282 NATUEAI, HISTORY. 



the feather-scales of the Goat-moth. The delicate lines 

 on them are not represented. It is these scales various- 

 ly colored that give such beauty to many of the insects 

 of this order. Some of the Butterflies are especially 

 brilliant. 



478. The insects of the orders already noticed are 

 mandibulate, § 392. This order, and the others which 

 remain to be noticed, are haustellate, § 393. The Lepi- 

 doptera stand at the head of the haustellate group, as 

 the Coleoptera, or Beetles, stand at the head of the Man- 

 dibulata. The haustellum, or suckei-, by vs^hich the in- 

 sect drinks up the nectar of the flowers, is composed of 

 two long filaments, so shaped that, by joining them to- 

 gether, they make a tube. You can see how accurately 

 they must be made in order to do this. 



479. The larvae of the Lepidoptera are caterpillars. 

 They have three pairs of legs on the first three segments 

 of the body ; then they, have some appendages called 

 pro-legs, which are thick, short, fleshy tubercles, with 

 minute hooks around the edge of the under surface of 

 them : there are usually five pairs of these, four of them 

 in rear of the true legs, and another pair on the last seg- 

 ment of the body. In Fig. 219 are represented a leg 



Fig. 219. — Leg and Pro-leg of a Caterpillar, greatly magnified, 



and a pro-leg, greatly magnified. The curved claws on 

 the six legs of the caterpillars enable them to climb up 

 readily on the threads from which they so often hang, 

 and the pro-legs are of great assistance to them in walk- 



