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CHAPTER. IX. 



ORDER IV. THYSANOPTERA. 



IT would be difficult to examine a handful of flowers, 

 whether gathered in the field, the greenhouse, or the 

 garden, without finding a host of minute black insects 

 basking upon their petals, or, sometimes, concealing 

 themselves more coyly in the recesses of the flowers. In 

 either case, however, an examination is sure to end in 

 a tickling sensation first on one part of the face, then on 

 another, and we find that how we cannot tell several 

 of the little creatures have found their way from the 

 flowers to our persons. 



If a few are shaken from a blossom (a Pink or Carna- 

 tion is almost certain to contain several), at least one 

 mode of locomotion will soon be observed. Let a single 

 insect be watched, and before long he will probably be 

 observed to form an inverted arch, depressing his body 

 in the middle and elevating his tail. In an instant he 

 is gone, apparently without the wings being called into 

 action ; and though he may be found again not very far 

 from the same spot, yet the eye has not followed his 

 movement. 



Lest, however, he should be suspected of being desti- 

 tute of wings, his next proceeding is to stand quite still 

 and begin wriggling his tail in an extraordinary manner, 

 turning it up like a Staphylinus, and from side to side in 



