194 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



sheet over the turf of your garden in a warm summer 

 evening and set a lantern in the midst of it ; numer- 

 ous swarms of guests of all shapes and colors will im- 

 mediately appear upon it. 



But if we examine these insects which are so much 

 attracted hy the light, we find the greatest part of 

 them males. Hence, the celebrated and ingenious 

 Professor Oken thinks that the females of the noctur- 

 nal Lepidoptera may, perhaps, be provided by nature 

 with some luminous spots, visible only to their males, 

 but not to man. 



The Diurnal Lepidoptera. called Butterflies, are seen 

 flying only during the day time, and are distinguish- 

 ed from the preceding ones by having a knob at the 

 extremity of each antenn, as for example, the Asterias 

 butterfly, (Papilio Asterins.) Plate VI.. fig. 31. Of 

 these we shall speak again. 



Of Nocturnal Lepidoptera. 



The romantic imagination of Naturalists has often 

 taken from ancient mythology, the names of gods and 

 goddesses, or of fabulous heroes and heroines, with 

 which to distinguish the most splendid of the lepidop- 

 terous insects. Thus we have among them, an Apollo, 

 Mars. Cybele, Iris. Atropos, Ullyses. Ajax, Nestor. &c. 

 This was the case with the first Nocturnal Moth of 

 which I shall speak. 



