139 



GENUS SPHINX. 



THE above term, as has been already noticed, was 

 long employed as the generic designation of all the 

 Hawk-moths properly so called, but is now restricted 

 to such as present the following characters : An- 

 tennae rather long, slightly increasing in thickness 

 from before the middle nearly to the apex, but scarcely 

 or not at all clavate ; the apex slender, hooked, and 

 tenninatiag in a long scaly seta; proboscis very 

 long, slender, and convoluted; abdomen elongate- 

 conic, without any tuft at the apex. The palpi are 

 three-jointed, very obtuse, the second joint being 

 large and oval, and the third minute and depressed. 

 The caterpillars are generally green or brownish, 

 with oblique or longitudinal lateral stripes of yellow, 

 and having the caudal horn long, acute, and curved. 

 The pupa is subterranean ; the abdomen of the 

 perfect insect ornamented with transverse bands. 

 The first species we have to describe is that named 



