AELLOPUS. I I 



This species measures nearly two inches across the wings. 

 The body and fore-wings are of a deep ohve-green, and the 

 hind-wings are blackish. The fore-wings have a row of small 

 transparent spots towards the tip, and a black spot at the end 

 of the discoidal cell, just within which a single or double 

 whitish stripe runs to the inner margin. The hind-wings are 

 whitish along the costa, and towards the anal angle ; and there 

 is a conspicuous white belt towards the base of the r.bdomen. 



The natives of South America believe that this insect turns 

 into a humming-bird, as is mentioned by the late Mr. H. W. 

 Bates in his "Naturalist on the River Amazons," ist ed. 

 (1863), vol. i. pp. 182-183, and his notes on this point are so 

 interesting as to warrant our quoting them in full. 



" Several times I shot by mistake a Humming-bird Hawk- 

 moth instead of a bird. This moth {Macroglossa tifan) is 

 somewhat smaller than humming-birds generally are, but its 

 manner of flight, and the way in which it poises itself before 

 a flower, whilst probing it with its proboscis, is precisely like 

 the same action in a humming-bird. It was only after many 

 days' experience that I learnt to distinguish one from the 

 other when on the wing. This resemblance has attracted the 

 attention of the natives, all of whom, even educated whites, 

 firmly believe that one is transmutable into the other. They 

 have observed the metamorphosis of caterpillars into butter- 

 flies, and think it not at all more wonderful that a moth 

 should change into a humming-bird. The resemblance 

 between this hawk-moth and a humming-bird is certainly very 

 curious, and strikes one even when both are examined in the 

 hand. Holding them sideways, the shape of the head and 

 position of the eyes in the moth are seen to be nearly tlie same 

 as in the bird, the extended proboscis representing the long 

 beak. At the tip of the moth's body there is a brush of long 

 hair-scales resembling feathers, which, being expanded, looks 



