A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



SPHINGID^: (continued) 



Walter Rothschild) ; Bishop Start- 

 ford (Taylor) ; Stevenage (Matthews); 

 Cheshunt (Boyd) 



Though generally distributed 

 throughout the county, this species 

 is not by any means common. It 

 sometimes comes to ' light.' Mr. Elli- 

 man reports that the larvae have been 

 taken feeding on galium by Mr. J. 

 L. Foulkes on Pitstone Hill, but this 

 is just outside the county boundary 

 Deilephila elpenor, L. St. Albany larvae, and 

 Welwyn, larvae (A. E. G.) ; Sand- 

 ridge (Griffith) ; Hitchin (Durrant) ; 

 Haileybury (Bowyer) ; Hertford 

 (Stephens) ; Letchworth (Knapp, 

 Entomologists' Weekly Intelligencer ; ii. 

 I S5)i Watford (Heaton) ; Bushey 

 Heath (Barraud) ; Tring (Le Quesne, 

 Elliman) ; Marsworth reservoir and 

 Tring station (A. T. Goodson) ; 

 Stevenage (Matthews) ; Cheshunt 

 (Boyd) 



This species is not of rare occur- 

 rence in some localities. Mr. Boyd 

 reports it to be common. Mr. Elli- 

 man believes that the larvae occur 

 every year in many of the old- 

 established gardens in Tring, and 

 Mr. Goodson has taken them at the 

 stations indicated above. I have 

 found them at St. Albans feeding 

 on fuchsia, and at Colney Heath Mr. 

 C. F. Pilbrow reports them to occur 

 in considerable numbers feeding on 

 water betony and other plants. At 

 Watford,vrhere Impatiens fulva grows 

 on the canal bank, that plant appears 

 to furnish their favourite food 

 nerii, L. A specimen of this moth was 

 taken on the i3th October, 1876, by 

 a working man at Hemel Hempstead, 

 who took it alive to Dr. Pitts of the 

 West Herts Infirmary. That gentle- 

 man set it, and subsequently exhi- 

 bited it at a conversazione at the 

 Watford Public Library. It was a 

 male, and with the exception of a 

 bit which had been nipped out of 

 one of its wings was in fine condition 

 (vide Transactions of the Watford Na- 

 tural History Society, i. 174, where a 

 report of the occurrence is given by 

 the late Mr. Clarence E. Fry). Mr. 

 B. Piflard of Hemel Hempstead, re- 

 cording the capture in the Entomolo- 

 gists' Monthly Magazine (xiii. 138), 

 says that it was taken in a garden in 

 the Alma Road and at the time of 



SPHINGIDJE (continued) 



writing was in the collection of 

 G. T. Porritt, Esq., of Leeds 

 Deilephila lineata, F. (livornica, Esp.). 

 Cheshunt Street (Boyd) 



Mr. Boyd informs me that the 

 specimen was captured on August 

 25th, 1868 



galii, Rott. Haileybury, ' once ' (Bow- 



yer) ; one at Cheshunt Street, August 

 1 2th, 1870 (Boyd) 



Sphinx ligustri, L. St. Albans, more 

 numerous than usual in 1900 

 (A. E. G.) ; Sandridge (Griffith) ; 

 Hitchin (Durrant, Matthews) ; 

 Haileybury (Bowyer) ; Hertford 

 (Stephens) ; Watford (Spencer, 

 Wigg) ; Tring, larvae (Elliman) ; 

 Hemel Hempstead (Wilson) ; Bishop 

 Stortford (Taylor, Mellows) ; Roy- 

 ston (A. H. Kingston) ; Cheshunt 

 (Boyd) 



The last-named observer marks 

 this species as ' scarce ' in his dis- 

 trict, while Mr. Matthews reports it 

 as being common in the larval state 

 near Hitchin, where privet abounds. 

 The Hon. L. Walter Rothschild 

 showed me a nearly black variety 

 which was bred from a larva taken 

 at Hemel Hempstead in 1890 by 

 Arthur Wilson 



convolvuli, L. St. Albans (A. E. G.) ; 



Watford (Cottam, Spencer) ; Hitchin 

 (Lawford, Durrant) ; Sandridge 

 (Griffith) ; Baldock (Durrant, Ento- 

 mologist, xiv. 235) ; East Barnet 

 (Gillum) .; Tring (Hon. L. Walter 

 Rothschild) ; Stevenage (Matthews) ; 

 Cheshunt Street, occasionally (Boyd) 



This is a species which is very 

 irregular in its appearance. Mr. 

 Cottam records the occurrence of 

 eight specimens at Watford in 1875 ; 

 several were captured in St. Albans 

 in 1 877, and I again had S. convolvuli 

 brought to me in 1 892. The Hon. L. 

 Walter Rothschild informs me that 

 five or six were taken at Tring in 

 1899 and one specimen a few years 

 previously. At Stevenage Mr. Mat- 

 thews can only hear of its being 

 seen once 



Acherontia atripos, L. St. Albans, larvae 

 (A. E. G.) ; Watford (J. H. James, 

 Transactions of the Watford Natural 

 History Society, i. 64) ; Hitchin (Dur- 

 rant) ; Haileybury (Bowyer) ; Lilley 

 (Rev. P. H. Jennings, Entomologist, ii. 

 325); Tring (Minall, Elliman, Hon. 



144 



