36 Beautiful Butterflies. 



gist can generally tell the species of a Butterfly by its 

 mode of flight, so much difference is there in this 

 respect. 



One very important part of the structure of the insect 

 I have not yet described, that is, the head, the most 

 conspicuous and curiously constructed organ of which is 

 the long flexible tube used for sucking the juices out of 

 the nectaries of the flowers ; this is of a cartilaginous or 

 gristly substance, arranged in rings, woven together, as 

 it were, by means of minute fibres, so that it can be 

 curved or twisted in any direction, with great ease and 

 rapidity. This tube is, in reality, the mouth of the 

 creature, for it has no other, nor any occasion for one, 

 as it lives by suction, and is hence classed among the 

 Haustellated (from the Latin Haustus, a draught) or 

 suctorial tribes of insects. The Proboscis or trunk of 

 the Butterfly is divided into two distinct portions, which 

 can be separated throughout their whole length, each 

 portion being grooved on the inner side; they form, 

 when united, a sort of canal of a squarish shape, through 

 which passes the nourishment which the insect sucks 

 up. The union of the two halves of the trunk is effected 

 by the interlacing of an immense number of threads, 

 which form a kind of fringe along the edges, and so 

 close is it that the canal is perfectly air-tight ; and on 

 each side of it there runs from top to bottom a circular 

 passage, the use of which does not appear to be very 



