382 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



were made. He defines "buzzing" as consisting of "quick, short 

 movements made with the wings, the number of which per second may 

 be estimated at from 6 to 8. It is not a flutter, since in a movement 

 of that sort the wings describe a greater amplitude. The wing 

 movements, moreover, are quite regular." He gives tables illustrating 

 his results. The great attractive influence of light on many Sphingid 

 moths is well known. We have seen dozens of dead Agrius convolvuli 

 beneath the electric lights on the public squares in Turin. . Swinhoe 

 states ( Ent., xxiii., p. 22) that, by means of the electric light in 

 Bombay, he had collected more than 300 specimens belonging to 

 the Sphingids in a single night. Young observes that, at Mahdopoor, 

 in the Punjaub, he collected above 30 species of Sphingids at 

 jasmine, petunia, and marvel of Peru flowers. Green gives 



(E.M.M.. xxxvii., pp. 87 et seq.) some interesting details of 

 the attractiveness of the electric light in Ceylon, in December, 

 1900, the Sphingids being especially numerous. He counted on a 

 single post 39 specimens of Pseudosphinx discistriga, whilst Daphnis 

 hypothous and Theretra nessus almost rivalled the Pseudosphinx in 

 numbers, other species taken being Manduca lachesis, Hippotion 

 celerio and Agrius convolvuli. Bethune records (Can. Ent., i., 

 pp. 47 — 48) his surprise at seeing on June 23rd, 1868, a very 

 hot day, at Trafalgar, a beautiful specimen of Amphion nessus 

 perched on the carcase of a little dog floating in a pool, and 

 which gave forth a horrid odour, but to which, on being dis- 

 turbed, the moth returned again and again. Some species of 

 Sphingids are known to be attracted to the sweets spread for 

 Noctuids. Eumorpha elpenor is the most frequently attracted of 

 the British species, but the habit is a widely spread one, 

 for the following species are noted by Bailey 1 Can. Ent., ix., p. 240) 

 as being taken at sugar at Center in 1877 •' choe?'ilus, kahniae, 

 gordius, hylaus, abbottii, drupiferarum, myron, sordida, cinerea, liarrisii, 

 lineata, luscitiosa. 



Meyrick says (Handbook, etc., p. 292) of the Sphingids : " This is 

 a numerous family, distributed throughout the principal regions, except 

 in New Zealand (where there is only one not truly indigenous species), 

 but more plentifully within the tropics. The imagines are usually large 

 insects, with stout heavy bodies, elongate-triangular forewings with 

 very oblique termen, and relatively small hindwings ; the wing- 

 muscles are very strong and the flight exceptionally powerful." 



Family : Amorphid.e*. 



Accepting Chapman's grouping (anted, p. 367) we see that the 

 Sphingids fall into two main divisions, Sphingidae and A/norpliidae, 

 the characters being especially marked in the pupal and imaginal 

 stages. He notes that one of the most peculiar characters of the 

 imago is its resting attitude, which in the Amorphids is Pterophorine 

 in general character, showing the costa of the hindwings in front 

 of the forewings, as in certain Lachneids, e.g., Eutricha quercifolia, 

 whilst the frenulum is nearly obsolete ; on the other hand the resting- 

 position of the Sphingids (as apart from the Amorphids) is with 



* The oldest plural form applied to this group is Hubner's Amorpliae (Tail., p. 

 1) in 1806. The plural form of Smerinthus was not used until 1818 (Hb., Zutr., 

 i., p. 4). This being so, we call the family Amorphidae. 



