146 Mr. Poulton's notes in 1885 upon 



In A. atropos a fine white line runs along the posterior 

 margin of the inferior anterior half of each coloured 

 border, but it seems unlikely that this represents the 

 true stripe. The borders of A. atropos are violet for the 

 chief part of their course, shading into blue anteriorly 

 and inferiorly, and also changing abruptly into the same 

 colour above, at the furrow which divides the two 

 segments over which each border extends. The upward 

 blue continuation of the border meets its fellow of the 

 opposite side in a distinct V> of which the apex lies close 

 to the hinder limit of the posterior of the two segments 

 traversed by the border. This backward prolongation of 

 the coloured border (as such) does not take place in 

 S. ligustri, but the lilac tint ceases abruply at the furrow 

 corresponding to that which only divides the border of 

 A. atropos into two rather differently coloured halves. 

 Nevertheless, careful examination will show that the 

 borders of S. ligustri are carried back, and form a series 

 of Vs, but only as darkened ground colour, and with the 

 loss of all distinctness. Hence each segment, from the 

 first to the seventh abdominal (both inclusive), is crossed 

 by parts of two oblique borders, of which both the upper 

 and lower parts are very conspicuous in A. atropos, 

 while the upper in S. ligustri can only be detected after 

 careful examination. This is also true of the stripes 

 themselves in S. ligustri, while the stripe is altogether 

 inconspicuous in A. atropos. The eighth abdominal 

 segment is only crossed by the upper part of one stripe 

 (the last) and its border, and here also the same con- 

 trast holds good in the two larvae. In A. atropos, how- 

 ever, the border does not become blue, but remains 

 of the same purple as its anterior inferior continuation. 

 This border also becomes much narrower upon the 

 eighth abdominal segment after crossing the furrow 

 which separates it from the seventh segment. The larva 

 of A. atropos is peculiar as compared with that of 

 S. ligustri, in the persistence of the "eighth stripe" in 

 the last stage ; but the latter larva possesses this feature 

 in earlier stages, and it can even be detected immediately 

 after the last ecdysis. In A. atropos the " eighth stripe" 

 is conspicuously represented by the bright blue border, 

 which is present upon the first abdominal segment, and 

 ends abruptly at its anterior margin, thus occupying an 

 entirely normal position. On the other hand, this is 



