Essays on the Microscope: Containing a Practical Description of the Most Improved Microscopes, a General History of Insects, etc., etc.Adams, George
Science
Essays on the Microscope: Containing a Practical Description of the Most Improved Microscopes, a General History of Insects, etc., etc.
Adams, George
Insects -- Early works to 1800; Microscopy -- Early works to 1800
5. That they do not respire air by the mouth, but that they inspire and
exhale it by means of organs which are placed on the body.
6. That they move the jaws from right to left, not up and down.
7. That they have neither eye-lid nor pupil.
To these we may also add, that the mechanism resulting from the LIFE of
insects is not of so compound a nature as in animals of a larger size.
They have less variety of organs, though some of them are more
multiplied; and it is by the number and situation of these that their
rank in the great scale of beings is to be determined.
These characters are often united in the same insect; there are,
however, some species in which one or two of them are wanting.
The student in entomology, who wishes to attain a proper knowledge of
the science, and indeed every microscopic observer, desirous of
availing himself of the discoveries of others, and of communicating
intelligibly his own, will find it necessary to make himself conversant
with the various classes, genera, &c. into which insects have been
divided by Linnæus. Every system has its defects, and probably some may
be found in that of this truly celebrated naturalist, but the purpose of
science is answered by using those discriminations which are generally
adopted.
The following general idea of the Linnæan classes may serve as a
foundation for this knowledge: a more particular account may be obtained
by consulting the under-mentioned works.
Institutions of Entomology, a translation of Linnæus’s Ordines et Genera
Insectorum, or systematic arrangement of insects, &c. by Thomas
Pattinson Yeats.
Fundamenta Entomologiæ, or an Introduction to the Knowledge of Insects,
translated from Linnæus by W. Curtis, the ingenious author of Flora
Londinensis, the Botanical Magazine, &c.
The Genera Insectorum of Linnæus, exemplified by various Specimens of
English Insects, drawn from Nature, by James Barbut.[62]
[62] This work contains two excellent plates, illustrative of the
Distinctions of the Ordines and Genera Insectorum, by their antennæ,
tarsi of the feet, &c. EDIT.
Class the first. COLEOPTERA. The insects of this class have four wings;
the upper ones, called the elytra, are crustaceous, being of a hard
horny substance; these, when shut, form a longitudinal suture down the
back, as in the scarabæus, melolontha, or cockchaffer, &c.
2. HEMIPTERA. These have also four wings; but the elytra are different,
being half crustaceous, half membranaceous: the wings do not form a
longitudinal suture, but extend the one over the other, as in the
gryllus, grasshopper, &c.
3. LEPIDOPTERA. Those which have four membranaceous wings covered with
fine scales, appearing to the naked eye like powder or meal, as in the
butterfly and moth.
4. NEUROPTERA. These have four membranaceous transparent wings, which
are generally reticulated, the tail without a sting, as in the
libellula, or dragon fly.
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