10 INSECT A. 



should be accompanied also by some dried and 

 pinned specimens, since the former are apt to lose 

 their colors, and if at all hairy are very unsightly ob- 

 jects.^ It will be found convenient to pin the body 

 to a small piece of cork to facihtate observation and 

 prevent mutilation in handling. 



Scholars who have taken the lessons on Mollusks 

 and Crustacea ought to be able to place the body of 

 the locust (PL I., Fig. i, p. lo) in the most favorable 

 position for observation and comparison ; viz. with 

 the head turned from them and the back uppermost 

 (see Guide No. VIL, pp. 17, 18). In this position 

 the insect is seen to be bilaterally symmetrical. An 

 imaginary vertical plane passed longitudinally through 

 the body divides it into two equal lateral parts, and an 

 equal number of appendages project on either side. 



The obvious peculiarities of the locust are as fol- 

 lows : It is a winged creature with a more or less 

 elongated body, supported on jointed legs, and pro- 

 tected by an external horny skeleton. This skeleton 

 is one of the most noticeable features to scholars 

 already familiar with the external calcareous skeleton 

 of the Crustacean. 



It is, in reality, the outer layer of the skin, known as the 

 cuticula and is an excretion from the soft, underlying cel- 



1 Further details for preserving the necessary material for 

 class-work are given under the different orders. See also 

 " Directions for Collecting and Preserving Insects," Packard, 

 Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 261. [Distributed free.] 

 Packard, Entomology for Beginners, Chap. VI. Morse, First 

 Book of Zoology, 



