Publ. 20. XI. 1927. 
SPHINGIDAE. General Topics. By Dr. A. Seitz. 
353 
13. Family: Sphingidae, Hawk-Moths. 
In the 2 nd volume (p. 229) we pointed out the relative homogeneousness of structure and nature in 
all the Sphingids known and stated that hardly any lepidopteron in this family can be mistaken as not belonging 
to it. A still greater conformity of the habitus, of course, is exhibited by the members of the same genus 
amongst each other, and just as remarkable is the very slight individual aberration (within a species) of the 
Sphingidae-, every collector knows what enormous numbers of Macroglossum stellatarum, Pergesa elpenor, 
Celerio lineata, or Acherontia atropos may be bred before any single interesting aberration appears. 
Nearly all the biological peculiarities of the Sphingidae are to be explained by their eminent flying 
power. According to researches made on the flight of insects, which Amans extended over various orders *), 
the shape of the wings being the most expedient for swift and continuous flights is a flying-organ (composed 
of forewings and hindwings) being broad at the base and pointed at the' end, thus taking the approximate form 
of the wing of a swallow or a gull. Beside this shape of the wings, the Sphingidae exhibit uncommonly strong 
flying-muscles which are provided with strong solid listels of attachment in an especially solid though spacious 
thoracal capsule. The wing-strokes of the Sphingidae occur in so swift and energetic a succession that, for 
instance, a Herse convolvuli being captured in full flight feels quite warm in one’s hand; Breyer **) considers 
the heat produced by the flying-motions in this insect to reach 32 0 C, like the temperature of warm-blooded 
beings. In addition the Sphingidae show a great desire to fly which continuously impels them to ramble about, 
so that they are the most frequent visitors of ships in mid-ocean. In 30 voyages I made across the Mediterranean 
the most frequent lepidoptera flying on to the ships were not only Pyrameis cardui (which however never 
occurred at very great distances from the land), but also Macroglossum stellatarum and Acherontia atropos, 
and Mathew ***) made the same observation. In the northern parts of the Indian Ocean we often met with 
Herse convolvuli-, near the Peninsida of Malacca we saw great numbers of a Magroclossum (from the passalus- 
group). Even Sphingids of an unwieldy structure (such as Pachylia ) flew on board passenger-boats (Pagen- 
stecher), and in Southern Brazil you may often see the dead bodies of large Cocytius washed to the shore. 
On land the wanderings of Sphingids have become somewhat regular, for instance the temporary appearance 
of numerous African species such as Deilephila nerii, Hippotion osiris, Hipp. celerio, Celerio lineata beyond the 
northern frontier of their region; and some Sphingid species such as Acherontia atropos always return to islands 
or districts where they are unable to stay for long. 
This mobility brings about that most of the Sphingidae are unable to form real local races however great their 
distribution may be. In spite of their frequent and distinct reaction upon climatic influences, they have great 
difficulties in forming geographically fixed local races; the reason of this is undoubtedly the fact that the develop¬ 
ment of geographical races is constantly disturbed by the interbreeding of typical straggling lepidoptera . In easily 
discernible variations such as Celerio euphorbiae —• paralias — grenizenbergi — mauretanica — deserticola we 
notice the unmistakable endeavour to consolidate themselves in geographical races, but over and over again we 
find near Biskra among numerous deserticola a mauretanica, and among the latter, in Batna, a paralias or an 
approximately typical form; and then again on the Lidi of Venice a specimen which does not exhibit the 
characters of the grenizenbergi which are native there; whereas in northern countries bright red specimens 
may occur (among numerous pale ones) etc. Even in many species distributed from the Cape to the Sahara 
— such as Ach. atropos or Herse convolvuli — no reliable geographical distinction is to be observed, and the 
Sphingid last mentioned does not develop a single decisively separate race in the whole of the Old World over 
*) Rev. Sci. Nat. Montpellier 1883. II. III. 
**) Ann. Soc. Ent. Belg. IV, ITeft 1. 
***) Entomolog. 18, p. 295. 
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