( -^a ) 



Achenmlia iilrojms, Walker, Cut. Lep. TIct. B.M. viii. p. 234. n. 1 (lS5('i) (partim) ; Leech, Proc. 



Ziiiil. Soc. Lonil. p. 587. n. 2'J (1888)'(= sli/.r = iiinlusa ; Japan, China) ; id., Tr. Knt. Soc. 



Lonrl. p. 118. n. 89 (1889) {= meilusa = dyx ; Kiukiang); Mabille, Bull. Snr. Ent. Friiiir,'. 



p. 234 (I88'.l) (p. parte) : Leech, Tr. Ent. f^nc. Lmid. p. 274. n. 32 (1898) (Japan ; Gensan ; = 



stiix = iimlimi \ syn. partim) ; Bartel, in Uiihl, G russsch in . ii. p. 24 (18911) (p. parte). 

 ,li-A,'iiiii/i<i »)•/>/ Boisduval, I.'-, snb syn. (1875) (uoui. max. supervac). 



Acherontia stUanas. Cuisine, Hull. 6'()c. Eiil. Ei: p. 234 (1889) {sulanas = alnipus ! Darjiling). 

 Aelnrontia iilri.p,,x var. .</.//j-, Staudinger & Reb., Cut. Le/i. cd. iii. p. 98. n. 717" (1901). 



<??. The strnctiiral ilifferetices between alroj/o.^ n,ud sti/.c as pointed out below 

 Lave entirely been overlooked by those authors, cited above, who maintained that 

 the two insects are tlie same sjiecies, though these diftercnces are obvious enough, 

 if one compares the species side by side. The insects are also constantly dis- 

 tingnisbable in pattern. Atropos cannot even be called an Aethiopian representative 

 of the Indo-Malayan xfy.r, for it is by uo means nearer related to styx than it is 

 to l(icliesi.s, agreeing witli the former in the hindwing having no black snbbasal 

 area, with the latter in the black-banded abdominal sternites, the denser spinose 

 outerside of the foretarsus, aud the stouter antenna of the 6. 



The aknll-mark of the thorax is anteriorly narrower than in atropos, and not 

 constricted in ihe middle ; it is more a likeness of the Neanderthal Schiidel than 

 of the skull of a ( aucasian with well-developed cranium. The narrowness of the 

 cranial part, so to speak, is due to the greater anterior width of the mesothoracic 

 tcgula in sti/x, and the constriction of the mark in atropos is partly due to the 

 tegnla being widened behind. The abdominal sternites, wliicli, in atropos, are 

 always provided with broad black basal bands, bear in sti/x only small mesial basal 

 spots. The anterior tibia is marked with yellow buft", and the tarsi are not ringed 

 with white but with buff. The black snbbasal line of the forewing above is less 

 curved distad in the cell. The under surface is paler yellow than in atropos. 



The individual variability is not incousideralile. The skull-mark is often black 

 with a pale ochraceons edge, in other individuals it is nearly tawny ochraceous ; 

 it is on the whole more uniform in colour than in lackesis and atropos. The black 

 bands at the apices of the abdominal tergites are more or less dilated laterally as 

 a rule, sometimes so strongly that they touch each other, at least on the ])roximal 

 segments. In a good many individuals, however, the dilatation of the bands is 

 not considerable, sometimes very slight. The bluish white line of the metanotum 

 is always present, and rather conspicuous in good specimens. The white or bnffish 

 snbbasal and discal intersjiacos between the black dentate linos of the forewing are 

 generally not so pronounced as in atropos ; the stigma is bufHsh. The discal black 

 band of the upperside of the hindwing, on the whole more proximal than in atropos 

 and more straight, has not disapi)eared entirely in any of the specimens examined, 

 but it is reduced in width and length in many examples ; the black outer baud of 

 the same wing is mostly more deeply incised between the veins than in atropos, 

 often sej)arated into vein-streaks, which are connected with one another by diffuse 

 black scaling. On the underside of the forewing there is in most specimens a 

 blackish cloud in the cell along M proximally of middle ; the discal third of wing 

 is generally much shaded with black ; there are two discal bands and the trace of 

 a third ; the second is often ratlier indistinct, seldom not present as a band or line, 

 the first varies in position, standing sometimes close to the cell. The stigma of 

 the hindwing is occasionally obliterated ; the discal baud touches the stigma in 

 some individuals. Si/.o very variable, the smallest specimens from (!entral and 

 Western ( 'hina. 



