SPHINGID^. 45 



that the wing-cases are rather full and prominent ; anal spike 

 slightly curved. Colour greyish brown or reddish brown, 

 dusted with blackish ; antenna sheaths outlined with pinkish. 

 In a large cocoon or silk-lined cavity in the sand beneath 

 the surface ; sometimes buried at some dej^th. Passing the 

 winter — usually — in this stage. More easily reared than the 

 previous species, yet delicate, and most successfully perfected 

 in moist heat. 



Of this species the moths reared in this country are always, 

 or nearly always, found to be smaller in expanse of wing 

 than those from the Continent ; and Mr. W. H. Tugwell has 

 furnished very curious tabulated accounts of specimens 

 captured in the perfect state on our own coasts or inland, as 

 compared with our reared examples — fortified by his own 

 experience in rearing upwards of one hundred — by which he 

 shows that, while captured specimens in the great majority 

 of cases range from three inches to very nearly three and a 

 half in expanse, those reared in this country range from two 

 and a half to about three inches — the cajDtured specimens 

 agreeing in size with those brought from the Continent. 



Although far more frequently found with us in both the 

 winged and the larva state than the other species of the genus, 

 it is very far from common, and in some years is not recorded 

 at all, though it is difficult to believe that it is not present 

 every year on some portions of our southern coast. Occa- 

 sionally, though at long intervals, it becomes locally common, 

 and when this occurs it, singularly enough, always visits 

 certain localities which are by no means all in the south. 

 Such a favoured spot is the range of sandhills at Wallasey, 

 on the coast of Cheshire, and here larvee were taken in 1859, 

 when the insect was widely distributed in England ; in plenty 

 in 1870, when it was found in all parts of England and the 

 southern half of Scotland ; and again in 1888, when the 

 abundance of its larvae and the extent of its range were greater 

 than on any previously recorded occasion. This locality, so 



