374 INTRODUCTION TO 



Prof. J. 0. AVestwood, Life-President of our English Entomo- 

 logical Society, to whose works and to whose almost life- long 

 friendly communication I gratefully ascribe the foundation of 

 most of such technical Entomological knowledge as I may 

 ]iossess, and who has been well described by his distinguished 

 ftdlow- worker, the Entomologist of the department of Agriculture 

 of the United States of America, as the Prince of Entomologists. 

 In the lists of Orders I have endeavoured, by adding many 

 figures, to convey the information more clearly than could be 

 done by words ; and for explanation of the special Entomological 

 terms, which it has been impossible to avoid use of, the reader 

 is referred to the Glossary appended to this Introduction. 



Introduction. — Insects begin their lives either by being 

 hatched from eggs, or produced alive by the female; commonly 

 they are hatched in the form known as maggots, caterpillars, 

 or grubs, but they are never generated by decaying vegetables, 

 putrid water, bones, carcases, dung, or any other matter, dead 

 or alive, excepting their own insect forerunners. They come 

 out of these matters constantly, but, if the observer will 

 watch, he may often see the arrival of the insects, the laying 

 of the eggs, and be able to satisfy himself as to the gradual 

 development and the method of breeding, and that the progeny 

 is produced by the female insect. 



The eggs are usually laid soon after the pairing of the male 

 and female, and are deposited on or near whatever may be the 

 food of the larvffi. They are laid singly or in patches, and are 

 sometimes attached by a gummy secretion to the leaf or what- 

 ever they are laid on ; occasionally they are fastened by a 

 short thread, or raised (like the heads of pins) on a stiff foot- 

 stalk of hardened viscid matter. Such insects as insert their 

 eggs in living animal or vegetable matter are furnished with 

 a special egg-laying apparatus or ovipositor, such as a borer, 

 or organs enclosing bristle-like points or saws, by means of 

 which the female pierces a hole, and passes the egg down into 

 the wounded spot. 



For the most part insect-eggs hatch shortly after they are 

 laid, but sometimes they remain unhatchcd during the winter ; 

 and it is believed that, where circumstances are unfavourable 

 to development, they may remain unhatched for years, but 

 this point is one of those subjects on which more information 

 is needed. They have been found to endure intense cold 

 without injury, and, besides some special and extraordinary 

 instances, it has been found by experiment that insect-eggs 

 may be exposed to a temperature lower than that to which they 

 are usually subjected in this country, and cold enough to solidify 

 their contents without destroying their powers of hatching. 



