THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ing the fruit and inducing rapid decay. They also attack grapes and other 

 sweet fruits. 



The Abbot Sphinx : Thynus Abboiii. 



This very pretty Sphinx moth has in the past been very rarely met 

 with in Canada ; it seems, however, to be gradually spreading and becom- 

 ing more common with us. It was first taken some years a<^o in the 

 neighborhood of Hamilton, and is now reported as quite common there. 



This season a specimen 

 has been captured in 

 London by Mr. J. M. 

 Denton, the first re- 

 corded capture in this 

 neighborhood. 



The caterpillar (see 

 fig. 2) is found on the 

 grape vine and also on 

 the Virginia creeper 

 ( Avipclopsis quill que- 

 folia), feeding on the 

 leaves of both these 

 Fij,'- 2- vines. In color it 



varies from a dirty yellowish to a reddish-brown, marked transversely with 

 fine black lines and longitudinally with patches of dark brown. There is 

 also a dark line along each side. In place of the horn at the hinder 

 extremity of the body which usually adorns the caterpillars belonging to 

 the Sphinx family, there is in this instance nothing more than a polished 

 knob or tubercle. The under side is paler than the upper, with a reddish 

 tinge along the middle. The moth (fig. 2) is xQxy pretty and adorned 

 with soft rich colors. The fore wings are pale brown, variegated with 

 brown of a deeper and richer shade. T!:e hind wings are yellow with a 

 broad blackish border ; both wings are notched on the margin. There is 

 but one brood of the moths each year, and they appear about the time 

 the Lilacs are in bloom in the spring. 



The winter is passed in the chrysalis state. When the larva is full 

 grown it descends to the ground and constructs a rough cocoon on or near 

 the surface in some sheltered spot, and within this changes to a blackish- 

 brown chrysalis. 



