More than 13,000 species of Lepidoptera are known
to-day, and there are probably twice that number yet to be
classified by the entomologist. But so far the Tertiary deposits
have yielded only the fragmentary remains of about twenty
individual butterflies.
The evolutionary study of the insects is, therefore, not so much
concerned with the various modifications of the three pairs of
jaws, inherited from the primitive Tracheate, and the wings,
which have given us our vast variety of species. It is directed
rather to the more interesting questions of what are called the
"instincts" of the insects, the remarkable metamorphosis by which
the young of the higher orders attain the adult form, and the
extraordinary colouring and marking of bees, wasps, and
butterflies. Even these questions, however, are so large that
only a few words can be said here on the tendencies of recent
research.
In regard to the psychic powers of insects it may be said, in the
first place, that it is seriously disputed among the modern
authorities whether even the highest insects (the ant, bee, and
wasp) have any degree whatever of the intelligence which an
earlier generation generously bestowed on them.
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