Book 5 — CHAPTER II.

INSECTS.

Insects are easily distinguished from the other jointed animals by many salient characters. They have one pair of antennæ, two large compound eyes, composed of a great number of facets, and sometimes one, two, or three simple eyes placed on the crown or front of the head. In its adult condition an insect is composed of three different parts, which can be most readily noticed in a wasp. There is the head, with the antennæ and mouth-parts; the thorax, to which one or two pairs of wings are attached above, and three pairs of legs below; and the abdomen. Insects breathe through openings, called "stigmata," in the sides of the thorax and abdomen. They never possess more than six legs in the perfect state, the abdominal legs present in caterpillars, etc., disappearing in the adult condition. They generally pass through what is called a "metamorphosis,"—four different stages of life, called respectively egg; larva or caterpillar; pupa, nymph, or chrysalis; and imago, or perfect insect.

Insects are divided into several large sections, of which the following seven are the most important, and many entomologists prefer to include all insects under them:—

Sheath-winged Insects, or Beetles; Straight-winged Insects, or Earwigs, Cockroaches, Soothsayers, Stick-insects, Crickets, Grasshoppers, and Locusts; Nerve-winged or Lace-winged Insects, or Dragon-flies and their relatives; Stinging Four-winged Insects, or Ants, Bees and Wasps, and their allies; Scale-winged Insects, or Butterflies and Moths; Half-winged Insects, or Bugs and Frog-hoppers; Two-winged Insects, or Flies.

We proceed to notice these orders separately.

SHEATH-WINGED INSECTS, OR BEETLES.

BY THE REV. THEODORE WOOD, F.E.S.

Beetles are distinguished from most other insects by the fact that the front wings are not employed in flight, but are modified into horny sheaths, which cover and protect the lower pair while not in use. This arrangement, however, is also found in the Earwigs as well as in the so-called "Black-beetle" and its allies, and it is to be noted that the wing-cases of beetles lie evenly side by side together when the wings are folded, while the folding of the wings themselves is transverse as well as longitudinal. The number of species is very great, upwards of 100,000 having already been described, of which about 3,400 have been taken in the British Islands.

The order is again divided into several smaller groups, first among which stand the predaceous beetles of the land. Of these the common English Tiger-beetle is a familiar example. It is found on sandy and peaty heaths, and may be known at once by its bright green wing-cases, marked with white spots, and the metallic blue of the abdomen. The legs are coppery. It flies with great swiftness in the hot sunshine, taking to wing as readily as a blue-bottle fly, and feeds entirely upon other insects.

Another representative of the group is rich golden green in colour, with coppery reflections. It is only an occasional visitor to Britain, but abounds in France and Germany, where it feeds upon the caterpillars of the famous Processionary Moth, and is largely instrumental in checking their ravages in the great oak forests.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park.

TIGER-BEETLE.

The colouring of this insect is bright green with white markings and coppery legs.

Familiar to almost all is the Purple Ground-beetle, so plentiful in gardens, and easily recognisable by the violet margin to the black wing-cases. It pours out an evil-smelling liquid from the end of the body when handled.

The curious red-and-blue Bombardier, which, when interfered with, discharges a little puff of bluish-white smoke from the tip of the abdomen, accompanied by a distinct report, is also a member of this group. It is found under stones on river-banks, and also on the coast.

Next come the predaceous beetles of the water, of which we have a well-known British representative in the Great Brown Water-beetle. This insect, which is plentiful in weedy ponds, swims by means of its hind limbs, which are modified into broad, flat oars, with a mechanical arrangement for "feathering" as they are drawn back after making each stroke. It flies by night, often travelling for a long distance from one pond to another, and regains the water by suddenly folding its wings and allowing itself to fall from a height. In the female insect the wing-cases are grooved for about two-thirds of their length.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park.

GROUND-BEETLE.

The beetles of this group are generally of a black or bronzy colour, some species being beautifully metallic.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park.

GREAT BROWN WATER-BEETLE (MALE).

A large olive-brown species, about an inch in length, and nearly half as broad. The wing-cases of the female are grooved.

This beetle must not be confounded with the still larger Black Water-Beetle, which belongs to another group. This fine insect, which is not predaceous in the perfect state, is locally plentiful in ditches, and is in great request as an inmate of the freshwater aquarium. The hind limbs are not modified for swimming purposes.

Next in order come the Cocktails, so called from their curious habit of turning up the end of the body when alarmed. To this group belong most of the tiny "flies" which cause such severe pain when they find their way into the eyes. Some species, however, attain to a considerable size, the well-known Devil's Coach-Horse being fully an inch in length. The great majority are scavengers, being found in carrion, manure, and decaying vegetable matter. A few, however, are lodgers in the nests of ants, by whom they appear to be regarded as pets and treated with the utmost kindness.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park.

BLACK WATER-BEETLE.

A shining black species, longer, narrower, and more convex than the Great Brown Water-beetle.

The next group includes the curious insects popularly known as Burying-Beetles, which inter the bodies of small animals in the ground, scooping out the earth from underneath them by means of their broad and powerful heads, and shovelling it back when the carcases have sunk to a sufficient depth. The eggs are laid in the carrion thus buried. Most of these beetles are distinguished by broad blotches or bars of orange on the wing-cases, but one common British species is entirely black.

Allied to these, and very similar in habits, are the Flat Burying-Beetles, of which there are about a dozen British species. In the best known of these the thorax is dull red in colour, and the black wing-cases are curiously wrinkled. Another species is reddish yellow in colour, with two round black spots on each wing-case. It is found on oak-trees, and feeds upon caterpillars.

The Leaf-horned Beetles are distinguished by the fact that the terminal joints of the antennæ lie one upon another like the leaves of a book. In many cases they can be expanded at will into a broad fan-like club. The well-known Stag-beetle of Great Britain is a representative of this group. It is a somewhat local species, being plentiful in some parts of the country, and entirely unknown in others. The grub lives for several years in the trunks of elm-trees, feeding upon the solid wood. When fully grown, it buries itself in the earth, and constructs a large cocoon, in which it passes the chrysalis stage of its existence. The perfect beetle emerges in November, but remains within the cocoon until the following June. In the female the jaws are very much smaller than in the male, but are nevertheless more formidable as weapons. The insect may often be seen flying on warm summer evenings.

Photos by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [Regent's Park.

TWO BURYING-BEETLES.

These insects are about an inch in length; many are black, but others have orange-red bands on the wing-cases.

A still larger insect belonging to the same group is the Hercules Beetle, found in the West Indies and tropical America, a male of average size being nearly 5 inches in length. In this beetle the thorax is prolonged into a horn, which is curved downwards, while the head is produced into a similar horn curved upwards, so that the two look like a pair of enormous jaws. It has been stated that these horns, both of which are furnished with tooth-like projections, are employed in sawing off the smaller branches of trees, the beetle grasping a bough firmly, and flying round and round in a circle, till the wood is completely cut through. This assertion, however, is totally unworthy of credit. An example of the beetle—evidently imported—was recently found crawling on a hedge near Biggleswade.

One of the largest of all known beetles is Drury's Goliath Beetle, a native of the Gaboon, whose body is almost as big as the closed fist of a man. It appears to feed, while a grub, on the wood of decaying trees, and undergoes its transformation to the chrysalis state in an earthen cocoon, the peculiarity of which is that a thick belt, or ridge, runs round the middle. How this belt is formed is a mystery, as it lies upon the outside, while the grub necessarily constructs the cocoon from the inside. Several living examples of this beetle were exhibited in the summer of 1898 in the Insect-house of the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park, where they remained for five or six weeks, feeding on the flesh of melons. A photograph of this beetle will be found in the Coloured Plate.

The common Cockchafer belongs to another division of the same group. This insect is extremely injurious, as the grub lives for three years or more underground, feeding on the roots of various cultivated plants. The perfect beetle appears in May and June, and is only too plentiful almost everywhere. A month or so later its place is taken by the Summer Chafer, or June Bug, which may often be seen flying in hundreds round the tops of low trees soon after sunset, while the smaller Coch-y-bonddhu—the "Cockerbundy" of the angler—often appears about the same time in hundreds of thousands. The beautiful Rose-beetle, too, with its bright golden-green wing-cases marked with wavy whitish lines, may often be seen sunning itself in roses or on the blossoms of pinks.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [Regent's Park.

MALE STAG-BEETLE.

The males are often 2 inches long; the females have comparatively small jaws.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park.

SKIPJACK BEETLE.

The larvæ of this family are known as Wire-worms.

Photo by L. H. Joutel] [New York.

HERCULES BEETLE FLYING.

The most remarkable feature about this insect is its huge horn-like projection from the thorax, which is nearly as long as the rest of its body.

The famous Egyptian Scarabæus is also a member of this group. It is remarkable not only for the sacred character attributed to it by the ancient Egyptians, but also for its curious habit of rolling along balls of dung until it can find a soft spot in which to bury them. When the egg hatches, the grub feeds upon the dung, the quantity provided being exactly sufficient for its requirements. The common Dor Beetle of Great Britain is allied to this insect; it tunnels down to a depth of 14 or 15 inches beneath a patch of excrement, and lays its egg at the bottom of the burrow.

