MANDUCA ATROPOS. 419 



Strangely enough, Leigh notes (Ent. 9 xxxiv., p. 48) that, at Durban, 

 in Natal, the larvae are almost all of the brilliant yellow form, but the 

 larva is, at least in Europe, really more or less polymorphic, and the 

 ground colour extends in various individuals from bright yellow to 

 black [larvae of this latter hue having been found (teste Rambur) several 

 times near Cadiz], and the greatest variation exists in the markings 

 of the different forms. Of intermediate forms, too, there are many 

 examples, but Morres, who has had great numbers of larvae, thinks 

 that those obtained in Britain fall roughly into three distinct types, 

 which he describes (Notes on Acherontia atropos, p. 2) as : 



1. Of a rich golden-yellow,* inclining to green on the underparts, with seven 

 diagonal stripes of a purplish-blue towards the base, but ending in a clear pale blue 

 at the apex on the top of the back ; the body, above the stripes, spotted more or 

 less thickly with well-derined black spots ; the thoracic segments of a somewhat 

 clearer yellow with no spots or stripes, the facial disc of the larva bordered by two 

 well-defined black lines. 



2. Of an apple-green* colour (more like the colour of a larva of Sphinx 

 ligustri) ; in many instances the facial disc has no black stripes at all ; but the 

 lateral stripes and spots somewhat similar to the first. 



3. Of a dark umber-brown with cream-coloured stripes edged with a still 

 darker brown ; the thoracic segments of the same creamy colour as the stripes ; the 

 facial disc also being the same though striated on the surface with delicate dark 

 interlacing brown lines. 



Aigner-Abafi also writes ( Illns. Zeits. filr Ent., iv., p. 177) that there 

 are three forms of the larva — (1) Citron-yellow, with blue oblique 

 stripes. (2) Green with similar stripes. (3) Dark brown-grey with 

 white " Halszeichnung." \ The last-named form, he adds, is always rare 

 in Germany, and usually found on Lyeium, whilst those found on 

 potato are, as a rule, green or yellow. In Hungary, he says the 

 three forms may be often found at the same time on Lyeium ; in Italy, 

 at San Remo, the brown-grey larvae are found on Vitex agnus-castns> 

 whilst those on Nicotiana glauca are green (Ent. Zeits. Guben, 

 1897, p. 48). Aigner-Abafi also quotes Wilde (Beschreibung der 

 Raupen, 1861, p. 86) as stating that, occasionally, larvae are found 

 almost entirely blue, and greenish-grey. As before noted, Morres 

 says : " The colours of the different forms of this larva match 

 strikingly with the various growths of the leaves ot the potato — 

 the bright green of the earlier foliage, the yellower tint of the later 

 leaf, while the brown larva matches so exactly with the diseased 

 or decaying foliage, that the untrained eye would never detect it, 

 though possibly directly resting upon it ; the stripes of the larva also 

 amalgamate most wondrously with the lateral ribs in the potato- leaf, 

 carrying out the delusion.'' Rambur connects the black Spanish 

 form of the larva, mentioned above, with Solanum sodomaeum. Of other 

 forms, we note that Bankes describes the capture of several larvae, in 

 1893, one of which was brown and similar to Buckler's fig. 1a, but 

 differing from it in that the front segments showed a delicate pink 

 in place of the white, whilst the body was entirely brown, of various 



* Burrows considers the green and yellow forms to be merely younger and 

 older forms of the same type of larva in its last instar, the green being the 

 younger. 



f Aigner-Abafi. writes [III. Zeits. fur Ent., iv., p. 177): "The last form is 

 somewhat rare; when young- almost entirely black, then usually till the third moult 

 green, but, immediately alter the last moult, light green, becoming dark brown 

 again a few hours afterwards," 



