84 LECTURE IX. 



nished with a peculiar pair of processes called An-* 

 tenna or jointed horns, which are extremely various 

 in the different tribes, and form a leading charac- 

 ter in the institution of the genera or smaller as- 

 sortments into which Insects are distributed. 



The ancients seem to have entertained very 

 vague ideas relative to the production of Insects^ 

 which they did not suppose to be conducted in the 

 same regular and invariable order as in the larger 

 animals, but to be owing to the putrefaction of 

 various animal and vegetable substances ; nor was 

 it till towards the commencement of even the 

 eighteenth century that the general history of In- 

 sects began to be clearly comprehended. Their 

 forms and differences had indeed long before been 

 studied with some degree of attention ; but the 

 accurate knowledge of their respective tribes, and 

 their various states or transformations, had been 

 but obscurely traced or understood. 



The first state in which the generality of In- 

 sects appear is that of an egg. From this is 

 hatched the animal in its second state, in which 

 it is often , called the Caterpillar, though this 

 term more particularly relates to the insects of 

 e Moth and Butterfly tribe. The Insect in this 



