OF INSECTS. 
As insects possess the various powers of creeping, 
flying, and swimming, there is scarce any place, however 
remote and secure, in which they are not to be founds 
and therefore, upon casting a slight view over the whole 
insect tribe, just when they are supposed to rouse from 
their state of annual torpidity, when they begin to feel 
the genial influence of spring, and again exhibit new 
life in every part of nature, their numbers and their va- 
rieties seem to exceed all powers of calculation, and they 
are certainly too great for description; but from the si- 
militudes of the form, manners, and propagation of se- 
veral of them, the extensive description has been easily 
compressed, and has rendered a separate history for each 
species totally unnecessary. 
Beetle. {Scar abacus. Stag and Golden Beetle . PI. 54.) 
All animals of the beetle kind have their bones placed 
externally, and their muscles within, like shell fish. 
These muscles are like those of quadrupeds, and are 
formed with surprising strength, so that bulk for bulk, 
they are one thousand times stronger than those of man. 
This strength is of use in digging the animal’s subterra- 
neous abode, whither it most frequently returns, even 
after it becomes a winged insect capable of flying. Be- 
sides the difference which results from the shape and co- 
lour of these animals, the size also makes a considera- 
ble one, some beetles being not larger than the head of a 
pin, while others, such as the species called the elephant 
beetle, are as big as one’s fist. But the greatest differ- 
ence among them is in the time of their production; 
some being producd in a month, and which, in a single 
season, pass through all the stages ol their existence, as 
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