HYLES EUPHORBIA. 217 



As showing the long period over which larvae are to be found in France, 

 we may note that Reaumur obtained fullgrown larvae near Paris on July 

 15th, which pupated directly afterwards; he further observes that larvae 

 also were extremely common between Bevis and Langes on the banks 

 of the Loire in early September, very few pupated before Septem- 

 ber 20th, and imagines did not emerge until the commencement of 

 the following July. The larvae are usually found in July and 

 August on the west coast of France, and they used to be most 

 abundant in July and August in Jersey before they were exterminated 

 there. Chaumette, too, observes that, at Lausanne, larvae occur 

 from the middle of June to the end of October, whilst Bell reports 

 that, in the neighbourhood of the Bilbao river, larvae are very 

 abundant in June and again in September. Jones observed larvae 

 from July 24th-27th, 1894, at Gerolstein in Rhenish Prussia, and 

 Walker- in June and October in the cork woods of the Gibraltar 

 district, whilst Bachmetjew notes that they are common everywhere 

 in the Sofia district in August and September. Eaton says that 

 larvae were exceedingly abundant from April 2 7th-May 4th, 1894, 

 near Biskra, but from here no summer or autumnal records 

 are available. We may add, as bearing on the continuous-brooded- 

 ness of the species in the Mediterranean, that Fletcher found the 

 larvae common on October 5th, 1901, at Lemnos, and a few fullfed 

 ones at Volo as late as November 3rd, and that Mathew has found 

 them commonly on both sides of the Sea of Marmora in October 

 and November. 



Larva. — First instar* : Largest 875mm. Head, legs, scutellum, 

 anal plates, tubercles and hairs black ; the skin-surface dusky green. 

 The larva tapers slightly from the 7th and 8th abdominal segments 

 towards the head ; the subsegments appear to be 6 on the meso- and 

 metathorax, and 8 on the abdominal segments, but the first three 

 subsegments are obscure and appear as a large 1st subsegment, 

 followed by 5 smaller ones. The skin-surface granular, with no 

 trace of spicules to be seen. Head dull black, the surface finely 

 granulated with usual hairs. Scutellum and anal plates black 

 and chitinous. True legs shiny black ; small black chitinous 

 plates at base of prolegs ; caudal horn short, blunt, only tapering 

 slightly, black, chitinous, thickly covered with small, rather broad- 

 based thorns that are apparently analogous with the prickly- 

 looking hairs that usually cover the horn in other species, the 

 hairs at summit (i of 8th abdominal) black, and short in comparison 

 with those of such species as Sphinx ligustri and Ainorpha popnli, 

 but much longer than the other body-hairs, blunt-ended, but not 

 enlarged nor notched at tip, their bases quite a considerable 

 distance apart owing to the blunt character of the horn. The 

 tubercles are arranged as follows : i and ii are arranged trapezoidally 

 on separate subsegments on the meso- and metathorax, and only 

 a little more than half the distance apart of i and ii on the abdominal 

 segments, where they are set at corners of an oblong rather than 



* As to the number of moults, Sich notes (Ent. Rec, xv., p. 68) of the dates of 

 the moults of a larva he reared, and that hatched August 10th, 1901, as follows : 

 First moult, August 17th; second moult, August 26th (when it appeared to miss the 

 third and reach the fourth phyletic stage) ; third (and last) moult, September 2nd. 

 It ceased feeding on September 14th. 



