The Butterfly and Moth Family 63 



words which is made of hymen, meaning a skin, 

 and pteron, a wing, skin-winged insects. These 

 are the bees, wasps, ants and saw-flies. The bodies 

 of the butterflies and moths are soft, while those 

 of the bees, wasps and ants are hard and more like 

 armor. 



The butterflies' wings are very big compared 

 to the hymenoptera and their mouths are especi- 

 ally made for them, a style of their own, what 

 natiH'alists would call " highly specialized." 



The young butterflies are worm-like babies 

 (larvEe) and all these things, according to natural- 

 ists, go to show that our gaudily dressed idle but- 

 terflies do not move in the same circle of high- 

 brows as do the bees and ants, that they are not of as 

 good a family. Their legs are little used, the arms 

 or fore-legs of some butterflies being little more 

 than ornaments or decorations to their body and 

 almost as useless as the buttons on a man's coat 

 sleeve or at the back of his frock coat. 



Our lepidoptera, our moths and butterflies, are 

 essentially airmen and not hikers; even with a big 

 handicap in their favor, the laziest ant would leave 

 them far behind on a hike. 



When you go into the business of caterpillar 



