they render the body steady, and obviate all its vacillations in flight. If one of them be cut off, the insect will immediately fly ill, one side evidently overbalancing the other, till it falls to the ground: if both be cut off, it will fly very awkwardly and unsteadily, exhibiting an evident defect of some necessary part.

The structure of the feet of these diminutive creatures is truly admirable. Those insects that live altogether in water have their feet long, flat, and somewhat hairy at the edges, well adapted to aid their motions in that element. Such as have oссаsion to burrow into the earth have their legs broad, sharp-edged, and serrated. Those that use their feet only in walking have them long, and cylindrical; some of the feet are furnished with sharp hooked claws, and skinny palms, by which, from the pressure of the atmosphere upon them, the insects are enabled to walk on glass and other smooth surfaces, even with their backs downwards, as in various species of flies: others have somewhat like spunges that answer the same end: and the spider has each foot armed with a kind of comb, probably for the purpose of separating the six threads that issue from so many orifices of its body, and prevent them from tangling. In the hind legs of insects which have occasionally to pass over spaces by leaping, the thigh is very large and thick, and the shank long and frequently arched.

From the different formations of these, it is not difficult to recognize the habits and modes of life

of insects, even where the specimens exhibited happen to be dead. The relative proportions of the feet determine, in a certain degree, the manner of each insect's motion in walking. Those species that have long legs (generally speaking) run very quickly, as the Spiders, the Long-legged Spiders, and several kinds of Beetles. On the contrary, the insects that have short legs, as the Julus, Ticks, and Gall Insects, are generally remarkable for the slowness of their pace. When the anterior feet are the longest, they retard the motion : this takes place in the Ephemera, Mantis, and some others: the feet of these insects are of little other use to them than in enabling them to lay hold of any body on which they wish to alight. The posterior legs, being longest, give to the insects the faculty of leaping. Some insects however leap, whose posterior legs are not longer than the others; but they have this faculty in consequence of the thighs being very thick, and furnished with particular muscles.

The tongue of insects is a taper and compact instrument, by which they suck their food. Some of the animals can contract or expandit; and others, as the Butterflies, 10ll it up under their head, somewhat like the spring of a watch. In many it is enclosed within a sheath; and in several, as the flies, it is fleshy and tubular.

The mouth is generally placed somewhat underneath the front part of the head; but in a few of the tribes it is situated below the breast. Some insects have it furnished with a kind of forceps, for the purpose of

seizing and cutting their prey; and in others it is pointed, to pierce animal or vegetable substances, and suck their juices. In several it is strongly ridged with jaws and teeth, to gnaw and scrape their food, carry burthens, perforate the earth, nay, the hardest wood, and even stones, for habitations and nests for their young. In a few the tongue is so short as to appear to us incapable of answering the purpose for which itis formed; and the Gad-flies appear to have no mouth.

Near the mouth are situated the palpi, or feelers : these are generally four, but sometimes six in number. They are a kind of thread-shaped articulated antennæ. Their situation, under and at the sides of the mouth, renders them, however, sufficiently distinct from the proper antennæ. They are in continual motion, the little animals thrusting them into every thing likely to afford them food. Some writers have considered them as serving the place of a hand, in holding food to the mouth, whilst the insects are eating.

Linnæus has divided the animals of this class into seven orders*, viz.

1. Coleopterous insects (derived from the Greek words κολεος a sheath, and πτερον a wing,) are the Beetles, or such as have crustaceous elytra or shells, which shut together, and form a longitudinal suture

* Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Lepidoptera, Neuroptera, Hymenoptera, Diptera and Aptera.

down the back. Of this order are the Chafer tribe, and several others.

2. Hemipterous insects (from ήμισυς half, and πτερον a wing,) have their upper wings half crustaceous, and half membranaceous, not divided by a longitudinal suture, but incumbent on or crossed over each other; as the Cock-roach, Locust, &c.

3. Lepidopterous insects (from λέπις a scale, and πτερον a wing,) are those having four wings covered with fine scales in the form of powder or meal; as in the Butterflies and Moths.

4. Neuropterous insects (from νευρόν a nerve, and πτερον a wing) have four membranaceous, transparent, naked wings, in which the membranes cross each other so as to appear like net-work. The tail has no sting, but is frequently furnished with appendices like pincers, by which the males are distinguished. The common Dragon-fly is the best example that can be brought to illustrate this order; and the genus Phryganea forms an exception with respect to the net-work appearance of the wings.

5. Hymenopterous insects (from ὑμην a membrane, and πτερον a wing). The insects belonging to this order have generally four membranaceous naked wings: the neuters, however, in some of the genera, and in others the males or females, want wings. The wings do not so much resemble net-work as those of the last order. The tail, except in the male, is armed with a sting. The Bee, the Wasp, and the Ant, are of this tribe.

6. Dipterous insects (from διπλοος double, and

πτερον a wing,) are those having only two wings, each furnished at its base with a poise or balancer. The common House-flies and the Gnat are familiar examples of this order.

7. Apterous insects (from a without, and πτερον a wing). This order contains all such insects as want wings in both sexes; as the Spider, Flea, and Louse.