Pl. 6. EYED HAWK-MOTH. _Eggs, natural size and enlarged; caterpillars and chrysalis._ [Illustration] Pl. 7. EYED HAWK-MOTH. {23} The eggs, which are generally laid singly or in pairs on either side of a leaf, sometimes on a stalk, are yellowish-green in colour. The shell is said to be netted, but under a fairly strong lens this does not show. About four hundred is probably the average number for a female to lay in a state of nature, but they seem not to deposit so many when reared from the egg in confinement. As the moth, except under stress of circumstances, places her eggs on the foliage of trees and bushes in selected positions, the business of egg laying takes about six nights to perform. Even when she is unable to fly she will crawl from twig to twig and glue an egg here and there on the leaves, but rarely more than two on a leaf. On a small sallow bush in my garden, I once counted eighty-four eggs on the lower leaves and the main stem. Green, inclining to yellowish or greyish, is the colour of the full-grown caterpillar. It is roughened with white points, and has seven whitish oblique stripes on the sides. These stripes are edged in front with darkish green and occasionally tinged with violet. The horn is bluish, merging into green towards the dark tip, and roughened with white points. Head triangular in shape, the top pointed; face tinged with bluish. Sometimes bright red spots appear on the sides in some examples of the caterpillar. In the quite young stage the head is usually rounded; the horn, which appears reddish, is about one third the length of the caterpillar. Sallow, willow, and apple are the more general food plants, but poplar and privet have been reported. I have sometimes found the larva on _Salix repens_, and also on crab-apple (_Pyrus malus_). It may be found in July and August. In some years, when the moths emerge in May, caterpillars are found as early as June, and this is followed by the occurrence of the caterpillar again, as a second brood, in August and September. When quite mature the caterpillar enters an inch or two into the soil, and there forms a weak sort of cell in which it shortly afterwards turns to a brown, or blackish-brown, smooth and {24} rather glossy chrysalis. The early stages are figured on Plate 6. The moth usually emerges in June, earlier or later, according to season. Under very favourable circumstances some of the moths will leave the chrysalis in May and give rise to a second generation in July. An unfavourable year, on the other hand, retards emergence, and the moths do not come up until late June or mid-July; such has been the case this year (1907). Generally distributed and by no means uncommon throughout the southern half of England, but somewhat local northwards. It has been recorded from the most southern counties of Scotland, and Kane states that in Ireland it is widely distributed but usually scarce.