Lunar Hornet (Trochilium crabroniformis).
Another hornet-like moth, best distinguished from that just mentioned by the yellow collar behind the black head (Plate [154], Fig. 7 ♀). The male is rather smaller, but otherwise similar.
The caterpillar is yellowish white, with dark brownish head, and a blackish edged yellow plate on the first ring of the body. It feeds in stems of sallow, willow, and poplar. In late June and through July the moth is on the wing, and may occasionally be seen at rest on leaves or stems of sallow, etc.
The species, known also as bembeciformis, Hübner, is generally distributed throughout England, Wales, and Ireland; in Scotland its range extends into Perthshire.
Abroad it seems pretty much confined to Holland, Northern and Central Germany, Austria, and Bohemia.
Clear Underwing (Sciapteron tabaniformis).
This species is the Trochelium vespiforme of some British authors, and the Ægeria asiliformis of Stephens and others.
Another English name for it is the Dusky Clearwing, and this refers to the cloudy fore wings.
Stephens, writing of it in 1828, remarks: "Occasionally taken on poplars, near London, in June. I have obtained it from the neighbourhood of Bexley, and from Birchwood; but it is doubtless a rare species, and exists in few collections: of the male, I have hitherto seen but two specimens, one of which I possess." Both places mentioned by Stephens are in Kent, and one or two specimens of the species have since been reported from Ashford in the same county. The late Henry Doubleday took specimens at Epping, Essex. Colney Hatch Wood in Middlesex has also been given as a locality in the past; more recently two specimens have been noted from Chiswick. The example shown on Plate [154], Fig. 4, is of continental origin.