220 



MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 



dering even the most arid desert interesting. From their vi- 

 sitations every leaf and flower becomes animated ; the very 

 dust seems to quicken into life, and the stones, like those 

 thrown by Deucalion and Pyrrha, to be metamorphosed into 

 locomotive beings. In the variety of motions which they ex- 

 hibit, we see, as Cuvier remarks 1 , those of every other de- 

 scription of animals. They walk, run, and jump with the 

 quadrupeds ; they fly with the birds ; they glide with the ser- 

 pents ; and they swim with the fish. And the provision made 

 for these motions in the structure of their bodies is most won- 

 derful and various. " If I was minded to expatiate," says the 

 excellent Derham, "I might take notice of the admirable 

 mechanism in those that creep ; the curious oars in those am- 

 phibious insects that swim and walk ; the incomparable pro- 

 vision made in the feet of such as walk or hang upon smooth 

 surfaces ; the great strength and spring in the legs of such as 

 leap ; the strong-made feet and talons of such as dig ; and, to 

 name no more, the admirable faculty of such as cannot fly, to 

 convey themselves with speed and safety, by the help of their 

 webs, or some other artifice, to make their bodies lighter than 

 the air." 2 



Since the motions, and instruments of motion, of insects 

 are usually very different in their preparatory states, from 

 what they are in the imago or perfect state, I shall, there- 

 fore, consider them separately, and divide my subject into — * 

 motions of larvae, motions of pupae, and motions of perfect 

 insects. 



I. Amongst larvce there are two classes of movers ; Apo- 

 dons larvae, or those that move without legs, and Pedate 

 larvae, or those that move by means of legs. I must here 

 observe, that by the term legs, which I use strictly, I mean 

 only jointed organs, that have free motion, and can walk or 

 step alternately ; not those spurious legs without joints, that 

 have no free motion, and cannot walk or take alternate steps ; 

 such as support the middle and anus of the larvae of most 

 Lepidoptera and saw-flies (Serrifera). 



1 Anatom. Compar. i. 444. 



2 Pfojsico- Theol. Ed. 13. 363. 



