LEPIDOPTERA. 199 
often assume. Raising the fore part of the body, which attitude 
resembles the Sphinx of mythology, they keep for a very long 
time this state of immobility. They fly very rapidly and briskly, 







































































USS : = z ae —— 
Ss = = as es as 
Fig. 177.—1he Forester (Procris (dno) statices). 







nd only make their appearance for the most part after sunset. 
The caterpillars, which in this group are without hair, and have 
almost always a horn on the eleventh segment of the body, 
metamorphose themselves in the earth, without forming hard 
cocoons. The chrysalides are sometimes enveloped in a very 
slight shell, or cocoon, which when 1% exists is formed of particles 
of earth or of vegetable débris bound together by threads. This 
family comprises species generally remarkable for their size and 
beauty. 
The genus Macroglossa contains some species which fly rapidly 
and for a long time together during the day. We will mention 
particularly the Humming-bird Sphinx (Macroglossa stellatarum). 
This moth (Fig. 178) has attracted the attention of all who have 
ever spent much time in a flower garden. In Burgundy the 
children call it dird-fly. In passing from one flower to another 
it has brisk and rapid movements; but it remains suspended in 
the air before each. It does not alight upon any; it is always 
flying, thrusting its long trunk the while into the corolle of 
flowers, counterbalancing the action of its weight by the con- 
tinuous vibration of its wings. 
We will describe in a few words this robust inhabitant of the 
air, this charming Jird-fly. The Macroglossa stellatarum shows 
itself during the whole of the fine season, and till the middle 
of autumn, in our climate. It often penetrates in the middle of 
the day into our houses and knocking itself against the window- 
