THE WALKS ABROAD OF 



means of tubes opening on the sides of their bodies, 

 and called tracheae ; these tubes terminate externally 

 in orifices called stigmata." 



" And are these organs numerous ? " 



"Very numerous. A patient entomologist has 

 counted one thousand five hundred and sixty-four on 

 the caterpillar of the willow.* But this is only one 

 of the remarkable peculiarities of insects : many have 

 compound eyes divided into facets." 



u Perhaps- like diamonds after they have been 

 cut ? " 



" Yes, but with the difference that the facets are 

 much more numerous. They have counted, I believe, 

 four thousand in the house-fly." 



u | 



"About six thousand, two hundred in the silkworm 

 moth." 



"! !" 



" Twelve thousand, five hundred and forty-four in 

 a dragon-fly."f 



"What you are telling me sounds almost incredi- 

 ble ! I shall become a St. Thomas, and ask you to 

 show me that I may believe." 



* There is here some error of memory or of pen. The stigmata in insects 

 are never more than twenty in number; on the other hand, the tracheae are 

 so numerous, distributed as they are to all paits of the body, and ramifying 

 in a fine network around and amongst all the organs, as to defy counting. 

 Possibly he refers to the number of muscles, of which Lyonnet counted 

 4,061 in the caterpillar of Cossus ligniperda. T*-<mslator. 



t And twenty-five thousand and eighty-eight in a beetle (Mordclla) 

 Translator. v ' 



