Chapter IV 

 THE ORDERS OF INSECTS 



You are to know that there are as many sorts of Flies as there 

 be of Fruits : I will name but some of them . . . and indeed too 

 many either for me to name or for you to remember: and their 

 breeding is so various and wonderful that I might easily amaze 

 myself and tire you in a relation of them. — Izack Walton. 



In the closing pages of the preceding chapter examples 

 were given of the characters whereby insects are 

 grouped into distinct Orders. The Moths and Butter- 

 flies form, as we have seen, an order (Lepidoptera) 

 to which the Caddis-flies (Trichoptera) are nearly 

 allied. The Cockroach, on the other hand, belongs 

 to an order — the Orthoptera — far removed from the 

 Lepidoptera, the two orders differing markedly in 

 the nature of the jaws, wings and life-histories of 

 the insects included in them. Jaws, wings, and life- 

 histories are the leading characters by which insects 

 have been divided into orders, but the different values 

 assigned to these characters by different naturalists 

 have led to considerable divergence in the orders 

 recognised. 



There are several well-marked groups of insects, 

 however, universally admitted to form natural orders. 

 Those, for example, whose jaws are formed for pierc- 

 ing and sucking like the Cicad described in Chapter I 

 (p. 1 6) — Bugs, Lice, Plant-lice, Scale-insects, Frog- 

 hoppers — are all included in the order of beaked 

 insects (Hemiptera). Their jaws are so peculiar and 

 characteristic that no doubt is felt that they are nearly 



