THE PRIVET HAWK (_Sphinx ligustri_).
A specimen of the female sex is figured on Plate 12. The white clouding or
mottling on the pale brown colour of the fore wings varies in intensity and
is sometimes tinged with pink, especially at the base of the wings; often
it is only noticeable at the tips of the wings and on the outer area; the
blackish suffusion from the inner margin through the central area and the
black streaks between the veins are rather more constant. On the hind wings
the pinkish tinge between the black bands may be faint or entirely absent;
the central black band varies in width, and is sometimes so much expanded
that it absorbs the basal half of the first band.
When full grown the caterpillar measures about three inches in length and
has a very substantial appearance. It is of a pretty green colour, with
seven oblique white stripes, each of which has a purplish front edging; the
spiracles are yellowish. The head is rather more grass green and marked
with black in front. The curved horn is blackish on the upper side and
yellowish below. The colour of the caterpillar in its younger stage is
yellowish, due to the presence of yellow dots, it also has some tiny hairs;
the horn, which is bristly and slightly forked at the tip, is a conspicuous
feature at this age on account of its length and dark colour as compared
with that of the creature itself. Just before changing into the chrysalis,
a brownish tinge is assumed, and very rarely caterpillars of a pinkish or
purplish tint have been found.
It feeds on privet (_Ligustrum vulgare_) in July and August; often to be
seen resting on the upper part of the longer sprays of the food plant.
Sometimes a dozen or more may be found on one short strip of privet hedge.
They are much subject to the attack of ichneumons. Other food plants are
lilac, ash, lauristinus, and some other shrubs. Mr. Step informs me that on
{34} August 18, 1907, he found three larvæ feeding on teasel at Ashtead.
The caterpillar will burrow some depth underground before constructing its
pupal chamber. The chrysalis, which is reddish, or blackish-brown in
colour, is figured with the other stages on Plate 13.
The moth usually emerges the following June or July, but there are at least
two records of its remaining in the chrysalis during two winters.
The southern portion of England appears to be the principal British home of
this moth. It is more or less scarce in the midlands and northwards. In
Scotland it has only been recorded from southern counties, and in his
"Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of Ireland," Kane states that he has no
certain record of its occurrence in that country. Widely distributed
through central and southern Europe, extending northwards to south Sweden
and Finland, and eastwards to Amurland, China, and Japan.
THE PINE HAWK (_Hyloicus pinastri_).
Stephens, writing of this species in 1828, remarked that about thirty years
before that date, a specimen "was taken in June at Colney Hatch Wood, and a
second in the neighbourhood of Esher." He also gives Rivelston Wood, near
Edinburgh, as a locality, on the authority of Dr. Leach. A specimen was
stated to have been seen in Cumberland in 1827 or 1828, and up to the year
1877 four other examples were reported, each from a different part of
England. In the year last mentioned a specimen was recorded from
Woodbridge, Suffolk, as taken in a rectory garden the previous midsummer
(since ascertained that the moth was first seen there in 1875); an example
was also found at rest on a tree trunk at Tuddenham, near Ipswich, in July,
1877, and one was reared on August 5, 1876, from a {35} chrysalis found
near Horham Rectory, Wickham Market, Suffolk. In 1878-9, caterpillars were
met with at Leiston, Suffolk; the moth was found in the pine woods around
Aldeburgh, 1881, and as many as forty specimens were taken in July and
August, 1882, and rather more than twenty in August, 1919. In 1895, Lord
Rendlesham, when driving through the fir woods in the neighbourhood of
Woodbridge, noted two specimens in almost the same spot where he had taken
some moths in 1892-93. Mr. F. Mellusson, writing from this district (August
2, 1895), stated that fifteen specimens had been taken, and that others
could have been captured; also that about one hundred larvæ were then
feeding in confinement. He also mentioned that 1895 was the fourth year out
of five that the insect had occurred there. A male moth was found at rest
on an oak trunk near Southwold, Suffolk, on July 29, 1900. On August 13,
1906, the Rev. A. P. Waller saw a worn specimen on a pine trunk in the
rectory garden at Woodbridge. He also noted a pupa on September 30, 1917.
(Plate 12, Fig. 2.)
The mature caterpillar, which feeds on pine needles, is green, with a
yellowish-edged reddish line along the middle of the back and a creamy line
on each side of this; the interrupted line below the reddish spiracles is
yellowish or ochreous. Head yellowish brown; horn blackish brown; both are
glossy. It enters the earth and there turns to a reddish brown chrysalis;
this is rather glossy, somewhat darker above than below, and appearing
blackish between the rings; the rough "tongue" sheath is short and attached
throughout to the case; the tail spike is roughened, and has a blunt point
on each side of it (Plate 11, Figs. 3, 3a).
