BUTTERFLIES WORTH KNOWING


BUTTERFLIES

PART I

INTRODUCTION

In popular esteem the butterflies among the insects are what the birds are among the higher animals—the most attractive and beautiful members of the great group to which they belong. They are primarily day fliers and are remarkable for the delicacy and beauty of their membranous wings, covered with myriads of tiny scales that overlap one another like the shingles on a house and show an infinite variety of hue through the coloring of the scales and their arrangement upon the translucent membrane running between the wing veins. It is this characteristic structure of the wings that gives to the great order of butterflies and moths its name Lepidoptera, meaning scale-winged.

In the general structure of the body, the butterflies resemble other insects. There are three chief divisions: head, thorax, and abdomen. The head bears the principal sense organs; the thorax, the organs of locomotion; and the abdomen, the organs of reproduction.