INSECTS. 231 



able substances, and suck their juices. In several it 

 is strongly ridged with jaws and teeth, to gnaw and 

 scrape their food, carry burthens, perforate the 

 earth, nay, the hardest wood, and even stones, for 

 habitations and nests for their young. In a few the 

 tongue is so short as to appear to us incapable of 

 answering the purpose for which it is formed ; and 

 the Gad-flies appear to have no mouth. 



Near the mouth are situated the palpi, ox feelers : 

 these are generally four, but sometimes six in num- 

 ber. They are a kind of thread-shaped articulated 

 antennas. Their situation, under and at the sides 

 of the mouth, renders them, however, sufficiently 

 distinct from the proper antennae. They are in con- 

 tinual motion, the little animals thrusting them into 

 everything likely to afford them food. Some wri- 

 ters have considered them as serving the place of a 

 hand, in holding food to the mouth, whilst the in- 

 sects are eating. 



Linneeus has divided the animals of this class into 

 seven orders*, viz. 



1. Coleopterous insects (derived from the Greek 

 words KoXsog a sheath, and rrrimv a wing,) are the 

 Beetles, or such as have crustaceous elytra or shells, 

 which shut together, and form a longitudinal suture 

 down the back. Of this order are the Chafer tribe, 

 and several others. 



2. Hemipterous insects (from qpia-vg half, and mzpov 

 a wing) have their upper wings half crustaceous, 

 and half membranaceous, not divided by a longitu- 



* Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Lepidoptera, Neuroptera, Hymenoptera, 

 Diptera and Apteia. 



