( IfiO ) 



The copnlator)- armature is on tlie whole com})lieated in this sulifaiiiily, tlie 

 species differing often very remarkalily i'rom cue anotlier. The greater ])roi>orti()n 

 of the species are slow-flyiug insects which do not wander mnch, and tliat accounts 

 largely for the astonishingly great differences presented by the geographical races 

 of several species (compare I'seiidorlanis postica, Poli/pti/chus trilineati(s). 



The early stages of the Ambtdicinao are interesting on account of several 

 peculiar points in their structure. The larvae are generally said to be characterised 

 by a triangular head and a granulose skin. These characters are indeed found in 

 the European and Auierican species, but not in all the African and Indian on(^s. 

 So far as the larvae are known, and so far as the descriptions and figures are 

 reliable, there is no smooth-skinned larva among the AmhuUcinae, all being 

 granulose or spinose. The granules are prolonged to short sj)ines in Coequosa, to 

 longer and stronger spines in Rhadinopasa, and to long dentate ones in Lophostethiis. 

 Of these larvae Coeqiiosa'\\Vk^ a triangular head, while it is rounded in the other two. 

 A rounded head is also found in the full-grown larvae of Dnpfinusa aud Clams 

 (and perhaps in other genera). Now the question arises whether the bulky- 

 headed larva of these genera, which are not all closely allied with one another, 

 has preserved the ancestral head-form of the Ambulicine larva, or whether the 

 triangular head is tiie more generalised one, from which the round head of Vlanis, 

 etc., originated. The first stage is not known of any of these larvae, unfortunately, 

 but Forsayeth figures the younger larva of Clam's (Trans. Ent. Soc. Land. iNS-i. 

 p. 393. t. 15) as having a triangular head, and states that the rounded bulky head 

 is acquired at a later stage. From this one must conclude that in the large-headed 

 larva the triangular head-form is lost in consequence of a lateral expansion of the 

 head-case. But this does not necessarily mean that the ancestral larva of the 

 AinhttUcinae h.id a triangular head. Considering that the first stage of Sphinx 

 ocellata (and also of the Acherontiine genus Lapara) presents a rounded head, 

 which assumes later on the well-known triangular form, and that the head of 

 J'oli/pti/r/ttts graifi is produced in the earlier stages into a long process, and assumes 

 an obtusely triangular form in the last stage, it seems to be probable tiiat the 

 triangular head is a deriv-ation from a rounded one, aud has developed again in 

 some instances into an enlarged rounded head. Thus tlie caterpillars of LophostetJius, 

 Ihip/iniisa, llhadinopasa and Clanis would be later forms than the acrocephalic 

 larvae of other AmhuUcinae. If this is true, the spines of Rhadinopasa and 

 Lophostethns would also ap])ear to be exaggerated developments of the setiferous 

 granules of Manunba and others, and would not represent an ancestral feature pre- 

 served from the common ancestor of the Sphinjjidae and Saturniidae. It is 

 necessary to study the first stages of the Sphinqidae. more closely and of more 

 species tlian has hitherto been done. We have almost entirely to depend on 

 descriptions and figures, which mostly fail in giving the essential points. The 

 conclusions based on such scanty and not always reliable data are not convincing. 



The horn is long and curves gently upwards in the generalised forms ; it is 

 occasionally lost {Coeqaosa). 



The chrysalis of the Ambnlicinae is as a rule rather stumpy at the frontal end ; 

 in many forms the frontal part bears two tubercles. The sheath of the tongue never 

 projects, as in the greater proportion of tiie Acherontiinae ; it reaches either to the 

 end of the wing-cases (rarely, Compsogenf. only ?), or is shortened. A comparatively 

 long tongue-case is retained in some species which have a strongly reduced tongue 

 {Mimas tiliae, for instance). This fact, which is corroborated liy the preservation 



