OF INSECTS IN GENERAL. 115 



Various powers Four orders. 



so widely, that an unskilful person might easily 

 take the male and, female of, the same insect for 

 different species, as in the phalsena, hiimuli, pini- 

 aria, russula, each sex of which differs in color. 



As insects possess the various ppwers of creep- 

 ing, flying, and swimming, there is scarce any 

 place, however remote and secure, in which they 

 are not to be found ; and therefore, upon casting 

 a slight view over the whole insect tribe, just 

 when they are supposed to rouze from their state 

 of annual torpidity, when they begin to feel the 

 genial influence of spring, and again exhibit new 

 life in every part of nature, their numbers And 

 their varieties seern to exceed all powers of cal- 

 culation, and they are certainly too great for de- 

 scription ; but from the similitudes of the form, 

 manners, and propagation of several of them, the 

 extensive description has been easily compressed, 

 and rendered a separate history for each species 

 totally unnecessary. The whole class of insects 

 has by our latest writers been divided into four 

 orders. The first are those which want wings, 

 that appear crawling about on every plant, and 

 on every spot of earth which we regard with any 

 degree of attention : those, therefore, that never 

 have wings, but creep about till they die, may be 

 considered as constituting the first class of insects. 

 All these, the flea and the wood-louse only ex- 

 cepted, are produced from an egg ; and, when 

 once they break the shell, they never suffer any 

 further change of form, but continue to grow 



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