ON THE DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERS OF INSECTS. 



THE name " Insect" is in common parlance applied very 

 indiscriminately to whole classes of animals which have 

 little in common, except the smallness of their size. 

 Flies, earthworms, tadpoles creatures farther removed 

 from each other in their intimate structure than are the 

 horse, the shark, and the eagle, are sometimes confounded 

 together, and called " Insects." 



Nor is this all ; we have read that " flies are bred from 

 worms;" that certain large moths are "a kind of little 

 birds ;" that murex* is " a genus of insects belonging to 

 the order Vermes Testacea," and is " of the snail kind !" 

 Nay, the writer once heard a lady reply to some remark 

 upon a mouse, that she did " not like any insects !" 



Ignorance such as this is perhaps now rare ; yet it is 

 doubtful whether, even amongst those who do know that 

 a mouse and a tadpole are not insects, there are not many 

 persons who would be sorely puzzled to tell in what the 

 difference consists, and who would be surprised at the 

 assertion that a tadpole or a snake is more nearly related 

 to a horse or an eagle, than to any wriggling grub in 

 the waters or creeping worm upon the earth ; and that 

 the whole tribe of flying insects, whether large or small, 



* " Enyclopaedia Britannica." 



