73 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



including the horns. The largest coleopterous insects 

 inhabiting Britain are the Hydrous piceus, and the 

 Stag-beetle (Lucanus cervus). The latter is nearly 

 two inches in length, including the mandibles ; and 

 the former is not much short of the same dimen- 

 sions, besides being of considerably greater breadth. 

 These may be regarded as the giants of this order 

 of insects, occupying one extremity of the scale. 

 At the opposite extremity may be placed some 

 species of the genera Trichopteryx, Atomaria, and 

 Agathidium, which are so minute as not to exceed 

 one-eighth part of a line in length ;* or, to adopt 

 an illustration sometimes employed, they are abso- 

 lutely not bigger than the full stop that closes this 

 period. 



The structure of these minute beings is perhaps 

 even more calculated to excite our admiration than 

 that of the larger animals. In the latter, most of 

 the parts are of sufficient size to come within the 

 direct cognisance of our senses, and there is no ap- 

 parent discrepancy between their dimensions and 

 the functions which they perform ; but when we re- 

 flect that a mere animated point, almost invisible to 

 the naked eye, possesses all the attributes which be- 

 long to the largest of its race that it is furnished 

 with an external covering made up of many parts 

 adjusted to each other with the nicest accuracy 

 that it is supplied with all the requisite organs of 



* A line is the twelfth part of a French inch. 



