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in the instriimeutality of a large proportion of insects in their character 

 of scavengers, whereby the decomposition of decayed and offensive 

 matters, both animal and vegetable, is effected and accelerated ; and 

 thuxlly, in the agency of insects in cansing the fertilization of plants, 

 especially those with very deep coroUas, and those which have the barren 

 and the productive flowers upon different plants, by carrying upon their 

 legs, in their search for honey, the fertilizing pollen from one flower to 

 another. A long chapter might be written upon each of these topics, 

 but we have space here barely to enumerate them. 



DIVISION OF INSECTS ACCORDING TO THE NATURE OF THEIR FOOD. 



From this point of view all insects may be divided into two classes — 

 fhe carnivorous insects, or those which eat animal food, {Sarcophaga) ; 

 and the herbivorous insects, or those which subsist uj)on vegetable sub- 

 stances, (Phytophacia). Each of these classes is again divisible according- 

 ly as the insects which con) pose it take their food in a fresh and living 

 state, or in a state of decay. The former are called predaceous insects 

 (Adephaga), when they live ujiou animal prey ; and the latter are desig- 

 nated by the name of scavengers {Eiipopliaga). Those insects which eat 

 living animal food, are still further divisible into predaceous insects 

 proper, which seize and devour their prey, and parasite insects, which 

 live within the bodies of their victims and feed upon their substance. 



Those insects which feed upon decaying animal matter present three 

 divisions : first, general scavengers, which devour particles of putresent 

 matter wherever they may be found ; second, those which live exclusively 

 in or upon the bodies of dead animals, {Necropliaga) ; and thirdly, those 

 which are found exclusively in animal excrement, [Copropliaga). 



The herbivorous insects may be divided in a similar manner into those 

 which eat fresh vegetable food, (Thalerophaga), and those which subsist 

 ui)on vegetable matters in a state of decay, {Suprophaga). They can 

 also be usefully classified according to the particular parts of the plant 

 which they devour, into lignivorous or wood-eating insects, {Xylophaga)-, 

 the folivorous, or leaf-eating insects, {PhyllopJiaga) ; and the fructivor- 

 ous, or fruit-eating insects, [Garpoplmga). 



The above Greek terms in parentheses have been used cliiefly in con- 

 nection with the insects of the coleopterous order, in which these diver- 

 sities of food-habits exist to a much greater extent than in any of the 

 other orders, but the terms themselves are of general signification, and 

 being very concise and com]>rehensive, they might, not improperly, be 

 used in speaking of insects in aU the orders, so far as they arc appli- 

 cable. 



