THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 219 



this category I would refer the remaining genera, Diludia, Amphonyx (a 

 Florida colonist) and Dilophojwta, while Hyloiais belongs to the first 

 category. Daremma, with its three species, Undulosa, Catalpce and 

 Hagcnii, may be rather strictly North American. Its nearest ally is the 

 trojDical Syzygia Afflicta (Cuba) and Pamphilius (Surinam). The 

 rough, mixed gray, sometimes greenish, stout Sphingidce belonging to the 

 genera Diludia, Syzygia and Darenwia (as also Macrosila tett'io) are 

 South American and tropical in their general character. They approach 

 Phlegethontijis in structure and ornamentation, and the series culminates 

 in the gigantic species belonging to Poey's very distinct genus, Amphonyx. 



When we study the Canadian fauna we see that the South American 

 forms tend to become rarer and drop out, whereas the forms of European 

 affinity and strictly North American in character, persist. The condition 

 of our present knowledge warrants the hope that we shall before long 

 attain complete information as to the range of our Hawk Moths, and, by 

 the aid of strict, unprejudiced studies of their structure, comparative with 

 the South American and European forms, arrive at nearly exact conclu- 

 sions as to the origin and progress of this most interesting family of 

 Moths. 



The conclusions, though entirely preliminary and tentative, which I 

 have reached, as above, concerning our Sphingidce, and which in detail I 

 am willing to correct from further evidence, show us at least how deep- 

 reaching the study of the origin of our fauna is, and what vast questions 

 attend the subject of Geographical Distribution. It cannot be doubted 

 that the study of our fauna, pursued in this way, gains in importance. 

 The small links in the chain of eternal causation must be delicately 

 handled and much must remain a matter of opinion, but always of intelli- 

 gent opinion. Dogmatism is ridiculously out of place in all scientific 

 studies, and nowhere is it more absurdly useless than in dealing with But- 

 terflies and Moths, these frail structures which have hardly left an impres- 

 sion behind for all the aeons they have flitted about this globe. Sipping 

 the honey from the flower-cups, they have found their sudden grave most 

 often in the stomach of some insectivorous vertebrate, and this may in 

 one way account for the few fossils we find of them. But a variety of 

 causes contribute to this result, and the imperfection of the geological or 

 palaeontological record with regard to the Lepidoptera, entirely prevents 

 our making tables of descent, such as have been prepared for so many of 