The Skipjack Beetles, parents of the well-known Wire- worms, which cause so much mischief by feeding upon the roots of cultivated crops, represent another group. These beetles owe their popular title to their singular method of regaining their feet when they happen to roll over upon their backs. Their bodies being very smooth and polished, and their legs very short, they cannot recover their footing in the ordinary manner. On the lower part of the body, however, is a highly elastic spine, known as the "mucro," which lies in a sheath. When the beetle falls over, it arches its body into the form of a bow, resting only upon the head and the extreme tip of the abdomen, removes the spine from its sheath, and then drives it sharply back again. The result is that the central part of the body strikes the ground with such force that the insect springs into the air to a height of 2 or 3 inches. Then, turning half over as it falls, it alights on its feet.

Photo by B. H. Bentley] [Sheffield.

COCKCHAFER ON DAISY.

A very destructive insect which feeds on the leaves of trees. The larva devours the roots of plants, and is often so plentiful as to cause very serious mischief.

The Fire-fly of the tropics belongs to the same group. The luminosity of this insect proceeds from two different parts of the body, a brilliant yellowish-green light shining out through two transparent window-like spots on the thorax, while an orange glow is visible on the lower surface of the abdomen. The exact cause of the light is unknown, as is also the manner of its control by the insect.

The same may be said of the common English Glowworm, in which the light proceeds from the lower surface of the hind part of the body. The male of this insect is winged; the female is grub-like in appearance and wingless. The grub itself, which may be found in autumn, is also luminous, and feeds upon snails.

Another group includes a very large number of beetles of very varying character and appearance. Among these are the Oil-beetles, so called from their habit of exuding small drops of an oily liquid from the joints of their limbs when handled. The eggs are laid in batches of several thousand in holes in the ground, and the little long-legged grubs, on emerging, clamber up the stems of flowers, and hide themselves among the petals to await the coming of a bee. When one of the latter appears, two or three of the grubs cling to its hairy body, and are carried back to the nest, in which they live as parasites. One of these beetles may be seen commonly upon grassy banks in early spring.

Allied to these insects is the Blister-beetle, or Spanish Fly, so well known from its use in medicine. It is a very handsome species, of a bright golden-green colour, occasionally found in Great Britain on the foliage of ash-trees. In many parts of Southern Europe it is extremely abundant.

The beetles belonging to the large and important group of Weevils are characterised, as a rule, by the fact that the head is prolonged into a more or less long and slender snout, or "rostrum," at the end of which the jaws are situated. The number of species already known is above 20,000.

Photo by L. H. Joutel] [New York.

HARLEQUIN BEETLE.

Notice the enormous length of the front legs.

One of the largest and most famous of these insects is the Diamond-beetle of Brazil, the scales from whose wing-cases are so frequently mounted as microscopic objects. When viewed through a good instrument under a powerful light, the beauty of these scales is simply indescribable. All that one can say of them is that they seem to be composed of diamonds, rubies, topazes, and emeralds massed together in rich profusion, while diamonds are transformed into rubies, rubies into topazes, and topazes into emeralds at every change of light.

The Osier-weevil, a black-and-white species about three-eighths of an inch long, is found on osiers in Great Britain, the grub boring galleries in the stems, and often causing considerable damage. The well-known Corn-weevil is still more destructive in granaries, the walls of which are often completely blackened by its crawling multitudes. The grub lives inside the grain, eating out the whole of the interior, and a single pair of the weevils are said to be capable of producing a family of more than 6,000 individuals in the course of a single season. The Rice-weevil is equally destructive to rice, and may be recognised by the two red spots on each wing-case.

The famous "Gru-gru" of the West Indies, which is regarded as so great a dainty both by the negroes and by many of the white colonists, is the grub of the Palm-weevil. It lives in the stems of palm-trees, and also in those of sugar-canes, causing a great deal of mischief by its burrowings. When fully fed, it constructs a cocoon by tearing off strips of bark and weaving them neatly together. The Sugar-weevil is still more troublesome, feeding upon the juice of the sugar-cane, and affecting the entire plant in such a manner that sugar can no longer be manufactured from it.

"Bad" nuts are also due to one of these insects, the common Nut-weevil. which introduces its egg into the kernel during the earlier stages of its development. When the grub hatches, it proceeds to devour the kernel, leaving a quantity of bad-flavoured "frass" behind it, while the shell is left untouched until the perfect insect emerges. An allied species attacks acorns in a similar manner.

Photo by J. Edwards] [Colesborne.

JUMPING-BEETLE. ALLIED TO THE TURNIP-FLEA.

It is about one-tenth of an inch in length.

Among the finest and largest of all beetles are many of those belonging to the great Long-horn group, of which the common British Musk-beetle is a familiar example. This insect owes both its popular and scientific titles to its powerful odour, which perhaps resembles that of sweetbriar rather than musk, and can often be detected at a distance of twenty or thirty yards. The beetle, which is rich metallic green in colour, with long, slender antennæ, may be found in July sunning itself on the trunks or foliage of willow-trees. It varies considerably in size.

Still more plentiful is the Wasp-beetle, with its black wing-cases banded with bright yellow. While flying, it may easily be mistaken for the insect whose name it bears. The grub lives in old posts, rails, hop-poles, etc., feeding upon the solid wood.

The Timberman is remarkable for the extreme length of the antennæ, which, in the male insect, are three or four times as long as the body, and trail out far behind it during flight. It is found, not uncommonly, in fir woods in Scotland.

The beautiful Harlequin Beetle of tropical America is one of the largest members of the group, and is remarkable for the great length of the front legs as well as for the singular colouring of the wing-cases. It lives almost entirely in the trees, swinging itself from branch to branch somewhat after the manner of a spider-monkey. When it ventures into the air, it is greatly incommoded by the size of its limbs and the length of its antennæ, and seems to have but little power of directing its course.

Photo by J. Edwards, Colesborne.

REED-BEETLE.

Among the group to which this insect belongs are many of the most brilliantly coloured British beetles.

Another great group of beetles is that of the Plant-eaters, many of which are exceedingly beautiful. The Reed-beetles of Britain, for example, are resplendent in crimson and green and purple and blue, while the metallic radiance of others has gained for them the title of Golden Apples.

The notorious Colorado Beetle is a member of this group. It may be recognised at once by the five black streaks running down each of the yellow wing-cases. On the havoc which it causes among potato-plants in North America it is unnecessary to dilate. On a smaller scale, the Turnip-flea is very mischievous in Britain, perforating the leaves of turnip-plants, or—worse still—eating off the seed-leaves as soon as they appear above the surface of the ground. Of only too many of these exquisite beetles, in fact, it must be said that their beauty is only equalled by their destructiveness.

The Ladybirds include a very large number of species. Some of these, such as the common Two-spot Ladybird, are exceedingly variable, a long series being easily obtained in which no two specimens resemble one another. Both as grubs and as perfect insects they feed upon the "Green Fly" of the farmer, combining with the grubs of the Lace-wing and Hoverer Flies to keep its numbers within due limits.

Almost equally common is the Seven-spot Ladybird, a considerably larger insect, with seven round black spots on its scarlet wing-cases, which may be seen on almost any grassy bank in spring. Both this and the preceding species sometimes visit the Kentish coast in vast swarms, the beach being reddened by their bodies for miles. The last immigration of this description took place in 1886, in the summer of which year the hops in East Kent were almost destroyed by blight, and the ladybirds made their way at once to the hop-fields and cleared them of the pest in a wonderfully short space of time. A much smaller species, known as the Twenty-two Spot, is yellow in colour and has eleven black spots on each wing-case. It is generally found crawling about on nettle-leaves in the early part of the summer.

Allied to the Ladybirds are the very curious Tortoise-beetles. In these insects the wing-cases project to a considerable distance beyond the sides of the body, and the legs are so short that only the feet can be seen from above, so that the appearance is very much like that of a tortoise with the limbs partly withdrawn into the shell. Many different species are known, in some of which the wing-cases are streaked with brilliant metallic silver, which, however, fades away very shortly after death. The commonest of the British tortoise-beetles is found on thistles.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [Regent's Park.

MUSK-BEETLE.

The odour of this beetle may often be detected at a distance of twenty or thirty yards.

Another very large group of beetles is represented by the Cellar-beetle, which is generally very common in old houses. This insect must not be confused with the so-called "Black-beetle," from which it may easily be distinguished by its deep black colour, its very much shorter feelers, and the curious point into which the end of its body is produced. It hides away in dark corners by day, and crawls slowly about by night. Related to it is the Meal-worm, so much in request for the food of cage-birds, which is usually very plentiful in granaries.

Very different, in appearance, yet belonging to the same group, is the handsome Cardinal Beetle, a bright scarlet insect which is not uncommon in summer. It may sometimes be found lurking behind pieces of loose bark, and is also fond of resting upon the flowers of umbelliferous plants in the hot sunshine. A second species, which is not nearly so plentiful, may be distinguished by the fact that the head is entirely black.

Still more curious is the Rhipiphorus Beetle, which is parasitic within the nests of wasps. Where the egg is laid, or how the grub first finds its way into the nest, no one has yet succeeded in discovering; but having made its entry, the insect proceeds to burrow into the body of a wasp-grub, and lives within it for several days, feeding upon its flesh meanwhile. After increasing considerably in size, it creeps out of the carcase of its victim and changes its skin, after which it resumes its interrupted meal, and continues to feed until the last vestige of the wasp-grub has been devoured. It then changes to a chrysalis in the cell, and the perfect insect appears a few days later. Oddly enough, the wasps appear to take no notice of its presence, and never attempt to molest it. The two sexes of this beetle are quite unlike one another, the male having the wing-cases yellow and the feelers heavily plumed, while the female is black, with the feelers only slightly toothed.

