46 LEPIDOPTER^E. 



habitation, for the purpose of augmenting the colony by the addi- 

 tion of their offspring. At first a certain number of larvse stand 

 guard at the entrance of this cell ; but the abdomen of the cap 

 tive female acquires so great a volume that she cannot pass the 

 entrance of the cell, which the larvse are even obliged to enlarge 

 The same larvse are careful to lodge in a particular cell the eggs 

 she lays and provide food for them. There is a species of ter- 

 mites, called lucifvgus, which is multiplied to such a degree in 

 the workshops and store-houses, in the dock-yard at Rochefort, 

 as to cause serious damage. 



"When they find their way," says Kirhy, "into houses or warehouses, 

 nothing less hard than metal or glass escapes their ravages. Their favourite 

 food, however, is wood, and so infinite is the multitude of assailants, and 

 such the excellence of their tools, that all the timber-work of a spacious 

 apartment is often destroyed by them in a night. Outwardly every thing 

 appears as if untouched ; for ther.e wary depredators and this is what con- 

 stitutes the greatest singularity in their history carry on all their opera- 

 tions by sap or mine, destroying first the inside of solid substances, and 

 scarcely ever attacking the outside, until first they have concealed it and 

 their operations with a coat of clay." 



It is related that "an engineer having returned from surveying the 

 country, left his trunk on a table : the next morning he found not only all 

 his clothes destroyed by the white ants or cutters, but his papers also, and 

 the latter in such a manner, that there was not a. bit left of an inch square. 

 The black-lead of his pencils was consumed ; the clothes were not entirely 

 cut to pieces and carried away, but appeared as if moth-eaten, there being 

 scarcely a piece as large as a shilling free from small holes. * One night,' 

 says Kemper, in his history of Japan, ' in a few hours, they pierced one 

 foot of the table, and having in that manner ascended, carried their arch 

 across it, and then down, through the middle of the other foot, into the floor, 

 as good luck would have it, without doing any damage to the papers left 

 there.' M History of Insects in the Family Library. 



ORDER OF LEPIDOP'TERA. 



15. The Lepidop'terse (from the Greek, lepis, a scale, and 

 pteron, wing) or butterflies are recognised by the scaly dust, 

 similar to coloured flour, which covers their four membranous 

 wings, and by their mouth, which is in form of a tube spirally 

 rolled up (Jig. 11). 



16. These insects experience complete metamorphosis; their 

 larvse, which are known under the name of caterpillars (Jigs. 17 

 and 18), have six scaly legs corresponding to those of the perfect 

 insect, and four or six membranous feet which subsequently dis- 

 appear; in general the body is almost cylindrical, soft, and dif- 

 ferently coloured. Most of them feed on leaves or other parts 



15. How is the order of Lepidop'tera recognised ? 



1 6. What are the characters of the larva of Lepidop' terse ? What In a 

 ehrysalid ? 



. " ** 



