4 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



While I have not thought it expedient to avoid the use of a 

 scientific classification, and have even been at some pains to point 

 out the characters on which this classification is founded, and the 

 peculiarities of the various groups of insects under consideration, 

 it has been my endeavour to treat the subject in a plain and familiar 

 way. No more of the technical language of entomology has been 

 introduced, than was absolutely necessary to define and discrimi- 

 nate the different insects, whose transformations are described, 

 and in most cases the scientific names and terms have been ex- 

 plained whenever they occurred. 



As this report is designed for the use of persons who may not 

 have elementary and other works on this branch of natural history 

 at their command, it may be proper to begin with some brief 

 remarks on insects in general, in order to show how they are 

 formed, and wherein they differ essentially from other animals. 



The word Insect,* which, in the Latin language from whence it 

 was derived, means cut into or notched, was designed to express 

 one of the chief characters of this group of animals, whose body 

 is marked by several cross-lines or incisions. The parts between 

 these cross-lines are called segments or rings, and consist of a 

 number of jointed pieces, more or less movable on each other. 



Insects have a very small brain, and, instead of a spinal mar- 

 row, a kind of knotted cord, extending from the brain to the 

 hinder extremity ; and numerous small whitish threads, which are 

 the nerves, spread from the brain and knots, in various direc- 

 tions. Two long air-pipes, within their bodies, together with an 

 immense number of smaller pipes, supply the want of lungs, and 

 carry the air to every part. Insects do not breathe through 

 their mouths, but through little holes, called spiracles, generally 

 nine in number, along each side of the body. Some, however, 

 have the breathing-holes placed in the hinder extremity, and a few 

 young water-insects breathe by means of gills. The heart is a 

 long tube, lying under the skin of the back, having little holes on 

 each side for the admission of the juices of the body, which are 

 prevented from escaping again by valves or clappers, formed to 



• Insectum is an abbreviation of intcrscctum ; and from the same source we have 

 the word intersect, to cut or divide. 



