NOCTURNI 



13 



THE SESID^E 



17 The Red-Belted Clearwing (Sesi 



18. The Large Red-Belted Clearwing (Sesia Culiei- 

 formis). 



19. The Eed-Tipped Clearwing (Sesia Fortnicaf omits). 



20. The Fiery Clearwing (Sesia Chrysidtformis). 



21. The Six-Belted Clearwing (Sesia Ichneumoni- 

 /orata). 



22. The Yellow-Legged Clearwing (Sesia Cynipi- 

 formis). 



23. The Currant Clearwing (Sesia Tipuliformis}. 



24. The Orange-Tailed Clearwing (Sesia Andreni- 



formis). 

 25 The "Welsh Clearwing (Sesia Scoliaformis). 



26. The White-Barred Clearwing (SesinSpheyiformis). 



27. The Dusky Clearwing (Sesia Vespiformis). 



28. The Hornet Clearwing of the Osier (Sesia Bembe- 

 ciformis}. 



2i. The Hornot Clearwing of the Poplar (Sesia Api- 

 formis), 



THE next group of Lepidoptera we shall 

 divide into three families. The caterpillars 

 throughout the group are very much alike in 

 shape and colour, and are exactly alike in 

 their food and habits ; but the perfect insects 

 are very unlike so much so, indeed, that it 

 requires a good deal of confidence in our in- 

 structors to feel sure that they have done 

 right in placing them together. "We must, 

 however, never forget that Great Britain is a 

 very small part of the whole world, and of 

 course contains only a very few of the insects ; 

 so that although, when we look at a collection 

 of the insects of the whole world, we find that 

 each one is very like that which is placed 

 next to it, yet, when we turn to a collection 

 of only British insects, we find them so few in 

 number many missing that those insects 

 that stand side by side are often so different, 

 that we are apt to fancy that they have not 

 been classified correctly. 



The group of Moths now to be described 

 have caterpillars that feed on the solid wood 

 of trees, making mines and galleries in the 

 timber, and at last so weakening the tree 

 that it dies of the injury. Some are very 

 large white maggots, and were formerly eaten 

 by the Komans, and considered a great deli- 

 cacy. They were called Cossus, and hence 

 Mr. Newman, who first united this group of 

 Moths into one tribe, called them Cossites. 

 Some of the largest of these caterpillars live 

 for four or five years, devouring wood all the 

 time ; and you can scarcely find the trunk of 

 an old willow tree that is not completely 

 riddled by these voracious creatures ; some, 

 however, eat only the roots, and others only 



the pith, but they all follow their destructive 

 work quite out of sight, and are never to be 

 found eating leaves, like the beautiful cater- 

 pillars of the Hawk-Moths. Each caterpillar 

 changes to a chrysalis in the mine which it 

 has made, and is furnished at every segment 

 with a ring of little hooks, which enables 

 some of them to move up and down in their 

 galleries with almost as much ease as thf 

 caterpillars. It is a very curious sight to see 

 one of these chrysalises wriggle up and down 

 a reed, on the interior of which the caterpillar 

 fed. As we have already said, we shall 

 divide these Moths into three very different 

 families : the first of them we call Sesidce, or 

 Clearwings. 



Of all our British Moths, the Sesides are 

 the most elegant, graceful, and fairy-like. 

 Unlike almost all other Moths, they fly in 

 sunshine ; and nothing can exceed the grace 

 and beauty of their motions, as they hover 

 over a flower, or walk over its petals or leaves, 

 gently waving their transparent and sylph- 

 like wings Almost every character by which 

 we distinguish large divisions of insects is 

 subject to exceptions ; and although we have 

 said that Moths are nocturnal, we have here 

 a family of Moths that are truo lovers of sun- 

 shine : they constitute the exception to the 

 rule. The most remarkable character, how- 

 ever, that belongs to these Moths is this 

 they seem to have no similarity at all to other 

 Moths, but rather resemble gnats, and beos, 

 and wasps, and a variety of other insects. 

 Their antennas are rather long, and rather 

 thickest beyond the middle, and in the males 

 they are what is called slightly ciliated t ? iat 



