LEPIDOPTERA. 439 



I will divide this subgenus into four sections. The first, or that of the 

 HESPERI-SPHINGES, consists of Lepidoptera, which evidently connect the 

 Hesperise with Sphinx proper. The antennse are always simple, thickened in 

 the middle or at the extremity, which forms a hook, narrowed into a point at 

 the end, and without a tuft of scales. They all have a very distinct proboscis ; 

 the inferior palpi are composed of three very apparent joints. In some, the 

 second is elongated and strongly compressed, the third slender, almost cylin- 

 drical, and nearly naked ; these palpi resemble those of the Urania? : in others, 

 they are shorter but wider, almost cylindrical, and well furnished with scales. 

 The antennae of the latter are only inflated at the extremity. This section 



is composed of Agarista, 

 Coronis, and Castnia. 



Those of our second sec- 

 tion, or the SPHINGIDES, 

 always have the antennae 

 terminated by a little flake 

 of scales; the inferior palpi 

 broad, or compressed trans- 

 Agavista. versely, densely covered 



with scales, and the third joint usually indistinct. 



Mcst of the caterpillars have an elongated, smooth body, thickest at the 

 posterior extremity, which is furnished with a horn, and its sides striped 

 obliquely or longitudinally. They live on leaves, and are metamorphosed in 

 the earth without spinning a cocoon. 



SPHINX proper 



Where the antennae, commencing from the middle, form a prismatic club, 

 simply ciliated, or transversely striated on one side in the manner of a rasp. 

 They have a very distinct proboscis, and fly with great velocity, hovering over 

 flowers with a humming noise. In the chrysalides of some species the sheath 

 of the proboscis projects in the manner of a snout. 



S. Atropos, Lin. Superior wings variegated with deep and yellowish- 

 brown, and light-yellowish ; inferior wings yellow, with two brown bands; 

 a yellowish spot with two black dots on the thorax ; abdomen yellowish, with 

 black annuli, and without a terminal brush. This is the largest species in 

 France. The spot on the thorax resembling a death's head, and the sharp 

 sound it produces (attributed by Reaumur to its rubbing the palpi against its 

 proboscis) have frequently produced considerable alarm among the people in 

 certain years when it was unusually abundant. 



The caterpillar is yellow, with blue stripes on the side, and the tail recurved 

 and zig-zag. It feeds on the potato, vine, jasmin, &c., and becomes a 

 chrysalis near the end of August. The perfect insect appears in September. 



Our third division, that of the SESIADES, comprises those in which the 

 antennae are always simple, fusiform, and elongated, and frequently terminated, 

 as in the preceding subgenera, by a little bundle of setae or scales; in which 



