of the abdomen, and above the tentacula, they have a hollow tube, by which they eject the sea-water which they have received into the abdomen, if any enters through the mouth. This part varies in position, and is sometimes on the right side, sometimes on the left, and by this its ink is ejected.
[103] Sepia octopodia.
7. It swims sideways upon the part called the head, stretching out its feet; as it swims it is able to see forwards, for the eyes are upwards, and the mouth is placed behind. As long as it is alive the head is hard, as if it were inflated; it touches and holds with its tentacula bent downwards, a membrane is extended throughout, between the feet, if it falls into the sand, it can no longer hold by it.
8. The polypus and the above-mentioned malacia differ from each other; the abdomen of the polypus is small, and the feet are large; but of the others, the abdomen is large, and the feet small, so that they cannot walk upon them. They have also differences among each other; the teuthis is the smallest, the sepia wider; the teuthos is much larger than the teuthis, for it reaches the length of five cubits. Some sepiæ are two cubits long, and the tentacula of the polypus are as long, and even larger in size.
9. The class of the teuthos is rare, and differs in form from the teuthis, for the extremity of the teuthos is wider; and, again, the fin is placed round the whole abdomen, but it is wanting in the teuthis. It is a marine animal, as well as the teuthis. After the feet, the head of all these animals is placed in the middle of the feet, which are called tentacula; one part of this is the mouth, in which are two teeth; above these are two large eyes; between these is a small cartilage, containing a small brain.
10. In the mouth is a small piece of flesh, for these animals have no tongue, but use this instead of a tongue. After this, on the outside, the abdomen is apparent. The flesh of this can be divided, not in a straight line, but in a circle. All the malacia have a skin around this part. After the mouth, they have a long and narrow œsophagus; and continuous with this is a large round crop, like that of a bird; this contains the stomach, like a net. Its form is spiral, like the helix of a whelk; from this a thin intestine turns back, to the vicinity of the mouth. The intestine is thicker than the stomach.
11. The malacia have no viscus, except that which is called the mytis,[104] and the ink which is upon it. The most abundant and largest of all is that of the sepia; all exclude this ink, when alarmed, but especially the sepia; the mytis lies beneath the mouth; and through this the œsophagus passes; and where the intestine turns back the ink is beneath, and the same membrane surrounds both the ink and the intestine. The same orifice serves for the emission of the ink and the fœces.
[104] Köhler supposes the part called by Aristotle _mytis_ to have been the glandular appendages on the vena cava and two visceral veins.
(_Owen in Todd's Cyclopedia of Anatomy, Art. Cephalopoda._) 12. There are some appearances of hair[105] in their bodies; the sepia, teuthis, and teuthos, have a hard part upon the forward part of the body; the one is called sepium (the bone of the cuttle-fish), the other xiphus (the pen of the loligo). These two are different; for that of the sepia is strong and wide, partaking of the nature of spine and bone, and it contains a spongy, friable substance; but the pen of the teuthis is thin, and cartilaginous. In their form also they correspond with the differences of the animals themselves. The polypus has no hard internal part, but a portion of cartilage round the head, which becomes hard as they grow old.
[105] Probably the branchia.
13. The females also differ from the males, for the latter have a passage beneath the œsophagus, extending from the brain to the lowest part of the body. That part to which it reaches is like a teat. In the female there are two such organs, which are placed above. In both sexes, some small red bodies are placed under these. The polypus has one capsule of eggs, which is uneven on the surface; it is large; internally it is all of a white colour, and smooth. The multitude of the ova is so great as to fill a vessel larger than the head of the polypus.
14. The sepia has two capsules, and many eggs are in them, like white hailstones. The position of each of these parts may be seen in anatomical diagrams. In all these creatures the male differs from the female, and especially in the sepia. The fore part of the abdomen of the male is always darker than the back; and more rough than in the female, and variegated with stripes, and the extremity of the body is more acute.
