170 : INSECTA. 
That of the WZ. 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 whick 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 Meliponz 
_—Trigonz, Lat.—are found in the island of Sumatra. 
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(2) or tongue has been aflixed,- 
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 
the 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 (superior) 
palpus in the form of a tubercle. ‘The apparent (inferior) 
palpi, those which forma sort of sheath to the proboscis, re- 
place the labial palpi of the triturating Insects; they are 
cylindrical or conical, usually turned up, composed of three 
\ 
(1) The Glossata, Fab. 
(2) The spiritrompe, according to the nomenclature of Latreille. 
