'During the past few days I have been rung} on the telephone a number of times by people asking me questions about moths they have seen in their gardens.' One lady was sure she had seen a humming bird, and wanted to know if these birds were known occur in this region, or had she made a new discovery? What' she had seen, course, was a humming bird hawk-moth, which are fairly common in Shanghai gardens, Jand may be seen any fine lay hovering over' [such flowers ay zinnias or dahlias, sucking. nectar through their long proboscis, which they usually carry coiled up like a watch spring, but can straighten out at will and insert into the honey-laden tubes of the florets, They certainly "do resemble the birds from which they get their name, but it may be noted that humming birds are confined to the American continents, being found nowhere else in the world. This is by no means the first time I have been informed by people in Shanghai that they have seen' humming birds in their gardens. The other telephone calls I have recently received have all been concerned with Luna moths (Actias selene), by far the largest fand most' beautiful lepidopterons found in th part of China. Of a uniform white colour faintly tinged' with green, these handsome moths have a wing span of about four and a half inches. The hind-wings are adorned with Jong swallow tails while each of the four wings has a crescent shaped spot of a dark maroon colour. It is from these that these moths derive their name. There is also a na row black and maroon band extending along the anterior margin of each fore-wing and across the thorax, which with the abdomen is covered with soft fluffy white scales or feathers looking almost like rabbit's fur. Apparently these moths make their appearance during the latter part of August, when they may be seen footing through the' evening air like ghosts, Indeed, the Chinese call them "ghost moths," which is, perhaps, a better name than ours. The other night, August 24, I found two of these beautiful moths in my garden, They had evidently just emerged from their chrysalises, as they were clinging to foliage close to the ground, and could hardly fly when I first discovered them. I placed them on a shrub in a pot on my verandah where I could watch them in the light irom the drawing room. They remained perfectly quiet for some' time, then, having gained the full use of their wings, they floated away in the dark. While jon this subject I would like to report. that I have now proved the association that lexists between the little butterflies called "blues," which have been congregating in such numbers on my verandah recently, and the ants, which also live there. Ihave discovered the green caterpillars of the former being attended by ants, which were "milking" them of fluid exuded from protuberances on their bodies. These caterpillars are feeding on the eaves of the wood-sorrel, which grows in pots on my verandah in the neighbourhood of several colonies of ants. I discussed this phenomenon in my note of August 26.—a. DE c, 6
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.