CHAPTER VI 



LEPIDOPTERA 01! BUTTERFLIES AND ]\rOTHS 



Order VI. Lepidoptera. 



Winffs four ; body <in.d wings covered, tvith scales usually varie- 

 ijaie in colour, and on the hody frequently more or less like 

 /hair : nervicres moderate in number, at the 'periphery of 

 one wing not exceeding fifteen, hut little irregidar ; cross- 

 nenndes not more than four, there heing usually only one or 

 two closed cells on ea.ch wing, occasionally no7ie. Imago 

 with, mouth incapable of biting, usually forming a long 

 coiled 2>'>'<>boscis capahle of protrusion. Metamorphosis greai 

 and. abrupt ; tlie ivings develojwd inside the body ; the larva 

 with large or moderate head and strong mandibles. Pupa 

 with, the app)endages usually adjyressed and cemented to tlie 

 hody so that it presents a more or less even, horny exterior, 

 oceasionaUy varied by projections that are not the appendages 

 and tha,t may make the form very irregular: in mamy 

 of the s)naller forms the cq^pendages are only imperfectly 

 cemented, to the body. 



Lepidopteua, or Imtterflies and moths, are so for as ornament is 

 concerned the highest of the Insect world. In respect of 

 intelligence the Order is inferior to the Hymenoptera, in the 

 mechanical adaptation of the parts of the body it is inferior to 

 Coleoptera, and in perfection of metamorphosis it is second to 

 Diptera. Tlie mouth of Lepidoptera is (juite peculiar : the pro- 

 boscis — the part of the apparatus for the prehension of food — 

 is anatomically very different from the proboscis of the other 

 Insects that suck, and finds its nearest analogue in the extreme 

 elongation of the maxillae of certain Coleoptera, e.g. Nemognatha. 



