n8 LEPIDOPTERA. 



with a sort of horny head, much flatter than the rest of the body, 

 which can be protruded with facility between the segments of the 

 bee's abdomen. In their earliest form, just after quitting the egg, 

 the larvae are remarkably rapid in their movements, furnished 

 with six legs, by means of which they are enabled to run about 

 freely upon the abdomen of the bee, in which their mother is para- 

 sitic ; and so numerous are they in general that, according to Mr. 

 Smith, this portion of the infested animal often appears as if it 

 were dusted over with a whitish powder, from the crowds of these 

 minute larvae upon its surface. Thus carried about from flower 

 to flower amongst the hairs of the bee, some of them are left be- 

 hind on every blossom she visits, where their activity renders it 

 an easy matter for them to attach themselves to the body of the 

 next comer. By this they are unconsciously conveyed to its nest, 

 where they bury themselves in the bee larvae, and remain feeding 

 upon the substance of their unfortunate hosts, until they have 

 attained their full development. Nevertheless, the stylopizcd bees, 

 as they are called, fly about with the same activity as those which 

 are free from such unwelcome guests, and thus tend still further 

 to diffuse the race of parasites by which they are infested. 



LEPIDOPTEROUS INSECTS. ORDER LEPIDOPTERA.* 



Insects belonging to the Lepidopterous Order are at once recog- 

 nizable from the structure of their four ample wings, which are 

 generally thickly clothed on both surfaces with minute feather-like 



scales, that overlap each other, 

 and being of different colours 

 arranged in patterns, often form 

 a kind of mosaic work of exqui- 

 site delicacy and beauty. Their 

 mouth is adapted to pump up the 

 nectareous juices from the cups 

 of flowers, and is necessarily of 



FIG. 117. SCALES OF BUTTERFLY'S WING. Considerable length, ill Order to 



enable the insect to reach the re- 

 cesses in which the honied stores are lodged. When unfolded, 

 the extraordinary apparatus resembles a long double whip-lash, 

 and if examined under a microscope, is found to be made of in- 

 numerable rings connected together, and moved by a double layer 



* ACTTI'S, lepis, a scale ; -Trr^pov, pteron, a wing. 



