LEPIDOPTERA. 623 



strength with the least material. Kirby and Spence say, 

 44 Maraldi calculated that the great angles were 109o 28 , and 

 the smaller ones 70 32 ; and Konig calculated that they ought 

 to be 109o 26 , and 70o 34 , to obtain the greatest strength with 

 any given amount of material.&quot; But subsequent examination 

 showed that the bees were right and Konig wrong. 



EIGHTH ORDER. LEPIDOPTERA. (Gr. henig, Upis, a scale; 

 rcreyov, pteron, a wing.) 



These insects, comprehending, perhaps, one-fourth or one-sixth 

 of the entire tribe, have a suctorial mouth and rudimentary man- 

 dibles. Their metamorphosis is complete. The beautiful Butter 

 flies are the representatives of this order, and also of all those 

 winged visitants that flit about our lamps during the evenings of 

 summer; the one are diurnal; the other nocturnal. They all 

 have four membranous wings, usually covered with minute scales ; 

 the mouth is suctorial, consisting of a tubular thread-like organ, 

 which, when not in use, is rolled into a compact spiral coil; 

 their bodies are soft and covered with hair; the feet are penta- 

 merous, (have the tarsi five-jointed ;) generally, they are hairy 

 and of equal length; though sometimes the front pair are so 

 small as to be of no use in walking. The Lepidoptera feed upon 

 the juice of flowers, but, in the perfect state, they sometimes 

 need none. They may be arranged into three great divisions : 

 (1) the Butterflies Proper, Papitionida, (Papilio,) which have 

 thread-like antennae and bear a knob, (Plate XV. fig. 13;) (2) 

 the Sphingidce, (Sphinx,) or the Hawk- Moths, which have the 

 antennae, thick in the middle, and at the tip often hooked; (3) 

 the Moths (in general) having the antennas somewhat naked, of 

 bristle form or else feathered on the sides. 



I. The Butterflies Proper include at least three hundred spe 

 cies, sometimes most gorgeously colored, of which large diurnal 

 ones are found in the United States. The Butterfly, P. iurnus, is 

 one of the most common species; in its markings and forms, re 

 sembling the P. machaon, or Swallow-tailed Butterfly of Europe. 

 (See Chart.) 



CABBAGE BUTTERFLIES, Pontia, (Gr. a sea-green surface,) 

 JBrassica, (Lat. cabbage.) These are common and destructive 

 in our gardens, (Plate XV. fig. 13.) The eggs are yellowish 

 and laid on the under side of cabbages, turnips and radishes; the 

 pale green worms come out in about a week, and attain their 

 full size of an inch and a half, in three weeks. 



The HAIR STREAKS, genus Thecla, derive their name from the 

 26 



