592 EXTERNAL ANATOMY OF INSECTS. 



VI. Organs of Motion. We are next to consider those 

 organs attached to the trunk of insects which are instru- 

 ments of motion. These are principally those by which they 

 are transported through the air, and those by which they 

 move on the earth or in the water — their wings and their 

 le^s. I shall begin with the first, the wings a . These 

 are not formed precisely after any type at present dis- 

 covered in vertebrate animals: in some respects they 

 have an analogy to those of birds b ; in others, to the 

 dorsal fins of fishes : but, perhaps, altogether they ap- 

 proach the nearest to those of the dragon or flying-lizard 

 [Draco volans L.), which do not, as in birds, replace the 

 fore-legs, are kept expanded by diverging bony rays, 

 and are connected with the hind-legs c . As the Divine 

 Creator appears in his works to proceed gradually from 

 one type of structure to another, it has been supposed 

 by a learned physiologist of our own country, that in 

 winged insects, four of the legs of the Decapod Crustacea 



Rhiphiptera, because at first he thought that these organs were 

 not at all analogous to elytra or wings ,• but since, upon further 

 investigation, he appears to admit that they assist in flight (An- 

 nates Gene?: des Scienc. Phys. VI. xviii. 8. Compare MacLeay, Hor. 

 Entom. 42-3. Note *), in common justice he is bound to restore 

 the name originally given to the Order. In the same place of 

 the work here quoted, M. Latreille also speaks of these pseud- 

 elytra, as I would call them, as appendages of the mesothorax : but 

 whoever consults Mr. Bauer's admirable figures of Xenos Peckii 

 (Linn. Trans, xi. t. ix.), and is aware of the unimpeached and 

 minute accuracy of that admirable microscopic artist, will be con- 

 vinced that they belong to the anterior legs, and consequently to 

 the prothorax. 



a Plate X. and Plate XXVIII. Fig. 18—23. 



b Chabrier, Analyse, &c. 27. 



c N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. ix. 568. We have seen above (p. 578.) 

 that the wings of insects are connected with their legs by the scapula 

 and parapleura. 



