32 DEILEPHILA EUPHOEBIiE. 



was closely at work, and never sulked or shrank when 

 the sun shone on them, or when for closer inspection 

 I took them in my hand ; -only as each matured, and 

 ceased feeding, it grew active and lively, and exhibited 

 its capacity of walking at a great pace for a day or 

 two before settling down to its change. 



The smallest of the four had apparently just under- 

 gone its last moult when it reached me, and it was 

 then just one inch and a quarter in length ; the dates 

 for their making up were respectively August 8th, 

 14th, 17th and 18th. The earliest pupa was figured 

 on the 21st of October, when on searching for the 

 others, the latest larva was found to have died without 

 turning, although it had made a perfect cocoon. 



Emboldened by a former success in forcing several 

 Deilephila galii to perfection in 1870-71, I resolved to 

 hazard the three pupse of euphorbice in a similar experi- 

 ment. 



On the evening of the day in which I had disturbed 

 them, I packed them in the forcing box with moss and 

 placed them at first on the iron plate of a kitchen stove 

 over the boiler ; here the situation was warm through 

 the greater part of the night and quite hot by day, 

 when the bottom of the box was elevated two inches 

 above the hot plate by the aid of two strips of wood 

 on which the box rested; here they were damped with 

 lukewarm water twice a day. On the 23rd of November 

 a fine and perfect moth came from the earliest pupa, 

 but after that my efforts were baffled ; the two remain- 

 ing pupae continued lively but the moths would not 

 appear. I moved the box to a place before my sitting- 

 room fire, but without effect ; and at last I came to 

 the conclusion I ought not to have begun the forcing till 

 the weather had become dry and frosty ; then the heat 

 would have had due effect, but as it was, the great 

 humidity of the atmosphere had prevented this, and 

 sufficient heat had not reached the pupas to develop 

 the imago in them at once. 



After continuing my forcing till the end of December^ 



