HIPPOTION CELERIO. 129 



hovering round some begonia plants in pots on his verandah. Bartel 

 notes that, in Germany, the moth does not begin to fly till it is quite 

 dark *, i.e., a good while after sundown. Its favourite flowers are 

 Saponaria, Lonicera, Petunia, Plumbago, &c, flying at twilight around 

 the flowers of Marvel of Peru, Tropaeolum majus, T. minus, and jasmine 

 at Lausanne (Chaumette), at flowers of Mirabilis jalapa on the island 

 of Ustica (Riggio). In Britain it has been recorded as visiting azaleas, 

 at Alderley Edge (Key worth), at verbenas, about 6.15 p.m., or later, 

 between the lights, in windy weather, ail flying against the wind, at 

 Brighton (Wonfor), at petunias at Lewes (Nicholson), also at Wannock 

 (Pearson), at Weymouth at dusk (Pretor), at Hendon, about 7 p.m. 

 (Druce), and at Cromer (Barclay); at geraniums, near Brough (King- 

 ston), at Christchurch (Adye), and as early as 7 p.m., at Cleve- 

 don (Mason) ; at Russian balsam at Ealing (Adye) ; at stocks 

 and fuchsias at Lee, and near Ilfracombe (Blandford) ; at white 

 trumpet-lily at Tulloch (Davidson); at gladiolus at Watchet (Fox); 

 at fuchsias at Broseley (Newnham), and at Paul flying early in 

 the evenings, just before 7 p.m., one was flying possibly faster 

 than Agrius coftvolvuli (Daws), and in a greenhouse at Hamilton 

 (Chapman); one was found at Brantingham in 1846, which had 

 been captured by a flower of Physanthus albicans, the stamens of 

 which are so placed that the slightest touch by the proboscis of 

 an insect entering the nectary causes them and the anthers to 

 close firmly round it (Norman, Z00L, p. 1863). Simon notes 

 (Proc. Soc. Ent. F?:, 1893, p. cclxxviii) an Asclepiad that has 

 flowers capable of capturing and holding celerio and capensis. 

 Ingram records (E. M. M., 1867, p. 213) one at ivy bloom in the 

 Isle of Wight. Durham observed an example about 7 p.m. on Sep- 

 tember nth, 1 88 1, whilst it was raining hard, at fuchsias in Grosvenor 

 Square ; and Frost records that it has been captured in the nurseries 

 at Handsworth near Sheffield. In spite of Newnham's experience in 

 India the species has often been noted at light — at Beccles, and at 

 Brighton, at 2 a.m (Winter), at South Foreland lighthouse (Fremlin), 

 at Chichester (Anderson), at Ashford (Viggers), at Ryde (Ingram), at 

 Nottingham (E. W. Int., ix., p 3), at Cromer (Barclay), at Taun- 

 ton (Bidgood), at Sandown (Frost), at Birmingham (Enock), at 

 Plymouth (Cregoe), at Southborough (Shepheard-Walwyn), at Tan- 

 y-Bwlch (Kerr), at Southover, near Lewes (Blaker), in Paris (Heasler), 

 &c, and Meade-Waldo obtained imagines, on August 14th and 26th, 

 1901, at Tangier, that had flown into the hall to light at about 6.30 

 p.m. It has also been taken at rest on a window at Sherborne 

 (Benthall), on a shutter at Eckington (Hooke teste Payne), on a 

 windowsill at 3 p.m. at Exeter (Hellins), in an iron foundry at 

 Oldham (Taylor), on a clothes-line at Edwinstowe (Doncaster), 

 in the street at Shanklin (Leech), on a door at Woodbridge (Graves), 

 on a tree in an orchard at Retford (Pegler), in the brewery yard at 

 Burton (Baker), one was swept up among dead leaves on a lawn 

 at Eastbourne (Parsons), one fluttering in the long grass and herbage 

 beneath a clump of fir-trees about 6 p.m., having evidently just 



* Swinton, however, saw it at Jaffa in April, 1896, buzzing in the sunshine 

 at flowering creepers on a house wall, and Oberthiir has observed it flying quickly 

 at midday, hovering at flowers in his garden at Cancale. The day-flying habit 

 appears, however, to be unusual in this species. 



