144 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE GEORGIA. [430] 



them in check, and protect their friends ; but the want of 

 the necessary information in regard to the character, 

 transformations and habits of insects, prevents a judicious 

 discrimination between friends and foes, as well as any sys- 

 tematic effort to destroy the latter. 



While no effort will be made to supply detailed informa- 

 tion in regard to individual varieties, nor even of subdi- 

 visions of the orders into which insects are classified, the 

 design of this chapter is to give to farmers a condensed 

 statement of the principles upon which the science of En- 

 tomology is founded, the basis of the classification of in- 

 sects into orders, the transformations through which those 

 of the different orders pass from the egg to the perfect in- 

 sect, and some insight into the habits of some of those in- 

 sects with which the farmer meets in the prosecution of 

 his avocation. 



The Science of Entomology is based upon a thorough study 

 of the insect world, in which specific resemblances between 

 different insects are first observed, and those agreeing in 

 particular characteristics grouped together and classified. 

 The classification employed by naturalists is based princi- 

 pally upon the structure of the mouth, in the adult state, 

 the structure and number of the wings, and the transform- 

 ations which the insects undergo in passing from the egg 

 to the adult state. 



The first great divisions are called orders, of which some 

 naturalists give seven and others eight : 



They are 



1. "CoLEOPTERA^/teat/i-wing-ed). (Beetles). Insects with 

 jaws, two thick wing covers meeting in a straight line on 

 the top of the back, and two filmy wings, which are folded 

 transversely. Transformation complete. Larvae called 

 grubs, generally provided with six true legs, and some- 

 times also with a terminal prop-leg ; more rarely without 

 legs. Pupa, with the wings and legs distinct and uncon- 

 fined." Some of the coleoptera are friends to man ; such 



