266 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



here, that the longitudinally-striped larva of Hyloicus piuastri has no 

 relationship with the similarly striped larvae of the lower Eumorphids, 

 but is a specialisation, and that it doubtless had ancestors striped 

 in true Sphinx manner. The other genus, very probably erroneously re- 

 ferred to Sphinginae, is Dilophonotq. The larva of this genus has no 

 Sphingine characters, but is decidedly not very far from the Eumorphid 

 type as shown in Acosmeryx, Philampelus and Pachylia. The pupa is 

 also quite Eumorphid. The imago has a facies quite different from any- 

 thing else, but presents a few characters (of neuration, &c.) that suggest 

 that its Eumorphid affinities are in some way via ThyreusT For our views 

 of this see posted, p. 273. Weismann, discussingthe larvse of the Sphingids 

 (sens, restr.) and Manducids, writes (Studies in Theory of Descent, 

 transl. p. 261 ) : " Of the genera mentioned, I am acquainted altogether 

 with fourteen species of larvae — Macrosila hasdrubal (Psendosphinx 

 tetrio), M. (Protoparce) cingulata, M. (P.) rustic a, Sphinx (Agrius) 

 convolvuli, S. ligustri, S. Carolina, S. quinquemaculata, S. drupiferarum, 

 S. kalmiae, S. gordius, Dolba hylaeus, Acherontia ( Manduca) atropos, 

 A. styx and A. satanas. With one exception all these caterpillars 

 possess oblique stripes of the nature of those of Smerinthid larvae, 

 and most of them are without any trace of a subdorsal line ; one 

 species, the North American M. cingulata, has a completely de- 

 veloped subdorsal, and the typical European species, S. convolvuli, 

 has a rudimentary subdorsal line. The ground-colour, in most of 

 these species, is of the same green as that of the leaves of their 

 foodplants ; some are brown, i.e., earth-coloured, and, in these, the 

 markings do not appear so prominently ; others, again, possess very 

 striking colours (A. atropos), the oblique stripes, in these cases, being 

 very vivid. Only M. hasdrubal {tetrio) separates itself completely from 

 this system of classification, since this species is deep black with 

 narrow yellow rings, the horn and last segment being red. The 

 large and most striking larva of M. hasdrubal {tetrio) is the same of 

 which Wallace has made use for his theory of the brilliant colours 

 of caterpillars. The explanation of the origin of this widely diver- 

 gent mode of markings could only be furnished by the ontogeny, 

 in which one or another of the older phyletic stages will certainly 

 have been preserved." Meldola observes (loc. cit., p. 262, footnote) 

 that larvae of many other species have been figured by Butler, 

 most of which fall under Weismanns remarks, but Psendosphinx 

 cyrtolophia has very divergent marking, a broad white dorsal line 

 bordered with pink, and two large pink ovals on the back of 

 the four anterior segments, the hinder and larger of these being 

 bisected by the dorsal line. With reterence to the larva ot M. atropos, 

 Mansel-Weale states ( Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1878, p. v) that, in South 

 Africa, the ordinary form feeds generally on Solanaceae, whilst the 

 darker and rarer variety is found only on species of Lantana. Of those 

 species figured by Burmeister, Meldola notes that the larva of Proto- 

 parce albiplaga is pale green with large yellow black-bordered patches sur- 

 rounding the spiracles, whilst those of Psendosphinx tetrio and Anceryx 

 scyron are black, with broad transverse belts, yellow and white re- 

 spectively, encircling the middle of each segment. These light bands 

 serve very effectually to break up the uniform surface of the large 

 bodies of these insects. Weismann concludes that the Sphinginae 

 are a younger group than the Smerinthinae, since, in the former, 



