AND THEIR TltANSFORMATIONS. ;3;j 



Tlie family comprises only two Hritisli genera, it being equally contrary to nature to regard the slight 

 characters by which the smaller species are distinguished from each other, (such as the variation in the shape of 

 the fan-tail,) as of equal value with those which separate the two larger species from the rest. This has, 

 however, also been done by Mr. Newman in the Entomological Magazine, (vol. i. p. 73,) in an attempt to 

 illustrate his septenary system, by showing its applicability in the classification of insects, down to the genera 

 and species of the present family. Having, in the former volume of this work, especially investigated the distri- 

 bution and nomenclature of the genera of lepidopterous insects, it has become necessary in the present place to 

 notice Mr. Newman's arrangement, in its details. No one has hitherto done this, which may lead to an impres- 

 sion of the unquestionable, because unquestioned, truth of the arrangement, just as the quinary analysis of the 

 Lamellicorn beetles of Mac Lcay has been over and over .again assumed to be true, because no one competent 

 to the task has undertaken its revision. It would have been uncandid to an author of acknowledged reputation, 

 to have passed over his memoir on the present family without remark ; but at the same time I am compelled to 

 state my conviction, that Mr. Newman has entirely failed in his attein])t to jirovc the septenary system, by his 

 arrangement of these insects. It must be borne in mind, however, that this conviction, and the remarks I have 

 been compelled to make in its support, are quite independent of the question, whether Mr. Newman's system 

 be or be not that of nature. 



I regret that I am compelled, in adherence to the rigid law of priority, to reject Mr. Stephens' name for the 

 present family. Scopoli is the author who is entitled to the credit of having first separated these insects from 

 the mass of Linntean Sphingidte, namely, in 1777- Fabricius in all his works (except the last) united them as 

 aberrant species of Sosia ; which name Laspeyres in IHOl improperly confined to them alone, and his nomenclature 

 has been followed by the German and French entomologists up to the present day. Fabricius, however, in his last 

 work, adopted the present group, as first pro])osed by Scopoli ; but instead of using the name Trochilium, he 

 proposed that of ^geria, which Dr. Leach adojjted for the whole family ; but Mr. Stephens, when he separated 

 them into two genera, inappropriately employed the two precisely synonymous words for the two groups. On 

 account therefore of the priority of the name Trochilium, as well as because it is very applicable for the majority 

 of the family, from which in fact it was characterised, I propose to employ it in future for the family name, 

 by giving to it the ordinary family termination. 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATE VII. 



Insects. — Fig. !. Sphccia Bcmbcciformis. 15. Tlio Caterpillar 

 and Chrysalis. 

 " Fig. 2. Spliccia Apiformis. IG. The Caterpillar. 



*' Fig. 3. Trochilium Vcspiforme. 



** Fig. 4. Trochilium Chrysidiforme. 



Insects. — Fig. 8. Trochilium Philanthiforme. 



" Fig. S. Trochilium Tipuliforme. 17. The Caterpillar. 



*' Fig. 10. Trochilium Andrcnasforme. 



" Fig. 11. Trochilium Myopaeforme. 



*'■ Fig. 12. Trochilium Culiciforme. 



Fig. 5. Trochilium Sphegiforme. ; " Fig- 13. Trochilium Stomoxyforme. 



Fig. 6. Trochilium Cynipiforme. ' '' Fig. 14. Trochilium Fornjiciforme. 



" Fig. 7. Trochilium Ichncumoniforme. i Plants.— Fig. 18. Betula alba (common Birch). 



The whole of the insects in this plate are from specimens in the Britisii Museum, with the exception of T. Stomoxyforme and T. Andrenw- 

 foruie, from the cabinet of Mr. Stephens. The larva of S. Apiformis and S. Bembc-ciformis, are from Lewin's plate in the Transactions of the 

 Linnsean Society ; and the larva of T. Tipuliforme from Hiibner. H, N. H. 



F 



