188 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



and in fact quite of our English type, allowing for the fine 

 condition of being freshly bred. Should any fortunate 

 collector meet with a female Deiopeia pulchella on our 

 English coast this year, 1 hope he will give her a chance to 

 supply him with some genuine "native" eggs before con- 

 signing her to the cyanide bottle ; and then possibly my 

 experience may help him to success with them. — William 

 Henry Tugwell; 3, Lewisham Road, Greenwich, July 18, 

 1878. 



ACHERONTIA Atropos. — In August and September of last 

 year 1 had a dozen larvae of Acherontia Atropos, all of which 

 were found feeding on potato-leaves. The ground colour of 

 the whole of them was green. In due course they turned 

 into pupffi, and with the exception of two went down into 

 earth, finely sifted and placed in flower-pots for their especial 

 behoof. The two alluded to refused to bin-y themselves, and 

 underwent their metamorphosis on the top of the earth, one 

 of them emerging an imago in November. This was a very 

 noisy insect, squeaking loudly in the three stages of larva, 

 pupa, and imago. The other, though the moth was perfectly 

 formed, died in the pupa-case. November passed, and 

 December, and I then gave up all hope of seeing any more 

 autumnal specimens. I knew from experience what a trouble- 

 some creature the moth is to rear; and many of my entomo- 

 logical friends gave me little encouragement as to their 

 appearing in the spring. However, I did not despair; but 

 kept the breeding-cage, in which 1 had put the flower-pots, 

 before the kitchen fire. April came and no moths; therefore 

 I determined to turn them all out and satisfy myself whether 

 they were alive or dead. Fortunate resolution this: I found 

 the earth, which 1 had taken such pains to pulverise, cemented 

 into a hardness rivalling a macadamised road. Alas ! one 

 poor moth had burst from the pupa, only to perish miserably 

 in its " living tomb," the mould being so hard that it could 

 not possibly push its way to the top. It would have been a 

 splendid insect, judging from the size of its body. 1 then 

 carefully examined the others, two oi' which I discovered 

 were dead. The remainder I look up and laid in moss, and 

 still kept before the fire. About the middle of June, when 

 the weather became intensely hot, I carried the cage into the 

 greenhouse, thinking that the sun's heat would be better than 

 artificial. A few days after, namely, on the 18lh of that 

 month, great was my delight to find a fine male had emerged. 

 Of course I then paid not only daily, but frequent, visits 



