Order: Lepidoptera. Section: Crepuscularia. Family: Sphingidæ, Leach.
Genus. Smerinthus, Latr. Laothoë, Fabr. (Syst. Gloss.) Sphinx, Linn.
Smerinthus Jamaicensis. Alis anticis fusco, griseo, olivaceoque variis, posticis roseis ocello cœruleo nigro marginato. (Expans. Alar. 2 unc. 5 lin.)
Syn. Sphinx ocellatus Jamaicensis, Drury, App. vol. 2.
Sphinx ocellatus, Fabr. Ent. Syst. III. 1. 355. No. 1. Gmel. Linn. Syst. N. 2371. 1.
Habitat: Jamaica (Drury). "In Europæ Americæ Spiræâ, Salice, Pomonâ." Fabr.
Upper Side. Antennæ pectinated and brown. Head and thorax soft dun-coloured, but dark brown above. Abdomen dun. Anterior wings delicate fine greyish, light brown next the shoulders and tips; the remaining parts being clouded with dark olive brown colours. Posterior wings red in the middle, but along the external edges dun-coloured; having a large black spot placed near the abdominal corners, the middle of which is blue, and imperfectly resembling an eye. All the wings are angulated.
Under Side. Breast and abdomen dun. Anterior wings red in the middle; but along the anterior edges ash-coloured, which runs to the tips where it forms a crescent, the inner part being dark olive brown; the external edges are olive brown, but lighter than the crescent. Posterior wings clouded with olive brown and ash-colour; having a double ash-coloured bar crossing them, which rises at the anterior edges of the anterior wings, and, running circularly, ends at the abdominal edges of the posterior.
Fabricius cites the present figure amongst his synonyms of the common English Eyed-hawk moth (Smerinthus ocellatus), notwithstanding its very different habitat. It is evident, however, from the diversity in the outline of the wings of this insect and other English species, and from the circumstance of several species very closely allied to this being found in America (two of which are figured by Abbot and Smith in "the Insects of Georgia," pl. 25. and 26.), that Fabricius overlooked the minute characters which distinguish these species, and confounded them under the name of Ocellatus. Drury's insect very nearly approaches Sphinx Myops of Smith, but differs in the markings, especially of the posterior edge of the wings, and the colour of the posterior pair.
Sir J. E. Smith notices the very slight difference which exists between the caterpillars of nearly allied species of Sphingidæ, compared with the diversity in the larvæ of the genus Papilio of Linnæus.