THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCES. 
117 
tioD, and then stuff them with cotton 
wool; but in performing this operation 
upon the home-bred females, numbering 
twenty-six of the fiity already mentioned, 
not an egg, or even the vestige of one, 
could I discover, though I examined 
them with a strong microscopic power. 
I have continued entomological pur- 
suits irom the year 1820, and have only 
known three prolihe seasons of Acherontia 
Atropos previous to the last, which has 
by far exceeded all the others in a most 
remarkable degree. 1 had in each of 
those seasons from about eighteen to 
twenty-five larvae and pupae, and usually 
bred two-thirds of the number: I opened 
my first lot in the year 1826 (the driest 
summer in this country upon record), and 
I have continued to do so until the pre- 
sent time, and 1 perl'ectly well recollect 
that I never found an egg in any one 
/tome-bred A. Alropos. In my rambles 
after pupae during the last autumn I fre- 
quently interrogated the potato-diggers 
as to whether they had found any such 
things; some of them replied that they 
had, but did not recollect ever seeing 
such “ queer -looking things” before. 
“And what be ’em lor? be ’em fit to 
ate?” asked one. “No, no!” answered 
another, “ they baint to ate ; I knows 
what ’em be ; they be squirts !” “ Squirts !” 
I exclaimed, “ why do you call them 
squirts?” “ Oh ! why we catches hout of 
’em in our hands, and gives ’em a smort 
squeedge, and out flies the stuff all over 
one another! We squirted ’em at one 
another when I was at work last week at 
Eershore.” So that, from the information 
1 received, it appears that, instead of ball- 
cartridges, a large number of Death’s 
Heads were discharged by the several 
combatants who were engaged in this 
petty warfare. This was, indeed, suffi- 
cient to induce any tender-hearted ento- 
mologist either to join the Peace Society 
or endeavour to quell all such hostilities 
in future, since so many valuable lives 
had already been sacrificed. 
In addition to the number previously 
stated that I had alive in my possession, 
I must have had upwards of thirty dead 
ones brought and offered to me ; so that 
far above two hundred larv® and pupte 
must have fallen into the hands of the 
several collectors in Worcester. I had 
one very singular variety of the larva 
brought to me, which was found within 
this city : the three anterior segments 
were pure white, with beautiful black 
chequered markings so far on the back, 
sides and head ; from thence to the poste- 
rior extremity the ground-colour was a 
reddish brown, with lateral stripes of blue 
and white ; the back, from the white 
portion to the tail, had thereon a longi- 
tudinal row of large diamond-shaped 
markings, with tricoloured marginal lines 
of lilac, while and blue. I expected I 
had got something new to our Lepi- 
doptera, and was anxious to make a 
drawing of it, but it buried itself almost 
immediately I put it into the box, on the 
4th of August: eventually it produced a 
fine female A. Atropos. 
I have observed that, almost without 
exception, the moths have emerged some 
time during the night. When I hap- 
pened to sit up till midnight or later I 
have several times heard them creeping 
out of the shell and up the sides of the 
box, to the astonishment of the cat, who, 
when he was in the room, was ever ready 
for a scramble. I have had five out at 
one time in the same box, and have fre- 
quently allowed one or other to have a 
fly around the room the following morn- 
ing, which they appeared to enjoy: they 
were soon satisfied, and would, while 
uttering their squeaking notes, hastily 
retire and settle in some dark part of the 
room. 
The same kind of sound, though 
fainter (already observed by others), I 
have several times heard emitted from 
the pupae ; the last I heard was by one 
that had not acquired much of the dark 
hue, and this surprised me exceedingly. 
