SECTION II. 



THE CLASS OF INSECTA OR INSECTEANS. 



SUB-SECTION I. 

 THE INSECTA COJSTSIDEKED AS A CLASS. 



THE vast numbers of insects, their varied forms, beauti- 

 ful and in many cases splendid colors, their wonderful 

 structure and transformations, and their not less wonder- 

 ful instincts and habits, and the intimate and important 

 relations which they sustain to other animals and to Man, 

 combine to render the study of Entomology from the 

 Greek entomon an insect, and logos discourse exceedingly 

 fascinating and highly important. 



The important relations which insects hold to man, and the corre- 

 sponding importance of Entomology, are but little understood except by 

 those who have given some attention to these animals and to this im- 

 portant branch of science. Few realize the fact that some kinds of 

 insects destroy millions of dollars worth of property annually in 

 every country, and that other kinds furnish the world with many of 

 the comforts and even with the luxuries of civilized life with silks, 

 satins, and velvets, and with dyes whose fame is as old as history and 

 as wide as the civilized world ; and even with every drop of black ink 

 used by the schoolboy, accountant, philosopher, and poet. 



Insects are articulates whose respiratory apparatus gen- 

 erally consists of a system of air-tubes which branch 

 throughout the animal, and which receive the air through 



