Insects. 1 509 



" One of those rare and beautiful insects, the Sphinx Atropos, or death's-head moth, 

 was found a few days ago in its caterpillar state, in the garden of Dr. Trotter, at Mor- 

 peth. It is about four inches in length, and one and a half inches in circumference, of 

 a bright green colour, intersected with bands of light yellow. On emerging from its 

 chrysalis, it becomes a moth, the largest and most beautiful of its kind, exhibiting on 

 the top of the thorax the singular appearance of a skull or death's-head. There has 

 none been seen since the warm summer of 1826.* It is generally found among 

 potato plants, on the tops of which it feeds.'' To ascertain the correctness of this, I 

 wrote to a friend, and had the following answer : " Dr. Trotter's Sphinx Atropos went 

 into the pupa state on the 30th of July; length six inches, circumference two inches 

 and three quarters, in the caterpillar. Mr. March has ten caterpillars, in chrysalis ; 

 Mr. Fenwick has twenty-five ; Mr. Carse has a very large one, and is feeding it upon 

 potato tops ; and there are several more in the town. Morpeth, Thursday, August 

 13*A, 1846." This, he kindly accompanied by one of the caterpillars, of something 

 like four inches in length, and which took the earth the day after I received it. G. 

 Wailes, Esq. has received a caterpillar from Stanington, a village four miles south 

 of Morpeth. — Thomas John Bold ; 42, Bigg Market, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, August 

 17th, 1846. 



Occurrence of Sphinx Convolvuli at Camberwell and near Faversham. — One speci- 

 men found on the 2nd of September, in a garden at Camberwell, was brought to me in 

 the evening of that day. Seven other specimens were taken in June last by a friend, 

 (Mr. Griffith), near Faversham, Kent, by mothing. — J. F. Stephens ; Eltham Cot- 

 tage, Brixton. 



Occurrence of Sphinx Convolvuli at Clonmel and Dunmore. — Within about two 

 weeks I have met with two specimens of Sphinx Convolvuli here, and as many more at 

 Dunmore (county Waterford), I have seen some more which were not captured. One 

 of the former, which, I myself caught, was hovering about a woodbine in front of a cot- 

 tage there, and several more were seen in similar places. — Robert Davis, Jun. ; 

 Clonmel. 



Occurrence of Sphinx Convolvuli near Norwich. — Upwards of fifty fine specimens 

 of the Sphinx Convolvuli have been captured at Harleston, in this county during the 

 warm evenings, near the end of August last; though an insect of daring and rapid 

 flight, they were taken without difficulty whilst hovering about a large honeysuckle. — 

 Charles Muskett ; Norwich, September 18th, 1846. 



Occurrence of Sphinx Convolvuli near Epping. — About the middle of August a 

 number of specimens of this insect made their appearance in this neighbourhood. I 

 captured upwards of forty over three or four Petunias. The greater portion of them 

 were more or less worn when I first observed them ; and not a single female had any 

 eggs in the abdomen, not even those which were tolerably perfect. It is very singular 

 that this species should have appeared in such profusion all over the kingdom, and yet 

 no larva? were observed by any one, so far as known. — Henry Doubleday ; Epping, 

 September 20th, 1846. 



Occurrence of Sphinx Convolvuli at Cambridge. — Upwards of sixty specimens of 

 the Sphinx Convolvuli have been taken by the collectors in the town and neighbour- 

 hood, from about the 16th of August up to the middle of September, chiefly by swe.et- 



* The writer of this, (most probably not an entomologist) is in error here, as the 

 recorded and other instances of its capture will testify. — T. J. B. 



