The best climbers are obviously those insects which live on trees and bushes, as, for example, longicorn beetles and grasshoppers. These may be accurately called the monkeys of the insect kind, even if their movements take place less gracefully, and indeed rather stiffly and woodenly. We already know what are the proper climbing organs; that is, the sharp easily movable claws on the foot. With the help of these claws certain insects, May-beetles for example, can hang upon one another like a chain; indeed, bees and ants in this manner bind themselves together into living garlands and bridges. There are still added to the chitinous hooks flaps and balls of a sticky nature, by help of which likewise the insects glue themselves together. To facilitate the spanning of still thicker twigs, the climbing foot of insects has a greater movability even than when it only serves as a sole. (Graber.) =The mode of swimming of insects.=—To study the swimming movements of insects, let us examine a Dyticus. It will appear, as Graber states, to be wonderfully adapted to its element. “The body resembles a boat. There is nowhere a projecting point or a sharp corner which would offer unnecessary resistance to motion; bulging out in the middle and pointed at the end, it cuts through the resistance of the water like a wedge. The movable parts, the oars, seem to be as well fitted for their purpose as the burden to be moved by them. That the hind legs must bear the brunt of this follows from their position exactly in the middle of the body, where it is widest. In other insects also these legs are used for the same purpose as soon as the insects are put in the water. But the swimming legs of water-beetles are oars of quite peculiar construction. _They are not turned about in the coxæ, as are other legs, but at the foot-joint._ The coxa, namely, has grown entirely together with the thoracic partition. The muscles we have mentioned, exceeding in strength all the soft parts taken together, take hold directly of the large wing-shaped tendons of the upper thigh, and extend and retract the leg in one of the planes lying close to the abdominal partition. The foot forms the oar, however. It is very much lengthened and still more widened, and can be turned and bent in by separate muscles in such a way that in the passive movement, that is, the retraction, the narrow edge is turned to the fore, and therefore to the medium to be dislodged; however, as soon as the active push is to be performed and the leg is extended with greater force, it cuts down through the water with its whole width. These effective oar-blades are still considerably enlarged by the hairs arising on the side of the foot, which spread out at the decisive moment.