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18 BRITISH MOTHS 
SPECIES 2.—DEILEPHILA GALII. THE SCARCE SPOTTED HAWK-MOTH. 
Plate iv, fig. 4—5. 
Synonymes.—Sphinx Galii, Hiibner, Sphing. pl. 12, fig. 64; | 12,23 Wood, Ind. Ent. t. 4, f. 15; Duncan, Brit. Moths, pl. 7, 
Haworth, Ent. Trans., 1, pl. 4; Harris, Aurelian, pl. 44, fig. b | f. 2. 
(caterpillar) ; De Geer, Ins. 1, pl. 8. Hyles Galii, Hiibner (Verz. bek. Schm.) 
Deilephila Galii, Ochsenheimer ; Leach ; Stephens, Il, H. 1, pl. . 
This species is very closely allied to D. Euphorbiz, and is with difficulty discriminated from that beautiful 
species, although unquestionably distinct. The expansion of the fore wings is three inches or rather less ; and 
their ground-colour is dark brown, tinged with olive or green, having a somewhat broad irregular bar of a pale 
yellowish colour, extending from near the base of the inner margin to the apex ; two branches of the same colour 
extend from the front edge of this bar, and run obliquely towards the costa. The apical margin is ashy, the inner 
edge of this colour being irregular ; a fine white edging extends along the inner margin of the wing. ‘There is 
also a white and a black spot at the base of each wing, the latter bordered with white, and a small discoidal patch 
of long whitish hairs. The hind wings are clouded with bright rosy-red, with the base, and a bar running parallel 
with the hinder margin, black. The head and thorax are dark brown, slightly margined with white at the sides; and 
the latter is paler behind. The abdomen is brown, with two black bars at the base, interrupted in the middle, 
and succeeded by white bars of the same extent; there are also several similar white bars, but more indistinct, 
near the extremity of the body. Along the middle of the back is a row of small white dots, by which the 
species is at once distinguished from D. Euphorbiz, as well as the deeper, more terminal, and blacker band, near 
the margin of the under wing ; but more especially by the broad dusky border of all the wings beneath, which 
in D. Euphorbiz are not bordered at all.. The antenne are brown, with the tips white ; and the under side of 
the thorax and abdomen is tinged with green. 
The caterpillar is of an olive-green colour, with a yellow dorsal line, and a row of yellow pear-shaped spots, 
bordered with black on each side of each segment. The spiracles are yellow, and there is a line of the 
same colour above the legs; of which latter the fore ones are black, and the pro-legs flesh-coloured, It 
feeds on several species of Galium, such as the wild madder (G. mollugo), the yellow lady’s-bedstraw 
(G. verum). 
This is a very rare species in this country. The earliest recorded instance of its occurrence is given by 
Farris in the Aurelian, in which he has figured the caterpillar, which was found at Barns-Cray, Kent. He, 
however, mistook it for that of D. Euphorbie. Mr. Haworth possessed a specimen from the cabinet of Captain 
Lindegren; but he also, like Linnzus, long mistook it for a variety of S. Euphorbiz. He, however, figured 
it as distinct in the Entomological Transactions ; having been informed that Colonel Montague, the distin- 
guished ornithologist, had taken the larve of both species in Devonshire, from which he had succeeded in 
rearing the moths. Other instances have been recorded of its capture in Cornwall and Devonshire, as well as in 
the neighbourhood of London, the Isle of Wight, near Warwick and Worcester, Twizel N, B., Cum Wheaton, 
Cumberland; Cramond, near Edinburgh. Mr. H. Doubleday also took it, very early in the morning, in 
August, 1831, hovering over the flowers of Argemone grandiflora. On the Continent it appears widely dis- 
tributed, although most abundant in latitudes south of Paris, being rare near the last-named city. 

