i860. 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



49 



are pretty sure to be detected if present at any worked locality, because 

 they feed in exposed places, in full blaze of the sun." 



Now I think I can offer very good proof that the imagines of D. 

 galii were at Deal and St. Margaret's Bay, probably days before Mr. 

 F. Oswald took his first moth flying at the flowers of Echium vulgare. 

 Mr. J. T. Williams wrote me " together " (i.e.) Mr. Oswald and himself, 

 " we took 1 8 or 20 specimens, but most of them passe, and all but one, 

 females, that I took." My friend Mr. Williams called on me about 

 the 26th August to try to arrange a trip into Suffolk. When I told 

 him, I was going to Deal on the 29th and hoped to get D. galii larvae, 

 he said I should be two or three weeks too soon, as his ova, had only 

 quite recently hatched and that it would be useless to search for them 

 whilst so small. But as a result I went to Deal on the 29th of 

 August and on the 30th Mr. G. T. Porritt and I found 3 small galii 

 larvae and on the 31st we took some larvae very nearly full fed. Two 

 days later on the Deal sand hills 1 took several quite full fed larvae, 

 proving beyond a doubt that the moths must have been in that 

 locality some time before Messrs. Williams & Oswald had the good 

 fortune to capture some of them. Mr. William's larvae were quite 

 small when I had a good number in pupae ! ! This I think settles the 

 point of date, as that may be purely accidental. But the marked 

 difference of size of the caught imagines when compared with any or 

 all the bred English examples remains a stumbling block to the "lying 

 over" theorists. Did any one ever know a Deilephila pupae to 

 remain two years in pupa ? I never did. I have had some species, 

 two or three years in pupa, as Petasia nubeculosa, etc., but I never 

 had a Hawk Moth lie over, and I think it would be most unusual for 

 them to do so. 



I have had measurement of caught and bred imagines sent me 

 from all parts, and all agree that our English form, is a weakened and 

 smaller insect than those caught specimens that preceed what we 

 know as galii years. A few of these large Continental immigrants get 

 caught, but very many more escape, deposit their ova and we find for 

 one year, quite a lot of larvae, but what of the second year : rarely, or 

 never do we get two good galii seasons in succession I Yet mark you, they 

 are remarkably free from parasites. I did not find one so attacked : 

 but they fail to hold their ground here and the reason is not hard to 

 see, it is the want of sunshine that weakens the larvae and they get 

 dwarfed, or fail entirely to produce moths, or else only infertile ones. 



