102 INSECTS. 



advances, now retreats ; returns and flutters off 

 again, and then pounces down on a fresh violet, 

 coyly ]:)eeping' from beneath its leaves. And now 

 the little rover takes his station, with a touch so light 

 as not to discompose the perfumed velvet upon which 

 he treads — his wings are motionless, and raised 

 against each other. Now he uncurls his wonderful 

 proboscis, and begins to sip the nectar offered so 

 complacently, till satisfied away he flies, and Zephyr's 

 self returning, finds no fold, or crease, or damage 

 done to indicate the robbery committed. Such 

 casual glimpses of Creation's charms are worth whole 

 cabinets of cork and pins. 



But to our subject. Let us first inquire, — What 

 is an insect? In a German vocabulary, that hap- 

 pens by accident to be open before us, under the 

 general name of " Insects," we find grouped together 

 the following ill-assorted selection, — " Flies, Spiders, 

 Ants, Scorpions, Frogs, Toads, and Lizards." It is, 

 therefore, evident that the word ''insect" is made 

 use of in ordinary language, in a very vague and 

 indeterminate manner, and applied indiscriminately 

 to very various animals. Linnaeus, it is true, em- 

 ployed it to designate all animals provided with an 

 external skeleton, divided into segments (insecta), in 

 which sense it nearly corresponded to the Cuvierian 

 expression artieulaia, jointed, and thus included 

 lobsters and crabs, spiders and scorpions, under the 

 same designation. In the restricted sense in which 

 it is now employed, however, it includes only such 

 articulated animals, as in their perfect or mature 

 state are recognizable by the following characters, 

 whereby they are distinguished from all other crea- 

 tures. 



The body of an insect is divided into three prin- 

 cipal portions, called respectively, the head, the 

 thorax, and the abdomen. 



The head contains the apparatus of the mouth, and 

 instruments of the senses, including the antenna or 

 feelers, which are invariably two in number. 



