120 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



contains usually concealed in its interior the ovipositor^ or other 

 organs of generation, the intestines, and their vent, or anus ; the 

 abdomen is almost or entirely covered by the tvings in some 

 insects when in a state of repose. Every insect as a rule has two 

 antenncs, six feet, and four wing's ; the antenncB are sometimes 

 very small and scarcely visible without the aid of a magnifier, 

 as in the case of some beetles, dragonflies, bugs, and flies ; the 

 feet are in some beetles folded so closely into corresponding 

 hollows in the under surface, when not in use, as to be almost 

 invisible, and the fore-pair in some butterflies are so weak and 

 unarmed with claws, as to have received the name of spurious, 

 while the wing's differ so greatly in their form, size and struc- 

 ture, in the various Orders, as to have given names founded 

 upon this circumstance to those Orders. Thus in the beetles 

 we find tiie fure-ivings thickened and hardened so as to resem- 

 ble the substance of the head and thorax, and serving merely 

 as coverings or sheaths to the hind-wings, which are folded 

 under them when not in use. This Order has received the 

 name of Coleoptera, from two Greek words, meaning sheathed- 

 v)ings. 



In the locusts and crickets, the fore-wings, although not so 

 hard and stiff as in the beetles, are still of different and more 

 substantial structure than the //m^/-?ri7/^''.v, which are folded, not 

 by bending in the middle like those of the beetles, but in 

 straight longitudinal furrows like those of a fan. The Order 

 to which the crickets, locusts, ttc, belong, has received the 

 name Okthuptera, from two Greek words signifying straight 

 wings. 



In the Order containing the bugs, etc., we find still another 

 form of the fore-wings, which are stiff and hard like those of 

 beetles, for about half their length from the body, while the 

 remaining half is thin and flexible, resemlding the texture of 

 tho hinder pair ; from this circumstance the Order has received 

 the name Hemiptera, from two Greek words signifying ha/f- 

 wings. 



Tiie dragonflies and darning-needles are furnished with wings 

 of which the fore-pair more closely resemble the hinder, than 

 in any other Order, both being constructed of a thin glassy 

 membrane, very finely reticulated, or covered with a network of 

 veins or nerves. The Order which includes tiicse insects has 



