SESIIDAE OR ^GEEIIDAE. 123 



— and, as many writers would add, the fact that it had meanwhile 

 been constituted the type of Macror/loiisroii. 



In 1801 Lamarck in like manner made fudformU, Fb. {i.e., 

 apparently the broad-bordered species) the type ; but this again appears 

 to be ultra rins. I do not know Avhether Laspeyres in the same year 

 {Sesicu' Km-djiai'dc) published before or after Lamarck. 



In 1805 Latreille removed stcUatartDit, boinhj/liforDiis •cindfiicifnriiiis 

 back to Sjihin.r, and cited four examples of Scsia — aiiifunnis, tipidi- 

 formis, oiliciforniis, and cliri/siflifdniiis. 



In 1806 Hiibner {Tcntmnvu) cited culicifoniris as type. This has 

 been accepted by Grote and probably others, and unless Cuvier or 

 Lamarck can be shown to have interfered, it seems quite sound. 



In 1807 Fabricius himself removed " ajiifuniu's, iclnieiununiformis, 

 vesjiifonnis, &c.," into his new genus ^■Etjcria, and cited '^ oenotherae, 

 fitellatarion , fiuiformh, &c.," as examples of /SV.s/rt ; had he expressed 

 himself thus explicitly before Latreille and Hiibner had accepted his 

 published intentions and worked upon them, his decision would have 

 been of great importance ; as it is, it comes too late, and can affect 

 nothing, although it was accepted by Leach in 1815, and through him 

 introduced to our English writers. 



In 1808 Ochsenheimer followed Latreille, and later (1816) he 

 removed stdlatarum and the bee-hawks to Macrof/losm [MacnxiluHsum , 

 Scop.) ; hence the general continental usage. 



In 1810 Latreille specified apifuniiis, Fb., as type of Sesia : this 

 will have to be accepted by those who reject the Tentamen. 



In 1815 Oken resuscitated Truchilium, Scop., which had lain 

 dormant in the synonymy of Sesia, &c., using it (as a subgenus of 

 A'jjeria) for apiformis and bcmbeciformis {crabronifurviis, Lewin) ; in 

 other respects he followed Fabricius' latest (1807) work. As he only 

 describes apiformis, that becomes the obvious type of Trocldlium, of 

 which Hiibner's later Sphaecia is a synonym. 



It thus appears, with (as I hope) all the important literature before 

 us, that the types of the early generic names in this group are the 

 following : 



Sesia, Fb., 1775; type culicir'urmi,-< sec. Hb., l.SOG (or type apiwimis sec. Latr., 

 1810). 



Macroiilo.Hsuiii, Scop., 1777 ; type stcllatariDii sec. Scop., 1777. 



Trocliilium, Scop., 1777 ; type cqnformis sec. Oken, 1815. (Curtis, 1831, 

 supports). 



ACgeria, Fb., 1807 ; type apparently vcttpiforuns, L. ( = a>iilijortnig, Schiff.), 

 which seems to be the only species cited by all the early authors who legitimately 

 use the name — Fabricius, Oken, Leach, Stephens. 



Curtis' selection of culicifonnis (in 1825) as the type of J^ltjeria is 

 debarred by the fact that this was not cited at the foundation of the 

 genus. Westwood's choice of apiformis, followed by Mr. Kirby, is 

 probably due to his accepting Oken's abridged Xatur;/. Schulen (1821) 

 instead of his earlier and much fuller Liitrbnrh (1815). It is to be 

 regretted that the "historical method" employed does not allow of our 

 finding the same type for all the three names Sesia, Troehilium and 

 .ilijeria, and so sinking the two latter as irrevocable synonyms ; for 

 there can be no doubt that this would simplify the synonymy, and 

 allow of the use of the work of those later writers who attempted more 

 subdivision (Hiibner, Newman, &c.). As it is, however, I am afraid 

 the best we can do is to restore " -bVs/a " and " Sesiidae'' to their 



