LEPIDOTERA. 273 
These Hymenoptera are found in South America. They construct 
their nests on the tops of trees, or in their hollows. 
That of the MM. amalthée is shaped like a bagpipe. The honey 
it produces is sweet, and very agreeable to the palate, but ex- 
tremely liquid, and is soon decomposed. The Indians extract a 
spirit from it of which they are extravagantly fond. 
M. Cordier, of the Ac. Roy. des Sc., and professor of geology to 
the Jardin du Roi, has in his possession a fragment of amber con- 
taining an individual of this species. It appears that other Melipone 
—Trigone, Lat,—are found in the island of Sumatra. 
oo 
ORDER X. 
LEPIDOPTERA *. 
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 /ingua } 
or tongue has been affixed, rolled spirally between two palpi, covered 
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 
this class of Insects, we have seen that this proboscis or trunk is 
composed of two tubular threads, representing the maxille, each 
bearing, near its external base, a very small (superdor) palpus in the 
form of a tubercle. The aparent (énferior) palpi, those which form 
a sort of sheath to the proboscis, replace the labial palpi of the tri- 
turating 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 pro- 
boscis. ‘Two little and scarcely distinct, corneous, and more or less 
ciliated pieces, situated, one on each side, on the anterior and superior 
‘margin of the front of the head, near the eyes, seem to be vestiges of 
mandibles. Finally, we observe, and in equally exiguous propor- 
tions, the labrum or upper lip. . 
* The Glossata, Fab. 
4+ The spiritrompe, according to the nomenclature of Latreille. 
