PHRYXUS LIVORNICA. 149 



red, not divided by black nervures and spots. Along the body 

 also there are not the connected white lines as in the former species. 

 Here they consist rather of rings of alternately white and brown 

 oblong squares. The figure will enable further comparison" (Esper, 

 Schmett. Eur., ii., pp. 87-88). 



Imago. — 70mm. -7 5mm. Thorax olive-brown, with 4 white 

 longitudinal lines, the outer passing from the front of head, through 

 base of antennae to base of hindwings. Abdomen olive-brown, a 

 white median longitudinal line, black and white banded. Anterior 

 wings olive-brown, with moderately wide oblique creamy fascia 

 crossing the forewings from apex to inner margin near base, 

 becoming white at the inner margin ; the outer marginal area 

 (slightly purple-) greyish ■ the nervures raised, creamy-white, but 

 not pale-coloured within the subcostal and outer-marginal areas ; 

 a small triangular white discoidal patch contains a minute black 

 dot ; innermarginal edge white ; fringes creamy, suffused with 

 blackish at ends of nervures. Posterior wings pink, with black 

 base and black submarginal band ; outermarginal area pinky-grey, 

 suffused with black scales ; a white patch at base of pink median 

 band ; fringes white. 



Sexual dimorphism. — The 2 appears to be distinctly larger than 

 the S , a fact often, however, obscured, as it is much within the 

 limits of individual variation in size. Besides the ordinary difference 

 between the $ and $ antennae in Sphinges, that of the male is 

 imm. the longer, 13*5111111. and i2'5mm. respectively. The 1st 

 tibia of the $ seems slightly longer than that of the ? . The 

 1st tibial spurs are almost exactly equal in length in the two sexes, 

 and there is little if any difference in the development of the comb. 

 The cT possesses a scent fan at the base of the abdomen, but it 

 is so small and ill-developed that I have been unable to find it 

 without macerating and mounting the specimens. It is a minute 

 wisp of hairs, the longest about 2mm. in length, arising from the 

 external anterior angle of the first ventral plate of the abdomen, 

 its usual site when so restricted. The baton-like scales fringing 

 the segments, so characteristic of all Sphingids, are here, as in other 

 Phryxids, large and in several rows, or at least of varying sizes. 



Variation. — Oberthiir notes that the species varies much in 

 shape and intensity of coloration. Lucas says (Bull. Soc. Ent. Fr., 

 1880, p. Ixviii) that the Tunisian specimens resemble those of southern 

 Europe, except that the colour is richer, and the red of the hindwings 

 clearer, otherwise they are quite comparable with Algerian examples. 

 Bartel says (Pal. Gross-Schmett., ii., p. 100) that the light 

 yellow colour which occupies the middle band varies much in 

 intensity, the enclosed oblique dark band thus being sometimes 

 narrower, at other times broader ; it is sometimes dirty yellow- 

 brown. The hindwings also vary much in colour and markings. 

 Bartel further notes that a $ from Serach (on the frontiers of 

 North Persia and Turkestan) is very small, only 48mm. in expanse, 

 and altogether of a paler colour than any other specimens examined. 

 A very dark example (especially on the underside), from Sikkim, 

 is in the Kricheldorff coll., Berlin; in this example, the costa of 

 the forewings on the upperside is very broadly dark. In Australia, 

 P. livornica occurs as a dwarf form (var. australasiae, n. var.), but 



