56 NATURAL ARRANGEMENT OF INSECTS. 



a principle by which the orders have been strictly cir- 

 cumscribed.* Our author, in another place f, proceeds 

 to designate the orders of the masticating insects by that 

 which he considers the natural principle of this variation: 

 the different kinds of metamorphosis he enumerates, are 

 four, — viz. 1. Obtect, or what we have termed perfect or 

 complete, as in butterflies, &c., or the Lepidoptera and 

 Trichoptera. 2. Coarctate, as in bees and flies (^Ilt/meno- 

 ptera and Diptera). 3. Incomplete, as in beetles and fleas 

 {Coleoptera MviAptera) ; and 4. Semicomplete, as in bugs 

 and grasshoppers {^Orthoptera and Hemiptera). In his 

 fifth groups, Nenroptera and Homoptera, he can discover 

 no particidarly prevalent sort of metamorphosis; he there- 

 fore considers it to be " various." Now, even upon this 

 theory, if metamorphosis is the basis of the natural ar- 

 rangement, it follows that the Lepidoptera and the 

 Trichoptera are the types of the Mandibuiata and 

 Haustellata: since these are the only masticating and 

 suctorial insects whose metamorphosis is obtect, — that is, 

 thoroughly complete and perfect. To the first of these 

 propositions we may readily subscribe; but what ento- 

 mologist would ever think of placing the Trichoptera at 

 the head of the Mandibuiata, when, in fact, they are 

 obviously at the very bottom of the scale. 



(52.) Let us now proceed to a more particular in- 

 quiry on the different changes produced by this principle 

 of transformation. The larva state is, therefore, clearly to 

 be considered the first stage in the life of an insect. Lin- 

 naeus, with happy application, adopted this name from 

 the Latin word signifying a mask; justly considering 

 that the real form of the insect, while it remained under 

 this covering, was disguised, or masked. We have two 

 vernacular terms corresponding to this, although by no 

 means so expressive, and in themselves indefinite. The 

 larvae of butterflies, moths, and of lepidopterous insects 

 generally, are called caterpillars ; while those which are 

 white, somewhat inactive, and are found either in the 

 ground, or enclosed in other substances, bear the common 



« Hor. Ent. p. 456. t IlJ- P-440- 



