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INTRODUCTION

ENTOMOLOGY: $5

ELEMENTS

OF THE
NATURAL HISTORY OF INSECTS:

WITH PLATES.

By WILLIAM KIRBY, M.A. F.R. AND L.S.

RECTOR OF BARHAM,
AND :
WILLIAM SPENCE, Esa. F.L.S.

THIRD EDITION.

VOL. I.
IG

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES} ORME, AND BROWN,
; PATERNOSTER ROW:

1818,

University. Library,
nt deposit from |

piep
Ui

Richard and Arthur Taylor,
Printers, London.

TO

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

SIR JOSEPH BANKS, BARONET,

ONE OF HIS MAJESTY’ S MOST WONOURABLE PRIVY:

COUNCIL,

KNIGHT GRAND CROSS OF THE

ORDER OF THE BATH,

PRESIDENT OF THE ROY AL SOCIETY, ETC. `
WHOSE UNRIVALLED LIBRARY AND

PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS

HAVE FURNISHED MUCH OF THE MOST INTERESTING

MATTER THAT IT CONTAINS,

THE FOLLOWIN NG W ORK,
IN WICH AN ATTEMPT IS MADE TO COPY
`. -© HIS LLLUSTRIOUS EXAMPLE,

BY POINTING OUT THE CONNECTION THAT EXISTS

BETWEEN NATURAL SCIENCE, AND AGRICULTURE,

‘AND THE ARTS,
1s, WITH HIS PERMISSION,
MOST GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED
BY HIS MOST OBLIGED
“AND OBEDIENT SERVANTS,

THE: AUTHORS.

PREFACE.

See ieee

Osr: principal cause of the little ‘attention paid
to Entomology in this country, has doubtless been
the ridicule so often thrown upon the science.
The botanist, sheltered now by the sanction of
fashion, as formerly by the prescriptive union of
his study with medicine, may dedicate his hours
to mosses and lichens without reproach ; but in
the minds of most men, the learned as well as —
the vulgar, the idea of the trifling nature of his
pursuit is so strongly associated with that of the
diminutive size of its objects, that an entomo-
logist is synonymous with every thing futile and —
childish. Now, when so many other roads to
fame and distinction are open, when a man has
merely to avow himself a botanist, a mineralogist,
or a chemist—a student of classical literature or
of political economy—to ensure attention and re-
spect, there are evidently no great attractions to
lead him to a science which in nine companies-
out of ten with which he may associate promises

' PREFACE,

to signalize him only as an object of pity or
contempt. Even if he have no other aim than |
self-gratification, yet “ the sternest stoic of us.
all wishes at least for some one to enter into his
views and feelings, and confirm him in the opi-
nion which he entertains of himself:” but how
can he look for sympathy in a pursuit unknown
to the world, except as ae of littleness of
mind ?

Yetsuch are the genuine charms of this branch
of the study of nature, that here as well as on the
continent, where, from being equally slighted,
Eatomology now divides the empire with her
sister Botany, this obstacle would not have been
sufficient to deter numbers from the study, had - |
not another more powerful impediment existed—
the want of a pòpular and comprehensive Intro-
duction to the science. While elementary books
on Botany have been multiplied amongst us with-
out end and in every shape, Curtis’s aoe of
the Fundamenta Entomologie, published in 1772
Yeats’s Institutions of Entomolog gy, which ap-
peared the year after ; and Barbut’s Genera Insec-
torum, which came out in 1781—the two former
in too unattractive, and the latter in too expen-
sive a form for general readers—are the only
works professedly devoted to this object, which
the English language can boast. ;

PREFACE. WL

‘Convinced that this was the chief obstacle to
the spread of Entomology in Britain, the authors.

of the present work resolved to do what was in
their power to remove it, and to introduce their.
countrymen to a mine of pleasure, new, bound-
less, and inexhaustible, and which, to judge from
their own experience—formed in no contracted
field of comparison—they can recommend as pos-
-sessing advantages and attractions equal to those
held forth by most other branches of human
learning. / |
The next question was, in what way they should
attempt to accomplish this intention. If they had
contented themselves with the first suggestion that
presented itself, and merely given a tiipii
of one of the many Introductions to Entomology
extant in Latin, German, and French, adding —
only a few obvious improvements, their task would
have been very easy; but the slightest examina-
tion showed that, in thus proceeding, they would
have stopped far short of the goal which they
were desirous of reaching.—In the technical de-
partment of the science they found much confu-
sion, and numerous errors and imperfections—
the same name sometimes applied to parts anato-
mically ‘quite different, and different names to
parts essentially ' the same, while others of primary
importance were without any name at all. And

~

“Vill PREFACE.

with reference to the anatomy and physiology of
insects, they could no where meet with a full
and accurate generalization of the various facts
connected with these subjects, scattered here and
there in the pages of the authors who have studied
them. BS

They therefore resolved to begin, in some mea-

sure, de novo—to institute a rigorous revision of
the terms employed, making such additions and
improvements as might seem to be called for ;
and to attempt a more complete and connected
account of thé existing discoveries respecting the
anatomical and physiological departments of the
science than has yet been given to the world :—
and to these two points their plan at the outset
was limited.

It soon, however, occurred to them, that it
would be of little use to write a book which no
one would peruse; and that in the present age of
love for light reading, there could not be much
hope of leading students to the dry abstractions
of the science, unlessthey were conducted through
the attractive portal of the economy and natural
history of its objects. ‘To this department, there-
fore, they resolved to devote the first and most con-
siderable portion of their intended work, bringing
into one point of view, under distinct heads, the
most interesting discoveries of Reaumur, De Geer,

' PREFACE, ix

Bonnet, Lyonet, the Hahers, &c., as well as their
own individual observations, relative tothenoxious
and beneficial plone Bi of insects; their affection
for their young; their food, and modes of obtain-
Ang it; their SPPE societies ; &c. &c.: and
they were the more induced to adopt this plan,
from the consideration, that, though many of the
most striking of these facts have before been pre-
- sented to the English reader, a great proportion
are unknown to him; and that no similar gene-
ralization (if a slight attempt towards it in Smel-
lie’s Philosophy of Natural History, and a confes-
- sedly imperfect one in Latreille’s Histoire Natu-
relle des Crustacés et des Insectes be excepted), has.
ever been attempted in any language.—Thus the
entire work would be strictly on the plan of the
Philosophia Entomologica of Fabricius, only giv-
ing a'much greater extent to the Œconomia and
Usus, and adverting to these in the first place i in-
stead of in the last.
The epistolary form was adopted, not certainly

from any idea of their style being particularly
- suited to a mode of writing so difficult to keep

from running into incongruities ; but simply: be-
cause this form admitted of digressions. and allu-
sions called for in a popular work, but which
might have seemed. misplaced in a stricter’ kind
of composition ;—because it is better suited to

PREFACE,

convey those practical directions, which in some
pranches of the pursuit the student requires ;—
and lastly, because by this form, the objection
against speaking of the manners and economy of
insects before entering upon the definition of
- them, and explaining the terms of the science—a
retrograde course, which they have chosen from
their desire to present the most alluring side of the
science Meoig in great measure, if not wrhaliy;
obviated.

Such is the plan thie the authors chalked out
for themselves—a plan which in the execution
they have found so much more extensive than they
- calculated upon, that, could they have foreseen
the piles of volumes through which it has entailed
upon them the labour of wading, often to glean
scarcely more than a single fact—the numerous
anatomical and technological investigations which
it has called for-—atd the long correspondence,
almost as bulky as the entire work, unavoidably
rendered necessary by the distant residence of the
parties—they would have shrunk from an under- —
taking; of which the profit, if by great chance
there should be any, could not be expected to
repay even the cost of books required in it, and —
from which any fame must necessarily be confined
to a very limited circle. But having entered upon
it, they have persevered; and if they succeed in

PREFACE. ei xi

their grand aim, thatof making converts amongst
their countrymen to a study equally calculated for
promoting the glory of God and the delight and
profit of man, they will not deem the labour of
the leisure hours of six years ill bestowed.

And here it may be proper to observe, that one
of their first and favourite objects has been to di-
rect the attention of their readers “ from nature’
up to nature’s God.” For, when they reflected.
upon the fatal use which has too often been made
of Natural History, and that frora the very works
and wonders of God, some philosophists, by an
` unaccountable perversion of intellect, have at-
tempted to derive arguments either against his ,Ț
being and providence, or against the Religion
- yeyealed in the Holy Scriptures, they conceived —

they might render some service to the most im-

portant interests of mankind, by showing how
every department of the science they recommend.
illustrates the great truths of Religion, and proves
that the doctrines of the Word of God, instead of
being contradicted, are Hopian y confirmed
by his Works.

<< To see all things in God” has been accounted
` one of the peculiar privileges of a future state ;
and in this present life, “ to see God in all things,”
in the mirror of the creation to behold and adore

the reflected glory of the Creator, is no mean al-

xii = PREFACE

tainment ; and it possesses this advantage, that thus
we sanctify our pursuits, and, instead of loving ~
the creatures for themselves, are led by the survey
of them and their instincts to the love of Him
who made and endowed them.

Of their performance of the first part of- their
plan, in which there is the least room for origi-
nality, it is only necessary for the authors to. say
that they have done their best to make it as com-
prehensive, as interesting, and as useful as pos-
sible: but it is requisite to enter somewhat more
fully into what has been attempted in the anato-
mical, physiological, and technical parts of the
work. l

As far as respects the general physiology and
interior anatomy of insects, they have done little
more than bring together and combine the obser-
- vations of the naturalists who have attended to
these branches of the science: but the exterior
anatomy they have examined for themselves
through the whole class, and, they trust, not with-
out some new light being thrown upon the sub-
ject; particularly by pointing out and giving
names to many parts never before noticed.

Inthe Terminology, or what, to avoid the bar-
barism of a word compounded of Latin and Greek,
they would beg to call the Orismology of the sci-
ence, they have endeavoured to introduce through-

PREFACE. > ae

outa greater degree of precision and concinnity—
dividing it into general and partial Orismology ;
under the former head defining such terms as
relate to Substance, Resistance, Density, Propor-
tion, Figure, Form, Superficies, (under which are
introduced Sculpture, Clothing, Colour, &c.) Mar-
gin, Termination, Incision, Ramification, Division,
Direction, Situation, Connection, Arms, &c.; and
under the latter those that relate to the body and
its parts and members, considered in its great sub-
divisions of Head, Trunk and Abdomen. In short,
they may rest their claim of at least aiming at con-
siderable improvement in this department upon
the great number of new terms, and alterations |
of old ones, which they have introduced—in ex-
ternal Anatomy alone falling little short of 150.
If it should be thought by any one that they have |
made too many changes, they would remind him
3 of the advice of Bergman to “Morveau, when re-
forming thenomenclature of Chemistry, the sound-
‘ness of which Dugald Steward has recognised—_
“ Ne faites grace à aucune dénomination impropre.
Ceux qui savent déjà, entendront toujours ; ceux qui-
ne savent pas encore, entendront plutôt.”
_ Throughout the whole publication, wherever —
any fact of importance not depending on their
own authority is mentioned, a reference to the
source whence it has been derived is generally

XLV - PREFACE,

` given ; so that, if the work should have no other
value, it will possess that of saving much trouble
to future inquirers, by serving as an index to di-
rect them in their researches. Pe fe
The authors are perfectly sensible that, not-
withstanding all their care and pains, many im-
perfections will unavoidably remain in their work.
There is no science to which the adage, Dies diem
docet, is more strikingly applicable than to Natu-
ral History. New discoveries are daily made, and
will be made, it is probable, to the end of time:
so that whoever flatiers himself that he can pro-
duce a perfect work in this department will be
miserably disappointed. The utmost that can
reasonably be expected from naturalists is to keep
«pace with the progress of knowledge, and this the
authors have used their best diligence to accom-
_ plish. Every new year since they took the sub- `
ject in hand up to the very time when the first
_ Sheets were sent to the press, numerous correc-
tions and alterations have suggested themselves ;
and thus they are persuaded it would be were they
to double the period of delay prescribed by Ho-
race. But Poetry and Natural History are on a
different footing ; and though an author can plead
little excuse for giving his verses to the world
while he sees it possible to polish them to higher
excellence, the naturalist, if he wishés to promote

PREFACE, z vxo

the extension of his science, must be content to
submit his performances to the public disfigured
by numerous imperfections.

In the introductory letter several of the advan-
tages to be derived from the study of Entomology
are pointed out ; but there is one, which, though `
it could not well have been insisted upon in that
place, is too important to be passed over without
~” notice—its value in the education of youth.

All modern writers on this momentous subject |
_ unite in recommending in this view, Natural His-
tory; and if “the quality of accurate discrimi-
nation—the ready perception of resemblances
amongst diversities, and still more the quick and
accurate perception of diversity in the midst of
resemblances—constitutes one of the most im-
portant operations of the understanding ; if it be
indeed the foundation of clear, ideas, and the
acquisition of whatever can be truly called know-
ledge depends most materially on the possession
of it:—if “the best logic be that which teaches
us to suspend our judgements;” and “ the art of
seeing, so useful, so universal, and yet so uncom-
mon, be one of the most yaluable a man canpos-
sess,” —there can be no doubt of the judiciousness —
of their advice. Now of all the branches of Na-
tural History, Entomology is unquestionably the
best fitted for thus disciplining the mind of youth;

PREFACE,

and simply from this circumstance, that its objects
have life, are gifted with surprising instincts ad-
mirably calculated to attract youthful attention,
and are to be met with every where. Itis not
meant to undervalue the good effects of the study
of Botany or Mineralogy : but it is self-evident
that nothing inanimate can excite such interest in
the mind of a young person as beings endowed
with vitality, exercising their powers and facul-
ties in so singular a way; which, as- Reaumur
observes, are not only alive themselves, but confer
animation upon the leaves, fruits, and flowers
that they inhabit; which every walk offers to
view; and on which new observations may be
‘made without end.

- Besides these advantages, no study affords a
fairer opportunity of leading the young mind by
a natural and pleasing path to the great truths of
Religion, and of impressing it with the most
lively ideas of the power, wisdom, and goodness
of the Creator.

Not that it is recommended to make children
collectors of insects, nor that young people, to -
the neglect of more important duties and pursuits,
should generally become professed. Entomolo-
gists; but, if the former be familiarized with
helt names, manners, and economy, and the lat-
ter initiated into their classification, it will be an

-

PREFACE. xvii

excellent method of strengthening their habits of
observation, attention, and memory, equal per-
haps, in this respect, to any other mental exercise:
and then, like Major Gyllenhal, who studied En-
tomology under Thunberg about 1770, and after
an interval of twenty years devoted to the service
of his country, resumed his favourite pursuit with
all the ardour of youth, and is at this time giving ~
to the world a description of the insects of Sweden —
‘invaluable for its accuracy’ and completeness—
they would be provided in their old age with an
object capable not merely of keeping off that
tedium vite so often inseparable from the relin-
quishment of active life, but of supplying an un-
failing fund of innocent amusement, an incentive
to exercise, and consequently no mean degree of
health and enjoyment. aB
Some, who, with an ingenious author*, regard
as superfluous all pains to show the utility of Na- |
tural History in reference to the common pur-
poses of life, asking “if it be not enough to open
. -a source of copious and cheap amusement, which
tends to harmonize the mind, and elevate it to
worthy conceptions of nature and its Author?
if a greater blessing to a man can be offered than
happiness at an ~~ rate sacs gs by any de-

= a i . po Dr. Aikin. se
Vel, & S b

XVI PREFACE,

basing mixture? ”’—may think the earnestness dis-
played on this head, and the length which has
been gone in refuting objections, needless. But
Entomology is so peculiarly circumstanced; that
without removing these obstacles, there could be
no hope of winning votaries to the pursuit. Pliny
felt the necessity of following this course in the
outset of his book which treats on insects, and a
similar one has been originally called for in intro-
ducing the study even to those countries where
the’ science is now most honoured. In France,
Reaumur, in each of the successive volumes of his
immortal work, found it essential to seize every
opportunity of showing that the study of insects
is not a frivolous amusement, nor devoid of uti.
lity, as his countrymen conceived it; and in Ger:
many Sulzer had to traverse the same road, telling
us, in proof of the necessity of this procedure,
that on showing his works on insects with their
plates to two very sensible men, one ‘commended
him for employing his leisure hours in preparing
prints that would amuse children and keep them
out of mischief, and the other admitted that they
might furnish very pretty patterns for ladies’
aprons! And though inthis country things are
not now quite so bad as they were when Lady
Glanville’s will was attempted. to be set aside on
the ground of lunacy, evinced by no other act

PREFACE. . XiX

than her fondness for collecting insects, and Ray
had to appear at Exeter on the trial as a witness
‘of her sanity *, yet nothing less than line upon |
line can be expected to eradicate the deep-rooted
prejudices which prevail on this subject. “ Old
impressions,” as Reaumur has well observed, “are
‘with difficulty effaced. They are weakened, they
appear unjust even to those who feel them, at the
moment they are attacked by arguments which
are unanswerable; but the next instant the proofs —
are forgotten; and the perverse association resumes
its empire.’

The authors do not know that any curiosity
will be excited to ascertain what share has been
contributed to the work by each of them; but if
there should, it is a curiosity they must be ex-
cused from gratifying. United in the bonds of a
friendship, which, though they have to thank
Entomology for giving birth to it, is founded
upon a more solid basis than mere community of
scientific pursuits, they wish that, whether blame
or praise is the fate of their labours, it may be
jointly awarded. All that they think necessary to
state is, that the composition of each of the dif-
ferent departments of the work has been, as

* See Harris’s Aurelian under Papilio Cinwia.

PREFACE.

nearly as possible, divided between them ;—that
though the letter, or series of letters, on any par-
ticular subject, has been usually undertaken by
one, some of the facts and illustrations have ge-
nerally been supplied by the other, and there arë
a few to which they have jointly contributed ;—
and that, throughout, the facts for which no
other authority is quoted, are to be considered as
resting upon that of one or other of the authors,
but not always of him who, from local allusions,
may be conceived the writer of the letter in which
they are introduced, as the matter furnished by
_ each to the letters of the other must necessarily
be given in the person of the supposed writer,

In acknowledging their obligations to their

friends, the first place is due to Simon WILKIN; —
Esq. of Costessey near Norwich, to whose libe-
tality they are indebted for the numerous plates
which illustrate and adorn the work ; the whole
of which have been drawn and engraved by
his artist Mr. Jonn Curtis, whose intimate ac-
quaintance with the subject has enabled him ta
give to the figures an accuracy which they could
not have received from one less conversant with
the science. Nor is the reader less under obliga-
tion to Mr. Wilkin’s liberality than the authors,

PREFACE. KXi

who, if the drawings: &c. had been to be paid-
for, must necessarily have contented themselves
with giving a much smaller number.

To Atexanper MacLeay, Esq. they are un-
der particular obligations, both for the warm in-
terest he has all along taken in the work, the ju:
‘dicious advice he has on many oecasions given,
the free access in which he has indulged the
authors to his unrivalled cabinet and well- stored
library, and the numerous other attentions and
accommodations by which he has nP ase
sisted them in its progress,

To the other friends who hike kindly aided
them in this undertaking in any way, they beg
here to offer their best thanks.

_ It now only remains that they should assign
their reasons for sending the work into the world,
Contrary to their original intentions, in an imper-
fect state, by the publication of the first volume
only, One inducement to this course has been the
Occurrence of unexpected interruptions, which,
though the bulk of the work has been long writ-
ten, have hitherto preeluded the completion of the —
entire plan ; but their principal reason has been
the wish to render the physiological and anatomi»
cal departments more perfect by the consultation
of various continental works published within the.
last six or eight years, now for the first time ac-

xxib PREFACE,

cessible ; ; and to ascertain, 7 the public recep-
tion of this first part, whether it will be expedient
to give the remainder that extension which was at |
one time contemplated, or to contract it within
narrower limits. A history of Entomology,.and a
complete list of entomological works, (for which —
last Mr. Dryander’s admirable catalogue of Sir
Joseph Banks’s library affords the fullest mate-
rials,) entered into the original plan, and the
rough draught of both is completed ; but whether
these (which are not essential to a work of this
nature) will be published, must depend upon the

judgement of the public as to the value of that
portion now submitted to them.

The contents of the remaining volumes will be
nearly as follows. Societies of Insects, including
the History of Ants, Wasps, Bees, &c. Motions
of insects. Noises of insects. Means of defence
from their enemies. Luminous insects. - Hyber-
nation of insects, Instinct of insects, Definition
of the term Insect. States of insects—Egg; Larva;
Pupa ; Imago. Their general exterior Anatomy
-Head ; Trunk; Abdomen. Their interior Ana-
tomy and Physiology—Sensation ; Respiration ;
Circulation ; Digestion ; Secretion ; Generation, ©
Diseases, &c. Senses of insects. Orismology and

Definitions of terms, Characters of insects—

Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species, Variety.

PREFACE, XXlil

Investigation of insects. Seasons in which they
appear. Instruments and mode of taking, and
preserving them,—with other particulars which it
is not necessary here to enumerate.

Tue List of Authors quoted i in this work will
be found in the last vofume. ` It was intended to
have given with this all the plates illustrative of |
the orders, but only three could be finished in
time: the remainder will appear in the second
volume, and those which relate to the “anatomy
and definitions in the third and fourth.

CONTENTS OF VOL, f.
3 : Page
PMPORUCIORYs « fecerim irea y 1—20
Objections answered,. ....esessoeseess 21-459
Metamorphoses of Insects,............ 60—80
Direct Injuries caused by Insects,....., 81—144
Indirect Injuries caused by Insects.
1, Injuries to our living animal Property, 145-167
Indirect Injuries continued.
2. Injuries to our living vegetable Pro-
DO iach net eee Kaie 26GR14-
The éamé subject continued.—The Ras |
vages of Locusts, sec ec esoneeseccce 215—226
- Indirect Injuries concluded.
_ 8. Injuries to our dead Property, whe-
| ther animal or vegetable, ........ 227—249
Indirect Benefits derived from Insects, .. 250—300
Direct Benefits derived from Insects, .... 301—339
Affection of Insects for their Young,.... 340—383
Food of Insects, ....00s:sseseetsss+, 984-404
The same subject continued, ........6. 405—435
Habitations of Insects. | i
= 1. Of Solitary Insectsyse s>s. bes... ss 486—477
Habitations of Insects continued. ‘
2. Of Insects in Society,....+. 0.0604 478—519

ERRATA.

Page 104, note* line ult. after “ had” insert “ them.”

Page 241, line 27, insert as a note to “ Comegen.” “ We learn from Hum-
boldt (Travels, iii. p. 253, note *, Miss Williams’s translation), that
the insects called-by this name in S. America are White Ants.”

Page 421, note a line 1; for 405 read 407.

AN

INTRODUCTION

TO

ENTOMOLOGY.

ve GS Se
pe SLEEP

LETTER I.
‘Dear Sin; |

[cannot wonder that an active mind like yours should
experience no small degree of tedium ina situation 80
far removed, as you represent your new residence to
be, from “the busy hum of men.” Nothing certainly
can compensate for the want of agreeable society ; but
since your case in this respect admits of no remedy but
patience, I am glad you are desirous of turning your
-attention to some pursuit which may amuse you in the
. intervals of severer study, and in part supply the void
of which you complain. Iam nota little flattered that
you wish to be informed which class in the three king-
doms of nature is, in my opinion, most likely to answer
your purpose; at the same time intimating that you
feel inclined to give the preference to Entomology, —
provided some objections can be satisfactorily obvi+
ated, which you have been accustomed to regard as
_ urged with a considerable semblance of reason against
the cultivation of that science, tn potatos esd
FOL. I, B

INTRODUCTORY LETTER.

Mankind in general, not excepting even philoso-
phers, are prone to magnify, often beyond its just me-
rit, the science or pursuit to which they have addicted
themselves, and to depreciate any that seems to stand
in competition with their favourite : like the redoubted
champions of romance, each thinks himself bound to
take the field against every one tliat will not subscribe
to the peerless beauty and accomplishments of his own
Dulcinea. In such conflict for pre-eminence I know
no science that, in this country, has come off worse than
Entomology: her champions hitherto have been so
few, and their efforts so unavailing, that all her rival
sisters have been exalted above her; and I believe
‘there is Searcely any branch of Natural History that has
had fewer British admirers. While Botany boasts of
myriads, she, though not her inferior either in beauty,
symmetry, or grace, has received the homage of a very
slender train indeed. Since therefore the merits of
Entomology have been so little acknowledged, you will
not deem it invidious if I advocate the cause of this di-
stressed damsel, and endeavour to effect her sab igeianls
to her jüst rights, privileges, and rank. ``-

Things that are universally obvious and easy of exa-
mination, as they are thé first that fall under our no-
tice, so are they also most commonly those which we
first feel an inclination to study; while, on the con-
trary, things that must be sought for in order to be
‘seen, and which when sought for avoid the approach

andi Inquiring eye of man, are often the last to which he
directs his attention. The vegétable kingdom stands
in the’ former: predicament. ‘Flora with a liberal hand
has scattered around. a her charming productions ;

INTRODUCTORY LETTER: 3

they every where meet and allure us, enchanting us by
their beauty, regaling us by their fragrance; and in-
teresting us as much by their subservience to our luxu-
ries and comfort, as to the necessary support and well-
being of our life. Beasts, birds, and fishes also, in
some one or other of these respects, attract our notice ;
but insects, unfortunate insects, are so far from attract-
ing us, that we are accustomed to abhor them from our
childhood. The first knowledge that we get of themis
as tormentors; they are usually pointed out to us by
those about us as ugly, filthy, and noxicus creatures ;
and the whole insect world, butterflies perhaps and
some few others excepted, are devoted by one universal
ban to proscription and execration, as fit only to be
trodden under our feet and crushed: so that often, be-
fore we can persuade ourselves to study them, we have
to remove from our minds prejudices deeply posted ind
of long standing.

Another principal reason which has contributed’ to
keep Entomology in the back ground arises from the’
diminutive size of the objects of which it treats. Being
amongst the most minute of nature’s productions; they :
do not so readily catch the eye of the observer; and
when they do, mankind in general are so apt to estimate
the worth and importance of things by their bulk, that
because we usually measure them by the duodecimals
of an inch instead of by the foot or by the yard, insects
are deemed too insignificant parts of the creation, and
of too little consequence to its general welfare, to ren-
der.them worthy of any serious attention or study.
What small foundation there is for such prejudices and
misconception, I shall endeavour to show in the course

B2

k i INTRODUCTORY LETTER;

of our future correspondence ; my object now, ds the
champion and advocate of Entomology, is to point out
to you her comparative advantages, and to remove the
veil which has hitherto concealed those attractions, and
_ that grace and beauty, which entitle her to equal ad-

Mmiration at least with her sister branches of Natura].
History. à

Tn estimating the comparative value of the study of
any department in this branch of science, we ought to
_ contrast it with others, as to the rank its objects hold in
the scale of being ; the amusement and instruction which
the student may derive from it; and its utility to soci-
ety at large. With respect to public utility, the study
of each of the three kingdoms may perhaps be allowed
to stand upon nearly an equal footing; I shall not,
therefore, enter upon that subject till I come to con-
sider the question Cui bono 2 and to point out the uses
of Entomology, but confine myself now to the two first
of thèse circumstances.

As to rank, I must claim for the entomologist some
degree of precedence before the mineralogist and the
botanist. The mineral kingdom, whose objects are nei-
ther organized nor sentient, stands certainly at the foot
of the scale. Next above this is the vegetable, whose
fovely tribes, though not endued with sensation, are or-
ganized. In the last and highest place ranks the animal
world, consisting of beings that are both organized and
sentient. To this scale of precedence the gréat modern
lominary of Natural History, notwithstanding that Bo-
tany was always his favourite pursuit, has given his
‘sanction, acknowledging i in the preface to his Fauna
Suecica, that aithough the vegetable kingdom is nobler

INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 5

_ than the mineral, yet the animal is more excellent than
the vegetable. Now it is an indisputable axiom, I
should think, that the more exalted the object the more
excellent the study. By this observation, however, I
would by:no means be thought to depreciate or dis-
countenance the study either of plants or minerals. All
the works of our Creator are great, and worthy of our
attention and investigation, the lowest in the scale as
well as the highest, the most minute and feeble, as
wellas those that exceed in magnitude and might. Nor
ought these whose inclination or genius leads them to
one department, to say to those who prefer another—
‘< we have no need of you”’—for each in his place, by
diffusing the knowledge of his works and adding to the
stock of previous discoveries, contributes to promote
the glory of the Great Architect of the universe and
the good of his creatures.

It is not my wish to claim for my favourite science
more than of right belongs to her; therefore, when the
question is concerning rank, I must concede to the
higher orders of animals, I mean Fishes, Amphibia,
Birds, and Quadrupeds, their due priority and prece-
dence. I shall only observe here, that there may exist
circumstances which countervail rank, and tend to ren-
der the study of a lower order of beings more desirable
than that of a higher: when, for instance, the objects
of the higher study are not to be come at or preserved
Without great difficulty and expense; when they are
few in number; or, when they are already well ascer-
tained and known: circumstances which attach to the
study of those animals that precede insects, while they
slo not attach to the study of insects themselves,

INTRODUCTORY LETTER.

With regard to the amusement and instruction of the
student, much doubtless may be derived from any one
of the.sciences alluded to: but Entomology certainly is
not behindany ofher sisters in theserespects; andif you
are fond of novelty, and anxiouso make new discove-
ries, she will open to you a more ample field for these
than either Botany or the higher branches of Zoology.:

A new animal or plant is seldom to be met with even
by those who have leisure and opportunity for exten-
sive researches; but if you collect insects you will find,
however limited the manor upon which you can pursue
your game, that your efforts are often rewarded by the
capture of some non-descript or rarity at present not
possessed by other entomologists, for Lhave seldom seen
a cabinet so meager as not to possess some unique spe-
cimen.: Nay; though you may have searched every spot
in your neighbourhood this year, turned over every
stone, shaken every bush or tree, and fished every pool,
you will not have exhausted its insect productions. De
the same another and another, and new treasures will
still continue to enrich your cabinet. If you leave your
own vicinity for an entomological excursion, your pro-
spects of success are still further increased; and even
if confined in bad weather to your inn, the windows of
your apartment, as I have often experienced, will add
to your stock. Ifa sudden shower obliges you at any
time to seek shelter under a tree, your attention will
be attracted, and the tedium of your station relieved,
where the botanist could not hope to find even a new
lichen or moss, by the appearance of several insects,
driven there perhaps by the same cause as yourself,
- that you have not observed before. Should you, as L

INTRODUCTORY LETTER; T.

trust you will, feel a desire to attend to the manners
and economy ofinsects,and become ambitious of making
discoveries in this part of entomological science, I can,
assure you, from long experience, that you will here
find an inexhaustible fund of novelty. For more than
twenty years my attention has been directed to them,
and: during most of my summer walks my eyes have
been employed in observing their ways; yet I can say
with truth, that so far from having exhausted the sub-
ject, within the last six months I have witnessed more
interesting facts respecting their history than in many,
preceding years. To follow only the insects that fre-
quent your own garden, from their first to their last
state, and to trace all their proceedings, would supply
an interesting amusement for the remainder of your
life, and at its close you would leave much to be done
by your successor; for where we know thoroughly the
history of one insect, there are hundreds concerning.
' which we have ascertained little besides the bare fact -
of their existence. i :
‘But numerous other sources of pleasure and informa-
tion will open themselves to you, not inferior to what
any other science can furnish, when you enter more
deeply into the study. Insects, indeed, appear to have.
been nature’s favourite productions, in which, to mani-.
fest her power and skill, she has combined and concen-,
trated almost all that is either beautiful and graceful,
interesting and alluring, or curious and singular, in
every other class and order of her children. To these,
her valued miniatures, she has given the most delicate
touch and highest finish of her pencil. Numbers she has’
armed with glittering mail, which reflects a lustre like,

\

8 "INTRODUCTORY LETTER;

that of burnished metals*; in others she lights up the
3 ‘dazzling radiance of polished gems’. Some she has
decked with what looks like liquid drops, or plates of
_ gold and silver*; or with scales or pile, which mimic
_ the colour and emit the ray of the same precious me-
F tals*. Some exhibit a rude exterior, like stones in their
native state°, while others represent their smooth and
shining face after they have been submitted to the tool
‘ofthe polisher: others, again, like so many pygmy At-
Jases bearing on their backs a microcosm, by the rug-
ged and various elevations and depressions of their tu-
berculated crust, present to the eye of the beholder no
unapt imitation of the unequal surface of the earth, now
horrid with mis-shapen rocks, ridges, and precipices—
now swelling i into hillsand ee and now sinking
into valleys, glens, and caves*; while not a few are co-
vered with branching spines, which yanri = form
into a forest of trees®, —— ` 2
What numbers vie with the charming offipring of
Flora in various beauties! some in the delicacy and
variety of their colours, colours not like those of flowers
evanescent and fugitive, but fixed and durable, survi-
ving their subject, and adorning it as much after death
as they did when it was alive; others, again, in the
veining and texture of their wings; and others in the
rich cottony down that clothes them. To such perfec-
pia has naturein them carried her mimetic art,

a The Genera TARAR F. Pieni Latr. piuaki Herbst.
bA non-deser ipt, Rynchenus, F, from: Brazil. y Tens

© Hesperia Cupido, Eo Papilio Passiflore, Lathonia, L. &e,

a Pepsis fuscipennis, argentata, F, &c. e The species of the genus Frox, F,
$ Many of the Scarabatde, g Reaum, v: ts 12, fr T, Geml4,

INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 5

- that you would declare, upon beholding some insects,
that they had robbed the trees of their leaves to form
for themselves artificial wings, so exactly do they re-
semble them in their form, substance, and vascular
structure; some representing green leaves, and others
those that are dry and withered*. Nay, sometimes
this mimicry is so exquisite, that you would mistake the
whole insect for a portion of the branching spray of a
tree®, No mean beauty in some plants arises from the
fluting and punctation of their stems and leaves, and
a similar ornament conspicuously disting uishes nume-
rousinsects, which also imitate with multiform variety,
as may particularly be seen in the caterpillars of many,
species of the butterfly tribe (Papilionida), the spines
and prickles which are given as a Noli me tangere ar-
mour to several vegetable productions.

In fishes the lucid scales of varied hue that cover
and defend them are universally admired, and esteemed
their peculiar ornament; but place a butterfly’s wing
under a microscope, that avenue to unseen glories in
new worlds, and you will discover that nature has en-
dowed the most numerous of the insect tribes with the
same privilege, multiplying i in them the forms*, and
diversifying the colouring of this kind of clothing be-
yond all parallel. The rich and velvet tints of the
plumage of birds are not superior to what the curious
observer may discover in a variety of Lepidoptera ; and
those many-coloured eyes which deck so gloriously the
peacock’s tail are imitated with success by one of our

a E species sof the genera Locusta and Mantis, F.
. ' Many species of Phasma, ¢ De Geer, I, t. 3, fi 1-34, &e.

10 -~ INTRODUCTORY LETTER,

most common butterflies*. Feathers are thought to
be peculiar to birds; but insects often imitate them
jn their antenne>, wings’, and even sometimes in the
covering of their bodes “—We admire with reason the
coats of quadrupeds, whether their skins be covered
with pile, or wool, or fur, yet are not perhaps aware
that a vast variety of insects are clothed with all these
kinds of hair, but infinitely finer and more silky in tex-
ture, more brilliant and delicate in colour, and more
variously shaded than what any other animals can pre-
tend to.

In variegation insects certainly exceed every other
class of animated beings. Nature, in her sportive mood,
-when painting them, sometimes imitates the clouds of

heaven; at others, the meandring course of the rivers
of the earth, or the undulations of their waters : many
are veined like beautiful marbles; others have the
semblance of a robe of the finest net-work thrown over
them; some she blazons with heraldic i insignia, giving
them to bear in fields sable—azure—vert—g rules—ar-
gent and or, PE ORR Wen FS tetera amen
—stars, and eyen animals*, On many, taking her rule
and compasses, she draws with precision mathematica]
figures; points, lines, angles, triangles‘, squares, and
circles. On others she pourtrays, with mystic hand,
what'seem like hieroglyphic symbols, or inscribes theni
with the characters and letters of various languages,
often very correctly formed®; and what is more extra-
a Papilio Fo, L. b Culex, L. Chironomus, Meig. and
other Tipulidæ. -~ c Pterophorus, F.

. 4 Hairs of many of the Apide. Mon. Ap. Ang. I. t. 10, **d. 1, fl. b.
e Ptinus imperialis, L. f Trichius delta, F. i

& Prionus longimanus, F'. Papilio C, album, L. Bombyx}, Noctua y; F,

INTRODUCTORY LETTER. | 1}

ordinary, she has registered in others figures which
correspond with several dates of the Christian era%
Nor has nature been lavish only in the apparel and.
ornament of these privileged tribes; in other respects
she has been equally unsparing of her favours. To
some she has given fins like those of fish, or a beak
resembling that of birds”; to others horns, nearly the
counterparts of those of various quadrupeds. ‘The
bull®, the stag, the rhinoceros‘, and even the hitherto
vainly sought for unicorn f, have in this respect many re-
presentatives amongstinsects. One is armed with tusks
not unlike those of the elephant’; another is bristled
with spines, as the porcupine and hedge-hog with
quills"; a third is an armadillo in miniature ;. the dis-
proportioned hind legs of. the kangaroo give a most
grotesque appearance toa fourth’; and the threaten-
ing head of the snake is found in a fifths. It would,
ai; be endless to produce all the instances which
occur of such imitations; and I shall only remark that,
generally speaking, these arms. and instruments In
structure and finishing fay IPR hoge which they.
resemble,

But further, insects not only mimic, in a manner in-
finitely various, every thing in nature, they may alse
with very little violence be regarded as symbolical of
beings out of and above nature, The butter fly, adorned

a On the underside of the primary wings near the margin in Papilio
A glaia, Lathonia, Silene, &c, ` b Empis, Le Asilus, L.

© Copris Taurus, F. d Lucanus Cervus, L.

© Oryctes, Latr, f Geotrupes Hercules, F.

& Melitta spinigera, Kirby. h Hispa, L

i Cetonia macropus, Mus. Francill, k Raphidia ophiopsis, L.

i9 INTRODUCTORY LETTER.

with every beauty and every grace, borne by radiant
wings through the fields of ether, and extracting nec-
tar from every flower, gives us some idea of the bless-
ed jibiti of happier'worlds, of angels, and of the
spirits of the just arrived at their state of perfection.
Again, other insects seem emblematical of a different
class of unearthly beings: when we behold some tre-
mendous for the numerous horns and spines projecting
in horrid array from their head or shoulders ;—others
for their threatening jaws of fearful length, and armed
with cruel fangs: when we survey the dismal hue and
_ demoniac air that distinguish others, the dens of dark-
ness in which they live, the impurity of their food,
their predatory habits and cruelty, the nets which
they spread, and the pits which they sink to entrap the
‘unwary, we can scarcely help regarding them as aptly
symbolizing evil demons, the enemies of man, or of im~
pure spirits for their vices and crimes driven from the
regions of light into darkness and punishment.

The sight indeed of a well-stored cabinet of insects
will bring before every beholder not conversant with
them, forms in endless variety, which before he would
not have thought it possible could exist in nature, re~-
senibling nothing that the other departments of the
‘animal ‘i gdom exhibit, and exceeding even the wild-
est mii of the most fertile imaginations. Besides
prototypes of beauty and sy mmetry, there in miniature
he will bè amused to survey (for the most horrible-
creatures when deprived of the power of i injury become

a This idea’ seems to have been present to the mind of Linné and Fa-

bricius, when they gave to insects such names as Belzebub, Belial, Titan,
Fyphon, Nimrod, Geryon, and the like. ;

INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 13

Sources of interest and objects of imeioslty®, to use the
words of our great poet,

oe sseeecesse all prodigious things
Abominable, unutterable, and worse -
Than fables yet have feign’d, or fear coneciv’d,
- Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras ama

But the pleasures of a student of the science to which
Lam desirous of introducing you, are far from being
confined to such as result from an examination of the
exterior form and decorations of inseets; for could
these, endless as they seem, be exhausted, or, wonder-
ful as they are, lose their interest, yet new sources,
exuberant in amusement and instruction, may be opens
ed, which will furnish an almost infinite fund for his
‘curiosity to draw upon. The striking peculiarity and
"Variety of structure which they exhibit in their instru-
ments of nutrition, motion, and oviposition, in their
-Organs of sensation, generation, and the great fountains
‘of vitality, indeed their whole system, anatomically
‘Considered, will open a world of wonders’ to you with
which you will not soon be satiated, and during your
survey of which you will at every step feel disposed to
exclaim with the Roman naturalist—“ In these beings
$o minute, and as it were such non-entities, what wis.
‘dom is displayed, what power, what unfathomable per- -
fection?!” But even this will not- bring you to the
end of your pleasures: you must leave the dead to visit _
the living ; you must behold insects when full of life
and activity, engaged in their several employments,

a Plin; Hist. Nat. L 11, ¢-2,

TE INTRODUCTORY LETTER.

practising their various arts, pursuing their amott,
and preparing habitations for.their progeny: you must
notice the laying and kind of their eggs, their wonder-
ful metamorphoses ; their instincts, whether they be
solitary or gregarious, and the other miracles of their
history—all of which will open to you a richer mine of
amusement and instruction, I speak it without hesita-
tion, than any other department of Natural History can
furnish. A minute enumeration of these particulars
would be here misplaced, and only forestall what will
be detailed more at large hereafter; but a rapid glance
ata very few ofthe most remarkable of them, may serve
as a stimulus to excite your curiosity, and induce you
to enter with greater eagerness into the wide field te
which I shall conduct you.

The lord of the creation plumes himself upon his
powers of invention, and is proud to enumerate the vari-
ous useful arts and machines to which they have given
birth, not aware that “ He who teacheth man know-
ledge” has instructed these despised insects to anticipate
him in many of them. The builders of Babel doubtless
thought their invention of turning earth into artificial
stone, a very happy discovery*; yet a little bee? had
practised this art, using indeed a different process, on
a small scale, and the white ants on a large one, ever
since the world began. Man thinks that he stands un-
rivailed as an architect, and that his buildings are with-
‘out a parallel among the works of the inferior orders
of animals. He would be of a-different opinion did
he attend to the history of insects: he would. find that.

a Gen. xi. 3, b. Megachile muraria, Latr.

INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 15

thay of them have been architects from time imme-
thorial ; that they have had their houses divided into
Various apartments, and containing staircases, gigan-
tic arches, domes, colonnades, and the like; nay, that
even tunnels are excavated by them so immense, com-
pared with their own size, as to be twelve times bigger
than that projected by Mr. Dodd to be carried under
the Thames at Gravesend*. The modern fine lady,
Who prides herself on the lustre and beauty of the scar-
let hangings which adorn the stately walls of her draw-
ing-room, or the carpets that cover its floor, fancying
that nothing so rich and splendid was ever seen before,
and pitying her vulgar ancestors, who were doomed to
unsightly white-wash and rushes, is ignorant all the
While, that before she or her ancestors were in exist-
ence, and even before the boasted Tyrian dye was dis-
covered, a little insect had known how to hang the walls
ofits cell with tapestry ofa scarlet more brilliant than
any her rooms can exhibit’, and that others daily
Weave silken tarpets, both in tissue and texture infi-
nitely superior to those she so much admires. Other
arts have been equally forestalled by these creatures.
What vast importance is attached to the invention of
Paper! For near six thousand years one of our com-
Monest insects has known how to make and apply it te
its Purposes*; and even pasteboard, superior in sub-
Stance and polish to any we can. produce, is manufac-
tured by another, We imagine that nothing short of
human intellect can be equal to the construction of a

_

a The white ants.

- > Megachile Papaveris, Latr.
€ The common wasp. “2%: “d Polistes nidulans, Latr, `

16 INTRODUCTORY LETTER.

diving-bell or an air-pump—yet a spider is in the daily,
‘habit of using the one, and, what is more, one exactly.
similar in principle to ours, but more ingeniously cons
trived; by means of which she resides unwetted in the
bosom of the water, and procures the necessary sup-
plies of air by a much more simple process than our
alternating buckets*—and the caterpillar of a little
moth knows how to imitate the other, producing a va
cuum, when necessary for its purposes, without any
piston besides its own body. If we think with won-
der of the populous cities which have employed the
united labours of man for many ages to bring them to
their full extent, what shall we say to the white ants,
which require only a few months to build a metropolis
capable of containing an infinitely greater number of
inhabitants than even imperial Nineveh, Babylon,
Rome, or Pekin, in all their glory? io
That insects should thus have forestalled us in our
inventions, ought to urge us to pay a closer attention
to them and their ways than we have hitherto done,
since it is not at all improbable that the result would |
‘be many useful hints for the improvement of our arts
and manufactures, and perhaps for some beneficial dis-
coveries. The painter might thus probably be fur-
nished with more brilliant pigments, the dyer with ~
more delicate tints, and the artisan with a new and
improved set oftools. In this last respect insects de-
serve particular notice. Al their operations are per-
formed with admirable precision and dexterity; and
though they do not usually vary the mode, yet that

a Aranea aquatica, b Phalena Tinea serratellay b-

INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 17

mode: is oe the best that can be conceived for at-
taining the end in view. The instruments also with,
which they are provided are no less wonderful and ya-
rious than.the operations themselves. They have their
saws, and files, and augers, and gimlets, and knives,
and lancets, and scissors, and forceps, with many other: `
Similar implements; several of which-act in more than
one capacity, and with a.complex and alternate mo-
tion to which we have not yet attained in the use of our
tools. Nor is the fact so extraordinary as it may seem
at first, since “ He who is wise in heart and wonderful
in working” is the inventor and fabricator of the ap- `
paratus of insects; which may be considered as a set
of miniature patterns drawn for our use by a Divine
hand.. I shall hereafter give you a more detaileduaec-
count ofsome of the most striking of these instruments; `
_ and if you study insects in this view, you will be well
-Yepaid for all the labour and attention you bestow upon
them. i
Buta more important species of instruction than any
hitherto enumerated may be derived from entomologi- “
cal pursuits: If we attend to the history and manners
of insects, they will furnish us with many useful les-
Sons in Ethics, and from them we may learn to improve
ourselves in various virtues.. We have indeed the in-
Spired authority of the wisest of mankind for studying
them in this view, since he himself wrete a treatise upon
them, and sends his sluggard to one for a lesson of wis-
dom*, Andif we value diligence and indefatigable i in-
dustry; judgement, prudence, and foresight; economy
and frugality; if we look upon modesty and diffidence

a l Kings iv. 33. Prov. vi, 68.
ORP E

18 | INTRODUCTORY LETTER,

as female ornaments; if we revere parental affection-—~
of all these, and many more virtues, insects in their va-
rious instincts exhibit several striking examples, as you
will see in the course of our correspondence. |
With respect to religious instruction insects are far
from ‘unprofitable; indeed in this view Entomology |
seems to possess peculiar advantages above every other -
branch of Natural History. In the larger animals, ©
though we admire the consummate art and wisdom
manifested in their structure, and adore that Almighty
power and goodness which by a wonderful machinery,
kept in motion by the constant action and re-action of
the great positive and negative powers of Nature, main-
tains in full force the circulations necessary to life, per-
ception, and enjoyment; yet as there seems no dispro-
portion between the objects and the different operations
that are going on in them, and we see that they afford
sufficient space for the play of their systems, we do not
experience the same sensations of wonder and astonish~
ment that strike us when we behold similar operations
‘carried on without interruption in animals searcely yi-
sible to the naked eye. That creatures, which in the
scale of being are next to non-entities, should be ela-
borated with so much art and contrivance, have such a
number of parts both internal and external, allso highly
finished and each so nicely calculated to answer its end;
that they should include in this evanescent form such a
_ variety of organs of perception and instruments of mo-
tion, exceeding in number and peculiarity of structure
those of other animals; that their nervous and respi-
ratory systems should be so complex, their secretory
and digestive vessels so various and singular, their parts

INTRODUCTORY LETTER, 19

of generation so clearly developed, and that these
minims of nature should be endowed with instincts in
many cases superior to all our boasted powers of in-
tellect—truly these wonders and miracles declare to
every one who attends to the subject, “The hand that
made us is divine.” Weare the work of a Being infi»
nite in power, in wisdom, and in goodness.

Butnoreligious doctrine is more strongly establshedi
by the history of insects than that of a superintending
Providence. That of the innumerable species of these
beings, many of them beyond conception fragile and
exposed to dangers and enemies without end, no link
should be lost from the chain, but all be maintained
in those relative proportions necessary for the general
good of the system ; that if one species for a while pre-
ponderate, and instead of preserving seem to destroy,
yet counterchecks should at the same time be provided
to reduce it within its due limits; and further, that the
Operations of insects should be so’ directed and over-
ruled as to effect the purposes for. which they were —
created and never exceed their commission : nothing
can furnish a stronger proof than this, that an unseen
hand holds the reins, now permitting one to prevail and.
how another, as shall best promote certain wise ends =
and saying to each, “ Hitherto shalt thou come and no
further.”

So complex is this mundane system, and so incessant
`- the conflict between its component parts, an observa-
tion which holds good particularly with regard to in-
sects, that if instead of being under such control it were
left to the agency of blind chance, the whole must in-

: — soon be deranged and go to ruin, Insects, in
<9

20 INTRODUCTORY LETTER.

truth, are a book in which whoever reads under proper

impressions cannot avoid looking from the cause to the

effect; and acknowledging his eternal power and god-

head thus wonderfully displayed and irrefragably de-

monstrated : and whoever beholds these works with the
eyes of the body, must be blind indeed if he cannot, and
perverse indeed if he will not, with the eye of the soul
behold in all his glory the Almighty Workman, and
feel disposed; with every power of his nature, to praise
and magnify -

¢¢ Him first, Him last, Him midst, Him without end.”

And now having led you to the vestibule ofan august —
temple, which inits inmost sanctuary exhibits enshrined
in glory the symbols of the Divine Presence, I should
invite you to enter and give a tongue to the Hallelu-
jahs, which every creature in its place, by working his
will with all its faculties, pours forth to its great Crea-
tor; but I must first endeavour to remove, as I trust I
shall effectually, those objections to the study of these
interesting beings which T alluded to in the outset

‘of this letter, and this shall be the aim of my next
address. :
lam, &c.

LETTER Il.

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

Is my last I gave you a general view of the science:
of Entomology, and endeavoured to prove to you
that it possesses attractions and beauty sufficient to
‘reward any student who may profess himself its vo-
tary. Iam now to consider itin a less alluring light,
as a pursuit attended -by no small degree of obloquy,
- in consequence of certain objections thought to be
urged with great force against it. To obviate these,
and remove every scruple from your mind, shall be the
business of the present letter. tae
Two principal objections are usually alleged with
great confidence against the study and pursuit of in- ;
sects. By same they are derided as trifling and un-
important, and deemed an egregious waste of time
and talents; by others they are reprobated as unfeel-
ing and cruel, and as tending to harden the heart.

I. I shall begin with the first of these objections
—that the entomologist is a mere trifler. As for the
‘silly outcry and abuse of the ignorant vulgar, who
are always ready to laugh at what they do not un-
derstand, and because insects are minute objects con-
clude that the study of them must be a childish pur-
suit, I shall not waste words upon what I so cor-
dially despise, But since even learned men and phi-

`

'

99 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED,

losophers, from a partial and prejudiced view of the
subject, having recourse to this common-place logic,
are sometimes disposed to regard all inquiry into these
minutie of nature as useless and idle, and the mark
of a little mind; to remoye such prejudice and mis-
conceptions I shall now dilate somewhat upon the sub-
ject of Cui bono ?

When we see many wise and learned men pay at-
tention to any particular department of science, we
may naturally conclude that it is on account of some
profit and instruction which they foresee may be de-
rived from it; and therefore in defending Entomology

I shall first haye recourse to the Argumentum ad ve-
recundiam, and mention the great names that have
cultivated or recommended it.

We may begin the list with the first man that ever
lived upon the earth, for we are told that he gave a
name to every living creature*, amongst which insects
must be included; and to give an appropriate name to
an object necessarily requires some knowledge of its

‘distinguishing properties. Indeed one of the principal
pleasures and employments of the paradisiacal state
‘was probably the study of the various works of crea-
tion’. Before the fall the book of nature was the Bible
of man, in which he could read the perfections and at-
tributes of the invisible Godhead’, and in it, as ina
mirror, behold an image of the things of the spiritual
world. Moses also appears to haye been conversant
with our little animals, and to have studied them with
some attention. This he has shown, not only by being
aware of the distinctions which separate the Gryllidæ
a Gen. i 19, b Linn, Fn. Succ, Pref, c Rom. i. 19, 20.

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. | 23

(Gryllus L.) into different genera’, but also by no-
ticing the different direction of the two anterior from
the four posterior legs of insects; for, as he speaks of
them as going upon four legs”, it is evident that he
considered the two anterior as arms. _ Solomon, the
wisest of mankind, made Natural History a peculiar
object of study, and left treatises behind him upon its
various branches, in which creeping things or insects
were not overlooked*®; and a wiser tham Solomon di-
rects our attention to natural productions, when he
bids us consider the lilies of the field4, teaching us that

_ they are more worthy of our notice than the most:glo-
rious works of man: he also not obscurely intimates
that insects are symbolical beings, when he speaks of
scorpions as synonymous with evil spirits*; thus giving
into our hands a clue for a more profitable mode of
studying them, as furnishing moral and spiritual in-
struction. ET

Tf to these scriptural authorities we add those of

uninspired writers, ancient and modern, the names of
‘many worthies, celebrated both for wisdom and virtue,
may be produced. . Aristotle among the Greeks, and
Pliny the elder among the Romans, may be denomi-.
nated the fathers of Natural History, as well as the
greatest philosophers of their day; yet both these made
insects a principal object. of their attention: and in
more recent times, if we look abroad, what names
greater than those of Redi, Malpighi, Vallisnieri,
Swammerdam, Leeuwenhoek, Reaumur, Linné, De
a Levit..xi. 21, 22, Lichtenstein in Linn, Trans, iv, 51,52.

b Levit. xi. 20. conf. Bochart, Hierozvic, fi, 1. 4. €. 9. 49728,
© I Kings iv, 33, d Luke xii. 27. e Ibid, x. 19, 20,

4 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

Geer, Bonnet, and the Hubers? and at home, what:
philosophers have done more honour to their country
and to human nature than Ray, Willughby, Lister,
and Derham? Yet all these made the study of insects
one of their most favourite pursuits; and,as if to prove
that this study is not incompatible with the highest
flights of genius, we can add to the list the name of one
of the most sublime of our poets, Gray, who was very
zealously devoted to Entomology. As far therefore
as names have weight, the above enumeration seems
sufficient to shelter the votaries of this pleasing science
from the charge of folly.

But we do not wish to rest our defence upon autho-
rities alone; let the voice of reason be heard, and our
justification will be complete. The entomologist, or,
to speak more generally, the naturalist (for on this
question of Cui bono ? every student in all departments

of Natural History is concerned), if the following con-
siderations be allowed their due weight, may claim a
much higher station amongst the learned than has hi-
therto been conceded to him. l

There are two principal avenues to knowledge—
the study of words and the study of things. Skill in
‘the learned languages being often necessary to enable
us to acquire knowledge in the former way, is usually
considered as knowledge itself; so that no one asks
Cui bono? whena person devotes himself to the study
of verbal criticism, and employs his time in correcting
the errors that have crept into the text of an ancient
writer. Indeed it must be owned, though perhaps too
much stress is sometimes laid upon it, that this is very
useful to enable us to ascertain his true meaning. But

7

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED, , 2

after all, words are but the arbitrary signs of ideas, and
have no value independent of those ideas, further than.
what arises from congruity and harmony, the mind þe-
ing dissatisfied when an idea is expressed by inade-
quate words, and the ear offended when their colloca-
tion is inharmonious. To account the mere knowledge:
of words, therefore, as wisdom, is to mistake the cask
for the wine, and the casket for the gem. I say all this
because knowledge i in words is often extolled beyond —
its just merits, and put for all wisdom, while know- .
ledge of things, especially of the productions of na-

ture, is derided as if it were mere folly. We should

recollect that God hath condescended to instruet us by

both these ways, and therefore neither of them should

be depreciated. He hath set before us his word and
his world. The former is the great avenue to truth

and knowledge by the study of words, and, as being the

immediate and authoritative revelation of his will, is

entitled to our principal attention; the latter leads us _
to the same conclusions, though less directly, by the
study of things, which stands next in rank to that of ©
God’s word, and before that of any work of man. And
whether we direct our eyes to the planets rolling in
their orbits, and endeavour to trace the laws by which _
they are guided through the vast of space, whether we
analyse those powers and agents by which all the ope-
rations of nature are performed, or whether we con- —
sider the various productions of this our globe, from
the mighty cedar to the microscopic mucor—from the —
giant elephant to the invisible mite, still we are study-
ing the works and wonders of our God. The book, to
whatever page we turn, is written by the finger of him

236 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED,

who created us; and in it, provided our minds be rightly
disposed, we may read his eternal verities. And the
more accurate and enlarged our knowledge of his
works, the better shall we be able to understand his
word; and the more practised we are in his word, the
more readily shall we discern his truth in his works ;
for, proceeding from the same great Author, they
must, when rightly interpreted, —— explain and
illustrate each other.

- Whothen shall dare maintain, unless he has the har-
dihood to deny that God created them, that the study of
insects and their ways is trifling or unprofitable? Were
they not arrayed in all their beauty, and surrounded
with all their wonders, and made so instrumental (as
T shall hereafter prove them to be) to our welfare, that
we might glorify and praise him for them? Why were
insects made attractive, if not, as Ray well expresses
it, that they might ornament the universe and be de-
lightful objects of contemplation to man*? And is it
not clear, as Dr, Paley has observed, that the produc-
tion of beauty was as much in the Creator’s mind: in
painting a butterfly or in studding a beetle, asin giv-
ing symmetry to the human frame, or graceful curves
to its muscular covering’? And shall we think it be-
neath us to study what he hath not thought it beneath

a “ Queri fortasse à nonnullis potest, Quis get Siti usus sit? - Re-
spondeo, Ad ornatum Universi, et ut hominibus spectaculo sint: ad rura
iliustranda velut tot bracteæ inservientes. Quis enim eximiam earum pul-
chritudinem et varietatem contemplans mira voluptate non afiiciatur ?
Quis tot colorum et schematum elegantias nature ipsius ingenio excogis
tatas et artifici penicillo depictas curiosis oculis intuens, divine artis vese
tigia cis impressa non agnoscat et miretur? ” Rai, Hisi, Ins, 109,
b Nat. Theol, 213,

‘OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. ad

him to adorn and place on this great theatre of crea-
tion? Nay, shall we extol those to the skies who bring
together at a vast expense the most valuable specimens
of the arts, the paintings and statues of Italy and
Greece, all of which, however beautiful, as works of
man, fall short of perfection; and deride and upbraid
those who collect, for the purpose of admiring their
beauty, the finished and perfect chef-d’ceuvres of a
Divine artist? May we gaze with rapture unblamed
“upon an Apollo of Belvedere, or Venus de Medicis, or
upon the exquisite paintings of a Raphael or a Titian,
and yet when we behold with ecstasy sculptures: that
are produced by the chisel of the Almighty, and the
inimitable tints laid on by his pencil, because-an in-
sect is the subject, be exposed to jeers'and ridicule?
But there is another reason, which in the present
age renders the study of Natural History an object of
importance to every well-wisher to the cause of Reli:
gion, who is desirous of exerting his-faculties in its de-
fence. For as enthusiasm and false religion have en-
deavoured to maintain their ground by a perversion of
the text of scripture, so also the patrons of infidelity
and atheism have laboured hard to establish their im-
piety by a perversion of the text of nature: :' To refute
the first of these adversaries of truth and sound reli-
gion, it is necessary to be well acquainted with the
word of God; to refute the second requires an inti-
mate knowledge of his works y and no department can

furnish him with more powerful arguments of. every
sind than the world of insects—every one of which
ees out in an audible yoice, ‘Chere is a God—he: is

28 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

Almighty, all-wise, all-good—his watchful providence
is ever, and every where, at work for the preservation
of all things.

But since mankind in general are too apt to look
chiefly at this world, and to regard things as impor-
tant or otherwise in proportion as they are connected
with sublunary interests, and promote our present
welfare, I shall proceed further to prove that the study
of insects may be productive of considerable utility,
even in this view, and may be regarded in some sort
as a necessary or at least a very useful concomitant of
many arts and sciences.

The importance of insects to us both as sources of
good or evil, I shall endeavour to prove at large here-
after; but for the present, taking this for granted, it
necessarily follows that the study of them must also be

important. For when we suffer from them, if we do

not know the cause, how are we to apply a remedy
that may diminish or prevent their ravages? Igno-
rance in this respect often occasions us to mistake our
enemies for our friends, and our friends for our ene-
mies; so that when we think to do good we only do
harm, destroying the innocent and letting the guilty
escape.’ Many such instances have occurred. You
know the orange-coloured fly of the wheat (Tipula
Tritici, Kirby in Linn. Trans. Cecidomyid, Latr.), and
have read the account of the damage done by this little
insect to that important grain; you are aware also that
it is given in charge to three little parasites to keep it
within due limits; yet at first it was the general opi-
nion of unscientific men, that these destroyers of our

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED:

enemy were its parents, and the original source of all
the mischief*, Middleton, in his “Agriculture of Mid-
dlesex,” speaking of the Aphis that is so injurious to
the bean, tells us that the lady-birds are supposed either
to generate or to feed upon them”. Had he been an
entomologist he would have been in no doubt whether
they were beneficial or injurious: on the contrary, he
_ would have recommended that they should be encou- —
raged as friends to man, since no insects are greater
devourers of the Aphides. The confounding of the
apple Aphis, that has’ done such extensive injury to
our orchards, with others, has led to proceedings still
more injurious. This is one of those species from the
_ Skin of which transpires a’ white cottony secretion.
Some of the proprietors of orchards about Evesham,
observing an insect which secreted a similar substance
upon the poplar, imagined that from this tree the crea- —
ture which they had found so noxious was generated ;
and in consequence of this mistaken notion cut down
_ all their poplars®. The same indistinct ideas might —
have induced them to fell all their larches and beeches,
Since they also are infested by Aphides which transpire
a similar substance. Had these persons possessed any
“entomological knowledge, they would have examined
and compared the insects before they had formed their
opinions, and being convinced that the poplar and
apple Aphis are distinct eas pe me have saved
their trees. |

~ But could an entomological piarer even ascertain

-a Kirby, in Linn. Trans, iv. 232.235. See also a letter signed C. in
the Gent. Mag. for August 1795. b P. 192.
€ Collet, in Month. Mag. xxxii, 320.

;
sö OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

the species of any noxious insect, still in many cases,
without further information, he may fall short of his
purpose of prevention. Thus we are told that in Ger-
many the gardeners and country péople, with great
industry, gather whole baskets full of the caterpillar
of the destructive cabbage moth (Noctua Brassice,
Fab.) and then bury them, which, as Roesel well ob-
serves*, is just as if we should endeavour to kill a crab
by covering it with water; for, many of them being full
grown and ready to pass into their next state, which
they do underground, instead of destroying them by
this manceuvre, their appearing again the following
‘year in greater numbers is actually facilitated. Yet
this plan applied to our common cabbage caterpillar,
which does not go underground, would succeed. So
that some knowledge of the manners of an insect is
often requisite to enable us to check its ravages effec-
tually. With respect to noxious caterpillars in gene-
ral, agriculturists and gardeners are not usually aware
that the best mode of preventing their attacks is to de-
stroy the female fly before she has laid her eggs, to do
which the moth proceeding from each must be first
ascertained. But if their research were carried still
further, so as to enable them to distinguish the pupa
and discover its haunts, and it would not be at all diffi-
cult to detect that of the greatest pest of our gardens,
the cabbage butterfly, the work might be still more ef-
fectually accomplished. Some larve are polyphagous,
or feed upon a variety of plants ; amongst others that
of the yellow-tail moth (Bombyx chrysorhea, F.) ; yet
gardeners think they have done enough if they destroy
a Roesel T. iv. 170. .

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.» St

the Web-like nests which*so often deform our. fruit
trees, without suspecting that new armies of assailants
- will wander from those on other plants which they
have suffered to remain, Thus will thousands be pro-
duced in the following season, which, had they known
how to distinguish them, might have been extirpated.
Another instance occurred to me last year, when walk-
ing with a gentleman in his estate at a village in York-
ees Our attention was attracted by several circu-
lar patches of dead grass, each having a stick with rags
Suspended to it, placed in the centre. I at once dis-
cerned that the larva of the cock-chafer had eaten the
roots of the grass, which being pulled wp by the rooks
that devour this mischievous grub, these birds had
been mistaken by the tenant for the cause of the ev il,
and the rags were placed to frighten away his best
friends, On inquiry why he had set up these sticks, he
replied, “ He could n’t beer to see’d nasty ċraws pull
upall’d gess, and sae he’d set’d bairns to hing up some
aud clouts to flay em away. Ginhe’d letten ’em alean
they’d sean hev reated up all’d close.” Nor could I
Convince him by all that I could say, that the rooks
Were not the cause of the evil. Even philosophers
Sometimes fall into gross mistakes from this species of
ignorance. Dr. Darwin has observed, that destroying
the beautiful but injurious wood-peckers is the only
alternative for preventing the injury they do to our
forest-trees by boring into them; not being aware
that they bore only those trees which insects have pre-
viously attacked, and that they diminish very considera-
bly int number of such asare prejudicial to our forests.

a Phylologia, 518.

so OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

From these facts it is sufficiently evident that ento-
mological knowledge is necessary both to prevent fatal
mistakes, and to enable us to check with effect the ra-
vages of insects. But ignorance in this respect is not
only unfit to remedy the evil; on the contrary, it may
often be regarded as its cause. A large proportion of
the most noxious insects in every country are not indi-
genous, but have been imported. It was thus that the
moth (Tinea Mellonella) so destructive in bee-hives,
and the asparagus beetle (Leawa Asparagi, F.) were
made denizens of Sweden*. ‘The insect that has de-
stroyed all the peach-trees in St. Helena was imported
from the Cape: and at home (not to mention bugs and
cock-roaches) the great pest of our orchards, before
mentioned, the apple Aphis, there is good reason to
believe, was introduced with some foreign apple-trees.
Now, extensive as is our commerce, it is next to im-
possible, by any precau ions, to prevent the importa-
tion of these noxious agents. A cargo, or even asam-
_ple, of peas from North America might present us with
that ravager of pulse, the pea-beetle (Bruchus Pisi, L.);
or the famed Hessian fly, which some years ago caused
such trepidation in our cabinet, might be conveyed here
ina ship-load of wheat. Leeuwenhoek’s wolf ( Tinea
granella, F.) might visit us, in a similar conveyance,
from Holland or France. But though introduced, were
Entomology a more general pursuit, their presence
would soon be detected, and the evil at once nipt in
the bud; whereas in a country where this science was
not at all or little cultivated, they would most proba-
bly have increased to such an extent before they at-

a Fn, Suec. 567, 1383.

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 33

tracted notice, that every effort to extirpate them would
be ineffectual. | 13a

It is needless to insist upon the importance of the
Study of insects, as calculated to throw light upon some
of the obscurest points of general physiology; nor
would it be difficult, though the task might be invi«
dious; to point out how grossly incorrect and deficient

Are many of the speculations of our most eminent phi-
losophers, solely from their ignorance of this import-
ant branch of Natural History. How little qualified
would that physiologist be to reason. conclusively up-
on the mysterious subject of generation, who should
be ignorant of the wonderful and unlooked-for fact,
brought to light by the investigations of an entomolo-
gist, that one sexual intercourse is sufficient to fertilize
the eggs of numerous generations of Aphides!, And
how defective would be all our reasonings on the pow-
ers of nutrition and secretion, had we yet to learn that
in insects both are in action unaécompanied by the cir- -
culating system and glands of larger animals!

In another point of view entomological information
is very useful. A great deal of unnecessary mischief -
‘S produced, and unnecessary uneasiness occasioned, by
What are called vulgar errors, and that superstitious
reliance upon charms, which prevents us from having
recourse to remedies that are really efficacious. ‘Thus,
for instance, eating figs and sweet things has been sup-
Posed to generate lice, Nine larve of the moth of
the wild teasel inclosed in a reed or goose quill have
been reckoned a remedy forague?. Matthiolus grave-
ly affirms that every oak-gall contains either a fly, a

„3 Amoreuxy 2176. bP Rai, Cat, Cant. 45. | Hist, Ins. 341.

VOL, Y, <2 S

$4 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

spider, or a worm, and that the first foretells war, the
second pestilence, and the third famine*. In Sweden
the peasants look upon the grub of the cock-chafer as
‘furnishing an unfailing prognostic whether the ensuing
winter will be mild or severe: if the animal have a
blueish hue (a circumstance which arises from its being
replete with food) they affirm it will be mild, but on
the contrary if it be white the weather will be severe:
and they carry this so far as to foretell, that if the an-
terior part be white and the posterior blue, the cold
will be most severe at the beginning of the winter.
Hence they call this grub Bemdrkelse-mask, or pro-
gnostic worm”. A similar augury as to the harvest is
drawn by the Danish peasants from the Acari which
infest the common dung beetle (Scarabeus stercorarius,
L.), called in Danish Skarnbosse or Torbist. If there
are many of these mites between the fore feet, they be-
lieve that there will be an early harvest, but a late one
if they abound between the hind feet®. The appear- `
ance of the death’s head moth (Sphinx Atropos, L.)
has in some countries produced the most violent alarm
and trepidation amongst the people, who, because it
emits a plaintive sound, and is marked with what looks
like a death’s head upon its back, regarded it as the
messenger of pestilence and death*. We learn from
Linné that a similar superstition, built upon the black
hue and strange aspect of that beetle, prevails in Swe-
‘den with respect to Blaps mortisaga, L.°; and in Bar-

a Comment. in Dioscor. 1. 1. c. 23» 214. Lesser. L, ii. 280,
b De Geer, iv. 275-6. —

c Detharding de Insectis Coleopteris Danicis, 9.

d Reaum. ii, 289-90, © Faun, Succi 8225

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. : 35 |

badoes, according to Hughes, the ignorant deem the
appearance of a certain grasshopper in their houses
as a sure presage of illness to some of the family?.
One would not think that the excrements of insects
could be objects of terror, yet so it has been. Many
Species of Lepidoptera, when they emerge from -the
pupa state, discharge from their anus a reddish ‘fluid, .
Which, in some instances, where their numbers have
been considerable, has produced the appearance of a
shower of blood; and by this natural fact, all those
bloody showers, recorded by historians as preterna~
tural, and regarded where they happened as fearful
prognosties of impending evils, are stripped of their
terrors, and reduced to the class of events that happen
in the common course of nature. That insects are the
Cause of these showers is no recent discovery ; for
Sleidan relates that in the year 1553. vast multitude
of butterflies swarmed through a great part of Ger-
many, and sprinkled plants, leaves, buildings, clothes,
-and men, with bloody drops, as if it had rained blood».
But the most interesting account of an event of this
kind is given by Reaumur, from whom we learn that
_ In the beginning of July 1608 the suburbs of Aix, and
* considerable extent of country round it, were cover=
ed with what appeared to be a shower of blood. We
may conceive the amazement and stupor of the popu-
lace upon such a discovery, the alarm of the citizens,
the grave reasonings of the learned. All agreed how-
ever in attributing this appearance to the powers of-
darkness, and in regarding it as the prognostic and
Precursor of some direful misfortune about to befal

a Nat. Hist. of Bavbad. 83. °° ~” b Quoted in Mouffet, 107.
9
Da

74

; 36 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED,

them. Fear and prejudice would have taken deep
yoot upon this occasion, and might have produced fatat
effects upon some weak minds, had not M. Peiresc, a
celebrated philosopher of that place, paid attention to
insects. A chrysalis, which he preserved in his cabi-
net, let him into the secret of this mystericus shower.
Hearing a fluttering, which informed him his insect
was arrived at its perfect state, he opened the box in
which he kept it. The animal flew out and left behind
it à red spot. He compared this with the spots of the
bloody shower, and found they were alike. At the
same time he observed there was a prodigious quan-
tity of butterflies flying about, and that the drops of
the miraculous rain were not to be found upon the
tiles, nor even upon the upper surface of the stenes,
but chiefly in cavities and places where rain could not
éasily come. Thus did this judicious observer dispel
the ‘ignorant fears and terror which a ateen panasi
menon had caused’.

The same author relates an instance of the gardener
of a gentleman being thrown into a horrible fright by
digging some of the curious cases, which I shall here-
after describe to you, of the leaf-cutter bees, and which
he conceived to be the effect of witchcraft portending
some terrible misfortune. By the advice of the priest

of the parish he even took a journey from Rouen to
Paris, to show them to his master: but he, happily
having more sense than the man, carried them to M.
Nollet, an'eminent naturalist, who having seen simi-
lar productions was aware of the cause, and opening
one of the cases, while the gardener stood aghast at his

a Reaum, i. 667.

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. rD

temerity, pointed out the grub that it contained, and
thus sent him back with a light heart, relieved from
all his apprehensions*.

Every one has heard of the death- watch, and knows
of the superstitious notion of the vulgar, that in what-
ever house its drum is heard one of the family will
die before the end of the year. These terrors, in par-
ticular instances, where they lay hold of weak minds,
especially of sick or hypochondriac persons, may cause
the event that is supposed to be prognosticated. A
small degree of entomological knowledge would re-
lieve them from all their fears, and teach them that
this heart-sickening tick is caused by a small beetle
(Anobium tessellatum, E.) which lives in timber, and
is merely a call to its companion. Attention to Ento-
mology may therefore be rendered very useful in this
view, since nothing cer tainly is more desirable than to
deliver the human mind from the dominion of super-
Stitious fears, and false notions, which having con-
siderable influence on the conduct of mankind are Abe ;
cause of no small portion of evil. .

But as we cannot well guard against the injuries
- produced by insects, or remove the evil, whether real
Or arising from misconceptions respecting them, which
they occasion, unless we haye some knowledge of
them; so neither without such knowledge can we ap-
_ ply them, when beneficial, to our use. Now it is ex-
tremely probable that they might be made vastly more
subservient to our advantage and profit than at pre-
Sent, if we were better acquainted with them. It is.
the remark of an author, who himself is no entomole- |

a Reaum, vi. 99-100, Kirby Mon. Ap. Ang. i. 157-8.

gg. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED:

gist: “We have not taken animals enough into alli-
ance with us. ‘The more spiders there were in the
stable, the less would the horses suffer from the flies.
The great American fire-fly should be imported into
Spain to catch mosquitos. In hot countries a reward
should be offered to the man who could discover what
insects feed upon fleas*.”’ It would be worth our
while to act upon this hint, and a similar one of Dr.
Darwin. Those insects might be collected and pre-
seryed that are known to destroy the Aphides and
other injurious tribes; and we should thus be enabled
to direct their operations to any quarter where they
would be most serviceable ; but this can never be done
till experimental agriculturists and gardeners are con-
versant with insects, and acquainted with their pro-
. perties and economy. How is it that the great Being
of beings preserves the system which he has created
from permanent injury, in consequence of the too great
redundancy of any individual species, but by employing
one.creature to prey upon another, and so overruling
and directing the instinets of all, that they may ope-
rate most where they are most wanted! We cannot
better employ the reasoning powers and faculties with
which. he has endowed us, than by copying his exam-
ple. We often employ the larger animals to destroy
each other, but the smaller, especially insects, we have
totally neglected. Some may think, perhaps, that in
aiming to do this we should be guilty of presumption, |
and of attempting to take the government and direc-
ion of things out of the hands of Providence: but this
is ą yery weak argument, which might with equal reas
4 Southey’s Madoc, 4to, Notes, 519,

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED, 39.

son be adduced to prove that when rats and mice be-
come troublesome to us, we ought not to have recourse
to dogs, ferrets, and cats to exterminate them. When
any species multiplies upon us, so as to become nox-
ious, we certainly have a just right to destroy it, and
what means can be more proper than those which Pro-
vidence itself has furnished? We can none ofus go
further or do more than the Divine Will permits; and
he will take care that our efforts shall not be injurious
to the general welfare, or effect the annihilation of any
individual species. : |
Again, with regard to insects that are employed in

médicine or the arts, if the apothecary cannot distin=
euish a Lytta from a Carabus or Cetonia, both of which
I have found mixed with the former, how can he know
whether his druggist furnishes him with a good or bad
article? And the same observation may with still greater
force apply to the dyer in his purchase of cochineal
Since it is still more difficult to distinguish the wild
sort from the cultivated. There are, it is probable,
Many insects that might be employed with advantage
_in both these departments: but unless Entomology be —
more generally studied by scientific men, who are the
only persons likely to make discoveries of this kind,
than it has hitherto been, we must not hope to derive
further profit from them. It seems more particularly
incumbent upon the professors of the divine art of
healing to become conversant with this as well as the
other branches of Natural History; for not only do they
derive some of their most useful drugs from insects,
but many also of the diseases upon which they are
consulted, as we shall see hereafter, are occasioned by

AO ~ i OBJECTIONS ANSWERED;

them. For want of this kind of information medical
‘men run the risk of confounding diseases perfectly
distinct, at least as to the animal that causes them.
It would be a most desirable thing to have professors
in‘each branch of Natural History in our universities,
and to make it indispensable, in order to the obtain-
ing of any degree in Physic, that the candidate should
have attended these lectures. We may judge from
the good effects that the arts have derived from the
present very general attention to Chemistry, how bene-
ficial would be the consequence if Entomology were
equally cultivated: and Ishall conclude this paragraph
with what I think may be laid down as an incontro-
vertible axiom:—That the prefit we derive from the
works of creation will be in proportion to the aceuracy
of our knowledge of them and their properties.
I trust I have now said enough to convince you and
every thinking man that the study of insects, so far
from being vain, idle, trifling, or unprofitable, may be
attended with very important advantages to mankind,
and ought at least to be placed upon a level ‘with many
other branches of science, against which such accusa-
_ tions are never alleged. l

But I must not conceal from you that there are ob-
jectors who will still return to the charge. They will
‘say, “We admit that the pursuits of the entomologist
are important when he directs his views to the destruc-
tion of hoxious insects; the discovery of new ones
likely to prove beneficial to man; and to practical ex-
periments upon their medical and economical proper-
ties, But where are the entomologists that in fact pur-

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. Al.

_ Sue this course? Do they not in reality wholly disre-
Sard the economical department of their science, and
content themselves with making as large a collection
of species as possible ; ascertaining the names of such
as are already descr ibed; dhi new ones; and
arranging the whole in their cabinets under certain fa-
miliesand genera? And can a study with these sole ends
in view deserve a better epithet than trifling? Even if -
the entomologist advance a step further, and invent a
new system for the distribution of all known insects,
can his laborious undertaking be deemed any other
than busy idleness?, What advantage does the world
derive from. having names given to ten or twenty
thousand. insects, of which numbers are not bigger
- than a pin’s head, and of which probably not a hun-
dredth part will ever be of any use to mankind? ”’
Now in answer to this supposed objection, which I
have stated as forcibly as Lam able, and which, as it
may be, and often is, urged against every branch of |
Natural History as at present studied, well deserves a
full consideration, I might in the first place deny that
those who have the highest claim to rank as entomolo-
gists do confine their views to the systematic depart-
ment of the science to the neglect of economical ob-
servations; and in proof of my assertion, | might refer’
abroad to a Linné, a Reaumur, a De Geer, a Huber,
and various other names of the highest reputation; and
at home to a Ray, a Lister; a Derham, a Marsham, a
Curtis, a Clark, a Roxburgh, &c. But I do not wish
to conceal that though a large proportion of entomolo-
-gists direct their views much further than to the mere
Homenclature of their science, tears existsa great num-

Ag OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

ber, probably the majority, to whom the objection will
strictly apply. Now I contend, and shall next endea-
vour to prove, that entomologists of this description
are devoting their time to a most valuable end; and aré
conferring upon society a benefit incalculably greater
than that derived from the labours of many of those
who assume the privilege of despising their pursuit.
Even infavour of the mere butterfly-hunter—he who
has no higher aim than that of collecting a picture of
Lepidoptera, and is attached to insects solely by their
beauty or singularity, it would not be difficult to say

much. Can it be necessary to declaim on the superi-

ority of a people amongst whom intellectual pleasures,
however trifling, are preferred to mere animal gratifi-
cations? Is it a thing to be lamented that some of thé
Spitalfields weavers occupy their leisure hours in
searching for the Adonis butterfly, and others of the
more splendid Lepidoptera’, instead of spending them
in playing at skittles or in an alehouse? Or is there in
truth any thing more to be wished than that the cutlers
of Sheffield were accustomed thus to employ their Saint
Mondays; and to recreate themselvesafter a hard day’s
work, by breathing the pure air of their surrounding
hills, while in search of this “untaxed and undisputed
-game”;” and that more-of the Norwich weavers were

a Haworth Lepid. Brit. 44, 57.

b Oft have I smiled the happy pride to see

- Of humbte tradesmen in their evening glee,
When of some pleasing fancied. good possest,
Each grew alert, was busy and was blest:
Whether the call-bird yield tbe hour's delight, ~
Or magnified in microscope the mite ;
Or whether tumblers, croppers, carriers seize
The gentle mind ; they rule it and they please.

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 43

fond of devoting their vacant time to plant-hunting,
like Joseph Fox recorded by Sir James Smith as the
first raiser of a Lycopodium from seed*?”
Still more easy is it to advocate the cause of another

description of entomologists—the general collectors.
These, though not concerning themselves with the
system, contribute most essentially to its advancement.
We cannot: expect that princes, noblemen, and others
of high rank or large fortune, who collect insects,
should be able or willing to give up the time necessary
for studying them systematically: but their museums
being accessible to the learned entomologist afford
him the use of treasures which his own limited funds
or opportunities could never have brought together.
As to others of less consequence that content them-
Selves with the title of collectors, they also have their |
use.: Having devoted themselves to this one depart-
ment, they become more expert at it, than the philo-
Sopher who combines deep researches with the collec-
tion of objects; and thus are many species brought
together for the use of the aybtema fist, that would
otherwise remain unknown.

There is my friend the weaver ; strong desires

Reign in his breast ; ’tis beauty he admires :

See to the shady grove he wings his way,

And feels ia hope the rapture of the day—

Eager he looks, and soon to glad his eyes,

From the sweet bower by nature form’d arise

Bright troops of virgin moths, and fresh born butterflies.

He fears no bailiff’s wrath, no baron’s blame,
His is untax’d and undisputed game,
Crabbe’s Barong, p. ‘Ho.

a Linn, Trans, ii, 315,

AA OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

But to proceed to the defence of systematic entomo-
logists.—'These may be divided into two great classes:
the first comprising those who confine themselves to
‘ascertaining the names of the insects they collect; the
second, those who, in addition, publish descriptions
‘of hew species; new arrangements of intricate genera ;
or extrications of entangled synonyms; and who, in _
other respects, actively contribute to the perfection of
the'system. iss

Now with regard to the first class, setting aside what
may be urged in behalf of the study of insects consi-
dered as the work of the Creator, it is easy to show
‘that, even with such restricted views, their pursuit is
as commendable, and as useful both to themselves and
the community, as many of those on which we look
‘with the greatest respect. To say the least in their fa-

vour, they amuse themselves innocently, whichis quite

‘as much as can be urged for persons who recreate their-
Jeisure hours with music, painting, or desultory read-
ing. ‘They furnish themselves with an unfailing pro-
vision of that “grand panacea for the tedium vite” —
employment—no unimportant acquisition when even
Gray was forced to exclaim, with reference to the ne-
cessity of “always having something going forward”
towards the enjoyment of life, “ Happy they who can
create a rose-tree or erect a honey-suckle; that can
watch the brood of a hen, or see a fleet of their own
ducklings launch into the water*!” and like the pre-
ceding class, they collect valuable materials for the use
of more active labourers, being thus at least upona par
with the majority of book-collectors and antiquaries,

: a Letter to Dr. Wharton. Mason’s Life of Gray, p 28,

|
1

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED) 45

` But this is the smallést half of the value of their

pursuit. With what view is the study of the mathema-

ties so generally recommended? Not certainly for any
practical purpose—not to make the bulk of those who
attend to them, astronomers or engineers. But simply
to exercise and streng then the intellect—to give the.
- Mind a habit of attention and of investigation. Now
‘for all these purposes, if I do not go so far as to assert
that the mere ascertaining of the names of insects is-
equal to the study of the mathematics, F have:no he- l
sitation in affirming that it is nearly as effectual ; and
With respect to giving a habit of minute attention, su-
perior. Such is the intricacy of nature, such the imper-
fection of our present arrangements, that the discovery
of the name of almost any insect is a problem, calling
in all cases for acuteness and attention, and in some for
a balancing of evidence, a calculation of the chances
Of error, as arduous as are required in a perplexed law-
Case ; anda procéss of ratiocination not less strict than

- that witches satisfies the mathematician. In proof of
which assertion I need only refer any competent judge

to the elaborate disquisitions of Laspeyres, called for
by one work alone on the lepidopterous insects of a
Single district—the Wiener Verzeichniss, which occupy
above two hundred octavo pages*, and must have cost
the learned author nearly as much labour of mind as _
the DuctorDubitantium did Bishop Taylor.

Do not apprehend that this occasional perplexity is
any deduction from the attractions of the „science: _
though in itself, in some respects, an evil, it forms in ——
fact to many minds one of the chief of them. The pur-

a Mig. Mag. it. 33, iv. 3.

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED,

suit of truth, in whatever path, affords pleastire: but
the interest would cease if she never gave us trouble
in the chase. Horace W alpole used to say that from
a child he could never bring himself to attend to any

` book that was not full of proper names; and the satis-
faction which he feit in dry investigations concerning
noble authors and obscure painters, is experienced by
many an entomologist who spends hours in disentan-
gling the synonymy of a doubtful species.: Nor would
it be easy to prove that the wordy researches of the
one are not to every practical purpose as valuable as
those of the other. We smile at the Frenchman told
of by Manege, that was so enraptured with the study
of heraldry and genealogy, as to lament the hard case
of our forefather Adam, who could not possibly amuse
himself with such investigations*. But many an ento-
mologist who has felt the delicious sensation attendant
upon the indisputable ascertainment of an insect’s
name after a long search, will feel inclined to indulge
in similar grief for the unhappy lot of his successors,
when all shall be smooth sailing in the science.

But in behalf of those who are more eminently en-
titled to be called entomologists—those who, not con- |
tent with collecting and investigating insects, occupy
themselves in naming and describing such as have been
before unobserved ; in instituting new genera or re-
forming the old; and, to say all in one word, in per-
fecting the system of the science, still higher claims
can be urged. Suppose that at this moment our dics
tionaries of the Frenchand German languages were so
very defective, that we were unable by the use of them

a Andrews’s Anecdotes, 152,

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. aT

tó profit from the discoveries of their philosophers ;
the labours of a Michaelis being a sealed book to.our
theologists, and those of La Place to our astronomers.
On this supposition, would not one of the most import-
tant literary undertakings be the compilation of more
perfect dictionaries, and would not the humblest con-
tributor to such an end be deemed most meritoriously
engaged? Now precisely what an accurate dictionary
of a particular language is towards enabling the world
to participate in the discoveries published in that lan-
guage, is a system of Entomology towards enabling
- Mankind to derive advantage from amy discoveries re-
lative to insects. A good system of insects containing
all the known species, arranged in appropriate genera,
families, orders, and classes, is in fact a dictionary,
Putting it within our power to ascertain the name of
any given insect, and thus to learn what has been ob-
Served respecting its properties and history as readily
as we determine the meaning of a new word in a lexi-
con. In order to impress upon you more forcibly the
absolute need of such a nen i must enter into still.
further detail.

There is scarcely a country in which weaebil thou-
Sand insects may not be found.. Now, without some
Scientific arrangement, how is the observer of a new
fact respecting any one of them, to point out to distant
Countries and to posterity the particular insect he had.
in view? Suppose an observer in England were to find
& certain beetle which he had demonstrated to be a
Specific for consumption; and that it was necessary
that this insect, which there was reason to believe was
Common in every part of the world, should be admi-

48 . GEIECTIONS ANSWERED:

nistered in arecent state. Would he not be anxious to
proclaim the happy discovery to sufferers in all quar-

ters of the globe? As his remedy would not admit of
transportation, he would have no other means than by
describing it. Now the question is, whether, on the
supposition that no system of Entomology existed, he
would be able to do this, so as to be intelligible to a
physician in North America, for instance, eager to ad-

minister so precious a medicine to his expiring pa-
tient? It would evidently be of no use to say that the
specific was a beetle: there are thousands of different
beetles in North America. Nor would size or colour

be any better guide: there are hundreds of beetles of
the same size and the same colour. Even the plant on
which it fed would be no sufficient clue ; for many in-
sects, resembling each other to an unpractised eye,
feed on the same plant; and the same insect in differ-
ent countries feeds upon different plants. His only re-
source, then, would be a coloured figure and full de-
scription of it. But every entomologist knows that
«there exist insects perfectly distinct, yet so nearly re~’
sembling each other, that no engraving, nor any lan-
guage other than that strictly scientific, can possibly
diseriminate them. After all, therefore, the chances
are, that our discoverer’s remedy, invaluable as it might
be, must be confined to his own immediate neighbour-
hood, or to those who came to receive personal infor-
mation from him. But with what ease is it made known
when a system of the science exists! If the insect be.
already described, he has but to mention its generic
and trivial names, and by aid of two words alone,
every entomologist, though in the most distant region

-

*®

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. A49

“whether a Swede, a German, or a Frenchman;
whether a native of Europe, of Asia, of America, or of
Africa, knows instantly the very species that is meant,.
and can that moment ascertain whether it be within
his reich. If the species be new and undescribed, it,
is only necessary to indicate the genus to which it be-
longs, the species to which it is most nearly allied,
and to describe it in scientific terms, which may be
done in few words, and it can at once be peopguimi.
by every one acquainted with the science.

You will think it hardly credible that there should
be so much difficulty in describing an insect intelligi-
bly without the aid of system; but an argumentum ad

hominem, supported -by some other facts, will, I con-
jecture, render this matter more comprehensible. You
have doubtless, like every one else, in the showery
days of summer, felt no little rage at the flies, which
at'such times take the liberty of biting our legs, and
contrive to make a comfortable meal through the in-
terstices of their silken or cotton coverings. Did it, I
pray, ever enter into your conception, that these blood-
thirsty tormentors are a different species from those
flies which you are wont to see extending the lips of
their little proboscis to a piece of sugar or a drop of
Wine? I dare say not. But the next time you have
- Sacrificed one of the former to your just vengeance,
catch one of the latter and compare them. I question
if, after the narrowest comparison, you will not still
venture a wager that they are the very same species.
Yet you would most certainly lose your bet. “They
are not even of the same genus—one belonging to the
genus Musca (M. domestica, L.), and the other to the
VOL. I. - E

50 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED,

genus Stomoxys (S. calcitrans, F.); and on a second
examination you will find that, however alike in most
respects, they differ widely in the shape of their
proboscis; that of the Stomoxys being a horny sharp-
pointed weapon, capable of piercing the flesh, while
the soft blunt organ of the Musca is perfectly incom-
petent to any such operation. In future, while you
no longer load the whole race of the house-fly with
the execrations which properly belong to a quite
different tribe, you will cease being surprised that an
ordinary description should be insufficient to discri-
minate an insect. It is to this insufficiency that we
must attribute our ignorance of so many of the insects
mentioned by the older naturalists, previously to the
systematic improvements of the immortal Linné: and
to the same cause we must refer the impossibility of
determining what species are alluded to in the ac-
counts of many modern travellers and agriculturists
who have been ignorant of Entomology as a science.
Instances without number of this impossibility might
be adduced, but I shall confine myself to two.

