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THE ELEPHANT SPHINX. 



Sphinx Elpenor. 



PLATE LXX. 



Sphinx Elpenor, Linn. Syst. Nat. ii. p. 801 Turton't 



Li nnc, iii. p. 175 Donovan's Brit. Ins. iv. pi. 122. 



Harris's Aurel. pi. 7, fig. G. H. 



THE wings of this beautiful Sphinx are angular, ;i 

 the upper ones striped with rich fawn colour and 

 pink ; the lower wings are rose coloured, with a 

 large black patch at their insertion ; the thorax is 

 fawn coloured, and the abdomen rose coloured, with 

 two black spots on the upper segment. 



The caterpillars of this very elegant Sphinx are 

 generally found in marshy places in June and July. 

 They feed on the convolvulus, vine, and some other 

 plants, but prefer white ladies' bedstraw ; they cast 

 their skin several times ; and, when full fed, some are 

 green, and others of a brown colour. The caterpillars 

 of the female are a fine green, elegantly marked with 

 black ; those of the male are varied with the same 

 dark markings, but the colour is a dull brown, 

 inclining to black in those parts where the female is 

 green. 



It possesses a faculty peculiar to very few insects 

 it can protrude its head and three first joints to a 





