OF NATURAL HISTORY. 101 



are found in waters, and others frequent houfes, among 

 which, though" it wants wings, is the bed-bug, a peftlferous 

 infect, which is too well known, and too generally difFufed. 

 The bugs differ from other infecHis by their foftnefs ; and moft of 

 them emit a very foetid fmell. The aphis, puceron, owme-fretter : 

 Thefe infedls are very common, and are generally termed the 

 lice of the plants which they infeft : The puceron, as remark- 

 ed in the firft chapter, is viviparous in fu mmer, and ovipa- 

 rous in autumn. Numbers of them are devoured by the 

 ants, on account, as is fuppofed, of a fweet liquor with which 

 their bodies are perpetually moiftened. Chermes : The lar^ 

 vae or caterpillars of this infe<Sl; have fix feet, and are gen- 

 erally covered with a hairy or woolly fubftance. The winged 

 Infecls leap or fpring with great agility, and infeft a number 

 of different trees and plants : The females, by means of a tube 

 at the termination of their bodies, infert their eggs under 

 the furface of the leaves, and the worms, when hatched give 

 rife to thofe tubercles, or galls, with which the leaves of the 

 afh, the fir, and other trees, are fometimes almoft entirely 

 covered. 



The third order or tribe of four-winged infedls confifts of 

 three genera only. But the fpecies comprehended under 

 them are exceedingly numerous. All butterflies and moths 

 belong to this order. Their wings are covered with a fari- 

 naceous powder, or rather with a kind of fcales or feathers, 

 dlfpofed in regular rows, nearly in the fame manner as tiles 

 are laid upon the roofs of houfes. The elegance, the beauty 

 the variety of colours exhibited in their wings, are produced 

 by the difpofition and different tinctures of thefe minute 

 feathers. The infedls of this order, on account of their beau- 

 ty and eafy prefervation, have always been the favourites of 

 colledors, and particularly of thofe of the female fex. When 

 the feathers are rubbed off, the wings appear to be nothing 



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