DAPHNIS NERII. 251 



respect from the typical form. Lederer, however, notes that the 

 Beyrout examples are smaller and duller coloured than those from 

 Dalmatia ; Oberthiir observes that the Madagascar examples some- 

 times vary in colour, the ground-colour of the wings becoming olive- 

 brown instead of green. Kirby observes (Handbook, &c., iv., p. 

 40) that " the insect varies chiefly in the lighter or darker shade 

 of the ground colour, and in the amount of reddish or yellowish 

 colour in the band on the forewings." The only described race 

 appears to be the following : 



a. var. infernelutea, . Saalm., " Lep. Madag.," i., p. 123 (1884); Kirby, 

 "Cat.," p. 672 (1892). — The specimens of var. infernelutea, m., before me, 

 from Nossi-Be', are smaller than European specimens bred from larvae. 

 Mabille also notes the difference in size as a characteristic of Madagascar 

 specimens ; but no author has recorded any other difference. The coloration 

 of the upperside is paler (blasser), the green tends more towards grass- 

 green, and the paler hindwings have a dingy, ochre-yellow colour above the 

 anal angle before the border, where the green tint is brightest in European 

 specimens, and this colour extends suffusedly towards the apex of the wing. 

 On the underside, the form and position of the markings differ little from 

 those of the upperside, but they exhibit considerable difference in colour, 

 as there is not a trace of green. All the shades which this hue forms in 

 European specimens are here graded from golden orange -yellow to grey-brown. 

 The former colour is brightest before the apex and hinder angle and between 

 nervures 5 and 7, before the marginal area, on the forewings, and on the hindwings 

 in the discoidal cell and before the anal angle ; the white in the markings is 

 slightly varied with rosy. The palpi and abdomen are grey-yellow, and the 

 thorax and antennae grey-brown. Among the very large number of European 

 specimens which have been compared there was not one which showed even a 

 trace of any tendency to pass into the orange-yellow of the undersurface. 



Ovum. — Light green, small (compared with the size of the 

 imago), and agrees somewhat in size, form, and colour with the egg 

 of Sphinx ligustri (Bartel). 



Egglaying. — The egg is attached to a leaf of Nerium, on the 

 underside, adhering to the midrib (Milliere). In central and northern 

 Europe the immigrant females deposit their eggs on the leaves of 

 the oleander-bushes grown in tubs, &c, usually several eggs are 

 laid on one plant (Bartel). Winter notes a 2 captured at Aldeby, 

 Beccles, October 26th, 1857, which laid a number of eggs (Ent. Wk. 

 Int., 1857, p. 42). 



Habits of larva. — In the Riviera the larvae of the first brood of 

 imagines (immigrants) live throughout July, and are fullfed from July 

 i5th-3oth, whilst the pupal stage lasts only some 1 6-18 days. The larvae 

 of the second brood are fullfed about the end of September, and 

 the imagines emerge some three weeks later (Milliere). In more 

 northern countries both broods are usually somewhat later, dependent 

 on the season. Godart notes, in 1822, that the insect occurs 

 occasionally in Paris, but is common at Genoa, Turin and Nice, 

 whilst, in 181 9, the larvae were abundant in the dept. Marne- 

 et-Loire. Dormoy writes (Ann. Soc. Ent. France, 1836, pp. 363 

 et sea.) that, in 1835, the larvae occurred in abundance in parts 

 of France where they had never been noticed before, that M. Blanc 

 reported taking 6 larvae at Pont St. Esprit in June, 1835, on common 

 oleander, that M. Paris took some 60 larvae in August, 1835, at 

 Epernay, on cultivated double oleander, the larvae of various sizes, 

 but that all, except a dozen, became feeble and died just before 

 pupation, no doubt owing to a spell of dull wet weather, that M. 

 Paris further reported finding, in ? 1833, the eggs of D. nerii on a 



