175 



MIGRATIONS OF PAPILIONACEOUS 

 INSECTS. 



In addition to what, we have said on this subject 

 at page 100, volume I., we subjoin the following 

 remarks : That " the extent to which insects mi- 

 grate/' says Mr Blyth, " or rather wander, seems 

 never to have sufficiently engaged the attention of 

 entomologists. Most persons must have remarked, 

 on perusing an account of the localities of our rarer 

 strong- winged insects (such as the Sphingidce, many 

 of the butterflies, &c.,) how very many of them 

 have been principally taken on the eastern and 

 southern coasts of the kingdom. My friend, to 

 whom I am indebted for the above information on 

 birds, mentions having seen several small moths 

 flying out at sea, when about ten miles distant from 

 the Suffolk coast ; one only of which was captured, 

 which I find to be the Lampetia defoliaria. Mi- 

 Stephens, also, records an instance of the Death's- 

 head Hawk-moth (Acherontia atropos) being cap- 

 tured four miles at sea ; and I have myself observed 

 numberless instances of diurnal moths and butter- 

 flies, flying at a considerable distance from land. 

 I have repeatedly seen the Humming-bird Hawk- 



