182 ZOOLOGY. 



Fam. 9. Zygcenidce. Tliis family is sometimes namea Anthroceridce^ 

 but as the genus Zygcena^ Fabr., 1775, has priority of Anthrocera^ Scopoli, 

 1777, it must be preferred. The generic name Zygcena^ applied to a fish 

 by Cuvier, in 1S17, can have no influence against the former name. The 

 members of this family resemble Sesia and ^Egcria in being diurnal fliers, 

 and in some the antenna are terminated in a club. The wings are narrow, 

 and have numerous nervures, and the feet and maxill?e are long. They 

 are of small size and bright colors, and their movements are sluggish. 



Zygcena filijyendidce {pi. SO, Jig. 8) has the upper wings black, spotted 

 with crimson, and the lower ones of the latter color margined with blue. 

 Its expanse is an inch or more. Europe. 



Fcan. 10. Trochiliidcc. The insects of this family are day-fliers, and bear 

 some resemblance to Sesia {'pi. SO., fig. 9), but the body is more slender, and 

 the movements are more sluggish. Some of them are gaudily colored, and 

 have naked wings, which, with their form, give them a general resemblance 

 to Hymenoptera and Diptera, whence have been derived the trivial names 

 of Sphecia apiformis, TwcMlium vesjnforme, spliegi forme., euliciforme, and 

 many similar ones. The larvae bore under the bark and in the wood of 

 trees, which they sometimes damage, as in the case of the American jEg-m« 

 cxdiosa.) which destroys peach trees by attacking them below the surface 

 of the ground. In this species the wings are transparent in the male alone. 

 A closely allied, but smaller species {Trochilimn cerasi), causes rough 

 excrescences upon the branches of cherry trees in the United States. 



jFa7/i. 11. Sp>hingidce., {pi. SO, figs. 10-21). These have a robust hairy 

 body, the abdomen conical, the antennse thickened towards the end, and 

 l)rismatic ; the rostrum is in some cases longer than the body, and the wings 

 are narrow and strong, with the posterior pair small. Their flight is rapid 

 and well sustained, resembling that of birds ; and as the common words 

 lird and fish are applied in a general and not in a technical sense, the 

 common name of these nocturnal butterflies is humming-hirds. The species 

 fly from flower to flower, in the dusk of evening, balancing themselves on 

 the wing in front of a flower, and without alighting, inserting their rostrum 

 and sucking the honey. A similar mode of taking food, and an equally 

 rapid flight, being subsequently observed in the class more generally known 

 as birds or fowls, the term huomning-Mrd was extended to the genus Tro- 

 chilus among feathered vertebrate animals. The larva? have sixteen feet, 

 and often a curved horn near the posterior extremity. They often raise up 

 the anterior part of the body, giving somewhat the appearance of the 

 Egyptian sphinx, which has become the name of one of the genera. The 

 larvae known as the tobacco-worm, which eat the leaves'of growing tobacco, 

 are those of Sphinx. The imago is often found about the flowers of Datura 

 stramonium (or jimson weed). The posterior wings have a projection which 

 passes through a ring upon the anterior ones, tending to keep the two 

 together. 



Cha^rocampa {Ch. verii, fig. 21) is remarkable for the structure of the 

 larva, the head and anterior part of the body being retractile. As in 

 Maeroglossa, the cocoon is placed upon the ground. Dnilephila [D. euphor- 

 ySG 



