16 



FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



privet hawk-moth, the Sphinx Ligustri of the entomologist. 

 As these caterpillars are some three inches long and as thick 

 as one's little finger, they are decidedly conspicuous. In 

 colour they are vivid green, slashed with seven streaks on 

 either side of white and lilac. On turning into the chrysalis 

 or pupa stage they burrow into the ground, and any one 

 turning up the soil beneath their privet-bushes will no 

 doubt find them in this new stage of existence. If they 

 are carefully taken up and re-buried in a box of earth and 

 brought indoors, the perfect insect will emerge in the 

 following June. The moth is a grand insect, being over four 

 inches long from tip to tip of its front wings. The front 

 wings are pale brown, mottled and striped with darker 

 brown and black ; the hind wings pink, crossed by three 

 broad black bands. The earth in which the pupa is re- 

 buried should be occasionally damped, as would have been 

 the case had we left our prize to the dews and rains of 

 heaven ; failing this the earth would get so hard and dry 

 that the perfect insect could never force its way out and 

 emerge into the sunlight from its living tomb. 



