THE SPHINGIDjE. 
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These fine caterpillars have a smooth and glossy skin, with 
bright colours, and pretty ornamentation. Generally speaking, 
they are rather narrowed in front, and have a curved appendix 
on the top of the last segment of the body like a horn or tail. 
When about to become transformed into the pupa condition, the 
caterpillars hide themselves in the ground, forming a comfortable 
hole, which the}" line with all the silk they can muster. It is 
very wonderful, in this instance, as in all others, how the insects 
that live in the earth through very inclement seasons manage 
to make a safe retreat with so very little silk as a covering. 
The chrysalis has to live in the hole in the ground throughout 
the winter, and any water draining in would assuredly kill it. 
CHRYSALIS OF THE DEATH’S HEAD SPHINX MOTH. 
The silk is all expended in lining the cavity, and fortunately, 
although it is scanty, it is so varnished that it is water-tight; 
hence the safety of the pupa is hardly a matter of doubt. 
Some species of Sphingidce undergo their metamorphoses on 
top of the soil, and agglutinate little stones, leaves, and rubbish 
into a cocoon. The pupae of these great caterpillars are not 
very remarkable ; they are dark brown or reddish, and have a 
small point at their end. 
The most common sphinges are the Privet Moth, or Sphinx 
ligustri, and the Convolvulus Hawk, or Sphinx convolvuli. The 
caterpillars of the first are well known to and prized by young 
collectors, and are now and then seen upon the privet hedges, 
or upon the lilac bushes. They are very fine insects, and their 
size renders their beautiful light green colour and oblique bands 
of violet very visible. This pretty larva feeds vigorously during 
H 2 
