The natural history of British butterflies. Illustrated by thirty-six plates; with memoir and portrait of Werner / By James Duncan, M.W.S.

  • James Duncan
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The natural history of British butterflies. Illustrated by thirty-six plates; with memoir and portrait of Werner / By James Duncan, M.W.S. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    scales on both sides of the wings. When they are rubbed off, the wing is found to consist of an elastic membrane, thin and transparent, and marked with slightly indented lines, forming a kind of groove for the insertion of the scales. The latter are so mi- nute that they appear to the naked eye like powder or dust, and as they are very closely placed, their numbers on a single insect are astonishingly great. Leeuwenhoek counted upwards of 400,000 on the wings of the silk moth, an insect not above fone- fourth of the size of some of our native butterflies. But how much inferior must this number be to that necessary to form a covering to some foreign butter- flies, the wings of which expand upwards of half a foot; or certain species of Moths, some of which (such as the Atlas Moth of the east, or the Great Owl Moth of Brazil), sometimes measure nearly a foot across the wings! A modern mosaic picture may contain 870 tesserulz, or separate pieces, in one square inch of surface; but the same extent.of a butterfly’s wing sometimes consists of no fewer than 100,736! In common with several other extensive races of insects, butterflies derive their nourishment entirely from liquid substances, and the structure of the mouth is consequently very different from that of the masticating kinds. They are hence classed among the haustellated or suctorial tribes of insects. The most conspicuous and elaborately constructed organ, is the long flexible tube projecting from the mouth, VOL. III. c
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