74 IN SECT A TRANS VA A LI EN SI A . 



{Impatiens noli-me-tangere). On the European continent it is said to feed also on Convolvulus 

 tricolor, and our garden favourite {C. major). At Madeira it feeds on lettuce {Lactuca sativa). 

 At Teneriffe on sweet potato in the fields, and on the petunia and phlox in gardens 

 (Holt-White). By the Moth the sweet-scented white tobacco (Nicotiana affiuis) is much 

 frequented, and petunias are also a favourite bloom, as well as geraniums, honeysuckle, 

 carnations, pinks, balsams, evening-primrose, and other well-known garden ornaments. In 

 South Africa it attains only to about two-thirds of its general size in Britain ; while in the 

 Island of Tahiti Mr. J. J. Walker found it only three inches in expanse of wings (Barrett). 

 Mr. Lucas states that this species " has been known to squeak in one instance when treated 

 with chloroform." On the ventral side of the abdomen of the male scent-tufts, or androconia, 

 have been observed.* A musky odour has been noticed and recorded as appertaining to the 

 males of this species, f 



Genus ACHERONTIa! 



Acherontia, Ochsenheimer, Sclimett. Eur. iv. p. 44 (1816); Hiibn. Verz. bek. Schmett. p. 139 (1822 ?j; Boisd. 



Spec. Gen. Lepid. Heteroc. i. p. 4 (1875); Moore, Lepid. Ceylon, ii. p. 5 (1882); Hamps. Fauna 



Brit. India, Moths, vol. i. p. 67 (1892). 

 Brachyplossa, Boisd. Ind. Meth. p. 53 (1829). 



22. Acherontia atropos. (Tab. VI., fig. 13.) 



Sjihinx atropos, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 490, n. 8 (1758); Cram. Pap. Exot. i. pi. Ixsviii. fig. A (1775); 



Esp. Eur. Schmett. ii. p. 69, pi. vii. (1779?); Hiibn. Eur. Schmfett. Sphhuj. fig. 70 (1797-1803) ; 



Ochs. Schmett. Eur. ii. p. 231 (1808) ; Godt. Lepid. France, iii. p. 16, pi. xiv. (1822). 

 Acherontia atropos, Hiibn. Verz. bek. Schmett. p. 189 (1822?); Butl. Trans. Zool. Sec. Lend. vol. ix. 



p. 598 (1877). 

 MaiJuca atropos, Kirby, Syn. Cat. Lepid. Heteroc. vol. i. p. 700 (1892) ; Dist. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) 



vol. xix. p. 579 (1897). 



Hab. — Transvaal; Pretoria (Distant), Barberton (Eendall). — Natal; Durban (Ross). Mozambique 

 (Muir). Sierra Leone (Brit. Mus.). Mauritius (Brit. Mus.). — Found over the whole of Europe and 

 western Asia, and apparently throughout Africa. 



Colonel Fawcett reared the larva of this Moth on a species of Spathodia, an imported 

 tree which is often met with in the Berea Bush, Durban. The larva underwent its 

 transformations on February 14th, and the imago emerged on March 17th, after a pupation 

 of thirty-eight days. The same entomologist also reared the dark form (body uniformly 

 fuscous, first three somites pink subdorsally) at Maritzburg on Jasmimm puhigeriim, which is 

 also an imported plant in Natal.]: 



In Natal, in 1881, a plague of the larvfe of A. atropos appeared among the Kafir " sweet 

 potatoes." § In the Canary Islands a fresh crop of potatoes is planted every three months, 

 and the caterpillars are found in small numbers all the year round. || It is somewhat 

 omnivorous in the choice of its food-plants, especially in Britain, where, though its food is 

 usually the potato, yet, as Mr. Lucas has observed, "it is probably an adopted one in this 



* Lucas, 'Book of British Hawk Moths,' p. 74. 



t Cf. Girard (Bull. Soe. Ent. France, 1867, p. xlvii), and Hellius and Knaggs (Ent. Month. Mag. v. p. 206; vi. p. 166). 



I Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond. vol. xv. p. 307 (1901). 



§ ' Entomologist,' 1882, p. 10. || A. E. Holt-White, ' Butterflies and Moths of Teneriffe,' p. 65. 



