DESCRIPTION AND CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 25 



the outlines of entomology to identify the insect, if among well 

 known destructive species, here or abroad. It is for the purpose 

 of affording a general view of insect classification and nomencla- 

 ture that the following brief definitions and descriptions are 

 given. They contain merely those terms which are continually 

 occurring even in popular descriptions of insects, and without 

 which most attempts to convey in words an idea of a new, a 

 strange, or even a common species, must necessarily be compara- 

 tively worthless, because indistinct and imperfect. 



29. The definitions and outlines of classification are prefaced 

 by a few remarks upon the distribution and importance of insects, 

 the science which treats of their history, habits and relation to 

 man, and the difficulties which prejudice and a want of a proper 

 appreciation of its merits have thrown in its way as a subject of 

 popular instruction and enquiry. The increase and ravages of 

 insects injurious to many of our cultivated crops have already 

 become matters of the highest importance on this continent, and 

 year by year threatens us with a terrible calamity. Like many 

 other unseen yet impending evils, the magnitude of this one is 

 unappreciated, and it is only when a devastation similar to that 

 which occurred in New York State in 1854, or in the Niagara 

 Townships in 1856, become as wide spread as the Union 

 itself, that men generally will regard the subject in a proper 

 light. 



30. There is no branch of natural history which can claim s.o 

 many distinct objects of study and admiration as that of Ento- 

 mology. (!) The number of distinct species of insects contained 

 in collections, probably amounts to 200,000. In the Museum at 

 Berlin about 100,000 species are arranged and classified, among 

 which are upwards of 40,000 coleoptera or beetles, and it is com- 



(1) Entomology. Entomon, an insect, logos, a discourse. 



C 



