SPHINGIDyE. 65 



large blue spot, sun*ounded by an irregular black ring, and 

 containing two white spots. Kirby says that it feeds from 

 July to September, gregariously, upon the Oleander, pre- 

 ferring the flowers, but in this country it is understood that 

 the only larvte found have fed upon the common small Peri- 

 winkle ( Vi'iica minor^. 



Pupa, as figured by Kirby and Hoffmann, very large and 

 elongated, thickest in the middle and rather tapering to the 

 head ; abdominal segments deeply divided ; apes with a 

 strong spike. Light bright brown, with the wing cases 

 paler, or tinged with pale grey, spiracles indicated by large 

 brown spots. The moth usually emerges in the same autumn, 

 but it is stated that pupts sometimes continue through the 

 winter, producing the perfect insects in June. 



Quite the most rare of our hawk moths, only about a score 

 of captures in these islands being upon record. Indeed, it 

 is doubtless only a casual immigrant, and, although the larva 

 has been observed here, there is no reason to suppose that it 

 passes through its transformations successfully in this country. 

 Its extraordinary strength and power of flight render its 

 passage across wide extents of land and sea a matter of no 

 difficulty. It is in some degree attracted by flowers, and has 

 been captured at those of the honeysuckle and passion- 

 flower ; also in several instances attracted to lights in houses. 

 The records are so very few that they may be given in detail. 

 The first appears to be of a larva in a garden at Teignmouth 

 in 1832, followed by the capture of a moth at Dover in 1833 ; 

 and one was seen about the same date by Mrs. Raddoii in 

 Devonshire. In the year 1847 one appears to have been 

 taken at Prestwich ; in 1852, one at Brighton, and another 

 in 1857 ; in 1859 two larvee, which subsequently died, were 

 recorded as taken at Eastbourne : a moth at St. Leonards 

 in 1862 ; one at Sheffield in 1867 ; again at St. Leonards in 

 1868, which specimen is now in the British Museum ; one in 

 a garden at Birmingham in 186'J ; one at Southtown, Great 



VOL. II. E 



