﻿NOTES, CAPTUKES, ETC. 17 



case wherein to pupate. The case, I may remark, was made up of minute 

 granules of earth and sand, with a few tiny stones intermixed ; but I could 

 fiud no flossy material, even under a strong lens. Herein they remained, 

 apparently quiescent, till the 7th of November, when the first moth 

 emerged from its pupal garments, and in half an hour, or a little more, the 

 wings were fairly expanded, and assumed their full proportions. Every 

 other afternoon the moths have put in an appearance, till the number has 

 nearly equalled the number we originally got. Among the batch are only 

 three cripples, and one pupa that is lively but has not yet emerged. Of the 

 dozen caterpillars, seven were brownish olive, with the anterior segments, 

 as Stainton remarks, white, the white being well defined and conspicuous. 

 I must leave it to students of colour-varieties to tell us how such dis- 

 crepancies arise. Food cannot be the cause, since all fed alike. Again, 

 some moths have the skull-like mark on the thorax white, and some dusky. 

 Kaltenbach tells us that the larva on the Continent feeds on the potato, 

 thornapple, jasmine and mock-orange [Philadelphus). Prof. Hessner has 

 noticed several caterpillars feeding on the trumpet-flower (Catalpa). — Peter 

 Inchbald ; Hornsea, Holderness, November 20, 1889. 



Cheshire — A full-fed larva was sent in here on the 7th of September 

 last; it was taken in a potato-field near Frodsham, and I have a second 

 record from Manley, a neighbouring village near Delamere Forest. — R. 

 Newstead ; Curator, Grosvenor Museum, Chester. 



Norfolk. — In September last larvae were very common at Ingoldisthorpe 

 and the surrounding district. — R. Newstead ; Curator, Grosvenor 

 Museum, Chester, October 17, 1889. 



Sussex. — On August 6th I had brought to me two full-fed larvae of 

 Acherontia atropos. They were found in a potato-field at Pevensey 

 Sluice, about three miles from here. I put them into a box partly filled 

 with earth, and the next day they had both buried themselves. There 

 were several others found in the same locality, but these were destroyed. — 

 Thomas Howe ; 3, Royal Terrace, Devonshire Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, 

 November 10, 1889. 



Hants. — The autumn of 1885 was in the Portsmouth district, as in 

 many other parts of the country, remarkable for the number of specimens 

 of Acherontia atropos, which were taken in all stages. Three imagines 

 were found in the grounds of the Free Library ; upwards of 170 larvae and 

 pupae were obtained by Mr. R. Stent, from the Portsmouth potato-diggers ; 

 and more than 50 larvae and pupae were obtained by myself, from the 

 diggers at Gosport. Of the pupae which I obtained I tried to force 14, by 

 keeping them in damp sawdust in a biscuit tin, on a very warm shelf in 

 the shop. By Christmas 10 imagines had emerged, but the sides of the 

 tin being too smooth, they could not crawl up, and falling on their backs, 

 in their struggles to recover they tore their wings with their sharp claws, 

 so that I only obtained three perfect specimens. Mr. Stent was not so 

 successful with those he experimented upon. From October, 1885, until 

 August of the present year, the insect disappeared altogether. At the end 

 of last August, two full-fed larvae were brought to me at Gosport. These I 

 at once placed in a tin as before, but took the precaution to line the sides 

 with thin rough wood. Early in September a pupa was brought to me by 

 a potato-digger, and placed with the others. I was not able to obtain any 

 more. A male emerged on October 21st, a line female on October 22nd, 

 and another female on November 17th ; all three in perfect condition, and 



ENTOM.— JAN. 1890. C 



