SCALE-WINGED INSECTS. 285 



they remain till spring, when the caterpillars are hatched 

 from them. Various expedients have been devised for 

 destroying the females as they go up the trees to lay 

 their eggs. The most effectual one is that adopted so 

 extensively in New Haven to save its noble elms. It is 

 a leaden trough placed around the trunk of the tree in 

 which there is some kind of oil. 



485. Professor Jaeger very playfully says of the habits 

 of the perfect insects of this order that, " in comparison 

 with the other orders of insects, they are well entitled to 

 the rank of nobility, for among them we find no impu- 

 dent beggars and spongers, as among the Flies ; no par- 

 asites, as among the wingless insects ; no working-class, 

 as among the Hymenopterous insects Bees, Wasps, and 

 Ants ; no musicians, as among the families of Crickets, 

 Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Cicadas ; but all of them 

 are aristocratic idlers, who, clothed with silver, gold, and 

 purple, and ornamented with ever-varying splendor, have 

 naught to do but seek their own pleasure, and charm 

 away their brief existence, fluttering from bough to 

 bough, and satiating themselves with the sweet nectar 

 of flowers." 



486. We divide the Lepidoptera into two sections 

 the Butterflies and the Moths. The Butterflies may usu- 

 ally be distinguished by the vertical position of their 

 wings when they are at rest, and by their having the an- 

 tenna3 slender, and club-shaped at the end. They are 

 diurnal in their habits, and they are therefore brilliant, 

 generally, in their colors. The under side of the wings 

 is as beautiful as the upper. The pupae of many of this 

 group have golden spots, from which the term chrysalis 

 was suggested, and also aurelia, which is a Latin word 

 of the same meaning with the former, which is Greek. 

 These terms ought strictly to be applied only to the pupae 

 of Butterflies, but they have come to be applied to pupae 

 of all kinds. 



487. The Butterflies are divided into five families, ac- 



