336 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



Pharbitis nil, Argyreia cymosa, Lpomaea polyatithes, Phaseolus, &c, as 

 food plants of the larva. Leech unites orientalis with convolvuli (Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. London, p. 588), and remarks : " Having regard to the great 

 variability and extensive geographical range of the species, I am at a 

 loss to understand how anyone can attempt to claim specific rank for 

 representatives of convolvuli coming from any part of the Old World." 

 Later, in the Tians. Ent. Soc. London, 1898, p. 286, he states that 

 he has specimens from Yokohama, Fushiki and Hakodate in Japan, 

 Chang- Yang and Ichang in Central China and Chung-King in 

 Western China. Fletcher writes (in litt.) \ "I found the pupa 

 during the 1st week of June, 1897, on the sandy beach at Kamakura 

 (near Yokohama) where Convolvulus is abundant. My next acquain- 

 tance with the insect was on May 13th, 1898, when I found a very 

 worn specimen at rest on a wall at Chifu. In September, 1900, 

 we did a little cruise up the Gulf of Pechili, to Shan-hai-Kwan, 

 vid Chifu, &c, and the insect was everywhere common, and came 

 to light almost every night." Oberthiir notes (Etudes, v., p. 28) a $* 

 of large size, taken on September 20th, 1877, in the Isle of Askold. 



S. var. roseafasciata, Koch, " Indo-Aust. Lep. Fauna," p. 54 (1865). 

 Distans, Butl., "Cat. Lep. N. Zeal.," p. 30, pi. ix., fig. 11 (1874); Druce, " Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. Lond.," p. 220 (1888). Convolvuli, Meyr., "Trans. N. Zeal. 

 Inst.," xxii., p. 213 (1890); Hudson, "New Zealand Moths and Butts.," 

 p. 99 (1898). Roseofasciata, Kirby, " Cat.," p. 690 (1892). — Besides Europe, 

 convolvuli flies on the north and west coasts of Africa, northern Bengal, 

 all India, China, Ceylon, Java, and other places, and I have received it in 

 abundance from New South Wales and Queensland. Mr. Scott considers this 

 unimportant Australian variety to be a good species, and has called it roseafasciata, 

 but the Australian insect is nothing more than a dwarf form of convolvuli, and 

 there are some ?s nearly as large as European <$ s. MacLeay shares my view. 

 Considering the small number of Australian Sphingids, it is remarkable that so 

 many of them are to be found in the East Indies and the Sunda Isles (Koch). 



This is the most marked race of the species, although the 

 specimens vary much inter se ; it is of rather small size, dark in 

 ground colour, the median fuscous-brown suffusion particularly 

 strono-, and the dark markings usually very prominent. The British 

 Museum collection series contains specimens from New Caledonia, 

 Samoa, Port Darwin, Sidney, Rarotonga, &c. There is, however, 

 one example from the Sherlock River, West Australia, which is small, 

 uniformly pale ashy-grey in colour, and with slightly suffused 

 hindwino-s, out otherwise with a quite European facies. Druce records 

 it also from Fiji, New Guinea, New Hebrides, as well as New 

 Caledonia and Western Australia (see anted p. 333). The Javan ex- 

 amples, placed in the series of orientalis in the Brit. Mus. coll., are 

 distinctly nearer to this form, whilst the Tahitian race is near but 

 hardly to be included here (cf. anted p. 333). Butler first described 

 the New Zealand form, stating that, "if it be constant, it will certainly 

 rank as a distinct species from convolvuli, being altogether smaller, 

 darker, less tinted with rosy on the body, and with the markings 

 on the primaries more confused/' Of the New Zealand examples 

 Hudson says that they are smaller than the average of European 

 examples, occurring frequently in the northern portions of North 

 Island, but becoming very rare southward of Napier and New Ply- 

 mouth ; in South Island, only at Nelson and Invercargill. The larva? 

 feed on Convolvulus, pupate in February and emerge in November 

 and December. The insect appeared in great abundance in the 



