LEPIDOPTERA. 31f 
species of the order, but the minute species have been much neglected 
even by professed Lepidopterists ; whilst the principles of the classi- 
fication of the order, and the philosophical investigation of the cha- 
racters of the species in their different states, have been almost 
entirely neglected by the majority of writers; thus even in the most 
elaborate works hitherto published, such as the Weiner Verzeichniss 
and Dr. Horsfield’s Lepidoptera Javanica, we find so important a cha- 
racter as the neuration of the wings entirely overlooked ; and in the 
still more recent work of Boisduval, the neuration of the wings, and 
the preparatory states, are alene considered as of importance. Under 
such circumstances, therefore, it is not surprising that the natural 
arrangement of the entire order has still to be effected, and that La- 
treille’s observation, “ Lepidopterorum ordo entomologorum scopulus ; 
horum insectorum etenim instrumenta cibaria simplicia ; antennee pro 
sexu diverse; metamorphoses permultorum nobis ignote; idcirco 
nepotes nostri methodum optimam soli conficient ” (Genera Crust., &e. 
vol.iv. p. 186.), is as correct as when it was written, thirty years ago. 
Materials are, however, accumulating upon our hands, which will 
lighten the difficulties of the task by degrees; thus, whilst Sepp, 
Lyonnet, Harris, Hubner, Horsfield, Stoll, Lewin, Abbot, and others 
have investigated the metamorphoses of many species of Europe, Java, 
South America, New South Wales, and North America, Curtis and 
Horsfield have investigated the structure of various external parts 
of the imago, and Lyonnet, Herold, and Newport have most laboriously 
detailed the internal anatomy of the goat moth, cabbage butterfly, and 
privet hawk moth in all their stages. 
The imago state is characterised by several peculiarities not occur- 
ring in any of the other orders. The body is compact, and densely 
clothed with hairs or scales ; the head is free, not being received into 
a frontal prothoracic cavity, but attached by a narrow ligament ; it is 
furnished at the sides with a pair of large granulated eyes *, and its 
hinder part often with a pair of ocelli, which are generally hidden by 
the thick covering of hairs or scales: the antenna are inserted on the 
upper part of the head, and are generally long and multiarticulate, 
very variable in form, and often very complicated in the males; the 
* The number of facets in the eyes of these insects varies considerably : thus, in the 
silkworm moth there are 62363 in the goat moth 11,300; in the eye of one species 
of butterfly 17,325; or 34,650 in both eyes, according toa caleulation by M. Puget, 
quoted by Geoffroy. (Hist. abr. Ins. vol. i. p. 4.) 
x 4 
