STRUCTURE OF INSECTS. 



conjugal and filial devotion, more than compensated for the los3 

 of Bnrnens ; and the observations and researches were pursued 

 with unabated zeal, and were finally collected and published in 

 the second volume, which appeared about 1814, more than twenty 

 years after the publication of the first.* 



8. Since any explanation, however popular and familiar, of the 

 economy and habits of the bee, must necessarily involve very 

 frequent references to its structure and organs, it will be con- 

 venient in the first instance briefly to explain the terms, by which 

 naturalists have designated its several parts. 



The body of insects in general consists of a series of annular 

 segments, so articulated one to another as to allow more or leas 

 flexibility. It consists of three chief parts, the head, the thorax, 

 and the abdomen. 



The head consists of a simple segment, the thorax of three, and 

 the abdomen of a greater number, sometimes as many as nine, 

 Each segment is distinguished by its ventral or inferior, and 

 dorsal or superior part. 



Insects have three pairs of legs, which are inserted in the sides 

 of the ventral parts of the three thoracic segments of the body ; 

 and generally two pairs of wings, which are inserted in the sides 

 of the dorsal parts of the second and third thoracic segments, 

 counting from the anterior to the posterior part of the body. 



A pair of members, caUed antennce, are inserted in the sides of 

 the head, varying much in structure in different classes, and 

 in many, including the bee, have the form of slender and flexible 

 horns, consisting of many minute pieces articulated one to another. 

 These are generally presumed to be tactile organs, and are con- 

 sequently sometimes called /«efer«. 



9. This description will be more easily comprehended by 

 reference to the annexed diagram, fig. 1, which may be taken 

 as a general theoretical representation of the structure of an 

 insect. 



As here indicated, the three thoracic segments are distinguished 

 as the pro-, meso-, and metathorax. 



10. Insects have been classified by naturalists according to the 

 structure of their wings, and the order to which the bee has been 

 assigned, and of which it is regarded as the type, is the Symen- 

 optera, a compound of two Greek words signifying membranaceous 

 wings. 



The' section or subsection of the order of Hymenoptera, which 

 in its economy and peculiar construction differs most from all 

 other orders of iasects, has been designated by LatreUle MelUfera, 



* " Nouvelles Observations sm les Abeilles." Paris, 1814. 



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