27 8 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE 



Quite apart from their importance in dollars and cents, 

 insects are very interesting creatures to study. They have 

 wonderful "life histories," and very much is yet to be 

 found out about their behavior. You already know the 

 life history of moths and butterflies, and you know of the 

 wonderful behavior of ants and of bees. 



Some insects appear to be the most intelligent of all 

 animals lower than man, and yet we cannot be sure that 

 they are reasoning creatures. 

 You see the world is a very 

 different place to an insect 

 from what it is to us. It 

 breathes differently, sees dif- 

 ferently, smells differently, and 

 in practically every way has 

 a plan of organization wholly 

 different from our own. 



The two great ideas about 

 insects that you should have 

 axe (i) an idea about how 

 they are constructed and how 

 they live, and (2) an idea of 

 the classification of insects; that is, an idea of the six great 

 groups and of the important insects belonging to each. 



All insects have their hard part outside and their soft 

 part inside. They have no skeleton, as vertebrates have. 

 There are three distinct parts of the body: head, thorax, 

 and abdomen. To the thorax three pairs of legs are 

 attached. The wings are also attached to the thorax. 

 On the head are the compound eyes, composed of a great 

 number of small eyes lying very close together. Just in 

 front of the_eyes arise the antenna, which are very impor- 



Ab. 



FIG. 104. Diagram of the body of 

 an insect; H, head; T, thorax; 

 Ab, abdomen; An, antenna. 



