VI 



HETEROCERA SESIIDAE TINAEGERIIDAE 



337 



mobility existing ; an " eye-collar " is present, and the segments 

 of the abdomen are armed with series of teeth. The larva 

 is a concealed feeder, nearly naked and colourless, but with 

 the legs normal in number three thoracic, four abdominal pairs 

 of feet, and the terminal claspers ; these are sometimes but 

 poorly developed ; the larvae have a greater or less resemblance 

 to those of Longicorn beetles, the habits of which they share. The 

 family was formerly associated with the Sphingidae, with which 

 it has no true relationship ; it is more closely allied to the 

 Tineidae. Some of the species have a certain resemblance to 

 Hymenoptera, which is probably in most, if not in all cases 

 merely incidental. The proper position of the family was pointed 

 out by Butler, 1 but he did not distinguish it from Tinaegeriidae. 

 Meyrick calls the family Aegeriadae, and places it in his series 

 Tineina. 



We have two genera of these Clear -wings in Britain. 

 They are Trocliilium (called variously Sesia, S-plti:<'i<', and 

 Aegeria), with two species of comparatively large size, and 

 (called variously Trocliilium and 

 Aegeria), with nearly a dozen species 

 of smaller size. A third genus, 

 Sciapteron, is doubtfully native with 

 us. They are much prized by col- 

 lectors on account of the rarity of 

 the Insects and their great differ- 

 ence in appearance from our other 

 native Lepidoptera. 



Fam. 14. Tinaegeriidae. This 

 is one of the least known of the 

 families of Lepidoptera, and has only 

 recently been distinguished from 

 Sesiidae. It is entirely exotic, and 

 our knowledge of it is principally FIG. 



.f i- Africa. (After Walsingham.) 



due to Lord Walsingham.- Nothing 



is known as to the life-histories, except that it has been stated 

 by Staintoii that a larva feeds in webs on shoots of a shrub of 

 the genus Clerodendron. The family is widely distributed, but 

 its metropolis will probably prove to be the tropics of Africa. It 

 is of considerable interest as showing that the Sesiidae really 

 1 Tr. cat. Soc. London, ]878, p. 121, PI. v. " Op. cit. 1SS9, pp. 1-40, 6 plates. 



