Volume 14, Plate III / Entomology (Insects)

Eyed & Poplar Hawk-Moths

Smerinthus Ocellatus & S. Populi

1. Eyed Hawk-Moth. Perhaps the most beautiful of the three British species, the male expanding about two and a half inches, the very acute forewings grey tinged with rose and variegated with brown clouds, the carmine-red hinder wings bearing at the anal angle a large blue-irised ocellus set in deep black. The green and blue caterpillar, marked with white oblique stripes, feeds on willow, poplar, and apple, the insect not rare in England but very rare in Scotland.
2. Poplar Hawkmoth. Larger than the Eyed Hawk-moth and distinguished by regularly dentated wing margins, generally greyish-brown with deeper bands and a white crescent near the middle of each forewing, a ferruginous patch at the base of the hinder wings. The green caterpillar with oblique yellow stripes eats poplar and willow leaves, this being by far the most common Sphingid, frequent across England and southern Scotland about midsummer and autumn.