OUTLINES OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



GENERAL STRUCTURE OF INSECTS. 



Illustrated by electrotypes from drawings by Prof. C V. Riley, Washington, D. C., and zin& 

 process work done under the supervision of Mr. Joseph Bridgham, of Providence, R. I. 



CHAPTER 1. 

 INTRODUCTION. 



What is an insect ? This does not seem like a question difficult to 

 answer, and yet how few either of grown persons or children would be 

 able to define an insect otherwise than as " some sort of a bug." Now 

 it is true that all bugs, properly so called, are insects; but it by no 

 means follows that all insects are bugs. On the contrary, genuine bug& 

 form but a small proportion of the fluttering, buzzing, crawling myriads 

 to which the term is generally applied. 



Insects are among the most familiar of natural objects. They are 

 met with in all climates and situations, and in greater or less numbers 

 at all seasons of the year. They claim our attention in a thousand 

 different ways. We admire the beauty of form and color in some, and 

 shrink from the grotesque ugliness of others. Many species injure 

 and annoy us personally or damage or destroy our property, while on 

 the other hand a few, like the honey-bee, the silk- worm and the cochi- 

 neal insect, produce some of our choicest luxuries. Is it not well then 

 for us to endeavor to learn something of the structure, habits and dif- 

 ferences of a class of animals with which we unavoidably have so much 

 to do? 



How few people realize that there are as wide differences between 

 insects and some of the animals that are usually classed with them 

 for example, spiders, millepeds and earth-worms as there are between 

 cows and chickens and serpents; and there are far greater distinctions 

 between butterflies and beetles and grasshoppers than exist between 



