PLATE CCCCLX1X. 7 



ira&er of the fpecies Convolvuli is too indefinite to form any precife 

 criterion of the fpecies. 



On the latter topic we wifh to fpeak more fully in explanation. 

 There is nothing, we would obferve, laid down in the Linnaean tha- 

 i-after to prove the two above-mentioned infects diftincfc ; but, on the 

 contrary, every ch?.ra6ter is calculated to confirm it. Linnaeus had 

 not, in all probability, feen this fuppofed variety ; his fpeciiical defini- 

 tion was apparently drawn from examples of the European Convol- 

 vuli ; and he was doubtlefs not aware that the character he afligned 

 thereto was fo far inapplicable as to apply to two diftincl infects ; thefe 

 according in every character with the fpecifical diftinction lie propofes, 

 though in other refpefts they are remote from each other. Hence it 

 is obvious, that our prefent infect may really, according to that charac- 

 ter, be the Sphinx Convolvuli, or Convolvuli t)ar. of Linnaeus, though 

 as a fpecies it may be fiill diffimilar. The accuracy of this- obferva- 

 tion will be more amply demonftrated from the following compari- 

 fon of the two infects, at prefent under confideration, with the fpe- 

 cific character which Linnaeus affords of the Sphinx Convolvuli. 



Linnaeus, in the earlier editions of his Syitema Natura, thus defines 

 the laft mentioned fpecies :—* " Alis integris pofticis albo fafciatis 

 margine poftico albo punctatis, abdomine rubro cingulis atris." 

 According to which, the two infects before us would be at once diftin- 

 guiihed as fpecifically diftin6t, the bands on the pofterior wings being 

 red in one, and white, or at lead greyifh white, in the other. 



This defcription occurs in the tenth edition of the Syftema Natura, 

 and it is poffible, though it appears otherwife expreffed in the later 

 editions of that work, that Linnaeus ftill intended to preferve the fame 

 interpretation : it would be uncandid to conclude the contrary, though 

 his words may bear a different acceptation, becaufe he does not himfelf 

 contradia this fuppofitiou. It appears, however, confining our atten- 

 tion folely to the defcription given of the fpecies in the twelfth edition 

 of that work, and in the mbfequent editions published by Gmelin, that 

 the f wp &nds may be ftill confounded, the colour of the paler bands 



forming:. 



