SESIID^. 103 



and Folkestone, on the Undercliff, by a Coleopterist, anti was 

 handed by him to Mr. J. W. Douglas, by whom it was recog- 

 nised. Guided by this fortunate capture, the haunts of the 

 insect on this part of the coast of Kent soon became well 

 known, and specimens have been taken there nearly every 

 season since. It may probably extend some few miles 

 along the coast, and indeed is said to have been taken near 

 Eastbourne ; but the only reliable locality in this country is 

 on the slopes of the open banks and hill sides of the Warren 

 between Folkestone and Dover. Abroad it is rather widely 

 distributed in Southern France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, and 

 Central and South-Eastern Germany. 



Genus 2. SPHiECIA. 



Antennae rather short, thickened in the middle ; apex 

 curved back, and having a tuft of bristles ; pectinations in the 

 male short, blunt, solid, and appearing as though caused by a 

 series of cuts half through the antennae. From these solid 

 tubercles arise minute bristles. Wings long and narrow, 

 transparent, or nearly so, with dark nervures. Thorax 

 robust ; abdomen thick, rounded, banded with bright colours, 

 and devoid of a distinct anal tuft. 



The moths of this group bear an extraordinary resem- 

 blance to hornets or wasps. 



Larv^ soft, with horny head and jaws, feeding in the solid 

 wood and bark of the trunks of trees and large bushes. 



PuPiE elongated, with the abdominal segments thickly set 

 with short spines. 



The two species are readily separated : 



A. Collar yellow (;S'. hemheciformis). 



A. A. Collar black, shoulders yellow {S. apiformis). 



1. S. bembeciformis, Hiob. ; crabroniforme, Haw., 



Stand. Cat. — Expanse, If to If inch. Wings transparent, 



