48 NATURAL ARRANGEMENT OF INSECTS. 



general reader wearied. We shall, therefore,, at once 

 proceed to define the orders, and explain their analogies, 

 and adduce proofs in support of this theory of their 

 arrangement. 



(43.) The following are the five primary divisions, 

 or orders, composing the class before us ; these were all 

 well known to the Ancients, and were adopted from 

 them hy the great naturalist of Sweden. 1. The Le- 

 pidoptera, having the four wings highly developed and 

 covered with imbricated scales, as in the butterfly and 

 moth ; the metamorphosis is complete, since the pupa 

 is quiescent; the perfect insect is without jaws, and 

 lives by suction, the rostrum or proboscis being spirally 

 coiled. 2. The Hemiptera, where the upper wings are 

 harder than the lower, generally coriaceous and folded ; 

 the metamorphosis is incomplete, because the pupa is 

 active ; the perfect insect, as in the last order, is with- 

 out jaws, and lives by suction only ; but the rostrum 

 is not spiral. 3. The Hymenoptera, in which the 

 wings are never coriaceous, but usually hyaline, and 

 marked with strong nerves; the mouth is furnished 

 with strong jaws, and with a sheathed proboscis ; and 

 the tail is usually armed with a sting. 4. The Coleo- 

 ptera, or beetles, where the upper wings are metamor- 

 phosed, as it were, into two hard cases, protecting the 

 under pair, which are alone organised for flight; the 

 mouth is furnished with jaws, but destitute of any pro- 

 boscis. 5. The Neuroptera, wherein the wings are 

 reticulated ; the mouth furnished with jaws, but no pro- 

 boscis ; and the body, as in the dragon fly > without any 

 sting. 



(44.) It will be our object, hereafter, to show that 

 these five orders constitute a circular group ; in the 

 mean time, we shall at once throw them into the fol- 

 lowing table : 



