2 INSECTS AT HOME. 



before us another world, of which w« have been hitherto un- 

 conscious, and shows us that even the tiniest insect, so small 

 perhaps tiiat the unaided eye can sf.arcely see it, has its work 

 to do in ttie world, and does it. Among the insects, too, we find 

 not only instinct, but reason. We find that in these lesser 

 creatures the passions and emotions of humanity have their 

 counterparts. Love, for example, developes itself in many 

 ways, and so does hate ; and, indeed, if the whole list of human 

 qualities be examined, there is scarcely one which cannot be 

 found in the insect world. 



The habits of insects are very mines of interesting knowledge, 

 and it is impossible carefully to watch the proceedings of any 

 insect, however insignificant, without feeling that no writer of 

 fiction ever invented a drama of such absorbing interest as is 

 acted daily before our eyes, though to indifferent spectators. 

 Thus, even in the mere structure of insects there is more than 

 enough material for the study of a lifetime. Puttmg aside the 

 wonderful internal mechanism, whicli ought to be examined 

 when practicable, the outward form is full of interest. We 

 find among insects a variety and brilliancy of colour that not 

 even the most gorgeous tropical flowers can approach, and that 

 some of our dullest and most insigni+^cant little insects are. 

 when placed under the revealing lens of the microscope, ab- 

 solutely blazing with natural jewellery. The variety of form, 

 too, is quite as boundless as that of colour, so that there is 

 much excuse even for the mere collector, who cares nothing for 

 insects unless he can kill them and set them in rows in a cabinet . 



In the following pages I intend to describe, as far as possibh" 

 within so limited a space, Insects at Home, and, though giving the 

 needful scientific information, to use few technical terms, and 

 always to explain those which of necessity must be, eTn ployed. 



Our first business is evidently, when treating of Insects at 

 Home, to define precisely what an insect is. This seems to be a 

 simple matter enough ; but it really is not so, the question being 

 one which has occupied systematic zoologists for many years, and 

 which is even now rather a dubious one in several cases. The 

 word insect is, as a rule, employed very loosely by those who have 

 not studied the subject. Spiders, for example, are generallv 

 called insects, and so are wuodljcc, centipedes, and a variety 



