EFFECTS OF TEMPERATURE ON MANDUCA ATROPOS. 87 



since there is a slight discrepancy in the accounts (most of which 

 apply to A. tessellatum). First, as to the numher of taps given 

 in succession without a break : — Derham, as we have seen, states 

 it to be seven or eight, while F. Smith gives it as " four to five, 

 usually five," and Doubleday as " generally about five or six." 

 And, secondly, as to how the tapping is done. According to 

 some, the beetle strikes with its mandibles against the wood ; 

 but Derham, who seems to be on the whole the most reliable 

 authority, is very explicit on this point, and says that it strikes 

 with its " forehead," not with the lower part of the face, or 

 upper lip, as it was said to do by Allen who, a few years before, 

 had started the discussion of the subject in a paper sent to the 

 Eoyal Society. 



EFFECTS OF TEOPICAL TEMPEKATUEE ON BEITISH 

 PUP.E OF MANDUCA ATROPOS, AND STEIKING 

 SPECTACLE AFFOEDED BY THE MOVABLE 

 "DEATH'S-HEAD" ON THE THOEAX OF THE 

 MOTHS. 



By T. Eeuss. 



During the first days in October, 1908, four large larvae of 

 M. atropos were brought to me from a potato-field here in the 

 vicinity (Ware, Herts), but two of these proved to be injured by 

 rough handling. The other two were fine full-grown specimens, 

 and they began to lose their beautiful green, bluish, and yellow 

 colours in exchange for a brownish yellow already on the day 

 following their capture. Soon they were preparing for pupation 

 by burrowing energetically in the loose sand at the bottom of 

 the breeding-cage in search of a suitable hiding-place. 



After four days, observing that all movement in the sand had 

 ceased, I searched for the larvae, and found them each lying in 

 a separate cave with firm walls, which they had made in the 

 sand. Intending to climatize the pupae in tropical temperature, 

 I removed the larvae to a suitable box, and there they pupated 

 on the evening of October 8th in a temperature of 30'^ C. in 

 artificial glass-topped sand caves. I did not allow the mercury 

 to fall below 23° C, and under these conditions the pupae 

 emerged on October 31st in the evening, almost simultaneously, 



June, continuing for hardly a month. Another small point that might 

 (inhumanely) be settled is De Geer's affirmation that " You may maim, pull 

 limb from limb, or roast over a slow fire this pertinacious creature {Anohium 

 pertinax), and not a joint will move in token that it suffers." which appears 

 contrary to the fundamental laws of self-preservation. One of the best 

 figures of J., domesticitm is given {his) in that somewhat neglected, because 

 unindexed, bxit most delightful book, ' Episodes of Insect Life,' hy '' Acheta 

 Domestica, M. E. S." (Miss Budgen), iii. 1851, 126.— C. M. 



