o46 MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 



matized the discovery that these animals shoot their 

 webs into the air, and so take flight, as a strange and 

 unfounded opinion ^. The fact, though so well authen- 

 ticated, is indeed strange and wonderful, and affords 

 another proof of the extraordinary powers, unparal- 

 leled in the higher orders of animals, with which the 

 Creator has gifted the insect world. Were indeed 

 man and the larger animals, with their present pro- 

 pensities, similarly endowed, the whole creation would 

 soon go to ruin. But these almost miraculous powers 

 in the hands of these little beings only tend to keep it 

 in order and beauty. Adorable is that Wisdom, Power, 

 and Goodness, that has distinguished these next to 

 nothings by such peculiar endowments for our preser- 

 vation as if given to the strong and mighty would 

 work our destruction. 



After the foregoing marvellous detail of the aerial 

 excursions of our insect air-balloonists, I fear you will 

 think the motions of those which fly by means of wings 

 less interesting. You will find, however, that they are 

 not altogether barren of amusement. Though the 

 w ings are the principal instruments of the flight of in- 

 sects, yet there are others subsidiary to them, which I 

 shall here enumerate, considering them more at large 

 under the orders to which they severally belong. These 

 are wing-cases {E/j/tra, Tegmina, and IlemeJijira) ; 

 winglets {Alulce); poisers (Halteres) ; tailets (Caudu- 

 Ice); booklets (Ilamifli); base-covers (Tegulce, &c.) 

 Besides their laifs, legs, and even anlenme assist them, 

 in some instances, in this motion. 



As wings are common to almost the whole class, I 



» Swamni. Bibl. Nal. Ed. Hill. i. 24. De Gecr, vii, 190. 



