IXSECTA. 83 



nature is very different ; the greater number, having the 

 more perfect respiratory apparatus, live on land ; others, 

 breathing through gills, like the crabs, dwell principally 

 in the water ; some live solitary and alone, troubling 

 themselves little about one another, while, on the other 

 hand, bees, wasps, and ants, live in communities, build 

 artistically-arranged dwellings, which serve for a general 

 home for themselves and young ones, labor in concert, 

 and have a regular government. Nor is the aliment on 

 which they feed less different than their characteristic 

 habits; and their organs vary according to the nature of 

 the food necessary to their mode of life. Some subsist 

 on plants, others entirely on flesh ; many feed on what- 

 ever substances they find, and all, -with few exceptions, 

 are very voracious. They provide nests for their larvae, 

 exhibiting the most unerring instinct in their construc- 

 tion, and the number of ova deposited by some par- 

 ticular insects is wonderful ; nor are the habitations 

 which insects construct for themselves in all climates 

 and countries less manifold than those of the superior 

 races, but, on the contrary, the instinct they exhibit in 

 the order of their communities, their cunning plans for 

 obtaining food or escaping from danger, and the industry 

 they display in their works, is no less surprising than 

 admirable. Found in all countries and climates, the 

 question has been asked of what service are insects 

 to man, as they are rather considered pests than other- 

 wise, the little use ever made of them by no means 

 counterbalancing the serious evils produced by their rav- 

 ages, both in the fields and dwellings, proving the torment 

 of men and animals by their irritating stingings, which, 

 in many cases, are poisonous. Nevertheless, as nothing 

 has been created in vain, some good, as well as evil, is 



