LEPIDOPTERA. 



339 



as the preceding, and resembles it somewhat. It lacks, 

 however, the line of scales in the discal cell, and the body 

 is more nearly yellow. This color probably suggested the 

 name Bumblebee Hawk-moth, given to this insect nearly 

 one hundred years ago by Smith and Abbot. The larva 

 feeds on the bush honeysuckle {Diervilld) and the snow- 

 berry {SympJioricarpus). 



Superfamily SATURNIINA (Sa-tur-ni-i'na). 

 The Saturnians (Sa-tur'ni-ans). 



The group of families constituting the superfamily Sa- 

 turniina includes the largest of our native moths ; in fact 

 nearly all of our very large moths belong to it ; but it also 

 includes a considerable number of species of moderate size. 



These moths are most easily distinguished from other 

 moths by the structure 

 of the wings (Fig. 417). 

 Here, as with the Skip- 

 pers and the Butterflies, 

 the frenulum is lost (or 

 nearly so in the low- 

 est family), and its place 

 is taken by a greatly ex- 

 panded humeral angle 

 of the hind wing, which, 

 projecting under the 

 fore wing, insures the 

 acting together of the 

 two in flight without the 

 aid of a frenulum. This 

 losing of the frenulum 

 is also characteristic of 

 the Lasiocampidae. But 

 the Saturnians differ 

 from this family in that 

 vein V a arises midway between radius and cubitus, or is 



Fig. 417.— Wings of Citheronia regalis. 



