76 European Butterflies and Motjis. 



either European, North Asiatic, or North American. There being only one European genus, it 

 is unnecessarj' to characterise it. 



GENUS THYRIS (ILL.). 

 I. T. FenestrcUa (Scop.). — Wings dark brown, with many small, transverse, golden-yellow 

 spots; fore-wings with two white transparent spots beyond the middle, and hind-wings with a trans- 

 parent band before the middle ; abdomen with narrow white bands above and broad ones below. 

 Expands a little over half an inch. It is found throughout Southern Europe and Northern and 

 Western Asia ; it is local in the southern half of Central Europe, frequenting sunny slopes where 

 the clematis grows. The moth appears in June and July. The larva is brown, with darker warts ; 

 the head, a plate on the back of the neck, and the anal fold are dark shining brown. It feeds on 

 Clematis vitalba in July and August. The moth is figured at PI. 20, Fig. 5. {T. Diaphaiin, Stand., 

 which occurs in Sicily, is rather larger, the head, thorax, and fringes are golden-yellow, and the 

 ground colour of the wings is more strongly mixed with yellow ; the fore-wings have onl)- one 

 small transparent spot, and the hind-wings a transparent stripe, divided into two spots by one of 

 the nervures. The abdomen is marked with three yellow belts.) 



FAMILY III.— SESIID^. 



Rather small moths, resembling different species of Hymenoptera in appearance. The fore-wings 

 are generally, and the hind-wings are alwaj-s, more or less transparent. The abdomen is veiy long, 

 extending far beyond the hind-wings, and is generally adorned with red, white, or yellow belts. It 

 is composed of seven segments in the male, and six in the female. Tlie fore-wings are very long 

 and rounded at the extremities, and are furnished witli eleven or twelve nervures. The submedian 

 nervure runs close to the inner margin, or is absent ; the hind-wings are triangular, with two or 

 three submedian nervures. The eyes are large and naked ; the antennae spindle-shaped, terminating 

 in a slender tuft of hairs in the males, and are rarely pectinated. Palpi stout, porrected, with the 

 terminal joint naked ; legs strong ; the front tibiae short, with a leaf-like appendage ; hind tibia; 

 with four spurs. Many of the moths fly very rapidly in the sunshine, and may be captured 

 resting on flowers, especially those of flowering bushes, or may be found in the morning 

 freshly emerged, and resting on the stems of their food-plants. The larvae are naked, only 

 covered with fine scattered hairs, and are yellowish-white, with the head and a plate on the 

 back of the neck horny and generally dark-coloured, with sixteen legs, the ten hinder ones 

 coronated. They live in the trunks, branches, and roots of trees, shrubs, or herbs, and after 

 passing one or two winters in the larva state, change to pup?e in spring in the interior of the food- 

 plant, in a cocoon mixed with fragments of wood. The pupae are slender, and the abdominal 

 segments are provided w ith rows of small spines, by which they are able to work themselves along ; 

 and the moths appear in summer. This family is represented all over the world, but the species 

 are very liable to be overlooked ; and partly from this cause, and partly from the difficulty of 

 rearing them, many species are seldom met with. The larvae are very similar, and we shall 

 generally confine ourseh^es to noticing their food-plants. Mr. Butler has latel)- proposed to 

 remove this family to the Micro- Lepidoptera, placing it between the Pynilcs and the GelecliidcE. 



GENUS \. — TROCHILTUM (SCOP.). 

 These moths resemble hornets ; the fore-wings are quite transparent, the twelve nervures 

 and the costa only being thickly scaled. The antenna; are short and thick, with short lamella; or 



