DEILEPHILA TERSA. Alis anticis griseis, lineis nonnullis obliquis
parallelis nigris; posticis nigris fasciâ maculari luteo-albâ. (Expans.
Alar. 3 unc.)
SYN. Sphinx Tersa, _Linn. Mant. p._ 538. _Drury, App. vol._ 2. _Cramer,
tab._ 397. _fig._ C. _Fabr. Ent. Syst._ III. 1. _p._ 378. _No._ 69.
_Gmel. Linn. S. N._ 2379. _No._ 71. _Abbot and Smith Ins. Georg._ 1.
_tab._ 38.
HABITAT: Maryland, Jamaica, St. Christopher, Antigua (_Drury_). South
America (_Fabricius_). Georgia (_Abbot_).
_Upper Side._ Head flesh-coloured; which colour, separating at the neck,
runs on each side of the thorax to the abdomen. Thorax and abdomen dark
clay colour. Abdomen pointed; the sides being of a yellower colour than
the top. Anterior wings greyish olive brown; from the tips to the middle
of the posterior margin run several narrow lines of lighter and darker
colours, parallel with each other. Posterior wings, at the base, black;
but along the external margin brown; having a row of narrow angular marks
of a cream colour running from the anal angle to the anterior edges.
Cilia white.
_Under Side._ Thorax and abdomen clay-coloured; paler on the middle than
the sides. Wings red clay-coloured; the anterior brown in the middle, and
the posterior having some faint waved lines crossing them; each wing
having a row of faint small spots along their external margin.
The caterpillar of this insect, figured by Abbot and Smith, is of a pale
green colour, with the three anterior segments elongated and attenuated in
front, having seven beautiful white eye-like spots on each side, with a red
pupil, and margined with black; the anterior ocellus being the largest.
These ocelli are united by a lateral white line, terminating at the base of
the straight red tail. It feeds upon the wild thyme (Spermacoce
Hyssopifolia, Sm.) Some of them are stated by Abbot to be brown. One was
observed by the same author to spin itself up on the 31st of July, from
which the moth appeared on the 15th of August; whilst another which spun up
on the 11th of September, remained in the chrysalis state until the 9th of
May. When disturbed, the caterpillar contracts the anterior segments of the
body.[22] The chrysalis is of a pale brown colour, freckled with darker
marks. It is not provided with a porrected tongue-case.
{57}SPHINX STRIGILES.
Plate XXVIII. fig. 4.
ORDER: Lepidoptera. SECTION: Crepuscularia. FAMILY: Sphingidæ, _Leach_.