632 



Crratfurg at Natural $?t 



tip black ; legs yellow, slightly tinged with 

 green, 



SPARUS. The name given to a genus of 

 Acanthopterygian fishes in the Linnaean 

 system, the characteristics of which are 

 that the gill-openings are scaly ; the mouth 

 is furnished with strong cutting teeth ; the 

 grinders are obtuse, close set, and covered 

 with lips ; the branchiostegous membrane 

 consists of five rays ; the body is compressed; 

 the lateral line is curved behind ; and the 

 pectoral fins are rounded. For an example 

 of this genus, see GILTHEAD. 



SPAT ANGUS, or HEART URCHIN. A 

 genus of Echinidce, common on many of our 

 sandy shores. In this species the radiated 

 form is considerably departed from, the shell 

 being oval instead of round, and often much 

 prolonged in one direction. Little is known of 

 the habits of the Spatangi. They are almost 

 always found buried in the sand, in which 

 substance they seem to find enough nutri- 

 ment (composed probably of the minute 

 animals mingled therewith),their alimentary 

 canal being filled with it. As they seem to 

 be unable to bring their suckers into prox- 

 imity with the mouth, they must derive their 

 nourishment from the chance-supplies which 

 the substances in contact with their mouths 

 may furnish. Their whole organization is, 

 certainly, adapted to this mode of existence: 

 yet ic is difficult to conceive how they can 

 obtain the necessary amount of aliment, 

 with so little power of either locomotion or 

 prehension. 



SPERMACETI WHALE. The common 

 Cachalot. [See WHALK.] 



SPH^ERIDIAD^E. A small group of 

 Coleopterous insects, very similar in general 

 structure to the Hf/drophilidce, but in their 

 habits very different ; since they frequent 

 putrescent vegetable matter which has passed 

 through the bodies of animals, the excrement 

 of horses and cows being their chief abode, 

 over which, when recently ejected, they may 

 be seen hovering, and in which they burrow- 

 The species of Sphceridium are the largest in 



ft 



the family, not, however, exceeding a quarter 

 of an inch in length ; they are generally of 

 a shining black colour, with the elytra va- 

 riegated with large patches of red or dingy 

 yellow. Seventy species or upwards are 

 believed to occur in this country ; most of 

 these belong to the genus Cercyon, the 

 characters distinguishing which are most 

 frequently very obscure and unsatisfactory. 



SPHEGID.E. A family of Hymenop- 

 terous insects, some inhabiting tropical cli- 



mates, which are the largest belonging to the 

 Order, and others noted for their varied and 

 splendidly metallic colours. The body is 

 long, with the abdomen often attached to 

 the thorax by a peduncle ; the collar late- 

 rally dilated, and extending as far as the 

 wings ; the antennae long, and filiform or 

 subsetaceous ; the legs long, and in general 

 fossorial ; the mandibles are long, curved, 

 and acute at the tips ; and their sting is 

 very powerful. They are exceedingly active 

 and very restless in their motions, and may 

 often be seen upon sand-banks, &c., run- 

 ning along with their wings in constant 

 vibration. 



A family of Lepidoptera, 

 called by the English name of Hawk-Moths; 

 comprising the most robust and powerful 

 insects in the order, and generally distin- 

 guished by their strength of flight and large 

 size. The antennae are prismatic, and ter- 

 minated by a little feather or thread ; the 

 tongue is often extremely long, in some 

 species even exceeding the whole body in 

 length ; the labial palpi are broad and com- 

 pressed, and closely covered with scales ; the 

 labrum and mandibles are minute ; the 

 body is long, and acute behind ; and the 

 wings, especially the hinder pair, small. 

 The caterpillars are naked, cylindrical, and 

 sixteen-footed ; they are ornamented with 

 pale oblique stripes upon the sides of the body, 

 and are usually furnished with a short horn 

 on the back of the eleventh segment. They 

 descend into the earth to become pupse, 

 which are naked and conical. Various mo- 

 difications occur in the character of the 

 imago in this family. The maxillae vary 

 considerably in length, exceeding that of the 

 entire body in Sphinx, but scarcely exceed- 

 ing that of the head in the Death's-head 

 Hawk-moth (Acherontia Atropos\ [See 

 ACIIEKONTIA], and in Smerinthvs not longer 

 than the labial palpi ; this variation in 

 length corresponds with the rapidity of flight, 

 and the habit of the insects of extracting the 

 nectareous juices of tube-bearing flowers 

 by means of their elongated tongue. The 

 caterpillars of the typical species are re- 

 markable for the attitude in which they 

 are usually seen, and from which they have 

 obtained the genuine name of Sphinx, from 

 their supposed resemblance to the figures of 

 that fabulous creature. Some of them are 

 also remarkable for the faculty they possess 

 of elongating and contracting the three an- 

 terior segments of the body, giving them 

 somewhat of a proboscis-like appearance ; 

 whence they have been termed Elephant 

 Sphinxes. 



Although the Sphinxes in general are 

 only seen on the wing in the twilight hour, 

 this is not absolutely the case with all. Mr. 

 Knapp, in his ' Journal of a Naturalist,' thus 

 speaks of the HUMMING -BIRD HAWK-MOTH 

 (Macroglossa stellatarum). " It frisks about 

 all the summer long, and in very fine seasons 

 continues with us as late as the second week 

 in October. The vigilance *.nd animation 

 of this creature are surprising, and seem to 

 equal those of its namesake, that splendid 

 meteoric bird of the tropics, ' that winged 



