130 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 



the underside of the lower half yellow. It feeds in 

 August on privet and lilac. 



The perfect insect appears in June and July ; it flies 

 at dusk with great rapidity, hovering over flowers 

 whilst it extracts their sweets with its long tongue. 



Allied to this is the Convolvulus Hawk-moth (Sphinx 

 Convolvuli). It is rather larger, with all the wings 

 grey, varied with darker markings. It appears at the 

 end of August and in September ; ordinarily, it is very 

 scarce, but in the year 1846 it abounded throughout the 

 country. 



FAMILY II. SPHINGID.E. 



DEILEPHILA GALII. THE GALIUM HAWK- 

 MOTH. 



This beautiful species is widely distributed through- 

 out the country, but is never common, and scarcely 

 extends its range to Scotland. 



The expansion of the wings is from 2J to 3 inches. 

 The fore-wings are of a dark olive-green, with a broad 

 paler hind-margin, and with an irregular whitish streak 

 exteoding from near the base of the inner margin to 

 the tip of the wing ; the hind-wings are rosy, with the 

 base black, and with a narrow black marginal band ; 

 towards the anal angle they are whitish. 



The very beautiful larva, which, when full fed, is 

 about 3 inches in length, is of a dull greenish-grey, with 

 a row of conspicuous pale spots on the sides, each placed 

 in a broad black ring; the spiracles are yellow, and the 

 horn, which is smooth, is bright red. It feeds on the 

 yellow bed-straw (Galium verum), and may sometimes 

 be tracked and collected on sand-hills where that plant 



