256 ^A' ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. 



spindle-shaped, and terminate in a little, recurved hook. The 

 body is robust and well developed, supported in flight by means 

 of stout, though rather narrow, pointed wings. The caterpillars 

 are peculiar in having a curved horn on top of the last segment, 

 or in its place a hard, glossy, eye-like spot. When at rest, some 

 of them have the habit of elevating the front part of the body 

 and curling the head under a little, giving them a fancied resem- 

 blance to a Sphinx, and from this the scientific name has been 

 derived. A very good example of a typic.il sphinx caterpillar is 

 found in the large green species, the sides with oblique, lateral, 

 white stripes, which is often found upon potatoes and tomatoes, 

 occasionally doing considerable injury. The anal horn is quite 

 often believed to be venomous, and all sorts of stories are told of 

 people having been poisoned or stung ; it is even said sometimes 

 that a stream of poison is thrown from the end of the horn for 

 some distance. As a matter of fact, nothing can be more harm- 

 less than these caterpillars ; there is no poisonous secretion 

 connected with the horn, and they can be handled with absolute 

 safety. This same type of caterpillar also attacks tobacco and 

 other Solanacece, and, when full grown, goes underground and 

 ^changes to a mahogany-brown pupa an inch and a half to two 

 inches in length, with a peculiar handle-like process attached to 

 the head, which forms a covering for the future tongue. This 

 has given them the name "jug-handle grubs" in some localities. 

 The adults, when they emerge, expand from three to five inches 

 or more, and are ashen-gray in color, the fore-wings with a 

 little white spot near the centre, and crossed by irregular darker 

 lines, the hind wings banded with black and white, while along 

 the sides of the abdomen are five large yellow spots. This is the 

 Sphinx (^Protoparce) Carolina, which may be accepted as typical 

 of the series to which it belongs. An allied species, Protoparce 

 ce/ens, feeds on the same kinds of plants, and resembles the 

 Carolina rather closely, except that the yellow of the abdomen 

 is paler, the lines on both wings are rather more distinct, and 

 the insect is a little larger ; but the differences are not great, and 

 need not be further detailed here. Other species of sphinx 

 caterpillars are found on a variety of other plants, but they do 

 not often a]:)])ear in noticeable numbers, being much subject, from 

 their large size, to the attacks of birds and parasitic insects ; so, 



