404 Annals Entomological Society of America [Vol. XI, 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PUPiE. 



The pup£e belonging to this family are, in the main, very 

 easy to distinguish from other lepidopterous pupae. They are 

 seldom found in cocoons, and these, when present, are formed 

 of a few threads, or at most a thin layer of silk which fastens 

 together a few leaves or twigs found on the surface of the 

 ground. The cocoons are never suspended from twigs as in the 

 case of many saturnian pupas, but are always found free. The 

 majority of the sphinx moths, however, spend their pupal life 

 in a cell in the ground, which is formed by the mature larva. 

 When ready to pupate the larvae burrow into the soil to the 

 depth of a few inches and push the soil on all sides with their 

 heads until the space is large enough to turn in, and then the 

 change from larva to pupa takes place. 



Sphingid pupae are usually of considerable size, only one or 

 two species measuring less than an inch in length. The major- 

 ity average one and one-half inches in length, although some 

 are much longer. As a general rule the body is somewhat 

 fusiform, being narrowed at the cephalic end with the meso- 

 thorax considerably wider. The remainder have the ordinary 

 type of pupa found in the noctuids and many others. The 

 fifth and sixth abdominal segments are "free" or movable as 

 in the saturnians. 



The body surface is generally punctate, with indeterminate 

 transverse striations between the punctures, and the sides of 

 the abdomen in the spiracular region are usually more strongly 

 sculptured than the rest of the body. The cephalic margins of 

 abdominal segments 5-7 are strongly furrowed or carinate in 

 most sphingid pupae. These furrows are cephalad of the spiracles 

 and usually extend for a considerable distance dorsad. The 

 furrows are so deep in some instances as to form a sort of 

 pocket-like cavity. They have been referred to as spiracular 

 furrows. 



So far as observed no setae have been found on the body. In 

 those species in which the caudal horn is present in the larva, 

 the scar may usually be easily identified on the dorsum of the 

 eighth abdominal segment. The scars of the larval prolegs are 

 also easily distinguished on the ventral surface of the fifth and 

 sixth abdominal segments, but the scars of the anal prolegs are 

 usually indistinct. The cremaster is usually triangular, sharply 



