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SPHINGIDAE. General Topics. By Dr. A. Seitz. 
Such an extremely detailed and — one might almost say — well-thought-out specialisation is only 
possible in a family whose exterior is not yet fixedly stabilised, but still changeable, as we have ascertained in 
some Ethiopian Sphingidae which are less strong on the wing. So for instance the larva of Cephonodes hylas 
does not only look in Africa quite different (black and yellow) from that in India (green and white), where it 
is equally common, but it also shows in the Ethiojiian districts a frequently varying colouring and sometimes 
varies considerably even in the same district; thus it may in be in Natal black with a white dorsum, yellow 
with a green dorsum, brown with a green dorsum, green with red eyespots etc. It may also assume such a 
colouring that it is hardly discernible from the larva of the American Sphingid Haemorrhagia diffinis, even 
if the two larvae were placed next to each other. 
This variability of colouring in the larvae is of course chiefly due to their great inclination to adapt 
themselves as much as possible to the food-plant. Those larvae that are not protected by snake-mimicry or 
internal poison, have made ample use of this quality of adapting themselves, and sometimes we notice a most 
striking likeness to the food-plant. Wherever the larva rests unprotected in the foliage, the leaves of the food- 
plant have been most minutely copied. The larva of Marumba quercus living on cork-oak shows a colouring 
exactly like the dull dark green tinted with blue, of the cork-oak leaves, so that in order to find them one 
must stroke one’s hand over the leaves of the branch, on which it must be sitting according to its traces, because 
it is hardly to be discovered with the eyes alone. The larva of the common palaearctic Amorpha populi, in its 
crooked resting position most exactly imitates the shape, marking and colour of a somewhat rolled-up poplar- 
leaf, the secondary ribs of the leaf being represented by the lateral oblique streaks of the larva. Beginning from 
the season when — especially often in trembling-poplars — there are small brown rusty spots in the axillae of 
the ribs of the leaves, the larva of A. populi is also often decorated with such spots situated exactly at the 
place where they also occur in the leaf. A close ally of the death’s-head moth, Coelonia fulvinotata Btlr., living- 
in South Africa on the dahlias which are everywhere planted in the gardens (probably also on other Heliantheae), 
would by its large size be unlike the leaf of its food-plant had not the whole front body of the larva, by a 
peculiar change of the shape of the thoracal segments, resembled a bundle of leaves being spun together. 
With the pupa we have already dealt in Vol. II (1. c.) so that we need only add that nearly all the pupal 
forms known from other faunae also occur in the Ethiopian District; we find the long proboscid noses not only 
in H. convolvuli but also in Coelonia fulvinotata the pupa of which is very much like that of the Indian 
Psilogramma discislriga; obtuse stalked snouts are displayed by Hippotion balsaminae. The pupa of Hippotion 
osiris, however, shows a most peculiar formation, since the case of the proboscis is extended into a flat, wing¬ 
like sheath projecting in front beyond the end of the pupa’s head by more than 1 cm. whereby the pupa which 
is at any rate very oblong almost looks like a shut clasp-knife which, by the colouring, resembles a small 
piece of a branch. 
We must particularly mention yet the larva and pupa of the largest Ethiopian Sphingid Lophostethus 
demolini. The larva is on all its segments armed with long, paired thorns which are set with fine pricks, so 
that it looks exactly like a Saturnid larva. Even the abdominal legs and the sides above and below the stigmata 
are armed with pointed pricks. This larva also most peculiarly shows in the anal region a purple brown spot 
contrasting with the light yellowish-green ground-colour of the larva, whereby it also resembles most of the 
Saturnid genera. 
As to the geographical distribution of the Sphingidae, we have already given a full account in Vol. II. 
Owing to the enormous flying-power of the Sphingidae, which enables them to spread almost unlimitedly, we 
meet with several species both to the north and south of the Sahara, which rarely occurs in other families. The 
Ethiopian species being also palaearctic are the following: Acherontia atropos , Herse convolvuli, Celerio lineata, 
Hippotion celerio and osiris, Deilephila nerii, Cephonodes hylas. In Madagascar a very small Sphingid occurs 
with an expanse of only 25 mm, looking almost like a very dark Sphingonaepiopsis gorgon (Vol. II, pi. 40 g). 
It is at the same time the smallest Sphingid of Africa and presumably of the globe: Sph. obscurus Mab. Closely 
allied to it is Sph. nanum Bsd., from Natal, which is also very small, and the hardly larger Microsphinx pumilum 
Bsd. from South Africa. Lophostethus demolini, on the contrary, has an expanse (in the $) of almost 150 mm 
and is presumably the largest of the African Sphingidae. Its larva which lives on Hibiscus tiliaceus is almost 
as long and often 2% cm thick. 
The most polyform Ethiopian Sphingid genera are the Polyptychus and the Temnora, of which alone 
more than 100 forms are hitherto known; on the whole, Africa is remarkable for the particularly great number 
of greyish-yellow (dull sand-coloured) species; beside this colouring the unicoloured blackish-brown tint 
predominates. The Ethiopian region is poor in strikingly coloured and especially variegated species; an incli¬ 
nation for green colours has already been mentioned above to be due to adaptation. 
Owing to the almost entire impossibility to penetrate the Sahara, the Ethiopian region is well isolated, 
and if it is better explored, more than 200 Sphingidae will probably be known, which exclusively belong 
to that region. Moreover, Rothschild and Jordan call our attention to the fact that just in this region the 
different subfaunae (East, West, South Africa) by no means differ from each other in their Sphingid fauna 
