AND THEIR TRANSFORMATIONS. 2? 
FAMILY Tf. 
SPHINGID &. 
This family (with which I unite the Sesiide * of Mr. Stephens) comprises the most robust and powerful 
insects in the order, being generally distinguished by their large size, and the strength and peculiarity of their 
hawk-like flight, whence their English name Hawk-moths. The spiral tongue, or maxilla, is often extremely long, 
exceeding the whole body in length in some species; the antenne are prismatic, and terminated by a minute 
feather or thread ; the labial palpi are broad and compressed, and closely covered with scales, the terminal joint 
being generally almost obsolete ; the maxillary palpi are minute and three-jointed ; the body long, and acute 
behind ; the wings, especially the hinder pair, small; the caterpillars naked, cylindrical, and sixteen-footed, and 
generally furnished with a dorsal horn near the extremity of the body; they are also almost invariably 
ornamented with pale oblique stripes upon the sides of the body. They generally descend into the earth to 
become pup, which are naked, conical, and often furnished with a detached horn, containing the spiral tongue, 
extending beneath the breast ; this is, however, wanting in those typical species which have the spiral tongue 
short. The wings are retained in their situation during flight by the spring and socket apparatus. Various 
modifications occur in the different inembers of this family, which it will be unnecessary here to mention, as they 
will be noticed in the account of the different genera. The interesting connexion which exists between the 
variation in the length of the spiral tongue and the rapidity of flight merits attention, depending as it does on the 
habit of the insects of extracting the nectareous juices of tube-bearing flowers by means of their elongated 
proboscis. 
The caterpillars of the typical species are remarkable for the attitude which they ordinarily assume, whence 
they have obtained the name of Sphinx, from their supposed resemblance to the figures of that fabulous creature ; 
others are distinguished for the faculty which they possess of elongating and contracting the three anterior 
segments of the body, giving them somewhat the appearance of the proboscis of an elephant, whence they have 
obtained the name of Elephant-sphinxes. These and some other of the caterpillars undergo their transformations 
in a leaf cocoon on the surface of the ground ; the majority, however, descend to a considerable distance into the 
earth, where they form an oval cell. 
On casting our eyes over a collection of these insects, it is impossible not to be convinced that the pre-eminent 
characteristics of the group are to be found in the powerful flight and great elongation of the spiral proboscis; 
indeed the vulgar name of hawk-moths amply proves that the common observation of their habits has fixed upon 
their most prominent character. Now this peculiarity does not exist in the death’s-head moth, which, although 
the giant of our British species, cannot on that account alone be regarded as ** at the head of this tribe.” I¢ is 
true that Mr. Swainson (in order to support his fanciful theory, that one of the primary divisions of all groups is 
‘a type of evil,”) has found in this insect a fit object for such pre-eminence, as it carries upon its thorax the 
* Mr. Stephens established this family on account of the tufted abdomen, diurnal flight, and location of the cocoon on the surface of the 
ground ; but such characters are too trivial to warrant the establishment of families thereon. Mr. Swainson’s family Orthide, composed of the 
elephant hawk-moths, Sesie, AUgeriea, &c., is as artificial a group as could well be devised. 

