[Illustration: FIG. 11.--The Plum Curculio, _Conotrachelus nenuphar_. _a_, larva; _b_, pupa; _c_, beetle; _d_, plum showing egg-puncture and crescent.] [Illustration: FIG. 12.--A Soldier-beetle, _Chauliognathus pennsylvanicus_. _a_, larva; _b-h_, parts of larva enlarged; _i_, beetle.] [Illustration: FIG. 13.--The Bogus Potato-beetle, _Doryphora juncta_. _a_, eggs; _b_, larvae; _c_, beetle; _d_ and _e_, parts of beetle enlarged.] "Order LEPIDOPTERA ([Greek: lepis], a scale; [Greek: pteron], wing). Butterflies and Moths, or scaly-winged insects. Characterized by having four branching-veined membranous wings, each more or less densely covered on both sides with minute imbricated scales which are attached by a stalk, but which easily rub off, and appear to the unaided eye like minute particles of glistening dust or powder. Transformations complete. [Illustration: FIG. 14.--A Butterfly, _Pieris oleracea_.] "Next to the Lepidoptera, the Coleoptera are, perhaps, most familiar to the popular mind. Every one admires the beauty of these frail creatures, dressed in every conceivable pattern, and adorned with every conceivable color, so as to rival the delicate hues of the rainbow, and eclipse the most fantastic and elaborate designs of man. When magnified, the scales, to which this beauty of pattern and color is entirely due, present all manner of shapes, according to the particular species or the particular part of the individual from which they are taken. According to Lewenhoeck, there are 400,000 of these scales on the wing of the common silkworm. [Illustration: FIG. 15.--A Sphingid, _Ampelophaga myron_.] "The transformations of these insects are complete, and the changes are usually so sudden and striking as to have excited the wonder and admiration of observers from earliest times. "The more common form of the larva is exampled in the ordinary caterpillar--a cylindrical worm with a head, twelve joints and a sub-joint; six thoracic or true legs, four abdominal and two anal prolegs. But there is a great variety of these larvae, some having no legs whatever, some having only the jointed legs, and others having either four, six, eight, or ten, but never more than ten prolegs. With few exceptions they are all vegetable-feeders, and with still fewer exceptions, terrestrial. The perfect insects make free use of their ample wings, but walk little; and their legs are weak, and not modified in the various ways so noticeable in other orders, while the front pair in some butterflies are impotent. [Illustration: FIG. 16.--A Moth, _Utetheisa bella_.] "As an order this must be considered the most injurious of the seven.