INSECTS: WINGS AND THEIR APPENDAGES 



99 



in our own Garden Whites and Meadow Browns (Piericfa 

 and Satyridce). 



Scales taken from the brilliant changeable blue-green 

 patch in the hind-wing of Papilio Paris, a fine Indian 

 butterfly, have an interesting appearance. They are sim- 

 ply pear-shaped in outline, with few longitudinal ribs set 

 far apart, and numerous strongly- marked corrugations run- 

 ning across between them. That these are really eleva- 

 tions of the surface is well seen in some scales, even with 

 transmitted light, and a high power; for the slopes of the 

 wrinkles that face the light display the lustrous emerald 

 reflection proper to the wing, while the 

 transmitted color of the whole scale is a 

 rich transparent red. 



The dimensions of the scales do not 

 bear any certain proportion to the size of 

 the insect which is clothed with them; those 

 from the broad wings of the noble Satur- 

 nia Atlas, for example, eight or nine inches 

 in expanse, being exceeded in size by some 

 from those of our little native Muslin Moth, 

 an inch wide. 



YOU will Say that what I am about to FRINGED SCALE or 



show you is a lovely object; but for its 

 right display I must use a low magnifying power not 

 higher than a hundred diameters with the Lieberkuhn 

 to reflect the light of the mirror full upon the sur- 

 face. It is a small fragment cut from the wing of Pa- 

 pilio Paris, showing several rows of the scales in their 

 natural arrangement. The gemmeous radiance of the 

 glittering green scales on the black ones, by which they 

 are environed, glares out with a splendid effect; and, what 



