skeleton, as everybody who Las eaten a lobster knows. The arrangement is ex- 

 actly the reverse^of'tb&t whieK w$ fujd*iri<the vertebrates. 



The suMmgdQnjL'of-.tne > ^r]5to/>o < ^a,is divided into six classes, one of which con- 

 sists of the Insecta (insects). It is estimated that there are three and a half millions 

 of species of insects upon the globe, not to speak of the vast number of species 

 which are now extinct, and known only by their fossil remains. 



, The Class Insecta is subdivided into many Orders. To attempt even to briefly 

 speak of all these orders would take more space than the publisher has allotted to 

 the author, and it is enough to say that butterflies belong to the order Lepidoptera. 

 The lepidoptera are divided into two Suborders: the Rhopalocera, or Butterflies, and 

 the Heterocera, or Moths. Both are characterized by having scaly wings, hence 

 the name, which is derived from the Greek words Xexis (lepis) meaning scale, and 

 n-repov (pteron) meaning wing. Lepidoptera are "scale-winged insects." Any one 

 who has ever handled a butterfly or moth, must have noticed upon his fingers a 

 dust-like substance, rubbed off from the wings of the captured insect. Upon ex- 

 amining this substance under a microscope it is seen to be composed of minute 

 scales (see Plate A, Fig. a), and upon looking at the wing of a butterfly under a magni- 

 fying glass it is seen to be covered with such scales, arranged somewhat as the scales 

 upon the sides of a fish, or as the shingles upon the roof of a house (see Plate A, Fig. 

 6\ 



It 



