Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Exotic Moths.djvu/114

100 this group are termed in Britain, and like the majority of the larger Sphingidæ, they are extensively distributed, occurring in almost every quarter of the globe. M. tersa is a native both of North and South America, as well as of the West Indian Islands. It measures about three inches across the wings; the general colour greyish olive-brown; the anterior wings entirely of that hue, with a few delicate parallel lines of a lighter colour, running from the base somewhat obliquely to the tip; posterior wings black at the base, brown along the external margin, with a row of cream-coloured triangular spots between these two colours; fringe of the wings white. The head is flesh-coloured, and there is a stripe of the same running along each side of the thorax; the back of the latter clay colour, the sides yellowish-brown. The caterpillar (Plate VI. fig. 1) is of a delicate green with numerous small longitudinal spots of reddish brown; prolegs yellow; on each segment, except the second and third, there is a yellow oval spot, marked with black above and below, placed on a lighter ground; and higher up a longitudinal white stripe, commencing at the fifth segment and running to the tail, and having a series of ocellated spots placed on it; there is likewise a large ocellated spot, of a more complex description, on the fourth segment, in line with the others; tail red. The pupa is yellowish-brown. The caterpillar feeds on what Abbot calls wild thyme, but which is a species of spermacoce (S. hyssopifolia). The author