330 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



Cat.," ed. 



Lep. Alp. -Mar.," p. n; (1875); Curd, "Bull. Soc. Ent. Ital.." vii., p. 109 

 (1875); Kirby, "Eur. Butts, and Moth's," p. 68 (1879); Frey, "Lep. Schweiz,''' 

 p. z,6 (1880) ; Buckl., " Law.," ii., pp. 22, 108, pi. xxi., fig. 2, pi. xxii., fig. 1 

 (1887); Leech, " Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond.," p. 588 (1888) ; Poulton. "Trans. 

 Ent. Soc. Lond.," pp. 515-606 (1888); Auriv., " Nord. Fjar.," p. 44 

 (1889); Meyr., "Handbook," &c, p. 298 (1895); Barr., "Lep. Brit.," ii., p. 



Soc. Lond.," ix., p. 609, pi. xci., figs. 16-17 (1877) ; Moore, " Lep. Cey.," ii 

 p. 5 (1882); Hmpsn., " Ind. Moths," i., p. 103, fig. 60(1892); Leech, " Trano. 

 Zool. Soc. Lond.," p. 286 (1898) ; Staud., "Cat.," ed. 3, p. 101 (1901). Macrosila, 

 Butl., "Papilio," ii., p. 7 (1882). Phlegethontius, Kirby, "Cat.," p. 687 (1892) ; 

 "Handbook," &c, iv., p. 45 (1897). 



The genus Agnus was founded (Verz., p. 140) about 1822, 

 by Hiibner, who diagnosed it as follows : 



The hindwings and the abdomen red- and black-banded — Agrius anchemolus, 

 Cram., A. convolvuli, Linn., A. cingulatus, Hb. {cingulata, Fab.-=convolvult, 

 Cram.). 



Stephens, in 1835, cited convolvuli as the British exponent of 

 Hiibner's genus, and maintained the name in his List in 1850. 

 Kirby in his Catalog, p. 687, sinks the genus as being identical with 

 Phlegethontius, a view with which we are entirely unable to agree 

 (see anted, p. 273). Kirby's genus Phlegethontius, indeed, includes 

 the whole of the Phlegethontiids and Agriids. As compared with the 

 Sphingidi, the Agriidi have a much smaller egg, the adult larva is 

 not so markedly specialised by the swollen thoracic segments which 

 characterise the larva of Sphinx ligustri; the pupa has a very large 

 tongue-horn, agreeing with the much more highly developed maxillae 

 of the imago. The tribe Sphingidi, too, comprises what we may term 

 sedentary species of comparatively limited distribution — ligustri 

 being the most widely distributed, whilst the Agriidi are species of 

 wide distribution — one of the two typical species of Agrius, 

 cingulata, being, however, confined to America, the Galapagos and 

 Sandwich Islands, the other, convolvuli, ranging over almost the whole 

 of the world, except America. Kaye gives us (in lift.) the following 

 diagnosis of the genus : 



Head large, tongue very long. Forelegs strong, the tibia with a few very 

 stout spines and a number of weak ones ; middle and hindlegs long, the tibia 

 and tarsus together, in the latter, fully half as long again as in the forelegs. The 

 tibia of hindleg with two pairs of stout spurs, each pair consisting of a long and a 

 short spur, the long one being fully twice the length of the short one. Antennae in 

 the 3 heavily bipectinated, in the ? the shaft smooth and very considerably thickened 

 towards apex ; the hook small and terminated by a single bristle. Forewings long 

 and narrow; the costa quite straight in both sexes to immediately above origin of 

 nervure 7, thence evenly curved to costa, apex rather acute in j less so in ? ; outer 

 margin evenly curved to tornus, inner margin well excised to well beyond middle. 

 Abdomen stout, greatly tapered, the thorax very broad Agrius (type convolvuli), 



Agrius convolvuli, Linne'. 



SYNONYMY. — Species: Convolvuli, Linn., " Sys. Nat.," ed. x., p. 4<)0 (1758), 

 ed. xii., p. 798 (1767), kc. [Note. — This species has never been known by any 

 other specific name from the time of Linne, although some varieties of it have been 

 described as distinct species. All the references made under the generic synonymy 

 of Agrius, Hb., antea, p. 329, are referable here.] 