One of the greatest pests of Surinam and other low
regions in South America, is the insect called in the
West Indies, where it is also troublesome, the chigoe
(Pulex penetrans, L.), a minute species, to the attacks
of which I shail again have occasion to advert. This
insect is mentioned by almost all the writers on the
countries where it is found. Not less than eight or,
ten of them have endeavoured to give a full descrip-
tion of it, and some of them have even figured it; and
yet, strange to say, it was not certainly known whether
it was a flea (Pulex) or a mite (Acarus), till a com-

I

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. . 51

Pétënt naturalist undertook to investigate its history,
and in a short paper in the Swedish Transactions?
proved that Linné was not mistaken i in referring it to
the former genus. soa
The second instance of the insufficiency of =
description is even more extraordinary. In 1788 an
alarm was excited in this country by the probability of
importing, in cargoes of wheat from North America, |
the insect known by the name of the Hessian fly, whose
dreadful ravages will be adverted to hereafter. How-
ever the insect tribes are in general despised, they had
on that occasion ample revenge. ‘The privy council
sat day after day anxiously debating what measures
should be adopted to ward off the danger of a cala-
‘mity, more to be dreaded, as they well knew, than the
plague or pestilence. Expresses were sent off in all
directions to the officers of the customs at the different
outports respecting the examination of cargoes—di-
Spatches written to the ambassadors in France, Au-
stria, Prussia, and America; to gain that information
of the want of which they were now so sensible : and
“so important was the business deemed, that the minutes
of council and the documents collected from all quarters

fill upwards of two hundred octavo pages”. Fortu-

“nately England contained one illustrious naturalist,
the most authentic source of information on all sub-
< jects which connect Natural History with Agriculture
and the Arts, to whom the privy council had the wis-
dom to apply; and it was by Sir Joseph Banks’s ento-
mological knowledge, and through his suggestions,
si a Swartzin Kongl. Vel. Ac. Nya. band. ix. 40. Prate XXILL Fie. 10.
b >Y oung’s Annals of Agriculiure, xi. 406,
£2

59 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

that they were at length enabled to form some kind of
judgement on the subject. This judgement was after
all, however, veryimperfect. As Sir Joseph Bankshad
never seen the Hessian fly, nor was it described in any
entomoiogical system, he called for facts respecting its
nature, propagation, and economy, which could be had
only from America. These were obtained as speedily
as possible, and consist of numerous letters from indi-
viduals; essays from magazines; the reports of the
British minister there, &c. &c. One would have sup-
posed that from these statements, many of them drawn
up by farmers who had lost entire crops by the insect,
which they profess to have examined in every stage,
the requisite information might have been acquired.
So far however was this from being the case, that many
of the writers seem ignorant whether the insect be
a moth, a fly, or what they term a bug. And though
from the concurrent testimony of several its being a
two-winged fly seemed pretty accurately ascertained,
no intelligible description is given, from which any
naturalist can infer to what genus it belongs, or
whether it is a known species. With regard to the

_ history of its propagation and economy the statements
were so various and contradictory, that.though he had
such a mass of materials before him, Sir Joseph Banks
was unable to reach any satisfactory conclusion.

Nothing can more incontrovertibly demonstrate the
importance of studying Entomology as a science than
this fact. 'Those observations, to which thousands of
unscientific sufferers proved themselves incompetent,
would have been readily made by one entomologist
well versed in his science. He would at once have

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. ` a

determined the order and genus p7. the insect, and
Whether it was a known or: new species; and ina
twelvemonth at furthest he would have ascertained in
what manner it made its attacks, and whether it were :
Possible that it might be transmitted along with grain |
into a foreign country: and on these solid data he-
could have satisfactorily pointed out the best mode of-
eradicating the pest, or pease Only the extension of its >
ravages, Sf

But it is not merely in travellers and popular ob-
servers that the want of a systematic knowledge of
Entomology is so deplorable. A great portion of the
labours of the profoundest naturalists have been from’ _
a similar cause lost to the world. Many of the insects
concerning which Reaumur and Bonnet have recorded
the most interesting circumstances, cannot, from their
neglect of system, be at this day ascertained’. ‘The
former, as Beckmann” states on the authority of his.
letters, was before his death sensible of his great error
in this respect : but Bonnet, with singular inconsist-
ency, constantly maintained the inutility of system,
-even on an occasion when, from his ignorance of it,
Sir James Smith, speaking of his experiments on the
barberry, found it quite impossible to make him com-
prehend what plant he referred to°.

So great is the importance of a systematic arrange-
ment of-insects. Yet no such arrangement has hither--
to been completed. Various fragments towards it in-

a No one knew Reaumur’s Abeille Tapissiere until Latreille, happily
combining system with attention to the economy of insects, proved it to. ~

be a new species—his Megachile Papaveris.—Wist. de Fourmis, 297.
b Bibliothek. vii. 310. c Tour on the Continent, iii. 150. ;

54 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

deed exist. But the work itself is in the state ofa
dictionary wanting a considerable proportion of the
words of the language it professes to explain; and
placing those, which it does contain, in an order often
sq arbitrary and defective, that it is difficult to discover
even the page containing the word you are in search
of. Can it be denied, then, that they are most meri-
toriously employed who devote themselves to the re-
moval of these defects—to the perfecting of the system
—and to clearing the path of future economical or
physiological observers from the obstructions which
now beset it? And who that knows the vast extent of.
the science, and how impossible it is that a divided at-
tention can embrace the whole, will contend that it is
not desirable that some labourers in the field of lite-
yature should devote themselves entirely and exclu-
sively to this object? Who that is aware of the im-
portance of the comprehensive views of a Fabricius,
an Illiger, or a Latreille, and the infinite saving of
_ time of which their inquiries will be productive to
their followers, will dispute their claim to rank
amongst the most honourable in science?

- II. No objection, I think, new remains against ad-
dicting ourselves to entomological pursuits, but that
which seems to have the most weight with you, and
which indeed is calculated to make the deepest impres-
sion upon the best minds—I mean the charge of inhu-

manity and cruelty. That the science of Entomology
cannot be properly cultivated without the death of its
objects, and that this is not to be effected without put-
ting them to some pain, must be allowed ; but that this

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. = 3

substantiates the charge of cruelty against us~I alto-
Sether deny. Cruelty is an unnecessary infliction of
suffering, when a person is fond of torturing or de-
stroying God’s creatures from mere wantonness, with
no useful end in view ; or when, if their death be use-
ful and lawful, he has recourse to circuitous modes of
killing them, where direct ones would answer equally
well. This is cruelty, and this with you I abominate;
but not the infliction of death when a just occasion
calls for it.

They who see no cruelty in ie sports of the field,
as they are called, can never, of course, consistently -
allege such a charge against the entomologist; the
tortures of wounded birds, of fish that swallow the
hook and break the line, or of the hunted hare, being,
‘beyond comparison, greater than those of insects de-
stroyed in the usual mode. With! respect to utility,
the sportsman, who, though he adds indeed to the ge-
neral stock of food, makes amusement his primary ob-
ject, must surely yield the palm to the entomologist,

who adds to the general stock of mental food, often _
` Supplies hints for useful improvements in the arts >
and sciences, and the objects of whose pursuit, unlike
those of the former, are preserved and may be applied
to use for many years.

But in the view even of those few who think inhu-
Manity chargeable upon the sportsman, it will be easy
to place considerations which may rescue the entomo-
logist from such reproof, It is well known that, in
Proportion as we descend in the scale of being, the
Sensibility of the objects that constitute it.diminishes.
The tortoise walks about after losing its head; and the

56 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED,

Polypus, so far from being injured by the application
of the knife, thereby acquires an extension of exist-
ence. Insensibility almost equally great may be found
in the insect world. This, indeed, might be inferred
à priori, since Providence seems to have been more
prodigal of insect life than of that of any. other order
of creatures, animalcula perhaps alone excepted. No
part of the creation is exposed to the attack of so
many enemies, or subject to so many disasters: so
that the few individuals of each kind which enrich the
valued museum of the entomologist, many of which
are dearer to him than gold or gems, are snatched
from the ravenous maw of some bird or fish or rapa-
cious insect ; would have been driven by the winds
into the waters and drowned; or trodden underfoot
by man or beasts,—for it is not easy, in some parts of
the year, to set foot to the ground without crushing
these minute animals; and thus also, instead of Betik
buried in oblivion, FEN have a kind of immortality
conferred upon ikani Can it be believėd that the
beneficent Creator, whose tender mercies are over all
his works, would expose these helpless beings to such
innumerable enemies and injuries, were they endued
with the same sense of pain and irritability of nerve
with the higher orders of animals ?

But this inference is reduced to certainty, when we
attend to the facts which insects every day present to
us, proving that the very converse of our great poet’s
conclusion,

e.e. “4 The poor beétle that we tread upon,

In corporal sufferance finds a Pang as great
As when a giant dies,”

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. | 57

ust be regarded as nearer the truth. Not to mention
the’ peculiar organization of insects, which strongly
favours the idea I am inculcating, but which will be
considered more properly in another place, their sang
froid upon the loss of their limbs, even those that we
account most necessary to life, irrefragably proves that
the pain they suffer cannot be very acute. Hada giant
ostan arm ora leg, or were asword or spearrun through
his body, he would feel no great inclination for running
about, dancing, or eating. Weta crane-fly (Tipula)
will leave half its legs in the hands of an unlucky boy
who has endeavoured to catch it, and will fly here and
there with as much agility and unconcern as if nothing
had happened to it; and an insect impaled upon a pin.
will often devour its prey with as much avidity as when
at liberty. Were a giant eviscerated, his body divided
in the middle, or his head cut off, it would be all over
with him; he would move no more; he would be dead
to the calls of hunger; or the emotions of fear, anger,
or love. Not so our insects. I have seen the com-
mon cockchafer walk about with apparent indifference
after some bird had nearly emptied its body of its
Viscera: a humble-bee will eat honey with greediness
though deprived of its abdomen; and I myself lately
“aw an ant, which had been brought out of the nest
by its comrades, walk when deprived of its head. The
head of a wasp will attempt to bite after it is separated
from the rest of the body; and the abdomen under si-
milar circumstances, if the finger be moved to it, will
attempt to sting. And what is more extraordinary, —
the headless trunk ofa male Mantis has been known to

58- OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

unite itself to the other sex*. These facts, out of hun-
dreds that might be adduced, are surely sufficient to
prove that insects do not experience the same acute
sensations of pain with the higher orders of animals,
which Providence has endowed with more ample means
of avoiding them; and since they were to be exposed
so universally to attack and injury, this is a most mer-
ciful provision in their favour; for, were it otherwise,
considering the wounds, and dismemberments, and lin-
gering deaths that insects often suffer, what a vast in-
erease would there be of the general sum of pain and
misery! You will now, I think, allow that the most
humane person need not hesitate a moment, whether
he shall devote himself to the study of Entomology, on
account of any cruelty attached to the pursuit.

But if some morbid sentimentalist should still ex-
claim, “Oh! but I cannot persuade myself even for
scientific purposes to inflict the slightest degree of
pain upon the most insensible of creatures—” Pray,
sir or madam, I would ask, should your green-house be
infested by Aphides, or your grapery by the semiani-
mate Coccus, would this extreme of tenderness induce
you to restrict your gardener from destroying them ?
Are you willing to deny yourself these unnecessary
gratifications, and to resign your favourite flowers
and fruit at the call of your fine feelings? Or will
you give up the shrimps, which by their relish enable
you to play a better part with your bread and butter
at breakfast, and thus, instead of adding to it, contri-
bute to diminish the quantity of food? If not, I shall

a Dr, Smith’s Tour, i, 162. Journ, de Phys. xiv. 3360

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 59

only desire you to recollect that, for a mere personal
indulgence, you cause the death of an infinitely greater
number of animals, than all the entomologists in the
World destroy for the promotion of science.

To these considerations, which I have no doubt you
will think conclusive as to the unreasonableness and
inconsistency of the objections made against the study
of Entomology on the score of cruelty, I shall only add
that I do not intend them as any apology fer other :
than the most speedy and least painful modes of de-.
- Stroying insects; and these will be pointed out to you
a subsequent letter. Every degree of unnecessary
Pain becomes cruelty, which I need not assure you I
abhor; and from my own observations, however ruth-
lessly the entomologist may seem to devote the few
Specimens wanted for scientific purposes to destruc-
tion, no one in ordinary circumstances is less prodigal
Of insect life. For my own part, I question whether
the drowning individuals, which I have saved from
destruction, would not far out-number all that I ever
‘aerificed to science. ae

My next letter will be devoted to the metamorphoses

of insects, a subject on which some previous explana-
tion ig necessary to enable you to understand those
distinetions between their different states, which will

© perpetually alluded to in the course of our corre-
“Pondence: and having thus cleared the way, I shall
afterwards proceed to the consideration of the injuries
and benefits of which insects are the cause.

J am, &c.

LETTER IN.

= :

~

METAMORPHOSES OF INSECTS.

W erè a naturalist to announce to the world the
discovery of an animal which for the first five years of
its life existed in the form of a serpent; which then
penetrating into the earth, and weaving a shroud of
pure silk of the finest texture, contracted itself within
this covering into a body without external mouth or
limbs, and resembling more than any thing else an
Egyptian mummy; and which, lastly, after remaining .
in this state without food and without motion for three
years longer, should at the end of that period burst
~ its silken cerements, struggle through its earthy co-
vering, and start into day a winged bird,—what think
you would be the sensation excited by this strange
piece of intelligence? After the first doubts of its
truth were dispelled, what astonishment would suc-
ceed! Amongst the learned, what surmises !—what
investigations! Amongst the vulgar, what eager cu-
riosity and amazement! All would be interested in
the history of such an unheard-of phenomenon; even
the most torpid would flock to the sight of such a
prodigy.

But you ask, “ To what do all these improbable
suppositions tend?” ‘Simply to rouse your attention
to the metamorphoses of the insect world, almost as

`~

METAMORPHOSES. 61

Strange and surprising, to which Tam now about to
direct your view, miracles, which, though scarcely
“urpassed in singularity by all that poets have feigned,
and though actually wrought every day beneath our
yes, are, because of their commonness, and the mi-
Nuteness of the objects, unheeded alike by the igno-
fant and the learned.
That butterfly which amuses you with its aérial ex-
_ Cursions, one while extracting nectar from the tube of
the honeysuckle, and then, the very image of fickle-
‘Ness, flying toa rose as if to contrast the hue of its
Wings with that of the flower on which it reposes—did.
Not come into the world as you now behold it. At its
first exclusion from the egg, and for some months of its
©Xistence afterwards, it was a worm-like caterpillar,
“rawling upon sixteen short legs, greedily devouring
“aves with two jaws, and seeing by means of twelve
“yes so minute as to be nearly imperceptible without
the aid of a microscope. You now view it furnished
With Wings capable of rapid and extensive flights: of
ts sixteen feet ten have disappeared, and the remain-
ig’ six -are in most respects wholly unlike those to
Which they have succeeded ; its jaws have vanished, and
re replaced by a curled-up proboscis suited only for
Sipping liquid sweets; the form of its head is entirely
changed two long horns project from its upper sur- _
face; and, instead of twelve invisible eyes, you behold
two, very large, and composed of at least twenty thou-
‘and convex lenses, each supposed to be a distinct and
effective eye! —
, Sre you to push your examination further, and
by dissection to compare the internal conformation of

62 METAMORPHOSES,

the caterpillar with that of the butterfly, you would
witness changes even more extraordinary. In the
former you would find some thousands of muscles,
which in the latter are replaced by others of a form
and structure entirely different. Nearly the whole
body of the caterpillar is occupied by a capacious sto-
mach. In the butterfly this has become converted into
an almost imperceptible thread-like viscus; and the
abdomen is now filled by two large packets of eggs,
or other organs not visible in the first state. In the
former, two spirally-convoluted tubes were filled with

a silky gum; in the latter, both tubes and silk have

almost totally vanished; and changes equally great
have taken place in the economy and structure of the
nerves and other organs.

What a surprising transformation! Nor was this
all. The change from one form to the other was not
direct. An intermediate state not less singular inter-
vened. After casting its skin even to its very jaws
‘several times, and attaining its full growth, the cater-
pillar attached itself to a leaf by a silken girth. Its
body greatly contracted: its skin once more split
asunder, and disclosed an oviform mass, without ex-
terior mouth, eyes, or limbs, and exhibiting no other
symptom of life than a slight motion when touched.
In this state of death-like torpor, and without tasting
food, the insect existed for several months, until at
length the tomb burst, and out of a case not more than
an inch long, and a quarter of an inch in diameter,
proceeded the butterfly before you, which covers a sur’
face of nearly four inches square. _

Almost every insect which you see has undergone a

: a
METAMORPHOSES, 63

transformation as singular and surprising, though vä-
ried in many of its circumstances, That active little
fly, now an unbidden guest at your table*, whose deli-
Cate palate selects your choicest viands, one while ex-
tending his proboscis to the margin of a drop of wine,
and then gaily flying to take a more solid repast from
4 pear or a peach ; how gamboling with his comrades
m the air, now gracefully currying his furled wings
With his taper feet,—was but the other day a disgust-
ing grub, without wings, without legs, without eyes,
wallowing, well pleased, in the midst of a mass of ex-
cCrement. of 34 iui

The “ grey-coated gnat,” whose humming saluta-
tion, while she makes her airy circles about your bed,
gives terrific warning of the sanguinary operation in
Which she is ready to engage, was a few hours ago tke
inhabitant of a stagnant pool, more in shape like a fish
than an insect. Then to have been taken out of the
Water would have been speedily fatal ; now it could as
little exist in any other element than air. Then it
breathed through its tail; now through openings in its
Sides. Tts shapeless head, in that period of its exist-
“nce, is now exchanged for one adorned with elegantly
tufted antenne, and furnished, instead of jaws, with
an apparatus more artfully constructed than the cup-
Ping glasses of the phlebotomist—an apparatus which,
at the same time that it strikes in the lancets, compo-
ses a tube for pumping up the flowing blood.

The “shard-born beetle,” whose “sullen horn,”
as he directs his “ droning flight” close past your ears

*“Ceenis etiam non vocatus ut Musca advolo.” Aristophon én Py-
thagorista apnd Atheneum. ( Mouffet, 56.).

HA METAMORPHOSES.

in your evenirig walk, calling up in poetic association .
the lines in which he has been alluded to by Shake-
speare, Collins, and Gray, was not in his infancy an in-
habitant of air; the first period of his life being spent
in gloomy solitude, as a grub, under the surface of the
earth.—The shapeless maggot, which you scarcely fail
to meet with in some one of every handful of nuts you
crack, would not always have died in that hum-
ble state. If your unlucky intrusion upon its vaulted
dwelling had not left it to per ish i in the wide world, it
would have continued to reside there until its full
growth had been attained. Then it would have gnawed
itself an opening, and having enter ed the earth, and
passed a few months in a state of inaction, would at
length have emerged an-elegant beetle furnished with
a slender and very long ebony beak; two wings and

aig
two wing-cases, ornamented with: yellow bands; six.

feet; and in every respect unlike the worm from which

it proceeded.

That bee——but it is needless to multiply instances.
A sufficient number has been adduced to show, that
the apparently extravagant supposition with which {
set out may be paralleled in the insect world; and that
the metamorphoses of its inhabitants are scarcely less
astonishing than would be the ne of a ser-
pent into an eagle.

These changes I do not purpose explaining minutely
in this place: they will be adverted to. more fully in
subsequent letters. ` Here I mean merely to give you
such a general view of the subject as shall impress you
with its claims to attention, and such an explan ation of
the states through which insects pass, and of the diffe-

ON ren rere

‘METAMORPHOSES. 65

“Yent terms made use of to designate them in each, as

Shall enable you to comprehend the frequent allusions

‘Which must be made to them in our future correspond-

ence, _

The states through which insects pass are four : the

Cao.

“Ose the larva s the pupa; and the imago.

The first of these need not be here advetted to. In

the second, or immediately after the exclusion from the
“88, they are soft, without wings, and in shape usually

Somewhat like worms, This Linné called the larva

State, and an insect when in it a larva, adopting a Latin

Word signifying a mask, because he considered the real

‘MNsect while under this form to be as it were masked.

Th the English language we have no common term that .
applies to the second state of all insects, though we
have several for that of different tribes, Thus we call
the coloured and often hairy larve of butterflies and
moths caterpillars ; the white and more compact larve
of flies, many beetles, &c. grubs or maggots*; and the
depressed larve of many other insects worms. The
two former. terms I shall sometimes use in a similar
Sense, rejecting the last, which ought to be confined to

‘true vermes ; but I shall more commonly adopt Linné’s

term, and call insects in their second state, darve>.
In this period of their life, during which they eat

Yoraciously and cast their skin several times, insects —

-a Gentils, or gentles, isa synonymous word employed by our old au-
thors, but is now obsolete, except with anglers, Thus Tusser, in a pas-
Page Pointed out to me by Sir Joseph Banks i— |
“ Rewerd not thy sheep when ye take off his cote
‘With twitches and patches as brode as a grote 3
‘Let not such ungentlenesse happen to thine
Least flie with her gentils do make it to piné.” i
b For the different kinds of larva, see Pirates XVID. XVIL, XIX,
VOL, i, E

66 METAMORPHOSES.

live a shorter or longer period, some only a few days
‘or weeks, others several months or years. They then
cease eating; fix themselves in a secure place; their
skin separates once more and discloses an oblong body,
and they have now attained the third state of their
existence. `
From the sana appearance of most insects in this
state, in which they do not badly resemble in miniature
‘a ‘child trussed up like a mumniy in swaddling clothes,
‘acéording to’ the barbarous fashion’ once “prevalent
hère, and still retained in many parts of the continent ;
*Linné has called it‘the pupa state, and an insect when
‘uiider this form a pupa; —terms which will be here
‘adopted i inthe ‘same sense.’ ' In this state’ most insects
‘edt no food 5° ‘are iücapäblè öf locomotion; and if open-
‘ed’seem filled with a watery fluidin which'no distinct
‘organs can be traced. Externally, however, the shape
“of the ‘pupe of different tribes varies considerably, and
‘different names have ‘been. applied to them.
Thobe òf the beetle and bée tribes are covered with
‘@ membranous skin, iiclosing in separate and distinct
‘sheaths’ tlie external organs) as the antenna, legs, and
“wigs, which ‘are ‘conséquently not. elosely applied to
the body, bit havé théir'form for the most part clearly
“distinguishable.” To these’ Aristotle originally gave
“‘the-nameof nyniphe*, which was continued by Swani-
-merdam and other authors prior to, Linné, who calls
them incomplete: pupa, and has begn en by many
English writers oninsects®) e =? i
Butterilies, moths, and some of the two-winged tribe,
are in their pupa state alsoinclosed in a similar mem-
‘branous envelope: but their legs; antennez, and wings,

> a bet Amm t bee 10. | OW Pca EVE Fie. 6—9.

METAMORPHOSES: 67

are closely folded over the breast and sides ; and the
Whole body inclosed. in a.common case or covering of
a horny consistence, which admits a much less. distinct.
View of the organs beneath it.. As these pupe are often
tinged of a golden colour; they were called from this
circumstance chrysalides by the Greeks, and aurelie
by the Romans, both which terms are in some measure
become anglicized; and though not strictly applicable
to ungilded pupa, are now often given to those. of all
lepidopterous insects*.. ‘These by Linné are denomi=
ated obtected pupe?. pee i Bt
a Tn explanation ‘of the terms A Lepidopterous, Doping
&e. which will- frequently occur in the following pagés before coming
regularly to ‘definitions, it is necessary here to'state that they have re=
ference to the names given by entomologists to the different orders or
tribes of insects, as under: ax
l Coleoptera consisting of Beetles.. Plate I. Fig. 1—6. R
R Strepsiptera ———— of the genera Xenos andSiylops. PlateTT. Fig.l.

8 Dermaptera ——— of the Earwigs. “Plate E Figi 7) °° 5°
l ® Orthoptera —_ of Cockroaches, Locusts, Grasshoppers, Crickets,
Spectres, Mantes, &c. Plate-11..Fig22. 3. a x
a Hemiptera consisting of Bugs, Cicada, ‘Water-scorpions, W ater-boat-
men, Plant-lice, Cochineal Insects, &c. Plate II. Fig. 4. 5,
6 Trichoptera consisting of the flies produced by the various species of
—" Casésworms, Phryganea, L. Plate TII. Fig. 4. =
8 Lepidoptera consisting of Butterflies, Hawkmoths,and Moths. Plate ITI:
cve Fig. 13, i i
x Neuroptera consisting of Dragon-flies, Ant-lions, Ephemera, &c.
Plate III. Fig.5.6. :
* Hymenoptera consisting of Bees, Wasps, and other insects armed with
5 „sting or ovipositor, and its values. Plate IV. Fig. 1—3.
10 Diptera consisting of Flies, Gnats, and other two-winged insects.
Plate IV. Fig. 4.5, Plate V. Fig. 1. 3
haniptera. consisting of the Flea genus. “Plate V, Fig. 2.
le Aptera ~ of Mites, Lice, &ce. Plate V. Fig, 3-6.
PLATE XVI. Fre, 1013, ey i :

+ iy Ap

r2

68 METAMORPHOSES.

{ have said that most insects eat no food in the pupa
state. This qualification is necessary, because in the
metamorphoses of insects, as in all her other opera-
tions, nature proceeds by. measured steps, and a very
considerable number (the tribe of locusts, cockroaches,
bugs; spiders, &c.) not only greatly resemble the per-
fect insect in form, but are equally capable with it of
eating and moving. As these insects, however, cast
their skins at stated periods, ‘and undergo changes,
though slight, in their external and internal conforma-
tion, they are regarded also as being subject to meta-
morphoses. These pupe may be subdivided into two
classes: first, those comprised, with some exceptions,
under the Linnean Aptera, which in almost every re-
spect resemble the perfect insect, and were called by
Linné complete pupe ; and secondly, those of the Lin-
nean order Hemiptera, which resemble the perfect in-
sect, except in having only the rudiments of wings, and
to which the name of semi-complete pupe was applied
by Linné, and that of semi-nymphs by some other au-
thors*. There is still a fifth kind of pupe, which are
not, as in other instances, excluded from the skin of
the larva, but remain concealed under it, and were
hence called by Linné coarctate pupæ. These, which
are peculiar to flies and some other dipterous genera,
may be termed cased-nymphs?. |

When, therefore, we employ the term pupa, we may
refer indifferently to the third state of any insect, the
particular order being indicated by the context, or am
explanatory epithet. The terms chrysalis, (dropping
aurelia, which is superfluous), nymph, semi-nymph,

a Prats XVI. Fie4, 5. b Prats XVIIL Fic. 4,

METAMORPHOSES: 69

and cased-nymph, on the other hand definitely pointing
out the particular sort of pupa meant: just as in Bo-
tany, the common term pericarp applies to all seed-
Vessels, the several kinds being designated by the names
of capsule, silicle, &c. |
The envelope of cased-nymphs, which is formed of

the skin of the larva, considerably altered in form and
texture, may be conveniently called the puparium*:
but to the artifical coverings of different kinds, whe-
ther of silk, wood, or earth, &c. which many insects
of the other orders fabricate for themselves previously
to assuming the pupa state, and which have been
called by different writers, pods, cods, husks, and beans, .
I shall continue the more definite French term COCOR, ©
anglicized into cocoon”. À

: After remaining a shorter or longer period, some
Species only a few hours, others months, others one or
more years, in the pupa state, the inclosed insect, now

come mature in all its parts, bursts the case which

inelosed it, quits the pupa, and enters upon the fourth
and last state. — Fa ant FY

We now see it (unless it be an apterous species)
furnished with wings, capable of propagation, and
often under a form altogether different from those
Which it has previously borne—a perfect beetle, but-
terfly, or other insect. This Linné termed the imago.
‘State, and the animal that had attained to it the imagos
because, having laid aside its mask, and cast off its.
Swaddling bands, being no longer disguised or confined,
or in any respect imperfect, it is now become a true.
Tepresentative or image of its species, This state is in

a Prate XVIT. Fre, 2. -T b Peate XVI Fre. 5—10 o

"0 METAMORPHOSES:

general referred to when an insect is spoken of withe
out the’restricting terms larva or pupa.

Such being the singularity of the transformations of

“insects; you will not think the ancients were so wholly

unprovided with a show of argument as we are accus»
tomed to consider them, for their belief in the possi-
bility of many of the marvellous metamorphoses which
their poets recount. “Utterly ignorant as they were of
modern physiological discoveries; the conversion ofa
caterpillar into a butterfly, must have been a fact suffi-
cient to put to a nonplus all the sceptical oppugners of
such transformations. And, however we may smile
in this enlightened age at the inference drawn not two
centuries ago by Sir Theodore Mayerne, the editor of
Mouffet’s work on insects, “ that if animals are trans-
muted so may metals*,” it was not, in fact, with his
limited knowledge on these subjects, so very preposte-
rous. ° It is even possible that some of the wonderful
tales of the ancients were grafted on the changes which
they observed to take place in insects. The death and
revivification of the phoenix, from the ashes of which,
‘before attaining its perfect state, arose first a worm
(cxwayk), in many of its particulars resembles what oc-
curs in the metamorphoses of insects. Nor is it very
unlikely that the doctrine of the metempsychosis took
‘its rise from the same source. What argument would
be thought by those who maintained this doctrine more
plausiblein favour of the transmigration of souls, than
the seeming revivifieation of the dead chrysalis ? What
more probable, than that its apparent reassumption of
‘life should be owing to its receiving for tenant the soul

a Bpisti Dedicat..

`
.

METAMORPHOSES. ~ 71
of some criminal doomed to. animate an, insect. of
similar habits with, those which had defiled his human
tenement? ? : :

At the present day, howev er, the francformations, ae:
insects have lost that excess of the marvellous, which
might once have furnished. arguments for the fictions
of the ancients, and the. dreams of Paracelsus. We

all them metamorphoses and. transformations, because
oe terms are in common use, and are more expres-
Sive of the sudden changes that. ensue than any new
ones, But, strictly, they ought rather to be termed: a
Series, of developments. : A caterpillar is not, in fact,
a simple buta compound animal, containing within it
the germ, of the future butterfly, inclosed in what will
he the case. of the pupa, whichis itself included in the
three or more skins, one over the other, that. will suc-
cessively cover the larva. As this increases in size
these parts expand, present themselves, and, are ip
turn thrown off, until at length the perfect: insect,
which had been concealed in this succession of masks,
ak displayed in its genuine form. That this is. the pro-
per explanation of the phenomenon has been satisfac-
torily proved by Swammerdam, Malpighi, and other
anatomists. The first- mentioned illustrious: natura-
list discovered, by accurate dissections, not. only the
-Skins of the larva and of the pupa incased in each
other, bnt within them the very butterfly itself, with

a“ A priest whe has drunk wine shall migrate into a moth or fly, feed-
ing on ordure. He who steals the gold of a priest shall pass a thousand
times into the bodies of spiders. Ifa man shall steal honey, he shall he

. born a great stinging gnat; if oil, an oil-drinking beetle; if salt, a
cicada ; if a household utensil, an ichnenmon fly.” Institutes of Menu,
353, i

i

“ro METAMORPHOSES.,

its organs indeed in an almost fluid state, but still pers
fect in all its parts*. Of this fact you may convince
yourself without Swammerdam’s skill, by plunging
into vinegar or spirit of wine a caterpillar about to
assume the pupa state, and letting it remain there a _
few days for the purpose of giving consistency to its
parts; or by boiling it in water for a few minutes. A
very rough dissection will then enable you to detect
the future butterfly ; and you will find that the wings,
rolled up into a sort of cord, are lodged between the
first and second segment of the caterpillar; that the
antenne and trunk are coiled up in front of the head;
and that the legs, however different their form, are
actually sheathed in its legs. Malpighi discovered the
eggs of the future moth, in the chrysalis ofa silkworm

only a few days old®, and Reaumur those of Bom-
| byx dispar even in the caterpillar, and that seven or
eight days before its change into the pupa’. A cater-
pillar, then, may be regarded as a locomotive egg,
having for its embryo the included butterfly, which
after a certain period assimilates to itself the animal
substances by which it is surrounded ; has its organs
gradually developed; and at length breaks through
the shell which ineloses it.

This explanation strips the subject of every thing
miraculous, yet by no means reduces it to a simple or
uninteresting operation. Our reason is confounded
at the reflection that a larva, at first not thicker than a,
thread, includes its own triple; or sometimes octuple,
teguments; the case of a chrysalis, and a butterfly, all
curiously folded in each other; with an apparatus of

a Hils Swamm. ii. 24. t, 37. f. 2, 4, b De Bombyce, 29, ` © Reaum. i. 359.

METAMORPHOSES, : 73

Vessels for breathing and digesting, of nerves for sen-
sation, and of muscles for m oving; and that these va-
‘Tious forms of existence will undergo their successive
evolutions, by aid of a few leaves received into its sto-
mach. And still less able are we to comprehend how
this organ should at one time be capable of digesting
leaves, at another only honey; how one while a silky _
fluid should be secreted, at another none; or how or-
Sans at one period essential to the existence of the
insect, should at another be cast off, and the whole sy-
Stem which supported them vanish.

Nor does this explanation; though it precludes the
Idea of that resemblance, in every particular, which, at
One time, was thought to obtain between the metamor-
Phosis of insects, especially of the Lepidoptera order,
and the resurrection of the body, do away that general
analogy, which cannot fail to strike every one who at
all considers the subject. Even Swammerdam, whose _

Observations have proved that the analogy is not so
complete as had been imagined, speaking of the metá-
Morphosis of insects, uses these strong words: “This
Process is formed in so remarkable a manner in butter-

flies, that we see therein the resurrection painted be-
fore our eyes, and exemplified so as to be examined by
our hands*.” To see, indeed, a caterpillar erawling
“pon the earth, sustained by the most ordinary kinds
of food, which, when it has existed a few weeks or
Months under this humble form, its appointed work

eing finished, passes into an intermediate state òf
Seeming death, when it is wound up in a kind of
“reud and encased in a coffin, and is most commonty

# Hills Swamm, i. 127 a,

i

TA METAMORPHOSES.

buried under the earth, (though. sometimes its sepul-
chre isin the water, and at others in various substances
in the air,) and after this creature and others of its
tribe have remained their destined time in this death-
like state, to behold earth, air, and water, give up their
several prisoners: to survey them, when, called by the
warmth of the solar beam, they burst from their sepul-
chres, cast off their cerements, from this state of torpid
inactivity, come forth, as a bride out of her chamber,—
to survey them, I say, arrayed in their nuptial glory,
prepared to enjoy a new and more exalted condition of —
life, in which all their powers are developed, and they
are arrived at the perfection of their nature ; when no
longer confined to the earth they can traverse the fields
of air, their food is the nectar of flowers, and love be-
gins his blissful reign ;—who that witnesses this inter-
esting scene can help seeing in it a lively representa-
_ tion of manin his threefold state of existence, and more
especially of that happy day, when at the call of the
great Sun of Righteousness, all that are in the graves
shali come forth, the sea shall give up her-dead, and
death being swallowed up of life, the nations of the
blessed shall live and love to the ages of eternity ?
But although the analogy between the different
states of insects and those of the body of man is only
general, yet it is much more complete with respect to
his soul. He first appears in this frail body—a child of
the earth, a crawling worm, his soul being in a course
of training and preparation for a more perfect and glo-
rious existence. Its course being finished, it casts off
the earthy body, and goes inio a hidden state of being
in Hades, where it rests from its works, and is pre=

METAMORPHOSES, 75

pared: for its final consummation: ‘The time for this
being arrived, it comes forth clothed with a glorious
body, not like its former, though germinating from it,

for though “it was sown an animal body, it shall tic
raised a spiritual body,” endowed with augmented
powers, faculties and privileges commensurate to its
new and happy state. And here the parallel holds
perfectly between the insect and the man. The butter-
fly, the representative of the soul, is prepared in the
larva for its future state of glory; and if it be not de>
stroyed by the ichneumons and other enemies to which
_ itis exposed, symbolical of the vices that destroy the
‘Spiritual life of the soul, it will come to its state of re-
Pose in the pupa, which is its Hades; and at length,

When it assumes the imago, break forth with new
Powers and beauty to its final glory and the reign of
So that in this view of the aigi well might

the Italian poet exelaim:
Non v’ accorgete voi, che noi siam’ vermi
Natia formar P angelica farfalla? ?

The Egyptian fable, as it is supposed to be, of Cu-
pid and Psyche, seems built upon this foundation.
“Psyche,” says: an ingenious and learned writer,
“ means in Greek the human soul; and it means also
a butterfly”, of which apparently strange double sense
the undoubted reason is , that a butterfly was a very

a Do you not perceive that we are caterpillars, born to form the an-
Selic butterfly. ?

b It is worthy of remark, that in tes north and west of England the
Moths that fly into candles are called saules (souls), perhaps from the old
Notion that the souls of the dead fly about at night in search of light.

Por the same reason, probably, the common nd pes in Germany call them
Shosts (geistchen), ;

’

76 - METAMORPHOSES.

-ancient symbol of the soul—from the prevalence of
this symbol, and the consequent coincidence of the
names, it happened that the Greek sculptors frequently
represented Psyche as subject to Cupid in the shape of
a butterfly; and that even when she appears in their
works under the human form, we find her decorated
with the light and filmy wings of that gay insect*.”

The following beautiful little poem falls in so ex-
aetly with the subject I have been discussing, that I
cannot resist the temptation I feel to copy it for you,
especially as I am not aware that it has appeared any
where but in a newspaper.

THE BUTTERFLY’S BIRTH-DAY,

BY THE AUTHOR OF ** THE BUTTERFLY’S BALL.”

The shades of night wére scarcely fled ;
The air was mild, the winds were still ;

And slow the slanting sun-beams spread
O’ er wood and lawn, o’er heath and hill :

From fleecy clouds of pearly hue
Had dropt a short but balmy shower,
That hung like gems of morning dew
On every tree and every flower :

\

And from the Blackbird’s mellow throat
Was poar’d so loud and long aswell,
As echoed with responsive note
From mountain side and shadowy dell:
When bursting forth to life and light,
The offspring of enraptur’d May,
The Butrerrry, on pinions bright,
Launch’d in full splendour on the day.

a Nares’s Essays, i. 101-2,

METAMORPHOSES.

Unconscious of a mother’s care,

No infant wretchedness she knew}
But as she felt the vernal air,

At once to full perfection grew.

Her slender form, ethereal light,

_ Her velvet-textur’d wings enfold ;

With all the rainbow’s colours bright, —
And dropt with spots of burnish’d gold.

_ Trembling with joy awhile she stood,

_ And felt the sun’s enlivening ray 5

_ Drank from the skies the vital flood,

And wonderd at her plumage gayt

And balane’d oft her broider’d wings,
Thro’ fields of air prepar’d to sail :
Then on her vent’rous journey springs,

And floats along the rising gale.

Go, child of pleasure, range the fields,
Taste all the joys that spring can give,

Partake what bounteous summer yields,

~ And live whilst yet ’tis thine to live,

Go sip the rose’s fragrant dew, ,
The lily’s honeyed cup explore,

From flower to flower the search renew,
And rifle all the woodbine’s store:

And let me trace thy vagrant flight,
Thy moments too of short repose,
And mark thee then with fresh delight
Thy golden pinions ope and close.:
But hark ! whilst thus I musing stand,
Pours on the gale an airy note,
And breathing from a viewless baad,

Soft silvery tones around me float!

METAMORPHOSES:

—They cease—but still a voice I hear,

A whisper’d voice of hope and joy,

‘¢ Thy hour of rest approaches near,

€

& Prepare thee, mortal }==thou must die!

Yet start not !=—on thy closing eyes

-¢¢ Another day shall still unfold,

A sun of milder radiance rise,
« A happier age of joys untold.

Shall the poor worm thatshocks thy sight,
‘¢ The humblest form‘in nature’s train, `
‘¢ Thus rise in new-born ‘lustre bright,

c And yet the emblem) teach in vain?

Ah! where were once -her golden eyes,
‘¢ Her glittering wings of purple pride ?
Conceal’d ‘beneath a rude disguise,
‘6 A shapeless mass to earth allied.

¢ Like thee the hapless reptile liv’d,

(4

«c Like theé he'toil’d, like thee he spun,
Like thine his closing hour arriv’d,

« His labour ceas’d, his web. was dones
And shalt thou, number’d with the dead,
€ No happier ŝtate of ‘being:know ?
And shall fo"fature morrow shed

c On thee a’beam of brighter glow?

Is this the bound of power divine,

‘¢ To animate an insect frame? i

Or shall not he’ who' moulded thine

« Wake at his will the vital flame? —
Go, mortal! in ‘thy’ reptile state,

‘¢ Enough to know to thee is given 5
Go, and the joyfal trath relate;
“6 Frail child’of earth ! high ‘heir of heaven P”

METAMORPHOSES 79

: A question here naturally presents itself{—Why are
*Asects subject to these changes? For what end is it
that, instead of preserving like other animals? the same
Seneral form from infancy to old age, they appear at
One period under a shape so different from that which
: they finally assume; and why should they pass through
an intermediate state of torpidity so extraordinary? I
Can only answer that such is the will of the Creator,
Who doubtless had the wisest ends in view, although
Weare incompetent satisfactorily to discover them, Yet
One reason for this conformation may be hazarded. A
_ Very important part assigned to insects in the economy
Ofnature, as I shall hereafter show, is that of speedily
removing superabundant and decaying animal and ve-
Setable matter. For such agents an insatiable voracity
is an indispensable qualification, and not less so unusu al
Powers of multiplication. But these faculties are in a
reat degree incompatible. An insect occupied in the
Work of reproduction could not continue its voracious
feeding. Its life, thérefore, after leaving the egg, is
divided into three stages. In the first, as-/area, it is in
a state of sterility ; its sole object is the satisfying its
; insatiable hunger; and, for digesting the masses of food

which it consumes, its intestines are almost all stomach.
This is usually by much the longest period of its ex-
istence, Having now laid up a store of materials
for’ the development of the future. perfect insect, it
becomes a pupa; and during this inactive period the

a A few vertebrate animals, viz. frogs, toads, and newts, undergo me-
tamorphoses in some respects analogous to those of insects ; their first
form as tadpoles being very different from that which they afterwards
assume, These reptiles too, as well assnakes, cast their:skin by an ape-.
Fation somewhat similar ‘to that in larve. There is nothing, however,
tntheir metamorphoses at all resembling the pupa state in ingects.

. 80 - METAMORPHOSES,

important process slowly proceeds, uninterrupted by
the calls of appetite. At length the perfect insect is
disclosed. It now often requires no food at all; and
scarcely ever more than ä very small quantity ; for the
reception of which its stomach has been contraeted, in
some instances, to a tenth of its former bulk. Its almost
sole object is now the multiplication of its kind, from
which it is diverted by no other propensity; and this
important duty being performed, the end of its exist-
ence has been Sosea and it expires.
It must be confessed that some objections might be
thrown out against this hypothesis, yet I think none that
would not admit of a plausible answer. To these it is
foreign to my purpose now to attend, and I shall con-
clude this letter by pointing out to you the variety of
new relations which this arrangement introduces into
nature. One individual unites in itself, in fact, three
species, whose modes of existence are often as different
as those of the most distantly related animals of other
tribes. The same insect often lives successively in three
or four worlds. It is an inhabitant of the water during
one period; of the earth during another ; and of the air
during a third: and fitted for its various abodes by new
organs and instruments, and a new form ineach. Think
(to use an illustration of Bonnet) but of the cocoon of
the silk-worm! How many hands, how many machines
does not this little ball put into motion! Of what riches
should we not have been deprived, if the moth of the
silk-worm had been born a moth, without having been
previously a caterpillar! The domestic economy of #
large portion of mankind would have been formed on a
plan altogether different from that which now prevails.

Lam, de.

LETTER IV.

INJURIES CAUSED B Y INSECTS.
ore eee INJURIES:

I N the letter which I devoted to the defence of Ento-
mology, I gave you reason to expect, more effectually’
_ to obviate the objection drawn from the supposed in-
Significance of insects, that I should enter largely into
_ the question of their importance to us both as instru-
ments of good and evil. This I shall now attempt;
and, as I wish to leave upon your mind a pleasant im-
Pression with respect to my favourites, I shall begin.
With the last of these TAE ijurd which they
do to us. ;

The Almighty ordains various instruments for the
Punishment of offending nations: sometimes he breaks —
them to pieces with the iron rod of.war ; at others the
elements are let loose against them; earthquakes and
floods of fire, at his word, bring sudden destruction
Upon them; seasons unfriendly to vegetation threaten
them with famine; the blight and mildew realize these
threats; and often, the more to manifest and glorify :
his power, he employs means, at first sight, apparently
the most insignificant and inadequate to effect their
Tuin; the numerous tribes of insects are his armies*,
marshalled by him, and by his irresistible command

`a Joel ii. 25.
VOL, I, ; G

82 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

impelled to the work of destruction: w where he directs
them they lay waste the earth, and famine and the pes-
tilence often follow in their train.’
The generality of mankind overlook or disregard
these powerful, because minute, dispensers of punish-
ment ;.. seldom. considering in how many ways their
welfare is affected by them: but the fact is certain, that
should it please God to give them a general commis-
sion against us, and should he excite them to attack, at
the same time, our bodies, our clothing, our houses,
our cattle, and the produce of our fields and gardens,
we should soon be reduced, in every possible respect,
toa state of extreme wretchedness; the prey of the
most filthy and disgusting diseases, divested of a co-
vering, unsheltered, except by caves and dungeons,
from the inclemency of the seasons, exposed to all the
extremities of want and famine, and in the end, as Sir
Joseph Banks, speaking on this subject, has well ob-
served*, driven with all the larger animals from the
face of the earth! You may smile, perhaps, and think
this a high-coloured: picture, but you will reeollect—I
am not stating the mischiefs that insects commonly do,
but what they would do according to all probability, if
certain counter-checks restraining them within due
limits had not been put in action; and which they
actually do, as you will see, in particular cases; when
those counter-checks are diminished or removed:

~ Insects may be said, without hyperbole, to have es-
tablished a kind of universal empire over the earth
and its inhabitants. This is principally conspicuous in
the injuries which they occasion, for nothing in nature ‘

a On the Blight in Corn, p. 9.

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 83 ,

*s

that possesses or has possessed animal or vegetable life,
is ‘safe from their inroads. Neither the cunning of the
fox, nor the swiftness of the horse or deer, nor the
strength of the buffalo, nor the ferocity of the lion or
tiger, nor the armour of the rhinoceros, nor the giant
bulk or sagacity of the elephant, nor even the autho-
rity of imperial man, who boasts himself to be the lord
of all, can secure them from becoming a prey to these.
despised beings. The air affords no protection to the
birds, nor the water to the fish; insects pursue them all
to their most secret conclaves and strongest citadels,
and compel them to submit to their Sway. Flora’s em-
pire is still more exposed to their cruel domination and
ravages; and there is scarcely one of her innumerable
subjects, from the oak, the glory of the forest, to the

Most minute lichen that grows upon its trunk, that is
not destined to be the food of these next to nonentities .
in our estimation. And when life departs from man,

the inferior animals, or vegetables, they become uni- -
_ Versally, sooner or later, the inheritance of insects. -

- Ishall principally bespeak your attention to the in-
Juries in question as they affect ourselves. These may
be divided into direct and indirect. By direct injuries
I mean every species of attack upon our own persons,
and by indirect, such as are made upon our property.
To the former of these I shall confine Paua in. the
Present letter. s

Insects, as+to their direct attacks upon us, may be -
arranged in three principal classes. Those, namely,

Which seek to make us their food; those whose object
ae 4

S4 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

is to prevent or revenge ah injury which: they either
fear, or have received from us; and those which in-
‘deed offer us no violence, but yet incommode us ex-
tremely i in other ways.
-T hope I shall not too much offend your delicacy if
I begin the first class of our insect assailants with a
very disgusting genus, which Providence seems to have
ereated to punish inattention to personal cleanliness.
But though this pest of man must not be wholly passed
over, yet, since it is unfortunately too well known, it
will not be at all necessary for me to enlarge upon its
history. I shall only mention one fact which shows the
astonishingly rapid increase of these animals, where
‘they have once gotten possession. It is a vulgar no-
tion, that a louse in twenty-four hours may see two
generations ; but this is rather overshooting the mark,
Leeuwenhoek, whose love for science overeame the
nausea that such creatures are apt to excite, proves
that their nits or eggs are not hatched till the eighth
day after they are laid, and that they do not themselves
commence laying before they area month old. He as-
éertained, however, that a single female louse may, in
eight weeks, witness the birth of five thousand descen-
dants*, You remember how wolves were extirpated
from this country, but perhaps never suspected any
monarch of imposing a tribute of lice upon his subjects.
Yet we are gravely told that in Mexico and Pert stich
a poll-tax was exacted, and that bags full of these trea-
sures were found in the palace of Montezuma? !!!
a Leeuw. Epist. 98, 1696.
b Bingley, Anim. Biogr. first N ii AIt St, Pierre’ s Studies,
&e i, 312.

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 85

Were our own taxes paid in such coin, what little .
er umbling would ihere be! xe
Two other species of this genus, besides the common
louse, are, in this country, parasites upon the human.
body——But already I seem to hear you exclaim,
s < Why dwell so long on creatures so odious and nau-
Seating, whose injuries are confined to the profanum
vulgus? : Leave them therefore to the canaille—they
are nothing to us.” Not so fast, my friend—recollect
what historians and other writers have recorded con-.
cerning the Phthiriasis or pedicular disease, and you
Must own that, for the quelling of human pride, and to.
Pull down the high conceits of mortal man, this most
loathsome of all maladies, or one equally disgusting,
has been the inheritance of the rich, the wise, the
noble, and the mighty ; and in the list of those that have
fallen victims to it, you will find poets, philosophers,
Prelates, princes, kings, and emperors. It seems more
Particularly to have been a judgement of God upon
°ppression and tyranny, whether civil or religious.
Thus the inhuman Pheretima mentioned by Herodo-
tas, Antiochus Epiphanes, the Dictator Sylla, the two
Herod, the Emperor Maximian, and, not to mention
More, the great persecutor of the Protestants, Pup
the halts were carried off by it. |
Tsay by this malady, or one equally testo be-
“Ruse it is not by any means certain, though some
learned men have so supposed, that all these instances,
and others of a similar nature, standing also upon rê-
erd, are to be referred to the same specific cause 5,
since there is very sufficient reason for thinking that
‘St least three different descriptions of insects are con-

86 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

cerned in the various cases that have been handed
down to us under the common name of Phthiriasis.
As the subject of maladies connected with insects, or
produced by them, is both curious and interesting, al-
though no writer, that I am aware of, has given it
full consideration, and at the same time falls in with
my general design, I hope you will not regard me as
guilty of presumption, and of intruding into the pro-
vince of medical men, if I enter rather largely into it,
and state to you the reasons that have induced me to
‘embrace the above hypothesis, leaving you full liberty
to reject it if you do not find it consonant to reason and
fact. The three kinds of insects to which I allude, as
concerned in cases that have been deemed Phthiriasis,
are lice (Pediculi, L.), mites (Acari, L.), and Larve
in general.

- As far as the habits of the genus Pediculus, whether
inhabiting man or the inferior animals, are at present
known, it does not appear, from any well ascertained.
fact, that the species belonging to it are ever subcuta-
neous. For this observation, as far as it relates to
man, I can produce the highest medical authority.
«The louse feeds on the surface of the skin,” says the
learned Dr. Mead in his Medica Sacra; and Dr. Wil-
lan, in his palmary work on Cutaneous Diseases, re-
_marks with respect to the body-louse, “ that the nits,
or eggs, are deposited on the small hairs of the skin,”
and that “the animals are found on the skin, or on the
linen, and not under the-cuticle, as some authors have
represented.” And he further observes, that “ many
marvellous stories are related by Forestus, Schenkius

and others respecting lice bred under the skin, and

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 87

‘N

discharged in swarms from abscesses, strumous ulcers,
and vesications. ‘The mode in which Pediculi are ge
nerated being now so well ascertained, no credit can
be given to these accounts.” Thus far this great man,
who however supposes (in which opinion Dr. Bateman
concurs with him) that the authors to whom he alludes
- had mistaken for lice some other species of insects,
which are not unfrequently found in putrefactive sores.
_ Ifthese observations be allowed their due weight, it
will follow, that a disease produced by animals residing
under the cuticle cannot be a true Phthiriasis, and
therefore the death of the poet Aleman, and of Phere-
cydes Syzius the philosopher, mentioned by Aristotle,
must have been occasioned by some other kind of in-
Sect. For, speaking of the lice to which he attributes
these catastrophes, he says that “ they are produced in
the flesh in small pustule-like tumours, which have no
pus, and from which, when punctured, they issue*.’’
F or the same reason, the disorder which Dr. Heber-
-den has described in his Commentaries, from the‘com-
munications of Sir E. Wilmot, under the name of
Morbus pedicularis, must also be a different disease,
Since, with Aristotle, he likewise represents the insects
as inhabiting tumours, from which they may be ex-
tracted when opened by a needle. He says, indeed,

that in every respect they resemble the common lice,
except in being whiter ; but medical men, who were
Not at the same time entomologists, iagat easily mis-
take an Acarus for a Pediculus.

a Hist. Animal. 1. 5. ¢. 31.

b From the terms ce tees by Aristotle and Dr. Mead in their Ac-
_ Count of these cases, it appears that the animal they meant could not
be maggots, but something bearing a more general resemblance to lice.

88 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED By INSECTS,

_ Dr. Willan, in one case of Prurigo senilis; observed.
a number of small insects on the patient’s skin and
linen. They were quick in their motion, and so mi-
nute that it required some attention to discover them.
He took them at first for small Pediculi; but under a
lens they appeared to him rather to be a nondescript
species of Pulex*; yet the figure he gives has not the
slightest likeness to the latter genus, while it bears a
striking resemblance to the former. It is not clear
whether his draughtsman meant to represent the insect ,
with six or with eight legs: if it had only six, it was
probably a Pediculus; but if it had eight, it would
form a new genus between the Acaride and the hexa-
pod Aptera. Dr. Bateman, in reply to some queries put
tohim, at my request, by our common and lamented
friend Dr. Reeve, relates that he understood from Dr,
Willan, in conversation, that the insect in question
jumped in its motion. This circumstance he regards
as conclusive against its being a Pediculus; but such
a consequence does not necessarily follow, since it not
seldom happens that insects of the same genus either
have or have not this faculty; for instance, Cyphon
hemispheericus, Acarus Scabiei, &c.

Dr. Willan has quoted with approbation two cases
from Amatus Lusitanus, which he seems to think cor-
rectly described as Phthiriasis. In one of them, how-
ever, which terminated fatally, the circumstances seem
rather hyperbolically stated—I mean, where it is said
that two black servants had no other employment than
carrying baskets full of these insects to the sea!! Per-
haps you will think I draw largely upon your credulity
åf IT call upon you to believe this ; I shall therefore leave

# On Cutaneous Diseases, 87, 98; and £, 7. fA

`
DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. $9

you to act as you please.—Thus much for pure Phthi-
riasis, which term ought to be confined to maladies
produced by lice. I shall only further observe, that as
many species as exist of these, which are the causes of
disease, so many kinds of Phthiriasis will there be.'
Acari, or mites, are the next insect sources of disease
in the human species, and that not of one, but probably
of many kinds both local and general. They are distin-
guished from Pediculi not only by their form, but alse
Often by their situation, since they frequently establish
themselves under the cuticle. With respect to local dis-
orders, Dr. Adams conjectures that Acari may be the
-ause of certain cases of Ophthalmia. Sir J, Banks, in
a letter to that gentleman, relates that some seamen
belonging to the Endeavour brig, being tormented with
a severe itching round the extremities of the eyelids,
One of them was cured by an Otaheitan woman, wha
_ With two small splinters of bamboo extracted from þe-
tween the cilia abundance of very minute lice, which
Were scarcely visible without a lens, though their mo-
tion, when laid on the thumb, was distinctly perceived,
De insects were probably synonymous with the
Ciron des paupières of Sauvages* .—Le Jeune, a French
Physician quoted in Mouffet, describes acase, in which
What seems a different species, since he calls them”
rather large, infested the white of the eye, exciting
an intolerable itching”.—Dr. Mead, from the Germen
Ephemerides, gives anaccount of a woman suckling her

child, from whose breast proceeded very minute ver-
Micles*, These were probably Acari. and perhaps that

a On Morbid Poisons, 306, 307. b Houffet, 267.
e Medica Sacra, 104, 105.

90 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS,

species, which, from its feeding upon milk, Linné
denominates A. Lactis. The great author last men-
tioned describes an insect, a native of America, under
the name of Pediculus Ricinoides, which, upon the
authority of Rolander, he informs us, gets into the
feet of people as they walk, sucks their blood, oviposits*
in them, and so occasions very dangerous ulcers. It
would-be an Acarus, he observes, but it has only six
legs. Now Herman aflirms, that some species of
Trombidium (a gen us separated by Fabricius from
Acarus) have in no state more than six legs’. Others
of the tribe of Acaridw, and the insect in question
amongst the rest, may be similarly circumstanced ; or
those that Rolander examined might have been larva,
which in this tribe are usually hexapods. l

Linné appears to have been of opinion that. many
contagious diseases are caused by Acari®.. How far he
was justified in this opinion I shall not here inquire;
facts aione can decide the questicn, and observations
made by men acquainted with Entomology as well as
the science of diseases. Considerable deference and
attention, however, arecertainly dueto the sentiments
of so great a naturalist, in whom these necessary qua-
lifications were united in no common degree. With
respect to the dysentery and the itch, he affirms that
this had been manifested to his eyes. X ou will wish

2 It is to he hoped this new word may be admitte , as the laying of
eggs cannot otherwise be expressed without a periphrasis. For eht
same reason its substantive Oviposition will be employed.

b Mem. Anlerologigue, 19.

ce Insecta ejusmodi minutissima, forte Acaros diverse speciei causas

esse diversorum worberrm contagiusorum, ab analogia et experientia

Hnetepus acquisita, facili-credimus negatio., Amæn. de, vy. 94.

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 91

probably to know the arguments that may be adduced
in confirmation of this opinion; I will therefore en-
deavour to satisfy you as well as Tam able. The fol-
lowing history given by Linné seems to prove the-
dysentery connected with Acari.

Rolander, a student in Entomology, while ke re-
Sided in the house of the illustrious Swede, was at-
tacked by the disease in question, which quickly gave
Way to the usual remedies. Eight days after, it re-
turned again, and was as before soon removed. A third
time, at the end of the same period, he was seized with
it. All the while he had been living like the rest of the
family, who had nevertheless escaped. This, of course,
Cecasioned no little inquiry into the cause of what had
happened. Linné, aware that Bartholinus had attri- |
buted the dysentery to insects, which he professed to
have seen, recommended it to his pupil to examine his
feces. Rolander, following this advice, discovered in
them innumerable animalcules, which upon a close ex-
amination proved to be Acari. It was next a question
how he alone came to be singled out by them; and thus
he accounts for it. It was his habit not to Gridi at his
meals; butin the night, growing thirsty, he often sip-
Ped some liquid out ofa vessel made of juniper wood.
Inspecting this very narrowly, he observ ed, in the
‘chinks between the ribs, a white line, which, when
Viewed under a lens, he found to consist of innumerable
Acari, precisely the same with those that he had voided.

arious experiments were tried with them, anda pre-
paration ofrhubarb was found to destroy Kii mostef-
fectually. He afterwards discovered them in vessels
Containing acids, and citen under the bung of casks*,.

a _dmen. Ac. v. 94-98.

92 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

In the instance here recorded, the dysentery, or diar-
rhea, was evidently produced by these Acari; but it
would be going too far, I apprehend, to assert that
they are invariably the cause of that disease. :
That Scabies, or the itch, is occasioned by an Acarus
is not a doctrine peculiar to the moderns, Mouffet
mentions Abinzoar, called also Avenzoar, a celebrated
Hispano-Arabian physician of Seville, who flourished.
in the twelfth century, as the most ancient author that
notices it. He calls these Acari little lice that creep
under the skin of the hands, legs, and feet, exciting
pustules full of fluid*. Joubert, quoted by the same
author, describes them under the name of Sirones or
mites, asalways being concealed heneath the epidermis,
under which they creep like moles, gnawing it, and
causing a most troublesome itching. It appears that
Mouffet, or whoever was the author of that part of the
Theatrum Insectorum, was himself also well acquainted
with these animals, since he remarks that their habita-
tion is not in the pustule but near it: a remark after-
wards confirmed by Linné”, and more recently by Dr.
Adams°, In common with the former of these aus
thors, Mouffet further notices the effect of warmth
upon them in exciting motion’. Our intelligent coun-
tryman also observes that they cannot be Pediculi,
since they live under the cuticle, which lice never do*.

a Mouffet, 266,
b Acarus sub ipsa pustula minimé quzrendus est, sed longius recessit,
sequendo rugam cuticulæ observatur. dman. Ac. v. 95. not.**.
=: Observations, &e. 296.
d Extractus acu et super ungue positus, movet se si solis etiam calore
adjuvetur. ubi supr. Ungui impositas vix movetur : si vere oris calido ha-
litu affletur, agilisin ungue cursitat. Fn. Succ. 1975.

€e Neque Syrones isti sunt de pediculorum genere, ut Johannes Langius

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS: 03

To the epistle dedicatory, the editor speaks also of these
Acari as living in burrows which they have excavated
in the skin near a lake of water; from which if they
be extracted with a needle and put upon the nail, they
Show in the sun their red head and the fect with which
they walk*. And to close my veteran authorities, Ju-
nius thus explains the word Acarus, as I find him
quoted in Gouldman’s useful dictionary, “A small
Worm, which eats under the skin, and makes burrows
in itehing hands».” i :

In more modern times, microscopical figures have
been added to descriptions of the insect. Bonomo first
furnished this valuable species of elucidation. His
figures, however, which are copied by Baker in his
Work on the microscope, are far from accurate*, Those
of De Geer and Dr. Adams are much more satisfactory,
and mutually confirm each other’. From them it is
evident that the same insect inhabits the scabies of
Sweden and Madeira. Dr. Bateman, in the letter be-
fore alluded to, informs his correspondent, that he had. —
Seen that from Madeira, and gives it as his opinion,
that there cannot be a doubt of the existence of an

: & Aristotele videtur asserere : ie illi extra cutem vivunt, hi vero non.

MOL supp, i i , x
à Imo ipsi Acari præ exiguitate indivisibiles, ex cuniculis prope aquæ

acum quos. foderunt in cute, acu extracti et ungue impositi, caput ru-
"um, et pedes quibus gradiuntur ad solem produnt. p. Vi.

b Teredo sive-exiguus vermiculus, qui subter cutim erodit agitque cus

Culos in pruriginosis manibus. Gouldman tells us these Acari were also

e / +
SA Hand-worms. Another English name is given in Mouffet, viz.
Wheale ; i i

ùi

-worms. ;
t © Osservàzioni intorno a pellicelli del corpo umano fatte dal Dotior Gio
0 . ‘ f
— Bonomo, &e. Jf. 1-3. Baker On Microsc. i. t, 13; fed. *
De Geer, vii 4, 5. A 19-14, i

94 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS;

Acarius Scabiei; an opinion which he repeats in his taté
work on Cutaneous Diseases; and which, according to
“Herman*, has been also rendered unquestionable: bé
Wichmann in his Etiologie de la Gale (Hanovre 1786);
a work I have not had an opportunity of consulting:
From all this we may regard the point as so far settled;
that such an animal exists at least as an 1 occasional
concomitant of scabies.

This fact being ascertained, a more complex inquiry
remains, which branches out into two distinct ques-
tions. Is: scabies always produced by these insects?

Or, if this be not the case, Is the animate seabies a

distinct disease from the inanimate ?

It is very remarkable that Linné, a physician as well
as a naturalist; and De Geer, one of the most accurate
observers that ever existed; should both assign the in-
sect in question as the undoubted cause of the common
scabies of their country; the one applying to the dis-
ease he was speaking of the epithet of communissima,
and observing the fact to be notorious, (cuique liquet,)
and the other designating it by its well known # French
name “ La Gale.” And is it not equally remarkable
that such men as J ohn Hunter, Dr. Heberden, Dr.
Bateman, Dr. Adams, and Mr.-Baker should never,
in this country, have been able to meet with it? Did
it indeed exist in our common scabies, it seems impos-
sible thatit could have escaped the observation of the
two last of these gentlemen ; Dr. Adams being so well

a Mem. Apkerolagigne, 79.
b Lam informed by my learned friend Alexander MacLeay, Fs Se Se-

cretary to the Linnean Society, that, in the north of Scotland, the inses*
of the iteb is well known, and easily discovered and extracted,

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 95>

walifiéd to detect it from-his observations in Madeira,
and Mr, Baker from his expertness in microscopical
researches. Dr. Bateman, in. ihe letter above quoted,
Says, “T have hunted it with a good magnifier, in
Many cases of itch, both in and near the pustules, and
inthe red streaks or furrows, but always without suc-
cess.” In his work on Cutaneous Diseases he tells us,
however, that he has seen it, in one instance, when it
had been taken from the diseased surface by another
Practitioner. And though Dr. Willan in his book
Speaks of the Acarus as the concomitant of this disease,
Yet his learned friend just mentioned observes, that he
admitted that the insect was not to be found in ordi-
nary cases, and indeed never seemed to have made up
his mind upon the subject. When I was at Norwich
n 1812, Dr. Reeve very kindly accompanied me to the
“Ouse of Industry there, to éxamine a patient whose
body was very full of the pustules of this disorder; but
though we used a good magnifier, we could discover
Nothing like an insect. I must observe, however, that
°tr examination was made in December, in severe
Weather, when the cold inight, perhaps, render the.ani-
nal torpid, and less easy to be discovered. tia
From the above facts it seems fair to infer that this
animal is not invariably the cause of scabies, but that
ere are cases with which it has no connexion: Now,
“On this inference, would not another also follow, that
the disease produced by the insect is specifically distinct
*om that in which it cannot be found? Sauvages and
7T. Adams are both of this opinion *, the former assign-

Ms This opinion Dr. Bateman thinks probably the true one, Cutan. Dis.

\

96 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

ing to it the trivial name of vermicularis ; and the lat
ter proving, by very satisfactory arguments, that it is
different from the other. If they were both animate
diseases, but derived from two distinct species of ani-
mals, (for it seems not impossible that even our com
mon itch may be caused by an Acarus more minute than
the other, and so more difficult to find,) they would
properly be considered as distinct species; much more,
therefore, if one be animate and the other inanimate.
Nay this, I should think, would lead to a doubt whe-
ther even their genus were the same. I shall dismiss
this part of my subject with the mention of a disco-
very of Dr. Adams, which seems to have escaped both
Linné and De Geer—that the Acarus Scabiei is en-
dowed with the faculty of leaping; (in this respect re-
sembling the insect found by Willan in Prurigo senilis.
mentioned above,) for which purpose its four posterior
thighs are incrassated*.

But besides these Acarine diseases, there seems to be
one (unless with Linné we regard the plague as of this
class’) more fearful and fatal than them all. You will,
perhaps, conjecture I am speaking of that described by
_ Aristotle and Sir E. Wilmot as the Phthiriasis, and
your conjecture will be right. But some think, and
those men of merited celebrity, that Acart have nothing —
to do in these and similar cases, for that maggots were
the parasites mistaken for lice. This, from the passage
above quoted, appears to have been Dr, Willan’s opi
nion, to which, in the letter so often referred to, Dr-

a Probably this Acarus in the modern system would form a distinct ge-

nus. Latreille places it in.his Sarcoptes with the £c, passerinus, L. Latte
Geni, 152,2. b Amen, Ac. ubi supr, 101«

\

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. "97

À

Bateman subscribes ; adding as a reason for excluding
Acari from being concerned, that “they are too mi-
tute, and never have been: seen in such numbers as to
be mistaken for lice.” But both Acari and Pediculi
Vary in size, some of the former being larger than some
of the latter. And allowing them to be ever so minute,
‘yet when they issue in swarms, as mites from a cheese,
they would be very visible, were it only from their mo-
tion. Besides, ‘as they are furnished with legs, their
Motions resemble those of lice infinitely more than do
the contortions of maggots. So that an Acarus would
be deemed a louse much sooner by an unentomological :
Observer than would a maggot. Whether Acari have
ever been seen in such numbers as to be mistaken for
lice, is the point in question; and therefore, by itself,
“annot be admitted for a valid argument. Theash.
Acarus Scabiei does not appear to swarm in ordinary ©
tases, yet this is. certainly no reason why other species —
may not do so. Where it has once made a settlement,
how incredibly, and in how short a space of time, does
the Siro or cheese-mite multiply! Acarus Destructor
and many other speeies are equally rapid in their in-
“rease.— Millions of lice are said by Lafontaine, whom
ermann calls.a very exact describer, to show them-
Selves in Plica polonica, on the third day of the dis-
“€ase*; but whether the last-mentioned author be cor-
rect in thinking it more probable that they are Acari”,
`‘Thave not the means of judging. ;

I shall now produce two instances where Acari were
) evidently concerned.. Dr. Mead, from the German

Phemerides, relates the miserable case of a French

a Traités de Chirur gie, &c. Leipsig. 1792, b Mem. Apterolog. 18,
VON ¢ L H

OS DIRECT. INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.”

nobleman, from whose eyes, nostrils, mouth, and uri+.
nary passage animalcules of a red colour, and exces-
sively minute, broke forth day and night, attended by
the-most horrible and excruciating pains, and at length
eceasioned his death. The account further says, that
they were produced from his corrupted blood. This
was probably a fancy originating in their red colour +
but the whole history, whether we consider the size
and colour of the animals, or the places from which
they issue, is inapplicable to larvæ or maggots, and
agrees very well with Acari, some of which, particu-
larly A. autumnalis, are of a bright red colour.. The
other case, and a very similar one, is that recorded by
Moüffet of Lady Penruddock; concerning whom he
expressly tells us, that Acari swarmed in every part of
het body—her head, eyes, nose, lips, gums, the soles of
her feet, &c., tormenting her day and night, till, in
spite of every remedy, all the flesh of her. body being
consumed, she was at length relieved by death from
this terrible state of suffering. Mouffet attributes her
disease to the Acarus Scabiei ; but from the symptoms
and fatal result: it seems to have been a different and
much more terrific animal.’ He supposes, in this in-
‘stance, the insect to have been generated by drinking
edat’s milk too copiously.” This, if correet, would lead
to'a conjecture that it might have been the A. Lactis, L-

These cases I hope will satisfy you that Acari, as
-well as Pediculi, are the cause of diseases in the hü-
man frame. This, indeed, as has been before observed,
is allowed on all hands with respect to that of the itch >
and it is, certainly, not more improbable that ma?
should be exposed to the attack of several species of

‘biricr iNJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 99

this genus, than that three or four kinds of Pediculus
Should infest him. If you are convinced by what I
have written, you will concur with me in thinking that
the one are as much entitled to give their name to the
‘disease which they produce as the other; and the term
“Acariasis, by which, with due deference to medical
men, I propose to distinguish generically all acarine
diseases, will not be refused its mea amongst your
Genera Morborum. :
T shall now proceed to ae remaining eats of dis-
_ eases mistaken for Phthiriasis;. these, namely, which
are produced. by /arve. There are two terms employed
‘by ancient authors, Mule (Evaa)and Scolex (Xxwank),
which’ seem properly to denote larva; but there is
often such a want of precision in the language of wri-
ters unacquainted with Natural History, that itis very
difficult to make out what objects they mean ; and ex-
pressions which, strictly taken; should be understood
of larve, may probably sometimes have been used to
‘denote the cause of either the pedicular or acarine dis-
ase. - Lule, which term, though given by Hesychius
as synonymous with Scolex, is by Plutarch used as of
different import*, seems properly to mean those larve
Which are generated in dead carcases, at least so Ho-
mer has more than once applied it? : it is therefore a
Word of a much more restricted sense than Scolex,
Which probably belongs to the larvae of every order of
insects ; for so Aristotle employs it, when he says that
all insects produce a Scolex, or are larviparous*. Yet
when Homer compares Harpalion stretched.dead upon
aTh Arlanpe 9887 BIL ¢.1.599, w k AA

© Ta ò: sroga mayra cxwarnnoroxts. De Generat: Animal. EE E

Hz

100 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

the ground to'a Scolex*, it should seem as if he used

the word for an earth-worm, which Aristotle common-
ly calls by a figurative periphrasis, “ Entrails of the
earth.” In the Holy Scriptures this word is used to
signify larve which prey upon and are the torment of
living bodies*. It may on this account, perhaps, be re-
garded as generally meaning such larve, to whatever
order or genus they belong.

Dr. Mead, therefore, is most probably right when
he considers the disease stated by the ancients to be
caused by Eule or Scoleches, commonly translated
worms, as distinct from Phthiriasis; and if so, the in-
human Pheretima, who swarmed with Lule, and He-
rod Agrippa, who was eaten of Scoleches*,.were pro-
bably neither of them destroyed either by Pediculi or
‘Acari, but by larve or maggots. And when Galen
prescribed a remedy for ulcers inhabited by Scoleches,
observing that animals similar to those generated by
putrid substances are often found in abscesses, he pro-
bably meant the same thing. The proper appellation
of this genus of diseases would be Scolechiasis.

This dissertation may perhaps appear to you rather
prolix and tedious: yet to settle the meaning of terms
is of the first importance. To inquire what ancient
writers intended. by the words which they employ, and
whether such as have been usually regarded as syno-
ymous are really so, may often fur nish us with a clue
to some useful or interesting truth; and not seldom
enable us to rescue their reputation from much of the

all. v. 1. 65465,

b rns sirsa, De Animal, Incessu, c. 9. De ees Animal. \. 3. cll
c Mark ix 44, 46. 4&. © dzwi negur, Acts xii. 23.

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 101

censure which has been inconsiderately cast upon it.
Because they did not know every thing, or so muchas _
We do, we are too apt to think that they knew nothing.
That they fell into very considerable errors, especially
in subjects connected with Natural History, cannot be
denied; but then it ought to be considered that they _
Possessed scarcely any of those advantages by which
We are enabled to penetrate into nature’s secrets. ‘The
want of the microscope alone was an effectual bar to
their progress in this branch of science. Yet, in some
| instances, when they took a general view of a subject,
3 they appear to have had very correct ideas. This ob-
Servation particularly applies to the philosopher of
Stagyra, whose mighty mind and lyncean eye, in spite
of those mists of prejudice and fable that enveloped
the age in which he lived, enabled him in part to pierce
through the gloom, and comprehend and behold the
fair outline that gives symmetry, grace and beauty to
the whole of nature’s form, though he mistook, or was
not able to trace out, her less prow ceatiines and-
minor lineaments,

It is now time to return from this long digression,
which however is closely connected with the subject of
this letter, to the point from which I deviated. Taking
my leave of the disgusting animals which gave rise to
it, I proceed to call your attention to another of our
Pygmy tormentors, which, in the opinion of some, seems
to have been regarded as an agreeable rather than a
repulsiye object. “ Dear Miss,” said a lively old Lady
to a friend of mine, (who had the misfortune to be con~.
fined to her bed by a broken limb, and was complain-

\

102 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

ing that the fleas tormented her,) “ don’t you like
fleas? Well, I think they are the prettiest little merry*
things in the world.—I never saw a dull flea in all my
life.” The celebrated Willughby kept a favcurite flea,
which used at stated times to be admitted to suck the
palm of his hand; and enjoyed this privilege for three:
months, when the cold killedit. And Dr. Townson,
from the encomium which he bestows upon these vigi-
lant little vaulters, as supplying the place of an alarum
and driving us from the bed of sloth, should seem to
have regarded them with feelings much more compla-
cent than those of Dr. Clarke and his friends, when
their hopes of passing “one night free from the attacks
of vermin” were changed into despair by the infornia-
tion of the laughing Sheik, that “ the king of the fleas
held his court at Tiberias :” or than those of MM?
Lewis and Clarke, who found them more tormenting’
than all the other plagues of the Missouri country,
where they sometimes compel even the natives to shift
their quarters. If you unhappily view them in this un-
favourable light, and have found ordinary methods un-
availing for ridding yourself of these unbidden guests;
I can furnish’you with a probatum est recipe, which the
first-mentioned traveller tells us the Hungarian shep-
herds (who seem to have been stupidly insensible to
their value as alarums) find completely effectual to put
to flight these insects and their neighbours the lice.
This is ‘not, as you may be tempted to think, by a re-
markable attention to cleanliness.—Quite the reverse.
—They grease their linen with hog’s. lard, and thus
render themselves disgusting even to fleas! If this does
not satisfy, I have another recipe in store for you. You

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 103

thay shoot at them with a cannon, as report says, fid
_ Christina Queen of Sweden, whose piece of artillery,

of Liliputian calibre, which was employed in this war-

fare, is still exhibited im the arsenal of Stockholm?.
- Bat, seriously, if you wish for an effectual remedy,
that prescribed by old Tusser, in the oe =e
will answer your purpose:

<< While wormwood hath seed, get a handfull or twaine,
To save against March, to make flea to refraine :
Where chamber is sweeped, and wormwood is strown,
No flea for his life dare abide to be knowne.”

To this genus belongs an insect, abundant in-the
West Indies and South America, the attacks of which
are infinitely more serious than those of the common —
flea. You will readily conjecture that Tam speaking of
the celebrated Chigoe or Jiggers, called also Nigua,
Tungua, and Pique’, (Pulex penetrans, L.,) one of
the direst personal pests with which the sins of man
have been visited. All disputes concerning the genus

“of this insect would have been settled long before
‘Swartz’stime, (who firstgave a satisfactory description
and figure of it , proving it to be a Pulex, as has been
observed above’,) had success attended the patriotic
attempt of the Capuchin friar recorded by Walton in
his History of St. Domingo, who brought away with
him from that island a colony of these animals, which
he permitted to eatablish themselves in one of his feet;

a Linn. Lach. Lapp. ii. 32, note *.

b Latreille supposes the Pique and Nigua to be synonymous with ea-
Fus americanus, L, Hist. Nat. vii. 364.—The Chigoe also he calisan dca-
rus, Ibid. 390. c See above, p. 50.

104 prrgoT INJURIES CAUSED.BY INSECTS. :

but unfortunately for himself, and for science, the foot

intrusted with the precious deposit mortified, was
obliged to be amputated, and with all its inhabitants
committed to the waves. According to Ulloa, and his
opinion is confirmed by Jussieu, there are two- South
American species of this mischievous insect. It is de-
scribed as generally attacking the feet and legs*, get-
ting, without being felt, between the skin and the flesh,
usually under the nails of the toes, where it nidificates
and lays its eggs; and i if timely attention ‘be not paid
to it, which, as it occasions no other uneasiness than
itching, (the sensation at first, I am assured, is rather
pleasing than otherwise,) is sometimes neglected, it
multiplies to such ‘a degree, as to be attended by the
most fatal consequences, often, as in the above in-
‘stance, rendering amputation necessary, and sometimes
causing death’. The female slaves in the West In:
dies are frequently employed to extract these pests,

which they do with uncommon dexterity. Yarico; so
celebrated in prose and verse, performed: this :kind.
‘office for honest Ligon, who says, im his History of
Barbadoes, “Thave had ten (Chegoes) taken out of
my feet in a morning, by the most unfor tunate Yarico,
an Indian woman‘. ”

You have already, perhaps, been satiated with the —
account before given of our enemies of the Acarus tribe;
there area few, however, which I could not with pro-

a Captain Hancock, late commander of His Majesty’s ship the Fou-
droyant, to whose friendly exertions Tam indebted for one of the finest

collections of Brazil insects ever brought to England, informs me that

they will attack any exposed part of the body. He had once in his hand.
b Piso and Margr. Ind, 289, c p. 65,

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 105

priety introduce there, as they do not take up their
abode and breed. in us, which nevertheless annoy us
considerably. One of these is a hexapod so minute, .
that, Were it not for the uncommon brilliancy of its co-
‘Our, which is the most vivid crimson that can be con-
ceived, it would be quite invisible. It is known by the
name of the harvest-bug, (Acarus autumnalis, Shaw,).
and is so called, I imagine, from its attacking the legs
of the. labourers employed in the harvest, in the flesh
of which it buries itself at the root of the hairs, pro-
dacing intolerable itching, attended by inflammation
and considerable tumours, and sometimes eyen occa-
Sloning fevers?.—A similar insect is found in Brazil,
abounding in the rainy season, particularly during the
Bleams of sunshine, or fine days that intervene; as
Small as a point, and moving very fast. These animals
Set upon the linen and cover it in a moment; after-
Wards they insinuate themselves into the skin and oc-
*asion a most intolerable itching, They are with dif-
culty extracted, and leave behind them large livid.
tumours, which subside in a day or two. An. insect
Very tormenting to the wood-cutters and the settlers
n the Mosquito shore and the bay of Honduras, and >
called: by them the doctor, is thought to be synonymous
With this >,—More serious consequences have been
own to. follow the bite of another Acarus related to
we above, if not the same Species, common in Marti-

Nique, and called there the Béte rouge. When our
Soldiers in camp were attacked by this animal, dan-
8€rous ulcers succeeded the symptoms just mentioned,

® Natural Miscell, ii. t, 42;

A b Lindley in the Roya? Military
* Y9nicle for March 1815, p- 459.

106 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

which, in several cases, became so bad, that the limb
affected was obliged to be taken off *.
I was once collecting insects in Norwood, near Lon-
don, when my hands were covered by a number of |
small hungry ticks, which were so greedy after blood,
that they penetrated deep into my flesh, giving me no
little pain ; and it was not without difficulty that I ex-
tracted them. I suspect that this was the dog-tick
(A. Ricinus, L.) which is often found on plants ; but I
am not certain, as I neglected to examine it, my atten-
tion at that time being almost wholly given to Cole-
optera. Lyonnet seems to have been attacked, in one of
his entomological excursions, by the same or a similar
insect, which he broke, so firmly had it fixed itself, ip
endeavouring to extract it; and he was obliged to lay
open the place lest an abscess should be formed”. But
the worst of all the tick tribe is the American (Acarus
americanus, L.) described by Professor Kalm. This
insect, which is related to the preceding, is found in
the woods of North America, and is equally an enemy
to man and beast. They are there so infinitely nu-
merous, that if you sit down upon the ground, or upor
the trunk of a tree, or walk with naked feet or legs,
they will cover you, and, plunging their serrated ro”
strum into the bare places of the body, begin to suck
your blood, going deeper and deeper till they are half
‘buried in the flesh. Though at first they occasion n°
uneasiness, when they have thus made good their set-
-tlement, they produce an intolerable itching, followed
by acute pain and large tumours. It is now extremely

a I owe this information to Robinson Kittoe, Esq. formerly Clerk of
the Cheque in the King’s Yard, Woolwiche b Lesser L. ii, 222, note”

fet

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 107

difficult to extract them, the animal rather suffering it-
Self to be pulled to pieces than let goits hold; so that.
the rostrum and head being often left in the wound,
Produce an inflammation.and suppuration which render
it deep and dangerous. 'These ticks are at first very
Small, sometimes scarcely visible, but by suction will
‘well themselves out till they are as big as the end of
one’s finger, when. they often fall to the ground of
themselves*, . The serrated haustellum of the ticks,
Which, like the barbed sting of a bee, cannot be ex-
tracted: unless the animal cooperates, is well worth
your inspection ; and the species which infests our dogs
18'so common that yeu will have no difficulty in pro-
Curing one for examination.
~ Lhave now introduced you to the principal insects of
the Aptera order of Linné, which, in spite of all his
"are and all his power, assail the lord of the creation,
and make him their food. You will here, however,
Perhaps accuse me of omitting one very prominent an-
Hoyer of our comfort and repose, which you think þe-
longs to this tribe—the bed-bug (Cimezx lectularius, L.).
hen you area more practised entomologist, you will
‘ee clearly that this, though it has no wings, appertains
toanother order: neyertheless it may be introduced here
Without impropriety. Though now too common and
Well known, in this country it was formerly arare in-
sect, Had it not, two noble ladies, mentioned by Mouf-
» Would scarcely have been thrown into such an alarm
_ Sythe appearance of bug-bites upon them; which, until
their fears were dispelled by their physician, who hap-
Pened also to bea naturalist, they considered as nothing

-A De Geer, vii. 154-60,

108 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

less than symptoms of the plague. Being shown the
living cause of their fright, their fears gave place to
mirth and laughter*. Commerce, with many good
things, has also introduced amongst us many great
evils, of which noxious insects form no small part; and
one of her worst presents were doubtless the disgust-
ing animals now before us. They seem, indeed, as the
above fact proves, to have been productive of greater
alarm at first than mischief, at least if we may judge
from the change of name which took place upon their
becoming common. Their original English name was
Chinche or Wall-louse® ; and the term Bug, which is
a Celtic word, signifying a ghost or goblin, was ap-
plied to them after Ray’s time, most probably because
they were considered as “terrors by night*.” But
: however horrible bugs may have been in the estima-
tion of some, or nauseating in that of others, many of
the good people of London seem to regard them with
the greatest apathy, and take very little pains to get
rid of them; not generally, however, it is to be hoped,
to sch an extent as the predecessor of a correspon-
dent in Nicholson’s J ournal, who found his house sO
dreadfully infested by them, that it resembled the Ba-
nian hospital at Surat®, all his endeavours to destroy ;

a Theatr. Ins. 210. This happened in 1503; which circumstance re?
futes Southall’s opinion that bugs were not knownin England before 1670+
‘b Rai. Hist. Ins.T. Mouffet,269. They were called also punez, from
the French punaise. c Hence our English word Bug-beat
in Matthews’s Bible, Ps. xci. 5. is rendered, ‘f Thou shalt not nede to be
afraid of any bugs by night? The word in this sense often occurs if
Shakespear. Winter's Tale, act iti. sc. 2. 3 Hen. VI. act v. sc. 2. Hamlet
act v. sc. 2. See Douce’s Illustrations of Shakespear, i. 329. l

a The Banian hospital at Surat is a’ most remarkable institution. At

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED RY INsEcTs, 109.

them being at first in vain. And no wonder; for, as
he learned from a neighbour, his predecessor would
never suffer them to be disturbed or his bedsteads -to
de removed, till, in the end, they swarmed to an incre-
dible degree, crawling up even the walls of his draw-
ing-room; and after his death millions were found in
his bed and chamber furnitures © Aash:
The winged insects of the order to which the bed-
bug belongs, often inflict very painful wounds.—I was
nce attacked by a small species, Cimex Nemorum, L.
believe, which put me nearly to as much torture as
the sting of a wasp. The water boatman, (Notonecta
Slauca, L.,) an insect related to the Cimicide, which
always swims upon its back, made me suffer still more
Severely, as if I had been burned, by the insertion of
‘ts rostrum; but the wound was not followed by any
inflammation ; and long before me Willughby had
made the same discovery and observation”. St. Pierre,
in his Voyage to Mauritius, mentions a species of bug
found in that island, the bite of which is more venom-
®us than the sting of a scorpion, and is succeeded by
a tumour as big as the egg of a pigeon, which conti-
üues for four or five days. You are well acquainted
With the history and properties of the Raia T. orpedo

at visit, the hospital contained horses, mules, oxen, sheep, goats, mon-

teys, poultry, pigeons, and a variety of birds. The most extraordinary
Ward was that appropriated to rats and mice, bugs, and other noxious
“ermin, The overseers of the hospital frequently hire beggars from the:
“treets, for a stipulated sum, to pass a night amongst the fleas, lice, and
sOn the express condition of suffering them to enjoy their feast with-

x Molestation. Forbes’s Oriental Memoirs. i ake ; i
-a Nicholsons Journal, xvii. 40. l b Proboscis in cutem intrusa

€trimum dolerem excitat, qui tamen brevi cessate Rai, Hist. Ins. 58,

\

by gs

(IO . DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

and Gymnotus eleciricus; but, I dare aver, haveno ides
that any insect possesses their extraordinary powers:

—Yet I can assure you, upon good authority, that
Reduvius serratus, F., commonly known in the West
Indies by the name of the wheel-bug, can, like them;

communicate an electric sheck to the person whose
flesh it touches. The late Major-general Davies, of
the Royal Artillery, well known as a most accurate
observer of nature and an indefatigable collector of
her treasures, as well asa most admirable painter of
them, once informed me, that when abroad, having
taken up this animal and placed it upon his hand, at
gave him.a considerable shock, as if from an electri¢
jar, with its legs, which he felt as high as his shoul
‘ders; and, dropping the creature, he observed six —
marks upon his hand where the six’ feet had stood.’
You may now possibly think that I have nearly gone
through the catalogue of our personal assailants of the
insect-tribes. If such, however, is your expectation, I
fear you will be disappointed, since I have many more,
and some tremendous ones, to enumerate: but as 4
small compensation for such a detail of evils and in”
juries to which our species is exposed from foes seem”
ingly so insignificant, and of acts of rebellion of the
vilest and most despised of our subjects against out
boasted supremacy, the objects to which I shall next
call your. attention are not, like most of our apterous
enemies, calculated to excite disgust and nausea whe?
we see them or speak of them; nor do they usually
_ steal upon us during the silent hours of repose, ( though
I must except here the gnat or mosquito,) but are many
of them very beautiful, and boldly make their attack

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS, 111

upon us in open day, when we are best able to defend
ourselves, Borne on rapid wings, wherever they-find

“Us, they endeaveur to lay us under contribution, and
the tribute they exact is our blood. Wonderful. and
Various are the weapons that enable them to enforce
their demand. What would you think of any large
animal that should come to attack you with a tremen-
dous apparatus of knives and lancets issuing from its
mouth? Yet such are the instruments by means of
which the fire-eyed and blood-thirsty horse-fly ( Ta-
anus, L.) makes an incision in your flesh; and then,

i forming a siphon of them, often carries off many drops
of your blood*. The pain they inflict, when they open
à vein, is usually very acute. A fly of this kind net
only occasioned Mr. Sheppard considerable pain by its
bite, but also produced swelling and blackness round
One eye; and the flesh of his cheek and chin was so
enlarged from it as to hang down. ‘In this country,
however, theirattacks are not frequent enoughto make
them more than a minor “ misery of human life; but
the burning-fly (brulot) or sand-fly of America® and
the West Indies, which seem to be the same insect,
Causes a much more intolerable anguish, which has
been compared to what a red-hot needle ora spark of
fire would occasion us to endure. Lambert, in his
Travels through Canada, &e. says “ They are so very
Small as to be hardly perceptible in their attacks; and
Your forehead will be streaming with blood before you
are sensible of being amongst them°.”—Yet we have

a One took eight drops from Reaumur, iv. 230. Peares VII.’ Fie. 5.

b Bartram’s Travels, 383. :

©1127, The West India sand-fly was noticed by Robinson Kittoe,
Fay. who however does not recollect their fetching blood.

\

112 viRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS:

one species ( Stomoxys calcitrans, F.), alluded to in 2
former letter as so nearly resembling the. commop
house-fly*, which, though its oral instruments are to
appearance not near so tremendous, is a much greater
torment than the Tabanus. 'This little pest, I speak
feelingly, ificessantly interrupts our studies and com-
fort in showery weather, making us even stamp like
the cattle by its attacks on our legs; and, if we drive
‘it away ever so often, returning again and again to
the charge. In Canada they are infinitely worse. “1
have sat down to write,” says Lambert, (who though
he calls it the house-fly is evidently speaking of the
Stomoxys), “ and“ have been obliged to throw away
my pen in consequence of their irritating bite, which
has obliged me every moment to raise my hand to my
eyes, nose, mouth, and ears in constant succession.
‘When I could no longer write, I began to read; and
was always obliged to keep one hand constantly on
the move towards my head. Sometimes in the course
of a few minutes I would take half a dozen of my tor-
mentors from my lips, between which I a them
just as they perched». 33

The swallow-fly (Ornithomyia Hirundinis, Fritt.
Hippobosca, L.), whose natural food is the bird after
which it is named, has been known to make its repast
ón the human species. One found its way into'a bed
of the Rey. R. Sheppard, where it first, for several
nights, sorely annoyed a friend of his, and afterwards
himself, without their suspecting the culprit. After a
close search, however, it was discovered in the form of
this fly, w which, forsaking the nest of the swallow, had

by some chance taken its station between the sheets;

a See above, p. 49-50. : b Travels; &e. i, 126.

DIRECT INJURIES-CAUSED RY. Insects, 113

and thus glutted itself with the blood of man.—In tras ©
Velling between Edam and Purmerend in North Hol-
land (J uly 21, 1815), in an open vehicle, I was much
teased by another bird-fly (Ornithomyia avicularia,
Latr.) (two individuals of which I caught) alighting
"pon my head, and inserting its rostrum into my flesh.
=Mr. Sheppard remarks, asa reason for this derelic-
tion of their appropriate food, that no sooner does life
depart from the bird that these flies infest, than they
‘mediately desert it and take flight, alighting upon
¢ e first living creature that they meet with ; which if
‘tbe not a bird they soon quit, but, as it should seem
rom the above facts, not before they have made a trial
°w it will suit them as food. ;
But of all the insect-tormentors of man, none are so
Sudly and universally complained of as the species.of
® genus Culex, L., whether known by the name of
Stats or mosquitos. Pliny, after Aristotle, distin-
Suishes well between Hymenoptera and Diptera, when
€ says the former have their sting in their tail, and the
tter in their mouth; and that to the one this weapon
'S given as the instrument of vengeance, and to the
‘Aer of avidity*. But the instrument of avidity in the
nus of which I am speaking, is even more terrible
an that óf vengeance in most insects that are armed
a it: like the latter also, as appears from the con-
‘Ment inflammation and tumour, it instills into its
i m a poison; the principal use of which, however,
°? render the blood more fluid and fitter for suction.
'S Weapon, which is more complex than the sting of
‘Menopterous insects, consisting of five pieces besides
. exterior sheath, some of which seem simply lan-

oo
S Hist. Nat. 1. xi, c. 28. Aristot. Hist, Animal. 1. i, c. 5.
OL

Ww

ae o I

/

{14 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

ceéts, while others are barbed like the spicula of a bee's
sting, is at onee calculated for piercing the flesh and
forming a siphon adapted to imbibe the blood*. There -
are several species of this genus whose bite is severe;
but none is to be compared to the common gnat (Culex
pipiens, L.), if, as has been generally afarmed, it be sy-
nonymous with the mosquito (though perhaps several
apecies are confounded under both names) ;-and to this,
tke most insatiable of biood-suckers, I shall principally
direct your attention.

