and a crayfish; spread them on a setting board, you will find the extreme points, the tail, toes and antennæ, display the differences: so, in insects, take the extremities. The extremities of an insect are the wings, the tarsi, the head; and these afford abundant characters. First, take the most obvious parts, the parts most easily observed; then consult the more concealed parts, as the mouth; but even in the mouth try the palpi before the jaw or the lip from which they rise. In investigating insects, a good glass is a matter of great importance; and here I cannot resist the pleasure it will give me most heartily to recommend Messrs. Bentley and Chant, of King's Head Court, St. Martin's-le-Grand. Being themselves good entomologists, they know exactly what entomologists require, and take every pains to supply it. The knowledge of the principal orders of insects is very soon acquired; many we have known from our childhood upwards, as butterflies (Papilionites,) or crickets (Achetites). It is the safest plan to begin with large well-known groups first; the knowledge of a few of these leads us to desire an acquaintance with the rest. After the orders are pretty well known, the study of species must be begun; for it is a remarkable fact, which the author cannot explain, that classes, orders and species, are much more readily ascertained, and much more obvious to the casual observer, than the intermediate divisions of stirpes, families and genera. It may also be observed, that in general, even with scientific investigators, there is less doubt as to the limits of classes, orders and species, than those of the other divisions. Genera are the most difficult groups to make out; they depend almost entirely on artificial characters, and their limits have never been agreed on by any two of the numerous writers on entomology. Most descriptions are written in Latin, or a language intended for Latin; many words used are peculiar to Entomology, and these the author will endeavour to explain in the following pages; other words are purely English, with what is supposed to be a Latin termination added. Examples of this:-setaceous is latinized setaceus; gross is grossus; expansion is expansio; rudimental is rudimentalis; petiolate is petiolatus; brown is brunneus; grey is griseus; bronze is bronzeus; anterior is anterior. Many Latin words are altered to make opposites; marginatus signifies having a margin; and to describe an object that has no margin, the word immarginatus is made; words or names are often latinized by the simple addition of us or um. All these are to be considered errors; but we must bow in some degree to usage by adopting errors. Still we should be careful not to enlarge the list; and in describing, we must avoid obvious incongruities, and not describe in Latin without some knowledge of that language in its unadulterated state. Reading Latin is a very different matter from writing it; and the author has endeavoured so to explain the technical terms, that the reader may understand almost any Latin description he may meet with, by occasionally consulting a Latin dictionary. Those who are desirous of obtaining a knowledge of foreign insects will find great advantage from studying the collection in the British Museum; and it is with great pleasure the author bears witness, not only to the readiness of the officers of that establishment to afford every facility to those who are desirous of consulting the collections with a scientific object, but to the rapid progress which is now making in the Entomological department, of which he is competent to form a more correct opinion than of either of the others: this change is in great measure attributable to the zeal, industry and ability of Mr. Adam White, a junior K officer. It is however but justice to observe that a similar spirit of improvement is obvious in the other branches of Natural History, and that the entire establishment is rapidly becoming an honour to the country in which we live. THE GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOG Y. BOOK III. PHYSIOLOGY OR ANATOMY OF INSECTS. To trace in Nature's most minute design COWPER. |