INSECTS 1425 



belonging to a type represented more or less closely 

 by the existing genus Lindia. 



Of course it may be argued that these facts have 

 not really the significance which they seem to me to 

 possess. It may be said that when Divine power 

 created insects, they were created with these remark- 

 able developmental processes. By such arguments 

 the conclusions of geologists were long disputed. 

 When God made the rocks, it was tersely said, He 

 made the fossils in them. No one, I suppose, would 

 now be found to maintain such a theory; and I be- 

 lieve the time will come when it will be generally 

 admitted that the structure of the embryo, and its 

 developmental changes, indicate as truly the course 

 of organic development in ancient times as the con- 

 tents of rocks and their sequence teach us the past 

 history of the earth itself. 



INSECTS: THEIR WINGS, 

 STINGS, EARS, AND EYES 



PHILIP HENRY GOSSE 



THE most perfect fliers in existence are insects. 

 The swallow and the humming-bird are pow- 

 erful on the wing, and rapid; but neither these nor 

 any other "winged fowl" can be compared with many 

 of the filmy-winged insects. The common house- 

 fly, for example, will remain for hours together 

 floating in the air beneath the ceilings of our dwell- 

 ing-rooms, hovering and dancing from side to side, 

 without effort and without fatigue. It has been 

 calculated that in its ordinary flight the house-fly 



