CHAPTER VI 



LEPIDOPTERA OK BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 



Order VI. Lepidoptera. 



Wings four ; body and wings covered with scales usually varie- 

 gate in colour, and on the body frequently more or less like 

 hair : nervures moderate in number, at the periphery of 

 one wing not exceeding fifteen, but little irregular ; cross- 

 nervules not more than four, there being usually only one or 

 two closed cells on each iving, occasionally none. Imago 

 with mouth incapable of biting, usually forming a long 

 coiled proboscis capable of protrusion. Metamorphosis great 

 and, abrupt ; the wings developed inside, the. body ; the larva 

 with large or moderate head and strong mandibles. Pupa 

 with the appendages usually adpressed and cemented to the 

 body so that it presents a more or less even, horny exterior, 

 occasionally varied by projections that are not the appendages 

 and that may make the form very irregular : in many 

 of the smaller forms the appendages are only imperfectly 

 cemented to the body. 



LEPIDOPTERA, or butterflies and moths, are so far as ornament is 

 concerned the highest of the Insect world. In respect of 

 intelligence the Order is inferior to the Hymenoptera, in the 

 mechanical adaptation of the parts of the body it is inferior to 

 Coleoptera, and in perfection of metamorphosis it is second to 

 Diptera. The mouth of Lepidoptera is quite peculiar ; the pro- 

 boscis the part of the apparatus for the prehension of food 

 is anatomically very different from the proboscis of the other 

 Insects that suck, and finds its nearest analogue in the extreme 

 elongation of the maxillae of certain Coleoptera, e.g. Nemognatha. 



