[3] “Immensæ subtilitatis.” As Cuvier remarks, the ancients have committed more errors in reference to the insects, than to any other portion of the animal world. The discovery of the microscope has served more than anything to correct these erroneous notions.
[4] “Insecta,” “articulated.”
[5] The trunk of the gnat, Cuvier says, contains five silken and pointed threads, which together have the effect of a sting.
[6] The Teredo navalis of Linnæus, not an insect, but one of the mollusks. This is the same creature that is mentioned in B. xvi. c. [80]; but that spoken of in B. viii. c. 74, must have been a land insect.
[7] They respire by orifices in the sides of the body, known to naturalists as stigmata. The whole body, Cuvier says, forms, in a measure, a system of lungs.
[8] Cuvier remarks that the various noises made by insects are in reality not the voice, as they are not produced by air passing through a larynx.
[9] B. ix. c. 6.
[10] Cuvier remarks, that they have a nourishing fluid, which is of a white colour, and acts in place of blood.
[11] The dye of sæpia, Cuvier remarks, is not blood, nor does it act as such, being an excrementitious liquid. It has in addition a bluish, transparent, blood. The same also with the juices of the purple.
[12] “Nervos.” Cuvier says that all insects have a brain, a sort of spinal marrow, and nerves.