15. There are many kinds of polypus; one, which is the largest of all, is very common. Those near land are larger than those which are caught out at sea. There are smaller kinds, which are variegated; these are not articles of food; and two others, one of which is called eledone,[106] differs in the length of its feet, and is the only one of the malacia with a single row of suckers, for all the rest have two; the other is called bolitæna,[107] and sometimes ozolis.
16. There are two other kinds which dwell in shells, which some persons call nautilus[108] (and nauticus), and others call it the egg of the polypus; its shell is like that of the hollow pecten, and not like that which has its shells close together.[109] This animal generally feeds near the land; when it is thrown upon the shore by the waves, after its shell has fallen off, it cannot escape, and dies upon the land. These animals are small in form, like the bolitæna; and there is another,[110] which inhabits a shell like a snail. This animal never leaves its shell, but remains in it, like the snail, and sometimes stretches out its tentacula. Let thus much be said about the malacia.
[108] Argonauta argo. (_Owen._) [109] This is probably the meaning of the passage. Two kinds of pectens were distinguished; the one large, hollow, and of a dark colour, the other broad and sweeter, but harsh.
[110] Nautilus Pompilius (_Owen._) CHAPTER II.
1. Of the malocostraca, there is one genus, of carabi,[111] and another, very like it, of astaci;[112] these differ from the carabi, which have no claws, and in some other respects. There is a third genus, of carides,[113] and a fourth, of carcini.[114] There are more genera of carides, and of carcini; for among the carides are the cyphæ,[115] the crangon,[116] and a small species, for these never grow large.
[111] Palinurus, spiny lobster (Bell's crustacea).
[112] Lobster.
[113] Prawns.
[114] Crabs.
[115] Shrimp.
[116] Perhaps Prawn.
2. The family of carcini is more various, and not so easily enumerated; the largest genus is that called maia,[117] the next to this the pagurus,[118] and the Heracleot carcini; and, again, those that live in rivers. The other genera are small, and have not received any name.
On the Phenician coast there are some that they call horsemen, because they run so fast that it is difficult to catch them, and when opened, they are empty, because they have no pasture. There is another small genus like carcini, but in shape they resemble astaci.
[117] Perhaps Maia squinado.
[118] Cancer paguras, Great crab.
3. All these creatures, as I observed before, have their hard and shelly coats on the outsides of their bodies in the place of skin, the fleshy part is internal. Their under parts resemble plates, upon which the females deposit their ova; the carabi have five feet on each side, including the claws; the carcini, also, have in all ten feet, including the claws, which are last. Of the carides, the cypha have five on each side; those near the head are sharp, and five others on each side of the stomach have flat extremities; they have no plates upon the under part of their body; those on the upper part are like the carabi.
4. The crangon is different, for it has, first of all, four plates on each side, and, afterwards, three slight ones, continuous with those on each side, and the greater part of the remainder of its body is apodal; all the feet are directed outwards to the side, like those of insects; but the claws, in those that have them, all turned inwards.
The carabus also has a tail, and five fin-like appendages. The cypha, among the carides, has a tail, with four fin-like appendages. The crangon has fin-like processes on each side of the tail, and the middle of them is spinous on both sides; but this part is wide in the crangon, and sharp in the cypha. The carcini alone are without a tail; the body of the carabi and carides is elongated, that of the carcini is rounded.
5. The male carabus is different from the female, for the female has the first foot divided; in the male it is formed of a single claw, and the fin-like process on the lower part is large in the female, and interchanged with each other in the neck; in the male they are small and not interchanged. In the male, also, the last feet are furnished with large and sharp processes like spurs; in the female these are small and smooth. They all have two large and rough processes, like horns, before their eyes, and two, smaller and smooth, below.
6. The eyes of all these animals are hard, and capable of motion, inwards, outwards, and to the side; the same is the nature of the carcini, in which they are even more moveable. In colour the astacus is all of a dull white, sprinkled with black; it has eight small feet, as far as the large ones; after these the large feet are far greater and wider at the extremity than in the carabus, and they are unequal in size; for on the right side the broad part at the end is long and smooth, on the left side the same part is thick and round; they are both divided from the extremity like a jaw, with teeth above and below, only that in those on the right the teeth are all small and sharp, and they are sharp at the extremity of the left side; in the middle they are like molar teeth; in the lower part are four close together, but in the upper part three, but not close together.
