Hemaris means `bloody nose.' `Bloody nose' on account of the
red first noticed on the face, though some writers called them
'Clear wings,' because of the transparent spaces on the wings.
Certainly `clear wings' is a most appropriate and poetic name for
this moth. Fastidious people will undoubtedly prefer it for
common usage. For myself, I always think of the delicate, gaudy
little creature, greedily thrusting its blood-red nose into the
purple thistle blooms; so to my thought it returns as `bloody
nose.'
The pairs mate early after emerging, and lay about two hundred
small eggs to the female, from which the caterpillars soon hatch,
and begin their succession of moults. One writer gave black haw
and snowball as their favourite foods, and the length of the
caterpillar when full grown nearly two inches. They are either
a light brown with yellow markings, or green with yellow; all of
them have white granules on the body, and a blue-black horn with
a yellow base. They spin among the leaves on the ground, and the
pupa, while small, is shaped like Regalis, except that it has a
sharper point at each end, and more prominent wing shields.
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