INSECT VARIETY. 53 



and chaotic dawn. They neither in colour as a rule bear the 

 burnish and talismanic impress of the sunlight, or in form do 

 they attain the feathery etherealness of the day fliers; their 

 antennae and various organs seem fairly heavy and moth-like, 

 and moth-like also are the expansile scent pencils of hair that 

 garnish the hind tibiae of the legs of many of the males. 

 Passing to the Burnet kind, a like incarnation of the union of 

 night and day, the males of exotic Glaucopidse have two long 

 retractable filaments, generally beset with hairs, on the ventral 

 side of the abdomen, sometimes emitting a strong odour. 

 Bristling scent pencils, however, are most characteristic of the 

 moths, and these usually distinguish the males, although, being 

 commonly retained in their pouches, their presence is little sus- 

 pected until they have been pricked out with a needle-point; 

 but in the twilight Sphinges, especially quick of nerve, they are 

 sometimes found present in both sexes, and sharp fear, as we 

 touch or grasp the flower-hoverer reposing in diurnal lethargy, 

 will cause their momentary expansion. Thus when the male 

 DeatVs-Head Moth is on the point of squeaking in our fingers, 

 as its abdomen inflates, a sessile pencil of yellow hair stai-ts from 

 a fold between the dorsal and ventral arcs at the base (Plate V., 

 Fig. 7b), expanding to a stellate form with swift whirling 

 motion, like a trundled mop (Fig. 7a) ; and immediately there 

 arises an oily volatile effluvia, resembling the scent of jessamines, 

 but soon becoming nauseous. This fluid aroma, secreted near 

 the insertion of the " fans," and traversing by capillary attraction 

 to their extremity, stains them bright orange at the glands, 

 shaded into yellow at their tip. Similar '^fans^^ in the Convol- 

 vulus Hawk convey the sensation of amber or musk, and their 

 anatomy has been investigated by Prof. Targioni, who describes 

 the hyperdomal tissue opposite the insertion of the ''fans^' as 

 composed of hexagonally nucleated pyriform cells, from each 

 of which proceeds a tube to the base of the several hairs of the 

 fascicle, which are inserted by means of a process ; so that the 

 unicellular glandules secrete the odoriferous matter, and the 

 hairs become their excretory ducts. These ^^ fans " are likewise 

 said to exist in the male Privet Hawk Moth, and may charac- 

 terise the genus Sphinx. 



In the dull Noctuina, with their lined and branded grey 



