ORDER XIV. LEPIDOPTERA. 



Butterflies offer the best illustrations for the school- 

 room of the complex phenomenon of indirect meta- 

 morphosis. They are preferable to the Coleoptera, 

 because the larval stage in the latter group is usually 

 passed underground. They afford better examples 

 than can be found among Hymenoptera and Diptera, 

 because, as a rule, they are larger, and scholars can 

 observe more easily the different stages, — egg, 

 larva, pupa, and imago. They can also see some of 

 those processes by which the crawling and biting 

 caterpillar adapts itself to the life of a flying and suck- 

 ing insect. These lessons are ahvays interesting, but 

 they might be made far more instructive than they 

 often are if they were taken in a rational and natural 

 order after the lessons on simple insects. These pass 

 through a simple or direct metamorphosis, and when 

 this has been comprehended by the class, the mean- 

 ing of such complex life-histories as are presented in 

 Lepidoptera become more intelligible. Happily the 

 time is not distant when the sublime order in the evo- 

 lution of all things in the universe will be recognized 

 and adopted by teachers in planning their courses 

 of study. When this time comes, lessons in natural 

 history will not only be more interesting, but more 

 valuable as means of mental training, since the mind 



185 



