YELLOW-LEGGED CLEARWING. 355 



side of the stem, but does not penetrate the outer skin, although 

 it reduces this to a very thin layer, through which the reddish 

 brown chrysahs is able to force itself when the moth is ready to 

 emerge. A figure of the caterpillar will be found on Plate 156, 

 Fio- I • the chrysalis protruding from currant stem (Fig. i^) is 

 from a photo by Mr. H. Main. In June or July, the moths are 

 not infrequently seen on leaves of shrubs in gardens where there 

 are currant bushes in or around such gardens, but the foliage of 

 the food plant is a favourite resting place. 



Generally distributed throughout England, the range extend- 

 ing into Wales, and South Scotland, but is apparently rare in 

 these countries and also in some of the northern counties of 

 England. Kane states that the species is common near 

 Dublin, and is probably widely distributed in Ireland. 



This species seems to have been introduced into North 

 America, where its caterpillar is known as the " currant borer," 

 and, as in England, is regarded with little favour by bush-frmt 



growers. 



Yellow-legged Clearwing {Sesia vespiformisy 



This species (Plate 155, Fig. i), known also as asiliformis, 

 Rottemburg (i775), and cynipiformls, Esper (1782), is now held 

 to be correctly referred to vcspiformis, Linnaeus (1761). The 

 crossbar of the fore wings is orange red in both sexes ; the body 

 of the male has two more or less united yellow spots at the 

 junction with the thorax, four yellow belts, and the tail tuft is 

 black above, mixed with yellow below ; in the female the body 

 belts are usually one less than in the male, the yellow spots at 

 the junction are generally run together, and the tail tuft is 

 almost wholly yellow. As indicated by the English name, the 

 legs are largely yellow in both sexes. 



The caterpillar feeds on the inner bark of oak trees, is full 