Most singular of all the insects belonging to this order, however, is the strange little Stalk-eyed Beetle, which spends the greater part of its life half buried in the body of a bee. In this insect the feelers are branched, somewhat like the antennules, or lesser feelers, of a lobster, and the eyes, which are comparatively few in number, are set at the ends of short foot-stalks. The male has very narrow wing-cases, but extremely large wings, which have a milky appearance during flight that can hardly be mistaken. The female has no wings at all, and in general aspect is nothing more than a grub. In early spring a great number of solitary bees are infested by this extraordinary parasite, which burrows into their bodies under cover of the projecting edges of the segments, and there remains feeding upon their internal juices for several weeks, with only just the tip of its tail protruding. When fully fed, it emerges from the body of its involuntary host, leaving a large round hole behind it, which frequently closes up and heals. In any case, strange to say, the ravages of the parasite appear to have but little effect upon the health of the bee.

STRAIGHT-WINGED INSECTS, OR EARWIGS, COCKROACHES, SOOTHSAYERS, STICK-INSECTS, CRICKETS, GRASSHOPPERS, AND LOCUSTS.

BY W. F. KIRBY, F.L.S.

The insects of this order are less numerous in species than those of any other but the next, and are easily recognised. The fore wings are usually of a leathery consistency, and the hind wings are folded beneath them like a fan in the more typical families, though in the Earwigs and Cockroaches a somewhat different arrangement prevails. In the Earwigs, indeed, the wings are doubled back at the ends, and in the Cockroaches the wing-cases, or "tegmina," as they are technically called, overlap. As a rule these insects feed entirely on vegetable substances. The "Soothsayers" form an exception, being carnivorous, though they are not parasitic, like the Ichneumon-flies, but feed on fresh food; and several species of Earwigs, Cockroaches, and Crickets, especially those which are semi-domesticated, are omnivorous, and will eat animal as well as vegetable food. These insects have an imperfect metamorphosis—that is, there is no inactive pupa-state; but, the young, on emerging from the egg, already possess a recognisable resemblance to their full-grown parents, and their metamorphosis consists of a series of moults, before the last of which rudimentary wings appear in those species which ultimately acquire these appendages. A considerable number of species never have wings, a circumstance which frequently renders it difficult to determine whether a specimen is fully developed. The antennæ are usually long, and the joints distinctly separated, but are very rarely feathered. At the other end of the body we often find two long jointed organs, called "cerci." The jaws are always furnished with strong mandibles. Many Grasshoppers and Locusts have a curious arrangement on the shank of the front leg, consisting either of a round or an oval cavity on each side, closed by a membrane, or of two long parallel slits in front. These are considered to be organs of hearing. The largest known insects belong to this order; the proportion of large or moderate-sized species is considerable; and the smallest are probably considerably larger than the smallest members of any other group. They are not numerous in temperate climates; there are only about fifty British species, and most of the larger of these are either naturalised species, or merely casual visitors from abroad.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park.

EARWIG.

The forceps-like appendage at the end of this insect's body is said to be used for folding and unfolding the wings.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [Regent's Park.

AMERICAN COCKROACH.

Common in many warehouses in England, and now found in most parts of the world.

The Earwigs form the first family. Some are wingless, but most have very short wing-cases, under which very large wings, forming the most beautiful feature of these otherwise unattractive insects, are doubled and folded into a very small compass. Some of the smaller species fly readily; but others, such as the Common Earwig, though furnished with ample wings, are rarely seen to use them. The most conspicuous organ of the earwigs is the curious forceps at the extremity of the body, the use of which does not seem to be well made out, though it has been suggested that it is used for folding and unfolding the wings. The forceps differs very much in size and shape in different species; it is always larger in the male than in the female, and often differently shaped. In the common earwig the male forceps is flattened and contiguous at the base, and rounded and incurved at the extremity. There are two varieties, in one of which the forceps is twice as long as in the other; but intermediate gradations do not seem to be met with. In the female the forceps is narrow, nearly straight, and approximating. The earwig is a nocturnal insect, and hides itself during the day in large-headed flowers, like dahlias, to which it is very destructive, or in any convenient dark and narrow crevice, especially among decaying vegetable matter. It derives its name from its occasionally entering the human ear, but it may be easily driven out by dropping in a little olive oil. In most books it is denied that earwigs enter the ear at all, but it is, nevertheless, an undoubted fact; and the fanciful derivation that has been suggested of earwing in the place of earwig cannot be entertained respecting an insect which seldom shows its wings at all. It should be noted that the female earwig is said to tend her young very much as a hen tends her chickens—an uncommon habit in insects.

Photo by Highley.

STICK-INSECT.

The largest insect known is a species of stick-insect; it is a native of Borneo, and measures 13 inches.

Photo by Scholastic Photo Co.] [Parson's Green.

WALKING LEAF-INSECTS.

Natives of the East Indies, and remarkable for their resemblance to green leaves.

The Common Cockroach is too well known to need description. The individuals with half-developed wings are the perfect females; but there are other species in which the wings are fully developed in both sexes, others in which the male is winged and the female wingless, and others again in which both sexes are wingless. In warm countries and on ship-board cockroaches are far more troublesome than in cold climes; and the large brown ones, with a mark on the back of the thorax resembling a crown, and very broad wing-cases and wings, are called Drummers in the West Indies, from the loud noise they keep up during the night.

Lady Burton has given an amusing account of her introduction to cockroaches abroad: "After two days we were given a very pleasant suite of rooms—bedroom, dining- and drawing-room—with wide windows overlooking the Tagus and a great part of Lisbon. These quarters were, however, not without drawbacks, for here occurred an incident which gave me a foretaste of the sort of thing I was to expect in Brazil. Our bedroom was a large whitewashed place; there were three holes in the wall, one at the bedside bristling with horns, and these were cockroaches some three inches long. The drawing-room was gorgeous with yellow satin, and the magnificent yellow curtains were sprinkled with these crawling things. The consequence was that I used to stand on a chair and scream. This annoyed Richard very much. 'A nice sort of traveller and companion you are going to make,' he said; 'I suppose you think you look very pretty and interesting standing on that chair and howling at those innocent creatures.' This hurt me so much that, without descending from the chair, I stopped screaming, and made a meditation like St. Simon Stylites on his pillar; and it was, 'That if I was going to live in a country always in contact with these and worse things, though I had a perfect horror of anything black and crawling, it would never do to go on like that.' So I got down, fetched a basin of water and a slipper, and in two hours by the watch I had knocked ninety-seven of them into it. It cured me. From that day I had no more fear of vermin and reptiles, which is just as well in a country where Nature is over-luxuriant. A little while after we changed our rooms we were succeeded by Lord and Lady Lytton, and, to my infinite delight, I heard the same screams coming from the same room a little while after. 'There,' I said in triumph, 'you see I am not the only woman who does not like cockroaches.'"

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park.

HOUSE-CRICKET.

Very similar in its habits to the cockroach.

The dimensions of the insects are not so much exaggerated; for I believe this story refers to the large reddish American cockroach, which is common in many English cities, although only in warehouses. It does not usually much exceed an inch in length; but the antennæ are very long, and the wing-cases expand nearly 3 inches. (See photograph on page 689.)

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park.

MOLE-CRICKET.

A brown insect about 2 inches long. The very broad and flat front legs are used for burrowing.

The Soothsayers, or Praying-insects, are not British, though one or two species are found in the south of Europe. They have long fore legs, the shanks of which are set with a double row of long, curving, sabre-like spines, and when at rest they hold them up as if in the attitude of prayer; but they are really on the look-out for prey, and the long spines are admirably adapted for wounding or grasping the insects which form their food. They also fight fiercely among themselves, and it is no uncommon occurrence for a female to tear to pieces and devour her mate, either during or after their courtship. The soothsayers are often of a green colour, so as to match the grass and leaves among which they live, and thus conceal them from their prey.

The Stick-insects. or Spectre-insects, have some resemblance to the Soothsayers, but are exclusively vegetable-feeders, and have long, sprawling legs, or shorter ones, sometimes more or less lobate; but they never possess prehensile fore legs for seizing prey. The wing-cases are generally quite small; but some species have beautiful large green or pink wings, folded fan-wise, and covered by the stout front border of the wing. Many species are wingless, and of a grey or brown colour, which renders them scarcely distinguishable from dry bits of stick; and among these is the largest living insect known, a grey stick-like species from Borneo, measuring nearly 13 inches from head to tail. Other species have curious excrescences on the legs and body, which make them look like bits of wood overgrown with moss or lichen; while others possess large flat lobes growing from the legs and body, which cause them to be almost indistinguishable from green leaves; and, indeed, these insects are frequently called "Walking Leaves."

Photo by L. H. Joutel] [New York.

LONG-HORNED GRASSHOPPER.

This insect belongs to the same family as the well-known British species. The specimen from which this photograph was taken had unfortunately (as is often the case) broken antennæ; they should be twice as long as the wings.

