PAPILIO. 



Prgan of tl^e few Jork pntomological piub. 



Vol. 2.] January, 1882. [No. 1. 



ON THE HABITS AND ECONOMY OF SOME SPECIES 

 OF bPHINGIDyE. 



By Dr. Herman Behr, San Francisco. 



The Sphinges are of those types that have attracted consider 

 able attention even in the dawn of our science. 



It is quite astonishing what a number of exotic Sphinges 

 are figured in Cramer, StoU and other ancient iconographs, and 

 the very names given by the immortal Linne to the European 

 species bear testimony how well their habits were known at the 

 beginning of entomological study, because they refer either 

 to the food plant of the larva, or to some peculiarity in its shape 

 {Porcellus) and that is one of the strongest proofs of their having 

 attracted the attention even of the non-scientists to a supersti- 

 tion the name of the fatal Goddes'^, Atropos, referring to the 

 popular belief, that the appearance of this insect foreboded 

 epidemics, famine or war. The name Elpenor is an allusion to 

 the companion of Ulysses of that name, who met with a fatal 

 accident when under the influence of wine. Linne evidently has 

 chosen this name to indicate that the grapevine is the tavorite 

 food plant of the species. Nevertheless these powerful and 

 active insects, whose peculiarities strike even the imagination of 

 the common observer, do not play that part in the economy of 

 nature that could be expected from their enormous locomotive 

 powers, their spasmodic activity, and their formidable looking 

 larvae. 



.In fact, with very few exceptions their influence on other 

 provinces of creation is limited, they rarely become injurious to 

 vegetation and even then they are never an endemic pest, but 

 only sweep a district like an epidemic not to reappear for more 

 than a decennium. 



