NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 258 



visitors thither, and H. Actceon has not a day's respite from the 

 ceaseless inroads made upon its limited domains by the entomo- 

 logically-inclined portion of these "trippers." Can nothing be 

 done to avert the complete extermination of H. Actceon at its old 

 head-quarters ? If these collectors (many of whom are only 

 indiscriminate destroyers) could be induced to retain only the 

 bright fresh specimens, and give all the faded worn specimens 

 their liberty again, the chances are that " Lulworth Skippers'' 

 would not become an anachronism. — W. M'Rae ; Westbourne 

 House, Bournemouth, September, 1881. 



Hermaphrodite -HYBRID Sphingid.e. — Hermaphrodites of 

 Smerinthus x>oimli are far from uncommon, and two were recently 

 exhibited at one of the meetings of the Entomological Society of 

 London ; but I was much surprised to read Mr. Briggs's remark 

 in the October number of the 'Entomologist,' that a specimen 

 of the hybrid between Smerinthus ocellatus and populi, which 

 he had purchased from Mr. Birchall's collection, " was the only 

 hermaphrodite -hybrid ocellatus-populi that he was aware of." I 

 was under the impression that hermaphroditism was the usual 

 character of these hybrids ; and it has suggested itself to my mind 

 as a possibility, which I have not at present sufficient data either 

 to prove or to disprove, that the sterility of h3'brids in general 

 (still a somewhat obscure subject) may perhaps be partly due to 

 hybridism having a tendency to produce hermaphroditism. 

 In vol. iii. (part 3, 1842) of the first series of the 'Transactions 

 of the Entomological Society ' (p. 194), Mr. House writes, 

 respecting the Smerinthus hybrids in question, " Nineteen 

 caterpillars I reared to perfection, and in August last twelve of the 

 moths came out perfect The power of reproduction is com- 

 pletely lost, as they appear to be as near intermediate between the 

 sexes as between the species ; they evidently partake of the nature 

 of both sexes ; as proof, every [newly emerged] insect of the genus 

 Smerinthus, on touching, discharges copiously a fluid, which in 

 the male is pure white, in the female of a yellow or ochre-colour. 

 This insect discharged, at the same motion, first the white, and 

 then the ochre fluid quite distinct ; and this compound discharge 

 was quite uniform in every specimen, which is never the case in 

 any true species or sex." On p. 195 of the work quoted. Prof. 

 Westwood states that two of these specimens submitted to his 

 inspection were males, so far as related to their external 



