INSECTS IN THEIR PERFECT STATE. 133 



state, the mask was finally removed, and the imago, 

 or true " image " exposed. 



The term Lepidoptera, adopted by the same 

 classifier for that large section of the insect family 

 comprising Butterflies and Moths, is, as before ex- 

 plained, from the Greek words, lepis, a scale, 

 making lepidos, scales, in the plural, and pteron, 

 a wing, or rather ptera, wings ; from which we 

 may easily (dropping the s for euphony) construct 

 the word Lepidoptera, that is, those creatures 

 having the wings covered with scales. Clairville 

 proposed to make the term Lepidioptera, but the 

 author of the article " Lepidoptera" in Cuvier's 

 " Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles," expresses 

 his astonishment that M. Clairville should have 

 proposed such defective orthography. 



Aldrovandus, one of the old Italian naturalists, a 

 contemporary of Shakespeare, adopted a similar idea 

 to that of Linnaeus, as the best mode of distinguish- 

 ing Moths and Butterflies as a homogeneous order. 

 He classed them as those having aim farinosa;, that 

 is, farinaceous or floury wings ; which is, however, 

 less correctly descriptive than the Linnaean term 

 " scaly-winged." But Aldrovandus wrote before the 

 invention of the microscope, which has enabled later 

 naturalists to make such extraordinary progress in 



