THE LEPIDOPTERA. 75 
Many females have no wings, and others are so imperfectly 
developed that they can hardly be distinguished from larvae. 
It is evident, then, that there is design in the decorations 
of the Lepidoptera ; that they are for the good of the insect; 
that they vary under certain conditions of life, the other struc- 
tures remaining the same ; that they have some reference to 
sex ; that they are inherited, variations and all ; and that, 
besides all this, they are proofs of the high art in Nature, and 
the beauty of God’s thoughts. 
MOTH OF Sphinx ligustn (PRIVET MOTH), 
Showing on one side the “catch” of the lower wing filled into a flat ring in the 
upper one ; and on the other side, the catch out of the ring, and the wings separated. 
There is a curious structure which is found on the wings of 
those Lepidoptera that fly very strongly and rapidly, and not in 
the jerking, irregular manner of butterflies. A sort of hook arises 
from one of the nervures of the hind wing, and fits into a ring 
on the large nervure of the front one. Both wings act then very 
strongly together. 
As a general rule, which is subject to a few exceptions, the 
diurnal Lepidoptera — the butterflies — do not have this structure, 
and they are therefore classified as A chalinoptera — wings without 
hooks. The rest of the Lepidoptera are Chalinopterous , and have 
the strengthening structures. 
