194 



HABITS OF INSECTS. 



by an extreme point, as is the case with most others of 

 our moths, but in this instance so loosely, that a very 

 gentle friction rubs it off. The plumage which covers 

 the wings and bodies of many of our lepidopterous in- 

 sects is variously colored, and like the feathers of birds, 

 gives them their splendor : in the butterflies I have not 

 observed it to vary greatly in form, but in the moths 

 the same uniformity does not appear to be maintained, 

 as a few specimens will manifest : 



No. 1. Scales from wings of phalaena pronuba yellow under- 

 wing. 2. Ghost moth. 3. Phalaena bucephala buff tip. 4. Ph. vi- 

 nula puss moth. 5. Ph. potatoria, a, the female drinker moth. 

 6. Papilio brassicae great white. 7. Pap. Napi green-veined but- 

 terflies. 8. Large brown moth (name omitted). 9. Acherontia atro- 

 p$a death's head. 



But the variety of clothing with which insects are 

 decorated, is most admirable and curious ! The upper 

 and the under vestiture of the wings, their fringes, that 

 which covers the body in different parts, varies greatly ; 

 the bird, splendidly habited as he sometimes is, fre- 

 quently will be found draped with less variety of form 

 and color than the insect which escapes our notice by 

 his actions, and the power of our eyes by the smallness 

 of its parts. Our lepidopterous creatures seem to be 

 most characteristically framed and constituted for the 

 different hours and places in which they delight to 

 move ; so much so, that I think if we were to invert 

 the order of their appearance, the singular unfitness of 



