COLLECTION OF ARTICULATED ANIMALS. ^6?> 



is possessed of a high degree of phosphoric 

 splendour. 



We are now come to the most numerous 

 class of the animal kingdom, which comprises the 

 greatest variety of forms, and is the most won- 

 derful from the instinct peculiar to each species, 

 and the most surprising from the metamorphosis 

 experienced by all the animals belonging to it. 

 Insects are equal to birds in the richness and va- 

 riety of their colours ; they even surpass them in 

 some respects, particularly in that of the phos- 

 phoric light which emanates from some of them ; 

 and while they divide with them the empire of 

 the air, they far exceed them in number, and 

 their families are still more numerous than those 

 of the plants. 



Insects have been divided into several orders, 

 differing from each other in their forms, in their 

 mode of transformation and in their character. 

 We will begin with the most extensive, the or- 

 der coleoptera. This name has been given to those 

 insects which like beetles, or cantharides, etc., 

 have wing-sheaths or elytra. 



The genus lucanus (stag- chafer) is at the head 

 of this order, to which belongs the species I. cer- 

 vus (n os i and 2, stag-beetle), often seen flying in 

 our woods on a summer's evening. 



The scarabceus, coprises, and geotrupes come 



