LECTURE IX. 
nished with a peculiar pair of processes called An- 
tenna or jointed horns, which are extremely various 
in the different tribes, and form a leading charac- 
ter in the institution of the genera or smaller as- 
sortments into which Jnsects are distributed. 
The ancients seem to have entertained very 
vague ideas relative to the production of Insects^ 
which they did not suppose to be conducted in the 
same regular and invariable order as in the larger 
animals, but to be owing to the putrefaction 
various animal and vegetable substances ; nor was 
it till towards the commencement of even the 
' eighteenth century that the general history of In- 
sects began to be clearly comprehended. Their 
forms and differences had indeed long before been 
studied with some degree of attention ; but the 
accurate knowledge of their respective tribfes, and 
their various states or transformations, had been 
but obscurely traced or understood. 
The first state in which the generality of In- 
sects appear is that of an egg. From this is 
hatched the animal in its second state, in which 
it is often called the Caterpillar, though this 
term more particularly relates to the insects of 
the Jsloth and Butterfly tribe. The Insect in this 
