136 
ON THE STRUCTURE AND HABITS 
does it lay its eggs on the Cabbage-leaf, but it deposits them on its under side, 
and thus they are protected from being swept away by the rain or injured by 
too much exposure. Some deposit their eggs on the leaves of the Oak, others on 
the Poplar. Many of the Gnat tribe deposit them in water—all in the precise 
situations in which their young will be best supplied with food when born. The 
solitary Wasps and Bees build little nests for their eggs, which they fill up with 
food necessary for the sustenance of their young when hatched. 
When the caterpillar is hatched, it is generally small and feeble; but it grows 
very rapidly, and is generally a most voracious creature. All those who have 
observed their effects in gardens and hedges, can bear testimony to this fact. 
This large quantity of food seems to be necessary for perfecting and elaborating 
that creature of which they are so faint a resemblance. During its existence the 
caterpillar casts its skin several times, in order to have it adapted to the peculia¬ 
rities of its form within. After leading for some time a life of sensuality, 
seeming to have no other object in existence but that of eating, the caterpillar 
suddenly becomes uneasy, weaves or forms for itself a sort of coffin, in which it 
lies quiet for many months, mostly during a whole winter, and sometimes for 
two; at the end of this time it bursts asunder the bonds that entomb it, and comes 
from thence a being exhibiting all the perfections with which the Creator has 
endowed it for fulfilling the position it occupies in the universe. Nothing can be 
more striking than this change in the Butterflies. Look at that greedy, crawling, 
almost disgusting object that is so voraciously devouring the coarsest vegetables 
in our gardens. Observe it once more as it unfolds its elegant wings on the 
balmy air of a summers day, sailing gracefully along, and only occasionally 
stopping to sip the delicious nectar prepared by the most brilliant portion of the 
offspring of Flora ! How different its state of existence ! 
The perfect insect is generally weak, and its parts are soft, when it first emerges 
from the pupa state; but by exposure to the sun and air they soon acquire 
strength and vigour to enter upon their new state of existence. These changes 
are more or less perfectly undergone by almost all insects. 
The classification of insects is exceedingly diversified, according to the views of 
different naturalists. That proposed by Linnaeus is now supplanted; but as it 
is the most simple, it will be best adapted for our present purpose. There are 
seven orders, the first of which is called Coleoptera , or the Sheath-winged, or Beetle 
tribe, which comprises all the insects having a hard horny case covering their 
wings, as in the Common Cockchafer, &c. These are perhaps among the most 
useful of the insect tribes. The Creator seems to have appointed them to act 
as the scavengers of the earth, for wherever animal or vegetable matter is found 
in a decaying state, they are present in abundance. They possess amongst them 
also some of the largest of the insect tribe, if we take the bulk of the body as 
