82 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



the emergence of the perfect insect. Bacot observes (in lift.) that 

 he has immersed pupae of this species in water for periods of a 

 few hours up to 23 days, and that they have all survived. 



Foodplants. — Epilobium angustifolium, Impatiens, Vitis, Convol- 

 vulus (Linne), Galium palustre, Epilobium hirsutum (Buckler), 

 Menyanthes trifoliata (Huene), Galium mollugo, Fuchsia, vine (Hellins), 

 variegated holly, Fuchsia fulgens (Hodge), Galium verum (Riding), 

 Epilobium palustre (Lambillion), Impatiens noli-me-tangere, Circaea lute- 

 tiana (Crewe), Vitis vinifera (Calberla), Rubia tinctorum (Snellen), 

 Ly thrum salicaria (KrieghofT), Epilobium parviflorttm '(Weismann), 

 Lythrum purpureum (Poulton), Circaea intermedia, Ampelopsis 

 hederacea (Rossler), A. quinquefolia (Garbowski), Impatie7is parviflora, 

 Balsamina repens, Lonicera (teste Bartel), lettuce ( Vaughan, Ent., xxxiv., 

 p. 100), apple (Thornewill). Bacot observes : " The larvae eat Fuchsia 

 well in captivity ; in nature (in the Lea valley) they appear to 

 commence on Galium palustre, and after they have finished this 

 they attack the Epilobium, on the top of a tall plant of which they 

 are sometimes very conspicuous." Ransom notes : " The larvae 

 eat Galium palustre and various species of Epilobium, but E. hirsutum 

 much less frequently than the other species." Russell writes: "The 

 larvae eat fuchsia greedily, but some I had did not fancy one plant 

 that had reddish-coloured leaves." At the meeting of the Ent. 

 Soc. of London, November 19th, 1902, Mr. Goss stated that in 

 August, 1898 and 1899, ne collected a number of larvae of Eumorpha 

 elpenor feeding on Impatiens noli-me-tangere, that, when this was 

 exhausted, he offered them Epilobium hirsutum, Fuchsia, Galium 

 mollugo, and G. aparine. The larvae refused to eat any of them, 

 and many of the larvae (nearly three dozen) died of starvation before 

 a fresh supply of Impatiens could be obtained. 



Parasites. — Amblyteles proteus, Christ (Bignell), Amblyteles 

 fusorius, Linn. (Brischke), Ichneumon privenis (Harris). 



Habits. — The imago usually emerges in the morning about 9 a.m. 

 (Hewett). Both sexes fly to flowers at dusk, flight not lasting long 

 (Riihl), and they may then be sometimes taken in large numbers. 

 They affect the flowers of Saponaria, lonicera, Echium, Petunia, 

 &c, in Germany (Bartel), flowers of Syringa and lonicera capri folium 

 in the Baltic provinces (Nolcken), but are attracted by many 

 other flowers — Turk's-cap lily at Armagh (Johnson), rhododen- 

 dron, swarming in scores at one small bush at Dinas Mawddwy 

 (Tetley), also abundant at the same plant at Lissan (Greer), garden- 

 rocket (Ash), Galium (Sich), Iris pseudacorus (Barrett), Cerasus 

 lusitanica (Oldham), at violas at Bushey Heath (Barraud), at Aconitum 

 nape/lus, abundant at St. Gorans (Lawless), white pinks and valerian 

 at Sulby (Clarke), different varieties of garden Iris are particularly 

 attractive at Clevedon (Mason), whilst honeysuckle is repeatedly 

 noted from various localities. The moth is also attracted by sugar. 

 We shall never forget one dark evening in June, 1874, at Cuxton, 

 when rain came on at (hi.sk, directly after the sugar had been put 

 on the trees ; Noctuids swarmed, but the appearance of several 

 splendid imagines of Eumorpha elpenor, drinking steadily at the 

 sugar on quivering wing, proved the excitement of the evening. 

 Comes freely to sugar at Sulhv from about June 9th (Clarke), 

 buzzing at the sugar at Barnwell Wold, also at Abbott's Wood in 



