The Hummingbird Moths 



Often when we are sitting on the piazza in the earlv evening 

 we see a hummingbird poising before a flower of the trumpet 

 creeper or a petunia bell, and we hear. the whirr of its wings and 

 note how it darts away to another flower. But, at that time 

 of night, all the hummingbirds are safely asleep in their leaf 

 bed-rooms; and their xmderstudies at the flower trumpets are 

 large strong winged, long tongued moths that choose the twilight 

 hoar to refresh themselves at nectar wells. They are the sphinx 

 or htimmingbird moths. 



The sphinx caterpillars are leaf eaters and each species feeds 

 upon a limited nximber of plants which are usually related; for 

 instance, one feeds upon both the potato and tomato; another 

 upon the Virginia creeper and grapes. In color these caterpillars 

 so resemble the leaves that they are discovered with difficulty. 

 Those on the Virginia creeper which shades porches, may be 

 located by the black pellets of waste material which fall from 

 them to the groimd; but even after this unmistakable hint I have 

 searched a long time to find the caterpillar in the leaves above; 

 its color ser\^es to hide 

 the insect from birds 

 which feed upon It eagerly. 

 In some species, the cater- 

 pillars are ornamented 

 with oblique stripes along 

 the sides, and in others the 

 stripes are lengthwise. 

 There is often a great 

 variation in color between 

 the caterpillars of the 

 same species; the tomato 

 worm is sometimes green 

 and sometimes black. 



The horn on 

 the rear end is 



often in the _ _ ^ , - , 



, - ^r 9^ Sphtnx larva tn sphtnx attitude. 



young larva Ot ^^ From Manual for the Study of Insects. 



different :olor 

 han the body; in some species it stands straight up and in 

 ome it is curled toward the back It is an absolutely harmless 



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