Diptera sub geminis alis se pondere librant.
Os Œstro nullum, caudâque timetur inermi.
Longa caput Tipula est, labiisque et prædita palpis.
Palpis Musca caret, retrahitque proboscida labris.
Qua Tabanus gaudet pariter, palpis subacutis.
Os Culicis molli e pharetrâ sua spicula vibrat.
Rostrum Empis durum et longum sub pectore curvat.
Porrigit articuli de cardine noxia Conops.
Porrigit at rectum et conicum sitibundus Asilus.
Longum et Bombylius qui sugit mella volando.
Unguibus Hippobosca valet, vibrat breve telum.
Aptera.
Aptera se pedibus pennarum nescia jactant.
Exit tres setas cauda extendente Lepisma.
Saltatrix est cauda Poduræ inflexa bifurca.
Armantur Termis maxillis ora duabus.
Fert telum quod ab ore Pediculus edat acutum.
Pulicis inflexum rostrum est, telumque recondit.
Octo Acarus pedibus duplicique instructus ocello est.
Lumina bis bina octipedata Phalangia gestant.
Octo oculis totidem pedibusque se Aranea jactat.
His etiam adjungit chelatos Scorpio palpos.
Dena pedum natura dedit fulcimina Cancro.
Unoculo bissena (duosque ambobus ocellos).
Quorum his chelatos gerit, ille gemellos.
Ovalis pedibus bis septem incedit Oniscus.
Innumeris pedibus Scolopendra angusta movetur.
Secernit reliquis structura cylindrica Iulum.
During this era, and by the influence of Linné, in the year 1739 the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm was established, which did for Natural History in Sweden what our own Royal Society had done for it in England. Other societies, with a similar object, were formed in different parts of Europe, and were attended by similar good effects. At Paris, at Berlin, at St. Petersburg, at Moscow, at Turin, at Lisbon, &c., the lovers of Nature, at that time and subsequently, have associated for this purpose; and I may mention here, that I may not revert to the subject, the great Natural History association of our own country, The Linnean Society, named after the illustrious Swede, which was first instituted in 1788, and incorporated by royal charter in 1802. In the Transactions of this learned body, the Zoologist in general, and particularly the Entomologist, will find much useful information and many interesting observations connected with his science. This flourishing society consists at this time of above 600 members, of whom more than 500 are Fellows;—a gratifying proof how widely Natural History is cultivated in the British Empire[1406].
5. Era of Fabricius, or of the Maxillary System.—We are now arrived, if its consequences be considered, at one of the most important epochs of the science. Fabricius, a pupil of Linné, who highly estimated his entomological acquirements[1407], thinking that the system of his master was not built upon a foundation sufficiently fixed and restricted[1408], conceived the idea of doing for Entomology what the latter had done for Botany. As the learned and illustrious Swede had assumed the Fructification for the basis of his system in that science, so the emulous and highly-gifted Dane, observing how happily those organs were employed as characters in extricating the genera of Vertebrate animals, assumed the instruments of manducation, far more numerous and various in insects, for the basis of a new system of Entomology; which, from the maxillæ being principally employed to characterize the Classes or rather Orders, may be called the Maxillary System. De Geer, indeed, as we have seen above, had, in the majority of his Classes, to the organs of flight added the parts of the mouth: but Fabricius pursued the idea much further, and made the Trophi[1409], or Instrumenta Cibaria as he called them, the sole corner-stone of his whole superstructure. Though nothing seems to have been further from his intention than to follow Nature, since he complains that Linné by following her too closely had lost the Ariadnean thread of system[1410], yet it is singular that, by building upon this seemingly narrow foundation, he has furnished a clue, by the due use of which, instead of deserting her, his successors have been enabled with more certainty to extricate her groups: since the parts in question being intimately connected with the functions and economy of these animals, where they differ materially, indicate a corresponding difference in their character and station.
The first outline of his System, I believe, appeared in his Systema Entomologiæ published in 1775; and the last, in his Supplement to his Entomologia Systematica in 1798. In this the series and characters of his Classes (for so, after De Geer, he denominates his primary groups) were as follows:—
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