HEMARIN^E. 503 



resemblance to some of the species of the true clearwings, these 

 members of two quite distinct superfamilies were more or less 

 united for over 150 years. Although both belong to flat-egged 

 stirpes, yet, in the egg, larval, pupal and imaginal characters, 

 there is really no close connection between the Hemarids and the 

 ^Egeriids, and one suspects that the systematists of the younger 

 school will no longer blindly follow the incongruous groupings of 

 Linne and Fabricius as have most of our British lepidopterists, even 

 those who have published the most recent work on the subject. 



The Hemarid egg is typically Sphingid, of the flat type, smooth, 

 green, and laid on the leaves of the foodplant. Compared with 

 the egg of Sesia (stellatarum), this is larger, more oval, i.c, less 

 circular in outline, possibly the smaller size of the latter is a 

 specialisation due to its position among the flower-buds of Galium, 

 which in their minutest forms it has to resemble. The egg stage 

 in those species of which we have information is somewhat short, 

 both in the Palaearctic and Nearctic species. Fischer describes the 

 eggs of Hemaris tenuis (Can. Ent., xvi., p. 143) as small, round 

 and green, and states that the egg period lasts about 10 days. 

 Smyth, however, states (Ent. News, xi., p. 584) that eggs of this 

 species laid June 1st, 1900, hatched on the evening of June 6th. 



The Hemarid larva has a very distinct facies, readily seen 

 by examination of the figures of the larvae of H. fuciformis and 

 H. tityus (Buckler, Lai'vae, &c, ii., pi. xxvi., figs. 3 — 3$, 4 — 4a) and 

 of that of Cochrania croatica* (Milliere, Icon., pi. 141, fig. 79). The 

 superficial differences between these and the Sesiid larva, as illus- 

 trated b)' Sesia (stellatarum) (vide Buckler, Larvae, &c, ii., pi. 

 xxvi., figs. 2 — 2b), are very evident. The larva is characteristically 

 Sphingid, with well-developed caudal horn, cleft at apex and carry- 

 ing two stout setae, the horn covered with minute bifid bristles. 

 The tubercles i, ii, iii, iv and the accessory prespiracular are all 

 distinct, and each of them carries a single deeply bifid seta, those 

 on i and ii being on a common base on the meso- and metathorax. 

 The skin is also covered, after the first moult, with a clothing of small 

 bifid hairs, which becomes less prominent as the larva increases in 

 age. The bifid character of the primary hairs appears to attain its 

 highest development in this group, judged by the British species, 

 the only other larvae that approach them in this respect being 

 those of the Sesiids, but, although in these they are more forked 

 than is normal, they are far less so than in the Hemarids. 



Seasonal dimorphism appears to be exhibited in the larvae of 

 some American species. The autumnal imagines of He maris tenuis 

 oviposit in August, and the larvae are fullgrown by the end of 

 September. Fischer observes (Can. Ent., xvi., p. 143) that, whereas 

 the larvae of the early summer brood are greenish-white in tint, 

 those of the later brood vary considerably from reddish-brown with 

 a slight purple tinge to the hue of the spring larvae. Holland, how- 

 ever, states (loc. cit., xviii., p. 101) that a part of each brood is light 



* This species is placed in Macroglossum with stellatarum by Staudinger 

 and others. It is certainly a Hemarid, in most of its characters agreeing almost 

 exactly with H. fuciformis and H. tityus. Its thick, smooth scaling, in which it 

 differs so greatly from these species, and its pupal peculiarities lead us to place it in 

 a separate genus and for that purpose we suggest the name Cochrania. 



