LEPIDOPTERA. I/I 



which is to nourish her progeny. The colour is also very various, 

 and passes through all sorts of shades. At the moment they are 

 laid, many are covered with a gummy substance, insoluble in water, 

 which serves to stick them on the plant. 



In some species the mother lays her eggs on the trunks of trees, 

 and covers them with down or with the hairs which clothe her 

 abdomen, so as to preserve them from cold and damp. She may 

 also hide them entirely under a whitish foamy substance. Some do 

 not lay more than a hundred eggs ; others lay some thousands. 



To bring the history of the Lepidoptera to an end, it only remains 

 for us to give a sketch of their classification, and to point out some 

 species remarkable, either on account of their beauty or their utility. 



We see during the day butterflies flying in our gardens, in mea- 

 dows full of flowers, or in the alleys of woods. Towards evening, 

 at the sombre hour of twilight, the stroller is sometimes surprised to 

 see pass near him large moths, with a heavy and unequal flight ; or, 

 if we go into a garden on a beautiful calm summer's night, bearing a 

 a light, we see a crowd of moths flying from all parts towards it. 



It is on account of these different hours at which the Lepidoptera 

 show themselves, that naturalists for a long time divided them into 

 diurnal, crepuscular, and nocturnal. This division was simple, con- 

 venient, and seemed founded on Nature. Unfortunately, the night 

 fliers of the old authors do not all fly by night : some species, classed 

 by the old naturalists among the crepuscular, or nocturnal, show 

 themselves in the very middle of the day, seeking their food in the 

 hottest rays of the sun. In the regions near the poles they appear 

 during the day, and in other countries they are more or less friends 

 of the twilight. 



So as not to multiply methodical divisions, we will confine our- 

 selves to classing the Lepidoptera into two sections. 



The first section contains those which fly during the day, which 

 have club-shaped antennce, and which have, their Jour wings entirely 

 free, and standing perpendicularly * when the insect is at rest. They 

 are called Butterflies, or Rhopalocera. This section is divided into a 

 number of families, which comprise many genera. We will content 

 ourselves with calling the attention of the reader to some of the most 

 remarkable of these groups, and to those species which, either on 

 account of their beauty or abundance, strike, or ought to strike, the 

 attention of every one. 



In the family of the Papilionidi, we will mention the genera 



* There are exceptions to this. ED. 



