the Lunar Hornet Sphinx. 



21 



Being an internal feeder, the 

 caterpillar, of course, is only to 

 be found by cutting into and 

 opening the stems of the wil- 

 low, in which it is enclosed, 

 finding there both food and 

 lodging. Salix caprea abounds 

 in our coppices, and forms a 

 useful and rapid-growing un- 

 derwood. When the periodi- 

 cal falls take place, I have ob- 

 served that scarcely a single 

 willow wand is cut down that 

 does not exhibit proofs of the 

 ravages of this insect: some- 

 times three or four, or even 

 five, separate perforations oc- 

 cur in the same stem.* We 

 may fairly infer, therefore, that 

 Trochilium crabroniformis is 

 here a common species ; and 

 yet, strange to say, I have 

 never met with an example 

 of the winged insect at large 

 in this county. I have bred it 

 from the caterpillar ; and once 

 I took a single pair in an osier 

 bed near Dudley, which at the 

 time were considered as great 

 rarities.f Doubtless, this in- 



c, Larva ; d, pupa; e, web closing the orifice 

 by which the animal had entered. 



November, he could perceive but a slight difference in size. Probably, 

 therefore, they may feed on the tender bark of the sallow root the first 

 year after they are hatched." This, I think, is very probably the case ; for 

 I have not observed in the wood any perforations of a very small size, or 

 such as have the appenrance of having been made by caterpillars newly 

 hatched. As the caterpillar eats its way upwards through the solid wood, 

 a question may arise, How is the sphinx, when it bursts from the chrysalis, 

 to make its escape out of the wood without injury ? To obviate this diffi- 

 culty, instinct directs the caterpillar, before it changes to chrysalis, to turn 

 its head downwards, so as to be opposite to the orifice, which affords a 

 ready exit for the winged insect. (A portion of the plate in Lin. Trans., 

 above referred to, is copied in fig. 4.) 



* I do not find that the caterpillar confines itself to the pith, as stated 

 by Lewin to be generally the case. Sometimes the pith is untouched, all 

 the perforations being in the solid wood, between the pith and the bark. 



-j- Mr. Stephens states that, during the month of July, 1817, he " saw it 

 in profusion, flying heavily along, on the south-west border of Darenth 

 Wood." {Illustrations, Haustellatn, vol. i. p. 138.) 



C :i 



