THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 143 



On Breeding Acherontia Atropos. — Feeling satisfied that 

 a short paper on finding and rearing the death's-head hawk- 

 moth would be of interest to the young readers of the * Ento- 

 mologist,' I take the liberty of recording the experience we 

 have had in this locality with them. In the summer of 1868 

 myself and friend were sent out by our Society to collect for 

 a week at Blackpool, on the west coast. We captured during 

 that week one hundred and twenty larvae of Acherontia 

 Atropos, eleven of them being of that variety in which the 

 ground colour is olive-brown, with the lateral stripes darker. 

 Out of this number we only reared forty-five perfect insects, 

 one of which was a striking variety — a very large female, 

 having only one black band instead of two on the hind 

 wings, the inner band being entirely absent. Those that 

 never came to perfection died just previous to emerging from 

 the chrysalis, having developed all their parts except their 

 wings not being expanded. When they kept dying under 

 these conditions, we removed them from the soil, put some 

 broom into a box, covered it with flannel, laid the pupae on 

 the top, and put them in an airy and rather warm situation, 

 and by this method succeeded in rearing the remainder. 

 Feeling satisfied that we could profit by our experience, we 

 determined to try them again the first opportunity. During 

 August, 1869, our friend Mr. John Taylor went over to 

 Blackpool, and took twenty-four larvae, three of them being 

 varieties of an olive-brown colour instead of yellow. On the 

 28th of September all had made up, except four that died 

 during feeding. On the 26th of October they were removed 

 from the soil, placed on flannel laid over some broom, and 

 kept rather warm. On the 28th of April they began to make 

 their appearance, and by the 28th of May there were seven- 

 teen very fine perfect insects, fourteen females and three 

 males. Those larvae that make up by the end of August 

 generally come out during October, but a great portion of 

 them are males ; those that stay in the chrysalis state during 

 the winter, and come out in May, are generally females. We 

 have always found them feeding on the potato foliage, gene- 

 rally on those that are planted early, such as radicals, 

 kidneys, &c. ; we have never yet found any feeding on 

 flukes : they are best found between 4 and 9 o'clock in the 

 morning, as they are more exposed then than at midday. It 



