EYED HAWK-MOTH. 207 



perfect condition, their wings being quite shrivelled, 

 and scarcely one-sixth their proper size. 



When the insect is killed the abdomen should be 

 carefully severed from the body, and the whole of the 

 contents removed by enlarging the little opening 

 which will then be left at its base. The empty abdo- 

 men should then be stuffed with cotton wool, care 

 being taken to make it full large in order to allow for 

 shrinking, and when it is dry it may be joined to the 

 thorax without leaving the least trace of the junction. 

 It will be as well to pour a few drops of benzole into 

 the abdomen and also into the thorax, as this precau- 

 tion will keep off the mites and other creatures that 

 work destruction among dried insects. All large- 

 bodied Moths should be thus treated, and some of 

 them can scarcely be preserved from the unsightly 

 ' grease,' so hated by entomologists, without this use- 

 ful substance. 



For the purpose of rearing the Moth from the 

 larva, the latter should be obtained about August, as 

 it will then be nearly full-fed, and save a vast amount 

 of trouble in procuring a supply of food. The pupae 

 themselves may be found under the soil somewhere 

 about September. 



OWING to our limited space, we can but casually 

 glance at some other British Hawk-Moths. There is, 

 for example, the EYED HAWK-MOTH (Smerinthus 

 ocellatus}) so conspicuous by the large eyelike spots in 

 the middle of the lower wings and the beautiful pink 

 brown of the upper wings. The larva of this 

 Moth has a very rough skin, is pale-green in colour v 



