"Tongue strongly developed. Antennæ less than one-half, gradually thickened to apex, then pointed, apex slender, hooked. Thorax with low double posterior tuft. Abdomen smooth, broad, conical, pointed. Tibiæ with appressed scales. "A moderately large genus, ranging over the whole world, but principally characteristic of America. Imago flying at dusk, feeding on the wing."--(Meyrick.) This genus is represented in New Zealand by one almost cosmopolitan species. SPHINX CONVOLVULI, L. (_Protoparce distans_, Butl. _Sphinx convolvuli_, Meyr., Trans. N. Z. Inst. xxii. 213.) (Plate XIII., fig. 1.; Plate III., figs. 13 and 14 varieties of larvæ.) This handsome insect often occurs in the northern portions of the North Island, but becomes very rare southward of Napier and New Plymouth. In the South Island it has been taken at Nelson, and recently a very mutilated specimen of what appears to be this species has been found by Mr. Philpott, near West Plains, Invercargill. With these exceptions I have not heard of its appearance in any other localities in the South Island. The expansion of the wings is about 3½ inches. The fore-wings are greyish-brown with several irregular, darker markings near the base; and a broad, dark, central band; beyond the central band there is a very irregular, pale grey, toothed line. The hind-wings are yellowish-grey, with four transverse, darker stripes, the outermost one strongly toothed. The head and thorax are dark grey, paler on the back, with two conspicuous tufts of pale grey hair on the shoulders. _The abdomen is grey, striped on the sides with rose-colour and black._ The larva feeds on _Convolvulus_. Like many of the caterpillars of the _Sphingidæ_, there are two very distinct varieties: one is bright green, with white spiracles, and a series of diagonal yellow lines above them; the other is dull yellowish-brown, with broad blackish-brown dorsal and ventral lines, and a series of triangular blackish spots above the spiracles, which in this variety are jet-black. In both these forms of {100}larvæ the anal horn is dark red tipped with black, and the skin is covered with numerous fine wrinkles. The length of the caterpillar when full grown is 3½ inches. About the middle or end of February these larvæ generally bury themselves in the ground, where they are transformed into pupæ. They remain in that condition until the following summer. The pupa is about 2 inches in length and is of a dark mahogany-brown colour. It is furnished with a large curved process, projecting from the lower side of the head, and containing the enormous proboscis of the future moth.