246 
INSECTS. 
threads industriously weave themselves beds, and a 
spacious habitation, where they shelter themselves 
from the severity of the season, distributed into dif- 
ferent apartments, without eating, and frequently 
without stirring abroad. There is only one little 
opening at the bottom of this mansion, through 
which the family sometimes take the air towards 
noon, in a fine sunshine, and sometimes in the 
night when the weather is settled. It requires 
some little strength to open their retreat and break 
the tissue that forms it, which is generally as firm 
as parchment, and not to be penetrated by rain, 
wind, or cold. In this apartment the whole family 
may be found reposing on a soft and thick down, 
and surrounded with several folds of the web they 
have spun, which at once supplies them with their 
quilts, their curtains, and their tent. 
We shall conclude this short introduction with 
an explanation of the seven orders of Insects as they 
are divided by Linnaeus. First, the order coleoptera , 
which consists of insects with crustaceous elytra or 
shells ; these shells being strong and horny, and 
serving as cases, under which the fine transparent 
wings lie secure and completely concealed when the 
insect is at rest. This forms a very extended order, 
in which are included all the beetles. 
The second order, hemiptera, are composed of in- 
sects having four wings, but the outer pair are 
partly crustaceous, and partly membranaceous ; 
, sometimes nearly the whole of the wing-cases are of 
a leathery texture, and softer than those of the first 
