CHAPTER IX. 

 INSECTS BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. 



THE most gaily coloured of our insects are the Butter- 

 flies, Moths, and Hawkmoths ; they are also those 

 with which, in our tender years, we are most familiar 

 our experiments in entomology at that early period 

 of our studies being generally directed to the capture, 

 after an exciting chase, of every butterfly we see 

 sporting in the sunshine. How often on such occa- 

 sions, after having secured the coveted prize, have we 

 had to deplore the total loss of its beauty under the 

 incautious pressure of a finger and thumb ! It is only 

 at a more advanced stage of our entomological ex- 

 perience, however, that we come to learn the cause of 

 this early disappointment. We then find that the 

 wings of the majority of the insects in this order* are 

 clothed on both sides with a fine powder, every particle 

 of which, under the microscope, proves to be a very 

 elegant scale or feather, each provided with a minute 

 stem at its base, as if it were made to fit into a socket, 

 which, indeed, it really does before it is removed from 

 the surface to which it is at first attached. In butter- 

 flies, moths, and hawkmoths, with some exceptions, 

 thousands of these sockets may be found on each side 

 of the wings, and they are so arranged that the scales 

 that are planted in them lie in very regular rows, each 

 row overlapping a portion of the next, an arrangement 

 similar to that of tiles or slates in the roof of a building. 

 All the colours and beautiful markings on the wings 

 of these insects are entirely due to -the scales them- 

 selves, and if these are removed the socketed surface 



Order LEPIDOPTERA From the Greek lepzs, a scale, and 

 pteron, a wing. Wings four, all clothed with scales. 



