3?4 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



Delphinium (Cubitt), carnations at Dublin f Birchall), at verbenas * 

 (Goodall), at scarlet and pink geraniums as well as petunias in 

 the Isle of Wight (Fereday), at geraniums and petunias at Fresh- 

 water (Hodges), especially partial to the rose-coloured varieties 

 of bedding geraniums, also attracted by flowers of the different 

 varieties ot Althea frutex, rhododendrons and weigeleas (Mason), 

 especially fond of white petunias at Buckland (Stonestreet), of 

 jessamine at Taunton (Rowlinson), of gladiolus at Wolsingham 

 (Backhouse), in 1887, at Morthoe, the imagines would . not look 

 at verbenas and petunias, but showed a great partiality for the 

 more gorgeous flowers of Gladiolus (Longstaff), at sweet peas and 

 phlox at Panton (Raynor), over Pentstemon bloom at Starcross on 

 a moonlight night (Powley). Bartel notes Dianthus, Sapouaria, 

 Epilobium, Lonicera, Convolvulus, JVicotiana, Petunia, Phlox, 

 Betonica, Verbena and Jlfirabilis jalapa as the flowers most 

 frequented by the species on the Continent. McRae states 

 (Ent., xviii., p. 296) that, in 1875, when the species was 

 in great abundance in the Bournemouth district, he found 

 sugared bouquets of flowers, consisting chiefly of honeysuckle, 

 pale-coloured geraniums, and petunias to be the most attractive bait. 

 White and pale-coloured flowers are the most attractive, possibly 

 on account of their greater conspicuousness at night ; one is 

 astonished, however, that McRae describes the flight as per- 

 fectly noiseless, and he further adds that he " suspects the moths do 

 not pair until after hybernation." We have no notion of a scrap 

 of evidence tending to make us suppose that the imagines do 

 hybernate. Donovan, on the other hand, captured the species 

 commonly at Glandore in 1889, and notes them as making 

 a loud buzzing sound in their quick flight over the flowers of N. 

 affinis (see also anted, p. 372). The moth does not appear to have 

 the power to utter any sound like that made by Manduca atropos, 

 although Blaber notes (Ent., xix., p. 179) that he was informed 

 by a lady, who killed a specimen of A. convolvuli with chloro- 

 form, that it uttered loud squeaks and other distinct sounds, apparently 

 of discomfiture. We suspect this is not correct. The insect is some- 

 times attracted in large numbers to light ; in mid-August, 1901, the 

 imagines were to be seen every morning in large numbers lying 

 dead beneath the electric lamps in the streets of Turin ; in the 

 middle of August, 1897, several flew into the lighted rooms of the hotel 

 at Susa, and at the end of July, 1900, a fine specimen flew into a 

 lighted room at Larche, where we were staying. It is also recorded 

 at electric light at Portschach (Wagner), at Berne (Benteli), at 

 Zurich (Nageli), at Aix-les-Bains (Agassiz), at Davos-Platz (Sellon), 

 and in Britain, at Taunton (Farrant), near Cheltenham (Trye), at 

 Hammersmith (Bird), at Farnham (Lewcock), at Norwich (Tillyard), 

 at Maldon (Bentall), at Stratford and Ilford (Murray), at Paul 

 (Daws), at Brentwood (Raynor), at Burgess Hill (Dollman), at 

 Eastbourne (Adkin), at Forest Gate (Harrison), at Gravesend 

 * Newman repeats (Ent., iv., p. 148), apparently in ^ood faith, a statement, 

 by Goodall, from The Field, that he frequently saw, in 1868, at one time more 

 than a score skimming over a bed of common garden valerian ; and that " while 

 the moths were busy on the wing the caterpillars of the same species, full 3^ius. 

 long, and 2^ins. in girth, were feeding on the leaves below." This is an excellent 

 illustration of how records of observations, not made, get into print. 



