'98 SPHINGIDE. 



■all of the family Oleaceae. The larva is sluggish, except 

 when seeking for a place to pupate, and when at rest adopts 

 the typical " sphinx " attitude. It rests without feeding for 

 a couple of days before commencing to pupate, and while 

 wandering about in search of a suitable place to burrow 

 is more or less neutral coloured, losing all the markings. 

 Pupation takes place in an ovoid cell, smooth inside but not 

 lined with silk, and placed about 6 inches underground. 



Subfamily AMBULICIN^. 



Butler, 1877 A, p. 514 ; Roths. & JorcL, 1903, p. 166 ; id., 1907, 

 p. 35 ; Jordan, 1911, p. 238. 



Imago. — There does not appear to be any single character 

 which separates all the Ambitlicine from all the Acheron - 

 tune. An Ambulicine species may, however, be dis- 

 tinguished from the Sphingini by the end-segment of the 

 antenna being short, densely scaled above ; the few genera with 

 prolonged end-segment (Compsogene, Oxyambulyx, Cypa) may 

 be recognized by the apex of the fore wing being sinuate 

 or the distal margin more or less angulate below the middle, 

 or by the long tarsi being without a mid- tarsal comb. 



The tribe Sphingulini, in which the end-segment of the 

 antenna is as short as in most Ambulicine, agrees so closely 

 in structure with this subfamily that only a combination of 

 characters separates one from the other. In the Ambulicine 

 the tip of the fore wing is sinuate, or the distal margin irregular 

 or concave ; or the margin is straight and the tibiae spinulose ; 

 or the frenulum, or the pul villus, or the proximal pair of hind 

 tibial spurs are absent. 



The tongue of the Ambulicine never reaches beyond end 

 of abdomen ; it is generally short and weak, and there are 

 several species in which it is reduced to two short lobes. The 

 mesial fringe of the tongue by which the two halves are kept 

 together above forms, in the species with a strong tongue 

 (Compsogene and allies), a kind of thin membrane, the hairs 

 being soldered together, while the fringe of a weak tongue 

 is generally long and loose, the hairs being more or less separate, 

 or is absent. Base of tongue not rarely covered with long 

 weak scales (Leucophlebia for instance) ; in Cypa it is tuber cled 

 on upper side near base. The weak tongue is functionless, 

 only the lower (i. e., less specialized or less reduced) forms being 

 able to use the tongue as a sucking- tube. The only Indian 

 genera possessing a fully functional tongue are Compsogene, 

 Oxyambulyx and Clanis. 



Pilifer normally of a rounded triangular shape, with the 

 inner surface clothed with long bristles, which are often 

 modified into scales. Palpus large in the lower forms {Compso- 

 gene, etc.), and very small in a number of genera. 



