SPHINX CAROLINA. Alis anticis fusco cinereoque variis, posticis fasciis
3-4 fuscis exterioribus dentatis; ciliâ albo nigroque variâ, abdomine
maculis 10-12 lateralibus luteis. (Expans. Alar. 5 unc.)
SYN. Sphinx Carolina, _Linn. S. N._ 2. 798. _No._ 7. _Brown. Jam._ 438.
_t._ 43. _f._ 17. _Fabr. Ent. Syst._ III. 1. _p._ 363. _No._ 25. _Gmel.
Linn. S. N._ 2377. _No._ 7. _Stephens Ill. Brit. Ent. H._ 1. 118. _Abbot
& Smith, Ins. Georg. tab._ 33. _Curtis Brit. Ent._ v. _pl._ 1. 197.
HABITAT: New York, Maryland, Virginia.
_Upper Side._ Antennæ internally white, but externally brown. The head,
thorax, and abdomen of a rusty grey brown; the sides of the latter having
five oblong yellow spots, intersected by black lines, on each of which is
a small white spot placed between the yellow ones. Anterior wings rusty
grey brown, with a white spot at the base, and another small discoidal
white one; a narrow irregular indented line of white begins near the
interior angle, and runs nearly to the tip; several indented lines,
nearly black, cross the wings, more or less distinct. Cilia brown,
spotted with white. Posterior wings brown, darkest in the middle, the
shoulders being nearly black, with an indented narrow bar of ash colour
running across them, from the middle of the anterior edges to the anal
angle; below this is a narrow black one, answering and joining to it.
_Under Side._ Breast and abdomen ash-coloured. Anterior wings brown,
without any marks or shades, except two very faint undulated dark lines
crossing them. Posterior wings, next the body, ash-coloured; the
remainder being like the anterior, with some faint dark lines crossing
them.
According to Abbot the caterpillar is pale green, with white lateral
oblique stripes, and a pink tail. It is said to feed on the potato,
tobacco, red pepper (Capsicum?), &c. One of these caterpillars, observed by
Abbot, went into the ground on the 19th of June, and came out on the 15th
of July; whilst another went in on the 8th of July, and came out {48}on the
1st of August. The caterpillar is stated by the same author to be very
destructive in plantations of tobacco, the cultivators being obliged to
pick them carefully off the young plants. The chrysalis is of a chesnut
colour, with a long nearly straight tongue case, extending to the middle of
the breast, and clubbed at the end. The moth is generally seen in an
evening, sucking the James-town weed and gourd blossoms, and continues
breeding all the summer; the moth is common in the West Indies, as well as
in Georgia and Carolina. Dr. Brown says it is called the musquito hawk,
from its appearing at that time of the evening when those insects abound,
and being vulgarly but erroneously supposed to prey upon them. _Abbot and
Smith, loc. cit._
Specimens of this American insect have from time to time been captured in
this country. "It unquestionably cannot," however observes Mr. Stephens,
"be considered as indigenous, and ought to be rigidly excluded from our
cabinets; otherwise the most perplexing consequences must inevitably arise,
to the total confusion of our inquiries into the geographical distribution
of insects. If this be admitted, as well might 'the noble monarch of the
forest,' because a captive lioness which had escaped from her prison was
retaken on Salisbury Plain."