SCALE- WINGED INSECTS. 281 



What of the kidnapping Ants ? What are the peculiarities of the 

 Melliferous division of the Aculeata ? What is said of the solitary 

 Bees ? What of the social Bees ? What of the hive Bees ? What 

 of their swarming ? 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



SCALE-WINGED INSECTS. 



477. THE insects of the order Lepidoptera, or Scale- 

 winged Insects, are characterized by the downy cover- 

 ing of the wings, which is made up of a multitude of 

 feather-scales. The number of these scales on the wings 

 of the Silkworm Moth has been estimated at 400,000. 

 The silvery dust that you have on your fingers when 

 you touch a common Miller is a multitude of these 

 scales. Each particle of that dust under the microscope 

 appears a scale, with regular lines extending from its 

 stem to its edge at the other end. When this scaly 

 covering is rubbed off from the wing of one of these in- 

 sects, the bare membrane which is left is seen to corre- 

 spond with that of the wings of other insects. In some 

 cases the scales are arranged with perfect regularity, 

 398. The shapes of them vary much in the different 

 species, and there is often quite a variety in the same 

 species in different portions of the wing, the long ones 

 making the fringe at the edge. That you may have a 

 correct idea of their general shape, I give, in Fig. 218. 



Fig. 218. Feather Scales of the Goat-moth- 



