1S64.] (ii:, 



Notes on some SPHINGID^ of the State of New York, with Descriptions of 



their Larvae and Pupae. 



By J. A. LINTNER. LTtica. N. Y. 



It is not deemed necessary to offer an apology for presenting in the 

 present paper, descriptions at considerable length of the larval and pu- 

 pal states of our Sphinges. The value of the knowledge of the earlier 

 stages of Insect life has long since been recognized, and is justlv re- 

 garded as of the utmost importance in the proper determination of spe- 

 cies,* and as the only means of effectually preventing the errors which 

 are continually being made of sexes and varieties described as species, 

 and veritable species degraded to simple varieties. 



And beside the mere utility of such knowledge, every faithful stu- 

 dent will welcome each contribution, however trivial, which shall aid 

 the progress of his much loved study, and hasten the day when it shall 

 occupy the advanced ground now held by kindred sciences, when of 

 each insect, — ovum, larva, pupa and imago shall be known, described and 

 figured, and the discovery of a new microlepidopter shall be a triumph. 



Of some of the larvae herein noticed, such features only are men- 

 tioned as had been previously omitted ; several, of which there exist 

 but vague descriptions, are given more fully ; and a few are now de- 

 scribed for the first time. 



Up to the present it has not been possible, from published descrip- 

 tions, to determine the species of a single pupa of our Sphinges ; it is 

 believed that those now given will be found sufficient for their identifi- 

 cation, although an extremely limited range of color and comparatively 

 slight variation of form, permit the presentation of but few prominent 

 characteristic features. 



■*'It having been shown that in Halesidota, Walker (=Lophocampa. Harris), 

 two species {H. A^itiphola Walsh, and H. tessalaris Sm. and Ab.) which are 

 quite distinct in the larva, are undistinguishable in tlie %, and J imago, and 

 that in Dryocampadse two species {Dryocampa bicolor Harris, ar\A Sphingicampa 

 disrigina Walsh), the larvae of which are totally unlike each other, are also un- 

 distinguishable in the % imago, — the importance of carefully studying the larva 

 state of every insect becomes at once apparent. Walmh, in Proceed. BoHon Soc. 

 Nut Hist. Vol. IX. p. 294. 



