182 ZOOLOGY. 
Fam. 9. Zygenide. This family is sometimes namea <Anthrocerida, 
but as the genus Zygena, Fabr., 1775, has priority of Anthrocera, Scopoli, 
1777, it must be preferred. The generic name Zygena, applied to a fish 
by Cuvier, in 1817, can have no influence against the former name. The 
members of this family resemble Sesea and 4geria in being diurnal fliers, 
and in some the antenne are terminated in a club. The wings are narrow, 
and have numerous nervures, and the feet and maxille are long. They 
are of small size and bright colors, and their movements are sluggish. 
Lygena filipendule (pl. 80, fig. 8) has the upper wings black, spotted 
with crimson, and the lower ones of the latter color margined with blue. 
Its expanse is an inch or more. Europe. 
Fam. 10. Trochiliide. The insects of this family are day-fliers, and bear 
some resemblance to Sesza (pl. 80, fig. 9), but the body is more slender, and 
the movements are more sluggish. Some of them are gaudily colored, and 
have naked wings, which, with their form, give them a general resemblance 
to Hymenoptera and Diptera, whence have been derived the trivial names 
of Sphecia apiformis, Trochilium vespiforme, sphegiforme, culiciforme, and 
many similar ones. The larvee bore under the bark and in the wood of 
trees, which they sometimes damage, as in the case of the American Egeria 
eaetvosa, Which destroys peach trees by attacking them below the surface 
of the ground. In this species the wings are transparent in the male alone. 
A closely allied, but smaller species (Zrochiliwm cerasi), causes rough 
excrescences upon the branches of cherry trees in the United States. 
Fam. 11. Sphingide, (pl. 80, figs. 10-21). These have a robust hairy 
body, the abdomen conical, the antennee thickened towards the end, and 
prismatic ; the rostrum is in some cases longer than the body, and the wings 
are narrow and strong, with the posterior pair small. Their flight is rapid 
and well sustained, resembling that of birds; and as the common words 
bird and fish are applied in a general and not in a technical sense, the 
common name of these nocturnal butterflies is hwmming-birds. The species 
fly from flower to flower, in the dusk of evening, balancing themselves on 
the wing in front of a flower, and without alighting, inserting their rostrum 
and sucking the honey. A similar mode of taking food, and an equally 
rapid flight, being subsequently observed in the class more generally known 
-as birds or fowls, the term hwmmng-bird was extended to the genus Z7o- 
chilus among feathered vertebrate animals. The larvee have sixteen feet, 
and often a curved horn near the posterior extremity. They often raise up 
the anterior part of the body, giving somewhat the appearance of the 
Egyptian sphinx, which has become the name of one of the genera. The 
Jarvee known as the tobacco-worm, which eat the leaves of growing tobacco, 
are those of Sphinx. The imago is often found about the flowers of Datwra 
stramonium (or jimson weed). The posterior wings have a projection which 
passes through a ring upon the anterior ones, tending to keep the two 
together. 
Oherocampa (Ch. neriz, fig. 21) is remarkable for the structure of the 
larva, the head and anterior part of the body being retractile. As in 
Macroglossa, the cocoon is placed upon the ground. Dedephila (D. euphor- 
336 