With the Crickets we commence the last three families of the group, which are distinguished from the others by their power of leaping. The hind legs are very long, with very thick thighs, and generally a double row of strong teeth or spines on the shanks. The feet are generally three-jointed, and there is usually a long ovipositor in the females. There are very few true crickets in England, but three of these are very conspicuous species. The first is the Mole-cricket, a large light brown insect nearly 2 inches long, with broad, short front legs rather like those of a mole, which it uses in a similar way. Though common and destructive in fields and gardens, it is not often seen: but if water be thrown on the ground overnight, and a board laid over it, one or two mole-crickets are likely to be found underneath in the morning. The House-cricket resembles this insect in colour, but is not much more than half an inch long, and there is nothing remarkable in the structure of its legs. It is almost the only noisy insect found in English houses, and is very similar to the common cockroach in its habits, although free from the disagreeable smell which adds to the disgust the latter insect often inspires. The third species, the Field-Cricket, is a smooth black insect, larger and stouter than the house-cricket. It constructs burrows in grassy places, but is not now a very common species in England. In the last two species, and many others, there is a bare space on one of the wing-cases of the male, crossed by ribs in a manner varying according to the species, which helps to produce the loud chirping for which these insects are remarkable.

Photo by J. Edwards] [Colesborne.

CAPE GRASSHOPPER (FEMALE).

This insect, which is remarkable for the inflated bladder-like appearance of the male, is an object of superstition among the Boers. Colour, bright apple-green with white stripes.

The Long-horned Grasshoppers, which form the next family, are distinguished by having four joints to their feet, a long ovipositor in the female, and very long, slender antennæ. The commonest species inhabiting England, and one of the largest grasshoppers, is the Great Green Grasshopper, which is found leaping about among long grass and low bushes, especially in the south of England. It is about 2 inches in length. Among the foreign species of this rather extensive family, we may mention some green or reddish South American species, with a large round spot on the hind wings, not unlike those seen in the peacock-butterfly.

Photo by Highley.

EGYPTIAN LOCUST.

A common North African species, of which specimens occasionally visit England.

Photo by Highley.

EGYPTIAN LOCUST.

This figure shows the upper surface of the specimen represented in the preceding photograph.

Photos by W. L. H. Duckworth] [Cambridge.

WART-EATING GRASSHOPPER (TWO VIEWS).

Used by Swedish peasants to bite off their warts.

The last family includes the Short-horned Grasshoppers, or True Locusts, so very destructive in many countries, though the real Migratory Locusts are only casual visitors to England, the native British species being all small insects, found among grass, and doing but little damage. The commonest of the Migratory Locusts visiting Britain is the Red-legged Locust, which expands from 2 to 4 inches, and has grey wing-cases varied with brown, pale green hind wings, and red hind shanks, with white black-tipped spines. Another species, the Egyptian Locust, more rarely met with, has brown fore wings, and grey hind wings, crossed by a broad blackish band. Two photographs are given on page 693 of a specimen brought to England among vegetables in the spring of 1901. Many foreign locusts, large and small, have beautiful red or blue hind wings, and some of these are common on the Continent, though not in England; those found in Europe are comparatively small, measuring only 1 or 2 inches across the wing-cases; but some of the great South American locusts measure as much as 7 or 8 inches in expanse. However, some of the smaller species, such as the Cyprian Locust and the Rocky Mountain Locust, which measure less than 2 inches across the wing-cases, are much more destructive than the large species.

A real invasion of locusts is a terrible calamity, for the insects fly like birds, but in vast flocks, and devour every scrap of vegetation where they settle. Sometimes a flight, two or three miles broad, continues to fly steadily over the same spot for hours together. Sometimes flocks perish at sea, and are cast up on the beach in heaps like sand-hills, extending for a distance of forty or fifty miles. Nor are the young locusts less destructive before they acquire wings; for they march across a district in such numbers as to extinguish fires, fill up trenches, and overcome all similar obstacles placed in their way by sheer force of numbers; and it is well said of a visitation of locusts, "The land is as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind is a desolate wilderness."

NERVE-WINGED OR LACE-WINGED INSECTS, OR DRAGON-FLIES AND THEIR RELATIVES.

BY THE REV. THEODORE WOOD, F.E.S.

The Nerve-winged Insects owe their title to the peculiar character of their wings, the horny veins which form the framework of those organs being multiplied and sub-divided to such an extent that they assume the appearance of exceedingly delicate network.

These insects fall naturally into two great groups, in one of which the chrysalis, or pupa, is active, and continues to take food like the grub, while in the other it is passive and helpless, like that of a butterfly or a moth.

Prominent among the members of the first division are the Dragon-flies, which owe their title partly to their extreme voracity, and partly to the fact that they feed entirely upon living insects, which they pursue through the air. They are exceedingly swift of wing, and may be seen hawking over ponds and streams on any fine day throughout the summer and early autumn.

The earlier part of their lives is spent in the water, in which the eggs are laid by the parent insect. The grubs are usually of a dull grey or brownish-green colour, and are remarkable for a curious organ known as the "mask," which partly covers the lower surface of the head. This apparatus consists of two joints, which fold upon one another, but can be extended at will, the one farthest from the head terminating in a pair of large and powerful jaws. When the grub perceives an insect-victim, it swims cautiously beneath, and seizes it by means of these jaws. The "mask" is then folded, and the prisoner drawn down within reach of the mandibles, by means of which it is speedily devoured.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [Regent's Park.

DRAGON-FLY.

These insects are often known as "Horse-stingers," although they do not sting horses; in fact, they are perfectly harmless, except to insects smaller and weaker than themselves.

The method of swimming practised by the dragon-fly grub is also very curious. Through the centre of the body runs a longitudinal tube, terminating in a circular orifice, closed by means of five tightly fitting valves. These valves, which together form a sharp spike when closed, can be separated at will. When the insect wishes to swim, it fills the tube with water, and then squirts the contents forcibly out, the result being that it is driven swiftly forwards by the reaction.

The pupa of the dragon-fly is very much like the grub, with the exception that the rudiments of the future wings may be seen on the back.

About forty species of these insects are found in the British Islands, of which the Great Dragon-fly is a well-known example. The body is 3 inches in length, while the extended wings measure about 4 inches from tip to tip. In colour it is light rusty brown, with a few pale markings. The "Horse-stinger"—which is perfectly harmless, notwithstanding its popular title—is also common, and may be recognised at once by its flat dull yellow body, which becomes blue in the fully developed male. In the graceful and beautiful Demoiselle the male is deep blue, with black patches on the wings, while the female is entirely green.

Allied to these insects is the Common May-fly, popularly supposed to live for one day only. As a matter of fact, however, it spends a couple of years in the grub and pupa states, inhabiting burrows in the banks of ponds and streams. These burrows are curved, and have two entrances, one above the other, so that the insect can pass in and out with perfect ease.

The May-fly is also remarkable for the fact that the perfect insect changes its skin shortly after reaching maturity. Before this change takes place the female insect is the "Green Drake" of the angler; afterwards, the "Grey Drake."

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park.

QUEEN TERMITE.

Her huge white body is full of eggs, of which she lays thousands every day.

To this group belong also the Termites, or "White Ants," so exceedingly numerous in almost all the warmer parts of the world. These are social insects, living together in vast colonies, and making most wonderful nests, which consist of a vast and complicated series of chambers and passages, sheltered beneath a turreted dome of clay. In the centre is the "royal cell," inhabited by the "king" and "queen," as the perfect male and female are called. These are winged when first they leave the pupal shell. But after taking a single flight, they snap off their wings at the base, just as ants do; while for the rest of their lives they are absolute prisoners in the cell built around them by the workers.

Shortly after this strange incarceration takes place, the body of the queen swells to a huge size, so that, to quote Professor Drummond, she becomes "a large, loathsome, cylindrical package, 2 or 3 inches long, in shape like a sausage, and as white as a bolster." She now begins to deposit eggs at the rate of several thousands in a day, which are at once carried off by the workers, to whom is entrusted the entire care of the helpless young. These workers, which are exceedingly numerous, also enlarge the nest from time to time, and construct tunnels of clay up the trunks and along the branches of trees, through which they may convey to the nurseries in security the gums and decaying wood for the nutriment of the young.

A fourth form of insect is also found in the termites' nest, known as the "Soldier." The head is much larger and the jaws are much longer and stronger than those of the worker, and the sole function appears to be to defend the nest when attacked. Both soldier and worker, apparently, proceed from the same eggs which produce the king and queen, the difference in development being probably due—as in the hive-bee—to the character of the food with which the young are supplied.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [Regent's Park.

TERMITES.

The perfect male and female are winged, the "worker" and the "soldier" being more like grubs than perfect insects.

Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.

TERMITES' NESTS IN QUEENSLAND.

These nests are sometimes 14 or 15 feet high.

Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.

TERMITES' NEST IN QUEENSLAND.

The smaller nests, when opened and emptied, are used by the natives as ovens.

Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.

TERMITES AT WORK.

This shows one of the most destructive of wood-eating insects, nearly of the natural size.

In a state of nature termites are undoubtedly beneficial. They are scavengers, in fact, whose duty it is to remove the dead and decaying wood which would otherwise encumber the ground for many years. But in civilised districts they are extremely mischievous, books, furniture, and all the woodwork of houses being often completely destroyed by them before their presence is even suspected.

The second division of the order also forms two well-marked groups—namely, the Flat-winged Insects, in which the wings are fully spread, horizontally or obliquely, even in repose, and the Hairy-winged Insects, in which those organs can be folded longitudinally, like the joints of a fan.

