t PLATE CCCCLXIX. 



A more beautiful infect than that before us has never been in- 

 troduced to the attention of our readers, either as an exotic fpe* 

 cies, or a native of this country ; but, with what propriety we have 

 ventured to confider it fpecifically diftinct from the Sphinx Convolvuli, 

 to which it is fo clofely allied, or how far we may be authorized, from 

 the occurrence of a fingle example in a living ftate in Britain, to 

 admit it as an inhabitant, we are difpofed to fubmit to the decifion of 

 others, after relating the circumftances which induce us to include it 

 in the prefent work. 



In a former volume our fubfcribers poffefs a figure and defcriptiotj 

 of another very interefting fpecies of the fame tribe, the Sphinx Caro- 

 lina ; an infe6l fufficiently known as a Linn&an fpecies, and as a na- 

 tive of North America, but which was inferted as,a Britiih infect, on 

 the authority of the late Mr. Drury, who received the individual fpe- 

 cimen defcribed in a living ftate. Tt will be found, on reference to 

 the memorandum in the hand- writing of Mr. Drury annexed thereto, 

 that the information it conveys relates to two fpecies of the Sphina 

 tribe, the one we then defcribed, and another, which latter is the 

 infect now under confideration. The memorandum ftates, that thefe 

 two infefits were brought to Mr. Prury alive, one about the year 

 1776, the other in 1788. Whether the fpecies Carolina, or the pre- 

 fent, was discovered firft, cannot be at this time afcertained : it is only 

 evident that both were taken within the interval of the above-mentioned, 

 periods. 



The difcovery of a folitary fpecimen of any infe6t jn this country, 

 which is clearly authenticated to be indigenous to extra European 

 climates, is not altogether fufficient in our mind to countenance its 

 introduction into the Britifh Fauna; yet there are circumitanc.es, 

 under which it would be improper to omit the mention of fuch extra- 

 ordinary acquifitions ; and this idea applies, in an immediate decree, 

 to the difcovery of the prefent very elegant fpecies in a ftate of nature 

 in Britain. We are neverthelefs inclined to regard it as an accidental 

 occurrence only, and conceive it incumbent to obferve, as in the 

 inftance of Sphinx Carolina, that there appears to us every reafon 



for 



