SPHINGID.E OP PEEIT. 77 



explored and every kind of plant and tree scrutinized, the most unlikely sometimes 

 proving to be the pabulum of some strange and wonderful creature whose form I had 

 never before witnessed even in print. 



The nine plates here published have been selected from a mucli larger number that 

 were made, and in the re-grouping of the figures I have had the invaluable and kind 

 assistance of Dr. Jordan, of Tring. Both to him and to the Hon. Walter Rothschild 

 I would take this opportunity of tendering my sincere thanks for the presentation 

 copies of their recent ' Revision of the Sphingidse of the World,' undoubtedly the most 

 comprehensive and most truly scientific treatise on the subject that has yet appeared, 

 and one upon which all future investigations must be based ; and also must I thank 

 these two gentlemen for the time and interest they displayed on my return from Peru 

 in helping me to identify my specimens by the aid of the Tring Collection, the most 

 extensive and the most complete one in existence. Dr. Jordan has been good 

 enough to add notes as to the general distribution of the species with which I am 

 here dealing, and for the convenience of reference, and to avoid confusion in any sub- 

 sequent contributions on the earlier stages of Sphingid?e which may appear, the order, 

 numbering and nomenclature of the ' Revision ' have been adopted. 



It was thought well by the Publication Committee of the Zoological Society of 

 London, to whom I am indebted for the honour of recognition and of this publication, 

 to limit the work to one branch of the subject. I accordingly chose the Sphingidse, and 

 the figures included represent only those species whose identity has been established 

 beyond question — in almost every case by the rearing of perfect imagines from ova or 

 young larvae. During my occasional travels in the Interior 1 was, of course, frequently 

 doomed to disappointment by being obliged to leave before all my larvae were full- 

 fed, or because my carefully packed but delicate pupae were bad travellers and 

 succumbed to the jog-trot of a long mule ride, leaving my mind as empty as my 

 curiosity was great concerning their after-development had they lived. Too often, 

 moreover, was it my experience for pupae to emerge on the journey, which, despite all 

 possible precautions, were generally quite ruined. To unpack pupae was often to 

 reveal an unlovely thing, devoid of scales and beyond the pale of recognition, fluttering 

 its crippled pinions amidst a cloud of fluff'. As to their larvae, I have their pictures, 

 but in the privacy of my portfolios must they at present remain, and wait for the day 

 when their identity, too, shall be established. I have reason to believe that they 

 include, amongst others, Euryglottis aper or doffnini, Oryba kadeni, Pholus satellitia or 

 cissi, and Xylojphanes chiron. 



The mere retrospective glance at some of these unnamed monsters and beauties (for 

 there were both) carries the mind back to their exact haunts and the strange leaves 

 which by turns they Avere simulating and assimilating, and one longs to go back and 

 hunt them up again. I may some day be enabled to do so, but if the perusal of these 

 illustrated descriptions of a few species shall prompt others to go out and continue the 



