994 



INSECTIVORA. 



spines being usually developed directly from a 

 trachea or part of a membrane in the immediate 

 vicinity of a trachea. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. In addition to the foot-notes 

 attached to the article the following are some of the 

 principal works on Insects : De Animalibus Insectis 

 libri septem, A uctore Ulysse Aldrovandce, fol. Bonon. 

 1602. Experimenta circa Generationem Insecto- 

 rum, Francisco Redi, Florence, 1668. De Bombyce, 

 JJ/. Malpighi, 1687 ? Historia Insectorum, Londini, 

 1710. Methodus Insectorum, seu Insecta in Metho- 

 dum aliqualem digesta, Johannes Ray. Systema 

 Naturae, 1735-1770, Carolus von Linnaeus. Memoires 

 pour servir a 1 'Histoire des Insectes, par Charles De 

 Geer, 7 torn. 4to. Siockholme, 1752. Traite d'ln- 

 sectologie, par Charles Bonnet, 8vo. Paris, 1748. 

 Biblia Naturae, fol. by J. Swammerdam, translated 

 by Thomas Flloyd, with Notes by J. Hill, London, 

 1758. Entomologia Carniolica, exhibens Insecta 

 Carnioliae indigene, &c. 8vo. Joannis Antonii Scopoli. 

 Vindobonas, 1763. Memoires pour servir a T Histoire 

 des Insectes, 6 torn. 4to. par Rene Antoine Erchhault 

 de Reaumur. Traite Anatom. de la Chenille, 4to. 

 par Pierre Lyonet, 1760. Spicilegia Zoologica, &c. 

 a Petr. Sim. Pallas, M.D. 4to. Berlin, 1767-1780. 

 Systema Entomologiae, &c. 8vo. Jo. Christ. Fabricii, 

 Flensburgi et Lipsiae, 1775. Novae species Insec- 

 torum Centuriae 1. Auctore Joanne Rionoldo Fostero, 

 6vo. Londini, 1771. Historia Nattiralis Curculio- 

 num Sueciae, Auctore Gabriel Bonsdorf, 4to. Up- 

 ealiae, 1785. Entomologia Parisiensis, edente A . F. 

 Fourcroy, M.D. 2 torn. 12mo. Parisiis, 1785. Ex- 

 position of English Insects, arranged according to 

 the Linnean System, 4to. London, by John Harris, 

 1782. Entomologia Helvetique ou Catalogue des 

 Insectes de la Suisse, ranges d'apres une nouvelle 

 Methode, avec Descriptions et Figures, Claiville, 

 Zurich, 1798. Tableau elementaire de THistoire 

 Naturelle des Animaux, par G. Cuvier, 1797. 

 Natural History of British Insects, by E. Donovan , 

 16 vol. 8vo. London. 1792-1818. De antennis In- 

 sectorum, 8vo. 1799, Lehmann. Vivarium Nature, 

 the Naturalist Miscellany, by G. Shaw. Lepidop- 

 tera Britanniae, Auctore A. H. Haworth, 8vo. Lon- 

 dini, 1803. Monographia apum Anglise, by W. 

 Kirby, M.A. 2 vol. 8vo. Ipswich, 1802. Introduc- 

 tion to Entomology, by William Kirby, M.A. and 

 William Spence, vol. iv. 1816-1828. Historia Nat. 

 des Animaux sans Vertebres, &c. par M. le Cheva- 

 lier de Lamarck, 5 torn. 8vo. Paris. Extrait du 

 Cours de Zoologie, &c. par M. de Lamarck, 1812, 

 8vo. Elements of Natural History, 2 vol. 8vo. 

 London and Edinburgh, 1802, by Stewart. Histoire 

 Naturelle des Crustaces et des Insectes, par P. A. 

 Latreille. British Entomology, by John Curtis, 

 F.L.S. Histoire abregee des Insectes, Paris, 

 1764, 2 torn. 4to. by Geoffroy. Illustrations of 

 British Entomology, by James Francis Stephens, 

 F.L.S. Horae Entomologia?, by W. J. Macleay. 