7. In both claws the upper part is moved and pressed down upon the lower; both are placed sideways in position, as if intended by nature for seizure and pressure; above these large feet are two rough ones, a little below the mouth; and still lower, the branchial organs around the mouth, which are rough and numerous, and these are continually in motion; it bends and approximates its two rough feet towards its mouth; the feet near the mouth have smooth appendages.
8. It has two teeth like the carabus, above these the long horns, much shorter and smoother than in the carabus; four others of the same form as these, but still shorter and smoother; and above these are placed its eyes, which are small and short, and not large like those of the carabus. The part above the eyes is acute and rough, as it were a forehead, and larger than in the carabus: on the whole, the head is sharper and the thorax much wider than in the carabus, and its whole body is more fleshy and soft: of its right feet, four are divided at the extremity, and four not divided.
9. The part called the neck is externally divided into five portions, the sixth and last division is wide and has five plates; in the inside are four rough plates, upon which the females deposit their ova. On the outside of each of these which have been mentioned, there is a short and straight spine, and the whole body, with the part called the thorax, is smooth, and not rough as in the carabus. On the outside of the large feet there are great spines. The female does not in any way differ from the male, for whether the male or female have larger claws, they are never both of them equal.
10. All these animals take in sea-water through their mouths; the carcini also exhale a small portion of that which they have taken in, and the carabi do this through the branchiform appendages, for the carabi have many branchiform appendages. All these animals have two teeth: the carabi have two front teeth, and then a fleshy mouth instead of a tongue, from this an œsophagus continued on to the stomach. And the carabi have a small œsophagus before the stomach, and from this a straight intestine is continued. In the caraboid animals and the carides, this is continued to the tail in a straight passage, by which they eject their excrements, and deposit their ova. In the carcini this is in the middle of the folded part, for the place wherein they deposit their ova is external in these also.
11. All the females also, besides the intestines, have a place for their ova, and the part called mytis[119] or mecon, which is greater or less, and the peculiar differences may be learned by studying the individual cases. The carabi, as I have observed, have two large and hollow teeth, in which there is a juice resembling the mytis, and, between the teeth, a piece of flesh resembling a tongue; from the mouth a short œsophagus extends to a membranous stomach; in the part of this nearest the mouth are three teeth, two opposite and one below.
[119] Perhaps the liver.
12. And from the side of the stomach there is a simple intestine, which is of equal thickness throughout, reaching to the anus. All these parts belong to the carabi, carides, and carcini; and, besides these, the carabi have a passage suspended from the breast and reaching to the anus; in the female this performs the office of a uterus, in the male it contains the spermatic fluid. This passage is in the cavity of the flesh, so as to appear to be between portions of the flesh, for the intestine is toward the curved part, but the passage towards the cavity in the same way as in quadrupeds. In the male this part differs in nothing from the female, for both are smooth and white, and contain an ochreous fluid, and in both sexes it is appended to the breast.
13. The ova and spirals occupy the same position in the carides. The male is distinguished from the female by having in the flesh upon the breast two distinct white bodies, in colour and position like the tentacula of the sepia; these appendages are spiriform, like the mecon of the whelk; their origin is from the acetabula, which are placed under the last feet. These contain a red sanguineous flesh, which is smooth to the touch, and not like flesh. From the whelk-like appendage there is another spiral fold, about as thick as a thread, below which there are two sand-like bodies appended to the intestine, containing a seminal fluid. These are found in the male, but the female has ova of a red colour; these are joined to the abdomen, and on each side of the intestine to the fleshy part of the body, enclosed in a thin membrane.
These are their internal and external parts.
CHAPTER III.
