ORDER IV. MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 187 



smaller species, of which there are many more, and we con- 

 clude, for the present, our history of the nocturnal lepi* 

 doptera with a brief description of a few of 



The Sphinxes, or Hawk-moths. 



When the summer sun has sunk below the glowing hills, 

 and his last radiant beams are fading from the western ho- 

 rizon ; when the red Tanagers, the Cardinal and Blue Birds, 

 and the Orioles and Robins, with all the other gay song- 

 sters of the day, have retired to their resting-places amidst 

 the silent groves then the sleepy Sphinxes awake from 

 their diurnal slumbers, to play out their brief parts on the 

 narrow stage of their ephemeral existence. They rise at 

 twilight, and ramble with the humming sound and the 

 quick, irregular flight of Humming-birds, flying from flower 

 to flower, sucking the sweet nectar of the fragrant night- 

 blossoms and pursuing their bridal sports, while the celes- 

 tial shepherdess, Luna, is watching her silvery lambs through 

 the blue pastures of heaven. 



In ancient times, when Egyptian, Greek, and Roman 

 priests, in concert with despotic rulers, gained their wealth 

 and treasures by frightening the common people with sto- 

 ries of gods and goddesses, of dcmi-gods and heroes, of Olym- 

 pus and Tartarus, and by means of a mythological religion, 

 full of mystic symbols and incantations, stupefied the cred- 

 ulous populace, and rendered them subservient to their will, 

 we find, among others, the mythological tale of a monster 

 called the Sphinx, who is represented with the body of a 

 lion and the head arid shoulders of a woman, sitting upon 

 the hind feet like a dog. 



A fanciful resemblance to this monster was seen by the 

 fertile imagination of Linnaeus in the caterpillar of the in- 

 sects w r e are about to describe, inasmuch as it has a soft, 

 effeminate-looking body, and when not eating assumes a 

 somewhat similar sitting posture, and hence he called it a 



