36 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



DR. MASOX thus prefaces bis chapter on this suliject : "With tho exception of 

 the beetles, liunna presents an untrocblen fiebl to tlie entomologist. A few 

 insects have been collected, but none, with a solitary exception, have been described 

 or noticed in any work to which I have access. Still they form by no means the least 

 important portion of our natural productions. The lac insect, the blister fly, the 

 honey bee and the silk moth are important for their utility ; the green beetles, the 

 fire-iiies and the butterflies for their beauty ; the white ants, the blights and 

 the caterpillars for their predatory habits ; and the gnats, tho mosquitoes, the gad 

 flies, the ticks, the bugs, the fleas, the scorpions and centipedes for their annoyance 

 to man." 



Class INSECTA. 



This great class, which embraces some of the loveliest forms of invertebrate life, 

 is thus characteiized. Wiugs generally present. Head, tliorax, and abdomen 

 distinct. Two antennae. Three pairs of legs, neither more nor less, though the 

 anterior ones may be rudimentary. Respiration by means of trachosc, or tubes 

 communicating with the surface by lateral openings {digmata) or spu'acles. Sexes 

 distinct. Agamic reproduction {Parthenogenesis) occurs in some orders, and may be 

 regarded as a process of cell development analogous to ' budding.' 



Order THYSANURA. 



The most noteworthy member of this order is the common apterous Fish-insect 

 (Lepisma), which harbours in and destroys our books, a soft active creature, covered 

 with fine scales (which are beautiful objects under a microscope), and with a tail 

 composed of three divergent setiform appendages. 



Order HEMIPTERA. 



Pour wings, more or less membranous. Mouth armed with a suctorial proboscis 

 (Jiaustellum). Larva wingless. One of tho latest contriljutions to our knowledge 

 of Burmese Hemiptera is a list by Mr. W. L. Distant, of Tenasserim species, 

 published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1879, Part II. No. 1, 

 p. 37. This list and the British Museum Catalogues have been mainly used in tho 

 present catalogue. The members of this order are both animal and vegetable feeders, 

 some of the latter being of considerable commercial importance. The Coccus cacti, 

 or cochineal insect of Mexico, is the best known, and in 1850, according to Balfour 

 (Cydopxdia of India), 1122 tons were imported into England of the value of 

 JE440,000, and representing the astonishing number of 175,929,600,000 individuals, 

 70,000 of which, when dried, go to the pound. The red-floweri'd 'cactus' (Opunda), 

 or prickly pear, seems best suited for tlie insect ; but there are probably several s[)ecies, 

 of which tho Mexican S])ecies is by far the most valuable as a dye producer, and 

 which seems capable of being domesticated in India. The 'dye ' is nothing more than 

 the dried body of tho f(3niale insect, detached, during life, from the ])lant to which it 

 adheres parasitically, dipped in boiling water to kill it and cbied in the sun. 



