Night Flowers 203 
They sip like humming-birds, poised above the 
flower on whirring wings, and hence are some- 
times known as ‘‘humming-bird moths.” They 
are called ‘‘ hawk-moths,’’ on account of the swift- 
ness of their flight, and ‘‘sphinxes,” because the 
caterpillars from which they develop have a curi- 
Shbhinx ligustri, Sphinx convolvuli, 
Fic. 54.—Nocturnal guests of the honeysuckle. 
(From Figuier’s /asect World.) 
ous habit of remaining motionless, with their heads 
and the forepart of their bodies raised in an at- 
titude a little like that of the crouching-sphinxes 
of old Egypt. A few hawk-moths fly by day, 
but most species rove abroad during the morning 
and evening twilight, when they may be seen flit- 
ing with great swiftness from flower to flower 
(Fig. 54). 
