LKSSONS IN BBGLE6H. 



35 



The Bul>">nl. noludes the day-flying butter- 



rith kn.>l>in'il uiiii'im.i'. tin- hawk-moth* (Sphingidc), the 

 thiok-1" ' ""tuma, and the loopers 



(Geomt'tn.L. - ; wliili- in.- ut.lier Hiili-ont.T, Microlopidoptera, 

 comprises the pom the bell-moths 



rim-ina), and the plume-mothi (Ptero- 

 i IK- in..;:, in the engraving belongs to the Nooturna, 

 ami is .-..;;. ! 11 aooount of the pattern of geometrical 



tunned by the coloured scales of the wings. 



> iir. ill. ;!.(! into the Aculeate, or stinging; 



i logons, or insect-eating; and the Phytophagous, 



<>r |'l.mi-.Mtiiig, sub-orders. Some speoios of the latter Hub- 



!>ut the Aculoata are those which have a per- 



: Mini,' loading from a poison-bag. The males <>t 



have thirteen joints, and the females twelve joints, to their 



antennae. The abdomen is connected with the thorax by a very 



thin stalk. The females, or workers, usually feed tho larvas 



or grubs, which are walled up in cells. The bee, tho wasp, and 



the ant each represent diil'uront families of this order. 



In the entomophagous Hymonoptera, tho females are fur- 

 nished with an ovipositor, placed between two side-plates, 

 which are usually stretched freely out from the end of the 

 abdomen, and are often of great length. This complex instru- 

 ment is mode use of to insert the eggs deep into tho bodies 

 of the larvae of other insects, in the abdominal cavity of 

 which the footless larva live parasitically, and there change 

 into pnpaa. Hence tho enthusiastic lepidopterist who breeds 

 his moths from caterpillars is often woefully disappointed 

 by having a brood of ichneumon-flies emerge from the chrysalis, 

 whose once living tenant they have entirely consumed. No. 8 

 in the illustration represents an ontomophagous insect. In the 

 phytophagous Hymenoptera, the abdomen is joined to the thorax 

 by its whole width, and not by a stalk. These insecta are 

 called saw-flies, because they are furnished with a double saw 

 at the end of the body, with which they saw into wood, and 

 there deposit their young, which, when hatched, are herbivorous. 



The beetles (Coleopteraj form a well-defined order, with 

 scarcely any other approach to other orders among any of their 

 numerous families ; and none of these families can be called 

 aberrant that is, they cannot be said to stray far away from 

 the true beetle typo. By some, the Brachelytra which have 

 short win<*-cases (as their name implies), under which their 

 flexible wings are closely doubled up, thus leaving the rings 

 of the hind part of the body exposed to view are related to 

 the Forficulidae, an orthopterous order. Certainly there is 

 much external likeness between the devil's coach-horse and an 

 earwig, which two insects represent the two families named, 

 but this is rather a spurious resemblance than a true affinity. 

 The main divisions of tho beetles have been founded on the 

 number of the joints of the foot below the tibia. Thus tho 

 Pentamera have five joints to all their feet; the Hoteromera 

 have four joints to the feet of the third pair of legs, and five 

 to the others. The Cryptopentamera have apparently four 

 joints to all their feet. This appearance is occasioned by the 

 yreat reduction in size, or, as it might be called, the abortion 

 of one of the joints of each foot. Tho Trimera, similarly, have 

 apparently three-jointed feet. Both the beetles in the engraving 

 belong to the Pentamerous division. The Cicindela is a car- 

 nivorous beetle, and the Geotrupes is an herbivorous lamellicorn 

 i.e., the last joints of the antennae are produced into flat, 

 appressed plates. 



The Neuroptera, narrowed by the transference of the dragon- 

 flies and the may-flies to the Orthoptera, are divided into the 

 Planipennia in which the hind-wings are like the fore ones, 

 and not folded and the Trichoptera, in which the wings are 

 hairy or scaly, and the hind pairs folded. To these divisions, 

 also, must be added the aberrant sub-order, called Strepsiptera 

 (screw- winged). The males of these have curious twisted and 

 aborted organs to represent the fore-wings and widely expanded 

 hind-wings ; while the females are wingless, and inhabit the 

 bodies of bees, between the segments of whose abdominal rings 

 they thrust forth their heads. 



