SPHING1DES. 345 



There are no types mentioned in Genera Tnsectorum, and Durrant 

 considers the types those of 1775 {supra). The latter also adds: 

 "The only larvae that Fabricius knew, in 1775, were those of 

 stellatarum and piicipormis, and these, therefore, were the only really 

 potential types of the genus." Fabricius, however, did not specify 

 either of these species as type. That Fabricius himself had no 

 idea at this date of the heterogeneous nature of his Sesia, or of 

 separating its various heterotypical parts, is evident, for, in the 

 Mantissa, ten years later, he includes (pp. 98 — 101) a still more mixed 

 assemblage. Thus we note : 



Sesia. Palpi duo reflexi. Lingua exserta truncata. Antennae cylindricae — 

 Tantalus, ixion, melas, hylas, pad us, stellatarum, brunnus, octomaculata, marica, 

 thysbe, piicipormis, apipormis, sphegipormis, asilipormis, haemorrhoidalis, culici- 

 formis, tenthredinipormis , tipulipormis, ichneamonipormis , vespipormis. 



Fabricius thus maintained Sesia as a hopelessly heterotypical 

 group, ten years after Scopoli had separated the Sphingid and 

 Trochiliid sections ; indeed, he did so until 1807, when he retained 

 the Macroglossid section in Sesia* and renamed the Trochiliid 

 section Algeria. In 1779, Leske cited ( Anpangsgriinde der Naturge- 

 schichte, p. 458) Sphinx stellatarum and S. piicipormis as examples 

 of Sphinx, Fam. C, L'mn.=Sesia, Fab.; whilst in 1797, Cuvier (Tab/. 

 Elem., etc., p. 592) cites euphorbUe and atropos as examples of Sphinx, 

 and stellatarum as an example of Sesia f . Whether the action of Cuvier 

 constituted a restriction of the genus Sesia to stellatarum, as appears to 

 be the case to us, must be argued by synonymists. The general applica- 

 tion of the name Sesia to the true " clearwings" depends upon Laspeyres, 

 who, in 1801, published his excellent monograph Sesiae Europaeae, 

 and who points out [Joe. cit., p. 1) that Fabricius gives the same 

 characters, which he described in Syst. Entomo/ogiae, in the Man- 

 tissa, ii., p. 98, and in Entom. Systematica, hi., pt. 1, p. 379, but 

 that he adds " palpi duo," and in diagnosing the antennae, the words 

 " extrorsum crassiores " are omitted. He then writes : " Licet serius, 

 Fabricio quoque Scopoli in ' Introductione ad historiam naturalem,' 

 Pragae, 1777, p. 414, genus novum Trochilium ut hisce insectis 

 locus certus daretur, proposuit/ Huic generi, a nemine tamen 

 adhuc recepto, tertio in gente prima, tribus sextae, characteres 

 sequentes adscripsit : 



'Alae pellucidae. Abdomen apice sapius barbatum. Larva pilis albis, 

 exiguis, pubescens. Pupa folliculata.' 



Summo autem jure ingeniosus, neodum pro mentis laudatus 

 Scopoli hasce Sesias Fabricianas ' stellatarum, bombyliformem et 

 fucipormem ' a genere suo ' Trochilium ' removat, novum iis genus 

 constituens, cui nomen Macroglossum (/za/cpoc, longus, et 

 y\oj<7(7tt, lingua) dedit. Characteres generici Fabriciani, praesertim 

 secundarii, mihi non omnino satisfecere, quapropter novos stabilivi, 



* In his Philos. Eat. (1778), in a list of commendable generic names, because 

 conveying some suggestions (etymologically) of the characters of the species 

 contained, Fabricius includes Sesia, which he correctly translates "tinea?* i.e., a 

 clothes-moth (Greek 2//c)- One wonders how this name can be applied as a 

 correctly suggestive generic name to either the Sphingid or Trochiliid clearwings 

 included by him in the genus (Prout) . 



t If it be held, as I consider to be the case, that Cuvier here fixed the type of 

 Sesia, Fab., as stellatarum, then Macroglossum, Scop., falls before Sesia, Fab. (Prout). 



