SPHINGIDAE. By Dr. A. Seitz. 
525 
the upper surface hacl taken place, in a similar way as the larvae of Pergesa are able to inflate their front body 
like a snake’s head, which requires a very peculiar muscular system. 
Very much has been written about the origin, purpose and advantage of this snake -mimicry of the 
Sphingid larvae. Aug. Weismann in his ,,Studien zur Deszendenztheorie“ has scrutinized the reasons why 
in some larvae of Celerio, the variegated spotting is more developed than in others, and therefrom wanted to 
conclude phylogenetical differences of age. But as the effect of poisonous and unpoisonous food-plants was 
unknown to him, he drew quite wrong conclusions from the different colourings of C. eupliorbiae, gallii, 
hippophaes etc. The lack of the horn in the larvae of G. vesp>ert,ilio he considered to be a separating deviation 
from the other Celerio- larvae, because he evidently did not know that the larva of vespertilio is the only Sphingid 
larva which conceals itself beneath sharp-edged rubble-stones through the crevices of which a horned larva 
could not squeeze itself. He attached importance to the fact that the larva of Pergesa elpenor shows a greater 
resemblance to a snake than that of porcellus, because he had probably not observed himself, that the larva 
of porcellus being a nocturnal insect hides itself in herbs in the daytime, whereas elpenor usually sits very 
conspicuously on Epilobium, Vine, Balsamine etc., and he had no notion whatever, why the green protective 
colour in the larva of Pergesa elpenor is so very common, whilst in porcellus it is never or but very rarely noticed. 
Thus Johannes Schilde, being opposed to the mimicrv-theory, succeeded in his refutation: ,,Check to 
Darwinism*" in raising very remarkable and striking objections to Weismann’s statements, which of course 
were used for declaring the whole doctrine of the untility of the disguise of the Sphingid larvae to be disputable 
or disproved. 
The food of the Sphingid larvae mostly consists of the leaves of highly developed plants, in but very 
rare cases also of Monocotyledons, such as Gramineae ( Leucophlebia ); quite a number of larvae live on the 
most modern cultivated plants. Numerous species live on fruit-trees (Prunus, Malus), many on Vines ( Theretra ), 
others on tobacco and potato plants (Acherontia) , or on beans. Some are absolutely monophagous, and their 
range is thereby confined to the occurrence of their food-plant (Celerio): Others again strictly and persistently 
keep to the family of plants, within which the food may be chosen ad lib.; like the palaearctic Proserpinus 
proserpina which may be easily bred with any kind of Oenotherea (either with evening-primrose, willow-herb 
(Epilobium), or Fuchsia), but which generally perishes a short time after having been fed with plants from 
another family. Some very voracious species live on kitchen-plants, such as the North-Indian Clanis bilineata 
on beans, and may often do considerable harm; this latter species, however, are eaten in China; and even the 
dogs in China are seen running about the fields and eating the fat larvae of Clanis (Klapheck). 
The pupae of the Sphingidae nearly all live underground, either in a burrow which may sometimes be 
polished inside, or also directly below the surface of the soil, covered with a web. They mostly have a hard 
shell, the upper surface is rarely rough, mostly as smooth as porcelain, so that ants cannot get at live pupae 
with intact covers, whereas crippled pupae with vulnerable outer shells are eaten up as a rule. The tenaciousness 
of the pupae against exterior assaults is quite different. Whilst the pupae of Celerio endure the severest 
contusions, loss of blood, changes of temperature and of moisture without being harmed, whole breeds of 
Marumba or Acherontia species perish sometimes in spite of their being most carefully attended to. Pupae 
of Indo-Australian Sphingidae that had been sent to Europe mostly yielded very unfavourable results. The 
change of climate often produces an excessive pupal stage; thus a breed of Cdeno-pupae which was sent to 
Europe in this stage, yielded the most varied emergences; all the pupae emerged, but the last only after 9 years. 
A most remarkable pupal stage is that of Leucophlebia ; L. lineata (Vol. IT, pi. 37 c), which is widely 
distributed in India and China, was stated (by R. Mell) to have a pupal stage of only 11 days, after having 
remained in the ground unpupated for three weeks. 
In India, excepting perhaps the alpine districts with their cool nights, the development of the imago 
seems almost invariably to take place at night, particularly in the early hours. Anyhow the degree of temperature 
presumably brings about the emergence; yet I cannot remember of having observed anywhere in the Indian 
region freshly emerged Sphingidae sitting about in greater numbers, stretching their wings, as for instance 
the Sph. pinastri do in the pine woods of the plains of the Rhine on hot days in June. 
The way the imagines of the Indo-Australian species hold their wings is mostly quite the same as that 
of their palaearctic brothers. The Acherontia, Herse, Hyloicus etc. in this respect differ in no way from the 
European species of the same genera. The Oxyambulyx, Clanis, Marumba, Deilephila, Theretra, etc. hold their 
wings somewhat spread out, away from the body, in which case the anal portion of the hindwing, not being 
covered by the forewing, is -mostly of the same colour as the forewing. Many Indian Sphingidae bend the 
abdomen upward, particularly the Langia which always tightly claw on to a twig in a suspended position, with 
their wings steeply stretched hindward, the upturned abdomen resembling an irregular chip of wood. 
