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III.— SYSTEMATIC AREANGEMENTS OF INSECTS. 



When we consider that the number of known species of 

 British insects alone amounts to more than ten thousand, 

 being about six times more than the species of our plants — 

 that is, six species of insects, on an average, to each species 

 of plant — it will be obvious that, in a collection of speci- 

 mens, some systematic order of arrangement will be requi- 

 site ; though, for purposes of out-door study of manners 

 and economy, nice distinctions are less indispensable, as 

 appears from the l»eautiful and successful researches of 

 Reaumur, Gould, Lyonnet, Bonnet, the Hubers, and other 

 distinguished inquirers, who paid little or no attention to 

 the minutiae of classification. In consequence, however, 

 of a course diametrically opposite having been pursued by 

 other naturalists of celebrity, we consider it our duty to 

 warn our readers against the error of considering arrange- 

 ment the sole end and aim of study ; whereas the correct 

 view of the matter, as we understand it, is not to neglect 

 or discard system, as was done by Reaumur and Bonnet, 

 but to make it subservient to such details of causes, motives, 

 and effects, as we have endeavoured to exemplify. In every 

 page of this work we have accordingly kept systematic 

 distinctions closely, though subordinatel}^ in view. We 

 shall now give a brief sketch of several classifications of 

 insects, invented by celebrated writers, from the earliest 

 times. 



The Wing System. 

 The illustrious Aristotle, almost the only genuine natur- 

 alist among the ancients, seems to have been the first who 

 distinguished insects by their wings, — a principle followed 

 Avith greater minuteness, in recent times, by Linnaeus and 



