BUTTERFLIES 



PART I 

 INTRODUCTION 



In popular esteem the butterflies among the insects are 

 what the birds are among the higher animals — the most 

 attractive and beautiful members of the great group to 

 which they belong. They are primarily day fliers and are 

 remarkable for the delicacy and beauty of their membran- 

 ous wings, covered with myriads of tiny scales that overlap 

 one another like the shingles on a house and show an in- 

 finite variety of hue through the coloring of the scales and 

 their arrangement upon the translucent membrane run- 

 ning between the wing veins. It is this characteristic 

 structure of the wings that gives to the great order of 

 butterflies and moths its name Lepidoptera, meaning scale- 

 winged. 



In the general structure of the body, the butterflies re- 

 semble other insects. There are three chief divisions: 

 head, thorax, and abdomen. The head bears the principal 

 sense organs; the thorax, the organs of locomotion; and the 

 abdomen, the organs of reproduction. 



By examining a butterfly's head through a lens it is easy 

 to see the principal appendages which it bears. Projecting 

 forward from the middle of the top is a pair of long feelers 

 or antennae. Each of these consists of short joints which 



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