They appear mostly in large numbers at their special localities, swarming about flowers, which they suck, fore instance Scabious, Thistles, Eryngium, etc., their flight being slow and straight on.

Like all insects protected by the body-juices, they are extremely tenacious of life, enduring considerable wounds as well as resisting strong poison for some time (cyanide of potassium).

They conceal themselves in no way, mostly resting conspicuously on stalks or sprigs, hardly taking to the wing when touched, so that one can often pick them off by the long antennae.

The main locality for the genus are the Mediterranean coast districts, of Europe as well as of the Atlas countries and the Levant, where the Zygaenae occur in a great abundance of forms, which partly intergrade and are found in immense numbers of specimens.

The Zygaenae are best killed by injection of some strong tobacco juice With the help of the hollow needle of a morphia syringe.As in all protected Lepidoptera the specifically distinct forms are without exception very common at their localities, the commercial value depending solely on the accessibleness of these places.

The number of species is largest in South Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor, thence decreasing rapidly in all directions.