In this country they are justly regarded as no trifling
evil; for théey follow us to all our haunts, intrude into
eur most secret retirements, assail us in the city and
in the country, in our houses and in our fields, in the
sun and in the shade: nay, they pursue us to our pil-
lows, and either keep us awake by the ceaseless hum of
their droning pipe, and their incessant endeavours to:
fix themselves upon our face, or some uncovered part
of our body; or, if im spite of them we fall asleep,
awaken us by the acute pain which attends the inser“
tion of their oral stings; attacking with most avidity
the softer sex, and trying their temper by disfiguring
their beauty. But although with us they are- usually
vather teasing than injurious ; yet upon some occ
sions they have approached nearer to the character 7
a plague, and emulated with success the mosquitos fi
other climates. Thus, we are told that in the year 173
they were so numerous, that vast columns of the”

_ 4 Pliny was aware of this double office of the proboscis of —

has well described it. “ Tetum vero perfodiendo tergori quo spicula"

ingenio ? Atque ut in capaci, cnm cerni non possit exilitas, ita rec”

proca geminav it arte, at fodiendo acuminatum pariter sorbendogee fist
„a esset?” Hist, Nat. |. Xi cv 2-

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS, 115

Were seen to rise in the air from Salisbury cathedral,
Which at a distance resembled columns of smoke, and
°ccasioned many people to think that the cathedral
was on fire. A similar occurrence, in like manner
Siving rise to an alarm of the church being on fire,
took place in J uly 1812 at Sagan in Silesia*. In the
following year at Norwich, in May, at about six o’clock
i the evening, the inhabitants of that city were alarm-
ed by the appearance of smoke issuing from the upper
Window of the spire of the cathedral, for which at the
time no satisfactory account could be given, but which
Was most probably produced by the same case, And
the year 17 66, in the month of August, they ap-
Peared in such incredible numbers at Oxford as to re-
Semble a black cloud, darkening the air and almost
totally intercepting the beams of the sun. One day, a

ittle before sun-set, six columns of them were observed
to ascend from the boughs of an apple-tree, some ina
Perpendicular and others in an oblique direction; to
e height of fifty or sixty feet. Their bite was so en-
Yenomed, that it was attended by violent and alarm-
Mg inflammation ; and one when killed usually con-
“ined as much blood as would cover three or four
“Quare inches of wall’, Our great poet Spenser seems
to have witnessed a similar appearance of them, which
“nished him with the following beautiful simile:
As when a swarme of gnats at eventide
Out of the fennes of Allan doe arise,
Their murmuring small trumpets sownden wide, _
Whiles in the air their clustring army fiies, $
That as a cloud doth seem to dim the skies :
a Germar’s Magazin der Entomologie, i131.
b Philos. Trans, 1767, 111-13,
12

416 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

Ne man nor beast may rest or take repast

For their sharp wounds and noyous injuries.

Till the fierce northern wind with blustering blast
` Doth blow them quite away, and in the ocean cast.

In Marshland in Norfolk, as I learn froma lady
who had an opportunity of personal inspection, the in-
habitants are so annoyed by the gnats, that the better
sort of them, as in many hot climates, have recourse to
a gauze covering for their beds, to keep them off du-
ring the night. Whether this practice obtains in other
fen districts I do not know.

But these evils are of small account compared with
what other countries, especially when we approach
the poles or the line, are destined to suffer from them;
for there they interfere so much with ease and com-
fort, as to become one of the worst of pests and a real
misery of human life. We may be disposed to smile
perhaps at the story Mr. Weld relates from General
Washington, that in one place the ‘mosquitos were £0
powerful as to pierce through his boots? (probably they
crept within the boots) ; butin various regions scarcely
anything less impenetrable than leather can withstand
their insinuating weapons and unwearied attacks. Oné
would at first imagine that regions where the pola?
winter extends its icy reign would not be much: an”
noyed by insects: but however probable the suppos!
tion, it is the reverse of fact, for nowhere are gnat?
more numerous. These animals, as well as the Tip’
lide, seem endowed with the privilege of resisting aPY
degree of cold, and of bearing any degree of heat. Ip
‘Lapland their numbers are so prodigious as to be com”

a Weld’s Travels, 8vo edit. 205. Yet Mouffet affirms the same : “ Mors
crudeles et venenati, triplices caligas, imo ocreas, item perforantes.” 8l:

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED By INSECTS. I17

pared to a flight of snow when the flakes fall thickest,
or to the dust of the earth. The natives cannot take a
mouthful of food, or lie down to sleep in their cabins,
unless they be fumigated almost to suffocation. In the
air you cannot draw your breath without having your
mouth and nostrils filled with them ; and unguents of
tar, fish-grease, or cream; or nets steeped in fetid
birch-oil, are scare cely sufficient to protect even the `
Case-hardened cuticle of the Laplander from their bite?.
In certain districts of Fr ance, the accurate Reaumur
informs us that he has seen people whose arms and legs
have become quite monstrous from wounds inflicted by
Snats ; and in some cases in such a state as to render
it doubtful whether amputation would not be neces-
Sary’, In the neighbourhood of the Crimea the Rus-
Sian soldiers are obliged to sleep in sacks to defend
themselves from the mosquitos; and even this is not
à sufficient security, for several of them die in conse-
quence of mortification produced by the bites of these
furious blood-suckers. This fact is related by Dr.
Clarke, and to its probability his own painful expe-
rience enabled him to speak. He informs us that the
bodies of himself and his companions, in spite of gloves,
Clothes, and handkerchiefs, were redered one entire
Wound, and the consequent excessive irritation and
Swelling excited a considerable degree of fever. Ina
most sultry night, when not a breath ofair was stirring,
exhaused by fatigue, pain, and heat, he sought shelter
In his carriage ; and, though almost suffocated, could
not venture to open a window for fear of the mosquitos.

à Acerbi’s Travels, ii. 5. 34-5. 51, Linn, Flor. Lapp. 380-1. Lach.
Lapp; ii, 108. De Geer, vi. 303-4. b Reaum., iv, 573.

118 . DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS,

Swarms nevertheless found their way into his hiding-
place ; and, inspite of the handkerchiefs with which
he had bound up his head, filled his mouth, nostrils,
and ears. In the midst of his torment he succeeded in
lighting a lamp, which was extinguished in a moment
by such a prodigious number of these insects, that their
‘carcases actually filled the glass chimney, and formed
a large conical heap over the burner. The noise they
make in flying cannot be conceived by persons who
have only heard gnats in England. It is to‘all that
hear ita most fearful sound*. Travellers and mariners
who have visited warmer climates give a similar ac-
count.of the torments there inflicted by these little
demons. One traveller in Africa complains that after
a fifty miles journey they weuld not suffer hin: to rest,
and that his face and hands appeared, from their bites,
as if he was infected with the small-pox in its worst
stage’. In the East, at Batavia, Dr. Arnold, a most
attentive and accurate observer, relates that their bite
is the most venomous he ever felt, occasioning a most
intolerable itching, which lasts several days. The sight
dr sound of a single one either prevented him from
going to bed for a whole night, or obliged him to rise
many times. ‘This species, which I have examined, is
distinct from the common gnat, and appears to be non-

it approaches nearest to C. annulata, but
the wings are: black and not spotted. And Captain
Stedman in America, as a proof ofthe dreadful state
to which he-and his soldiers were reduced by them,
mentions that they were forced to sleep with their
heads thrust into holes made in the earth with their

fa ‘ ae . s `
a Dr, Clarke’s Travels, i. 388. b Jackson’s Marecco, 57.

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 119

bayonets, and their necks wrapped round with their
hammocks?.

Itis not therefore incredible that Sapor, king of
Persia, as is related, should have, been compelled to
raise the siege of N isibis by a plague of gnats, which at-
tacking his elephants and beasts of burthen, so caused

the rout of his army, whatever we may think ofthe
= 5 . eN T . °

miracle to which it was attributed; nor that the in-

habitants of various cities, as Mouffet has collected

from different authors‘, should, by an extraordinary
multiplication of this plague, have been compelled to
‘desert them; or that by their power to do mischief,
like other conquerors who have been the torment of
the human race, they should have attained to fame,
‘and have given hath name to bays, towns, and even
to considerable territories*.

And now, which seems to you the greater terror,
that the forest should resound with the roar of the lion
or the tiger, or with the hum of the gnat? ‘Which
evil is most to be deprecated, the neighbourhood of
these ferocious animals, terrible as they are for their
cruelty and strength, or to live amidst the polar or
tropical myriads of mosquitos, and be subject to the
torture. of their: incessant attacks? When you con-
sider that from the one prudence and courage may
Secure or defend us without any material sacrifice of
-our daily comforts; while to be at rest from the other
We must either render ourselves disgusting by filthy

a Travels, ii. 93. b Theodorit. Uist. iech leii c. 30.

c Mouffet, 85. Amoreux, 1198.

4 Viz, Mosquito Bay in St. Cbrist opher? 83 Medantipa: a town in the
Island of Cuba; and the ifcs;-ito country in North America.

120 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS,

unguents, or be suffocated by fumigations, or be con-
tent to be bound, head, hand and foot, shut out from
the respiration of the common air, and even thus
scarcely escape from their annoyance ; you will feel
convinced that the former is the more tolerable evil of
the two, and be inclined to think that those cities, from
which the lions were driven away by the more powerful
gnats, were no great gainers by the exchange*. With
what grateful hearts ought the privileged inhabitants
of these happy islands to acknowledge and glorify the -
goodness of that kind Providence which has distin-
guished us from the less favoured nations of the globe,
by what may be deemed an immunity from this tor-
menting pest! for the inroads which they make on our
comfort, when contrasted with what so many other
people of every climate suffer from them, are mere no-
things. When we behold on one side of us the ravages
of the wide-wasting sword, on another those of in-
fectious disease or pestilence, on a third famine de-
stroying its myriads, and on a fourth life rendered un-
comfortable by the terror of“ noisome beasts” and the
attack of noxious insects: and when we look at home
and see every one eating his bread in peace, protected .
in his enjoyments by equal laws executed by a mild
government under a paternal king, without fearing
the sword of the oppressor; not scourged by pestilence
or famine, exposed to the attack of no ferocious ani-
mal, and comparatively speaking but slightly visited
by the annoyance of insect tormentors ; and especially
when we further reflect that it is his mercy and not
our merits which has induced him thus to overwhelm
a Mouffet, 85. -

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. T21

us with blessings, while other countries have been
Made to drink deep of the cup of his fury, we shall see
reason for an increased degree of thankfulness and
Svatitude, and, instead of repining, be well content
with our lot, though our offences have not wholly

been passed over, and we have been “beaten with |
few stripes.”

Besides the insects that seek to make us their food
there are others, which, although we are apt to regarl
them with the greatest horror, do not attack us wit
this view, but usually to revenge some injury whia

they have received, or apprehend from us. Foremot
in the list of these are those with four wings, whici,
“According to the observation of Pliny before quote,
carry their weapon, an instrument of revenge, in thir
tail. "These all belong to the Linnean order #7 ymn-

*Ptera ; and the tremendous arms with which theyan-
noy us, are two darts finer than a hair, furnished oniheir
Suter side at the end with several barbs not vishle to
“naked eye, and each moving in the groove of 1 strong
aad often curved sheath, frequently mistaken for the
Sting, which, when the darts enter the flesh, usually in-
Jects a drop of subtle venom, furnished froma peculiar
Vessel in which it is secreted, into the wound, occasion-
“Ag; especially if the darts be not extracted, a consider-
. © tumour, accompanied by very acute pain. Many
“sects are thus armed and have this power. Twice I
“ve been stung by an Ichneumon ; first by one with

“oncealed sting, and afterwards by another of the
amily of 7, Manifestator (Pimpla, F.), witha very long

122 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

exerted sting. Thad held the insect by its sting, whieh

it withdrew from between my fingers with surprising
force, and then, as if in revenge, stung me. Pompilus
viaticus,a vespoid insect that deposits its eggs in spiders,
once, in this way, gave me acute pain. But the insects
which in this respect principally attract our notice by
exciting our fears, are the hive-bee, the wasp, and the
hornet. The first of these, the bee, sometimes mani-
‘ests an antipathy to particular individuals, whom it
‘uttacks and wounds without provocation; but the two
ast, though apparently the most formidable, are not $0
\l-tempered as they are conceived to be, seldom mo-
esting those who do not first interfere with or disturb
hem. We learn from Scripture that the hornet (but
thether it was thè common species is uncertain) was
enployed by Providence to drive out the impious in-
hibitants of Canaan, or subdue them under the hand
of he Israclites*:—The effect produced by the sting
of hese animals is different in different persons. To
somethey occasion only a very slight inconvenience
ora niomentary pain; others feel the smart of the
woundswhich they inflict for several days, and are
thrown mto fevers by them; and to some they have
even proved fatal”. Yet these insects are certainly,
in general, but a trifling evil. They become, however,
especially wasps, a very serious one to many, from the
mere dread of being stung by them, even though they
should not carry their fears to the same length with the
lady mentioned by Dr. Fairfax’, in the ‘Philosophical
a Deut. vii. 20. Josh. xxiv. 12. b Amoreux, 242.
e Philos. Trans.» 201. ‘

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 193

Transections, who had sucha horror of them, that du-
ring the'ceaason in which they abound in houses, she
always confined herself to her apartment.

Ants are insects of this order, which, though our in-.
digenous species may be regarded as harmless, in some
“ountries are gifted with double means of annoyance,
both from their sting and their bite. A green kind in
New South Waies was observed by Sir Joseph Banks
| to inflict a wound scarcely less painful than the sting of
a beer, Another, from the intolerable anguish occa-
Sioned by its bite, which resembles that produced by a

Spark of fire, and seems attended by venom, is called

the fire-ant. Captain Stedman relates that this caused
à whole company of soldiers to start and jump about as
if scalded with boiling water; and its nests were so
‘umerous that it was not easy to avoid them?. - We
Te told of a third species, which emulates the scorpion
™ the malignity of its sting or bite*. Knox, in his ac-
ount: of Ceylon, mentions a black ant, called by the
Natives Coddia, which he says “ bites desperately, as
bad as ifa man were burnt by a coal of fire; but they
are of a noble nature, and will not begin unless you
disturb them.” The reason the Cinghalese assign for.
the horrible pain occasioned by their bite is curious,
and will serve to amuse you. “ Formerly these ants
Went to ask a wife of the Noya, a venomous and noble
kind of snake; and because they had such a high spirit
to dare to offer to be related tosucha generous creature,

€Y had this virtue bestowed upon them, that they
Should sting after this manner. And if they had ob-,

à Hawkesworth’s Cook, iii. 223. ` b Stedman, ii, 94.
€ Bingley, iii, 985, first edit.

124 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

tained_a wife of the Noya, they should have had the
privilege to sting full as bad as he*.” Stedman’s'story
of a large ant that stripped the trees of their leaves, to
feed, as was supposed, a blind serpent under ground’,
is somewhat akin to this: as is also another, related to
me by a friend of mine, of a species of Mantis, now in
my cabinet, taken in one of the Indian islands, which, —
according to the received opinion amongst the natives,
was the parent of all their serpents. Whence, unless
perhaps from their noxious qualities, could this idea of
a connexion between insects and these reptiles be de-
rived? But to return from this digression Madame
Merian’s Ant of Visitation will be considered in asub-
sequent letter: but I cannot here omit a circumstance

mentioned by Don Felix de Azara, a late Spanish tra-
veller, who confirms hepi account,—that these animals
are so alarming and tremendous in their attacks, that

if they enter a house in the night, the inhabitants are
obliged to rise with all speed and run off in their shirts.
ĮI must next direct your attention to an insect, which
perhaps more than any other has in every age been an
object of terror and abhorrence—I mean the redoubted
scorpion. And though I shall not, with Aristotle, tell
you of Persian kings employing armies for several days
in destroying them; or, with Pliny, of countries that
they have depopulated; yet my account will not be
devoid of that species of interest which the dread of its
power to do us injury imparts to any object. Could
you see one of these ferocious animals, perhaps a foot
in length, a size to which they sometimes attain, ad-
_vancing towards you in their usual menacing attitude,

a Knox’s Ceylon, 24. b Stedman, ii. 142.

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 195

with its claws expanded, and ifs many-jointed tail
turned over its head; were your heart ever so stout, I
think you would start back and feel a horror come
across you; and, though you knew not the animal, you
Would conclude that such an aspect of malignity must
be the precursor of malignant effects. Nor would you
be mistaken, as you will presently see. This alarming
animal, though like hymenopterous insects it is armed
With a sting, is in no respect related to that order, and
forms the only genus, at present known, of the others
that is so armed. Even its sting is totally different
from that of bees, wasps, and other Hymenoptera, be-
ing more analogous to the venomous tooth of serpents;
it wounds us with no barbed darts concealed in a sheath,
but only with a simple incurved mucro terminating an
ampullaceous joint. Two orifices, or according to
Some three, are said to instill the poison, which, we
are informed, is sometimes as white as.milk. ‘This ve-
nom in our European species is seldom attended, ex-
Cept to minor animals, by any very serious conse-
quences; yet when it is communicated by the scorpion
of warmer climates it produces more baneful effects.
The sting of certain kinds common in South America
Causes fevers, numbness in various parts of the body,
tumours in the tongue, and dimness of sight, which
Symptoms last from twenty-four to forty-eight hours.
The only means of saving the lives of our soldiers who
Were stung by them in Egypt, was amputation. One
Species is said to occasion madness; and the black scor-
Pion, both of South America and Ceylon, frequently
Infliets a mortal wound’. No known animal is more

a Ulloa’s Voy. i. 61, 62. Dr, Clarke’s Travels, i 486. Amorewx, 197.

126 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

r

cruel and ferocious in its manners; they kill and de-
vour their own young without pity as soon as they are
born, and they are equally savage to their fellows when

grown up. ‘Terrible however and revolting as these
S i 2

creatures appear, we are gravely told by Naudé, that
there is a species of scorpion in Italy which is domes-
ticated and put between the sheets to cool the beds
during the heats of summer?*!!

I must next say something of insects that annoy us
solely by their jaws. Of this description is Solpuga
araneoides, F. (Galeodes, Oliv.) which is related to the
scorpion, although devoid of a sting. The bite of this
animal, which is a native of the Cape of Goed Hope
_and of Russia”, is represented to be often fatal both to
man and beast. Anether species of Solpuga is described
by Professor Lichtenstein, which, from the trivial name
that he has given it (fatale), may be supposed:to be as
venomous as the former’.

The bite of one of the centipedes (Scolopendra mor-
sitans, L.)—the under-jaws of which are armed with
a strong claw, furnished like the sting of the scorpion
with an orifice, visible under a common lens‘, from
which poison issues—is less tremendous than that of
the Solpuga: but though not mortal, its wounds are
more painful than those produced by the sting of the
scorpion; and as these animals creep every where,
even into beds, they must be very annoying in warm
climates where they abound. Dr. Martin Lister, in
his Travels, ‘has given us a figure of an insect related

a Andrew's Anecdotes, 427. See on the subject of Scorpions Amoreux,

41-54, 116-205. b Fab. Suppl. 294,2.. c Catal. Ham. 1797. 151-195-
a Prate VII, Fic, 13. f. d. l

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 127

to this genus, that he saw in Plumier’s collection,
_ Which appears to have been eighteen inches in length,
and three quarters of an inch in width, having ninety-
five lees on each side, the first eight of which are.
armed with double claws, and two inches of the tail
being without legs. It may forma distinct genus, and

is probably a native of f South America. Yet even this
Monstrous insect is nothing to those at Carthagena,
mentioned ‘by Ulloa, (if indeed we may credit his ace
count, or if his translator has not mistaken his mean-
ing,) -A sometimes exceeded a yard in length and
five inches in breadth! The bite of this gigantic ser-
` pent-like creature, he tells us, is mortal, as well it may,
if a timely remedy be not applied. From its fers
cal form it should be a Julus*.

In this catalogue of noxious inseets Į must not omit
those which every where force themselves upon our no- |
tice, and are viewed with general disgust. I mean the
numerous family of Arachne, the insidious spiders.
Few of these, however, are really personal assailants
of man. The principal is that which has given rise
to so much discussion, and has so much employed.
the pens of naturalists and physicians—the famous
Tarantula. (Lycosia Tarantula, Walck.) The effects
ascribed to its wounds, and their wonderful cure sup-
Posed to be wrought by music and dancing, have tong
been celebrated: but after all there seems to have
heen more of fraud than of truth in the business; and
the whole evil appears to consist in swelling and in-
flammation. Dr. Clavitio submitted to be bitten by
this animal, and no bad effects ensued ; and the Count
de Borch „a Polish nobleman, bribed a man to undergo

a Ullen’s Voyage, i. 61,

-

t

198 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS,

the same experiment, in whom the only result was a
swelling in the hand, attended by intolerable itching:
The fellow’s sole remedy was a bottle of wine, which
charmed away all his pain without the aid of pipe and
tabor®.

There is however a spider (Aranca 13-guttata Rossi)
the bite of which is said to be very dangerous, and even
mortal. Thiébaut de Berneaud, in his Voyage to Elba”,
affirms that in the Volterrano he knew that several
country people and domestic animals died in conse-

quence of it. And according to Mr. Jackson, a spi-
der, called there the Tendaraman, is found in Marocco
which has venomous powers equally formidable. The
bite of this insect, which is about the size and colour of
a hornet but rounder, and spins a web so fine as to be
almost invisible, is said to be so poisonous that the
person bitten survives but a few hours. In the cork
forests the sportsman, eager in his pursuit of game;
frequently carries away on his garments this fatal in-
sect, which is asserted always to make towards the
head before inflicting its deadly wound”.

I suspect you will think this list long enough; and I
believe it includes the most remarkable insects that as-
sail the surface of our bodies, to answer either the de-
mands of hunger or the stimulus of revenge. There is `
however a third class of insect annoyers, as I observed
at the beginning of this letter, which, though they
neither make us their food, nor attack us under the
impulse of fear or revenge, incommode us extremely in
other ways. These must now be detailed to you.

a Amoreux, 217-226. See also 67-70. - bp. 3l.
c Jaekson’s Marocco, second edit,

}

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 129

How extremely unpleasant is the sensation which .
that very minute creature, Thrips physapus, L, ex-

vites in sultry weather, merely by creeping over our
skin! J have sometimes found. this almost intolerable..
A similar torment, reckoned by Ulloa a kind of Mos-
quito, infests the inhabitants of Carthagena in South
America, They are there called Mantas blancas, and
Creeping between the threads of the gauze curtains
that keep off the former pest, though they do not bite,
Occasion an itching that is dreadfully tormenting*.
But these are nothing compared with the teasing at-
tacks of the Simulium reptan s, Latr., which, as Linné
informs us, who misnamed it a Culex, is so incredibly
numerous in Lapland, as entirely to cover a man’s
hody, turning a white dress into a black one, occupy-
ing the whole atmosphere, filling the mouth, nostrils,
eyes, and ears of travellers, and thus preventing re-
Spiration, and almost choking them. These little ani-
mals do not bite, but torture incessantly by their titil-
lation®.—In New South Wales a small ant was ob-
Served by Sir Joseph Banks, inhabiting the roots of a
Plant, which when disturbed rushed out by myriads,
and running over the uncovered parts of the body pro-
duced a sensation of thiskind that was worse than pain.

The common house-fly is with us often sufficiently
annoying at the close of summer; but we know nothing

of it as a tormentor compared with the inhabitants of
a Ulloa, i. 64. These insects probably belong to Latreille’s genus Simu=
lium, and may be what are distinguished by French travellers from the
squitos, (which they call Maringoutns or Maragoins,) under the name of
Loustiques, of which he had examined specimens, having all the charac-
ters of that genus, brought from America by Michaux. Hist. Nat. xiv.
272, 283, i :
b Lach, Lapp. i. 208,209. Fl. Lapp. 382, 383. .
DOIR Rro K

130 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS,

southern Europe.“ I met (says Arthur Young m his
interesting Travels through France) between Pradelles
and Thuytz, mulberries and flies at the same time; by
the term flies I mean those myriads of them which form
the most disagreeable circumstance of the southern cli-
mates. They are the first torments in Spain, Italy, and
the Olive district of France: it is not that they bite,
sting, or hurt, but they buzz, tease, and worry: your
mouth, eyes, ears, and nose, are full of them: they
swarm on every eatable, fruit, sugar, milk, every
thing is attacked by them in such myriads, that if they
are not incessantly driven away by a person who has
nothing else to do, to eat a meal is impossible. They
are however caught on prepared paper and other
contrivances with so much ease and in such quantities,
that were it not from negligence, they could not
abound in such incredible quantities. If E farmed in
hese countries, I think I should manure four or five
acres every year with dead flies.—I have been much
surprised that the late learned Mr. Harmer should
think it odd to find, by writers who treated of

“southern climates, that driving away flies was an ob-
ject of importance. Had he been with me in Spain and
in Languedoc in July and August, he would have been
very far from thinking there was any thing odd in it?.”’

Our friend Captain Green, of the sixth regiment of
the East India Company’s native troops, relates to

me, that in India, when the mangoes are ripe, which
is the hottest part of the summer, a very minute black
fly makes its appearance, which, because it flies in
swarms into the eyes, is very troublesome, and causes

a Young’s Travels in France, i. 298. These’ flies are equally trouble-
some and tormenting in Sweder, See Amen: Acad. iii. 343.

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSEDBY INSECTS- T31

much pain, is called there the eye-fly. -At this season
the eyes are attacked by adisease, supposed to be occa-
Stoned by eating the mangoes, but more probably the
` result of the irritation produced by the fly in question,
Which, however, they admit, carries the infection
from one person to another.

You know that the hairstaken from the pods of Doli-
chos pruriens and urens, L.; commonly called Cowhage
and Cow-itch*, occasion a most violent itching, but
Perhaps are not aware that those of the caterpillars of
Several Bombyces, a family of Moths, will produce the
Same disagreeable effect. One of these is the proces-
sion moth, (B. processionea, L.) of which Reaumur has
Siven so interesting an account. In consequence of:
their short stiff hairs sticking in his skin, after handling
them, he suffered extremely for several days; and be-
ing ignorant at first of the cause of the itching, and rub-

ing his eyes with his hands, he brought on a swelling
of the eye-lids, so that he could scarcely open them.

adies were affected even by going too near the nest of
the animal, and found their necks full of troublesome
tumours, occasioned by short hairs, or fragments of hair,
brought by the wind’. Of this nature also is the fa-
Mous Pityocampa of the ancients, the moth of the fir
(B. pityocampa, F.), the hairs of which are said to oc-
casion a very intense degree of pain, heat, fever, itch-
ing and restlessness. It was accounted by the Romans
à Very deleterious poison, as is evident. from the cir-

® Cowhage has been administered with success as an anthelminthic, as
has likewise spin-glass pounded ; the spicula of these substances destroy-
NE the worms, The hair of the caterpillars here alluded to, and perhaps
~ ako of the larva of Bombyx Caja, (the Tiger-Moth,) might probably be
“qually efficacious. . b Reaum. ii. 191-5.

KZ

192. DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

cumstance of the Cornelian law “ De sicariis” being
extended to persons who adininistered Pityocampa’.
In these cases the injury is the consequence of irri-
tation produced by the hair of the animal; but there
are facts on record, which prove that the juices of
many insects are equally deleterious. Amoreux, from
a work of Turner, an English writer on cutaneous dis-
eases, has given the following remarkable history of the.
ill effects produced by those of spiders. When Turner
was a young practitioner, he was called to visit a wo-
man, whose custom it was, every time she went into the
cellar with a candle, to burn the spiders and their webs.
she had often observed, when she thus cruelly amused.
herself, that the odour of the burning spiders had se
much affected her head, that all objects seemed to turn
| round, wich was occasionally succeeded by faintings,
cold sweats, and slight vomitings : but, notwithstand-
ing this, she found so much pleasure in tormenting these
poor animals, that nothing could cure her of this mad-
ness, till she met with the following accident : The legs
of one of these unhappy spiders happened to stick in
the candle, so that it could not disengage itself; and,
the body at length bursting, the venom was ejaculated
into the eyes and upon the lips of its persecutrix. Jn
consequence of this, oneofthe former became inflamed,
the latter swelled excessively, even the tongue and
gums were slightly affected, and a continual vomiting
attended these symptoms. In spite of every remecy the
swelling of the lips continued to increase, till at length
an old woman, by the simple application for fifteen
days of the leaves and juice of plantain, together with
a Mouffet, 185. Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. xxxviii, c. 9. Amoreux, 158-

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

Some spider’s web, ran away with all the glory of the
Cure *—Ulloa gives us a remarkable account of a spe-
cies of Acarus, of a fiery red colour, common in Po-
payan, called Coya or Coyba, and usually found in the
Corners of walls and among the herbage, the venom of
Which is of such malignity, that on crushing the insect,
if any fali on the skin of either man or beast, it imme-
diately penetrates into the flesh, and causes large tu-
mours, which are soon succeeded by death. Yet, he
further observes, ifit be crushed between the palms of
the hands, which are usually callous, no bad conse-
quence ensues. People who travel along the valleys
of the Neyba, where these insects abound, are warned
by their Indian attendants, if they feel any thing sting-
ing them, or crawling on their neck or face, not so
Much as to lift up their hand to the place, the texture
ofthe Coya being so delicate that the least force causes
them to burst, without which there is no danger, as
they seem otherwise harmless animals, ‘The traveller
Points out the spot where he feels the creature to one
of his companions, who, if it be a Coya, blows it away.
I this account does not exaggerate the deleterious qua-

lity of the juices of this insect, it is the most venomous

animal that is known ; for he deseribesit as much smaller
than a bug. 'The only remedy to which the natives have
"course for preventing the ill effects arising from its
Venom is, on the first appearance of the swelling, to
Swing the patient over the flame of straw or long grass,
Whieh they do with great dexterity : after this operation

© is reckoned to be out of danger.—The poisoned
arrows which Indians employ against their enemies

a Amoreux, 210-212,

134 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

have been long celebrated. The Coya may, in the

western world, have furnished the poison for this pur-
pose. Anauthor quoted in Lesser tells us that an ant
as big as a bee is sometimes used, and that the wound
inflicted by weapons tinctured with their venom is in-
curable. Patterson also gives a recipe by which the
natives of the southern extremity of Africa prepare
what they reckon the most effectual poison for the
point of their arrows. ‘They mix the juice of a spe-
cies of Euphorbia, and a caterpillar that feeds on a
kind of sumach, (Rhus, L.) and when the mixture is
dried it is fit for use.

And now I think you will allow that I have made out
a tolerable list-of insects that attack or annoy man’s
body externally, anda sufficiently- doleful history of
them. , That the subject, however, may be complete,
I shall next enumerate those that, not content with
afflicting him with exterior pain or evil, whether on

he surface or under the skin, bore into his flesh, de-

scend even into his stomach and viscera, derange his
whole system, and thus often occasion his death. The
punitive insects here employed are usually larve of
the various orders, and they are the cause of that ge-
nus of diseases I before noticed, and proposed to call
Scolechiasis.

I shall begin my account with the first order of
Linné, because people in general seem not aware that
any beetles make their way into the human stomach.
Yet there is abundant evidence, which proves beyond
controversy that the meal-worm, (Tenebrio Molitor, L2)
although its usual food is flour, has often been voided `

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 133

both by male and female patients; and in one instance
is stated to have occasioned death*, How these grubs
Should get into the stomach it is difficult to say—per-
haps the eggs may have been swallowed in some pre-
Paration of flour. But that the animal should be able
to sustain the heat of this organ, so far exceeding the
temperature to which it is usually accustomed, is the
most extraordinary circumstance of all.—Dr. Martin
Lister, who to the skill of the physician added the most’
Profound knowledge of nature, mentions an instance,
communicated to him by Mr. Jessop, of a girl who
Voided three hexapod larve similar to what are found
in the carcases of birds®, probably belonging either to
the genus Dermestes, E., or Byrrhus, Li: and in the

German Ephemerides the case also of a girl is recorded,

from an abscess in the calf of whose leg crept black
Worms resembling beetles°. 2 rene

The larvae of some beetle, as appears from the de-
scription, seem to have been ejected even from the
‘ngs. Four of these, of which the largest was nearly
three quarters of an inch long, were discovered in the
Mucus expelled after a severe fit of coughing by a lady
afflicted with a pulmonary disease; and similar larve
of a smaller size were once afterwards discharged in
the Same way’.

No one would suppose that caterpillars, which feed
Upon vegetable substances, could be met with alive in
the stomach ; yet Dr. Lister gives an account of a boy

= Tulpius, Obs: Med. 1. ii, ¢. 51.4.1. £.3. Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journ
= 35. 42-48, Derham, Physic. Theol. $78. note b. Lowth, Philos.
frans, iii, 135. © b Philos. Trans. 1665. x. 391. Shaw's Abridg. ii, 224
© Mead, Med. Sacr. 105. . d London Medical Review, v. 340.

136 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

who vomited up several, which, he observes, had six-
teen legs*. The eggs perhaps might have been swal-
lowed in salad; and, as vegetables make a part of most
people’s daily diet, enough might have passed into the
stomach to support them when hatched.—Linné tells
us that the caterpillar of a moth, (Crambus pingui-
nalis, F.) common in houses, has. also been found in a
similar situation, and is one of the worst of our insect
infesters.—In a very old tract, which gives.a figure of
the insect, a caterpillar of the almost incredible length
of the middle finger is said to have been voided from
the nostrils of a youg man long afflicted with dreadful
pains in his head’.—But the most extraordinary ac-
count with respect to lepidopterous larve (unless he
has mistaken his insects) is given by Azara, the Spa-
nish traveller before quoted; who says that in South
America there is a large brown moth, which deposits
its young in a kind of saliva upon the flesh of persons
who sleep naked; these introduce themselves under
the skin without being perceived, where they occasion
swelling attended by inflammation and violent pain.
When the natives discover it, they squeeze out the
larve, which usually amount to five or six‘,

- But amongst all the orders, none is more fruitful
in devourers of man than the Diptera ; and these are
chiefly to be found in the numerous tribe of the Mus-
cide, The Gad-fly (@strus, L.) you have, doubtless,
often heard of, and how sorely it annoys our cattle and

a Philos, Trans. ubi supr, | |

b Fulvius Angelinus et Vincentius Alsarius de verme admirando pe

nares egresso. Ravenna 1610.

c Azara, 217. I cannot help suspecting this to be synonymous with
the Gistrus Hominis next mentioned,

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS, 137

ther quadrupeds: but I suspect have no notion that
there isa species appropriated to man. The existence,
indeed, of this species seems to have been overlooked
by entomologists (though it stands in Gmelin’s edition
of the Systema Nature*, upon the authority of the
Younger Linné,) till Humboldt and Bonpland men-
tioned it again. Speaking of the low regions of the
torrid zone, where the air is filled with those myriads
Of mosquitos which render uninhabitable a great and
beautiful portion of the globe, they observe that to
these may be joined the Gistrus Hominis, which de-
Posits its eggs in the skin of man, causing there painful
‘tumours’. Gmelin says that it remains beneath the
Skin of the abdomen six months, penetrating deeper,
if it be disturbed, and becoming so dangerous as some-
times to occasion death. The imago he describes as
being ofa brown colour, and about the size of the com-
on house-fly; so that it is a small species compared
With the rest of the genus. Even the gad-fly of the
®x, leaving its proper food, has been known to ovi-
Posit in the jaw of a woman, and the bots produced
from the eggs finally caused her death*.—Other flies
also of various kinds thus penetrate into us, either
Preying upon our flesh, or getting into our intestines.
™€euwenhoek mentions the case of a woman whose
°g had been enlarging with glandular bodies for some
years, Her surgeon gave him one that he had cut
from it, in which were many small maggots: these he
fed with flesh till they assumed the pupa, when they
a From Pallas N. Nord. Beytr, i. 157. |

b Essai sur la Géograph. des Plantes, 136.
c Clark in Linn; Trans, iii. 323, note.

188 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

produced a fly as large as the fiesh-fly*—A patient of ©
Dr. Reeve of Norwich, after suffering for some time
great.pain, was at last relieved by voiding a consider-
able number of maggots, which agree precisely with
those described by De Geer as the larva of his Musca
domestica minor, a fly which he speaks of as very com-
mon in apartments ”.—In Paraguay the fiesh-flies are
said to be uncommonly numerous and noxious, Azara
relates® that, after a storm, when the heat was exces-
sive, he was assailed by such an army of them, that in
less than half an hour his clothes were quite white
with their eggs, so that he was forced to scrape them |
off with a knife ; adding, that he has known instances
of persons, who, after having bled at the.nose in their
sleep, were attacked by the most violent head-aches;

when at length several great maggots, the offspring of

these flies, issuing from their nostrils, gave them re-
lief.—In Jamaica a large blue fly buzzes about the sick
in the last stages of fever; ‘and when they sleep or doze
with their mouths open, the nurses find it very difficult
to prevent these flies from laying their eggs imthe nose,
mouth, or gums. An instance is recorded of a lady
who, after recovering from a fever, fella victim to the
maggots of this fly, which. from the nose found their
way through the os cribriforme into the cavity of the
skull, and afterwards into the brain’, One of the
most shocking cases of Scolechiasis 1 ever met with is
related in Bell’s Weekly Messenger in the following
words: “On Thursday, June 25, died at Asbornby;

a Leeuw. Epist. Oct. 17, 1687. . b Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journ:
ubi supr. De Geer, vi. 26, 27. c 216.
d Lempriere On the Diseases of the Arny in Jamaica; ii. 182.

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS, 139

(Lincolnshire, John Page, a pauper belonging to
Silk- Willoughby, under circumstances truly singular.

He being of a restless disposition, and not choosing to
Stay in the parish workhouse, was in the habit of stroll-
ing about the neighbouring villages, subsisting on the
Pittance obtained from door to door: the support he
Usually received from the benevolent was bread and
Meat; and after satisfying the cravings of nature, it
Was his custom to deposit the surplus provision, parti-
cularly the meat, betwixt his shirt and skin. Having
a considerable portion of this provision in store, so
deposited, he was taken rather unwell, and laid him-
Self down in a field in the parish of Scredington—when
from the heat of the season at that time, the meat
‘Peedily became putrid, and was of course struck by
the flies: these not only proceeded to devour the in-
animate pieces of flesh, but also literally to prey upon
the living substance; and when the wretched man was
*ecidentally found by some of the inhabitants, he was
50 eaten by the maggots that his death seemed inevi-
table. After clearing away as well as they were able
these shocking vermin, these who found Page con-
veyed him to Asbornby, and a surgeon was immediately
Procured, who declared that his body was in such a
State that dressing it must be little short of instanta-
neous death; and in fact the man did survive the ope-
Tation but a few hours. When first found, and again
When examined by the surgeon, he presented a sight
®athsome in the extreme; white maggots of enormous
Size were crawling in and upon his body, which they
had most shockingly mangled, and the removing of the
external ones served only to render the sight more

J40 =s- DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY JNSECTS.

horrid*.”-—A medical friend of mine, at Ipswich, gave

me this winter an apode larva voided by a person of
that place with his urine, which I now preserve in spi-
rits and can show you when you visit me. ft appears
to me to belong to the Diptera order, yet not to the
fly tribe (Muscidae), but rather to the Tipulide, with
which however it does not seem to agree so entirely as
to take away all doubt. Itisa very singular larva, and
I can find none in any author that I have had an oppor-
tunity of consulting which at all resembles it. That
you may know it, should you chance to meet with it,
F shall here describe it. Body, three fourths of an
inch in length, and about a line in breadth; opaque,
of a pale yellow colour; cylindrical, tapering some-
what at each extremity; consisting of twenty articula-
tions without the head: Head reddish brown, heart-
shaped, much smaller than the following joint ; armed
with two unguiform mandibles; with a biarticulate
palpus attached exteriorly to the base of each. These
mandibles appear to be moved by a narrow black cen-
tral tendon under the dorsal skin terminating a little
beyond the base of the first segment; besides this,
there are four others, two on each side of it, the outer
ones diverging, much slenderer, and very short. ‘The
last or anal joint of the body very minute; exerting
two short, filiform horns, or rather respiratory organs-
I could discover, in this animal, no respiratory plates,
such as are found in the larve of Muscidae, nor were
the trachee visible. When given to me, it was alive

a In passing through this parish last spring, I inquired of the mail-
coachman whether he had heard of this story; and he said the fact was
well known.

DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED By INSECTS. 141

and extremely active, writhing itself into various con-
tortions with great agility. It moved, like other di-
Pterous larve, by means of its mandibles. Upon wet-
ting my fingers were than once, to take it up when it
had fallen from a table upon which it was placed, the
Saline taste with which it was imbued was so power-
ful that it was some time before it was dissipated from
my mouth.—I shall only mention one more instance,
because it is a singular one. The larva of Elophilus
Pendulus, F., a fly peculiarly formed by nature for in-
habiting fluids, has been found in the stomach of a
Woman ?.

You will smile when I tell you that I have met with
the prescription of a famous urine-doctor, in which he
recommends to his credulous patient to take a certain
Number of sow-bugs per diem, by this name distin-
Suishing, as I suppose, Oniscus Armadillo, L., once a
very favourite remedy. What effect they produced in
this case I was not informed; but the learned Bennet
Telates that he had seen a certificate of an English

| Physician, dated July 1763, stating that, some time
before, a young woman who had swallowed these ani-
mals alive, as is usually done, threw up a prodigious
‘umber of them of all sizes, Which must have bred in
er stomach’—Another apterous species appears to
“ave been detected in a still more remarkable situa-
tion, Hermann, the author of the admirable Mémoire
Aplerolowique, whose untimely death is so much to be
“mented, informs us that an Acarus figured and de-
“cribed in his work (4. marginatus, H.) was observed

à Philos, Mag. ix, 366. b Bonnet, v. 144,

kis

142 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

by his artist running on the corpus callosum of the
brain of a patient in the military hospital at Stras-
bourg, which had been opened but a minute before
and the two hemispheres and the pia mater just sepa-
rated. He adds that this is not the first time that in-
sects have been found in the brain. Cornelius Gemma,
in his Cosmocritica, p. 241, says that on dissecting the
brain of a woman there were found in it abundance of
vermicles and punaises*.

- It was customary in many cot untries in ancient times
to punish certain ma lefactors by exposing them to be
dévoured by wild beasts: but to expose t them to insects
for the same purpose was a refinement in cruelty, w hich
seems to have been peculiar to the despots of Persia:
We are informed that the most severe punisi hment
amongst the Persians was that of shutting up the of-
fender between two-boats of equal size; they laid him
in one of them upon his back, and covered him with
the other, his hands, feet, and head being left bare:
His face, which was placed full in the sun, t they moist-
ened with honey, thus inviting the flies and wasps,

which tormented him no less than the swarms of mag*
gots that were bred in his excrements and body aan
devoured him to the very entrails. He was comp elled
to take as much food as was necessary to support life,
and thus existed sometimes for several days. Plutarch
informs us that Mithridates, whom Artaxerxes Lon-
gimanus condemned to this punishment, lived seven”
teen days in the utmost agony; and that, the upper
‘most boat being taken off at his déath, they found hit

a Mem. Apterolog. 19.

x

' DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS, IAS

flesh all consumed, and myriads of worms gnawing his
bowels:, Could any natural objects be made more hor-
rible and effectual instruments of torture than insects
Were in this most diabolical invention of tyranny?

In this enumeration of evils derived from insects, I
must not wholly pass over the serious and sometimes
fatal effects produced upon some persons by eating
honey, or even by drinking mead. I once knew a lady
‘pon whom these acted like poison, and have heard of
instances in which death was the consequence. Some-
times, when bees extract their honey from poisonous
Plants, such results have not been confined to indivi-
duals of a particular habit or constitution. A remark-
able proof of this is given by Dr. Barton in the fifth
Volume of The American Philosophical Transactions. In
the autumn and winter of the year 1790, an extensive -
Mortality was produced amongst those who had par-
taken of the honey collected in the neighbourhood of
| hiladelphia. The attention of the American Govern-

“Ment was excited by the general distress, a minute in-
iry into the cause of the mortality ensued, and it was
“atisfactorily ascertained that the honey had been chief-
“Y extracted from the flowers of Kalmia latifolia. 7

Amongst other direct injuries occasioned by these

‘Teatures, perhaps, out of regard for the ladies, I ought

° Notice the alarm which many of them occasion to the
“Veliest part of the creation. When some females re-
ire from society to avoid a wasp; others faint at the
“ight of a spider; and others, again, die with terror

T they hear a death-watch: these groundłess appre-

tensions and superstitious alarms are as much real

a Universal History, iv. 10. Ed. 1779.

44 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

evils to those who feel them, as if they were well
founded. But having already adverted to this subject;
Tshall here only quote the observation of a wise man;
that “ Fear is a betraying of the succours that reason
offereth?.”’ The best remedy, therefore, in such cases
is going to reason for succour. In a few instances, in-
deed, the evil may take root in a constitutional defect,
for there seems to be some foundation for the doctrine
of natural antipathies: but, generally speaking, i»
consequence of the increased attention to Natural His-

- tory, the reign of imaginary evils is ceasing amongst
us, and what used to shake the stout hearts of our su“
perstitious ancestors with anile terrors, is become @
subject of interesting inquiry to their better informed
descendants, even of the weaker sex.

And now, my friend, I flatter myself you feel dis-
posed to own the truth of my position, however it might
startle you at first, and will candidly acknowledge that
I have proved the empire of these despised insects ovet
man’s person: and that, instead of being a race of in-
significant creatures, which we may safely overlook;
as having no concern with, they may, in the hands of
Divine Providence, and even of man, become to u’
fearful instruments of evil and of punishment, I shall
next endeaveur to give you some idea of the indirect
injuries which they occasion us by attacking our pro”
perty, or interfering with our pleasure or comfort—but
this must be the subject of another letter.

Lam, &c-
a Wisd. xvii. 12,

LETTER Y.

INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

INDIRECT INJURIES,

Having detailed to you the di?ect injuries which we
Suffer from insects, I am now to call your attention
to their indirect attacks upon us, or the injury which
they do our property; and under this view also you
Will own, with the fullest conviction, that they are not
ings that can with prudence or safety be disregarded

- Or despised. Our property, at lcast that part exposed,

x

£

+

to the annoyance of these creatures, may be regarded
as Consisting of animal and vegetable productions, and
that in two states; when they are living, namely, and
after they are dead. I shall therefore endeavour to
give you a sketch of the mischief which they occasion, l
"St to our living animal property; then to our living
Betable property ; and lastly to our dead stock, whe=

v
ther animal or vegetable. -
“Next to our own persons, the animals which we em-
Ploy in our business or pleasures, or fatten for food,
individually considered, are the most valuable part of
nr Possessions—and at certain seasons, hosts of in-
sects of various kinds are incessant in their assaults
“pon most of them.—To begin with that noble animal

© horse.—See him, when turned out to his pasture,
VOL, 1, ; L ; |

146° INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

unable to touch a morsel of the food he has earned by
his labours. He flies to the shade, evidently in great
uneasiness, where he stands continually stamping from
the pain produced by the insertion of the weapons
sheathed in the proboscis of a little fly (Stomoxys cal-
citrans) before noticed as attacking ourselves. This
alights upon him sometimes in one place and sometimes
in another, and never lets him rest while the day lasts.
—See him again when in harness and travelling. He
is bathed in blood flowing from innumerable wounds
made by the knives and lancets of various. horse-flies
(Tabanus, L.), which assail him as he goes, and allow
him no respite”; and consider that even this is nothing
to what he suffers in other climates from the same pest.
In North America, vast clouds of different species—s@
abundant as to obscure every distant object, and s0
severe in their bite as to merit the appellation of burr-
ing flies—cover and torment the horses to such a de-
gree as to excite compassion even in the hearts of the :
pack-horsemen. Some of them are nearly as big as
humble-bees ; and, when they pierce the skin and veins
ofthe unhappy beast, make so large an orifice that, be-
sides what they suck, the blood flows down its bh,
sides, and shoulders in large drops like tears, till, t?
use Bartram’s expression, “ they are all in a gore 0

blood.” Acari also, both the dog-tick and the Ameri-
can tick before mentioned, especially the latter, infest
the horse. Kalm affirms, that he has seen the undef
‘parts of the belly, and other places of the body, 8?

a See above, p. 112. b Once travelling throngh Cambridge
‘shire with a brother entomologist in a gig, our horse was in the co%
dition here described, from the attack of Tabanus rusticus, Le

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS, (JA7

Covered by them, that he could not introduce the point
ofa knife between them. ‘They were deeply buried in
the flesh; andin one instance that he Witnessed, the
Miserable creature was so exhausted by continual suc-
tion > that it fell, and afterwards died in great agonies?,
No quadrupedjis more infested by the Cistrus, or
Sad-fly, sometimes also called the breese, than the
horse. In this country no fewer than three species at-
tack it. The most common sort, known by the name
of the horse-bee (Gi. Equi, Clark), deposits its eggs
(which being covered with a slimy substance adhere to
the hairs) on such parts of the body as the animal can
Yeach with its tongue; and thus, unconscious of what
it ig doing, it unwarily introduces into its own citadel
the troops of its enemy.—Another species (Œ: hæ-
orrhoidalis, L.) is still more troublesome to it, ovi-
Pesiting upon the lips; and in its endeavours to effect
this, from the excessive titillation it occasions, giving
the poor beast the most distressing uneasiness. At the
Sight of this fly horses are always much agitated, toss-
ing their heads about in the air to drive it away; and,
I this does not answer, galloping off to a distant part
of their pasture, and, as their last resource, taking
“efuge in the water, where the gad-flies never follow
em. We learn from Reaumur, that in France the
8Tooms, when they observe any bots (which is the vul-
Sar name for the larve and pupe of Œstri) about the
anus ofa horse or in its dung, thrust their hand into
k © passage to search for more; but this seems a use-
Son Precaution, which must ocecasion the animal great
Pain to answer no. good end; for when the bots are
| = & De Geer, vii, 158,
L2

-]48 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

passing through the body, having ceased feeding, they.
can do no further injury.. In Sweden, as De Geer

informs us, they act much more sensibly: those that

have the care of horses are accustomed to clean their

mouths and throats with a particular kind of brush,

by which method they free them from these disagree-

able inmates before they have got into the stomach,.
or can be at all prejudicial to them?.

Providence has doubtless created these animals to
answer some beneficial purpose; and Mr. Clark’s ju-
| dicious conjectures are an index which points to Ahe
l ; very kind of good our cattle may derive from them,
“as acting the part of perpetual stimuli or. blisters

yet. when they exceed certain limits, as is often the
case with similar animals employed for purposes
equally beneficial, they become certainly the causes
of disease, and sometimes of death.

How troublesome and teasing is that cloud of flies
(Musca meteorica; L.y which you must often have no-
ticed in your summer rides, hovering round the head
and neck of your horse, accompanying him as he goes,
and causing a perpetual tossing of the former ” !—And
still. more annoying in Lapland, as we learn from
Linné °, is the furious assault of the minute horse-gnat,
(Culex equinus, L.,) which infests these beasts in infi-
nite numbers, running under the mane and amongst
Ahe hair, and piercing the skin to suck their blood.—
„An insect of the same genus is related to attack them
jn a particular district in India in so tremendous 4
manner as to cause incurable cancers, which finally

a‘De Geer, vi: 295. _ b Ameen. Acad, iii, 358e

-c Linn. Flor. Lapp, 316. Lach, Lapp: i. 233, 234

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 149°

destroy them *,—But of all the insect. tormentors ` of:
these useful creatures, there is none more trying to`
them than the forest-fly (Mippobosca equina, L.). At-.
taching themselves to the parts least covered with hair, »
Particularly under the belly between the hind, legs,
they irritate the quietest horse, and make him kick so.
8s often to hazard the safety of his rider or. driver.

This singular animal runs sideways or backwards like,
& crab ; and, being furnished with an unusual number’
of claws, it adheres so: firmly that it is not! easy-to:
take it off; and even if you succeed in this, its sub-

Stance is so hard, that by the utmost pressure of your

finger and thumb it is difficult to kill it; and if you let.

it go with life, it will immediately return to the charge.

~Amongst the insect plagues of horses, I should also.
À have enumerated the larva of Curculio paraplecticus,

L,, which Linné considers as the cause of the equine

disease, called in Sweden, after the Phellandrium,
aquaticum, “ Sidkra,” had not the observations of the

accurate De Geer rendered it doubtful whether the

insect be at all connected with this malady”.

Another quadruped contributing greatly to our do-
mestie comfort, from which we derive a considerable
Portion of our animal food, and which, on account of
its patient and laborious character when employed in
Agriculture, is an excellent substitute for the horse,
(you will directly perceive Iam speaking of the oz,
whether male or female,) is also not exempt from in-
Sect domination. At certaln seasons the whole terri-
fied herd, with their tails in the air, or turned upon

a Life of Gencral Thomas, 186.
b Linn, It, Scand, 182. De Geer, Ve 227230,

150° INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

their backs, or stiffly stretched out in the direction of
‘the spine, gallop about their pastures, making the’
country re-echo with their lowings, and finding no rest
till they get into the water. Their appearance and
motions are at this time so grotesque, clumsy, and
seemingly unnatural, that we are tempted rather to
laugh at the poor beasts than to pity them, though
evidently in a situation of great terror and distress.
The cause of all this agitation and restlessness is a
small gad-fly, (Œ. Bovis, L.,) less than the horse-bee,
the object. of which, though it be not to bite them, but
merely to oviposit in their hides, is not put into exe-
cution without giving them considerable pain. Virgil,
in his Georgics, has beautifully and accurately de-
scribed the effects of the approach and assault of the
(Estrus upon the cattle. As the passage has not been
very correctly translated, I shall turn poet on the oc-
casion, and attempt to give it you in a new dress.

Through waving groves? where Selo’s torrent flows,
And where, Alborno, thy green Ilex grows,

_ Myriads of insects flutter in the gloom
(Estrus ia Greece, Asilus nam’d at Rome)
Fierce and of cruel hum, By the dire sound
Driven from the woods and shady glens around
The universal herds in terror fly ;
Their lowings shake the woods and shake the sky,
And Negro’s arid shore

When oxen are employed in agriculture, the attack
of this fly is often attended with great danger, since

a Reaumur observes that the CEstri infest cattle ireti at oe in woode
Jand countries, and not in the plains, iv, 506,

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS, 154

they then become perfectly unmanageable; and, whe-
ther in harness or yoked to the plough, will run di-
rectly forward. At the season when the Œstrus infests
them, close attention should be paid, and their harness
So constructed that they may easily be let loose...
Reaumur has minutely described the ovipositor, öt
Singular organ by which these insects are enabled to
bore a round hole in the skin of the animal and deposit
their eggs in the wound. The anus of the female is
furnished with a tube of a corneous substance, consist+
Ing of four pieces, which, like the pieces of a telescope,
are retractile within each other. ‘The last of these ter-
' Minates in five points, three of which are longer than the
Others, and hooked : when united together they form an
instrument very much like an auger or gimlet; only,
having these points, it can bite with more effect*. He
thinks the infliction of the wound is not attended by
Much pain, except where very sensible nerves are in-
Jured, when the animal, appearing to be seized with a
‘ind of phrensy, begińs to gambol, and run with such
Swiftness that nothing can stop it. From this semblance
oftemporary madness in oxen when pursued and bored
by the Gistrus, the Greeks applied the term to any sud-
den fit of fury or violent impulse in the human species,
falling such ébullitions an (@strus. The female fly is
Observed to be very expeditious in oviposition, not
More than a few seconds; and while she is performing

the Operation, the animal attempts to lash her off, as it
°es other flies, with its tail, The circular hole, made |

: Prste XVI. Fie. 3: Mr. Clark, however, is of opinion that the
“Strus does not pierce the skin of the animal, but only glues its eggs to
> Essay on the Bots of Horses and other Animals, po 4i;

152 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

by the auger just described, always continues open,and
_Imereases in diameter as. the larva increases in size;
_ thus enabling it to receive a sufficient supply of air by
means of its anal respiratory plates, which are usually |
near the orifice. —But though these insects thus torment
and terrify our cattle, they do them no material injury.
Indeed. they occasion considerable tumours under the
skin, where the bots reside, varying in number. from
three or four to thirty or forty; but these seem unat-
tended by any pain, and are so far from being injurious;
thatthey are rather regarded as proofs of the good-
- ness of the.animal, since these ‘flies only attack young
and healthy subjects. ‘The tanners also prefer those
hides that have the greatest number of bot-holes in
them, which are always the best and strongest?.
_ The Stomoxys, and several of the other flies before
enumerated, as. well as the dog and American ticks,
areas prejudicial to the-ox as to the horse, One spe-
cies of Hippeobosca I have reason to believe is appro
priated to them; yet, since a single specimen only has
hitherto been taken”, little can be said with respect to
it.—A worse pest than any hitherto enumerated, is @
minute fly concerning the genus of which there is some
doubt, Fabricius considering it as a Rhagio, (R. colum-
baschensis,) and Latreille as a Simulium’. Perhaps
a Much of the information here collected is taken from Reaum. iv-
Mem. 12; and Clark in Linn. Trans. iii. 289.
b. The writer of the present letter is possessor of this specimen, which
he took on himself in a field where.oxen were feeding. Prate V. FIG. t
c In the Systema Antliatorum (p. 56) Fabricius most strangely co?
siders this insect as synonymous with Culex reptans, L. calling it Seataps*

reptans, and dropping his former reference to Pallas, and account of iis
injurious properties,

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 153

neither of these authors may be right; for, from the
mischief it does to cattle in particular districts, it must
be furnished with the means of penetrating the skin of
Certain parts of the animal; (Latreille relates that he
suffered great pain from the bite of this insect himself 3}
yet it is evident from the accounts of Linné and Ulloa
before quoted, that the Simulium does not bite, but is
only troublesome on account of the itching it occasions.
lt does not appear, indeed, from Latreille’s characters,
to have oral instruments proper for piercing. Similar
feasons prove that it can scarcely be a Rhagio—but
to whatever genus it may belong, it is certainly a most
destructive little creature. In Servia andthe Bannat

it attacks the cattle in infinite numbers, penetrates, ac-

ĉording to Fabricius, their generative organs, but acs
ĉording to other accounts their nose and ears, and by
lts poisonous bite destroys them in the short space of
four or five hours. Much injury was sustained in 1813
from this insect in the palatinate of Arad in Hungary
d in the Bannat; in Banlack not fewer than two >
hundred horned cattle perishing from its attacks, and
in Versetz, five hundred. It appears towards the latter
end of April or beginning of May in such indescribable
‘warms as to resemble clouds, proceeding as some think
from the region of Mehadia, but according to others
from Turkey. Its approach is the signal for universal
alarm. The cattle fly from their pastures; and the
“erdsman hastens to shut up his cows in the house, or,
When at a distance from home, to kindle fires, the
‘Moke of which is found to drive off this terrible as-
Sailant, Of this the cattle are sensible, and as soon as

154 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECT!

attacked run towards the smoke, and are generally
preserved by it.

Tabani in this country do not seem to annoy our
oxen so much as they do our horses: perhaps for this
immunity they may be indebted to the thickness of theif
hides; but in some parts of Africa insects of thistribé
do incredible mischief. What would you think, should
you be told that one species of fly drives both inhabi-
tants-and their cattle from a whole district? Vet the
terrible Tsalt-salya or Zimb of Bruce (and the world
seems now disposed to give more credit to the accounts
of that traveller) has power to produce such an effect.
This fly, which is a native of Abyssinia, both from its
habits and the figure, appears to belong to Latreille’s
genus Pangonia, taken from Tabanus, L., and perhaps
‘is congenerous with the Q!strus of the Greeks’.

a Fabr. Ent. Syst. Em. iv. 276, 22. Latr, Hist, Nat. &c. xiv. 283.
Leipz. Zeit. Jul. 5, 1813, quoted in Germar’s Mag. der Ent. ii. 185.

b It is by no means clear that the Gstrus of modern entomologists is
synonymous with the insects which the Greeks distinguish by that name.
Aristotle not only describes these as blood: suckers (Hist, Animal. l. viii.
c. 1L) but also as furnished with a strong proboscis Et: 7.). Heob-
serves likewise that they are produced from an animal inhabiting the
waters, in the vicinity of which they most abound (1. viii. c.7.). And
lian (Hist.1. vi. c. 38.) gives nearly the same account. Comparing the
Œstrus with the Myops (synonymous perhaps with Tabanus, Latr., ex-
cept that Aristotle affirms that its larve live in wood, l. v..c. 19.) he
says, the Œstrus for a fly is one of the largest; it has a stiff and large
sting, (meaning a proboscis,) and emits a certain humming and harsh
sound—but the Myops is like the Cynomyia—it hums more loudly tha^
‘the Céstrus, though it has a smaller sting.

These characters and circumstances do not at all agree with the mo
dern Œstrus, which, so far from being a blood-sucker furnished with &
strong proboscis, has scarcely any mouth, It shuns also the vicinity of

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 155

Small as this insect is, we must acknowledge the.
elephant, rhinoceros, lion and tiger vastly his inferior.

The appearance, nay the very sound of it occasions,

More trepidation, movements and disorder both in the
human and brute creation, than whole herds of the
Most ferocious wild beasts in tenfold greater numbers
than they ever are would produce. As soon as this
Plague appears, and their buzzing is heard, all the cat-
tle forsake their food, and run wildly about the plain
till they die worn out with fatigue, fright, and hunger.
© remedy remains for the residents on such spots but —
toleave the black earth and hasten down to the sands,
of Atbara, and there they remain while the rains last.
Camels, and even elephants and rhinoceroses, though,
the two last coat themselves with an armour of mud,
aré attacked by this winged assassin and afflicted with.
Numerous tumours. All the inhabitants of the sea-coast:
of Melinda down to Cape Gardefan, to Saba‘and the
South of the Red Sea, are obliged in the beginning of
e rainy season to remove to the next sand to prevent;
all their stock of cattle from being destroyed. .'This.
'S ho partial emigration—the inhabitants of all the
Countries from the mountains of Abyssinia northward;
® the confluence of the Nile and Astaboras, are once.

i

i ;
Wath, to:which our cattle generally fly as a refuge from it. It seems.
ore Probable that the Gistrus of Greece was related to Bruce’s Zimb,
“Presented in his figure with a long proboscis, which makes its appear-
Nee in the neighbourhood of rivers, and belongs, perhaps, to Latreille’s
Sen Pangonia, as observed above, ( Tanyglossa, Meig.) or to his Nemes-
* Olivier; indeed, speaks of the former genus as frequenting flowers
ee but this the male Tabani ‘do, while the females are,
BA Meod-suckers, See Latr, Hist, Nat, xiv. 318; and Gen. Crust. &
"IV. 281, 307,

like i

156 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

a year obliged to change their abode and seek protec-
tion in the sands of Beja; nor is there any alternative
or means of avoiding this, though a hostile band were
in the way capable of spoiling them of half their sub-
stance*. This fly is truly a Beelzebub”; and perhaps
it was this, or some species related to it, that was the
prototype of the Philistine idol worshipped under that
name and inthe form ofa fly.

I must not conclude this subject of insects hurtful to
our cattle without noticing a beetle much talked of by
the ancients for its mischievous properties in this re-
spect. You will soon and rightly conjecture that I am
_ speaking of the Buprestis*, so called from the injury

which it has been supposed to occasion to oxen or kine.
_ Modern writers have been much div ided in their opi-
-nion to what genus this celebrated insect belongs. AM]
indeed have regarded it as of the Coleoptera order ; but
here their agreement ceases. Linné should seem to
have looked upon it as a species of the genus to which
he has given its name; but these, being timber insects,
are not very likely to be swallowed by cattle with their
food. Geoffroy thinks it to be a Carabus or Cicindela,
but with as little reason, since the species of these

genera do not feed amongst the herbage ; and though

they are sometimes found running there, yet their mo”
tions are so rapid, that it is not very likely that cattle
would often swallow them while feeding.

a Bruce’s Travels, 8vo, ii. 315.
: b Heb. 213} YO literally “ Lord-Fly.” See 2 Kings, i. 2; and BO-
chart. Hierozoic. ps fii. 1. 4. ¢. 9. p. 490.
< c Burn-Cow or Ox, from Bous and reslu inflammo, M. Latreille trans”
lates it Crève -bæuf, hut improperly. ; g

INDIRECT INJURINS CAUSED By INSECTS. 197.

© M. Latreille, inan ingenious essay on this insect?,
Suspects it to belong to the genus Melée, F.; and as this

feeds upon herbs, (M. Proscarabeus, L. and M. viola- t

Ceus, EB, upon the Ranunculi, so widely disseminated

i our pastures,) his opinion seems to rest upon more
Solid erounds than that of his predecessors: but yet I
‘think the insect in question rather belongs to Myla.

bris, F, and for the following reason.

in order rightly to ascertain what insect this really
Was, we must endeavour to trace it in the country in
Which it received its name and character. This coun-
tr y was certainly Greece; and there such an animal,
retaining nearly its old name, and accused of being
tke cause of the same injury to cattle, still exists. For
Belon informs, us that on Mount Athos there is found

à winged insect like the blister-beetle, but yellow,

‘arger, and of a very offensive smell, which feeds upon
Various plants, and is called Voupristi by the Caloyers
or Monks, who assert that when horses or other cattle

even feed upon the herbs which the animals have

touched, they die from inflammation, and that it is an

. ™mediate poison to oxen”. This therefore most pro-
bably was the Buprestis of the Greek writers; and as

liny usually compiled from them, it may be regarded

as his also, which he tells us was a caustic insect and
Prepared in the same manner as the blister-beetle*:

“Te further observes that it was scarce in Italy. The

Greek insect of Mount Athos M. Latreille supposes to

da Mylabris, and in this L agree with him; and there-

a Annales du Muséum. —X°® Ann, N° xi. p. 129.
b Observations de plusieurs Singularités, &c. 1. i. c.45. p.13, of the Edi-

200 in Sir Joseph Banks’s Library. -c Hist. Nat. 1, xxix c, 4.

d

158 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

fore this is the proper genus to which the original

Greek Buprestis, the true type of the insect in ques" |

tion, ought to be referred, and not Melée.

Whether this animal be really guilty to the extent
of which it is accused admits of considerable doubt;
but as I have not the means of ascertaining this, 1
shall leave the question for others who are better in-
formed to decide.

But, of all our cattle none are more yaluable and
important to us than our flocks; to them we look not
only for a principal part of our food, but also for cloth-
ing and even light. Thick as is their coat of wool, it
does not shield them from the attack of all-subduing
imésects: on the contrary it affords a comfortable shel-
ter to one of their enemies of this class, regarded by
Linné as a species of Hippobosca, but properly sepa
rated from that genus by Latreille under the name 0
Melophag us. This is commonly called the sheep- -louse;
and is so tenacious of life that we are told by Ray it will
exist in a fleece twelve months after it is shorn, and its
excrements are said to give a green tinge to the wool
very difficult to be discharged.—Yon have doubtless
often observed in the heat of the day the sheep shaking
their heads and striking the ground violently with theif
fore feet; or running away and getting into ruts, dry

dusty spots or gravel pits, where crowding together —
they hold their noses close to the ground. The object
_ of all these actions and movements is to keep the gad-
fly appropriated to them (Œ. Ovis, L.) from getting at
their nostrils, on the inner margin of which they lay
their eggs, from whence the maggots make their way
inte the head, feeding in the maxillary and frontal

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS, 159

sinuses on the mucilage there produced. . When foll-
Srown, they fall through the nostrils to the ground and
assume the pupa. Whether the animal suffers much
Pain from these troublesome assailants is not ascertain-
ed. Sometimes the maggots make their way even into
the brain. -I have been informed by a very accurate
and intelligent friend, that, on opening the head of one
of his sheep which died in consequence of a vertigo,
three maggots were found in it in a line just above the
yes, and that behind them there was a bladder of wa-
fer.— Perhaps you are not. aware that the bots we are
Speaking of, or rather those in the head of goats, have
been prescribed as a remedy for the epilepsy, and that
from the tripod of Delphos. Yet so we are told on the
*uthority of Alexander Trallien. Whether Demo-
črates, who consulted the oracle, was cured by this
temedy does not appear; the story shows however that
the ancients were aware of the station of these larvæ.
~The common saying that a whimsical person is mag
Sotty, or has got maggots in his head, perhaps arose
+ Tom the freaks the sheep have been observed to exhi-

it when infested by their bots.—The flesh-fly is also a
Seat annoyance to the fleecy tribe, especially in fenny
“Ountries; and if constant attention be not paid them,
they are soon devoured by its insatiable larve. In
; Ancolnshire, the principal profit of the druggists is
"rived from the sale of a mercurial ointment used to
“Stroy them,—In tropical countries the sheep fre-
{ently suffer from the ants. Bosman relates that when
"a Guinea, if one of his was attacked by them in the
"ight, which often happened, it was invariably de-
*troyed, and was so expeditiously devoured that in the
morning only the skeleton would be left. -

160 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS:

Of our domestic animals the least infested by insects,
I mean as to the number of species that attack it, is the
swine. With the exception of its louse, which seems to
annoy it principally by exciting a violent itching, it is
exposed to scarcely any other plague of this class, un-
less we may suppose that it is the biting of flies, whicli
in hot weather drives it to “its wallowing in the mire.”
-Under this head we may include the deer tribe, for,
though often wild, those kept in parks may strictly be
deemed domestic; and the rein-deer is quite as mucli
so to the Laplander, as our oxen and kine are to us.
‘We learn from Reaumur that the fallow-deer is sub-
ject to the attack of two species of gad-fly: one, which,
like that of the ox, deposits its eggs in an orifice it
makes in the skin of the animal, and so produces tu-
mours ; and another i in imitation of that of the sheep,
ovipositing in such a manner that its larvae when hatch-
ed can make their way into the head, where they take
their station in a cavity near the pharynx. He relates
‘a curious notion of the hunters with respect to thes¢
two species. Conceiving them both to be the same,
they imagine that they mine for themselves a painful
path under the skin to the root of the horns ; which i$
their common rendezvous from all parts of the body;
where by uniting their labours and gnawing indefati-
gably, they occasion the annual casting of these orna-
mental as well as powerful arms. ‘This fable, impro-
bable and ridiculous as it is, has had the sanction of
grave authorities*:—The Cistri last mentioned inhabit,
in considerable numbers, two fleshy bags as big as á
hen’s egg, and of a similar shape, near the root of the
tongue. Reaumur took between sixty and hag bots

a Reaum, v.69. Dictionnaire de Trevout, article Cory

`

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 161

from one of them, and even then some had escaped.
What other purpose these two remarkable purses are
intended to answer itis not easy to conjecture. He sup-
Poses that the parent fly must enter the nostrils of the
deer, and pass down the air passages to oviposit in them :
but probably such a manceuvre is unnecessary, since
there séems no reason, supposing the eggs to be laid in
the nestrils, why the larva when hatched cannot itself
ake its way down to the above station, as easily as that
Of the sheep into the maxillary sinuses. Or, which pêr-
haps is more likely, when the animal draws in the air,
the eggs or larve may be carried down with it, in both
“ases, to the place assigned to them by Providence*.
No animal, however, is so cruelly tormented by
Œstri as the rein-deer; for besides one synonymous
apparently with this of the deer (Œ. nasalis, L.) from
Which they endeavour to relieve themselves by snort-
‘ng and blowing », they have a second which produces

bots under their skin ; not improbably the same species
that in a similar way attacks the latter, as I have stated
above. -We have heard that the vaccine diseasé is ‘de-
tivéd from the cow and the horse, and the small-pox is
Said to have originated in the heels of the camel: but
Neither the ingenious Dr. Jenner nor any other writér
this subject has informed us that the rein-deer is sub-

\

a For the account of the Cistrus, of the deer, see Reaum. v. 67-77.

b Linn, Lach. Lapp. ii. 45. In the passage here referred to, Linné
‘Peaks of two s

i pecies of Cistrus, though the mode of expression indicates

hat he considered them as the same, One was Œ. nasalis from’which
they freed themselves by snorting, &c., the other @..Tarandi which formed
ros ges in their backs. In Syst, Nat. 969. 3. he strangely observes
ws c ad former species,“ Habitat in equorum fauce, per nares intrans pa

ounding probably Œ, veterinus of Mr. Clark with the true (Œ. niasalis,
FOR gy l g

162 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.’

ject to the distemper last named; yet Linné quotes the
learned work of a Swedish physician on Syphilis, whe
gravely gives this asa faet*!! The inoculator, in truth,
is'the gadsfly, the tumours it causes are the pustules,
and its larve are the pus.—It is-astonishing how dread-
fully these poor animals in hot weatherare terrified and
injured by them: ten of these flies will put a herd of
five hundred into the greatest agitation. They cannot
stand still a minute, no not ‘a moment, without chan-
ging their posture, puffing and blowing, sneezing and
snorting, stamping and tossing continually; every in-
dividual trembling and pushing its neighbour about.
The ovipositor of this fly is similar to that of the ox-
breese, consisting of several tubular joints which slip
into each other ; and therefore Linné was probably mis-
taken in‘ supposing that it lays its eggs upon the skin of -
the animal, and that the bot, when it appears, eats its
way through it”! there can be little doubt (or else what
is the use of such an apparatus?) that it bores a hole in
the skin and there deposits the eggs. - About the be-
ginning of July the rein-deer sheds its hair, which then
stands erect—at this time the fly is always fluttering
about it, and takes its opportunity to oviposit. The
bots remain under the skin through the whole winter,
and grow to the size of an acorn, Six or eight of these
are often to be found in a single rein-deer that has only
seen one winter; and these so emaciate them, that fre-
quently one third oftheir number perish in consequence.
Even those that are full grown suffer greatly from this
insect. The fly follows the animals over precipices,
valleys, the snow-eovered mountains, and even the

Lach. Lapp « i, 280. l b Flor. Lapp.79 .

`

INDIRECT iNJURIES CAUSED. PY iNsECTS. 168
highest alps; to which in order to avoid it they often
fly with great swiftness in a direction contrary to the
wind. By this constant agitation and endeavour to
escape from the attack of their enemy they are kept
from eating during the day, standing always upon the
Watch, with erect ears and attentive eyes, that they
May observe whether it comes near them’. The rein- —
deer are teased also by a peculiar species of Tabanus
(T. tarandinus, L.) which, by a singular instinet, in-
Stead of their skin, makes its incision in their horns
When tender. j i ows
= Our dogs, the faithful guardians of our other domes-
tic animals and possessions, the attached companions
of our walks, and instruments of many of our plea-
Sures and amusements, cannot defend themselves from
insect annoyance. They have their peculiar louse, and
the flea sucks their blood in common with that of their
Master: you must also often have noticed how much

they suffer from the dog-tick, which, when once it has
fixed itself in their flesh, will in a short time, from the
Size of a pin’s head, so swell itself out. by gorging their.
blood, that it will equal in dimensions what is called
the tick-bean, In the West Indies these ticks, or one
like them, get into the ears and head of the dogs, and
5o annoy them and wear them out that they either die

rare obliged to be killed’.
Some of the most esteemed dainties of our tables are
Supplied from such of the winged part of the creation
as we have domesticated. These also havea louse ( Ric?-
nus, De Geer) appropriated to them, and the gorgeous
Peacock is infested by one of extraordinary dimen=
= a Linn, Flor. Lapp. 379. ‘sal Mr. Kittoes
ane .

164. -ANDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

sions and singular form*. Pigeons, in addition, often ,
‘swarm with the bed-bug, which makes it advisable
never to haye their lockers fixed to a dwelling-house.
In their young, if your curiosity urges you to examine
them, you may find the larva of the flea, which in its

' perfect state often swarms in poultry.

Amongst our most valuable domestic animals I shall
be very unjust and ungrateful, if I do not enumerate
‘those industrious little creatures the bees, from whose
incessant labours and heaven-taught art we derive the |
two precious productions of honey and wax. ‘They
also are infested by numerous insect-enemies, some of
which attack the bees themselves, while others despoil
them of their treasures.—They have parasites of a pe
culiar genus, although at present regarded as belong-
ing to Pediculus”, and mites (Acarus gymnopterorum,
L.) are frequently injurious to them. That universal
plunderer the wasp, and his formidable congener the
hornet, often seize and devour them, sometimes ripping `
open their body to come at the honey, and at others
carrying off that part in which it issituated. The former

a Pare V. Fre. 3
_ b Melittophag vs it Kirby. See Mon. Ap. Angl. ii. 168. I copy the
: following memorandum respecting M. Melitte from my common-place-
book, May 7,1812. On the flowers of Ficaria, Taraxacum and Bellis, f
found a great number of this insect, which seemed extremely restless, runy j
ning here and there over the flowers and over eachother, with greatswift- ’
ness, mounting the anthers, and sometimes lifting themselves up above
them, as if looking for something. One or two of them leaped upon my
hand. Near one of these flowers I found.a small Melitta, upon which some
of these creatures were busy sucking the poor ahimal, so that it seemed
unable. to fly away. When disclosed from the egg, Ti imagine they get oñ
the'top of these flowers to attach themselves to any Melitta that may alight
on them, or come sufficiently near for them toleap on it. K.”

INDIRECT INJURIES-CAUSED BY INSECTS, 165

frequently take possession of a-hive, having either
‘destroyed or driven away its inhabitants, and consume
all the honey it contains. Nay there are certain idlers
of their own species, called by apiarists corsair-bees,
which plunder the hives of the industrious.—From the
Curious account which Latreille has given us of Phi-
lanthus apivorus, a wasp-like insect, it appears that great
havoc is made by it ofthe unsuspecting workers, which
it seizes while intent upon their daily labours, and car-
"les off to feed-its young*. Another insect, which one
Would not have suspected of marauding propensities,
Must here be introduced. Kuhn informs us, that long
ago (in 1799) some monks who kept bees, observing
that they made an unusual noise, lifted up the hive,
When an animal flew out, which to their great surprise
ho doubt, for they at first took it for a bat, proved to be
the death’s-head hawk-moth (Sphinx Atropos, L.), al-
ready celebrated as the innocent cause of alarm”: and
he remembers that several, some years before, had been
found dead in the bee-houses*. M. Huber, also, in
1804 discovered that it had made its way into his hives
and those of his vicinity, and had robbed them of their
ney. In Africa we are told it has the same propen-
‘ity; which the Hottentots observing, in order to mo-
opolize the honey of the wild bees, have persuaded the
“olonists that it inflicts a mortal wound & 'This moth
has the faculty of emitting a remarkable sound, which
© Supposes may produce an effect upon the bees of a
hive Somewhat similar to that caused by the voice of

a Latreille, Hist, des Fourmis, 307-20. b See above, p 34.

e Naturforscher Stk. xvi. 74. á
i d Quoted from Campbell’s Travels in South Africa, in the Quarterly
Review for July 1815, 315. if

166. INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

their queen, which as soon as uttered strikes them mo-
‘tionless, and thus it may be enabled to commit with
impunity such devastation in the midst of myriads of
armed bands*. The larvae of three species of moth
(Tortrix Cereana, F. Tinea Mellonella, F. and Tinea
sociella, F. exhibite qual hardihood with equal impu-
nity.. They indeed pass the whole of their initiatory
state in the midst of the combs. Yet in spite of the
stings of the bees ofa whole republic, they continue
their depredations unmolested, sheltering themselves
in tubes made of grains of wax, and lined with silken
tapestry, spun and wove by themselves, which the bees
(however disposed they may be to revenge the mis-
chief which they do them, by devouring, what to all
other animals would be indigestible, their wax,) are
unable to penetrate. These larve are sometimes so
numerous in a hive, and commit such extensive ra-

vages, as to force the poor bees to desert it and seek
another habitation. .

I shall not delay you longer upon this subject by de-
tailing what wild animals suffer from insects, further
than by observing that the two creatures of this descrip-
tion in which we are rather interested, the hare and the
rabbit, do not escape their attack. The hare in Lap-
land is more tormented by the gnats that any other qua-
druped. To avoid this pest it is obliged to leave the -
cover of the woods in full day, and seek the plains;
hence the hunters say, that of three litters whicha hare
\ produces in a year, the first dies by the cold, the second
by gnats, and only the third escapes and comes to ma«
turity®.—We learn from the i ingenious Mr. Clark, that

a Huber, Pref. xi-xiii, b De Geer, ii. 83.

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 167

the American rabbit and hare are infested by the
largest species of Qčstrus? yet discovered; and our do-
‘Mestic rabbits sometimes swarm with the bed-bug. This
Was the case with some kept by two young gentlemen
at my house last summer to such a degree, that I found
it necessary to have them killed.
Nor are the inhabitants of the waters sheltered by their
Peculiar element from these universal assailants. The
larve of Dytisci fixing themselves by their suctorious
-Mandibles to the body of fish, doubtless destroy an in-
finite number of the young fry of our ponds, Some
Species of salmon (Salmo Fario, L,) are the food of an
animal which. Linné has arr aged under Pediculus;
and probably many others of the finny tribes may, like
the birds, have their peculiar parasites. Even shell- fish
do not escape, for the Nymphon grossipes, Latr. enters
the shell of the muscle and deyours its inhabitant.

I am, KA

a Considered by Mr. Clark as a new genus, which he has named Cu-
te rebra, and of which he has described three species. Essay on the Bots af
Horses, Se. pe 63. t. % fa 24-29. j

LETTER VI.

ps at Ee

INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

INDIRECT INJURIES CONTINUED.

Havine endeayoured to give you some idea of the
mode in which insects establish and maintain their em-
pire over man and his train of dependent animals, T
shall next call your attention to his living vegetable
possessions, whether the produce of the forest, the
field, or the garden; whether necessary to him for
his support, convenient for his use, or ministering to
his comfort, pleasure and delight :—and here you will
find these little creatures as busily engaged in the
work of mischief as ever, destroying whatis necessary,
deranging what is convenient, marring what is beauti-
ful, and turning what should Ap us pleasure into an
object of disgust.

Let us beg with the syech of our fields.—Bread
is called “the staff of life :” yet should divine Provi-
dence in anger be pleased to give therein to the various
insécts which, in the different stages of its growth, at-
tack the plant producing it A quickly would this staff
be broken! From the moment that wheat begins to
emerge from the soil, to the time when it is carried into
_ the barn, it is exposed to their ravages. One ofits ear-
liest assailants in this country is that of which Mr. Wal-
ford has given an account in the Linnean T ransactions,
taking it for the wire-worm; but, as Mr. Marsham ob-

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY-INSECTS, 169

Served, not correctly; it being probably the larva of
Some coleopterous insect, perhaps of one of the nume-
Tous tribe of Staphylinide which are not universally
Carnivorous. This animal was discovered to infest the ©
Wheat in its earliest stage of growth after vegetation
had commenced; and there was reason to believe that
it began even with the grain itself. It eats into the
Young plant about an inch below the surface, devour-

ing the central part ; and thus, vegetation being stop: |

Ped, it dies. Out of fifty acres sown with this grain in
1802, ten had been destroyed by the grub in question so
ĉarly as October *.—Other predaceous Coleoptera will
also attack young corn. This is done by the larva of
Carabus gibbus, F. (C. gibbosus, i.B. Harpalus, Latr.),
Particularly with respect to wheat. In the spring of
1813 not less than twelve German hides (Hufen), equal
totwo hundred and thirty English acres, were destroyed
byitin the canton of Seeburg, near Halle in Germany ;
and Germar (who with other members of the Society of
Natural History, at that place, ascertained the fact,)
Suspects thatit was the sameinsect, described by Cooti,
an Italian author, which caused great destruction in
Upper Italy in 17 76.—Not only is the larva, which
Probably lives in thatstate three years, thus injurious;
but, what one would not have expected, the perfect
reetle itself attacks the graii when in the ear, clamber-
Mg up the stems at night in vast numbers to get at it.
~Along with the larve of this insect were found, in the
Proportion of about one-fourth, those of another beetle
(Melolontha ruficornis, F.), which seemed to contribute
to the mischief, 7

è Linn, Trans, ix. 155-61, b Germar’s Mag. der Ent. i. 1-10.

170 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

Mr. Markwick has given us the history of a fly that
attacks wheat ina later period of its growth, which, if
it be not indeed the same, appears to be nearly related
to the Musca Pumilionis of Bierkander*, accused by
him of being extremely injurious to rye in the spring-
Our insect was discovered on the first sown wheats early
in that season, making its lodgement in the very heart
of the principal stem just above the root, which stem it |
invariably destroyed, giving the crop at first a most un-
promising appearance, so that there seemed scarcely @
hope of any produce. But it proved in this and other
instances that year (1791) that the plant, instead of
being injured, derived great benefit from this eircum-
stance ;.for, the main stem perishing, the root (which
was not hurt) threw out fresh shoots on every side, s0
as to yield a more abundant crop than in other fields
where the insect had not been busy. These flies there”
fore seem to belong to our insect benefactors; and i
should not have introduced them here, had it not.bee?
probable that in some instances later in the spring they
may attack the lateral shoots of the wheat, and so be
injurious. It is also not unlikely that the new progeny:
which is disclosed in May, may cviposit in barley oF
some other spring corn, which would bring the next
generation out in time for the wheat sown in the au-
tumn.—'These flies are amongst the last, and, in some
seasons, the most numerous, that take shelter ini the
windows of our apartments when the first frosts indi-
cate the approach of winter, previous to their becoming

a Act. Stockh. 1178. 3. n. 11. and 4. n.4. Marsham in Linn, Trams
ii. 79. This insect probably belongs to Latreille’s genus Mosillus, and
seems related to Mosilius arcuaius, Gen. Crusts & Ins. iv. 357.

/

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 171

‘orpid during that season. When this little animal
Was first observed in England, it created no smail
alarm amongst agriculturists lest it should prove to be
the Hessian fly, so notorious for its depredations in
North America; but Mr. Marsham, by tracing out the
Species, proved the alarm to be unfounded*. “That
there was sufficient cause for apprehension, should it
have so turned out, what I have formerly stated con-
cerning the latter insect, and the additional facts which

Shall now adduce, will amply show. FFs
The ravages of the animal just ailuded to, which
Was first noticed in 1776, and received its name from
an erroneous idea that it was carried by the Hessian
troops in their straw from Germany, were at one time
50 universal as to threaten, where it appeared, the total :
dbolition of the culture of wheat; though, by recent —
®ccounts, the injury which it now occasions is much less
than at first. It commences its depredations in autumn,
aS soon as the plant begins to appear above ground,
When it devours the leaf and stem with equal voracity
until stopped by the frost. When the return of spring

tings a milder temperature the ily appears again, and
deposits its eggs in the heart of the main stems, which
‘t Perforates and so weakens, that when the ear begins
to grow heavy, and is about to go into the milky state,
they break down and perish. All the crops, as far as
it extended its flight, fell before this ravager. Tt first
“owed itself in Long Island, from whence it proceeded
land at about the rate of fifteen or twenty miles
annually, and by the year 1789 had reached 200 miles
"om its original station. I must observe, however,

a Linn, Trans, iis 16-80:

172 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS;

that some accounts state its progress at first to have
been very slow, at the rate only of seven miles pe?
annum, and the damage inconsiderable; and that the
wheat crops were not materially inj An by it before
the year 1788. Though these insect hordes traversê
such a tract of country in the course of the year, theif
flights are not more than five or six feet at a time:
Nothing intercepts them in their destructive career
neither mountains nor the broadest rivers. They were
seen to cross the Delaware like a cloud. The numbers
of this fly were so great, that in wheat-harvest the
houses swarmed with them to the extreme annoyance
of the inhabitants. They filled every plate or vessel
that was in use; and five hundred were counted in #
single glass ia exposed to them a few minutes
with a little beer in it*.

America suffers also in its wheat and maize from the
attack of an insect of a different order; which, fof
what reason I know not, is called the chintz-bug-fly-
It appears to be apterous, and is said in scent and ¢0-
lour to resemble the bed-bug. They travel in immense
columns from field io field, like locusts destroying
every thing as they proceed; but their injuries ar?
confined to the states south of the 40th degree of north
latitude’, From this account the depredator heré
noticed should belong to the tribe of Cimicide ; but it
seems very difficult to conceive how an insect that lives
by suction, and has no mandibles, could destroy thes?
plants so totally.

When the wheat blossoms, another mar puitieny to

a Encycloped. Britann. viii. 489-95.
b Young’s Annals of Agriculture, xi. 411,

|
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 173

Which Mr. Marsham first called the attention of the
Public, takes its turn to make an attack upon it, under
the form of an orange-coloured gnat, which, introdu-
cing its long retractile ovipositor into the centre of the
corolla, there deposits its eggs. These being hatched,
the larva, perhaps by eating the pollen, prevent the
impregnation of the grain, and so in some seasons de-
Stroy the twentieth part of the crop*.
One would think, whendaid up in the barn or in the `
Stanary, that wheat would be secure from injury; but
“ven there the weevil (Calandra granaria, F.), in its
imago as well as in its larva state, devours it; and
Sometimes this pest becomes so infinitely numerous,
that a sensible man, engaged in the brewing trade, once
told me, speaking perhaps rather hyperbolically, that
they collected and destroyed them by bushels; and no
Wonder, for a single pair of these destroyers may pro-
uce in one year above 6000 descendants.—There are
three other insects that attack the stored wheat, which
are more injurious to it than even the weevil. One is
à minute species of moth, (Tinea granella, F.,) happily
t much if at all known in this country ; of which
eeuwenhoek has given us a full history under the
Tame of the wolf. Another isa species of the same
Senus, at present not named, which, as we are informed
Y Du Hamel, at one time committed dreadful ravages
"the province of Angoumois in France. The third is
"0g osita caraboides, F., a kind of beetle, the grub! of
Which called Cadelle, Olivier tells us, did more da-
Mage to the housed grain in the southern provinces.of

* Tipula Tritici, K. belonging to Latreille’s genus Cecidomyia, Mar-

s)
“am and Kirby in Linn, Trans. iii, 242-5. iv, 224-39, v. 96-110.

174 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSHOTS.

France than either the weevil or the wolf*.—Here i
may just mention a few other insects which devou¥
grains that are the food of man, concerning which 4
‘have collected no other facts. The rice-weevil (Calan
dra Oryza, F.) is very injurious to the useful grain
after which it is named, as is likewise another small
beetle, Lyctus dentatus, F.; and an Indian grain
called in the country Joharré, which appears to be
species of Holcus or Milium, is the appropriate food
of another species of Calandra”, which I found abut
dant in it.

Rye; in this island, is an article of less importane?
than wheat; but in some parts of the continent it forms
a principal portion of the bread-corn. Providence hag
also appointed the insect means of causing a scarcity
of this species of food: The fly before noticed (Muse?
Pumilionis) introduces its eggs into the heart of thé }
shoots of rye, and occasions so many to perish, that
from eight to fourteen are lost in a square of two feet:
—A small moth also (Pyralis Secalis, F.) which eat
the culm of this plant within the vagina, thus destroy®
many ears°.. In common with wheat and barley it also
suffers from Leeuwenhoek’s wolf and the weevil.

Barleylikewise, another of our most valuable grains,
has several insect foes. The gelatinous larva of a saw?
fly (Tenthredo, L.) preys upon the upper surface of the
leaves, and so occasions them to wither. Musca Ho™
det of Bierkander also assails the plant. A tenth part

a Oliv. ii, n. 19, 3-4. b Curculio testaceus, Ent. Brite _
_ ¢ Marsham in Linn. Trans. ii: 80. De Geer notices the injury done by
this fly to rye, and observes that before it had been attributed to frost
ibe 68.

À we
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 175

ef the produce of this grain, Linné affirms, is annually
destroyed in Sweden by another fly, not yet discovered.
Britain, (Musca Frit, L.,) which does the mischief
J Setting into the ear.—A small species of moth de-
šcribed by Reaumur, though not named by Linné,
Which may be called Tinea Hordei, devours the grain -
When laid up inthe granary. This fly deposits seve-
ral eggs, perhaps twenty or thirty, ona single grain ;
ut as one grain only is to be the portion of one larva, |
they disperse when hatched, each selecting one for
"self, which it enters from without at a place more
‘ender than the rest ;-~and this single grain furnishes
x Sufficient supply of food to supportthe caterpillar till
hig ready to assume the pupa. Concealed within this. |
“ontracted habitation, the little animal does nothing
that may betray it to the watchful eye of man, not evem
Fecting its excrements: from its habitation; sò that
“te may be millions within a heap of corn, where you
Would not suspect there was one*. gi
Ad have not observed that oats suffer from insects, ex-
“Pt from the universal subterranean destroyer of the
STasses, the wire-worm, of which I shall give you a.
“re full account hereafter ; and occasionally from an
his, The only important grain that. now remains `
Moticed is the maize or Indian corn. Besides the
i üntz-bug-fly, a little beetle (Phaleria cornuta, Latr.)
*PPears to devour it; and it has probably other unre-,
“orded enemies”. The Guinea corn of America (Hol-
Ta bicolor), as well as other kinds of grain, is, accord-
g to Abbott, often much injured by the larva of a
2 Act.

Stockh. 1750. 128. Reaumur. ii. 480, &c.
his insect was taken in maize by Mr. Sparshall of Norwich.

