THE HAWK MOTHS. 



301 



been applied to it, although it has none of the bril- 

 liancy of those little winged gems, its general colour 

 being a rusty-brown, with the tufts of hair on the ab- 

 domen spotted with black and white. Whilst hovering 

 in the air over its favourite flowers, it is busily engaged 

 in sucking out their juices, and so rapid are the mo- 

 tions of its wings that they become totally invisible. 



There is another character, to which I have not 

 yet referred, which this insect possesses in common 

 with the rest of its tribe, and which serves to distin- 

 guish it not only from the Butterflies, but also from 

 the remainder of the Moths. This consists in the pe- 

 culiar structure of the antennae, which are more or less 

 prismatic in their form, gradually thickened from their 

 base to a point at or beyond the middle, and then taper 

 off into a slender tip. The bodies of all the moths of 

 this tribe, the SPHINGINA, are rather bulky in propor- 

 tion to the wings ; but to compensate for this, the 

 latter are of a firm texture and provided with strong 

 veins, and the large size of the thorax gives room for 

 very powerful muscles, so that the flight of most of 

 these insects is very swift ; from this, and their habit 

 of hovering in the air over flowers whilst extracting 

 their juices, they have received the English name of 

 Hawk Moths. To adapt them for paying these flying 

 visits to the flowers, they are almost all furnished with 

 a long trunk, which, in the Humming-bird Hawk 

 Moth, is capable of being extended nearly to the 

 length of the whole body. 



Although many species of this tribe, like the one 

 just referred to, are day-fliers, the majority are cre- 

 puscular insects, flying about and visiting their fa- 

 vourite flowers during the twilight. These are also 

 the most typical species of the group, and the most 



