Excerpt from Insect Architecture If it be granted that making discoveries is one of the most satisfactory of human pleasures, then we may without hesitation affirm, that the study ofainsects is one of the most delightful branches of natural history, for it affords peculiar facilities for its pursuit. These facilities are found in the almost inexhaustible variety which insects present to the curious Observer. As a proof of the extraordinary number of insects within a limited field of observation, Mr. Stephens informs us, that in the Short space of forty days, between the middle of June and the beginning of August, he found, in the vicinity of Ripley, specimens Of above two thousand four hundred species of insects exclusive of caterpillars and grubs, - a number amounting to nearly a fourth of the insects ascertained to be indigenous. He further tells us, that, among these specimens, although the ground had, in former seasons, been frequently explored, there were about one hundred species altogether new, and not before in any collection which he had inspected, including several new genera; while many insects reputed scarce were in con siderable plenty.ale The localities of insects are, to a certain extent, constantly changing; and thus the study of them has, in this circumstance, as well as in their manifold abundance, a source of perpetual'variety. Insects, also, which are plentiful one year, frequently become scarce, or disappear altogether, the next - a fact strikingly illustrated by the uncommon abundance, in 1826 and 1827, of the seven-spot lady-bird Coccz'nella septempunctata) in the vicinity Of London, though during the two succeeding summers this insect was comparatively scarce, while the small two-spot lady-bird (coccz'nella bz'punctata) was plentiful. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.