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INTRODUCTION TO THE ARTICULATED ANIMALS WITH 
ARTICULATED LEGS * 
BY M. P. A. LATREILLE. 
Overwhelmed by the variety of his occupations, and yielding too easily to the im- 
pulse of friendship, M. Cuvier has confided to me the portion of this work which treats 
upon insects. 
These animals were the objects of his earliest studies in zoology, and hence origin«- 
ated his friendship with Fabricius, one of the most celebrated disciples of Linnaeus, who 
has repeatedly, in his works, shown evidences of his particular esteem. Various inte- 
resting observations upon some of these animals, published in the Journal d’Histoire 
Naturelle, formed the prelude to his works upon natural history. Entomology, like the 
other branches of zoology, has derived the greatest advantages from his anatomical re- 
searches, and the happy modifications which he has thence made in the groundwork of our 
classification. The external structure of insects has been better understood ; and this 
branch of the science has no longer been neglected, as it had previously been. His 
Tableau Elementaire de VHistoire Naturelle, and Legons J Anatomie Compar^e, have 
pointed out the path to the natural method. The public will therefore have cause to 
regret that his numerous pursuits would not permit him to undertake this portion 
of his treatise upon animals. 
In undertaking this work, my object has been to unite, in as narrow limits as possible, 
the most striking facts in the history of insects ; to arrange these animals with precision 
and clearness, in a natural series ; to sketch their physiognomy ; to trace, in as few 
words as possible, their distinguishing features, adopting a plan which shall be in rela- 
tion to the progressive advance of the science and of the student ; to notice the bene- 
ficial and obnoxious species, — indicating, at the same time, the best sources where he 
may attain a knowledge of the other species ; to reduce the science to the engaging 
simplicity which it exhibited in the days of Linnseus, Geofiroy, and the earlier works 
of Fabricius, and yet to present it as it now appears, enriched but not overcharged with 
recent observations and researches ; — in a word, to make it conformable to the work 
of Cuvier, 
This author, in his Tableau Elementaire de VHistoire Naturelle des Animaux, did not 
limit the extent of the class of insects, as restricted by Linnseus, but introduced neces- 
* [These introductory observations appeared in both editions of the 
Rigne Animal, the object of Latreille bein^ herein to set forth the 
sreneral principles upon which his arrang^enient of the Linnsean insects 
was founded. In the second edition, the same general classification 
was adopted, but considerable alterations were made in the arrange- 
ment of the secondary and tertiary groups, such as families, genera, 
&c., it having been impossible to bring the work down to the then 
present state of the science, without modifying the former arrange- 
ment, and making great additions ; so that two volumes were requisite 
instead of one, to give a summary of the multitudinous genera pub- 
lished in the intervening period. In like manner, the internal anatomy 
of these animals had been greatly studied, — thereby, in many instances, 
affording more certain proofs of the solidity of many of the groups pre- 
viously proposed, and of whose internal structure it therefore became 
necessary to add the details to the generally e.xternal character pre- 
viously given ; so that this second edition ought more strictly to be 
regarded as an entirely new work.] 
*,* Throughout the Articulated portion of the present edition, the 
original passages are enclosed in editorial parentheses, thus [ ]. 
D D 
