302 THE SPHINGINA^ OR HAWK MOTHS. 



abundant of them are those of the genus Smerinthus, 

 to which the common Lime Hawk Moth [S. Tilice) 

 belongs. This common insect_, which appears in the 

 month of May^ measures from a little more than two 

 inches to about three inches in expanse of wing, and 

 is readily distinguished by the strongly notched api- 

 cal margins of its anterior wings. The colour of its 

 body is a pale olive-grey, with a broad olive-green 

 band on each side of the thorax, united in front. 

 The anterior wings are of a rusty-grey colour, with 

 the apical portion light olive-green, and two darker 

 patches of the same colour on the disc ; the extreme 

 apical margin is brownish, and close to the apical 

 angle there is a large whitish patch. The hinder 

 wings are pale brown, with a cloudy blackish band 

 across their hinder margins. The caterpillar lives 

 upon various trees, but principally on the elm and 

 lime, from the latter of which the insect has received 

 its specific denomination. It is of a fine green colour, 

 shagreened with yellow, and with seven or eight ob- 

 lique yellow lines, bordered with red, upon eacli si le 

 of the abdominal segments, the last of which is sur- 

 mounted by a curious pointed horn, curved f)ack- 

 wards, a character which occurs in the larvse of most 

 of the Hawk Moths. The legs in this, as in the 

 other Hawk Moths, are of the same number as in 

 the Butterflies, namely sixteen ; six being true tho-. 

 racic legs, and the other ten abdominal and anal pro- 

 legs. This caterpillar is usually found upon the trees 

 on which it feeds, during the months of August and Sep- 

 tember ; at the close of the latter month it attains its 

 full growth, and then proceeds to the foot of the tree, 

 buries itself in the earth, and changes into a pupa. 

 Of the other species of typical Hawk Moths, which 



