EXPERIMENTS ON FLYING. 383 



cutting off both the poisers of a crane-fly, he says 

 it was unable either to fly or walk.* Mr. West- 

 wood says he has seen the poisers beat rapidly 

 upon the winglets like drumsticks on a drum, and 

 it has been supposed that this action is the cause 

 of the hum made by the insect in flying. This is 

 doubtful, because it has been found that after the 

 winglets are cut away the humming sound is still 

 produced ; and some humming insects have no 

 winglets. 



So much importance did Linnaeus, the great 

 father of natural history, attach to the character 

 of the wings in insects, that he arranged the 

 various families of insects under several heads 

 expressive of the leading character of their wings. 

 The orders into which he thus divided insects are 

 seven in number: 1. Coleoptera, or case-winged; 

 2. Hemiptera, or half- winged; 3. Lepidoptera, 



* The writer has repeated these experiments in a number of 

 cases, and finds their accuracy confirmed. By cutting off one of 

 the poisers, the fly is partly crippled, and has a disposition to spin 

 round in flying ; by cutting off both, it is quite unable to fly at 

 all, and becomes instantly sensible of the loss of apparently a most 

 important pair of organs, by being so tame as not to try to escape 

 from a touch. A " Father Long-legs " thus treated had a ten- 

 dency to fall head foremost, and also to lie on its back. 



