MANUAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 233 



these insects are usually despised ; wrapped in their 

 mummy-clothes, as inert grubs, they are forgotten ; 

 but when they come forth glorious in their Psyche 

 state, " all with admirable beauty deck't," they are 

 admired and sought after ; a fit subject for a moral. 

 It is in this form of beauty, when they add an 

 extra charm to the smiling landscape of summer, 

 and make the glory of the woods yet more attrac- 

 tive, that they become the favourite Order, with 

 many, among all the insects. The illustrious Swede, 

 Linnseus, conceived the poetic idea of naming the 

 butterflies after the heroes and heroines of the Iliad, 

 thus recalling to memory the glorious verse of the 

 " blind old bard of Scio's rocky isle." Those clothed 

 in sombre colours he called Trojans, and those clad 

 in gay attire, he christened Greeks ; and her he re- 

 garded as the greatest beauty, was -Papilio Helena. 

 The night-flyers are no less worthy of consideration 

 than the more highly-coloured lovers of the sun. 

 Some are remarkable for their size and vivid paint- 

 ing, as Saturnia Atlas, which often measures nine 

 inches across the wings; others for the valuable 

 web they spin in their caterpillar state, as the Silk- 

 worm-moth (Bombyx mori) ; some are notorious for 

 the injury they inflict on certain trees, as the Goat- 

 moth (Cossus ligniperda) ; others attract notice by 

 their large size and powerful flight, as the Hawk- 

 moths ; while some, again, present the peculiarity 

 of being infested lay fungi, as the Hepialus vires- 

 cens, or New Zealand Swift-moth, the caterpillar of 

 which is often entirely converted into a fungus 



