CHIEF ENTOMOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATIONS AND SYSTEMS. 599 



After a commencement was thus made to the study of entomology 

 several amateurs speedily collected. The imperial court painter, Hoef- 

 nagel, figured insects very beautifully ; Franciscus Redi observed their 

 origin and propagation ; M. Malpighi made a masterly dissection of 

 the silkworm ; and Swammerdamm, lastly, investigated insects in the 

 several stages of their existence, _and formed the first essay towards a 

 natural system. His arrangement of insects was this : 



I. Insects without a metamorphosis. 



They, indeed, change skin, but retain their original form. Spiders, 

 lice, woodlice, and Myriapodce. 



II. Insects with a metamorphosis. 



1. The creature moves throughout all the stages of its existence: 



in the first it is wingless, in the second (pupa) it obtains 

 the rudiments of wings, and in the third entire wings. 

 Here are arranged the Neuroptera, Ortkoptera, and Hemiptera, 

 but he did not separate them into distinct groups. 



2. The creature, in its central grade of development, is motionless, 



but has limbs. 



Here the Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, and as appendix, the Lepi- 

 doptera. 



3. In its central stage of development the creature has neither 



motion nor wings, but appears as an ovate pupa. 

 Here the Dipt era. 



In the author's Book of Nature, " Biblia Naturae," which was pub- 

 lished after his death, which took place in 1685, this system was 

 illustrated with examples, and the anatomy of insects especially is 

 admirably presented. 



The now increasing writers upon entomology offered each his own 

 arrangement, and according to which their subject was presented, but 

 system still remained subordinate to observation. Thus Joh. Goadart 

 wrote upon the metamorphosis. Sybilla Merian observed the deve- 

 lopment of the Lepidoptera, and, from affection to the science, went 

 herself to Surinam, to continue there her observations. Ant. von 

 Leuwenhoek made microscopic experiments ; and Antonio Vallisnieri 

 pursued the path trodden by his predecessors, of describing the meta- 

 morphoses of insects : works which are still worthy of regard as well 

 as of emulation. 