It has been recorded that caterpillars hatched from the egg early in
August, pupated in October, and the moths emerged the following May-July.
The perfect insect sits upon tree trunks, chiefly pine, often well within
reach, although sometimes its position is fourteen or {36} fifteen feet up
the trunk. At night it visits flowers, and seems to be most partial to
those of the honeysuckle.
Suffolk seems to be the British home of this species, but odd specimens
have been reported since 1860 from Romsey, Hampshire; Hinton St. George,
Somersetshire; Herefordshire; Isle of Mull (two caterpillars); and
Bournemouth.
The range of this species is through Northern and Central Europe southwards
to Northern Spain and Italy, and eastward to the Caucasus. In Japan it is
represented by var. _caligineus_, Butler, which differs but little from
typical _pinastri_.
THE SPURGE HAWK (_Deilephila_ (_Hyles_) _euphorbiæ_).
The fore wings are pale grey, more or less tinged with pinkish and marked
with olive at the base, towards the middle of front margin, and a tapered
band running from the inner margin to the tip of the wing; the lower part
of the basal patch is blackish. Hind wings pinkish with black basal patch
and a band before the outer margin; a white patch at anal angle (Plate 15,
Fig. 1).
The caterpillar feeds, August and September, on spurge (_Euphorbia
paralias_, and _E. cyparissias_). When full grown the head is crimson red,
marked on the crown with black; the body is black, but so thickly sprinkled
with yellow dots that much of the black colour is obscured; the larger
spots are often crimson, but sometimes they are yellow, or even cream
coloured; the stripes along the back and below the yellow spiracles are
crimson, as also are the legs and feet; the spiny horn is crimson with a
black tip. In a younger stage the head and the horn are orange, the latter
black tipped; the body is yellow with patches of black around the paler
yellow spots on the back. Chrysalis pale brownish, minutely dotted with
black; the head and thorax are marked with blackish, and the rings of the
body have narrow, interrupted, blackish bands; the wing and antennæ cases
are covered with fine short blackish streaks; tail spike blackish, somewhat
flattened, and the acute point black (Plate 1, Fig. 1; 14, Figs. 2, 2a).
[Illustration]
Pl. 14.
1, 1a. BEDSTRAW HAWK-MOTH.
2, 2a. SPURGE HAWK-MOTH.
_Caterpillars and chrysalids._
[Illustration]
Pl. 15.
1. SPURGE HAWK-MOTH.
2. BEDSTRAW HAWK-MOTH.
3. STRIPED HAWK-MOTH.
{37} The moth usually emerges in June or July of the year following
pupation, but it may come out the same year; on the other hand, it has been
known to remain in the chrysalis for two winters. Dr. Chapman has noted the
emergence of the moth eighteen days after the pupa was formed.
Little, if anything, appears to have been known of this species as an
inhabitant of Britain until 1806, when Mr. Raddon, who was staying at
Instow, in N. Devon, had a caterpillar brought to him by a fisherman. From
that time, and up to 1814, a large number of the caterpillars were obtained
from _Euphorbia paralias_ growing on Braunton Burrows, a long stretch of
sandhills on the north Devonshire coast, accessible from Barnstaple or
Ilfracombe, which, when I visited the locality some twenty-five years ago,
was greatly favoured by rabbits. One would suppose that the Spurge Hawk
caterpillars must have been pretty abundant at the time Raddon made his
observations, as he states in a note on the subject published in the
Entomological Magazine for 1835, that on leaving the ground one evening at
dusk he hastily cut an armful of spurge, which he took home and put in
water. Next morning he "found the food covered with not less than a hundred
minute larvæ about a day or two old." This must have happened prior to
1814, because the species seems to have entirely disappeared about that
year. The Rev. E. N. Bloomfield, in his catalogue of the Lepidoptera of
Suffolk, mentions a moth bred from a larva found near Landguard Fort about
1865. He adds that the food plant was then abundant there. At a meeting of
the Entomological Society of London held in October, 1876, a letter was
read from Mr. Higgins concerning the reported finding of the caterpillars
of this species in a locality near Harwich in 1873. It was stated that the
spurge (_Euphorbia paralias_), had not only been {38} seen in the
particular spot, but in other parts of the same district also.
In the _Entomologist_ for 1893 there is a very circumstantial account of
the finding of eighteen or nineteen Spurge Hawk caterpillars on the Cornish
coast in the autumn of 1889. From these, eight moths resulted in May-July,
1890, and one in June, 1891.
