CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT 



Characters 

 of Lepidop- 

 tera 



The larva or 

 caterpillar 



LEPIDOPTERA 



i. THE Lepidoptera or scale-winged insects (Greek 

 lepis, a scale, and pteron, a wing) include the butter- 

 flies and moths. It is a curious thing that in English 

 we have no single word to include both, in spite of 

 the fact that few people can distinguish accurately be- 

 tween them. The old Latin papilio, though trans- 

 lated butterfly, was any lepidopterous insect ; the same 

 is true of the German word schmetterling. The scales 

 which cover the wings of most Lepidoptera are flat- 

 tened hairs, and on the same insect various transi- 

 tional states may be found, from the scarcely or not 

 modified hair to the broad, shinglelike scale. The pos- 

 session of such scales is not in itself proof that an insect 

 is lepidopterous ; they may be found, for example, on 

 mosquitoes. Even the relatively primitive Thysanura 

 (page 268) have scales. The Lepidoptera, however, 

 possess two pairs of wings, a sucking mouth, and have 

 a complete metamorphosis. 



Beginning life in the egg, they hatch as caterpillars, 

 commonly but erroneously called " worms." The cater- 

 pillar is a remarkable creature, since it contradicts in 

 so many features the characters of the adult. It is 

 usually long and cylindrical, with a rounded head and 

 eight pairs of legs. The anterior three pairs, attached 

 to the thoracic segments, are the so-called true legs, 

 representing the six legs of all adult insects. The re- 

 maining ten legs, attached to the abdomen, are soft 

 and fleshy, and are sometimes called false legs, though 

 they are veritable legs and function as such. They 

 disappear entirely in the adult insect. The cater- 

 pillar also appears to have no antennae, though there 



286 



