Syntomidas 
FAMILY SYNTOMID/E 
“ Whoever looks at the insect world, at flies, aphides, gnats, and innumerable 
parasites, and even at the infant mammals, must have remarked the extreme 
content they take in suction, which constitutes the main business of their life. If 
we go into a library or news-room, we see the same function on a higher plane, 
performed with like ardor, with equal impatience of interruption, indicating the 
sweetness of the act.”—E merson. 
This family, which quite recently has been monographed by 
Sir George F. Hampson, consists of moths which are small, or 
at most of medium size. They are diurnal in their habits, and 
frequent flowers. At first glance, they often are mistaken 
for wasps and other hymenoptera, which they mimic. The 
following characterization of the family is quoted from the 
learned author, to whom reference has just been made: 
“ Proboscis usually well developed, but sometimes aborted; 
palpi short and porrect, long and downcurved, or upturned; 
frons rounded; antennae simple, ciliated, or bipectinate, usually 
with short branches dilated at extremity in both sexes; tibiae 
with the spurs short. Fore wing usually with the terminal area 
broad; vein \a forming a fork with \b, \c absent; 5 from below 
middle of discocellulars; 7 stalked with 8, 9. Hind wing small; 
vein 1 a often absent; 1 c absent; 8 absent, rarely rudimentary 
and not reaching costa; frenulum present; retinaculum bar¬ 
shaped.” Hampson, Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalcence } 
Vol. I, p. 20. 
Eleven genera comprised within this family are recognized by 
recent writers as holding place in the fauna of the United States 
and Canada. Most of these are southern, and represent a 
northern movement of the great complex of genera and species 
referable to the family, which inhabits the hot lands of equa¬ 
torial America. 
Genus COSMOSOMA Hubner 
This is a large genus, including at least eighty species, which 
are found in Central and South America. Only one species is, 
at present, known to occur within our faunal limits. 
(1) Cosmosoma auge Linnaeus, Plate XIII, Fig. 1, S. 
(The Scarlet-bodied Wasp-moth.) 
Syn. omphale Hubner; melitta Moschler. 
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