PIILEGETIIONTIUS. 43 



GENUS niLEGETlIONTIUS. 



PMcf^ctJioutius, Hiibner, Verz. bck. Schmett, p. 140 (1S22?) 

 Proioparce, Burmeister, Spiling. Bras., p. 6 (1856); Butler, 



Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond., ix., p. 606 (1877); Moore, 



Lepid. Ceylon, ii., p. 9 (18S2). 

 This is a cosmopolitan genus, including species of mode- 

 rate size, measuring from three to five inches across the 

 wings. The body is long and moderately stout, with reddish 

 or yellow spots on the abdomen ; the fore-wings are brown, 

 varied with darker or lighter markings, and the hind-wings are 

 black or brown, generally with undulating grey or whitish 

 markings, and are often marked with reddish or yellow at 

 the base, according to the colour of the lateral spots on the 

 abdomen. The proboscis is long, and in the European repre- 

 sentative of the genus, P. convolvuli (Linn.), it measures four 

 inches and a half in length. Several North American species 

 resembling P. convohndi have been taken accidentally in 

 England, and have been included in the British lists by the 

 older writers. One of these, P. cingidata (Fabricius), has 

 the hind-wings suffused with rosy ; others, such as P. scxta 

 (Johanssen) ( = Sphinx Carolina, Linn.), and /'. quinque- 

 maadatus (Haworth), have yellow spots on the abdomen., 

 The species of PJdegctJiontius feed on Convolvidiis, Solainnn, 

 i^-c. ; and many closely allied yellow-spotted species are very 

 destructive to tobacco, &c., in most parts of America. 



niLEGETHONTIUS RUSTICUS. 

 {Plate CV.) 



Sphinx mstica, Fabricius, Syst. Ent., p. 540, no. 15 (i775); 

 Sulzer, Gesch. Ins., Taf. 20, fig. 2 (177'j); Cramer, Pap. 

 Exot., iv., pi. 301. fig. A (1780); Boisduval, Spec. Gen. 

 Lepid. Heter., i., p. 82 (1875). 



