MANDUCA ATROPOS. 439 



M. atropos is a strong flier, for its supposed migrating habits 

 show that it must have a tremendously powerful flight. Bond- 

 Smith notes (Ent. Rec, viii., p. 244) that, on the evening of 

 October 8th, 1896, after a dull cold day, he heard an extraordinary 

 noise in one of his breeding-cages, and found a $ and ? flying 

 madly about, and believes that they would readily have paired had 

 he given them the chance. Pabst thinks (see Ent. Rec, vi., p. 55) 

 that M. atropos exceeds Hippotion celerio, Daphnis nerii and Phryxus 

 livornica in strength and power of endurance, and says that its short 

 tongue enables the insect to feed on exudations from wounded 

 trees, to say nothing of its predatory habits in connection with 

 beehives, so that this species can supply itself with sustenance 

 in this way more readily than its long-tongued allies. Migration 

 habits : That the species is a migrant is assumed on much 

 indirect evidence relating to the life-history of the insect in the 

 more northern parts of its range,* and many points favour this 

 view, but we do not know that there is any sound basis for Grote's 

 statement {Ent. Rec, vii., p. 149) that only the ? sf of this species 

 migrate. Nor is positive evidence wanting. In Loudon's Magazine 

 Nat. History, iv., p. 436, is the record of a specimen of M. atropos 

 flying on board H.M.S. " Ingate," when on a passage up the Mediter- 

 ranean, in May, 183 1, and some 20 miles off the Spanish coast, 

 Cape Palos being the nearest point. There was little wind, and the 

 observer thinks the species was migrating from choice. Rossler 

 notes two specimens coming on board a steamer off Bilbao, 

 twelve English miles from land, and another taken on a yacht 

 between Gibraltar and Malta. Fletcher writes [Ent., xxxiv., 

 p. 245) that, on June 9th, 1901, he caught a specimen on 

 board ship, when at sea between Sardinia and Majorca, and he 

 thinks that it flew on board the night before when not less 

 than 70 miles from land, whilst again (in titt.J, on August 24th and 

 25th, 1 90 1, one was captured each evening, when on passage 

 from Malta to Gibraltar, the specimens having probably come from the 

 Algerian coast which the ship had approached within 8 or 10 miles. 

 Mathew also notes (Ent., xviii., p. 295) that, on August 26th, 



* Aigner-Abafi considers (Zllus.- Zeits. fiir Ent., iv., p. 212) that the life- 

 history of the species in Hungary is rather against the immigration theory, Pech of 

 Budapest, asserting, that there, the imagines never emerge in the autumn, only 

 in the spring, whilst from late October larvae he had never obtained imagines, 

 although Aigner-Abafi, himself, has several times bred imagines in October and 

 November, aud surmises that all larvae, not full-grown at the arrival of the first 

 frosts, must perish. All of which, in our opinion, supports the theory of 

 immigration rather than otherwise. Keferstein insists (loc. cit.) that a species 

 that can hybernate in any stage in a country must be considered indigenous to it. 

 He accepts Pech's statement {supra), as also that of Scopoli (Ent. Cam., p. 

 185), viz., larva September 21st, imago June 10th ; of Kiihn (Natmforscher, 

 ix., pp. 93-4) larva autumn, imago first week in May, as well as the statements of 

 Esper, Ochsenheimer and Godart, that the larvae occur in autumn, the imagines 

 emerging therefrom in autumn or spring, as proving his contention that M. atropos 

 is indigenous. 



t This idea evidently originated with Pabst (see Ent. Rec, vi., p. 55) who 

 states that "pairing, probably, always takes place at the locality where the 

 moth emerges from the pupa ; the more northern captures seem to be 

 always of ? s urged to their lengthy journeys by the necessity for depositing 

 their eggs. The $ s seem to be exhausted by the act itself and consequently 

 to perish at their homes." In our opinion much more evidence is wanted to 

 fully, or even satisfactorily, support such a broad generalisation. 



