The Origin of the Markings of Caterpillars. 3 1 9 



already been shown with respect to the Sphingidce, 

 in which the oblique stripes are only completely 

 developed in the subfamilies Smerinthince and 

 Sphingince. The species of Smerinthus all live 

 on trees such as willows, poplars, lime, oak, &c., 

 and all possess oblique stripes. The genus 

 Anceryx also belongs to the Sphingince, and these 

 caterpillars, as far as known, live on trees with 

 needle-shaped leaves. The moths of this last 

 genus are very closely allied to the species of 

 Sphinx, not only in form and colour, but also in 

 many details of marking. The larvae are how- 

 ever different, this distinction arising entirely from 

 their adaptation to needle-shaped leaves, the 

 Sphinx caterpillars being adapted to ordinary 

 foliage. The species of Anceryx, as has been 

 already shown, are brown mixed with green, and 

 never possess even a trace of the oblique stripes, 

 but have a latticed marking, consisting of many 

 interrupted lines, which very effectively serves to 

 conceal them among the needles and brown bark 

 of the Coniferce. 



Of the Sphingince living on plants with ordinary 

 foliage, not a single species is without oblique 

 stripes. I am acquainted with ten species of 

 caterpillars and their respective food-plants, viz. 

 Sphinx Carolina, Convolvuli, Qidnquemaculata, 

 Prini,Drupiferarum, Ligustri; Macrosila Rnstica 

 and Cingulata ; Dolba Hylceus and Acherontia 

 Atropos. 



