CHAPTER XVIII. 



Insecta {Insects). 

 Continued. 



In Insects we perhaps reach the highest point of compa- 

 rative perfection among invertebrate animals, whether we 

 regard the condensation of their organs, the solidity of 

 their skeleton, the consequent vigour and precision of 

 their movements, the concentration of their nervous sys- 

 tem, or the manifold intelligence which they display. 

 That wonderful adaptation of means to ends, which, so 

 often recurring as we study the instructive actions of 

 animals, calls forth more than anything else our recogni- 

 tion and praise of an all-wise Creator, is nowhere more 

 conspicuous than in Insects ; and is pre-eminently seen 

 in what have been felicitously termed the architectural 

 habits of such species as prepare habitations for them- 

 selves, or protections for their offspring. 



Most of our readers are familiar with that exquisite 

 solution, of a geometrical problem* — the honeycomb. 



* Reaumur, the eminent French entomologist, proposed to M. Konig, one of 

 the ablest mathematicians of his day, the following problem :— " Amongst all 

 possible forms of hexagonal cells, having a pyramidal base composed of three 

 similar and equal rhombs, to determine that which could be constructed with 

 the least expenditure of material." The mathematician undertook the solu- 