1. It happens that all the internal parts of sanguineous animals have names, for all these have the internal viscera; but the same parts of exsanguineous animals have no names, but both classes have in common the stomach, œsophagus, and intestines. I have before spoken of the carcini, and their legs and feet, and how many they have, and in what direction, and that, for the most part, they have the right claw larger and stronger than the left; I have also mentioned their eyes, and that most of them are able to see sideways. The mass of their body is undivided, and so is their head, and any other part.
2. In some the eyes are placed immediately below the upper part, and generally far apart; in some they are placed in the middle, and near together, as in the Heracleot carcini and the maia. The mouth is placed below the eyes, and contains two teeth, as in the carabus, but they are long and not round, and over these there are two coverings, between which are the appendages, which the carabus also possesses.
3. They receive water through their mouth, opening the opercula, and emit it again by the upper passage of the mouth, closing the opercula by which it entered; these are immediately beneath the eyes, and when they take in water they close the mouth with both opercula, and thus eject again the sea-water. Next to the teeth is a very short œsophagus, so that the mouth appears joined to the stomach, and from this proceeds a divided stomach, from the middle of which is a single thin intestine; this intestine ends externally beneath the folding of the extremity, as I said before. Between the opercula there is something resembling the appendages to the teeth of the carabi; within the abdomen is an ochreous chyme, and some small elongated white bodies, and other red ones scattered through it. The male differs from the female in length and width, and in the abdominal covering, for this is longer in the female, farther from the body, and more thick-set with appendages, as in the female carabi. The parts of the malacostraca are of this nature.
CHAPTER IV.
1. The testacea, as cochleæ,[120] and cochli,[121] and all that are called ostrea,[122] and the family of echini, are composed of flesh, and this flesh is like that of the malacostraci, for it is internal; but the shell is external, and they have no hard internal part. But they have many differences amongst themselves, both in regard to their external shells and their internal flesh, for some of them have no flesh at all, as the echinus; in others it is entirely internal and out of sight, except the head, as the land snails and those called coccalia,[123] and in the sea the purpura[124] and the ceryx,[125] the cochlus, and all the turbinated shells.
[120] Land snails.
[121] Marine.
[122] Bivalves.
[123] Some small land snail with a conical shell.
[124] Purpura.
[125] Whelk.
2. Of the rest some are bivalves, others univalves. I call those bivalves which are enclosed in two shells; the univalves are enclosed in one shell, and the fleshy part is uncovered, as the lepas.[126] Some of the bivalves can open, as the pectens and mya, for all these are joined on one side, and separated on the other, so as to shut and open. There are other bivalves which are joined on both sides, as the solen; others which are entirely enclosed in their shells, and have no external naked flesh, as those which are called tethya.[127] [126] Patella, limpet.
[127] Ascidians.
3. And there is a great difference amongst the shells themselves, for some are smooth, as the solen, mya, and some conchæ, called by some persons galaces;[128] other shells are rough, as the limnostrea,[129] pinnæ, some kinds of conchæ, and the whelk; and of these some are marked with ridges, as the pecten and a kind of concha, others are without ridges, as the pinna and another species of concha. They also differ in thickness and thinness, both in the whole shell and in certain parts of the shell, as about the edges, for in some the edges are thin, as the mya; others are thick-edged, as the limnostrea.
[128] Chama, L.
[129] Ostrea edulis.
4. Some of them are capable of motion, as the pecten, for some persons say that the pectens can fly, for that they sometimes leap out of the instrument by which they are taken. Others, as the pinna, cannot move from the point of attachment; all the turbinated shells can move and crawl; the lepas (patella) also feeds by going from place to place.
It is common to all those with hard shells to have them smooth in the inside.
5. Both in univalves and bivalves the fleshy part is united to the shell, so that it can only be separated by force; it is more easily separated from the turbinated shells; it is a characteristic of all these shells, that the base of the shell has the helix directed from the head. All of them from their birth have an operculum; all the turbinated testacea are right-handed, and move, not in the direction of the helix, but the contrary way.
6. The external parts of these creatures are thus distinguished; the nature of their internal structure is similar in all, especially in the turbinated animals, for they differ in size and in the relations of excess, the univalves and bivalves do not exhibit many differences.
