WASPS, BEES, AND BUTTERFLIES. 581 



the leaf -cutter bees, Megachile (Latr.), and the carpenter bees, Xylocopa (Latr. ), 

 which are common abroad, but are not known in England, and have deep 

 violet-coloured wings ; while there are other bees which form their nests in 

 old walls. The humble-bees, Bombus (Fabr.) ; make their nests in the ground, 



Fig. 65. HIVE-BEE 



Fig. 64. CAKPENTER BEE (Xylocopa violzcea, Linn.). (Apis mellifica). 



Nat. size. Nat. size. 



and live in small communities, consisting, like the hive bee, of males, females 

 and workers, all winged. 



Apis mellifica (Linn.), the hive-bee, closes our list of the Hymenoptera. 

 The genus Apis occupies a rather isolated position among the bees, and may 

 be recognised at once by the very long narrow costal cell, which extends 

 almost to the tip of the fore-wings. The species of Apis are not numerous ; 

 but apart from the common hive-bee, ten or twelve others are met with in 

 different parts of the world. 



ORDER LEPIDOPTERA (BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS). 



The Lepidoptera, or scale-winged insects, have four wings, clothed with 

 scales, which look like fine powder, and easily rub off, but which exhibit a great 

 variety of form under the microscope. The colour of the 

 insects is due partly to pigment, and partly to refraction General 

 from the edges of the scales, which sometimes produces the Characteristics, 

 most brilliant iridescent changes, as in some of the blue Mor- 

 phos of Tropical America, and in the widely-dispersed genus Apatura (Fabr.), 

 to which our own Purple Emperor belongs. The antennae are long and many- 

 jointed, and one pair of palpi, at least, is more or less conspicuous. There 

 is also a long proboscis for imbibing the nectar of flowers, or moisture from 

 trees or the ground. In some of the hawk moths this is of immense length, 

 nearly reaching a foot in the largest South American species ; but in some 

 groups of moths, as in many of those classed under the heading of Bombyces, 

 it is often so slightly developed as to be practically obsolete. 



In Lepidoptera the metamorphoses are complete, the insects passing through 

 four stages. The female lays her eggs on a plant suitable for the nourish- 

 ment of her brood. These are laid singly or in clusters, and 

 are frequently covered with a kind of cement, or else with Eggs, 



down from the body of the mother. They are of various 

 shapes and sizes, and are often ribbed or fluted. 



From the eggs emerge the larvae, or caterpillars, which are usually provided 



