The head of this species is yellow, its thorax brown with a large yellow patch on each side, its abdomen yellow with two brown belts, and its legs reddish orange. The front wings are transparent, with brown costæ, and all the wings are margined with brown.
The caterpillar, when full fed, makes a cocoon with silk and the chips of wood that it has bitten off; and in this undergoes its metamorphoses. It is fully grown in April, and the moth flies from the end of May to the end of July.
There is another 'Hornet Clearwing,' the larva of which feeds on the stems of osiers. It may be distinguished from the species just described by a yellow 'collar' between the head and thorax, both of which are blackish.
The Currant Clearwing (Sesia Tipuliformis)
This is by far the commonest of all the Clearwings, and only too well known to those who grow currants. Examine the shoots of Ribes rubrum (red currant) and R. nigrum (black currant), especially those that present a withered or half-withered appearance, and you will almost certainly meet with signs of the presence of this intruder. Little wriggling larvæ occupy the pithless stems throughout the winter and spring. These are full grown in April, and in June the pretty little moth emerges through a hole in the side of a shoot, leaving the empty pupa case within its former home.
The fore wings of this moth have black margins, and a black transverse bar beyond the middle. The body is black, with three pale yellow belts, and black tufts of hair at the tip.