Although the occurrence of the moth in Britain has been more frequently
recorded, probably in error for the Bedstraw Hawk, there are at least two
that are undoubtedly authentic. One of these refers to a specimen taken in
a private garden near Southampton (_Entom._, 1872), and the other was
captured by the late Mr. C. G. Barrett as it flew at early dusk in a garden
at King's Lynn, Norfolk, in September, 1887. Some idea of the scarcity of
_bonâ fide_ English specimens may be gained from the fact that about
thirteen years ago, two of Raddon's bred specimens were sold by auction at
Stevens, when six guineas was given for one, and ten shillings more for the
other.
Its distribution abroad extends through Central and Southern Europe into
Asia Minor, and it is represented by local races in other parts of Asia.
THE BEDSTRAW HAWK (_Deilephila_ (_Celerio_) _galii_).
On Plate 15, Fig. 2, will be found a portrait of this moth, which the
ancient fathers of British entomology dubbed the "Spotted Elephant"--at
least, Harris, in 1778, figured its caterpillar under this name. Later it
was called the "Galium Hawk-moth." The olive-brown fore wings have a
tapered, creamy-white stripe running obliquely from the inner margin near
the base to the tip of the wing; the lower edge of this stripe is almost
straight, but the upper edge is irregular; the outer margin of the wings is
greyish. Hind wings creamy {39} white, the basal area and a band before the
outer margin black; the space enclosed is blotched, and sometimes tinged
with pinkish red; but the extreme inner portion is almost pure white. Head
and thorax are olive-brown, edged with white; the abdomen is olive-brown,
with a whitish line along the middle of the back, and ornamented with black
and white on the sides.
The full-grown caterpillar varies in colour from greenish olive to pale
olive-brown, reddish brown, or sometimes blackish; the spots on the back
are yellowish, edged with black, but occasionally these are absent. It
feeds in August and September, on the bedstraws (_Galium verum_, _G.
mollugo_, etc.), preferring the yellow-flowered kind that flourishes on
sandhills by the sea (_G. verum_, var. _maritimum_). It can be reared very
well on willow herb (_Epilobium_) and on fuchsia.
When ready for the change it burrows underground, and, where the soil is
sandy and light, it works down pretty deeply before making the frail cell,
in which it turns to a reddish-brown chrysalis with blackish markings,
somewhat similar to those of the next species; the anal spike is blackish,
rather flattened, terminating in a sharp point (Plate 14, Figs. 1, 1a).
Haworth in 1812 mentioned caterpillars from Devonshire, and although single
specimens of the moth seem to have been taken here and there in various
years between that date and 1854, in only one year during that period was
it reported from several parts of the country. This was in 1834, when four
moths were captured in August, and eight or nine others seen at Yarmouth;
caterpillars were also found on the bedstraw growing on the Denes. Odd
examples of the moth were observed that year in Lincolnshire,
Somersetshire, and in the Isle of Wight. In 1855-56, caterpillars were
obtained in August on the sandhills at Deal, and, in September, at
Devonport in the first-named year. A moth was taken in May, 1857, and,
later in that year, specimens were captured at Deal, {40} Brighton, and
Taunton. Three moths were recorded in 1858; and in 1859 caterpillars were
plentiful on the south-east coast, common on the Cheshire coast, also
reported from Devon, Cambs., London, and Darlington; over a score were
found within a short distance of Perth. A good many moths were also taken.
The species was especially abundant in 1870, in which year caterpillars
were collected in hundreds. It seems to have been widely distributed
throughout England, and was again found in Perthshire. Perhaps not more
than three specimens were taken between 1872 and 1888, but in the rainy and
cold summer of the latter year, the moths seem to have invaded the country
in great force, and were reported from many parts of England, and also from
Aberdeen in Scotland, and from Howth in Ireland. Caterpillars, too, were
plentiful on the coast sandhills of Kent, Cheshire, and Lancashire, and
also in the Eastern Counties.
In March, 1889, Mr. Elisha had moths emerge from chrysalids of the previous
year. These had been placed in a temperature ranging from 60 to 70 degrees,
and the moths came out in from fourteen to sixteen days after commencing
the forcing process. Some half a dozen chrysalids that I had in 1888, from
Lancashire caterpillars, were allowed to remain in the earth, which was
contained in a large-sized flower-pot; the moths emerged in May and June,
1889, all but one being perfect specimens.
