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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The order Lepidoptera comprises many species of great importance 

 in effecting the process of fertilization. Their large wings are well 

 adapted for rapid flight from flower to flower, and their long proboscis 

 enables them to reach the honey even when the nectary lies at the bot- 

 tom of a very long and narrow corolla-tube. 



The position assumed by the butterflies when engaged in abstract- 

 ing the honey deserves notice. The wings, which during flight flutter 



to and fro with a rapid motion, are folded 

 together perpendicularly over the body, in 

 which position they are maintained so long 

 as the insect remains poised on the flower 

 (Fig. 1). The butterfly is thus enabled 

 more readily to escape detection by its 

 many enemies (e. g., birds) than if, when 

 resting, its brilliant wings were outspread. 

 The under surface of the wings is usually 

 of a much less striking color than the up- 

 per, and consequently does not prove so 

 attractive. It even happens in many in- 

 stances that butterflies only visit such flow- 

 ers as are of the same color as their own 

 wings, this precaution, of course, rendering 

 detection extremely difficult. Many blue 

 butterflies show a marked preference for 

 blue meadow-flowers, while in the Alps the 

 scarlet lilies and many of the orange-colored 

 Composites are visited almost exclusively by 

 butterflies of like hue. The moths, while 

 extracting honey, do not assume a position similar to that of the but- 

 terflies, but hover over the flowers, their wings rapidly vibrating mean- 

 while. 



The butterflies are excellent honey-hunters, because, as already said, 

 their proboscis is very highly developed. It arises from the head mid- 

 way between the eyes (A, Fig. 2), and frequently exceeds the entire 

 body of the insect in length. When not in use, it is kept coiled up 

 like a watch-spring (I, II), but can be uncoiled at will, and thrust 

 deep down into the nectary of a flower. The proboscis is hollow, and 

 the honey is sucked up by the extreme tip. 



In the butterfly the proboscis is the only part of the mouth that is 

 fully developed. In many insects the mouth is very complicated in 

 structure ; but in the butterfly a number of the parts are almost en- 

 tirely suppressed. The labial palpi (I, II, III), however, are usually 

 pretty well marked. They are long and narrow, and are densely cov- 

 ered with hairs. To these hairs the pollen adheres, while the butterfly 

 is engaged in sucking the honey, and by them it is carried to the stigma 

 of the next flower the insect enters. 



Fig. 1. A Butterfly (Hipparchia 

 Janira) at rest on a cluster of 

 flowers ; natural size. 



