76 



them of the approach of danger, as they are sensitive when touched, and the jarring of the 

 surface on which the moth rests is probably first communicated to the antennae, which 

 lie parallel with the plane of repose. The wings are deflexed in the majority of the 

 moths (Fig. 33) when in repose, and clapped together and held upright in the butterflies. 

 In the Hesperidce, the lowest butterflies, the front pair of wings are often alone elevated 



when the insect is sitting or walking, the hind 

 pair being flatly extended as in many moths, 

 particularly the Spanners. Certain moths 

 sometimes elevate the wings when resting, as- 

 the larger Bombyces, and many Geoinetridce do 

 the same when walking. The butterflies want 

 the frenulum, or bristle and hook, which con- 

 nect the front and hind wings in the majority 

 of moths, and hold them together when flying. 

 As a whole, the nervures are stouter and the 

 wings perhaps stronger in the butterflies. The 

 hawk moths have the wings, however, very 

 strongly built, narrow and with thick ribs ; their flight is correspondingly rapid and 

 extended. The body is more thinly scaled in the butter tiies, becoming more hairy and 

 tufted in the moths, in which the total vestiture is looser and longer, more downy and 

 somewhat easier abraded. In the butterflies the scales are more complicated in structure 

 and the wings themselves are, on the whole, more equal-sized and with shorter fringes. 

 The legs of the moths ate, as a rule, stronger, being often curiously armed and spined. 

 Dr. Boisduval called the moths Heterocera, or diversely-horned, in contradistinction to the 

 butterflies, and these terms probably signalize an important difference or degree in the 

 use of the antenna? in the two divisions of Lepidoptera. 



The writings of Mr. S. H. Scudder afford us some insight into the ancestry of exist- 

 ing Lepidoptera. In particular, he has called attention to the fact that all the diverse 

 patterns which adorn the wings have originated from shaded bands or lines which run 

 parallel with the outer margin, and have become broken up into spots of such varied form 

 as to make it strange that they should have come from so simple an element. (Fig. 34.) 



Fig. 33. 



Fig. 34. 



It is evident, however, that this is the correct view. I had previously shown that the 

 ringed spots of the wing in the Noctuidce originated from loopings of the usual transverse 

 lines. There seems to be a correlation between the length of tongue in the Lepidoptera 

 and the corolla of flowers. It is probable that the butterflies came in with the flowering 

 plants and that they were preceded in point of time by moths which had short maxilla? and 

 simply hairy, unsealed wings, unicolorous or faintly banded, and having their parentage 

 in the ancient Neuroptera or dragonflies. These may have had aquatic larvae and less 

 complete transformations, active in the darkness ; living, indeed, at an epoch when the 

 light of the sun was less potent at the surface of the earth than it is at the present day. 



