The Emperor Moth. 



583 



of oeing naked they are covered by close-sefc scales of 

 the most delicate texture and most brilliant colours. The 

 mouth is furnished with a spiral trunk or tongue, by 

 which nectar is sucked from the flowers ; but in other 

 respects it only differs from the mouths of the masticating 

 mandibulated orders in the smallness of its parts. The 

 antennae vary in the different kinds : but those of all the 

 diurnal lepidoptera, or butterflies, are terminated by a 

 small inflation or knob ; while those of the nocturnal 

 species, or moths, taper to a point, and are often feathery, 

 or comb-shaped. The transformations of the species 

 belonging to this order are all complete. 



Over the larvae of this order the ichneumons reign 

 with undisputed sway; attacking all indiscriminately, 

 from the minute insect that forms its labyrinth within 

 the thickness of a leaf, to the giant caterpillar of the 

 hawk moth. The most useful of all, however, the silk- 

 worm, appears, at least with us, to be exempted from this 

 scourge. De Geer, out of fifteen larvee that were mining 

 between the two cuticles of a rose-leaf, found that four- 

 teen were destroyed by one of these insects. 



THE EMPEROR MOTH WITH ITS CHRYSALIS 

 AND CATEEPILLAR 



THE larva of all the lepidoptera is a Caterpillar composed 

 of twelve ring-like segments, exclusive of the head, which 

 is harder than the other parts, and always of a deeper 



