Lepidoptera Sentence Examples

Lepidoptera are very brilliant in colouring.

A number of larvae of Lepidoptera feed on the leaves - the remedy is to capture the mature insects when possible.

Schwangart, who has studied (1904) the embryonic insects, twenty-one of these divisions - not, however, all similar - development of Lepidoptera.

His classification was founded mainly on the nature of the wings, and five of his orders - the Hymenoptera (bees, ants, wasps, &c.), Coleoptera (beetles), Diptera (two-winged flies), Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies), and Hemiptera (bugs, cicads, &c.) - are recognized to-day with nearly the same limits as he laid down.

See Lepidoptera.

In Tertiary times the higher Diptera, besides Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera, referable to existing families, become fairly abundant.

Fragmentary as the records are, they show that the Exopterygota preceded the Endopterygota in the evolution of the class, and that among the Endopterygota those orders in which the greatest difference exists between imago and larva - the Lepidoptera, Diptera and Hymenoptera - were the latest to take their rise.

The Australian fauna is rich in characteristic and peculiar genera, and New Zealand, while possessing some remarkable insects of its own, lacks entirely several families with an almost world-wide range - for example, the Notodontidae, Lasiocampidae, and other families of Lepidoptera.

The standing of the Trichoptera in a position almost ancestral to the Lepidoptera is one of the assured results of recent morphological study, the mobile mandibulate pupa and the imperfectly suctorial maxillae of the Trichoptera reappearing in the lowest families of the Lepidoptera.

There seems no doubt that the suctorial mouth-organs of the Diptera have arisen quite independently from those of the Lepidoptera, for in the former order the sucker is formed from the second maxillae, in the latter from the first.

From the evidence of fossils it seems that the higher sub-order - Apocrita - can be traced back to the Lias, so that we believe the Hymenoptera to be more ancient than the Diptera, and far more ancient than the Lepidoptera.

In some way it is assured among the highest of the Hexapoda - the Lepidoptera, Diptera and Hymenoptera - that the larva finds itself amid a rich food-supply.

In 1735 appeared the first edition of the Systema naturae of Linnaeus, in which the "Insecta" form a group equivalent to the Arthropoda of modern zoologists, and are divided into seven orders, whose names - Coleoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, &c., founded on the nature of the wings - have become firmly established.

During the pre-Linnaean period, the beauty of insects - especially the Lepidoptera - had attracted a number of collectors; and these "Aurelians" - regarded as harmless lunatics by most of their friends - were the forerunners of the systematic students of later times.

The Coleoptera and Lepidoptera are especially numerous, both in species and individuals.

There are 8 families of Coleoptera, 6 of Orthoptera, 23 of Hymenoptera, 14 of Lepidoptera and 7 of Diptera.

The entomology of the island, however, is very rich, particularly in respect of Lepidoptera.

The larvae of several nocturnal Lepidoptera feed upon the leaves of the willows, and the trunk of the sallow is often injured by the perforations of the lunar hornet sphinx (Trochilium crabroniforme).

Among the Lepidoptera are gall-forming species belonging to the Tineidae, Aegeriidae, Tortricidae and Pterophoridae.

Lepidopterid flowers, visited chiefly by Lepidoptera, which are able to reach the nectar concealed in deep, narrow tubes or spurs by means of their long slender proboscis.

And no student can doubt that the stone-flies are akin to Orthoptera and the caddis-flies to the Lepidoptera, while dragon-flies and May-flies stand in an isolated position with regard to all other insects.

At the base of each wing projects a dorsal lobe - the jugumand the neuration is predominantly longitudinal, resembling so closely that of the lower Lepidoptera (q.v.) that a nearer relationship of the Trichoptera to that order than to any group of the old Linnean Neuroptera is certain.

By observation and experiment it was discovered independently by Messrs Bates, Wallace and Bell that they are not attacked by birds nor by many other enemies that prey upon unprotected Lepidoptera.

In the majority of cases both model and mimic belong alike to the Lepidoptera, and it is often uncertain whether both are inedible (Mullerian mimicry) or whether inedibility is the attribute only of the model (Batesian mimicry).

Sometimes Lepidoptera mimic protected members of other orders of insects - such as Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and Hemiptera; but perhaps the most singular illustrations of the phenomenon known in the order are exemplified by the larvae of the hawk-moth Chaerocampa, which imitate the heads of snakes.

Of the multitudes of cases of mimicry between different species of Lepidoptera, a few only can be selected for description.

So alike in form, colour and mode of flight are those Lepidoptera that when on the wing it is almost or quite impossible to distinguish one from the other, and the resemblance between members belonging to different sub-families cannot be assigned to affinity.

Although mimicry in the Lepidoptera has been carried to a greater extreme in South America than in any other country of the world, remarkable instances of it have taken place in the Ethiopian and Oriental regions.

Special attention may be drawn to two phenomena connected with it, both of not uncommon occurrence in mimetic Lepidoptera.

In the above-cited historical instance of mimicry amongst some South American Lepidoptera which formed the foundation of Bates' theory, species of butterflies, belonging to the Ithomiine genus Itura and the Danaine genus Thyridia, both unpalatable forms, resemble each other.

The same style of coloration is found in Coleoptera of the families Cetoniidae and Cantharidae; in Diptera of the families Asilidae, Bombylidae, Tabanidae and Tachinidae; in Hemiptera of the family Reduviidae and in Lepidoptera of the family Zygaenidae.

Towards this Lycoid centre have converged Coleoptera (beetles) of the sub-order Lamellicornia (Copridae), Phytophaga; Heteromera (Cantharidae) and Longicornia; Hemiptera of the families Pyrrhocoridae, Lygaeidae and Reduviidae; Lepidoptera of the families Arctiidae and Zygaenidae; Diptera of the family Asilidae; and lastly Hymenoptera of the families Braconidae, Pompilidae, Crabronidae and Eumenidae.

The Hymenoptera are also numerous, but less so than the Lepidoptera, with which the mountain slopes and sunny, open spaces seem to be literally covered.

The genera Phyllobius and Polydrosus include some of the most beautiful insects found in Britain - their brilliancy, like that of the Lepidoptera.

Among the Lepidoptera of the Pamir there is an interesting mixture of Tian-shan with Himalayan species.

Among day-flying Lepidoptera, the more gaudy colors are usually on the fore wings.

The phytophagous species are attached to various parts of plants, dead or alive; and the carnivorous in like manner feed on dead or living flesh, or its products, many larvae being parasitic on living animals of various classes (in Australia the larva of a species of Muscidae is even a parasite of frogs), especially the caterpillars of Lepidoptera, which are destroyed in great numbers by Tachininae.

For a general account of the structure, development and relationships of insects, see Arthropoda and Hexapoda, while details of the form, habits and classification of insects will be found in articles on the various orders or groups of orders (Aptera, Coleoptera, Dipteria,Hemiptera,Hymenoptera,Lepidoptera,Neuroptera, Orthoptera, Thysanoptera), and in special articles on the more familiar divisions (ANT, BEE, Dragon-Fly, Earwig, &c.).