Of the former group, the Ant-lion of Southern Europe is a familiar example. The perfect insect is seldom seen, owing to its nocturnal habits. In appearance it is not unlike a small and delicately built dragon-fly, with a yellowish head, a black body, and transparent wings marbled with brownish spots. The larva, however, is terrestrial, and lives in a funnel-shaped pitfall which it scoops out in the sand, always working backwards in a spiral direction, and jerking out the sand with its broad head in an almost continuous shower. Having completed the excavation, it buries itself at the bottom with merely the tips of its jaws appearing above the surface, and there waits for ants or other small creatures to fall down the sloping sides, accelerating their descent, if need be, by flinging sand upon them. The size of the pit varies with that of the insect, the fully grown grub digging down to the depth of about 2 inches, while the cavity is about 3 inches in diameter.

The mouth of the ant-lion grub is very curiously constructed, the jaws lying in a groove on the inner margin of the mandibles, or jaws proper; so that while an insect is held prisoner by the latter, the former can be employed in sucking its juices. When the body of the victim has been completely drained, the empty skin is thrown out of the pit by a jerk of the head.

The chrysalis, too, is remarkable for possessing jaws, by means of which it cuts its way out of the cocoon which it made, when a larva, by spinning grains of sand together with silken threads.

In some South European and African insects allied to the ant-lions the hind wings are modified into extremely long and slender shafts, slightly expanded at the extremities. In an Indian species belonging to a related genus these wings are scarcely more than threads, and bear a superficial resemblance to the attenuated limbs of certain gnats. One group, of which a Japanese species is a well-known representative, is characterised by the long, slender, and clubbed antennæ.

Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.

TERMITES' NEST.

Showing one year's reconstruction to nest, of which the photographer made a section.

The Mantis-flies are remarkable for the structure of the fore limbs, which are almost exactly similar in character to those of the praying-mantis. The upper segment of the leg is so lengthened as to look like an additional joint; the lower surface of the thigh is armed with a number of long, sharp spines; and the tibia, or lower part of the leg, folds closely down upon it, after the manner of the blade of a clasp-knife. These limbs are used for seizing, an insect which is once grasped being effectually prevented by the spines from breaking away.

The larvæ of these insects are parasitic in the nests of tree-wasps and spiders, and have the peculiarity of practically losing their limbs as they approach maturity; so that while at first they are free and active, they afterwards become almost as helpless as those of many beetles. One species is found in Southern Europe, the remainder being widely distributed over the hotter regions of the globe.

Allied to the Mantis-flies are the curious Snake-flies, or Camel-flies. In these insects the head is very large, and is attached to the thorax, or central division of the body, by a long and distinct neck, which allows it great freedom of motion. The neck is usually raised and the head bent down, giving to the insect a remarkably snake-like appearance.

These flies are predaceous in their habits, and the four British species may be found on the banks of ponds and small streams, where they can obtain insect-victims in plenty. The larvæ live beneath the bark of trees, and wriggle about in a singularly serpentine fashion.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park.

SCORPION-FLY.

Remarkable for the curious structure of the end of the body.

Equally curious in a different way are the Scorpion-flies, in which the body is prolonged into a slender three-jointed process, the extremity of which, in the male, is furnished with a pair of curved forceps. In spite of their somewhat formidable appearance these insects are perfectly harmless. They are very plentiful almost everywhere, and may be found in numbers on any sunny summer morning resting on the herbage on hedge-banks, or running actively about on the leaves of low bushes. Like the Snake-flies, they are predaceous, feeding entirely upon other insects, and often attacking those which are bigger and apparently stronger than themselves. The eggs are laid underground, and the grubs, which are entirely subterranean in their habits, feed upon decomposing vegetable matter. When fully fed, they burrow still deeper into the ground, and there change into pupæ, from which the perfect insects emerge about a fortnight later. In the common English species the body is shining black, and the legs are yellow, while the transparent wings are marked with brown spots, which generally form three broken transverse bands. The insect is about half an inch in length.

Certain allied insects have very slender bodies and long legs, and might easily be mistaken for "daddy-long-legs" by any one who failed to notice the presence of two pairs of wings. A species found in Southern Europe is reddish yellow in colour, with a brown thorax and yellowish wings. It has a curious habit of suspending itself from a twig by its fore legs, and seizing any flying insect which may come within reach with the middle and hinder pairs.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [Regent's Park.

ADULT FORM OF ANT-LION.

The grub of this insect lives in small pits in sandy places, and feeds upon the ants, etc., which roll down the sloping sides.

Allied to the foregoing is the extraordinary little snow-insect, which makes its appearance in mid-winter, and may even be found crawling on the surface of snow. In general appearance it is not unlike a larval grasshopper, with very long, slender legs, and antennæ of about the same length as the body. There is also a well-developed beak. The wings are quite rudimentary in the female, while even in the male they are so short as to be perfectly useless for flight. The insect is remarkably active, nevertheless, and possesses the power of leaping, although the hinder thighs are not developed in any great degree. In colour it is metallic green, with the beak, antennæ, legs, wings, and ovipositor rusty red. It is not uncommon in the north of England and Scotland.

Far more generally distributed is the Lacewing-fly, or Golden-eye, which may be seen almost anywhere on warm summer evenings flitting slowly to and fro in the twilight. During the daytime it may often be found resting upon fences, or sitting on the leaves of low plants. In colour it is pale green, with a peculiar milky appearance, and the eyes glow as though lighted by an inward fire. The wings are so closely and elaborately veined that they look like a piece of the most delicate lace-work. It is not advisable to handle the insect, for, although perfectly harmless, it possesses the power of pouring out from its body a liquid of the most horrible odour, which clings to the fingers in spite of repeated ablutions.

The life-history of the lacewing-fly is very curious. When the maternal insect lays her eggs, she first deposits a drop of a highly glutinous fluid upon a leaf or slender twig, and then, with an upward jerk of her long body, draws it out into a slender thread. On contact with the air this thread immediately hardens, and just as she releases her hold the fly attaches a single egg to the tip. In this way 200 or 300 eggs are laid together in a little cluster, which looks just like a tiny patch of moss. In the earlier botanical manuals, indeed, it was actually named, figured, and described as a moss.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park.

LARGE CADDIS-FLY.

The largest British species measures about an inch and a half across the wings.

The grubs which hatch out from these eggs feed upon plant-lice, of which they devour vast numbers, draining the juices by means of their hollow jaws, and then fastening the empty skins on their own backs, as an American Indian might decorate himself with the scalps of his victims. Owing to this singular habit, the grub becomes perfectly unrecognisable after the first few days of its life, only the jaws and feet being visible beneath the pile of dry skins. When fully fed, it changes to the pupal condition in a silken cocoon, which it attaches to a leaf, and the perfect insect makes its appearance in the course of a few days.

The Alder-flies, in general appearance, are not unlike caddis-flies, but may easily be distinguished by the fact that the wings are not longitudinally folded while at rest. They are very abundant in the neighbourhood of ponds and small streams, where they may be seen flying slowly and heavily, or resting on low herbage or the foliage of trees and bushes. The female insect lays her eggs in clusters of 300 or 400 on the leaves of water-plants, and the little grubs make their way down into the water immediately on hatching out, where they creep about on the mud at the bottom in search of the tiny creatures on which they feed. When full-grown, they are about an inch in length. They then leave the water and bury themselves in the earth, where they change to pupæ, the perfect insects emerging in June or July.

The Caddis-flies, of which there are many British representatives, belong to the Hairy-winged group. The larvæ of these insects are entirely aquatic, and remind one of hermit-crabs, the front part of the body being clothed with horny armour, while the hinder part is entirely unprotected. In order to escape the attacks of predaceous insects these grubs construct cases round their bodies, which they drag about wherever they go. In one or two instances, however, the case is attached to the lower surface of a stone.

The materials of which these cases are made vary in accordance with the species. In one group, for instance, they consist of pieces of twigs and leaves, cut into short lengths, and arranged side by side in such a manner as to form a spiral band. The larva of another kind uses entire leaves, gluing them firmly together and living between them. A third species employs grains of sand and tiny stones, which it arranges in the form of a cow's horn. Most curious of all, however, is the case of a caddis-fly which is made entirely of the shells of water-snails. As these shells are, as a rule, still tenanted by their owners, the snails may sometimes be seen attempting to crawl simultaneously in half a dozen different directions, while the grub is dragging them in a seventh.

All the grubs retain tight hold of their cases by means of a pincer-like organ at the end of the body. When fully fed, they close the aperture at each end of the tube, and assume the chrysalis state, the perfect insects emerging a few weeks later. Although the wings are large and broad, they fly very slowly, and never seem to take more than a short journey through the air. They may often be seen in numbers resting upon the herbage on the banks of streams and ponds, or crawling down into the water in order to deposit their eggs.

STINGING FOUR-WINGED INSECTS, OR ANTS, BEES AND WASPS, AND THEIR ALLIES

BY W. F. KIRBY, F.L.S.

