54 CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



ablest entomologists, and in which this extraordinary mode of 

 reproduction is shown to obtain amongst the Silk-worm Moth, 

 and some others ; and also amongst the Honey-Bees. 



In the classification of insects, the wings, which are the grand 

 and characteristic endowment of the tribe, serve as the basis for 

 their distribution into separate orders. It is not necessary here to 

 go into the details of the classifications generally adopted, though it 

 will not be out of place to mention briefly some of the more pro- 

 minent divisions. The Moths and the Butterflies constitute the 

 order Lepidoptera, or scale- winged insects ; the so-called down or 

 feathers with which the wings of these insects are clothed being 

 nothing less than an almost infinite number of beautiful sym- 

 metrically-formed scales, attached to the membrane of the wing 

 in regular rows, like the slates or tiles covering the roof of a 

 house. " The shard-borne beetle " and his allies form the Co- 

 leoptera, or sheath- winged order ; the said " shards," in all their 

 endless variety, being literally the sheaths or shields under 

 which the real organs of flight are neatly folded up when not 

 on " active service." Bees, Wasps, Ichneumon-flies, and the like, 

 have simple membranous wings, and are therefore the Hymen- 

 optera ; the Dragon-fly with its gauzy wings, the frail Ephe- 

 mera and others of the kind, form the Ncuroptera, or nerve- 

 winged order ; and so on the number, nature, or degree of 

 development of the organs of flight being the guide throughout 

 for the arrangement of the mighty host of animated forms which 

 constitute what is fitly termed " the insect world." 



One of the few insects which do not readily fall into rank and 

 file in the ordinary systems of classification is that little rogue 

 often very well known where his acquaintance is never acknow- 

 ledged, the Common Flea. Pulex irritans is his name, and very 

 irritating fellows they are generally allowed to be ; though that 

 genial old lady, mentioned by Kirby and Spence, who thought 

 them " the prettiest little merry things in the world,"' appears to 

 have regarded them with great favour. It has often occurred to 

 us, by the way, that the old lady in question must be the same that 

 is referred to in another part of the " Introduction," who declared 

 she could always hear when a Flea walked over her nightcap, and 

 that it clicked as it went along, as if walking on pattens ! If we 

 may credit the statement of a very respectable matron of our ac- 

 quaintance, the extraordinary summer of 1857 called forth these 



