EXTERNAL ANATOMY OF INSECTS. 587 
even the very hairs of your head are all numbered” *@— 
he taught them that the attention and care of the Drrry 
were not confined to the mighty and the vast, but 
directed to every atom of his creation—that he not only 
decreed the number and magnitude of the planets and 
planetary systems, and of their various inhabitants, but 
that the most minute and apparently insignificant part 
of each individual, both as to its number and form, was 
according to the law by him laid down; and whoever 
studies them with attention will find that insects furnish a 
very interesting homily upon this text; since in various 
instances I think I have made it clear, that parts seem- 
ingly of the least importance—as a hair, a pore, or a 
slight impression—have their appropriate use >. At first, 
it would seem that the various pieces of which we have 
seen the second primary segment of the trunk of these 
animals to be composed, would be of little importance ; 
but when we reflect that this multiplicity of parts is 
usually not to be found in those that have no wings, 
whether they be apterous sexes or tribes °, a suspicion 
arises in the mind that they must be of more consequence 
than their prima facie appearance seems to warrant:—and 
this is really the case. The manitrunk, which is destined 
principally to incase the muscles that move the arms, 
did not require to be so complex as the part that had to 
support the action of wings as well as legs. In those that 
have a large prothorax, as the Coleoptera, it may, indeed, 
be useful in flight as a counterpoise to the abdomen ; 
and since when the wings descend it rises, and vice versa, 
it may be of some service by its vibrations’; but for this 
* Luke xii. 7. » See above, p. 397—. 
© See above, p. 578. 4 Chabrier Sur le Vol des Ins. c.i. 413—, 
