The Living Animals of the World, Volume II: Birds, Reptiles and Amphibians, Fishes, Jointed Animals, Molluscs, etc.

(QUEEN, WORKER, AND DRONE.) and has a There are only about ten or twelve kinds of more ob-true hive-bees known. tuse body. He may be at once distinguished by his long thirteen-jointed antennae, or feelers, for the antennae 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; Photo by B. H. Bentley} [Sheffield. there may be many thousands of them, and BUMBLE-BEE ON EVERLASTING-PEA. their number appears to be only limited by Bumble.bees ir nests m the ground, and live in smaiier com-the dimensions of the hive itself. munities than the hive-bee.

The ancients had observed something of the economy of bees, but many of their idea? 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, arid 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.

HUMBLE-BEES live in small communities, consisting of males, females, and workers; but

Photo by C. Reid] [Wishaw, N.B. BEES. Swarming from the hive after the queen.

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 is oneFULVOUS BEE, which is a hairy species much resembling a small humble-bee, and often seen in abundance along with other bees, flying round sallow blossoms in spring.

Scaled-winged Insects 709

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 " shot colouring is confined to the males. Indeed, as a rule,many other butterflies, this " 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, in the males.especially is laid by the female on Butterflies and moths pass through four stages. The egg some plant which will provide suitable nourishment for the I BBBB 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 "pro-legs," 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 Photo by J. Edwards^ LEAF-BUTTERFLY. [Colesborne. number of moths (especially These butterflies are so remarkably like certain leaves that it is almost impossible to distinguish difference even at close quarters.among those with slender the

of the World7io The Living Animals

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. 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 opera- Photo by L. H. Joutel] [New York. tion, and to give the new skin time to dry and

SOUTH AMERICAN LONG-WINGED BUTTERFLIES.

harden, they begin to feed again as voraciously as Showing external resemblance between two butterflies of different families. 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. or swaddled baby, and is A pupa means a doll, 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 pupae of some butterflies have more or less metallic colours; and to these only is the term " chrysalis " applicable. Some pupae 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 Photo by L. H. Joutel] [New York. cell under the surface of the ground, or else DIANA FRITILLARY. are enclosed in an oval case called a "cocoon," The male is dark brown, with a broad orange border spotted with black. The female has green marginal markings. chiefly composed of silk, though sometimes moss or chips of wood are worked into it. Other pupae 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,' generallyo J of a red Photo by J. Edwards] [Colesborne. QUEEN OF SPAIN FRiTiLLARY. colour, and fixes itself on a branch, or other con- Brown above, with piush spots; spotted with silver beneath, venient foothold, where its wings can hang downwards.

Scale-winged Insects 711

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. We have not yet spoken of the feelers, or antennae, 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 antennae are of different shapes, and generally end in a point. Sometimes they are simple and threadlike; 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.