The caterpillar of this insect, observed by Abbot, feeds upon the evergreen winter-berry, or gall-berry (Prinos glaber, Linn.), whence Sir J. E. Smith altered the name of the species from Hylæus to Prini. It is of a pale green colour, with six lateral oblique pink lines, the last of which extends to the base of the nearly straight tail, which is of the same colour; the chrysalis is chesnut, without any porrected tongue-case. One of these caterpillars, observed by Abbot, went into the ground on the 17th of May, and appeared as a moth on the 19th of June; whilst another buried itself on the 25th of August, and remained in the earth until the 26th of April. The caterpillar is subject to the attacks of a small Ichneumon, the larvæ of which, when full grown, eat their way out of its body and spin themselves up on the outside. The moth is occasionally seen sucking the blossoms of gourds in the twilight, but is not common.
PLATE XXVII.
DEILEPHILA NESSUS.
Plate [XXVII]. fig. 1.
Order: Lepidoptera. Section: Crepuscularia. Family: Sphingidæ, Leach.
Genus. Deilephila, Ochs. Spectrum P. Scop. Sphinx P. Linn.
Deilephila Nessus. Alis anticis cinerascentibus apice externo albido, posticis nigris fasciâ fulvâ, abdominis lateribus fulvis. (Expans. Alar. fere 5 unc.)
Syn. Sphinx Nessus, Drury, App. vol. 2. Cramer Ins. tab. 226. fig. D.
Sphinx equestris, Fabr. Ent. Syst. III. 1. 365. No. 29.