The head is small and sharp, eyes very much larger than Lineata, and tongue nearly four inches in length.  The antennae are not clubbed, but long and hairlike.  It has the broad shoulders, the long wings, and the same shape of abdomen.  The wings, front and back, are so mottled, lined, and touched with grey, black, brown and white, as to be almost past definite description.  The back wings have the black and white markings more clearly defined.  The head meets the thorax with a black band.  The back is covered with long, grey down, and joins the abdomen, with a band of black about a quarter of an inch wide, and then a white one of equal width.  The abdomen is the gaudiest part of the moth.  In general it is a soft grey.  It is crossed by five narrow white lines the length of the abdomen, and a narrow black one down the middle.  Along each side runs a band of white.  On this are placed four large yellow spots each circled by a band of black that joins the black band of the spot next to it.  The legs and under side of the abdomen and wings are a light grey-tan, with the wing markings showing faintly, and the abdomen below is decorated with two small black dots.

My first Celeus, a very large and beautiful one, was brought to me by Mr. Wallace Hardison, who has been an interested helper with this book.  The moth had a wing sweep of fully five and a half inches, and its markings were unusually bright and strong.  No other Celeus quite so big and beautiful ever has come to my notice.  From four and a half to five inches is the average size.

There was something the matter with this moth.  Not a scale of down seemed to be missing, but it was torpid and would not fly.  Possibly it had been stung by some parasite before taking flight at all, for it was very fresh.  I just had returned from a trip north, and there were some large pieces of birch bark lying on the table on which the moth had been placed.  It climbed on one of these, and clung there, so I set up the bark, and made a time exposure.  It felt so badly it did not even close them when I took a brush and spread its wings full width.  Soon after it became motionless.  I had begun photographing moths recently; it was one of my very first, and no thought of using it for natural history purposes occurred at the time.  I merely made what I considered a beautiful likeness, and this was so appreciated whenever shown, that I went further and painted it in water colours.

Since moth pictures have accumulated, and moth history has engrossed me with its intense interest, I have been very careful in making studies to give each one its proper environment when placing it before my camera.  Of all the flowers in our garden, Celeus prefers the hollyhocks.  At least it comes to them oftenest and remains at them longest.  But it moves continually and flies so late that a picture of it has been a task.  After years of fruitless effort, I made one passable snapshot