22 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



its flower and the length of its spur (13mm. — 25mm.), and is 

 fertilised only by lepidoptera, chiefly by S. stellatarum, which has 

 been observed to visit 194 flowers on different plants in 6 \ minutes, 

 and to crossfertilise them by means of its proboscis dusted with the 

 white pollen. Other flowers fertilised by this species are Dianthus 

 carthusianorum, CEnothera biennis, Echium vulgare, Ballota nigra, 

 Nepeta glee ho ma, Erythraea centaureum, Syringa vulgaris, Onopordon 

 acanthium. As to the selection of certain coloured plants on par- 

 ticular flights, Perkins observed hundreds of specimens at phlox at 

 Wotton-under-Edge, in 1858, those individuals that visited the phlox 

 never going to the petunias and vice versa. The variety of flowers 

 visited by S. stellatarum is really legion ; it is said to prefer Saponaria, 

 Echium, petunias and geraniums in Indre (Martin), Syringa, 

 honeysuckle, Sambucus nigra and Antirrhinum linaria in the Baltic 

 Provinces (Nolcken), phlox, in Thuringia (Krieghoff), red-flowered 

 Galeopsis in Nassau (Rossler), Echium and Salvia pratensis in the 

 Grisons (Zeller), swarming at flowers of Echium vulgare at Cuxton, 

 Deal, Fontainebleau, Reading, &c. (Tutt), at red valerian at Bath, 

 and dahlias at Tullylagan (Greer), at honeysuckle at Reading 

 (Nash), petunias, geraniums and verbenas at Enfield (Edelsten), 

 geraniums and lavender at Buckerell (Riding), honeysuckle and 

 turncap lily at Carlisle (Day), tropaeolum at Great Grimsby 

 (Dawson), rhododendron at Cambridge (Freeman), sweetwilliams at 

 Chatham (French), white arabis at Brighouse (Blakeborough), 

 wallflower and lilac (Haggart), privet blossom at Deal (James), 

 geraniums and petunias at Namur (Colignon), flowers of Centran- 

 thus ruber at Morthoe in August and September, 1883 (Riding), 

 Echium vulgare in July, 1883, at Deal and Dover, in the evening 

 and again in the early morning sunshine (Loverdale), bugloss 

 as late as 8.30 p.m. (Poulton), exceedingly abundant at Echium, in 1893, 

 at Reading (Hamm), and at Portsdown Hill (Pearce), several visited 

 honeysuckle on two or three moonlight nights in succession at Ilfra- 

 combe (Smith), at honeysuckle in the middle of September, 1872, 

 came after dark, as well as at twilight and dusk (Corbin), at phlox, at 

 Chagwood, at dusk (Jefferys), at petunias at Forres (Norman), 

 in hundreds at red valerian in July, 1893 (Johnson), at petunias 

 about 6.15 p.m., at Kilburn (Bergman), at pansy blossoms at 

 Haslemere, and, on October 23rd, 1899, at 7.30 a.m., one was observed 

 at petunias, although the weather was dull and gloomy and there was 

 a soaking dew (Newman), extraordinarily abundant at valerian in 

 early July, 1892, on the 5th, numbers at the blossoms in the pouring 

 rain, at Lynton (Cooper); at pinks, pansies, and Aubritia till the 

 white phlox opened, then the other flowers were neglected (Armitt). 

 Mathew notes that at Malta, in the Floriana Gardens, one afternoon 

 in 1897, he saw more than a hundred flying before the flowers of 

 a small evergreen privet, and states that they also seemed very 

 partial to flowers of Lantana ; valerian at Weston-super-Mare 

 (Hudd), pelargoniums at Worcester (Rea), Escallonia at Lynmouth 

 (Briggs), jessamine at High Wycombe (Peachell), red valerian 

 at Sulby (Clarke), valerian, at dusk, at Emsworth (Christy), phlox 

 at Reading (Holland), violets and crocuses at Budleigh (Thomson), 

 larkspur at Kensington (Stevens , lucerne at Beaehy Head 

 (Colthrup), heather at Bath (Jelferys), flowers of lilac and wall- 



