ST A 
STitenniE moniliform ; feelers four ; sliells 
half as long as the body ; wings folded up 
under the sliells ; tail not armed with a for- 
eeps, furnished with two exertile vesicles. 
There are nearly two hundred species, in 
three sections. A. All the feelers filiform. 
B. Hind feelers hatchet-shaped ; fore feelers 
clavate. The win^s of the insects of this 
genus are curiously pleated or convoluted 
beneath the short and abi u|)tly terminated 
wing sheaths. Tlie most remarkable, as 
well as the largest of the British species, is 
the S. major, whiph is more than an inch 
long, entirely of a deep colour, and when 
disturbed sets up the hinder part of its 
body, as if in a posture of defence : it is 
very frequently seen, during the autumnal 
season, about sunny pathways, fields, and 
gardens, and is furnished witli a large head, 
and very strong forcipated jaws. The in- 
sects of this whole tribe are extremely ra- 
pacious, devouring whatever insects they 
can catch, and frequently each other : many 
of them, when attempted to be caught, 
turn up the tail : the jaws are strong and 
exserted, with which they bite and pinch 
very hard. Most of them are found in 
damp places, among putrid substances, and 
a few upon flowers. 
STAPLE primarily signifies a public 
place or market, whither merchants, &c. 
are obliged to bring their goods to be 
bought by the people, as the Greve, or the 
places along the Seine, for sale of wines and 
corn, at Paris, whither the merchants of 
other parts are obliged to bring those com- 
modities. Formerly the merchants of Eng- 
land were obliged to carry their wool, 
cloth, lead, and other like staple-commo- 
dities of this realm, in order to utter the 
same by wholesale ; and these staples were 
appointed to be constantly kept at York, 
Lincoln, Newcastle upon Tyne, Norwich, 
Westminster, Canterbury, Chichester, Win- 
chester, Exeter, and Bristol; in each where- 
of a public mart was appointed to be kept, 
and each of them had a court of the mayor 
of the staple, for deciding differences, held 
according to the law-merchant, in a sum- 
mary way. Tire staple-commodities of this 
kingdom are said by some to be these, viz. 
wool, leatlier, wool-fells, lead, tin, butter, 
cheese, cloth, &c. but others allow only the 
first five to be staple-commodities. 
STAR, in astronomy, a general name for 
all the heavenly bodies, which, are dispers- 
ed throughout the whole heavens. 
Tlie stars are distinguished, from the 
phaenoraena of their motion, &c. into fixed, 
STA 
and erratic or wandering stars : these last 
are again distinguished into the greater lu- 
minaries, viz. tire Sun and Moon ; the pla- 
nets, and the comets ; each whereof has 
been fully considered and explained under 
their respective articles. Sun, Moon, &c. 
As to the fixed stars, or simple stars, 
they are so called because they seem to be 
fixed, or perfectly at rest, and consequently 
appear always at the same distance from 
each other. 
An observer will first divide these stars 
into several classes, according to the splen- 
dor of their light ; the brightest he will call 
stars of the first magnitude; those of the 
next inferior light, he will call stars of the 
second magnitude ; and so in order to those 
which can barely be seen by the naked eye, 
which are called stars of the sixth magni- 
tude : and those which cannot be seen but 
by the help of magnifying glasses, are of 
the seventh, eighth, &c. magnitudes. Af- 
terwards, to avoid confusion, and to be able 
to point OIK auy one star, without being 
obliged to give a particular name to each, 
he will divide them into separate parcels, 
of which he will make a particular plan; 
and to each of these constellations, or par- 
cels of stars, he will assign a figure at plea- 
sure, as that of a Ram, a Bull, a Dragon, a 
Hercules, &c. but so that all the stars in 
each of the parcels, di'awn in the plan, may 
be enclosed in the designed figures, and 
correspond to the different parts from 
whence they take their name : tor examplq, 
having drawn the figure of a bull about a 
parcel, or constellation, of stars, that star 
which falls in the eye will be called the star 
in the Bull’s Eye, or simply, the Bull’s Eye; 
another, which respects the tip of one 
horn, will be named the Bull's Horn ; and 
so of others. A parcel of stars thus con- 
tained in any assigned figure, is called a 
constellation. By this means, notwithstand- 
ing the seeming impossibility of numbering 
the fixed stars, their relative situations one 
to another have been so carefully observed 
by astronomers, that they have not only 
been able to number them, but even to dis- 
tinguish the place of each star in the hea- 
vens, and that with greater accuracy than 
any geographer could ever point out the 
situations of the several cities or towns 
upon the surface of the earth ; and not only 
the places of those few, if they may be so 
called, which are to be seen with t!>e naked 
eye, have been pointed out and registered 
by them, but even of those which are dis- 
covered only by the telescope. The most 
