The Moths and Butterflies 



437 



spots. The double-eyed sphinx, Smerinthus geminatus (PI. I, Fig. 2; also 

 Fig. 625), is a common species whose larvae feed on apple, plum, ash, willow, 

 birch, and other trees; the full-grown caterpillar (Fig. 626) is 2\ inches 

 long, apple-green, with seven oblique yellow stripes on each side of the 

 body and a violet caudal horn. The genus Sphinx (Fig. 627) contains 

 nearly twenty species, all of them soberly patterned with grayish, brownish, 

 and blackish, and most of them expanding more than three inches. 



FIG. 628. Larva of the abbott-sphinx, Thyreus abbotti. (After Soule; natural size.) 



While most hawk-moths have narrow tapering fore wings and a slender 

 tapering smooth-coated body, structural conditions indicating a well-de- 

 veloped flight power, a familiar species, the modest sphinx, Marumba modesta 

 (PI. I, Fig. 4), found all over the country, is hairy, heavy-bodied, and 



FIG. 629. Larva of abbott-sphinx, Thyreus abbotti; note difference in pattern from 

 larva shown in Fig. 628. (After Soule; natural size.) 



broad-winged. The full-grown larvae are 3 inches and more long, whitish, 

 yellowish, and bluish green, with fine white dots all over the skin; the cau- 

 dal horn is short. They feed on " balm-of-Gilead," poplar, and other trees. 

 Another species of unusual shape is the beautiful dark-brown and canary- 

 yellow small tufted-bodied abbott-sphinx, Thyreus (Sphecodina) abbotti 

 (PI. I, Fig. 6), found in the Atlantic and Mississippi Valley states. Its 

 larvae (Figs. 628 and 629) feed on woodbine and grape. They are "ashes- 

 of-rose" color, finely transversely lined with dark brown and with longitu- 

 dinal series of brown blotches. They have a large circular, eye-like tubercle 

 in place of a caudal horn. They may appear in two different patterns as 



