496 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



paired with a new aberrational form, in which the central fascia is 

 more or less obsolete : 



i. 3 type X ? aberr. — Brood — 72 moths, all normal. 



2. <? type x ? aberr. — Brood — 65 moths, all normal. 



3. 3 aberr. X ? type. -Brood- = 69 moths, 1 ? slightly aberrant. 



4. 3 aberr. x ? type. — Brood — 52 moths, one ? resembling the aberrative 

 3 parent, rest normal. 



5. 3 aberr. x ? type. — Brood =: 81 moths, 1 3 and 1 ? intermediate 

 between aberr. and type, also one pair similar to aberrative 3 , 77 normal. 



Standfuss observes that the aberration used was a rather rare 

 one, and the experiment was only possible through having at disposal, 

 at the same time, more than 1000 dug pupae from all parts 01 

 central Europe. The reversion to type forms a very high percentage, 

 and the aberration appears in such very small numbers that it is 

 pretty certain that it is not able to maintain itself in a state of 

 nature. 



Family : Sphingidae *. 



The Sphingidae form the second great family of the superfamily 

 Sphingides, and comprise the following main branches — Pterogoninae, 

 Hemarinae, Sesiinae ( Macroglossinae ), Eumorphinae, Manducinae and 

 Sphinginae — represented in the Palasarctic fauna, there being possibly 

 other important subfamilies among the tropical and subtropical 

 species, where the superfamily has its metropolis. The number 

 of species and their remarkable specialisation in certain respects 

 are facts that immediately arrest the attention of the student, but, 

 in spite of their large size and their general abundance in the 

 imaginal state in collections, our detailed knowledge of the early 

 stages of the great mass of the species is practically nil, and hence 

 any attempt at classification, based on the broader characters 

 furnished by the egg, larva, pupa, as well as imago, must be 

 recognised as merely tentative and open to considerable modification 

 as material comes to hand. Chapman and Bacot have undertaken 

 for this work to formulate their opinions based on the examination 



* Jordan, to whom we have submitted proof of our work, and who is now 

 engaged on a revision of the Sphingidae, which is to be published in Novitates 

 Zoologicae, writes (in litt.) : " The hawk-moths fall into two sharply separated groups 

 which we have termed Sphingidae -Asemanophorae and Sphingidae-Semanophorae 

 in the revision of the Sphingidae ; for details sec Novitates Zoologicae, ix. suppl. 

 (1902) which will be published during- the year. To the first group belong what is termed 

 (antea, pp. 360 — 367) Amorphidae, Manducinae, and Sphinginae ; while the rest 

 comes into the second group. There are no connecting links between the six 

 divisions. Each division has its own tendency of development. The Sphingidae- 

 Asemanophorae, represented in the European fauna by a few specialised "forms, 

 show a marked tendency of becoming specialised by the reduction or loss of organs, 

 while the prevailing tendency among the Sphingidae-Semanophorae (Macroglossinae, 

 Eumotphinae, &c.) is to develop new structures. The Amorphidae and Sphinginae 

 of Chapman's classification [antea, p. 367) both contain forms which have lost the 

 frenulum, and have a functionless tongue. Chapman is quite correct in associating 

 the so-called Ambulicinae with his Amorphinae, there is, in fact, nothing to 

 separate; the two. Chapman's division of the Sphingids, according to the pupa 

 [antea, p. 367) does not take cognizance of those Sphinginae in which the 

 proboscis docs not reach to the extremities of the wings. A number of 

 Macro glossinae have the abdomen not tufted. The small head and retractile 

 front segments, attributed above only to the Eumorphinae and Macroglossinac, 

 are found also in some Sphinginae of Australia. The peculiarly curved-shaped horn 

 of the larva of Manducinae is met with among Sphinginae. The head of some 

 Sphingine larvae is small, sometimes triangular as in Amorphidae" 



