278 



MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 



strange and unfounded opinion. 1 The fact, though so well 

 authenticated, is indeed strange and wonderful, and affords 

 another proof of the extraordinary powers, unparalleled in 

 the higher orders of animals, with which the Creator has 

 gifted the insect world. Were, indeed, man and the larger 

 animals, with their present propensities, similarly endowed, 

 the whole creation would soon go to ruin. But these almost 

 miraculous powers in the hands of these little beings only 

 tend to keep it in order and beauty. Adorable is that 

 Wisdom, Power, and Goodness, that has distinguished these 

 next to nothings by such peculiar endowments for our pre- 

 servation as if given to the strong and mighty would work our 

 destruction. 



After the foregoing marvellous detail of the aerial excur- 

 sions of our insect air-balloonists, I fear you will think the 

 motions of those which fly by means of wings less interesting. 

 You will find, however, that they are not altogether barren 

 of amusement. Though the wings are the principal instru- 

 ments of the flight of insects, yet there are others subsidiary 

 to them, which I shall here enumerate, considering them 

 more at large under the orders to which they severally 

 belong. These are wing-cases (elytra, tegmina, and 

 hemelytrd) ; winglets (alulae.) ; poisers (halteres) ; tailets 

 (caudulce) ; hooklets (hamuli) ; base-covers (tegulce), &c. 

 Besides, their tails, legs, and even antennae, assist them in 

 some instances in this motion. 



As wings are common to almost the whole class, I shall 

 consider their structure here. Every wing consists of two 

 membranes, more or less transparent, applied to each other : 

 the upper membrane being very strongly attached to the 

 nervures (neurce), and the lower adhering more loosely, so as 

 to be separable from them. The nervures 2 are a kind of 

 hollow tube, — above elastic, horny, and convex ; and flat and 

 nearly membranaceous below, — which take their origin in 

 the trunk, and keep diminishing gradually, the marginal ones 



1 Swamm. Bibl Nat. ed. Hill, i. 24. De Geer, vii. 190. 



2 French naturalists use this term (nervure) for the veins of wings, leaves, &c. 

 restricting nerve (nerf) to the ramifications from the brain and spinal marrow. 

 We have adopted the term, which we express in Latin by neura, from the Greek 

 pevpa. 



