Volume 14, Plate VII / Entomology (Insects)

Pine & Madder Hawk-Moth

Sphinx Pinastri & Deilephila Galii

1. Pine Hawk-Moth. Expanding about three inches, the ash-grey forewings clouded with brown and bearing three diverging black streaks on each disk, the brownish hinder wings inclining to ash-colour, the thorax grey with dark side bands and the abdomen ringed white and black. The caterpillar, at first yellowish-brown then green with lemon-yellow side stripes, feeds on pine abroad and on spruce and Scotch fir here, this being very rare in Britain and known from only a few localities.
2. The Madder Hawk-Moth. Nearly the size of the Spotted Elephant and much resembling it, the upper wings olive-brown or greenish with cinereous border and an irregular yellowish band, the hinder wings dull red with black base and band and a white anal spot. The bronzed-green caterpillar bears a yellow dorsal line and a row of oval black-edged yellow spots, feeding on bedstraw and wild madder, this southern-loving species having occurred occasionally near London, in Kent, and Devon.