768 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



88. The southern pine sphinx. 



\ 



Ellema coniferaruvi (Abb.-Sm.). 

 (Young Larva, Plate xxxiv, figs 1, la-l;', details.) 



The following account of the transformations of this moth is copied 

 from Mr. A. Koebele in Bulletin Brooklyn Entomological Society 

 (iv, p. 20). A manuscript plate by Abbot in the library of the Boston 

 Society of Isatural History gives an excellent colored figure of the 

 larva, which is represented as feeding on Finus rigida. 



Mature larva. — The larva of this insect was originally figured by Abbot and Smith, 

 and is by them represented as being checkered with light and dark-gray squares. 

 This form was found by me at Tallahassee, on Pinus palustris, but infested by para- 

 sites, and another in the jaws of Pasimachus subsulcatus, but as feeding indiscrimi- 

 nately on all kinds of pine. The pink color occurs in the larva only after the third 

 molt. The most remarkable part of the history of the insect is the extraordinary 

 change which takes place in the shape of the head of the larva at different periods 

 of its growth. Immediately after birth it is round. With the first molt it becomes 

 angular and Sraerinthus-like. This is very much increased with the second and 

 third molts, so that in these it is fully four or five times its width, running up to a 

 sharp point at the summit. When disturbed at this age the larva thrusts down the 

 extremity of its head so it lies straight in a line with the body. Ordinarily it car- 

 ries the point erect. There is very much variation in the imagines. Front winga 

 broader or narrower, many uniform ash-gray in color, many have the two black 

 dashes near the middle of the fore wing, some have only one. Some have a band of 

 lighter gray across the wings, and some have dark lines and markings. Some, apart 

 from the color of the abdomen, which remains uniform, exactly resemble Sphinx 

 pinastri of Europe. 



The egg. — It is very dark green and hatches in eight days. The larva develops to 

 full size in about six weeks. It goes into the ground to pupate and remains in the 

 pupal state a month or mora. There are at least two broods each year. 



Larva. — The much more common form is light yellowish green in color with three 

 white lines on each side, one just below the dorsal line, a second stigmatal, and the 

 third half way between these. The back stigmatal spaces and the under part of the 

 body are strongly marked with red. The body is cylindrical, hardly varying in size 

 from one end to the other. There is no caudal horn through all its history. The 

 head is of medium size, light yellowish green, edged along the collar with a blue 

 line. There is a black line running from each corner of the mouth to the summit of 

 the head and there they meet one another. The head is rounded, somewhat conical, 

 flattened in front. The length of the full-grown larva is 2f to 3 inches. 



89. Harris's pine hawk-moth. 

 Ellema harrisii (Clemens). 



(Larva, Plate xi, fig. 5.) 



A grass-green caterpillar with no caudal horn, but a caudal plate granulated and 

 edged with white, with yellow subdorsal and lateral bands, and a white stripe bor- 

 dering the stigmata ; becoming fully fed and leaving the white pine about the mid- 

 dle of September, the pupa subterranean, and the moth appearing about the middle 

 of June in New York. (Lintner.) 



