Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Exotic Moths.djvu/119

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SPHINX CHIONANTHI.
103

came forth on the wing July 20th. It is not a common moth.

"Of those insects which go into the earth, and breed twice in the year, it is best to procure the spring caterpillars, which are much more likely to survive, the autumnal ones commonly dying in chrysalis in the winter."

On the same plate with the preceding caterpillars, we have figured a very beautifully marked larva (fig. 3) of an American species of Humming-bird Hawk-moth, described by Abbot and Smith under the name of Sphinx Gauræ. It is nearly related to the S. Medea and S. Œnotheræ of Fabricius. The moth has the wings dentated; the anterior pair olive-green, with two whitish transverse streaks, and a discoidal small rounded spot of the same colour; the hinder pair ferruginous, with a pale streak exteriorly. The caterpillar feeds on the gaura (Gaura biennis) in the month of May. The moth is rare in Georgia and most other parts of America, and in its habits seems closely to resemble our own Humming-bird Hawk-moth.