1 76 COMMON BRITISH INSECTS. 



are one or two others which must be noticed. The 

 mouth is formed for suction. The mandibles, or 

 jaws, which are so conspicuous in the insects which 

 we have hitherto examined, and which indeed are 

 large and powerful in the larval state, are scarcely 

 visible, being reduced to mere rudiments of jaws. 

 The maxillae, on the contrary, are very much elongated, 

 and modified into the beautiful proboscis through 

 which the insect is able to suck the sweet juices of 

 flowers. The pupa is enclosed in a hard, shelly case, 

 not resembling the perfect insect, this form being 

 scientifically called ' obtected.' 



The Lepidoptera are usually supposed to fall 

 naturally into two great divisions or tribes, . known 

 popularly as Butterflies and Moths. The distinguish- 

 ing features of the former may be briefly summed up 

 as follows. The antennae are terminated by a kind of 

 knob, or club, the body is pinched in at the junction of 

 the thorax with the abdomen, while the hinder wings 

 are rigid and incapable of being folded. There are 

 also one or two minor distinctions, which, however, 

 need not be here mentioned. 



With the British Lepidoptera this division into 

 these two great tribes answers well enough, although 

 in both groups there are one or two insects which 

 present rather anomalous characteristics. But, when 

 we come to inquire into the structure of the foreign 

 representatives of the order, we find that this arrange- 

 ment no longer holds good, for there is no single dis- 

 tinguishing feature of the constituents of the one group 

 which is not possessed by some of the members of 

 the other. Thus the clubbed antennae of the butter- 



