en and orange hue
upon the green of the magnificent _Phanaeus imperialis_.

Others again, as _Hoplia farinosa_, a little chafer from Southern
Europe, and many of the weevil tribe (_Curculionidae_), are covered with
scales of vivid splendour, but so minute, and so closely set, that the
whole surface reflects one soft but rich lustre of tints, differing
according to the species. We would instance, of these, the noble species
of the genus _Cyphus_. Others of the same great family, on a dark but
still richly-coloured ground, have the minute scales clustered in spots
or bands, forming regular patterns in much variety; and in these they
reflect rainbow hues, as if a sunbeam decomposed through a prism had
been solidified and pulverised; or if viewed through a lens, looking
like powdered gems, each individual scale changing its hues with the
slightest motion of the eye. Among these we may mention _Hypsonotus
elegans_, _Cyphus spectabilis_, _Entimus splendidus_, and _E.
imperialis_, commonly known as diamond beetles; and the elegantly-shaped
genus _Pachyrhynchus_, of which the _P._ _gemmatus_, from the
Philippine Islands, is, perhaps, the most lovely of all earthly
creatures.

And if we look at the _Lepidoptera_, the order more especially under
review, we feel that beauty belongs to them rather as an essence than as
an accident. Their broad fan-like wings have an airy lightness and grace
to which the painter and the poet pay homage, when they endow the sylphs
and loves of their fancy with butterfly pinions.

They are clothed with minute scales, which are the vehicle of their
colours, somewhat resembling in this respect the beetles last spoken of;
but they have beauties peculiar to themselves. Fine combinations and
contrasts of colours are too much the rule in this order to need
specification; and these are often shaded and blended with a downy
softness, as in the Sphinges and Moths. As illustrious examples, I will
mention the _Gynautocera_, a group of Oriental Moths approaching in some
points the Butterflies, as exhibiting the most brilliant hues in bands
and clouds, but softly blended and mingled, with exceeding chasteness
and beauty.

Many species of the genus _Catagramma_, a group of Butterflies marked on
the inferior surface of the fore-wings with scarlet and black, and on
that of the hind with singular concentric circles of black on a white
ground, have on the superior surface the metallic lustre common in the
beetles,