484 NATURAL HISTORY. 



called spiracles. The tubes are prevented from collapsing by a 

 delicate thread wound spirally between the two membranes 

 of which the tubes are composed. This wonderful and beau- 

 tiful arrangement not only prevents the tubes from collapsing, 

 but keeps them flexible. There are, according to Stephens, 

 whose arrangement is the one usually followed, fourteen orders 

 of insects. Examples will be given of each, and their names 

 explained. The most perfect insects are placed first. 



There are two great divisions of insects, namely, those which 

 bite and eat solid food with jaws, as the beetles, locusts, bees, 

 &c., and those which suck liquid food through a proboscis, as 

 the butterflies, flies, &c. The first order of insects derives its 

 name from the sheath or covering with which the wings are 

 defended.* This is a very extensive order, as, exclusive of 

 exotic and other foreign beetles, there have been discovered 

 no less than three thousand ; five hundred inhabit England 

 The first in order of the British insects, are the TIGER-BEE- 

 TLES, so called from their activity and voracity. The most 

 common of these is the ordinary Green Tiger-beetle, that 

 may be seen any hot summer's day, glancing in the sun on 

 sandy banks. The exceeding beauty of this insect is beyond 

 all description. The upper surface of the body is a deep, dead 

 green, changing under the microscope to a glossy gold, shot 

 with red and green, the surface of the abdomen covered by 

 the wings, and the entire under-surface of the body, brilliant 

 emerald green, and when the insect is on the wing it sparkles 

 in the sun like a flying gem. Nor is this the last of its at- 

 tractions, for when handled it gives forth a scent closely re- 

 sembling that of die verbena. It is indeed as beautiful among 

 insects as the tiger is among beasts, and is, perhaps, the more 

 ferocious of the two. It runs and flies with great activity, and 

 takes to the wing as easily as a bee or fly, and is in conse- 

 quence rather difficult to capture without a net. Its jaws are 

 long, sharp, curved like a sickle, and armed with several teeth. 

 Its eyes are large and prominent, enabling it to see on all bides. 

 Its length is rather more than half an inch. 



* This, as well as the general covering of insects, is composed principally of a 

 substance called by chemists, chitme. 