Most of them have but few distinctive marks from each other, but they differ more from the immovable creatures. This will be more evident from the following considerations. In nature they are all alike, the difference, as before said, is in excess; for in larger species the parts are more conspicuous, and less so in those that are smaller. They differ also in hardness and softness, and such like affections.
7. For all have on the outside of the shell, in the mouth, a hard piece of flesh, some more, some less; from the middle of this are the head and the two horns; these are large in larger species, in the little ones they are very small. The head is protruded in the same manner in all of them, and when the creature is alarmed it is again retracted; some have a mouth and teeth, as the snail, which has small, sharp, and smooth teeth.
8. They have also a proboscis, like that of the fly, and this organ is like a tongue. In the ceryx and the purpura this organ is hard, like that of the myops and œstrus, with which they pierce through the skins of quadrupeds; but this is more powerful in strength, for they can pierce through the shells of the baits. The stomach is joined quite closely to the mouth; the stomach of the cochlus is like the crop of a bird; below this there are two hard white substances like nipples, which also exist in the sepia, but are much harder.
9. From the stomach a long, simple intestine reaches as far as the spiral, which is on the extremity of the body. These are distinct, and in the purpura and the ceryx are in the helix of the shell. The bowel is continuous with the intestine. The intestine and bowels are joined together, and are quite simple, to the anus. The origin of the bowel is around the helix of the mecon,[130] and here it is wider. The mecon is, as it were, a superfluous part in all testacea, afterwards another bend causes it to return to the fleshy part; the end of the entrail, where the fæces are emitted, is near the head, and is alike in all turbinated shells, whether terrestrial or marine.
10. In the larger cochli a long white passage, contained in a membrane, and in colour resembling the upper mastoid appendages, is joined from the stomach to the œsophagus, and it is divided into segments like the ovum of the carabus, except that it is white, while the other is red. It has neither exit nor passage, but it is contained in a thin membrane, which has a narrow cavity. From the intestine black and rough bodies descend continuously, like those in the tortoise, but they are less black.
11. Both these and white bodies occur in the marine cochli, but they are less in the smaller kinds. The univalves and bivalves are in some respects like these, and in others they are different, for they have a head, horns, and mouth, and something like a tongue, though in smaller species these are inconspicuous from their minute size, and they are not discernible when the animals are dead or at rest. They all contain the mecon, but not in the same position, nor of the same size, nor equally conspicuous. In the lepas it is in the bottom of the shell, in the bivalves near the hinge.
12. They all have hair-like appendages placed in a circle, and so have the pectens, and that which is called the ovarium in those that have it; where it is possessed, it is placed in a circle on the other side of the circumference, like the white portion in the cochli, for this is alike in all. All these parts, as I have said, are conspicuous in the larger kinds, but in smaller not at all, or scarcely so, wherefore they are most conspicuous in the larger pectens, and these have one valve flat like an operculum.
13. The anus is placed in the side in some of these creatures, for this is where the excrement passes out. The mecon, as I have said, is a superfluous part enclosed in a thin membrane in all of them; that which is called the ovarium has no passage in any of them, but it swells out in the flesh. This is not placed upon the intestine, for the ovarium is on the right side and the intestine on the left; the anus is the same as in others; but in the wild patella, as some persons call it, or the sea-ear (haliotis), as it is named by others, the excrement passes out below the shell, for the shell is perforated. The stomach also is distinct behind the mouth, and so is the ovarium in this animal. The position of all these parts may be seen in dissections.
14. The creature called carcinium[131] resembles both the malacostraca and the testacea, for this in its nature is similar to the animals that are like carabi, and it is born naked (not covered with a shell). But because it makes its way into a shell, and lives in it, it resembles the testacea, and for these reasons it partakes of the character of both classes. Its shape, to speak plainly, is that of a spider, except that the lower part of the head and thorax is larger.
[131] Hermit crab.
15. It has two thin red horns, and two large eyes below these, not within nor turned on one side, like those of the crab, but straight forwards. Below these is the mouth, and round it many hair-like appendages; next to these, two divided feet with which it seizes its prey, and two besides these on each side, and a third pair smaller.
