9 8 
INSECTS, 
arm runs along the hind-margin of the wing to the thorax. The hind-wings, 
thorax, and abdomen are green. The larva is green, with a pale band and 
numerous white speckles on the sides. . The first three segments are suffused 
with yellow, and the third bears a large bilobate blue spot, outlined with black, 
on either side. The moth occurs throughout Europe, Africa, and Southern Asia; 
bilt neither larva nor perfect insect are often taken in England. The caterpillar 
feeds on the oleander and periwinkle in summer. Another beautiful, though small 
species, is the elephant hawk-moth ( Chosrocampa elpenor), which typifies a third 
subfamily ( Chcerocampince ). In this species the front-wings are green, margined 
and veined with delicate rose-colour; the hind-wings black, with rose-coloured 
borders; the thorax and abdomen of the same tint of green, with a central rose- 
coloured band along the back, another at the sides; while the two last segments of 
the abdomen are rose-coloured. The larva is black, with three eye-like spots at 
the sides of segments three, four, and five, which are much enlarged, having also a 
rose-coloured band along the sides. It feeds on fuchsia, bed-straw, willow-herb, etc., 
and is common in Europe and Northern and Western Asia in June. To the same 
subfamily belong the members of the genus Deilephila, which have a world-wide 
distribution, although specially common in Southern Europe; among these, one 
of the commonest on the Continent being the spurge hawk-moth (D. euphorbias). 
Although the adult is rare in England, the caterpillar has been observed in some 
numbers in Devonshire, feeding on the sea-spurge. The fore-wings are grey and 
rose-colour in blended tints, with a large dull-green spot at their base, and an 
oblique submarginal band of the same colour, besides two smaller crescent-shaped 
spots towards the tip; the hind-wings delicate rose, with black base, a deep crimson 
transverse bar, followed by a narrower black one a little beyond the middle; and 
the thorax and abdomen green, the latter with white sides. The caterpillar is black, 
speckled with yellow, having a dorsal rose-coloured central line, a row of yellow 
spots along either side, and another below of red and yellow spots blended. It 
feeds on the sea-spurge from July to September. In the figure on p. 96 the larva is 
repelling the attack of an ichneumon, by ejecting noxious fluid into its face. 
The pine hawk-moth ( Sphinx pinastri) belongs to the typical subfamily 
(Sphingince ), and is a dull grey species, scarcely to be discerned as it rests on 
the similarly tinted bark of the pine-trees on which the larva feeds. The moth 
lays her pale green eggs upon the pine-needles, and in about a fortnight the larvae 
emerge, and at once attack the needles. They have occurred in such abundance 
on the Continent as to ruin whole forests of pine-trees, to the extent of many 
thousand acres. Although the moth is common throughout Europe, and several 
specimens have been taken in England, it is very doubtful whether a genuine 
British-bred specimen has ever occurred. The larva, which changes to a pupa 
beneath the earth, is green, with narrow longitudinal bands of red and white; 
these lines being naturally a great protection amidst the longitudinal lights and 
shades of the pine-needles. The species is figured on p. 77. 
Yet another subfamily ( Mcicroglossince ) is represented by the humming-bird 
hawk-moth ( Macroglossa stellatarum), shown in the figure on p. 93. This small 
and swift species, which hovers with a darting, fluttering course over flower-beds 
in the sunshine, is double-brooded, and occurs almost all the year round. It has 