In 1894 Mr. Harwood obtained five caterpillars on the Essex coast, and in
1897 the Rev. A. Miles Moss found a few, and observed traces of others, on
the Lancashire coast, but, apart from these records, very few moths or
caterpillars of this species appear to have been noted in the country since
1888, and we still await the advent of another _Galii_ year. So far the
periods of scarcity between the seasons of plenty have been twenty-five,
eleven, and nineteen years.
The range of this insect extends through Europe and Asia to {41} Siberia
and Amurland. It is represented in North America by the Galium Sphinx
(_Celerio intermedia_, Kirby = _chamænerii_, Harris), which so greatly
resembles it that only an expert could readily distinguish one from the
other.
THE STRIPED HAWK (_Phryxus_ (_Deilephila_) _livornica_).
Owing to some confusion between this moth (Plate 15, Fig. 3) and the North
American Striped Morning Sphinx (_D. lineata_), which also seems to have
had a place in the cabinets of the earlier British entomologists, the
localities given by authors previous to 1828 are doubtful. Haworth,
however, in 1803, mentions Cornwall, and Stephens, in his remarks on this
species, refers to a specimen from Norfolk; one taken off the mast of the
Ramsgate steam vessel at Billingsgate, in June, 1824; and three specimens,
one of which he figured, captured near Kingsbridge, Devonshire.
In 1846 thirteen of these moths were recorded from various parts of England
and Ireland, and probably many others were in these islands that year.
Between May 12 and 26, 1860, twenty specimens were taken in the south of
England, and more than half of them in Devonshire. In 1862 a specimen
occurred at Worthing on April 16, and one at Herne Hill on April 29; others
were taken between May 2 and May 18 on the south and south-west coasts, and
at Colchester. Over a score of specimens were recorded in 1868, chiefly in
August, and from localities ranging from Cornwall to Yorkshire. The year
1870 was a good one for the species, and moths were reported from England,
Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. Fully fifty specimens were obtained, mostly
in May, and caterpillars were also found. In 1904 the moth occurred in May,
at several places in the south and south-west of England, also in
Gloucestershire, Wales, and at Carlisle; in September of this year a
specimen was taken on the pier at Dover, and another on a small {42}
headland at Barry, in Glamorgan. Some of the early captured females
deposited eggs; caterpillars resulting therefrom were fed on vine, and at
least one moth was reared in September.
A good many specimens visited the south of England, more particularly South
Devon, in June, 1906, but the species was reported as occurring in large
numbers on rhododendron blossom near Cork in Ireland from June 9 to 13 or
14. In August and September the moth was reported from Kent, Sussex, Hants,
Dorset, Devon, Somerset, and South Wales; such specimens probably being the
offspring of the early immigrants. During the past forty years the barren
seasons for the Striped Hawk appear to have been only ten. The dates of its
occurrence have been somewhat erratic. One was captured in 1887 in the
month of February, one on March 27 in 1903, but the moth has been observed
in each month from May to September inclusive, although May, June, and
August would seem to have been the more favoured. The caterpillar has not
been seen often in England. Mr. Farn recorded six or seven from Ryde in
July, 1870; they were feeding on vine and centaury in a garden. One spun up
in the leaves at the bottom of the box on July 27, but the web was so
fragile that the caterpillar fell out, and changed to the chrysalis state
on the 30th. The moth emerged on August 26. In the same year several
caterpillars occurred in Devon and Cornwall, and one of these was found on
July 11 in a mangold-wurtzel field in the Exeter district. It was
afterwards reared on fuchsia, and produced a moth on August 18. Nine others
were reported from a nursery garden at Plymouth; they were fed up on
dock--the plant upon which they had been found--and the moth was reared
later in the year. In 1902 Mr. Jäger received a caterpillar from Starcross
about July 20, and this attained the moth state on September 27. A
caterpillar, believed to be of this species, was found in a sunny garden at
Lewes in Sussex, July 20, 1906. {43}
According to Hellins the eggs are light green in colour, and the
caterpillars hatch out in about three weeks. When it first emerges from the
egg-shell the caterpillar is dirty white without spots, and the head and
horn are black. The adult is dark green or black dotted with yellow; three
yellow lines on the back and two rows of black-ringed yellow spots, with
some black spots above them; each yellow spot is tinged with pink on the
upper portion. Head black, marked with yellow; horn reddish, with the tip
black. Sometimes the rings of the body are banded.
It feeds in June and July on vine, fuchsia, dock, and probably other
plants. It may be noted that the foliage of house vines are stated to be
unsuitable food. The blossoms of numerous plants are visited by the moths
in the evening, among which are delphinium, petunia, honeysuckle, tobacco,
rhododendron, valerian, and silene.
