HVLES EUPHORBLE. 237 



larvae taken with several others in June, 1872, by a man named 

 Durand (Ent., vii., p. 46, ix., p. 263), but, besides the great im- 

 probability of June larva? being found in this country, other circum- 

 stances led to disbelief in the British origin of these examples. In 1889 

 and 1890 St. John published (Ent, xxiii., pp. 18, 319) a somewhat 

 vague account of the capture of larvae in Cornwall, supplemented, 

 and certain inaccuracies corrected, later by Fry*, the captor, who 

 observes (ioc. cit., xxvi., pp. 315-316) that he took, in August, 1889, 

 18 or 19 larvae about two miles from Newquay in Cornwall, and that 

 of these 5 or 6 died, 13 formed cocoons, of which one was given 

 to a schoolfellow, and 12 to St. John to rear, three of these were 

 reported dead, nine were said to have emerged, of which one went to 

 Hanbury's collection, three to St. John's collection, and five were at 

 the time in Fry's collection. With the exception of this record, there 

 has been no real evidence of the species being sedentary in these 

 islands for more than half a century, and with the exception of the 

 larva found by Cocks in 1834, for above threequarters of a century. 

 Habits. — The imagines appear to be strictly crepuscular in 

 their flight, feeding on the wing from about 6.30 p.m. to 9.15 p.m., 

 settling down before 10 p.m., clinging firmly to their resting-place, 

 and usually remaining in the same position all night. The males 

 poise themselves on the wing, sometimes making use of one or 

 two legs to steady themselves whilst hovering at the flowers, 

 although, usually, the legs hang straight down. When the tongue 

 is inserted in a flower it is often bent at almost a right angle, being 

 nearly straight for the first half of its length and then taking a 

 sudden bend downwards to the flower, the thorax of the moth 

 being nearly always above and over the top of the flower and 

 nearly perpendicular to it. A moth will sometimes remain at 

 the same flower for 2 or 3 minutes. Whilst hovering, the humming 

 of the wings is distinctly audible, and if, at this time, a moth be 

 observed in profile with the base of the nearer pair of wings on 

 the same level as the eye of the spectator, the underside of the 

 wings alone can be observed as though the wings, while vibrating, 

 only passed through an arc . of 45 on either side of the per- 

 pendicular. The females appear to fly but little compared with 

 the males. The imagines are noted as living in confinement from 

 10 — 14 days. There seems to be no fixed time at which they 

 emerge — wings of one expanded and dry by 8.15 p.m., another 10.30 

 p.m., two others before 8 a.m., one before 6 a.m. (Sich). Their 

 general habit, in nature, is to fly at dusk at flowers — at verbenas 

 (Barrett), at Saponaria officinalis (Jager), prefer well-scented flowers 

 especially Echium and Phlox (Bartel) — although Riihl notes that they 

 fly whilst it is still light and continue to do so for some half-hour, until 

 dusk, at Biedenkopf, from about July 7th-26th. That occasional 

 wanderers should be taken in Britain is not at all surprising, for 

 Mathew says {in litt.) that one was brought to him by a blue-jacket, 



* St. John's statement re these does not agree with that of Fry. The former 

 reports : Thirteen nearly fullfed larvae taken, three died in pupation, ten healthy 

 pupae resulted, and imagines emerged — $ May 5th, cf May 9th, <? May 13th, 

 ? May 31st, J June 6th, $ June 16th, ? June 22nd, ? July 24tlv 1890. One 

 pupa died, one was still alive September, 1890 (Ent., xxiii., pp. 18, 319; Ent, Rec, 

 iv., pp. 249, 297). 



