114 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Number of legs, wings, tails. 



is fleshy, resembling a proboscis, and tubular, as 

 in the fly. 



The major part of insects have the number of 

 their legs confined to six; mites, spiders, and 

 scorpions, however, have eight ; the onifcus has 

 fourteen, and there are some few which have still 

 more. The first joint of the leg is generally 

 thickest, and is called femur; the second, which 

 is of the same size throughout, tibia; the third, 

 which is jointed, tarsus; and the last, which in 

 most insects is double, unguis. The claws are the 

 fore feet enlarged towards their extremities, each 

 of which is furnished with two lesser claws, 

 which act like a thumb and finger. 



Their wings are membraneous and undivided, 

 except in the instance of the phalaensea alucitae, 

 in which they are in part divided. Most insects 

 have four, but the diptera class and the coccus 

 have only two. The wing is divided into its 

 inferior and superior surfaces; its anterior part 

 in a butterfly is that towards the anterior margin, 

 or next to the head ; its posterior part that to- 

 wards the anus ; its exterior part that towards 

 the outer edge ; and the inferior that next the 

 abdomen. 



Their tails, with very few exceptions, are sim- 

 ple, capable of being extended and drawn back 

 at pleasure. 



In many insects the male and female are with 

 difficulty distinguished ; and in some they differ 



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