CHAPTER XII.

_About insects in general._

I will now give my readers a short chapter upon insects in general, extracted from Aunt Betsey Piper’s talk to her inquisitive nephew.

Insects are so called because they appear to be divided into two parts, and the word _insect_ means _cut apart_. The insect tribe are divided by naturalists into several orders. The first consists of those that never have wings, as the spider, flea, louse, &c.; the second consists of those which have wings, but so cased up as not to appear when first produced, such as the grasshopper, earwig, dragon-fly, &c.; the third is of the moth and butterfly kind; the fourth such as come from a worm instead of a caterpillar, as the beetle, bee, fly, gnat, &c.

We are very apt to conceive that insects, from their extreme littleness, are very insignificant. But this is a wrong view of the subject. In the first place, they are exceedingly ingenious in their structure, and wonderful in their habits and instincts. A writer on natural history says, that if we compare insects with the higher ranks of nature, such as quadrupeds, birds, &c., we shall perceive in the former all the peculiarities which belong to the latter; the piercing eye of the lynx and the falcon, the hard shield of the armadillo, the splendid tail of the peacock, the imposing horns of the stag, the swiftness of the antelope, the fecundity of the hare, the architectural powers of the beaver, the climbing powers of the squirrel, the gambols of the monkey, the swimming of the frog, the burrowing of the mole, and the leaping of the kangaroo; all these things are found amongst insects, and often, indeed, in a redoubled degree. The eye of the fly, with its thousand lenses, the scales of the diamond beetle, the wonderful works of the hive, the ingenuity of the spider, the transformation of the butterfly,――these and many other interesting circumstances show that this class of animated nature possesses strong claims upon our attention.

The amazing extent of the insect tribes also increases the interest of this subject. In the royal collection at Berlin, in Prussia, there are no less than twenty-eight thousand species or kinds of beetle. Celebrated naturalists have calculated that there are, in the world, five hundred thousand different kinds of insects, and countless myriads of each kind. It is said that one single insect of the aphis or louse tribe may be the living parent of six thousand millions of descendants. If all the insects in the world were collected into one heap, it would doubtless rise ten times as high as the top of Bunker-Hill monument, near Boston.

The importance of insects may be gathered from another consideration.―― Some of them are very useful. The bee we have already noticed. We may also mention the cochineal insect, which exists in great numbers in the East Indies and in South America. It is a minute creature, of the aphis tribe, one of which is hardly so large as a peppercorn. Yet it is produced in such quantities, that many thousands of pounds are sent every year, in a dried state, to America and Europe. They contain a coloring principle, called carmine, which produces an intensely red color. These insects are chiefly used for dying scarlet. In Brazil, large estates are devoted to the cultivation of plants, for the purpose of breeding them. Great quantities are also produced in different parts of Spain.

Among the useful insects, we may notice the Spanish fly, which is about three fourths of an inch in length, with brilliant green wings. These are shaken down from the trees, it being their habit to feign death when disturbed. They are called _cantharides_, and are used in medicine, especially for producing blisters.

We might notice many other useful insects, but must pass them by. We might speak, also, of the beautiful fireflies, which appear in myriads, during the night, over our meadows and amid the forests; of the glow-worms, which seem to burn with a mild and steady blaze, to illuminate the darkness; and the great lantern moth of South America, which is sometimes used to decorate the heads of females, and several of which will answer the purpose of a torch.

But we must pass over these wonderful things, and consider that the surface of the earth, the waves of the sea, and the very atmosphere around the whole globe, are all the abodes of countless insects. Even the stalks and leaves of plants are filled with them. If you will take a microscope and look into the stalks of certain plants, you will see thousands of little busy, bustling insects there, all of them seeming to be in the full enjoyment of existence. Nay, if you will apply the microscope to a tumbler of pure water, you will see that this also is filled with living things. Thus the poet says:

“Full nature swarms with life; one wondrous mass Of animals, creatures organized. Through subterranean cells, Where searching sunbeams scarce can find a way, Earth animated heaves. The flowery leaf Wants not its soft inhabitants. Secure, Within its winding citadel, the stone Holds multitudes. But chief the forest boughs, That dance unnumbered to the playful breeze, The downy orchard, and the melting pulp Of mellow fruit, the nameless nations feed Of evanescent insects. Where the pool Stands mantled o’er with green, invisible, Amid the floating verdure, millions stray: * * * * Nor is the stream Of purest crystal, nor the lucid air, Though one transparent vacancy it seems, Void of their unseen people.”