134 JMODERN SYSTEM. 



Class V. INSECTA. 



Hiatorij. — Insecta, so named from in (into) and seco (to cut). This 

 term was applied to these animals by the Latins ; by the Greeks they 

 were named Entoma {svro[j.a), from av, into, and tsu-vw, to cut. In- 

 sects were so named, because their bodies are composed of many 

 joints or segments ; on which account several of the ancient and older 

 naturalists placed them with the classes Crustacea, Mj/riapoda, Aruch- 

 noida, and Vermes. 



The oldest records on this subject arc to lie found in the sacred 

 writings, where mention is made of locusts, flies, and caterpillars ; and 

 it is i)robable that Moses had acquired some know4cdge of insects 

 from the Egyptian sages, as his writings abound with passages relating 

 to insects. 



Hippocrates, as we are told by Pliny, wrote on insects; and the 

 writings of the earlier Greek and Latin philosophers, quoted by Pliny, 

 afford extracts of his labours. 



Aristotle, in his Hist or t/ of Animuh, has devoted a very considerable 

 portion of his attention to insects, and has described their general 

 external structure with great accuracy. 



Aldrovandus, in 1602, published a ver}- voluminous work, Dc Ani- 

 malibus Tnscctis, in which he divides insects into Terrestrial and Aqua- 

 tic. 



In IGl 2, Wolfgang Frantzius \)uh\hhcd Historia Ani7naliiim Sacra, 

 which contains some new observations, and a distribution of insects 

 into Aerial, Aquatic, and Terrestrial. 



Swammerdam, who published his Hisioria Jnscctornm Generalis in 

 16C9, divided genuine insects into, 1st, Those which, after leaving the 

 egg, ajipear under the form of the perfect insect, but have no wings, 

 which parts are afterwards produced : 2dly, Those insects which ap- 

 pear, when hatched from the eggs, under the form of a larva, and, 

 when full grown, change into a chrysalis, where it remains until its 

 parts are fit to be developed : 3dly, Those which, having attained the 

 pupa (chrysalis or nympha) state, do not divest themselves of their 

 skin. His other divisions refer to animals of the classes Arachndida, 

 Crustacea, and Mipiapoda ; and the \^•hole of his work contains much 

 valuable observation on the structure and economy of these animals. 

 In 173a, Linne published the first edition of his Sj/stcma Natui-a:, 

 sive Regna tria Natura; sjjste/natici' proposiln per Classes, Ordines, Genera, 

 et Species, iu which work Insects are distributed into four Orders, ac- 

 cording to the number and form -tbf their wings: 1. Coleoi'tera ; 

 £. Angioptera; 3. IIemiptera ; 4. Apteua. 



With the last Order he included Crustacea, Arach aides, Mi/riapoda, 

 Vermes, and certain Zoophytes ; but in subsequent editions of this work 



