5Q 



The caterpillar of this hawk-moth was found hy Abbot on the Virginian Creeper. It 

 went into the ground on the 18th of August, and the fly came out on the 11th of September. 

 The tail of the male spreads like a fan. This is a very rare species ; one was caught in 

 the evening on a gourd blossom. It flew exceedingly swift, making a noise like a humble 

 bee. The caterpillar is of a very pale greenish colour, with two dark dorsal lines, termi- 

 nating at the base of the straight tail ; the sides of the body are also ornamented with 

 pale yellow oblique stripes, margined with brown. The chrysalis is chesnut, with a short 

 point at the extremity of the body, and without any tongue-case. 



DEILEPHILA TERSA. 



Plate XXVIII. flg.3. 



Order: Lepidoptera. Section: Crepuscularia. Family: Sphiiigidae, Leach. 



Genus. Deilephila, Ochs. Eumorphae p. H'uhn. Sphinx p. Fabr. 



DEILEPHILA Tersa. Alis anticis griseis, lineis iionuullis obliquis parallelis nigris ; posticis nigris fascia raaculari 

 luteo-alba. (Expans. Alar. 3 unc.) 



Syn. Sphinx Tersa, Linn. Mant. p. 538. Brury, App. vol. 2. Cramer, tab. 397. fig. C. Fabr. Ent. Syst. 

 lU.l.p. 378. No. 69. Gmel. Linn. S. N. 2379. No. 71. Abbot and Smith Ins. Georg. 1 tab. 38. 



Habitat : Maryland, Jamaica, St. Christopher, Antigua (Drtiry). South America {Fabricius). Georgia (Abbot). 



Upper Side. Head flesh-coloured ; which colour, separating at the neck, runs on each side of the 

 thorax to the abdomen. Thorax and abdomen dark clay colour. Abdomen pointed ; the sides being 

 of a yellower colour than the top. Anterior wings greyish olive brown ; from the tips to the middle of 

 the posterior margin run several narrow lines of lighter and darker colours, parallel with each other. 

 Posterior wings, at the base, black ; but along the external margin brown ; having a row of narrow- 

 angular marks of a cream colour running from the anal angle to the anterior edges. Cilia white. 



Under Side. Thorax and abdomen clay -coloured ; paler on the middle than the sides. Wings red 

 clay-coloured; the anterior brown in the middle, and the posterior having some faint waved lines crossing 

 them ; each wing having a row of faint small spots along their external margin. 



The caterpillar of this insect, figured by Abbot and Smith, is of a pale green colour, 

 with the three anterior seg-nients elongated and attenuated in front, having seven beautiful 

 white eye-like spots on each side, with a red pupil, and margined with black ; the anterior 

 ocellus being the largest. These ocelli are united by a lateral white line, terminating at 

 the base of the straight red tail. It feeds upon the wild thyme (Spermacoce Hyssopifolia, 

 Sm.) Some of them are stated by Abbot to be brown. One was observed by the same 

 author to spin itself up on the 31st of July, from which the moth appeared on the 15th of 

 August ; whilst another which spun up on the 11th of September, remained in the chrysalis 

 state until the 9th of May. When disturbed, the caterpillar contracts the anterior seg- 

 ments of the body.* The chrysalis is of a pale brown colour, fi-eckled with darker marks. 

 It is not provided with a porrected tongue-case. 



* From the peculiar power of contraction and elongation possessed by these segments, and which is found in the caterpillars 

 of other species of Deilephila, these insects have obtained the name of Elephant-hawk Moths. 



