From the meagre materials furnished by these three obviously nearly
related species, we may at least conclude that, with respect to
marking, three stages of development can be distinguished:--(1) Simple
(green) coloration without marking; (2) subdorsal lines crossed by
seven pairs of oblique stripes; (3) more or less complete absence of
the subdorsal lines, the oblique stripes remaining, and showing a
tendency to become edged with a red border.
Which of the three species is the oldest I will not attempt to decide.
If we might venture to form any conclusion from the frequency of the
red spots, _Tiliæ_ would be the youngest, _i.e._, the species which
has made the farthest advance. But this does not agree with the fact
that the oblique stripes appear somewhat later in this species. Both
these distinctions are, however, too unimportant to enable us to
build certain conclusions on them. Neither does a comparison of the
adult larvæ with other species of _Smerinthus_ furnish any further
information of importance.
Of the genus _Smerinthus_, Latr., thirty species were catalogued by
Gray,[101] of which I am only acquainted with the larvæ of eight (five
European, and three North American). None of these in the last stage
possess a complete subdorsal line together with oblique stripes.
Neither, on the other hand, do any of them show a more advanced stage
of development in having the red spots constantly formed into coloured
border-stripes. We must therefore admit that they have all reached
nearly the same stage of phyletic development. On turning to the
doubtfully placed genus _Calymnia_, Boisduval, which is represented in
Gray by only one species, figured by Westwood[102] as a _Smerinthus_,
we first meet with an older stage of development of the genus.
The adult caterpillar of _C. Panopus_, from the East Indies, possesses,
in addition to the oblique stripes, a completely developed subdorsal
line,[103] and thus corresponds to the first stage of _S. Populi_.
This species may possibly retain in its ontogeny a stage in which
the oblique stripes are also absent, whilst the subdorsal line is
present. From the early disappearance of the subdorsal line in the
species of _Smerinthus_, we may venture to conclude that this character
appeared at an early stage of the phylogeny, whilst the oblique stripes
represent a secondary form of marking, as shall be further established
subsequently.[104]
THE GENUS MACROGLOSSA, OCHSENHEIMER.
The adult larvæ of five species are known, and to these I can now
add a sixth. In Gray the genus contains twenty-six species.[105] I
cannot find any figures or descriptions of the young stages of these
caterpillars, and I have myself only observed the complete ontogeny of
one species.
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