Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- An order of hexapod insects, or true Insecta, with suctorial mouth-parts in the form of spiral antlia, four similar membranous wings completely covered with scales, a fused prothorax, and perfect metamorphosis. These beautiful insects are known as butterflies and moths, the former being the Lepidoptera diurna, or Rhopalocera, and the latter the Lepidoptera nocturna, or Heterocera, respectively constituting the two suborders into which the order is now usually divided. In the adults the mouth is completely haustellate or antliate, the maxillæ being modified into a tubular sucking-proboscis, and the mandibles being rudimentary. The modified maxillæ have a pair of palps. The head is loosely attached to the thorax, and the long slender legs are very freely movable. The fore pair are rudimentary in some butterflies. The body is hairy; the prothorax has a pair of tippets or patagia, and the mesothorax a pair of scales, tegulæ, or paraptera. The pupa is obtected. The larva, known as a caterpillar, is mandibulate, having masticatory instead of suctorial mouth-parts, and is provided with from 4 to 10 prolegs or prop-legs besides the 6 true legs. The lip of the larva bears a double-orificed spinneret, a tubular organ through which passes the silk of which the cocoon is fabricated. Caterpillars are almost invariably vegetable-feeders, and often prove highly destructive. A few species are known to be carnivorous. Upward of 50,000 species are described. In the Linnean system, prior to 1758, the Lepidoptera consisted of the two genera Papilio and Phalœna, corresponding to the modern suborders Rhopalocera and Heterocera, or butterflies and moths; later, in the same system, of the genera Papilio, Sphinx, and Phalæna, corresponding to the Latreillean Lepidoptera diurna, cropuscularia, and nocturna. Later writers divided the order into the families Papilionidæ, Sphingidæ, Ægeriidæ, Zygænidæ, Bombycidæ, Noctuidæ, Geometridæ, Pyralidæ, Tortricidæ, and Tineidæ; and nearly all of these have been further subdivided into other families.
Wiktionary
- n. A taxonomic order within the superorder Panorpida — the butterflies, moths and skippers.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) An order of insects, which includes the butterflies and moths. They have broad wings, covered with minute overlapping scales, usually brightly colored.
WordNet 3.0
- n. moths and butterflies
Etymologies
- From Ancient Greek λεπίς (lepís, "scale") + πτερόν (pterón, "wing"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Present in Lepidoptera is LeAmon’s long-held fascination for the equation between mobility and freedom and the machismo of moto culture.”
“A key feature of Lepidoptera is the use of textile remnants and R&D spillage from Australia’s leading automotive textile manufacturer Autofab.”
“My favorite of the Lepidoptera is the peppered moth, not that I have ever knowingly seen one, so I searched for “moth” 3.”
“This summary of the more interesting phenomena of variation presented by the eastern Papilionidæ is, I think, sufficient to substantiate my position, that the Lepidoptera are a group that offer especial facilities for such inquiries; and it will also show that they have undergone an amount of special adaptive modification rarely equalled among the more highly organized animals.”
Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection A Series of Essays
“They live in many parts of the world, but thrive particularly well in the tropics, with an exceptionally high number of species found in Peru. butterfly metamorphosis The Lepidoptera is a unique insect in the way that it goes through a”
“We are a long time reaching the ant-city, but it would be quite an insult to the Insect-family to give no thought to the most wonderful thing about it -- the "transformations" by which many of its six-legged members pass through their three distinct stages of existence; so it will be well to turn over a few pages in the story of the Butterfly, one of the family-branch called Lepidoptera, because its wings are covered with thousands of tiny scales, which enclose the colouring that makes them as softly tinted as the flowers upon the nectar of which it feeds.”
“Lepidoptera," and recited under her breath a few selections of the”
“Simone LeAmon took out first place with her chair titled 'Lepidoptera' and she says”
“Lepidoptera, meaning scale-wing, and this order also includes skippers, and butterflies.”
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