In the daytime it has been found resting on walls, windows, and also the
curtains; on grass turf, railway metals, fences, and on plants and shrubs.
The distribution of this species is somewhat similar to that of the
Silver-striped Hawk-moth, but it extends into Western China and is
represented in North America.
THE SILVER-STRIPED HAWK (_Hippotion (Chærocampa) celerio_).
Referring to this species in 1828 Stephens wrote: "The first recorded
specimen of the perfect insect was taken flying in Bunhill-fields
burying-ground so long ago as 1779: and the specimen now exists in a high
state of preservation in Mr. Haworth's collection, having been purchased by
him at the dispersion of that of Mr. Francillon. Subsequently to the above
capture the larvæ have been found several times in Cambridgeshire.... Two
or three were also taken about fifteen {44} or sixteen years since in a
garden at Norwich, and were kept until they changed to pupæ; but
unfortunately, in that state their metamorphosis ended. One of these pupæ I
have in my collection. Of late, however, the perfect insect has occurred
more than once, and in totally different parts of the country. Three
specimens, as I am informed by the Rev. F. W. Hope, were taken near Oxford
several years ago. In August, 1826, an injured one was found resting on a
wall near Birmingham; and last summer a second was secured not far distant
from the same locality; the latter I have in my possession. Again, Mr.
Marshall informed me in March last, that, on his way to Manchester, he met
with an individual who possessed upwards of a dozen living pupæ, which were
procured from larvæ found in that neighbourhood during last season."
Humphrey and Westwood mention a specimen taken in Brighton in 1834, and in
1846 eight moths were obtained. Something like one hundred and twenty-five
specimens of this species have been recorded between the year last quoted
and the present time. Of these only one occurred in Ireland. This was a
specimen taken at light on September 17, 1881, at Mullaghmore, County
Sligo. Several were captured in Scotland, and one in Wales; but the bulk
were obtained at various places in England, not in the south only but in
the north also. The majority were met with in the autumn, but a specimen
was reported as taken in May, 1848, at Harlestone, another in March, 1862,
at Tooting, and a third in the Isle of Anglesea, July, 1865. In the
last-named year nine specimens were captured in the autumn. Doubleday
recorded a caterpillar found in a garden at Epping (October, 1867), and
other caterpillars have been reported from Newmarket and Sussex.
At least one example of the moth has been recorded almost annually since
1846, but captures seem to have been more numerous in 1861, 1866, 1870,
1879, 1881, and especially so in 1885. The caterpillar (figured on Plate 1)
varies in ground colour, which may be pale brown, dark brown, or green.
There is a black line along the middle of the back, and a pinkish brown
stripe on each side; the latter runs from the ring next the head to the
horn, but is interrupted on ring four, and the back from this ring to the
horn is covered with linear dots arranged in more or less regular rows; the
underside is thickly sprinkled with black-ringed white dots; on each side
of ring four there is a conspicuous oval mark made up of a blackish outer
ring, an inner ring of yellowish, and one of reddish; the centre is
blackish, with some yellowish dots upon it. Head small, pale brown; horn
blackish and rather rough.
[Illustration]
Pl. 16.
1. OLEANDER HAWK-MOTH.
2. SILVER-STRIPED HAWK-MOTH.
[Illustration]
Pl. 17.
ELEPHANT HAWK-MOTH.
_Egg, natural size and enlarged; caterpillar and chrysalis._
{45} It feeds on vine (_Vitis vinifera_) and yellow bedstraw (_Galium
verum_); also on fuchsia and virginia-creeper (_Ampelopsis_). August and
September are given as months for this caterpillar, but the Newmarket and
Epping examples referred to were taken in October.
The moth seems to visit us chiefly in September and October. It does not
appear to have been so often taken at flowers as at light, or when resting
by day, on a wall or window of a dwelling house or shop, to which it had
been attracted at night by the illumination within. The species has a wide
range through Africa and Southern Asia to Java, Borneo, and Australia. In
Europe it is perhaps only native in southern parts; thence it sometimes
wanders through Central Europe to Germany and Holland. The specimens
visiting our islands may come from the latter country, or possibly in years
of comparative plenty the moths come to us _viâ_ the west coast of Europe.
THE OLEANDER HAWK-MOTH (_Daphnis_ (_Chærocampa_) _nerii_).
The forewings of this handsome moth (Plate 16) are pinkish grey, marbled
with various shades of green and olive brown; some of the marbling edged
with white. Hind wings greyish {46} brown shaded with greenish, with a
whitish, waved cross line. The colours of the head, thorax, and body are
similar to those of the wings.
[Illustration: FIG. 18.