Lepidoptera Family Zyganida Moths
The remaining family of the Sphinges-the Zyganida-includes seven British species, three of which are known popularly as the Foresters and the others as the Burnets.
Their antenna are thickest beyond the middle, but do not terminate in a hook. Their wings are narrow and completely covered with scales.
These moths are very sluggish creatures, spending the greater part of their time at rest on the stems of low-growing plants. When they do fly, their flight is short and heavy, and their pretty wings glisten in the sunshine (for they are lovers of the sun), giving them the appearance of bees rather than of moths. On account of this natural sluggishness, they are exceedingly local, for they never move far from the spots where their food plants abound, and where they had previously spent the earlier stages of their existence. Thus we often come across a very limited piece of ground actually alive with them, and outside which not a single specimen is to be seen.
The larva, too, are sluggish creatures, with soft and plump cylindrical bodies and no horns. I will briefly describe three members of this family.