Fig. 199.—Poplar Hawk-Moth (Smerinthus populi).
We will content ourselves by here giving drawings of two other species of the same genus: the Eyed Hawk-Moth (Smerinthus ocellatus, [Fig. 198]), which is not rare during the months of May and sometimes August, the caterpillar of which lives on the leaves of willows, poplars, and fruit-trees; and the Poplar Hawk-Moth (Smerinthus populi, [Fig. 199]), whose caterpillar ([Fig. 200]) lives on the poplar, the aspen, and sometimes on the willow and birch.
The division of Bombycina contains the largest of moths, and at the same time species of a middle and small size. These moths take no nourishment, and live only for a short time—long enough to propagate their species. They rarely fly during the day, only showing themselves in the evening. The group is dispersed over nearly all parts of the world, and may be recognised by the antennæ generally being cut like the teeth of a comb in the males, by their thick, strong bodies, and, in the majority of cases, by their large head, by their wings more or less large, and by their heavy flight.
Fig. 200.—Larva of the Poplar Hawk-Moth (Smerinthus populi).
In the Bombycina are found the genera Sericaria, Attacus, Bombyx, Orgyia, Liparis, &c.
It is to the genus Bombyx that the silkworm belongs, that celebrated insect called by Linnæus Bombyx mori, a name which reminds us at the same time of its most ancient denomination, and of the mulberry tree, on which these caterpillars feed.