IG 



INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



In the descriptions which we shall give of Insect Archi- 

 tecture, we shall employ as few technical words as pos- 

 sible ; and such as we cannot well avoid, we shall explain 

 in their places : but, since our subject chiefly relates to 

 the reprodiiction of insects, it may be useful to many 

 readers to introduce here a brief description of the changes 

 which they undergo. 



It was of old believed that insects were produced spon- 

 taneously by putrefying substances ; and Yirgil gives the 

 details of a process for creating a swarm of bees out of the 

 carcase of a bull : but Kedi, a celebrated Italian naturalist, 

 proved by rigid experiments that they are always, in such 

 cases, hatched from eggs previously laid. Most insects, 

 indeed, lay eggs, though some few are viviparous, and 

 some propagate both ways. The eggs of insects are very 

 various in form, and seldom shaped like those of birds. We 



Maffnifiod f>?i:s <>f a, Genmrtra aTmilluta ; h, of an unknown water insect; c, of the 

 lacquevnidth ; (/.of a oadrtis-flv {Phriiqavea atrata) ; />, of red nnderwing moth {Catocaia 

 nwpta); f, of Puntia Brassica; g, of the CUtden Nonpareil niuth. 



have here figured those of several species, as they appear 

 under the microscope. 



When an insect first issues from the egg, it is called 

 by naturalists larva, and, popularly, a caterpillar, a grub, 

 or a maggot. The distinction, in popular language, seems 

 to be, that caterpillars are produced from the eggs of moths 

 or butterflies; grubs from the eggs of beetles, bees, wasps, &c.; 



