354 
SPHINGIDAE. General Topics. By Dr. A. Seitz. 
which it is distributed, excepting perhaps in few very remote islands. The Macroglossum stellatarum from 
Madeira is hardly discernible from specimens of the same species from Japan, and Celerio gallii from America 
(chamaenerii ) shows but very slight and inconstant differences from Central European specimens. 
As to individual variations, the Sphingidae are equally subject to the general laws applicable to all 
insects, according to which, species whose characteristic colouring is not altered by external influences, are 
extremely constant. In spite of their immense distribution, the above mentioned Pergesa elpenor could not 
develop distinct races (the Japanese exhibit almost the same characteristic upper surface as the European), 
nor do the individual specimens show any aberrations. It is the same in the case of Deilephila neni ; in spite of 
the complicated marking and the most delicate colouring, specimens from the Cameroon, the Cape, Egypt, or 
India are not constantly different, and immense series of specimens may be placed together without finding 
the least difference among them — except in the size and perhaps in the pink tint of the transverse band of 
the fore wing. 
However, the lepidoptera with adaptable colours are invariably exposed to a great change of colouring 
and often also of marking, so far as the copied objects vary themselves. A heap of poplar or oak leaves has 
no fixed colour: it may be more yellow, more brown or grey-red, and it may show more or less distinctly the 
veins of the leaves; equally variable are the colours of those Sphingidae which copy small dry leaves, such as 
Dilinae tilia, Amorpha populi , Marumba etc. These show all the shades that such leaf-models may assume; 
Hyloicus pinastri shows the black stripes representing a split in the bark either distinctly or indistinctly 
or not at all etc. — As to the African Sphingidae, however, we must state besides that the imagines of some 
species resting in the foliage or on herbs on the ground exhibit a bright sap-green upper surface, exactly according 
to the green colour of the leaves, as for instance the genera Euchloron and Basiothia, which rarely occurs in 
the Sphingid family and never in such pure tints as in these African Sphingidae. 
It seems that only the resting Sphingid lepidoptera require a protection. The flying lepidoptera are 
presumably hardly attacked by any enemies (excepting the rear-mice). From the latter many Sphingidae seem 
to be protected to a certain degree by their considerable size being equal or superior to the usually small rear- 
mice. Other insectivora may also be frightened off by the tibial spurs which may sometimes be of an enormous 
size and which probably prick into the stomatic mucous membrane of the aggressor like a thorn *). Some of 
the Sphingidae are undoubtedly protected by their bodies containing poisonous substances, probably mostly 
extracted from their food-plant, and we may assume, from the conspicuous colouring of e. g. many species of 
Celerio, and the inviting way in which these lepidoptera, being noticeable from far away, expose themselves 
to the insectivorous vertebrates, that the most venomous saps of the food-plants (Euphorbia, Tithymalum) 
do not lose their lethiferous effect in the imago. We must infer this from the fact that very close allies of 
feeders on Euphorbia show an inclination to protective colours, as soon as the poisonous food is replaced by 
an unpoisonous plant, as for instance is the case with Cel. vespertilio which is almost undiscoverable owing 
to its having adapted itself to the grey colour of the rocky soil (larval food: unpoisonous Epilobium) or con¬ 
cealing itself in the herbs on the soil, such as Cel. gallii (food: cheese-rennet). 
Although the Sphingidae exhibit a certain strict adherence to the Sphingid shape characterised above, 
which is expressed by nearly all the African hawk-moths — and still more so by their larvae —-, yet a compa¬ 
rative consideration of their biological peculiarities shows them to be a lepidopteral family which, at least in 
their range and development, entirely belongs to a later time of creation. The separation of the original type 
of the Sphingidae does not seem to have taken place in the very latest epochs, still the relation of nearly all 
the Sphingidae to the forms and products of modern creation intimates that they belong to the present times. 
First of all, the number of individuals of most of the species is much greater than might be assumed considering 
the ability of nearly all the unpoisonous Sphingidae to hide themselves. In nearly all parts of the globe the 
Sphingid larvae are daily met with in the open air, in spite of their being very difficult to discover owing to 
their protective colouring, from which fact we may draw the conclusion that their number of individuals is 
considerable. A great many species are occasionally able to propagate in masses, and in North Africa I saw 
swarms of Euphorbiae-l&rv&e as broad as large brooks, creeping along in several layers above each other, 2 or 3 m 
broad, and after having stripped their places of birth, wandering to other spurge-fields. If the food-plant is 
in a suitable situation, hardly any may be found on which, if one looks carefully, there are no Sphingid larvae 
to be discovered. As to diurnal Sphingidae (Macroglossum), I was able to find in the right season vast legions 
of swarming lepidoptera, particularly on the sandy slopes in Mauretania and on blossoming Lantana in Southern 
China. In the dusk we are even in Europe sometimes surprised by the great number of Sphingidae appearing 
in the evening on hedges of Caprifolium or on beds of Petunia even in the midst of towns. 
*) On carelessly seizing Beil, nerii or Herse convolvuli, they may even hurt the human hand. 
