CATALOGUE OF MOTHS. 35 



Sec. II. HETEROCERA, Bois. 

 NOCTURNI. 



Geoup. BPHINGINA. 



Family. SPHINGID^, Leach. 



SMERINTHUS, Latr. 



1. Smerinthus ocellatus (Linn.). Eyed Hawk Moth. 



Smerinthus ocellatus, Staint. Man., voL i., p. 87. 



,, ,, IS'ewm. Brit. Moths, p. 4. 



,, ,, Barr. Lep. Brit. Is., vol. ii., p. 3. 



., ,, Meyr. Hclbk. Brit. Lep., p. 300. 



Larya. Buck., vol. ii., pi. xx., p. 4 ; 0. Wils., pi. v., fig. 1. 



This beautiful Moth does not occur with any regularity in 

 our district. Common in the South of England, it becomes 

 rarer towards the JSTorth. In Cheshire, Lancashire, and York- 

 shire it is found in many localities, and is common in some of 

 them, but it is by no means met with everywhere. These 

 counties may therefore be considered the extent of its range 

 northward, and the records of its appearance in Durham or 

 Northumberland are but few. The earliest in date is found in 

 Stainton's Manual, published in 1857, where '•'■ Da,"" signifying 

 that the species has occurred at Darlington, appears in the list 

 of localities. No doubt this is the same specimen recorded in 

 Wailes' Catalogue (Trans., vol. iii., p. 227, 1858), ''once near 

 Darlington, J. Sang." I have not found any record in Sang's 

 Diary relating to this capture. The next occurrence appears to 

 be a specimen taken at Swalwell in 1872 by Mr. G. No well 

 (Trans., vol. v., p. 39). It almost seems as though there had 

 been a small immigration of the species at this time, for I find 

 records in each of the three following years. In 1873 Mr. 

 Gardner collected a few larvse of *S'. Populi in Crimdon Cut near 

 Hartlepool, and among them mast have been some ocellatus, for a 

 specimen emerged in his breeding cage the following year among 

 the Populi, and he found among the dead pupae several with 

 the smooth shining case that distinguishes ocellatus from those 



