NATURE STUDY LESSONS. 39 



be unrolled by putting a pin in the center of the coil and 

 pulling gently. 



Butterflies, when , not flying, hold their wings straight 

 up over their backs, or nearly so, and they have thread- 

 like antennae, or feelers, with knobs at the tips. Most 

 skippers, when resting, hold their front wings up straight 

 and their hind wings flat ; but this is not alwa3'S true, as 

 some people used to think it was. They have slender an- 

 tennae, like the butterflies, but, in place of knobs, 

 the tips are pointed and curve back towards the head. 

 Some moths hold their wings flat when not flying, and 

 some place them over the body like the roof of a house. 

 They have many kinds of antennae, but none with knobs 

 or that curve backward at the tip. 



So, when making the lyCpidoptera pile, it will be inter- 

 esting and easy to make it in three parts, with the butter- 

 flies in one, the skippers in another, and the moths in a 

 third. There is a great deal more to be learned about them, 

 but we must hurry if we are to get our insects sorted into 

 seven piles before cold weather comes. After a pile has 

 been made, the insects in it should all be pinned — at least 

 one or two of each kind — and placed in a box by them- 

 selves. Then, next winter, we will study them some 

 more, and find how each group, or order, can be divided 

 into smaller groups, or families. 



In every lot of insects collected there will surely be some 

 flies, and often many kinds ; for besides the familiar black 

 house-fly, there are green flies and blue flies, and flies that 

 look like bees, and others that look like wasps. There 

 are tiny flies, so small one can scarcely see them, and big 

 ones, like the robber-flies, and some with slender, .strag- 

 gling legs, that one can scarcely touch without breaking 

 them off, like the crane-flies. 



All these flies, and the mosquitoes and midges, have 

 only two wings, and are called Diptera, or " two wings." 



