228 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



the guardians of the common, whose duty it was to prevent the 

 grass from heing trodden down. Nearly all of these specimens 

 were females, ready to deposit their eggs, with which their large 

 bodies were completely filled. On being taken, they made scarcely 

 any efforts to escape, and were safely carried away. It would 

 not be difficult, by such means, very considerably to reduce the 

 number of these destructive insects ; in addition to which it might 

 be expedient, during the proper season, for our city authorities to 

 employ persons to gather and kill every morning the caterpillars 

 which may be found in those public walks where they abound. 

 From the genus Sphinx I have separated another group to which 

 I have given the name of Philampelus*, from the circumstance 

 that the larvae or caterpillars live upon the grape-vine. When 

 young they have a long and slender tail recurved over the back 

 like that of a dog ; but this, after one or two changes of the skin, 

 disappears, and nothing remains of it but a smooth, eye-like, raised 

 spot on the top of the last segment of the body. Some of these 

 caterpillars are pale green and others are brown, and the sides of 

 their body are ornamented by six cream-colored spots, of a broad 

 oval shape, in the species which produces the Satellitia of Linnaeus, 

 narrow oval and scalloped, in that which is transformed to the 

 species called Achemon by Drury. They have the power of with- 

 drawing the head and the first three segments of the body within 

 the fourth segment, which gives them a short and blunt appear- 

 ance when at rest. As they attain to the length of three inches 

 or more, and are thick in proportion, they consume great quanti- 

 ties of leaves ; and the long leafless branches of the vine too often 

 afford evidence of their voracity. They also devour the leaves 

 of the common creeper (Ampelopsis quinquefolia) which, with 

 those of our indigenous vines, were their only food till the intro- 

 duction and increased cultivation of foreign vines afforded them 

 an additional supply. They come to their growth during the 

 month of August, enter the earth to transform, and appear in the 

 winged or moth state the following summer in June and July. 

 The Satellitia Hawk-moth expands from four to five inches, is of 

 a light olive color, variegated with patches of darker olive. The 



* The literal signification of this word is I love the vine. 



