358 BRITISH LEP1D0PTERA. 



margin; in the ? instead of this is only a short raised semi-oval curve. Forewings 

 with ii or 12 nervures, i free, 2--7 at equal distances out of cell, 8 out of 7, 9 

 (ivided near apex of wing when 12 nervuies are present ; in the latter case, 

 therefore, 10 is from 9, 11 from top of cell, 12 free ; if nervure 9 be not forked 

 10 arises from front edge of cell and 11 is free; hindwings with 9 nervures, 1 

 free, the following all with tolerably equal interspaces, 4 from apex of cell, 5 

 as a continuation of- one of the weak dividing nervures of cell (the fold ?) or even 

 further on towards the costa, 6 and 7 on a short footstalk, 8 from base sending 

 back an oblique nervure to middle of front margin of cell. 



He, however, did not get beyond genera in his subdivisions, his 

 table of the latter working out as follows : 



I. Antenna? with the apex pencillated, hooked. 



1. Abdomen with sides and anal segment barbed . . MACROGLOSSA. 



2. Abdomen with sides and anal segment not barbed. 



a. Abdomen with anal segment acute . . . . Sphinx. 



b Abdomen with anal segment obtuse . . . . Acherontia. 



II. Antenna? neither pencillated nor hooked . . . . . . Smerinthus. 



This division, as far as it goes, is a natural one, but is neither 

 better nor worse than that of Stephens, both being meagre in the 

 extreme, and not dealing with the superfamily from a sufficiently 

 broad standpoint. 



For comparison with Herrich-Schaffer's diagnosis of the super- 

 family w y e append Meyrick's (Handbook, &c, p. 292) which reads : 



Imago : Head with dense appressed hairs. Ocelli absent. Eyes glabrous. 

 Antennae thickened towards middle or posteriorly, in £ ciliated with partial whorls. 

 Labial palpi moderate, ascending, with dense projecting scales. Thorax densely 

 hairy beneath. Femora densely hairy. Neuration : Forewings — lb furcate, 6 out 

 of 8, 9 absent (rarely present in exceptional individuals). Hindwings— 3 and 4 

 approximated at base, 5 from middle of transverse vein, parallel to 4, 6 and 7 connate 

 or stalked, 8 connected by oblique bar with margin of cell before middle, more or 

 less approximated to 7 near beyond cell. Ovum : Spheroidal, smooth. Larva*: 

 Stout, usually with an oblique projecting anal horn, anterior segments sometimes 

 retractile or raised in 1'epose. Pupa* : Subterranean. 



Grote, in 18S6, published his work, the 'Hawk Moths of America. 

 In this he largely maintained the subfamilies of Butler, but attempted, 

 in addition, to show the origin of the superfamily, and the interrelation 

 of the subfamilies. He made the Smcrinthinae "the central and 

 generalised group, and from the Smerinthoid type, he considered the 

 Choerocampinae and Macroglossinae had deviated in the direction of 

 a specialisation of the imago by a narrowing of the wings, a 

 strengthening of the costa of the forewings, a reduction of the 

 hindwings, and an increase in the relative size of the prothorax and 

 mesothorax. In the lower genera of the Choerocampinae, represented by 

 Ambulyx, he considered the wing-proportion of the Smcrinthinae to be 

 carried over, no less than the soft brown colour, and, in the case of 

 A. sexoculatvs, Grote, from Brazil, the ocellated hind-wings. He further 

 suggested that while these three groups stand in a nearer ascending 

 relation, the typical Sphinginae had probably a different line of 

 development, standing nearer to the Aciicrontiinac, the latter group 

 being now somewhat independent. This was the beginning of a 

 considerable amount of excellent detailed work by Poulton, Packard, 

 Chapman, Bacot, Dyar and others, which is far too comprehensive 

 to enter into at length here; a summary of some of it is, however, 

 necessary, and, as a preliminary, we have to note the main Sphingid 



* These characters certainly take rank with those of the authors oi a century and 

 a half ago. 



