324 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



on July 30th, 1888, at 9 a.m. (? p.m.), one was captured, whilst the 

 others left the ship and went away with the wind. One feels, however, 

 that one would like to have seen the captured specimen to make 

 sure that it was not Agnus convolvuli. As to the power of the 2 

 to attract the $ s, Robinson notes that, at St. Leonards, in June, 

 1877, a 2 was resting on the inside of a window when it was 

 accidentally killed, yet between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. 10 <? s were 

 captured in the room, and 2 on the glass outside this window. 

 Weniger notes that, one spring, several specimens emerged be- 

 tween February 17th and 19th, among them a 2 . They refused 

 to pair, but lived a long time, and, on March 22nd, a $ Antheraea 

 cecropia paired with the 2 S. ligustri. The 2 laid part of her 

 eggs the day after the pairing and then died, but the eggs all 

 proved to be infertile. The pairing lasted 1 1^ hours. 



Habitat. — This species is abundant in most suitable localities 

 in the southern and midland counties of Great Britain, becoming 

 rare in the north and west and being almost entirely absent from 

 Scotland and Ireland. In the south of England its most frequent 

 habitats are privet hedges in gardens and lanes, and bushes growing 

 on the outskirts of shaws, thickets and woods, but holly hedges and 

 holly bushes in similar situations are frequently chosen. 



Time of appearance. — The imago appears from mid-May to 

 the end of July. On the continent there appears to be in some 

 districts a partial second-brood, e.g., Roumania, end of June and 

 September, imagines taken September 19th, 1892, in a garden in 

 Roumania (Caradja), June and September at Deux-Sevres (Maillard), 

 Tuscany, rare in July and August, fullgrown larvae found at the end 

 of June (Mann). Daws caught a $ at flowers of Nicotiana affinis 

 on October 3rd, 1900, at Mansfield, very possibly a second-brood 

 example, as the captures in the same place are noted as 

 May 15th, 1897 and June i2th-July 6th, 1898. Generally, 

 however, the time of appearance on the continent agrees 

 with that in the British Islands — end of April to July at 

 Fiinfkirchen; May at Wernigerode; May and June at Eutin, 

 Brunswick, Halle, Dresden, Thuringia, Carlsruhe, Frankfort-on-Main, 

 Alsace, Switzerland, Upper Austria, Eperies, Haute-Garonne, Loire- 

 Inferieure and Sarepta ; May to mid-july at Budapest ; end of 

 May to commencement of August at Leipzig ; June at Lyngor, 

 Bremen, Crefeld, Wiesbaden, Miilhausen, Zurich, Hermannstadt, 

 Paris dist., Nantes ; June-July in the Netherlands, Berne, and Hildesheim ; 

 July at Gorki ; July and August at Aix-les-Bains, &c. Fritsch gives 

 dates for Austro-Hungary from May i6th-July 3rd, also at Salzburg 

 on July 17th and August 5th, common from July 9th, 1893, at Berne 

 (Hiltbold), July 3rd-4th, 1898, at light at Aigle (Lowe). 

 Hellins notes imagines from May 30th to July 14th, and one 

 captured July 20th nr. Exeter. The following dates will give some 

 idea of its time of appearance in various parts of the British Isles : 

 May 2 7th-July 19th, abundant at Rochester and Chatham (Chaney), 

 imagines in June at Southampton and Winchester (Moberly), 8 caught 

 May 20th, 1844, S bred June 14th, 2 $ s and 5 2 s on June 1 6th, 2 June 

 i8th, 2 June 19th, 1845, <? a »d 2 Ma Y 29th. 2 <?-s and 2 ? s on May 

 31st, $■ June 1st, 2 $ s June 2nd, i- Q 46, June rst, 1847, imagines emerged 

 May 2 7th-June 21st, 1848, June 12th, 1850, at Brighton (Merrifield)June 



