CHAPTER XIX. 

 THE BUTTERFLY AND OTHER SCALY- WINGED INSECTS. 



WE will select for study one of our largest and most com- 

 mon butterflies, the yellow and black swallow-tail (Papilio 

 Turnus, Fig. 126). It may be found flying about lilacs, 

 etc., from the first of June until midsummer. 



We shall see in this, as in most butterflies, how large the 

 wings are in proportion to the body, and that they are so 

 thickly covered with microscopic scales as to be opaque, 

 Avhile the body is also covered with fine slender scales like 

 hairs. We shall see, also, that the form of the body is more 

 or less spindle-shaped, well adapted for flying rapidly 

 through the air. The head is small, not wider than the 

 mid-body, and the hind body is narrower than the mid- 

 body, and tapers to a rounded point. 



Now, looking at the head, which in front and above is 

 thickly covered with hairs, we notice the 

 large compound eyes, and from between them 

 arise the antennas. These are very slender, 

 and end in a knob. There is in many but- 

 terflies a naked space on the under side of 

 the knob, in which are minute pits, which 

 are organs either of hearing or smell. There 

 is but a single pair of mouth-feelers (palpi) in 

 the butterflies, though two pairs exist in many 

 moths. These are the palpi of the under-lip, 

 FIG. 127. side- which are held up in front of the face. Be- 



view of head of , , . , . , 



a butterfly (En- tween them is the tongue, which is a long 



- slender black tube, which at rest is coiled up 

 like a watch-spring between the feelers. If 

 one will watch a butterfly at a flower it may be seen unroll- 

 ing and probing the bottom of the corolla. 



