156 



THE YOUNG NATUEALIST. 



ORDERS OF INSECTS. 



Continued from page 142. 



LEPIDOPTERA. 



The order Lepidopteva includes the most 

 beautiful of all insects. It is characterised 

 by having four membranaceous wings, nearly 

 always clothed with variously colored scales, 

 arranged in most exquisite patterns, The 

 mouth is a tube for honey sucking. It is 

 generally divided into two sections, Butter- 

 flies and Moths, the former having clubbed 

 antennae are called Rhopalocera, the latter 

 having antennas of various forms are called 

 Heterocera. In Britain we have but few 

 Butterflies, sixty-four being all that have any 

 pretensions to being truly native. In Europe 

 nearly four hundred are found, but it is in 

 warm countries, especially in tropical America, 

 that this group attains its greatest magnitude, 

 whether we refer to the number of species or 

 their marvellous beauty. The great Bird- 

 winged Butterflies (Ornithoptera) of Southern 

 India, and the Malay Archipelago, and 

 among the largest known insects, some of 

 them measuring a foot across the expanded 

 wings. These are perhaps exceeded in beauty, 

 If not in size, by the splendid South American 

 genera, Morpho and C alii go, but go where we 

 will, beautiful butterflies may be found, and 

 no words could possibly convey an idea of 

 their coloring and markings. As we are 

 about to commence a series of articles on our 

 British species, we make no reference to them 

 here. 



The Heterocera are divided into several 

 groups, of which we may name the principal. 

 The Hawk Moths ( SphinginaJ are generally 

 stout bodied insects with rather pointed 

 wings, often gaily colored. Most of them fly 

 at twilight, or in the early morning, and they 

 are wonderfully quick on the wing, and most 

 difficult to take when flying. They suck the 

 nectar from the calyx of a flower without 



alighting, and when seen in the act, resemble, 

 from the quick motion of the wings, a moving 

 shadow rather than a stout bodied insect. 

 Most of the larvae have a small projection, or 

 horn, on the anal segment. Some of them 

 have the power of withdrawing the head 

 within the next segments. The larvae of some 

 of this group live in the inside of various 

 plants and trees, and the wings of the imagos 

 are very thinly scaled, hence they are popu- 

 larly called Clear-wings. One genus (Macro- 

 glossa) so closely resembles a Humming Bird 

 when on the wing, that they are not only 

 called "Humming-bird Hawks," but they 

 have been mistaken for the bird when on the 

 wing, by those who were familiar with Hum- 

 ming-birds in their native country. 



The Bombycina is the group that includes 

 the principal of the silk producing insects. 

 No British species spins a silk that is avail- 

 able for manufacturing purposes, but many of 

 them make cocoons of considerable interest 

 to the Entomologist. That of the Oak eggar 

 is so hard, that it is not easily cut with a 

 knife, yet the soft and tender insect manages 

 to break through without difficulty. The 

 Emperor Moth spins a pear-shaped cocoon, 

 open at the small end, and makes a sort of 

 trap door inside that effectually keeps out 

 insect enemies, while it allows the moth to 

 escape easify. 



The Noctuina is a large group, mostly of 

 dull colored insects, of which there are 

 about 300 British species. A few of them 

 have brightly colored hind wings, but in 

 repose these are covered by the fore wings, 

 which are rarely bright hued. Nearly all 

 the species fly at dusk, and being particularly 

 partial to sweets, collectors have learned to 

 take them freely. In spring they are taken 

 abundantly at Sallow bloom, in autumn at 

 Ivy flowers, and during the summer months 

 they may be had at many different flowers, 

 ragwort being a special favorite after it comes 

 into bloom. The larvae of this group are 

 mostly of very retiring habits, the bulk of 

 them feeding only at night, and concealing 



