sphinx-moth

He points out that there is no difficulty in believing in the existence of such a moth as F. Müller had described (_Nature_, 1873, p. 223), a Brazilian sphinx-moth with a trunk 10 to 11 in. in length.

Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 1 James Marchant

He points out that there is no difficulty in believing in the existence of such a moth as F. Mueller had described (Nature, 1873, p. 223), a Brazilian sphinx-moth with a trunk 10 to 11 in. in length.

Alfred Russel Wallace Letters and Reminiscences Marchant, James 1916

Here is one which presents a pair of tiny clubs to the sphinx-moth at its threshold, gluing them to its bulging eyes.

My Studio Neighbors William Hamilton Gibson 1873

Hence we infer the sphinx-moth to be the insect complement to the blossom, and we may correctly infer, moreover, that the flower is thus a night-bloomer.

My Studio Neighbors William Hamilton Gibson 1873

But victory complete and demoralizing to his opponents awaited this oracular utterance when later a disciple of Darwin, led by the same spirit of faith and conviction, visited Madagascar, and was soon able to affirm that he had caught the moth, a huge sphinx-moth, and that its tongue measured eleven inches in length.

My Studio Neighbors William Hamilton Gibson 1873

Gray's surmise, 188; sphinx-moth its only complement, 190; manner of carrying the pollen by sphinx-moth, 193; extracting the pollen with a pencil; length of the nectary, 196; purple-fringed, 198; ragged, 200; very exceptional provision, 201; yellow-spiked, 203; moccasin-flower; ladies'-slipper;

My Studio Neighbors William Hamilton Gibson 1873

Blossoms whose functions, through long eras of adaptation, have gradually shaped themselves to the forms of certain chosen insect sponsors; blossoms whose chalices are literally fashioned to bees or butterflies; blossoms whose slender, prolonged nectaries invite and reward the murmuring sphinx-moth alone, the floral throat closely embracing his head while it attaches its pollen masses to the bulging eyes, or perchance to the capillary tongue!

My Studio Neighbors William Hamilton Gibson 1873

The sphinx-moth again, one of the lesser of the group.

My Studio Neighbors William Hamilton Gibson 1873

Angræcum, its long nectary, 219; tongue of a sphinx-moth eleven inches long, 220; nectary thirteen inches long, 223.

My Studio Neighbors William Hamilton Gibson 1873

We see the same great law in the construction of the mouths of insect: what can be more different than the immensely long spiral proboscis of a sphinx-moth, the curious folded one of a bee or bug, and the great jaws of a beetle?

On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life 1859