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INTRODUCTION TO THE ARTICULATED ANIMALS WITH 

 ARTICULATED LEGS.* 



J5Y M. P. A. LATKEILLE. 



Overwhelmed by the variety of his occupations, and yielding too easily to the im- 

 pulse of friendship, M. Cuvier has confided to me the portion of this work which treats 

 upon insects. 



These animals were the objects of his earliest studies in zoology, and hence origin- 

 ated his friendship with Fabricius, one of the most celebrated disciples of Linnaeus, who 

 has repeatedly, in his works, shown evidences of his particular esteem. Various inte- 

 resting observations upon some of these animals, published in the Journal d'Histoire 

 Naturelle, formed the prelude to his works upon natural history. Entomology, like the 

 other branches of zoology, has derived the greatest advantages from his anatomical re- 

 searches, and the happy modifications which he has thence made in the groundwork of our 

 classification. The external structure of insects has been better understood ; and this 

 branch of the science has no longer been neglected, as it had previously been. His 

 Tableau Eltmentaire de VHistoire Naturelle, and Legons d'Anatomie Compar^e, have 

 ])ointed out the path to the natural method. The public will therefore have cause to 

 regret that his numerous pursuits would not permit him to undertake this portion 

 of his treatise upon animals. 



In undertaking this work, my object has been to unite, in as narrow limits as possible, 

 the most striking facts in the history of insects ; to arrange these animals with precision 

 and clearness, in a natural series ; to sketch their physiognomy ; to trace, in as few 

 words as possible, their distinguishing features, adopting a plan which shall be in rela- 

 tion to the progressive advance of the science and of the student ; to notice the bene- 

 ficial and obnoxious species, — indicating, at the same time, the best sources where he 

 may attain a knowledge of the other species ; to reduce the science to the engaging 

 simplicity which it exhibited in the days of Linnaeus, GeofFroy, and the earlier works 

 of Fabricius, and yet to present it as it now appears, enriched but not overcharged with 

 recent observations and researches ; — in a word, to make it conformable to the work 

 of Cuvier, 



This author, in his Tableau Elanentaire de VHistoire Naturelle des Animaux, did not 

 limit the extent of the class of insects, as restricted by Linnaeus, but introduced neces- 



• [These introductory observations appeared in botli editions of tlie lished in the intervening period. In lilie manner, the internal anatomy 

 U^gne jliiimitt^ xVc object of Latreille being herein to set forth the of these animals had been greatly studied, — thereby, in many instances, 

 ueneral principles upon which his arrangement of tiie Linnajan insects i affording more certain proofs of the solidity of many of the g:roups pre- 



was founded. In the second edition, the same <reneral classiBcatiou 

 was adopted, but considerable alterations were ma<le in the arrange- 

 ment of the secondary and tertiary groups, such as families, genera, 

 &c., it liaving been impossible to bring the work down to the then 

 present state of the science, without modifying the former arrange- 

 ment, and making great additions ; so tliat two volumes were requisite 

 instead of one, to give a summary of the multitudinous genera pub- 



viously proposed, and of whose internal structure it therefore became 

 necessary to add the details to the generally external character pre- 

 viously given ; so that this second edition ought more strictly to be 

 regarded as an entirely new work.] 



*,* Throughout the Articulated portion of the present edition, the 

 original passages are enclosed in editorial parentheses, thus r ]. 



D D 



