SMEBINTH US OPTH ALMICUS. 
59 
cided character, and the color is not gray or ashen, but of a general pale reddish brown or umber tint, on 
both upper and lower surfaces; the costa of primaries in this example is much more rounded than in any I 
have seen from California. 
This rare insect is the nearest American analogue of the European S. Oceliata, L., a fact alluded to by 
Dr. Boisduval in his very short description.* The species is so rare, that, until recently, but few opportunities 
have offered for the entomologist to examine it in nature. Dr. Clemens, who had evidently never seen an ex- 
ample, thought it might possibly be a variety of S. Cfemiuatus,t into which supposition he was doubtless led 
by Dr. Boisduval’s remark in the description above alluded to. 
The specimen referred to by Mr. Grote,t as coming from the Isthmus, is a female of this species; the party 
from whom I obtained it had collected in Costa Rica, but before coming east he visited California, and so- 
journed there awhile, receiving additional material from that state, which he was by no means careful to keep 
apart from his more southern collections. This example has been the victim of a series of atrocious abuses, the 
first of which was perpetrated by the thundering fool who captured it, and who merits the unmitigated con- 
tempt of all scientists on earth, and torments unspeakable hereafter, in Hades ; this talented individual came 
across the poor thing just after it had emerged from the pupa, and killed it before the wings had expanded to 
one-fourth of their proper size. When it came into my possession the abdomen had been left somewhere in 
California, but the conscientious collector, in order to give quantum suffic'd, had replaced it with one of Aracli- 
nis pi eta. 
SMERINTHUS CERISYL Kirby. 
Fauna Boreali- Americana, Vol. IV, p. 302, t. 4, fig. 4. (1837.1 
(PLATE VII, FIG. 3, <£,) 
Male. Expands 2f to 3 inches. 
Head and palpi brown ; thorax pale ashen, nearly white, with a large dark brown dorsal patch ; abdomen 
brownish grey above, pale ashen beneath. 
Upper surface; primaries, pale ash-colored with numerous brown, undulate, transverse lines and shades; 
a white discal mark, which color is continued along the median nervure to the pale basal patch; joining this 
latter exteriorly, and between the median nervure and interior margin, is a brown patch or cloud. Secondaries 
rose-colored, but of a less lively tint than in any other species; towards the exterior margin the rose color is 
tinged with greyish ; costal and interior margins white, or nearly so ; ocellus black, containing a blue iris 
which almost encircles a black pupil; the blue does not quite unite, opposite the inner margin, in surrounding 
the pupil ; the ocellus is prolonged towards, and connects with the anal angle. 
Under surface; primaries, basal half dull rose-colored ; outer half marked as on upper side, but paler and 
less distinctly. Secondaries white, with pale brown, undulate, transverse bands. 
Of the female nothing is known. 
This is certainly the rarest of all the heretofore described X. American Sphingida? ; but three authentic 
examples, all male, are known ; the first was figured and described by Kirby, in 1837, § who did not know in 
what precise locality it was captured; this example, perhaps, may still be preserved in the British Museum, 
otherwise it is probably lost ; the second one was taken by the late Robt. Kennicott at Rupert House, in Brit- 
ish America, and is at present in the Museum of Comp. Zool. at Cambridge ; this is the largest specimen of 
the three, expanding about three inches. The third and last, the original of figure 3, T received in a small 
collection of things from near Providence, Rhode Island. 
*“LeS. Optlialmica assez rapproehe de notre oceliata, plus voisin de Gctnina'us de Say, mais l’oeil n’est pas double et il differe do toutes les 
espeees du memo groupe par sa large bande brune, anguleuse, qui traverse le milieu des ailes superieures,” Ann. Soc. Ent.. Fr., t. Ill, 3me ser. 
xxxii. (1855 ) 
t Jnl. Acad. Nat. Sc., Phila., p. 184. (1859.) 
t “ I learn from Mr. Strecker that a specimen referable to this genus has been received from the Isthmus." Grote, in Bull. Buff. Soc. Nat. Sc., 
Vol. I. p. 23. (1873.) 
§ “ Body ash-colored ; thorax with a large trapezoidal brown spot dilated next the abdomen ; primaries angulated, ash-colored, with a transverse 
series of brown, sub-marginal crescents in a paler band, between which and the posterior margin is another obsolete paler one ; above the crescents is 
ft straight, whitish band, and a linear angular forked one, under the internal sinuses of which the wings are clouded with dark brown ; underneath, 
the above markings of the wings are very indistinct ; the secondaries are rose-color, paler at the costal and posterior margins : underneath they are 
dusky, cinereus with a whitish band coinciding with that of the primaries, a transverse series of crescents and a dentated brownish band, all rather in- 
distinct : but the most conspicuous character of the secondaries is a large eyelet situated at the anal angle, consisting of a black pupil, nearly, but not 
quite surrounded by a blue iris, and situated in a. black triangular spot or atmosphere which extends to the anal angle, and is surmounted by some 
blue scales ; the abdomen above is dusky ash-colored. 
This insect appears to be the American representative of S. Ocellatus, from which, however, it differs considerably. It comes very near S. Gem- 
inatus,(S&y, Am. Ent. I, t. xii,) but in that the eyelet has two blue pupils. Taken in North America, locality not stated.” — Kirby, Fauna Boreail- 
Americana, Vol. IY, p, 302. (1837.) 
