SYSTEM OF INSECTS. 417 
Entomologists have begun with Cicindela L. and the © 
other Predaceous beetles. I am not certain what are 
Mr. MacLeay’s sentiments on this subject; but from 
what he says in his Annulosa Javanica?, it does not ap- 
pear that he is a convert to the latter opinion. Bulk 
and strength seem the most striking characteristics of 
the former tribe, which represent the cattle or ruminants 
amongst Vertebrate animals.—Strength united with agi- 
lity and a considerable portion of grace and symmetry 
evidently confers a degree of pre-eminence upon the lat- _ 
ter, symbolizing the feline race, which seems to throw 
no small weight into their scale. 
There are two Classes of Vertebrate animals with 
which insects may appear to claim kindred. The fishes, 
and the reptiles. Fishes in their fins exhibit no small 
resemblance to insects; the pectoral and ventral ones 
representing their arms and legs, and the dorsal ones 
their wings: Pegasus Draco in this last respect is not 
unlike a butterfly®. In some genera (Ostracion, Pega- 
sus, &c.), like insects the animal is covered with a hard 
shell or crust, formed by the union of its scales. ‘The 
oral cirrhi of many fishes seem analogous to the palpi 
of insects; and in some a pair longer than the rest re- 
present their antenne*. Another circumstance in which 
insects and fishes correspond, is the wonderful variety of 
forms, often in the greatest degree eccentric, that occurs 
in both Classes. Some of the cyclostomous fishes, as 
Ammocetus Dum., Gastrobranchus Bloch, are supposed 
to connect the fishes with the Annulosa, by means of the 
* Annulos, Javan. 1. 1. 
» N. Dict. d’ Hist. Nat. xxv. 115—. xxvii, t, M. 8. f. 1. 
© Piso Hist. Nat. 63. Curui 1. Jundia v. 
VOL. IV. . QE 
