HABITS OF INSECTS. 
194 
by an extreme point, as is the case with most others of 
our moths, but in this instance so loosely, that a very 
gentle friction rubs it off. The plumage which covers 
the wings and bodies of many of our lepidopterous in- 
sects is variously colored, and like the feathers of birds, 
gives them their splendor : in the butterflies I have not 
observed it to vary greatly in form, but in the moths 
the same uniformity does not appear to be maintained, 
as a few specimens will manifest 
No. 1. Scales from wings of phalrena pronuba — yellow under- 
wing. 2. Ghost moth. 3. Phalaena bucephala — buff tip. 4. Ph. vi- 
nula — puss moth. 5. Ph. potatoria, a, the female — drinker moth. 
6. Papilio brassicse — great white. 7. Pap. Napi — green-veined but- 
terflies. 8. Large brown moth (name omitted). 9. Acherontia atro- 
pos — death’s head. 
But the variety of clothing with which insects are 
decorated, is most admirable and curious ! The upper 
and the under vestiture of the wings, their fringes, that 
which covers the body in different parts, varies greatly ; 
the bird, splendidly habited as he sometimes is, fre- 
quently will be found draped with less variety of form 
and color than the insect which escapes our notice by 
his actions, and the power of our eyes by the smallness 
of its parts. Our lepidopterous creatures seem to be 
most characteristically framed and constituted for the 
different hours and places in which they delight to 
move ; so much so, that I think if we were to invert 
the order of their appearance, the singular unfitness of 
