27^ PECULIARITIES OF INSECTS. 



the guidance of instinct ; but though^ perhaps, wholly 

 devoid of any other principle of action, their structure 

 and habits well deserve the attention of the inquisitive 

 mind, which may perceive, in these little creatures, 

 the same wise adaptation of means to a certain design, 

 as in the animals of greater magnitude and more en- 

 larged capacities. Some peculiarities are common to 

 them all : none have less than six feet ; some, many 

 more : they are always furnished with antennae, which 

 are distinguished from horns by being jointed and flex- 

 ible, and are supposed to be the organs of some sense 

 of which we are ignorant. The head has neither 

 brain, ears, nor nostrils : most of them have two eyes ; 

 spiders have eight. Leuwenhoek discovered eight 

 hundred lenses in a fly ; and Pugett, seventeen thou- 

 sand three himdred and twenty-five, in the cornea of 

 a butterfly. They are furnished with pores on the 

 sides of their bodies, through which they breathe ; yet, 

 from microscopic examination, some of them are found 

 to possess several lungs and several hearts. Silkworms 

 have a chain of hearts, as may be plainly seen when 

 they become almost transparent, and are near spin- 

 ning. Such insects as live in communities, like bees, 

 ants, &c. are of three sexes. Each family of bees has 

 one female only, called the queen, who is the mother 

 of the whole hive; many males; and a very great 

 number of neuters, or working bees, which provide all 



