324 
LEPIDOPTERA. 
half in length, are of a pale green color, with seven oblique 
white lines on each side of the body, and a row of little 
notches, like saw-teeth, on the back. The four short horns 
Fig. 149. 
on their shoulders are also notched, and, like most other 
Sphinges, they have a long and stiff spine on the hinder 
extremity of the body. They enter the earth ^o. become 
chrysalids, and pass the winter, and come forth in the 
winged state in the month of June following, at which time 
the moths may often be found on the trunks of trees, or 
on fences in the vicinity. In this state their wings expand 
nearly five inches, are of a light brown color, variegated 
with dark brown and white, and the hinder part of the body 
is marked with five longitudinal dark brown lines. A young 
friend of mine, in Boston, once captured on the trunks of 
the trees a lar^e number of these moths durino; a morninii’s 
walk in the JNIall, although obliged to be on the alert to 
escape from the guardians of the Common, whose duty it 
was to prevent the grass from being trodden down. Nearly 
all of these specimens were females, ready to deposit their 
eggs, with which their large bodies were completely filled. 
On being taken they made scarcely any efforts to escape, 
and were safely carried away. It would not be difficult, 
by such means, very considerably to reduce the number of 
tliese destructive insects ; in addition to which it might be 
expedient, during the proper season, for our city authorities 
to employ persons to gather and kill every morning the cat¬ 
erpillars which may be found in those public walks where 
they abound. 
From the genus Sphinx i have separated another group 
