ARTICULATES: INSECTS. 125 



ARTICULATES, OR, JOINTED ANIMALS. 



These are animals which have no internal skeleton, 

 nor backbone, but whose hard parts, when these exist, 

 are upon the outside, and whose body is made up of a 

 series of similar rings. Articulates include the In- 

 sects, — Bees, Butterflies, Flies, Beetles, Bugs, Grass- 

 hoppers, Darning-Needles, &c., — Lobsters and Shrimps, 

 and Worms. 



INSECTS. 



Insects are articulates which breathe by means of 

 air-holes along the sides of the body ; and these air- 

 holes are the openings of air-tubes which branch 

 throughoiit the body and carry air to every part. The 

 term Insect comes from a Latin word which means 

 cut into, and is given to these animals because they 

 seem to be cut into, or notched. True Insects, Spi- 

 ders, and Centipedes are of this kind. 



True Insects have the body divided into three parts, 

 — the head, middle body or thorax, and hind body 

 or abdomen. Upon the head, and near to the eyes, 

 are placed two jointed members, called antennae, which 

 it is supposed are connected with the sense of hearing, 

 or of touch, or of both of these senses ; to the middle 

 body or thorax are attached the legs and wings; and 

 the hind body contains the organs of digestion, and to 

 this part belongs also an organ called the sting, or 

 piercer. Insects either bite their food or suck it. 

 Those which bite their food have an under and upper 

 lip, between which are two pairs of jaws which move 

 sidewise, and four to six little feelers, which they use 



