their eggs in the bottom of holes and fissures, in the bark of trees, &c. which they might not otherwise be capable of reaching.
Order VII.—Lepidoptera.
This order includes the well known tribes of butterflies, hawk-moths, and moths properly so called, all of which possess the common property of having the wings, which are four in number, covered with small scales or feather-like bodies. It is to this the name refers, being derived from λεπτις, a scale. No kind of insects are more dissimilar in their different stages of metamorphosis. When they issue from the egg they appear in the familiar form of caterpillars, these change into a chrysalis, from which the perfect butterfly is in due time produced. Unfortunately we do not yet possess a complete systematic arrangement and description of these insects, at least not one conformable to the most recent and approved method of classification. This is the case in particular with the nocturnal Lepidoptera or moths, many of which are still undescribed. Our native species, however, of which there are nearly 2000, have been well described by Stephens in his Illustrations of British Entomology, by Haworth in his Lepidoptera Britannica, and in several other works. Among the best works on exotic Lepidoptera may be mentioned Horsfield's Lepidoptera Javanica, Boisduval's Species Général des Lepidoptères, (Paris,
