222 TRUE TALES OF THE INSECTS. 



hovering over flowers while sucking the nectar with 

 their long probosces. That these insects really are birds 

 the uninitiated determinedly believe. The natives of the 

 Amazons, as Bates relates, think that the moth changes 

 into the bird, just as the caterpillar changes to the moth ; 

 Bates himself several times shot Aellopos titan in mistake 

 for a humming-bird, so close is the resemblance between 

 them on the wing. The Bee Hawks (Hemaris) have 

 transparent wings, the clear spaces on emergence from 

 the pupa being thinly spread with glittering scales, which 

 fall on the first occasion of flight. During the hottest 

 hours of bright sunny days they make their appearance 

 among the blossoms and regale on their sweets, probably 

 like all the Macroglossinse with entire wings, such as 

 Lepisesia ; but those with angulated wings fly also in the 

 dusk of evening. Genera of the following tribe are like- 

 wise taken in the day. Because of this diurnal habit, and 

 the general idea that it is the most specialized group, 

 entomologists usually place the Macroglossinae at the 

 head of the great series Sphingidse. 



Ch&rocampina and Ambulicincz. 



To the peculiar tapering, often retractile, form of the 

 larva, the Chcerocampinae, the so-called Elephant Hawks, 



