12G Some Notes on the Breeding of the Acheroniia Atropos. 



added others to them as soon as I thought the chrysalis shell was 

 hard enough to bear the warmth I wished to subject them to. 



My incubator consisted of a crock, some four inches deep, and 

 twelve across. In the bottom of this I placed a layer of gravel, as 

 drainage, and then on that placed two inches of fresh moss, on 

 which I laid the pupse, covering them up with damp moss on the 

 top. This moss I took out every second or third morning, and 

 soaked' it well in quite hot water, replacing the chrysalides on it 

 directly it was cool enough to do so ; and by the way in which they 

 invariably waggled their tails and wriggled themselves into a 

 comfortable position they said, as plainly as they could, " Now I 

 feel very comfortable indeed." Over the moss I placed a largish 

 bell glass, about 1ft. span and 15in. high. This I always placed 

 inside my dining-room fender ; taking the precaution to put a thick 

 piece o£ brown paper on the fire side of the glass, to prevent them 

 from any chance of being scorched. The whole apparatus 1 turned 

 round every now and then, to keep one side as warm as the other. 

 In about a fortnight the pupse began to change colour ; and as soon 

 as I noticed this, I placed a tripod of rough sticks inside the glass 

 for the moths to climb up upon directly they emerged, as otherwise 

 they could not assume the upright position, which is so necessary 

 for the growth and development of their wings ; for the moisture 

 from the body of the moth at once begins to run down into the 

 cellular tissues of the wings, causing them to grow with the most 

 marvellous rapidity. In twenty minutes the wings (which, when 

 first hatched out, are but the size of the wing-cases in the chrysalis, 

 i.e., from a quarter to half-an-inch,) attain to a length of two inches 

 or more ; the span of an averagely fine female moth being five inches 

 when the wings are expanded to their full size. The largest specimen 

 of Acherontia Atropos which I have ever come across is one which 

 was captured by Mr. E. Hart, the well-known naturalist, of Christ- 

 church, who curiously caught it on a tombstone in the churchyard 

 of that place (a singularly appropriate resting-place many people 

 would think), and its wings measured a span of seven inches, which 

 I need not say is an extraordinary size, even for this species. This 

 wonderfully quick development of the wings is one of the most 



