
LEPIDOPTERA. 199 
often assume. Raising the fore part of the body, which 
attitude resembles the Sphinx of mythology, they keep for a 
very long time this state of immobility. They fly very rapidly 




























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Fig. 177.—The Forester (Procris (Ino) statices). 
and briskly, and only make their appearance for the most 
part after sunset. ‘The caterpillars, which in this group are 
without hair, and have almost always a horn on the eleventh 
segment of the body, metamorphose themselves in the earth, with- 
out forming hard cocoons. The chrysalides are sometimes 
enveloped in a very slight shell or cocoon, which when it exists 
is formed of particles of earth, or of vegetable débris bound together 
by threads. This family comprises species generally remarkable 
for their size and beauty. 
The genus Macroglossa contains some species which fly rapidly 
and for a long time together during the day. We will mention 
particularly the Humming-bird Sphinx (Macrog/ossa stellatarum). 
This moth (Fig. 178) has attracted the attention of all who have 
ever spent much time in a flower garden. In Burgundy the 
children call it dird-fly. In passing from one flower to another 
it has brisk and rapid movements; but it remains suspended in 
the air before each. It does not alight upon any; it 1s always 
flying, thrusting its long trunk the while into the corolla of 
flowers, counterbalancing the action of its weight by the con- 
tinuous vibration of its wings. | 
We will describe in a few words this robust inhabitant of 
the air, this charming bird-fy. The Macroglossa stellatarum 
shows itself during the whole of the fine season, and till the 
middle of autumn, in our climate. It often penetrates in the 
middle of the day into our houses, and knocking itself against 
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