78 FIKST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



CLASSIFICATION. 



It was intended to present with tliis Report a general view of the 

 Classification of Insects, to the extent at least, of giving the more 

 prominent characters of the several orders and of the principal fami- 

 lies into which insects are divided, but the length to which the intro- 

 ductory remarks of the preceding pages has extended, compels the 

 postponement of the purpose to another year. A certain amount of 

 elementary knowledge — such as shall embrace the essential features 

 of the principal divisions of insects, a recognition of the several forms 

 under which they present themselves during their transformations, and 

 familiarity with some of the names applied to portions of insect struc- 

 ture, is indispensable to every one who would intelligently observe in- 

 sects and Avho desires to avail himself of the information which is so 

 freely and abundantly offered in the economic entomological literature 

 of the day. As such knowledge is supplied in but few of our public 

 schools, or even higher institutions of learning, the entomologist, in 

 his communications with the public, is compelled to presume upon a 

 surprising and, as it appears to him, a criminal lack of even an 

 elementary acquaintance with the insect world. 



As the insects to be discussed in the following pages will each, after 

 its scientific and popular name, be referred to its order and family, it 

 seems but proper that they should be preceded by a mention of the 

 several orders, their meaning, and the common names of some of the 

 insects which they embrace. 



While authors differ in their systems of classification, the one most 

 generally adopted in this country recognizes the division of six-footed 

 insects oVHexapoda (the spiders, or Arachnida, and the centipedes, or 

 Myriopoda, forming the other divisions of the Class of Insects) into 

 seven orders, which, commencing with those deemed highest in rank, 

 are the following : — 



1. Htmenoptera — (of Greek derivation, from hymen, a membrane 

 and ptera, wings) comprising bees, wasps, hornets, ants, ichneumon 

 files, saw-flies, etc. 



2. Lepidoptera — (from lepis, a scale, Siud ptera, wings) embracing 

 butterflies and moths — the former diurnal and the latter usually noc- 

 turnal. 



3. Diptera — (from dis, twice, and ptera, wings) comprising flies, 

 mosquitoes, gnats, sheep-ticks and some other wingless forms, etc. 



4. CoLEOPTERA — (from coleos, a sheath, and ptera, wings) including 

 the beetles, as the carpet-bug, May-bug, rose-bug, snapping-bugs, 

 lightning-bugs, weevils and lady-bugs. 



5. Hemiptera — {ivomhemi, half, and^^ifem, wings) including plant- 



