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Subfamily Ambulicinae. — Typus : rrotamhub/x strigUis. 



Bomln/liue Hiibner, Vers. helc. Schm. p. 131 (1822) (parfcim). 



Deilephilae id., /..-. p. 136 (1822) (partim). 



SmerUitUiii., I.<: p. 141 (1822) (partim). 



Chaeroi-iiiiijiiiii Grote & Robinson, Proc. Etil. Sn<: Pliitml. v. p. 15ft (I8(i.'i1 (partim ; iinin. iiidefi-i:). 



fluierhithiiii id., I.r. p. 100 (1865) (worn, itulesci:). 



" Smi-rinthides " Boisduval, Spec. Gen. hep. HH. i. p. 8 (1875) (excl. Nijcei-yT, Euryptery.t , CiTalomin). 



" Leucophlebides " id., /..-. p. 54 (1875). 



" Deil^philides " id., /.<■. p. 158 (1875) (partim; A uibnh/x only). 



Chaerni-ampinue Butler, Tnui-i. Zool. St«: Lund. ix. p. 514. 554 (1877) {Cyim only). 



Amhulinnae id., I.e. p. 514. 579 (1877) (.4. ? hypmtirta excl. ; type : sirigilis). 



SmerinthJiuip id., I.r. p. 515. 582 (1877) {Sphhigomiepifqms excl.). 



There is apparently no single character which separates all the members of the 

 present subfamily from all the Acheroiitiinae. An Ambnlicine species is distiugnished, 

 however, from the SpMngicae by the end-segment of the antenna being short, 

 densely scaled aV)ove ; the few genera with prolonged end-segment {Protnmbulyx, 

 Compsoqi'iie, 0.rjiamhub/x, Ci/pa) are recognisable by the apex of the forewing 

 being sinuate, or the long tarsi being without a luidtarsal comb, or by the distal 

 margin of the forewing being more or less angnlate below the middle, or sinuate 

 at apex. 



The tribe Sphingulicae, in which the end-segment of the antenna is as short as 

 in most Amhidicinac, agrees so closely in structure with this subfamily that only 

 a combination of characters separates one group from the other ; the tuft of long 

 hair-scales covering the lower part of the eye in many Ambulicinae is absent 

 from or vestigial in Sphingulicae ; all the species with irregular distal margin of 

 the forewing, or with the margin concave below the apex, or the apex sinuate, or 

 the margin straight or slightly concave and the tibiae at the same time spinnlose, 

 or the forewing with yellow and red shades, as well as the forms without frenulum, 

 or without the proximal pair of hindtibial spurs, or without pulvillus, belong to the 

 Ambulicinae. 



As in the case of the Ac/ierontiinae, the specialisation within the subfamily 

 Ambtdicinae, which has led to the appearance of a great number of gronps of 

 s]iecies treated as genera, relates to a variety of organs, many of which become 

 more and more reduced till they vanish. The gradual disappearance of organs, 

 such as the frenulum, the proximal pair of hindtibial spurs, the pulvillus and 

 paronychium, the friction-patcii, etc., can equally well be traced in this subfamily as 

 among the Acherontiinae. It is here, like there, largely a development by reduction 

 which has given rise to the genera, these being in many cases characterised by the 

 absence or reduction of some jiarticular organ. 



The tongue of the Ambulicinae does never reach beyond the end of the 

 abdomen ; it is generally short and weak, and there are several species in which 

 it is reduced to two short lobes (PI. LXII. f. 1). The mesial fringe of the tongue, 

 by which the two lialves are kept together above, form in the species with a strong 

 tongne {I'rot(imbuli/.r and allies) a kind of thin memlirane, the hairs being soldered 

 together, while the fringe of the weak tongue is generally long and loose, the hairs 

 being more or less separate, or is absent (PI. LXI. f. 10. 11). The base of the tongue 

 is not rarely covered with long weak scales {Leucophlebia for instance) ; in Cypa 



