Jpfe 



VI 



I 



them have a winding motion, from the root to the extremity ; others are notched on 

 the under or inner side, like the teeth of a saw. 



The tails or abdomens of butterflies commonly lie in a kind of groove or bed, 

 which is formed by the under-wings ; neither do the tails reach below the edge of the 

 under-wings. The tails of moths in general lie beneath the under-wings, and reach 

 to the extremity of them, and in many considerably beyond. 



A butterfly always sleeps or rests with its wings erect over its back ; the under- 

 wings being broad, and without folds. A moth commonly rests with its wings 

 covering its tail and under-wings ; on which account Providence has ordered it so 

 that the under-wings of all moths fold themselves up half way in the manner of a fan. 



A butterfly always flies in the day, and mostly in the morning, but never in 

 the night. Some moths fly in the day-time, some after sun-set in the evening, and 

 others in the dead of the night. 



Though these are rules very sufficient whereby you may know a moth from a 

 butterfly, yet there are many exceptions to them: and although moths and butterflies 

 are two different genera of insects, yet I really believe it is impossible, by any pro- 

 posed particularity, to fix a rule to know the one by, which some single part of the 

 other will not be an objection to. The same difficulties arise, in attempting to class 

 either the moths or butterflies, though several have endeavoured to do it. 



When a moth, in any part of its investiture, seems to agree with a butterfly, viz. 

 either in the horns, shape of the wings, &c. it will differ in every other particular, 

 and that so notoriously, that you may always be able to know which of the two it is. 

 Thus the great Magpie Moth, in the form of its wings much resembles a butterfly ;* 

 but its horns or antennae are like crooked threads ; the head remarkably small ; its 

 abdomen reaches to the bottom edge of the under-wings, which have several folds in 

 them; and although all this class of moths do most resemble a butterfly at first sight, 

 yet the caterpillars from whence they proceed, have the least resemblance to those of 

 the butterfly kind. It is often to be observed, that those broad-winged moths mostly 

 proceed from Loopers, which have the smallest number of legs, while those of the 

 butterfly kind have the most; and indeed, I know not any other matter, either 

 texture of wings, manner of flight, food, or any thing else, in which it in any way 

 resembles the butterfly kind. 



Mr. Wilkes, in his new Class of Moths, book ii. chap. i. mentions flies resembling 

 partly moths, and partly butterflies. Here he produces but two, which to me are no 

 proofs of any such strange beings ; nor would I have taken the liberty to have 

 mentioned it in this work, but to oppose a system which admitted of such an order, 

 by the novelty of the thought, and which, perhaps, in process of time, would have 

 added a great number of other moths and butterflies into a genus of insects, never 

 before heard of, at least in this part of the world. The moths he speaks of, are the 

 Burnet and Forester, the horns or antennae of which swell pretty much towards the 

 point or extremity : but this is not at all like the ball or knob at the end of the 



* The Swallow-tailed Moth (Ourapteryx Sambucaria) still more strikingly resembles the Swallow-tailed Butterfly 

 (Papilio Machaon) in possessing tailed hind wings: this kind of relation, founded upon a single character, so well described 

 in the text, has been distinguished by modern Naturalists (MacLeay, Swainson, &c.) under the name of Analogy, as distinct 

 from the more intimate relation which exists amongst moths or amongst butterflies, which they term Affinity. J. 0. W. 



