Sphingidae 
“telescoping” into orte another, and the anterior portion of the 
body being often raised, as illustrated in Plate I, Figure i. It is 
alleged that the habit of assuming this posture, suggesting a 
resemblance to the Egyptian Sphinx, prompted the application 
of the name to these creatures. The larvae are not gregarious, 
but feed solitarily upon their appropriate food-plants. 
Some forms pupate in a cell deep under the soil, others spin 
a loose cocoon among damp fallen leaves and pupate at the sur¬ 
face. The pupae are as remarkable as the larvae. A few genera 
have the proboscis enclosed in a sheath which is separate along 
the greater portion of its course from the adjacent wall of the 
body. This is illustrated in Figure 22. 
Fig. 22. —Pupa of Protoparce quinquemaculatus. (After Riley.) 
The Hawkmoths of the United States and Canada fall into 
five subfamilies, the Acherontiincv, the Ambulicince, the Sesiince, 
the Philampelince , and the Choerocampince. 
SUBFAMILY ACHERONTIIN/E 
Genus HERSE Oken 
(1) Herse cingulata Fabricius, Plate VI, Fig. 3, $, (The 
Pinkspotted Hawkmoth.) 
Syn. convolvuli , var. Merian; ajfinis Goeze; drurcei Donovan; pungens 
Eschsholtz; decolora Henry Edwards. 
This large and elegant hawkmoth, the larva of which feeds 
upon sweet-potato vines and various other Convolvulacece, has 
been confounded by writers with H. convolvuli Linnaeus, which 
it resembles, but from which it is abundantly distinct. The 
latter species is confined to the old world. H. cingulata , the 
only species of the genus occurring in the western hemisphere, 
ranges from Canada to northern Patagonia, and is also found in 
the Galapagos and Sandwich Islands. I have a specimen taken 
at sea in the Atlantic, five hundred miles from the nearest land, 
43 
