Death's-Head Moth from PortrushAuthor(s): W. M. CrawfordSource: The Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 3, No. 6 (Nov., 1930), p. 133Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25531864 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 12:14

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The IrishNaturalists' Journal.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.73.34 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 12:14:36 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

November, 1930.] 188

bird is a Blue-Winged Teal. Witherby, in A Checklist of British Birds, 1924, gives

" One each England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland," p. 32; so this

is apparently the fifth British and the second Irish record for the species. Mr. Williams agrees with this determination and has asked me to

record it.

National Museum, Dublin. EUGENE O'MAHONY.

CONVOLVULUS HAWK MOTHS IN BELFAST. On 1st September there was brought to me a male Convolvulus Hawk

Moth (Sphinx convolvuli), found on the previous day by Mr. S. T. Irwin,

junior, on a duster hanging in the yard at his father's house in University Square, Belfast. The insect was in perfect condition, and remained so

after an eminent surgeon had chloroformed it!

Then, on 10th 'September, another male of the same species was

brought to the Belfast Municipal Museum by Mrs. M. E. C&rleton, who lives on the Lisburn Road. She had disturbed it on the evening of the

9th when, examining an inverted pot placed on top of a stake among plants and secured it with a cloth. Mrs. Carleton told me that the previous week her husband had found an "exactly similar moth" in a garden in Osborne Park, which he unfortunately destroyed.

Is at possible that these three specimens, all found in, the game district, could be the progeny of the female captured last year in front ^f the

Assembly's College, now being used as the home of the Parliament of Northern Ireland (/.2W.,"vol. II., p.247), only a few yards front: the

University Square specimen? Details of the life history of this moth are extremely meagre,- and

larvae are but rarely found, even in England. It is not common in Ireland. Rev. W. F. Johnson reported (Entomologist, vol, 62, p. 225) the capture of a fine specimen at Rostrevor on 7th September, 1929, this

being, so far as he was aware, the first recorded since 1917, when the insect was observed at Antrim, and at Movallen, Co. Down (Irish Naturalist, vol. XXVII., p. 12).

' W. M. CRAWFORD.

Orissa, Marlborough Park, Belfast.

CONVOLVULUS HAWK MOTHS IN COUNTY CORK. Convolvulus Hawk Moths {Sphinx conrolvuli) were unusually numerous

in the garden here last August and September. About thirty were cap tured and as many more observed during these two months.

The moths were very partial to tobacco flowers {Nicotiana affinis) but were also attracted by t'he blossoms of Penstemonf white Lychnis, Phlox, LohPlia and Lilivm auratinm.

Timoleague, Co. Cork. G. E. LUCAS.

! DEATIUS-HEAD MOTH FROM PORTRUSH.

On 18th September Mr. F. H. Christian, of Ranelagh, Co. Dublin, brought to the Belfast Municipal Museum a fine specimen of the Death's

Head Hawk Moth (Acherontia atropos L.) which he had found on, a

window-sill in Portrush on the 12th.

Belfast. W. M. CRAWFORD.

[Mr. Christian kindly presented the insect to the Museum collections.

?Erf.i

SMALL COPPER BUTTERFLY.

On 15th August last I caught, in my garden here, a Small Copper {Heodes phlceas) which has the left forewing very markedly paler than the

right, being especially bleached in the outer and inner marginal areas. In addition this specimen is ab. cozndeo-jmnctata Stgr., having four well

marked blue spots on each hindwing.

.-Orissa, Marlborough Park, Belfast, W, M. CRAWFORD,

This content downloaded from 62.122.73.34 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 12:14:36 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions