shaped that the hind pair seem as if cut out of the fore pair, with which they interlock by means of small hooks during flight, so that both might readily be mistaken for a single pair. The nervures are commonly stouter, and form a wider network, and the membrane is generally less delicate than in the preceding Order.

All the forms of Insects which we have been enumerating agree in one point, viz., that their mouth is furnished with biting jaws; those that follow, on the other hand, have the same organs, but so modified in development and altered in function as to constitute a sucking, pumping, or piercing apparatus. The elegant LEPIDOPTERA, or Scale-wings, including the Butterflies, which are active by day, the sonorous-winged Hawkmoths, that probe tubular flowers in the twilight, and the Moths, which swarm in the early hours of night, constitute the next order. Their chief peculiarities have been already mentioned, and we shall therefore merely mention the Silkworm, the caterpillar of an Oriental moth, now naturalised throughout the civilised world, as another example of an Insect to which man is largely indebted.

An extensive group is called HEMIPTERA, or Half-wings, because the majority of them have the fore-wings curiously varied in texture, the basal portions being of a stiff leathery consistence, while the terminal part, separated from the former by an abrupt line, is thin and membranous. The vast tribe of Bugs comes here, all of them repulsive and disgusting from their rank pungent odour, but in many cases adorned with rich colours, and often bearing the most bizarre forms. Here, too, are usually placed, though distinguished by some entomologists, the insects which

produce the lac of India, and the splendid dye called "cochineal" of tropical America. The sole possession of the latter insect was an object of jealous care with the government of the Spanish colonies, and so highly was it valued by other nations, that our own East India Company offered a reward of L.6000 sterling to any one who should be so fortunate as to introduce it into their dominions. That object has been effected, and cochineal is now cultivated in many countries.

Finally (for we need not stop to describe the few parasite, darkness-loving, uncomely insects that belong to the wingless orders), we have the order of DIPTERA, or Twowings, including the Gnats, the House and Flesh Flies, whose chief distinction is indicated in their name. This is a populous group, and many of its members display habits and instincts which are highly entertaining; perhaps none more so than those of the common Gnat, from the construction of its tiny boat of eggs, to its emergence from the water, empowered to suck our blood in its merciless practice of phlebotomy.

CHAPTER XX.

ARACHNIDA.

(Spiders, Scorpions, and Mites.)

THE common consent of mankind regards most of those creatures of which we are about to speak with revulsion and abhorrence; and it must be confessed that the closer examination which the scientific naturalist bestows on them, has only resulted in more firmly fixing upon them the stigma of a bad character,-decidedly, undeniably bad. The poet's verdict is true, when he calls the Spider

"Cunning and fierce-mixture abhorr'd."

Bloodthirsty and vindictive, treacherous and cruel even to their own kind, bold and prompt in warfare, ever vigilant, full of stratagem and artifice, highly venomous, lurking in darkness, endowed with curious instincts, and furnished with many accessory means for the capture and destruction of other animals-the Spiders and Scorpions do not move our esteem, it must be confessed; and an entomologist of the highest eminence,* carrying out the notion that the seen things of nature are symbols and pictures of the unseen and spiritual, views in these creatures the

* Kirby, Bridgewater Treatise.

"

types of the evil spirits; a supposition not unwarranted by the expression of our Blessed Lord, "Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy! Yet even these repulsive animals are the handiwork of Infinite Wisdom; and half-an-hour may be worse spent than in briefly running over some of the peculiarities of their structure and habits.

And, first, a few words on their structure. They may at once be distinguished from true Insects by having four pairs of legs instead of three. They exhibit a greater condensation of outward form, there being generally but one division, that which separates the abdomen from the fore part, which latter, because it includes in one the parts answering to the head and chest of insects, is commonly called the cephalothorax. The head is destitute of antennæ, but those organs are replaced by a pair of claws terminating either in a single hook, or in pincers. The eyes are always simple lenses, sometimes moderately numerous, and then usually arranged in groups, and occasionally placed at the summit of a sort of pillar on the back, a provision which must greatly assist circumspection.

Internally, also, the organisation is more condensed, and of a higher type than in Insects. The nervous knots or ganglia are few and central, sending out radiating threads to the circumference and extremities. The breathing organs are either lungs, enclosed in bags, or radiating air-tubes (trachea), which communicate with the atmosphere by minute slits in the skin. The Spiders and Scorpions belong to the former category, and are named

*Luke x. 19.

Pulmonaria; the Harvest-men and Mites to the latter, and are called Trachearia.

We naturally associate Spiders with cobwebs, and the faculty of spinning threads from the hind part of the body is one of their most marked characteristics; but all do not make webs, properly so called. In the south of Europe and in the West Indies, certain large Spiders belonging to the genus Cteniza are called Trap-door Spiders, from their singular architectural instincts. The female excavates a burrow in soft earth, an inch in diameter, and six to ten inches in depth; this is lined with a dense tapestry resembling paper, formed of her silk; and the mouth is closed with a circular door, formed of many layers of silk, with pellets of earth interwoven into the exterior, but which is so smooth on the interior, and so accurately formed, as to fit the orifice with the utmost accuracy; while a hinge of silk at one part of the circumference allows the lid to be raised for the exit of the owner, when it closes by its own elasticity.

Judging from specimens which we have examined in Jamaica, the lid is always punctured with a number of holes, such as might be made by a very fine needle, which penetrate through the whole substance, the light being clearly seen through each hole. We have conjectured that the object of these orifices may be the admission of air and light into the cell, when the lid is tightly closed, for the comfort of the inmate. The Spider habitually resides in her well-built house, coming abroad to hunt, and retreating with her prey to the bottom of her domain. In the hot parts of the world, Spiders (Mygale) closely allied to these are found, which are often of immense size,