CELERIO GALLII. 17-') 



some being discovered almost covered with sand, which, in a few 

 seconds more, would possibly have been quite hidden from view; 

 200 were taken, a large quantity of Galium being daily consumed, 

 for the larvae ate ravenously and fed up exceedingly rapidly. Arkle 

 observes (Ent., xxi., p. 257) that, in 1888, at Wallasey, the larvae were 

 most frequently found where the Galium verum grew thin and short, 

 especially on mounds and rising ground in the hollows between the 

 sandhills, and as near as possible to the sea, that the larvae were fond 

 of feeding, exposed in the hottest sunshine, and that the frass was to 

 be looked for among the thin short bedstraw and followed up until 

 the larva was seen. Porritt, too, observes that, at Deal, on August 

 30th-3ist, 1888, larvae of all sizes from about Jin. to full growth 

 (some of them being big, grand spotted fellows) were mostly found 

 on the poor, short, sparse patches of white and yellow bedstraw, only 

 three or four being found on big patches, and these exposed on the 

 upper stems of the plants at Deal. Buckler notes (Larvae, &c, ii., 

 p. 37) of some larvae that he had between September 6th-26th, 

 1870, that they fed freely on the flowers, unripe seeds and leaves of 

 Galium verum, and occasionally ate a little fuchsia, but that when 

 large and fullfed they were restless and wandered about for a day 

 or two before they settled down to spin their puparia, which they 

 had all done by October 8th. Bacot says (in litt.) that the adult larva 

 does not exhibit any tendency to shorten its thoracic and enlarge 

 its front abdominal segments in the manner of the larvae of Eumorpha 

 (elfienoi') and Theretra (porcelhh), but that, if touched anywhere on the 

 back or sides, it jerks its head fiercely backwards, striking the 

 irritating object with its head or clasping it with its mouth and legs. 

 These movements are made with surprising rapidity and vigour, 

 and with quite sufficient violence to detach, if not to stun, any 

 parasitic fly that might attempt to oviposit in it. On the other hand, 

 Buckler's remarks (lot. cit.) suggest that there is some resemblance to 

 the Eumorphine habit, for he says that, in form, they reminded him of 

 the Chcerocampids, and that, although the thoracic segments are but 

 slightly retractile, yet they are tapered off rapidly to the head, which 

 is rounded and smaller than the prothorax, the rest of the body being 

 tolerably cylindrical, &c. May observes that the larvae almost 

 invariably eat their cast-off skins. The years in which the species 

 has been abundant in Britain have been 1859, 1870 and 1888. The 

 following are some of the records of larvae captured. Newman 

 observes that, in 1855, many larvae were taken on Galium on the coast 

 sandhills, and in gardens on fuchsias. From August 29th to end of 

 September, 1856, about a couple of dozen of larvae were found on the 

 Deal sandhills (Syme), whilst Farren records them from August 11th- 

 24th, 1856, on the Gogmagog Hills, near Cambridge. At the 

 end of September, 1857, larvae again began to appear at Deal, and 

 specimens continued to be found until the beginning of November, 

 in 1858 three only could be found, and these in the early part of 

 October, but, in 1859, by the second week of August, the greater portion 

 of an extensive brood had evidently disappeared, and only some 40 or 

 50 larvae were obtained during the remainder of August and the early 

 part of September ; searching in August, i860, and September, 1861, 

 tailed to produce a larva, but three were taken at the end of August, 

 1862, and none again in 1863 and 1864 (Syme, E. M. M., ii., p. 5). 



