LEPIDOPTERA. 



165 



The Perfect Insect. 



Who does not admire the extraordmary splendour, the vivacity, 

 the prodigious variety of colours of these brilliant inhabitants of the 

 air ? Some amateurs have devoted to the purchase of certain butter- 

 flies large sums of money. " Diamonds," says Reaumur on the 

 >5ubject, " have perhaps beauties no more real than those of a butter- 

 fly's wings ; but they have a beauty which is more acknowledged by 

 the world in general, and which is more recognised in commerce." 





y V V 



Fig 133. — Different forms of the scales of Butterflies, after Reaumur. 



The essential character of butterflies and moths makes them very 

 easily recognisable among all other insects. All have four wings, 

 which are covered with scales, that communicate to them the brilliant 

 colours with which they are decorated. It is these scales which 

 adhere to the fingers when we seize one of these charming creatures. 

 For a long time this dust was thought to be formed of very small 

 feathers, but Reaumur showed that it is composed of little scales. 

 Their form varies singularly, as we may see in Fig. 133, borrowed 

 from the Memoirs of Reaumur,* which represents the different forms 

 of the scales which cover the wings of Lepidoptera. M. Bernard 



* Tome i., planche 7, Figs, i a 23. 



