582 JNSECTA— ORDER LEPIDOPTERA. 



with sixteen legs : six horny legs, corresponding to the true legs of the perfect 



insect ; eight fleshy legs, called prolegs ; and a terminal 



pair, called claspers. In the larvse of the GeometridcB, and 



Larva^r j,^ jj^g ^.^^.^^ stages of those of many other moths, the first 



uaterp ar. three pairs of prolegs are obsolete, and the larvie arch the 



back at every movement, and are then called "loopers." 



Caterpillars are very voracious, and generally moult, not oidy their skins, 



but the lining of part of the internal respiratory and digestive apparatus as 



Vfell, more than once before arriving at their full growth. 



The next stage is that of the pupa or chrysalis, which is almost motionless, 



being encased in a tight-fitting integument, on the upper half of which the 



outlines of the perfect insect may be observed. These arc 



Pupa, or not, however, enclosed in separate sheaths, except in the 



Chrysalis. case of some hawk- moths, which have the proboscis enclosed 



in a sheath which is detached from the main body of the 



pupa. The pupa takes no nourishment, and it is either attached by threads 



to a leaf,^ etc, as in the case of most butterflies, or enclosed in a cocoon, 



formed of silk in those species in which it is c<mstructed on or above the 



ground, and of agglutinated earth in most instances in which it is subterranean. 



In due time the perfect butterfly or moth quits the pupa-case ; its wings, 



wliich are at first soft and limp, soon expand to their full size ; the limbs of 



the insect dry in the sua and air, and it flies away to join its comrades, and 



to reproduce its kind. Most species, (ju emerging from the chrysalis, dis- 



cliarge a fluid, which in former times, when they happened to be particularly 



numerous, and when everything unusual was attributed to miraculous causes, 



sometimes gave rise to the notion that a rain of blood had fallen. 



Kntomologists in England have generally agreed to call the first few 

 families of Lepidoptera butterflies, and the remainder moths ; but there is 

 no such distinction on the Continent, where they are 

 Rhopalocera, or generally called by words corresponding to day-butterflies 

 Butterflies. and night-butterflies. Butterflies are broad-winged insects, 

 often adorned with bright colours, and with comparatively 

 slender bodies. The antennas are almost invariably thickened into a knob at 

 the extremity, a peculiarity which is not very common in other insects, 

 though we meet with it in some saw-flies, flies, the ant-lions, and other allied 

 families of Neuroptera, and in many beetles, etc. Hence the butterflies are 

 often called lihojxdiiccra , or club-horns. They fly by day, and seldom, unless 

 disturbed, at dusk or at night, thou<,'lx some Tropical genera are twilight-fliers, 

 or frequent the deep gloom of thick forests. Moths,"on the other hand, have 

 the antennas of various shapes, sometimes thickened in the middle, or before 

 the end, but almost never clubbed at the extremity, and generally thread- 

 like or comb-like. Most moths fly at night, or, at least, not before dusk, 

 though a few are day-fliers, and may be seen frequenting flowers, among 

 butterflies. Many of them have stout bodies, and are of dull or subdued 

 colours. Butterflies often rest with the wings raised over the back, an attitude 

 rarely assumed by moths. The latter, however, more frequently rest with 

 all their wings spread out flat, while in the stout-bodied moths the fore-wings 

 often more or less cover the hind-wings when at rest, and are sometimes 



Hn the NtimphaUdw the pupa is suspended freely by the tail ; in the other families 

 of Initterflies (except in tlie Hcsperiidiv) it is generally attaclied by the tail, and by a 

 girth round the body as well. 



