(H6 EXTERNAL ANATOMY OF INSECTS. 



marginal fringe also consists of them a ; and in a Georgian 

 o-enus, which appears in some degree to connect Culex 

 with Anthrax &c, there are scales scattered upon the 

 membrane as well as upon the nervures; besides, its an- 

 tennae b and abdomen are also covered with them. 



The Order, the clothing of whose organs of flight 

 excites the admiration of* the most incurious beholder, is 

 that to which the excursive butterfly belongs, the Lepi- 

 doptera. The gorgeous wings of these universal favour- 

 ites, as well as those of the hawk-moths and moths, owe 

 all their beauty, not to the substance of which they are 

 composed, but to an infinite number of little plumes or 

 scales so thickly planted in their upper and under sur- 

 face, as in the great majority entirely to conceal that 

 substance. Whether these are really most analogous to 

 plumes or scales has been thought doubtful. De Geer 

 is inclined to think, from their terminating at their 

 lower end in little quills and other circumstances, that 

 they resemh\e feathers as much as scales c ; Reaumur on 

 the contrary suspects that they come nearer to scales d . 

 Their substance, approaching to membrane, seems to 

 make further for the former opinion, and their shape and 

 the indentations that often occur in their extremity, fur- 

 nish an additional argument for the latter. Their num- 

 bers are infinite ; Leeuwenhoek found more than 400,000 

 on the wings of the silk- worm moth (Bombyx Mori) c ; 

 and in those of some of the larger moths and butterflies 

 the number must greatly exceed this. You will observe 



;l Reaum. iv. t. xxxix. /. 4— 11. » A portion of the an- 



tenna of the insect here mentioned is figured Plate XII. Fig. 23. 

 c De Geer i. 63—. <t Reamn. i. 200. 



K Hoole's Leeuwenhoek. i. 63 — . 