The order of insects to which the Ants, Bees, and Wasps belong includes a very large number of species. All these are provided with four membranous wings, alike in consistency, and provided with comparatively few nervures. The wings are usually of small size, as compared with the dimensions of the insects, but are very powerful, owing to the fore and hind pair being connected together during flight by a series of little links; and the flight of the insects is usually very rapid. These insects pass through a perfect metamorphosis, the pupa being always inactive; the jaws are provided with mandibles, though a proboscis, or sucking-tube, is also present, and the abdomen of the female is armed with an ovipositor, or boring instrument, which is frequently modified into a powerful sting, used to deposit the eggs in their proper position. One peculiarity is that several species of ants, bees, and wasps live in large communities, in which the bulk of the inhabitants, on whom most of the work of the nest falls, are imperfectly developed and usually sterile females, called neuters, or workers. This arrangement is also met with in the White Ants, which belong to the order of Lace-winged Insects. Among both the Ants and White Ants the neuters are unprovided with wings; but these organs are present in the fully developed males and females, though soon cast.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park.

SAW-FLY.

One of the commonest of the larger British species is a blackish hairy insect, measuring rather more than an inch in expanse, with transparent wings bordered with brown.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park.

MARBLE GALL-FLY AND GALL.

Found on oak, and not unlike the foreign gall used for making ink.

A great variety of other insects also belong to this order, such as Saw-flies, Gall-flies, and an immense number of parasitic species, generally called Ichneumon-flies, among which are some of the smallest insects known.

This extensive order of insects is divided into two principal sections—those in which the ovipositor is used as a saw or an auger, and those in which it is modified into a sting. One of the most interesting sections of the Borers includes the Saw-flies, in which the boring instrument is modified into a pair of toothed saws, which are used for cutting incisions in leaves, or in the tender bark of twigs, in which to deposit the eggs. These flies have four transparent wings, sometimes stained with yellow or purple, and their bodies are moderately stout and obtuse, and generally black, red or yellow. The antennæ are very variable in form, and are sometimes knobbed at the end like those of a butterfly; sometimes they are formed of a number of long, slender joints; sometimes of only three—a moderately long basal one, a short middle one, and a long terminal one, composed of a number of joints united into one; and rarely, as in the case of the males of some small species about half an inch long which feed on fir and pine, the antennæ are feathered. The grubs are very like caterpillars, and are sometimes called "false caterpillars"; but a true caterpillar (except in one or two very rare exceptions among foreign species) has never more than sixteen legs, while these "false caterpillars" have more, often as many as twenty-two. They also resemble caterpillars in another way, for the pupæ are enclosed in cocoons. One interesting Australian species, which feeds on gum-trees, proceeds from a black caterpillar with only six legs. The perfect insect has a blackish head and thorax, with three large yellow spots on the latter, yellowish antennæ and wings, and a green abdomen; it measures about an inch and a half across the wings, and has knobbed antennæ. An allied species, found in Tasmania, is said to tend its young larvæ—an unusual habit, except among social insects like bees, wasps, and ants. Among the commonest and the most destructive saw-flies in England are those feeding upon the currant, gooseberry, and pear, of which there are several species, measuring about half an inch across the wings. The commonest flies which lay their eggs on the gooseberry and currant are yellow, with the head, antennæ, and three long spots on the back black, and the wings transparent, with black veins. The grubs are bluish green, with twenty legs, and numerous black dots; and several may often be seen on one leaf. The best-known of the Pear Saw-flies is black, with the wings transparent, except the veins; the grub is very like a slug, and is green or yellow, very slimy, with the front of the body much thickened.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park.

TREE-WASP.

Very similar to the common wasp, but builds its nest in trees instead of in the ground.

The Wood-wasps include only a few species, the grubs of which live in the stems of plants, or in the solid wood of trees. One of the largest feeds on fir- or pine-trees, and the fly measures from half an inch to an inch and a half in length, and varies much in size, though the male is generally much smaller than the female. The female is yellow, with two black bands, and a stout ovipositor half as long as the abdomen. In the male the tip of the abdomen is black, and ends in a rectangular point. The wings are transparent, with yellow nervures.

Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co.] [Parson's Green.

TREE-WASP'S NEST.

Generally built in a thick bush.

Next to these insects come the Gall-flies, most of which produce round galls on oaks; and in some species we meet with a wingless brood, living alternately with the winged broods, but at the roots of the trees instead of in the open air. The veining of the wings is reduced to one or two veins; the antennæ are rather long, and not angulated; and the abdomen is short, and constricted at the base. The flies seldom measure more than half an inch across the wings. Some galls are hard, like the one found on the Turkey oak, from which ink is made; while others are large and juicy, resembling cherries, or small apples, among which is the so-called apple of Sodom. Others, like the Bedeguar, which is found on roses, have a mossy appearance. The latter are produced by a small black saw-fly, with part of the legs, and, in the female, the base of the abdomen, red beneath.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [Regent's Park.

PINE-BORING WASP (FEMALE).

Formidable in appearance, but quite harmless.

Some of the smaller gall-flies do not produce galls, but are parasitic on other insects; but galls are very liable to the parasitic attacks of other insects, especially to those of small brilliant metallic green four-winged flies, belonging to an allied family, with very few nervures, but with a black membranous spot on the front edge of the fore wings, and angulated antennæ. Many galls do not begin to grow until the larva is hatched and begins to eat.

We now come to five or six families of parasitic species, popularly called Ichneumon-flies, and immensely numerous and varied. There are probably considerably over 2,000 species in England alone; but they are comparatively little known or studied. Some of these have beautifully delicate wings, fringed with long bristles, and are among the smallest insects known, being of quite microscopic dimensions. These are parasitic on the eggs of various insects, and some are aquatic. But the more typical ichneumon-flies are of larger size, often measuring more than an inch across the wings. Their bodies are usually black or yellow, and there is often an irregularly shaped space in the middle of the fore wing, where the veins of the wing converge. In these flies the ovipositor is very short; but in others it is of great length, especially in the case of the largest British insect of this group, which is parasitic on the larvæ of the great black-and-yellow wood-wasp, of which we have already spoken. This parasite is as large as the wood-wasp, but much more slender; it is black, with red legs, and two white dots on each segment of the abdomen. The ovipositor, which looks like three black threads, is as long as the whole body.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park.

PINE-BORING WASP (MALE).

Smaller than the female, and very different in appearance.

The numerous parasites of which we have spoken usually deposit their eggs in punctures in the bodies of caterpillars or other immature insects, which the grubs devour from within during the life of their victim, leaving it to die when they themselves have reached their full growth.

Intermediate between the boring and stinging insects of this order comes the small family of the Ruby-tailed Flies. These are brilliantly coloured bronze-red, blue, or green metallic four-winged flies, with the thorax covered with large depressions, and the abdomen smooth, and usually composed, as seen from above, of one large, smooth joint, and one or two much smaller coarsely punctured ones beyond it, the last ending in a variable number of short teeth. They roll themselves up in a ball when alarmed, and are parasites, depositing their eggs in the nests of other insects. An entomologist once saw a ruby-tailed fly hurled to the ground by a mason-bee which had built her nest in a hole in a wall. The fly rolled herself up into a ball, when the bee bit off her wings, and then flew away. But as soon as she was gone the wingless fly stretched herself out again, and climbed up the wall to the bee's nest to deposit her eggs.

CRŒSUS BUTTERFLY OF BATCHIAN

Male natural size

Photo by W. P. Dando F.Z.S. Regent's Park. Printed at Lyons, France.

CRŒSUS BUTTERFLY OF BATCHIAN.

Female slightly reduced

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [Regent's Park.

ICHNEUMON-FLY.

One of the largest British species of a very extensive group of parasitic insects.

The group of stinging insects begins with the Ants, which are probably the most intelligent animals now living in the world. Different species, however, differ very much in their manners and customs, and in the grade of civilisation to which they have attained. Some of the more industrious among them keep other insects as cattle, and even as pets; others harvest grain, while a few species cultivate grain for their own use; and others make large mushroom-beds of comminuted leaves, and thus do great harm to cultivated trees in many parts of tropical America. When the industrious ants are not too busy, they sometimes indulge in sports and pastimes. But there are some species which live in idle communities. Such ants are only energetic as marauders, and are so degraded that they cannot even feed themselves, and starve to death if they are deprived of the services of their black slaves, which have been carried off as pupæ by the others in piratical raids, and brought up by other slaves, which do all the work in the nests of their captors.

Quitting the Ants, we arrive at a rather extensive series of insects of moderate or considerable size, and with very spiny legs, called Burrowing-wasps. They are brightly coloured, active insects, and generally dig holes in the ground, which they provision with caterpillars, grasshoppers, or spiders, which they paralyse with their stings, and leave in a moribund condition to form the food of their progeny. They are generally winged in both sexes, but in one family the females are stout and very hairy, and look like large hairy ants, while the males are slender winged insects, very unlike their partners. In the burrowing-wasps the front of the thorax, or second division of the body, is usually transverse, and often narrow; but in the True Wasps it bends back to the wings. Among these latter it is only the small group of the Social Wasps which are gregarious, and among which we find workers as well as males and females. The largest of the British wasps is the Hornet; but there are several much larger species in the East Indies, some of which are black and yellow, like the Chinese Mandarin-wasp, the largest of all, which often measures 2 inches across the wings. Others are black, with one large reddish band on the abdomen. Their nests, which they construct of a kind of paper, are formed in a hole in the ground, in a hollow tree, or in a bush, or under the eaves of a house. A nest is commenced by a single female which has survived the winter, and is afterwards enlarged by the exertions of her progeny.

