6 



of the utility of the pursuit. It must become a popular 

 study, and be allowed to share, with Botany and Min- 

 eralogy, a small portion, at least, of the time devoted 

 by a judicious, enlightened, and agricultural people, to 

 elementary education. It is recommended to us by 

 its intrinsic merits, the novelties and wonders it un- 

 folds ; it is enforced by the powerful influence which 

 insects are permitted to exert upon our persons and 

 possessions. 



Insects may be said, without exaggeration, to have 

 estabhshed a universal reign over the earth and its 

 inhabitants. Their kingdom extends from the torrid 

 zone to the utmost hmits of polar vegetation ; from the 

 lowest valley to the mountainous regions of perpetual 

 snow. Some of them have sent forth their colonies 

 with man, and with him have circumnavigated the 

 globe ; while others hold undisputed sway where man 

 has not yet ventured to estabhsh himself, and where 

 their innumerable hosts and noxious powers have for- 

 bidden his approach. 



As insects depend for sustenance either immediately 

 or remotely upon vegetable productions, their disper- 

 sion through various regions is subject to nearly the 

 same laws that govern the geographical distribution of 

 plants. 



Temperature exerts an influence upon them. An 

 increase of heat is always attended with a proportional 

 increase in the kinds and numbers of these creatures. 

 Altitude has the same eff'ect as latitude in diminishing 

 the numbers of insects. Hence the insects, like the 

 plants, of high regions will be the same as those of 

 northern latitudes. On the summit of the White 



