324 LEPIDOPTERA. 



half in length, are of a pale green color, with seven oblique 

 white lines on each side of the body, and a row of little 

 notches, like saw-teeth, on the back. The four short horns 



Fig. 149. 



on their shoulders are also notched, and, like most other 

 Sphinges, they have a long and stiff spine on the hinder 

 extremity of the body. They enter the earth to become 

 chrysalids, and pass the winter, and come forth in the 

 winged state in the month of June following, at which time 

 the moths may often be found on the trunks of trees, or 

 on fences in the vicinity. In this state their wings expand 

 nearly five inches, are of a light brown color, variegated 

 with dark brown and white, and the hinder part of the body 

 is marked with five longitudinal dark brown lines. A young 

 friend of mine, in Boston, once captured on the trunks of 

 the trees a large number of these moths during a morning's 

 walk in the Mall, although obliged to be on the alert to 

 escape from the guardians of the Common, whose duty it 

 was to prevent the grass from being trodden down. Nearly 

 all of these specimens were females, ready to deposit their 

 eggs, with which their large bodies were completely filled. 

 On being taken they made scarcely any efforts to escape, 

 and were safely carried away. It would not be difficult, 

 by such means, very considerably to reduce the number of 

 these destructive insects ; in addition to which it might be 

 expedient, during the proper season, for our city authorities 

 to employ persons to gather and kill eveiy morning the cat- 

 erpillars Avhich may be found in those public walks where 

 they abound. 



From the genus Sphinx i have separated another group 



