190 ZOOLOGY. 



tions affording a sufficient and proper kind of nutriment to 

 the future progeny ; the places where they are deposited, 

 are numerous and varied, and strikingly display the wisdom 

 of their all-wise Creator. Some deposit them on various 

 parts of plants, some commit them to the earth, and others 

 to the waters, some deposit them on putrid flesh, others, on 

 or in the bodies of living animals, even of Insects. After a 

 period more or less short, the Larvce or Caterpillar is 

 hatched, (these differ widely from each other, according to 

 the different tribes or families to which they belong,) and 

 feeding on their predestined food, till they arrive at their 

 full growth, when they change into the Chrysalis or Pupa 

 state. In this change, their forms are generally much 

 altered, (and are as various as in the Caterpillar,) during 

 the time they remain in the Pupa, they are mostly inactive, 

 Cei^sing to feed, and assuming a perfectly torpid appearance, 

 in which they continue, some only a few days or weeks, and 

 others remain dormant for years ; and finally come forth in 

 their perfect or fly state ; when they propagate their species 

 and die. 



The following general characters distinguish Insects from 

 other Animals; they are all possessed of six or more feet; 

 they respire in a manner entirely different from the larger 

 classes of Animals, which possess lungs or gills, situated in 

 the upper or anterior part of the body ; Insects respire 

 through a sort of spiracula, or breathing apertures, placed in 

 a row on each side, the whole length of their bodies : their 

 skin is externally hard, serving the purposes of bones, of 

 which they have internally none ; to the internal surface of 

 the skin the muscles are affixed, which are more or less 



