INSECT. 



829 



cessful manner. And, indeed, it must be admitted, 

 that this is a charge too well founded, although, per- 

 haps, a few observations may convince those who are 

 the most ready to bring it forward upon every oppor- 

 tunity, that it may be greatly palliated. In the first 

 place, therefore, it may be urged, that these de- 

 structive insects, appearing as they do in occasional 

 seasons in vast profusion, are produced in such my- 

 riads for some wise purpose, which we may not be 

 permitted to understand. They, like the locusts, of 

 which so splendid a poetical description is recorded 

 in the second chapter of the prophet Joel, form a 

 portion of the army of the Almighty wherewith he 

 scourges the nations ; and, although the scientific 

 researches of mankind might discover means of 

 destroying in some degree, these hosts, it may 

 perhaps not unreasonably be supposed either that he 

 would not be allowed to frustrate the designs of Pro- 

 vidence, or that, if this evil were removed, others 

 perhaps more weighty might arise in their stead. In 

 the second place, the minuteness of the size of these 

 creatures presents an almost insurmountable barrier 

 against those delicate inquiries and examinations of 

 them, during every state of their existence, by which 

 alone we can arrive at a knowledge of the real nature 

 and cause of the mischief, and be thereby, and thereby 

 alone, enabled to judge of a suitable remedy. In the 

 third place, the want of sufficient opportunity is not 

 the least objection which may be brought against the 

 charge. It must be admitted, that no effectual check 

 can be given to the ravages of any species of noxious 

 insect until its entire habits and economy have been 

 ascertained. Thus far in the inquiry is the stiict 

 province of the entomologist, whose attention ought 

 to be directed from day to day, and from year to 

 year, not to isolated spots of ground, but to whole 

 acres, more especially with reference to the pecu- 

 liarities of seasons, and to atmospheric changes ; but 

 here we have only gone halfway. It now becomes 

 the province of the agriculturist to discover a remedy, 

 since it seems equally clear that this ulterior branch 

 of the inquiry can only be prosecuted effectually by 

 persons perfectly conversant with the chemical nature 

 of soils, the action of various ingredients which may 

 be employed as remedies, not only upon insects 

 themselves, but also upon the plants which may be 

 attacked. Such persons too are alone able to judge 

 of the practicability of the application of the pro- 

 posed remedies, since it would be useless for an 

 indoor entomologist to endeavour by experiment to 

 discover remedies which, when discovered, cannot be 

 adopted from the great expense of the article itself, 

 or the impossibility of applying it, or the liability of 

 the destruction not only of the insect, but also of 

 the plant itself, and even instances of the latter de- 

 scription have been recorded. 



Hence we must evidently look for the discovery of 

 the most efficient remedies to persons who, residing 

 in the county, are the best enabled to obtain a 

 knowledge of the economy of these destructive 

 insects, founded upon the most general and practical 

 modes of examination, and who unite the entomo- 

 logical knowledge requisite to trace most effectually 

 their habits, with a perfect and scientific knowledge 

 of the true principles of agriculture. Thus it seems 

 undoubted, that this want of sufficient opportunity for 

 investigation has hitherto proved one of the greatest 

 barriers to our proposing satisfactory remedies against 

 the ravages ; and knowing, as we too well know, that 



the study and investigation of this branch of zoology 

 has hitherto been almost uncultivated amongst us, it 

 is not, perhaps, surprising that so little has been done. 

 The observer of insects has, indeed, proposed reme- 

 dies which the agriculturist cannot adopt ; and the 

 agriculturist on the other hand, ignorant of the nature 

 of insects, has pursued the very plan which has been 

 the most congenial to the habits of the insects which 

 he wished to destroy; as in the case of the French 

 gardener, mentioned by Reaumur, who thinking to 

 destroy the caterpillars of the cabbage-moth, buried 

 them just at the time when they were themselves on 

 the point of going into the earth to change to 

 chrysalides *. 



Thus have we endeavoured to show not only that 

 in respect to their various relations towards mankind 

 insects possess considerable claims upon our atten- 

 tion, but have also been anxious to prove that a 

 knowledge of the habits and economy of insects in 

 their various states, cannot fail to be highly advan- 

 tageous, and, in fact, absolutely necessary, both in 

 order to enable us to discover suitable remedies 

 against the attacks of obnoxious species upon our- 

 selves or our properties, and also as tending to the 

 probable discovery of other species equally beneficial 

 with those already employed by man. It therefore 

 now becomes necessary for us to detail such par- 

 ticulars relative to the various stages in the lives of 

 insects to which we have already alluded, as are 

 essential to be known, in order to obtain a correct 

 notion of their habits in these various states. 



We have already stated that the subjects of our 

 present inquiry, as restricted by the establishment of 

 the other modern classes separated from the Linnaean 

 insects, comprise those species of annulose animals, 

 which are provided in their perfect state with six 

 jointed legs and two antennae, and which are subject 

 to a series of transformations of a variable degree, 

 by means of which, in almost every species, organs 

 of flight are developed ; the latter characters consti- 

 tuting, in fact, the grand characteristic of the class 

 Plilota, or winged insects. Hence it w ill be evident, 

 that an inquiry into the nature of these ojhanges, and 

 a consideration of the peculiarities exhibited by in- 

 sects during their progress towards maturity, consti- 

 tute the first step, and are, in fact, the necessary 

 commencement ot our inquiries into the nature of in- 

 sects. 



There are, it is true, inquiries of a preliminary na- 

 ture, having reference to the entire sub-kingdom of 

 annuluse animals ; such, for instance, as the question 

 of typical priority of the various classes, the points 

 of connection existing between them, and the other 

 animal smVkingdoms ; the supposed uniformity in 

 the organization of the various parts of the mouth, 

 so ingeniously and elaborately worked out by Sa- 

 vigny, Latreille, &c., or the attempts made by various 

 authors to reduce their varying structure to one ty- 

 pical form. These inquiries, however, which are the 

 especial province of the comparative anatomist, would 

 occupy too great a space in an essay like the present, 

 and could not, in fact, be treated in a satisfactory 

 manner, or even be rendered intelligible to the gene- 

 ral reader, without an elaborate series of figures and 

 descriptions. Hence we must refer our readers to the 

 works of these authors, and more particularly to the 

 work of M. Straus Diirckheim, upon the general 



* From the Magrazine of Natural History. 



