AGRIUS CONVOLVULI. 333 



right ? antenna. Left eye apparently larger. Thorax unequally coloured, left 

 side more sharply and brightly than the right. Right fore wing more purely grey 

 than the left. The black wavy bands on the left hind wing much more strongly 

 expressed. Abdomen sharply divided in the centre, somewhat curved, shrunken 

 on the right side at the anal point ; six abdominal segments clearly shown on 

 both sides, on the left side a 7th also indicated. In coll. Naturh. Museum at 

 Wiesbaden (Pagenstecher, Jahrb. des Nass. Ver. f. Naturk., xxxv., p. 88). 

 Variation. — The species is exceedingly variable in tint, size, 

 and brightness of the markings, but for its great range of distribution 

 may be said to be little subject to marked variation, this fact being due 

 possibly to its migrating habits and the consequent tendency to 

 interbreeding over very wide areas, and the natural absence of 

 segregation. In our opinion the small, dark, Australian and New 

 Zealand form, roseafasciata, Koch, is the most marked, and most 

 worthy of being considered a distinct race. The Javanese examples, 

 placed in the series of var. orientalis, in the B.M. coll., also appear to be a 

 dark and very specialised race, approaching closely to var. roseafasciata, 

 the $ s brightly and strongly marked, the ground colour suffused with 

 brownish ; the red of the abdomen, of a distinctly dull hue=:var. 

 javanensis, n. var. The form in which the red bands of the 

 abdomen are obsolete may apparently be referred to ab. abadonna,\ 

 Fab. In the pot pourri, collected together from all parts of 

 Asia, in the British Museum coll., under the name of var. orientalis, 

 is an exceedingly fine local race from Ichang, the $ s of a stone-grey 

 ground colour, prettily marbled with darker, the transverse lines 

 distinct, and with a very marked rosy flush over the disc of the 

 wings; the $ unicolorous stone-grey = var. ichangensis, n. var. The 

 Tahitian race, too, is distinctly specialised; it is small in size, the fore- 

 wings of a very uniform brown-grey tint, with moderately sharp black 

 and white transverse lines ; the hindwings somewhat suffused ; the 

 abdomen with very faint pink bands — var. tahitiensis, n. var. (distans, 

 Druce, pro parte). The Eimeo examples are of the same form, but are 

 sometimes strongly variegated, whilst the Pitcairn Island specimen in the 



* This is the same as a, unless some mysterious metamorphosis has taken place, 

 at any rate, both are the example from the " Gerning coll.," which Borkhausen notes 

 (Rhein. Mag., i., p. 318). The description given (supra p. 332) of Ernst's fig. 1 14 / is 

 quite accurate so far as the evidence of the figure goes, but^ the text only says that 

 one side is <? and the other ? , and I can only suppose that the artist has used some 

 method of transference which has resulted in the right side being depicted left and 

 vice versa. All that Pagenstecher says of the specimen tallies with Ernst's fig., 

 mutandis mutatis (Prout). 



f One suspects that the Fabrician abadonna may be a specimen of the East 

 Indian form in which the usual pink abdominal bands have failed. The original 

 description reads as follows: '■'■Sphinx abadomta, Fab., " Ent. Syst.," suppl. 

 p. 435 (1798). — Sphinx alis integris cinereis anticis nigro striatis, posticis fasciatis, 

 abdomine maculis lateralibus atris. Habitat in India orientali. Dom. Doldorff. 

 Statura omnino S. convolvuli at duplo minor. Antennae albas squamis fuscis. 

 Caput album. Thorax albo nigroque variis. Abdomen cinereum maculis later- 

 alibus atris. Alae cinerese maculis striisque variis fuscis. Posticae cinereae fasciis 

 nigris. Subtus anticae obscurae, posticae cinereae strigis undatis, fuscis." If the 

 determination of Aurivillius (Ent. Tids., xviii., p. 153), viz., that " Sphinx abadonna, 

 l?cib. , =zProtupa7'ce convolvuli, L. var. orientalis, Butl.," be correct, and the opinion 

 formed has been based on the examination of the actual type in the Danish Museum, 

 then the description can scarcely agree with the moth, unless the latter be an aberra- 

 tion in which the coloured abdominal bands are more or less obsolete. On the other 

 hand, Kirby considers (Trans. Ent. Soc. Land., 1877, p. 238) that " abadonna, Fab. 

 =^godarti, MacLeay," a well-known species, described, under the latter name, in 

 King's Survey of the coasts of Australia, ii., p. 464, and is still of the opinion (m 

 litt.) that the Fabrician description fits this insect, whilst it certainly does not fit 

 normal convolvuli var. orientalis. 



