x\MORPHIN/E. 395 



imagines of this cross three times in fifteen years. The imagines 

 of this crossing are exceedingly difficult to obtain. It is, in the 

 first place, necessary to sacrifice many couples to get eggs ; the eggs 

 are, then, for the most part, infertile, and the larvae when obtained 

 are extremely delicate, a combination of circumstances that makes 

 the obtaining of imagines very problematical." 



7. Amorpha hybr. inversa, Tutt (populi S x ocellata ?*). — The inter- 

 mediate form only appears with the cross ocellata $ x popnli ? . The reciprocal 

 cross, popidi $ x ocellata ? , produces an insect indistinguishable from the $ 

 parent according to the observations (probably insufficient) already made (Staudinger, 

 Berl. Ent. Zeits., xviii., p. 149). The cross popnli S X ocellata ? shows in the 

 specimens, which I have thus far seen, an insect which cannot be distinguished from 

 a very aberrant A. popnli ; it is, however, very doubtful whether the form is constant 

 throughout, for S. austauti $ x atlantlcus ? produces likewise a form with blind 

 ocellated spots on hind wings (Le Nat., 1893, pp 230 — 231) ; S. austauti is, however, 

 probably the Algerian local form of A. populi, and S. atlantlcus the corresponding- 

 race of S. ocellata (Standfuss, Handbuch, Sec, p. 55). 



This is, of course, if austauti be simply the north African form 

 of populi, and atlantlcus the form of ocellata from the same district, 

 merely a variety of A. hybr. metis. It has, however, been so 

 long under discussion that we give the various notes referring to it 

 separately from the account of metis. Thus, House records (Trans. 

 Ent. Soc. London, 1842, p. 194) obtaining a pairing between populi 

 S X ocellata 2 , but the eggs laid did not hatch ; similarly, Bacot 

 records {Ent. Rec, ix., p. 299) a pairing of populi $ X ocellata 

 2 , the 2 laying 78 eggs, on which some slight colour-changes took 

 place, but none hatched, and he further calls attention {Joe. cit., vi., pp. 

 180 — 181 ; x., p. 190) to the fact that, so far as experiments in Britain 

 had been conducted, larvae had not been obtained from this cross, i.e., 

 in which ocellata was the ? , and makes some interesting remarks on the 

 possible reason of this result. Bacot's statement as to larvae of this cross 

 not having been obtained would appear to be not quite accurate, for 

 Williams writes (Ent., vii., p. 21): "This year, 1873, 1 bred out specimens 

 of Smerinthus ocellata and S. populi, which I was lucky enough to 

 cross, male populi with female ocellata. In about 24 hours 

 the female began to deposit her. batch of eggs, the eggs being laid in 

 batches differing in number, and all unattached ; the number deposited 

 was 170, laid at intervals, more so after being disturbed. The 

 duration of the egg stage was 15 days; the colour, at first bluish, 

 changing in a few days to light flesh colour. The larvae fed on 

 apple leaves, but, after feeding for three weeks, began to wander 

 from their food, and died with diarrhoea." Other pairings between 

 these species have also been noted (see Ent. Rec, xii., p. 215). 

 As Standfuss and Staudinger refer to imagines of this cross, and we 

 can find nothing of such in the entomological literature that we 

 have searched, excepting Staudinger's and Standfuss' references 

 (supra), we wrote Standfuss, who replied (in litt.J: " As Staudinger, 

 some years ago, offered examples of this cross in his price list, I 

 obtained a $ from him, which I still possess, and which I cannot 

 distinguish from A. populi ; further, Staudinger wrote to me that 



* We cannot tell on what authority Dale makes the statement 

 that " when a cross between a 3 populi and a ? ocellata is effected, there is a 

 slight difference between the hybrid thus produced and that above described (by 

 Westwood) ocellata <? x populi ? " {Hist. Brit. Hawk Moths, p. 25, 1893). Such 

 crosses are quite unrecorded in Britain. 



