DEFINITION OF THE TERM INSECT. 41 
nished with elytra, wings, antenne, legs, and every other 
organ usually found in the order it belongs to, is abso- 
lutely not bigger than the full stop that closes this period. 
In several other coleopterous genera there are also very 
minute species, as in Cryptophagus, Anisotoma, Agathidi- 
um, &c. I know no orthopterous insect that can be called 
extremely minute, except that remarkable one found on 
the Continent in the nests of ants, the Blatta Acervorum 
of Panzer*, but now called, I believe, Myrmecophilus : 
nor indeed any in the Hemiptera, Neuroptera, and Di- 
ptera, that approach the extreme limits of visibility: but 
in the Lepidoptera, the pigmy Tinea occultella WL. is 
almost invisible except in flight, being scarcely thicker 
than a horse’s hair, and proportionably short>; indeed, 
many others of those lovely Lilliputians, the subcutaneous 
Tinea, decorated with bands of gold and silver, and 
studded with gems and pearls, that in larger species 
would dazzle the beholder’s eye, are in size not much 
more conspicuous. In the Hymenoptera order, Ichneumon 
Punctum of Dr. Shaw, which forms so striking a contrast 
to his giant Phasma dilatatum, being placed together in 
the same plate; and another that I possess, under the 
trivial name of Atomos, would elude the searching eye of 
the entomologist unless when moving upon glass. Linné 
named the tribe of parasites to which these belong, Mz- 
muti, on account of their generally diminutive size. But 
these little minims, under the superintendence of Pro- 
vidence, are amongst the greatest benefactors of the 
sufficiently distinguished from them and every other insect by its 
singular capillary wings. In my cabinet it stands under the name of 
Trichopteryx K. 
* Panz. Fr. Germ. Init. lxii. 24. Comp. Hor. Entomolog. Addenda, 
&e, 523, > Linn, Syst. Nat. n. 451. 
