LEPIDOPTERA. 



171 



is covered with silk forming sometimes curious designs ; the third 

 blade, viz., that which is applied to the membrane of the wing, 

 has the peculiar property of reflecting colours the most brilliant 

 and the most varied, although the surface of the scales visible to 

 the eye are often dull and colourless. 



" Supposing," says M. Bernard Deschamps, " that a painter was 

 possessed of colours rich enough to present on canvas with all 

 their splendour, gold, silver, the opal, the ruby, the sapphire, the 

 emerald, and the other precious stones, which the East produces, 

 that with these colours he formed all the shades which could 

 result from their combination, one might affirm without the chance 

 of contradiction, that he would have none of these colours and of 

 their various shades, whatever might be the number, which could 

 not be discovered by the microscope on part of the scales of the 

 Lepidoptera, which nature has been pleased to conceal from our 

 gaze." 



Each of these scales adheres to the membrane of the wing by a 

 small tube, which is solidly fixed to it. Reaumur has called our 

 attention to the admirable arrangement of these scales, which are 

 disposed like those of fish, 

 that is to say, in such a 

 manner that those of a row 

 shall partially overlap those 

 in the following one. 



In Fig. 134, representing 

 a portion of the wing of the 

 Saturniapavonia-major mag- 

 nified, which we borrow from 

 Reaumur's Memoir, the 

 scales are arranged in rows ; 

 isolated scales, and the points 

 where other scales were 

 fixed before they were made fall off, are represented. 



The membranous frame which supports the coloured scales of 

 butterflies and moths is well worth a moment's consideration. 

 It consists of two membranes intimately united by their in- 

 terior surfaces, and divided into many distinct parts by horny, 

 fistulous threads, more or less ramified, which seem intended to 



Fig. 134. Portion of the wing of a Moth (Saturnia 

 pavonia-major), magnified. 



