.40 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



[broad-hordered] , '^Desur. Magnitudo Bombylii. Corpus griBenm, 

 Abdomen cingulo nigro ; barba lateral! pone cingulum albida. 

 Alius barba nigra. Antennce nigrae." 



This complicates matters, for the character, "Abdomen 

 cingulo nigro y" applies better to the narrow-bordered (scabious) 

 species than to the broad-bordered (honeysuckle) species, in 

 which the belt is dark reddish rather than black. 



In the 12th edition of the ' Systema Naturae ' (1767), pp. 803, 

 804, Linne slightly modifies his description : " S. abdomine 

 barbato nigro ; fascia flavescente alis fenestratis margine nigro 

 atro-purpurascente." He gives a long string of references, 

 which we need not quote, and adds : '* ^. Sphinx tityus abdomine 

 barbato cingulo nigro. Syst. Nat. 10, p. 493, n. 24. Habitat in 

 Lonicera. Barba abdominis in medio alba est." We may dis- 

 regard the last two sentences, for, according to Linne's method, 

 they would be intended to apply to the species as a whole, and 

 not specially to "/3." 



Hence we may conclude : (1) the type of Linne's species was 

 the broad-bordered species, feeding on Lonicera, (2) In his 

 * Fauna Suecica ' he mixed it up with specimens of his S. tityus, 

 and added a character properly applicable to the latter. (3) In 

 the 12th edition of the ' Systema,' Linne, discovering that he had 

 mixed two forms, separated the second as " /S," distinguishing it 

 by the very character which, from those given, would at once 

 separate his Sphinx tityus as the narrow-bordered bee hawk, 

 feeding on scabious. 



Hence, I take it, the name bombyliformis should disappear 

 from our lists altogether, except as a synonym, primarily of 

 porcellus and secondarily of the bee hawks, which should stand 

 as Hemaris fuciformis, Linn, (broad), and Hemaris tityus, Linn. 

 (narrow), respectively. 



For the bee hawk-moths I prefer to use the generic name 

 Hemaris, Dalman, Vet. Akad. Handl. 1816, p. 207, with the 

 broad-bordered species as the type, regarding Sesia as more 

 correctly applicable to the smaller clear-wings. 



It is hardly worth while discussing the post-Linnean 

 synonymy, as, even if bombyliformis was an allowable name for 

 either species, it would become a mere synonym of one or the 

 other. 



THE NOMENCLATURE OF THE ''BEE HAWK-MOTHS." 



By Louis B. Prout, F.E.S. 



Twice within the last few months my attention has been 

 called to the confusion which results from the fact that both the 

 names fuciformis and bombyliformis have been by different authors 

 applied to each of our species of "bee-hawk"; and I find that 



