LEPIDOPTEKA. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In undertaking to furnish a history, so far as possible, of all 

 the British Lepidoptera, a long introduction is perhaps super- 

 fluous, but some preliminary observations are absolutely neces- 

 sary to enable the young student to clearly comprehend the 

 descriptions. 



Lepidoptera (singular Lepidopteron — IcpU = scale, pteron = 

 wing) are those insects which are clothed with scales, as 

 distinguished from those which have haiiy wings, or are 

 devoid of covering; and although some few moths will be 

 found to have the wings bare of scales, and others occur in 

 which the females have no wings at all, the scales will still be 

 found on heads, bodies, legs, and even on the margins of the 

 wings, when present. 



Insects of this order are never provided with jaws nor with 

 stings, and indeed have in the perfect state no effective means 

 of defence. 



They take food — which consists of the honey of flowers or 

 other sweet fluids — by means of a flexible proboscis or trunk, 

 which is really a long, hollow double tongue. This tongue 

 exists in the vast majority of species, and in some, as the 

 Sphingiua, is of great length, to enable them to extract honey 

 from the deepest tubular flowers ; while in others, notably 

 many of the Bombyses, it is exceedingly short or completely 

 atrophied, and these — many of them most active and power- 



A 



