440 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



1885, two specimens came on board ship when entering the 



English Channel, whilst, on August nth of the same year, a 



specimen came on board when the ship was at anchor off Algiers and 



some few nights later, between Algiers and Gibraltar, one flew on 



board and ran squeaking up his leg. To the same observer 



we are indebted for a most important record ( Ent., xxxvi., p. 192) 



of the capture of a specimen of this insect on the coastguard cruiser 



" Rose," when in the North Sea, off Southwold, on April 28th, 



1903, at 5 p.m., so that it had probably flown on board the previous 



night; he notes that the weather during the night had been fine 



and warm with a light breeze from the south-west, and the ship 



was cruising from 5 to 10 miles off the land. Two other specimens 



were recorded as captured in Britain, in May, 1903.* Considering 



the small number of individuals that must come under the 



ken of lepidopterists, even if a very extensive immigration has 



taken place, owing to the large area of distribution and 



the fact that potato-fields and such like localities will be chiefly 



chosen for settlement!, one is constrained to ask whether these 



three specimens were examples of an immigrating band. The 



cold and wet May and June of 1903 must have been against the eggs 



and larvae if any resulted. An example, taken by Captain Walker 



on the s.s. " Kara " off Shanghai, was exhibited at the meeting 



of the Sth. London Ent. Society, June 14th, 1894, by Manger {Ent., 



xxvii., p. 248), whilst Fothergill writes (Ent. Mo. Mag., xiv., p. 185) 



that, in 1877, one flew on board the steamer " Cameroon" on the 



voyage home from Africa, while off the Cape de Verde Islands. 



Bates records ( Young Nat., v., p. 26) that a specimen was taken on 



board the s.s. " Horace" when about 25 miles off the coast of Algiers 



on the evening of August 26th, 1884. Curtis states (Brit. Ent., iv., fo. 



147) that there were, in Hatchett's collection, several specimens that 



came on board a vessel that was lying at anchor off the coast of Devon, 



about a dozen of them having been knocked down by the sailors. 



Bennington notes (Zoo/., p. 1443) the capture of a specimen on May 



30th, 1846, at sea off the Casket Rocks, Service records one taken midway 



between the Isle of Man and Mull of Galloway, and West says (Ent.,x., p. 



300) that, on October Sth, 1877, an engineer on one of the vessels of the 



Dublin Steam Packet Co , brought a living M. atropos that had alighted 



on deck, when 25 miles from the Irish coast. (On October 6th, 1876, an 



example of Agrius convolvuli alighted on the same steamer.) Clarke 



also notes (in litt.) that specimens have frequently been taken on the 



Manx steamers!, the insects having flown on board, when some distance 



* It may be observed that one of these specimens was captured at Ipswich on 

 May 21st, 1903 (Hocking in iitt.), the other on May 15th, 1903, in a street, 

 at Saltaire {Ent., xxxvi., p. 193). These possibly belonged to the same flight. 



f Tuck notes [Ent. Rec, ix.. p. 265) that, in 1896, when the larvae were 

 so abundant, many were found, in the neighbourhood of Bury St. Edmunds, in 

 several cases, in potato-patches that were far away from fields where any potato crop 

 had previously been. The fact that the eggs must be laid on potato-plants, 

 in the spring or early summer of every year in which the larvae are abundant 

 in autumn, points strongly to immigrant imagines arriving here in May, June, 

 or July — the time of one of the great imaginal emergences in Afiica. 



X This general statement refers to West's record (supra), added to the fact 

 that Clarke saw in a museum at Distington no fewer than 5 specimens of M. atropos 

 that had been taken at different times on Manx steamers when sailing between 

 Douglas and the mainland (in litt.). 



