The hawk moths have a stout rounded abdomen tapering to a point; thickened antennae; stout narrow pointed wings; the proboscis or sucking mouth-tube very long, curled up under the head when at rest, but capable of being uncurled in front of the head to suck up the nectar from the deepest tubular flower while the moth is hovering over it. They hide during the day, and are most active just at twilight, when they dart about, over, and around the flowering shrubs. Their caterpillars are very handsome thick cylindrical grubs marked with brilliant eye spots and stripes of various striking colours, and are easily distinguished by a curious curved fleshy horn on the dorsal surface of the tail segment. They take their scientific name from the fanciful resemblance of their stiff horny pupae (which are naked and generally buried in the sand beneath their food plant) to the Egyptian Sphinx, and their popular names of “hawk” and “humming-bird moth” from their powers of flight. Our species have been divided into five sub-families, and in Miskin’s “Catalogue of the Australian Sphingidae” (Proc. Roy. Soc. Queensland) 42 species are listed under 13 genera; to which list a few species have since been added. The first group contains what are popularly called the “Clear-winged Hawk-moths,” from the large bare scaleless areas in the wings; they fly about in the daytime with a loud humming noise, very much resembling some of the Carpenter-bees when hovering over the flowers. _Hemaris kingi_ is marked with black and yellow, and has a thick tuft of stiff hairs on either side of the abdomen; it is not uncommon in Southern Queensland. _H. hylas_ is a similar stout moth with unspotted wings which has an extended range across Queensland to Japan, Asia, and Africa; while a third species, _H. janus_, ranges from Brisbane to Rockhampton. In the Genus _Macroglossa_ 4 species are recorded from Queensland, some of which extend into our north coast scrubs.