BRITISH MOTHS 



olive-brown, with black tufts on the sides, 

 which it spreads out in flying. This Sphinx 

 is a true lover of the sun ; its flight is only 

 in his rays ; he who has not seen this fairy 

 creature pendulizing over a purple patch of 

 the common bugle anon descending to sip, 

 without alighting, the sweets of each corolla ; 

 he who has not watched its porrected tube 

 dive into cup after cup, its body the while 

 motionless, its legs shivering, and its wings 

 invisible and undefined through rapidity of 

 motion j he who has not seen it again rise, 

 and again pendulize, and then dart off with 

 immeasurable speed he who has not wit- 

 nessed these things, has a delight yet to 

 come : let him explore the woods of Kent 



during the month of May, when the air is 

 calm and sunny, and he will truly be gra- 

 tified. The caterpillar is bluish-green or 

 brown, sprinkled over with minute raised 

 points, which are generally whitish ; having 

 also an obscure line down the back, and a 

 distinct white and pink line along each side, 

 terminating at the horn, which is rough and 

 slightly bent down. It feeds on the common 

 Lychnis, the "Wood Scabious, the Ladies' 

 Bedstraw, and other low herbs, and spins a 

 rather loose web on the surface of the 

 ground, changing to a brown chrysalis. The 

 Moth appears in May, the caterpillar through- 

 out the autumn. (The scientific name is 

 Macroglossa fuciformis ) 



16. The Narrow-Bordered Bee Hawk-Moth (Macroglossa lomlyHformis). 



16. THE NARROW-BORDERED BEE HAWK- 

 MOTH. Fore wings transparent with a nar- 

 row brown margin ; hind wings transparent, 

 with a very narrow, almost thread-like, brown 

 margin ; thorax and base of the body yellow- 

 ish olive-brown; middle of the body, with 

 two narrow black bands followed by a broader 

 fulvous band ; remainder of the tail fulvous, 

 with tufts of black hairs on the sides, which 

 it spreads out in flying. The caterpillar we 

 have never seen. Mr. Stainton thus describes 



it, after Duponchel : " Green dotted with yel- 

 lowish white ; two rows of dull reddish spots 

 on each side of the fifth to twelfth segments ; 

 the white spiracles are placed in the lower 

 row of reddish spots; horn slightly rough, 

 short, pointed, reddish ; legs reddish, except 

 the anal pair, which are green ; feeds on the 

 Field Scabious." Not uncommon, more par- 

 ticularly in the northern counties ; the Motk 

 appears in May. (The scientific name it 

 Macroglossa lomlyliformis.) 



NOTE. 



Among the British Sphingidce the species 

 of Smerinthm may be known by their body 

 being brown without ornamental spots on the 

 sides ; the proboscis is rather slender and short ; 

 the outline of the wings waved and irregular, 

 and the hind wings have no black bands. 

 The genus Acherontia has the body bril- 

 liantly variegated, the proboscis short and 



very thick ; the outline of the wings regular, 

 without notches and indentations, and the 

 hind wings have black bands. The genus 

 Sphinx has the sides of the body beautifully 

 variegated red, black, and white; the pro- 

 boscis enormously long; the outline of the 

 wings regular; and the hind wing* have 

 black bands. 



