AMORPHIDiE, 383 



the wings more or less flat or even deflexed, and these have a 

 strong frenulum developed. Chapman accepts two subfamilies in the 

 Amorphidae — Amorphinae and Ambulicinae — the latter of which 

 Grote places among the Eumorphids. He looks upon the 

 Ambulycids as representing the lower Eumorphids (Chcerocampids) 

 in which the wing-proportion of the Amorphids is carried over. 

 We are not able to assent to this position. The Ambulycids have 

 the Eumorphine characters of form, and a slightly longer proboscis 

 than the Amorphids (sens, strict.), whilst the antennal structure is 

 less definitely Amorphid than in Smerinthus, but the pupa is 

 essentially Amorphid, although it has often facial spines as 

 in the Sesiid (Macroglossid) pupa, and a metathoracic callosity as 

 in the pupae of Sphinx and Manduca. Looking at our accepted phylo- 

 o-eny of the Amorphids (sens, strict.), it would appear that the Ambulycids 

 branched from the Amorphid stem before the latter had separated 

 very far from the Eumorphine portion of the Sphingid line, the 

 Eumorphids being the lowest of the Sphingidae, but the subfamily 

 is distinctly on the Amorphid, and not on the Eumorphid, side of 

 the phylogenetic tree. We have already given (anted, p. 357) 

 Butler's diagnoses of these subfamilies. 



Subfam : Amorphinae. 



Grote, Poulton, Packard and others have attempted to prove that 

 the Amorphids are the most generalised of all the Sphingids. The 

 broad wings, the rather less specialised antennae (in Sphingid direction), 

 the ill-developed tongue and frenulum, and the different mode of 

 flight have all led to this result, and certain characters of the pupa 

 support this view, but we have already shown (anted, pp. 359 et sea.) 

 that, in spite of some generalised characters, the loss of the tongue 

 and frenulum really represent specialisations and prove con- 

 clusively that these authors are wrong in deriving the Sphingids 

 from Attacids, Lachneids or Dimorphids, groups that have already 

 lost both tongue and frenulum, whilst the presence of these organs 

 proves that any specialisation of the Amorphids in these directions 

 has taken place within the Sphingid phylum. With Grote's placing 

 of the Ambulycids we have already stated our disagreement. 



In the Amorphid larva, the dorsal setae (i + ii) on the meso- 

 and metathoracic segments are placed as pairs (i and ii) on either 

 side of the median line, the anterior and posterior setae of each 

 pair having their bases close together on the same subsegment, 

 being, in this particular, in agreement with the arrangement that 

 pertains to the larvae of Sphingids and Sesiids (Macroglossids), as 

 opposed to that exhibited by the Eumorphid larvae, in which they 

 are placed, one on either side of the median line, as an anterior 

 pair (i) and a posterior pair (ii), ii being directly behind i, and 

 situated on a different subsegment. In the oval and larval stages 

 the Amorphids are fairly normal Sphingids, and, in the larval 

 stage, are possibly in advance of the Eumorphids. The pupa is, 

 however, less specialised, and is not unlike, in its general features, 

 some of those found in the allied Attacid and Lachneid superfamilies. 

 Bacot observes ( Ent. Record, vii., p. 230) the general resemblance 

 between the pupae of Dimorpha versicoloi'a, Mimas tilide and 

 Amorpha populi. As the long-tongued Sphingids (sens, strict.) 



