HYLES EUPHORBIA. 215 



tipedes and that carnivorous beetles prey on them at night. Buckler 

 observes (Larvae, &c, ii., p. 31) how the appetites of some larvae 

 that he had from Fontainebleau seemed insatiable, each larva 

 embraced the seaspurge with all its legs, ate voraciously, and, at 

 length, when compelled to stop, it would go to sleep without 

 change of position and with a partly-devoured leaf in its jaws, 

 and then, after a few minutes' repose, it would wake up, finish the 

 leaf, and attack whatever came next — leaves or seedvessels — most 

 vigorously, there was no walking about, the only movement was 

 a step or two backward as the stem shortened beneath its jaws ; 

 during eight days he was busy picturing them, and none sulked or 

 shrank when the sun shone on them, or when, for closer inspection, 

 they were taken in the hand, only, as each matured and ceased 

 feeding, it grew active and lively, exhibiting its capacity of walking 

 at a great pace for a day or two before settling down to its change. 

 When handled, or irritated, the larvae exude from the mouth a 

 large quantity of dark green fluid that smells strongly of its food- 

 plant, and often throw it for some distance by means of a sudden 

 jerk of the thoracic segments. Harrison observes (Ent. Rec, ix., 

 p. 293) that, on July 28th-29th, 1897, he took some 120 larvae 

 feeding on Euphorbia paralias on the coast of Brittany at Le Poldu ; 

 the larvae were in all the various stadia and very abundant. The young 

 larvae, until in the 3rd instar, rested on and ate the tops of the 

 young shoots, eating through the stalks below the seeds, so that 

 the sand all round the eaten plants was covered with the seed-heads, 

 but, at the 3rd or 4th moult, the larvae feed on the leaves at the base of 

 the red stalks. The larvae seemed always to occur in pairs, although 

 the only batch of eggs found consisted of about a dozen. He 

 further observes that the fluid exuded by the larva causes a very 

 violent irritation if it gets into scratches or into the eyes. The 

 larvae are sometimes found in great abundance and vary exceedingly 

 in size at the same time in the same locality. Eaton observes that 

 between April 27th and May 4th, 1894, near Biskra, he saw what 

 he estimated to be between 1000 and 2000 larvae of different ages, some 

 in the blackish juvenile stage, others 3ms. long, and states that, standing 

 still anywhere, where the food plant grew, he could see 4 — 6 larvae 

 without stirring, but, in exceptionally favourable places, they were much 

 more numerous, and, within the space of a quarter of an acre, some 500 

 were actually counted ; a few bushes of Euphorbia guyoniana, oc 

 cupying each about a square yard of ground, had on them over 

 20 or 30 larvae apiece. White observed them of all sizes and in 

 great numbers at Capri in May, 1866. In Transcaucasia, according 

 to Romanoff (Mem., i., p. 70), the larvae of H. euphorbiae appear 

 in certain years in such great numbers that they cannot find enough 

 food, and must perish through hunger. Thus, in 1879, on the 

 railway from Tiflis to Kodigori they appeared in such abundance 

 as to astonish travellers in the district. Chapman notes (Ent. Rec, 

 ii., p. 201) that, on the " Landes," he observed the stems of 

 Euphorbia eaten in such a manner that he thought he had found 

 a larva of H. euphorbiae where there was none, the bases of the 

 leaves appearing as round coloured spots, an appearance that he con- 

 siders the larvae obviously mimic. He adds that, in Capri, the larvae 

 feed openly and abundantly on a shrubby Euphorbia, where its aspect 



