BRITISH BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 



CHAPTEK I. 



WHAT AKE BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS? 



THIS little volume treats, as its name implies, of 

 1 Butterflies and Moths.' Now, what do we mean by 

 ' Butterflies and Moths ' ? 



Butterflies and Moths together form one of the great 

 Orders of insects, tech- 

 nically termed Lepi- 

 doptera (from the two 

 Greek words Xevrt?, a 

 scale, and Trrepov, a 

 wing) of which the 

 most striking character 

 is that the wings are 

 clothed with scales. 

 These scales are im- 

 planted by their roots 

 into the colourless mem- 

 brane of the wing, and 

 overlap each other partially like the scales of fishes or 



Fig. 1. Portion of wing of moth (Mania 

 maura) partially denuded of scales. 



