THE BUTTERFLIES Afrb MOTHS 161 



called Hawk Moths. They are characterized by having 

 large bodies, with small wings and very long curious 

 tongues, which sometimes reach a length of five or six 

 inches. Nearly all of them fly just at twilight, rather than 

 during the day. The family includes a large number of 

 species, several of which are injurious to cultivated crops. 



Most of the caterpillars of the Hawk Moths have the habit 

 of assuming during the day a curious attitude, with the 

 head end of the body held rigidly erect in a way suggestive 

 of the famous Sphinx of Egypt. To this is doubtless due 

 their common name of Sphinx Caterpillars. A familiar 

 illustration of these larvae may be found late in summer on 

 tomato, potato, tobacco, and related plants, for the common 

 tomato and tobacco worms belong to this group. There 

 are really two species of these tomato worms, one being 

 more abundant in the North, and the other in the South. 

 When full grown the caterpillars burrow into the soil, where 

 they change to brown pupae, and early the following sum- 

 mer wriggle to the surface of the soil, to emerge as beauti- 

 ful grayish Hawk Moths. 



Another common, widely-distributed member of this 

 family is the Pandorus Sphinx, the caterpillars of which 

 are often injurious to grapevines and Virginia creepers 

 or woodbines. The moth is large and beautiful, exquisitely 

 colored in greens and browns. The eggs are laid early in 

 summer upon the leaves of the food plant, hatching in a 

 few days into small sphinx caterpillars that feed and molt 

 for several weeks before becoming full grown. They are 

 then three or four inches long, and the thickness of a man's 

 finger. They now crawl to the ground and burrow into 

 the soil a short distance, where they change to pupae, to 

 remain until the following season, when they emerge as 

 moths. 



