174 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



and, together with the body, clothed with scales : 

 feeds on the honey of flowers, and on fruit, 



638. The class Lepidoptera contains seven 

 stirps, but as the characters will be given minutely 

 in detail, as characters of orders, it would be of 

 little use giving them as those of stirps. By the 

 summary at the end of this Book, it will be seen 

 to what stirps each order belongs. The orders of 

 Lepidoptera, are these: — 



639. Hawk-moths {Sphingites). Larva 

 naked, of uniform substances, with ten prehen- 

 sile legs, and a stout corneous recurved horn 

 on the paratelum. Pupa smooth, rounded, 

 generally quite naked ; changes in or on the 

 ground. Imago with the antennae incrassated in 

 the middle ; the tips furnished with a recurved 

 hook composed of fine bristles ; wings narrow ; 

 hind wings small ; body stout ; flight rapid and 

 well sustained ; diurnal or nocturn.-il. British 

 Genera, Sesia, Macroglossa, Smerinthus, Sphinx, 

 Acherontia Deilephila. 



640. Skippers (Hesperites). Larva generally 

 naked, stout in the middle, and attenuated at the 

 extremities with ten prehensile legs. Pupa stout, 

 smooth, unangulated; changes in a loose web 

 among the leaves on which the larva feeds, 

 attached by the tail and a thread round the 

 middle. Imago with the antenna? partially ele- 

 vated ; sometimes nearly filiform, hooked at the 

 extremity ; the hind wings of the insect, when at 



