It feeds, at night, in August and September, on bedstraw growing in dry places. It will eat almost any sort of Galium; also willow herb (Epilobium), and purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria).
The chrysalis is pale ochreous brown sprinkled with darker brown; the wing cases and the ring divisions are also darker. The body rings are furnished with reddish hooks. It is enclosed in a cocoon similar to that of the Elephant, and usually is on the ground. The early stages are figured in Plate [18].
The moth, which chiefly affects drier localities than the next species, is on the wing in May and June in the south of England, and June and July in the north. It has a weakness for the flowers of honeysuckle, and spur-valerian (Centranthus), but will take toll in the way of sweets wherever found, even from the sugar patches of the nocturnal collector. Except that it does not appear frequently in the Midlands, the species seems to be widely distributed throughout the country. In Scotland its range extends to Perthshire and Aberdeen; and in Ireland it is found all over the island, and is fairly plentiful in some localities, but especially attached to the coast.
Abroad, its distribution covers nearly the whole of Europe, and eastward to north-eastern Asia Minor, Bithynia, and the Altai.
The Elephant (Chærocampa (Eumorpha) elpenor).
The fore wings are olive brown with two pinkish lines, both shaded with dark olive brown; the first is rather broader than the second, and terminates just above the centre of the wing and near a white dot; the second line runs from the white inner margin to the tip of the wing, and the area beyond it is flushed with pinkish; there is a black mark at the base of the wings and the fringes are pinkish. The hind wings are black on the
basal half and pinkish on the outer half; fringes white. The head, thorax, and body are olive brown marked with pinkish, the thorax being additionally ornamented with white on the sides. The moth is shown on Plate [19], and the early stages on Plate [17].
The eggs are whitish-green in colour and rather glossy. Those I had were laid in June on a leaf of willow herb (Epilobium).
When newly hatched the caterpillar is yellowish white, and paler between the rings; the head is tinged with greenish, and the horn is black. The full-grown caterpillar measures nearly three inches in length, and is rather plump. It is blackish or brownish grey, thickly sprinkled with black dots on the back and more sparingly on the sides; the spiracles are ochreous ringed with blackish, and below them is an ochreous line, which is most distinct on the front rings; on each side of the third to fifth rings there is a round black spot, the second and third pairs enclosing black centred whitish lunules which are sometimes tinged with pink or yellow; the horn is much of the same colour as the body. There is a green form of this caterpillar.
It feeds, chiefly, at night, in July and August, on Epilobium hirsutum and on bedstraw especially the kind (G. palustre), growing by the side of brooks and streams. The chrysalis is palish brown freckled with darker brown, the divisions between the rings and the spiked tail appearing blackish; enclosed in a cocoon formed of earth and sundry fragments of stalks, leaves, etc., spun together with silk and generally on the ground, but sometimes just under the surface.