HYMENOPTERA. 465 



destroyed and new ones constructed if necessary. The eggs containing 

 males are produced two months later, and those producing females soon 

 after the latter. 



Dreadful combats sometimes take place among Bees. At a particular 

 epoch the labourers put the drones to death, extending the carnage even 

 to the larvae and nymphs of that sex. 



Bees have enemies both external and internal, and are subject to various 

 diseases. 



The true Bees are only found in the eastern continent; and those of 

 southern and eastern Europe, and of Egypt, differ from those that inhabit 

 France, which have been transported to America and other places, where 

 they are now naturalized. 



ORDER X. 

 LEPIDOPTERA.(l) 



The tenth order of Insects terminates the series of those which 

 are furnished with four wings, and presents characters exclusively 

 peculiar to it. 



Both sides of the wings are covered with small, coloured scales, 

 resembling farinaceous dust, that are removed by merely coming in 

 contact with the finger. A proboscis, to which the name of lingua 

 or tongue has been affixed, rolled spirally between two palpi, cov- 

 ered with scales or hairs, forms the most important part of the mouth, 

 and is the instrument with which these Insects extract the nectar 

 from flowers, their only aliment. In our general observations upon 

 the class of Insects, we have seen, that this proboscis or trunk is 

 composed of two tubularj threads, representing the maxillae, each 

 bearing, near its external base, a very small (superior) palpus in the 

 form of a tubercle. The apparent (inferior) palpi, those which 

 form a sort of sheath to the proboscis, replace the labial palpi of the 

 triturating Insects; they are cylindrical or conical, usually turned 

 up, composed of three joints, and inserted in a fixed labium, which 

 forms the paries of the portion of the buccal cavity, inferior to the 

 proboscis. Two little and scarcely distinct, corneous, and more or 

 less ciliated pieces, situated, one on each side, on the anterior and 



(1) Scaly-winged. 

 3 I 



