THE BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS-ORDER LEPI- 

 DOPTERA. 



These are also known as the Scale-winged Insects, and may 

 be briefly diagnosed as follows : — 



Haustellate insects, imbibing their food through a haustellum 

 or proboscis ; wings four, clothed with scales ; transformations 

 complete ; pupa inactive, without detached cases for the sepa- 

 rate organs (except occasionally for the proboscis). Plant 

 feeders in all their stages. 



THE BUTTERFLIES -LEPIDOPTERA RHOPALOCERA. 



Flight diurnal, rarely, in certain tropical genera, crepuscular ; 

 antennas long, more or less thickened at the extremity, and 

 often knobbed, sometimes hooked beyond the knob ; front 

 legs often imperfectly developed, especially in the males; wings 

 without a connecting bristle, or frenulum; pupa rarely enclosed 

 in a cocoon. 



Before proceeding to consider the various families and 

 genera of Butterflies, we will briefly outline some of the more 

 important of the various systems of classification which have 

 been proposed, referring to the Introduction for all other 

 necessary general information respecting Lepidoptera. 



Although many writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth 



