SCAiE-WINGBD 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. The 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 h} 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, 



Fig. 21S.— Feather Scales of the Goat-moth. 



