ORDER IV. MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 189 



Most of the hawk-moths are seen only during some hours 

 after sunset, but some smaller genera are also seen flying 

 about during the day. Notwithstanding this, Linnreus calls 

 them all evening butterflies. 



The POTATO -WORM HAWK -MOTH, or FIVE -SPOTTED 

 SPHINX (Sphinx quinque-maculatus), Fig. 44, is a large green 

 caterpillar, with oblique white stripes on each side ; when 

 full grown, it is more than three inches long. It is found 

 not only on the potato-vine, but also on the tomato and 

 egg plants ; and it also feeds upon the leaves of every spe- 

 cies of the solarium, or night-shade tribe. Here it is found 

 from July to September, when it digs its winter retreat 

 several inches below the surface of the ground, and there 

 metamorphoses itself into a brown chrysalis, upon which 

 may be distinctly seen the long case of its proboscis, resem- 

 bling somewhat the handle of a pitcher. 



The Five-spotted Hawk-moth issues from this chrysalis 

 in May or June. It is of a grayish color, and its body is 

 ornamented with five orange-colored spots on each side. 

 Its wings expand nearly five inches. Its head is provided 

 with two cylindrical antennas, and a proboscis or tongue, 

 which is almost entirely concealed when not in use, but 

 which can be unrolled, like the spring of a watch, to the 

 length of five or six inches. This proboscis consists of two 

 parts, which can easily be separated, but which, when united 

 together as usual, forms a hollow tube, through which the 

 animal is enabled to suck the nectar of flowers, and with 

 which it also produces a humming sound by rubbing it 

 upon the diminutive glassy membrane at its base. 



There is no insect that possesses a voice ; and when we 

 hear sounds produced by insects, we may know that they 

 originate from friction of some external parts of the body, 

 as is the case, for instance, with some of the Capricorn 

 beetles, who rub the joints of the head against the thorax ; 

 or with grasshoppers, who produce a sound by bringing 