 Entomologia Britannica, 1 vol. 8vo. 1802, by Tho- 

 mas Marsham. Considerations Generates sur I'Ana- 

 tomie comparee des Animaux Articules.par Hercules 

 Straus Durckheim, 4to. Paris, 1828. Modern Clas- 

 sification of Insects, by J. O. Westwood, F.L.S. 

 (G. Newport.) 



INSECTIVORA, (Insecta, voro,} a group of 

 mammiferous animals, considered by some au- 

 thors as a distinct order ; by others, and parti- 

 cularly by Cuvier, as a family only of the great 

 carnivorous order, named by that great natura- 

 list CARNASSIERS. The peculiarities of struc- 

 ture by which the Insectivora are characterized 

 appear to me to be equally important with those 

 which have led me already to treat of the Chei- 

 roptera as an ordinal group, and I shall there- 

 fore consider them in that point of view. 



They consist of four very distinct groups, 



the relations of which are not very clearly 

 fixed. I have ventured to consider them as 

 four families, viz. : 

 TALPID^E, typified by the mole, Talpa. 

 ERINACEADA:, by the hedgehog, Erinaccus. 

 SoiiiciD-E, by the Shrews, Sorex. 



TUPAIAD^E, by the genus Tupaia. 



Such at least appears to me, in the present 

 state of our knowledge, to be a near approach 

 to the natural groups of which the order is 

 composed. In the Talpida I include the ge- 

 nera Talpa, Condytura, and Chrysochloris ; in 

 the Soricida, the genera Sorex, (with the sub- 

 genera, so called, into which it has lately been 

 subdivided,) Mygale and Scalops, the latter 

 genus being clearly osculant between the 

 Soricida and the Talpida ; in the Erinaceada, 

 the genera Erinaceus, Echinops, and Centenes ; 

 and in the Tupaiada, the single genus Tupaia, 

 or Cladobates, as it is named by Fred. Cuvier. 



It will at once be seen, by reference to this 

 enumeration of the types of form which occur 

 in this order, that animals, differing greatly in 

 their general structure and habits, are included 

 in it. But it will also be found that they all 

 agree in the general character of their teeth, 

 which are in all instances furnished with ele- 

 vated and pointed tubercles, for the purpose of 

 breaking down the hard and polished elytra of 

 coleopterous insects, upon which most of them 

 in a greater or less degree subsist. This cha- 

 racter has already been exhibited in the insecti- 

 vorous group of the Cheiroptera, which we have 

 considered as leading towards the present order ; 

 and even in the lower forms of the Quadru- 

 mana a similar tendency is evident, as in the 

 Maki, the Loris, and others. They agree, also, 

 in being for the most part nocturnal animals, 

 and, with some exceptions, in living under 

 ground, or at least in exhibiting a tendency to 

 such a mode of life; and all those which in- 

 habit the colder countries pass the winter in a 

 state of torpidity. They all possess clavicles ; 

 their limbs are generally short, and they are 

 plantigrade. They have ventral mammae, the 

 stomach is perfectly simple, and they are desti- 

 tute of a coecum. 



The different families which I have named 

 are as well characterized by their habits as by 

 their external form, and their more intimate 

 structure. The Talpida, the teeth of which are 

 shewn in the genus Talpa (fig- 441,) and Chry- 

 sochloris (fig. 450), which are pre-eminently 

 subterranean, are distinguished by their extra- 

 ordinary habits of forming long and complicated 

 burrows underground, passing their whole lives 

 in a subterranean retreat, in which they are born, 

 feed, breed, hibernate, and die ; and which re- 

 treat, in the case of the common mole, is formed 

 with the utmost art, and a beautifully complica- 

 ted construction. The Soricida (Jig- 449) are 

 a sort of carnivorous mice; and although they do 

 not actually burrow, retreat during the winter, 

 and in their ordinary repose, into holes, feed- 

 ing, however, on the surface or in the water, 

 several of them being partially aquatic, diving 

 with facility after aquatic insects, and remain- 

 ing without difficulty a long time under water. 

 In both these families there is a peculiar cha- 



