n Knsect TJfsftors. 221 



over the flower-chalices, the curious coiling and 

 uncoiling of the great suctorial tubes, are a feat- 

 ure in the strange processes of Nature that, once 

 seen, can scarcely be forgotten. 



Miiller, from whom I have already drawn 

 largely on this fascinating subject, referring to 

 the dusk-loving Lepidoptera, explains that the 

 rapid movements always characteristic of this 

 species may be due " to the shortness of the 

 period suitable for their flight, or to the pursuit 

 of bats." In cases which have come under my 

 own observation, I have noticed that the Sphinga 

 appear most numerously at dusk, haunting their 

 favorite flowers with little diminution for about 

 two hours, and apparently decreasing in num- 

 bers as the night advances. Bats, I have repeat- 

 edly noticed, seem most abundant during the 

 early hours of night. Tennyson's passage in 

 " Mariana " 



After the flitting of the bats, 



When thickest dark did trance the sky- 



would corroborate this, if the poet meant to 

 italicize the anterior preposition. 



While angling for speckled trout at night in 

 summer, I have observed, where the bats were 

 very numerous, their sudden departure and sub- 

 sequent appearance, at perhaps quite long inter- 



