SCALE-WINGED INSECTS. 281 
What of the kidnapping Ants? What are the peculiarities of the 
Melliferous division of the Aculeata? What is said of the solitary 
Bees? What of the social Bees? What of the hive Bees? What 
of their swarming ?+ 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
SCALE-WINGED INSECTS. 
/ 477, Tux insects of the order Lepidoptera, or Scale- 
- winged Insects, are characterized by the downy cover- 
ing of the wings, which is made up of a multitude of 
feather-scales. The number of these scales on the wings 
of the Silkworm Moth has been estimated at 400,000. 
The silvery dust that you have on your fingers when 
you touch a common Miller is a multitude of these 
scales. Each particle of that dust under the microscope 
appears a scale, with regular lines extending from its 
stem to its edge at the other end. When this scaly 
covering is rubbed off from the wing of one of these in- 
sects, the bare membrane which is left is seen to corre- 
spond with that of the wings of other insects. In some 
cases the scales are arranged with perfect regularity, 
§ 398. The shapes of them vary much in the different 
species, and there is often quite a variety in the same 
species in different portions of the wing, the long ones 
making the fringe at the edge. That you may have a 
correct idea of their general shape, I give, in Fig. 218, 
eee 
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Fig. 218.—Feather Scales of the Goat-moth. 
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