Below the thorax the whole creature is soft, and when laid open is yellow within.
16. From the mouth is a passage as far as the stomach; but the anus is indistinct; the feet and the thorax are hard, but less so than those of the cancri; it is not united with the shell like the purpura and ceryx, but is easily liberated from it. The individuals which inhabit the shells of the strombus are longer than those in the shells of the nerita.
17. The kind which inhabits the nerita is different, though very like in other respects, for the right divided foot is small, and the left one large, and it walks more upon this than the other; and a similar animal is found in the conchæ, though they are united to their shells very firmly; this animal is called cyllarus.[132] The nerita has a smooth, large, round shell, in form resembling that of the ceryx, but the mecon is not black, but red; it is strongly united in the middle.
[132] Cancer Diogenes.
18. In fine weather they seek their food at liberty, and if a storm arises, the carcinia hide themselves under a stone, and the neritæ attach themselves to it like the patella, the hæmorrhois, and all that class, for they become attached to the rock, where they close their operculum, for this resembles a lid; for that part which is in both sides in the bivalves is joined to one side in the turbinated shells: the interior is fleshy, and in this the mouth is placed.
19. The nature of the hæmorrhois, the purpura, and all such animals is the same. But those which have the left foot greater are not found in the shells of the strombus, but in the neritæ. There are some cochli which contain an animal like the small astacus, which is found in rivers; but they differ from them in having the inner part of the shell soft. Their form may be seen by examining dissections.
CHAPTER V.
1. The echini contain no flesh, but this part is peculiar, for they are all of them void of flesh, and are filled with a black substance. There are many kinds of echinus, one of which is eatable; in this one the ova are large and eatable, both in the greater and the less.
2. And there are two other kinds, the spatangus and that called bryttus; these are inhabitants of the sea, and rare. Those which are called echinometræ[133] are the largest of all. Besides this, there is another small species, which has long and sharp spines; this is procured from the sea, in many fathoms water, and some persons use it for stranguary.
[133] Echinus esculentus.
3. Around Torona there are white marine echini, which have shells, and prickles, and ova, and are longer than others; but the prickle is neither large nor strong, but soft, and the black parts from the mouth are more in number, and united to the outward passage, but distinct among themselves, and by these the animal is as it were divided. The eatable kinds are particularly and especially active, and it is a sign of them; for they have always something adhering to their spines.
4. They all contain ova, but in some they are very small, and not eatable: that which is called the head and mouth in the echinus is downwards, and the anus placed upwards. The same thing occurs in the turbinated shells, and the patella; for their food is placed below them, so that the mouth is towards the food, and the anus at or on the upper part of the shell.
5. The echinus has five hollow internal teeth, in the midst of these a portion of flesh like a tongue; next to this is the œsophagus; then the stomach, in five divisions, full of fæculent matter: all its cavities unite in one, near the anus, where the shell is perforated. Beneath the stomach, in another membrane, are the ova, the same number in all, they are five in number, and uneven.
6. The black substance is joined above to the origin of the teeth, this black substance is bitter and not eatable; in many animals there is either this substance or its analogue, for it is found in tortoises, toads, frogs, turbinated shells, and in the malacia; these parts differ in colour, but are entirely or nearly uneatable. The body of the echinus is undivided from beginning to end, but the shell is not so when seen through, for it is like a lantern, with no skin around it.
The echinus uses its spines as feet, for it moves along by leaning upon them and moving them.
CHAPTER VI.
1. The creatures called tethya[134] have a most distinct character, for in these alone is the whole body concealed in a shell. Their shell is intermediate between skin and shell, so that it can be cut like hard leather: this shell-like substance is attached to rocks; in it there are two perforations, quite distant from each other, and not easily seen, by which it excludes and receives water, for it has no visible excrement as other testacea, neither like the echinus, nor the substance called mecon.
[134] Ascidian mollusks.
