1^24 CLASS INSJXTA. 



THE FIRST ORDER OF INSECTS. 



The Mybiapods' (Myuiapoda — Mitosata, Fab.), 



Vulgarly named millipedes, are the only animals of this 

 class, which have more than six feet in their perfect state, 

 and whose abdomen is not distinct from the trunk. Their 

 body, deprived of wings, is composed of a considerable series 

 of rings, most frequently equal, each of them, with the ex- 

 ception of the first, having two pairs of feet, most usually 

 terminated by a single crotchet : whether these rings be undi- 

 vided, or divided into two half segments, each has a pair of 

 these organs, and one of them only exhibits two stigmata.* 



The myriapods, for the most part, resemble small serpents, 

 or nereides, having feet very much approximated to each 

 other, in the entire length of the body ; the form of these 

 organs extends even to the parts of the mouth. The mandi- 

 bles are biarticulated, and immediately followed by a piece 



* The rings of the body of insects have in general two stigmata. If we 

 consider under this point of view the rings of the body of the scolopen- 

 drae, particularly of the large species, those which have twenty-one pairs 

 of feet, we shall see that they are alternately provided with, or deprived 

 of, two stigmata ; and thus, comparatively to those last animals, these are 

 really only semi-rings. Each complete segment has two pairs of feet, one 

 of which is supernumerary, since we find, in other insects, that the rings 

 provided with feet have but two feet. 



