258 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 



of the order, the Entomostraca, in " all be turned 

 to Barnacles" ("Temp./' IV. 249). 



Although the comprehensive word " worm " 

 was widely used in Elizabethan days for the 

 grubs, maggots, and caterpillars of insects, only 

 the more obvious of the mature insects, the 

 imagos, are mentioned by Shakespeare. The 

 Orthoptera are represented by the cricket, " as 

 merry as crickets," says Poins (i " Hen. IV.," II. 

 iv. 100), and by the grasshopper. Shakespeare 

 knew and appreciated the effect on cattle of the 

 " breeze-fly/' Beetles are referred to several 

 times without any attempt to discriminate between 

 the genera or even families of this enormous order. 

 It is improbable that Shakespeare recognised that 

 the glow-worm which he mentions frequently in 

 some of his most charming passages is as a rule 

 a beetle. The Lepidoptera again appeal to Shakes- 

 peare's amazing sense of beauty : 



" And pluck the wings from painted butterflies, 

 To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes." 



(" Midsummer Night's Dream," III. i. 175.) 



In spite of the wide use of the word worm, he 

 also refers to the larvae of the Lepidoptera as 

 "grubs" ("Your butterfly was a grub/ 1 Cor., 

 V. iv. 12) and as " caterpillars " whose destructive 



