SMERINTHUS HYBR. HYBRJDUS. 449 



Natural pairings. — Very few records of the two species 

 pairing in nature are extant. Koch observes (Indo-Aust. Lep., p. 

 32) a $ S. ocellata found in cop. with a $ A. popidi on the park 

 palings at Frankfort-on-Main by C. Schneider. Foucart notes 

 (Cat. Lep. Douai) that Deligny exposed a 2 of A. populi 

 with the intention of attracting a $ , and found it paired with a 

 S S. ocellata. On May 28th, i860, a J S. ocellata was found 

 paired with a 2 A. populi in Princes Park, Liverpool. 



Original description. — Stephens named this cross hybridus 

 without describing the form. His name was given to one of the 

 individuals described by House (Trans. Ent. Soc. London, 1842, pp. 

 194-195), and figured by Westwood. House writes : " I always keep 

 my subterranean chrysalides in large garden pots, filled within about 

 two inches of the brim with light sandy loam, hooped over the top with 

 wire and covered with gauze, leaving a space of 8 or 10 inches from 

 the mould to the top of the wires. When S. ocellata began coming 

 out (having them in one of these pots, and ,S. popidi in another), 

 I, every evening, before dark or twilight, took out the $ s of S. 

 ocellata, one or two, not more, and put them in the pot with 

 $ populi, and vice versa, and then placed the two pots closely side 

 by side in the garden or window for the night, so that the £ of 

 each species formed an attraction to its own $ , while the $ could 

 only gain access to the ? of the other species. By this means I 

 obtained five broods of eggs of S. popidi impregnated with ocellata 

 and one of S. ocellata impregnated with popidi; only about 30 eggs 

 of one of the former broods hatched, about the middle of June last; 

 of these, I reared nineteen caterpillars to perfection, which went 

 underground in about a month or five weeks, and, in August last 

 (1837), twelve of the moths came out perfect, the other seven being 

 still in the pupal stage, and will, in all probability, come out in May 

 next. The insects thus obtained are as near alike to each other 

 as any species with which I am acquainted, and are as nearly 

 intermediate as one can conceive. The power of reproduction is 

 completely lost, as they appear to be as nearly intermediate between 

 the sexes as between the species, and evidently partake of the 

 nature of both sexes, for, as proof, every freshly-bred insect of 

 the genus Smerinthus on being touched discharges copiously a 

 fluid which, in the S , is pure white, and in the $ of a yellow 

 or ochre colour. These specimens discharged, at the same motion, 

 first the white and then the ochre fluid, quite distinct, and this 

 compound discharge was quite uniform in every specimen, which 

 is never the case in any true species or sex. I had often indulged 

 in fanciful ideas respecting this production, but 1 never conceived 

 such an unfinished painting as it is ; this is not nature improved 

 by art, but nature sadly defaced by art, as the beauty of both species 

 is, in great measure, lost. I took care to provide myself with eggs 

 of both species, which should hatch at the same time as the 

 hybrids, for the sake of comparison ; in their infant state, no difference 

 was observable between them and populi, very little in their second 

 stage, more, however, in the third, and finally they were more 

 like ocellata than populi. The pupa differed as much from either, 

 yet as much resembled both, as the moth. Whether such a pro- 

 duction has ever been obtained before or not, I am totally ignorant 



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