MANDUCIDI. 395 



The tribal name, Manducidi, is derived from Hiibner's Manducae 

 ( Tentamen, p. i), the oldest group name of the tribe, and of which he 

 notes Manduca atropos as the typical genus and species. Some 16 years 

 later he used (Verz., p. 139J the term to include the whole of the 

 Sphingidae (sens, strict.) (see, anted, hi., pp. 351-2), placing atropos, 

 Linn., chionanthi, Abb., and niorta, Hb. (atropos, Cram.) in Laspeyres' 

 genus, Acherontia (which all subsequent authors, however, referred 

 to Ochsenheimer). The name Acherontiinae, used by Rothschild 

 and Jordan as equal to our Sphingidae, appears to us to have 

 no standing whatever as against the old subfamily name Sphinginae, 

 derived from the Linnean name Sphinx and in which the whole 

 superfamily was first included, and we find the remarkable 

 anomaly (Revision of the Sphingidae, pp. cxxxv) of a family 

 Sphingidae, subfamily Acherontiinae, tribe Sphingicae, and no 

 typical subfamily Sphinginae among the whole of the Sphingids. 



We restrict the tribe to one genus, Manduca. Grote considers 

 (Ent. Rec, vi., p. 233) that the tribe appears, from all the 

 characters, to have reached a stage of evolution, precluding the 

 idea of further advance or development in its own particular 

 direction. He says that the short antennae, the great development of 

 the muscles of the thorax, the comparatively broad and short wings, 

 the adaptation of the tongue to feeding upon honey gathered by 

 other insects, and other features seem to have attained a certain 

 completeness of expression which, while pointing to an extended 

 antecedent history, appears to warrant the view that the Manducids 

 are the last of a long line. 



Genus : Manduca, Hiibner. 



Synonymy. — Genus: Manduca, Hb., "Tent.," p. 1 (1806); " Franck 

 Cat.," p. 87 (1825); Kirby, " Cat.," p. 700 (1892); "Handbook," &c, iv., p. 

 51 (1897); Tutt, "Brit. Lep.," iii., p. 355 (1902). Sphinx, Linn., " Syst. Nat.," 

 10th ed., p. 490 (1758); 12th ed., p. 799 (1767); " Mus. Ludov. Ulr.," p. 348 

 (1764); Poda, "Ins. Mus. Graec," p. 81 (1761) ; Scop., " Ent. Cam.," p. 184 

 (1763); Hufn., "Bed. Mag.," ii., p. 176 (1766); Cram., "Pap. Exot.," i., 

 pi. lxxviii., fig. A (1775); Fab., " Syst. Ent.," p. 539 (1775); "Spec. Ins.," ii., 

 p. 144 (1781); "Mant. Ins.," ii., p. 95 (1787); "Ent. Sys.," iii., pt. 1, p. 364 



dont elle devient plus courte." Chapman notes (Ent. Record, xiv., p. 128) 

 an imago of M. atropos that has a proboscis, one-half of which is 

 much longer than is normal, the other much shorter. He points out 

 that the normal length of the proboscis is about 16mm., and in the 

 one under examination 21mm., and goes on to discuss its phylogenetic meaning. 

 He notes that the pupal proboscis is 40mm. long, the imaginal only 16mm., and 

 adds: " The pupal proboscis is the imaginal proboscis at a certain stage of its 

 development, all that is purely pupal is the chitinous sheath that is left behind 

 when the imago emerges. In the early pupal stage, then, the proboscis of M. 

 atropos is 40mm. long, but, beyond a layer of almost embryonal hypodermic cells 

 and some nervous and tracheal cords, it is almost without structure ; when the 

 structure characteristic of the imago begins to develop, it does so throughout the 

 whole 40mm. of pupal structure. The extremity of the proboscis develops at 

 the end of the 40mm., and, as development progresses, at least towards the end 

 of the process, the proboscis leaves the pupal sheath and shortens by contraction 

 affecting its whole length, to the imaginal dimensions, the vacant space being 

 temporarily filled with fluid. The basal 16mm. of the pupal proboscis does not 

 develop into the imaginal proboscis and the remaining 24mm. do nothing. The 

 aberrant specimen examined shows the process of contraction from the early 

 pupal to the imaginal dimensions arrested at a particular point, probably as a 

 result of some injury to the pupa, acting, perhaps, in some degree mechanically, 

 and in some measure as a cause of diminished vitality." 



