OF HARTING. 4OI 



rough to the touch, of a light green colour, finely 

 sprinkled with white, and obliquely striped with white 

 on each side. In the autumn they bury themselves in 

 the earth about the roots of the trees, on the foliage of 

 which they feed, and emerge in the perfect state the 

 following June. The moth has two conspicuous eye- 

 like spots on the posterior wings, from which it derives 

 its specific name. 



The Poplar Hawk Moth (Smerinthus Populi), and 

 the Lime Hawk Moth (Smerinthus Tilice), we have oc- 

 casionally taken in the perfect state at East Harting, 

 but we have never met with the caterpillar of either. 

 We have been more fortunate with the Death's-Head 

 Hawk Moth (Aclierontia Atropos), of which we have 

 possessed both moth and caterpillar. This, the largest 

 of our moths, supplied us on one occasion with no less 

 than thirteen caterpillars found in a patch of potatoes 

 in a neighbouring garden, and we had many oppor- 

 tunities of verifying the fact that the caterpillar when 

 full fed, has the power of producing a sharp click 

 when disturbed, while the perfect insect is still more 

 remarkable for a prolonged stridulous note, almost 

 startling to the young entomologist in his first attempt 

 to prepare it for the cabinet. On two or three oc- 

 casions since the one referred to, we have had many 

 of these caterpillars from the gardens in the village, 

 but we candidly confess that we have not always been 

 successful in rearing the perfect insect. All the cater- 

 pillars we have seen, some thirty or forty, were yellow, 

 elegantly banded obliquely on the sides with blue and 

 white, from the upper to the under surface, but they 

 generally became of a dull orange before they dis- 

 appeared towards the end of summer in the garden 

 mould with which we supplied them. Those which 

 effected their transformation successfully reappeared 

 in six or seven weeks, with magnificent velvety wings, 

 the anterior ones nearly five inches in expanse when 

 extended, deep brown, varied with shades and un- 



C C 