2. When laid open, there is first of all a sinewy membrane lining the shell-like substance, within this the fleshy substance of the tethyon.
Unlike any other creature, its flesh, however, is alike throughout, and it is united in two places to the membrane and the skin from the side, and at its points of union it is narrower on each side; by these places it reaches to the external perforations which pass through the shell; there it both parts with and receives food and moisture, as if one were the mouth, the other the anus, the one is thick, the other thinner.
3. Internally there is a cavity at each end, and a passage passes through it; there is a fluid in both the cavities. Besides this, it has no sensitive or organic member, nor is there any excrementitious matter, as I said before. The colour of the tethyon is partly ochreous, partly red.
4. The class acalephe[135] is peculiar; it adheres to rocks like some of the testacea, but at times it is washed off. It is not covered with a shell, but its whole body is fleshy; it is sensitive, and seizes upon the hand that touches it, and it holds fast, like the polypus does with its tentacula, so as to make the flesh swell up. It has a central mouth, and lives upon the rock, as well as upon shell-fish, and if any small fish falls in its way, it lays hold of it as with a hand, and if any eatable thing falls in its way it devours it.
[135] Actiniæ.
5. One species is free, and feeds upon anything it meets with, even pectens and echini; it appears to have no visible excrement, and in this respect it resembles plants. There are two kinds of acalephe, some small and more eatable, others large and hard, such as are found near Chalcis. During winter their flesh is compact, wherefore in this season they are caught and eaten; in summer time they perish, for they become soft; if they are touched they soon melt down, and cannot by any means be taken away. When suffering from heat, they prefer getting under stones. I have now treated of malacia, malacostraca, testacea, and of their external and internal parts.
CHAPTER VII.
1. Insects must now be treated of in the same manner. This is a class which contains many forms, and no common name has been given to unite those that are naturally related, as the bee, anthrene,[136] and wasp, and such like; again, those which have their wings enclosed in a case, as the melolontha,[137] carabus,[138] cantharis, and such like. The common parts of all insects are three--the head, the abdomen, and the third, which is between these, such as in other animals is the breast and back. In many insects this is one, but in the long insects with many legs, the middle parts are equal to the number of segments.
[136] Wild bee.
[137] Chafer.
[138] Beetle.
2. All insects survive being divided, except those which are naturally cold, or soon become so from their small size, so that wasps live after they are cut asunder; either the head or the abdomen will live if united to the thorax, but the head will not live alone. Those which are long, and have many feet, will survive division for a considerable time; both the extremities are capable of motion, for they walk both upon the part cut off and upon the tail, as that which is called scolopendra. All of them have eyes, but no other manifest organs of sense, except that some have a tongue. All the testacea have this organ, which serves the double purpose of tasting and drawing food into the mouth.
3. In some of them this organ is soft; in others very strong, as in the purpura; in the myops and œstrus this member is strong, and in a great many more; for this member is used as a weapon by all those that have no caudal sting.
4. Those with this weapon have no small external teeth, for flies draw blood by touching with this organ, and gnats sting with it. Some insects also have stings, which are either internal, as in bees and wasps, or external, as in the scorpion. This last is the only insect that has a long tail; it has claws, and so has the little scorpion-like creature[139] found in books. The winged insects, in addition to other parts, have wings. Some have two wings, as the flies; others four, as the bees; none of the diptera have a caudal sting. Some of the winged insects have elytra on their wings, as the melolontha; and others no elytra, as the bee. Insects do not direct their flight with their tail, and their wings have neither shaft nor division.
5. Some have a horn before their eyes, as the psychæ[140] and carabi.
Of the jumping insects, some have their hind-legs larger; others have the organs of jumping bent backwards, like the legs of quadrupeds. In all, the upper part is different from the lower, like other animals.
[140] Butterfly.
6. The flesh of their bodies is neither testaceous nor like the internal parts of testacea, but between the two. Wherefore, also, they have neither spine nor bone, as the sepia; nor are they surrounded with a shell. For the body is its own protection by its hardness, and requires no other support; and they have a very thin skin. This is the