176 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

moth (Noctua frugiperda, Smith), which feeds upor
the main shoot*. ve
\ Next to grain pulse is useful to us both when culti-
vated in our gardens and in our fields. Peas and beans,
which form so material a part of the produce of the
farm, are exposed to the attack of a numerous host of
insect depredators ; indeed the former, on account of
their ravages, is one of the most uncertain of our crops
The animals from which in this country both these
plants suffer most are the Aphides, commonly called
leaf-lice, but which properly should be denominated
plant-lice.—As almost every animal has its peculiar
louse, so has almost every plant its peculiar plant-louse;
and, next to locusts, these are the greatest enemies of
‘the vegetable world, and like them are sometimes 50
numerous as to darken the dir’. The multiplication of
these little creatures is infinite and almost incredible.
Providence has endued them with privileges promo”
ting fecundity, which no other insects possess : at on?
time of the year they are viviparous, at another ovip@”
rous; and, what is most remarkable and without paral-
lel, the sexual intercourse of one original pair serve?»
for all the generations which proceed from the female
for a whole succeeding year. Reaumur has proved that
_ in five generations one Aphis may be the progenitor ”
5,904,900,000 descendants; and it is supposed that P
one year there may be twenty generations’. "THS
astonishing fecundity exceeds that of any known anit

a-Smith’s Abbott’s Insects of Georgia, 191. WEE gee

b T say this upon the authority of Mr. Wolnough of Alderton (late of
Boyton) in Suffolk, an intelligent agriculturist, and a most acute a
accurate observer of nature. >, € Reaumsviid66;)

INDIRECT INJURINS CAUSED BY INSECTE] t74-

eer z
mal; and we cannot wonder that a creature so prolifié
should be proportionably injurious: some species, hows
ever, seem more so than others. Those that attack
Wheat, oats, and barley, of which there are more kinds
than one, seldom multiply so fast as to be very noxious
to those plants; while those which attack pulse'spread
5o rapidly, and: take such entire possession, that the
“top is greatly injured, and sometimes destroyed by
m. ‘This was the case with respect to peas in the
year 1810, when the produce was not much more than
the seed sown; and many farmers turned their swine
nto their pea-fields, not thinking them worth harvests
‘Ng. The damage in this instance was caused solely by
the Aphis, and was universal throughout the kingdom,
‘0 that a sufficient supply for the navy could not be ob-
ained. The earlier peas are sown, the better chance
°Y stand of escaping, at least in part, the effects of
Ais vegetable Phthiriasis.—Beans are also often great
uerers from another species of plant-louse, in some
Stricts from its black colour called the Collier, which

. Sins at the top of the plant, and so keeps multiply
hg downwards. The best remedy in this case, which
5o tends to set the beans well, and improves both
their quality and quantity, is to top them as soon as the
Phides begin to appear, and carrying away. the tops
1. Urn or bury them.—In a late stage of growth great
Yoc ig often made in peas by the grub of a small
p tle; Bruchus granarius, L.,) which will sometimes
7 82 egg in every pea of a pod, and thus destroy it,
à *mething similar I have been told (I suspect it isa

} “rt-snouted. weevil) occasionally injures beans. In
Country, however, the mischief caused by the

~"Uchus is seldom very serious; but. in North Ames
TOR. q, N

`

{7S INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTA

rica another species (B. Pisi, L.) is most alarmingly
destructive, its ravages being at one time so univer
sal as to put an end in some places to the cultivatio®
of that favourite pulse, No wonder then that Kalm
should have been thrown into such a trepidation upor
discovering some of these pestilent insects just dis-
closed in a parcel of peas he had brought from that
country, lest he should be the instrument of introdu?
cing-so fatal an evil into his beloved Sweden*. In the
year 1780 an alarm was spread in some parts of France,
that people had been poisoned by eating worm-eate?
peas ; and they were forbidden by authority to be ex’
posed for sale in the market : but the fears of the pub-
- Jic were soon removed by the examination of some
scientific men, who found the cause of the injury to Þe
the insect of which I am now speaking”. Another spe”
cies of Bruchus (B. pectinicornis; L.) devours the peas
in China and Barbary. A leguminous seed, much used
when boiled as food for horses in India, known to Ev
ropeans by the name of Gram, but in the Tamul dis
ect’ called Koloo; and by the Moors Cooltee, is tb?
appropriate food of a fourth kind of Bruchus, related
“to the last, but having the antenne, which in the mal?
are pectinated, much shorter than the body. It is, per
haps; B. scutellaris, F. A parcel of this seede give?
` me by Captain Green was full of this insect, seve™
grains containing two. Molina, in his History of Chil
tells us of a beetle, which he names Lucanus Pilm™
that infests the beans in that country ;—a cireumstaB®
quite at variance with the habits of the Lucanid®

y

a Kalm’s Travels, i. 173. b Amoreurx, 288. y

i e I have raised plants from this seed, which appear from the foliag? j
heldng either to Phaseolus or Dolichos.

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY insects, 179

Which all prey upon timber. This insect was probably
a Phaleria, Latr., in which genus thè mandibles arè
‘protruded from the head like those of Lucanus ; and
one Species; as we have seen above, feeds upon maize;
\ Great profits are sometimes derived by farmers from
their crops of clover-seed : but this does not happen
Very often: for a small weevil, (Apion flavifemoratum,y
Which abounds every where at almost all times of the
Year, feeds upon the seed of the purple clover, and in
Most seasons does the crop considerable damage ; só
that a plant of the fairest appearance will, in conses-
{uence of the voracity of this little enemy, produce
Scarcely any thing. Another species (Apion flavipes)
infests the Dutch or white clover*, The young plants
of purple clover, when just sprung; are often; as Mr.

Joseph Stickney pointed out to me, much injured by
the same little. jumping beetles (Haltica, F.) that at:
tack the turnips, | ehana
~ But not only; if let loose to the work of destruction;
might insects annihilate our grain and pulse; they
Would also deprive the earth of that beautiful green
Carpet which now covers it, and is so agreeable and sé
Tefreshing to the sight. When you see a large tract
oF land lying fallow, as is sometimes the case in open
“WStricts, with no intervening patches of verdure, how
Unpleasant and uncomfortable is it to your eye! What
en would be your sensations, were the whole face
°f the earth bare, and not dressed by Flora? But such
s State of things would soon take place, if to punish us,
“= to teach us thankfulness to the great Arbiter of our

}

* Markwick, Marsham and Lehmånn-in Linn, Trans, vi. 142,—ana
"by ià ditto, ix, 37, 42, ns 19,23. bf VS areri
N2

180 xNDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

fate, the insects that feed upon the grass of our pas
tures were to become as generally numerous as they
are occasionally permitted to do. One of the worst of
these ravagers is the grub of the common cockchafer
(Melolontha vulgaris, ¥.*) This insect, which is found
to remain in the larva state four years, sometimes de-
stroys whole acres of grass, as I can aver from my OW? -
observation. It undermines the richest meadows, and
' sö loosens the turf that it will roll up as if cut with 4
turfing-spade. These grubs did so much injury about
seventy years:ago to a poor farmer near Norwich, that
the court of that city, out of compassion, allowed him
25l., and the man and his servant declared that be
had gathered eighty bushels of the beetle”. In the yeat
4785 many provinces of France were so ravaged bf
them, that a premium was offered by the government
for thé best mode of destroying them. They do not
confine themselves to grass, but eat also the roots of
corii; and it is to feast upon this grub more particu-
larly that the rooks follow the plough. jA
© The larva also of another species of this genus (Me
lolontha. pulwerulenta, F.) ‘is extremely destructive 1”
moist meadows, rooting under the herbage, so that
the soil becoming loose, the grass soon withers and
dies. Swine are very fond of these grubs, and will de
your. vast numbers of them, and the rooks lend theif
assistance.

< Amongst the Lepidoptera, the greatest enemy of out
pastures is the Bombyx Graminis, F. which, howeve*?
ig said not to touch the foxtail grass. In the year
1740, 1741, 1742, 1748, 1749, they multiplied so pro”

a Puare XVIL, Fre. 12. < b Philos: Trans, VIAL 581.

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 11

digiously and committed such ravages in many prož:
vinees of Sweden, that the meadows became quite
white and dry asif a fire had passed over them*, This
destructive insect, though found in this country, is’
luckily scarce amongst us; but our northern neigh-
bours appear oécasionally to have suffered greatly
from it. In 1759, and again in 1802, the high sheep
farms in Tweedale were dreadfully infested by @
caterpillar, which was probably the larva of this moths’
Spots of a mile square were totally covered by them,
and the grass devoured to the root”.
: Most of the insects I have hitherto mentioned at
tack our crops partially, confining themselves to’ oné
or two kinds only; but there are some species Which
extend their ravages indifferently to all. Of this de-
scription is the Phalena frumentalis, L., which moth,
Pallas tells us, is an almost universal pest in the go-
Vernment of Kasan in Russia, often eating the greater
Part of the spring corn to the root*. To this we are
fortunately strangers; but another, well known by the
name of the wire-worm, causes annually a large dimi-
Nution of the produce of our fields, wipes indiseri-
Minately wheat, rye, oats, and grass’, This insect,
Which has its name apparently from its,slender form
and uncommon hardness and toughness, is the grub of ©
à beetle termed by Linné Elater lineatus, but by Bier-
kander, to whom we are indebted for its history, Æ. Se-
Selis? which name is now generally adopted. The in-
-§6tious Mr, Paul of Starston in Norfolk, (well known

a De Geer, ii. 341. Amen, Acad. iii, 355. b Farmers Mag. iii. 487,
_ © Pallas’s Travels in South Russia, i. 30. d Pave XVII. Fra. 4,

° Marsham in Communications to the Board of Agriculture, iv. 412.
Plate xviii, Jig. 4. and Linn, Trans. ix. 60,

1

182° INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

as the inventor of a machine to entrap the turnip-:
beetle, which may be applied by collectors with great.
advantage to general purposes,) has also succeeded in
tracing this insect from the larva to the imago state.»
His grubs produced Elater obscurus of Mr. Marsham,
which however comes so near to Æ. Segetis that it is
doubtful whether it be more than a variety. The other
species, however, of the genus have similar grubs,
many of which probably contribute to the mischief.
When told that it lives in its first (er feeding) state:
not less than five years, during the greatest part of.
which time it is supported by devouring the roots of
grain, you will not wonder that its ravages should be:
so extensive, and that whole crops should sometimes
be cut off by it. As it abounds chiefly in newly broken-
up land, though the roots of the grasses supply it with:
food, it probably does not do any great injury to our
meadows and pastures*. .

‘a The wire-worm is particularly destructive for a few years in gar-
dens recently converted from pasture ground. Inthe Botanic Garden
at Hull thus circumstanced a great proportion of the annuals sown in
1813 were destroyed by jt. A very simple and effectual remedy in such
cases was mentioned to me by Sir Joseph Banks. He recommended

3 at isc E

that slices of potato stuck upon skewers should be buried near the seeds
sown, examined every day, and the wire-worms which collect upon them
in great. numbers destroyed.

_ This plan of deccying destructive animals from our crops by offering
ybem more tempting food, is excellent, and deserves to be pursued in
other instances. It was very successfully employed in 1813 by J. M.
Rodwell, Esq. of Barham Hall near Ipswich, one of the most skilful
and best informed agriculturists in the county of Suffolk, to preserve
some of his wheat-fields from the ravages of a small gray slug, which
threatened to demolish the plant. Having heard that turnips had been.
used with success to entice the slugs from wheat, he caused a sufficient
quantity to dress cight acres to be got together; and then, the tops being

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. - 183

Here also may be included the larva of the long-
legged gnat (Tipula oleracea, L.), knownin many parts
by the name of the grub, which is sometimes very pre-
judicial to the grass in marshy lands, and at others not
less so to corn. Reaumur informs us, that in Poitou,
in certain years, the grass of whole districts has been so
destroyed by it, as not to produce the food necessary
for the sustenance of the cattle’. In many parts of
England, in Holderness particularly, it cuts offa large
‘proportion of the wheat crops, especially if sown upon
clover-lays?. Reaumur concludes from the obsérva-
tions he made thatit lives solely upon earth, and conse-
quently that the injury which it occasions, arises from

divided and the apples sliced, he directed the pieces to be laid separate-
ly, dressing two stetches with them and omitting two alternately, till the
whole field of eight acres was gone over. On the following morning he
employe `d two women to examine and free from the slugs, which they did
into a measure, ‘the tops and slices; ard when cleared they were laid
Upon thosé stetches that had been omitted the day before. It was ob
served invariably, that in the stetches dressed with the turnips no slugs
Were to be found upon the wheat or crawling upon the land, though they
abounded upon the turnips; while on the undressed stetches they were
to be seen in great numbers both on the wheat and on the Jand. The
quantity of slugs thus collected was near a bushel.—Mr. Rodwell is per-
Suaded that by this plan he saved his wheat from essential injury.

a Reaum. v. 11. bai) |
b Two species are confounded under the appellation of the grub, the
larvæ namely of Tipula oleracea and cornicina, which last is very inju-
rious, though not equally with the first. In the rich district of Sunk
island in Holderness, in the spring of 1813, hundreds of acres of pasture
have been entirely destroyed by them, being rendered as completely
brown as if they had suffered a three months drought, and destitute of
oe Vegetation except that of a few thistles. A square foot of the dead
turf being dug up, 210 grubs were counted in it! and what furnishes a
Striking proof of the prolific powers of these insects, the next year it
Was difficult 'ta find a single onc,

\

384 INDIMECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTE.

its loosening the roots of corivand grass by burrowing
amongst them : but my friend Mr. Stickney, the intel-
-ligent author of a treatise upon this insect, is inclined
to' think from his experiments: that, it feeds on the
roots themselves. However this may he, the evil pro-
duced is evident; and it appears too from the obser-
vations of the gentleman last mentioned, that this
anunal is not killed by lime applied in much larger
-doses than usual. l
©- Qur national beverage ale, so valuable and hearten-
ing to the lower orders, and so infinitely preferable to
ardent spirits, is indebted to another vegetable, the
hop, for its agreeable conservative bitter. This plant
Sọ. precious has numberless enemies in the Lilliputian
‘world to which I am introducing you. Its roots are -
‘subject to the attack of the caterpillar of a singular
Species of moth (Hepialus Humuli, F.), known to col-
lectors by the name of the ghost, that sometimes does
them considerable inj ury”.—A small beetle also ( Hal-
-tica concinna) is particularly destructive to the tender
shoots early in the year; and upon the presence or ab-
sence of Aphides, known by the name of the Sly, as
in the case of peas, the crop of every year depends; so
that the hop-grower is wholly at the mercy of insects.
They are the barometer that indicates the rise and fall
of his wealth. eg
If the beer-drinker be thus interested in the history
of these animals, equally so is the drinker of tea, In-
deed stigar is an article so universally useful and agree-
able, that what concerns the cane that produces it seems
to concern every one. This also affords a tempting

# Stickney’s Observations on the Grub, ` b De Geer, i. 487.

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS, 185

food to insects, The caterpillar of a white moth, called
the borer, for destroying which areward of fifty guineas
is offered by the Society: of Arts, is in this respect a
Sreat nuisance, as is an unknown species of horned
beetle? An ant also (Formica analis, Latr.) makesa
lodgement in the interior ofthe sugar-cane in Guinea,
and destroys it._But the creature ofthis class most de-
Structive to the sugar-cane, is one of the latter genus
that does not devour it, and is therefore improperly
Called Formica saccharivora by Linné; but, by making
tts nest for shelter under the roots, so injures the plants.
that they become unhealthy and unproductive. These
insects about seventy years ago appeared in such infi-
nite hosts in the island of Granada, as to puta stop to
the cultivation of this plant; anda reward of 20,0007.
Was offered to any one who should discover an effectual
Mode of destroying them. Their numbers were incre-
dible, "They descended from the hills like torrents, and
“Ae plantations, as well as every path and road for miles
Vere filled with them. Many domestic quadrupeds pe-
ished in consequence of this plague. Rats, mice, and
“eptiles of every kind became an easy prey to them;
“ad even the: birds, which they attacked whenever the y
alighted on the ground in search of food, were so ha-
*Assed as to be at length unable to resist them. Streams
Ai Water opposed only a temporary obstacle to’ their
Progress, the foremost rushing blindly on to certain
“ath, and fresh armiés instantly following, till a bank
as formed of the carcases of those that were crowned
“Ufficient to dam up the waters, and allow the main body
© Pass over in safety below. Even the all-devouring

a I owe this information to Robinson Kittoe, Esq.

186 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

element of fire was tried in vain. When lighted to. ar
yest their route, they rushed into the blaze in such my“
riads of millions as to extinguish it. Those that thus
patriotically devoted themselves to certain death for
the common good, were but asthe pioneers or advaieed
guard of a countless army, which by their self-sacri-
fice was enabled to pass unimpeded and unhurt. The
entire crops of standing canes were burnt down, and
the earth dug up in every part of the plantations-
But vain was every attempt of man to effect their de-
struction, till in 1780 it pleased Providence at length
to annihilate them by the torrents of rain which ac
companied a hurricane most fatal to the other West
India Islands. This. dreadful pest. was thought tO
‘have been imported*. Besides these enemies, the
sugar-cane has also its Aphis, which sometimes de
stroys the whole crop”; andaccording to Humboldt and
- Bonpland the larva of Elater noctilucus feeds in it®.
Two other vegetable productions ofthe New World,
cotton and tobacco, which are also valuable articles of
commerce, receive great injury from the depredation
of insects. M‘Kinnen, in his Tour through the West
Indies, states that in 1788 and 1794 two-thirds of the
crop of cotton in Crooked Island, one of the Bahamas,
was destroyed by the chenille (probably alepidopterou®
larva); and the red bug, an inseet equally noxious,
stained it so much in some places as to render it of ht
eor novalue. Browne relates that in Jamaica a bus
destroys whole fields of this plant, and the caterpillar of
a Castle in Philos. Trans. xxx. 346.

b Browne’s Civi! and Nat. Hist. of Jamaica, 430.
e Essai sur la Géographie des Plantes, 136.

INDIRECT INJURIES.CAUSED BY INSECTS. 187.

the beautiful Papilio Cupido, L. also feeds upon it”.
That of the Sphinx Carolina, Li. is the great pest of ©
Tobacco ; and it is attacked likewise by the larva of
P halæna Rhexie, Smith’, and by other insects of the:
Rames and kind of which I am ignorant.
Roots are another important object of agriculture,

_ Which, however, as to many of them, they may seem:
to be defended by the earth that covers them, do not
“Scape the attack of insect enemies.—The carrot, which
forms a valuable part of the crop of the sand-land

: farms in Suffolk, is often very much injured, as is also
the parsnip, by a small centipede (S. electrica, L.), and

mother polypod (Polydesmus complanatus, Latr.),
Which eat into various labyrinths the upper part of their
"Sots; and they are both sometimes totally destroyed

Y the maggot of some dipterous insect, probably a
Musca: had an opportunity of noticing this in the

Month of J uly, in the year 1812, in the garden of our
Yalued friend the Rev. Revett Sheppard of. Offton in
üffolk. The plants appeared many of them in a dying

“Slate; and upon drawing them out of the ground to as-

tertain the cause, these larvae were found with their

ead and half of their body immersed in the root in ar
lique direction, and in many instances they had eaten

OF the end of it. | 3
, America has made us no present more extensively
“neficial, compared with which the mines of Potosi are
Worthless, than the potato. Thisinvaluable root, which
À ROW so universally cultivated, is often, in this coun-

y, Considerably injured by the two insects first men-

à M‘Kinnen, 171, Browne ubi supr. Merian, Ins. Sur. 10. |
h Smith's Abbott's Insects of Georgia, 199,

188 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

tioned as attacking the carrot. In America it is said
to: suffer much from two beetles (Lytta cinerea and vit-
tata, F.), of the same genus with the blister-beetle*s
and in the island of Barbadoes some hemipterous iñ-
sect, supposed to be a Tettigonia, occasionally attacks
them. In 1734 and 1735 vast swarms of them devoured
almost every vegetable production of that island, par“
ticularly the potato, and thus occasioned such a failure
ef this excellent esculent, particularly in one parish;
that a collection was made throughout the island for
the relief of the poor, whose pricipal food it forms:

: The chief dependance of our farmers for the suste-
nance of their cattle in the winter is another most useful
root, the turnip. And they have often to lament the
distress occasioned by a failure in this crop, of which
these minor animals are the cause. On its first coming
up, as soon asthe cotyledon leaves are unfolded, a whole
host of little jumping beetles, composed chiefly of Z ab
tica Nemorum, called by farmers the fly and black jack,
attack and devour them; so that on account of their ra”
vages the land is often obliged to be resown, and fre-
quently with no better success. It has been calculated
by an eminent agriculturist, that from this cause alon®
the loss sustained in the turnip crops in Devonshire ip
1786 was not less than 100,0007.” Almost as much dae
mage is sometimes occasioned by alittle weevil (Cure
lio contractus, E. B.) which in the same manner pierce?
a hole in the cuticle. When the plant is more advanced
_ and out of danger from these pygmy foes, the black larv?
of a saw-fly (Tenthredo, L.) takes their place, and 0
- easionally does no little mischief, whole districts bei?é

es 402
a Illiger, Mag. i, 256 b Young’s Annals of Agriculture, Vit 10

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS, 189

Sometimes nearly stripped by them; so that in 1783
many thousand acres were on this account ploughed
Up*~—The caterpillar of the cabbage-butterfly (Papi-
lio Brassica, L.) is also sometimes found upon the tur-

nipi In great numbers; and Sir Joseph Banks informs
me that forty or fifty of the insects before mentioned»,
called by Mr. Walford the wire-worm, have been dis
Covered in October just below the leaves in a single
bulb of this plant,—The small knob or tubercle often
observable on these roots is inhabited by a grub, which,
from its resemblance to one found in similar knobs on
the vdots of Sinapis arvensis, from which I have bred
Curculio contractus, E. B., and Rynchenus assimilis, F':;
is probably one ofthe same or an allied species®. This,
however, does not seem to affect their growth. Great-
Mischief is occasionally done to the young plants by the —
Wire-worm. I last summer was shown a field in which
they had destroyed one-fourth of the crop, and the gen-
tleman who showed them to me calculated that his loss
by them would be 1007. One year he sowed a field
thrice with turnips, which were twice wholly, and the
third time in great part, cut off by this insect —Whe-
ther the disease to which turnips are subject, in some
Parts of the kingdom, from the form of the excrescences

® Marshall in Philos. Trans. \xxiii. 1783. b See above, p. 168-169.
© Swamm. ii. 81. col. b.—Gyllenhal, in describing the last-named spe~-
ties, so common on the flowers of siliquose plants (Insecta Suecica,iii.142.),
Iks if his R, sulcicollis (C. Pleurostigma, E. B.), which agrees with it in
ost respects, except in having toothed thighs, be not the other sex? This
Mery T can solve in the negative, having taken the sexes of R. assimilis

iy Situ, which do not differ, save that the male has a somewhat sharjet
rostrum,

190 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

into which the bulb shoots, called fingers and toes, bè
occasioned by insects, is not certainly known #.

We have wandered long enough about the fields to
observe the progress of insect devastation: letus now
return home to visit the domains of Flora and Pomona;
that we may see whether their subjects are exposed to
equal maltreatment. If we begin with the hitchen-gar*
den, we shall find that its various productions, mini-
stering so materially to our daily comfort and enjoy’
ment, almost all suffer more or less from the attack of
the animals we are considering.—T hus, the earliest of ©
our table dainties, radishes, are devoured by the mag-
got of a fly (Musca Radicum, L.), and our lettuces bY
the caterpillars of several species of moth; one of which
is the beautiful tiger-moth (Bombyx i F.) another
the pot-herb-moth (Noctua oleracea, F. ), a third ano-
nymous, described by Reaumur as beginning at the root,
eating itself a mansion in the stem, and so destroying
the plant before it cabbages”. And when they are come
to their perfection and appear fit for the table, their
beauty and delicacy are often marred by the trouble-
some earwig, which, insinuating itself into them, de-
files them with its excrenients.—What more accep
table vegetable in the spring than br ‘ocoli? Yet how
dace is its foliage often ravaged i in the autumi
by numerous hordes of the cabbage-butterfly! so thaty
in an extensive garden, you will sometimes see nothing
left of the leaves except the veins and stalks.—What

i a Spence’ s Obse ervations onthe Disease in Turnips called Fingers and. Toes.
Hrll 1812. 8yo. b Reaumii,4T].

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED By INSECTS; 19]

more useful, again, than the cabbage? ? Besides the same
insect, which injures them in a similar way, in some
countries they are infested by the caterpillar of a most
destructive moth (Noctua Brassice, F.), to which in-
deed I have before alluded*; which, not content with
thé leaves, penetrates into the very heart of the plant”,
—One of the most delicate and admired of all table ve+

Setables, concerning which gardeners are most apt to
Pride themselves, and bestow much pains to produce in
Perfection, I mean the cauliflower, is often attacked by
a fly, which ovipositing in that part of the stalk covered
by the earth, the maggots when hatched occasion thé
plant to wither and die, or to produce a worthless heads.
Even when the head is good and handsome, if not care-
fully examined previous to being cooked, it is often
rendered disgusting by earwigs that have crept into it;
or the green caterpillar of Papilio Rape, L. i

Our peas, beans, carrots, parsnips, turnips, and pota-
tos are attacked in the garden by the same enemies that _
jure them in the fields*; Ishall therefore dismiss them

-a See above, p. 30. b De Geer, ii. 440.

- ¢’Perhaps this fly is the same which Linné confounded with Musca Lars |
varum, L., which he says he had found in the roots of the cabbage (Syst.
Nat, 999, 78.). Isay “ confounded,” because it is not likely that the same
Species should be parasitic in an insect, and also inhabit a vegetable. ‘ee

a In lately examining, however, some young garden peas and beans
about four inches high,I observed the margins of the leaves to be gnawed
into deep scollops by a little beetle (Curculio lineatus, L.), of which E
found from two to ei ght on each pea and bean, and many in the act of
tating, Not only were the larger leaves of every plant thus eroded, but
in Many cases the terminal young shoots and leaves were apparently ir-
Teparably injured. TI have often noticed this and another of the short-
outed Curculios (C. tibialis, Herbst) in great abundance in pea and

an fields, but was not aware till now that either of them was injurious

: these. plants. Probably both are so, but whether the crop is materi-
aly affected by them must be left to further inquiry.

135

192 INDIRECT INJURIES GAUSED BY INSECTS.

without further notice, and point out those which in*
fest another of our most esteemed kinds of pulse, kid-
ney beans. These are principally Aphides, which in
dry seasons are extremely injurious +o them. The fluid
which they secrete, falling upon the leaves, causes them
to turn black as if sprinkled with soot; and the nutri»
ment being subtracted from the pods by their constant
suction, they are prevented from coming to their pro-
per size or perfection. ‘The beans also which they con-
tain are sometimes devoured by the caterpillar ofasmall
moth*.—Onions, which add a relish to the poor man’s
crusts and cheese, and form so material an ingredient
in the most savoury dishes of the rich, are also the fa-
vourite food of the maggot of a fly, that often does con-

_ siderable damage to the crop.—F rom this maggot (for

a supply of onions containing which I have to thank my
friend Mr. Campbell, surgeon, of Hedon near Hull,
where it is very injurious, particularly in light soils,) 1
have succeeded in breeding the fly, which proves of that
tribe of the Linnean genus Musca, now called Scato-
phaga. Being apparently undescribed, and new to my
valued correspondent Count Hoffmansegg to whom I

sent it, Teall it S. Ceparum?.—The diuretic Asparagus;

towards the close of the season, is sometimes rendered
unpalatable by the numerous eggs of Lema Asparagt,
F.;and its larve feed upon the foliage after the heads
branch out.—Cucumbers with us enjoy an immunity
from insect assailants; but in America they are des

a Reaum. ii 419.

b Description of S. Ceparum.— Cinereous clothed with distant, black
hairs, proceeding, particularly on the thorax, from a black point. Legs
nigrescent, Back of the abdomen of the male with an interrupted black
vitta down the middle. Wings immaculate, Poisers and alule pale
yellow. Length 3 lines,

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 193

prived of this privilege, an unascértained species, called
there the cucumber-fly, doing them great injury*.—
And, to name no more, mushrooms, which are fre-
quently cultivated and much in request, often swarm
With the maggots of various Diptera and. Coleoptera. —
The insects just enumerated are partial i in their at-
tacks, confining themselves to one or two kinds.of our-
Pulse or other vegetables. But there are others that
devour more indiscriminately the produce of our gar-
dens: and. of these in certain seasons and countries we »
have no greater and more universal enemy than the
caterpillar of a moth called by entomologists Noctua
Gamma, from its having a character inscribed in gold
nits primary wings, which resembles that Greek letter.
his creature affords a pregnant instance of the power
of Providence to let loose an animal to:the work of de-
struction and punishment. Though common with us,
it is seldom the cause of more than trivial injury; but
in the year 1735 it was so incredibly multiplied in
France as to infest the whole country. On the great
Toads, wherever you cast your eyes, you might see vast
numbers traversing them in all directions to pass from
field to field; but their ravages were particularly felt
In the kitchen-gardens, where they devoured every
thing, whether pulse or pot-herbs, so that nothing was
left besides the stalks and veins of the leaves. The
credulous multitude thought they were poisonous, re-
Port affirming that in some instances the eating of them
ad been followed by fatal effects. In consequence of
this alarming idea, herbs were banished for several
Weeks from the soups of Paris. Fortunately these de-
a Barton in Philos. Magaz. ix. 62.

,

VOL L s o

194 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

étroyers did not meddle with the corn, or famine would
have followed intheir train. Reaumur has proved that
a single pair of these insects might in one season pro
duce 80,000; so that, were the friendly Ichneumons
removed, to which the mercy of Heaven has given it in
charge to keep their numbers within due limits, we-
should no longer enjoy the comfort of vegetables with
' our animal food, and probably soon become the prey of
scorbutic diseases *.—I must not overlook that singu-
lar animal the mole-cricket, (Acheta Gryllotalpa, F.)
which is a terrible devastator of the produce of the
kitchen-garden. It burrows under ground, and de-
vouring the roots of plants thus occasions them- tO
wither, and even gets into hot-beds. It does so much
mischief in Germany, that the author of an old book
of gardening, after giving a figure of it, exclaims,
“Happy are the places where this pest is unknown!” -
The flowers and shrubs, that form the ornament of
‘our parterres and pleasure-grounds, seem less exposed
to insect depredation than the produce of the kitchen-
garden; yet still there are not a few that suffer from
it. The foliage of one of our greatest favourites, the
rose, often loses all its loveliness and lustre from the
excrements of the Aphides that prey upon it. The leaf-
cutter bee also (Apis centuncularis, L.) by cutting
pieces out to form for its young its cells of curious con-
struction, disfigures it considerably; and the froth Ci-
cada (C. spumaria, L.) aided by the saw-fly of the rose
( Tenthredo Rose, L.) contributes to check the luxuri-
ance of its growth, and to diminish the splendour ofits
beauty.—Reaumur has given the history of a fly (Eris
a Reaum, ti, 337.

Z

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 195

`- talis Narcissi) whose larva feeds in safety'within the
bulbs of the Narcissus, and destroys them; and also of
another, though he neglects to describe the species,
Which tarnishes the gay parterre of the florist, whose
delight is to observe the freaks of nature exhibited in
the various many-coloured streaks which diversify the
blossom of the tulip, by devouring its bulbs *—Ray no-
ticesanother mentioned by Swammerdam, probably Bi-
bio hortulana, Latr., which he calls the deadliest enemy
Of the flowers of the spring. He accuses it of despoik
ing the gardens and fields of every blossom, and so ex-
tinguishing the hope of the year”. But you must not
take up a prejudice against an innocent creature, even
Under the warrant of such weighty authority; for the
insect which our great naturalist has arraigned as the

author of such devastation is scarcely guilty, if it be at
al a culprit, in the degree here alleged against it. As
It is very numerous early in the year, it may perhaps
discolour the vernal blossoms, but its mouth is furnished
With no instrument to enable it to devour them.

In our stoves and green-houses the Aphides often reign
triumphant ; for, if they be not discovered and destroyed
When their numbers are small, their increase becomes
So rapid and their attack so indiscriminate, that every

- Plant is covered and contaminated by them, beauty be-
‘ng converted into deformity, and objects before the
Nost attractive now exciting only nausea and disgust.
The Coccus (C: Hesperidum, L.) also, which looks like —

1 inanimate scale upon the bark, does considerable
jury to the two prime ornaments of our conser-
Yatories, the orange and the myrtle; drawing off the
a Reaum. iv 499. D Rai, Hist. Ins. Prolegom. xi.

02

xX

é
J96 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. |
sap by its pectoral rostrum, and thus depriving the
plant of a portion of its nutriment, at the same time
that it causes unpleasant sensations in the beholder
from its resemblance to the pustule of some cutaneous
disease.

I must next conduct you from the garden into the
orchard and fruitery ; and here you will find the same
enemies still more busy and successful in their attempts —
to do us hurt.—The strawberry, which is the earliest
and at the same time most grateful ofour fruits, enjoys
also the privilege of being almost exempt from insect
injury. A jumping weevil (Curculio Fragariw, F.) is
said by Fabricius to inhabit this plant; but as the same
species is abundant in this country upon the beech, the
beauty of which it materially i injures by the numberless
holes with which it pierces the leaves, and has I believe
never been taken upon the strawberry, it seems proba-
ble that Smidt’s specimens might have fallen upon the
, latter from that tree*. The only insect I have ob-
served feeding upon this fruit is the ant, and the in-
| jury that it does is not material—The raspberry, the

fruit of which arrives later at maturity, has more tha!
one species of these animals for its foes. Its foliage
sometimes suffers much from the attack of Melolontha
horticola, F., a little beetle related to the cockchafer:
when in flower the footstalks of the blossom are occa”
sionally eaten through by a more minute animal of the

a This kind of misnomer frequently occurs in entomological authors.”

Thus, for instance, the Curculio Alliarie ef Linné feeds upon the haw”
thorn, and Curculio Lapathi upon the willow (Curtis in Linn. Trans:
i. 86.) ; but as Alliaria is common in hawthorn hedges, and docks ofte?
grow under willows, the mistake in question easily happened: when; |
however, such mistakes are discovered, the Trivial Name ought certainly
to be altered.

+

\

7

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 197

‘ame order, Dermestes tomentosus, which I once saw
Prove fatal to a whole crop ; and bees frequently anti-
Cipate us, and by sucking the fruit with their proboscis
Spoil it for the table.—Gooseberries and currants, those
“8reeable and useful fruits, a common object of culti-
Vation both to poor and rich, have their share of ene-
Mies in this class. The all-attacking Aphides do not
i pass over them, and the former especially are some-
times greatly injured by them; their excrement falling
pon the berries renders them clammy and disgusting,
md they soon turn quite black from it. In July 18121
saw a currant-bush miserably ravaged by a species of
occus, very much resembling the Coccus of the vine.

e eggs were of a beautiful pink, and enveloped ina
arge mass of cotton-like web, which could be drawn
Sut to a considerable length. Sir Joseph Banks lately
Showed mea branch of the same shrub perforated down

tothe pith by the caterpillar of Sesia tipuliformis, F. :

e diminished size of the fruit points out, he observes,
Where this enemy has been at work. In Germany,
Where perhaps this insect is more numerous, it is said
` destroy not seldom the larger bushes of the red cur-

ranta, The foliage of these fruits often suffers much

tom the black and white caterpillar of Phalena gros-
“lariata, L. ; (this was the case last spring at Hull;)

Ut their worst and most destructive enemy, particu-

uly of the gooseberry, is that of a small saw-fly. This
. Wi is of a green colour, shagreened as it were with

minute black tubercles, which it loses at its last moult.

the} fly attaches its eggs in-rows to the underside of.
~ Saves. When first hatched, the little animals feed

a Wiener Verzeich, 8vo. 29.

198 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

in society; but having consumed the leaf on which
they were born, they separate from each other, and
the work of devastation proceeds with such rapidity,
that frequently, where many families are produced oP
the same bush, nothing of the leaves is left but the
veins, and all the fruit for that year is spoiled*.
Upon the leaves of the cherry, which usually succeeds .
the gooseberry, in common with those of the pear a
several other fruit-trees, the slimy larva of arother saw”
fly (T. Cerasi, L.) makes its repast, yet without being
the cause of any very material injury, But in North
‘America a second species nearly related to it, know?
there bythe name of the slug-worm, has become prev?
lent to such a degreé as to threaten the destruction not
‘only ofthe cherry, butalso ofthe pear, quince, and plum
In 1797 they were so numerous that the smaller trees
were covered by them; and a breeze of air passil8
through those on which they abounded became charg@
with a very disagreeable and sickening odour. Twenty
or thirty were to be seen ona single leaf; and maby

trees, being quite stripped, were obliged to put forth

a Fabricius seems to have regarded the saw-fly that feeds upon the salt
‘low(Tenthredo Capree), not only as synonymous with that which feé
upon the osier, but also with our little assailant of the gooseberry and out”
rant. Yet it is very evident from Reaumur’s account, whose accusat,
may be depended upon, that they are all distinct species. Fabrici?
description of the fly agrees with the insect of the gooseberry, but pe
‘which he has given of the larva belongs to the animal inhabiting the $
low. Probably, confounding the two species, he described the 1 f
from the insect of the former, and the larva (if he did not copy fro 3
. Reaumur or Linné) from that of the latter. Linné was correct in reg?
ing Reaumur’s three insects as distinct species, though he appears bi
mistaken in referring to him under T. flava, as the saw-fly of the out"?

and gooseberry is not wholly yellow, — K

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 199

fresh foliage, thus anticipating the supply of the suc-
ceeding year and cutting off the prospect of fruit*.—In |
Some parts of Germany the cherry-tree has an enemy’
equally i injurious. A splendid beetle of the weevil tribe
(Rynchites Bacchus, Herbst,) bores with its rostrum
through the half-grown fruit into the soft stone, and
there de posits an egg. Thegrub produced from it feeds
Upon the kernel, and, when about to become a pupa,
Shaws its way through the cherry, and sometimes not
` ein a thousand escapes”. This insect is fortunately
rate with us, and has usually been found upon the —
black-thorn. |The cherry-fly also (Tephrites Cerasi,
Latr.) provides a habitation for its maggot in the same
fruit, which it invariably spoils*.
The different varieties of the plum are every year
Nore or less injured by Aphides; and a Coccus (C. Per-
Sic, F?) sometimes so abounds upon them that every:
twig i is thickly beaded with the red semiglobose bodies
of the gravid females, whose progeny in spring ex-

aust the trees by pumping out the sap.

The -blossoms of our pear-trees, as we learn from

r. Knight, are often rendered abortive by the grub of
a brown | beetle: and a considerable quantity ofits fruit
is destroyed by that of a small four-winged fly, which
Occasions it to drop off prematurely 4, This would seem

à Peck’s Nat. Hist. of the Slug-worm, 9.
b Trost Kleiner Beytrag. 38. -c Reaum, ii. 477.

2 On the Apple and Pear, 158, The beetle Mr. Knight alludes to is
Probably the Curculio oblongus; Li, which answers his description, and 13
ommon on pear-trees.—In Holland, it is stated in a little tract on this
“ubject (Verhandeling ten bewijze &c. door F. H. van Berck. 8vo. Haar»
em 1807) that the great destroyer of the blossoms of their apple and
Pear-trees j is the larva of another beetle, Curculio Pomorum, L., which

1

900 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

to be a saw- fly, and is probably the species which
Reaumur saw enter the blossom of a pear before it was
quite open, doubtless to deposit its eggs in the em-
bryo fruit. He often found in young pears, on opening
them, a larva of this genus*.—A little moth likewise
is BESS by Mr. eeu as very injurious to this
tree?. :
But of all our fruits none is so sacks and important
. as the apple, and none suffers more from insects, which
according to Mr. Knight® are a more frequent cause of
_ the crops failing than frost. The fig gure-of-eight moth
(Bombyx ceruleocephala, F.) Linné denominates the
pest of Pomona and the destroyer of the blossoms of
the apple, pear, and cherry.—He also mentions an-
other (Tinea Corticella, F.) as inhabiting apple-bearing
trees under the bark.—And Reaumur “sith given us the
history of a species common in this country, and pro-
ducing the same effect, often to the destruction of the
crop, the caterpillar of which feeds in the centre of out
apples, thus occasioning them to fall“, Even the young
grafts, I am informed by an intelligent friend’, are fre-
quently destroyed, sometimes many hundreds in one
night, in the nurseries about London, by Curculio Vas-
_tator, Marsh., (C. picipes, F.) one of the short-snouted
weevils—and the foundation of canker in full grow?
~ trees is often laid by the larvæ of Tortrix Weberana' af
from the name and Gyllenhal’s addition to the habitat given by Linné
—“ quas destruit ”—should seem to be injurious in Sweden also,
a Reaum, ubi supr. 475. ( b On Fruit Trees, 271.

c On the Apple and Pear, 45, -d Reauwm. ii. 499,
e Mr. Scales.:

f See Observations on this Insect in. the 2d volume of the Horticultural
Society’ s Transactions, bee 25. By W. Spence, .

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 201

The sap too is often injuriously drawn off by a minute
8 Coccus, of which the female has the exact shape òf a
Mmuscle-shell (C. arborum linearis, Geoffr.), and which
Reaumur has accurately described and figured*, This
Species so abounded in 1816 on an apple-tree in my
Sarden that the whole bark was covered with it in -
every part; and I have since been informed by Joshua
Haworth, jun. Esq. of Hull, that it equally infests
Other trees in the neighbourhood. Even the fruit of
a golden pippin which he sent me were thickly beset
With it—But the greatest enemy of this tree, and which
has been known in this country only since the year
'787, is the apple-aphis, called by some the Coccus,
and by others the American blight. This is a minute
sect, covered with a, long cotton-like wool transpi-
ting from the pores of its body, which takes its station
™ the chinks and rugosities of the bark, where it in-
‘Teases abundantly, and by constantly drawing of
the sap causes ultimately the destruction of the tree.
hence this pest was first introduced is not certainly
known. Sir J oseph Banks traced its origin to a nur-
Sery in Sloane Street; and at first he was led to con-
Clude that it had Leen imported with some apple-trees
from France. On writing, however, to gardeners in
that country, he found it to be wholly unknown there.
t was therefore, if not a native insect, most probably
€rived from North America, from whence apple-trees
ad also been imported by the proprietor of that nur-
“ery. Whatever its origin, it spread rapidly. ‘At first
tt Was confined to the vicinity of the metropolis, where
a destroyed thousands of trees. But it has now found
a Reaum, iv. 69, & 5. Fi

902 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

its'way into other parts of the kingdom, particularly
into the cyder counties; and in 1810 so many perished
from it in Gloucestershire, that, if some mode of de-
stroying it were not discovered, it was feared the ma-
king of cyder must be abandoned. This valuable dis-
covery, it is said, has since been made; the application
of the spirit of tar to the bark being recommended as
effectual*. Sir Joseph Banks long ago. extirpated it
from his own apple-trees, by the simple method of
taking off all the rugged and dead old bark, and then
scrubbing the trunk and. branches with a hard brush.
Our more dainty and delicate fruits, at least such as
are usually so accounted, the apricot, the peach, and the
nectarine, originally of Asiatic origin, are not less sub-
ject to the empire of insects than the homelier natives
of Europe. Certain Aphides form a convenient and ~
sheltered habitation for themselves, by causing por-
tions of the leaves to rise into hollow red convexities ;
in these they reside, and, with their rostrum pumping
out the sap, in time occasion them to curl up, and thus
deform the tree and injure the produce. The fruit is
attacked by various other enemies of this class, against
which we find it not easy to secure it: wasps, earwigs;
flies, woodlice, and ants, which last communicate to it @
disagreeable flavour, all share with us these ambrosia!

- a This Aphis is evidently the insect described in Mliger’s Magazit
i. 450, under the name of 4. lanigera, as having done great injury to thé
apple-trees in the neighbourhood of Bremen in 1801. That it is 2%
Aphis and no Coccus is clear from its oral rostrum and the wings of the
male, of which Sir Joseph Banks possesses an admirable drawing by Mr.
Bauer, On this Aphis see Forsyth, 265 ; Monthly Mag. xxxii. 320; and
also for August 18113 and Sir Joseph Banks in the Horticultural Societys
Transactions, ii. 162,

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 208

treasures; the first of them as it were opening the door,
by making an incision in the rind, and letting in all the
Yrest.— The nucleus of the apricot is also sometimes in-
habited by the caterpillar of a moth, which devouring
the kerne! causes the fruit to fall prematurely *.—In this

country, however, these fruits may be regarded as mere
luxuries, and therefore are of less consequence ; but in
North America they constitute an important part of the
-8eneral produce, at least the peach, serving both as
food for swine, and furnishing by distillation a useful
Spirit. The ravages committed upon them there by in-
‘sects are so serious, that premiums have been offered
for extirpating them. A species of weevil, perhaps a
Rynchites of Herbst, enters the fruit when unripe, pro-
bably laying its eggs within the stone, and so destroys
them. And two kinds of Zygena, F., by attacking the
roots do a still greater injury to the trees’.—A Coccus,
as it should seem from the description, imported about
thirty years ago from the Mauritius, or else with the
Constantia vine from the Cape of Good Hope, has de-
‘stroyed nearly nine-tenths of the peach trees in the
Island of St. Helena, where for merly they were so:
‘abundant, that, as in North America, the swine were

fed with them. Various means have been employed to
destroy this plague, but hitherto without success ®.—

a M. de la Hire in Reaum. ii. 478.
b Dr, Smith Barton’s Letter in Philos, Magaz. xxii, 210. William Davy,
Esq. American Consul of the Port of Hull, long resident in the United
States, informed me that though he had abundance of peaches at his
Country-house, German Town near Philadelphia, he could never succeed |

with the nectarine, the fruit constantly falling off perforated by the gruh ee

of some insect.
€ Descr, of the I, of St, Helena, 147,

`

?

G04 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

The imperial pine-apple, the glory of our stoves, and
the most esteemed of the gifts of Pomona, cannot, how-
ever precious, be defended from the injuries of.a sin-
gular species of mite, the red Spider of gardeners, (Aca-
rus telarius, L.,) which covers them, and other stove
plants, with a most delicate but at the same time very
pernicious web.—The olive tree, so valuable to the in-
habitants of the warmerregions of Europe, often nou-
rishes in its berries the destructive maggot ofa fly (Os-
cinis Olce, Latr. ); and the caterpillar of a little moth
(Tinea Oleella, F.), which preys upon the kernel of the
nucleus, occasions them to fall before they are ripe.—

Every one who eats nuts knows that they are very often
inhabited by a small white grub; this is the offspring of
:a weevil (Curculio Nucum, L.) remarkable for its long

and slender rostrum, with which it perforates the shell

when young and soft, and deposits an egg in the orifice.

—In Franceit sometimes happens, when the chestnuts
„promise an abundant crop, that the fruit falls before it
comes to maturity, scarcely any remaining upon the
trees. The caterpillar of a moth which eats into its in-
terior is the cause of this disappointment? .—Of fruits
the date has the hardest nucleus; ‘yet an insect of the
same tribe with the above, that feeds upon its kernel,
is armed with jaws sufficiently strong to perforate it,
that it may make its escape when the time of its change
is arrived, and assume the pupa between the stone and
the flesh. The date is eaten also by a nonin which
Merete calls a Dermestes ”.
One of the most delicious, and at the same time most

1
. ae 4 cd
a Reaum. ii. 505. S
b Ibid. ii. 507, and Hasselqnist’s Travels in the Levant, 428.

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 205 |

Useful, ofall our fruitsis the grape: to this, as youknow,
We are indebted for ourraisins, for our currants, for our
Wine, and for our brandy; you cannot therefore but
feel interested in its history, and desire to be informed,
whether, like those before enumerated, this choice gift
of heaven, whose produce “cheereth Godand man mg
Must also be the prey of insects. There is a singular
beetle, common in Hungary, (Lethrus cephalotes, F.)
Which gnaws off the young shoots of the vine, and drags
_ them backward into its burrow, where it feeds upon
them: on this account the country people wage conti-
ual war with it, destroying vast numbers>.—Three
other beetles also attack this noble plant: two ofthem, |
Mentioned by French authors, (Rynchites Bacchus and
Eumolpus Vitis,) devour the young shoots, the foliage,
and the footstalks of the fruit, so that the latter is pre-
Vented from coming to maturity’; and a third (C. Cor-
“¢ptor, Host,) by a German, which seems closely allied
to Curculio Vastator, E. B., (C. picipes, F.) ifit be not
the same insect. This destroys the young vines, often
. iling them thefirst year; and is accounted so terrible
AN enemy to them, that not only the animals but even
their eggs are searched for and destroyed, and to for-
Ward this work people often call in the assistance of
eirneighbours‘.—In the Crimea the small caterpillar
fa Procris or Zygæna, (lepidopterous genera sepa-
"ated from Sphinx, L.) related to P. Statices, F., is a
| “till more destructive enemy. As soon as the buds open
| hi the spring, it eats its way into them, especially the
à That is « High’and Low,” Judges ix. 13.

: Sturm Deutschland’s Fauna, i.. c Latreille, Hist. Nal xi: 66. 331.
Host in Jacquin. Collect. iii. 297. ke

7w

z

906 ANDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

-fruit buds, and devours the germ of the grape. Two oF

three of these caterpillars willsoinjurea vine, by creep”

ing from one germ to another, that it will bear no fruit

nor produce a single regular shoot the succeeding year *.
—Vine leaves in France are also frequently destroyed
by thelarva of a moth (Pyralis vitana, F.) ; in Germany
another species does great injury to the young bunches;
preventing their expansion by the webs in which it in-
volves them”; and a third ( Pyralis fasciana, F.) makes
the grapes themselves its food : a similar insect is al-

Juded to in the threat contained in Deuteronomy *.—

The worst pest of the vine in this country is its Coccus
(C. Vitis, L:). This animal, which fortunately is not
sufficiently hardy to endure the common temperature
of our atmosphere, sometimes so abounds upon those

thatarecultivatedin stoves and greenhouses, that thei?

stems seem quite covered with little locks of white cot
ton; which appearance is caused by a filamentous s¢
cretion transpiring through the skin of the animal, 1
which they envelop their eggs. Where they prevail
they do ereat injury to the plant by subtracting the sap
from its foliage and fruit, and causing it to pleed.—And

to close the list, you are perfectly aware of the eage™”

ness with which wasps, flies, and other msects attack

‘the erapes when ripe, often leaving nothing but the

mere skin for their lordly proprietor.

There are some of these creatures that attack indis”
criminately allifruit-trees. One of these is the Tetti-
gonia septendecim, F., (so called because, according t°
Kalm, it appears only once in seventeen years °.) The

a Pallas’s Travels in S. Russia, ii. 241. b Jacquin. Collect. ii. 9
c Deut. xxviii. 39. & Travels, ii. 6.

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 207-

female Oviposits in the pith of thetwigs of trees, where
the grubs are hatched, and do infinite damage both to
fruit. and forest-trees* .—Another, the caterpillar of
the butterfly ofthe hawthorn, (Papilio Crategi, L.)
Which in 17 91, in some parts of Germany, stripped the
fruit-trees in general of their foliage’.—In France
also in 1731 and 1732 that of a moth which seems re-
lated to the brown-tail moth (Bombyx pheorhea, F.),
Whose history has been given by the late Mr. Curtis,
Was so numerous as to occasion a generalalarm. The
aks, elms, and white-thorn hedges looked as if some
Urning wind had passed over them and dried up their
faves ; for, the insect devouring only one surface of
them, that which is left becomes brown and-dry.. They
also laid waste the fruit-trees, and even devoured the
fruit; so that the parliament published an edict to
compel people to collect and. destroy them: but this
Would in a great measure have been ineffectual, had
not some cold rains fallen, which so completely anni-
hilated them, that it was difficult to meet with a single
Ndividual®, $

tf we quit the orchard and fruit-garden for a walk in
°ur plantations and groves, we shall still be forced to
Witness the sad effects of insect devastation; and when
€ See, as sometimes happens, the hedges and trees en-
"ely deprived of their foliage, and ourselves of the

ti
Shade we love from the fervid beam of the noon-day

Sun. EE z '

NE When the singing birds have deserted them; and

a pet j P,
their music, which has so often enchanted us by its

t a 4 3 ; . fad . ar pr
À Collinson in Philos. Frans, liv. x. 6h, b Rösel, Lii. 15.
Se
Reaum. ii, 122,

908 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

melody, variety, and sweetness, has ceased—we shall
be tempted in our hearts to wish the whole insect race
was blotted’ from the page of creation. Numerous
‘are the agents employed in this work of destruction.
Amongst the beetles, various cockchafers (Melolontha
vulgaris, solstitialis, and horticole, F.) in their perfect
state act as conspicuous a part in injuring the trees, as
their grubs do in destroying the herbage. Besides the
leaves of fruit-trees, they devour those of the sycamore,
the lime, the beech, the willow, and the elm. They aré
sometimes, especially the common one, astonishingly
numerous. Mouffet relates (but one would think that
there must be some mistake in the date, since they ar?
never SO early in their appearance.) that on the 24th of
‘February 1574sucha number of them fell into the rive!
‘Severn as to stop the wheels of the water-mills*. it
is also recorded in the Philosophical Transactions, that
in 1688 they filled the hedges and trees of part of the
‘county of Galway in such infinite numbers, as to cling
‘to each other in clusters like bees when they swarmi
on the wing they darkened the air, and produced ®
‘sound like that of distant drums. When they were
feeding, the noise of their jaws might be mistaken for
the sawing of timber. Travellers and people abro#
‘were very much annoyed by their continual flying in
their faces; and in a short time the leaves of all the
trees for some miles round were so totally consume
by them, that at Midsummer the country wore t ý
aspect of the depth of wiùter”. ag ;
But the criminals to whom it is principally owing
that our groves are sometimes stripped of the gree? .

a Mouffet, 160. b Philos. Trans. xix. TAl.

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED By INSECTS. 209

tobe of summer, are the various tribes of Lepidoptera,
Myriads of whose caterpillars, in certain seasons, de-
Spoil whole districts of their beauty; and our walks
ofall their pleasure. In 1731 the oaks in France were

terribly devastated by the larva of Bombyx dispar,
F.a and in 1797 many of the pine forests about Bay-
reuth suffered a similar injury from that of B. Mo-
nacha, F.» Noctua brumata, F. is also a fearful ene-
My to the foliage of almost every kind of tree*.. The
Woods in certain provinces of North America are
i some years entirely stripped by that of another
Moth, which eats-all ‘kinds of leaves. This happen-
Neat a time of the year when the heat is most exces-
šive is attended by fatal consequences. For, being
deprived of the shelter of their foliage, whole forests j
äre sometimes entirely. dried up and ruined*.—The
brown-tail-moth, before alluded to, which occasion-
ally bares our hawthorn hedges, has been rendered
famous by the alarm it caused to the inhabitants of the
Vieinity of the metropolis i in 1782, when rewards were
offered for collecting the caterpillars, and the church-
Wardens and overseers of the parishes attended to see
them burnt by bushels. — You may have observed per-
hapsi in some cabinets of foreign insects an ant, the head
of which is very large in proportion to the size of its
body, with a piece of leaf in its mouth many times bigger
than itself, These ants, called in Tobago parasol. ants
(Formica cephalotes, L.), cut circular pieces out of the
"eaves of various trees and plants, which they carry in
their jaws to their nests, and they will strip a tree of
a teainn. 1, $8 b Wiener Verzeich: Svo, 75.
e De Geer, ii, 452. aà Kalin’s Travels, ii.7+
VOL, 4, p

910 {NDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS,

its leaves in a night, a circumstance which has been
confirmed to me by Captain Hancock. Stedman men“
tions another very large ant, being at least an inch i®
length, which has the same instinct. It was a pleasant
spectacle, he observes, to behold this army of ants
marching ‘constantly in the same direction, and each
individual with its bit of green leaf in its month”. The
injury thus caused to trees by insects is not confined
to the mere loss of their leaves for one season; for it
occasions them to draw upon the funds of another, by
sending forth premature shoots and making gems un-
fold, that, in the ordinary course, would not have put
forth their foliage till the following year.

Other insects, though they do not entirely devout
the leaves of trees and plants, yet considerably dimi-
nish their beauty. Thus, for instance, sometimes the
subcutaneous larva’ undermine them, when the leaf
exhibits the whole course of their labyrinth ina pallid,
tortuous; gradually dilating line—at others the Tor-

_ trices disfigure them by rolling them up, or the leaf-
‘cutter bees by taking a piece out of them, or certai”
Tinee again by eating their under surface, and £0
causing them to wither either partially or totally:
, You have doubtless observed what is called the honey?
dew upon the maple and other trees, concerning which
the learned. Roman naturalist Pliny gravely hesitates

2 The same intelligent gentleman related to me, that a person hayi”
taker Some land at Bahia in the Brazils, he was compelled by these ant®
which were so numerous as to render every effort to destroy them ineffec
‘tual, to relinquish the occupation of it. Their nests were excavated t°
the astonishing depth of fourteen feet. Merian Insect, Sur, 18, Smeatl-
man on Termites, Philos. Trans. Ixxi. 39. note 35, |

b Stedman, ii. 142,

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 211

Whether he shall call it the sweat of the heavens, the
Saliva of the stars, or a liquid produced by the purga-
tion of the air*!! Perhaps you may not be aware that _
it is a secretion of Aphides, whose excrement has the
Privilege of emulating sugar.and honey in sweetness
and purity. It however often tarnishes thelustre of
those trees in which these insects are numerous, and is
the lure that attracts the swarms of ants which you
May often see travelling up and down the trunk of the
Sak and other trees. The larch in particular is inha-
bited by an Aphis transpiring a waxy substance like
filaments of cotton: this is sometimes so infinitely mul-
tiplied upon it as to whiten the whole tree, which often
Perishes in consequence of its-attack. The beech is
Infested by a similar one. Some animals also of this
Senus inhabiting the poplar, elm, lime, and willow, re-
Side in galls they have produced, that disfigure the
leaves or their footstalks. _ Perhaps those resembling
fruit, or flowers, or moss, produced by the Aphis of the
fir (Aphis Abietis, L.), the different species of. gall-gnats
(Cecidomy yia, Latr.), or occasioned by the puncture and.
Sviposition of the various kinds of gall-flies (Cynips,

-), may be regarded rather as an ornament than as
an injury to a tree or shrub; yet when too numerous
they must deprive it of its proper nutriment, and so oc-
fasion some defect. And probably the enormous wens,
and other monstrosities and deformities observable in
trees, may have been originally produced by the bite
-r incision of insects.

Besides exterior insect enemies, living trees are liable
to the ravages of many that are interior. The cater-

a Hist, Nat. 1. xi. c. 12: |
P2

212 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

pillar of the great goat-moth (Bombyx Cossus, F.), of
the hornet-hawk-moth (Sesia crabroniformis, F.), and
of two beetles (Nitidula grisea, F., and Curculio La-
pathi, L.y, devour the wood of the willow and sallow;
which thus in time often become so hollow as to be
easily blown down. The bee-hawk-moth (Sesia api-
formis, F.*), and probably Rynchites Populi, a bril-
liant green weevil, feeds upon the poplar— Prionus
coriarius is sometimes found in the oak and sometimes —
in the elm, and Bostrichus Pini, F. in the Scotch fir:
Mr. Stephens informs me that the fir-trees in a planta-
tion of Mr. Foljambe’s in Yorkshire were destroyed
by a hymenopterous insect (Sirex Gigus, L.), while
those of another belonging to the same gentleman i?
Wiltshire met with a similar fate from the attack of
Sirex Juvencus, L.—When the sap flows from wound?
in a tree it is attended by various other beetles, (I have
observed Cetonia aurata, F., and several Nitidule and
Staphylinide busy in this way,) which prevent it from
healing so soon as it would otherwise do; and if the
bark be any where separated from the wood, a nu-
merous army of wood-lice, earwigs, spiders, field-bues,
and similar subcortical insects take their station there
and prevent are-union, _ )
The mischief however produced by any or all of
these, is not to be compared with that sometimes sus’
tained in Germany from the attacks of a small beetle;
(Bostrichus Typographits, F.,) so called on account of
a fancied resemblance between the paths it erodes and
letters, which bores into the fir. This insect, in its pre-
paratory state, feeds upon the soft inner bark only:

a Lewin in Linn Trans. iii, 1,—Curtis in do. i. 86.

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS, 213

but it attacks this important part in such vast numbers,
80,000 being sometimes found in a single tree, that it
is infinitely more noxious than any of those that. bore
into the wood: and such is its vitality, that though the
bark be battered and the tree plunged into water, or
laid upon the ice or snow, it remains alive and unhurt.
The leaves of the trees infested by these insects first
become yellow, the trees themselves then die at the
‘op; and soon entirely perish. Their ravages have
long been known in Germany under the name of
Wurm trökniss (decay caused by worms); and in the
old liturgies of that country the animal itself is for-
mally mentioned nnder its vuigar appellation, “The
Turk.” This pest was particularly prevalent and
caused incalculable mischief about the. year 1665. In
the beginning of the last century it again showed it-
Self in the Hartz forests—it reappeared in 1757, re-
doubled its injuries in 1769, and arrived at its height
in 1783, when the number of trees destroyed by it in
the Busia forests alone, was calculated at a million and
half, and the inhabitants were threatened with a total
Suspension of the working of their mines, and conse-
{vent ruin. At this period these Bostrichi, when ar-
"ved at their perfect state, migrated in swarms like
hees into Suabia and Franconia. At length, between
the years 1784 and 1789, in consequence of a succes-
Sion of cold and moist seasons, the numbers of this
Scourge were sensibly diminished. It appeared again
‘OWever in 1790, and so late as 1796 there was great
reason to fear for the few fir-trees that were left*.

à Withelm’s Recreations from Nat. Hist. quoted by Latreille Hist.
at, xi, 194,

914 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS:

The'seeds of forest- as well as of fruit-trees are doubt
less subject to injuries from the same quarter, but these
being more out of the reach of observation, have not
been much noticed.’ Acorns, however, a considerable
article with nurserymen, are said to have both a moth
and a beetle that prey upon them; and what is remark-
able, though sometimes one larva of each is found i"
the same acorn, yet two of either kind are never to be
met with together’. The beetle is probably the Cur-
culio Glandium of Mr. Marsham, and is nearly related
to the species whose grub inhabits the nut.

Having now conducted you round and exhibited to
you the melancholy proofs of the universal dominio?
of insects over our vegetable treasures, while growing
or endued with the principle of vitality, in their se
parate departments,—I must next introduce you to 4
pest worse than all put together, which indiscriminate’
ly attacks and destroys every vegetable substance that
the earth produces, and which, wherever it prevails,
carries famine, pestilence and death in its train. Hap-
pily for this country, and we cannot be too thankful
for the privilege, we know this scourge of nations
only by report. The name of Locust, which has bee?
such a sound of horror in other countries, here only
suggests an object of interesting inquiry. But the
ravages of locusts are so copious a theme that they
merit to be considered in a separate letter.

Tam, &e-
-a Requm. ii, 502. i

LETTER. VII.

INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
INDIRECT INJURIES CONTINUED.

To look at a locust in a cabinet of insects, you would
not, at first sight, deem it capable of being the source
of so much evil to mankind as stands on record against
it. “This is but a small creature,” you would say,
“and the mischief which it causes cannot be far be-
yond the proportion of its bulk. The locusts so cele-
brated in history must surely be of the Indian kind
mentioned by Pliny, which were three feet in length,
With legs so strong that the women used them as saws.
I see indeed some resemblance to the horse’s head, but
Where are the eyes of the elephant, the neck of the
bull, the horns of the stag, the chest of the lion, the
belly of the scorpion, the wings of the eagle, the thighs
of the camel, the legs of the ostrich, and the tail of the
Serpent, all of which the Arabians mention as attri-
butes of this widely dreaded insect destroyer*; but
of which in the insect before me I discern little or no
likeness?” Yet, although this animal be not very tre-
mendous for its size, nor very terrific in its appearance,
it is the very same whose ravages have been the theme
of naturalists and historiansinall ages, and uponaclose
examination you will find it to be peculiarly fitted and

a BochartsHierozoic. P. ii. Liv. c. 8. 475.

216 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

furnished for the execution of its office. It is armed
with two pair of very strong jaws, the upper termina-
ting in short and the lower in long teeth, by which it
can both lacerate and grind its food—its stomach is of
extraordinary capacity and powers—its hind legs en-
able it to leap to a considerable distance, and its ample
-vans are calculated to catch the wind as sails, and so to
carry it sometimes over the sea; and although a single
individual can effect but little evil, yet when the entire
surface óf a country is covered by them, and every one
makes bare the spot on which it stands, the mischief
produced may be as infinite as their numbers. So well
do the Arabians know their power, that they make @
locust say to Mahomet—“ We are the army of the
Great God; we produce ninety-nine eggs; if the hun-
dred were completed, we should consume the whole
earth and all that is in it,” :

Since it is possible you may not have paid particular

attention to the accounts given by various authors both
ancient and modern, of the almost incredible injury
done to the human race by these creatures, I shallnow
lay before you some of the most striking particulars of
their devastations that I have been able to collect. -
The earliest plague of this kind which has been re-
corded, appears also to have been the most direful in
_ its immediate effects that ever was inflicted upon any
nation. Tam speaking, as you may well suppose, of the
locusts with which the Egyptian tyrant and his people
were visited for their oppression of the Israelites. Only
conceive to yourselfa country so covered by them that
noone can see the face of the ground—a whole land

a Bochart; ubi supr. c, 6.485,

: ian
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 217

darkened, and all its produce, whether herb or tree; so
devoured that not the least vestige of green is left in
either?,—But it is not necessary for me to enlarge

further upon a history the circumstances of which are

0 well known to you.
To this species of devastation Africa in general
seems always to have been peculiarly subject. This
May. be gathered from the law in Cyrenaica mentioned
Y Pliny, by which the inhabitants were enjoined to
“estroy the locusts in three different states, three times
the year—first their eggs, then their young, and
lastly the perfect insect”. And not without reason was
Such a law enacted ; for Orosius tells us that in the year
of the world 3,800 Africa was infested by such infi-
Rite myriads of these animals, that, having devoured
“Very green thing, after flying off to sea they were
‘owned, and being cast. upon the shore they emitted
à stench greater than could have been produced by the
*arcases of 100,000 men’. St, Augustine also men-
tions a plague to have arisen in that country from the
“ame cause, which destroyed no less than 800,000
Persons (octingenta hominum millia) in the kingdom of |
Masanissa alone, and many more in the territories
ordering upon the sea‘. : 1
Tom Africa this plague was occasionally imported
mto Italy and Spain; anda historian quoted in Mouffet
Telates that in the year 591 an infinite army of locusts,
Sla size unusually large, grievously ravaged part of
~ `

* Exod, x. 5, 14, 15.

b Hist, Nat. l. xi. c. 29. A similar
aw W.,

as enacted in Lemnos, by which every one was compelled to bring
“ certain measure of locusts annually to the magistrates. Plin. ibid.

£ 5
. © Oros, contra Pag. lv. CR £ Lesser, Z. 247, note 46,

918 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

Italy; and being at last cast into the sea, from their
stench arose a pestilence which carried off near a mil-
lionofmen and beasts. Inthe Venetian territory, als®%
in 1478 more than 30,000 persons are said to have p®
rished in a famine occasioned by these terrific scourge*
Many other instances of their devastations in Europ®
in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, &c.*, are recorded
by the same author. In 1650.a cloud of them was seel
to enter Russia in three different places, which fro™
thence passed over into Poland and Lithuania, wher?
the air was darkened by their numbers. In some places
they were seen lying dead heaped one upon another
to the depth of four feet ; in others they covered the
surface like a black cloth, the trees bent with their
weight, and the damage they did exceeded all compt”
tation”. At a later period in Languedoc when the sU”
became hot they took wing and fell upon the corn, de”
vouring both leaf and ear, and that with such expedir
tion that in three hours they would consume a whole
field. After having eaten up the corn they attacked
the vines, the pulse, the willows, and lastly the hemp
notwithstanding its bitterness“. Sir H. Davy inform®
usd that the French government in 1813 issued a de”
cree with a view to occasion.the destruction of gras*
hoppers.

Even this happy island, so remarkably distinguished
by its exemption from most of those scourges to whi
other nations are exposed, was once alarmed by the ap’
pearance of locusts. In 17 A8 they were observed her?
in considerable numbers, but providentially they s00?

a. Morffet, 123. b Bingley, iii. 255. c Philos Trans. 1686.
d Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, 233.

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS, 219

perished without propagating. These were evidently

Stragelers from the vast swarms which in the preced-
ing year did such infinite damage in: Wallachia, Mol-
davia, Transylvania, Hungary, and Poland. One of
these swarms, which entered Transylvania in August,
Was several hundred fathoms in width, (at Vienna the
breadth of one of them was three miles,) and extended _
to so great a length as to be four hours in passing over —
the Red Tower; and such was its density that it totally
intercepted the solar light, so that when they flew low
Che person could not see another at the distance of
twenty paces*. A similar account has been given me
by a friend of mine” long resident in India. He re-
lates that when at Poonah he was witness to an im-
Mense army of locusts which ravaged the Mahratta
country, and was supposed to come from Arabia (this,
if correct, is a strong proof of their power to pass the
Sea under favourable circumstances). The column
they composed, my friend was informed, extended five
hundred miles; and so compact was it, when on the
Wing, that like an eclipse it completely hid the sun, so
that no shadow was cast by any object, and some lofty
tombs, distant from his residence not more than two
hundred yards, were rendered quite invisible. This
Was not the Gryllus migratorius, L., but a red spe-
ties ; which circumstance much increased the horror
of the scene; for, clustering upon the trees after they
had stripped them of their foliage, they imparted to
them a sanguine hue. The peach was the last tree
that they teuched.

a Philos. Trans, xlvi. 30. + b Major Moor, author of The Nar-
"ative of Captain Liitle’s Detachment, The Hindu Pantheon, &ce |

990 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

Dr. Clarke, to give some. idea of the infinite num+
bers of these animals, compares them to a flight of snow
when the flakes are carried obliquely by the wind.
‘They covered his carriage and horses, and the Tartars
assert that people are sometimes suffocated by them.
The whole face of nature might have been deser ‘ibed
as covered by a living veil. They consisted of two
species, G. tataricus and migratorius, L.; the first i5
almost twice the size of the second, and, because it
precedes it, is called by the Tartars the herald or mes-
senger*.—The account of another traveller, Mr. Bar-
row, of their ravages in the southern parts of Africa
(in 1784 and 1797), is still more striking: an area of
nearly two thousand square miles might be said lite
rally to be covered by them. When driven into the
sea by a N. W. wind, they formed upon the shore for
fifty miles a bank three or four feet high, and when the
wind was S. E. the stench was so powerful as to be
smelt at the distance of 150 miles”.

From 1778 to 1780 the empire of Morocco was ter-
ribly devastated by them, every green thing was eate?
up, not even the bitter bark of the orange and pome-
granate escaping—a most dreadful famine ensued.—
"The poor were seen to wander over the country deriv’
ing a miserable subsistence from the roots of plants;
and women and children followed the camels, from
whose dung they picked the indigested grains of barley,
which they devoured with avidity: in consequence of
this, vast numbers perished, and the roads and streets
exhibited the unburied carcases of the dead. On this

a Travels, i, 348, b Travels, &c. 257.
7 >

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 221

Sad occasion, fathers sold their children, and husbands
their wives% When they visit a country, says Mr.
Jackson, speaking’ of the same empire, it behoves
every one to lay in provision for a famine, for they stay
from three to seven years. When they have devoured
ail other vegetables, they attack the trees, consuming
first the leaves and then the bark. From Mogador to
Tangier, before the plague in 1799, the face of the
earth was covered by them—at that time a singular
incident occurred at El Araiche. ‘The whole region
from the confines of Sahara was ravaged by them: but
on the other side of the river Ki Kos not one of them
Was to be seen, though there was nothing to prevent
their flying over it. Till then they had proceeded north-
Ward; but upon arriving at its banks they turned to
the east, so that all the country north of El Araiche
Was full of pulse, fruits and grain,—exhihiting a most
Striking contrast to the desolation of the adjoining
district. At length they were all carried by a violent

Wwricane into the Western Ocean; the shore, as in

Srmer instances, was covered by their carcases, and a
Pestilence was caused by the horrid stench which they
“mitted :—but when this evil ceased, their devastations
Were followed by a most abundant crop. The Arabs |
ofthe Desert, “ whose hands are against every man’,”
and who rejoice in the evil that befalls other nations,
When they behold the clouds of locusts proceeding from
the north are filled with gladness, anticipating a gene-
"al mortality, which they call El-Khere (the benedic-
ton); for, when a couniry is thus laid waste, they

a Southey’s Phalaba, i, 171. ~ b Genes, xvi. 12. à

i
a
F

999 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

emerge from their arid deserts and pitch their tents i”
the desolated plains*.

The noise the locusts make when engaged in the
work of destruction has been compared to the sound of
a flame of fire driven by the wind,, and the effect of
their bite to that of fire. A wild poet of our day has
very strikingly described the noise produced by their
flight and approach :

< Onward they came a dark continuous cloud

Of congregated myriads numberless,

The rushing of whose wings was as the sound
Of a broad river headlong in its course
Plung’d frotu a mountain summit, or the roar

Of a wild ocean in the autumn storm

Shattering its billows ona shore of rocks ¢!”
But no account of the appearance and ravages of thes¢
terrific insects, for correctness and sublimity, come’
near that of the prophet Joel, “A day of darknes’

and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick dark-
ness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: ®
great people and a strong: there hath not been evel
the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to thé
years of many generations. A fire devoureth befor?
them; and behind them a flame burneth : the land #
as the garden of Eden before them, and behind the”
a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escap?
them. Like the noise of chariots on the tops °
mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame °
@ Jackson’s Travels in Marocco,54. b See Bochart, Hierazoie. p. tie
1. iv. c, 5, 414-5. c Southey’s Thalaba, i. 169.
d Of the symbolical locusts in the Apocalypse it is said—“ And the

tne
sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses runpibe
to battle.” ix. 9. $

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS, 993

fre'that devoureth the stubble, asa strong people set
in battle array. Before their faces the people shall
be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. They
Shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall
like men of war ; and they shall march every one on his
Ways, and they shall not break their ranks: neither shall
One thrust another, they shall walk every one in his
path: and when they fall upon the sword they shall not
be wounded. They shall run to and fro in the city ;
they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon
the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a
- thief. The earth shall quake before them, the heavens
shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and
the stars shall withdraw their shining!” The usual
_ Way in which they are destroyed is also noticed by the
Prophet. “I will remove far off from you the northern
amy, and will drive him into a land barren and deso-
ate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder
Part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come
“p, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath
done great things*!” .
_ Tthink, after a serious consideration of all these well
attested facts, when locustscontend with the two-legged
-Stroyers of the human race for proud pre-eminence
n mischief, you will find it. difficult to determine to
Which ‘the palm should be decreed; and you will ad-
Nire the propriety with which, in the above and other
Passages of Holy Writ, they are selected as symbols of
© great ravagers of the earth of our own species.
many of the above instances these devastators ap
Sar to have crossed the seas, but Hasselquist asserts

a Joel ii. 2-10. 20. ~

994 {NDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

that they are not formed for such extensive flights-

‘¢ The grasshopper or locust,” says he, “is not formed

for travelling over the sea,—it cannot fly far, but must

alight as soon as it rises ;—for one that came on board

us a hundred certainly were drowned. We observe if

the months of May and June a number of these insect?
coming from the south, and directing their course to the
northern shore; they darken the sky like a thick cloud:

but scarcely have they quitted the shore, when they;

who a moment before ravaged and ruined the country:
cover the surface of the sea with their dead bodies.—
By what instinct do these creatures undertake this dan’

gerous flight? Is it not the wise institution of the Cre-

ator to destroy a dreadful plague to the country*? ý

Locusts however, as we have seen, take much longe*

flights than this author supposes them able to do. ft

is probable that their ability in this respect may depené ?
a good deal upon their species, their age, and the stat?
and direction of the wind; for, as was the case witli

the Egyptian plague, l

6t mammaa A pitchy cloud
Of locusts warping on the eastern wind ”

may by a powerful blast be carried over a broad rive"
or even the sea, from one country to another. Thi’
idea is strongly confirmed by an account, exhibiting i”
ternal marks of authenticity, which appeared in the
Alexandria Herald, an American newspaper ; in whi¢

it is stated, that at the distance of 200 miles from the
Canary Islands, the nearest land, the ship Georgi?
Capt. Stokes, from Lisbon to Savannah, while sailiné

a Voyage to the Levant, 444.

7

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 295

With a fine breeze from the south-east, was, on the 21st
of Nov. 1811, all atonce becalmed. “A light air after-
Wards sprang up from the north-east, at which time
there fell from the cloud an innumerable quantity of

large grasshoppers, so as to cover the deck, the tops,
and every partof the ship they could alight upon. They
did not appear in the least exhausted; on the contrary,
When an attempt was made to take hold of them, they
nstanti y jumped, and endeavoured to elude being
taken. The cal m, or a very light air, lasted fully an hour,
and during the whole of the time these insects conti-
tued to fall upon the ship and surround her: such as
Were within reach of the vessel alighted upon her; but
immense numbers fell into the sea, and were seen float-
Ng in masses by the sides.” Two bottles of them were
Preserved for inspection ; the insects were ofa reddish
‘ue, with red and gray speckled wings. Itis clear from
this account, if it be admitted as authentic, that locusts
Can go far from land when the wind is strong, and like-
Wise it seems equally clear that in a calm they cannot
Support themselves in the air. The principal difficulty
‘Ss how these locusts could make their way against
he wind, which they must have done if they came
With the black cloud, as the words seem to intimate.
€rhaps this cloud was brought by a different current
fair from that which impelled the ship.
With respect tothe course which the locusts pursue,
“Sselquist has observed that they migrate in a direct
eridian line from south to north, passing from the de-
serts of Arabia, which is the great cradle of them, to
alestine, Syria, Carmania, Natolia, Bithynia, Con- _
‘lantinople, Poland, &c.—they never turn either tothe
VoL, 1, Q .

996. INDIRECT INJURLES CAUSED. BY INSECTS.

east or to the west*, But this must be a mistaken no-
tion; for those which Major Moor saw at Poonah, of
which I have given an account above”, must have come
due east. , Mr. Jackson also noticed their course north
of the line to be towards the south*; and Sparrman tells
us, that those south of the line migrate in the same di-
rection’, | E

A fear that Hasselquist ’s question, Could they not by
fright, or some other method, be turned from their
dreadful course, to steer for some river, and by, that
means be obliged to destroy themselves °? must be a
swered in the negative. All such experiments, it is to
be apprehended, would be about as effectual as send
ing an army, with all the apparatus of war, to take the
field against them, as this author says is done in Syria,
where the, Bashaw of Tripoli once raised a force ?
4000 soldiers to fight the locusts, and. very summarily
ordered all. to be hanged who, thinking it beneath the™
to.waste their valour upon such pygmy foes, refused t°
join the party‘.

I am, &c-

a Voyage to the Levant, p. 446-7. ° p See p.219.
c Travels, 54. _ a Travels, i. 366.
€ Travels, 455. £ Travels, 447.

LETTER VII.

z

INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

INDIRECT INJURIES CONCLUDED.

I HAVE not yet arrived at the end of my catalogue of
Noxious insects. I have introduced you, indeed, to
those that annoy man in his own person, in his domestic
animals, in the produce of his fields, gardens, orchards,
and forests; in a word, in every thing that is endued
With the vital principle: but I have as yet said nothing
ofthe injuries which he receives from them in that part
ofhis property, consisting either of animal or vegetable
Matter, from which that principle is departed. And with
these I shall conclude this melancholy detail of evil in-

icted upon us by the very animals I am enticing you
to Study. The rest of my correspondence, I flatter my-
Self, will paint them in more inviting colours.

_ The insects to which I now allude may be divided
to those that attack and injure our food, our drugs
and medicines, our clothes, our houses and furniture,
®ur timber, and even the objects of our studies and
amusements.

Various are those that attempt to share our food with
us. Flour and meal are eaten by the grub of Tenebrio
olitor, L., best known Ly the name ofthe meal-worm,

Which will remain in it two years before it goes into its
State of inactivity :—its ravages however are not con-

hed to flour alone, for it will eat any thing made of that

a2

998 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

article, such as bread, cakes, and the like. Old flour id
also very apt to be infested by a mite, (Acarus Farine,
_L.)*. In long voyages the biscuit sometimes so swarms
with the weevil and another beetle (Dermestes pani-
ceus, L.) that they are swallowed with every mouth-
ful; and even the ground peas so abound with thee
little vermin, that a spoonful of soup cannot be take?
free from them”. Bread is also devoured by Trogostid
caraboides, a larger beetle before alluded to°.

Every one is aware that our animal food suffers still
more than our farinaceous from insects; but perhap*
you would not expect that our hams, bacon, and dried
meats should have their peculiar beetle. Yet so it is:
and this beetle, (Dermestes lardarius, L.,) when a grub;
sometimes commits great devastation in them; as does
that of another described by De Geer under the name
of Tenebrio lardarius*. How much our fresh meat of
all kinds, our poultry and fish, are exposed to the flesh-
fly, whose maggots will turn us disgusted from ou!
tables, if we do not carefully guard these articles from
being blown by them, you well know;—and assailants
more violent, hornets, wasps, and the great rove-beetle; ,
( Staphylinus maxillosus, L.) if butchers do not protect

a Amen. Acad. iii. 345.

b Sparrman, i. 103. This insect, by Swedish entomologists, is suppose?
to be a species of Anobium, FE., ( Ptinus, L.,) but the specimen preser¥
in ‘the Linnean cabinet is Silpha rosea of Mr. Marsham, (Chrysomel™
pectoralis, F.) A small beetle of the first family of Cryptophagus of Mar
jor Gyllenhal swarms often in the ship biscuit, and may probably be ibe
insect Sparrman here complains of under the name of Dermestes panies’

c See above, p. 113.
d De Geer, v. 46. This insect appears nearly related to Mr. Marshawn’
Corticaria pulla (E. B. i. 11. 14.), if it be not the same insect.

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 229

their shambles, will carry off no inconsiderable portion
oftheir meat. A small cock-roach (Blatta lapponica, L.)
which I have taken upon our eastern coast, swarms in
the huts of the Laplanders, and will sometimes anni-
hilate in a single day, a work in which a carrion-beetle
(Silpha lapponica, L.) joins, their whole stock of dried
fish*, The quantity of sugar that flies and wasps will
devour, if they can come at it, especially the latter,
the diminutive size of the creatures considered, is asto-
Nishing :—in one year iong ago, W hen sugar was much
cheaper than it is now, a tradesman told me he caicu-
lated his loss, by the wasps alone, at twenty pounds.
_A singular sp ectacle is exhibited in India (so Captain
Bien relates) by a small red ant with a black head.
They march in long files, about three abreast, to any
Place where sugar is kept; and when they are satu-
rated, return in the same order, but bya different route.
If the sugar, upon which they are busy, be carried into

the sun, they immediately desert it. What is very ex-
traordinary, these ants are also fond of oil. Sweet-
Meats and preserves are very subject to be attacked

‘by a minute oblong transparent mite with very short
legs and without any hair upon its body. Our butter
and lard are stated to be eaten by the caterpillar of a
moth (Crambus pinguinalis, F.). Musca putris, L., the
parent fly of the jumping cheese-maggot, loses no op-
portunity, we know, of laying its eggs in our fresh
Cheeses, and when they get dry and old the mite (Aca-
rus Siro, L.) settles her colonies in them, which mul-
tiply incredibly. Other substances, more unlikely, do
Not escape from our pygmy depredators. Thus Reau-

aAmeen, Acad. iii. 845.

x

230 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

mur tells us ofa little moth whose larva feeds upon cho-
colate, observing very justly that this could not have
been its original food*. Both a moth and a beetle
(Dermestes surinamensis; L.) were detected by Leeu-
wenhoek preying upon two of our spices, the mace and
_ the nutmeg’, The maggots of a fly (Musca cellaris;
L., oinopota, K.) are found- in vinegar, in the manu-
factories of which the perfect insects swarm in incre-
dible numbers ; and sometimes even water in the
casks of ships, in long voyages, so abounds with
larve of this tribe as to render it extremely disgust-
ing. Browne, in his History of Jamaica, mentions
an ant (Formica omnivora, L.) that consumes or spoils
all kinds of food; which perhaps may be the same
species that has been observed in Ceylon by Percival,
and is described by him as inhabiting dwelling-
houses, and speedily devouring every thing it can meet
with. If at table any one drops a piece of bread, or
of other food, it instantly appears in motion as if ami-
mated, from the vast number of these creatures that
fasten upon it in order to carry it off. They can be
kept, he tells us, by no contrivance fram invading the
table, and settling in swarms on the bread, sugar, and
such things as they like. It is not uncommon to see
a cup of tea, upon being poured out, completely co-
_vered with these creatures, and floating dead upon it
like a scum‘,
In some countries the number of flies and other in-
-sects that enter the house in search of food, or allured
by the light, is so great as to spoil the comfort of almost
every meal. Weare told that during the rainy season

a Reaum. iii. 276, b Leeuwenh, Episi, 99, c Ceylon, 307.

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 231

in India, insects of all descriptions are so incredibly nu-
merous, andso busy every: where, that it is often abso-
lutely necessary to remove the lights from the supper-
table :—were this not done, moths, flies, bugs, beetles,
and the like would be attracted in such numbers as to
extinguish them entirely. When the lights are re--
tained on the table, in some places: they are put into
glass cylinders, which St. Pierre tells us is the custom
in the Island of Mauritius*; in others the candlesticks
are placed in soup-plates, into which the insects are
precipitated and drowned.” Nothing can exceed the
irritation caused by the stinking .bugs when they get
into the -hair or between the linen and the body; and
if they be bruised upon it the skin comes’ off”; To use —
the language of a poet of the Indies, from whom some
of the above facts are selected,

“© On every dish the booming beetle falls,
The cock-roach plays, or caterpillar crawls :
A thousand shapes of variegated hues `
Parade the table and inspect the stews.
To living walls the swarming hundreds stick,

Or court, a dainty meal, the oily wick 5

Heaps over heaps their slimy bodies drench,
Out go the lamps with suffocating stench.
When hideous insects every plate defile,
The laugh how empty, and how forced the smile ¢ !””

Drugs and medicines also, though often so nauseous
to us, form occasionally part of the food ofinsects. A
Small beetle (Sinodendrum pusillum, F. 4) eats the roots
of rhubarb, in which I detected it in the Kast India

+

& Voyage, &c. 12, : b Williamson’s East India Vade Mecum»
© Calcutta, a Poem, 85. a Ptinus piceus, Marsh.

232 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

Company's warehouses. Opium is a dainty morceau to
the white ants*;—and, what is more extraordinary,
Anobium paniceum, F.» (a coleopterous ‘insect that
preys naturally upon wood) has been known to devour
the blister-hbeetle.Swammerdam amongst his trea-
sures mentions.“ a detestable beetle, produced from
a worm that eats the roots of ginseng ; and he likewise
notices another, the larva of which devours the bag of
the musk*°.—The cochineal at Rio de Janeiro is the
prey of an insect resembling an Ichneumon, but fur-
nished with only twò wings; its station is in the cotton
that envelops the Coccus. Previous to its assumption
of the pupa it ejects a large globule. of pure red co-
louring matter“. And lastly, the Coccus that produces
the lac (C.Lacca, F.) is, we are told, devoured by va-
rious insects €, | . |
Perhaps you imagine that these universal destroyers
spare at least our garments, in which you may at first
conceive there can be nothing very tempting to excite
even the appetite of an insect. Your housekeeper,
however, would probably tell you a different story;
and enlarge upon the trouble and pains it costs her to
guard those under her care against the ravages of the
moths. Upon further inquiry you would find that
nothing made of wool, whether cloth or stuff, comes
amiss to them. There are five species described by

a On examining ninety-two chests of opium, part of the cargo saved
from the Charlton, previously to reshipping them from Chittagong for
China, thirteen were found to be full of white ants, which had almost
wholly devoured the opium. Article from Chittagong, Nov. 1812, in one
of the Newspapers, July 31,1813. b Péinus rubellus, Marsh.

“e Bibl. Nat. i. 125. b. 126. a. d Sir Geo, Staunton’s Voy. 8yo. 189;

e Kerr in Philos. Frans, 1781

I

ere)

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 233

Linné, which are more or less eadi in this work:
inca ċestianella, topetzelia, pellionella, sarcitella, and
Melloncila. Of the first we have no particular history,
except that it destroys garments in the summer; but
ofthe others Reaumur has givenacomplete one. T. ta-
Petzella, or the tapestry moth, not uncommon in our-
houses, is most injurious to the lining of carriages,
Which are more exposed to the air than the furniture
of our apartments. These do not construct a move-
able habitation like the common species, but, eating
their way in the -thickness of the cloth, weave them-
‘elves silken galleries in which they re mney and which
they render close and warm by covering them with
Some of the eroded wool*. T. pellionella is a most
destructive insect, and ladies have often to deplore
the ravages which it commits in their valuable furs,
Whether made up into muffs or tippets—it pays no
Nore respect to the regal ermine than to the woollen
habiliments of the poor ; its proper food, indeed, be-
ing hair, though it devours both wool and fur. This
Species, if hard pressed by hunger, will even eat
°rse-hair, and make its habitation, a moveable house
Si case, in which it travels from place to place, of this.
Untractable material. These little creatures will shave
the hair from a skin as neatly and closely as if a razor
had been employed?.—The most natural food of the
Next species, T. sarcitella, is wool; but in case of ne-
“essity it will eat fur and hair. To woollen cloths or
Stuffs it often does incredible i injury, especially if they
are not kept dry and well aired*. Of the devastation
Committed by T. Mellonella in our bee-hives I have

# Reaum, iii, £66. b Thid. 59. c Tbig, 42.

t

934 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS:

before given you an account; to this I must here add,
that if it cannot come at wax, it will content itself
with woollen cloth, leather, or even paper*.. Mr. Cur-
tis found the grub of a beetle (Ptinus Fur, L.) in a
old coat, which it devoured, making holes and chan-
nels in it; and another insect of the same order ( Der-
mestes Pellio, L.) Linné tells us, will sometimes en
tirely strip a fur garment of its hair”. A small beetle
of the Capricorn tribe (Callidium pygmeum, F.) J
have good reason to believe devours leather, since J
have found it abundant in old shoes.

Next to our garments our houses and buildingss
which shelter us and our property from the inclemency
and injuries of the atmosphere, are of consequence tO
us: yet these, solid and substantial as they appear, are
not secure from the attack of insects; and even our
furniture often suffers from them. A great part of ow
comfort within doors depends upon our apartments
being kept clean and neat. Spiders by their webs;
which they suspend in every angle, and flies by theit
excrements, which they scatter indiscriminately upo”
every thing, interfere with this comfort, and add much
to the business of our servants. Even ants will some
times plant their colonies in our kitchens, (I hav?
` known the horse-ant, Formica rufa, L., do this,) at
are not easily expelled. Those of Sierra Leone, as
was once informed by the learned Professor Afzelius
make their way by millions through the houses. They
yesolutely pursue a straight course; and neither puild-
ings nor rivers, even though myriads perish in the
attempt, can divert them from it. Numerous are the

a Reéaum. iii, 257. b Ameen, Acad, iii. 346.

