Fig. 44.—Urania boisduvalii. Cuba.
Fig. 45.—Urania boisduvalii at rest, showing under surface of wings.

The Sphingidae (hawk moths) are insects often of large size (figs. 46a, 47), with spindle-shaped feelers, elongate and powerful forewings and the maxillae very well developed. The hindwing carries a frenulum and has its sub-costal nervure connected with the radial by a short bar. The caterpillars have the full number of prolegs, and, in many genera, carry a prominent dorsal horn on the eighth abdominal segment (fig. 46b). The pupa lies in an earthen cell. On account of their powerful flight the moths of this family have a wide range; certain species—like Acherontia atropos and Protoparce convolvuli—migrate into the British Islands in numbers almost every summer.

Fig. 46a.—Chlaenogramma jasminearum (Jessamine Sphinx). N. America.
Fig. 46b.—Larva.
Fig. 47.—Smerinthus ocellatus (Eyed Hawk moth). Europe.

A group of families in which the first maxillae are vestigial, the feelers bipectinate and the pupa enclosed in a dense silken cocoon, have been regarded as the most highly specialized of all the moths, though according to other views the whole series of the Lepidoptera culminates in the Syntomidae. Of these cocoon-spinning families may be specially mentioned the Eupterotidae, large brown or yellow moths inhabiting tropical Asia and Africa, and represented in Europe only by the “processionary moth” (Cnethocampa processionea). In this family the frenulum is present, and the larvae are protected with tufts of long hair. The Bombycidae have no frenulum, and the larvae are smooth, with some of the segments humped and the eighth abdominal often carrying a dorsal spine. The family is tropical in its distribution, but the common silkworm (Bombyx mori, fig. 48) has become acclimatized in southern Europe and is the source of most of the silk used in manufacture and art. Of commercial value also is the silk spun by the great moths of the family Saturniidae, well represented in warm countries and contributing a single species (Saturnia pavonia-minor) to the British fauna. These moths (fig. 49) have but a single anal nervure in the hindwing and only three radial nervures in the forewing. The wing-patterns are handsome and striking; usually an unsealed “eyespot” is conspicuous at the end of each discoidal areolet. The caterpillars are protected by remarkable spine-bearing tubercles (fig. 10, B).

After C.V. Riley, Bull. 14, Div. Ent. U.S. Dept. Agr.
Fig. 48.—Bombyx mori. China. a, Caterpillar (the common silkworm); b, cocoon; c, male moth.
Fig. 49.—Epiphora bouhiniae. W. Africa.

Grypocera.