CHAPTER IV. 



SUB-KINGDOM AKTICULATA. INSECTA. 



, MONG the numerous objects 

 > which engage the attention 

 of the mieroscopist, the in- 

 sect tribes in general are 

 far from being the 

 ^^ least interesting ; 

 their curious and 

 wonderful economy is a sub- 

 ject well deserving especial 

 investigation. Earth, air, 

 and water, teem with the 

 various tribes of insects, for 

 the most part invisible to the unassisted eye of man, but 

 presenting, when viewed with the microscope, the most 

 beautiful mechanism in their frame-work, the most perfect 

 regularity in their laws of being, and exhibiting the same 

 wondrous adaptation of parts to the creature's wants, 

 which, throughout all creation, furnishes traces of the love 

 and wisdom that so strongly mark the works of God. 1 



" I cannot," says the excellent Swammerdam, " after an 

 attentive examination of the nature and structure of both 

 the least and largest of the great family of nature, but 

 allow the less an equal, perhaps a superior degree of 

 dignity. Whoever duly considers the conduct and instinct 

 of the one, with the manners and actions of the other, 

 must acknowledge all are under the direction and control 

 of a superior and supreme Intelligence; which, as in the 

 largest it extends beyond the limits of our comprehension, 

 escapes our researches in the smallest. If, while we dis- 

 sect with care the larger .animals, we are filled with wonder 



(1) We commend to the reader for perusal, the excellent Introduction to Ento- 

 mology, by Kirby and Spence. Longmans. 1856. 