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS, 235

‘vibes of insects that seek their. food inour timber,
Whether laid up in store for our future use, employed
in our houses, buildings, gates or fences, or made up
into furniture. The several species of Mr. Marsham’s
Senus fps (which includes the coleopterous genera
- Apate; Bosirichus, H ‘ylessinus, Hylurgus, Tomicus,
P latypus, Scolytus, and Phloiotribus of modern sy-
Stematists) all prey upon timber, feeding between the
bark and the wood, and many of them excavating cu-
rious pinnated labyrinths.: Almost every kind of tree
tas a species’ of this genus appropriated to it, and
‘ome have more than one*. The Stag-beetle tribe,
or Lucanidæ, and several of the weevils”, have a si-
milar appetite, but penetrate deeper into the wood,
The most extensive family, however, of. timber-
borers are the capricorn beetles, including the Fabri-
Clan genera of Prionus, Cerambyx, Lamia‘, Steneco-
"us, Calopus, Rhagium, Gnoma, Saperda, Callidium,
and Clytus. The larva of these, as soon: as hatched,
“aves its first station between the bark and wood,
Md begins to make its way into the solid timber,
(Some of them plunging even into the iron heart of the

ak and ene even perforating lead“,) where it eats for

; Kirby in Linn. Trans. v, 250.
` Curculio lignarius, Marsh. Rhinosimus ruficollis, Latr. .
y Many species of the genus Lamia are now discovered to live upon
the roots of grass. i l
a hte: Jarva-ofea Cerambyx (which Dr. Leach has discovered to be
6 Bajulus, L.) sometimes does material injury to the wood-work of the
roof of houses in London, piercing in every direction the fir-rafters, and,
When arrived at the perfect state, making its way out even through sheets.
X lead one sixth of an inch thick; when they happen to have been nailed
"pon the rafter in which it has assumed its final metamorphosis. I am

936 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

itself tortuous paths, at its first starting perhaps not
bigger than a'pin’s head, but gradually increasing in
dimensions asthe animal increases in magnitude, till
it attains in.some instances to a diameter of one or tw?
inches. Only conceive what havoc the grub of the vast
Prionus giganteus must make in a beam! Percival 58
probably speaking of this beetle, when, in his account
of Ceylon, he tells us, “ There is an insect found here
which resembles an immense overgrown beetle. It 18
called by us a carpenter, from its boring large holes i^
timber, of a regular form, and to the depth of several
feet, in which, when finished, it takes up its habita-
tion.’ Seeing the perfect insect come out of these
holes, an unentomological observer would naturally
conclude that the beetle he saw had formed it, and
lived in it; but, doubtless, the whole was the work
of the grib?.—Of all the coleopterous genera there f$
none the species of which are generally so rich, re
splendent and beautiful as those of Buprestis: thes?
likewise, in their first state, there is abundant reaso?
to believe, derive their nutriment from the produce of
the forest, in which they sometimes remain for mall
years before they assume their perfect state, and ap”
pear in their full splendour, as if nature required more

indebted to the kindness of Sir Joseph Banks for a specimen of such ?
sheet of lead, which, though only eight incheslong and four broad, is thus
‘pierced with twelve oval holes, of some of which the longest diamete ‘
a quarter of an inch! Mr. Charles Miller first discovered lead in th?
stomach of the larva of this insect. z?

a P. 310.

b See Kirby, ubi supr. 253.—More than a hundred species of the C7
pricorn tribe, many of them nondescripts, were collected in the “neigh”
hourhood of Rio de Janeiro by Captain Hancock, of the Foudroya5!

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED By INSECTS. 237

time than usual to decorate these lovely insects. We
learn from Mr. Marsham, that the grub of B. splen-
dida was ascertained to have existed in the wood ofa
deal table more than twenty years*.—In this enume-
ration of timber-eating beetles, I must not forget the
Fabrician genera, Anobium and Ptilinus, because of
ne of them (Anobium pertinax) Linné complains
“ terebravit et destruxit sedilia mea” ;” and I can renew
the same complaint against 4. striatum, which not only
has destroyed my chairs, but also picture-frames, and
has perforated in every direction the deal floor of my
chamber, from which it annually emerges through
little round apertures in great numbers.—The utility
of entomological knowledge in economics was strik-
ingly exemplified, when the great naturalist just men-
tioned, at the desire of the king of Sweden, traced
Sut the cause of the destruction of the oak-timber in
the royal dock-yards; and, having detected the lurking
Culprit under the form of a beetle, (Lymexylon na-
vale, F.), by directing the timber to be immersed du-

Ting the time of the metamorphosis of that insect and
its season of oviposition, furnished a remedy which
effectually secured it from its future attacks’.—No
“oleopterous insects are more singular than those that

elong to the genus Pausus, L.; and one of them at
ast, remarkable for emitting a phosphoric light from |
the globes of its antennæ, is also a timber-feeder*.—
Amongst the Hymenoptera there are many insects that
jure us in this department. The species of the genus
a'In Linn. Trans. x. 399. b Syst. Nat. 565. 2.

€ Smith’s Introduction io Botany, Pref. xv.
~~ 4 Afzeliusin-Linn, Trans. iv. 261.

2938 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

Sirex, probably all of them im their Jarva state havé
no appetite but for ligneous food. Linné has observed
this with respect to S. Spectrum and Camelus ; and
Mr. Marsham, on the authority of Sir Joseph Banks;
relates that several specimens of S. Gigas were see?
to come out of the floor of a nursery in a gentleman
house, to the no small alarm and discomfiture of both
nurse and children*The genus Trypoxylon, F
many species of Crabro, FE., Vespa Parietum, L., La
ireilie’s genera ‘Xylocopa, Chelostoma, Heriades, Me-
gachileand Anthophora, (ail separated from Apis, D.)
perforate posts and rails and other timber, to form
cells for their young ”. | -

The Linnean order Aptera furnishes another timber”
eating insect, a kind of woed-louse, though scarcely an
eighth ofthe size of the common one, (Limnoria tere
brans of Dr. Leach,) which in point of rapidity of exe”
cution seems to surpass all its European brethren, and
in many cases may be productive ofmore serious injury
than any of them, since it attacks the wood-work of
piers and jetties constructed in salt-water, and so effec’
tually, as-to threaten the rapid destruction of those 1%
which ithas established itself. In December 1815!
was favoured by Charles Lutwidge, esq. of Hull, with
specimens. of -wood fromthe piers at Bridlingto®
Quay which wofully confirm the fears entertained °
their total ruin by the hosts of these pygmy assailant?
that liave made good a lodgement in them, and which,
though notso big as a grain of rice, ply their mastica”
tory organs with such assiduity as to have reduce

a Linn. Trans. x. 403.
b Kirby, Mon. Ap. Ang. i. 152-191. Latreille, Gen. iv, 161—

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 239

reat part of the wood-work into a state resembling
honey-comb.: One specimen was a portion of a three-
inch fir plank nailed to the North Pier about ‘three
years since, which is now crumbled away to less than
an inch in thickness—in fact, deducting the space oc-
Cupied by the cells which cover both surfaces as closely
as possible, barely half an inch of solid wood is left;
and though its progress is slower in oak, that wood is
equally liable to be attacked by it.—If this insect were-
fasily introduced to new stations, it might soon prove
as destructive to our jetties as the Teredo navalis to
those of Holland, and induce the necessity of substi-
tuting stone for wood universally, whatever the ex-
Pense : but happily it seems endowed with very limited
Powers of migration ; for, though it has spread along
both the South and East Piers of Bridlington har-
bour, it has not yet, as Mr. Lutwidge informs me,
reached the Dolphin nor an insulated jetty within the
harbour.—No other remedy against its attacks is
known than that of keeping the wood free from salt-
Water for three or four days, in which case it dies;
but this method it is obvious can be rarely applicable*,

a In order to ascertain how far pure sea water is essential to this insect,
and Consequently what danger exists of its being introduced into the
Wood-work of our docks and piers Communicating with our salt-water
"ers, as at Hull, Liverpool, Bristol, Ipswich, &c., where it might be far

More injurious than even on the coast, 1 have, since December 15th 1815, -
When Mr. Lutwidge was so kind as to furnish me with a piece of oak

Ul of the insects ina living state, poured a not very sirong solution of

„ommon salt over the wood, every other day,so as to keep the insects
“oDstantly wet. On examining it this day (Feb. 5th 1816) I found them
Alive; and, what seems to prove them in as good health as in their na-

tural habitat, numbers have established themselves in a piece of fir-wood

a I naed to the oak, and have in this short interval, and in winter

3 Dored many cells in it.

|
l

O INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

How dear are their books, their cabinets of the va"
rious productions of nature, and their collections of
prints and other works of artand science, to the learned;
the scientific, and the virtuosi! Even these precious
treasures have their insect enemies. The larva of Cram-

bus pinguinalis, whose ravages in another quarter Í

have noticed before *, will establish itself upon the bing-
ing of a book, and spinning arobe; which it covers with —
its own excrement”, will do it no little injury. A mite;
(Acarus eruditus, Schrank) eats the paste that fastens
the paper over the edges of the binding, and so loosens
it®. I have also often observed the caterpillar of an-
other little moth, of which I have not ascertained the
species, that takesits stationin damp old books, betwee?
the leaves, and there commits great ravages ; and many
a black-letter rarity; which in these days of Biblioman!4
would have been valued at its weight in gold, has been
snatched by these destroyers from the hands of book-
collectors. The little wood-boring beetles before mer-
tioned (Anobium pertinax and striatum) also. attack
books, and willeven bore through several -volumes
M. Peignot mentions an instance where, in a public li-
brary but little frequented, twenty-seven folio volumet
were perforated in a straight line by the same insect
(probably one of these species,) in such a manner that
on passing a cord through the perfectly round hole
made by it, these twenty-seven volumes could be raised

at once“. The animals last mentioned also destroy
sont and drawings s, whether framed, or preserved in

a Seep: 229. b Reaum. iii. 270.
c Schrank Enum. Ins. Austr. 513. 1058.

& Horne’s Introd. to Bibliography, i. 311

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 241

a porte-feuille. Our collections of quadrupeds, birds,
insects and plants have likewise several terrible insect
enemies, which without pity or remorse often destroy
or mutilate our most highly prized specimens. Ptinus
Fur, L. and Byrrhus Musworum, L., two minute bee-
tles, are amongst the worst, especially the latter, whose _
singular gliding larva, when once itgetsamongstthem, `
Makes astonishing havoc, the birds soon shedding their
feathers, and the insects falling to pieces.—One of the
Worst plagues of the entomologist are the mites (Aca-
rus Destructor, Schrank) : these, if his specimens be at —
all damp, eat up all the muscular parts, (Lytta vesica»
toria being almost the only insect that is not to their
taste,) and thus entirely destroy them.—If spiders by-
any means get amongst them, they will dono little mis-
chief.—Some I have observed to be devoured by a mi-
nute moth, perhaps Tinea Insectella, F.; and in the
Posterior thighs ofa species of Gryllus, F., from China,
T once found, one in each thigh, a small beetle conge-
nerous with Tenebrio pallens, L. that had devoured thè
interior. It is, T believe, éither Acarus Destructor or `
eruditus that eats the gum employed to fasten’ down
dried plants. ` |

There are other insects which do not confine them-
Selves to one or two articles, but make a general and
indiscriminate attack upon our dead stock. Ulloa men-
tions one peculiar to Carthagena, called there the co-
megen, which he describes as a kind of moth or maggot
50 minute as to be scarcely visible to the naked eye.
This destroys, says he, the furniture of houses, parti-
ularly all kinds of hangings, whether of cloth, linen,
9r silk, gold or silver stuffs or lace; in short, every

On J. R

r

“949 SNDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. f

thing except solid metal. It will ruin all the goods of
a warehouse in which it has got footing in a single
night, reducing ‘bales of merchandize to dust without
altering their appearance, so that the mischief is not
perceived till they come to be handled*. If we make
some deduction from this account for exaggeration,
still the amount of damage will be very considerable.
There are three kinds of insects better known, tO
whose ravages, as most prominent and celebrated, I
shall last call your attention. The insects I mean are
the cock-roach (Blatta orientalis, L.), the house-cricket
(Acheta domestica, F.), and the various species of white
ants (Termes, L.). The last of these, most fortunately
. for us, are not yet naturalized.
.. The cock-roaches hate the light, at least the kind
that is most abundant in Britain, (for B. germanica,
which abounds in some houses, is bolder, making it
appearance in the day, and running up the walls and
over the tables, to the great annoyance of the inhabi-
tants,) and never come forth from their hiding-place$
_ till the lights are removed or extinguished. In the
London houses, especially in the ground-floor, they
are most abundant, and consume every thing they can
find, flour, bread, meat, clothes, and even shoes. As
soon as light, natural or artificial, reappears, they all
scamper off as fastas they can, and vanish in an instant.
‘These pests are not indigenous here, and perhaps no
where in Europe, but are one of the evils which com”
~merce has imported; and we may think ourselves'well
off that others of the larger species of the genus hav
not been introduced in the same way—as, for instance:
a Ulisa, i. 67, b Amen. Aoadsiti 345.

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 943

Blatia gigantea, a native of Asia, Africa, and America,
Many times the size of the common ene,—which, not
content with devouring meat, clothes and books, even
attacks persons in their sleep, and the extremities of
the dead and dying ?. |

The house-cricket may perhaps be deemed’ a still
More annoying insect than the common cock-roach,
adding an incessant noise to its ravages; since, although,
for a short time, it may not be unpleasant to hear _

ts The cricket chirrup in the hearth,”

So constant a din every evening must very much inter-
Yupt comfort and conversation. These garrulous ani-
mals, which live in a kind of artificial torrid zone, are’
Very thirsty souls, and are frequently found drowned
in pans of water, milk, broth, and the like. Whatever
As moist, even stockings or linen hung out to dry, is to
them a bonne bouche; they will eat the scummings of
Pots, yeast, crumbs of bread, and even salt, or any
thing within their reach. Sometimes they are so abun-
dant in houses as to become absolute pests, flying into

the candles and into people’s faces. ee EE
At Cuddapa, in the ceded districts to the northward
of Mysore, Captain Green was much annoyed- by a
JUmping insect, which from his description Ishould take
for the larva of a species of cricket (Acheta,, F.). They
Were of a dun colour, and from halfto three fourths
fan inch in length. They abounded at night, and
Were very injurious to papers and books, which they
oth discoloured and devoured; leather also was eaten
Y them, Such was their boldness and avidity, that they

a Drury’s Insects, iii. Pitta

R2

l

944. INDIRECT INJURLES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

attacked the exposed parts of the body when you were
asleep, nibbling the ends of the fingers, particularly
the skin under the nails, which was only discoverable
by a slight soreness that succeeded, So great was their
agility that they could seldom be caught or cru ushed.
They were a mute insect, but probably the imago would
make noise enough.

But the white ants, wherever they prevail, are a still
worse plague than either of these insects—they are the
great calamity, as Linné terms them, of both the Indies.
When they find their way into houses or warehouses,
nothing less hard than metal or glass es scapes their ra-
vages. Their favourite food, however, is wood of all
kinds, except the teak (Tectona grandis) andi iron- -wood
(Sideroxylon), which are the Saty sorts known that
they willnot touch®; ; and so infinite are the multitudes
of the assailants, and such is the excellence of theif
tools, that all the timber-work of a spacious apartment
is often destroyed by them ina few nights. Exteriorly,
however, every thing appears asif untouched; for thes?
wary depredators, and this is what constitutes the
greatest singularity of their history, carry on all theif
operations by sap and mine, destroying first the inside
of solid substances, and scarcely ever attacking thei!
outside, until first they have concealed it and their op€

`a Jt is not its hardness that protects the teak, as the Asiatic Termite?
attack Lignum Vite, but probably some essential oil disagre eable ©
them with which it is impregnated. This is the more likely, since they
vill eat it when it is old and has been long exposed to the air. Fann”
has be en conjectured to be the protecting substance, but err roneously: 7
leather of every kindi is devoured by them. Williamson’s East India yade
“Mecum, ii. 36. Iti is its hardness probably that protects the iron-wor
from the African Termites. Smeathman in Philos. Trans. 1781. 11- vs

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED By INSECTS. 245

rations with a coat of clay. A general similarity runs
through the proceedings of the whole tribe; but the
latge » African species, called by Sinéathindn Termes-
bellicosis, i is the most formidable. These insects live in
large clay nests, from whence thoy excavate tunnels all
ound, often to the extent ofseveral hundred feet ; from
these they will descend a considerable depth below
the foundation of a house, and rise again through the
floors ; or, boring through the posts an dsupports of the
building, enter the roof, and construct there their gal-
leries in various directions. If a post be a convenient
Path to the roof, or has any weight to support, which
how they discover is not mo conjectured, they will
fll it with their mor tar, leaving only a trackway for
themselv yes; and thus, as it were, convert it from wood
into stone, as hard as many kinds of free-stone. In
this manner they soon destroy houses, and sometimes
ëven whole Villages when deserted by their inhabitants,
Sò that in two or three years not a vestige of them
Will remain.
_ These insidious insects are not less expeditious in
destroying the wainscoting, shelves, and other fixtures
ofa house than the house itself. With the most con-
Summate art and skill they eat away all the inside of
What they attack, except a few fibres here and there
Which exactly suffice to keep the two sides, or top and
ottom, connected, so as to retain the appearance of so-
lidity after the reality is gone; and all the while they
“arefully avoid perforating the surface, unless a book
w any other thing that tempts them should be stand-
itg upon it. Kæmpfer, speaking of the white ants of
*pan, gives a remarkable instance of the rapidity with

946 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

which these miners proceed. Upon rising one morn-
ing he observed that one of their galleries of the thick-
ness of his little finger had been formed across his
table; and, upon a further examination, he found that
they had boreda passage of that thickness up one foot of
the table, formed a gallery across it, and then pierced
down another foot into the floor: all this was done
in the few hours that intervened between his retiring
to rest and his rising*, ‘They make their way also with
the greatest ease into trunks and boxes, even though
made of mahogany, and destroy papers and every thing
they contain, constructing their galleries and some-
times taking up their abode in them, Hence, as Hum-
boldt informs us, throughout all the warmer parts of
equinoctial America, where these and other destruc-
tive insects abound, it is infinitely rare to find papers
which go fifty or sixty years back”. In one night they,
will devour all the boots and shoes that are left in

their way ; cloth, linen, or books are equally to their
taste; but they will not eat cotton, as Captain Gree?
informs me. I myself have to deplore that they en-

tirely consumed a collection of insects made for me bY
a friend in India, more especially as it sickened him
of the employment. In a word, searcely any thing, as
I said before, but metal or stone comes amiss to them.
Mr. Smeathman relates, that a party of them once took
a fancy to a pipe of fine old Madeira, not for the sake
of the wine, almost the whole of which they let out, put
of the staves, which however [suppose were strongly
imbued with it, and perhaps on that account were not
less to the taste of our epicure Termites. Having left

a Japan, iis 127, b Political Essay on New Spain, iv. 135.

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 247

a compound microscope in a warehouse at Tobago for
a few months, on his return he found that a colony.of
a small species of white ant had established themselves
in it, and had devoured most of the wood-work, leaving
little besides the metal and glasses*. A shorter period
Sufficed for their demolition of some of Mr. Forbes’s,
furniture. On surveying a room which had been locked.
up during an absence of a few weeks, he observed a
Number of advanced works in various directions. to-
Wards some prints and drawings in English frames
the glasses appeared to be uncommonly dull, and the
frames covered with dust. “On attempting,”’ says he,
“to wipe it off, I was astonished to find the glasses
fixed to the wall, not suspended in frames as I left
them, but completely surrounded by an incrustation
Cemented by the white ants, who. had actually eaten,
Up the deal frames and back-boards, and the greater
Part of the paper, and left the glasses upheld by the
inerustation, or covered way, which they had formed.
during their depredation”.”’ Ht is even asserted that,
the superb residence of the Governor-General at Cal-
Cutta, which cost the Wast India Company such im-
Mense sums, is now rapidly going to decay in conse-
{uence of the attacks of these insects °.—But not con-.
text with the dominions they have acquired, and the
Cities they have laid low on Terra Firma, encouraged
by success the white ants have also aimed at the so-
Vereignty of the ocean, and once had the hardihood to
attack even a British ship of the line; and in spite of
* This account of the Termites is chiefly taken from Smeathman in

Philos, Frans. 1781, and Percival’s Ceylon, 3071—.
P Oriental Memoirs, i. 362. c Morning Herald, Dec. 31st, 1814.

8 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

the efforts of her commander and his valiant crew, ha-
ving bourded they got possession of her, and handle¢
her so roughly, that when brought into port, being n0
longer fit for service, she was obliged to be broken up”.
And here, I think, I see you throw aside my papers;
and hear you: exclain—“‘ Will this enumeration ©
scourges, plagues, and torments never he finished?
Was the whole insect race created merely with puni-
tive views, and to mar the fair face of universal na-
ture? Are they all, as our Saviour said figuratively of
one genus, the scorpion, the powerful agents and in-
struments of the great enemy of mankind’?” If you
view the subject in another light, you will soon, my
friend, be convinced that, instead of this, insects gene-
rally answer the most beneficial ends, and promote 1»
various ways, and in an extraordinary degrée, the wél-
fare of man and animals; and that the series of evils
I have been engaged in enumerating mostly occur par-
tially, and where they exceed their natural limits; God
permitting this occasionally to take place, not merely
with punitive views, but also to show us what mighty
éffects he can produce by instruments seemingly the
most insignificant : thus calling upon us to glorify his
power, wisdom, and goodness, so evidently manifested
whether he relaxes or draws tight the reins by whieh

a The ship here alluded to was the Albion, which was in such a c9””
dition from the attack of insects, supposed to be white ants, that, had
not the ship been firmly lashed together, it was thought she would hav?
foundered on her vayage home,—Mr. Kittoe informs me that the Drog guer?
or Draguers, a kind of lighter employed in the West Indies in collecting
the sugar, sometimes so swarm with ants, of the common kind, that they
have no other way of getting rid of these troublesome insects than by sink“

tng the vessel in shallow water, : b Luke x. 19.

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 249

he guides insects in their course, and regulates their
progress; and more particularly to acknowledge his
overruling Providence so conspicuously exhibited by
his measuring them, as it were, and weighing them,
and telling them out, so that, their Habs forces

< and powers being annually See: to the work
he has prescribed to them, they may neither exceed his
Purpose nor fall short of it.

From the picture I have fah and I assure you it
is not ov ercharged, you will be disposed to admit, how-
ver, the empire of insects over the works of creation,
and to own that our prosperity, comfort and happiness
are intimately connected with them; and consequently
that the knowled ge and study of tei may be extremely
Useful and necessary to promote these desirable ends,
Since the knowledge of the cause of any evil is always

4 principal, if not an indispensable, step towards are-
medy, ‘

= Ishall now bid adieu to this unpromis ing subject,
Which has so long oceupied my pen, and I fear wearied
Your attention, and in my next bring before you a more
4greeable scene, in which you will behold the ii
ve receive by the ministry of insects.

Tam, &c.

LETTER IX.

BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
INDIRECT BENEFITS.

Miry last letters contained, I must own, a most melan-
choly though not an overcharged picture of the injuries _
and devastation which man, in various ways, expe-
riences through the instrumentality ofthe insect world.
In this and the following I hope to place before youd
more agreeable scene, since in them I shall endeavour -
to point out in what respects these minute animals are
made to benefit us, and what advantages we reap from
their extensive agency. |

God, in all the evil which he permits to take place,
whether spiritual, moral, or natural, has the ultimate
good of his creatures in view. ‘The evil that we suffer
is often a countercheck which restrains us from greate?
evil, or a spur to stimulate us to good: we should

therefore consider every thing, not according to the
present sensations of pain, or the present loss or injury
that it occasions, but according to its more general, re"
mote, and permanent effects and bearings ;—whethe!
by it we are not impelled to the practice of many
virtues which otherwise might lie dormant in us~
whether our moral habits are not improved—whethet
we are not rendered by it more prudent, cautious, and
wary, more watchful to prevent evil, more ingenio"

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 251

and skilful to remedy it—and whether our higher fa-
culties are not brought more into play, and our mental
Powers more invigorated, by the meditation and ex-
Periments necessary to secure ourselves. Viewed in
these lights, what was at first regarded as wholly made
up of evil, may be discovered to contain a consider.
able proportion of good.

This reasoning is here particularly applicable: andif
the ultimate benefit to man seems in any case proble-
matical, itis merely because to discover it requires more
extended and remote views than we are enabled by our

limited faculties to take, and a knowledge of distant or
foncealed results which we are incompetent to calcu-
late or discover. The common good of this terraqueous
Slobe requires that all things endowed with vegetable
Or annaal life should bear certain proportions to each
other; and if any individual species exceeds that pros
Portion, from beneficial it becomes noxious, and inter-
feres with the general welfare. It was requisite there-
fore for the benefit of the whole system that certain
Means should be previded, by which this hurtful luxu-
Nance might be checked, and all things taught to keep
Within their proper limits: hence it became necessary
that some should prey upon others, anda part be sacri-
fied for the good of the whole. __

_ Of the counterchecks thus provided, none acta more
important part than insects, particularly inthevegetable’
“ngdom, every plant having its insect enemies. Man,
When he takes any plant from its natural state and
Makes it an object ofeultivation, must expect thatthese
agents will follow it into the artificial state in which he
“28S placed it, and still prey upon it; and itis his busi.

+

959 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

ness to exert his faculties in inventing means to guard
against their attacks. It isa wise provision that there
should exist a race of beings empowered to remove al?
_her superfluous productions from the face of nature ;
and in effecting this, whatever individual injury may
arise, insects must be deemed general benefactors. Eve

the locusts which lay waste whole countries clear the
way for the renovation of their vegetable productions,
which were in danger of being destroyed by the exu-

- berance of some individual species, and thus are ful-
filling the great law of the Creator, that of all which
he has made nothing should be lost. A region, Sparr-
man tells us, which had been choked up by shrubs, per?
ennial plants, and hard half-withered and unpalatable

grasses, after being made bare by these scourges, soo?
appears ina far more beautiful dress, clothed with new
herbs, superb lilies, and fresh annual grasses, and young
andj Juicy shoots of the perennial kinds, affording deli-
cious herbage for the wild cattle and game*. And though
the interest of individual man is often sacrificed to the
general good, in many cases the insect pests which he
most execrates, will be found to be positively beneficial
to him, unless when suffered to increase beyond theif
due bounds. © Thus the insects that attack the roots 0
the grasses, and, as has been before observed, so mate-
rially injure our herbage, the wire-worm, the larvae of
Melolontha vulgaris, Tipula oleracea, &c., in ordinary
seasons only devour so much as is necessary to make
room for fresh shoots, and the production of new herb-
age; in this manner maintaining a constant successio”
of young plants, and causing an annual though par tial

a Sparrman’ 8 Voyage, i. 307,

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 253

řenovation of our meadows and pastures. In the rich
fields near Rye in Sussex I particularly observed this
effect; and I have since at home remarked, that at cer-
tain times of the year dead plants may be every where |
observed, pulled up by the cattle as they feed, whose
Place is supplied by new offsets. So that, when in mo-
derate numbers, these insects do no more harm to the
Srass than would the sharp-toothed harrows which it
has been sometimes advised to apply to hide-bound
Pastures,and the beneficial operation of which in loosen-
ing the sub-soil these insect borers closely imitate. —

Nor would it be difficult to show that the ordinary —
Sood effects of some of those insects, which torment-
Ourselves and our cattle, preponderate over their evil
Snes. Mr. Clark is inclined to think that the gentle
irritation of GEstrus Equi is advantageous to the sto-
Mach of the horse rather than the contrary. On the -
‘ame principle it is not improbable that the Tabani
often act as useful phlebotomists to our full-fed animals ;
nd that the constant motion in which they are kept in
Summer by the attacks of the Stomoxys and other flies,
may prevent diseases that would be brought on by in-
dolence and repletion. And in the-case of man himself,
1f T do not go so far as with Linné to give the lotise
the credit of preserving full-fed boys from coughs, —
“pilepsy, &c., we may safely regard as no small good,

e stimulus which these, and others of the insect as-
ŝailants of the persons of the dirty and the vicious,
forg to personal cleanliness and purity. |

I might enlarge greatly upon the foregoing view of

subject: but this is unnecessary, as numerous facts
“il occur in subsequent letters which you will readily —

O54 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

perceive have an intimate bearing upon it; and I shall
therefore proceed to point out the more evident bene
fits which we derive from insects, arranging them un
der the two great heads of direct benefits, and those
which are indirect; beginning with the latter.

The insects which are indirectly beneficial to us, may
be considered under three points of view: First, af
removing various nuisances and deformities from the
face of nature: Secondly, as destroying other insects,
that but for their agency would multiply so as greatly
to injure and annoy us: and Thirdly, as supplying

' food to useful animals, particularly to fish and birds.

To advert in the first place to the former. All sub-
stances must be regarded as nuisances and deformities:
when considered with relation to the whole, which are
deprived of the principle of animation. In this rela”
tion stand a dead carcase, a dead tree, or a mass of
excrement, which are clearly incumbrances that it is
desirable to have removed; and the office of effecting
this removal is chiefly assigned to insects, which havé
been justly called the great scavengers of nature. Let
us consider their little but effective operations in each
of their vocations. Re,

How disgusting to the eye, how offensive to the smell,
would be the whole face of nature, were the vast qua?”
tity ofexcrement daily falling to the earth from the v%
rious animals which inhabit it, suffered to remain until

gradually dissolved by the rain or decomposed by the
elements ! That it does not thus offend us, we are i
debted to an inconceivable host of insects which attack
it the moment it falls; some immediately beginning t°

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 255 :

devour it, others depositing in it eggs from which are
‘eon hatched larva that concur in the same office with
tenfold voracity :. and thus every particle of dung, at
least of the most offensive kinds, speedily swarms with
inhabitants which consume all the liquid and noisome
Particles, leaving nothing but the undigested remains,
that soon dry and are scattered by the winds, while the
Strass upon which it rested, no longer smothered by an
™penetrable mass, springs up with increased vigour.
Numerous are the tribes of insects to which this of-
fice is assigned, though chiefly if not entirely selected
from the two orders Coleoptera and Diptera. A large
Proportion of the genera formed, by different authors,
Tom Scarabæus of Linné, viz. Scarabæus, Copris, Ateu-
thus, Sisyphus, Onitis, Onthophagus, Aphodius, and
*ammodius; also Hister, Sphæridium, F. and amongst
Beeterhytinid, the tie of Staphylini, many Ale-
» especially of Gravenhorst’s third family, many
tyteli and some Omalia, Tachini and Tachypori, of
‘at author, including in the whole many hundred spe-
“les of beetles—unite their labours to effect this useful
Purpose: and what is remarkable, though they all work
eir wayin these filthy masses, and at first can have no
p ‘ths, yet their bodies are never soiled by the ordure
Sy inhabit. Many of these insects content themselves
“a burrowing in the dung alone; but Ateuchus pilu-
“ius ^ a species called in America the Tumble-dung,
en Coprion, Cantharus, and rides of the ancients was evi; ,
ban Ns beetle, or one nearly related to it, which is described as rolling
“Wards large masses of dung, and attracted such general attention as
‘ve rise to the proverb Cantharus pilulam, It should seem’ from the

e ate i; :
its oo irom a word signifying an ass, that the Grecian beetle made
i

De
A

š of asses’ dung ; and this is confirmed by a passage in one of the

956 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS: `

whose singular manceuvres I shall subsequently have
to advert to, Copris lunaris, Scarabæus stercorarius aP
many others of the Scarabwide, make large cylindrical
holes, often of great depth, under the heap, and therë
deposit their eggs surrounded by a mass of dung iB
which they have previously enveloped them; thus not
only dispersing the dung, but actually burying it at the
roots of the adjoining plants, and by these means con?
tributing considerably to the fertility of our pastures;
supplying the constant waste by an annual conveyance?
‘of fresh dung laid at the very root; by these canals
also, affording a convenient passage fora portion o
it when dissolved to be carried thither by the rain. i
The coleopterous insects found in dung inhabit iti”
their perfect as well as imperfect states: but this iso?
the case with those of the order Diptera, whose iarv?
alone find their nutriment in it; the imago, which
would be suffocated did it attempt to burrow inte .
material so soft, only laying its eggs in the mas
hese also are more select in their choice than the
Coleoptcra—not indeed as to delicacy,—but they do not

. a . . . OT E" . ‘ne
indiscriminately oviposit in all kinds, some preferr s

horse-dung, others swine’s-dung, others cow-dung’
which seems the most favourite pabulum of. all thé
dung-loving insects, and others that of birds. phe
most ‘disgusting of all is the rat-tailed larva that 1
habits our privies, which changes to a. fly ( Elophil®
tenax, Latr.) somewhat resembling a bee.

edi:

plays of Aristophanes, the Trene, where a beetle of this kind is introdve

on which one of the characters rides to heaven to petition Jupiter"

feed the-
F

peace. The play begins with one domestic desiring another to

i ; pe

Cantharus with some bread, who afterwards orders his companio! m
’ #

give him another kind of bread made of asses’ dung:

+

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS, 257
Still more would our olfactory nerves be offended,
and our health liable to fatal injuries, if the wisdom and
goodness of Providence had not provided for the re-
moval of another nuisance from our globe—the dead
tarcases of animals. When these begin to grow putrid,
every one knows what dreadful miasmata exhale from
them, and taint the air we breathe. But no sooner
does life depart from the body of any creature, at least
of any which from its size is likely to become a nui-
šance, than myriads of different sorts of insects attack —
it, and in various ways. First come the Histers and
Pierce the skin. Next follow the flesh-flies, some, that
ño time may be lost, (as Musca carnaria, &c.) depo-
‘Siting upon it their young already hatched*; others
(M. Cesar, &c.) covering it with millions of eggs,
Whence ina day or two proceed innumerable devourers.
An idea of the dispatch made by these gourmands may
be gained from the combined consideration of their
: Aümbers, voracity, and rapid development. One fe-
thale of M. carnaria will give birth to 20,000 young |
and the larve of many flesh-flies, as Redi ascertained,
Will in twenty-four hours devour so much food, and
Erow so quickly, as to increase their weight two hun-
dred fold! In five days after being hatched they arrive
at their full growth and size; which is a remarkable
tnstance of the care of fitiovidined’ in fitting them for
the part they are destined to act: for ifa longer-time
Was required for their growth their food would not be
à fit aliment for them, or they would be too long in

femoving the nuisance it is given in charge to them to
dissipate, Thus we see there was some ground for

a Prare XXIL Fre 4, 5.
VOL, 1. s

<

258. INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

Linné’s assertion under M. vomitoria, that three of
these flies will devour a dead horse as quickly as
would a lion.

As soon as the various tribes of Muscæ have opened
the way, and devoured the softer parts, a whole host
of beetles; Necrophori, Silphe, Dermestes, Choleve, and
Staphylinide, actively second their labours, “Wasp
and hornets also come in for their portion of the spoil;
and even ants; which prowl every where, rival their
giant competitors in the quantity consumed by them;
so that in:no very long time, especially in warm cli-
mates, the muscular covering is removed from the ske-
„deton, which is then cleansed from all remains of it by
the little Corynetes cæruleus and ruficollis, (which last
is so interesting, as having been the means of saving

the life of Latreille*,) and several Nitidule’, Even
the horns ofanimals have an appropriate genus ( Trox)
which inhabits them, and feeds upon their content’.
And not only are large animals thus disposed of, even
the smallest are not suffered long to annoy us. The
burying beetle (Necrophorus iniia F.) inters the
bodies of small animals, such as mice, several assisting —
each: other i im the work; and those to which they com
mit their eggs afford an ample supply of food to their
larve*. Ants also in some degree emulate these bu-
rying insects, at least they will carry off the carcase®
oa See Latr. Gen. i. 275. |
-b This property in the.carrion insects may be turned to a good account
EY the comparative anatomist, who has only to flay the body of one of
the smaller animals, anoint it with honey, and bury it in an ant-hill; and
in a short time he will obtain a perfect skeleton, denudated of every

fibril of muscle, though with the ligaments and cartilages sai alge
e Gléditsch, 4 a ie iiis 200,

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 259

of insects into their nests ; and I once saw some of the
horse-ants dragging away a half-dead snake of about
the size.of a goose-quill*. Some insects will even
attack living animals and make them their prey, thus
Contributing to keep them within due limits. The
Common earth-worm is attacked and devoured by a
Centipede (Scolopendra electrica, L.). Mr. Sheppard
Saw one attack a worm ten times its own size, round
‘Which it twisted itself like a serpent, and which it-
finally mastered and devoured.

But insects are not only useful -in removing arid
dissipating dead animal matter, they are also intrusted
With a similar office with respect to the veg etable king-
dom. The interior of rotten trees is inhabited by the
larvæ of Tipule and other insects, which there find an

“ppropriate nutriment; and a similar diet is furnished
to the grubs of the rose-beetle (Cetonia aurata) by the

dead leaves and stalks usuall ly to be found in an ant’s
Nest. Staphylinide, Spheeridia, and other Coleoptera
tre always found under heaps of putrescent vegetables ;
and an infinite number are to be met with in decom-
Posing fungi, which seem to bea kind of substance in-
termediate between animal and vegetable. The Bo-
eti in particular have a genus of coleopterous insects
APpropriated to them”, and the Lycoperdons another.
o Stagnant waters, which would otherwise exhale pu-
trid miasmata and be often the cause of fatal disorders,
alti isto be EE, that in our cold climates, during the winter
Months, when excrement and putrescent animal matter are not so offen-
t “re > they are left to the action of the elements, insects being then torpid.
: Surely Mr. Marsham’s name for this genus, Boletaria, is much more:

Proper than that of Fabricius, wpe Sm (Agi nn since these
"Sects séldom eat agarics.

: s2

260 INDIREC TBENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

are purified by the iurinierdble larve of gnats, Ephe-
mere, and other insects which live inthem and abstract
from them all the unwholesome part of their contents-
This, Linné says, will easily appear if any one will
make the experiment by filling two vessels with putrid
water, leaving the larve in one and taking them out
of the other. For then he will soon find the water that
is full of larve pure and without any stench, while
that which is deprived of them will continue stinking".

Benefits equally great are rendered by the wood-
destreying insects. We indeed, in this country, who
find use for ten times more timber than we produce,
could dispense with their services; but to estimate them
at their proper value, as affecting the great system of
nature,we should transport ourselves to tropical climes,
or to those under the temperate zones, where million’
of acres are covered by one interminable forest, How
is it that these untrodden regions, where thousands of
their giant inhabitants fall victims to the slow ravages
of time, or the more sudden operations of lightning and
hurricanes, should yet exhibit none of those scenes of
ruin and desolation that might have been expected;
but are always found with the verdant characters of
youth and beauty? It is to the insect world that this
great charge of keeping the habitations of the Dryad$
in perpetual freshness has been committed. A century
almost would elapse before the removal from the fac?
of nature of the mighty ruins of one of the hard-
wooded tropical trees, by the mere influence of tbe
elements. But how speedy its decomposition whe#
their operations are assisted by insects! As soon as 4

a con. Nat. Ameen, Ac. ti, 50. Stillingfleet’s Tracts, 122.

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS, 261

tree is fallen, one tribe attack its bark*, which is often
the most indestructible part of it; and thousands of
- Orifices into the solid trunk are bored by others. The
rain thus insinuates itself into every part, and the ac-
tion of heat promotes the decomposition. Various fun-
8i now take possession and assist in the process, which
is followed up by the incessant attacks of other insects,
that feed only upon wood in an incipient state of de-
Cay. And thus in a few months a mighty mass, which
Seemed inferior in hardness only to iron, is mouldered
into dust, and its place occupied by younger trees full
of life and vigour. The insects to which this duty is
intrusted have been already mentioned in a former
letter (p. 234-5); but none of them do their business
So expeditiously or effectually as the Termites, which
Ply themselves in such numbers and so unremittingly,
that Mr. Smeathman assures us they will in a few
Weeks destroy and carry away the trunks of large trees,
Without leaving a particle behind; and in places where,
two or three years before, there has been a populous -
town, if the inhabitants, as is frequently the- case,
tave chosen to abandon it, there shall be a very thick
Wood, and not the yestige of a post to be seen.

I observed in a former letter, that the devastations
finsects are not the same in every season, their power
of mischief being evident only at certain times, when
Providence, by permitting an unusual increase of their

a Maupertuis observes, that in Lapland he saw many birch-trees lying
pi the ground, which had probably been there for a very long time,
With the bark entire, though the wood was decayed. Hence we may
balceply infer, that in that country there are few or none of the bark-
“ring insects,

‘

962 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS: |

numbers, gives them a commission ‘to lay waste any
particular country or district. The great agents in
preventing this increase, and keeping the noxious spe-
cies within proper limits, are other insects; and to
these I shall now call your attention.

Numerous are the tribes upon which this important
task devolves, and incalculable are the benefits which
they are the means of bestowing uponus; forto them
we are indebted, or rather to Providence who created
them for this purpose, that our crops and grain, ou!
cattle, our fruit- and forest-trees, our pulse and flow-
ers, and even the verdant covering .of the earth, are
not totally destroyed. Of these insects, so friendly tO
man, some exercise their destructive agency solely
while in the larva state; others in the perfect state’
only; others in both these states ; and lastly, others
again in all the three states of larva, pupa, and imago-

_ For order’s sake, and to give you a more distinct view
of the subject, I shall say something on each separately:

The first, those which are insectivorous only in theif
larva state, may be further subdivided into parasites
and imparasties, meaning by the former term those that
feed upon a living insect, and only destroy it when they
have attained their full growth; and by the latte?)
those that prey upon insects already dead, or that Kill
them in the act of devouring them.

The imparasitic insect devourers chiefly belong tO
the H ‘ymenoptera order; and though it is in the Jarva
state that their prowess is exhibited, the task of pro- ;
viding the prey is usually left to the female, of which

each species for the most part selects a particular kind
of insect. Thus many species of Cerceris and the

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 263

splendid Chryside feed upon insects of their own or-
der. One of the latter ( Panorpes incarnata, Latr.)
Commits her eggs to the progeny of Bembex rostrata:
another (Chrysis bidentata) attacks the young of Vespa
Spinipes.

Bembex and Mellinus confine themselves to Dipte-
Va, the former preying upon Elophilus tenax, Bombylii,
and the like*; the latter amongst others ridding us of
the troublesome Stomoxys calcitrans. One of these last
U have observed stationed on dung watching for flies,
which, when seized, she carried to her burrow.

| ‘Vespa spinipes feeds upon certain green apod larve,
of which the female deposits ten or twelve with each
ego, Ammophila vulgaris destroys caterpillars of a
larger size; and it is probable that most of the other
Vespoid eed Sphecoid M: rymenoptera; viz. Trypoxy-
lon, Philanthus, Larra, Crabro, &c. assist in this great
Work. i
= Pompilus, to which genus probably several species
mentioned by Reaumur as preying on these insects
Should be referred, has it in charge to keep the num-
ber of spiders within due bounds: and some Ammo-
Phile lend their aid. One of these last, mentioned by
Catesby ( Sphex coerulea, Linn.), has been known to
Seize a spider eight times its own weight”. Another
Species of this genus, which is common in the Isle of
France, attacks an insect still more difficult, one would
think, to turn to its purpose, the all-devouring Blaita,
and is therefore one of the great benefactors to man-
kind. When this insect perceives a Blatta (called there

a Latreille, Observations nouvelles sur les Hyménoptéres. Annal. de
Mus. 11, b Nat. Hist. of Carolina, ii, 105.

264 INDIRECT. BENEFITS. DERLVED FROM INSECTS.

Kakerlac-and Cancrelas). it stops immediately : both
animals eye each other; but.in an instant. the sand-
‘wasp darts upon its prey, seizes it by the muzzle with
its strong jaws, and bending its abdomen underneath
it, pierces it with its fatal sting. Sure of its. victim,
it now walks or flies away, leaving the poison to work
its effect; but in a short time returns, and, finding it
deprived of power to make resistance, seizes it agait
by the head, and drags it away, walking backwards,
to deposit it in a hole or chink of a walle,

_ Grasshoppers are the prey of another Ammophila,
supposed to be the Sphex pensylvanica of Linné, @
native of North America, each of which in its larva
state devours three of a large green species with which
its mother has provided it”, |

_ From none of the imparasitic insectivorous larv#
do we derive more advantage than from those which
devour the destructive Aphides, whose ravages, as We
have seen above, are more detrimental to us in this
island than those of any other insect. A great variety
of species, of different orders and genera, are em“
ployed to keep them within due limits, There. is 4
beautiful genus of four-winged flies, whose wings re-
semble the finest lace, and whose eyes are often a$
brilliant as burnished metals (Hemerobius, L.), the
larvæ of which, Reaumur, from their being insatiable
devourers of them, has named the lions of the Aphides:
The singular. pedunculated eggs from which these
larve proceed I shall describe when we come to treat
upon the eggs of insects; the larve themselves arê

a Reaum. vi. 282. St. Piptre’s Voyage, 12.
P Bartram in Philos, Trans, xlvi, 126,

i

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 205

furnished with a pair of long crooked mandibles re~
sembling horns, which terminate in a sharp point, and
like those of the ant-lioń are perforated, serving the
insect instead of a mouth; for through this orifice
the nutriment passes down into the stomach. When
amongst the Aphides, like wolves in a sheep-fold, they
Make dreadful havoc: half a minute suffices them to
Suck the largest; and the individuals of one species
clothe themselves, like Hercules, with the spoils of
their hapless victims. Heng oe .
Next in importance to these come the aphidivorous
flies (many species of Syrphus, F.), whose grubs are
armed with a singular mandible, furnished like a tri-
dent with three points, with which they transfix their
Prey. They may often be seen laid at their ease under
a leaf or upon a twig, environed by such hosts of Aphi-
des, that they can devour hundreds without changing |

their station ; and their silly helpless prey, who are pro-

vided with no means of defence, so far from thinking of
escaping; frequently walk over the back of their enemy,
and put themselves in his way. When disposed to feed,
‘he fixes himself by his tail, and, being blind, gropes
about on every side, as the Cyclops did for Ulysses and
his companions, till he touches one, which he immedi-
ately transfixes with his trident, elevates into the air,
that he may not be disturbed by its struggles, and soon
devours, The havoc which these grubs make amongst
the Aphides is astonishing. It was but last week that
Observed the top of every young shoot of the currant-
trees in my garden curled up by myriads of these in-
“ects. On examining them this day, not an individual
"emained; but beneath each leaf are three or four full-

`

966 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

fed larve of aphidivorous flies, surrounded with heaps
of the skins of the slain, the trophies of their successful
warfare; and the young shoots, whose progress had
` been entirely checked by the abstraction of sap, are
again expanding vigorously. |
But even these serviceable insects must yield the,
palm to the lady-bird or lady-cow (Coccinella, L:), the —
favourite of our childhood, which, as well as most of it~
congeners, in the larva state feeds’ entirely on Aphi
des*; and the havoc made amongst them may be con-
céived from the myriads upon myriads of these little
interesting animals, which are often to be seen in years
when the plant-louse abounds. In 1807 the shore at
Brighton andall the watering-places on the south coast
was literally covered with desks to the great surprise
and even alarm of the inhabitants; who were ignorant
that their little visitors were emigrants from the neigh
bouring hop-grounds, where in their larva state each
‘had slain his thousands and tens of thousands of the
Aphis, which under the name of the Fh ly so fr equently
blasts the hopes of the hop-grower. It is fortunate that
in most countries the children have taken these friendly
Coceinella under their protection. In France they re
gard them as sacred to the Virgin, and call them Vache
à Dieu, Bétes de la Vierge, &c.; and with us, comm
seration for the hard fate of a mother, whose “ hous?

ison fire and children ‘at home,” ensures them kind

‘a The larve of some species of Coccinelle feed, according to Prof. D:
Reich, solely on the leaves of plants; as that of C. hieroglyphica, which
eats the leaves of common heath (Erica vulgaris) after the manner of the
larvæ of Lepidoptera. Der Gesellschaft weap we in Berlin Mag. &e.
iii. 294,

INDIRECT BENEFITS. DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 267

treatment soak liberty. Even the hop-growers are be-
Coming sensible of their services, and, as lam informed,
hire boys to prevent birds from destroying them.—If
We could but discover a mode of increasing these in-
Sects at will, we might not only, as Dr. Darwin has
Suggested, clear our hot-houses of Aphides by their
Means, but render our crops of hops much more cer-
tain than they now are. Even without. this know-

ledge, nothing is more easy, as I have experienced,

than to clear a plant or small tree by placing upon it
Several larve of Coccinelle or of aphidivorous flies
Collected from less valuable vegetables.

Lastly, to close this list of imparasitic insectivorous
larvæ, I may mention those of Latreille’s genus Volu»
Cella (Syrphus, F.), so remarkable for their radiated
anus, which live in the nests of humble-bees, braving
the fury of their stings and devouring their young;
and the ant-lion (Myrmeleon) and Reaumur’s impro-
perly named worm-lion (Rhagio, F.), whose singular
Stratagems will be detailed in a subsequent letter,
both of which destroy great numbers of insects that
are so unfortunate as to fall into their toils.
~ The parasitic larve, an extremely numerous tribe,
‘ust next be considered. These, with the exception
ofa very few individuals, belong to the order Hyme-
noptera, and were included by Linné under his vast
Senus Ichneumon, so named from the analogy between
their services and those of the Egyptian Ichneumons
Viverra I. chneumon, L.), the former being equally im»
Portant as destroyers of insects, with the latter as de-
Yourers of serpents, the eggs of crocodiles, &e.

The habits of the whole of this tribe, which properly

968 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

includes a great number of distinct genera, are similar-
They all oviposit in living insects, chiefly while in the
larva state, sometimes while pupe (Ich. Puparum, L.);
and even while in the egg state (Ich. Ovulorum, L.)3
but not, as far as is known, in perfect inseets. ‘The

eggs thus deposited soon hatch into grubs, which im-

mediately attack their victim, and in the end insure its

destruction. The number of eggs committed to each

individual varies according to-its size, and that of the

grubs which are to spring from them; being in most
cases one only, but in others amounting to some hun-

dreds.

‘From the observations hitherto made by entomolo-
gists, the great body of the Ichneumon tribe is princi-
pally employed in keeping within their proper limits
the infinite host of lepidopterous larve, destroying:
however, many insects of other orders; and perhaps if
the larve of these last fell equally under our observa’
tion with those of the former, we might discover that
few exist uninfested by their appropriate parasite. Such
is the activity and address of the Ichnewmonide, that
scarcely any concealment, except perhaps the waters,
can secure their prey from them; and neither bulk,
courage, nor ferocity avail to terrify them from effecting
_their purpose. They attack the ruthless spider in bis
toils : they discover the retreat of the little bee, that for
safety bores deep into timber; and though its enemy
Ichneumon cannot enter its cell, by means of her 1008
ovipositor* she reaches the helpless grub, which it
parent vainly thought secured from every foe, and dé
posits in it an egg, which produces a larva that destroy®

a Pirate XVI, Fie. I.

\

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS, 269°

it, In vain does the destructive Cecidomyia of the
Wheat conceal its larve within the glumes that so closely
“over the grain; three species of these minute benefac-
tors of our race, sent in mercy by Heaven, know how
to introduce their eggs into them, thus preventing the
Mischief they would otherwise occasion, and saving
mankind from the horrors of famine?. In vain also
the Cynips by its magic touch produces the curious’
€Xerescences on various trees and plants, called galls,
for the nutriment and defence of its progeny : the pa-
asite species attached to it discovers its secret cham-
“er, pierces its wall however thick, and commits the
destroying egg to its offspring. Even the clover-wee-
Vil is not secure within the legumen of that plant; nor
the wire-worm in the earth, from their ichneumonidan
foes. I have received from the late Mr. Markwick that .
ofthe former, and Mr. Paul has shown me the destroyer
f the latter, which belongs to Latreille’s genus Proc-
totrupes, Others are not more secured by the repulsive
dature of the substance they inhabit; for two species
àt least of Ichneumon € know how to oviposit it in ster--
“°rarious larva without soiling their wings or bodies.
_ The ichneumonidan parasites are either external or
‘ternal, ‘Thus the species above alluded to, which at-
tacks Spiders, does not live within their bodies, but re-
Mains on the outside*; and the larva of Ichneumon lu-
‘evs, which adheres by one end to the shell of the bulbi-
‘Tous egg that produced it, does not enter the cater-
Pillar of Bombyx villica, the moth upon which it feeds®.

à Marsham in Linn. Trans. iii. 26. b See above, p. 112-173.
EL Manducator, Panz, Fn, Germ. 12. 4. ; and another speciës allied to
ae bellator, F., which I have named J. Stercorator. s
“De Geer, ii: $68... | Ibid. 851-5,

970 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

But the great majority of these animals oviposit within
the body of the insect to which they are assigned, from
‘whence, after having consumed the interior and become
pupe, they emerge in their perfect state... An idea of
the services rendered to.us by those [chneumons which

prey upon noxious larva may be formed from the fact,

that out of thirty individuals of the commen cabbage?
caterpillar (the larve of Papilio Brassice) which Reat-
mur put into a glass to feed, twenty-five were fatally
_ pierced by an Ichneumon (J. globatus*), Andif we com
pare the myriads of caterpillars that often attack ou!
_ cabbages and brocoli with the small number of butte?
flies of this species which usually appear, wemay con
jecture that they are commonly destroyed in some such
proportion—a circumstance that will lead us thankfully
to acknowledge the goodness of Providence, which by
providing such a check has prevented the utter destruc
tion, of the Brassica genus, including some of our most
esteemed and useful vegetables.
__ The parasites are not wholly confined to the ordef
Hymenoptera: some insects of other orders, though
comparatively very few, destroy our little enemies in
the same way. ` Musca Larvarum, and another like it
described by De.Geer, lay their eggs in caterpillars and
other larve’; and Reaumur describes several othe!
flies of. similar habits®. The order also of Sirepst
péera, lately established 4, appears to be altogether pa”
rasitic; but with this difference from the Ichiieumonid&
that. these extraordinary animals are found only upo”
Hymenoptera in their perfect state, and do not appea
“a Reaum. ii. 419. , b DeGeer,i, 196, vi 1 24
c Reaum, ii. 440-4, d Linn. Trans, xi. 86,

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 271

to destroy the insects upon which they prey, but pro-
bably prevent their breeding. The species at present
nown are formed into two genera, Xenos and Stylops,
Which are confined to Melitta? and Vespa”. :
The next description of insect destroyers are those
Which devour them in their first and last states. —N o
beetles are more common afterthe summer is confirmed,
than the species of the genus Cantharis. Preysler in-
forms us that the grub of C. fusca destroys a great many
ther Jarve ° and I have observed the imago devour
these and also Diptera.—Linné has with justice deno-
Ninated the Cicindele the tigers of insects. ‘Though de-
“Orated with brilliant colours, they prey upon the whole
NSect race; their formidable jaws which cross each other
Wre armed with fearful fangs, showing to what use they
ane applicable; and the extreme velocity with which
~*y can either run or fly, renders hopeless any attempt
elude their pursuit. "Their larve are also equally
*nendous with the imago, having six eyes, three on
ĉach side, seated on a lateral elevation of the head,
Which look like those of spiders, and besidestheir threat-
ning jaws armed with a strong internal tooth, being
Whished with a pair of spines resembling somewhat
esting of a scorpion, which stand erect upon the back
tthe abdomen, and give thema most ferocious aspect 4,
is last apparatus, according to Clairville, serves the
"tose of an anchor for retaining them at any height
"their deep cells*. -Most of the aquatic beetles, at
“ast the Gyrini and Dytisci, prey upon other insects
“Kirby's Afon, Ap. Ang. iis 110-113, . b Rossi En: Etruste Mant.

è reys. Bömisch. Insekt. 59. 61. a Pirate XVII, Faia. 13.
Entom, Helvétique, ii, 158.

979 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

both in their first and final state. The larve of the Jat-
ter have long been observed and described under the
name of Squillæ, and are remarkable for having their
mandibles adapted for suction like those of Hemerobius
< and Myrmeleon : but they are not like them deprived
of a mouth, being able to devour by mastication af
well as by suction.— Another tribe of this order whieh
abounds in species, the Carabide, is universally inset’
tivorous. One of the most destructive is the grub of #
very beautiful species, an English specimen of whieh
would be a great acquisition to your cabinet, it being
one of our rarest insects*, I mean Calosoma Sycophant@
This animal takes up its station in the nests of Bomby*
_processionea and other moths, and sometimes fills itself
so full with these caterpillars, which we cannot handle
or even approach without injury, as to be rendered i?”
capable of motion and appear ready to burst. Anothet
beautiful insect of this tribe, Carabus auratus, know”
in France by the name of Vinaigrier, is supposed tode”
stroy more cockchafers than all their other enemie®
attacking and killing the females at the moment of ov
position, and thus preventing the birth of thousands °
young grubs”. Lastly come the Staphylinide, many °
which prey upon insects as well as on putrescent sub”
stances. Mr. Lehmann tells us that some of them a°
very useful in destroying the great enemy of our crop?
of clover seed, Apion flavifemoratum®.

a One was taken at Aldeburgh in Suffolk by Dr. Crabbe, the cel?”
brated poet; another by a young lady at Southwold, which is now int
cabinet of W. J. Hooker, esq. ; anda third by a boy at Norwich, craw”
ing up'a wall, which was purchased of him by S. Wilkin, esq:

b Latr. Hist. Nat. x. 181.
¢ Linn, Trans. vi. 149, Kirby, Ibid ix. 42, 23.

I

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 273

Amongst the devourers of insects in their perfect state
only, must be ranked a few of the social tribes, ants,
Wasps, and hornets. The first-mentioned indefatigable
‘nd industrious creatures kill and carry off great num-
bers of insects of every description to their nests, and
Prodigious are their efforts in this work. I have seen

& ant dragging a wild bee many times bigger than it-
‘elf; and there was brought to me this very morning
While writing this letter, an Elater quite alive and ac-
tive, which three or four ants in spite of its struggles
Were carrying off. An observing friend of mine*, who
Was some time in Antigua, informed me that in that
island, a kind of ant which construct their nests in the
roofs of houses, when they meet with any animal larger
than they can carry off alive, such as a cockroach, &c.,
~ Will hold it by the legs so that it cannot move, till some
of them get upon it and dispatch it, and then with in-
credible labour carry it up to their nest. Madam Me- _
vian, in her account of the periodical ants mentioned to -
you before”, and which is confirmed by Azara‘, notices
their clearing the houses of cockroaches and similar
animals; and the Formica omnivora is very useful in
Ceylon in destroying the larger ant, the white ant and -
the cockroach’,

Youare not perhaps accustomed to regard waspsand
°rnets as of any use to us; but they certainly destroy

an infinite number of flies and other annoying insects.

The year 1811 was remarkable for the small number of

Wasps, though many females appeared in the spring,
a R. Kittoe, Esq. bp. 124. : |

© Poyages, i. 185. & Percival’s Ceylon, 307,
VOL, i, T

974 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

scarcely any neuters being to be seen in the autumn*:
and probably in consequence of this cireumstanee, flies
in many places were so extremely numerous as to be
quiteanuisance. Reaumur has observed that in France
the butchers are very glad to have wasps attend their
stalls, for the sake of their services in driving away the
flesh-fly; and if we may believe the author of Hectof
St. John’s American Letters, the farmers in some parts
of the United States are so well aware of their utility
in this respect, as to suspend in their sitting-rooms #
hornet’s nest, the occupants of which prey upon the
flies without molesting the family.

There are other devourers of insects in their perfect
state, the manners and food of whose larve we are un-
acquainted with. St. Pierre speaks of a lady-bird, but
it probably belonged to some other genus, ofa fine vio”
let colour, with a head like a ruby, which he saw carry
off a butterfly”. Linné informs us that Clerus formict
rius devours Anobium pertinax. A fly related to the
Panorpa communis appears created to instill terror int?
the pitiless hearts of the tyrants of our lakes and pools,
—theall-devouring Libellulide*. The Asilialso, which
are always upon the chase, seize insects with their a!
terior legs and suck them with their haustellum. The
cognate genus Dioctria, particularly D. celandica, prey
upon Hymenoptera, by some unknown means instal
taneously killing the insect they seize. Many species
also of Empis, whose haustellum resembles the beak of

a Mr. Knight made the same observation in 1806, and supposes oe
scarcity of neuters arose from the want of males toimpregnate the fer
males. Philos, Trans. 1807, p. 243.

b St. Pierre, Voy..T2. e Lesser, L.i. 263, note-

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 275

a bird, carry off in it Tipulide and other small Diptera;
and what is remarkable, you can seldom take these in-
“ects in coitu, but the female hasa Tipula, some fly, or
“ometimes beetle, inher mouth. Can this be to depo-
Sit her eggs in, as soon as they are impregnated by the
Male? or is it designed for the nuptial feast? Even
Scatophaga stercoraria (Musca, L.) and scybalaria, and
Probably many others of the same tribe, feed upon small —
flies, though their proboscis does not seem ‘so well
adapted for animal as for vegetable food.

The most unrelenting devourers of insects appear to

be. those belonging to my fourth division, which attack
them under every form. These begin the work of de-
‘truction when they are larve, and continue it during
the whole of their existence.—The earwig that haunts
“very close place in our gardens, and defiles whatever
it enters, probably in some degree makes up for its ra-
Vages by diminishing the number of other insects. The
“owardly and cruel Mantis, which runs away from an
t, will destroy in abundanee helpless flies, using its
anterior tibia, which with the thigh form a kind of for-
“eps, to seize its prey. The water-scorpions (N epa,
natra, and Naucoris), whese fore legs are made like ~
those of the Mantis, the water-boatman (Notonecta),
Which always swims upon its back, and the Sigara, all
‘Ye by rapine, and prey upon aquatic insects. Some
ofthis tribe are so savage that they seem to love de-
struction for its own sake. One (Nepa cinerea) which
Was put into a basin of water with several young tad-
Poles, killed them all without attempting to eat one.

Those remarkable genera of the extensive tribe of

"88 (Cimicide), which glide over the surface of every
T2

276 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

pool with such rapidity, being gifted with the faculty
ef walking upon the water, the Hydrometra, Velia, and
Gerris of Latreille, subsist also upon aquatic insects-
A large number of the same tribe plunge their rostrum
into the larve of Lepidoptera, and suck the contents
of their bodies ; and Reduvius personatus, which ought
on that account to be encouraged, is particularly fond.
of the bed-bug.

But ofall the insects that are locomotive and pursue
their prey in every state, none are greater enemies of
their fellow tribes than the Libellulidæ, and none are
provided with more powerful and singular instruments
of assault. In the larva and pupa states, during which
they live in the water and prey upon aquatic insects
they are furnished with two pair of strong jaws, cover
by a kind of mask armed with a pair of forceps 0
claws, which the animal has the power of pushing fro™
it to catch any thing at a distance*. When an aquatic
imsect passes within its reach, it suddenly darts forth
the mask, opens the foreeps, seizes the unfortunat®
victim, and brings it within the action of its jaws.

When they assume the imago state, their habits do
not, like those of the white ants, become more mild and
gentle, but on the contrary are more sanguinary and
rapacious than ever; so thatthe name given to them
im England, “ Dragon-flies,”” seems much more appl
cable than “‘ Demoiselles, by which the French disti?”
guish them.. Their motions it istrue are light and airy’
their dress is silky, brilliant and variegated, and trim
med with the finest lace :—so far the resemblance holds:
but their purpose, except at the time of love, is alway”

a Reaum. vi. 400. t. 36—38. Puare XVI, Pia. 5. a.

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 277

destruction, in which surely they have no resemblance
to the ladies. I have been much amused by observing
the proceedings of a species not uncommon here, which
however is nondescript. It keeps wheeling round and
Tound, and backwards and forwards, over a consider-
able portion of the pool it frequents. [fone of the same
Species comes in its way, a battle ensues; if other spe-
ties of Libellulidee presume to approach, it drives them
away, and it is continually engaged in catching Phry-
Sanes and other insects (for the species of this tribe
all catch their prey when on the wing, and their large
yes seem given them to enable them the more readily
to do this,) that fly over the water, pulling off their
Wings with great adroitnessand devouring in an instant
the contents of the body. From the number of insects
of this tribe which are every where to be observed, we
may conjecture how useful they must be in preventing
too great a multiplication of the other species of the
class to which they belong. mE

Lastly, under this head, not to dwell upon some other
apterous genéra, devourers of insects, as the scorpion
d centipede, Phalangium and Solpuga, must be enus
merated the whole world of Spiders, extremely nu-
merous both in species and individuals, which subsist
entirely upon insects, spreading with infinite art and
Skill their nets and webs to arrest the flight of the heed-
ess and unwary summer tribes that fill the air, which
re hourly caught by thousands in their toils; one of
$ em (Aranea 13-guttata Rossi), we are told, even at-
facking the redoubted Scorpion®. `

So much for the insect benefactors to whom itisgiven

a Thiebaut de Berneaud’s Foyage to Elba, p. 31.

278 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

in charge to keep the animals of their own class within
_their proper limits ; and I cannot doubt that you will
recognise the goodness of the Great Parent in provid-
ing such an army of counterchecks to the natural ten-
dency of almost all insects to incalculable increase. But
before I quit this subject I must call your attention tO
what may be denominated cannibal insects, since in spite
of those declaimers who would persuade us that man 15
the only animal that preys upon his own species*, 4
large number of insects are guilty of the same offence.
Reaumur tells us, that having put into a glass vessel
twenty caterpillars of the same species which he was
careful to supply with their appropriate food, they ne
vertheless devoured each other until one only survi-
ved”; and De Geer relates several similar instances
The younger larve of Calosoma Sycophanta often take
advantage of the helpless inactivity into which the glut
tony of their maturer comrades has thrown them, and
from mere wantonness it should seem, when in no need
of other food, pierce and devour them. A ferocity not
less savage exists amongst the Mantes. ‘These insect
have their fore legs of a construction not unlike that
of a sabre; and they can as dexterously cleave the!
antagonist in two, or cut off his head at a stroke, as the
most expert hussar. In this way they often treat each
other, even the sexes fighting with the most savage an!
mosity. Résel endeavoured to rear several specimen’
a “ Even Tyger fell and sullen Bear

Their likeness and their lineage spare.

Man only mars kind nature’s plan,

And turns the fierce pursuit on Man!”

Scott’s Rokeby, canto iii. t
b Reaumur, ii. 413, e De Geer, i. 533. iii, 361. v, 400. vie?

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS, 279

of M. religiosa, but always failed, the stronger con-
stantly devouring the weaker *. This ferocious propen-
sity the Chinese children have, according to Mr. Bar-
Tow, employed as a source of barbarous amusement,
Selling to their comrades bamboo cages containing
ach a Mantis, which are put together to fight. You
will think it singular that both in Europe and Africa
these cruel insects have obtained a character for gen-
tleness of disposition, and even sanctity. This has
arisen from the upright or sitting position, with the
fore legs bent, assumed in watching for their prey,
Which the vulgar have supposed to be a praying pos-
ture, and hence adopted the belief that a child or tra-
veller that had lost his road would be guided by taking
ne of these pious insects in his hands and observing
What way it pointed. Mantis Jausia, though not as
‘ome suppose worshipped by the Hottentots, is yet
Sreatly esteemed by them, and they regard the person
Upon whom it alights as highly fortunate’. A similar
“nnatural ferocity is exhibited by Acheta campestris,
of which having put the sexes into a box, I found on
*Xamining them that the female had begun to make
her meal off her companion.—The malign aspect of
the scorpion leads us to expect from it unnatural
‘Tuelty, and its manners fulfil this expectation. Mau-
Pertuis put a hundred scorpions together, and a gene-
ral and murderous battle immediately began. Almost
all Were massacred in the space of a few days without

distinction of age or sex, and devoured by the survi-
Vors

He informs us also that they often devour their
°wn offspring as soon as they are born’. Spiders are

a Résel, iv. 96. b Thunberg’s Travels, ii. 66.
© De Geer, vii. 335. 4

980 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

equally ferocious in their habits, fighting sanguinary
battles, which sometimes end in the death of both com-
batants; and the females do not yield to the Mantes in
their unnatural cruelty to their mates. Woe'be to the
male spider that after an union does not with all speed
make his escape from the fangs of Eis partner! Nay,
De Geer saw one that, in thé midst of his preparatory
caresses, was seized by the object of his attentions, e8-
veloped by her in a web, and then devoured—a sight
which, he observes, filled him with horror and indig-
nation ?.

Such are the benefits which we derive from the iD
sects that keep each other in check. Here they are thé
destroyers to which we are chiefly indebted: but we are
in another point of view under nearly equal obligations
to the destroyed ; for they are insects, either wholly 0
in part, that form the food of some of our most esteemed
fishes, and of birds that are not more valuable to us 48
articles for the table, than as the songsters that enlive?
our groves. But before proceeding to the details which
this view of the subject involves, I ought not to omit
pointing out to you that many quadrupeds, which
though not all of direct utility to us are doubtless of
importance in the scale of being, derive a considerable
part of their subsistence from insects. ` l

The harmless hedgehog and the mole, to begin at
the lower end of the series, are both said to be inse“
tivorous?; the latter devouring large quantities of the
wite-worms. The greedy swine will root up wholé
acres in search of the grubs of cockchafers, of which

a De Geer, vii. 180. b Bingley, ii. 374.

ce

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 281

they are very fond; and perhaps the good they do is
Sreater than the harm, if their attack be confined to
Sass that having been undermined by these grubs
Would soon die : they also dig up the larvae of the de-

structive Tettigonia septendecim, called the American
locust*, on which, when in their perfect state, the
Squirrels are said to grow fat’. ‘The badger, Lesser
informs us, will eat beetles; and its kinsman the bear
has the character of being very fond of ants and of
honey; which last is also said to þe a favourite article
With the fox, who has sometimes the audacity to over-
tura bee-hives, and even to attack wasps’ nests in
Search of it. He will also eat beetles.

Sparrman has given an amusing account of the ho-
Rey-ratel, (Viverra mellivora,) which has a particular
instinct enabling it to discover bees, and attack them
in their entrenchments. Near sun-set the ratel will
Sit and hold one of his paws before his eyes, in order
to get a distinct view of the object of his pursuit ; and
when, in consequence of his peering about in this
Manner, he sees any bees flying, he knows that at this
time of the day they are making for their habitations,
Whither he follows them, and so attains his end“.
Another species of Viverra (V. prehensilis) is also re-
Puted'to be an eager insect-hunter. The young ar-
madillos feed on a species of locust; but no quadruped
ĉan with more propriety be called insectivorous than
the ant-eaters (Myrmecophaga), which, as their name
ports, live upon ants. The great ant-eater, when

e comes to an ant-hill, scratches it up with his long
a Bingley, iii. 27. b Collinson in Philos. Trans, 1763.

© Sparrman, iie180.

OS? INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

claws, and then unfolds his slender worm-like tongue,
(which is more than two feet long, and wet with sa-
liva,) and when covered with ants draws it back into
his mouth and swallows thousands of them alive, re-
newing the operation till no more are to be found.
He also climbs trees in search of wood-lice and wild
honey. Bats, as every one knows, are always flitting
about in summer evenings, hawking for insects: and
the Lemur and monkeys will also eat them. '
Insects likewise afford a favourite kind of food to
many reptiles: the tortoise; frogs and toads ; and li-
zards too of different kinds. St. Pierre mentions 2
small and very handsome species in the island of Mau-
ritius, that pursues them into the houses, climbs up
the walls, and even walks over glass, watching with
great patience for an opportunity of catching them*
The common snake also is said to receive part of its
nutriment from them. l
_ But to revert to insects as indirectly advantageous
to us, by furnishing food to fishes and birds, beginning
with the former. z l
Our rivers abound with fish of various kinds, which
at particular seasons derive a principal pari of theif
food from insects, as the numerous species of the sal-
mon and carp genus. These chiefly prey upon the va
rious kinds of Phryganez, in their larva state called
case- or caddis-worms ; and in their imago may-flie
(though this last denomination properly belongs only
to the Sialis lutaria, which generally appears in that
month,) and Ephemera. Besides these, the water
swarm with insects of every order, as numerous 1
a St. Pierre, Voy. 73.

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 283

Proportion to the space they inhabit, as those that fill
the air, which form the sole nutriment of multitudes
of our fish, and the partial support of almost all. «

Reaumur has given us a very entertaining account
of the infinite hosts of Ephemera that by myriads of
millions emerge at a certain season of the year from
Some of the rivers in France, which, as it is well worth
your attention, I shall abridge for you.

These insects in their first and intermediate state
are aquatic : they either live in holes in the banks of
tivers or brooks below the water, so that it enters into
their habitations, which they seldom quit; or they
Swim about and walk upon the bed of the stream, or
Conceal themselves under stones or upon pieces of
Stick. Though their life, when they assume the per-
fect state, is usually extremely short, some being dis-
Closed after sun-set, laying their eggs and dying before
Sun-rise ; and many not living more than three hours;
yet in their preparatory state their existence is much
longer, in some one, in others two, in others even
three years. 0 l

The different species assume the imago at different
times of the year; but the same-species appear regu-
larly at nearly the same period annually, and for a cer-
tain number of days fill the air in the neighbourhood
of the rivers, emerging also from the water at a cer-
tain hour of the day. Those which Swammerdam ob-
erved, began to fly about six o’clock in the evening,
% about two hours before sun-set ; but the great body
of those noticed by Reaumur did not appear till after
that time; so that the season of different harvests is not
better known to the farmer, than that in which the

984 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS:

Ephemere of a particular river are. to emerge, is t0
the fishermen. Yet a greater degree of heat or cold;
the rise or fall of the water, and other circumstances
we are not aware of, may accelerate or retard theif
appearance. Between the 10th and 15th of August is
the time when those of the Seine and Marne, which
Reaumur described, are expected by the fishermen,
who call them.manna: and when their season is comes
they say “ the manna begins to appear, the manna fell
abundantly such a night;”—alluding, by this expres
sion, either to the astonishing quantity of food which
the Ephemera afford the fish, or to the large quantity
of fish which they then take. .
Reaumur first observed these insects in the year 1733;
when they did not begin to show themselves in numbers
till the 18th of August. On the 19th, having received
notice from his fisherman that the flies had appeared,
he got into his boat about three hours before sun-set,
and detached from the banks of the river several masse”
of earth filled with pupe, which he put into a large tub
full of water. This tub, after staying in the boat till
about eight o’clock, without seeing any remarkable
number of the flies, and being threatened witha storm
he caused to be landed and placed in his garden, at thé
foot of which ran the Marne. Before the people had
landedit, an astonishing number of Ephemeræ emerge
from it. Every piece of earth that was above the sul”
face of the water was covered by them, some beginni?'$
to quit their slough, others prepared:to fiy, and others
already on the wing ; and every where under the w atet
they were to be seen in a greater or less degree of for

e . go
wardness. The storm coming on, he was obliged t

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 285

quit the amusing scene; but when the rain ceased to
fall he returned to it. As soon as the cloth with which
he had ordered the tub to be covered was removed,
the number of flies appeared to be greatly augmented,
_ Md kept continually increasing: many flew away, but
Nore were drowned. Those already transformed, and
Continually transforming, would have been sufficient
®f' themselves to have made the tub seem full ; but their.
umber was soon very much enlarged by others at-
_ tracted by the light. To prevent their being drowned,

Ae caused the tub to be again covered with the cloth,
4nd over it he held the light, which was soon conceal-
ed by a layer of these flies, that might have been taken.
by handfulls from the candlestick.

But the scene round the tub was nothing to be com-
Pared with the wonderful spectacle exhibited on the
banks of the river. The exclamations of his gardener
drew the illustrious naturalist thither : and such a sight

© had never witnessed, and could scarcely find words.
to describe. “ The myriads of Ephemerez,” says he,
“which filled the air over the current of the river, and
ver the bank on which I stood, are neither to be ex-
Pressed nor conceived. When the snow falls with the
largest flakes, and with the least interval between
them, the air is not so full of them as that which sur-
"ounded us was of Ephemerz. Scarcely had I re-
tained in one place a few minutes, when the step on
Which I stood was quite concealed with a layer of them
‘om two to four inches in depth. Near the lowest
epia surface of water of five or six feet dimensions
“Very way was entirely and thickly covered by them :
“hd what the current! carried off was continually re-

286 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

placed. Many times I was obliged to abandon my sta-
tion, not being able to bear the shower of Ephemer®,
which, falling with an obliquity less constant than that
of an ordinary shower, struck continually, and in 2
manner extremely uncomfortable, every part of "E
face :—eyes, mouth and nostrils were filled with them.”
To hold the flambeau on this occasion was no plea-
sant office. 'The person who filled it had his clothes
covered in a few moments with these flies, which came
from all parts to overwhelm. him.—Before ten o'clock
this interesting spectacle had vanished. It was re
newed for some nights afterwards, but the flies wer?
never insuch prodigious numbers. The fishermen allow
only three successive days for the great fall of the mar
na: but a few flies appear both before and after, thei!
number increasing in one case, in the other diminish’
ing. Whatever be the temperature of the atmosphere
whether it be cold or hot, these flies invariably appe@”
at the same hour in the evening, that is, between ®
quarter and half-past eight: towards nine they begin
to fill the air; in the following half-hour they are in
the greatest numbers ; and at ten there are scarcely
any to be seen. So that in less than two hours this i
finite host of flies emerge from their parent stream, fill
_ the air, perform their appointed work, and vanish.
very large proportion of them falls into the river, whe?
the fish have their grand festival and the fishermen p
good harvest? `

Under this head I may observe how much the por
angler is indebted to insects for some of his choicest
baits, for the best opportunities of showing his skill, a”

; a Reaum. vi. 419-4187.

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM TNSECTS. 987

for the most gratifying part of his diversion. The case-
Worm and several other larve are the best standing bait
for many fish. The larva of the Ephemera, there called
baitand bank-bait*, is much used in some parts of Hol-
land. The case-worms, and grubs (I suppose of flies)
from the tallow-chandlers are in request with us for
roach and dace; and Lam told by an acute observer of
these things, the Rev. R. Sheppard, that the larger
Searabei and Melolonthe are good baits for chub”. But
to be an adept in fly-fishing, which requires the most
Skill and furnishes the best diversion , the angler ought |
to be conversant in Entomology, at least sufficiently so
to distinguish the different species of Phryganea, and to
know the time of their appearance.—The aneler is not
mly indebted to insects for some of his best baits, but
‘so for the best material to fasten his hooks to, and
“ven for making his lines for smaller fish—the Indian
Stass or gut as it is called, (termed in France Cheveux
de F, lorence,) which is said to be prepared in China from
=e matter contained in the silk reservoirs of the silk-
Worm, but according to Latreille is the silk vessel it-
‘elf when dried®.

One of the most important ends for which insects

à Swamm. Bid. Nat.i.c.4.106.b,

Th Col, Venable’s Experienced Angler, a vast number of insects are

tmerated as good baits for fish, under the names of Bob, Cadbait, Can-

Kers, Caterpillars, Palmers, Gentles, Bark-worms, Oak-worms, Colewort~
orms, Flag-worms, Green flies, A ni-jflies, Butterflies, Wasps, Hornets, Bees,

; Mble-bees, Grasshoppers, Dors, Beetles, a great brown fly that lives
Pon the oak like a Scarabee—(Aelolontha vulgaris or solstitialis?) and

ên

tes (; z :
(ie, may-flies) of various sorts.

S3 Anderson’s Recreations in Agricult, &c., iv, 418. Latr. Hist. Nat.

988 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS-

were gifted with such powers of multiplication, giving
birth to myriads of myriads of individuals, was to fur
nish the feathered part of the creation witha sufficient
supply of food. The number of birds that derive the
whole or a principal part of their subsistence from ine
sects is, as is universally known, very great, and in-
cludes species of almost every order.

Amongst the Accipitres the kestril (Falco Tinnuncl-
lus, L.y devours abundance of insects. A friend of
mine, upon opening one found its stomach full of the
remains of grasshoppers and beetles, particularly the
former, which he suspects constitute great part of the
food of this species. One of the shrikes, also, oF
butcher-birds (Lanius Collurio)—and itis probable that
other species of thisnumerous genus may have the sam?
habits—is known to feed. upon insects, which it first
impales alive on the thorns of the sloe and other spi
nous plants, and then devours. If meat be given ity
when keptin a cage, it will fix it upon the wires before
it eats it. Lanius Excubitor also impales insects, but

` Heckewelder denies that it feeds upon them. If he b&

correct, the object of this singular procedure with that

species, may be to allure the birds, which it preys upo™
to a particular spot*.

a According to Mr. Heckewelder (Trans. Am. Phil. Soc.iv.

cubitor, called in America the nine-killer, from an idea that it tra?
whl
piot,

nine. individuals daily, treats in this manner Grasshoppers only ;
T. Collurio would seem to restrict isself chiefly to Scarabai, two of W
Mr. Sheppard once observed transfixed in a hedge that he knew to pet
residence of this bird. Kugellan even thinks that it impales only sail
nalis, which he ‘has often found transfixed, but never S. stercor aris
(Schneid. Mag. 259.) I must remark, however, that I last summer i

served two Aumble-bees quite alive, impaled on the thorns of a hedge pt

pF

7a

my house, which had most prokably been so placed by this speciet,

` 4

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 289

Amongst the Pice or Pies the Crotophaga, called
the Ani, which is a native of Africa and America, lives
"pon the locust and Acarus ricinus, which it picks in
§reat numbers from the backs of cattle; but none are
Steater devourers of insects in this order than rooks.
It is for the grubs of Melolontha, Tipula, &c., that they
follow the plough; and they always frequent the mea-
dows in which these larve abound, destroying them in
Yast numbers. Kalm tells us, that when the little crow
Was extirpated from Virginia at an enormous expense,
the inhabitants would willingly have brought them
back again at double the price*. The icteric oriole is
kept by the Americans in their houses for the sake of
Clearing them of insects; and the purple grackle is so
useful in this respect, that when, on account of their
“Onsuming grain, the American farmers in New En-
gland offered a reward of threepence a head for them,
and they were in consequence nearly extirpated, in-
‘ects increased to such a degree as to cause a total loss
ofthe herbage, and the inhabitants were obliged to ob-
tain hay for their cattle not only from Pennsylvania but
“ven from Great Britain». Of this order also is the
bee-euckoo (Cuculus Indicator) so celebrated for its in-
Stinet, by which it serves as a. guide to the wild bees’
Rests in Africa. Sparrman describes this bird, which
'S somewhat larger than a common sparrow, as giving
this information in a singular manner. In the evening
Ubitop being rarely found except in mountainons wilds. (Bewick’s
Birds, ic6).) And Prof; Sander states that on opening this bird (L. Cok
trào) he has sometimes found in its stomach nothing but grasshoppers, and
Xt Others small beetles and other insects, Naturforscher Stk. xviii. 234,

^ Stillingfi. Tracts, 175. Linn. Trans. v. 105, note b.

» Bingley, ii. 287-290,

Von, I. U

900 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

and morning, which are its meal-times, it excites the
attention of the Hottentots, colonists, and honey-ratel,
by the cry of cherr, cherr, cherr, and conducts them tO
the tree or spot in which the bees’ nest is concealed,
continually repeating this ery. When arrived at the
spot, it hovers over it, and then alighting on some
neighbouring tree or bush, sits in silence, expecting t?

come in for its share of the spoil, which is that part of

the comb containing the brood*.—The wryneck and the
woodpeckers, the nut-hatch and tree-creeper, live en-
tirely upon insects which they pick out of decayed trees
and out of the bark of living ones. The former als?
frequents grass-plats and ant-hills, into which it dart
its long flexible tongue and so draws out its prey. The
woodpecker also draws insects out of their holes by
means ofthe same organ, which for this purpose is bon}
at the end and barbed, and furnished with a curiou®
apparatus of muscles to enable them to throw it for?
wards with great force. Some species spit the insect
on their tongue, and thus bring them into their mouth.
In America, the tree-creeper is furnished with a box
at the end of a long pole to entice it to build in ga™
dens, which it is found to be particularly useful 1”
clearing from noxious insects.

Amongst the Gralle or Waders, many of the long”
billed birds eat the larve of insects as well as worms’
and they form also no inconsiderable part of the food ©
our domestic poultry, especially turkeys, which may be
daily seen busily engaged.in hunting for them, and,
well as. ducks, will greedily devour the larger insect
as Melelonthe, and in North America Tettigoni®

Sparrman, ii. 166..

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 291
Mr. Sheppard was much amused one day in J uly last
year with observing a cow which had taken refuge ina
pond, probably from the gad-fly, and was standing
Nearly up to its belly in water. A fleet of ducks sur-
Tounded it, which kept continually jumping at the flies
that alighted upon it. The cow, as if sensible of the
Service they were rendering her, stood perfectly still
though assailed and pecked on all sides by them. The
Partridge takes her young brood to an ant-hill, where
they feast upon the larve and pupæ, which Swammer-
dam informs us were sold at market in his time to feed
Various kinds of birds*. Dr. Clarke also mentions
having seen them, as well as the ants themselves, ex-
Posed, to sale in the market at Moscow as a food for
Nightingales®, Latreille tells us that singing birds are
fed in France with the larve of Formica rufa.

But the Linnean order of Passeres affords the greatest
Number of insectivorus birds; indeed almost all the
Species of this order, except perhaps the Columbe and
the crossbill; and other Loxia, more or less eat insects.
Amonest the thrush tribe, the blackbird, though he will

ave his share of our gooseberries and currants, assists
Steatlyin clearing our gardens of caterpillars ; and the

®cust-eating thrush is still more useful in the countries
‘ubject to that dreadful pest: these birds never appear
ut With the locusts, and then accompany them in asto-
ishing numbers, preying upon them in their larva

“tate, The common sparrow, though proscribed as a
Most mischievous bird, destroys a vast number of in-
Sects, ‘Bradley has calculated that a single pair having ©
y “tng to maintain, will destroy 3360 caterpillars in a

a Bib, Nat. i, 126. b. . Travels, i. 110.
u2

902 i NDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

week’. They also prey upon butterflies and other
winged insects. The fly-catchers (Muscicapa) and the.
warblers (Motacilla), which include our sweetest song”
sters, are almost entirely supported by insects; so that
were it not for these despised creatures we should be
deprived of some of our greatest pleasures, and half
the interest and delight of our vernal walks would be
done away. Our groves would no longer be vocal; our
little domestic favourites the red-breast and the wre”.
would desert us; and the heavens would be depop¥
lated.—We should lose too some of the most esteemed
dainties of our tables, one of which, the wheat-ear, is
said to be attracted to our downs bya particular insect"
Lastly, insects are the sole food of swallows, which ar?
always on the wing hawking for them, and their flight
is regulated by that of their prey. When the atmo
sphere is dryand clearand their small game flies high:
they seek the skies; when moist and the insectsare low
or upon the ground, they descend and just skim the
surface of the earth and waters; and thus by their flight
are regarded as prognosticating fair or wet weather
1 was last summer much interested and amused by obs
serving the tender care and assiduity with which an ol
swallow supplied her young with this kind of food:
My attention was called to a young brood, that havits
left their nest before they were strong enough to take
_ wing, were stationed on the lead which covers a bow
window in my house. The mother was perpetually
going and returning, putting an insect into the mouth
first of one and then of the others in succession, #
fluttering and. opening their mouths to receive her gift
a Reaum, ii. 408. ` b Bingley, ii, 374.

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 293

She was scarcely ever more than a minute away, and
Continued her excursions as long as we had time to
Observe her. When the little ones were satisfied they
Put their head under their wing and went to sleep.
The number of insects caught by this tribe is incon-
ĉeivable. But it is not in summer only that birds de-
tive their food from the insect tribes: even in winter
the pupæ of Lepidoptera, as Mr. White tells us, are
the grand support of those that have a soft bill*.

I shall close my list of the indirect benefits derived
from insects, by adverting to the very singular apparent
Subserviency of some of them to the functions of certain
vegetables. \ mi

You well know that some plants are gifted with the
faculty of catching flies. These vegetable Muscicapæ,
Which have been enumerated by Dr. Barton of Phila-
delphia, who kas lately published an ingenious paper
on the subject®, may be divided into three classes:
F irst, those that entrap insects by the irritability of
their stamina, which close upon them when touched.
Under this head come Apocynum androsemifolium,
Asclepias syriaca and curassavica, Nerium Oleander,
‘nd a grass described by Michaux under the name of

eersia lenticularis. The second class includes those
Which entrap them by some viscosity of the plant, as
Many species of Rhododendron, Kalmia, Robinia, Silene,
Lythrum, Populus balsamifera, &c.° And under the

à White’s Selborne, 106. b Philosoph. Mag. xxxix. 107.
sis Smail flies are sometimes found sticking to the glutinous stigma of
me of the Orchidew like birds on a limed twig: (Sprengel Entdecktes
j mnis, 21—) and ants are not unfrequently detained in the milky
ce which the touch of even their light feet causes to exude from the
‘yxes of the common garden lettuce. Ann. of Bot. iie 590.

904 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

third class will arrange those which ensnare by theif
leaves, whether from some irritability in them, asin
Dionea, Drosera, &c., or merely from their forming
hollow vessels containing water, into which the flies are
enticed either by their carrion-like odour, or the sweet
fluid which many of them secrete near the faux, as iN
Sarracenia, Nepenthes, Aquarium, &c., the tubular.
leaves of which are usually found stored with putre-
fying insects. In this last class may be placed the com
mon Dipsacus of this country, the connate leaves of
which form a kind of basin round the stem, that retains
rain-water in which many insects are drowned. T°
these a fourth class might be added, consisting of those
plants whose flowers smelling like carrion (Stapeli@
hirsuta, &c.) entice flies to lay their eggs upon them;
which thus perish.

‘The number of insects thus destroyed is prodigious:
_ Tt is scarcely possible to find a flower of the Musci-
| cape Asclepiadee that has not entrapped its victim,
and some of them in the United States closely covet
hundreds of acres together.

What may be the precise use of this faculty is not
so apparent. Dr. Barton doubts whether the flowers
that catch insects, being only temporary organs, cal
derive any nutriment from them; and he does not
think it probable that the leaves of Dionæa, &c., which
are usually found in rich boggy soil, can have any need
of additional stimulus. “As nothing however is made
in vain, there can be little doubt that these ens nared
insects are subservient to some important purpose in
the economy of the plants which are endowed with th?
faculty of taking them, though we may be ignorant

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 295

what that purpose is; and an experiment of Mr.

Knight’s, nurseryman in King’s Road, Londen, seems
to prove that in the case of Dionæa, at least, the very

` end in view, contrary to Dr. Barton’s supposition, is
the supplying the leaves with animal manure; for he
found that a plant upon whose leaves he laid fine fila-
ments of raw beef, was much more luxuriant in its
Stowth than others not so treated*. Possibly the air
evolved from the putrefying insects with which Sarra-

cenia purpurea is sometimes so filled as to scent the at-

Nosphere round it, may be in a similar manner favour-
able to its vegetation.

Most of the insects which are found in the tubular
leaves of this and similar plants enter into them vo-

; huntarily ; but Sir James Smith mentions a curious fact,
fom which it appears that in some cases they are de-
posited by other species. One of the gardeners of the

Liverpool Botanic Garden observed an insect, from
the description’ one of the Sphegiade (Sphex, L.),
Which dragged several large flies to the Sarracenia
Wdenca, and, having with some difficulty forced them
Ander the lid or cover of its leaf, deposited them in its
tubular part which was half filled with water: and on
*Xamination all the leaves were found crowded. with
deaq or drowning flies’. What was the object of this
‘Ineular manœuvre does not seem very obvious. At
the first glance one might suppose that, having depo-
“ited an ego in the fly, it intended to avail itself of the
tube of the leaf instead of a burrow. Yet we know of
20 such strange deviation from natural instinct, which

a Elements of the Sctence of Botany, 62.
b §mith’s Introduction to Botany, 195.

296 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

would be the more remarkable because the insect was
European, while the plant was American and growing
in a hot-house. And at any rate it does not seem very
likely that the insect would commit her egg to the tube
without having previously examined it; in which case
she must have discovered it to be half full of water,
and consequently unfit for her purpose.—lIt is not 8°
wonderful that many large flies should, as Professo?
Barton informs us, drop their eggs into the Ascidi@
furnished with dead carcases: and it seems very pro”
bable that Dytisci oviposit in them; for the Squilla
which Rumphius found there was probably one of theif
larvae, this being the old name for them?*.

However problematical the agency of insects caught
by plants as to their nutriment, there can be no doubt
that many species perform an important function with

regard to their impregnation, which indeed without
their aid would in some cases never take place at all.
Thus, for the due fertilization of the common Barberty
(Berberis vulgaris) it is necessary that the irritable st#°
mens should be brought into contact with the pistil bY
the application of some stimulus to the base of the fila”
' ment; but this would never take place were not insect’
attracted by the melliferous glands of the flower to i=”
_ Sinuate themselves amongst the filaments, and thus;
while seeking their own food, unknowingly fulfil the
intentions of nature in another department?.

The agency of these little operators is not less 1™
dispensable in the beautiful tribe of Jris. In these, *
appears from the observations of Kélreuter, the true

a Mouffet, 319.
b Smith’s Tracts, 165. Kélreuter Ann. of Bot. ii. 9e

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 297

Stigma is situated on the upper side of a trans¥erse
membrane (arcus eminens of Haller) which is stretched
across the middle of the under surface of the petal-like
expansion or style-flag, the whole of which has been
often improperly regarded as fulfilling the office of a
Stigma. Now as the anther is situated at the base of the
Style-flag which covers it, at a considerable distance
from the stigma, and at the same time cut off from all
access to it, by the intervening barrier formed by the
arcus eminens; it is clear that but for some extraneous
agency the pollen could never possibly arrive at the
Place of its destination. In this case the humble-bee
is the operator. Led by instinct, or, as the ingenious
Sprengel supposes, by one of those honey-marks ( Safi-
maal) or spots of a different coiour from the rest of the
ĉorolla, which, according to him, are placed in many
flowers expressly to guide insects to the nectaries, she
bushes herself between the stiff style-flag and elastic
‘Petal, which last, while she is in the interior, presses
her close to the anther, and thus causes her to brush’
of the pollen with her hairy back, which ultimately,
though not at once, conveys it to the stigma. Having
exhausted the nectar she retreats backwards; and in
doing this, is indeed pressed by the petal to the arcus -
emtnens ; but itis only to its lower or negative surface,
Which cannot influence impregnation. She now takes
her way to the second petal, and insinuating herself
tader its style-flag, her back comes into close contact
With the true stigma, which is thus impregnated with
the pollen of the first visited anther : and in this man-
ner migrating from one part of the corolla to another,
and from flower to flower, she fructifies one with pollen

908 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

gathered in her search after honey in another.—Mr.
Sprengel found, that not only are insects indispensable
in fructifying the different species of Iris, but that
some of them, as J. Xiphium, require the agency of
the larger humble-bees, which alone are strong enough
to ferce their way beneath the style-flag : and hence,
as these insects are not so common as many others, this
Tris is often barren, or bears imperfect seeds?.

