Of sea-nettles there are two species, the lesser and more
edible, and the large hard ones, such as are found in the
neighbourhood of Chalcis. In winter time their flesh is firm, and
accordingly they are sought after as articles of food, but in summer
weather they are worthless, for they become thin and watery, and if
you catch at them they break at once into bits, and cannot be taken
off the rocks entire; and being oppressed by the heat they tend to
slip back into the crevices of the rocks.
So much for the external and the internal organs of molluscs,
crustaceans, and testaceans.
7
We now proceed to treat of insects in like manner. This genus
comprises many species, and, though several kinds are clearly
related to one another, these are not classified under one common
designation, as in the case of the bee, the drone, the wasp, and all
such insects, and again as in the case of those that have their
wings in a sheath or shard, like the cockchafer, the carabus or
stag-beetle, the cantharis or blister-beetle, and the like.
Insects have three parts common to them all; the head, the trunk
containing the stomach, and a third part in betwixt these two,
corresponding to what in other creatures embraces chest and back.
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