Publ. 19. V. 1931. 
SPHINGIDAE. General Topics. By Dr. A. Seitz. 
841 
The Sphingidae almost invariably live on flowers and very few of the American species take up any 
other stuff for their principal food. The proboscis which is mostly well developed except in some Ambulicini, 
attains a monstrous length in some species such as the Gocytius and seems to induce the insects to visit espe¬ 
cially blossoms with deep calyces. As we have already stated in certain palaearctic species, the American 
species likewise exhibit a mutual adaptation between certain blossoms and Sphinges. Thus for instance 
Mirabilis jalapa, the marvellous Mexican flower, keeps its blossoms closed during the day and opens them 
towards evening at about the same time when the Sphingidae, especially also the species of C'elerio, the larvae 
of which live on the Jalapa, begin to swarm; it even seems as if most of the night-flowers (Nyctaginaceae) 
specially preserve their honey for the Sphingidae, shutting themselves off from all the diurnal insects, such 
as bees, flower-beetles etc. 
The proboscis of the Sphingidae, however, does not only serve for taking up honey but especially also 
for drinking water, because the Sphinges of the torrid zones of America are in particular need of it. From the 
banks of the camp-brooks and forest-rivulets one may see, towards the hours of dawn, all sorts of species 
of Sphingidae flying across the surface of the water which they sometimes touch. In spite of the very 
skilled flight of nearly all the Sphingidae, it frequently occurs in this process of sucking up water that some 
individuals sink too deep into the water and cannot rise any more, especially when being snatched at by an 
enemy. 
It is not only the light of lamps but especially the sight of certain blossoms by which the Sphingidae 
seem to be allured from great distances. American entomologists state the Verbenaceae to be particularly 
favoured, which is also the case in the tropical Indian regions. Certainly the Sphingidae are less frequently 
found sucking during the day on the blossoms of Lantana — which is also widely distributed in Brazil - 
because there are no species of Macroglossum in South America, whereas dozens of specimens of 3 or 4 different 
species are often to be seen swarming on a little shrub of Lantana in South Asia. The American blossoms of 
Lippia, the orange-like smell of which — as for instance L. citriodora — can be detected at great distances, 
are of course also very much frequented; but also blossoms introduced from Europe, such as woodbine, a shrub 
of which crept up my verandah in the Itatiaya Mts., were sometimes visited by tropical Sphingidae. 
The variability of the attractive effect of lamps on the Moths, especially on the Sphingidae, is most 
puzzling. In numerous places of the earth it has been observed that at the time cf introduction of electric 
light the number of Sphingidae is enormous at those places which had formerly been without light, but that 
this effect decreases rather abruptly after some months or even weeks, and does not reoccur, except on single 
evenings that are extraordinarily favourable for flying. A. Miles-Moss, from Para, states that in the year 
1895, when the first arc-lamps were lit, certain Sphingidae came flying to the lamps in immense numbers, 
whilst hardly ten years later they had become very rare. Moss presumes this to be due to the decimation in 
the surroundings of the lamps, brought about by the moths being diverted from their natural life-habits. This 
explanation given with a reservation by Moss is also insufficient in my opinion, for in such cases the larvae 
would also be found to have reduced in numbers, which I could not ascertain in searching for them on the 
bushes near the lamps. The diminution of numbers of Sphingidae flying to the lamps, which is almost uni¬ 
formly shown bv all the Moths, is too sudden to be in favour of such an explanation. During the Boer War 
camps of prisoners were erected in Ceylon and surrounded with very powerful arc-lamps so as to prevent any 
attempts of escape. In the first 4 to 6 weeks the moths came flying to the lamps in such enormous numbers 
that the poles of the lamps were all covered with them, mostly with specimens of Deilephila liypothous and 
nerii, but also with species of Oxyambulyx, Marimba etc. The white Noctuids from the genus Sphettia swarmed 
around the lamps in such great numbers that one had the impression of a snow-storm. Although immense 
numbers of all these common lepidoptera perished, such a great number of breeds must have developed and, 
above all, so many of the Sphingidae being so very fond of a roving life must have flown near the lamps 
that such a rapid decrease ip their attraction to the lamps, as was then observed, cannot be explained by it. 
The fact of their having become accustomed to the light can only be considered with respect to the relatively 
small number of domiciled Noctuid species — to which the Sphingidae by no means belong — growing up in 
the immediate light of these arc-lamps. And even among these species it is not very probable that the larva 
sitting in the dense foliage and provided with a very slight visual power has become so indifferent to the 
accustomed electric light that after the subterranean pupal stage the imago reacts no more upon glaring 
lights. Thus, if we take no account of the cases in which the erection of plentiful and very extensive and 
powerful lighting — partly by the permanent diversion and destruction of numerous individuals, partly also 
by the mutual competition of the lamps radiating everywhere — in fact impairs the attraction to certain 
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