28 THE MOTHS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



proboscis, has been verified. Another dread-inspiring character 

 of the insect is the marking on the thorax, which has been 

 likened to a skull and crossbones. The squeak is said to have 

 the efifect of quieting the bees, they being under the impression 

 that it proceeds from their queen. 



It has been taken at some time or another in almost every 

 part of the British Isles, right up to and including the Shetlands. 

 Except that it has not been observed in the more northern 

 parts, the species is found throughout Europe, North and South 

 Africa, the Canary Islands, and the Azores. It is also repre- 

 sented in Southern India, extending to the Malays, and in 

 China, Corea, and Japan. 



ConvolYulus Hawk-moth, Herse {SpJmix) convolvuH. 



The older writers on British moths called this the " Unicorn '^ 

 or " Bindweed Hawk." The fore wings are whitish grey, 

 mottled with darker tints, and, in the male, clouded with 

 blackish about the middle of the wing ; the central third is 

 limited inwardly by a double blackish, wavy line, and outwaidly 

 by an irregular, toothed, whitish line ; running from one to the 

 ofher are two black streaks between the veins, and a similar 

 streak nearer the costa is waved upwards to the tip of the wing. 

 The hind wings are whitish grey, with a black stripe near the 

 base, and two blackish bands between the stripe and the outer 

 margin. The thorax agrees in colour with the fore wings ; the 

 tapered body has a broad grey stripe, enclosing a central black 

 line along the back, broad red and black and narrow white 

 bands on each side (Plate lo). 



The ^'g'g has been described as bright green in colour, and 

 smaller than that of the Privet Hawk. A female moth cap- 

 tured at Brighton on July 18, 1898, deposited twenty-five eggs 

 on Convolvidiis arvensis up to July 20, and the next day a 

 further eight were counted. The moth died on the 22nd. 



