266 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS. 



was warm, by swarms of these insects, whose rich 

 tints of red and velvet black had a fine effect when 

 presented to the light. I never particularly noticed 

 any other species of butterfly about this fruit. 



DEATH'S-HEAD HAWKMOTH.* 



Sept. 23rd, 1830. A FULL-GROWN caterpillar of 

 this immense moth was brought me to-day from a 

 potatoe-garden in this village. We had the curiosity 

 to weigh it, and found its weight no less than four 

 drachms and forty-two grains. 



These caterpillars have become not unfrequent of 

 late years in this neighbourhood, from the extent to 

 which potatoes are now cultivated; but I never 

 knew but one or two instances of the occurrence of 

 the perfect insect. 



VAPOURER MOTH.f 



Oct. 2nd, 1839. THE faculty by which the sexes 

 find out each other among the insect tribes is very 

 mysterious. Having bred a female vapourer moth 

 from a caterpillar found in the park at Bottisham 

 Hall, I put it alive into a small chip box covered 

 with gauze, and set it in a room in my own house 

 with the window open ; and, in a few hours, two 

 males had flown in at the window in search of it, 



* Steph. Illust. (Haust.) p. 114. (Acherontia atropos.) 

 t Id. Orgyia antiqua, vol. li. p. 61. 



