Fig. 1. ; Fig. 2. 
THE LIFE HISTORY OF THE PINK ELEPHANT HAWK=MOTH. 
Written: and Illustrated with Photographs by FRED ENOCK, F.L.S., F.E.S. 
NJ HEN the “improvements” (?) were commenced at Hampstead Heath, that once 
beautiful “happy hunting-ground” of many an old entomologist, most of the 
local celebrities of the British fauna and flora were compelled to depart from the 
home of their ancestors for more congenial ground, where the Bank Holiday crowds 
and noises would never reach them more. 
Such emblems of Nature’s marvels as the sun-dew and buck-bean soon began to 
fade when the one bit of bog-land was drained by “The Board,” and, with the addition 
of cinder-paths and other “landscape gardening,’ even the Hlephants, large and small, 
which thirty years ago could be stalked by a sharp-eyed entomologist, have also flown 
to fresh fields and pastures new, where they can feed in peace among the lady’s 
bedstraw, without falling a prey to the feet of the madding crowd. Now those who 
desire to see the larva of the Pink Elephant Hawk-Moth must go out ‘thirty miles 
or so from the Metropolis to some wild common in Surrey, where there is plenty of 
bog-land, covered with lady’s bedstraw. 
The pink elephant hawk-moth lays its eggs on the underside of the leaves, and 
being of a delicate green colour they are exceedingly difficult to detect. So are the 
young larvee, which generally hatch out about the middle of July, and after the first 
moult rest along the main stem, making the most of their protective coloration and 
markings; the ground-colour up to the second moult is green, with seven lighter (almost 
white) diagonal stripes at the sides; the caudal horn is very short. 
309 
