to be drawn from the abundance during 

 1888 of Deilephila galii in this countr}', is connected with the 

 fictitious value of " British specimens." If these moths were 

 " blown-over," they are continental specimens, and the larvje, 

 which have been so assiduously searched for, are from " con- 

 tinental parents," just as much as if the ova had been sent from 

 I'rance and Italy by post. Again, if the moths of this species 

 which have been taken in these islands are truly British born, 

 they have for years to come destroyed the money value of 

 Deilephila galii; for who is to tell whence all come that will 

 be put on the market from time to time as specimens of 1888? 

 If it should cause English entomologists to look with even the 

 least more favour on the abolition of caste as between conti- 

 nental and British specimens, the abmidante of tliis handsome 

 moth, in 1888, will be a cause of thankfulness to future genera- 

 tions of stud( nts of Entomology, who will study the fauna of this 

 countr}^ with less insular pi-( judice. 

 Londtn, September, 1888. 



