MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 273 



those that, fixing- the head to any point, bring the tail 

 up to it, and so proceed). 



The motion of serpents was ascribed by some of the 

 ancients (who were unable to conceive that it could be 

 effected naturally, unless by the aid of legs, wings, or 

 fins,) to a preternatural cause. It was supposed to re- 

 semble the " incessus deorum^'' and procured to these 

 animals, amongst other causes, one of the highest and 

 most honourable ranks in the emblematical class of 

 their false divinities^. Had they known Sir Joseph 

 Banks's late discovery, — that some serpents push them- 

 selves along by the points of their ribs, which Sir 

 E. Home has found to be curiously constructed for this 

 purpose, — their wonder would have been diminished, 

 and their serpent-gods undeified. But though serpents 

 can no longer make good their claim to motion more 

 deorum, some insects may take their places ; for there 

 are numbers of larvae, that having neither legs, ifor 

 ribs, nor any other points by which they can push 

 themselves forward on a plane, glide along by the al- 

 ternate contraction and extension of the segments of 

 their body. Had the ancient Egyptians been aware 

 of this, their catalogue of insect divinities would have 

 been wofully crowded. In this annular motion, the 

 animal alternately supports each segment of the body 

 upon the plane of position, which it is enabled to do by 

 the little bundles of muscles attached to the skin, that 

 take their origin within the body''. 



I shall begin the list of walkers, the movements of 

 which are aided by various instruments, with one which 

 is well known to most people, — the grub of the nut- 



'' Encyd. Brit., art. Phmology, 709. " Cuvior, Jnal. Coinp. i. 430. 

 VOL. II. T 



