Excerpt from Lectures on Entomology
The numerous beings comprehended under the name of insects, offer to our regard so many interesting objects of contemplation and research, that their history has deservedly assumed a prominent place among the natural sciences; although not to be compared with many other animals in direct utility to man, they are by no means destitute even of the interest produced by that consideration, while they possess advantages as a subject of study and investigation equal to any other branch of zoology. Such is the extent of the subject and the variety of aspects in which it may be viewed, that minds of very different tastes and capacities may find congenial occupation in some one or other of its numerous details; even to the fine assortment of its colours, every thing seems on purpose to please the eye of man; each tribe of this extensive class of animals possesses peculiar attributes deserving of our regard. The extreme beauty of the (Lepidoptera) or Butterflies, the striking contrast they present in the dilferent stages of their existence so remarkable, as to have -caused them to be regarded by a mystical philosophy, as the types of the luman soul released from its material incumbrance; their habits and times of appearance, the one suggesting the purity of an ethereal nature, the other associating them in the mind of the observer, with the beauty of external nature, and the genial influence of the seasons, have alike contributed to render them objects of general favour.
Linn?us has divided insects into seven orders: 1st. - the Coleoptera they are such as have crustaceous shells, which shut together and form a longitudinal suture down the back of the insect, as the Stag Beetle. 2nd. - Hemiptera have their upper wings, usually half crustaceous and half membraneous, not divided by a longitudinal suture, but incumbent on each other, as the (Cimex) or Field Btig. 3rd. - Lepidoptera are insects having four wings covered with fine scales, in the form of powder, as in the Butterfly. 4th. - Neuroptera have four membraneous transparent naked wings, generally like net-work, as the Dragon Fly. 5th. - Hymenop-Tera are insects with four membraneous wings, tail furnished with a sting, as in the Bee. 6th. - Diptera are such as have only two wings and poisers, as the Fly. 7th. - Aptera having no wings. This last division contains Scorpions, Spiders, &c.
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