SUPPLEMENT 



INSECTS IN GENERAL. 



Of all the classes of the Animal Kingdom, that of which 

 we are now to attempt a general and brief sketch, is, by uni- 

 versal acknowledgment, allowed to be the most various and 

 extensive. In diversity of conformation it surpasses every 

 other, and does not yield even to botany in the number of 

 species. Those which are known amount to upwards of 

 twenty thousand, and there can be little doubt that numbers 

 have escaped observation, and have never been described. 

 It is possible, notwithstanding the zeal with which entomo- 

 logy has been recently cultivated, that this may be the case 

 to some extent, even with species indigenous in Europe ; and 

 with respect to exotics, we may well believe that our cata- 

 logues are far from being complete. Travellers have gene- 

 rally contented themselves with collecting, on some isolated 

 portions of the globe, such species as were remarkable either 

 for the singularity of their forms, or the beauty of their 

 colours. 



These animals are many of them so minute, that their 

 forms are not to be lecognized but by the aid of the micro- 



