So much importance did Linnæus, the great father of natural history, attach to the character of the wings in insects, that he arranged the various families of insects under several heads expressive of the leading character of their wings. The orders into which he thus divided insects are seven in number: 1. _Coleoptera_, or case-winged; 2. _Hemiptera_, or half-winged; 3. _Lepidoptera_, or scale-winged; 4. _Neuroptera_, or nerve-winged; 5. _Hymenoptera_, or membrane-winged; 6. _Diptera_, two-winged; and, 7. _Aptera_, or wingless: the Greek word _pteron_, signifying "a wing," furnishes the termination to each of these titles; the prefix is also derived from the Greek, and its import may be derived from the translation attached to each. This system has been extended by modern entomologists, who have subdivided the 2d, 5th, and 7th orders into additional ones.
In the opposite cut the insects represented illustrate each of the Linnæan orders. They are--1. a Beetle; 2. an Aphis; 3. a Butterfly; 4. a Bee; 5. a Dragon-fly; 6. a House-fly; and, 7. a Spider.
As these organs exhibit to us in the most conspicuous manner the exquisite beauties wherewith it has pleased God, the Almighty Creator, to adorn the insect world, we may be allowed to make some reference to the colours of the wings, before proceeding to speak of those organs by which the insect moves on earth. Some, of the beetle tribe, are like tiny masses of burnished metal gleaming with colours of the most exquisite description. A vast number of locusts are remarkable for the splendour of their wings. Many dragon-flies are adorned with wings vying with those of the butterfly in loveliness. The wings of many flies are exquisitely painted with the most brilliant metallic hues, green and gold; and even those of a house-fly are often very beautiful by their having the property of _iridescence_, or reflecting the prismatic colours of light. But insects of every tribe, however splendid in attire, fade before the glories of the butterfly tribe. Linnæus, speaking of the splendid colours of these insects, and particularly of the gorgeous tints which appear on the upper surface of the wings of a butterfly called the Morpho Menelaus, and another, justly observes, that there is scarcely anything in nature that for brightness and splendour can be paralleled with this colour. It is a kind of rich ultramarine, that vies with the deepest and purest azure of the sky; and what must cause a striking contrast in flight, the prone surface of the wings is as dull and dark as the opposite is brilliant; so that one can conceive this insect to appear like a planet in full radiance, and under eclipse, as its wings open and shut in the blaze of a tropical sun. The scales on the wings of some species shine with such extraordinary intenseness and brilliancy, that it is impossible to look at them in a bright light, as they completely dazzle the beholder. Messrs. Kirby and Spence say, they "know no insect upon which the sight rests with such untired pleasure as upon the lovely butterfly that bears the name of the unhappy Trojan king (_Papilio Priamus_); the contrast of the rich green and black of the velvet of its wings with each other, and with the black of its abdomen, is, beyond expression, regal and magnificent." What adds to the beauty of the wings of this tribe of insects is the appearance of the beautiful spots like eyes, which are so familiar to us, and which are almost without a parallel, except in the animal world. This ornament gives to the wings of a butterfly an indescribable life and beauty, and constrains us as we contemplate it to acknowledge that 'Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these.' The astonishing variety of combination in the colours communicates an inexpressible charm to these insect glories: here is a lustrous blue, a glowing orange, a delicate lemon, an exquisite pink, a fiery copper, or a spotless white. None but a Divine hand could have produced such effects as are exhibited in these most gorgeously painted organs. No work of man will endure comparison with them. The most elaborately finished miniature upon which the artist may, in the features and dress of the person, have expended all the resources of his art in the production of harmonious and pleasing tones of colour, appears but as a muddy, lustreless patch, when placed side by side with one of the butterfly-beauties of the tropics, or even of our own green fields.