SPHJNGID^. 41 



Specimen made its appearance on June 21st, 1891. These 

 are vouched for by the Rev. J. Seymour St. John, in whose 

 cabinet are three of the moths. 



Mr. J. H. A. Jenner, of Lewes, has furnished the following 

 information, obtained from Mr. J. Cosmo Melville: " I obtained 

 the two specimens exhibited from a working man, not a 

 scientific entomologist, and one who knew nothing of im- 

 portations. I found them in his collection among a great 

 variety of common LcpidopUra, set English fashion ; one 

 jDerfect, the other without antenna. He said that he found 

 the larvae at Ecclesbourn in 1871, and bred them; and I 

 believed him." 



Captures of the insect in the perfect state appear to be 

 of extraordinary rarity in this country, of the few recorded 

 the majority being really D. galii. One, however, was taken 

 in 1871, at rest, in a garden near Southampton, by the 

 late Mr. W. Weston. The only other such capture of which 

 I am aware was of a male specimen, by myself, on 

 September 7th, 1887, in my garden at King's Lynn, Norfolk. 

 It was flying very quietly and gently, at early dusk, about 

 a large bed of Vcrhcna, leisurely sipping as it hovered at 

 blossom after blossom, and was captured with the greatest 

 ease. A suggestion was afterwards hazarded that the speci- 

 men might have been accidentally conveyed by one of the 

 steamers which carry iron ore from the Bilbao River in the 

 north of Spain to the north of England, and might have 

 escaped while off the Norfolk coast. This explanation seems 

 by no means unreasonable, especially when the time of year, 

 and the absence of Euphorbia jMyalias from that part of the 

 Norfolk coast is taken into account ; but it remains no more 

 than a suggestion. In all probability every case in which 

 the larvae have been found has resulted from some accidental 

 introduction or partial immigration of the perfect insects, 

 and, on the other hand, their disappearance, from the 

 inability of the species to withstand the variations of our 

 climate. 