RUBY-TAILED FLY.

Generally of a brilliant metallic green or blue.

Photos by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park.

WOOD-ANT.

The largest species found in Britain.

The last group in this order are the Bees. They may generally be easily recognised by their shaggy bodies and legs. As with the Wasps, most species are solitary, or live in very small communities. Some few are smooth, and more or less metallic. A photograph of a large and beautiful South American species appears in the Coloured Plate. The largest British bees are the stout-bodied Humble-bees, or Bumble-bees, which are generally yellow, more or less banded with black, or else black with a red tail. They form a small nest of cells just beneath the surface of the ground in meadows. A common European species, not found in England, is the large black, violet-winged Carpenter-bee, which makes its nest in a gallery burrowed in a post, where there is a separate compartment for each grub.

Photos by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park.

SOLITARY ANT. (MALE.) (FEMALE.)

Not a true ant, but a burrowing-wasp, believed to be parasitic in the nests of humble-bees.

There are only a few species belonging to the True Hive-bees found in different parts of the world. They can always be distinguished from any of the Solitary Bees, some of which much resemble them, by having a single long, narrow cell, about four times as long as broad, running along the front edge of the fore wing. In the solitary bees the corresponding cell is much broader and shorter, rarely more than one and a half times as long as broad, and only occupying a small portion of the front edge of the wing.

Hive-bees have always been looked upon with more interest than most other insects, both on account of the valuable products of honey and wax which they produce, and because of their remarkable habits. They are probably less intelligent than ants, but they are larger; and as all classes of their adult population are winged insects, and have been kept in a domesticated or semi-domesticated state for many centuries, they have lent themselves more readily to observation.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [Regent's Park.

HORNET.

The largest species of true wasp found in Britain.

The hive-bees live in very large communities, and in a state of nature they make their nests in hollow trees or in crevices of rocks, where they build their waxen cells, store their honey, and rear their young. There are three classes among them,—the queen-bee, the female and the mother of the hive; the male, or drone; and the neuter, or worker, which is really an imperfectly developed and usually sterile female. Like other insects, bees pass through a metamorphosis, which in their case is of the description called "complete," for the immature forms of the bee show no resemblance whatever to the winged insect which will finally be perfected. Every bee commences its life in the form of an egg. Each egg is laid by the queen-bee in a separate cell, and in a few days the egg hatches into a white footless maggot, which is carefully tended by the workers, and fed by them with a preparation secreted by the bees, which is carefully graduated, not only according to the age of the grub, but is differently constituted according to the sex and status of the bee; for it is well known that it is in the power of the workers to develop a young grub which would otherwise become a sterile worker into a perfect queen-bee, by placing it in a large cell, and rearing it on the same nourishing food which is supplied to those grubs which are intended to become perfect queens. When the grub is full-grown, it spins itself a small silken cocoon, and becomes a pupa, or nymph, as it is called. The pupa somewhat resembles a swathed mummy, for all the external portions of the future bee can be seen outlined in the hard casing which encloses it. As soon as it arrives at maturity, it makes its way out through the upper end, when the cell is at once prepared by the other bees for a fresh occupant. The newly born bee is at first moist, flabby, and pale-coloured; but in a few hours her skin dries and hardens, when she at once commences her life-long labours, at first tending the young bees and doing other necessary duties in the hive, and then, a fortnight later, going forth with her companions to collect honey and pollen in the meadows and gardens.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park.

HIVE-BEE. (QUEEN, WORKER, AND DRONE.)

There are only about ten or twelve kinds of true hive-bees known.

There is never room for more than one queen-bee in a hive; and the queens, which may be recognised by their longer bodies and shorter wings, have such a mortal hatred of each other that, whenever two of them meet, they will fight, if permitted, until one is killed. But in summer, when young bees are hatching daily in large numbers, and the hive is getting over-populated, the workers do not permit the queens to fight; and finally one of them (usually the old queen in the first instance) works herself up into a great flurry, and rushes out of the hive, attended by several hundred followers, to seek for fresh fields and pastures new. This is called "swarming"; and a strong hive will often throw off as many as four or five swarms in the course of the summer. It is then the object of the bee-keeper to get the queen to enter a new hive, for otherwise the swarm may fly to a distance and be lost; but wherever the queen-bee takes up her abode, her companions will assemble round her, and at once commence the work of building combs and storing up honey.

Photo by B. H. Bentley] [Sheffield.

BUMBLE-BEE ON EVERLASTING-PEA.

Bumble-bees make their nests in the ground, and live in smaller communities than the hive-bee.

The drone, or male bee, is rather larger than the worker, and has a more obtuse body. He may be at once distinguished by his long thirteen-jointed antennæ, or feelers, for the antennæ are shorter and only twelve-jointed in the queen and worker. There are several hundred drones in a hive; but the queen only pairs once in her life, on the wing, and the ceremony is immediately followed by the death of the drone. The drones have no sting, for the sting of the female and worker is really a modified ovipositor, or egg-laying apparatus, analogous to the organ which is so conspicuous in many ichneumons and other insects belonging to the same order as the bees. In the autumn the unfortunate drones are all massacred or else driven forth from the hive by the workers, when they speedily perish. The workers are by far the most numerous of the inhabitants of a bee-hive; there may be many thousands of them, and their number appears to be only limited by the dimensions of the hive itself.

The ancients had observed something of the economy of bees, but many of their ideas on the subject were strangely fantastic. It was perhaps natural to suppose that the leader of the bees was a king rather than a queen; but it was also supposed that a swarm of bees could be obtained by killing an ox and leaving the carcase to rot. This notion appears to have originated in swarms of flies, more or less resembling bees, having been noticed flying round or near putrefying carcases.

Among all the truly social insects—i.e. hive-bees, wasps, ants, and termites, or so-called white ants—we find that the bulk of the community consists of sterile females, and the number of fertile females is very small, even in those cases where more than one female is permitted to live in a nest, as among wasps.

Photo by C. Reid] [Wishaw, N.B.

BEES.

Swarming from the hive after the queen.

Humble-bees live in small communities, consisting of males, females, and workers; but their economy is very simple compared with that of the hive-bee, and they do not confine themselves to a single female to a nest.

The Solitary Bees are very numerous in species, and consist only of males and females. They do not live in communities, but each female constructs a dwelling for her own young. Many of them burrow in the ground, and they are so far gregarious that a large number of females will sometimes form their burrows near each other in the same bank. There are about two hundred different kinds of bees known to inhabit the British Isles. The solitary bees are very varied in their habits, and some of them are parasitic on other species.

The large Carpenter-bees, which form their nests in wood, are not British; but there are some small British species which make theirs in the interior of bramble-sticks. Some are very hairy; others are smooth, and look at first sight like small wasps, being banded with black and yellow. But one of the handsomest and most conspicuous of the solitary species is the Fulvous Bee, which is a hairy species much resembling a small humble-bee, and is one often seen in abundance along with other bees, flying round sallow blossoms in spring.

SCALE-WINGED INSECTS, OR BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS.

BY W. F. KIRBY, F.L.S.

Butterflies and Moths are easily distinguished from other insects by many very obvious characters, and a considerable number are remarkable for the beautiful and varied colours of their wings. These are, as it were, tiled with overlapping scales, attached to the membrane by a slender stem; hence their name, Scale-winged Insects. These scales differ very much in shape, sometimes being long and slender, and almost hair-like, while at other times they are widened at the extremity, like a battledore, or they may be short and broad, like a fan or a shovel. Different forms of scales are found on different parts of the wings of the same insect; and some forms of scale are peculiar to the male, as are usually the dense tufts of scales found on the fore wings of the Skipper Butterflies, and on the hind wings of the Chrysippus Butterfly. The varied colours of these scales are due partly to pigment, interposed between the extremely delicate double or triple tissues of which the scales are composed; or, more rarely, to the refraction of light from the surface of the scales themselves, or, as has recently been stated, to different coloured scales alternating so that the varying colours are visible at different angles, as in the metallic "shot" colour of the Purple Emperor Butterfly, and in various species found in South America and other countries. In the case of the Purple Emperor, and in many other butterflies, this "shot" colouring is confined to the males. Indeed, as a rule, female butterflies and moths are larger than the males, but far less brilliantly coloured than their mates. There are, however, many species in which the sexes differ little in size or colour; but it only rarely happens that the female is more brightly coloured than the male.

The bodies of butterflies and moths, the legs, and often more or less of the base or borders of the wings are clothed with hair or hair-like scales. These insects have a long or short proboscis, through which they imbibe their food, which consists of the honey of flowers, the sap of trees, or moisture from the ground. Like other insects, they have six legs in the perfect state; but in some species either the front or hind pair becomes more or less rudimentary, especially in the males.

Photo by J. Edwards] [Colesborne.

LEAF-BUTTERFLY.

These butterflies are so remarkably like certain leaves that it is almost impossible to distinguish the difference even at close quarters.

