AGR1US CONVOLViJU. 373 



males much scarcer than the females — 6 out of 19. Hodge says 

 that several were taken at Ilfracombe at the latter end of September, 

 1898, hovering over flowers of Nicotiana ; they came down each 

 night with the regularity of clockwork at 6.30 p.m., and variation 

 in the light did not seem to affect them at all ; on one evening 

 as many as thirty were seen flying round the tobacco plants at one 

 time. Cotton adds that many were seen and taken at Minehead 

 in September, 1901, all appearing at N. affinis between 6.15 p.m. 

 and 7.0 p.m. Boswell notes (Eut., ix., p. 257) that, in 1875, m 

 the Orkneys, the species flew from 8 p.m. -9 p.m., but. on going out 

 one morning, at 1 a.m., the whir of the moth was heard, and, on 

 lighting a lantern, four were caught in a few minutes. Farr records 

 them as being on the wing as late as midnight at Beccles. Daws also 

 notes one coming to light after midnight at Paul, and James says that he 

 has- taken them from 9.30 p.m.-i 1.0 p.m., and that moonlight apparently 

 makes no difference to their flight. Edmunds records two on flight in the 

 early morning of August 22nd, 1887, at Windsor. It is a thorough 

 nectar-loving insect haunting many different species of flowers, of 

 which Nicotiana affinis is probably the most attractive ; Longstaff 

 notes two moths actually fighting for access to a flower of this 

 plant when held in the hand at Morthoe, in 1901 (E.M.M., xxxvii., 

 p. 298), and had also previously recorded (toe. cit., xxxiv., p. 278) 

 one sucking nectar from a flower of the same plant, whilst held in 

 his hand in 1898. We ourselves found it most abundant in the Vaudois 

 mountains, in Piedmont, in 1901, at the flowers of a giant Salvia. Powell 

 says that, at Hyeres, they abound some years in August and early 

 September at the flowers of honeysuckle, convolvulus and petunias, 

 and he adds that, in 1902, a lady returning from the seaside to the 

 town with a bunch of flowers of Pancratium maritimum in her hand, 

 was followed by quite a cloud of imagines of this species, that fed from 

 the blossoms that she held in her hand. Moeschler gives Lonicera and 

 Oenothera biennis asbeingmost attractive in Upper Lusatia ; Seriziat says 

 that, at Collo, the species is most frequently attracted by flowers of Pan- 

 cratium maritimum, and Reid asserts that they were so abundant on 

 August 18th, 1887, and following days, about 8 p.m., atabed of petunias 

 at Eretat that the flowers seemed almost alive with them, but flowers 

 of CEnothera missoge?iensis are chosen at Clevedon (Mason), of (Enothera 

 biennis, at Sevenoaks, the proboscis being well dusted with the yellow 

 pollen (Meldola), of petunias and pink geraniums, as well as 

 Nicotiana, at Chingford (Cooper), of petunias at Portland (Walker), and 

 at Cobham, between 6.30 p.m. and 8 p.m. (Ridley), also at Ipswich 

 (Fison), at Buckland, near Dover (Stonestreet), at Wannock (Pearson), 

 and at Stapleton (Harding), of honeysuckle at Aylesbury (Greene), at 

 Bremhill (Eddrup), at Fyvie (Reid), at Carlisle (Day), at Newbury 

 (Beales), at phlox at Corsemalzie (Gordon), at the Bridge of Allan 

 (Wingate), at Chale (Irving), at Darlington (Law), at Lower Clapton, at 

 9 p.m. (Gaviller), at honeysuckle and single pheasant's-eye pinks at 

 Swanbister (Boswell), at Lilium auratum at Hammersmith (Cowan), 

 at Footscray (Williams), and at Douglas (Mackonochie), at 

 Marvel of Peru (Mirabilis jalapa), at Lee (Bower), at Hackney 

 (Wright), at West Ham (Biggs), at Walthamstow (Jobson), at 



