THE SPHINGID^. 



103 



\ 



small white dots on the sixth and twelfth segments. The horn 

 is orange-coloured, short, blunt, and curved downwards. Before 

 undergoing the first metamorphosis the caterpillar loses its bril- 

 liant appearance, and becomes brown and dirty yellow in colour. 

 The chrysalis is of a hazel brown, streaked with a darker tint, 

 and a black spot marks the position of the spiracles. The insect 

 attains its full growth in the middle of the summer, and then 

 makes a cocoon in the earth with a small quantity of silk and 

 vegetable refuse, and protects the whole with dead leaves. The 

 sphinx bursts from the chrysalis either in September or October, 

 and is one of the handsomest of the Lepidoptcra. The wings are 

 rather more than four inches across ; the front pair are pale rosy 



\^^,-^..^%=t 





CHRYSALIS OF Chczrocampa nerii. 



grey in colour ; they are marked with large irregular blotches of 

 dull green, more or less intersected with wavy whitish streaks ; 

 the hind wings are purplish brown or black at the base, and 

 shade into a green tint towards the margin. 



The Elephant Hawk, or, as it is called in France, the Vine 

 Sphinx, has two broods in the year ; and the caterpillar, which 

 cannot secrete much silk, does not dig into the ground to under- 

 go its metamorphosis, but makes a small cocoon on the surface 

 by binding together mosses and dry leaves. 



The perfect insect has its body tinted with rose red and 

 worked out with a light green. The light green wings have 

 bands of a most delicate and velvety rose colour upon them, 

 and the hinder pair are of the same general tint, but have a 

 black base and a white fringe. 



Some sphinges are placed, on account of their very long trunks, 



