"AMORPHA.-In which the penultimate state (pupa) is provided neither with mouth nor organs of locomotion : consequently it neither eats nor moves, nor does it resemblance to the perfect state. This group contains two classes of insects.

bear any

"Class I. LEPIDOPTERA; in which the perfect insect has four fully-developed wings, all of them covered with a kind of scales, which are symmetrically arranged on each other, like the scales of a fish or the tiles of a house. The silk-worm, and all moths and butterflies, are examples of this class.

"Class II. DIPTERA; in which the perfect insect has two

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fully-developed wings, and two merely rudimentary ones, which are distinguished by the name of halteres or poisers. The breeze fly, and all two-winged flies, are examples.

NECROMORPHA.-In which the penultimate state is provided with mouth and organs of locomotion, detached from the body, but so enveloped in a case that it can employ neither. The resemblance, therefore, to the perfect insect is very considerable, except in the total want of motion. This group contains two classes of insects.

Class II. HYMENOPTERA; in which the perfect insect has four fully-developed wings, all of them transparent or membranous, and without scales. The honey-bee, and bees and wasps generally, are examples of this class. Class IV. COLEOPTERA; in which the perfect insect has two fully-developed wings, and two wing cases which

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cover the wings. The sexton beetle and all other beetles are examples.

ISOMORPHA.-In which all the states are active and voracious, and of a similar form. This group contains two classes of insects.

Class V. ORTHOPTERA; in which the perfect insect has four wings; the first pair being leathery, of little use in flight, and often very minute and scarcely apparent; the mouth is furnished with two strong mandibles, meeting transversely. Crickets and grasshoppers are the examples.

Class VI. HEMIPTERA; in which the perfect insect has

four wings, a portion of the first pair being often leathery: the mouth is a tubular sucker formed for extracting the sap of plants. Plant-bugs and plant-lice are the examples.

"ANISOMORPHA.-In which the Amorphous, Necromorphous and Isomorphous characters appear, together with others not possessed by those groups. This group contains but one class of insects.

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Class VII. NEUROPTERA; in which the perfect insect has four reticulated wings. Dragon-flies are examples."

For the subdivision of these Classes or Orders, as they are generally termed, I must refer to the work whence the above extract is made.

* Newman's Familiar Introduction to the History of Insects,' page 76.

The pupa is the last stage of an insect's life before it becomes perfect, and the period of its duration, like that of the larva, varies from days to years. When the imago, or

perfect insect, is matured, it bursts through its pupa-covering, or, in some instances, coverings, and proceeds to fulfil the purpose of its existence, the primary one being that of the continuance of its species. Environed by enemies of all kinds, and subject to innumerable mischances, of the hosts of insects originally called to life, comparatively few attain the ultimate object of their being, the law of Nature in the prodigious multiplication of the members of a species seeming to be rather to ensure the endurance of race than care for individuals, although the latter is not overlooked.

Among all the Orders of insects, the private lives of the Lepidoptera, perhaps, afford the most interesting objects of study; and the caterpillars being mostly eaters of vegetable matter, there is no difficulty in providing and renewing the plants upon which they feed. A garden-pot, half-filled with loose, sandy earth, with a few pieces of cane bent over, and the ends inserted in the pot, this frame covered with gauze, and a string passed over it, below the mouth of the pot, forms a very good cage for caterpillars. A slip of the food-plant should be first placed in a phial of water and put into the centre of the cage, which should be kept in a shady place. According to the size of the caterpillars and the heat of the weather, the food will require to be renewed from time to time. Many of the moths, both large and small, are only to be obtained in this way, being seldom seen in the perfect state, unless, indeed, they are attracted by a light, but then the specimens are often not in good condition, and when once

a Lepidopterous insect loses its scales its beauty is departed, and its use for scientific purposes is greatly lessened. Larvæ of small moths and the young ones of the larger species require to be kept more closely confined, or they would escape. Glass cylinders covered with gauze, and supplied with food like the larger cages, serve well for the young of large species, and the caterpillars of small moths may be reared in the same kind of receptacle, yet it is easier at first to keep them in jam-pots ground flat at the mouth and covered with a piece of glass, for the food remains fresh much longer than in vessels to which the air has access; but the atmosphere becomes too confined to rear the larvæ to maturity therein. Thus provided, "the house" becomes the theatre of performances both comic and tragic;-comic, for the attitudes and doings of the performers are at times very grotesque,-tragic, for they sometimes eat each other up, and, like the Kilkenny cats, only small fragments remain to tell of their existence; whence we deduce the moral to put no more of such sorts together in future. To rear insects of other Orders than Lepidoptera presents some difficulties, from the conditions of their existence, and the disagreeable or disgusting nature of their food, but with vegetable feeders I think much might be done, and there is a great deal to be discovered. Now that the Aquarium has become fashionable, I think it might be turned to account to unravel the mysteries of the early life and education of the numerous species of water-beetles, of which we know next to nothing, and to do this, I believe, would require less attention than the rearing of Lepidoptera.

For an invalid here is never-ending amusement and employment. Some kind relative or attendant could bring, day

by day, the strangers who were to be made at home, and induced to unfold their wonders and glories to admiring eyes. And if no other end were attained than to have cheated sickness, if not of its pain, at least of the attention of the patient, it would surely be worth the endeavour; but I hold that the continued contemplation of such wonders as would be revealed, the spectator, coming within one remove of the Power in whom we all live and move and have our being,— could not but result in a conviction of the goodness as well as greatness of the Creator, and a consequent elevation of the whole moral nature of the student. A youth impressed with

these studies may be called to go upon paths of duty, far removed from all such pursuits, but in pauses by the way, during the journey of life, he will scarcely fail to revert to the happy hours he spent and the reflections that occurred in his early years, and these thoughts may not only help to keep him steady on his path, but encourage him to go on with the hope of being able again to give his favourite studies renewed attention. How many chances of adding to the knowledge of the natural history of the world—to say nothing of physical and commercial benefits happen, both in common and military life, to men abroad, who, having had in their youth no instruction in the nature of the common things surrounding them, let pass opportunities that ages may not recall. I fear there is not yet a sufficient appreciation of the advantages, individual and national, thus lost, to make Natural History a branch of general education, and in the mean time we can only endeavour to do as much as possible by private teaching and example. The reflex action of the study of Natural History on the individual is greater, and of far higher