( Ixxxv ) 



hold good also in the case of the copnlator)- organs of the female sex, with the 

 exce[ition of the differences being more often insignificant (qnanlitatively) or 

 apjiarently absent. This is due to the vaginal armature being on the whole 

 not so strong]}- chitiuised, and therefore offering, where more or less mem- 

 branaceous, far less obvious differences than in tiie case of the stronger-chitinised 

 male organs. However, there is an abundance of species, especially among 

 SphingiJae asemanophorae, in which the sexual armature of the female jiresents 

 very striking characters (PI. XVII. f. 1. 2. 3), and the differences between the 

 species, where these organs are less complicated, become in most instances also 

 apparent when the structures are closely compared. 



While the organs of copulation of the male can be dissected from the body 

 without destroying the seventh and eighth segments or cutting off the hinder 

 part of the abdomen, it is necessary to remove the seventli to tenth segments 

 of the female in order to relax them, and then draw them apart, which can 

 be done with the help of a pin. The vaginal armature lying hidden in a cave 

 in most species must be pushed outside by pressure from the inside to become 

 plainly visible. 



The ninth and tenth segments are fused into one (/A'+ A', PI. XIX. f. 11. 12) 

 and covered with bristles of various length, which are doubtless sensory in 

 function. Between the two halves of this double segment lies the anus, and 

 ventrally of the anus the aperture of the oviduct. The segment is always short 

 in iSphiiigidae, and there is no ovipositor. The vagina has the same j)ositiou 

 as in other Lepidoptera — namely, between the seventh and eighth sternites. 

 The vaginal area is more or less sunken between the two segments, but not 

 always— the vaginal orifice of Cocytius, for instance, lying on a level with the 

 seventh sternite, and being plainly visible after the removal of some scales. 

 The vaginal orifice is surronnded by more or less obvious folds, ridges, processes, 

 grooves, which are doubtless adapted to the claspiug-organs of the male. The 

 orifice is mesial and central, sometimes more proximal, sometimes more distal. 

 In the sjiecies with asymmetrical male clasping-organs it is shifted towards the 

 left side (PI. XLI. f. 1 — 3). The armature of the vagina is also asymmetrical 

 in Clanis bicolor (PI. XVI. f. 7), of which the male is not known, and in 

 Hippotion li/retus (PI. XLI. f IT), the male armature of which is symmetrical. 

 It is perhaps necessary to add that the armature is never absolutely symmetrical 

 in either male or female, the two sides differing inti'r M just as much as one 

 individual does from another, and the apex of the penis-sheath being seldom 

 the same right and left. 



The vaginal area is generally naked, the scaling being restricted to the 

 more or less comj)letely membranaceous eighth sternite. Bnt in some species 

 the scaling extends into the vaginal cavity (PI. XXI. f. 12. 15). We find also 

 occasionally species wliicli have the vaginal armature provided with dispersed 

 (sensory ?) hairs (I'L XX. f. 22). 



The ]iai't of tlic, vaginal area in li'ont of the oritiiu^ is ternied in this Kevision 

 anlecuyiiuil jjIh/,', and the jiosterior jiart itostc(i(jiii<il jilatc. 



