crepuscular i a

[Lat. crepuscul ( um )= the twilight, and pl. adj. suff. -aria.] Entom.: A tribe of lepidopterous insects, including those called Sphinxes or Hawkmoths. They are twilight flyers, as distinguished from Diurna, which, as the name implies, fly during the day, and Nocturn a, which fly by night. The antenne of the Crepuscular i a taper to the end, where they have a club which is pointed at the apex instead of the oval club of the Diurna (Butterflies) or the filiform antennse of the Nocturn a (Moths). The larvæ have sixteen legs, and some of them hairs on the back. Stainton calls the Crepuscular i a of Latreille Sphingina, and divides them into four families, Zygenide, Sphingide, Sesiide, and Egeriide (q. v). cre-pus-cu-line, a . [Lat. crepuscul (um), and Eng., ., suff.-ine. In Fr. crépusculin , m., crépus culine , f.] The same as CREPUSCULAR and CREPUSCULOUS (q. v.). "He has made apertures to take in more or le light, as the observer pleases, by opening and shutting like the eye, the better to fit gla es to crepusculine observations." -Sprat: Hist. of the R. S., p. 814. crê-pŭs'-cu-lous, a . [Eng. crepuscul(e); -ous.] 1. Lit .: Pertaining to the twilight; crepuscular. 2. Fig .: Obscure, not clear or distinct. "The beginnings of philosophy were in a crepusculous obscurity; and it's yet scarce past the dawn." Glanvill : Vanity of Dogmatizing , ch. 19. *cresce, *cresyn, *crees, v.i. [Lat. cresco .] To grow, to multiply. "He bad hem cresce and multiply."- Gower, iii. 276. *crěs'-çençe, s. [Lat. crescens, pr. par. of cresco =to grow, to increase.] Increase, increasing. "To these adverse, the lunar sects di ent, With convolution of opposed bent; From west to east by equal influence tend, And toward the moon's attractive crescence bend." Brookes: Universal Beauty , bk. iii. crescendo (pron. çrě-shěn'-dō), adv . [Ital.] Music : Increasing; a gradual increase in the force of sound. Expre ed by the sign cres . The sign was first employed in England by Matthew Locke, in 1676. ( Stainer & Barrett .)