Syntomidae 



FAMILY SYNTOMID/E 



" Whoever looks at the insect world, at flies, aphides, gnats, and innumerable 

 parasites, and even at the infant mammals, must have remarked the extreme 

 content they take in suction, which constitutes the main business of their life. If 

 we go into a library or news-room, we see the same function on a higher plane, 

 performed with like ardor, with equal impatience of interruption, indicating the 

 sweetness of the act." Emerson. 



This family, which quite recently has been monographed by 

 Sir George F. Hampson, consists of moths which are small, or 

 at most of medium size. They are diurnal in their habits, and 

 frequent flowers. At first glance, they often are mistaken 

 for wasps and other hymenoptera, which they mimic. The 

 following characterization of the family is quoted from the 

 learned author, to whom reference has just been made: 



" Proboscis usually well developed, but sometimes aborted; 

 palpi short and porrect, long and downcurved, or upturned; 

 frons rounded; antennae simple, ciliated, or bipectinate, usually 

 with short branches dilated at extremity in both sexes; tibiae 

 with the spurs short. Fore wing usually with the terminal area 

 broad; vein \a forming a fork with \b, \c absent; 5 from below 

 middle of discocellulars; 7 stalked with 8, 9. Hind wing small; 

 vein \a often absent; \c absent; 8 absent, rarely rudimentary 

 and not reaching costa; frenulum present; retinaculum bar- 

 shaped." Hampson, Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalcence, 

 Vol. I, p. 20. 



Eleven genera comprised within this family are recognized by 

 recent writers as holding place in the fauna of the United States 

 and Canada. Most of these are southern, and represent a 

 northern movement of the great complex of genera and species 

 referable to the family, which inhabits the hot lands of equa- 

 torial America. 



Genus COSMOSOMA Hubner 



This is a large genus, including at least eighty species, which 

 are found in Central and South America. Only one species is, 

 at present, known to occur within our faunal limits. 



(1) Cosmosoma auge Linnaeus, Plate XIII, Fig. I, $. 

 (The Scarlet-bodied Wasp-moth.) 



Syn. omphale Hubner; melitta Moschler. 



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