Order VI. Lepidoptera.
Wings four; body and wings covered with scales usually variegate in colour, and on the body frequently more or less like hair: nervures moderate in number, at the periphery of one wing not exceeding fifteen, but little irregular; cross-nervules not more than four, there being usually only one or two closed cells on each wing, occasionally none. Imago with mouth incapable of biting, usually forming a long coiled proboscis capable of protrusion. Metamorphosis great and abrupt; the wings developed inside the body; the larva with large or moderate head and strong mandibles. Pupa with the appendages usually adpressed and cemented to the body so that it presents a more or less even, horny exterior, occasionally varied by projections that are not the appendages and that may make the form very irregular: in many of the smaller forms the appendages are only imperfectly cemented to the body.
Lepidoptera, or butterflies and moths, are so far as ornament is concerned the highest of the Insect world. In respect of intelligence the Order is inferior to the Hymenoptera, in the mechanical adaptation of the parts of the body it is inferior to Coleoptera, and in perfection of metamorphosis it is second to Diptera. The mouth of Lepidoptera is quite peculiar; the proboscis—the part of the apparatus for the prehension of food—is anatomically very different from the proboscis of the other Insects that suck, and finds its nearest analogue in the extreme elongation of the maxillae of certain Coleoptera, e.g. Nemognatha. The female has no gonapophyses, though in certain exceptional forms of Tineidae, there are modifications of structure connected with the terminal segments, that have as yet been only imperfectly investigated. As a rule, the egg is simply deposited on some living vegetable and fastened thereto. Lepidoptera are the most exclusively vegetarian of all the Orders of Insects; a certain number of their larvae prey on Insects that are themselves filled with vegetable juices (Coccidae, Aphidae) and a very small number (Tinea, etc.) eat animal matter. In general the nutriment appears to be drawn exclusively from the fluids of the vegetables, the solid matter passing from the alimentary canal in large quantity in the form of little pellets usually dry, and called frass. Hence the quantity of food ingested is large, and when the individuals unduly increase in number, forest trees over large areas are sometimes completely defoliated by the caterpillars.
Fig. 157.—Metamorphosis of a Lepidopteron (Rhegmatophila alpina, Notodontidae). (After Poujade, Ann. Soc. ent. France, 1891.) Europe. A, Egg; B, young larva, about to moult; C, adult larva; D, head and first body-segment of adult larva, magnified; E, pupa, × 2⁄1; F, male moth in repose; G, female moth in repose.
Lepidoptera pass a larger portion of their lives in the pupal stage than most other Insects do; frequently during nine months of the year the Lepidopteron may be a pupa. In other Orders of Insects it would appear that the tendency of the higher forms is to shorten the pupal period, and when much time has to be passed between the end of the feeding up of the larva and the appearance of the imago, to pass this time as much as possible in the form of a resting-larva, and as little as may be in the form of a pupa; in Lepidoptera the reverse is the case; the resting-larva period being usually reduced to a day or two. Hence we can understand the importance of a hard skin to the pupa. There are, however, numerous Lepidopterous pupae where the skin does not attain the condition of hardness that is secured for the higher forms by the chitinous exudation we have mentioned; and there are also cases where there is a prolonged resting-larva period: for instance Galleria mellonella spins a cocoon in the autumn and remains in it as a resting larva all the winter, becoming a pupa only in the spring. In many of these cases the resting-larva is protected by a cocoon. It is probable that the chief advantage of the perfect chitinous exudation of the Lepidopterous pupa is to prevent the tiny, complex organisation from the effects of undue transpiration. Bataillon has suggested that the relation of the fluid contents of the pupa to air and moisture are of great importance in the physiology of metamorphosis.
The duration of life is very different in various forms of Lepidoptera. It is known that certain species (Ephestia kuehniella, e.g.) may go through at least five generations a year. On the other hand, certain species that feed on wood or roots may take three years to complete their life-history; and it is probable that some of the forms of Hepialidae are even longer lived than this.
Lepidoptera have always been a favourite Order with entomologists, but no good list of the species has ever been made, and it would be a difficult matter to say how many species are at present known, but it can scarcely be less than 50,000. In Britain we have about 2000 species.
The close affinity of the Order with Trichoptera has long been recognised: Réaumur considered the latter to be practically Lepidoptera with aquatic habits, and Speyer pointed out the existence of very numerous points of similarity between the two. Brauer emphasised the existence of mandibles in the nymph of Trichoptera as an important distinction: the pupa of Micropteryx (Fig. 211) has however been recently shown to be similar to that of Trichoptera, so that unless it should be decided to transfer Micropteryx to Trichoptera, and then define Lepidoptera and Trichoptera as distinguished by the condition of the pupa, it would appear to be very difficult to retain the two groups as distinct.
Structure of Imago.—The head of a Lepidopteron is in large part made up of the compound eyes; in addition to these it frequently bears at the top a pair of small, simple eyes so much concealed by the scales as to cause us to wonder if seeing be carried on by them. The larger part of the front of the head is formed by the clypeus, which is separated by a well-marked line from the epicranium, the antennae being inserted on the latter near its point of junction with the former. There is sometimes (Saturnia, Castnia) on each side of the clypeus a deep pocket projecting into the head-cavity. The other parts of the head are but small. The occipital foramen is very large.[[164]]