_ Aristolochia Clematitis, according to Professor Will-
denow, is so formed, that the anthers of themselves
cannot impregnate’ the stigma; but this important
affair is devolved upen a particular species of Tipula
(T. pennicornis). 'The throat of the flower is lined with
dense hair, peinting downward so as to forma kind
of funnel or entrance like that of some kinds of mouse-
traps, through which the insects may easily enter but
not return: several creep in, and, uneasy at their con”
finement, are constantly moving to and fro, and 80
deposit the pollen upon the stigma: but when the
work intrusted to them is completed, and impregna-
tion has taken place, the hair which prevented their
escape shrinks, and adheres closely to the sides of the
flower, and these little go-betweens of Flora at length
leave their prison”. Sir James Smith supposes that it
is for want of some insect of this kind that Aristolo-
chia Sipho never forms fruit in this country.

Equally important is the agency of insects in fructi

a Chr. Conr. Sprengel Entdeekies Geheimniss, §c. Bertin 1793, 4”
quoted in. Ann. of Bot. i. 414.

b Grundriss der Krduterkunde, 353. A writer, however, in the Annual
Medical Review (ii. 400.) doubts the accuracy of this fact, on the ground
that he could never find T. yennicornis, though A. Clematitis has produced
fruit two years at Brompton.

INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 299

fying the plants of the Linnean classes Monoecia, Di-
decia and Polygamia, in which the stamens are in one
blossom and the pistil in another. In exploring these
for honey and pollen, which last is the food of several
sects besides bees, it becomes involved in the hair,
With which in many cases their bodies seem provided
__ for this express purpose, and is conveyed to the ger-
men requiring its fertilizing influence. Sprengel sup-
Poses that with this view some plants have particular }
insects appropriated to them, as to the dioecious nettle .
‘Catheretes ‘Urtice, to the toad-flax Catheretes gravidus,
both minute beetles, &c. Whether the operations of |
Cynips Psenes be of that advantage in fertilizing the
fig, which the cultivators of that fruit in the East have
long supposed, is doubted by Hasselquist and Olivier’, —

both competent observers, who haye been on the spot.
Our own gardeners, however, will admit their obliga-
tions to bees in selling their cucumbers and melons, to
Which they find the necessity of themselves cohveying
Pollen from a male flower, when the early season of»
the year precludes the assistance of insects. Sprengel
asserts, that apparently with a view to prevent hybrid
Mixtures, insects which derive their honey or pollen
from different plants indiscriminately, will during a
Whole day confine their visits to that species on which
they first fixed in the morning, provided there be a [N
Sufficient supply of it®; and the same observation was

*Thave frequently observed Dermestes flavescens, Ent. Brit. eat both
© Petals and stamens of Stellaria Holosteum; and Mordelle will open the
“athers with the securiform joints of their palpi to get at the pollen.
b Hasselquist’s Travels, 253. Latr. Hist, Nat, xiii. 204.
“Willd. Grundriss, 352. -

300 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

long since made with respect to bees by our country”
man Dobbs’.
‘Thus we see that the flowers which we vainly think

are 4
és born to blush unseen,

é eeeee

And waste their fragrance on the desert air,”

though unvisited by the lord of the creation, who boasts
that they were made for him, have nevertheless pr
riads of insect visitants and admirers, which, thoug)
they pilfer their sweets, contribute to their fertility-

Į am, &c.

a Phil. Trans. xlsi, 596.

>

LETTER X.

BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

DIRECT BENEFITS.

M ¥ last letter was devoted to the indirect advantages
Which we derive from insects; in the present I shall
enumerate those of a more direct nature for which we
are indebted to them, beginning with their use as the
food of man, in which respect they are of more im-.
Portance than you may have conceived. —

One class of animals which, till very lately, have
been regarded as belonging to the entomological world,
E mean the Crustacea, consisting principally of the ge-
Rus Cancer of Linné, are universally reckoned amongst
ur greatest dainties; and they who would turn with
disgust from a locust or the grub of a beetle, feel no

Symptoms of nausea when a lobster, crab, or shrimp is
Set beforethem. The fact is, that habit has reconciled us
to the eating of these last, which, viewed in themselves
With their threatening claws and many feet, are really
Nore disgusting than the former. Had the habit been
“eversed, we should have viewed the former with ap-
Petite and the latter with abhorrence, as do the Arabs,

Who are as much astonished at our eating crabs, lob-

‘ters, and oysters, as we are at their eating locusts*.”

_* Walpole in Clarke’s Travels, ii. 187. Eyen Mr. Boyle speaks with
“Dhorrence of eating raw oysters. Walten’s Angler. Life, p. 12.

\

302 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

That this would have been the case is clear, at least a¢
far as regards the former position, from the practice in
other parts of the world, both in ancient and moder®
times, to which, begging you to lay aside your English
prejudices, I shall now call your attention ; first ob-
serving by the way, that the insects used as food, gê-
nerally speaking, live on vegetable substances, and are

consequently much more select and cleanly in their
dict than the swine or the duck, which form a favourite

part of ours.

Many larve that belong to the order Coleoptera are
eaten in different parts of the world. The grub of the
palm-weevil ( Calandra Palmarum), which is the size of
the thumb, has been long in request in both the Indies.
Ælian speaks of an Indian king, who, for a dessert,
instead of fruit set before his Grecian guests a roasted
worm taken from a plant, probably the larva of this i-
sect; which he says the Indians esteem very deliciou®
—a character that was confirmed by some of the Greeks
who tasted it*.' Madam Merian has figured one of these?
larve, and says that the natives of Surinam roast and
eat them as something very exquisite”. A friend of
mine, who has resided a good deal in the West Indies,
where the palm-grub is called Grugrw, informs me that
the'late Sir John La Forey, who was somewhat of a?
epicure, was extremely fond of it when properly cooked:

The larve also of the larger species of the capricor?
tribe (Cerambycide) are accounted very great delica-
cies in many countries ; and the Cossus of Pliny, which
he tells us the Roman epicures fattened with flour”

a Ælian. Hist. 1. xiv. c. 13. quoted in Reaum. ii. 343-
b Ins, Sur. 48. c Hist. Nat. l xvii. & 24.

DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 303

most probably belonged to this tribe. Linné indeed,
following the opinion of Ray?, supposes the caterpillar
ofthe great goat-moth, the anatomy of which has been
So wonderfully traced by the eye and pencil of the in-
“omparable Lyonet, to be the Cossus. But there seems
a strong reason against this opinion y for Linné’s Cos-
Sus lives most commonly in the willow, Pliny’s in the
Sak; and the former is a very disagreeable, ugly and
fetid larva, not very likely to attract the Roman epi-
“ures. Probably they were the larve of Prionus cori-
rius, which I have myself extracted from the oak, or
of one of its congeners”. The grub of Cerambyx da-
Mmicornis, which is the thickness of a man’s finger, is
aten at Surinam, in America, andin the West Indies,
both by whites and blacks, who empty, wash, and roast
them, and find them delicious‘. Mr. Hall informs me,
that in Jamaica this grub is called Macauco, and is in
request at the principal tables.. A similar insect is

dressed at Mauritius under the name of Moutac, which
à Wisdom of God, 9th ed. 307. Ray first adopted the opinion here
Maintained, that the Cossi were the larvae of some beetle ; but afterwards,

Tom observing in the caterpillar of Bombyx Cossus a power of retracting
‘is Prołegs within the body, he conjectured that the hexapod larva from
‘Maica, ( Prionus damicornis ?) given him by Sir Hans Sloane, might.have
“same faculty, and so be the caterpillar ofa Bombyx. open
p Amoreux has collected the different opinions ofentomblogists on the
“Uthject of Pliny’s Cossus, which has been supposed the larva of Calandra
almarum by Geoffroy; of Lucanus Cervus. by Scopoli ; and of Prionus
Micornis by Drury. The firstand last, being neither natives of Italy
or nhabiting the oak, are out of the question. The laryæ of Lucanus `

f

"us and Prionus coriarius, whichare found in the oak as well asin other
r ‘ Frets
ĉes, May each have been eaten under this name, as their difference
Ould y oL ELBET : cer
uld riot be discernible either to collectors or cooks. Amoreux, 154.

€ Merian Ins. Sur. 24,

i

304 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

!

the whites as wellas Negroes eat greedily*. The larva
of C. cervicornis is, according to Linné, held in equal
estimation, and that of Lamia Tribulus when roasted
-forms an article of food in Africa’. It is probable that
all the species of this genus might be safely eaten, as
well as many other grubs of Coleopiera; and althoug»

Ido not feel disposed to recommend with Reaumut
that the larve of Oryctes nasicornis should be sought
for <“ dans les couches de fumier,” yet 1 think with Dr-
Darwin‘, that those of the cockchafer which feed upo”
the roots of grass, or the perfect insects themselves,
which, if we may judge from the eagerness with which

” eats, and turkeys:and other birds devour them, are 2°
despicable bonne bouche, might be added to our enire-
mets. This would be one means of keeping down the
numbers of these occasionally destructive animals:

In the next order of insects, the Orthoptera, the gry!
lus, or locust tribe, as they are the greatest destroyet®
of food, so as some recompense they furnish a consi
derable supply of it to numerous nations. ‘They are
recorded to have done this from the most remote anti
quity, some Ethiopian tribes having been named fro™
this circumstance Acridophagi (locust-eaters) °. Pliny
also relates that they were in high esteem as meat
amongst the Parthians“. Hasselquist, in reply to som?
inquiries which he made on this subject with respect t? »
the Arabs, was informed that at Mecca, when there wae
a scarcity of corn, as a substitute for flour they woul
grind locusts in their hand-mills, or pound them a

a St. Pierre, Voy. 12. b Smeathman, 32. c Reaum. ii. 344:

a Phytol. 364. e Diod, Sic. l. iii. c. 29. Strabonis Geog. 1. xvi. &
€ Hist. Nat. 1. xi. c. 29.

DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 305

Stone mortars; that they mixed this flour with water
into.a dough, and made their cakes of it, which they
baked like their other bread. He adds, that it is not
Unusual for them to eat locusts when there is no fa-
mine; but then they boil them first a good while in wa-
ter, and afterwards stew them with butter into a kind
ef fricassee of no bad flavour*, Leo Africanus, as
{toted by Bochart, gives a similar account’, Sparr-
man informs us that the Hottentots are highly rejoiced
at the arrival of the locusts in their country, although
they destroy allits verdure, eating them in such quan-
tities as to get visibly fatter than before, and m aking of
their eggs a brown or coffee-coloured soup.’ He also
relates a curious notion which they have with respect
to the origin of the locusts—that they proceed from the
Sood will ofa great master-conjuror a long way to the
orth, who, having removed the stone from the mouth
fa certain deep pit, lets loose these animals to be food
for them’. This is not unlike the account given by
the author of the Apocalypse, of the origin of the
‘yYmbolieal locusts, which are said to ascend upon an
Meel’s opening the pit of the abyss“. Clenard, in his
letters quoted by Bochart, says that they bring waggon-
_ ads of locusts to Fez, asa usual article of food®. Ma-
Jor Moor informs me, that when the cloud of locusts
v XOticed ina former letter visited the Mahratta country,
the common people salted and ate them. This was an-
“ently the custom with many of the African nations,
“ome of whom also smoked them’, They appear even

< ™ Travels, 232, b Hieroz. it, 1,14, & 7. c Sparrman, i. 367,
“Rev. ix, 2,8, © Heros. ii. 1.4, c. T. 492.
* Pliny, Hist. Nut. L vis c. 30.
YOu, 1, x

306 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

to have béen an article of food offered for sale in the
markets of Greece*; and on a subject so well known,
to quote no other writers, Jackson observes that, when
he was in Barbary in 1799, dishes of locusts were gene-
rally served up at the principal tables and esteemed
great delicacy. They are preferred by the Moors tO
pigeons; and a person may eat a platefull of two oF
three hundred without feeling any ill effects. They
usually boil them in water halfan hour, (having throw!
away the head, wings and legs,) then sprinkle them with
salt and pepper, and fry them, adding a little vinegar”.
From this string of authorities you will readily se?
how idle was the controversy concerning the locust
which formed part of the sustenance of John the Bap“
tist, agreeing with Hasselquist*®, that they could be
nothing but the animal locust, so common a food in thé
East; and how apt even learned men are to perplex #
plain question, from i ignorance of the customs of othe!
countries.

In the hemipterous order of insects, none are mof?
widely dispersed, or (if you will forgive me a pun) hav?
made more noise in the world than the Tettigonia trib®
From the time of Homer, who compares the garrulity
of age to the chirping of these insects‘, they have bee”
celebrated by the poets;'and Anacreon, as you wel
know, has inscribed a very beautiful little ode to the™
We learn from Aristotle, that these insects were eat?
by the polished Greeks, and accounted very dena

a Pliny, Hist. Nat. 1. vi. c. 30.

b Jackson’s Travels in Marocco,53. The Rev. R. Sheppard caused som?
of the Locusta viridissima, F. to be cooked in the way here recommende
_ only substituting butter for vinegar, and found them excellent.

c Travels, 230. a Hom, Jl. y. 150=4, .

DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS; 307

The worm (larva), he says, lives in the earth where it
takes its growth; that it then becomes a T, ettigometra —
(pupa), when he observes they are most delicious, just

efore they burst from their covering. From this state
they changeto the Tettix or Cicada, when thé males at
first have the best flavour; but after impregnation the
females are preferred.on account of their white eges*,
Atheneus also and Aristophanes mention their being
eaten ; and Alian is extremely angry with the men of

is age that an animal sacred to the Muses should bé
Strung, sold, and greedily devoured’. Pliny tells us
that the nations of the Kast, even the Parthians, whose.
Wealth was abundant, usé them as food °. Theimago
ofthe Teitigonia seplendecim is still eaten by the Ina
dians in America, who pluck off the wings and boil
them, This ancient Greek taste for Tettigoniz seems
Low gone out of fashion, at least travellers do not nos
tive it: but perhaps if it were revived in those countries _
Where the insects are to be found, for they inhabit only
Warm climates, it would be ascertained thatso polished
® people did not relish them without reason.

No insects ate more numerous in this island than the
“aterpillars of Lepidoptera: if these could be used in
àid of the stock of food in times of scarcity, it might sub-
Serve the double purpose of ridding us of a nuisance,
and relieving the public pressure. Reaumur suggests

is mode of diminishing the numbers of destructive
“aterpillars, speaking of that of Noctua Gamma, which
“id such infinite mischief in France in the year 1735°.

* Arist, Hist. Andi: c. 30: b Vide Bochart; Hieroz. ii. 1.4, TAQ,

$ Hist. Nat. xi.c.26, a P, Collinson in Phil, Trans. 1763, n, *
s Reaum, it, 341, |

t

308 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS

If however we were to take to eating caterpillars, I
should, for my own part, be of the mind of the red-
breasts, and eat only the naked ones*. But you will
see that there is some encouragement from precedent
to make a meal of the caterpillars which infest our cab-
bages and cauliflowers. Amongst the delicacies ofa
Boshies-man’s table, Sparrman reckons those caterpil-
lars from which butterflies proceed”. The Chinese,
who waste nothing, after they have unwound the silk
from the cocoons of the silk-worm, send the chrysalis t
table : they also eat the larve ofa hawk-m oth (Sphinx °)
some of which tribe, Dr. Darwin tells us, are, in his
opinion, very delicious *: and lastly, the natives of New
Holland eat the caterpillars of a species of moth of @
singular new genus, to which my friend Alexande!
MacLeay, Esq., has assigned characters, and, from the
circumstance of its larva coming out only in the night
to feed, has called it Nycterobius.

The next order, the Neuréptera, will make us some
amends for the meagerness of the last, as it contains the
white ant tribe ( Termes), which, in return for the mis”
chief it docs at certain times, affords an abundant sup”
ply of food to some of the African nations. The Hot
tentots eat them boiled and raw, and soon get into 0°
condition upon this food*. König, quoted by Smeath-
man, says that in some parts of the East Indies the 0? —
tives make two holes in the nests of the white ants, one
to the windward and the other to the leeward, placing
at the latter opening a pot rubbed with an aromati

“herb, to receive the insects driven out of their nest PY

a Ray’s Letters, 135. b Sparrman, i. 201. 63
c Sir G.Staunton’s Voy. iii. 246. 4 Phytol. 364. e Sparrman, EA

DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 309

a fire of stinking materials made at the former. ‘Thus
they catch great quantities; of which they make with
flour a variety of pastry, that they can afford to sell 7
cheap to the poorer people. Mr. Smeathman says he
has not found the Africans so ingenious in procuring
or dressing them. They are content with a very small
part of those that fall into the waters at the time of —
Swarming, which they skim off with calabashes, bring
large kettles full of them to their habitations, and parch
them in iron pots over a gentle fire, stirring them about

as is done in roasting coffee. In that state without sauce
or other addition they serve them up as delicious food,
and eat them by handfulls as we do comfits. He has
eaten them dressed in this way several times, and
thought them delicate, nourishing and wholesome;
_ being sweeter than the grub of the weevil of the palms,
(Calandra Palmarum,) and resembling in taste sugared
Cream or sweet almond paste’. The female ant, in
Particular, is supposed by the Hindoos to be endowed
with highly nutritive properties, and, we are told by
Mr. Broughton, was carefully sought after and pre-
Served for the use of the debilitated Surjee Rao, prime
Minister of Scindia chief of the Mahrattas®, ©
The Hymenoptera order also furnishes a few articles
to add to this head. I do not allude to the nectar which
the bees collect for us. But perhaps you do not suspect
that bees themselves in some places serve for food, yet. -

à Captain Green relates that,in the ceded districts in India, they place
the branches of trees over the nests, and then by means of smoke drive
Out the insects; which attempting to fly, their wings are broken off by the
mere touch of the branches, at

b Smeathman, 31. ¢ Letters written in a Mahratta Camp in 1809,

310 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED’! FROM INSECTS:

Knox tells us that they are eaten in Ceylon? ;—an un-
grateful return for their honey and wax which I would
on no account recommend. Piso speaks of yellow ants
called Cupid inhabiting Brazil, the abdomen of which-
many used for food, as wellas a larger species under the
name of Tama-joura”; which account is confirmed by
Humboldt, who informs us that ants are eaten by the
Marivatanos and Margueritares, mixed with resin for
sauce. Ants, I speak from experience, have no unplea-
sant flavour ; theyare very agreeably acid, and the taste
of the trunk and abdomen is different; so that I am not
so much surprised as Mr. Consett seems to have been at
the avidity with which the young Swede mentioned by
him sat down to the siege of an ants’ nest °, This author
states, that in some parts of Sweden ants are distilled
along with rye, to give a flavour to the inferior kinds
of brandy *,—Under this head may not improperly be
“mentioned several galls the product of different species
of Cynips, particularly those found on some kinds of
Sage, viz, Salvia pomifera, S. triloba, and. S. officinalis,
which are very juicy like apples, and crowned with rudi-
ments of leaves resembling the calyx of that fruit. They
are esteemed i in the Levant for their aromatic and acid
flavour, especially when prepared with sugar, and for}
a considerable article of commerce from Scio to Con
stantinople, where they are regularly exposed in the
market*, The galls of ground-ivy have also been eate”
in France; but Reaumur, who tasted them, is doubtful

whether they will ever rank with good fruits‘,
a Knox’s Ceylon, 25. b Piso, Ind. 1. v.c. 13. 291.
c Travels in Sweden, 118. d Ibid.
e Smith’s Introd. to Bot. 346, Olivier’s Z ravels, i; 139,
f Reaum, iii, 416,

DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 311

To the Diptera order, as a source of food, man can
Scarely be said to be under any obligation; the larva
of Musca putris, which is so commonly found in cheese,
being the only one ever eaten—a dainty as some think
it, of whom you will perhaps say with Scopoli, “gui-
bus has delicias non invideo*.” INON

The order Aptera, now that the Crustacea are ex-
cluded, does not much more abound in esculent insects
than the Diptera. The only species which have tempted
the appetite of man in this order are the cheese-mite
(Acarus Siro)—lice, which are eaten by the Hottentots
and natives of the western coast of Africa, who from
their love of this game, which they not only collect
themselves from their well stored capital pasture, but
employ their wives in the chase, have been sometimes
Called Phthirophagi’—and another tribe which you
Will think even more repulsive than the last, I mean
Spiders. These form an article in Sparrman’s list of
the Boshies-man’s dainties°; and Labillardiere tells
ùs that the inhabitants of New Caledonia seek for and
*at with avidity large quantities of a spider nearly an-
inch long (which he calls Aranea edulis), and which

ey roast over the fire’. Even individuals amongst
the more polished nations of Europe are recorded‘as

aving a similar taste ; so that, if you could rise above
Vulgar prejudices, you would in all probability find

em a most delicious morsel. “If you require prece-

ents, Reaumur tells us of a young lady who when slie
Walked in her grounds never saw a spider that she did

“Scop. Carniol. 337. > b Lat. Hist, Nat. viii, 93."

° Sparrman, i. 201. d Voyage ala recherche dela Perouse, ii, 240.

` j

$12 _ DIRECT BENEFITS._DERIVED FROM INSECTS:

not take and crack upon the spot*. Another female,
the celebrated Anna Maria Schurman, used to eat the
like nuts, which she affirmed they much resembled 13
taste, excusing her propensity by saying that she was
born under the sign Scorpio’. If you wish for the at-
‘thority of the learned, Lalande the celebrated French
astronomer was, as Latreille witnessed*, equally fond
of these delicacies. And, lastly, if not content with
taking them seriatim you should feel desirous of eating

them by handfulls, you may shelter yourself under the
authority of the German immortalized by Résel*, who
_ used to spread them upon his bread like butter, observ”
ing that he found them very useful, “am sich auszul
axiren.” —These edible Aptera are all sufficiently di*
gusting: but we feel our nausea quite turned into ho!
ror when we read in Humboldt, that he has seen thé
Indian children drag out of the earth centipedes eigh”

teen inches long and more than half an inch broad, and
devour them®. |

-After all I have said, you may perhaps still feel ?
prejudice against insects as food; but I think, whe”
you recollect that Oberon and his queen Titania, that
renowned personage Robin Goodfellow, “with all the
fairy elves that be,” number insects amongst the!"
choicest cates, you will no longer be heretical in the
article, but yield with a good grace; and as a reward
will copy out for you a beautiful poetical descripti?”
of Oberon’s feast, which was lately pointed out to me

27 «

a Reaum:ii. 342, b Shaw, Nat. Misc. c Hist, Nat. vib 37
d Rosel, iv, 257, € Personal Travels, ii, 205. 7

DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 313

| by a learned bibliographical friend, John Crosse, Esq.
of Hull, in Herrick’s Hesperides, 1658.

Shapcot, to thee the fairy state

I with discretion dedicate ;

Because thou prizest things that are
Curious and unfamiliar,

Take first the feast: these dishes gone,
We'll see the fairy court anon,

A little mushroom table spread; —
After short prayers, they-set on bread,
A moon-parch’d grain of purest wheat,
With some small glitt’ring grit to eat
His choicest bits with : then in a trice
They make a feast less great than nice.
But, all this while his eye is serv’d,

We must not think his ear was starv’d 5
But that there was in place to stir

His spleen, the chirring grasshopper,
The merry cricket, puling fly,

The piping gnat for minstrelsy :

And now we must imagine first

The elves present, to quench his thirst, `
A pure seed pearl of infant dew,
Brought and besweeten’d in a blue
And pregnant violet; which done,

His kitling eyes begin to run
Quite through the table, where he spies
The horns of papery butterflies,

Of which he eats, and tastes a little

Of what we call the cuckoo’s spittle:

A little furze-ball pudding stands
By, yet not blessed by his hands,

314 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

That was too coarse: but then forthwith
He ventures boldly on the pith
Of sugar’d rush, and eats the sag
And well-bestrutted bee’s sweet bag ;
Gladding his palate with some store
Of emmets’ eggs: what would he more ?

_ But beards of mice, a newt’s stew’d thigh,
A bloated earwig and a fly ;
With the red-capp’d worm that’s shut
Within the concave of a nut,
Brown as his tooth : a little moth
Late fatten’d in a piece of cloth;
With wither’d cherries; mandrakes’ ears 3
Moles’ eyes ; to these the slain stag’s tears;
The unctuous dewlaps of a snail ;
The broke heart of a nightingale
O’ercome in music ;

This done, commended
Grace by his priest, the feast is ended.—

Having considered insects as adding to the genera!
stock of food, I shall next request your attention while
Į detail to you how far the medical science is indebted
to them. Had I addressed you a century ago, I could
have made this an ample history. Amongst scores 9
infallible panaceas, I should have recommended the
woodlouse as a solvent and aperient ; powder of silk-
worm for vertigo and convulsions; millepedes against
the jaundice; earwigs to strengthen the nerves ; pow”
dered scorpion for the stone and gravel; fly-wate?
for disorders in the eyes ; and the tick for erysipelas-
Į should have prescribed five gnats as an excellent

DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 315

purge; wasps as diuretics; lady-birds for the colic and
Measles ; the cockchafer for the bite of a mad dog and
the plague; and ants and their acid I should have —
loudly praised as incomparable against leprosy and

deafness, as strengthening the memory, and giving
vigour and animation to the whole bodily frame*. In
short, I could have easily added to the miserably mea-
Ser list of modern pharmacopeias, a catalogue of ap-
Proved insect-remedies for every disease and evil

€c that flesh is heir to!”

But these good times are long gone by. You would,
I fear, laugh at my prescriptions notwithstanding the
Steat authorities I could cite in their favour; and even
doubt the efficacy of a more modern specific for tooth-
ache, promulgated bya learned Italian professor", who
àssures us that a finger once imbued with the juices of
Curculio antiodontalgicus (a name enough to give one
the tooth-ache to pronounce it) will retain its power of
“uring this disease for a twelvemonth! I must content
Myself, therefore, with expatiating on the virtues of the
Very few inseets to which the sons of Hippocrates and
Galen now deign to have recourse. At the same time
{cannot help observing that their proscription of the
remainder may have been too indiscriminate. Man-
kind are apt to run from one extreme to the other.

‘tom having ascribed too much efficacy to insect-re-
Medies, we may now ascribe too little. Many insects
“mit yery powerful odours, and some produce extra-

a For this list of remedies, see Lesser, L. ii. 171-3.
b Gerbi. The same virtues Have been ascribed to Coccinella septeme
PUnctata, L

$16. DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

ordinary effects upon the human frame; and it is 2
idea not altogether to be rejected, that they may cor-
centrate into a smaller compass the properties a!
virtues of the plants upon which they feed, and thus —
afford medicines more powerful in operation than the
plants themselves. It is at least worth while to insti
tute a set of experiments with this view.

Medicine at the present day is indebted to an ant
(Formica bispinosa, Oliv. fungosa, F.) for a kind of lint
collected*by that insect from the Bombax and silk cot-
ton-tree, which as a styptic is preferable to the puff-
ball, and at Cayenne is successfully used to stop the
blood in the most violent hemorrhages*; and gum al”
-moniac, according to Mr. Jackson”, oozes out ofa plant

like fennel, from incisions made in the bark by a beetle
with a large horn. But with these exceptions, (iB
which the remedy is rather collected than produced bY
insects,) and that of spiders’ webs, which are said t°
have been recently administered with success in ag¥®
the only insects which directly supply us with medicin?
are some species of Lytta and Mylabris. These beetle?
however amply make up in efficacy for their numeri
insignificance ; and almost any article could be bette?
spared from the Materia Medica than one of the for-
mer usually known under thè name of Cantharides
which is not only of incalculable importance as a Y°
sicatory, but is now administered internally in many
cases with very good effect. In Europe, the only inse?

a Latr, Hist. Nat. des Fourmis, 48. 134.

b Jackson’s Marocco, 83. Some doubt however attaches to this stat
ment, from the circumstance of the figure which Mr. Jackson gi¥® :

his beetle (Dibben Fas/.cck) being clearly a mere copy of that of Me
Bruce’s Zimb! ia ,

DIRECT BENEFTIS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 317

Used with this view is the Lytta vesicatoria; but in
America the L. cinerea and vittata (whichare extremely
Common and noxious insects, while the Æ. vesicatoria
is sold there at sixteen dollars the pound,) have been
‘Substituted with great success, and are said to Vesicate _
_ More speedily and with less pain, at the same time
that they cause no strangury*: and in China they have
long employed the Mylabris Cichorei, which seems to
have been considered the most powerful vesicatory
amongst the ancients, who however appear to have
been acquainted with the common Litta vesicatoria
also, and to have made use of it, as well as of Cetonia ©
aurata and some other insects mentioned by Pliny”.
Another species of Mylabris has been described by
_ Colonel Hardwicke in the Asiatic Transactions *, plen-
tiful in all parts of Bengal, Bahar, and Oude, which
Ig fully as efficacious as the common Spanish fly.

= But it is as supplying products valuable in the arts
4nd manufactures, that we are chiefly indebted to in-
Sects, In adverting to them in this view, Fshall not
dwell upon the articles derived from a few species in
Particular districts, and confined to these alone, such as
the soap which in some parts of Africa is manufactured
from a species of Carabus ( C. saponarius, Oliv.®); the
bil which Molina tells us is obtained in Chili from large
-Slobular cellules found upon the wild rosemary, and
Supposed to be produced by akind of Cynips®; and the
- Manure for which Scopoli informs us the hosts of Ephe-
-a Wiger Mag. i. 256. D Hist, Nat. l xix. c. 4. c Vol. v, 213.

4 Oliv, Entom. iii. 69. £. iii, f. 26. Compare Philanthropist, i ii. 210,
© Molina’s Chili, i. 174.

338 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

mere , that annually emerge in the month of June fror
the Laz, a river in Carniola, are employed by the hus
bandmen, who think they have had a bad harvest un“
less every one has collected at least twenty loads*.
Still less is it my intention to detain youin consider-

‘ing the purpose to which in the West Indies and South
America the fire-flies are put by the natives, who em-
_ ploy them as lanterns in their journeys, and lamps i”
their houses? ;—or the use as ornaments to which some
insects are ingeniously:-applied by the ladies, who i?
China embroider their dresses with the elytra and crust
of a brilliant species of beetle (Buprestis vittata); i
Chili and the Brazils form splendid necklaces of the
golden Chrysomele and Curculiones*; in some parts
of the continent string together for the same purpos?
the burnished violet-coloured thighs of Scarabeeus ster“
corarius, &c.*; and in India, as Lam informed by Major
Moor and Captain Green, even have recourse to fire?
flies, which they inclose in gauze and use as ornament®
for their hair when they take their evening walks. f
shall confine my details to the more important and ge
neral products which they supply to the arts, begin”
ning with one indispensable to our present correspond”
ence, and adverting in succession to the insects afford’
ing dyes, lac, wax, honey, and silk.

No present that insects have made to the arts is equal
in utility and universal interest, comes more home t°

a Ent. Carmol. 264. |

b Captain Green was accustomed to put a fire-fly under the glas of
his watch, when he had occasion to rise very early for a march, which
enabled him, without difficulty, to distinguish the hour.

ë Molina, i: 171. 285. a Late, Hist Nat. x; 143.

DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 319

our best affections, or is the instrument of producing
More valuable fruits of human wisdom and genius, than
the product of the animal to which I have just alluded.

ou will readily conjecture I mean the fly that gives

“birth to the gall-nut, from which ink is made.—How
infinitely are we indebted to this little creature, which

At once enables us to converse with our absent friends
and connexions be their distance from us ever so great,
and supplies the means by which, to use the poet’s lan-
Stage, we can

€ give to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name!”

-*nabling the poet, the philosopher, the politician, the
Moralist, and the divine, to embody their thoughts for
the amusement, instruction, direction and reformation
f mankind.—The insect which produces the gall-nut
is of the genus Cynips of Linné, but was not known to
him or to Fabricius. Olivier first described it under
the name of Diplolepis galle tinctorie*. The galls ori-

Sinate on the leaves of a species of oak (Quercus infec-

Loria, Oliv.) very common throughout Asia Minor, in

many parts of which they are collected by the poorer

habitants and exported from Smyrna, Aleppo, and
ther ports in the Levant, as well as from the East In-
dies, whither a part of those collected are now carried.

he galls most esteemed are those known in commerce

Under the name of blue galls, being the produce of the

first gathering before the fly has issued from the gall.
t will not be ‘uninteresting to you to know, that from

ese: when bruised may occasionally be obtained per-

* Encyclop. Insect. vi. 281. It had better, perhaps, as compound Tri»
vial

Names are bad, be called Cynips Scriptorum,

320 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

fect ‘specimens of the insect, one of which I lately -
procured in this way. The galls which have escaped
the first searches, and from most of which the fly has
emerged, are called white galls, and are of a very infe-
rior quality, containing less of the astringent principle
than the blue galls in the proportion of two to three*
The white and blue galls are usually imported mixed
in about equal proportions, and are then called galls in
sorts. If no substitute equal to galls as a constituent
part of ink has been discovered, the same may be said
of these productions as one of the most important of
our dyeing materials constantly employed in dyeing
- black. It is true that this colour may be communicate
without galls, but not at once so cheaply and effectu“
ally, as is found by their continued large consumptio”
notwithstanding all the improvements in the art of dye-
ing. Other dyeing drugs are afforded by insects, the
principal of which are Kermes, the Scarlet Grain of Po
land, Cochineal, Lac-lake, and Lac-dye, all of which
are furnished by different speeies of Coccus.

The first of these, the Coccus Ilicis, L., found abu
dantly upon a small species of evergreen oak (Quercu
coccifera, L.) common in the south of France, and many
other parts of the world, has been employed to im] art
a blood red or crimson dye to cloth from the catiest
ages, and was known to the Pheenicians before the time
of Moses under the name of Tola or Thola (ybin,) 1
the Greeks under that of Coccus (Koxxos), and to the
Arabiansand Persians under that of Kermes or Ake
mes 5 whence, as Beckmann has shown, and from the

epithet vermiculatum given to it in the middle age”

a Olivier’s Travels in Egypt, &c, ii. 64.

/

DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 321

When it was ascertained to be the produce of a worm,
have sprung the. Latin coccineus, the French cramoisi
and vermeil, and our crimson and vermilion. It was
most probably with this substance that the curtains of
the tabernacle (Exodus xxvi. &c.) were dyed deep red
(which the word scarlet, as our translators have ren-
dered ony nyan, then implied, not the colour now so
called, which was not known in James the First’s reign
When the Bible was translated)—it was with this that
the Grecians and.Romans produced their crimson; and
from the same source were derived the imperishable
eds of the Brussels and other Flemish tapestries. In
Short, previous to the discovery of cochineal, this was

the material universally used for dyeing the most bril-

liant red then known ; and though that production of
the New World has, in some respects undeservedly*,
Supplanted it in Europe, where it is little attended to
xcept by the peasantry of the provinces in which it
'S found, it still continues to be employed in a great
Part. of India and Persia”,
` The searlet grain of Poland (Coccus polonicus, L.)
48 found on the roots of the perennial knawel (Scleran-
thus perennis;-L. a scarce plant in this country, but

a The colour communicated by Kermes with alum, the only mordant
formerly employed, is blood red: but Dr. Bancroft found (i. 464.) that
With the solution ôf tin used with cochineal it is capable of imparting a
Scarlet quite as brilliant as that dye, and perhaps more permanent. -At

“same time, however, as ten or twelve pounds contain only as much
“olouring matter as one of cochineal, the latter at its ordinary price is
the Cheapest.

: Bochart, Hierozotc. ii. 1, iv.c. 2T: Beckmanh’s History of Inventions,
“ngl, Trans. ii. 171-205.% Bancroft on permanent Colours, i. 393. See
Also p arkhurst’s Heb, Lexicon under yòn and mw.
VOL, I. y

$99 prRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS:

abundant in the neighbourhood of Elvedon in Suffolk);
and Was at Ofte time collécted in large quantities for
dyeing red in the Ukraine, Lithuaiiia, &c. But thoug!
still eniployed by the Turks and Armenians for dyeing
wool, silk arid hair, as well as for staining the nails ©
woinen’s fingers, it is now rarely used m Europe ež-
cept by the Polish peasantry. A similar neglect has
attended the Coccus found on the roots of Poteriui
Sanguisorba, L.*, which was used by the Moors fot
dyeing silk and wool ä rose colour; and the Cocc#
Usa-ursi, which with alum affords a crimson dye”.

Cochineal, the Coccus Cacti, L., is doubtless the most
valuable product for which the dyer is indebted to is
sects, and with the exception perhaps of indigo the most
important of dyeing materials. Though the Spaniards
found it employed by the natives of Mexico, whet?
alone it is cultivated, on their arrival in that county
in 1518, its true nature was fot accurately ascertain?
for nearly two centuries afterwards. Acosta indeed 4°
early as 1530, and Herrara and Hernandez subsequent
ly, had stated it to be an insect. But led apparently
by its external appearance, notwithstanding the cos
jectures of Lister and assertions of Pere Plumier t°
the contrary, it was believed by Europeans in gener?
to be the seed of a plant, until Hartsoeker in 1694
Leeuwenhoek and De la Hire in 1704, and Geofirey?
ten years later, by dissections and microscopical ob”
servations incontrovertibly proved its real origin’

‘This insect, which comes to us in the form of a re%
dish shrivelled:grain covered with a white powder oF

a Rai. Hist. Plant. i. 401. ` b Bancroft, i. 401.
e Bancroft, i. 413. Ream. iv. 88.

DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 323

bloom, feeds on a particular kind of Indian fig, called
in Mexico, where alone cochineal is produced in any
quantity, Nopal, which has always been supposed to
be the Cactus cochinili ifer, L., but according to Hum-
boldt is unquestionably a deni species, which bears
fruit internally white.

Cochineal is chiefly cultivated in the nihai of
Oaxaca; and some plantations contain 50 or 60,000
Nopals in lines, each being kept about four feet high
for more easy access in collecting the dye. The eulti-
Vators prefer the most prickly varieties of the plant,
as affording protection to the cochineal from insects; to
prevent which from depositing their eggs in the liwir
or fruit, both are carefully cut off. The greatest quan-
tity, however, of cochineal employed in commerce, is
Produced in small nopaleries belonging to Indians of
extreme poverty, called Nopaleros. They plant their
Nopaleries in cleared ground on the slopes of mountains
Or ravines two or three leagues distant from their vil-
lages; and when properly cleaned, the plants are in
a condition te maintain the cochineal in the third year,
As a stock, the proprietor in April or May purchases
branches or joints of the Tuna de Castilla, laden with
Small cochineal insects recently hatched (Semilla).
These branches, which may be bought in the market of
Oaxaca for about three francs (2s. 6d.) the hundred,
are kept for twenty days in the interior of their huts,
and then exposed to the open air under a shed, where
from their succulency they continue to live for several
months. In August and September the mother cochi-
neal insects, now big with young, are placed in nests

¥ 2

SJA DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

made ofa species of Tillandsia called Paxtle, which arf
distributed upon the nopals. In about four months the
first gathering, yielding twelve for one, may be made;
which in the course of the year is succeeded by tw®
more profitable harvests. This period of sowing and
harvest refers chiefly to the districts of Sola and Zi-
matlan. In colder climates the semilla is not placed
upon the nopals until October or even December, when |
it is necessary to shelter the young insects by covering
the nopals with rush mats, and the harvests are pro-
portionably later and unproductive. In the immediate
vicinity of the town of Oaxaca the Nopaleros feed theif
cochineal insects in the plains from October to April,
and at the beginning of the remaining months, during
which it rains in the plains, transport them to their
plantations of nopals in the neighbouring mountains,
where the weather is more favourable.

Much care is necessary in the tedious operation of
gathering the cochineal from the nopals, which is pet”
formed with a squirrel or stag’s tail by the Indian w0”
men, who for this purpose squat down for hours toge”
ther beside one plant; and notwithstanding the high
_ price of the cochineal, it is to be doubted if the culti”
vation would be profitable were the value of labou"
more considerable.

The cochineal insects are killed either by throwing
them into boiling water ; by exposing them in heaps t®
the sun; or by placing them in the ovens (Temazealli)
used for vapour-baths. The last of these methods,
which is least in use, preserves the whitish powder 0”
the body of the cochineal, which being thus less subject

`

DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 925:

tothe adulterations so often practised by the Indians,
ears a higher price both in America and Kurope?.
The quantity at present annually exported from
South America is said by Humboldt to be 32,000 arro-
bas, there worth 500,0402. sterling —a vast amount to
arise from so small an insect, and well calculated to
Show us the absurdity of despising any animals on ac-

count of their minuteness. So important is the acqui-
sition of this insect (of which the Spanish government
is extremely jealous) regarded, that the Court of Di-
rectors of the East India Company have offered a re- |
ward of 6000/. to any one who shall introduce it into
India, where hitherto the Company have only succeeded
in procuring from Brazil the wild kind producing the
sylvestre cochineal, which is of very inferior value,
Lac is the produce ofan insect formerly supposed to
be a kind of ant or bee’, but now ascertained to be a
species. of Coccus, whose history will be adverted to ;
when I come to speak of the secretions of insects ; and
itis collected from various trees in India, where it is
found so abundantly, that, were the consumption ten
times greater than it is, it could be readily supplied.
This substance is made use of in that country in the
manufacture of beads, rings, and other female orna-
ments. Mixed with sand it forms grind-stones; and
added to lamp- or ivory-black, being first dissolyed in
water with the addition of a little borax, it composes
an ink not easily acted upon when dry by damp or
a Humboldt’s Political Essay on New Spain, iti, 12-9.
b Ibid. iii. 64.~—Dr. Bancroft estimates the present annual consump-

gion of cochineal in Great Britain at about 750 bags, or.150,0001bs.—
Worth at the present price 315,000: c Lesser, L. ii. 165,

ri
396 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

water. In this country, where it is distinguished by the
names stick-lac when in its native state unseparated
from the twigs to which it adheres; seed-lac when se-
parated, pounded, and the greater part of the colour-
ing matter extracted hy water; lump-lac when melted
and made into cakes ; and shell-lac when strained and
formed into transparent lamine ;—it has hitherto beet
chiefly employed in the composition of varnishes, ja-
panned ware and sealing-wax ; but within these few
years it has been applied to a still more important pur-
pose, originally suggested by Dr. Roxburgh—that of@
substitute for cochineal in dyeing scarlet. The first
preparations from it with this view were made in con-
sequence of a hint from Dr. Bancroft, and large quan-
tities of a substance termed lac-lake, consisting of the
colouring matter of stick-lac precipitated from an al-
kaline lixivium by alum, were manufactured at Cal-
cutta and sent to this country, where at first the con-
sumption was so considerable, that in the three years
previous to 1810 Dr. Bancroft states that the sales of
it at the India House equalied in point of colouring
matter half a million of pounds weight of cochineal.
More recently, however, a new preparation of lac ©
lour, under the name of Jac-dye, has been imported
from India, which has been substituted for the lac-lake»
and with such advantage, that the East India Company
are said to have saved in a few months 14,0007. in the
purchase of scarlet cloths dyed with this coleur 4 and co”

chineal conjointly, and without any inferiority in the
colour obtained *.

7 _ Some other insects besides the Cocci afiprd dye®

a Bancroft on permanent Ceicurs, ti. 20. 49,

DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 327

Reaumur tells us, that in the Levant, Persia, and China,
they use the galls of a particular species of Aphis for
dyeing silk crimson, which he thinks might lead us to
try experiments with those of our own country *, That
dyes might be thus obtained seems probable from. an
observation of Linné’s, in his Lapland Tour, upon the
galls produced by Aphis Pini on the extremities of the
leaves of the spruce-fir, which, he informs us, when
arrived at maturity burst asunder, and discharge an
orange-coloured powder which stains the clothes” ; and
Mr. Sheppard confirms this observation, the galls of
this Aphis abounding upon fir-trees in his garden. In
fact, weare told that Terminalia citrina, a tree common
‘in India, yields a species of galls, the product of an in-
sect, which are sold in every market, being one of the
most useful dyeing drugs known to the natives, who dye
their best and most durable yellow with them’. A species
Of mite (Trombidium tinctorium—Acarus, 1..), a native
of Guinea and Surinam, is alsoemployed as a dye; and
it would be worth while to try whether our T. holose-
riceum, so remarkable for the dazzling brilliancy ofits
Crimson and the beautiful velvet texture of its down,
Which seems nearly related to T. tinctorium, would not
also afford a valuable tincture. It is not likely, per-
haps, that many better and cheaper dyes than we now
Possess can be obtained from insects; but Reaumur has
Suggested that water-colours of beautiful tints, not
otherwise easily obtainable, might be procured from
the excrements of the larve of the common clothes-
moth, which retain the colour of the wool they have

a Reaum. iii. Preface, xxxi. b Lach. Lapp. i. 258.
€ Trans, of the Soc. of Arts, xxiii. 411.

|

328 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

eaten unimpaired in its lustre, and mix very well with
water. To get a fine red, yellow, blue, green, or aBY
othercolour or shade of colour, weshould merely have
to feed our larve with cloth of that tint®.
- Wax, so valuable for many minor purposes, and
deemed with us so indispensable to the comfort of the
great, is of still more importance in those parts of Eu-
rope and America in which it forms a considerable
branch of trade and manufacture, as an article of eX
tensive use in the religious ceremonies of the inhabi-
tants. Humboldt informs us, that not fewer than 95,000
arrobas, value upwards of 83,0007., are annually e%*
ported from Cuba to New Spain, where the quantity
_consumed in the festivals of the Church is immense
even in the smallest villages ; and that the total export
of the same island in 1803 was not less than 42,670 af”
robas, worth upwards of 130,0007.° Nearly the whole
of the wax employed in pia and by far the greate"
part of that consumed in America, is the produce of
the common hive-bee; but in the latter quarter of the
globe a quantity by no means trifling is obtained fro
various wild species. According to Don F. de Azar
the inhabitants of Santiago del Estero gather evely
year not less than 14,000 pounds of a whitish wax fro™
the trees of Chaco°.

In China wax is also produced by sprin insect,
which from the description of it by the Abbé Grosie®
seems to be a species of Coccus. With this insect the
Chinese stock the two kinds. of tree (Kan-la-chu and
Choni-la-chu) on which alone it is found, and which

a Reaum. iii, 95. b Political Essay, iii. 62.
€ Voyage dans V Amer. Merid, i, 162.

\

DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 329

always afterwards retain it. Towards the beginning of
Winter small tumours are perceived, which increase
until as big as a walnut. These are the nests (abdo-
Mens of the females) filled with the eggs that are to `
Sive birth to the Cocci, which when hatched disperse
themselyes over the leaves, and perforate the bark un:
der which they retire. The wax (called Pe-la, white
Wax, because so by nature,) begins to appear about the
middle of J une, At firsta few filaments like fine soft wool
are perceived, rising from the bark round the bedy of
the insect, and these increase more and more until the
gathering, which takes place before the first hoar frosts
in September. The wax is carried to court, and ře-
Served for the emperor, the princes, and chief manda-
rins. If an ounce of it be added to a pound of oil, it
forms a wax little inferior to that made by bees. The
physicians employ it in several diseases; and the Chi-
Nese, when about to speak in public and assurance is
Necessary, previously eat an ounce of it to prevent
‘Woonings*; a use of it for which happily our less diffi-
dent orators have no call. This account is in the main
Confirmed by Geomelli Careri, except that he calls the
_ Wax-insect a worm which bores to the pith of certain
trees; and says that it produces a sufficient supply for
the whole em pire, the different provinces of which are

furnished from Xantung, where it is bred in the great-
‘Sst perfection, with a stock ofeggs’, A very different
origin, however, is assigned to the Pe-la by Sir George.
Staunton, who informs us that it is produced by a spe-
ties of Cicada (C. limbata), which in its larva ‘state
feeds upon a plant like the privet, strewing upon the

* Grosier’s China, i. 439. b Quoted in Southey’s Thalaba, iie 166.

3380 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

stem a powder, which when collected forms the wax *,
But as he merely states that this powder was “ sup-
posed” to form it, and does not himself appear to have
made the experiment of dissolving it in oil; and as n°
Cicada yet known produces any similar secretion ; it
is most probable that his information was incorrect,
and that Grosier’s statement is the true one. |

This probability is nearly converted into certainty by
the fact that many Aphides and Cocci secrete a wax“
like substance, and that a kind of wax very analogous’ |
to the Pe-la,and ofthe same class with hees-wax, only
containing more carbon, is actually produced in India
by a nondescript species of Coccus remarkable for pro-
viding itself with a small quantity of honey like out =
bees. This substance, for specimens ef which I am in-
debted to the kindness of Sir Joseph Banks, was first
noticed by Dr. Anderson, and called by him white-lae
Tt could be obtained in any quantity from the neigh”
bourhood of Madras, and at a much cheaper rate than
bees-wax; but the experiments of Dr. Pearson do no
afford much ground for supposing that it can be adva?”
tageously employed in making candles’. De Azar?
speaks of a firm white wax apparently similar, and the
produce ofan insect of the same tribe, which is collect
edin South America in the form of pearl- -like globules
from the small branches of the Quabirdmy’, a smal
shrub two or three feet high“.

Insectsin some countries not only furnish the ni ative?
with wax but with resin, which is used instead of ta”
for their ships. Molina informs us that, at Coquimh?

a Embassy to China, i. 400. b Phil. Trans. 1194, xxi.
c Voyage dans 0 Amer Merid. i. 164.

DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 331

in Chili, resin, either the product of an insect or the
Consequence of an insect’s biting off the buds of a par-
ücular species of Origanum, is collected in large quan-
tities. The insect in question is a small smooth red
caterpillar about half an inch long, which changes into
a yellowish moth with black stripes upon the wings
(Phal. ceraria, Molina), Early in the spring vast
numbers of these caterpillars collect on the branches
ofthe Chila, where they form their cells of a kind of soft
White wax or resin, in which they undergo their trans-
formations. This wax, which is at first very white,
but by degrees becomes yellow and finally brown, is-
Collected in autumn by the inhabitants, who boil it in
Water, and make it up into little cakes for market*.
| Honey, another well-known product of insects, has
lost much ofitsimportance since the discovery of sugar;
yet at the present day, whether considered as a delicious
article of food, or the base ofa wholesome vinous beve-
tage of home manufacture, it is of no mean value even
in this country; and in many inland parts of Europe,
Where its saccharine substitute is much dearer than with
Us, few articles of rural economy, not of primary impor-
tance, would be dispensed with more reluctantly. In
the Ukraine some of the peasants have 4 or 500 bee-
hives, and make more profit of their hees than of corn”;
“nd in Spain the number of bee-hives is said to beincre-
dible ; a single parish priest was known to possess 5000°.
The domesticated or hive-bee, to which we are in-

lehted for this article, isthe same according to Latreille

a Molina’s Chili, i. 174.

b Communications to the Board of Agricult, vii, 286.

©. Mills on Bees, 77.

$32 pIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

in every part of Europe, except in some districts of
Italy, where a different species (Apis ligustica of Spi-
nola) is kept—the same probably that is cultivated it
the Morea and the isles of the Archipelago*, Honey is,
obtained, however, from many other species both wild

and domestic. What is called rock honey in some parts
cof America, which is as.clear as water and very thin,
is the produce of wild bees, which suspend their clus
ters of thirty or forty waxen cells, resembling a bunch
of grapes, toarock”: andin South America large qual
tities are collected from the nests huilt in trees by Triz
gona Amalthea, and other species of this genus recently
separated from Apis®; under which probably should be
included the Bamburos, whose honey, honest Robert
_ Knox informs us, whole towns in Ceylon go into the
woods to gather‘, According to Azara, one of the
chief articles of food of the Indians who live in the
woods of Paraguay is wild honey®. Captain Gree?
observes that, in the island of Bourbon, where he was
stationed for some time, there is a bee which produce? ;
a kind of honey much esteemed there, Tt is quite of 4
-green colour, of the consistency of oil, and to the ust?
sweetness of honey superadds a certain fragrance. ~~
is called green honey, and is exported to India, wher |
it bears a high price. One of the species that has pr”
-bably been attended to ages before our hive-bee, r
| Apis fasciata of Latreille, a kind so extensively cult

. yated in Egypt, that Niebuhr states he fell in upo? the

a Latr. in Humboldt and Bonpland, Recueil @ Observations de zoolog"
&c. (Paris, 1805) 300.

b Hill in Swammerdam, i. 181, note. c Latr. ubi sup”.

d Knox’s Ceylon, 25. e Foy. dans ? Amer. Merid. i. 162.

309.

‘DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 393.

Nile, between Cairo and Damietta, with a convoy of
4000 hives, which were transporting from a region
Where the season for flowers had passed, to one where
the spring was later*. Columella says that the Greeks
in like manner sent their bee-hives every year front
Achaia into Attica; and a similar custom is not. un=
known in Italy, and even in this country in the neigh-
bourhood of heaths. In Madagascar, according to La-
treille, the inhabitants have domesticated A pis unicolor;
4. indica is cultivated in India at Pondicherry and in
Bengal; A. Adansonii, Latr. at Senegal”; and Fabri-
cius thinks that A. acraensis (Centris, Syst. Piez.) la-
boriosa, and others in the East and West Indies, might
be domesticated with greater advantage than even
4. mellifica’. |
_ The last, and doubtless the most valuable, product of
insects to which I have to advert is Silk. To estimate
Justly the importance of this article, it is not sufficient
to view it as an appendage of luxury unriyalled for
richness, lustre, and beauty; and without which courts
Would lose half their splendour. We must consider it,
What it actually is, as the staple article of cultivation in
Many large provinces in the South of Europe, amongst
e inhabitants of which the prospect ofa deficient crop
ĉauses as great alarm as a scanty harvest of grain with
ùs; and after giving employment to tens of thousands
"its first production and transportation, as furnishing
‘Subsistence to hundreds of thousands more in its final
Manufacture; and thus becoming one of the most im-
Portant wheels that give circulation to national wealth,
a Latr, Hist. Nat. xiv. 20.

b Latr. in Humboldt and Bonpland, Recueil, &ce 302. |
© Vorlesungen, 324.

$34 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED.FROM INSECTS.

But we must not confine our view to Europe. Wher
silk was so scarce in this country, that James the First,
while king of Scotland, was forced to beg of the Earl of
Mar the loan of a pair of silk stockings to appeal ip
before the English ambassador, enforcing his request
with the cogent appeal, “ For ye would net, sure, that
your king should appear as a scrub before strangers-
Nay, long before this period, even prior to the time
that silk was valued at its weight of gold at Rome, and
the Emperor Aurelian refused his empress a robe °
silk because of its dearness—the Chinese peasantry in
some of the provinces, millions in number, were cloth
with this material; and for some thousand years to tH?
present time, it has been both there and in India, (whet?
a class whose occupation wss to attend silk-worms ap“
pears to have existed from time immemorial, being men”
tioned in the oldest Sanscrit books*,} one of the chie

objects of cultivation and manufacture. You will ad”
mit, therefore, that when nature

«set to work millions of spinning worms,
That in their green shops weave the smooth-hair’d silk
To deck her sous >,”
she was conferring upon them a benefit scarcely inferio®
to that consequent upen the gift of wool to the flee?
race, or a fibrous rind to the flax or hemp plants; 2”
“that mankind is not under much less obligation to Pam
phila, who, according to Aristotle, was the discover™
of the art of unwinding and weaving silk, than tO the
inventors of the spinning of those produets®.
a Colebrock in Asiatic Researches, v. 614. b Milton’s Comè’? 5

c Hist. Animal. 1, v.c.19. A French gentleman, M. Vaucansoh: a?
$ ma ~ eae 5 i cae”
invented 2 mill for unwinding the cocoons of the silk-worn S

`Fisi! to Paris, áth ed. 304

DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS: 335

It seems to have been in Asia that silk was frat ma-
' Mifactured; and it was from thence that the ancients
obtained it, calling it, from the name of the country
Whence it was supposed to be brought, Sericum. Of
its origin they were in a great measure ignorant, some
Supposing it to be the entrails of a spider-like insect with
eight legs, which was fed for four years upon a kind of
Paste, and then with the leaves of the green willow,
Until it burst with fat*; others, that it was the produce
ofa worm which built clay nests.and collected wax”;
Aristotle, with more truth, that it was unwound from
the pupa of a large horned caterpillar’. Nor was the
mode of producing and manufacturing this precious
material known to Europe until long after the Christian
æra, being first learnt about the year 550 by two monks,
Who procured in India the eggs of the silk-worm moth,
With which, concealing them in hollow canes, they
hastened to Constantinople, where they speedily mul-
tiplied, and were subsequently introduced into Italy,
of which country silk was long a peculiar and staple
Commodity. It was not cultivated in France until the
time of Henry the Fourth, who, considering that mul-
berries grew in his kingdom as well as in Italy, res
Solved, in opposition to the opinion of Sully, to attempt
‘troducing it, and fally succeeded.
The whole of the silk produced in Europe, and the
Steater proportion of thatmanufactured in China, is ob-

* Pausanias, quoted by Goldsmith, vi. 80.
Ð Pliny Hist. Nat. 1. xi, c. 22.
© Aristot. ubi supra. He does not expressly say the pupa, but this we

"USE supipose. The larva he means could not be the common silk-worm,

Nee he describes it as large, and having as it‘were horas.

836 DINECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS:

tained from the common silk-worm ; but in India consi
derable quantities are procured from the cocoons of the -
larve of other moths. Ofthese the most important spe-
cies known are the Ttisseh and Arindy silk-worms, of
which an interesting history is given by Dr. Roxburgh ;
in the Linnean Transactions*. These insects are both
natives of Bengal. The first (Phal. Attacus Paphia, L.)
feeds upon the leaves of the Jugube tree or Byer of the
Hindoos, and of the Terminalia alata glabra, Roxburgh ©
the Asseen of the Hindoos, and is found in such abun”
dance as from time immemorial to have afforded a con

_ stant supply of a very durable, coarse, dark-coloureé
silk, which is woven into a cloth called Tisseh-doothiess
much worn by the Brahminsand other sects; and would
- doubtless be highly useful to the inhabitants of many
. parts of America and of the South of Europe; where a
light and cvol; and at the same time cheap and durable
dress, such as this silk furnishes, is much wanted. The

durability of this silk is indeed astonishing. After con?
stant use for nine or ten years it does not show any signs
of decay. These insects are thought by the natives of.
so much consequence, that they guard them by day to
preserve them from crows and other birds, and by night
from the bats.—The Arindy silk-worm (Phal. Cynthia
Drury), which feeds solely on the leaves of the Palm@
Christi, produces remarkably soft cocoons, the silk °
which is so delicate and flossy, that it is impracticable
to wind it off: it is therefore spun like cotton; and the
thread thus manufactured is woven into a coarse kin
of white cloth of a loose texture, but of still more un
credible durability than the last, the life of one perso”

a vii. 33-48. Compare Lord Valentia’s Travels; i. 18.
/

DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 3937

being seldom sufficient to wear out a garment made of
it. It is used not only for clothing, but for packing fine
Cloths, &c. Some manufacturers in England to whom the
silk was shown, seemed to thing that it could be made
here into shawls equal to any received from India,

Other species, as may be inferred from an extract of
a letter given in Young’s Annals of Agriculture? are
known in China, and have been recently introduced
into India. “We have obtained,” says the writer, “a
Monthly silk-worm from China, which I have reared
With my own hands, and in twenty-five days have had
_ the cocoons in my basins, and by the twenty-ninth or
thirty-first day a new progeny feeding in my trays.

his makes it a mine to whoever would undertake the
Cultivation of it.”

Whether it will ever be expedient to attempt the
breeding of the larve of any Kuropean moths, as Noctua
Pacta, Sponsa, &c. proposed with this view by Fabri-
tius», seems doubtful, though certainly many of them —
afford a very strong silk, and might be readily propa-
Sated ; and I have now in my possession some thread
Nore like cotton than silk spun by the larva of a moth,
Which when Iwasa very young entomologist I observed
(if my memory does not deceive me) upon the Euony-
Mus, and from the twigs of which (not the cocoon) I
‘“Qwound it. It is even asserted that in Germany a ma-
*ufacture of silk from the cocoons of the emperor moth

Bombyx Pavonia) has been established®. There
Seems no question, however, that silk might be advan-
ously derived from many native silk-worms in
“Merica. An account is given in the Philosophical

“Xxili.235. p Vorlesungen, 325. ¢ Latr. Hist. Nat. xiv. 150.
vog, I. Z

398 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

Transactions of one found there; whose cocoon js not
only heavier and more productive of silk than that ©
the common kind, but is so much stronger that twenty
threads will carry an ounce more*. Don Luis Neé
observed on Psydium pomiferum and pyriferum ovate
nests of caterpillars eight inches long, of gray silk,
which the inhabitants of Chilpancingo, Tixtala, &e-
in America, manufacture into stockings and handket
chiefs”. Great numbers of similar nests of a dense tis-
sue, resembling Chinese paper, ofa brilliant whiteness,
and formed of distinct and separable layers, the
interior being the thinnest and extraordinarily trans”
parent, were observed by Humboldt in the province?
of Mechoacan and. the mountains of Santarosa at k
height of 10,500 feet above the level of the sea, upo”
the Arbutus Madrônoand other trees. The silk of thes?
nests, which are the work of the social caterpillars f
a Bombyx (B. Madréno, H.), was an object of com
merce even in the time of Montezuma, and the ancle?
Mexicans pasted together the interior layers, whic
may be written upon without preparation, to for™ 4
white glossy pasteboard. Handkerchiefsare still ma”
factured of it in the intendency of Oaxaca’. De Azar?
states that in Paraguay a spider, which is found $°
near the thirtieth degree of latitude, forms a spheric?
cocoon (for its eggs) an inch in diameter, of a yello”
', silk, which the inhabitants spin on account of the pe”
manency of the colour“. And according to M.. B. w
Lozieres, large quantities of a very beautiful sik 4

a Pullein in Phil. Trans. 1159. 54. b Annals of Botany, iis 104
© Political Essay on N. Spain, iii. 59.
d Voyage dans V Amer. Merid. i, 212.

DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 339

dazzling whiteness, may be collected from the cocoons
even of the [chneumons that destroy the larve of some
moth in the West Indies which feed upon the indigo
and cassada*, ` ;
Poet is probable, too, that other articles besides silk

might be obtained from the larve which usually pro-
duce it, particularly cements and varnishes of different
kinds, some hard, others elastic, from their gum and
silk reservoirs, from which it is said the Chinese pro-
Cure a fine varnish, and fabricate what is called by
anglers Indian grass». The diminutive size of the ani-
Nal will be thought no objection, when we recollect
that the very small quantity of purple dye afforded by
the Purpura of the ancients did not prevent them from
Collecting it. |

T now conclude this long series of letters on the in:
Juries caused by insects to man, and the benefits which

e derives from them; and I think you will readily
admit that I have sufficiently made good my position,
that the study of agents which perform such important
functions in the economy of nature must be worthy of
attention. Our subsequent correspondence will be
devoted to the most interesting traits in their history,
às their affection to their young, their food and modes
of Procuring it, habitations, societies, &c.

Tam, &c.
a American Phil. Trans. v. 325.
b Anderson’s Recreations in Agriculture, &c. iv. $99.

LETTER XI.

ON THE AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR
THEIR YOUNG. |

Anmonesrthe larger animals, every observer of nature
has witnessed, with admiration, that love of their OF”
spring which the beneficent Creator, with equal regat™
to the happiness of the parent and the progeny, has
interwoven in the constitution of his ereatures.

that has any sensibility, has not felt his heart dilate
with gratitude to the giver of all good, in observi™®
amongst the domestic animals which surround i”
the effects of this divine storgé, so fruitful of the B®
delightful sensations? Who that is not a stock or a sto”?
has read unmoved the anecdote recorded in books °
Natural History, of the poor bitch, which in t°
agonies of a cruel dissection licked with parental fo? S
ness her new-born offspring; or the affecting accou”
ofthe she-bear related in Phipps’s Voyage to the Not"
Pole, which, herself severely wounded by the ga?
shot that killed her cubs, spent her last moments }

_ tearing and laying before them the food she had €”
lected, and died licking their wounds?

-has
These feelings you musthave experienced, but it be

scarcely occurred to you that you would have any ro? f
for exercising them in your new pursuit. You fi
not, I dare say, suspected that any similar exa™P

could have been adduced amongst insects, to which

`

AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 3AL

the first glance there seems even ‘something absurd in
attributing any thing like parental affection. An ani- _
mal not so big perhaps as a grain of wheat, feel love for
its oftspring—how preposterous! we are ready to ex-
claim. Yet the exclamation would be very much mis-
Placed. Nothing is more certain than that insects are
Capable of feeling quite as much attachment to their
offspring as the largest quadrupeds. They undergo as
Severe privations in nourishing them; expose them-
Selves to as great risk in defending them; and in the
very article of death exhibit as much anxiety for their
Preservation. Not that this can be said of all insects.
A very large proportion of them are doomed to die be-
fore their young come into existence. But in these the
Passion is not extinguished. It is merely modified, and
its direction changed. And when you witness’ the so-
licitude with which they provide for the security and
Sustenance of their future young, you can scarcely deny
to them love for a progeny they are never destined to
behold. Like affectionate parents in similar circum-
Stances, their last efforts are employed in providing for
the children that are to succeed them.

I. Observe the motions of that common white butter-
Ay which you see flying from herb to herb. You per-
ceive that it is not food she is in pursuit of; for flowers
have no attraction for her. Her object is the discovery
ofa plant that will supply the sustenance appropriated.
by Providence to her young, upon which to deposit her
eggs. Her own food has been honey drawn from the.
Nectary of a flower. This, therefor e, or its neighbour-
hood, we might expect would be the situation she would.

\

342 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.

select for them. But no: as if aware that this food
would be to them poison, she is in search of some
plant of the cabbage tribe. But how is she to distin-
guish it from the surrounding vegetables? She is
taught of God! Led by an instinct far more unerring
than the practised eye of the botanist, she recognises
the desired plant the moment she approaches it, and
upon this she places her precious burthen; yet not
without the further precaution of ascertaining that it is

not preoccupied by the eggs of some other butterfly!
Having fulfilled this duty, from which no obstacle short
of absolute impossibility, no danger however threate}”
ing, can divert her, the affectionate mother dies.

- This may serve as one instance of the solicitude of
insects for their future progeny. But almost every s
species will supply examples similar in principle, and

in their particular circumstances even more extraordi-
nary. In every case (except in some remarkable i”
stances of mistakes of instinct, as they may be termed,
which will be subsequently adverted to) the parent un-
erringly distinguishes the food suitable for her offspring»
however dissimilar to her own; or at least invariably
places her eges, often defended from external injury by
a variety of admirable contrivances, in the exact spot
where, when hatched, the larve can have access to it.
—The dragon-fly is an inhabitant of the air, and could
not exist in water: yet in this element, which is alon?
adapted for her young, she ever carefully drops her

eggs. The larve of the gad-fly (Œstrus Equi), whos?
history has been before described to you*, are destine
to live in the stomach of the horse. How shall the p?
a P, MT &e.

AFFECTION OF INSECTS FoR THEIR YOUNG. 343

rent, a two-winged fly, convey them thither? By a
mode truly extraordinary. Flying round the animal,
_ She curiously poises her body for an instant while she
glues a single egg to one of the hairs of his skin, and
repeats this process until she has fixed in a similar way
Many hundred eggs. These, after a few days, on the ap-
Plication of the slightest moisture attended by warmth,
hatch into little grubs. Whenever, therefore, the horse
Chances to lick any part of his body to which they are
. attached, the moisture of the tongue discloses one or
More grubs, which adhering to it by means of the ’sa-
liva are conveyed into the mouth, and thence find their
Way into the stomach. But here a question occurs to
you. It is but a small portion ofthe horse’s body which
he can reach with his tongue: what, you ask, becomes _
of the eggs deposited on other parts? I will tell you
how the gad-fly avoids this dilemma; and I will then
ask you if she does not discover a provident forethought, _
a depth of instinct, which almost casts into shade the
boasted reason of man? She places her eggs only on
‘those parts of the skin which the horse is able to reach
With his tongue; nay, she confines them almost exclu-
Sively to the knee or the shoulder, which he is sure to
lick. What could the most refined reason, the most
Precise adaptation of means to an end, do more*?
Not less admirable is the parental instinct of that
Vast tribe of insects already introduced to you by the
tame of Ichneumons, whose young are destined to feed
Upon the living bodies of other insects. These, as you
know, are so numerous, that scarcely an insect exists, `
Which in its larva state is not exposed to the attacks of

a Clark in Linn, Trans. iii, 304.

344 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.

one or other of them; and even the pupa, nay the very
eges of these animals, are not safe from their insidious
manceuvres. The size of the different : species varies in
proportion to that of the bodies which are to be theif
food; some being so inconceivably small, that the eg$ —
of a butterfly not bigger than a pin’s head is of suff-
cient magnitude to nourish two of them to maturity”;
` others so large, that the body of a full-grown cater- `
pillar is not more than enough for one. They are the
larve of these Ichneumons which make such hayoc of
our pygmy tribes: the perfect insect is a four-winged
fly, which takes no other food than a little honey; and —
the great object of the female is to discover a prope?
nidus for her eggs. In search of this she is in constant
motion. Is the caterpillar of a butterfly or moth the
appropriate food for her young? You see her alight
upon the plants where they are most usually to be met
with, run quickly over them, carefully examining every
leaf, and, having found the unfortunate object of her.
search, insert her sting into its flesh and there deposit
an egg. In yain her victim, as if conscious of its fate
writhes its body, spits out an acid fluid, menaces with
its tentacula, or brings into action the other organs of
defence with which it is provided. The active Ich-
neumon braves every danger, and does not desist until
her courage and address have ensured subsistence
for one of her future progeny. Perhaps, however, sbe
discovers, by a sense the existence of which we pe!
ceive, though we have no conception of its nature, that
she has been forestalled by some precursor of her ow?
tribe, that has already buried an egg in the caterpillar

Bonnet, ii. 344,

AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 345

She is examining. In this case she leaves it, aware
that it would not suffice for the support of two, and
Proceeds in search of some other yet unoccupied.—
The process is of course varied in the case of those
minute species of which several, sometimes as many
, as 150, can subsist in a single caterpillar. The little
ichneumon then repeats her operations until she has
darted into her victim the requisite number of eggs.
‘The larvæ hatched from the eggs thus ingeniously _
deposited, find a delicious banquet in the body of the `
caterpillar, which is sure eventually to fall a victim to
their ravages. So accurately, however, is ihe supply
of food proportioned to the demand, that this event
does not take place until the young Ichneumons have
attained their full growth; when the caterpillar either
dies, or, retaining just vitality enough to assume the
Pupa state, then finishes its existence ; the pupa dis-
closing not a moth or a butterfly, but one or more full-
grown Ichneumons. i s
In this strange and apparently cruel operation one
Circumstance is truly remarkable. The larva of the
Ichneumon, though every day, perhaps for months, it
Snaws the inside of the caterpillar, and though at last
it has devoured almost every part of it except the skin
and intestines, carefully all this time avoids injuring the
vital organs, as if aware that its own existence depends
on that of the insect on which it preys! Thus the ca-
_terpillar continues to eat, to digest, and to move; ap-
Parently little injured, to the last, and only perishes
When the parasitic grub within it no longer requires its
aid. What would be the impression which a similar
instance amongst the race of quadrupeds would make

~

S46 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.

_upon us?—If, for example, an animal—such as some
impostors have pretended to carry within them—should
be found to feed upon the inside of a dog; devouring
only those parts not essential to life, while it cautiously
left uninjured the heart, arteries, lungs, and intestines,
— should we not regard such an instance as a perfect
prodigy, as an example of instinctive forbearance al-

most miraculous?
Some Ichneumons, instead of burying their eggs in

the body of the larvae that are to serve their young for
food, content themselves with gluing them to the skin
of their prey, which the young grubs pierce as soon aS
hatched.. Another tribe, whose activity and perseve-
ranceare equally conspicuous, which includes the beau-
tifal genus Chrysis and many other hymenopterous in-
sects, imitating the insidious cuckoo, contrive to intro-
duce their eggs into the nests in which bees and other
` insects have deposited theirs. With this view they arè
constantly on the watch, and, the moment the unsus-
pecting mother has quitted her cell for the purpose of
collecting a store of food or materials, glide into it and
leave an egg, the germe ofa future assassin of the larva
that is to spring from that deposited by its side.
The females of the insects of which we have bee?
speaking, in providing for their offspring, are saved the
trouble of furnishing them with any habitation. Either
they occupy that ofanother insect, or find a convenient
abode within the body of that on which they feed. But
upon the maternal affection of another large hymeno*
pterous tribe, chiefly belonging to the Linnean gents
Sphex, whose young in like manner feed on other in-
_ sects, isimposed the arduous task not merely of collect?

AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. SAT

ing a supply of food, but ofinclosing it along with their
eggs in cells or burrows often of considerable depth,
and dug with great labour in sand or the solid earth.
The general economy of these insects is similar.
Having first dug a cylindrical cavity of the requisite
dimensions, and deposited an egg at the bottom, they

close along with it one or more caterpillars, spiders,

or other insects, each particular species for the most
Part selecting a distinct kind, as a provision for the
young one when hatched, and sufficiently abundant to
Nourish it until it becomes a pupa. Many thus fur-
nish several cells. This process, however, is varied
by different species, some of whose operations are
Worthy ofa more detailed description.

One of the most early histories of the procedure of an
insect of this kind (probably Ammophilavul, aris, Kirby J
is left us by the excellent Ray, who observed it along `
With his friend Willughby. On the 22d of June 1667,
he tells us, they noticed this insect dragging a green
caterpillar thrice as big as itself, which after thus con-
Veying about fifteen feet, it deposited at the entrance of
a hole previously dug in the sand. Then removing a
Pellet of earth from its mouth, it descended into the ca-
Vity, and, presently returning, dragged along with it
the caterpillar. After staying awhile it again ascended,
then rolled pieces of earth into the hole, at intervals -
Scratching the dust into it like a dog with its fore feet,
and entering it as if to press down and consolidate the
mass; flying also once or twice to an adjoining fir-tree,
Possibly to procure resin for agglutinating the whole.
Having filled the burrow to a level with the surround-
ìng earth so as to conceal the entrance, it took two fir-

348 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.

leaves lying at hand, and placed them near the orifice
as if to mark the place.—Such is the anecdote left on
record by our illustrious countryman, of whose accu-
racy of observation there can be no doubt. Who that
reads it can refrain from joining in the reflection which
itcalls from him, “ Quis hecnon mihi miretur et stupeat?
Quis hujusmodi opera mere machine possit attribuere? 2”
I myself, when walking with a friend some months
ago, observed nearly similar manœuvres performed by
a species of Pompilus (Sphex, L.), which attracted our
attention as it was dragging a spider to its cell. The
attitude in which it carried its prey, namely with its
feet constantly upwards; its singular mode of walking;
which was backwards, except for a foot or two when it
went forwards, moving by jerks and making a sort of
pause every few steps; and the astonishing agility w ith
which, notwithstanding its heavy burthen, it glided ove”
or between the grass, weeds, and other numerous i
pediments in the rough pathalong which it passed—to*
gether formeda spectacle which we contemplated w ith
admiration. The distance which we thus observed it t
‘traverse was not less than twenty-seven feet, and great
part ofits journey had probably been performed before
we saw it. Once or twice, when we first noticed it, it laid

down the spider, and making a small circuit returned

and took it up again. But for the ensuing twenty or
twenty-five feet it never stopped, but proceeded 1
a direct line for its burrow with the utmost speed.
When opposite the hole, which was ina sand bank bY
the way side, it made a sharp turn, as evidently awat®
of being in the neighbourhood of its abode, but wher

a Rai. Hist. Ins. 254.

AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. %49

advanced a little further laid down its burthen and went
to reconnoitre. At first it climbed up the bank, but, as
if discovering that this was not the direction, soon re-
turned, and, after another survey perceiving the hole,
took up the spider and dragged it in after it.

In the two instances above given, one dead caterpil-
lar or spider only was deposited in each hole. But an
insect described by Reaumur under the name of the
mason-wasp (Epipone spinipes, Latr.), very common in
some parts of England, after having ex¢avated a bur-
row, with an ingenuity to which on a future occasion I
shall draw your attention, places along with its egg as
food for the future young, about twelve little green
grubs without feet, which it has carefully selected full
grown and conveyed without injuring them. You will
inquire, Why this difference of procedure ? With re-
gard to the choice of a number of small grubs rather
than of one large caterpillar, what I have said in a
former letter on the subject of different species of this
tribe being appointed to prey upon and thus keep within
due limits the larve of different kinds of insects, wilt
be a sufficient answer. But one circumstance credi-
table to the talents of the mason-wasp as a skilful pur-

_ Veyor should not be omitted, namely, that the number }
of grubs laid up‘is not always the same, but is exactly

proportioned to their size, eleven or twelve being

stored when they are small, but only eight or nine .
when larger. With respect however to the caution of ;
the wasp ia selecting full grown grubs and conveying
them uninjured to her hole, a satisfactory explanation
may be given. If those that are but partly grown were
chosen, t they would die in a short time for want of food,

and Dn would destroy the inclosed egg, or the

350 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.

young one which springs from it. But when larve of
-any kind have attained their full size, and are about
to pass into the pupa state, they can exist for a long
period without any further supply. By selecting these;
therefore, and placing them uninjured in the hole,
however long the interval before the egg hatches, the
disclosed larva is sure of a sufficiency of fresh and
wholesome nutriment.—To prevent the possibility of
any injury to its egg from the motions or voracity of
this living prey, the wasp is careful to pack the whole
so closely, each grub being coiled above the other in 4
series of rings, and to consolidate the earth so firmly
above them, that they have not the slightest power of
motion *.—Those which select more powerful cater-
pillars, or revenge the injuries of their insect brethren
by devoting spiders to the destruction they have. s°
often caused, take care to sting them in such a manner
as, without killing them outright, will incapacitate
them from doing any injury. |
Zeal and activity in providing for the well-being of
their future progeny, not inferior to what are exhibited
by the tribe of Ichneusnons, Spheges, and mason-wasp%
though less cruelly exerted, is also shown by the vari-
-ous species of wild-bee, of which we have in this coun-
try above two hundred. ‘Having first excavated a pro”
per cell with a dexterity and persevering labour never
enough to be admired, they next deposit in it an egg?
which they cover with a mass of pollen or honey col
lected with unwearied assiduity from a thousand flow .
ers. As soon as the grub is hatched, it finds itself en-
veloped in this delicious banquet provided for it by the
cares of a-mother it is doomed never to behold ; an

a Reaum. vi. 252.

E

AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 357

“so accurately is the repast proportioned to its appetite
and its wants, that as soon as the whole is consumed it
has no longer need of food: it clothes itself in a silken
Cocoon, becomes a pupa, and after a deep sleep of a
few days bursts from its cell an active bee.

No circumstance connected with the storgé of in-
sects, is more striking than the herculean and incessant
labour which it leads them cheerfully to undergo. Some
of these exertions are so disproportionate to the size of

the insect, that nothing short of ocular conviction could
attribute them to such an agent. A wild bee or a Sphex,

' for instance, will dig a hole in a hard bank of earth
some inches deep and five or six times its own size,
‘and labour unremittingly at this arduous undertaking
for several days, scarcely allowing itself a moment for
eating or repose. It will then occupy as much time in
Searching for a store of food; and no sooner is this
task finished, than it will set about repeating the pro-
cess, and before it dies will have completed five or six
similar cells or even more. If you would estimate this
industry at its proper value, you should reflect what
kind of exertion it would require in aman to dig ina
few days out of hard clay or sand, with no other tools
than his nails and teeth, five or six caverns twenty

` feet deep and four or five wide—for such an under-
taking would not be comparatively greater than that
of the insects in question. ode lad

Similar laborious exertions are not confined to the
bee or Sphex tribe. Several beetles in depositing their
eggs exhibit examples of industry equally extraordi-
nary. The common der or clock, (Scarabeus sterco-
rarius, L.) which may be found beneath every heap
of dung, digs a deep cylindrical hole, and, carrying

352 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.

down a mass of the dung to the bottom, in it. deposit?
its eggs. And many of the species of the genus Ateu-
chus roll together wet dung into round pellets, depo
sit an egg in the midst of each, and when dry push
them backwards by their hind feet to holes of the
surprising depth of three feet, which they have pre
viously dug for their reception, and which are ofte?
several yards distant. Frequently the road lies across
a depression in the surface, and the pellet when nearly
pushed to the summit rolls back again. But our pê”
tient Sisyphi are not easily discouraged. They repeat
their efforts again and again, and in the end their per-
severance is rewarded by success. The attention of
these insects to their eggs is so remarkable, that it
was observed in the earliest ages, and is mentioned by
ancient writers, but with the addition of many fables,
as that they were all of the male sex, that they becamé
young again every year, that they rolled the pellets
containing their eggs from sun-rise to sun-set every
day, for twenty-eight days without intermission*, &
It is one of this tribe of beetles (4. sacer) whose
image is so often met with amongst the hieroglyphie
of the Egyptians, with whom it was a symbol of the
world, of the sun, and of a courageous warrior.

the world, as P. Valerianus supposes, on account °

the orbicular form of its pellets of dung, and the
notion of their being rolled from sun-risé to sun-set?
of the sun, because of the angular projections fro™
its head resembling rays, and the thirty joints of the
six tarsi of its feet answering to the days of the
month; and of a warrior, from the idea of manly
courage being connected with its supposed birth fro”

a Mouffet, 153.

AFTROTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR VounG. 353

a male! only #4. / It was.as symbolical of this.Jast that its
image was worn upon the signets ‘of the,Roman sol-
diers ; and as typical of the sun; the sounce of fertility,
itis yet, as Dr.-Clarke informs us, eaten, by the women
to render them prolific’.

‘These beetles, however, in point of Pride must
yield the palm to one (.Necrophorus Vespillo, F.) whose
singular history was first detailed by M: Gleditsch in
the Acts of the Berlin Society for 17 52. He begins by

informing us that he had often remarked that dead
moles when daid upon the ground, epecially if apon
loose earth, were almost sure to disappéar.in.the course
of two or three days, often of twelve hours, .'To.ascer-
tain the cause, he placed amole upon one‘ of the beds
‘inthis garden. It had vanished by the third morning ;
andion digging where it had been laid, he found it bu-
tied to the depth of three inches, and ander it. four
‘heetles which seemed to have heen the agents jn this
Singular inhumation. Not perceiving any: thing parti-
‘ular in the mole, he buried it again; and on examin-
ing it at the end of six days he found it swarming with
maggots apparently the issue of the +heetles, which
M. Gleditsch now naturally concludedihad ‘buried the

- Carcdse for the food of their future young. ‘To deter-

imine these points more clearly, ‘he put four of these
insects into a glass vessel half filled with earth and
Properly secured, and upon the surface of the earth
two frogs. ‘In less than twelve hours one of -the frogs
Was interred by two of the heetles: the other two ran
about the whole day as if busied in measuring: the di-
a J. Pierii Valeriani Hieroglyphica, 93-5. Mouliet, 156.
b Travels, ii, 306.
VOL. 1, 2a

ow

$54 APBEOTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNS.

inénsions of the remaining corpse, which on the third
day was also found buried. He then introduced a dead
linnet. A pair of the beetles were soon engaged upo”
the bird. "They began their operations by pushing out
the earth from under the body so as to forma cavity
for its reception; and it was curious to see the efforts
which the beetles made by dragging at the feathers of
the bird from below to pullit into its grave. The male
having driven the female away continued the work
‘alone for five hours. He lifted up the bird, changed
-its place, turned it and arranged it in the grave, and
from time to time came out of the hole, mounted apo”
it and trod it under foot, and then retired below and
pulled it'down. At length, apparently wearied with
this uninterrupted labour, it came forth and leaned its
head upon the earth beside the bird without the small-
est motion as if to rest itself, for a full hour, when it
again crept under the earth. The next day in thé
morning the bird was an inch and a half under ground,
and the trench remained opem the whole day, thé
corpse seeming as if laid out upon a bier, surround
with a rampart of mould. In the evening it had sunk
half an inch lower, and in another day the work w@°
completed and the bird covered.—M. Gleditsch co”
tinued to add other small dead animals, which we??
Lall sooner or later buried; and the result of his exp®
riment was, that in fifty days four beetles had inter!
in the very small space of earth allotted to them, twel¥®
carcases : viz. four frogs, three small birds, two fishes»
one mole, and two grasshoppers, besides the entrails
of a fish, and two morsels of the lungs of an ox. P
another experiment a single beetle buried a mole forty

[j

‘AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 355

times its own bulk and weight in two days*. It is plain
that all this labour is incurred for the sake of placing
in security the future young of these industrious insects _
along with a necessary provision of food. One mole
would have sufficed a long time for the repast of the
beetles themselves, and they could have.more conve;
-niently fed. upon it above ground than below. But if
` they had left thus exposed the carcase in which their
-€ges were deposited, both would have been exposed
to the imminent risk of being destroyed at a mouthful
by the first fox or kite that chanced to espy them.

At the first view I dare say you feel almost inclined
_ to pity the little animals doomed to exertions appa-
rently so disproportioned to their size. You are ready
to exclaim that the pains of so short.an existence, en-
grossed with such arduous and incessant toil, must far
outweigh the pleasures. Yet the inference would be
altogether erroneous. What strikes us as wearisome
toil, is to the little agents delightful occupation. The
~kind Author of their being has associated the perform-
ance of an essential duty with feelings evidently of the

most pleasurable description; and like the affectionate
father whose love for his children sweetens the most
painful labours, these little insects are never morehappy
than when thus actively engaged. “A bee,” as Dr. Pa-
ley has well observed, “amongst the flowers in spring,
_ (when it is occupied without intermission i in collecting
farina for its young or honey for its associates, ) i is one .f
the cheerfullest objects that can be looked upon. Its life
appears to be all enjoyment: so busy and so pleased”.”

a Gleditsch: Physic. Bot. Oecon. Abhandl. iii. 200-227.
b Natural Theology, 497.

ZA’

356 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.

Of the sources of exquisite gratification which every
yural walk will open to you, while witnessing in the
animals themselves those marks of affection for their

“unseen progeny of which T have endeavoured to give
you a slight sketch, it will be none of the least fertile
to examine the various and appropriate instruments
with which insects have been furnished for the effective
execution of their labours. "The young of the saw-fly
tribe (Tenthredo, L.) are destined to feed upon the
Jeaves of rose-trees and various other plants. Upor
the branches of these the parent fly deposits her egg5
in cells symmetrically arranged ; and the instrument
with which she forms them is a saw, somewhat like our*
but far more ingenious and perfect, being toothed on
‘each side, or rather consisting of two distinct saws,
‘with their backs (the teeth or serratures of which are
themselves often serrated, and the exterior flat sides
scored and toothed), which play alternately ; and, while
their vertical effect is that of a saw, act laterally as 2
‘rasp. When by this alternate motion the incision, 0”
cell, is made, the two saws, receding from each other»
“eonduct the exe between them into it*. The Cicada;
$o ċelébräted by the poets of antiquity, which lays it
‘eves in dry wood, requires a stronger instrument of @
diferent construction. Accordingly it is provided with
an ‘excellent double auger, the sides of which play
alternately and parallel to each other, and bore a hole
of the requisite depth in very hard substances without
ever being’ displaced. i

> Fhe ‘construction of the sting or ovipositor with

a Prof, Peck’s Nat, Hist. of the Slug-worm, 12. t, f. 12-14, PLATE xY.
Fig, 21. ;

AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 357

which the different species of Ichneumon are provided,
ds not less nicely adapted to its various purposes. In
‘those which lay their eggs in the bodies of. caterpillars
that feed exposed on the leaves of plants it is short,
often in very large species not the eighth of an inch
jong: having free access to their victims, a longer
sting would have been useless. But a considerable
number oviposit in larve which lieconcealed where so
‘short an instrument could net possibly approach them.
In these, therefore, the sting is proportionably. elon-
gated, so much so that in some small species it is three
or four times the length of the body. Thus in Jch-
neumon manifestator, whose economy has been so pleas-
ingly illustrated by Mr. Marsham?, and which attacks
the larva of a wild bee (Apis igili lying at the
bottom of deep holes in old wood, the sting is nearly
two inches long”: and it is not much shorter inthe more
minute J. Strobilellæ, which lays its eggs in larvæ con-
cealed in the interior of fir cones, which without such
“an apparatus it would never be able to reach.
The tail of the females\of many moths whose eggs
require to be protected from too severe a cold and toe
strong a light, is furnished, evidently for application to
this very purpose, with a thick tuft of hair. But how
Shall the moth detach this non-conducting material and
arrange it upon her eggs? Her ovipositor is provided
at the end with an instrument resembling a pair of pin-
cers, which for this purpose are as good as hands. With
these, having previously deposited her eggs upon a leaf,
She pulls off her tuft of hairs , with which she so closely
€nvelops them as effectually to preserve them of the re-

a Linn, Trans. iii. 23. b Prave XVI. Fic. l

358 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.

quired temperature: and having performed this last
duty to her progeny she expires.

The ovipositor of the capricorn beetles (Ceramby2;
L.), an infinite host, is a flattened retractile tube, of 4
- hard substance, by means of which it can introduce its -
eggs under the bark of timber, and so place them where
its progeny will find their appropriate food*. The au-
ger used by certain species of Cistrus, to enable them
to penetrate the hides of oxen or deer and form a nidus
for their eggs, has been before described”.—But to enu”
merate all the varieties of these instruments would be

endless.

-The purpose which in the insects above mentioned |
is answered by their anal apparatus, is fulfilled in the
numerous tribes of weevils (Curculio, L.) by the long
slender snout with which their head is provided. It is
with this that C. nucum pierces the shell of the nut, and
the weevil (Calandra granaria, F.) the skin of the grains
of wheat, in which they respectively deposit their eggs»
prudently introducing one only into each nut or grait,
which is sufficient, but not more than sufficient, for the
nourishment of the grub that will inhabit it.

IL. Hitherto I have adverted to those insects onl¥
which perish before their young come into existence
and can therefore evince their affection for them in 2°
„other way than by placing the eggs whence they are to
spring in secure situations stored with food; and these
include by far the largest portion of the race. A very
considerable number, however, extend their cares much
further: they not only watch over their eggs after de-

a See Kirby in Linn, Trans. v. 254. t.12. fı 15. b See above; 151,

AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR, YOUNG. 359

‘positing them, put attend upon their young, when ex-
eluded, with an affectionate assiduity equal toany thing
exhibited amongst the largeranimals, andin the highest
degree interesting. -Of this description are some soli-
lary insects, as several species of the Linnean genus
Sphex, earwigs, field-bugs, and spiders: and those in-
šects which live in societies, namely, ants, bees, wasps,
and Termites: the most strikingtraits of whose history
in these respects I shall endeavour to lay before you.
You have seen that the greater number of the Linnean
Spheges, (Sphex, Bembex, F.) after depositing their
eggs in cells stored with a supply of food, take no fur-
Hien < care of them. Some, however, adopt a different
Procedure. One of these, called by Bonnet the Mason-
“asp, but different from Reaumur’s, not only incloses
ativing caterpillar along with its egg in the cell, which
it carefully closes, but at the expiration of a few days,
When the young grub has appeared and has consumed
its provision, re-opens the nest, incloses a second ca-
terpillar, and again shuts the mouth: and this opera-
tion it repeats until the young one has attained its full
Srowth®. A similar mode, according to Rolander, is
followed by Ammophila vulgaris as well as by the yel-
lowish wasp of Pennsylvania, described by Bartram in
the Philosophical Transactions”, and by a Sphex? ob-
Served by Duhamel *;.both of which, however, instead
of caterpillars, supply their larve with, a pericdical
Provision of living flies.
What a crowd of interesting reflections are these
most singular facts calculated to excite! With what
foresight must the parent insect be endowed, thus to be

a2 Bonnet, ix, 398, b Jiji, 37. -=e Reaum, vi, 269.

