MONOGRAPHTA ^GERTARUM ANGLIC. /I 



even here the clifFerences are so decidedly marked, that, as I 

 have ah'eady stated,'' I think even this approach, obvious as it 

 is, ought to be considered a relation of analogy rather than of 

 affinity. The perfect insects, it is true, in both families, fly 

 in the hottest sunshine, — live on the nectar of flowers, over 

 which they hover, spreading their equally fan-like tails, and 

 humming with their equally transparent wings ; yet the Sesio', 

 like swallows, are ever on the wing : with porrected trunk 

 they rifle the nectary of a flower without even attempting to 

 settle. The j^gerics, on the contrary, must always settle 

 before they can even unroll their trunk. The Sesice prefer 

 Didynamious, — the JEgerice, Syngenesious, or Umbelliferous 

 flowers ; but, from habit, (to revert, as we ought, to metamor- 

 phosis,) we find the Sesia; are produced from conspicuous 

 highly-coloured larva, which have invariably their penultimate 

 segment enlarged, and bearing a hard recurved horn ; which 

 have six corneous and pointed, and ten fleshy and strongly 

 prehensile feet ; which feed on leaves in the autumn, and, 

 burying themselves in the earth, change, without a web, into 

 perfectly smooth and motionless pupae; and remain in that 

 state through the winter, and until the following summer. The 

 ^gerice are produced from almost colourless maggots, which 

 have the penultimate segment diminished, and without any 

 horn; which have six corneous and pointed, and ten wart- 

 like and almost useless feet ; which feed in the interior of 

 the trunks of trees, throughout the winter and spring, and 

 then, spinning a cocoon among their food, change into re- 

 markably rough and vivacious pupae, which, in ten or twelve 

 days, produce perfect insects. Here, then, is an approach, 

 too decided to escape the notice of even a tyro, and sufficiently 

 close to have been acknowledged by all entomological writers, 

 as one of affinity, yet totally unsupported by any intrinsic cha- 

 racters, whether of larva, pupa, or even of imago ; ' for, on a 

 minute investigation, we shall find that here, too, all trace of 

 similarity is lost. 



Excepting in the prior states of larva and pupa, there is but 

 little connexion to be found between the ^geriidce and the 



^ Sphinx Vespiformis, p. 42. 



' It should be remarked that the Sesiidce have the biarticulate palpi of a 

 Sphinx, — the jEgeriida, the triarticulate palpi of a Phalcena. The neurations of 

 the wings, also, evince a decided distinction. 



