LEP1D0PTERA. 227 



Entomologists Sphinx quinquemaculatus, the five-spotted Sphinx. 

 Its tongue can be unrolled to the length of five or six inches, but, 

 when not in use, is coiled like a watch-spring, and is almost en- 

 tirely concealed, between two large and thick feelers, under the 

 head. 



Among the numerous insects that infest our noble elms the 

 largest is a kind of Sphinx, which, from the four short horns on 

 the forepart of the back, I have named Ceratomia* quadricornis, 

 or four-horned Ceratomia. On some trees these Sphinges exist 

 in great numbers, and their ravages then become very obvious ; 

 while a few, though capable of doing considerable injury, may 

 escape notice among the thick foliage which constitutes their food, 

 or will only be betrayed by the copious and regularly formed pel- 

 lets of excrement beneath the trees. They are very abundant 

 during the months of July and August on the large elms which 

 surround the northern and eastern sides of the common in Boston ; 

 and towards the end of August, when they descend from the 

 trees for the purpose of going into the ground, they may often be 

 seen crawling in the mall in considerable numbers. These cater- 

 pillars, at this period of their existence, are about three inches 

 and a half in length, are of a pale green color, with seven oblique 

 white lines on each side of the body, and a row of little notches, 

 like saw-teeth, on the back. The four short horns on their 

 shoulders are also notched, and like most other Sphinges, they 

 have a long and stiff spine on the hinder extremity of the body. 

 They enter the earth to become chrysalids and pass the winter, 

 and come forth in the winged state in the month of June following, 

 at which time the moths may often be found on the trunks of 

 trees, or on fences in the vicinity. In this state their wings ex- 

 pand nearly five inches, are of a light brown color, variegated 

 with dark brown and white, and the hinder part of the body is 

 marked with five longitudinal dark brown lines. A young friend 

 of mine, in Boston, captured on the trunks of the trees a larce 

 number of these moths during a morning's walk in the mall, the 

 past summer, although obliged to be on the alert to escape from 



* Ceratomia, derived from the Greek, means having hortis on the shoulders, a pe- 

 culiarity which I have not observed in any other Sphinx. 



