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MACROGLOSSA RUFICAUDIS. Kirby. 



(Seaia R.) Fauna Boreali Americana, Vol. IV, p. 303 (1837). Walker, C. B. M., Vol. VIII, p. 82 (1S56). Moiris, Cat. Lep. N. Am., 



p. 17 (1860 ;) Synopsis Lep. IS". Am., p. 149 (1862). Couper, Can. Ent., Vol. IV, p. 205 ( 1872). 

 Hwmorrhagia Rujicaudis, Grote <fe RobiTison, Proc. Ent. Soc, Phil., Vol. V, pp. 149. 175 (1865). 

 Hmmorrhagia Buffaloensis, Orote & Eobiiison, Ann. Lvc. Xat. Hist. N. Y., Vol. VIII, (1867); List Lep. N. Am., p. 3 (1868). Grote, 



Bull. Buff. Soc. Nat. Sc, Vol. I, p. 18 (1873), Vol. II, p. 224 (1875). 

 Sesia Uniformis, Grote & Robinson, Trans. Am. Ent. Soc, Vol. II, p. 181 (1868). Lintner, 23d Report N. Y. State Caliinet Nat. Hist., 



p. 172 (1872). 

 Hamorrhagia Uniformis, Grote & iJoii'jison, List. Lep. N. Am., p. 3 (1868). Grote, Bull. Buff. .Soc. Nat. Sc, Vol. I, p. 18(1873); 



Vol. II, p. 224 (1875). 



(PLATE XIII, FIG. 1, cf.) 



"Body yellow-olive, underneath pale yellow. Antenme black ; primaries reddish-brown, hyaline in the disk, with the hyaline 

 part half divided towards the base, with a costal bar, covered with yellow olive hairs at the base; underneath tlie costa, the posterior 

 margin and the nervures are dark ferruginous ; there is also a yellow stripe on the inner side of the base ; secondaries hyaline in the 

 disk ; base externally and costa yellow ; internally the ba.se is ferruginous ; underneath the dark part of the wing is ferruginous, and 

 the base pale yellow ; two first .segments of the body yellow-olive, two next black, the rest ferruginous with pale yellow lateral spots. 

 This species appears to be the American representative of Sesia fuciformis which it greatly resembles, but differs in the colour of the 

 tail and the base of the secondaries." 



No figure accompanied the above description of Kirby'.s, but there can be little doubt that a species allied to Thysbe was in- 

 tended. 



Walker, in C. B. M., says : "This is probably a mere variety of 5. Thysbe,'' and states that specimens were received from "L'ni- 

 ted States, Trenton Falls, New York, and Orilla, West Canada." 



Dr. Clemens, in his monograph of the Sphingidae, published in the Journal Academy Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 1859, also 

 cites it as a synonym of Thysbe. 



Grote and Robinson tirst stated it to be distinct from Thysbe in Proc. Ent. Soc, Phila., Vol. V, p. 149, and placed it in their genus 

 Scemorrhugia ; on page 175, 1. c, they give Kirby's description above cited, and remark "were we satisfied as to the species Kirby in- 

 fended by S. Fitci/ormis, the present species might be regarded as related to S. Diffiyiis, Boisd. sp. As it is, we think that a species of 

 Hmmorrhagia is meant, while the species has not been since identified," and further on "a mutilated specimen from the most northern 

 parts of Canada West is before us, which evidently forms a dLstinct species from H. Thysbe. In this species, which is altogether slen- 

 derer than its congenor, the inner margin of the terminal band of anterior wings is nowhere denticulate in the interspaces, but is medi- 

 ally, somewhat inwardlj', produced. j We are not indisposed to regard this as Kirby's species, but the inferior condition of the specimen 

 prevents all conclusions. The discal cell is crossed by a longitudinal scale line, the species belonging to the more typical group of the 

 genus Hcemorrhagia." Three years later they re-described the species as Sesia Thysbe, variety uniformis, thus : "As Sesia thysbe, a 

 uniformis nob., we will record the Sesia rujicaudis of Mr. Walker. This is not Kirby's species to judge from the description of that au- 

 thor. This is a form of S. thysbe, occurring m both se.xes, in which the external bonier of the primaries is not dentate inwardly on 

 the interspaces."* 



Although another specific synonym was here created on the assumption that Cirote & Robinson knew more about Kirby's species 

 than himself, still their fictitious genus Hicmorrhagia was for tlie time, sensibly enough, suppressed by them, for after a rhodomontade of 

 thinly-veiled and confused excuses in reference to Hamorrhacjia, they say "which latter we can, therefore, no longer consider sufficiently 

 distinct from Sesia to be retained as a genus." And it was only after Mr. Robinson's death that Girote again attempted to restore it in 

 one of his innumerable and ever-changing spasmodic Lists of N. Am. Sphingidie, etc., which, like mushrooms, spring up in every 

 issue of the Buffalo Bull, and kindred publications. 



There can be little doubt that the species I have figured, wdiich was the one redescribed by Grote & Robinson as Uniformis, is the 

 one meant by Kirby in his description of Rujicaudis. The older authors did not lay the same stress on elaborately decorated descrip- 

 tions as do some of the pre.sent day, hence there are frequently trifling omissions or vague sentences in their descriptions, and in some 

 instances, as in Sm. Oplhalynicus, Bdl., a line or two sufficed to describe the insect, and although said description would ajiply to almost 

 any of the eyed Smerinthi having rosy hind wings, no one would endeavour on this account to question or ignore Boisduval's species. 



Rujicaudis occurs in various parts of the Middle and New England States, and more plentifully in Canada and the neighboring 

 island of Anticosti, as also in S. Labrador. 



The most prominent point of distinction between this .and Thysbe is the inner edge of marginal band of primaries which is 

 toothed in the latter, whilst plain in Rujicaudis, though increased inwardly in the middle, as in Thysbe. 



Between Rujicaudis, Kirby, ( Uniformis, G. & R.) and Buffaloensis, G & R., I cannot find any specific differences by 

 which to separate them into distinct species. In concluding the description of Buffaloensis the authors say : "This species is 

 clo.sely allied to H. thysbe O. & R., from which it may at once be separated by its smaller size and the non-dentate inner 

 margin of the terminal band of the primaries in the male. We have elsewhere drawn attention to the character aflbrded by the inner 

 margin of the terminal band in H. thysbe; it is, however, in the males alone that it is prominently dentate on the interspaces."! Con- 

 sequently there would be nothing to separate it from Rujicaudis, (their Uniformis), which is also without indentations on inner edge of 

 marginal band, excepting its "smaller size," which also ceases to be a distinction, as an example which I received from Mr. Grote himself 

 in May, 1873, is quite as large as that o(- Rujicaudis figured in the accompanying plate. 



The authors finally state in connection with their published figures : "We figure a variety of the female, in which the usually 

 wholly vitreous fields of the wings are sparsely and evenly clothed with scales. We have observed a similar variation in specimens 

 of H. "thysbe." 



This makes the attempt of placing Buffaloensis, G & R., as a distinct species further objectionable, as the authors were ignorant that 

 Thysbe and all allied species have, on emerging from the pupa, the transparent space of the wings lightly covered with scales, which 

 soon disappear under the action of flight or by exposure. 



*Trans. Am. Ent. Soc, Vol. II, p. 181. 



f About two years later the authors discovered their error, and became aware that the females of Thysbe, (the commonest of all 

 the N. Am. species,) had the inner edge to the marginal band of primaries dentate as well as the males ; and then it was that Rujicaudis, 

 Kirby, was bisexed and again iynonymized as Uniformis, G. A R. 



109 



