

| Saturnia pavonia-major mag- 

LEPIDOPTERA. 171 
is covered with silk forming sometimes curious designs ; the third 
blade, viz., that which is applied to the membrane of the wing, 
has the peculiar property of reflecting colours the most. brilliant 
and the most varied, although the surface of the scales visible to 
the eye are often dull and colourless. 
“Supposing,” says M. Bernard Deschamps, “ that a painter was 
possessed of colours rich. enough to present on canvas with all 
their splendour, gold, silver, the opal, the ruby, the sapphire, the 
emerald, and the other precious stones, which the East produces, 
that with these colours he formed all the shades which could 
result from their combination, one might affirm without the chance 
of contradiction, that he would have none of these colours and of 
their various shades, whatever might be the number, which could 
not be discovered by the microscope on part of the scales of the 
Lepidoptera, which nature has been pleased to conceal from our 
gaze.” 
Hach of these scales adheres to the membrane of the wing by a 
small tube, which is solidly fixed to it. Réaumur has called our 
attention to the admirable arrangement of these scales, which are 
disposed like those of fish, 
that is to say, in such a 
manner that those of a row 
shall partially overlap those 
in the following one. 
In Fig. 134, representing 
a portion of the wing of the 

nified, which we borrow from 
Réaumur’s Memoir, the oe Be 
scales are arranged in rows ; ee ee 
isolated scales, and the points Fig. 134.—Portion of the wing of a Moth (Saturnia 
where other scales were alae BM a ee 
fixed before they were made fall off, are represented. 
The membranous frame which supports the coloured scales of 
butterflies and moths is well worth a moment’s consideration. 
It consists of two membranes intimately united by their in- 
terior surfaces, and divided into many distinct parts by horny, 
fistulous threads, more or less ramified, which seem intended to 


