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LARVAE OF SPHINX CONVOLVULI 

 IN YORKSHIRE. 



ARTHUR WHITAKER, 



Saville House, Worsborough Bridge, Barnsley. 



On the 30th August a full-grown caterpillar of the Convolvulus 

 Hawkmoth [Sphinx convolvuli) was found crawling across a 

 road near to Monkton Main Colliery, at Roystone, near Barnsley. 

 Through the kindness of several friends it came into my hands 

 on 1 st September, when I took the following description of it:— 

 Colour uniform bright green, no lighter on under parts. Face 

 green with four fine black stripes, the two centre ones forming 

 a V-shaped mark, with the apex at the mouth. Oblique stripes 

 seven in number, slightly more yellow than ground colour, but 

 only just visible. Spiracles enclosed in black blotch, another 

 black mark bordering the top half of the oblique stripe and 

 continued past it well on to back, there turning down towards 

 tail and running nearly to the angle of the next similar mark ; 

 this black mark was uniformly about one-eighth of an inch 

 broad. Horn long, nearly smooth, much curved, and sharply 

 pointed, in colour bright orange red, tipped with black. Legs 

 black. Claspers green. Length about 3*/, inches, and rather 

 stout in proportion. 



Thinking it possible that where there was one larva there 

 would be others, I took the opportunity of running over to 

 Monkton on the 2nd September on the chance of obtaining 

 another or two ; in this I was not disappointed. After a little 

 trouble I succeeded in finding the place where the first caterpillar 

 had evidently been obtained. The bottom of a rail along the 

 side of a field for some 200 yards was thickly overgrown with 

 the small field Convolvulus (Convolvulus arvensis) ; this was so 

 much eaten that I believe about a dozen of these caterpillars 

 must have fed up there. After a careful search of about two 

 hours' duration I obtained four of them, all about full grown. 



A most interesting feature of the - find' was the great variety 

 of colour exhibited. Of the four I found three were brown, one 

 green ; the latter differed from the one first brought to me, and 

 already described, in the following respects : — The spiracles 

 were narrowly outlined in red as well as enclosed in dark blotch. 

 The general ground colour was lighter. The dark marks were 

 merely borders to the yellow oblique stripes (which were much 



1901 October i. T 



