EFFECTS OF TEMPERATURE ON MANDUCA ATROPOS. 87 



since there is a slight discrepancy in the accounts (most of which 

 apply to A. tessellatum) . First, as to the number of taps given 

 in succession without a break : — Derham, as we have seen, states 

 it to be seven or eight, while F. Smith gives it as " four to five, 

 usually five," and Doubleday as "generally about five or six." 

 And, secondly, as to how the tapping is done. According to 

 some, the beetle strikes with its mandibles against the wood ; 

 but Derham, who seems to be on the whole the most reliable 

 authority, is very explicit on this point, and says that it strikes 

 with its " forehead," not with the lower part of the face, or 

 upper lip, as it was said to do by Allen who, a few years before, 

 had started the discussion of the subject in a paper sent to the 

 Eoyal Society. 



EFFECTS OF TEOPICAL TEMPEEATUKE ON BEITISH 

 PUPiE OF MANDUCA ATROPOS, AND STEIKING 

 SPECTACLE AFFOEDED BY THE MOVABLE 

 "DEATH'S-HEAD" ON THE THOEAX OF THE 

 MOTHS. 



By T. Eeuss. 



During the first days in October, 1908, four large larvae of 

 M. atropos were brought to me from a potato-field here in the 

 vicinity (Ware, Herts), but two of these proved to be injured by 

 rough handling. The other two were fine full-grown specimens, 

 and they began to lose their beautiful green, bluish, and yellow 

 colours in exchange for a brownish yellow already on the day 

 following their capture. Soon they were preparing for j)upation 

 by burrowing energetically in the loose sand at the bottom of 

 the breeding-cage in search of a suitable hiding-place. 



After four days, observing that all movement in the sand had 

 ceased, I searched for the larvae, and found them each lying in 

 a separate cave with firm walls, which they had made in the 

 sand. Intending to climatize the pupae in tropical temperature, 

 I removed the larvae to a suitable box, and there they pupated 

 on the evening of October 8th in a temperature of 30° C. in 

 artificial glass-topped sand caves. I did not allow the mercury 

 to fall below 23° C, and under these conditions the pupae 

 emerged on October 31st in the evening, almost simultaneously, 



June, continuing for hardly a month. Another small point that might 

 (inhumanely) he settled is De Geer's affirmation that "You may maim, pull 

 limb from limb, or roast over a slow fire this pertinacious creature {Anobium 

 pertinax), and not a joint will move in token that it suffers." which appears 

 contrary to the fundamental laws of self-preseivation. One of the best 

 figures oi A. domesticum is given (bis) in that somewhat neglected, because 

 unindexed, but most delightful book, 'Episodes of Insect Life,' by ^' Acheta 

 Domestica, M, E. S." (Miss Budgen), iii. 1851, 126.— C, M. 



