TRANSFORMATIONS OF SOME SOUTH-AFRICAN LEPIDOPTERA. 311 



yellow) dorsally, darker below ; a white lateral line with numerous small silver-white 

 spots sprinkled over, above, and below it, the lower edge of the line is bounded by a 

 broad light blue area extending downwards as far as the spiracles from 6th to 10th 

 somites. On 3rd somite a pair of large, black, double-pupilled, eye-like spots, the 

 pupils being white, surrounded by a blue and a crimson iris. 



Pupa pale ferruginous ; habits and transformation similar to those of C. capensis. 



Duration of pupa state 10th or 11th February to 4th March. 



Subfamily SPHiNGiifJi. 



15. Pkotoparce mauritii, Butler. (Plate XLVIII. figs. 9, 10, larva; fig. 11, 

 pupa ; fig. 12, larva, dorsal view of 1st four somites.) 



I am informed at the British Museum that the name Macrosila solani, by which this 

 species is usually known in South Africa, should be applied to the Mascarene form. 



Larva. Ground-colour grass-green, under surface darker. Paired humps on 1st 

 and 2nd somites ; a purple dorsal stripe from 4th somite to horn ; lateral oblique 

 purple stripes from 4th to 10th somites ; these stripes join the dorsal stripe on every 

 somite, and are defined inferiorly by parallel narrow white oblique stripes ; horn 

 ferruginous, long, and beset with yellowish tubercles ; spiracles small, red, with black 

 centres. Head green, with vertical black stripes on the face and sides, as in larva of 

 A. atropos. Thoracic legs black, claspers green. 



Feeds on Duranta plumieri, a common shrub in gardens in Natal ; but which, 

 according to Mr. Medley Wood, " is included in the flora of Natal by mistake, and is 

 most certainly not indigenous." 



I have also reared a dark form of this larva, which may be described as follows : — 

 Ground-colour very pale brown, the oblique purple stripes of the green form being 

 represented in this form by oblique stripes of dark violaceous grey covered with 

 blackish atoms. Head pink, with lateral and frontal vertical black stripes ; first three 

 somites pink subdorsally, surmounted by paired dorsal diamond-shaped fuscous spots. 

 It will be observed from this description that the head and first three somites of this 

 larva bear a striking resemblance to the dark form of the larva of Acherontia atropos. 

 Spiracles black; prolegs and claspers pale brown with fuscous bands; horn yellow and 

 serrated. 



The specimen figured fed on Dahlia variabilis (an imported plant in Natal). 



Pupa. Dark reddish brown, with a long external sheath for the proboscis. The 

 transformation is effected underground, where, as in the case of A. atropos, the larva 

 constructs a sort of chamber for the pupa. 



Mr. Trimen states " the case of M. solani seems to me especially interesting, because 

 not only is the larva imitative of that of A. atropos in both forms, but the moth also 



