372 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



by the crepuscular habits of its family . . . and they may 

 be taken from 7.30 p.m. until midnight, and the state of the 

 weather, if not too cold, affects them but little. One night, when 

 six were taken, was beautifully fine with bright moonlight ; another 

 — when seven or eight were seen and five taken — was exceedingly 

 wet and stormy. Certainly rough weather is no great obstacle to 

 them, they only seem to be rendered more careless of danger 

 by the rough blowing about of the flowers, and there can be little 

 doubt that they are attracted a long distance by the rich' perfume 

 carried away by gusts of wind." For its twilight flight, it appears 

 most regularly at about the same time on each evening, and 

 Robertson says that "they begin to appear from 6.30 p.m. -7 p.m., 

 but are then more difficult to catch ; and are more easily taken 

 between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., when they will fly within a yard or 

 two of the lamp without fear ; the latest capture was made at 

 about n.30 p.m., but the gardener saw one in broad daylight at 

 3 p.m., hovering at the flowers of Nicotiana. The insect appears 

 to be long-lived for I kept a ? alive for more than six weeks in 

 the hopes of getting ova, but she only laid 4 eggs before she died." 

 Hewett also notes that they are more easily captured later 

 in the evening when they are really feeding. Our own experi- 

 ence has been that the moths when they first visit the flowers 

 towards dusk, about 6.30 p.m. (in Piedmont), are readily startled 

 and difficult of approach, and Riding states (Ent. Rec, viii., p. 

 243) that the insect is sometimes very shy, that it will start off in 

 a moment at the sound ot a voice, and one that was being watched 

 as it hovered over flowers darted away on the church bells ringing, 

 not to appear again. Biggs also writes (Entojn., viii., p. 275) that he 

 considered the insect shy, easily startled, and not seeming to have much 

 partiality for light, and that the imagines invariably receded from it 

 when it was turned on them, that they flew in the most brilliant moon- 

 shine; and that most of the specimens captured in 1875 were ? s, 

 but that several examined contained no eggs. Edgell notes 

 (Entom., xix., p. 301) that, besides the twilight flight of these 

 moths, they came, between September 12th and October 8th, 1886, 

 again to the flowers just before the moon rose, the latest noticed 

 on the wing being at 11 p.m., the whir of the wings being very 

 audible ; they come, he says, every night, neither cold nor wind 

 seem to affect them, and one was literally blown into a bed of phlox 

 by the hot wind of October 1st. No male was noticed till September 

 29th, all the earlier captures being 2 s. Allen writes ( Entom., 

 xix., p. 18): "The sound made by the rapid vibration of the wings 

 is very perceptible, and the flight excels even that of -S. stellaiarum. 

 With its prodigious size is combined ease of movement, the graceful 

 manner in which it coils and uncoils its long proboscis, the 

 lightness with which it floats from flower to flower, ever and anon 

 poising itself to extract the nectar and then darting off in a rapid 

 but somewhat irregular flight, sometimes to a considerable height, 

 perhaps to return to the same flower-bed, is simply delightful. This 

 species commences its flight before daylight has departed, and 

 appears to be fearless of moonlight." Douglas obtained 29 examples 

 in September, 1901, at Sherborne, at Nicotiana affinis y the moths 

 appearing exactly at the same time after sunset each night, the 



