AGRIUS CONVOLVULI. 3()9 



curved upwards for half the distance towards the underside of 

 the thorax, with which it was in contact near its blunt, rounded 

 extremity. The various parts of the imago within were all remark- 

 ably well shown, yet gently rounded off at the prominences, the 

 wing-covers long in proportion, the anal spike short, blunt, and 

 roughish, the proboscis delicately corrugated or ringed. Each 

 segment of the abdomen had on the back a narrow transverse band 

 of roughness at its beginning, the rest of the surface smooth and 

 shining ; the colour was a light rich mahogany-brown, darker on 

 the head, thorax and proboscis, and on the last two segments, 

 the leg-, antenna- and wing-cases being the palest portions (Larvae 

 Brit. Butts, and Moths, ii., p. 26). A pupa is described by Newman 

 (Ent., viii., p. 274) ; another by Embleton (E.M.M., xxxvii., p. 297). 



Foodplants. — Convolvulus arvensis, C. septum, very rarely, C. 

 tricolor,- Ipomoea coccinea (Boisduval), 7. scandens (Powell), endive, 

 Convolvulus soldanella, but refused C. affinis (Bell-Marley), Convolvulus 

 purpureus, in India (Chaumette), Persicaria, lettuce (Mathew), lpomoea 

 batatas, Zygophyllum fabago, Phaseolus maximus, in Java (Bartel), 

 Mirabilis jalapa, cultivated species of lpomoea (Donckier), Batata 

 edulis (Grabham), Impatiens noli-me-tangere {teste Newman), Colza 

 (Swinhoe), scarlet-runners (Nash, Ent., xxxv., p. 172). 



Habitat. — The moth may be found anywhere from sea -level 

 to great elevations on the mountains, from the plains and mountains 

 of South Africa and Australia, and the tropical jungles of India 

 and the East Indies, and the islands of the Pacific to the confines 

 of the Polar regions. In the Palaearctic area it is continuously 

 immigrant from its subtropical haunts, becoming more or less per- 

 manently sedentary in the southern parts of this area, and finding 

 temporary breeding-places in hot summers throughout Central 

 Europe and Asia from the British Islands to the northern parts of Japan. 

 These temporary habitats are very varied, e.g., Treitschke notes (Die 

 Schmett., x., p. 139) that he found the larvae feeding gregariously 

 on C. arvensis in a vineyard. Boisduval says that, in France, the 

 larva is rather common, feeding especially on Convolvulus arvensis 

 in fields of potatoes and kidney-beans, sometimes also on C. 

 sepium, and in gardens on C. tricolor and lpomoea coccinea. At 

 Autun, Constant says the larvae frequent fields of potatoes in which 

 Convolvulus arvensis grows freely, and that, upon lifting the plants, 

 the larvae are to be found resting beneath them. Powell writes that, at 

 Hyeres, the species is found mostly on waste ground, and in gardens 

 where Convolvulus arvensis grows, but also frequents (both as larva and 

 imago), a species of Convolvulus with a large white flower, that is 

 cultivated in gardens, and whose flowers open only in the evening. 

 He adds that "the moths themselves are very common indeed, 

 resting on railings and fences in the early morning ; so abundant 

 indeed, that I collect them to use as food for my lizards." Mathew 

 says that, in Madeira, the species is common in gardens, the larvae 

 feeding on all sorts of Convolvulus, lettuce and other garden plants, whilst, 

 at Gallipoli, he found larvae on Persicaria in vineyards, whilst, in the Pacific 

 Islands, at various dates between 1882-4, the larvae were frequently 

 found feeding upon a species of Coiivolvulus which grew in masses on 

 the beach, just above high-water mark. Potato-fields, where Convolvtilus 

 arvensis grows, appear to be the most favoured haunts in Britain of this 



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