Butterflies and moths pass through four stages. The egg is laid by the female on some plant which will provide suitable nourishment for the caterpillar. A caterpillar, which is the next stage, is a jointed, worm-like creature with sixteen legs; those corresponding with the legs of the perfect insect are horny, and a pair is placed on each of the first three joints behind the head. The next four pairs, called "prolegs," are thick and fleshy, and a pair is placed under each of joints seven to ten (reckoning the head as joint one), the last joint of all being provided with a pair slightly differing from the others, and called "claspers." In many young caterpillars, however, and also in the full-grown caterpillars of a considerable number of moths (especially among those with slender bodies), one or more of the first three pairs of pro-legs may be rudimentary or absent, and the caterpillar walks by arching its back at every step, in a way that must be seen to be appreciated, though such caterpillars (popularly called Loopers, on account of the way they loop up their bodies in walking) are often very active, and cover the ground much more rapidly than one might imagine. Sometimes the claspers, or last pair of legs, are modified into tentacles, which, in the caterpillars of the Puss-moth and its allies, contain retractile whips, used as weapons of defence.

Photo by L. H. Joutel] [New York.

SOUTH AMERICAN LONG-WINGED BUTTERFLIES.

Showing external resemblance between two butterflies of different families.

Photo by L. H. Joutel] [New York.

DIANA FRITILLARY.

The male is dark brown, with a broad orange border spotted with black. The female has green marginal markings.

Photo by J. Edwards] [Colesborne.

QUEEN OF SPAIN FRITILLARY.

Brown above, with plush spots; spotted with silver beneath.

Caterpillars are very voracious, and increase in size with great rapidity; and whenever their skin gets too tight, after splitting it, they slip it off (along with the lining of the stomach and intestines), and after a few hours' lethargy, necessary to recover from the debilitating effects of such a serious operation, and to give the new skin time to dry and harden, they begin to feed again as voraciously as ever. The number of these moults varies according to the species; when the caterpillar has attained its full growth, it enters upon the third stage of its life as a pupa, or chrysalis.

A pupa means a doll, or swaddled baby, and is a very appropriate name for the dark-coloured object, cased in a horny skin, with no detached organs visible, except the sheath for the proboscis in some of the Hawk-moths, in which this organ is unusually long, but with the separate cases of the wings, legs, etc., of the future butterfly or moth plainly visible in the sutures on its surface. The pupæ of some butterflies have more or less metallic colours; and to these only is the term "chrysalis" applicable.

Some pupæ are naked, and those of most butterflies are either suspended by the tail, or attached to a branch by a belt of silk round the body. Those of moths are generally formed either in an earthen cell under the surface of the ground, or else are enclosed in an oval case called a "cocoon," chiefly composed of silk, though sometimes moss or chips of wood are worked into it. Other pupæ are found between leaves, or, in the case of caterpillars which feed in the wood of trees, or in the stems of plants, in the galleries where they have lived.

When the perfect butterfly or moth is ready to emerge, the pupa splits, and the insect works its way to the open air. Its body is limp and heavy, and the wings are like little flaps of wet rag; but it discharges a quantity of superfluous fluid, generally of a red colour, and fixes itself on a branch, or other convenient foothold, where its wings can hang downwards. The expansion and contraction of the muscles pump air into the hollow tubes which form the framework of the wings; these rapidly expand to their full size, and become dry and firm at the same time. After this, the insect flies about with its companions, pairs, lays its eggs, and then dies, after enjoying its life for a period, varying according to the species and the season, from a few hours to several months.

TAWNY ADMIRAL.

A North American butterfly.

We have not yet spoken of the feelers, or antennæ, of butterflies and moths. They are two long, jointed organs, nearly always knobbed at the end in butterflies, or at least the terminal joints are thicker than the rest. But in moths the antennæ are of different shapes, and generally end in a point. Sometimes they are simple and thread-like; sometimes they are thickest in the middle, and thinner at both ends, as in the Hawk-moths; and they are often comb-like, especially in the males, as in the Silk-moths.

Butterflies.

Photo by L. H. Joutel] [New York.

CATERPILLAR OF TAWNY ADMIRAL.

Remarkable for the sharply contrasted black and pale markings.

As already mentioned, butterflies may be distinguished from moths by their antennæ being thickened at the extremities. There are comparatively few species in Europe—only about three hundred, of which between sixty and seventy are met with in the British Islands; but in tropical countries they are much more numerous and varied. It is a mistake to suppose that butterflies are always bright-coloured insects, and moths the reverse; for though many butterflies are brightly coloured, others are very dingy. On the other hand, although it is equally true that many moths are dull-coloured, others, especially among those with slender bodies, or those which fly by day, are quite as brilliantly coloured as any butterflies.

Photo by E. C. Atkinson.

BLUE BUTTERFLY.

Among the most conspicuous of the smaller European butterflies.

Butterflies are divided into several groups, the first of which includes the Brush-footed Butterflies, so called because the front pair of legs is converted into hairy paws, useless for walking, and only employed for toilet purposes. This is a very extensive group, including about half the butterflies known, and is divided into several smaller sections. The most interesting species among the Danaids is the Monarch, one of the largest and commonest butterflies found in North America. It is migratory in its habits, and has succeeded in acclimatising itself throughout the Pacific islands as far as Australia and New Zealand, as well as in the Canaries; and so many specimens have been taken recently in the south of England that it seems not unlikely to take up its residence there also. It is a tawny butterfly, not unlike the one represented on the preceding page, but much larger, measuring about 5 inches across the wings. The caterpillar is yellow, with transverse black bands, and a pair of long, black slender filaments near each extremity of the body. The pupa is pale green, with golden spots, and is suspended by the tail, as is the case with most of those of the Brush-footed Butterflies.

The next group, the Long-winged Butterflies, includes a considerable number of species with long rounded wings, found in tropical and sub-tropical America. A species with black and transparent markings is shown on page 710, but many have wholly transparent wings, except for a narrow black or brown border.

Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.

BLUE MORPHO BUTTERFLY AND HUMMING-BIRD.

Note proportionate sizes.

Turning to more familiar insects, there are several kinds of large or moderate-sized tawny butterflies, marked with black spots and lines, called Fritillaries in England. The caterpillars are spiny, and feed on violets and other low-growing plants. The photograph on page 710 shows the Diana Fritillary, a large and handsome species, which is somewhat of a rarity in the Southern States of America; it measures 4 inches in expanse, and the sexes are very dissimilar. It is dark brown, with a broad orange border spotted with black in the male, and rows of more or less connected green or white spots in the female.

Photos by J. Edwards]

LARGE BLUE BUTTERFLY (MALE, FEMALE, AND UNDERSIDE).

Scarce and nearly extinct in England.

[Colesborne.

MAZARINE BLUE BUTTERFLY (MALE, FEMALE, AND UNDERSIDE).

Practically extinct in England.

Photos by J. Edwards] LONG-TAILED BLUE BUTTERFLY (MALE, FEMALE, AND UNDERSIDE).

An occasional immigrant on the south coast of England.

[Colesborne.

BLOXWORTH BLUE BUTTERFLY (MALE, FEMALE, AND UNDERSIDE).

Probably a casual visitor in England.

The Angle-winged Butterflies include several of the best known and most brightly coloured British species, such as the Red Admiral, a velvety black butterfly, with a transverse red band on the fore wings, and several white spots between this and the tip, the hind wings having a red border, spotted with black and blue. It measures about 2½ inches across the wings, and is common in gardens and orchards in summer and autumn. The caterpillar, which feeds on nettle, is brown or black, with yellow stripes and spines. The Tawny Admiral is a North American butterfly, remarkable for its resemblance to the larger butterfly called the Monarch, of which we have already spoken. The Danaids and Long-winged Butterflies have tough integuments and a disagreeable odour, which more or less protects them from birds. Many other butterflies belonging to other families have a superficial resemblance to these, and are believed to share in their immunity. This phenomenon is technically called "mimicry." The caterpillar of the tawny admiral is grey and black, with curious spiny tufts.

Photos by J. Edwards]

LARGE COPPER BUTTERFLY (MALE, FEMALE, AND UNDERSIDE).

Extinct in England since 1860.

[Colesborne.

DUSKY COPPER BUTTERFLY (MALE, FEMALE, AND UNDERSIDE).

Taken near Ilfracombe, August, 1887.

The group of the Satyrs contains a great variety of moderate-sized brown or tawny butterflies, usually with round spots centred with white towards the margins of the wings. Many species are common in meadows; others, which are dark brown or black, with red, white-centred marginal spots, are numerous in mountainous countries, and two species are found in the north of England and Scotland. The caterpillars of the Satyrs are usually smooth and green, with a forked tail, and the pupæ are formed on the surface of the ground.

The great Blue Butterflies of South America form another group of Brush-footed Butterflies.

The second family is almost entirely American, and is only represented in England by a brown butterfly about an inch in expanse, called the Duke of Burgundy Fritillary. The caterpillar is reddish, and feeds on primroses. It is not a very abundant species in England.

Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S., Milford-on-Sea.

NEW GUINEA GOLDEN BUTTERFLY.

A remarkable and recently discovered swallow-tailed butterfly.

The third family is represented in Britain by three very distinct sections of rather small butterflies, the largest of which scarcely measures more than an inch and a half across the wings. These are the Hair-streaks (brown, with light lines on the under surface of the wings, and a short tail on the hind wings, except in the Green Hair-streak, so named from the green under surface of the wings); the small Blue Butterflies, which generally have brown females; and the Coppers, the only common species of which measures about an inch across the wings. The fore wings are bright coppery red, with dark brown spots and borders, and the hind wings are dark brown, with a coppery red border, spotted outside with black. The small copper butterfly and some of the blues are common in meadows and gardens.