MANDUCA ATROPOS. 435 



the vital juices sufficient to prevent the final metamorphosis. 

 Hence the phenomenon of a half-grown parasitic grub being found 

 in the body of a perfect moth. 



Habits. — Scarcely anything is known of many of the imaginal 

 habits of Manduca atropos, e.g., its mode of flight, the duration of its 

 flight, its mode of copulation, habits when egglaying, &c. 

 Time of flight : The evidence we have, points to the species 

 being entirely an evening and night flier, and such records as 

 that made by Birchall (Ent. Mo. Mag., xv., p. 107) of the insect 

 flying in the afternoon, at 3 p.m., must be looked upon as quite 

 exceptional, as must Studd's observation (in litt.) of one flying over 

 a croquet-ground in the daytime at Oxton. Boscher says that he 

 saw one flying at sunset at Twickenham in October, 1859 (Ent. Wk. 

 Int., vii., p. 27). Schroter says ( JVaturforscher, xxi., pp. 76-77) that he 

 found the imagines active only at the dusk of evening or morning, and 

 neither in the dark nor in strong light. Walker records (Ent. Rec, 

 viii., p. 244) that, on September 13th, 1896, he noticed one flying round 

 a chimney-stack at dusk, and that it shortly afterwards flew near the 

 ground and then into an outhouse, where it was readily secured. 

 Resting-places : Its resting-places are varied, and apparently a 

 matter of chance, e.g., on a stone, near Hayton (Armstrong), on 

 a wall, at High Wycombe (Peachell), and at Welbeck Abbey 

 (Rolfe), on the stone steps of a church, at Reading (Holland), 

 on a door-frame, at Lincoln (Musliam), in a cellar, at Ramsey 

 (Clarke), on linen hanging on a clothes-line, at Bramfield (Pyett), 

 &c, whilst a 2 found resting on a potato-stem, at Ringwood 

 (Fowler), one beaten out of ivy in the afternoon at Portland 

 (Sykes), and another crawling over dead leaves, at the foot of a 

 tree, quivering its wings and squeaking, at Ardpeaton, suggest much 

 more natural hiding-places. Pairing : Head notes (in litt.) that 

 it is a most difficult species to pair in confinement, and of five 

 dozen reserved for breeding purposes, in 1901, only one pairing 

 was obtained, viz., in July, and this after the moths had been out three 

 weeks ; the ? was kept five weeks, but she did not develop her eggs, 

 and the 2 s opened showed no signs of egg-development *, whilst 



* Verloren publishes (Alg. Konst- en Letterbode, 1847, pp. 146-147) a 

 somewhat similar experience ; he bred about 20 imagines in September and October, 

 1846, from pupae, got some to pair, but the 2 s died without laying an egg, and 

 he found none in the abdomen on dissection ; from this he concludes that only the 

 imagines that emerge from overwintering pupae are able to propagate the species. 

 Most autumnal -emerging 2 s are asserted [Ent., ii., p. 283) by Newman to be barren, 

 whilst early summer-emerging 2 s from hybernated pupae are said to be full of eggs. 

 He quotes Doubleday in support of these views, the latter stating- that the first 

 pupa he possessed disclosed a 2 in July, and that she was full of eggs, whilst 

 in the autumn of 1846, he had many pupae, 8 or 10 of which produced moths 

 in September-October, all the 2 s bring barren and their abdomina empty. 

 Newman describes the abdomina of these autumnal-emerging imagines as "an 

 empty cylinder containing neither eggs nor ovary," and asserts that "all the ?s 

 bred or captured in June are abundantly prolific " in spite of the fact that he 

 notes Doubleday as " breeding a barren ? that had been more than 12 months 

 in the pupal stage." He further asserts {op. cit.. p. 297) that all "the autumnal- 

 emerging moths are barren ? s, i.e., neither <? s nor egg-laying 2 s," but this is 

 incorrect, many <? s appearing among the autumnal imagines {Ent., ii., pp. 305, 

 325; hi., p. 42, etc.), whilst Andrews gives (E?tt., hi., p. 2) a detailed description 

 of an autumnal-emerging £ , that had quite " normal genital organs, the bulb- 

 like testes being full of active spermatozoa." Other faulty observers have stated 



