176 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



the law of variation, with regard to all the operations 

 of Nature or Art, that all similarity is rather relative 

 than real. The animal, the vegetable, and the min- 

 eral kingdoms in all their developments, show the 

 same endless diversification. In the human family, 

 even, the highest and most perfect of animals, we see 

 multitudes of different forms and colors, of lanona^es, 

 and manners and customs. We find an immense va- 

 riety of beasts and birds, reptiles, fishes, and insects ; 

 and the same of plants, trees, and shrubs, as well as of 

 all the mineral productions. And yet we find all these 

 different varieties of the three natural kingdoms unit- 

 ed under one general law ; all dependent upon one 

 another, as component parts of one great universal 

 whole, and we are forced, with the great philosopher, 

 Humboldt, to exclaim, "Nature is the unity in vari- 

 ety." 



Moths and Butterflies, in comparison with the other 

 orders of Insects, are well entitled to the rank of no- 

 bility, for among them we find no impudent beggars 

 and spongers, as among the Flies ; no parasites as 

 in some of the wingless insects; no working class as 

 among the Hymenopterous insects, bees, wasps, ants, 

 and gall-flies ; no musicians as among the families 

 of Crickets, Grasshoppers, Katy-dids and Cicadas ; 

 but all of them are aristocratic idlers, who, clothed 

 with silver and gold and purple, and ornamented with 

 ever varying splendor, have nought to do but to seek 



