396 



PSYCHE. 



[August — October, 1S90. 



NOTES ON THE EARLY STAGES OF TWO SPHINGIDAE. 



BY ALPHEUS SPRING PACKARD, PROVIDENCE, R. I. 



It is evident that what little we know, we are glad to acknowledge our great 

 notwithstanding all the eHbrt which has indebtedness to the learned and thought- 

 been made, of the life-histories of our ful author. As the work is well trans- 

 sphingidac^ will have to be done over lated by Prof. Meldola, and can be had 

 again in a more thorough and syste- at a very moderate price, far less than 

 matic way, while each stage should be the original cost, there is little excuse 

 very fully and comparatively described, for not buying it. 



in order to ascertain the probable rela- Thus far we have perhaps not a 

 tive age both of the species of the genus, single thorough and well illustrated life- 

 and of the genera themselves. In this history of any of this group, and we aie 

 way we shall be able to arrive at a prob- still in much the same condition that 

 able phylogeny of the sphingid family ; they were in Europe, before the publi- 

 i. e., we may discover the ancestral cation of Weismann's w'ork. This is 

 forms, i.e., those which have through not written to depreciate in any way the 

 adaptation survived many ages, and the excellent and honest work which has 

 later, more highly modified species, been done b}^ Messrs. Lintner, Riley, 

 which are the result of adaptation to Hulst and others. What we mean to 

 newer, changed conditions. One may say is that the life-histories thus far 

 feel sure that in this attractive labor, he published, have not been worked out 

 will derive great intellectual benefit and with reference to the origin of the 

 stimulus. It will not only cultivate his markings, the lines, stripes and spots; 

 powers of observation, but add to habits nor with reference to the probable rel- 

 of reflection, and draw out whatever ative ages of the species, nor to the 

 latent philosophical capacities or tastes position in nature of the different gen- 

 may have laid dormant in his nature. era, so as to enable us to determine 

 In such work Weismann's beautiful which are the older or simpler forms, 

 "Studies in the Theory of Descent" and which the more recent, more modi- 

 will be the student's guide, and it is fied genera, or species. The w^ork can 

 greatly to be desired that our younger hardly be done by one person, or in 

 lepidopterists should obtain that work even several seasons, but should a few 

 and make a careful study of it. From cooperate, a great deal of desirable work 

 our limited experience in rearing only could be in the course of a few years 

 two or three sphingids, and a nimiber of performed. 



bombyces, we feel confident that the The few notes below were made dur- 



facts and theories in that stimulating ing the past summer on two forms allied 



work are as a rule well foimded ; and to those interesting genera Deilephila 