The Orthoptera, as defined above, comprise not only the 

 genuine Orthoptera represented by the cockroaches, walking- 

 . grasshoppers, and crickets whose main characteristic 

 is the folding of their broad hind-wings longitudinally, after 

 tho manner of a lady's fan but also the white ants, the ear- 

 wigs, and dragon-flies, etc., and also two aberrant groups, called 



Physopoda and Thywmura. The earwig* (Dermoptera) are 

 diHtinguished by their short, leathery, unveined elytra or fore- 

 wings, which cover the membranous hind-wing*. These Utter 

 are folded when at rent, first in a longitudinal direction, aim 

 than 'doubled up transversely, ao an to occupy bat little pane. 

 When extended, them} membranous wing* are in hpe like the 

 human ear, hence the name ear-wing, and its corruption ear- 

 wig. The pincera at the end of the body, the use* of which 

 are so little known, furnish another character which is conspi- 

 cuous to all. Two more aberrant Hub-orders, the Corrodentia 

 ;m 1 1'hysopoda (bladder-footed), are of little importance. 

 Another, called the Thysanura, hi remarkable for having long 

 bristles at the end of the body, which in the Podura are bent 

 under the body, and serve as springs to jerk the insect into the 

 air \\ In MI it wishes to leap, much after the manner of the toy 

 leaping-frog. These creatures have their bodies covered with 

 scales, which are so small yet so beautifully symmetrical in 

 their markings as to make excellent tost objects for the high 

 powers of a microscope. 



The tribe to which the white ants belong in called Orthoptera 

 socialia, because they live in communities. Although they 

 belong to quite a different order from the true ants, yet the 

 popular name is justified by the fact that their habit* are 

 closely similar to them. It is a singular coincidence that in 

 both the cases of the true and the white ants there are not 

 only males and females in the community, bnt also neutral 

 wingless forms, which, though themselves sterile, are highly 

 instrumental in presiding over the reproduction and rearing of 

 the young from the other fertile forms, and also in the defence 

 of the nest and community. In the case of the Termites, the 

 neuters are called soldiers, because of their immense jaws, 

 wherewith they attack all intruders. The larvae and pupae are 

 active, and do the work of the community. The female ha* 

 wings which have only a temporary use. When pregnant, sho 

 is placed in a royal apartment, and fed while she increases) to 

 an enormous size, preparatory to the production of some 

 80,000 eggs. 



The Praying Mantis is a good example of another family. 

 The cognomen is applied on account of tho bent fore-legs of 

 the animal, which are supposed to represent the attitude of 

 prayer. The mantis, however, uses them to inflict painful 

 wounds by the aid of the sharp-pointed tibiae. This insect is 

 an excellent example of the Gressorial Orthoptera. The salta- 

 torial Orthoptera are well known as grasshoppers and crickets. 



LESSONS IN ENGLISH. XXVII. 



THE LATIN ELEMENT. 



IN our last lesson (Vol. II., page 374) we finished onr inquiry 

 into the influence that the ancient language of the Greeks has 

 exerted on our tongue, and we now pass on to the Latin element 

 in the English language. 



That element can by the ordinary student be appreciated and 

 acquired but imperfectly. I will, however, do what I can to aid 

 him. Had I had tho direction of his studies from the first, I 

 would have done my best to make him at the beginning master 

 of the Latin language. As it is, I must content myself with 

 offering to his diligent attention tho chief Latin roots which 

 enter into the body of our tongue. Possessed of these, together 

 with their signification, he will in general be at no loss, even 

 without the aid of a dictionary, for the meaning of a word of 

 Latin parentage. Seldom, however, do the words in English 

 which may be traced bock to tho Latin, come into our tongue 

 directly from the Roman soil. They have generally passed 

 throagh intermediate countries. 



From the Latin nro formal s.'wral modern languages, namely, 

 the French, the Italian, the Portuguese, and the Spanish. These 

 are called the Romance languages, because they are essentially 

 Roman in their origin. Some say they received the name because 

 in them the first romances were written ; more probably is it 

 that tho fictions so called were denominated from the languages 

 in which they appeared. 



It is not immediately from the pnre Latin of the Latin 

 classics, such as Livy, Cicero. Virtril, Horace, and Tacitus, that 

 the Romance languages are derived, bnt rather from these so 

 far as they were found in the vernacular tongue, the spoken 

 language of *he population in the great centres of intercourse 