360° APPHOTION OF INSECTS POR THEW YOUNG:

aware at what period her eggs will be hatched into;
ertibs, and how long the provision she*has laid up will
suffice for theirsupport! ‘Whatan extent of] udgement,
thus in thé midst of various other occupations to know
the precise day when’ a repetition of her cares will be
fequited! What an accuracy of memory, to recollect
with such precision the entrance to her cell, which the
most acute eye could not discover; and without com
pass or direction unerringly to fly to it, often from &
great distance and after the most intricate and varied
wanderings! If'wé réfer the whole to instinct, and to
instinet doubtléss it must in the main ifnot wholly be
referred, our admiration is not lessened. Instinct, when
siniple and diréctéd to one object, is less astonishing»
but such a complication of instincts, applied to action®
so varied and dissimilar, is beyond our conception:
We can but wonder and adore! |
We are indebted to De Geer for the history of #
field-bug ( Cyiiex griseus), â species found in this cgun”
try, which shows marks of affection for her young such
‘as T trust will lead you, notwithstanding any repus”
nant association that the name may call up, to seat’
upoii the bitch tree, which it inhabits, for so interes
ihg an insect. The family of this field-bug consists oF
‘thirty or forty -young ones, which she conducts as a he?
does her chickens, She never leaves them ; and as s00”
as she begins to move all the little ones closely follows
and whenever she stops assemble ina cluster rou?
her. De Geer having had occasion to cut a branch °
pirch peopled with one of those families, the mother

o 4 i D. 2 . a
showed every symptom of excessive uneasiness-
se

other circumstances such an alarm would have ca"

ABPFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR vounc. 361

her immediate flight; but now she never stirred from
her young, but kept beating her wings incessantly with
a very rapid motion, evidently for the purpose of pro-
tecting them from the apprehended danger*.—As far
as our knowledge of the economy of this tribe of in-
Sects extends, there is no other species that manifests
asimilar attachment to its progeny; but such may
probably be discovered by future observers. ` ;
Itis De Geer also that we have to thank for a series
of interesting observations on the maternal affection
exhibited by the common earwig, This curious insect
so unjustly traduced by a vulgar prejudice,—as if the
Creator had willed that the insect world should com-
biné within itself examples of all that is most remark-
able in eyery other department of nature,—still more |
nearly approaches the habits of the hen in her care of
her family. She absolutely sits upon her eggs as if to
hatch them—a fact which Frisch appears first to have
Noticed—and guards them with the greatest care. De
Geer, having found an earwig thus occupied, removed
her into a box where was some earth, and séattered the
eggs in all directions. She soon, however, collected
them one by one with her jaws intoa heap, and assidu-
ously sat upon them as before. The young ones, which
resemble the parent except in wanting elytra and wings,
and, strange to say, are as soon as born larger than the
eggs which contained them, immediately upon being
hatched creep like'a brood of chickens under the belly
of the mother, who very quietly suffers them to push
between her feet, and will often, as De Geer found, sit
Over them in this posture for some hours>. This re-

a De Geer, ili. 262. b Ibid, iii, 548.

362 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.

markable fact I have myself witnessed, having found
an earwig under a stone which | accidentally turned

over, sitting upon a cluster of young ones just as this
celebrated naturalist has described.

Weare so accustomed toassociate the ideasof cruelly
and ferocity with the name of spider, that to attribute
parental affection to any of the tribe seems at first view
almost preposterous. Who indeed could suspect that
animals which greedily devour their own species when-
ever they have opportunity, should be susceptible of
the finer feelings? Yet such is the fact. There is @
spider.common under clods of earth (Aranea saccaia, L)
which may at once be distinguished by a white globular
silken bag about the size of a pea, in which she has de
posited her eggs, attached to the extremity of her body:
Never miser clung to his treasure with more tenacious
solicitude than this spider to her bag. Though app?
rently a considerable incumbrance, she carries it with
her every where. If you deprive her of it, she makes
the most strenuous efforts for its recovery ; and 2
personal danger can force her to quit the precious load.
Are her efforts ineffectual? A stupefying melancholy
seems to seize her, and when deprived of this first ob-
ject of her cares, existence itself appears te have lost
its charms. Ifshe succeeds in regaining her bag, 0"
you restore it to her, her actions demonstrate the e*
cess of her joy. She eagerly seizes it, and with the
utmost agility runs off with it to a place of security:
Bonnet put this wonderful attachment to an affecting
and decisive test. He threw a spider with her bag int?
. the cavern ofa large ant-lion, a ferocious insect which
conceals itself at the bottom of a conical hele co?”

AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 363 —

Structed in the sand for the purpose of catching any un-
fortunate victim that may chance to fallin. The spider
endeavoured to run away, but was not sufficiently ac-
tive to prevent the ant-lion from seizing her bag of
eggs, which it attempted to pull under the sand. She
Madé the most violent effofts to defeat the aim of her
invisible foe, and on her part struggled with all her
might. The gluten, however, which fastened her bag,
at length gave way, and it separated: but the spider
instantly regained it with her jaws, and redoubled her
efforts to rescue the prize from her opponent. It was.
in vain: the ant-lion was the stronger of the two, and
in spite of all her struggles dragged the object of con-
testation under the sand. The unfortunate mother
Might have preserved her own life from the enemy :
She had but to relinquish the bag, and escape out of
the pit. But, wonderful example of maternal affec-
tion! she preferred allowing herself to be buried alive.
along with the treasure dearer to her than her exist-
ence; and it was only by force that Bonnet at length
_Withdrew her from the unequal conflict. But the bag
of eggs remained with the assassin; and though he
Pushed her repeatedly with a twig of wood, she still
Persisted in continuing on the spot, Life seemed to
have become a burthen to her, and all her pleasures to —
have been buried in the grave which contained the
Serme of her progeny*! The attachment of this affec-
tionate mother is not confined to her eggs. After the
Young spiders are hatched, they make their way out of
the bag by an orifice, which she is careful to open for
them, and without which they could never escape”;

a Bonnet, ii.435. b De Geer, vii. 194,

36% AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.

and then, like the young of the Surinam toad (Rana
pipa), they attach themselves inclusters upon her back,
belly, head, and even legs; and in this situation, where
they present a very singular appearance, she carries
‘them about with her and feeds them until their first
moult, when they are big enough to provide their ow?
subsistence. I have more than once been gratified by
a sight of thisinteresting spectacle ; and when I nearly
touched the mother, thus covered by hundreds of hef
progeny, it was most amusing to see them all leap fro™
ther back and run away in every direction.

A similar attachment to their eggs and young is ma”
nifested by many other species of the same tribe, parti-
cularly of the genera Lycosia and Dolomeda, Walch
Aranea holosericea, L. (Clubiona, Walek.) was found
by De Geer in her nest with fifty or sixty young one»
when manifesting nothing of her usual timidity, $
obstinately did she persist in remaining with them, that
to drive her away it was necessary to cut her whole
nest in pieces*. —

I must now conduct you to a hasty survey of thos?
insects which live together in societies and fabricat?
dwellings for the community, such as ants, wasps, bels,
humble-bees, and termites, whose great object (some”
times combined indeed with the storing up ofa stock
of winter provisions for themselves) is the nutritio?
and education of their young. Of the proceedings is
many of these insects we know comparatively nothing’
There are, it is likely, some hundreds of distinct spe"
cies of bees which live in societies, and form nests of 4

a De Geer, vil. 268.

AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 365

different and peculiar construction. The constitution
of these societies is probably as various as the exterior
forms of their nests, and their habits possibly curious
in the highest degree; yet our knowledge is almost
*onfined to the economy of the hive-bee and of some
Species of humble-bees. ‘The same’ may be said of
Wasps, ants, and termites, of which, though there isa
Yast variety of different kinds, we are acquainted with
the history of but a very few. Vou will not therefore
©xpect more than a sketch of the most interesting
traits of affection for their young, manifested by the
common species of each genus.

One circumstance must be premised with regard to
the education of the young of most of those insects.
Which live in society, truly extraordinary, and without.
Parallel in any other department of nature: namely,
that this office, except under particular circumstances,
is not undertaken by the female which has given birth
to them, ‘but by the workers, or neuters as they are
Sometimes called, which, though bound to the offspring |
of the common mother of the society by no other thar
fraternal ties, exhibit towards them all the marks of
the most ardent parental affection, building habitations
for their use, feeding them and tending them with in-
*essant solicitude, and willingly sacrificing their lives
In defence of the precious charge. Thus sterility itself
_s made an instrument:of the preservation and multi-
Plication of species; and females too fruitfulto educate
all their young, are indulged by Providence with a
Privilege without which nine tenths of their progeny
Must perish.

~ The most determined despiser of insects and their

366 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG:

concerns—he who never deigned to open his eyes t
any other part of their economy—must yet have ob-
served, even in spite of himself, the remarkable attach’
ment which the inhabitants of a disturbed nest of ans
manifest towards certain small white oblong bodies
with which it is usually stored. He must have pe?’
ceived that the ants are much less intently occupié
with providing for their own safety, than in convey!38
off these little bodies to'a place of security. To effect
this purpose the whole community is in motion, 2?
no danger can divert them from attempting its acco™
plishment. An observer having cut an ant in two, the
poor mutilated animal did not relax in its affectional®
‘exertions. With that half of the body to which t°
head remained attached, it contrived previously to ex
piring to carry off ten of ‘these white masses into tb?
mterior of the nest! You will readily divine that thes?
attractive objects are the young of the ants in one f
the first or imperfect states. They are in fact not the
eggs, as they are vulgarly called, but the pupae, whit :
the working ants tend with the most patient assiduity
But I must give you a more detailed account of the”
operations, beginning with the actual eggs- 4
These, which are so small as to be scarcely visi
to the naked eye, as soon as deposited by the que®
ant, who drops them at random in her progress throug
the nest, are taken charge of by the workers, who all
mediately seize them and carry them in their mouth
in small parcels, incessantly turning them backwa!
. and forwards with their tongue for the purpos? f
-moistening them, without which they would come 4
nothing. They then lay them in heaps; whic

ple.

h ther

/

- AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR. THEIR YOUNG. 367

Place in separate apartments*, and constantly tend un-
til hatched into larve; frequently in the course of the
day removing them from one quarter of the nest to an-
Other, as they require a warmer or cooler, a moister
or drier atmosphere; and at intervals brooding over
them as if to impart a genial warmth”. Experiments

have been made to ascertain. whether these assiduous
nurses could distinguish their eggs if intermixed with -
Particles of salt and sugar, which to an ordinary ob-
Server they very much resemble ; but the result was
Constantly in favour of the sagacity of the ants. They
invariably selected the eggs from whatever materials
they were mixed with, and re-arranged them as before*,

New and more severe labours succeed the birth of

_ the young grubs which are disclosed fromthe eggs after

A few days. The working ants are now almost without

Yemission engaged in supplying their wants and for-
Warding their growth. Every evening an hour before
Sunset they regularly remove the whole brood, as wel
as the eggs and pup, which in an old nest all require
tention at the same time, to cells situated lower down
in the earth, wherethey will be safe from the cold; and
in the morning they as constantly remove them again

‘towards the surface of the nest. if, however, there is
à prospect of cold or wet weather, the provident ants
forbear on that day transporting their young from the

Mner cells, aware that their tender frames are unable
to withstand an inclement sky. What is particularly

Worthy of notice in this herculean task, the ants con-

à ‘tantly regulate their proceedings by the sun, removing

leir young according to the earlier or later rising and

a Huher, 69. b De Geer, ii. 1099, e Gould, 37,

$68 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.

setting ofthat luminary. As soon as his first rays begit
to shine on the exterior. of the nest, the ants that arë
at the top go below in great haste to rouse their com
panions, whom they strike with their-antenn2, 0"
when they do not seem to comprehend them, drag with
their jawsto the summit till a swarm of busy labourers
fill every passage. These take up the larve and pup®
which they hastily transport to the upper part of their
habitation; where theyleave them aquarterofan how
and then carry them into apartments where they #
“sheltered from the sun’s direet rays*. ;
Severe as this constant and unremitted daily labou
seems, it is but a small part of what the affection of the
working ants leads them readily to undertake. he
| feeding of the young prood, which rests solely upo”
them, is a more serious charge. The nest is constant?
stored with larve the year round, during all which
time, except in winter whenthe whole society is torpið
they require feeding several times a day with a vjs
- half-digested fluid that the workers disgorge into thet!
mouths, which when hungry they stretch out to mee”
‘those of their nurses. Add to which, that in an ob
nest there are generally two distinct broods.ef differ”
ages requiring separate attention; and that the obser”
vations of Huber make it probable that at one pet id
they require a more substantial food than ‘at anothe™
Tt is true that the youngest brood at first want put itt?
“nutriment: but still, when we consider that they mu
not be neglected, that the older brood demand ine
sant supplies, and in a well stocked nest amount to" si
8000; and that the task of satisfying all these craving”
a Huber, 74. ;

AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 369

as well as providing for their own subsistence, falls to
the lot of the working ants, we are almost ready to re-
Sard the burthen as greater than can be borne by such
minute agents; and we shall not wonder at the incés-
Sant activity with apy we see them foraging on every `
Side.

Their labour does not end here. It is necessary that
the larve should be kept extremely clean; and for this
Purpose the ants are perpetually passing their tongue
and mandibles over their body, rendering them by this
Means perfectly white*. After the young grubs have
attained their full growth, they surround themselves
with a silken cocoon and become pupe, which, food ex-
cepted, require as much attention as in the larva state.
Every morning they are transported from the bottom
of the nest to the surface, and every evening returned
to theit former quarters. And if, as is often the case,

the nest be thrown into ruins by the unlucky foot of a
Passing animal, in addition to all these daily and hourly

avocations, is superadded the immediate necessity of
collecting the pupe from the earth with which they
have been mixed, and of restoring the nest to its pris-
tine state”.

Huber, 78, ;

b The Russian shepherds ingeniously avail themselves of the attacha
ment of ants to their young, for obtaining with little trouble a collection
Of the pupw, which they scll as a dainty food for nightingales, They
Scatter an ant’s nest upon a dry plot of ground, surrounded with a shal-
tow trench of water, and place on one side of ita few fir branches
Under these the a ints, having no other alternative, carefully arrange all
their pupæ, and in an hour or two the shépherd finds a large heap
Clean and ready for market, Anderson’s Recreations in Agriculture, Qe.
iv. 158.

VOL. I. 2B

870 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.

Nothing can be more curious than the view of the
interior of a fully peopled ant’s nest in summer. In
one part are stored the eggs; in another the pupæ ar?
heaped up by hundreds in spacious apartments; an
in a third we see the larve surrounded by the workers,
some of which feed them, while others keep guard,
standing erect upon their hind legs with their abdome”
elevatedin the position for ejaculating their acid, tha?
which, gunpowder would not be more formidable t°
the majority of their foes. Some again are occupied in
cleaning the alleys from obstructions of various kinds;
and others rest in perfect repose recruiting theif
strength for new labours.

Contrary to what is observed amongst other insectss
even the extrication of the young ants from the silken c04
coon which incloses them is imposed upon the workers,
who are taught by some sensation to us incomprehen-
sible, that the perfect insect is now ready to burst from
the shroud, but too weak to effect its purpose unaided.
When the workers discover that this period has ar-
rived, a great bustle prevails in their apartment:
Three or four mount upon one cocoon, and with their
mandibles begin to open it where the head lies. First
they pull off a few threads to render the place thinner;
they then make several small openings, and with great
patience cut the threads which separate them one bY
one, till an orifice is formed sufficiently large for e*
tracting the prisoner; which operation they perfor™
with the utmost gentleness. The ant is still enveloped
in its pellicle: this the workers also pull off, carefully
disengaging every member from its case, and nicely
éxpanding the wings of such as are furnished with

ote

AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 371

them. After thus liberating and afterwards feeding the
new-born insects, they still for several days watch and
follow them every where, teaching them to unravel the
Paths and winding labyrinths of the common habita-
tion?; and when the malesand females at length take
flight, these affectionate stepmothers accompany them,
Mounting with them tothe summit of the highest herbs,
Showing the most tender solicitude for them, (some
even endeavour to retain them,) feeding them for the
last time, caressing them; and at length, when they
rise into the air and disappear, seeming to linger for
Some seconds over the footsteps of these favoured
beings, of whom they have taken such exemplary care,
and whom they will never behold again”.

Tn the above account, exclusive of the bare fact of
their laying the eggs, no mention is made of the female
nts, the real parents of the republic. You are not from
this to suppose that they never feel the influence of this
divine principle of love for their offspring. When, ine /
` deed, a colony is established and peopled, they have
*nough to do to furnish it with eggs to produce its ne-
“essary supply of future females, males and workers;
Which, according to Gould, are laid at three different
Seasons*. This is the ordinary duty assigned to them
y Providence. Yet atthe first formation ofa nest, the
female acts the kind part, and performs all the mater-
Nal offices which I have just described as peculiar to the»)
Workers; and it is only when these become sufficiently
‘umerous to relieve her that she resigns this charge /
and devotes herself exclusively to oviposition. |

There is one circumstance occurring at this period

a Huber, 83. b Ibid. 93. c p. 35 a Huber, 110
282

372 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG-

of their history which affords a very affecting example
of the self-denial and self-devotion. of these admirable
creatures. If you have paid any attention to what is

going forward in an ant-hill, you will; have observed

some larger than the rest, which at first sight appe@”

as well as the workers, to have no wings, but which

upon a closer examination exhibit a small portion of
their base, or the sockets in which they were inserted

These are females that have cast their wings, not acci-

dentally but by a voluntary act. When an ant of this

sex first emerges from the pupa, she is adorned with

two pair of wings, the upper or outer pair being large".
than her body. With these, when a virgin, she is e8

abled to traverse the fields ofether, surrounded by. my

riads ofthe other sex, who are candidates for her favour

But when once connubial rites are celebrated the u07

happy husband dies, and the widowed bride seeks only

how she may provide for their mutual offspring. Pant-

ing no more to join the choir of aérial dancers, her only

thought is to construct a subterranean abode in which

she may depositand attend to her eggs, and cherish he

embryo young, till, having passed through their various

changes, they arrive at their perfect state, and she ca”

devolve upon them a portion of her maternal cares:

Her ample wings, which before were her chief orna

ment and the instruments of her pleasure, are noW ab

incumbrance which incommode her in the fulfilment 0*

the great duty uppermost in her mind; she therefor%

without a moment’s hesitation, plucks them from hef

‘shoulders, Might we not then address. females who

have families, in words like those of Solomon, “ G@ ai

the ant, ye mothers, consider her ways and be wise ? i%

AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 373

M. P. Huber was more than once witness to this
Proceeding. He saw one female stretch her wings with
a strong effort so as to bring them before her head—she.
then crossed them in all’directions—next she reversed
them alternately on each side—at last, in consequence
of some violent contortions, the four wings fell at the
Same moment in his presence. Another, in addition to
these motions, used her legs to assist in the work?.

Thus, from the very moment of the extrusion of the
egg to the maturity of the perfect insect, are the ants
Uhremittingly occupied in the care of the young of the
Society, and that with an ardour of affectionate attach-
ment to which, when its intensity and durationare taken
into the account, we may fairly say there is nothin g pa-
rallel in the whole animal world®. Amongst birds and
quadrupeds we have instances of affection as strong

Perhaps while it lasts, but how much shorter the period
during which it is exerted! Ina month or two the
Young of the former require no further attention; and
if in a state of nature some of the latter give suck to

their offspring for a longer period, it is on their parts

Without effort or labour: and in both cases the time
given up to their young forms a very small part of the
life of the animal. But the little insects in question
Rot only spend a greater portion of time in the educa-
tion of their progeny, but devote even the whole of

a Huber, 109.—Gould had long before Huber observed that female
ants cast their wings, pp. 59, 62, 64. I have frequently observed them,
Sometimes with only one wing, at others with only fragments of the wings ,
and again, at others they were so completely pulled off, that it could nó?
be known that they formerly had them, only by the sockets in which they
Were inserted, . b Huber, 93. ie

-BTA AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG

their existence, from their birth to their death, to this
one occupation! yë

The common hive-bee and the wasp in their atten-
tion to their young exhibit the same general features-
- Both build for their reception hexagonal cells, differ-
ing in size according to the future sex of the included
grubs, which as soon as hatched they both feed and
assiduously tend until their transformation into pup
There are peculiarities, however, in their modes of
procedure, which require a distinct notice.

The economy of a nest of wasps differs from that of
bees, in that the eggs are laid not by a single mother
or queen, but by several; and that these mothers take
| the same care as the workers in feeding the young
| grubs: indeed those first hatched are fed entirely by
| the female which produced them, the solitary foundef
of the colony. The sole survivor probably of a last
year’s swarm of many thousands, this female, as soot
as revived by the warmth of spring, proceeds to co?”
struct a few cells, and deposits in them the eggs of
working wasps. The eggs are covered with a glute
which fixes them so strongly against the sides of th?
cells, that it is not easy to separate them unbr „oken
These eggs seem to require care from the time they
are laid, for the wasps many times in a day put their
heads into the cells which contain them. When they
are hatched, it is amusing to witness the activity with
which the female runs from cell to cell, putting het
` head into those in which the grubs are very young?
while those that are more advanced in age thrust their
heads out of their cells, and by little movements see

AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 375

to be asking for their food.. As soon as they receive

‘their portion, they draw them back and remain quiet.

These she feeds until they become pupe; and within

twelve hours after being excluded in their perfect sta te,
‘they eagerly set to work in constructing fresh cells, and

in lightening the burthen of their parent by assisting
her in feeding the grubs of other workers and females

which are by this time born. In a few weeks the so-

ciety will have received an accession of several hun-

dred workers and many females, which without distine-

tion apply themselves to provide food for the growing

‘grubs, now become exceedingly numerous. With this
object i in view, as they collect little or no honey from

flowers, they are constantly engaged in predatory ex-

peditions. One party will attack a hive of bees, a
_ grocer’s sugar hogshead, or other saccharine reposi-

tory; or, if these fail, the juice of a ripe peach or pear.

‘You will be less indignant than formerly at these au-

dacious robbers now you know that self is little consi-
‘dered in their attacks, and that your ravaged fruit has

Supplied an exquisite banquet to the most tender grubs
of the nest, into whose extended mouths the successful

marauders, running with astonishing agility from one

cell to another, disgorge successively a small portion

of their booty in the same way that a bird supplies her

young*. Another party is charged with providing more

Substantial aliment for the grubs of maturer growth.

These wage war upon bees, flies, and even the meat of
a butcher’s stall, and joyfully return to the nest laden

with the well-filled bodies of the former, or pieces of
the latter as large as they can carry. This solid food

a See Willughby in Raj, Hist. Ins. 251, and Reaym,

ae

376 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THELR YOUNG.

they distribute in like manner to the larger grubs,

which may be seen eagerly protruding their heads out :
of the cells to receive the welcome meal. As wasps
lay up no store of food, these exertions are the task of
every day during the summer, fresh broods of grubs
constantly succeeding te those which have become
pupe or perfect insects; and in autumn, when the
colony is augmented to 20 or 30,000, and the grubs in
proportion, the scene of bustle which it presents may
be readily conceived.
‘ Though such is the love of wasps for their young»
that if their nest be broken almost entirely in pieces
they will not abandon it*, yet when the cold weather
approaches, a melancholy change ensues, followed by? ©
cruel catastrophe, which at first you will be apt to re*
gard as ill comporting with this affectionate character.
As soon as the first sharp frost of October has been felt,
the exterior of a wasp’s nest becomes a perfect scene
of horror. The old wasps drag out of the cells all the
erubs and unrelentingly destroy them, strewing theif
dead carcases around the door of their now desolate
habitation. “ What monsters of cruelty” I hear you
exclaim, “ What detestable barbarians!’ But be not
too hasty. When you have coolly considered the cir-
cumstances of the case, you will view this seemingly
cruel sacrifice ina different light. The old wasps have
no stock of provisions: the benumbing hand of wintet
is about to incapacitate them from exertion; while the
season itself affords no supply. What resource then is
left? Their young must linger on a short period, suf-
fering all the agonies of hunger, and at length expire.

a Reaum, vi, 174,

r

AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 377

They have it in their power at least to shorten the
term of this misery—to cut off its bitterest moments.
A sudden death by their own hands is comparatively a_
merciful stroke. This is the only alternative; and thus,
in fact, this apparent ferocity is the last effort of tender
affection -active even to the end of life. Ido not mean
to say that this train of reasoning actually passes
through the mind of the wasps. It is more correct to
Tegard it as having actuated the benevolent Author of
the instinct so singularly, and without doubt so wisely,
excited. Were a nest of wasps to survive the winter,
they would increase so rapidly, that not only would all
the bees, flies, and other animals on which they prey,
be extirpated, but’ man himself find them a grievous
Pest. It is necessary, therefore, that the great mass
Should annually perish; but that they may suffer as lit-
tle as possible, the Creator, mindful of the happiness
of the smallest of his creatures, has endowed a part of |
the society, at the destined time, with the wonderful
instinct which, previously to their own death, makes
them the executioners of the rest. ` ti
Wasps in the construction of their nests have solely
in view the accommodation of their young ones; and
to these their cells are exclusively devoted. Bees, on `
the contrary, (I am speaking of the common hive-bee,)
aPpropriate a considerable number of their cells to the
reception of honey intended for the use of the society.
et the education of the young brood is their chief
bject, and to this they constantly sacrifice all personal
‘nd selfish considerations. In a new swarm the first
ware is to build a series of cells to serve as cradles; and
‘ttle or no honey is collected until an ample store of

}

‘878 “AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.

‘Bee-bread, as it is called, has been laid wp for their food.
This bee-bread is composed of the pollen of flowers,
which the workers are incessantly employed in gather
ing, flying from flower to flower, brushing from the

stamens their yellow treasure, and collecting it in the
Jittle baskets with which their hind legs are so admi-
rably provided; then hastening to the hive, and having
deposited their booty, returning for a new load. The
provision thus furnished by one set of labourers is care”
fully stored up by another, until the eggs which the
queen-bee has laid, and which adhering by a glutinous
covering she places nearly upright in the bottom ofthe
cell, are hatched. With this bee-bread after it has
undergone a conversion into a sort of whitish jelly by
being received into the bee’s stomach, where it is pr”
bably mixed with honey* and regurgitated, the young -
brood immediately upon their exclusion, and until theif
‘change into nymphs, are diligentiy fed by other bees
which anxiously attend upon them and several times
a day afford a fresh supply. Different bees are seen
- guccessively to introduce their heads into the cells cot”
taining them, and after remaining in that position some
moments, during which they replace the expended pr"
vision, pass on to those in the neighbourhood. Other“
often immediately succeed, and in like manner putin
their heads as if to see that the young ones have every
thing necessary; which being ascertained by a glance,
they immediately proceed, and stop only when they fin
a cell almost exhausted of food. That the office of thes?

a It is not unlikely that it may undergo some other alteration in the
ee’s stomach, which may possibly secrete some peculiar substance *
Fohn Hunter discovered that the crop of the pigeon does.

AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 379

purveyors is no very simple affair will be admitted,
When it is understood that the food of all the grubs is
Not the same, but that it varies according to their age,
being insipid when they are young, and, when they
have nearly attained maturity, more sugary and some-
what acid. The larve destined for queen-bees, too,
require a food altogether different from that appro-
Priated to those of drones and workers. It may be re-
Cognised by its sharp and pungent taste.

So accurately is the supply of food proportioned to `
the wants of the larve, that when they have attained
their full growth and are ready to become nymphs, not
an atom is left unconsumed. At this period, intuitively
known to their assiduous foster-parents, they terminate
their cares by sealing up each cell with a lid of wax,
Convex in those containing the larva of drones, and `
Nearly flat in those containing the larve of workers,
beneath which the inclosed tenants spin in security
their cocoon.—In all these labours neither the queen
Nor the drones take the slightest share. They fall
exclusively upon the workers, who, constantly called
upon to tend fresh broods, as those brought to matu-
tity are disposed of, devote nearly the whole of their
existence to these maternal offices,

Humble-bees*, which in respect of their general po
licy must, when compared with bees and wasps, be re-
Sarded as rude and untutored villagers, exhibit never-
theless marks of affection to their young quite as strong

à Dr. Johnson was ignorant of the etymology of this word. Tt $
Clearly derived from the German Hummel or Hummel Biene, a name pro~
babby given it from its sound. Our English name would-be more signi-
ficant were it altered to Humming-bee or Booming-bee.

t

172 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS;

that some accounts state its progress at first to have
been very slow, at the rate only of seven miles pe?
annum, and the damage inconsiderable; and that the
wheat crops were not materially suas by it before
the year 1788. Though these insect hordes traverse
such a tract of country in the course of the year, their
flights are not more than five or six feet at a time
Nothing intercepts them in their destructive career,
neither mountains nor the broadest rivers. They were
seen to cross the Delaware like a cloud. The numbers
of this fly were so great, that in wheat-harvest the
houses swarmed with them to the extreme annoyance
of the inhabitants. They filled every plate or vessel
_ that was in use; and five hundred were counted in @
single glass tatabilet exposed to them a few minutes
with a little beer in itè.

America suffers also in its wheat and maize from the
attack of an insect of a different order: which, for
what reason I know not, is called the chintz-bug-fly-
It appears to be apterous, and is said in scent and 60°
lour to resemble the bed-bug. They travel in immensé
columns from field io field, like locusts destroying
every thing as they proceed; but their injuries ar?
confined to the states south of the 40th degree of north
latitude’, From this account the depredator heré
noticed should belong to the tribe of Cimicide ; hut it
seems very difficult to conceive how an insect that lives
by suction, and has no mandibles, could destroy thes?
plants so totally. —

When the wheat blassoms; another por altians to

a Encycloped. Britann. viii. 489-95.
b Young’s Annals of Agriculture, xi. 471.

INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. . 173

Which Mr. Marsham first called the attention of the
Public, takes its turn to make an attack upon it, under
the form of an orange-coloured gnat, which, introdu-
cing its long retractile ovipositor into the centre of the
corolla, there deposits its eggs. These being hatched,
the larve,. perhaps by eating the pollen, prevent the
™Preenation of the grain, and so in some seasons de=-
Stroy the twentieth part of the crop?.

One would think, whenJaid up in the barn or in the
Stanary, that wheat would-be secure from injury ; but `
“ven there the weevil (Calandra granaria, F.), in its
imago as well as in its larva state, devours it; and
Sometimes this pest beconies so infinitely numerous,
that a sensible man, engaged in the brewing trade, once

-told me, speaking perhaps rather hyperbolically, that
they collected and destroyed them by bushels; and no
Wonder, fora single pair of these destroyers may pro-
tce in one year above 6000 descendants.—There are

_ “ee other insects that attack the stored wheat, which
are more injurious to it than even the weevil. One is
* minute species of moth, (Tinea granella, F.,) happily
aot much if at all known in this country ; of which
“euwenhoek has given us a full history under the
"Ane of the wolf. Another is a species of the same
Senus, at present not named, which, as we are informed
Y Du Hamel, at one time committed dreadful ravages
nthe province of Angoumois in France. The third is
"0gosita caraboides, F., a kind of beetle, the grub! of
ich called Cadelle, Olivier tells us, did more da-
age to the housed grain ia the southern provinces.of

i

$ aTi y TT ; . : ° °
Tipula Tritici, K. belonging to Latreille’s genus Cecidomyia, Mar-

8h ý
“am and Kirby in Linn. Trans. iii. 242-5. iv, 224-39, v. 96-110.

982. AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG:

tered so violently that the scheme was almost imprac¢
ticable. To remedy this inconvenience, and to make
ihe comb steady, they had recourse to a most ingenious
expedient. Two or three bees got upon the comb, -
stretched themselves over its edge, and with their heads
downwards fixed their fore feet on the table upon which
it stood, whilst with their hind feet they kept it from
falling. In this constrained and painful posture, fresh
bees relieving their comrades when weary, did thes¢
affectionate little insects support the comb for nearly
_ three days! At the end of this period they had pre-
~- pared a sufficiency of wax with which they built pillars
| that kept it in a firm position: but by some accident —
afterwards these got displaced, when they had again
recourse to their former manceuvre for supplying their
place, and this operation they persevéringly continue
until M. Huber, pitying their hard case, relieved them by
fixing the object of their attention firmly on the table*.
‘Tt is impossible not to be struck with the reflectio™
| that this most singular fact is inexplicable on the sup’
l position that insects are impelled to their operations by
a blind instinct alone. How could mere machines have’ \
thus provided for a case which in a state of nature has /
probably never occurred to ten nests of humble-bee* .
since the creation? If in this instance these little a”
mals were not guided by a process of reasoning, W what
is the distinction between reason and instinct? How
could the most profound architect have better adapte

the means to the end—how more dexterously shored UP
a tottering edifice, until his beams and his props were
in readiness ? š
a Linn, Trans. vi. 247 &e. ii

AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 383

With respect to the operations of the termites in
tearing their young I have not much to observe. All
that is known is, that they build commodious cells for ©
their reception, into which the eggs of the queen are
“onveyed by the workers as soon as laid, and where
When hatched they are assiduously fed by them until

they are able to provide for themselves.

{n concluding this subject, it may not be superfluous
to advert to an objection which is sometimes thrown,
ut against regarding with any particular sympathy the
affection of the lower animals to their young, on the
Sround that this feeling is in them the result of corpo-
teal sensation only, and wholly different from that love
Which human parents feel for their offspring. Itis true
that the latter involves moral considerations which
Cannot have place in the brute creation; but it would
Puzzle such objectors to explain in what respect the
fection which a mother feels for her new-born infant
the moment it has seen the light, differs from that of an
insect for its progeny. The affection of both is purely
Physical, and in each case springs from sensations in-
terwoven by the Creator in the constitution of his crea-
tures, If the parental love of the former is worthy of
*urtenderest sympathies, that of the latter cannot he.
Yn deserving of some portion of similar feeling.

Jam, &c.

LETTER XH.

a

ON THE FOOD OF INSECTS.

Insects like other animals draw their food from the
vegetable and animal kingdoms, but a very slight sul
vey will suffice to show that they enjoy a range ovel
far more extensive territories.

To begin with the vegetable kingdom.—Of this V ast
field the larger animals are confined toa comparatively
small portion. Of the thousands of plants which clothe
the face of the earth, when we have separated the
grasses and a trifling number of herbs and shrubs, tH?
rest are disgusting to them, if not absolute poison®
But how infinitely more plenteous is the feast to which
Flora invites the insect tribes! From the gigant?
banyan which covers acres with its shade, to the tiny
fungus scarcely visible to the naked eye, the vegetable
creation is one vast banquet at which her insect guest?
sitdown. Perhaps nota single plant exists which do®
not afford a delicious food to some insect, not excludi?
even those most nauseous and poisonous to other ani
mals—the acrid eupkorbias, and the lurid henbane 3”
nightshade. Nor is it a presumptuous supposition tha
a considerable proportion of these vegetables were
created expressly for their entertainment and suppor
The common nettle is of little use either to manki”
or the larger animals, but you will not doubt its 1™
portance to the class of insects, when told that at sk

FOOD OF INSECTS, © : 885

thirty distinct species feed upon it, But this is not all.
The larger herbivorous animals are confined to a fo-
liaceous or farinaceous diet. They can subsist on no
other part of a plant than its leaves and seeds, either
in a recent or dried state, with the addition sometimes
of the tender twigs or bark. Not so the insect race;
to different tribes of which every part of a plant sup-
plies appropriate food. Some attack its roots; others |
select the trunk and branches; a third class feed upon
i the leaves; a fourth with yet more delicate appetite `
prefer the flowers; and a fifth the fruit or seeds. Even
still further selection takes place. Of those which feed
upon the roots, stem, and branches, of vegetables, some
_ larve eat only the bark (Sphinx apiformis, &c.), others
the alburnum (Tortrix Wceberana), others the exuding
resinous or other excretions (Tinea Resinella), a third
class the pith (Noctua Ochraceago, Lep. Brit.), and a
fourth penetrate into the heart of the solid wood (Ce-
rambyces). Ofthose which prefer the leaves, some taste
nothing but the sap which fills their veins (Aphides in
all their states), others eat only the parenchyma, never
touching the cuticle (subcutaneous Tinew), others only
the lower surface of the leaf (many Tortrices), while a
fourth description devour the whole substance of the
leaf (most Lepidoptera). And of the flower-feeders,
while some eat the very petals (Noctua Verbasci, Lina-
re, &c.), others in their perfect state select the pollen
Which swells.the anthers (bees, Lepture, and Mordel-
læ), and a still larger class of these the honey secreted
in the nectaries (most of the Lepidoptera, Hymeno-
Plera, and Diptera). oe,

Nor are insects confined, to vegetables in their re-
YOu, 1. Bek Ea jae

386 l FOOD OF INSECTS.

cent or unmanufactured state. A beam of oak when
it has supported the roof of a castle five hundred years;
is as much to the taste of some, (Anobia,) as the same
tree was in its growing state to that of others; another
class (Plini) would sooner feast on the herbarium of
Brunfelsius, than on the greenest herbs that grow?
and a third (Tineew, Termites), to whom

a river and a sea
Are a dish of tea, :
Aud a kingdom bread and butter,”

would prefer the geographical treasures of Saxton oT
Speed, in spite of their ink and alum, to the freshest
rind of the flax plant.—The larva of a little fly (Muse@
_ cellaris? L. Oinopota cellaris, Kirby), whose econo-
my, as I can witness from my own observations, is
admirably described by Mentzelius*, disdains to feed
on anything but wine or beer, which like Boniface i”
_ the play it may be said both to eat and drink, though,
unlike its toping counterpart, indifferent to the age of
its liquor, which whether sweet or sour is equally ac
ceptable.

A diversity of food almost as great may be boasted
by the insects which feed on animal substances. Some
(flesh-flies, carrion-beetles, &e.) devour dead earcase?
only, which they will not touch until imbued with the
haut gout of putridity. Others, like Mr. Bruce’s Abys-
sinians, preferring their meat before it has passed
through the hands of the butcher, select it from living
victims, and may with justice pride themselves upor
the peculiar freshness of their diet. Of these last, dif-

a Ephem. German. An. xii. Obs. 58. Rai. Hist, Ins. 261.

FOOD OF INSECTs. 387

ferent tribes follow different procedures. The Ichneu-

_ Mons devour the flesh of the insects into which they
have insinuated themselves. Some of the Cistri, fixed
ina spacious apartment beneath the skin of an ox or
deer, regale themselves on a purulent secretion with
Which they are surrounded. Others of the same tribe,
Partial to a higher temperature, attach themselves to
the interior of the stomach of a horse, and in a bath of
chyme of 102 degrees of Fahrenheit revel on its juices.
The various species of horse-flies (Tabanus and Sto-
moxys, F.) dart their sharp lancets into the veins of
quadrupeds, and satiate themselves in living streams;
While the gnat, the flea, the bug, and the louse, plunge
their proboscis even into those of us lords of the crea- |
tion, and banquet on “ the ruddy drops which warm
Sur hearts.” Some make their repast upon birds only, _
as the fly of the swallow, and other Ornithomyic, Latr.,
aud the bird-louse ( Ricinus, De Geer) ; insects nearly

Allied, though one is dipterous and the other apterous.
And a most singular animal belonging to the latter
tribe (N; ‘ycteribia Vespertilionis, Latr.) revenges upon
the bat its ravages of the insect world*. Another nu-
merous class kill their prey outright, either devouring
its solid parts, as the Carabidae, Staphylinidee, &e., or
Mnbibing its juices only, as the infinite hordes of the
field-bug tribe. And the larve of the gnat, Stratyomys,
{nd other flies aquatic in that state, the leviathans of
the world of animalcules, swallow whole hosts of these
inute inhabitants of pools and ponds atagulp, causing
With their oral apparatus a vortex in the water, down |

a Linn. Trans, xi. 1). £. 3a f.5—T,
oe /

888 FOOD OF INSECTS.

which myriads of victims are incessantly hurried inte
their destructive maw.

But not only animals themselves, almost every ani-
mal substance that ean be named is the appropriate food,
of some inseet. Multitudes find a delicious nutriment
in excrements of various kinds. Matters apparently
so indigestible as hair, wool, and leather, are the sole

food of many moths in the larva state (Tinea tapetzella,
pellionella, &c.). Even feathers are not rejected by
others; aud the grub of a beetle (Byrrhus Museo
rum, L.), with powers of stomach which the dyspeptic
sufferer may envy, will live luxuriously upon horn*.

For the most part, insects feeding upon animal sub-
stances will not touch vegetables, and vice versd. You
must not however take the rule without exceptions
Many caterpillars (as those of Noctua derasa, Delphi-
nii, &c.) though plants are their proper food, will 0¢-
easionally devour other caterpillars, and sometime
even their own species. The large green grass-hoppe®
(Locusta viridissima, F.), and probably others of the
order, will eat smaller insects as well as its usual ve
getable food”; so also will the larve of many Phry’
ganeæ. Tenthredo marginella, F., as 1 was last summe”
amused by witnessing, like many Scatophagæ, sips the
nectar of umbelliferous plants only till a fly come?
within its reach, pouncing upon which it gladly quit?
its vegetable for an animal repast. Ptinus rubellus,
Ent. Brit., which ordinarily feeds upon wood, was, 3°
I before mentioned, once found by Mr. Sheppard n
great abundance living upon the dried Cantharide?

a De Geer, iv. 210, b Brahm, Insekten Kalender, t. 190-

FOOD OF INSECTS. 389

{Lytta vesicatoria) of the shops. On the other hand,
Necrophorus mortuorum, which subsists on carcases,
and. many other carnivorous species, will make a
hearty meal of a putrid fungus; Ptinus Fur devours
indifferently dried birds or plants, not refusing even
tobacco; and from the impossibility that one of a mil-
lion of the innumerable swarms of gnats which abound
in swampy places, particularly in regions which but
for them would be lost to sensitive existence, should
ever taste blood; it seems clear that they are usually
contented with vegetable aliment. Indeed the males,
as well as those of Tabanus of which even the females
readily imbibed the sugared fluid offered to them by
- Reaumur ^, never suck blood at all; so that they must
either feed on vegetable matter, which in fact I have
observed them to do, or fast during their whole exist-
ence in the perfect state. aa
Though insects, generally considered, have thus a
much more extensive bill of fare than the larger ani-
mals, each individual species is commonly limited toa `
more restricted diet. Many both of animal and vege-
table feeders are absolutely confined to one kind of
food, and cannot exist upon any other. The larva of
Œstrus Equi can subsist no where but in the stomach
of the horse or ass, which animals therefore this insect
might boast with some show of reason to have been cre-
ated for its use rather than for ours, being to us useful
Only, but to it indispensable. The larve of Syrphus
Pyrastri (Musca, L.) according to De Geer eat no
Other Aphis but that of the rose’. Most Ichneumons
and Spheges prey each upon a single species of insect

a Reaum, iv. 230. 0 |. b Le Geer, vi. 112,

390 FOOD OF INSECTS.

only, which therefore they would seem to have been '
formed for the express purpose of keeping within due

limits. Reaumur mentions having once found in 4
| parcel of decaying wood the nests of six different kinds
4 of Sphex, each of which was filled with flies of a di-
\stinct species*. Cerceris auritus, Latr, and Philanthus
lætüs, Panz., in the larva state feed solely on the Cur-
culio tribe of Coleoptera; the latter being restricted
even to the short-rostruin’d family, as C. picipes, rau-
cus, &c.”, while Bembex rostrata, another hymeno-
pterous insect, selects flies, as Musca Cæsar, &c. °
A very large proportion of species, however, are able
to subsist on several kinds of food. Amongst the car-
nivorous tribes, it is indifferent to most of those which
prey upon putrid substances from what source they.
have been derived: and the predaceous genera, such as
Libellula, Cantharis, Empis, Aranca, &c. will attack
most smaller insects inferior to them in strength, not
excepting in many instances their own species, The
wax-moth larva (Galleria Cereana) will for want of
-wax eat paper, wafers, wool, &c. 4: another Tinea de-
‘scribed by Reaumur, and before adverted to, attacks
chocolate‘, which cannot have been its natural food;
even selecting that most highly perfumed; and the
Tinee which devour dressed wool, but happily for
the farmer and wool-stapler refuse it when unwashed,
must have existed when no manufactured wool was
accessible.—The vegetable feeders are under greate?

a Reaum. vi. 271.

b Entomologische Bemerkungen (Braunschweig 1799), p. 6.
c Latreille, Obs. sur les Hymenopteres, Ann. de Mus. xiv. 412,
d Reaum. iii, 257, € Ibid. iii, 277,

FOOD OF INSECTS, 591

restrictions, yet probably the majority can subsist on
different kinds of food. This is certainly true of most
lepidopterous lärvæ, several of which as well as many -
Coleoptera (Haltica oleracea, &c.) are polyphagous,
eating almost every plant. It is worthy of remark, \
however, that when some of these have fed for a time |!
œa one plant they will die rather than eat another, `.
Which would have been perfectly acceptable to them if }
accustomed to it from the first. _ Here too it must be
- borne in mind, that by far the greater part of insects
feed upon different substances in their different states
of existence, eating one kind of food in the larva and
another in the imago state. This is the case with the
whole order Lepidoptera, which in the former eat plants
chiefly, in the latter nothing but honey or the sweet
Juices of fruit, which they have often been observed to
imbibe; and the same rule obtains also in regard to

most dipterous and hymenopterous insects. Those :
Which eat one kind of food in both states, are chiefly /~

of the remaining orders.
I have said that insects, like other animals, draw `
their subsistence from the vegetable or animal king-
doms. But I ought not to omit noticing that some
authors have conceived that several species feed upon
Mineral substances. Not to dwell upon Barchewitz’s
idle tale of East Indian ants which eat iron >, or on the
Stone-eating caterpillars recorded in the Memoirs of
the French Academy“, which are now known to erode
the walls on which they are found, solely for the pur-
Pose of forming their cocoons; Reaumur and Swam-
merdam have both stated the food of the larve of
a Reaum, ii: 324, b Lesser, L. i. 259. c x, 458.

`

392 FOOD OF INSECTS.

- Ephemere to be earth, that being the only substance -
ever found in their stomachs and intestines which are
filled with it. This supposition, which if correct ren-
ders invalid the definition by which Mirbel (and my

‘friend Dr. Alderson-of Hull long before him) propo-
sed to distinguish the animal and vegetable kingdoms,
is certainly not inadmissible; for, though we might not

` þe inclined to give much weight to Father Paulian’s

history of a flint-eater who digested flints and stone”
the testimony of Humboldt seems to prove that the hu
man race is capable of drawing nutriment from earth,
which, if the odious Ottomaques can digest and assim
late, may doubtless affor dsupport to the larve of Ephe-
mere. Yet after all it is perhaps more probable that
these insects feed on the decaying vegetable matter in?
termixed with the earth in which they reside, from
which after being swallowed it is extracted by the ac
tion of the stomach: like the sand that, from being
found in a similar situation, Borelli erroneously sup-
posed to be the food of many Testacea, though in fact

a mere extraneous substance.

The majority of insects, either imbibing their food
in a liquid state, or feeding on succulent ‘substance,
require no aqueous fluid for diluting it. Water, how”
ever, is essential to bees, ants; and some other tribes,
which drink it withavidity; ‘as wellas in warm climate’
to many Lepidoptera, which are there chiefly taken in
court yards, near the margins of drains, &c. Eve? _
some larva which feed upon juicy leaves have bee?
observed to swallow drops of dew; and one of the™
(Bombyx potatoria), which (according to Goedart) afte?

a Dictionnaire Physique, RS

FOOD OF INSECTS. 393 |

drinking lifts up its. head like a hen, has received its
name from this circumstance. That itis not the mere
Want of succulency in the food which induces the ne-
` Cessity of drink, is. plain from those larve which live
entirely on substances so dry that it is almost unac-
countable whence the juices of their body are derived,
The grub of an Anobium: (Ptinus, L.) will feed for
_ Months upon a chair that has been baking before the
fire for half a century, and from which even the che-
mist’s retort could scarcely extract a drop of moisture ;
and will yet have its body as well filled with fluids as
that of a leaf-fed caterpillar.

By far the greater part of insects always feed them-
selves. The young however of those which live in so-
cieties, as the hive- and humble-bees, wasps, ants, &c.
are fed-by the older inhabitants of the community,
which also frequently feed each other. Many of these
last insects are distinguished from the majority of their -
. tace, which live from day to day and take no thought
for the morrow, by the circumstance of storing up
food. Of those which feed themselves, the larger
proportion have imposed upon them the task of pro-
, viding for their own wants; but the tribe of Spheges,
wild bees, and some others, are furnished in the larva
State by the parent insect with a supply of food suf- _
ficient for their consumption. until they have attained
maturity,

As to their time of feeding, insects may be divided
into three great classes: the day-feeders, the night-
feeders, and those which feed in differently at all times,
You have been apt to think, I dare say, that when the
Sun’s warmer beams haye waked the insect youth, and

í

394 FOOD OF INSECTS.

<6 Ten thousand forms, ten thousand different tribes,
People the blaze,”

you see before you the whole insect world, You are
not aware that a host as numerous shun the glare of
day, and, like the votaries of fashion, rise not from their
couch until their more vulgar brethren have retired to
rest. While the painted butterfly, the “ fervent bees,”
and the quivering nations of flies, which sport
«* Thick in yon stream of light, a thousand ways,
Upward and downward thwarting and convolved,”

love to bask in the sun’s brightest rays, and search for
their food amidst his noontide fervor, an immense mul-
titude stir not before the sober time of twilight, and eat
only when night has overshadowed the earth. Then
only, the vast tribe of moths quit their hiding-places;
_“ the shard-born * beetle with his drowsy hum,” accom-
panied by numerous others of his order, sallies forth;
the airy Tipule institute their dances; and the solitary

a In the controversy between the commentators on Shakespeare, asto
whether shard * means wing-cases, dung, or a fragment of earthenware»
and whether born should be spelled with or without the e, it might have
thrown some weight into the scale of those who contend for the ortho-
graphy adopted above, and that the meaning of shard in this place is
dung, if they had been aware that the beetle (Scarabaus stercorarius)
is actually born amongst dung, and no where else; and that no beetle
which makes a hum in flying can with propriety be said, as Dr. Johnson
has interpreted the epithet in his Dictionary, “‘ to be born amongst

broken stones or pots.” That Shakespeare alluded to the Beetle, and
not to the Cockchafer (Melolontha vulgaris), seems clear from the fact
of the former being to be keard in all places almost every fine evening

in the summer, while the latter is common only in particular districts»

and at one period of the year. S. 5

* Sharnis the common name of cow-dung in the North: therefore
Shakespeare probably wrote sharn-born, Mr, MacLeay,

FOOD OF INSECTS. _ 395

Spider stretches his net. All these retire into conceal-
ment at the approach of light.—Some few larve (Noc-
tua exclamationis, &c.) have similar habits, and those
of one singular genus before adverted to (Nycterobius)
are remarkable for providing in the night a store of
food which they consume in the. day; but to the gene-
rality of these the period of feeding is,indifferent, and
most of them seem to eat with little intermission night
and day. l Ho
Insects like other animals take in their food by thé
mouth (in Chermes and Coccus, indeed, the rostrum,
is inserted in the breast, between the fore-legs), but
there seems one exception to this rule. The singular
_Acarus vegetans, which is such a plague to some bee-
tles,' derives its nutriment from them by means of a
filiform pedicle or umbilical cord attached to its anus >
and what increases the singularity, sometimes several
of these Acari form a kind of chain, of which the first
Only is fixed by its pedicle to the beetle, each of the
remainder being similarly connected with the one that
_ Precedes it; so that the ‘nutriment drawn from the
beetle passes to the last through the bodies and umbi-
lical cords of the individuals which are intermediate or
Some haye regarded these bodies as true eggs; and
their analogy with the pedunculated eggs of Trombi-
dium aquaticum, F., which also seem to derive nou-
rishment from the Notonectæ, &c. to which they are
fixed, and still more the circumstance of their ultim ately
losing their pedicle and detaching themselves from the
infested beetles, give plausibility to the idea, Yet these
Acari are certainly furnished with feet, and have ac-

- a De Geer, vii. 123.

396 FOOD OF INSECTS.

cording to De Geer? a part resembling a mouth—cha-
racters which cannot be attributed to any egg.

In the variety of their instruments of nutrition, which
you must bear in mind are often quite different in the
larva and perfect states, insects leave all other animals
far behind. In common with them, a vast number
(the orders Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, and Orthoptera,
and the larve of Lepidoptera, some Diptera, &c.) are
furnisied with jaws, but of very different constructions,
and all admirably adapted for their intended services:
‘some sharp, and armed with spines and branches for
tearing flesh ; others hooked for seizing, and at the
same time hollow for suction; some calculated like
shears for gnawing leaves; others more resembling
grindstones, of a strength and solidity sufficient to re-
duce the hardest wood tg powder: and this singularity
attends the major part of these insects, that they pos-
sess in fact two, pairs of jaws, an upper and an under
pair, both placed horizontally, not vertically, the
former apparently in most cases for the seizure an
mastication of their prey; the latter, when hooked,
for retaining and tearing, while the upper comminuté
it previously to its being swallowed”.
To the remainder of the class of insects, a mightY
host, jaws would have been useless. Their refined li-
quid food requires instruménts of a different construc
tion, and with these they are profusely furnished. The
innumerable tribes of moths and butterflies eat nothin
but the honey secreted in the nectaries of flowers, which
are frequently situated at the bottom ofa tube of great
length. They are accordingly provided with an ane

a De Geer, vii. 126. p Prare VL Fie. 4,5. 10, H. 24—26.

FOOD OF INSECTS. 307

San exquisitely fitted for its office—a slender tubular

tongue, more or less long, sometimes not shorter than

three inches, but spirally convoluted when at rest, like
the main spring of a watch, into a convenient compass.

This tongue, which they have the power of instantly

unrolling; they dart into the bottom of a flower, and,

as through a syphon, draw up a supply of the delicious

Nectar on which they feed. A letter would scarcely
Suffice for describing fully the admirable structure of
this organ. I must content myself therefore with here

briefly observing that it is of a cartilaginous substance,

and apparently composed of a series of innumerable

rings, which, to be capable of such rapid convolution,

must be moved by an equal number of distinct muscles ;

and that, though seemingly simple, it is in fact com-

posed of three distinct tubes, the two lateral ones cy-

lindrical and entire, intended, as Reaumur thinks, for

tlie reception of air; and the intermediate one, through

- which alone the honey is conveyed, nearly square, and

formed of two separate grooves projecting from the la-
_teral tubes ; which grooves, by means of a most cu-
rious apparatus of hooks like those in the lamin of a

feather, inosculate into each other, and can be either

united into an air-tight canal, or be instantly sepa-

rated, at the pleasure of the insect?.

Another numerous race, the whole of the order He-
miptera, abstract the juices of plants or of animals by
Means of an instrument of a construction altogether
different—a hollow grooved beak, often jointed, and
Containing three bristle-formed lancets, which, at the —

a For a full description of this instrument see Reaum, i. 125 &c.
Prate- VI. Fie. 29, 30.

398 FOOD OF INSECTS.

same time that they pierce the food, apply to each other
so accurately as to form one air-tight tube, through
which the little animals suck up* their repast; thus
forming a pump, which, more effective than ours, digs’
the well from which it draws the fluid”.

A third description of insects, those of the order Di-
ptera, comprising the whole tribe of flies, have asucker
formed on the same general plan asthat last described,
but of a much more complicated and varied structure.
It isin like manner composed of a grooved case and
several included lancets; but the case, although horny,
` rigid and beak-like in some, is in others fleshy, flexible,
and more resembling the proboscis of an elephant, and
terminates in two turgid liplets: and the accompany-
ing lancets are themselves included in an upper hollow
case, in connexion with which they probably compose
an air-tight tube for suction. The number and form of
these instruments is extremely various. In some ge-
-nera (Musca) there is but one, which resembles 2 —
sharp lancet. Others (Empis, Asilus,) have three, the
two lateral ones needle-shaped, that in the middle like
a scymetar; together forming so keen an apparatus;
that De Geer has seen an Asilus pierce with it the
elytra of a Coccinella; and I have myself caught the®
with not only an Elater and Curculio, but even a His-
ter, in their mouths. In many Tabani we find four;

a The mode, however, in which this is effected in all insects furnished
with a proboscis, can scarcely be by suction, strictly so called, oF the
abstraction of air, since the air-vessels of insects do not communicate
with their mouths; it is more probably performed in part by capillary
attraction; and, as Lamarck has suggested, (Syst. des Anim. sans Ver të-

bres, p. 193.) in part by a succession of undulations and contractions of
the sides of the organ. b Pratg VI, Fie, 16—19..

o

FOOD OF INSECTS, 399

two. precisely resembling lancets, and two, even to the
Very handles, buck-hafted carving-knives*. The blood-
thirsty gnat has five, some acutely lanced at the extre-
mity, and others serrated on one side. The flea, the
Spider, the scorpion have all instruments for taking
their food of a construction altogether different”. But
it is impossible here to attempt even a sketch of the
Variations in these organs which take place in the
apterous genera, and in many of the dipterous larva.
Suffice it to say that they all manifest the most con-
summate skill in their adaptation to the purposes of
the insects which are provided with them, and which
can often employ them not only as instruments for pre-
paring food, but as weapons of offence and defence, as
tools in the building of their nests, and even as feet.
Some insects in their perfect state, though furnished
with organs of feeding, make no use of them, and con- ;
Sume no food whatever. Of this descripticn are the >)
moth which proceeds from the silk-worm, and seye- j
ral others of the same order; the different species of
Œstrus, and the Ephemere, insects whose history isso
Well known as to afford a moral or a simile to those
most ignorant of natural history, All these live so
Short a time in the perfect state as to need no food.
Indeed it may be laid down as a general rule, that
almost all insects in this state eat mach less than in
that of larve. The voracious caterpillar when trans-
formed into a butterfly needs only a small quantity of
honey ; and the gluttonous maggot, when become a
Y, contents itself with a drop or two of any sweet
liquid. | |

a Poare VIL Fig. 5. b Rana Vil, Bie. 8. 10.

>

400 FOOD’ OF INSECTS.,
While in the state of larve the quantity of food
consumed by insects is vastly greater in proportion
to their bulk than that required by larger animals:

Many caterpillars eat daily twice their weight of

leaves, which is as if an ox, weighing sixty stone,
were to devour every twenty-four hours three quarters
of a ton of grass—a power of stomach which our gra°
ziers may thank their stars that their oxen are not e*
‘dowed with. A probable proximate cause for this
voracity in the case of herbivorous larve has beet
assigned by John Hunter, who attributes it to the
circumstance of their stomach not having the poweF
of dissolving the vegetable matters received into its
but merely of extracting from them a juice*. This 39
proved both by their excrement, which consists of
coiled-up and hardened particles of leaf, that being
put into water expand like tea; and by the great prov
portion which the excrement bears to the quantity °
food consumed. From experiments, with a detail 0

which he has favoured me, made by Colonel Machel!

on the caterpillars of Bombyx Caja, he ascertained
that, though a larva weighing thirty-six grains voided
every twelve hours from fifteen to eighteen grains
weight of exerement, it didnot increase in weight i”
the same period more than one or two grains. os
the other hand, many carnivorous larve increase 1”
„weight in full proportion to the food consumed, a?

that in an astonishing degree. Redi found that the ’
maggots of flesh-flies, of which one day, twenty-five oF

thirty did not weigh above a grain, the next weigh
seven grains each; having thus in twenty-four houf 5
16T-

a Obs. on the Animal Economy, p. 221. Compare Reaum. ii.

FOOD OF INSECTS. AOl

become about two hundred times heavier than be-
fore”;

Some insects have the faculty of sustaining a long
abstinence from all kinds of food. This seems to de-
pend upon the nature of their habits. If the insect
feeds on a substance of a deficiency of which there is
not much probability, as on vegetables, &c., it com-

‘monly requires a frequent supply. If, on the contrary,
itis an insect of prey, and exposed to the danger of
being long deprived ofits food, it is often endowed with
a power of fasting, which would be incredible but for
the numerous facts by which it is authenticated. The
ant-lion will exist without the smallest supply of food,
apparently uninjured, for six months; though, when it
can get it, it will devour daily an insect of its own size.
Vaillant, whose authority may be here taken, assures
us that he kept a spider without food under a sealed. 7
glass for ten months, at the end of which time, though
shrunk in size, it was as vigorous as ever. And Mr.
Baker, so well known for his microscopical discoveries,
States that he kept a beetle (Blaps mortisaga) alive for
three years without food of any kind*. Some insects,
not of a predaceous description, are gifted with a simi-
lar power of abstinence. Leeuwenhoek tells us that a —
mite, which he had gummed alive to the point of a

Needle and placec before his microscope, lived in that

Situation eleven weeks®.

In some cases the very want of food, however para-

a Redi de Insectis, 39. — b New Travels, i. XXXiX» i
c Phil. Trans. 1740, p. 441, -I confess, notwithstanding Mr. Bakers
Seneral accuracy, that I suspect same mistake here.
d Leeuw. Op. ii. 363.
VOL, i. 2n

402 FOOD OF INSECTS.

doxical the proposition, seems actually to be a mean of
prolonging the life of insects. At least one such in-
stance has fallen under my own observation. The
aphidivorous flies, such as Syrphus Pyrastri, &c. live
in the larva state ten or twelve days, in the pupa state
about a fortnight, and as perfect insects sometimes
possibly as long—the whole term of their existence i?
summer not exceeding at the very utmost six weeks.
‘But one*, which I put under a glass on the 2d of June
1811, when about half grown, and, after supplying it
with Aphides once or twice, by accident forgot, I found
‘to my great astonishment alive three months after ; and
it actually lived until the June following without 4
particle of food. It had therefore existed in the larva
l state more than eight times as long as it would have
| lived in all its states, if it had regularly undergone its
metamorphoses—which is as extraordinary a prolon-
gation of life as if a man were to live 560 years. Itis
true that its existence was not worth having even t?
the larva of a fly. For the last eight months it re
mained without motion, attached by its posterior pai"
of tubercles to the paper on which it was placed, mani-
festing no other symptoms of life than by moving the
fore part of the body when touched, and replacing it-

a Not having ever met with another specimen, I am unable to say of >
‘what precise species of aphidivorous fly it is the larva, nor can I find #
figure of it, though it approaches near to one given by De Geer (vi. t. T.
f- 1-3). Its shape is oblong-oval, length about four lines, and colo”
pale red speckled with black. Each of the seven or eight segments which
compose the body projects on each side into three serrated flat aculei of
teeth; three or four similar but smaller aculei arm the head: and tw?’
much larger than the rest, the anus, one on each side of the usual bifid pO”
tuberance which bears the respiratory plates. A bifid tubercular ele-
vation is also placed in the middle of the baek of each segment.

‘Pood OF INSECTS, f 403

self on its belly if turned upon its back. But this was
quite enough to prove it still alive:—I can attribute
this singular result to no other circumstance than its
having been deprived ofa sufficient quantity of food to
bring it into the pupa state, though provided with
enough for the attainment of nearly its full growth as
larva. Possibly the same remote cause might act in
this case, as operates to prolong the term of existence
of annual plants that have been prevented from per-
fecting their seed; and it would almost seem to favour
the hypothesis of some physiologists, who contend that
every organized being has a certain portion of irrita-
bility originally imparted to it, and that its life will be.
- long or short as this is slowly or rapidly excited—no
great consolation this for the advocates for fast-living,
unless they are in good earnest in their affected prefe-
rence of a “short life and a merry one:”’ though it
must be admitted that they would have the best of the
argument were the alternative such a state of torpid
insensibility as that with which our larva purchased
the prolongation of its existence.

After this general view of the food of insects, and of
circumstances connected with it, I proceed to give you
an account of some peculiarities in their modes of pro-
curing it. |

The vegetable feeders have for the most part but little
difficulty in supplying their wants. In the larva state
they generally find themselves placed by the parent in-
sect upon the very plant or substance which is to nou-
rish them; and in their perfect state their wings or feet

afford a ready conveyance to the banquet to which by
TDZ i

t

A404 FOOD OF INSECTS.

an unerring sense they are directed. All nature lies
before them, and it is only when their numbers are ex-
traordinarily increased, or in consequence of some un-
usual destruction of their appropriate aliment, that they
perish for want. The description of their food renders
unnecessary those artifices to which many of the carni-
vorous insects are obliged to have recourse; and none
of them, if we except the Termites, whose cunning
mode of insinuating themselves into houses in tropical
climates has ‘been detailed in a former letter, can be
said to use stratagem in obtaining their food.

Of the carnivorous species, the greater proportion
attack their prey by open violence, such as the Cicin-
dele, Carabide and Staphylinide ; the Ichneumonide,
Spheges and Vespw; the Mantes, Cimicide, Libellu-
lide, &c.;. which have been before adverted to. But
a very considerable number, chiefly, however, of one
tribe, that of spiders, provide their sustenance solely
by artifice and stratagem, the singularity of which, and
the admirable adaptation of the instruments by which
they take their prey to the end in view, afford a most
wonderful instance of the power and wisdom of the
Creator, and have attracted admiration in all ages. A
description of these, however, which will require a de-
tailed survey, I must refer to another letter.

I am,

LETTER XIU.

FOOD OF INSECTS CONTINUED.

STRATAGEMS EMPLOYED IN PROCURING IT.

The stratagems of insects in obtaining their food are
now to engage our attention. I shall not dwell on those
inartificial modes of surprising their prey, of which
examples may be found amongst almost every order of
insects, such as watching behind a leaf or other object
_ affording concealment until its approach; but shall
proceed to describe the various artifices of the race of
Spiders, of which there are several hundred distinct
Species differing essentially from each other both in
characters and manners.

` Many of these are constantly under our eyes; and
Were it not that we are accustomed to negleet what is
the subject of daily occurrence, we should never be-
hold a spider’s web without astonishment. What, if
we had not witnessed it, would seem more incredible
than that any animal should spin threads; weave these
threads into nets more admirable than ever fowler or
fisherman fabricated ; suspend them with the nicest

Judgement in the place most abounding i in the va
for prey; and there concealed watch patiently its ap-

Proach? In this case, asin so many others, we neglect
*ctions in minute animals, which in the larger would

406 z FOOD OF INSECTS.

excite our endless admiration. How would the world
crowd to see a fox which should spin ropes, weave
them into an accurately-meshed net, and extend this
net between two trees for the purpose of entangling 4
flight of birds? Or should we think we had ever eX”
pressed sufficient wonder at seeing a fish which ob-
tained its prey by a similar contrivance? Yet there
would, in reality, be nothing more marvellous in their
procedures than in those of spiders, which, indeed, the
minuteness of the agent renders more wonderful.

All spiders do not spin webs. A considerable num-
ber adopt other means for catching insects. Of these Í
shall speak hereafter. At present I shall endeavour to
give you a clear idea of the operations of the weavers,
explaining successively the instruments by which they |
spin—the mode of forming their nets, together with
the various descriptions of them—and the manner in
which they entrap and secure their prey.

The thread spun by spiders is in substance similar to
the silk of the silk-worm and other caterpillars, but of
a much finer quality. Asin them, it proceeds from r°”
servoirs, into which it is secreted in the form ofa viscid
gum; but in the mode of its extrication is very dissi-
milar, issuing not from the mouth but the hinder part
of the abdomen. If you examine a spider, you wi
perceive in this part four little teat-like protuberance?
or spinners. These are the machinery through which,
by a process more singular than that of rope-spinning?
the thread is drawn. Each spinner is furnished with
a multitude of tubes, so numerous and so exquisitely
fine, that a space often not much bigger than the point

FOOD OF INSECTS; 407

ed end of a pin, is furnished, according to Reaumur?,
with a thousand of them. From each of these tubes,
consisting of two pieces, the last of which terminates in
a point infinitely fine, proceeds a thread. of inconceivy-
able tenuity, which, immediately after issuing from it,
unites, with all the other threads into one. Hence from
each spinner proceeds a compound thread; and these
four threads, at the distance of about one-tenth of an
inch from the apex of the spinners, again unite, and
form the thread we are accustomed to see, which the
spider uses in forming its web, -The threads, however,
are not all of the same thickness, for Leeuwenhoek ob-
served that some of the tubes were larger than others,
and furnished a larger thread. Thus a spider’s thread,
even spun bythe smallest species, and when so fine that
it is almost imperceptible to our senses, is not, as we
suppose, a single line, but a rope composed of at least
four thousand strands. How astonishing! But to feel
all the wonder of this fact we must follow Leeuwen-
hoek in,one of his calculations ‘on the subject. - This
renowned microscopic observer found by an accurate
estimation that the threads of the minutest spiders,
some of which are not larger than a grain of sand, are
so fine that four millions of them would not exceed in
thickness one.of the hairs of hisbeard, Now we know
that each of these threads is composed of above 4000

a Reaum. Mem. de P Acad. de Paris, An. 1713. 211,—-De Geer, vii. 1873
See also Hoole’s Leeuwenhoek, i. 41. t.2. f. 20-22. Leeuwenhoek ex-
‘amined a spinner that was not so big as a common grain of sand, and the
number of tubes issuing from it was more than a hundred. He affirms
that, besides the larger spinners, in the space between them there are four
smaller ones, each furnished with organs for spinning threads, but smaller
And fewer in number. See Prats XXIII. Fic, 16, 17,

408 FOOD OF INSECTS.

still finer. Tt follows, therefore, that above sixteen
thousand millions of the finest threads which issue from
such spiders are not together thicker than a haman
hair! Of such tenuity it is utterly beyond the power
of the imagination to_conceive: the very idea over-
whelms our faculties, and humbles us under a sense of
their imperfection.—Of the probable accuracy of this
calculation you may any day in summer convince your”
self, by taking one of the large field spiders (Aranea
Diadema, L.), and after pressing its abdomen against @
leaf or other substance, so as to attach the threads to
the surface—the same preliminary step which the spi-

der adopts in spinning—drawing it gradually to a small

‘distance. You will plainly perceive that the prope?
thread of the spider is formed of four smaller threads,
and these again of threads so fine and numerous, that
there cannot be fewer than a thousand issue from each
spinner; and if you pursue your researches with the
microscope, you will find that precisely the same takes
place in the minutest species that spins.— You will im
quire what can be the end of machinery so complex?

One probable reason is, that it was necessary for dry-
ing the gum sufficiently to form a tenacious line, that
an extensive surface should be exposed to the aif;
which is admirably effected by dividing it at its exit
from the abdomen into such numerous threads. But
„the chief cause, perhaps, is the occasion (hereafter to be
adverted to) which the spider sometimes has to employ
‘its threads in their finer and unconnected state before
they unite to form a single one,—The spider is gifted
by her Creator with the power of closing the orifice?
of the spinners at pleasure, and can thus, in 'droppi?ë

‘

FOOD OF INSECTS. 409

from a height by her line, stop her progress at any
point of her descent: and, according to Lister?, she is
also able to retract her threads within the abdomen;

but this is doubted, and with apparent reason, by De

Geer”.
The only other instruments a by the spider

in weaving are her feet, with the claws of which she
usually guides, or keeps separated intotwo or more, the
line from behind; and in many species these are admi-
rably adapted for the purpose, two of them being fur-
nished underneath with teeth like those of a comb, by
means of which the threads are kept asunder. But
another instrument was wanting. The spider in ascend-
ing the line by which she has dropped herself from an
eminence, winds up the superfluous cord into a ball.
In performing this the pectinated claws would not have
been suitable. She is therefore furnished with a third
claw between the other two °, and is thus provided for
“every occasion.
The situations in which spiders place their nets are
as various as their construction. Some prefer the open
air, and suspend them in the midst of shrubs or plants
most frequented by flies and other small insects, fixing
them in a horizontal, a vertical, or an oblique direc-
tion. Others select the corners of windows and of
rooms, where prey always abounds; while many esta-
blish themselves in stables and neglected out-houses,
and even in cellars and desolate places in which one
would scarcely expect a fly to be caught in a month.
It is with the operations of these last especially, that

a Hist, Anim. Ang. p. 8. -b De Geer, vii. 189.
e Leeuw. Opusc, iii. 317. f, H

410 FOOD OF INSECTS.

we are accustomed to associate the ideas of neglect and

desertion by man—associations which both in painting
and allegory have been often happily applied. Ho-
garth, when he wished to produce a speaking picture of
neglected charity, clothed the poor’s box in one of his
pieces with a spider’s web: and the Jews, in one of
the fables with which they have disfigured the records
of holy writ, have not less ingeniously availed them-
selves of the same idea. They relate that the reason
why Saul did not discover David and his men in the
cave of Adullam* was, that God had sent a spider
which had quickly woven aweb across the entrance of
the cave in which they were concealed; which being
observed by Saul, he thought it useless to investigate
further a spot bearing such evident proofs of the ab-
sence of any human being”.
The most incurious observer must have remarked
the great difference which exists in the construction of
spiders’ webs. Those which we most commonly see in
houses are of a woven texture similar to fine gauze,
and are appropriately termed webs ; while those most
frequently met with in the fields are composed of &
series of concentric circles united by radii diverging
_ from the centre, the threads being remote from each
other. ‘These last, which in their simple state, or still
more when studded with dew drops, you must have @
thousand times admired, are with greater propriety
termed nets; and the insects which form them proceed-
ing on geometrical principles may be called geometri-
cians, while the former can aspire only to the humbler
denomination of weavers. I shall endeavour to describe

al Sam, xxiv. 4. b Lesser, La ti. 294.

FOOD OF INSEETS. All

the process followed in the construction of both, be-
ginning with the latter.

The weaving spider which is found in houses, having
selected some corner for the site of her web, and deter-
mined its extent, presses her spinners against one of
the walls, and thus glues to it one end of her thread.
She then walks along the wall to the opposite side,
and there in‘like manner fastens the other end. This
thread, which is to form the outer margin or selvage
of her web, and requires strength, she triples or qua-

_druples by a repetition of the operation just described ;
and from it she draws other threads in various diree-
tions, the interstices of which she fills up by running
from one to the other, and connecting them by new
threads until the whole has assumed the gauze-like
texture which we see. Books of natural history, all
copying from one another, have described these kinds
of web as fabricated of a regular warp and woof, or of —
parallel longitudinal Jines crossed at right angles by |
transverse ones glued to them at the points of intersec-
tion. This, however, is clearly erroneous, as you will
see by the slightest examination of a web of this kind,
in which no such regularity of texture can be disco-
vered.

The webs just EN present merely a simple
horizontal surface, but others more frequently seen in
out-houses and amongst bushes possess avery artificial |
appendage. Besides the main web, the spider carries
up from its edges and surface a number of single threads
often to the height of mary feet, joining and crossing
each other in various directions. Across these lines,
which may be compared to the tackling of a ship, flies

ALQ _ FOOD OF INSECTS.

seem unable toavoid directing their flight, The certait

consequence is, that in striking against these ropes they
become slightly entangled, and, in their endeavours to
disengage themselves, rarely escape being precipitated
into the net spread underneath for their reception,
where their doom is inevitable.

- But the net is still incomplete. It is necessary that
our hunter should conceal her grim visage from the
game for which she lies in wait. She does not there-
fore station herself upon the surface of her net, but in
a small silken apartment constructed below it, ani
completely hidden from view. “ In this corner,” to
use the quaint translation of Pliny by Philemon Hol-
land, Doctor in Physic*, “with what subtiltie doth
she retire making semblance as though she meant no-
thing less than that she doth, and as if she went about
some other business! nay, how close lieth she, that it
is impossibleto see whether any one be within or not”
But thus removed to a distance from her net and en-
_tirely out of sight of it, how is she to know when her
prey is entrapped? For this difficulty our ingenious
-weaver has provided. She has taken eare to spin se-
veral threads from the edge of the net to that of her
hole, which at once inform her by their vibrations of

the capture of a fly, and serve as a bridge on which i^

an instant she can run to secure it.

You will readily conceive that the geometrical spi
ders, in forming their concentric circled nets, follow
a process very different from that just described, than
which indeed it isin many respects more curious. AS
the net is usually fixed in a perpendicular or somewhat

a {, xi, c, 24,

FOOD OF INSEOTS. 413

oblique direction, in an opening between the leaves of
Some shrub or plant, it is obvious that round its whole
extent will be required lines to which can be attached
those ends of the radii that are furthest from the centre.
Accordingly the construction of these exterior lines is
the spider’s first operation. She seems careless about
the shape of the area which they inclose, well aware
that she can as readily inscribe a circle in a triangle as
ina Square, and in this respect she is guided by the
distance or proximity of the points to which she can ate
tachthem. She spares no pains, however, to strengthen |
and keep them in a -proper degree of tension. With
the former view she composes each line of five or six or
“ven more threads glued together; and with the latter
she fixes to them from different points a numerous and.
Intricate apparatus of smaller threads. Having thus
‘ompleted the foundations of her snare è, she proceeds
to fill up the outline. Attaching a thread to one of the
ain lines, she walks along it, guiding it with one of
her hind feet that it may not touch in any-part and be
Prematurely glued, and crosses over to the opposite
Side, where by applying her spinners she firmly fixes
't. To the middle of this diagonal thread, which is to
form the centre of her net, she fixes a second, whieh in
‘ike manner she conveys and fastens to another part of
@ lines encircling the area. “Her work now proceeds
"apidly. During the preliminary operations she some-
times rests, as though her plan required meditation.
ut no sooner are the marginal lines of her net firmly

Iam not certain whether the garden spider does not more frequently

"Rone or two of the principal radii of the net, before she spins the
xia. cy.
Xterior lines,

Aja TOOD OF INSECTS.

stretched, and two or three radii spun from its centre»
than she continues her labour so quickly and unremit-

tingly that the eye can scarcely follow her progress-
The radii to the number of about twenty, giving the
net the appearance of a wheel, are speedily finished-
She then proceeds to the centre, quickly turns herself ¿
round, and pulls each thread with her feet to ascertail™ ?
its strength; breaking any one that seems defective and
replacing it by another. Next, she głues immediately
round the centre five or six small concentric circles
distant about half a line from each other, and then fou"
or five larger ones, each separated by a space of hal

an inch or more. These last serve as a sort of temp
rary scaffolding to walk over, and to keep the radi}
properly stretched while she glues to them the conce?”
tric circles that are to remain, which she now proceed®
toconstruct. Placing herself at the circumference, a”
fastening her thread to the end of one of the radii, she
walks up that one, towards the centre, to such @ di-
stance as to draw the thread from her body of a sul-
ficient length to reach to the next. Then steppine
across and conducting the thread with one of her hin‘

feet, she glues it with her spinners to the pointin the
adjoining radius to which it is to be fixed. This pre
cess she repeats until she has filled up nearly the who
space from the circumference to the centre with co”
centric circles distant from each other about two ine”
She always, however, leaves a vacant interval arou”

the smallest first spun circles that are nearest to tbe
centre, but for what end I am unable to conjecture
Lastly, she runs to the centre and bites away the sma |
cotton-like tuft that united all the radii, which bei?

FOOD OF INSECTS, 415

now held together by the circular threads have thus
probably their elasticity increased ; and in the circular
Opening resulting from this procedure she takes her
Station and watches for her prey.

In the above description, which is from my own ob-
-Servations, I have supposed the spider to fix the first
and main line of her net to points from one of which she
Could readily climb to the other, dragging it after her ;
and many of these nets are placed in situations where
this is very practicable. They are frequently, how-
ever, stretched in places where it is quite impossible for
the spider thus to convey her main line—between the
branches of lofty trees having no connexion with each
Other; between two distinct and elevated buildings;
and even between plants growing in water. Here then
à difficulty occurs. How does the spider contrive to ex-
tend her main line, which is often many feet in length,
across inaccessible openings of this description 2.

With the view of deciding this question, to which I
Could find no very satisfactory answer in- books, I
Made an experiment, for the idea of which I am in-
debted to a similar one recorded by Mr. Knight + who
informs us that if a spider be placed upon an upright
Stick having its bottom immersed in water, it will, after
trying in vain all other modes of escape, dart out nu-
merous fine threads so light as to float in the air, some
ne of which attaching itself to a neighbouring object
furnishes a bridge for its escape. It was clear that if
this mode is pursued by the geometric spiders, it would
80 considerably towards furnishing a solution of the
difficulty in question, I accordingly placed the large

2 Treatise on the Apple and Pear, p. 97, pal x

416 FOOD OF INSECTS.

field spider (4. Diadema) upon a stick about a foot
long, set upright in a vessel containing water. After
fastening its thread (as all spiders do before they
move) at the top of the stick, it crept down the side
until it felt the water with its fore feet, which seem to
serve as antenne: it then immediately swung itself
from the stick (which was slightly bent) and climbed
up by the thread to the top. This it repeated. perhaps
a score times, sometimes creeping down a different
part of the stick, but more frequently down the very
side it had so often traversed in vain. Wearied with
this sameness in its operations, Lleft the room for some
hours. On my return I was surprised to find my pri-
soner escaped, and not a little pleased to discover, 0?
further examination, a thread extended from the top
of the stick to a cabinet seven or eight inches distant
which thread had doubtless served as its bridge
Eager to witness the process by which the line was.
constructed, I replaced the spider in its former posi
tion. After frequently creeping down and mounting
up again as before, at length it let itself drop from the
top of the stick, not as before by a single thread put
by two, each distant from the other about the twelfth
of an inch, guided as usual by one of its hind feet, a?

one apparently smaller than the other. Whenit had
suffered itself to descend nearly to the surface °

the water, it stopped short, and, by some mean?
which I could not distinctly see, broke off close to the
spinners the smallest thread, which still adhering by
the other end to the top of the stick floated 17 the
air, and was so light as to be carried about by the
slightest breath. On approaching a pencil to the loos?

FOOD OF INSECTS. ALT

énd of this line, it did not adhere from meré contact,
I therefore twisted it once or twice round the pencil,

‘and then drew it tight. The spider, which had previous-
ly climbed to the top of the stick, immediately pulled
at it with one of its feet, and, finding it sufficiently
tense, crept along it, strengthening it as it proceeded
by another thread, and thus reached the pencil *,

That this therefore is one mode by which the geo
metric spiders convey the main line of their nets be-
tween distant objects, there can be no doubt, but that
it is the only one is not so clear. If the position of
the main line be thus determined by the accidental in-
fluence of the wind, we might expect to see these nets

arranged with great- irregularity, and crossing each

other in every direction ; yet it is the fact; that however
closely crowded they may be, they ¢onstantly appear
to be placed not by accident but design, commonly
tunning parallel with each other at right angles with
the points of support, and never interfering. Another
objection too presents itself. From the ca përiment re-

a Some time after making this experiment I eatin upon a passage
‘in Redi (De Insectis, p. 119.) from which it appears that Blancanus, in
his Commentaries upon Aristotle, has related a ser ies of observations which
lea him to precisely the. same result, Lehmann, too, in a paper in the
Transactions of the Society of Naturalists at Berlin (translated i in the Phi-
losophical Magazine, xt. 323.) has given an explanation somewhat similar
df the operations of this very spider, but I am inclined to think errone-
dus in some particulars. He describes.it as emitting numerous ‘floating
threads at the commencement of its descent. That he is mistaken in sup-
Posing these threads to be more than one, is proved. by the fact which E-
have obser ved—that even that one sometimes breaks by the weight of the
Spider. - How then could an insect almost as big asa gooseberry be supa
Ported by a line of the tenuity here attributed to it ?

VOR.E, ~ ae

418 FOOD OF INSECTS.

lated, it is clear that the main line of the net can never
be longer than the height of the object from: which the
spider dropped in forming it. But it is no uncommon
thing to see nets in which these lines are a yard or tw
long, fastened to twigs of grass not. a foot in height,
Be: yet separated by obstacles effettually precluding
the possibility of the spiders having dragged the lines
from one to the other. Here therefore some other pro-
cess must have been used. í
Both these difficulties would be remov = byadopting
the explanation of an anonymous author in the Journal
de Physique*, founded as he asserts on actual obser-
vation. . He says that he saw a. small spider, which he
had forced to suspend itself by its thread from the point
of a feather, shoot out obliquely in opposite directions
other smaller threads, which attached themselves in
the still air of a room, without any influence of the
wind, to the objects towards which they were directed:
He therefore infers that spiders have the power of
shooting out threads and directing them at pleasure to-
wards a determined point, judging of the distance and-
position of the object by some sense of which we are
ignorant. Something like this manceuvre I once myself
witnessed in a male of the small garden spider (Arance
reticulata). It was standing midway ona long perpen-
dicular fixed thread, and an appearance aghi my eye
of what seemed to be the emission of threads from its
projected spinners. Į therefore moved my arm in the
direction in which they apparently proceeded, and, a5
I suspected, a floating thread attached itself to my coat,

a An. vii. Vindemiaire. Translated in Phil. Mag. ii. 215.

FOOD OF INSECTS, 419

atong which the spider crept. As this was connected —
with the spinners of the spider, it could not have been
formed in the same way with the secondary thread of |
A. Diadema above described.
_ Probably in this case, as in so many others, we be-
wilder ourselves by attempting to rue nature bend to
Seneralities to which she disdains to submit. Different
- Spiders may lay the foundations of their net in a dif-

ferent manner; some on the plan adopted by 4. Dia-
dema; others, as Lister long ago conjectured ®, by shoot-
ing out threads in the mode of the flying species as in
the instances recorded by the anonymous observer, and
Mr. Knight. Nor isit improbable that the same spe-
cies has the power of ae its procedures according

to circumstances.

How far these suppositions are correct itis impossible
to determine without further experiments, which it is
Somewhat strange should not before now have been in-
Stituted. Pliny thought it nothing to the credit of the
Philosophers of his day, that while they were disputing
about the number of heroes, of the name of Hercules,
and the site of the sepulchre of Bacchus, they should
not have decided whether the queen bee had a sting or-
hot’; but it seems much more discreditable to the En-
hen olowidts of ours, that they should yet be ignorant
how the geometric “fits fix their nets. One excuse
for them is, that these insects generally begin their ope-
tations in the night, so that, though it is very easy to
See them spinning their concentric circles, it is seldom
that they can be caught laying the foundations of their
nares. Yet doubtless the lucky moment might be hit

a Hist, Anim Ang: p.7. b Plin, Hist, Nat, 1. xi e IT,
2E?

490 FOOD OF INSECTS, ~

by an attentive observer, and I shall be glad if my at- `
tempt to describe their more ordinary operations should
induce you to aim at signalizing yourself by the djs-
covery. If you failed in solving every difficulty, yo"
would at least be rewarded by witnessing their indus-
try, ingenuity, and patience. l at iit
_ For the latter virtue they have no small occasion-
Incapable of actively pursuing their prey, they are de-
pendent upon what chance conduets into their toils,
which, especially those spread in neglected buildings
often remain for a long period empty. Even the geo-
metrical spiders, which fix themselves in the midst of
a well-peopled district in the open air, have frequently
to sustain a protracted abstinence. A continued stor™
of wind and rain will demolish their nets, and preclude
the possibility of reconstructing them for many day®
or sometimes weeks, during which nota single gua?
regales their sharp-set appetites. And when at length
formed anew or repaired, an unlucky bee or wasp, 0”
an overgrown fly, will perversely entangle itself in
toils not intended for insects of its bulk, and in disen“
gaging itself once more leave the net in ruin, —Alb
these trials move not our philosophic race. They p
tiently sit in their watching-place in the same posture
scarcely ever stirring but when the expected prey ap”
pears. And however repeatedly their nets are injure
or destroyed, as long as their store of silk is une”
hausted, they repair or reconstruct them without los*
of time.

Fhe web of a house spider will, with occasional re-
pairs, serve for a considerable period; but the nets of
the geometric spiders are in favourable weather«?°

FOOD‘OF INSECTS, | 42l

“sewed either wholly, or-at least their concentric circles,

every twenty-four hours, even when not apparently

injured. This difference in the operations of the two

tribes depends upon a very remarkable peculiarity in

the conformation of their snares. The threads of the

house spider’s web.are all of the same kind of silk, and

flies are caughtin them from their claws becoming en-.
tangled in the fine meshes which form the texture.

On the other hand the net of the garden spider is com-

posed of two distinct kinds of silk; that ofthe radii not

adhesive, that of the circles extremely viscid*. The

tause of this difference, which, when it is considered

that both sorts of silk proceed from the same instru-

ment, is truly wonderful, may be readily perceived. If
you examine a newly formed net with a microscope,

you will find that the threads composing the outline

and the radii are simple, those of the circles closely
Studded with minute dew-like globules, which from the
elasticity of the thread are easily separable from each

other. That these are in fact globules, of viscid gum,

_ Is proved by their adhering to the finger and retaining
dust thrown upon the net, while the unadhesive radii
and exterior threads remain unsoiled. It is these

gummed threads alone which retain the insects that fly
into the net; and as they lose their viscid properties

by the action of the air, it is necessary that they should

be frequently renewed. | BS E TUR

- In this renewal, as above hinted, the geometrical

Spiders are constantly regulated by the future proba-
ble state of the atmosphere, of which they have sucha
‘` a May not the spinners mentioned by Leeuwenhoek (see above p. 405,

Rote) be peculiar to the retiary spiders, and furnish this viscid thread ?
p y SĮ > ;

\

492 FOOD OF INSECTS.

nice perception, that M. Q. D’Isjonval, to whom we
are indebted for the fact, has proposed them as most
accurate barometers. He asserts that if the weather be
about to be variable, wet and stormy, the main threads
which support the net will be certainly short; but if
fine settled weather be on the point of commencing,
these threads willbe asinvariably very long *. W ithout
going the length with M. D’Isjonval of deeming his
discoveries important eñough to regulate the march of
armies, or the sailing of fleets, or of proposing that the
firstappearance of these barometrical spidersin spring
should be announced by the sound of trumpet, I have
reason to suppose from my own observations that bis l
statements are in the main accurate, and that a very
good idea of the weather may be formed from attend-
ing to these insects. l my

~ The spiders which form geometrical nets differ fro™
the weavers also with respect to the situation in which
they watch for their prey. They do not conceal them™
selves under their net, but are placed in the centr?
with their head downwards, andretire to a little apart
ment formed on one side under some leaf of a plant, only
when obliged by danger or the state of the weather
The moment an unfortunate fly or other insect touche
the net, the spider rushes towards it, seizes it with het
fangs, and if it be a small species at once carries it to ,
her little cell, and, having there at leisure sucked iis
juices, throws out the carcase. If the insect be larger
and struggle to escape, with surprising address she €27
velops it with threads in various directions, until poth
its wings and legs being effectually fastened, sheearrie®

a Brez, La Flore des Insectophites, 129.

FOOD OF INSECTS. 423

it off to her den. If the captured insect be a bee or a
large fly so strong that the spider is sensible it. is more
than a match for her, she never attempts to seize or even
entangle it, but on the contrary assists it to disengage
itself, and often breaks off that part of the net to which
it hari, content to be rid of suchan unmanageable in-
truder at any price—When larger booty is plentiful,
these spiders seem not to regard smaller insects. I
have observed them in autumn, when their nets were
almost covered with the Aphides which filled the air,
impatiently pulling them off and dropping them un-
-touched over the sides, as though irritated that their,
meshes shouldbe occupied with such insignificant game,
+A species of spider described by Lister, (4. conica,)
more provident than its brethren, suspends its prey in
the meshes above and below the centre, and it is not .
uncommon to see its larder thus stored with several
. flies *, 3
You must not infer that the toils of spiders are in
every part of the world formed of such fragile materials
as those which we are accustomed to see, or that they
are every where contented. with small insects for their
food. An author in the Philosophical Transactions as-
serts, that the spiders of Bermudas spin webs between
trees seven and eight fathoms distant, whichare strong
enough to ensnare a bird as large as a thrush”. And Sir
G. Staunton informs us, that in the forests of Java,
spiders’ webs are met with of so strong a texture as to
requirea sharp cutting instrument to make way through
them.

a Lister, Hist. Anim. = Hei 32, tit, 4. b Phil. Ti. 1668, p. 792.

c Embassy to China, i. 343.

424 FOOD OF INSECTS.

Nor must you ‘suppose that all the spiders of this:
country which catch their prey by means of snares, fol-
low the same plan in constructing them asthe weavers
and geometricians whose operations I have endea-
voured to describe. The form of their snares and the.
situation in which they place them are so various; that
it is impossible to enumerate more than a few of the
most remarkable. Aranealabyrinthica, L. extends over
the blades of grass a large white horizontal net having
at its margin a cylindrical cell, in the bottom of which,
secure from birds and defended from the rays of the
sun, the spider lies concealed, whence on the slightest
movement of her net’ she rushes out upon her prey:
A. latens, F., conceals itself under a small net spur
upon the upper surface of a leaf, and thence seizes upon
any insect that chances to pass over it. A. 13-guttata,
Rossi, forms under stones and in slight furrows in the
ground anet consisting of threads spun without any
regularity in all directions, but so strong as to entrap.
grass-hoppers, which are said to be its principal foods —
and a similar inartificial snare of simple threads i5
often spun in windows by A. bipunctata, L. and several
other species. 4. senoculata and its affinities conceal
themselves in a long cylindrical straight silken tube,
from the mouth of which they stretch out their six an
terior feet, whose extremities rest upon as many. dis,
verging threads : thus, as soon asan insect walks across.
any of the threads (which are eight or ten inches long )
the insect’s toes give it warning of prey being at hand,
when it rushes ht and seldom fails to secure its victim.

sc The spider’s touch how exquisitely fine !
Feels at each thread, and Jives along the'line.”

