FEATHERED INSECTS 



(Lepidoptera) 



These are ijeculiarly the feathered fliers of the insect world, for their wings 

 and their bodies, too, are co\'ered with most remarkaljle one-celled feathers 

 or scales of gorgeous colors which make of some of them the most brilliant of 

 all living things. 



Just what these scales are for is not entirely clear, and will not be, jjerhaps, 

 until we understand the i)urpo.se of the gorgeous coloring itself. There is a 

 theory that these scales help to grip the air in flying. 



It is a curious coincidence that one of these gorgeously colored creatures 

 should furnish mankind with the material for his own most gaily colored 

 raiment. The silkworm is one of the very few domesticated insects, so to 

 sjjeak, of all the hundreds of thou.sands of insect species in existence, and a 

 hundred millions of dollars is jjaid every year for the delicate silk threads 

 unraveled from countless millions of cocoons which the silkworm larvfe 

 have laboriously' fashioned around themsehes. 



To many people, moths are known by what they leave behind — holes in the 

 winter woolens; and butterflies are to them, somehow, things of the sunlight 

 and the summertime. It is worth while to know that these great families 

 of butterflies and moths are not by any means divided equally, that for every 

 family of butterflies there are at least nine of the moths and that the butter- 

 flies form but a small proportion of the gaily colored insects of the fields. 



Perhaps it makes but little difference to the public, who call them all alike, 

 but it is as easy to tell a butterfly from a moth as it is to tell a lizard from a 

 snake, for all the butterflies have club-shaped feelers, or antennie, whereas 

 the moths do not, and any child of six can learn to tell the two a])art. 



No butterfly or moth in its winged .state can harm us or our ])lants. It has 

 no jaws, but kee])s itself alive by sucking nectar from the flowers or juices from 

 the fruits or other parts. Its other self, its larva, ho-never, can cause no end 

 of damage. One inconspicuous, browni.sh form, the codling-moth, no larger 

 than my thumb nail, costs ajijile growers about ten million dollars every year, 

 while the cabbage moth, the clothes moth, the cutworm and the dreaded 

 gi])sy-moth are only a few examples of a gigantic army of \ oracious larva* 

 against which man has lieen struggling e\er sinc-e he first l)egan to plant 

 seeds in the ground or set out trees for fruit. 



169 I 



