SPHINX LIGUSTRI. 301 



over, narrowed at both ends, whereas, in ligustri, it is of uniform width and fades off 

 into the ground-colour, but here it is sharply defined (Esper). 



Bartel notes (Pal. Gross-Schmetl., ii., p. 47) that this aberration 

 was described from a Hungarian specimen, and might occur anywhere 

 as a rare aberration with the type, whilst the larva, which is said 

 to be very strikingly different from the typical form, both in size 

 and markings, lives in summer only on Spiraea chamaedrifolia. He 

 further adds that it will not accept the plants that serve S. ligustri 

 as food. We have not noticed that Esper made this statement. 



In the far East, S. ligustri is characteristically marked, and 

 shows distinct racial peculiarities, the Amurland examples having 

 been described as amurensis by Oberthiir, and the Japanese examples 

 as constricta by Butler. The original descriptions of these read as 

 follows : 



/3. ' var. amurensis, Oberth., " Bull. Soc. Ent. France," 6th ser., vi., p. lvi 

 (1886) ; Staud., " Rom. Mem.," vi., p. 220 (1892) ; Kirby, " Cat.," p. 692 (1892) ; 

 Bart., "Pal. Gross- <chmett.," ii., p. 48 (1901). Spiraeae, Graes., ''Bed. Ent. 

 Zeits.," xxxii., p. 104 (1888). — Variete speciale a la region de l'Amour et au 

 nord de la Chine, plus pale quant au rose, plus obscure quant au brun (Oberthiir). 

 Distribution. — Amur district — near Nicolajefsk, commencement of July, very 

 rare ; Pokrofka f Graeser), Ussuri, Suifun (Dorries), near Baranowka, Sidemi 

 (Jankowski), on the Bureja Mountains, Kidsi (Schrenk), Mandchuria — Chingan 

 Mountains (Bartel) ; North China (David), Isle Askold (Jankowski). 



Leech notes (Trans. Ent. Soc. London, 1898, p. 287) that var- 

 amurensis, Obth., would appear to be identical with the Japanese 

 form described as constricta by Butler. Staudinger (Cat., 3rd ed., 

 p. 10 1 ) adopts this view, and simply diagnoses the combination as 

 " minor obscurior," a description that does not altogether tally with 

 Oberthiir's original diagnosis (supra), but is characteristic of Butler's 

 co?istricta. We are not at all satisfied from the descriptions here given 

 that the two forms are identical. Graeser says ( Berl. Ent. Zeits., xxxii., 

 p. 104) : " 2 S s at Nicolajefsk (Amurland) beginning of July. The larvae 

 in autumn were very rare on species of Spiraea ; I also found a few of 

 them at Pokrofka ; the oblique violet stripes of the larvae of ordinary 

 S. ligustri are dark red-brown in the Siberian larvae. The imagines are 

 strikingly small and very dark. Expanse of $ =8omm. ; of $ 66mm." 

 Staudinger says (Rom. Mem., vi., p. 220): "The var. amurensis was 

 found by Schrenck in the Bureja Mountains and at Kidsi, by Maack 

 on the Amur, by Dorries on the Ussuri and Suifun, by Jankowsky at 

 Sidemi, by Graeser at the beginning of July (2 J s) at Nikolajefsk, the 

 larvae there and at Pokrofka in autumn on species of Spiraea. The 

 three Amurland specimens before me are so strikingly darker, and also 

 smaller, than typical ligustri, that they probably deserve the name var. 

 amurensis, which Oberthiir has already given them in the Bull. Soc. Ent. 

 Fr., 1886, p. 56. In any case the form has more right to a special name 

 than spiraeae, Esp., which was given to a small pale specimen, 

 quoted in the Catalog as an unimportant aberration. Graeser 

 probably only gives his Amurland ligustri as var. spiraeae, because the 

 larvae were there found on Spiraea, otherwise his dark specimens, 

 excepting in their small size, are just the opposite to ab. spiraeae, Esp. 

 Esper also gave the name spiraeae to his aberration, because the larva 

 of the specimen named by him was found on Spiraea, but it is well- 

 known that the larva of S. ligustri is a pretty general feeder. Leech has a 

 specimen of 6". ligustri from Japan almost like the European examples." 



