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INTRODUCTION TO THE ARTICULATED ANIMALS WITH 

 ARTICULATED LEGS.* 



BY M. P. A. LATREILLE. 



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

 pulse ol friendship, M. Cuvier has confided to me the portion of this worlv ^\hich 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, pubhshed in the Journal d'Histoire 

 Naiurelle, 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 Elt'mentaire de I'Histoire Naturelle, and Lerons d'Anatomie Comparee, have 

 pointed out the path to the natural method. The public wiU 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 obno.\ious species, — indicating, at the same time, the Ijest sources \'ihcre he 

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

 simplicity which it exhibited in the clays of Linnaeus, Geoifroy, 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 Eltinentaire de l' Histoire Naturelle des Anhnaux, did not 

 limit the extent of the class of insects, as restricted by Linn.-eus, but introduced neces- 



* [These JDtroilaclory oliserv.itinns a[jpcaro(l in liDlli eilitioiis of tlie lished in the icitervenintr perioil. In like manner, the intern.-il aniitoniy 

 Jt'l^iie ^iniiial, the object of LatreiUe beiiij; li ere in to set fortli tlie of these animals liad been [greatly studieti, — tliereby, in many instaiiees, 

 ■III prineiplcN upon tvliich bis arrangement of tlie Linnti^an insects afFordin,f more certain proofs of the soli'lity of many of the groups prt:- 



ivas founded. In tlie second edition, the same general clat 

 tviis adopted, but considerable alterations were made in the arrange- 

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

 &e., it having been impossible to bring the work down to the then 

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

 iiiciit, and making great additions; so that tteo volumes were requisite 

 instead of one, to give a summary of the niuititudinuus genera pub 



sly proposed, and of whose internal structure it therefore bC( 

 necessary to add the details to the generaliy 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, tie 

 original passages are enclosed in edilorial oareutheses, thus i L 