FOOD OF INSECTS. 425

M. Homberg tells us that he has seen a vigorous wasp
carried off and destroyed by one of these species.

. The spiders, to which I have hitherto adverted, seize
their prey by means of webs or nets; but a very large
number, though, like the former, they spin silken co-
coons for containing their eggs, never employ the same
Material in constructing similar snares, of which they
make no use, | l Aa
These may be separated into two grand divisions;
the first comprising those which conceal themselves
and lie in ambuscade for their prey, and sometimes run
after it to a short distance; the second, those which are
constantly roaming about in every direction in search of
it, and seize it by open violence. The former Walcke-
naer, in his admirable work on spiders, has designated
by the name of Vagrants, the latter by that of Hunters;
terming those already mentioned which spin webs and
nets, Sedentaries: if to these you add the Swimmers,
or those species which catch their prey in the water,
you will have an idea of the general manners of the
whole race of spiders. A
The artifices of that tribe which Walckenaer has
named vagrants are various and singular. A. holose-
ricea and many other species conceal themselves in a
little cell formed of the rolled-up leaf of a plant, and
thence dart upon any insect which chances to pass;
while A. atrox and its affinities select for their place of
ambush a hole in a wall, or lurk behind a stone, or in
the bark ofa tree. A. calycina more ingeniously places
herself at the bottom of the calyx of a dead flower, and.
pounces upon the unwary flies that come in search of

426 FOOD OF INSECTS.

honey; and A. arundinacea buries herself in the thick
panicle ofa reed, and seizes the luckless visitors enticed
to rest upon her silvery concealment. Many of this
tribe at times quit their habitations, and by various
stratagems contrive to come within reach of their prey;
as by pretending to be dead, hiding themselves behind
any slight projection, &c. A white species I have often
observed squatted in the blossom of the hawthori: of
on the flowers of umbelliferous plants, and is thus ef
fectuaily concealed by the similarity of colour.
Foremost amongst the spiders comprehended by
Waickenaer under the general name of hunters, which
search after and openly seize their prey, must be ent-
merated the monstrous A. avicularia, at ieast two inches
tong, which takes up its abode in the woods of Sc uth
America, and has been reputed to seize and devour
even small birds; but this is wholly denied by Langs-
dorf who declares that it eats only tnsects?. This spe-
cies, as well as another tropical one, A. venatoria, the
European A. cementaria, and many others, construct
in the ground very singular cylindrical cavities, and
therein carry and devour their prey. These, being
rather the habitations of insects than snares, I shall
describe in a subsequent letter. 4. saccata, the species
whese affection fer its young I have before detailed,
and not a few others of the same family, common iP
this country, in like manner seize their prey openly,
and when caught carry it to little inartificial cavities
under stones. 4. fimbriata, L. hunts along the margins
of pools; and Lycosa piralica of Walckenaer and Hs
congeners not only chase their prey in the same situ-

a Bemerkungen auf einer Reise um die Welt. i. 63.

FOOD OF INSECTS. 497

ation, but, venturing to skate upon the surface of the
water itself,
s . bathe unwet their oily forms,-and dwell .
With feet repulsive on the dimpling well.”

The Rev. R. Sheppard has often noticed in the fen
ditches of Norfolk a very large spider which actually
‘forms a raft for the purpose of obtaining its prey with
“more facility. Keeping its station upon a ball of weeds
“about three inches in diameter, probably held together
by slight silken cords, it is wafted along the surface of
the water upon this floating island, which it quits the
moment it sees a drowning insect—not, as you may
conceive, for the sake of applying to it the process of
the Humane Society, but of hastening its exit by a
more speedy engine of destruction. The booty thus
seized it devours at leisure upon its raft, under which
it retires when alarmed by any danger. -

The last of the tribe of hunters that it is necessary to
particularize, are those which, like the tigers amongst
the larger animals, seize their victims by leaping upon
them. To this divison belongs a very pretty small
banded species, 4. scenica, which in summer may be
seen running on every wall.

To Walckenaer’s swimmers, the last of his grand
tribes of spiders, including Aranea aquatica, L. &c.,
the first line of the above quotation from Dr. Darwin is
particularly applicable; for these actually seize their
food by diving under the water, their bodies being kept
unwet by a coating of air which constantly surrounds
them.—Thus one single race of insects exemplify in
miniature almost all the modes of obtaining food which
prevail amongst predaceous quadrupeds—the auda-

428 : FOOD OF INSECTS,

cious attack of the lion; the wily spring of the tiger;
` the sedentary cunning of the lynx; and the amphibious
dexterity of the otter,

This general view of the stratagems by which the
spider tribe obtain their food, imperfect as it is, will, I
trust, have interested you sufficiently to drive away the
associations of disgust with which you, like almost
every one else, have probably been accustomed to re-

_gard these insects, Instead of considering them as re-
pulsive compounds of cruelty and ferocity, you will
henceforward see in their procedures only the inge-
-nious contrivance of patient and industrious hunters,
' who, while obeying the great law of nature in procu-
ring their sustenance, are actively serviceable to the
human race in destroying noxious insects, You will
_allow the poet to stigmatize them as |
so) eoero Cunning and fierce,
Mixture abhorred!”
but you will see that these epithets are in reality aë
unjustly applied to them (at least with reference to
the mode in which they procure their necessary sub-
sistence) às to the patient sportsman who lays snares
for the birds that are to serve for 1e dinner of his
family; and when you hear
c. ee. the Buttering wing
And shriller sound declare extreme distress,”

you will as little think it the part of true mercy to
stretch forth “ the helping hospitable hand” to the
entrapped fly as to the captive birds. The spider rer
quires his meal as well as the Indian: and, however

to our weak capacity the great law of creation = eat

<

FOOD OF INSECTS. AD.

or be eaten” may seem cruel or unnecessary, knowing”
as we do that it is the ordinance of a beneficent Being,
who does all things well, and that in fact the sum of
happiness is greatly augmented by it, no man, who
does-not let a morbid sensibility get the better of his
judgement, will, on account of their subjection to this
rule, look upon predaceous animals with abhorrence.
One more instance of the stratagems of insects in
procuring their prey shall conclude this letter. Other
examples might be adduced, but the enumeration would
be tedious. This, from an order of insects widely dif-
fering from that which includes the race of spiders, is
perhaps more curious and interesting than any of those
hitherto recited. Tke insect to which I allude, an in-
habitant of the south of Europe, is the larva of a spe-
cies of ant-lion (Myrmeleon, L.), so called from its
Singvlar manners in this state. It belongs to a genus
between the dragon-fly and the Hemerobius. When
full grown its length is about halfan inch: in shape it
has a slight resemblance to a wood-louse, but the out-
Tine of the body is more triangular, the anterior part
being considerably wider than the posterior: it has six
legs, and the mouth is furnished with a forceps consist-
ing of two: incurved jaws, which give it a formidable
appearance*. If we looked only at its external con-
formation and habits, we should be apt to conclude it
one‘ of the most helpless animals in the creation. Its
Sole food is the juices of other insects, particularly ants,
but at the first view. it seems impossible that it should
ever secure a single meal. Not only is its pace slow,

a Prats XIX, Fie. 8.4 Z

430 FOOD OF INSECTS.

but it can walk in no other direction than backwards:
you may judge, therefore, what would be such a hun-
ter’s chance of seizing an active ant. Nor would a
= stationary posture be more favourable; for its grim
aspect would infallibly impress upon all wanderers the
prudence of keeping at a respectful distance. What
then is to become of our poor ant-lion? In its appetite
itis a perfect epicure, never, however great may be
its hunger, deigning to taste of a carcase unless it has
previously had the enjoyment of killing it; and then
extracting only the finer juices. In what possible way
can it contrive to supply such a succession of delicacies,
when its ordinary habits seem to unfit it for obtaining
even the coarsest provision? You shall hear. It ac-
complishes by artifice what all its open efforts would
have been unequal to. It digs in loose sand a conical
pit, in the bottom of which it conceals itself, and there
seizes upon the insects which, chancing to stumble over |
_ the margin, are precipitated down the sides to the cen-
tre. “ How wonderful!” you exclaim: but you will
be still more surprised when I have described the whole
process by which it excavates its trap, and the inge
nious contrivances to which it has recourse.

Its first concern is to find a soil of loose dry sand, in
the neighbourhood of which, indeed, its provident mo-
ther has previously taken care to place it, and in 4
sheltered spot near an old wall, or at the foot of a tre _
This is necessary on two accounts: the prey most ac
ceptable to it abounds there, and no other soil would

suit for the construction of its snare. Its next step 18
to trace in the sand a circle, which, like the furrow with ©
which Romulus marked out the limits of his new citys

FOOD.OF INSECTS. - ASI

is to determine the extent of its future abode. This
being done, it proceeds to excavate the cavity by throw-
ing out the sand in a mode not less singular than effec-
tive, Placing itself in the inside of the circle which it
has traced, it thrusts the hind part of its body under the
_ Sand, and with one of its fore-legs, serving asa shovel,
it charges its flat and square head with a load, which
it immediately throws over the outside of the circle
with a jerk strong enough to carry it to the distance of
_ Several inches. This little manceuvre is executed with
‘Surprising promptitude and address. A gardener does
hot operate so quickly nor so well with his spade and
his foot, as the ant-lion with its head and leg.—Walk-
ing backwards, and constantly repeating the process,
it soon arrives at the part of the circle from which it set
out. It then traces a new one, excavates another fur-
row in a similar manner, and by a repetition of these
Operations at length arrives at the centre of its cavity.
-One circumstance deserves remark—that it never loads l
its head with the sand lying on the outside of the circle,
though it would be as easy to do this with the outward
leg, as to remoye the sand within the circle by the inner
leg. But it knows that it is the sand in the interior of
the circle only that is to be excavated, and it therefore
Constantly uses the leg next the centre. It will readily
occur, however, that to use one leg as a shovel exclu-
Sively throughout the whole of such a toilsome oper
tion, would be extremely wearisome and painful. For
this difficulty our ingenious pioneer has.a resource.
After finishing the excavation of one circular furrow, it
traces the next in an opposite direction ; and thus alter-
nately exercises each of its legs without tiring either.

Q se
a

439 #OOD OF INSECTS.”

In the course of its labours it frequently meets with
gmall stones: these it places upon its head one by one;
and jerks over the margin of the pit. But sometimes;
when near the bottom, a pebble presents itself of a size
so large that this process is impossible, its head not
being sufficiently broad and strong to bear so great 4
weight, and the height being too considerable to admit
of projecting so large a body to the top: A more im“
patient labourer would despair, but not so our insect:
A new plan is adopted. By a-manceuvre, not easily
described, it lifts the stone upon its back, keeps it in 2
steady position by an alternate motion of the segments
which compose that part; and carefully walking up the
ascent with the burthen, deposits it on the outside of
the margin. When, as occasionally happens, the stone
is round, the labour becomes most difficult and painful:
A spectator watching the motions of the ant-lion feels
an inexpressible interest in its behalf. He sees it with
yast exertion elevate the stone, and begin its arduous
retrograde ascent : at every moment the burthen tot
- ters to one side or the other: the adroit porter lifts up
the segments of its back to balance it, and has already
_ nearly reached the top of the pit, when a stumble or 4
jolt mocks all its efforts, and the stone tumbles head-
long to the bottom. Mortified, but not despairing, the
_ ant-lion returns to the charge; again replaces the stone
on its back; again ascends the side, and artfully avails
himself, for a road, of the channel formed by the fall-
ing stone, against the sides of which he can support his
load. This time possibly he succeeds; or it may be, af
_ is often the case, the stone again rolls down. Wher
thus unfortunate, our little Sisyphus has been seen Si*

TOOD OF INSECTS: 433

times patiently to renew his attempt, and wasat last, as
such heroic resolution deserved, successful. It is only
after a series of trials have demonstrated the impossi-
‘bility of succeeding that our engineer yields to fate,
and, quitting his half-excavated pit, begins the forma-
tion\of another.

When all obstacles are overcome, and the pit is
finished, it presents itself as a conical hole rather more
than two inches deep, gradually contracting to a point
at the bottom, and about three inches wide at the top*.
The ant-lion now takes its station at the bottom of the
pit, and, that its gruf appearance may not scare the
passengers which approach its den, covers itself with
sand all except the points of its expanded forceps. It
is not long before an ant on its travels, fearing no harm,
Steps upon the margin of the pit, either accidentally or
for the purpose of exploring the depth below. Alas!
its curiosity is dearly gratified. The faithless sand
slides from under its feet; its struggles but hasten its
cestent; and it is precipitated headlong into the jaws
of the concealed devourer. Sometimes, however, it
chances that the ant is able to stop itself midway, and
With all haste scrambles up again. No sooner does
the ant-lion perceive this, (for, being furnished with

six eyes on each side of his head, he is sufficiently
sharp-sighted,) than, shaking off his inactivity, he has-
tily shovels loads of sand upon his head, and vigorously
| a The nests of this animal which I saw at Fonsdindl eas were scarcely
half the dimensions here given, but they might probably be younger in-
sects, I kept one ina box of sand several da-s, in which it regularly
formed its pit, whenever obliterated by shaking. The bottom of the box
unfortunately came out as I was upon my return to England, and the
animal was killed. l
VoL. I. 2F

454 FOOD OF INSECTS.

throws them up in quick succession upon the escaping
insect, which, attacked by such a heavy shower from
above, and treading on so unstable a path, is almost in-
evitably carried to the bottom. The instant his victim.
iş fairly within reach, the ant-lion seizes him between
‘IMs jaws, which are admirable instruments, at the same
time hooked for holding, and hollow, furnished witha
lateral piston, for sucking, and at his leisure extract-
Ing all the juices of the body, regales upon formic acid.
The dry carcase he subsequently jerks out of his den,
that it may not encumber him in his future shots or
betray the “ horrid secrets of his prison-house:”’ and,
if the sides of the pit have received any damage, he
leaves his concealment for awhile to repair it: which
having done, he resumes his station.

‘In this manner in its larva state this insect lives
nearly two years, during all which fime it receives no
food but what has been caught through the artifice
above described. Though all living insects are equally
acceptable to it, as the winged tribe can easily take
flight from its pit should they chance to fall into it, its
prey consists chiefly of apterous species, of which ants
form by far the largest portion, with occasionally an
unwary spider or wood-louse. When the full period of
its. growth is attained it retires under the sand; spins
with its anus a silken cocoon; remains a chrysalis a few
weeks; and then breaks forth a four-winged insect re-
sembling, as before observed, the dragon-fly both in
‘appearance and manners, and preying in li! ke manner
on moths, butterflies, and other insects*.

The larva of Myr meleon formicarius is not the only.

a Reaum. vi. 333-78. Bonnet, ii. 380.

FOOD OF INSECTS. 435

insect which avails itself ofa trap for obtaining its prey.

A plan in most respects similar is adopted by that ofa)
fly (Rhagio Vermilio, F.) in form somewhat resem-

bling the common flesh maggot. 'This also digs a fan-
nel-shaped cavity in loose earth or sand, but deeper
in proportion to its width than that of M. formicarius, |’,
and excavated not by regular circles, but by throwing
out the earth obliquely on all sides. When its trap is
finished, it stretches itself near the bottom, remaining
stiff and without motion like a piece of wood, and the
last segment bent at an angle with the rest so as to
‘form a strong point of support in the struggles which
it often necessarily has with vigorous prey. The mo-
ment an insect falls into the pitfall, the larva writhes
itself round it like a serpent, transfixes it with its man-
dibles, and sucks its juices at its ease. - If the insect
escapes, the larva casts above it jets of sand with sur-
_ prising rapidity*. a ide 2

Tam, &c, »

a Bonnet, ix. 414, De Geer, vi. 168, ¢. 10.

LETTER XIV.

I

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

Iw forming an estimate of the civilization and intellec-
_tual progress of a newly discovered people, we usually
pay attention to their buildings and other proofs of
architectural skill. If we find them, like the wretched
inhabitants of Van Diemen’s Land, without other
abodes than natural caverns or miserable penthouses of
bark, we at once regard them as the most ignorant. and
unhumanized of their race. If, like the natives of the
South Sea Isles, they have advanced a step further, and
enjoy houses formed of timber, thatched with leaves,
and furnished with utensils of different kinds, we are
inclined to place them considerably higher in the scale.
When, as in the case of ancient Mexico, we discover #
nation inhabiting towns containing stone houses, regu“
larly disposed into streets, we do not hesitate without
other inquiry to decide that it must have been civilized
in no ordinary degree. And if it were to chance that
some future Park in Africa should stumble upon the
ruins of a large city, where, in addition to these proof
of science, every building was constructed on just g¢°
metrical and architectural principles; where the ma-
terials were so employed as to unite strength with
lightness, and a confined site so artfully occupied as
to obtain spacious symmetrical apartments, we should

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 437

eagerly inquire into the history of the inhabitants, and
sigh over the remains ofa race whose intellectual ad-
vances we should infer with certainty were not inferior
to our own. |
Were we by the same test to estimate the sagacity of
the different classes of animals, we should beyond all
doubt assign the highest place to insects, which in the
Construction of their habitations leave all the rest far
behind. The nests of birds, from the rook’s rude as-
semblage of sticks to the pensile dwellings of the tailor-
bird, wonderful as they doubtless are, are indisputably
- eclipsed by the structures formed by many insects; and
the regular villages of the beaver, by far the most sa-
Sacious architect amongst quadrupeds, must yield the
Ralm toa wasp’s nest. You will think me here guilty
of exaggeration, and that, blinded by my attachment to
a favourite pursuit, I am elevating the little objects,
which I wish to recommend to your study, to a rank

beyond their just claim. So far, however, am I from
being conscious of any such prejudice, that I do not
hesitate to go further, and assert that the pyramids of
Egypt, as the work of man, are not more wonderful
for their size and solidity than are the structures built

by some insects.

To describe the most remarkable of these is my pre-
Sent object; and that some method may be observed, I
Shall in this letter describe the habitations of insects
living in a state of solitude, and built each by a single
architect; and in a subsequent one, those of insects
living in societies built by the united labours of many.
The former class may be conveniently subdivided into
habitations built by the parent insect, not for its own

=

438 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

‘use, but for the convenience of its future young; and
those which are formed by the insect that inhabits them
for its own accommodation. To the first I shall now
call your attention. ,

-'The solitary insects which construct habitations for
their future young without any view to their own ac-
commodation, chiefly belong to the order Hymeno-
ptera, and are principally different species of wild bees.
Of these the most simple are built by M. succincta, fo-
diens, and other species of the first family of the genus
Melitta, Kirby (Colletes, Latr.).. The situation which
the parent bee chooses, is either the dry earth ofa bank,
or the vacuities of stone walls cemented with earth iñ-
stead of mortar. Having excavated acylinder about
two inches in depth, running usually in a horizontal
- direction, the bee occupies it with three or four cells

about half an inch long, and one-sixth broad, shaped

like a thimble, the end of one fitting into the mouth of

another. The substance of which these cells are formed
_is two or three layers of a silky membrane, composed
~ ofa kind of glue secreted by the animal, resembling

gold-beater’s leaf, but much finer, and so thin and
transparent that the colour of an included object may

be seen through them. As soon as one cell is com”
` pleted, the bee deposits an egg within, and nearly fills
it with a paste composed of pollen and honey; which
having done, she proceeds to form another cell, storing `
it in like manner until the whole is finished, when she
carefully stops up the mouth of the orifice with earth.
Our countryman Grew seems to have found a series
`of these nests in a singular situation—the middle of

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. A389

the pith of an old elder-branch—in which they were
placed lengthwise one after another with a thin boun-
dary between each?, ei ;
Cells composed of a similar membranaceous sub-
Stance, but placed in a different situation, are con-
structed by Apis manicata, L. This gay insect does not
excavate holes for their reception, but places them in
the cavities of old trees, or of any other object that
Suits its purpose. Sir Thomas Cullum discovered.
the nest of one in the inside of the lock of a garden-
gate, in which I have also since twice found them. Tt
should seem, however, that such situations would be
too cold for the grubs without a coating of some non-
conducting substance.. The parent bee, therefore, af-
ter having constructed the cells, laid an egg in each,
and filled them with a store of suitable food, plasters
them with a covering of vermiform masses, apparently
compesed of honey and pollen; and having done this,
aware, longbefore Count Rumford’s experiments, what
materials conduct heat most slowly, she attacks the
woolly leaves of Stachys lanata, Agrostemma corona-~
ria, and similar plants, and with her mandibles m-
- dustriously scrapes off the wooi, which with her fore
legs she rolls into a little ball and. carries to her nest.
This wool she sticks upon the plaster that covers her
cells, and thus closely envelops them with a warm coat-
ing of down impervious to every change of tempera-
ture>, )
a Grew’s Rarities of Gresham Colledge, 154, Kirby Mon. Ap. Angl.
W131, Melitta, *. a. ; ; RRN
b Mon. Ap. Ang. i. 173. Apis **, €. 2. æ. From later observations I

am inclined to think that these ceils may possibly, as in the case of the
humble-bee, be in fact formed by the larva previously to becoming a

440 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

The bee last described may be said to exercise the
trade of a clothier. Another numerous family would
be more properly compared to carpenters, boring with

‘incredible labour out of the solid wood long cylindrical
‘tubes, and dividing them into various cells. Amongst
these, one of the most remarkable is the Apis violacea,L-
(X ‘ylocopa, Latr.),alarge species, a native of Southern
Europe, distinguished by beautiful wings ofa deep vio-
let colour, and found commonly in gardens, in the up-
right putrescent espaliers or vine-props of which, and
occasionally in the garden seats, doors and window-
shutters, she makes her nest. In the beginning of
spring, after repeated and careful surveys, she fixes
“upon a piece of wood suitable for her purpose, and
with her strong mandibles begins the process of boring:
First proceeding obliquely downwards, she soon points
“her course in a direction parallel with the sides of the
wood, and at length with unwearied exertion forms @
cylindrical hole or tunnel not less than twelve or fif-
teen inches long and half an inch broad. Sometimes;
-where the diameter will admit of it, three or four of
these pipes, nearly parallel with each other, are bored
‘in the same piece. Herculean as this task, which 1$

the labour of several days, appears, it is but a small
part of what our industrious bee cheerfully undertakes-
-As yet she has completed but the shell of the destined
habitation of her offspring; each of which, to the num

ber of ten or twelve, will require a separate and di-

pupa, after having eaten the provision of pelien and honey witb which
the parent bee had surrounded it. The vermicular shape, however, °
the masses with which the cases are surrounded, does not seem easily
reconcileable with this supposition, unless they are considered as th?

excr ment of the larva.

i

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. AAI

stinet apartment. How, you will ask, is she to form

these? With what materials can she construct the

floors and ceilings? Why truly Gop “ doth instruct

her to discretion and doth teach her.” In excavating

her tunnel she has detached a large quantity of fibres,

which lie on the ground like a heap of saw-dust. This

matérial supplies all her wants. Having deposited an

egg at the bottom of the cylinder along with the requi-

site store of pollen and honey, she next, at the height

of about three quarters of an inch, (which is the depth
of each cell,) constructs of particles of the saw-dust

glued together, and also to the sides of the tunnel, what `
may be called an annular stage or scaffolding. When

this is sufficiently hardened, its interior edge affords

‘support for a second ring of the same materials, and

thus the ceiling is gradually formed of these concentric

circles, till there remains only a small orifice inits cen-

tre, whichis also closed with a circular mass of agglu-

tinated particles of saw-dust. When this partition,

which serves as the ceiling of the first celland the floor-

ing of the second, is finished, it is about the thickness

of a crown-piece, and exhibits the appearance of as

many concentric circles as the animal has made pauses

in her labour. One cell being finished, she proceeds.
to another, which she furnishes and completes in the
same manner, and so on until she has divided her whole
tunnel into ten or twelve apartments.

Here, if you have followed me in this detail with the
interest which I wish it to inspire, a query will suggest
itself. It will strike you that such a laborious under-
taking as the constructing and furnishing these cells,
cannot be the work of one or even of two days. Cen-

AAG HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

sidering that every cell requires a store of honey and
pollen, not to be collected but with long toil, and that
a considerable interval must be spent in agglutinating
the floors, of each, it will be very obvious to you that
the last egg in the last cell must be laid many days
after the first. We are certain, therefore, that the first
egg will become a grub, and consequently a perfect
bee, many days before the last. What.then becomes of
it? you will ask. It is impossible that it should make
its escape through eleven superincumbent cells without
destroying the immature tenants ; and it seems equally
impossible that it should remain patiently in confine-
ment below them until they are all disclosed. This
dilemma our heaven-taught architect has provided
| against. With forethought never enough to. be ad-
' mired she hasnot constructed her tunnel with one open-
ing only, but at the further end has pierced another
orifice, a kind of back-door, through which the insects
produced by the first-laid eggs successively emerge
into day. In fact, all the young bees, even the upper-
most, go out by this road; for, by an exquisite instinct,
each grub, when about to become a pupa, places itself
in its cell with its head downwards, and thus is neces-
sitated, when arrived at its last state, to pierce its cell
in this direction *. ;

Ceratina albilabris of Spinola, who has given an in-
teresting account. of its manners, (Prosopis, F., Melit-
ta*. b. Kirby,) forms its cell upon the general plan of
the bee just described, but, more economical of labour,
chooses a branch of briar or bramble, in the pith of
which sheexcayates a canal about afoot long and one

A Reaum, yi. 39-50, Mon. Ap. Angl. i, 189, Apis * * a. 2. B,

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 443

line, or sometimes more, in diameter, with from eight
to twelve cells separated from each other by —
of particles of pith glued together*.

: Such are the curious habitations of the carpenter
bees. Next I shall introduce you to the not less inə
teresting structures of another family which carry on
the trade of masons, building their solid houses solely
of artificial stone. The first step of the mother bee,
Apis muraria, Oliv. (Anthophora, F., Megachile, Latr.)
is to fix upon a proper situation for the future mansion
of her offspring. For this;she usually selects an angle,
sheltered by any projection, on the south side ofa stone
wall. Her next care is to provide materials for the
structure. The chief of these is sand, which she care-
fully selects grain by grain from such as contains some
mixture of earth, These grains she glues together
with her viscid saliva into masses the size of small shot,
and transports by means of her jaws to the site of her
castle’. Witha number ofthese masses, which are the
artificial stone of which her building is to be composed,
united by a cement preferable to ours, she first forms
the basis or foundation of the whole. Next she raises
the walls of a cell, which is about an inch in length
ané half an inch broad, and before its orifice is closed
in form resembles a thimble. This, after depositing an.
egg and a supply of honey and pollen, she covers in,
and then proceeds to the erection ofa second, which she
‘ finishes in the same manner, until the whole numbér,

a Ann. du Mus. x. 236, b Reavmur plausibly supposes that it has
been from observing this bee thus loaded, that the tale mentioned by
Aristotle and Pliny, of thejhive-bee’s ballasting itself with a bit of stone
previously to flying home in a high wind, has aris-n.

444 -HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

which varies from four to eight, is completed. The
vacuities between the cells, which are not placed in
any regular order, some being parallel to the wall,
others perpendicular to it, and others inclined to it at
different angles, this laborious architect fills up with
the same material of which the cells are composed, and
then bestows upon the whole group a common cever-
ing of coarser grains of sand. The form of the whole
nest, which when finished is a solid mass of stone so
hard as not to be easily penetrated with the blade of a.
knife, is anirregular oblong of the same colour as the
sand, and toa casual observer more resembling a splash
of mud than anartificial structure. These bees some-
times are more economical of their labour, and repair
old nests, for the possession of which the y have very
desperate combats. One would have supposed that the
urhabitants ofa castle so fortified might defy the attacks
of every insect marauder. Yet an Ichneumon and a
beetle (Clerus apiarius, F.) both contrive to introduce
their eggs into the cells, and the larve proceeding
from them devour their inhabitants*,

Other bees of the same family with that last aiei
bed, use different materials in the construction of their
nests. Some employ fine earth made into a kind of
mortar with gluten. Another (4. cewrulescens, L.), as
we learn from De Geer, forms its nest of argillaceous
earth mixed with chalk, upon stone walls, and some-
times probably nidificates in chalk-pits. Apis bicornis,
L. selects the hollows of large stones for the site of
its dwelling; while others prefer the holes in wood.

The worksthus far described require in general less

i a Reaum. vi. 57-88. Mon. Ap. Angl. i, 179.

| HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. AAB

geniusthan labour and patience : but it is far otherwise
with the nests of the last tribe of artificers amongst wild
bees, to which I shall advert—the hangers of tapestry,
or upholsterers—those which line the holes excavated
in the earth for the reception of their young, with an
elegant coating of flowers or of leaves. Amongst the
most interesting of these is Apis Papaveris, ( Megachile,
Latr., Anthophora, F.) a species whose manners have
been admirably described by Reaumur. This little bee,
as though fascinated with the colour most attractive to
our eyes, invariably chooses for the hangings of her
apartments the most brilliant scarlet, selecting for its
material the petals of the wild poppy, which she dex-
terously cuts into the proper form. Her first process
is to’ excavate in some pathway a burrow, cylindrical
at the entrance but swelled out below, to the depth of
about three inches. Having polished the walls of this
little apartment, she next flies toa neighbouring field,
cuts out oval portions of the flower's of poppies, seizes
them between her legs and returns with them to her
cell; and though separated from the wrinkled petal of
a half-expanded flower, she knows how to straighten
their folds, and, if too large, to fit them for her pur-
pose by cutting off the superfluous parts. Beginning
at the bottom, she overlays the walls of her mansion
with this brilliant tapestry, extending it also on the sur-
face of the ground round the margin of the orifice. The
bottom is rendered warm by three or four coats, andthe |
_ Sides have never less than two. The little upholsterer,

having completed the hangings of her apartment, next
fills it with pollen and honey to the height of about half

aninch; then, after committing an egg to it, she wraps

se ` HABITATIONS OF INSECTS,

over the poppy lining so that even the roof may be of
this material; and lastly closes its mouth with a small

hillock of earth?. The great depth of the cell com-
pared with the space which the single egg and the ac-

-companying food deposited in it occupy, deserves par-
ticular notice. . This is not more than half an inch at
the bottom, the remaining two inches and a half being
subsequently filled with earth.— When you next favour
me with a visit, I can show you the cells of this inter-
esting insect as yet unknown to British entomologists,
for which Lam indebted to the kindness of M. Latreille,
who first scientifically described the species”.

Apis centuncularis, A. Willughbiella, and other spe-
cies of the same family, like the preceding, cover the
walls of their cells with a coating of leaves, but are
content w ith a more sober colour, generally selecting
for their hangings the leaves of trees, especially of the
rose, whence they have been known by the name of the
leaf-cutter bees. They differ also from A. Papaveris in
excavating longer burrows, and filling them with se-

-veral thimble-shaped cells composed of portions of
leaves so curiously convoluted, that, if we were igno-
rant in what school they have been taught to construct
them, we should never credit their being the work of
_ an insect.- Their entertaining history, so long ago a$
1670, attracted the attention of our countrymen Ray;
Lister, Willughby, and Sir Edward King; but we arè
indebted for the most panpin; account of their pro-
cedures to Reaumur.. bi :

The mother bee first éxeavates ‘a splioabetind hole

eight or ten inches long, in a hor izontal direction, either

2a Rental, vi. 139-148, b Latr. Hist, Nat. des Fourmis, 297-

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS, ARF

in the ground or in the trunk of a rotten willow-tree,
or occasionally in other decaying wood. This cavity
she fills with six or seven cells wholly composed of por-
tions of leaf, of the shape of a thimble, the convex end
of one closely fitting into the open end of another, Her
first process is to form the exterior coating, which is
composed of three or four pieces of larger dimensions
than the rest, and of an oval form. The second coat-
- ingis formed of portions of equal size, narrow at one
end but gradually widening towards the other, where
_ the width equals half the length. One side of these
Pieces is the serrate margin of the leaf from which it
was taken, which, as the pieces are made to lap one
over the other, is kept on the outside, and that which
has been cut within. The little animal now forms-a
third coating of similar materials, the middle of which,
as the most skilful workman would do im similar cir-
cumstances, she places over. the margins of those’ that

form the first tube, thus covering and strengthening
the junctures. Repeating the same process, she gives
a fourth and sometimes a fifth coating to her nest,

taking care, at the closed end or narrow extremity of
the cell, to bend the leaves soas to form a convex termi-
nation. Having thus finished a cell, her next business
is to fill it to within half a line of the orifice, with a
rose-coloured conserve composed of honey and pollen,
usually collected from the flowers of thistles; and then
haying deposited her egg, she closes the orifice with
three pieces of leaf so exactly circular, that a pair of
_ ©Ompasses could not define their margin with more
truth; and coinciding so precisely with the walls of
the cell, as to be retained in their situation merely by

AAS ` HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

the nicety of their adaptation. After this covering is
fitted in, there remains still a concavity which recelvey ,
the convex end of the succeeding cell; and in this man-
ner the indefatigable little animal proceeds until she
has completed the six or seven cells which compose
her cylinder. | x .

The process which one of these bees employs in cut-
ting the pieces of leaf that compose her nest is worthy
of attention. Nothing can be more expeditious: she
is not longer about it than we should be with a pair of
scissors. After hovering for some moments over a rose”
push, as if to reconnoitre the ground, the bee alights
upon the leaf which she has selected, usually taking
her station upon its edge so that the margin passes be-
tween her legs. With her strong mandibles she cuts
without intermission in a curve line so as to detach #
triangular portion. When this hangs by the last fibre,
lest its weight should carry her to the ground, she ba-
lances her little wings for flight, and the very moment -
it parts from the leaf flies off with it in triumph; the
detached portion remaining bent between her legs 12
a direction perpendicular to her body. Thus without
rule or compasses do these diminutive creatures mete
out the materials of their work into portions of an el-
lipse, into ovals or circles, accurately accommodating
the dimensions of the several pieces of each figure to
each other. What other architect could carry im-
pressed upon the tablet of his memory the entire idea
of the edifice which he has to erect, and, destitute of
square or plumb-line, cut out his materials in their e%
act dimensions without making a single mistake? Yet
this is what our little bee invariably does, So far are

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 449

human art and reason excelled by the teaching of the
Almighty *, | l me ae

Other insects besides bees construct habitations of
different kinds for their young, as various species of
Sphex, Scarabeus, &c., which deposit their eggs in eye.
lindrical excavations that become the abode of the fu-
ture larve. In the ‘procedures of most of these, no~
thing worth particularizing occurs; but one species:
called by Reaumur the mason-wasp, (Odynerus. mu~
raria, Latr.) referred to in a former letter, works upon.
So singular a plan, that it would be improper to pass it
Over in silence, especially as these nests may be found
in this country in most sandy banks exposed to the
sun, This insect bores a cylindrical cavity from two-
to three inches deep, in hard sand which its mandibles’
alone would be scarcely capable of penetrating, were:
it not provided with a slightly glutinous liquor which
it pours out of its mouth, that, like the vinegar with
which Hannibal softened the Alps, acts upon the ce-
ment of the sand, and renders the separation of the
Grains easy to the double pickaxe with which our little
Pioneer is furnished. But the most remarkable cir-
cumstance is the mode in which it disposes of the ex- ;
cayated materials. Instead of throwing them at ran-
dom on a heap, it carefully forms them into little ob-
long pellets, and arranges them round the entrance of
the hole so as to forma tunnel, which, when the ex-
*avation is completed, is often not less than two or
three inches in length, For the greater part of its
height this tunnel is upright, but towards the top it
~ bends into a curve, always however retaining its cy-

a Reaum, vie 911-24. More Ar. Avg! i, 157, Apie **.c. 2, g,
You, 1, TS

/

450 2. HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

lindrical form. The little masses are so attached to
. each other in this cylinder, as to leave numerous va-
cúities between them, which give it the appearance of
filagree-work. You will readily divine that the exca-
vated hole is intended for the reception of an egg, but
or what purpose the external tunnel is meant is not
‘so apparent. One use, and perhaps the most impor-
‘tant, would seem to be to prevent the incursions of the
artful Ichneumons, Chryside, &c. which are ever on
the watch to insinuate their parasitic young into the
nests of other insects: it may render their access to

the nest more difficult; they may dread to enter into

£ so long and dark a defile. I have seen, however, more
than once a Chrysis come out of these tunnels, That
its use is only temporary, is plain from the cireum-
«stance: that the insect employs the whole fabric, when
Fts egg is laid and store of food procured, in filling up
the remaining vactity of the hole ; taking down the pel-
lets, which are very conveniently at hand, and placing
them in it until the entrance is filled*—Latreille in-
forms us, that a nearly similar tunnel, but composed of
grains of earth, is built at the entrance of its ceil by &
bee of his family of pioneers. at
Under this head, too, may be most conveniently ar-
ranged the very singular habitations of the larva of the”
Linnean genus Cynips, the gall-fly, though they ca? |
with no propriety be said to be constructed by the me-
ther, who, provided with an instrument as potent .2°
an enchanter’s wand, has but to pierce the site of the
foundation, and commodious apartments, asif by magic,
spring upand surround the germe of her future de

a Reaum, vi. 251-7. t.xxvi. feko d. Latr. Fourmis, 419.

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. _ 45t

Scendants. TF allude to those vegetable excrescencies
termed galls, some of which resembling beautiful ber-
ries and others apples, you must have frequently ob-
served on the leaves of the oak, and of which one spe-
cies, the Aleppo gall, as I have before noticed, is of
such importance in the ingenious art “ de peindre la
Parole et de parler aux yeux.” All these tumours owe
their origin to the deposition of an egg in the sub-
stance out of which they grow. This egg, too small
almost for perception, the parent insect, a little four-
winged fly, introduces into a puncture made by her cu-
rious spiral sting, and in a few hours it becomes sir-
rounded with a fleshy chamber, which not only serves
its young for shelter and defence, but also for food;
the future little hermit feeding upon its interior and
there undergoing its metamorphosis. Nothing-can be
more varied than these habitations. Some are of a
globular form, a bright red colour, and smooth fleshy
consistence, resembling beautiful fruits, for which in-
deed, as you have before’been told, they are eaten in
the Levant: others, beset with spines or clothed with
hair, are so much like seed-vessels, that an eminent
modern chemist has contended respecting the Aleppo
all, that it is actually a capsule*. Some are exactly ©
round; others like little mushrooms; others resemble
artichokes; while others again might be taken for
flowers: in short, they are ofa hundred different forms,

a Aikin's Dictionary of Chemistry, i, 455, What have probably been
taken by Mr. Aikin for “ kernels,” in the imperforated nuts, are the
“9coons of the inhabitants of these galls in the pupa state, which often
extremely resemble the seeds of a capsule, as Reaumur (iii. 429.) has
. Temarked.

262

452 HABITATIONS OF. INSECTS.

and of all sizes from that of a pin’s head to that of a
walnut, Nor is their situation on the plant less diver-
sified. Some are found upon the leaf itself; others
upon the footstalks only; others upon the roots; and
others upon the buds*. Some of them cause the
branches upon which they grow to shoot out into such
singular forms, that the plants producing them were.
esteemed by the old botanists distinct species. Of this.
kind is the Rose-willow, which old Gerard figures-and
describes as “‘ not only making a gallant shew, but also
yeelding a most cooling aire in the heat of summer,
being set up in houses for the decking of the same.”
This willow is nothing more than one of the common:

species, whose twigs, in consequence of the deposition
of the egg of a Cynips in their summits, there shoot out
into numerous leaves totally different in _shape from
the other leaves of the tree, and arranged not much un-
like those composing the flower of a rose, adhering te

the stem even after the others falloff. Sir James Smith
‘mentionsa similar lusus on the Provence willows,which
at first he took for a tufted lichen”. From the same
cause the twigs of the common wild rose often shoot
out into a beautiful tuft of numerous reddish moss-like
fibres wholly dissimilar from the leaves of the plant,
deemed by the old naturalists a very valuable medical
"substance, to which they erroneously gave the name of
Bedeguar, None of these variations is accidental oF
common to several of the tribe, but each peculiar t°
the galls formed by a single and distinct species 9
_ Cynips. wet si | .
How the mere insertion of an egg into the substance?
‘a Reaum. iii. 417 &e. b Introd.to Botany, 349.

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS: 453

1

ofa leaf or twig, even ifaccompanied, as some imagine,
by a peculiar fluid, should cause the growth of such
singular protuberances around it, philosophers are as
little able to explain, as why the insertion of a particle
of variolous matter into a child’s arm should cover it
with pustules of small-pox. In both cases the effects
seem to proceed from some action of the foreign sub-

stance upon the secreting vessels of the animal or ve-
_getable: but of the nature of this action we know no-
thing. Thus much is ascertained by the observations |
of Reaumur and Malpighi—that the production of the —

gall, which however large attains its full size in a at |

or two*, is caused by the egg or some accompanying
fluid: not by the larva, which does not appear until the
gall is fully formed”; that the galls which spring from
leaves almost constantly take their origin from nerves“;
and that the egg, at the same time that it causes the
growth of the gall, itself derives nourishment from the
substance that surrounds it, becoming considerably
larger before it is hatched than it was when first depo-
sited “—W hen chemically analysed, galls are found to
contain only the same principles as the plant from
which they spring, but in a more concentrated state:
No productions of nature seem to have puzzled the
ancient philosophers more than galls. The commeén-
‘tator on Dioscorides, Mathiolus, who agreeably to the
doctrine of those days ascribed their origin to sponta-
neous generation, gravely informs us that weighty
prognostications as to the events of the ensuing year
tay be deduced from ascertaining whether they con-.
‘tain spiders, worms, or flies. Other philosophers, who
a Reaum. ili. 474. b Thid. 479... e Ibid. 501. d Ibid. 479.

454 © HABITATIONS OF INSECTS,

knew that except by rare accident no other animals are
to be found in galls, besides grubs of different kinds
which they rationally conceived to spring from eggs,
were chiefly at a loss to account for the conveyance of
these eggs into the middle ofa substance in which they
could find no external orifice. They therefore inferred
that they were the eggs of insects deposited in the
earth, which had been drawn up by the roots of trees
along with the sap, and after passing through differ-
ent vessels had stopped, some in the leaves, others in
the twigs, and had there hatched and produced galls!
Redi’s solution of the difficulty was even more extra-
ordinary. This philosopher, who had so triumphantly
combated the absurdities of spontaneous. generation,
fell himself into greater. Not having been able to
witness the deposition of eggs by the parent flies in the
plants that produce galls, he took it for granted that
the grubs which he found within them could not spring
from eggs: and he was equally unwilling to admit their
origin from spontaneous generation,—an admission —
which would have been fatal to his own most brilliant
discoveries. He therefore cut the knot, by supposing
that to the same vegetative soul by which fruits and
plants are produced, is committed the charge of cre-
ating the larve found in galls*! An instance truly
humiliating, how little we can infer from a man’s just
ideas on one point, that he will not be guilty of the
most pitiable absurdity on another! :
Though by far the greater part of the vegetable ex-
| erescencies termed galls, are caused by insects of the
genus Cynips, they do not always originate from this
a De Insectis, 233 &c,

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. AbD

tribe. Some are produced by beetles, as those on the
roots of kedlock (Sinapis arvensis), which I have ascet-
t ained to be inhabited by the larva of Curculio contrac-
tus, Ent. Brit., and Rhynchenus assimilis, F. -Frova
the knob-like galls on turnips, called in some places:
the anbury, I have bred another | weevil, (Curculio-
pleurostigma, Ent. Brit. Rhynchenus sulcicollis, Gyll. y-
and I haye little doubt that the same insects, or species |
allied to them, cause the clubbing of the roots of cab-.
bages. It seems to be a beetle of the same family that
is figured by Reaumur’,. as causing the galls on the
leaves of the lime- -tree. Others owe their origin to
moths, as those resembling a nutmeg which Reaumur
received from Cyprus”; and others again to two-winged
_ flies, as the woody galls of the thistle caused by Tephri-
tis (Musca, L.) Cardui*, and the cottony galls found ow
ground ivy, wild thyme, &c., as well as a very singular.
one on the juniper resembling a flower, described by |
De Geer’, all which are the work of minute gall-gnats
( Cecidomyiæ, Latr. Tipulæ, L.). Some of these last
convert even the flowers of plants into a kind of galls,
as T', Loti of De Geer? , which inhabits the blossoms of |
Lotus corniculatus; oh one which I have myself ob-
served to render the lowers of Erysimum Barbarea ,
like a hop-blossom. A similar monstrous appearance |
is communicated to the flowers of Teucrium supinum
by a little field-bug, Cimex (Tingis, F.) Teucrii of
Host‘, and to another plant of the same genus by one of
the same tribe described by Reaumur®. In these two |
a Reatim. iii. t. 38, f. 2,3. bTbid. iii. 448. © Tid, 455.

4 Dé Geer, vi. 409. ue Ibid, 421.
t Jacquin Collect, ii, 255. ` B Reaum, iii. 427.

456 HABITATIONS OP INSECTE.

last instances, however, the habitations do not seem
strictly entitled to the appellation of galls, as they ori-
ginate not from the egg, but from the larva, which, in’
the operation of extracting the sap, in some way im-
parts a morbid action to the juices, causing the flower
to expand unnaturally: and the same remark is appli-
cable tothe gall-likeswellings formed by manyAphides,
as A. Pistacie, which causes the leaves of different spe-
cies of Pistacia to expand into red finger-like cavities;
A. Pini, which converts the buds or young shoots of
the fir into a very beautiful gall, somewhat resembling
£ fir-cone, or a pinñe-apple in miniature; and A. Bur-
_ sare, which with its brood inhabits angular utricuh on
-thë leafstalk of the black poplar, numbers of which I
. observed this year on those trees by the road-side from
Hull to Cottingham.—The majority of galls are what
„entomologists have dénominated nionothalamous, or
consisting of only one chamber or cell; but some are
-polythalamous, or consisting of several. —

. Häving thus described the most remarkable of the
habitations constructed by the parent insects for the
accommodation of their future young, I proceed to the
second kind inentioned, namely, those whichare formed
‘by the insect itself for its own use. These may be
again subdivided into such as are the work of the in-
sects in their larva state; and such as are formed by
perfect insects. | te
* Many larve of all orders need no other habitations
than the holes which they form in seeking for, or eat-
ing, the substances upon which they feed: Of this de-
scription are the majority of subterranean larvae, and

l

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. ADT

those which feed on wood; as the Bostrichi, F. or la-
byrinth beetles ; the Anobia, F. which excavate the
little circular holes frequently met with in ancient fur-
niture and the wood work of old houses; and many
larve of other orders, particularly Lepidoptera. One
of these last, the larva of Bombyx Cossus, differs from
its congeners in fabricating for its residence during
winter a habitation of pieces of wood lined with fine
silk*. Under this division, too, come the singular ha-
bitations of the subcutaneous larve, so called from the
circumstance of their feeding upon the parenchyma
included between the upper and under cuticles of the
leaves of plants, between which, though the whole |
leaf is often not thicker than a sheet of writing-paper,
they find at once food and lodging. You must have
been at some time struck by certain white zigzag or
labyrinth-like lines on the leaves of the- dandelion,
lilac, and numerous other plants: the next time you
meet with one of them, if you hold it up to the light
you will perceive that the colour of these lines is owing
to the pulpy substance of the leaf having there been
‘removed ; and at the further end you will probably
remark a dark-coloured speck, which, when carefully
extricated from its covering, you will find to be the
little miner of the tortuous galleries which you are
admiring. Some of these minute larve, to which the
parenchyma of a leaf is a vast country, requiring seve-
ral weeks to be traversed by the slow process of mining
Which they adopt—that of eating the excavated mate-
rials as they proceed—are transformed into beetles
(Curculio Thapsus, &c.); others into flies ; and a still
a Lyonet, Anat. of Coss. 9.

458 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

greater number into very minute moths of the genus
Tinea, as T. Wilkella, T. Clerkella, &e. Many of
these last are little miracles of nature, which has la-
vished on them the most splendid tints tastefully com-
bined with gold, silver and pearl ; so that, were they
but formed upon a larger scale, they would far eclipse
all other animals in richness of decoration.

_ Another tribe of larve, not very numerous, con-
tent themselves for their habitations with simple holes,
into which they retire occasionally. Many of these are
merely cylindrical burrows in the ground, as those
formed by the larve of field-crickets, Cicindele and
Ephemere. But the larve of the very remarkable
lepidopterous genus (Nycterobius of Mr. MacLeay)
before alluded to‘, excavate for themselves dwellings
of a more artificial construction ; forming cylindrical —
holes in the trees of New Holland, particularly the
different species of Banksia, to which they are very
destructive, and defending the entrance against the
attacks of the Mantes and other carnivorous insects by
a sort of trap-door composed of silk interwoven with
leaves and pieces of excrement, securely fastened at
the upper end, but left loose at the lower for the free
passage of the occupant. This abode they regularly —
quit at sun-set, for the purpose of laying in a store ©
the leaves on which they feed. These they drag by one
at a time into their cell until the approach of light,
when they retreat precipitately into it, and there re-
main closely secluded the whole day, enjoying the
booty which their nocturnal range has provided. One
species lifts up the loose end of its door by its tail, and

a P. 308, 395. :

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS, 459

enters backward, dragging aër it a leaf of Banksia
serrata, which it holds by the footstalk*.

A third description of larve, chiefly of the tivo lepi-
dopterous genera Tortrix and Tinea, form into conve-
nient habitations the leaves of the plants on which they
feed. Some of these merely connect together with a
few silken threads several leaves so as to form an irre-
gular packet, in the centre of which the little hermit
lives. Others confine themselves to a single leaf, of
_which they simply fold one part over the other. A
third description form and inhabit a sort of roll, by
some species made cylindrical, by others conical, re-
sembling the papers into which grocers put their sugar,
and as accurately constructed, only there is an open-
ing left at the smaller extremity for the egress of the
inséct in case of need. If you were to see one of these
rolls, you would immediately ask by what mechanism
it could possibly be made—how an insect without fin-
gers could contrive to bend a leaf into a roll, and to
keep it in that form until fastened with the silk which
holds it together? The following is the operation.
The little caterpillar first fixes a series of silken cables
from one side of the leaf to the other. She next pulls
at these cables with her feet; and when she has forced
the sides to approach, she fastens them together with
shorter threads of silk. Ifthe insect finds that one of
the larger nerves of the leaf is so strong as to resist
her efforts, she weakens it by gnawing it here and
there half through. What engineer could act more
sagaciously ?—To form one of the conical or horn-
shaped rolls, which are not composed of a whole leaf,

a Lewin's Prodromus Entemelogy (sic!) p, 8.

460 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

but of a long triangular portion cut out of the edge,
some other manauvres are requisite. Placing herself
upon the leaf, the caterpillar cuts out with her jaws
_ the piece which is to compose her roll. She does not
however en tirely detach it: it would then want a base.
She detaches that part only which is to form the con-
tour of the horn. This portion is a triangular strap,
which she rolls as she cuts. When the body of the
horn is finished, as it is intended to be fixed upon the
leaf in nearly an upright position, it is necessary to
elevate it. To effect this she proceeds as we should
with an inclined obelisk. She attaches threads or little
cables towards the point of the pyramid, and raises it
by the weight of her body*.

A still greater degree of vias is manifested in
fabricating the habitations of the larve of some other
Tine which feed on the leaves of the rose-tree, apple,
elm, and oak, on the under-side of which they may in
summer be often found. These form an oblong cavity
- in the interior of a leaf by eating the parenchyma be-

‘tween the two membranes composing its upper and
ander side, which, after having detached them from
the surrounding portion, it joins with silk so artfully
that the seams are scarcely discoverable even with a
‘lens, 4 so as to compose a case or horn, cylindrical in
the middle, its anterior orifice circular, its posterior
triangular. Were this dwelling cylindrical in every
part, the form of the two pieces that compose it would
“be very simple ; but the different shape of the two
“ends renders it necessary that each side should have
peculiar and dissimilar curvatures; and Reaumur as-

a Bonnet, ix. 188.

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS, | tee

sures us, that these are as complex and difficult to imi- ‘
tate as the contours of the pieces of cloth that compose |
the back of a coat. Some of this tribe, whose proceed-
ings I had the pleasure of witnessing a short time since
upon the alders in the Hull Botanic Garden, more in-
genious than their brethren, and willing to save the la-
bour ofsewing up two seams in their dwelling, insinuate
themselves near the edge of a leaf instead of in its mid-
die. Here they form their excavation, mining into the
very crenatures between the two surfaces of the leaf,
which, being joined together at the edge, there form one
seam of the case, and from their dentated figure give
it a very s singular appearance, not unlike that of some
_ fishes which haye fins upon their backs, The opposite
side they are necessarily forced to cut and sew up, but”
even in this operation they show an ingenuity and con-
trivance worthy of admiration. The Tineæ, which cut
outtheir suit from the middle of the leaf, wholly detach
the two surfaces that compose it before they proceed to
join them together, the serrated incisions made by their
teeth, which, if they do not cut as fast, in this respect
are more. effective than any scissors, interlacing each
other so as to support. the separated portions until they
are properly joined. Butit is obvious that this process
cannot be followed by those Tinez which cut out their
house from the edge of a leaf. If these were to detach
the inner side before they had joined the two pieces
together, the builder as well as his dwelling would in-
evitably fall, They therefore, before making any in-
cision, prudently ryn (as a sempstress would call it)
loosely together in distant points the two membranes
on that side. Then putting out their heads they cut tap

462 | HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

intermediate portions, carefully avoiding the larger
nerves of the leaf; afterwards they sew up the detached
sides more closely, and only intersect the nerves when
their labour is completed*.—The habitation made by
a Tinea, which lives upon a species of Astragalus, is
in like manner formed of the epidermis of the leaves,
but in this several corrugated pieces project over each
other, so as to resemble the furbelows once in fashion”.
Other larva construct their habitations wholly of
silk. Of this description is that of a Tinea, whose
abode, except as to the materials which compose it, is
formed on the same general plan as that just described,
andthe larva in like manner feeds only on the paren-
chyma of the leaf. In the beginning of spring, if you
examine the leaves of your pear-trees, you will scarcely
fail to meet with some beset on the under surface with
several perpendicular downy russet-coloured projec-
tions, about a quarter of an inch high, and not much
thicker than a pin, of a cylindrical shape, with a pro-
tuberance at the base, and altogether resembling at first
sight so many spines growing out ofthe leaf. You would
never suspect that these could he the habitations of in-
sects; yet that they are is certain. Detach one of them,
and give it a gentle squeeze, and you will see emerge
from the lowe end a minute caterpillar with a yellow-
ish body and black head. Examine the place from which
you have removed it, and you will perceive a round
excavation in the cuticle and parenchyma of the leaf,
the size of the end ofthe tube by which it was concealed.
‘This excavation is the work of the above-mentioned
caterpillar, which obtair:s its food by moving its little
a Reaum. iii, 100-190, Tbid, 15.

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 463

tent from one part of the leaf to the other, and eating
away the space immediately under it.’ It touches no
other part; and when these insects abound, as they
often do to the great injury of pear trees*, you will per-
ceive every leaf bristled with them, and covered with
little withered specks, the vestiges oftheir former meals,
The case in which the caterpillar resides, and whichis
quite essential to its éxistence, is composed of silk spun
from its mouth almost as soon as it is excluded from the
egg. As it increases in size, it enlarges its habitation

o- by slitting it in two, and introducing a strip of new ma-

_ terials. But the most curious circumstance in the his- —
tory of this little Arab is the mode by which it retains
its tent in a perpendicular posture. This it effects partly:
by attaching silken threads from the protuberance at
the base to the surrounding surface of the leaf. But
being not merely a mechanician, but a profound natu-
ral philosopher well acquainted with the properties as
air, it has another resource when any extraordindry
‘violence threatens to overturn its slender turret. It
_ forms a vacuum in the protuberance at the base, and
thusas effectually fastens it to the Jeafas ifanair-pump
had been employed! This vacuum is caused by the in-
sect’s retreating on the least alarm up its ndrrow case,
which its body completely fills, and thus. leaving the
space below free ofair. In detaching one of these cases
you may easily convince yourself of the fact. If you
seize it suddenly while the insect is at the bottom, yow
will find that it is readily pulled off, the silken cords
giving way to a very slight force; but if, proceeding
gently, you give the insect time to retreat, the case wiit

a Forsyth on Fruit Trees, Ato edit. 27 r.

AG4 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

he held so closely to the leaf as to require a much
stronger effort to loosen it. As if aware that, should
the air get admission from below, and thus. render a va-
cuum impracticable, the strongest bulwark of its for-
tress would be destroyed, our little philosopher care-
- fully avoids gnawing a hole in the leaf, contenting itself
with the pasturage afforded by the parenchyma above
the lower epidermis; and when the produce of this
area is consumed, it gnaws asunder the cords of its tent,
and pitches it at a short distance as before. Having
attained its full growth, it assumes the pupastate, and
after.a while issues out of its confinement a small
brown moth, with long hind legs, the Phalena Tinea
serratella of Linné*. —
_. Some larve, which form their covering of pure silk,
are not content with a single coating, but actually en-
_ velop themselves in another, open on one side and very
much resembling a cloak; whence Reaumur called
them “ Teignes à fourreau à manteau.” What is very
striking in the construction of this cloak, is, that the
silk, instead of being woven into one uniform close tex-
ture, is formed into numerous transparent scales over-
wrapping each other, and altogether very much resem-
bling the scales ofa fish®. These mantle-covered cases,
one of which I once had the pleasure of discovering,
are inhabited by the larva of a little moth apparently
first described by Dr. Zincken, genannt Sommer, who
calls it Tinea palliatella®.
Various substances besides silk are fabricated into

a Goeze Natur, Menschenleben und Forschung, Anderson’s Recreation’,
ii, 409. See above p, 16, ` ;

b Reaum, iii. 206. Prate XVII, Fie. 9.

c Germar’s Mag. für Entomologie, i, 40.

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS, AGS

habitations by other larve, though usually joined: to-
gether either with silk or an analogous gummy mate-
rial. Thus Tinea Lichenum forms of pieces of lichen
a dwelling resembling one of the turrited Helices, many
of which T observed in June 18120n an oak in Barham, —
The larva of another Tinea, which also feeds upon lis
chens, instead of employing these vegetables in form-
ing its habitation, composes it of grains of stone eroded’
from the walls of buildings upon which its foodis found,
and connected by a silken cement. These insects were
the subject of a paper in the Memoirs of the French.
Academy*, by M. de la Voye, who, from the cireum-
stance of their being found in great abundance on moul--
dering walls, attributed to them the power of eating
stone, andregarded them as the authors of injuries pro-
ceeding solely from the hand of time: for the insects ©
themselves are so minute, and the coating of grains of
stone composing their cases isso trifling, that Reaumur
observes they could scarcely make any perceptible i im-
pression on a wall from which they had procured ma-
terials for ages®,—Another lepidopterous larva, but of
a much larger size and different genus, the case of which
is preserved in the cabinet of the President of the Lin-
nean Society, who pointed it out to me, employs the
spines apparently of some species of Mimosa, which are
ranged side by side so as to form a very elegant fiuted
cylinder. Asimilararr angement ofpieces ofsmalltwigs _
is observable in the habitation of the females* of the

l ax, 458. b Reaum. iii, 183.
c The larvee of the males infermix with the pieces of twigs, which are
less closely and regularly arranged, bits of dried leaves and other ca

Vou. I. oun

466 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

larve ofa moth referred by Von Scheven to Bomby T
veslita, F.; while Tinea Viciella of the Wiener Ver-
` setchniss covers itself with short portions of the stems
«of grasses placed transversely, and united by means of
-silk into a five- or six-sided case. The habitation of a
third larva of the same family, deseribed and figured
by Reaumur (Psyche graminella, Ochsenh.), is com-
posed of squarish pieces of the leaves of grass fastened
-only at one end, and overwrapping each other like the
tiles of a house; and that ef another noticed by the
‘same author, of portions of the smallest twigs of broom
arranged on the same plan*. Indeed the larve of the
whole of this tribe of moths, now separated into a di-
stinet genus (Psyche, Schrank, Ochsenh. Fumea, Ha-
worth), but which according to Germar needs further
‘subdivision, reside in cases or sacks (whence they are
called by the Germans Sachktrager) composed of silk,
and fragments of grass, bark, &c.
The larve of a small beetle (Clytra longimana) re-
side in oviform cases apparently of a calcareous oF
earthy substance, joined by a gummy cement and co-
-yered with red hairs, the origin of which, Hübner,
who first discovered them, could not account for : and
from the observations of Amstein and the French trans-
lator of Fuessly’s Archives, it seems probable that the
larve of all the species of Clytra, and according to
Zschorn, at least of one species of Cryptocephalus,
materials. See the excellent elucidation of the history of this tribes
whose mode of generation is so singular, by Von Scheven, in the Natur-
forscher Stk. xx. 61, &c.: alsoavaluable paper by Dr. Zincken, genannt
Sommer, in Germar’s Mag. fiir Ent, i. 19—40.
a Reaum, iii. 148-9. T. 11. f. 10, 1.

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. AGT

(C. duodecimpunctata, F.) differing in this respect from
all other known Coleoptera, live in moveable cases*.

Wax is the principal substance employed in the ha-
bitations of the larve before mentioned », occasionally
so destructive to bee-hives. ‘These insidious depre-
dators, which are mentioned by Aristotle‘, tying toge-
ther, with silk, grains of wax (w hich, and not honey,
forms their food) construct galleries of a considerable.
length, and thus iasi from the sight, and pro-
tected from the stings of the armed people whom they
have attacked, push their mines into the very heart of
the fortress, and_ pursue their robberies in perfect
safety ¢

As many of the habitations which I have been de-
scribing, fit the body of the insects as close as a coat,
they might perhaps with more propriety be called
clothes. "This is certainly the most appropriate desig-
nation of the abodes of some species of Tineæ (the
clothes’ moths), which not only cover themselves with-
„a coat, but employ the very same material in its com-
position as we do in ours, forming it of wool or hair
curiously felted together. Like us, they are born
naked, but not like us helpless at that period, scarcely
have they breathed before they begin to clothe them-
selves; thus contradicting Dr. Paley’s assertion, that
“the humananimal is the only one which is naked, and
the only one which can clothe itself???” and wisely in-
attentive tochange of fashion, the same suitserves them
from their birth to mature age. The shape of their

a Fuessly, Archiv. 53, t.31. Germar’s Mag. fiir Ent. i. 136.

b See above, p. 165. c Aristot. (ist, Anim, l. vill. €. 27.

a Reaum. iii mem. 8, e Nat. Theol. 220.
ou

had

AGS HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

é
dress is adapted to that of their body—a cylindrical
case open at both ends. The stuff of which it is com-
posed is the manufacture of the larva of the Tinea,
which incorporates wool or hair artfully cut from our
clothes or furniture, with silk drawn from its own
mouth, into a warm and thick tissue : and asthis would
not be soft enough for its tender skin, it also lines the
inside of its coat with a layer of pure silk. Since this
suit of clothes during the earliest age of the insect ac-
curately fits its body, you will readily conceive that it
will frequently require enlarging. ‘This the little oc-
cupant accomplishes as dexterously as any tailor. If
` the case merely requires lengthening, the task is easy.
All that is needful is to add a new ring of hair or wool
and silk to each end. But to enlarge it in width is not

so simple an affair. Yet it sets to work precisely as we

should, slitting the case on the two opposite sides, and
then adroitly inserting between them two pieces of the
requisite size. It does not, however, cut open the case
from one end to the other at once: the sides would se-
parate too far asunder, and the insect be left naked. It
therefore first cuts each side about half way down, and
then after having filled up the fissure proceeds to cut
the remaining half: so that, in fact, four enlargements
are made, and four separate pieces inserted.—'The co-
lour of the habit is always the same as that of the stuff
from which it is taken. Thus, if its original colour be
blue, and the insect previously to enlarging it be put
upon red cloth, the circles at the end and two stripes
down the middle will be red. If placed alternately
upon cloths of different. hues, its dress will be parti-
coloured like that of a Harlequin.—The injury occa-

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 469

sioned to Us by these insects is not confined to the quan-
tity of materials consumed in clothing and feeding
themselves. In moving from place to place they seem
to be as much incommoded by the long hairs which
surround them, as we are by walking amongst high
grass; and accordingly, marching scythe in hand, with
their teeth they cut out a smooth road, from time to
time reposing themselves, and anchoring their little

case with small silken cables. ty

If, as I hope, youare induced to investigate the man-

ners of these insects, you have but to leave an old coat
for a few months undisturbed in a dark closet, and you
may be pretty certain of meeting with an abundant

colony.

Not merely wool or hair, but another substance
analogous to one employed in our dress, is adopted for
their clothing by other insects. The larva of a fly which
lives on the seeds of willows, makes itself a very beau-
tiful case of their cottony down, not only impervious to
wet and cold, but serving, if accidentally blown into
the water, which from the situation of these trees:fre-
quently happens, asa buoyant little barge which is
wafted safely to the shore*.

"The habitations which we have hitherto been con-
sidering, are formed by larve that live on land, but
others equally remarkable are constructed by aquatic -
species, the larve of the various Phryganew, a tribe
of four-winged insects which an ordinary observer
would call moths, but which are even of a distinct
order”, not having their wings covered by the scales

a Reaum. iii, 130, b See Kirby in Linn. Trans. xi. 88,

where it is proposed to call this order Lrichoptera.

ATO HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

which adorn the lepidopterous race. If you are de-
sirous of examining the insects to which I am alluding,
you have only to place yourself by the side of a clear
and shallow pool of water, and you cannot fail to ob-
serve at the bottom little oblong moving masses resem-
bling pieces of straw, wood, or even stone. These are
the larve in question, well known to fishermen by the
title of Caddis-worms, and which, if you take them out
of the water, you will observe to inhabit cases of a
very singular conformation. Of the larva itself, which
somewhat resembles the caterpillars of many Lepido-
ptera, nothing is to be seen byt the head and six legs
by means of which it moves itself in the water, and
drags after it the case in which the rest of the body is
inclosed, and into which on any alarm it wholly retires.
"Fhe construction of these habitations is very various. —
Some select four or five pieces of the leaves of grass,
which they glue together intoa shapely polygonal case;
others employ portions of the stems of rushes, placed
side by side so as to form an elegant fluted cylinder ;
some arrange round them pieces of leaves like a spi-
rally-rolled ribband*; others inclose themselves in a
mass of the leaves of any aquatic plants united without
regularity; and others again form their abode of mi-
nute pieces of wood either fresh or decayed’. One,
like the Sabeile*, forms a horn-shaped case composed
of grains of sand, so equal in size, and so nicely and
regularly gummed together, the sides throughout being
of the thickness of one grain only, that the first time I
viewed it I could scarcely persuade myself it could be

a Prats XVII Fre. 10, b Ream, tii. 156-9.

_ © Sowerby’s Nat. Miscel!, No, ix. t. 51..

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. AT}

the work of an insect. The case of P. bimaculata,
which is less artificially constructed of a mixture of
mud and sand, is priima and has its end curious sly
stopped by a plate formed of grains of sand, with a cen-
tral aperture ê. Other species construct houses which
may be called alive, forming t them of the shells of va-
rious aquatic snails of different kinds and sizes ever
while inhabited, all of which are immoveably fixed tœ
it, and dragged about at its pleasure—a covering as:
singular as if a savage, instead of clothing himself with
oaluisisile’ skins, should sew together into a coat the
animals themselves. However various may be the form —
ofthe case externally, within itis usually cylindricaland.
lined with silk; and though seldom apparently wider
than just to admit the body of the insect, some species:
have the power of turning round in it, and of putting
out their head at either end’. Some larve constantly
make their cases of the same materials; others employ
indifferently any that are at hand; and the new ones
which they construct as they increase in size (for they
have not the faculty, like the larva of the moth, ofen-
larging them) have often an appearance quite dissimilar
to that of the old. Even those that are most careless
about the nature of the materials of their house, are
solicitously attentive to one circumstance respecting
them, namely, their specific gravity. Not having the
power of swimming, but only of walking at the bottom
of the water by aid of the six legs attached to the fore
part ofthe body w hich is usually protr uded out of the
case, and the insect itself being heavier than water, it
is of great importance that its house should be of a

a De Geer, ii, 564. b Ibid,

A472 HABIT ATIONS OF INSECTS,

specific giavityts so nearly that ofthe haipiti in which
it resides, as while waiking neither to incommode it
by its weight, nor by too great buoyancy; and it is as
essenital that it should be so equally ballasted in every
_ part as to be readily moveable in any position. Under
these circumstances our Caddis-worms evince their
proficiency in hydrostatics, selecting the most suitable
‘substances; and, ifthe cell be too heavy, glueing to it
_a bit of leaf or straw; or, if too light, a shell or piece
-of gravel. It is from this necessity of regulating the
specific gravity, that to the cases formed with the
greatest regularity we often see attached a seemingly
superfluous piece of wood, leaf, or the like. f

"A larva of one of the aquatic Tipulide lives in cases
somewhat similar to those of some Phryganece. Se-
veral of these of a fusiform shape and brown colour,
composed partly of silk and partly perhaps of fragments |
of leaves, and inhabited by a red larva apparently of a
Chironomus, were found by Reaunrur upon dead leaves
in a poo] of water in the Bois de Boulogne’.

In concluding this head I may observe, that here
might have been described the various abodes which
solitary larve prepare for themselves previously to as-
suming the pupa, and intended for their protection m

that defenceless stage of existence; but as I shall have
occasion again to refer to them in speaking of the larva
state of insects, I shall defer their description to that
letter, to which they more strictly belong. |. .

From the next division ofthe habitations of insects—
those formed oe solitary perfect insects for their own

a Reaum,. hi. B79.

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS, 473

accommodation—] shall select for description only two,
both the work of spiders, and alluded to in a former
letter, which indeed, with the exception of the inarti-
ficial retreats made by the Achele, Cicindele, and per-
haps a few others, are the only ones properly belong-
ing to it.

The habitation of one of these (Mygale cementaria,
Latr., Aranea Saucagesti, Dorthes,) is subterraneous,

not a mere shallow cavity, but a tube or gallery up-
wards of two feet in length and half an inch broad.
‘This tunnel, so vast compared with the size of the in-

sect, it digs by means of its strong g jawsin a steep bank
of bare clay, so that the rain may readily run off with-
out penetrating to its dwelling. Its next operation is
to line the whole from top to bottom with a web of fine
silk, which serves the double purpose of preventing the
earth that composes the walls from falling in, and, by
its connexion with the door of the orifice, of giving in-
formation to the spider of what is passing above. You
doubtless suppose that in saying door I am speaking
metaphorically. It could never enter into vour con-
ception that any animal, much less an insect, could
construct any thing really deserving of that name—any
thing like our doors, turning upon a hinge, and accu-
rately fitted to the frame of the opening which itis in-
tended to close, Yet such a door, incredible as it may
seem, is actually framed by this spider . it does not in-
deed, like us, compose it of wood, but of several coats
of dried earth fastened to each other with silk.. Whe n
finished, its outline is as perfectly circular as if traced
with compasses; the inferior sur face is convex and
smooth, the superior flat and rough, and so like the ad-

ATA HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

joining earth as not to be distinguishable from it. This
door the ingenious artist fixes to the entrance of her
gallery by a hinge of silk, which plays with the greatest
freedom, and allows it to be opened and shut with ease ;
and as if acquainted with the laws of gravity, she inva-
, riably fixes the hinge at the highest side of the opening,
|. so that the door when pushed up shuts again by its own
| \ weight. She has not less sagaciously left a little ledge
‘or groove just within the entrance, upon which the
door closes, and to Which it fits with such precision, -
that it seems to make but one surface with it. Such is
the astonishing structure of this little animal’s abode ;
nor is its defence of its subterraneous cavern less sur-
prising. If an observer adroitly insinuates the point of
a pin under the edge of the door, and elevates it a little,
he immediately perceives a very strong resistance.—
What is its cause ?—The spider, warned by the vibra-
tions of the threads which extend from the door to the
bottom of her gallery, runs with all speed to the door,
fastens its legs to it on one side, and on the other to
the walls, and turning upon its back, pulls with all its
might. Thus the door is alternately shut or opened, a5
the exertions of the observer or of the spider prevail.
It is easy to guess which will in the end conquer: and
the spider, when it finds ‘all resistance ineffectual, be-
takes itself to flight, and retreats. If, to make a further
experiment, the observer fastens down the door so
that it cannot be forced open, the next morning he will
‘find a new entrance, witha new door formed at a small
distance; or, if he take the door entirely away, another
will be constructed in less than twelve hours.
The habitation thus singularly formed an4 defended

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 475

is ii at all used as a snare, but merely as a safe abode
for the spider, which hunts its prey at night only ; and,
when caught, devours it in security at the bottom of its
den, which is generally strewed with the remains of
coleopterous insects*.—From some curious observa-
tions of M. Dorthes on this species in the second vo-
iume of the Linnean T ransactions, it appears that both
the inde and female spider and as manyas thirty young
ones occasionally inhabit one of these g iliti
nea Sauvagesii of Rossi, which is a distinct species
found in Corsica, forms a similar habitation”.

The galleries just described are the work of an Eu-
ropean species not uncommon in the south of France;
but similar ones are fabricated by Aranca venatoria, an
inhabitant of the West India islands, as well as by

many other tropical species. I have seen one of these,
which had been dug out of the earth, in the cabinet of
Thomas Hall, Esq. F.L.S., that was nearly a foot in
length and above an inch in diameter, forming a cylin-
drical bag of dark-coloured silk, closed at the bottom,
and accurately fitted at the top by a door or lid.

‘The habitation of Aranea aquatica, the other spider
to which I alluded, is chiefly remarkable for the ele-
ment in which it is constructed and the materials that
compose it. It is built in the ‘midst of water, and _

formed, in fact, of air! Spiders are usually terrestrial
>

_ but this is aquatic, or rather amphibious; for though
she resides in the midst of water, in which she swims
with great celerity, sometimes on her belly but more
frequently on her back, and is an admirable diver, she
a Sauvages Hist. de ? Acad. des Sc. de Paris 1758, p. 26.
b Latr, Hist. Nat, vii. 165. 4

A76 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

not unfrequently hunts on shore, and, having caught
her prey, plunges with it to the bottom of the water.
Here it is she forms her singular and unique abode.
She would evidently have but a very uncomfortable
time were slie constantly wet, but this she is sagacious
enough to avoid; and by availing herself of some well-
known philosophical principles, she constructs for her-
selfan apartment in which, like the mermaids and sea-
nymphs of fable, she resides in comfort and security.
The following is her process. First she spins loose
threads in various directions attached to the leaves of -
aquatic plants, which may be called the frame-work of
her chamber, and over them she spreads a transparent
varnish resembling liquid glass, which issues from the
middle of her spinners, and which is so elastic that it
is capable of great expansion and contraction; andif
‘a hole be made in it, itimmediately closes again. Next
she spreads over her belly a pellicle of the same mate-
‘rial, and ascends to the surface. The precise mode in
“which she transfers a bubble of air beneath this pellicle
is not accurately known; but from an observation
made by the ingenious author of the little work from
which this account is abstracted, he concludes that she
draws the air into her body by the anus, which she pre-
sents to the surface of the pool, and then pumps it out
from an opening at the base of the belly between the
pellicle and that part of the body, the hairs of which
‘keep it extended. Clothed with this aérial mantle,
which to the spectator seems formed of resplendent
quicksilver, she plunges to the bottom, and, with as
mich dexterity as a chemist transfers gas with a gas-
holder, introduces her bubble of air beneath the roof

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS, ATT

prepared for its reception. This manceuvre s} 1e repeats
ten or twelve times, until at length in about a quarter
ofan hour she has transported as much air as suffices to
expand her apartment to its intended extent, and now
finds herself in possession of a little aérial edifice, I
had almost said an enchanted palace, affording her a
commodious and dry retreat in the very midst of the
water. Here she reposes unmoved by the storms that
agitate the surface of the pool, and devours her prey
‘at ease and in safety. Both sexes form these lodgings.
Ata particular season of the year the male quits his
apartment, approaches that of the female, enters it, and
enlarging it by the bubble of air that he car ries. with
him, it becomes a common abode for the happy pair®
— The spider which forms these singular habitations i is
one of the largest European species, and in some coun-
tries not uncommon in stagnant pools.

| Tam, &c.

a Mémoire pour servir à commencer U Histoire des Araignées Aquatiques,

12mo.
f.

LETTER XV.

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS
CONTINUED.

"Tne habitations of insects which I shali next proceed
to describe, are those formed by the united labour of
several individuals.

The societies which thus combine their operations
may be divided into two kinds: Ist, those of which the
object is simply the conservation of the individuals
composing them; and 2dly, those whose object is alse
the nurture and education of their young. To the last
_ head belong bees, wasps, &c.: to the former the larve

f , À
| of some species of moths, whose labours being the most

| simple I shall first describe.

You cannot fail to have observed in gardens the fruit-
trees disfigured, as you would probably think them,
with what at first view seem very strong and thick spi-
ders’ webs. If you have bestowed upon these webs the
slightest attention, you must have likewise remarked —
that they differ very materially in their construction
from those spun by spiders, inclosing on every side ab
angular space, and being besides filled with caterpil-
lars. These are the larve of Bombyx chrysorrhed,
and the web which contains them is spun by their united
labour for the protection of the common society. As
soon as the cluster of eggs deposited by the parent moth

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. : 479

{

is hatched, the young caterpillars,to the number ofthree
or four hundred, commence their operations. At first
they content themselves by forming a sort of hammock
of the single leaf upon which they find themselves as-
sembled, covering it with a roof composed of a number
of silken threads drawn from one edge to the other;
and-under one or more of these temporary habitations
they reside for a few days, until they are become large
and strong enough to undertake a more solid and spa-
cious building sufficient to contain the whole society.
In constructing this new habitation, they spin a close

silken web round the end of two or three adjoining

twigs and the leaves attached to them, so as to include
the requisite space. ‘They are not curious in giving
any particular form to the edifice: sometimes it is flat,
often roundish, but always more or less angular. The
interior is divided by partitions of silk into several ir-
regular apartments, to each of which there is purposely
left an appropriate door, Within these the caterpillars
retire at night, or in rainy weather, quitting the nest
on fine days, and dispersing themselves over the neigh-
bouring leaves, upon which they feed. Here too they
repose during the critical period of the change of their
skins. On the approach of winter the whole community
shut themselves up in the nest, which, by the addition
of repeated layers of silk, has at this time become so
thick and strong as to be impervious to the wind and _
rain. They remain in a state of torpidity during the
cold months, but towards the beginning of April are
awakened to activity by the genial breath of spring,
and begin to feed with greediness upon the young leaves
that surround their habitation, which, as they soon

`

480- HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

greatly increase in size, they find it necessary to en-
large. One might fear that a structure formed of such
materials would at this period be sadly damaged by the
growth of the young shoots and leaves of the twigs.

which it incloses; but the inhabitants, as if to guard
against such an accident, have gnawed off all the buds
within their dwelling, and thus secured themselves
from this inconvenience?.

The nest of the larve of another species of moth, the
Bombyx processionea, unfortunately not a native of
this country, to which on account of their singular
manners, that will be detailed to you in a subsequent —
letter, Reaumur has given the title of processionary
caterpillars, is ert different in its construction —
from that just described, though formed of the same
‘material, As the caterpillars which fabricate it, feed
upon the leaves of the oak, itis always found upon this
tree, attached not to the branches but the trunk, some-
times at a considerable height from the ground. In
shape it resembles an irregular knob or protuberance,
and the silk which composes it being of a gray colour,
at a distance it would be taken fora mass of lichens.
Sometimes this nest is upwards of eighteen inches long,
and six broad, rising in the middle about four inches
from the surface of the tree. Between the trunk and
the silken covering, a single hole is left which serves
for the entrance and exit of the inhabitants. These
differ in their manners from those last mentioned.
While very young they have no pent em con-
tenting themselves with a succession of different tem-

porary camps until they have aes two-thirds of

a Reaum. ii, 128.

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 481

their growth. “Then it is they unite their labours in
spinning the nest just described; and in this they con-
tinue to reside in harmony until they become perfect
insects, assuming in it even the state of chrysalis®.
Habitations similar, as to their general structure, to
the above, though differing in several minute circum-
stances, are formed by the larve of several other moths,
as of Bombyx pheorrhea of Curtis, B. neustria, &c. as:
well as those of Papilio Jo, P. Cinxia, and some other
butterflies; and even of some Tenthredinide, which,
however, have each a separate silken covering. ° But
as it would be tedious to describe these particularly,
TI pass on to the habitations formed by insects in their
perfect state, which have in view the education oftheir-
young as well as self-preservation, describing in suc--
cession those of ants, bees, wasps, and Termites,

Of these the most simple in their structure are the
nests of different kinds of ants, many of which exter-
nally present the appearance of hillocks more or less
conical, formed of earth or other substances.

The nest of the large red ants (F. rufa, L.) which
are common in woods, at the first aspect seems a very
confused mass. Exteriorly it is a conical mount com- |
posed of pieces of straw, fragments of wood, little
stones, leaves, grain; in short, of any portable mate-
rials within their reach. But however rude its out-
ward appearance, and the articles of which it consists,
interiorly it presents an arrangement admirably calcu-
fated at once for a protection against the excessive
heat of the sun, and yet to retain a due degree of ge-

a Reaum. ii. 179.

VoL. I, . 21

A82 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS,

nial warmth. It is wholly composed of numerous small
apartments of different sizes, communicating with each
other by means of galleries and arranged in separate
stories, some very deep in the earth, others a considera-
ble height above it; the former for the reception of
the young in cold weather and at night, the latter
-adapted to their use in the day time. In forming these,
the ants mix the earth excavated from the bottom of
the nest with the other materials of which the mount
` consists, and thus give solidity to the whole. Besides
the avenues which join the apartments together, other
galleries varying in dimensions communicate with the
outside of the nest at the top of the mount. These open
doors would seem ill calculated for precluding the ad-
mission of wet or of nocturnal enemies: but the ants
alter their dimensions continually according to circum-
stances; and they wholly close them at night, when all
gradually retire to the interior, and a few sentinels
only are left to guard the gates. On rainy days, too,
they keep them shut, and when the eigi is cloudy opet
them partially*.

The habitations of these ants are much lar ger than
those of any other species in this country, and some-
times as big as a small haycock; but they are mere
molehills when compared with the enormous mounds
which other species apparently of the same family, but
much larger, construct in warmer climates. Malonet —
states, that in the forests of Guiana he once saw ant-

_ hills which, though his companion would not suffer him
' to approach nearer than forty paces for fear of his be-
ing devoured, seemed to him to be fifteen or twenty

a Huber, Recherches sur les Mæurs des Fourmis, p. 21-29.

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 483

feet high, and thirty or forty in diameter at the base,

assuming the form of a pyramid, truncated at one-third
of its height*: and Stedman, when in Surinam, once
passed ant-hills six feet high, and at least one hundred
feet in circumference”. . Ts

The nest of Formica brunnea, Latr. is composed
wholly of earth, and consists of a great number of
stories, sometimes not fewer than forty, twenty. below
the level of the soil, and as many above, which last,
following the slope of the ant-hill, are concentric. Each
story, separately. examined, exhibits cavities in the
shape of saloons, narrower apartments, and long gal-
leries which preserve the communication between both.
The arched roofs of the most spacious rooms are sup-
ported by very thin wails, or occasionally by small pil-
lars and true buttresses; some having only one en-
trance from above, others asecond communicating with
the lower story. The main galleries, of which in some
places several meet in one large saloon, communicate
with other subterranean passages which are often car-
ried to the distance of several feet from the hill.—T hese
insects workchiefly after sunset.—In building their nest
they employ soft clay only, scraped from its bottom
when sufficiently moistened by a shower, which, far
from inj uring, consolidates and strengthens their archi-
tecture. Different labourers convey small masses of
this ductile material between their mandibles, and
with the same instruments they spread and mould it to
their will, the antenna accompanying every movement.
They render. all firm by pressing the surface lightly

< a Huber, Recherches sur les Mecurs des Fourmis, p. 168:7 °
b Stedman’s Surinam, i, 169.

92

Gad Fad

A484 ` HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

with their fore feet: and however numerous the masses
of clay composing these walls, and though connected
by no. glutinous material, they appear when finished
one single layer well united, consolidated, and smooth-
ed. Having traced the plan of their structure, by
placing here and there the foundations of the pillars
and partition-walls, they add successively new por-
tions: and when the walls of a gallery or apartment
which are half a line thick are elevated about half an
inch in height, they join them by springing a flattish
arch or roof from one side to the other. Nothing can
be a more interesting spectacle than one of these cities
while building. In one place vertical walis form the
outline, which communicate with different corridors
by openings made m the masonry; in another we see
a true saloon whose vaults are supported by numerous
pillars; and further on are the cross ways or squares
where several streets meet, and whose roofs, though
often more than two inches across; the ants are under
no difficulty in constructing, beginning the sides of the
arch in the angle formed by two walls, and extending
them by successive layers of clay till they meet: while
crowds of masons arrive from all parts with their par-
ticle of mortar, and work with a regularity, harmony,
and activity, which can never enough be admired. So

assiduous are they in their operations, that they will
complete a story with all its saloons, vaulted roofs,

partitions and galleries, in seven or eight hours. if
they begin a story, and for want of moisture are un-
able to finish it, they pull down again all the crumbling
apartments that are not covered in*,

a Huber, Recherches, &o. 30-40.

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. A85

Another species of ants (F. fusca, L.) are also ma-
sons. When they wish to heighten their habitations,
they begin by covering the top with a thick layer of
clay which they transport from the interior. In this
layer they trace out the plan of the new story, first f
hollowing out little cavities of almost equal depth at
different distances from each other, and of a size
adapted to their purposes. The elevations of earth
left between them serve for bases to the interior walls,
which, when they have removed all the loose earth
from the floors of the apartments, and reduced the
foundations to a due thickness, they heighten, and
lastly cover all in. M. Huber saw a single werking
ant make and cover ina gallery which was two or three
inches long, and of which the interior was rendered
perfectly concave, without assistance’.

The societies of F. fuliginosa, Latr. make their habi-
tations in the trunks of old oaks or willow-trees, gnaw-
ing the wood into numberless stories more or less hori-
zontal, the ceilings and floors of which are about five
_or six lines asunder, black, and as thin as card, some-
times supported by vertical partitions, ferming an in-
finity of apartments which communicate by small aper-
tures; at others by small light cylindrical pillars fur-
nished with a base and capital which are arranged in
colonnades, leaving a communication perfectly free
throughout the whole extent of the story”.

‘Two other tribes of carpenter ants (F. æihiops and
F. flava, Latr.) use sawdust in forming their buildings.
The former applies this material only to the building
of walls and. stopping up chinks: the latter composes

a Huber, Recherches, &c. 45. b Ibid. 53,

A86 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

whole stages or stories of it made into a sort of papier
miché, with earth and spiders’ web*.
. Some ants form their nests of the leaves of trees.
One of these was observed by Sir Joseph Banks in
New South Wales, which was formed by glueing to-
gether several leaves as large as a hand. To keep
these leaves in a proper position, thousands of ants
united their strength, and if driven away, the leaves
spring back with great violence”.
`
Tar most profound philosopher, equally with the
most incurious of mortals, is struck with astonishment
on inspecting the interior of a bec-hive. He beholds
a city in miniature. He sees this city divided into re-
gular streets, these streets composed of houses con-
structed on the most exact geometrical principles and
the most symmetrical plan, some serving for store-
houses for food, others for the habitations of the citi-
zens, and a few, much more extensive than the rest,
_ destined for the palaces of the sovereign. He perceives
that the substance of which the whole city is built, is
one which man, with all his skill,-is unable to fabri-
cate; and that the edifices in which it is employed are
such, as the most expert artist would find himself in-
competent to erect. And the whole is the work of a
society of insects! “ Quel abime (he exclaims with
Bonnet) aux yeux du sage qwune ruche d’ Abeilles!
- Quelle sagesse profonde se cache dans cet abime! Quel
philosophe osera le fonder!” Nor have its mysteries
yet been fathomed. Philosophers have in all ages

a Huber, Recherches, &e. 6i.

b Hawkesworth’s Cook’s Voyages, tii, 223,

4

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 487

\

devoted their lives to the subject; from Aristomachus —
of Soli in Cilicia, who, we are told by Pliny, for fifty-
eight years attended solely to bees, and Philiscus the
Thracian, who spent his whole time in forests inves-
tigating their manners, to Swammerdam, Reaumur,,
Hunter, and Huber of modern times. Still the con--
struction of a bee-hive is a miracle which overwhelms:
our faculties. — i

You are probably aware that the hives with which:
we provide bees are not essential to their labours, and
that they can equally form their city in the hollow of |
a tree or any other cavity. In whatever situation it
is placed, the general plan which they follow is the
same. You have seen a honey-comb, and must have’ |
observed that it is a flattish cake, composed of a vast:
number of cells, for the most part hexagonal, regu-
larly applied to each other’s sides, and arranged in —
two strata or layers placed end to end. The interior
of a bee-hive consists of several of these combs fixed
to its upper part and sides, arranged vertically at a
small distance from each other, so that the cells com-
posing them are placed in a horizontal position, and
kave their openings in opposite directions—not the
best position one would have thought for retaining a
fluid like honey, yet the bees find no inconvenience on
this score. The distance of the combs from each other
is about half an inch, that is, sufficient to allow two
` bees busied upon the opposite cells to pass each other
with facility. Besides these vacancies, which form the
high roads of their community, the combs are here and
= there pierced with holes which serve as posterns for

I
488 “HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

easy communication from one to the other without
losing time by going round.

The arrangement of the combs is well iaaii for
its purpose, but it is the construction of the cells which
is most admirable and astonishing. As these are formed
of wax, a substance secreted by the bees in no great
abundance, it is important that as little as possible of.
‘such a precious material should be consumed. Bees,
therefore, in the formation of their cells have to solve

-aproblem which would puzzle some geometers, namely,
a quantity of wax being given, to form of it similar and
equal cells of a determinate capacity, but of the largest
‘size in proportion to the quantity of matter employed,
-and disposed in such a manner as to occupy in the hive
‘the least possible space. Every part of this problem is-
practically solved by bees. ` If their cells had been cy-
\indrical, which form seems best adapted to the shape
of a bee, they could not have been applied to each
other without leaving numberless superfluous vacui-
ties. If the cells were made square or triangular, this |
last objection, indeed, would be removed; ; but oa

that a greater quantity of wax would have been re-

quired, the shape would have been inconvenient to a
cylindrical-bodied animal. All these difficulties are
obviated by the adoption of hexagonal cells, which are
admirably fitted to the form of the insect, at the same
time that their sides apply to each other without the
‘smallest vacant intervals.—Another important saving
in materials is gained by making a common base serve
for two strata of cells. Much more wax as well as rcom
would have been required, had the combs consisted of.

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. A89

a single stratum only. But this is not all. The base
of each cell is not an exact plane, but is usually com-
posed of three rhomboidal or lozenge-shaped pieces,
placed so as to form a pyramidal concavity. From this
form it follows that the base of a cell on one side or
stratum of the comb is composed of portions of the bases
of three cells on the other. You wili inquire, Where.
is the advantage of this arrangement?. First, a greater
degree of strength; and secondly, precisely the same
as resuits from the hexagonal sides——a greater capacity
with less expenditure of wax. Not only has this been
indisputably ascertained; but that the angles of the base
of the cell are exactly those which require the smallest
quantity of wax. -Tt is obvious that these angles might
vary infinitely; but by a very accurate admeasurement
Maraldi found, that the great angles were'in general
109° 28’, the smaller ones 70° 37. Reaumur ingeni-
ously suspecting that the object of choosing these an-
gles from amongst so many was to spare wax, proposed

to M. Koenig, a skilful geometrician, who was igno-

rant'of Maraldi’s experiments, to determine by calcu-
lations what ought to be the angle of a hexagonal
cell, with a pyramidal bottom formed of three similar
and equal rhomboid plates, so that the least matter
possible might enter into its construction. For the so-
lution of this problem the geometrician had recourse
to the infinitesimal calculus, and found that the great
angles of the rhombs should be 109° 26, and of the
small angles 70° 24’*. What a surprising agreement
between the solution of the problem and the actual
measure?! ,

a Reaum, v. 390. > r
b Father Boscovich observes, that ail the angles that form the planes

1

A90 HABITATIONS O@ INSECTS,

Besides the saving of wax effected by the form of the
cells, the bees adopt another economical plan suited to
the same end. ‘They compose the bottoms and sides of
wax of very great tenuity, not thicker than a sheet of
writing-paper. But as walls of this thinness at the
entrance would be perpetually injured by the ingress
and egress of the workers, they prudently make the
margin at the opening of each cell three or four times
thicker than the wails. Dr. Barclay hasrecently disco-
covered that though of such excessive tenuity, the sides
and bottom of each cell are actually double, or, in other
words, that each cell is a distinct, separate, and in
some measure an independént structure, agglutinated
only to the neighbouring cells, and that when the ag-
glutinating substance is destroyed, each cell may be
entirely separated from the rest*.

‘which compose the cell are equal, é, e. 120°; and he supposes that this.
equality of inclination facilitates much the construction of the cell, which
may be a motive for preferring it, as well as economy. He shows that
the bees do not economize the wax necessary for a flat bottom in the
construction of every cell, near so much as MM. Koenig and Reaumur'
thought.

MacLaurin says, that the difference of a cell with a pyramidal from
one with a flat bottom, in which is comprised the economy of the bees, is
equal to the fourth part of six triangles, which it would be necessary to
add to the trapeziums, the faces of the cell, in order to make them right
angles, : Se Ex,

M. L’fluillier, professor of Geneva, values the economy of the bees
at 3, of the whole expense ; and he shows that it might have been one-
fifth if the bees had no other circumstances to attend to; but he con-
cludes, that if itis not very sensible in every cell, itmay be considerabie
in the whole of a comb, on account of the mutual setiing of the two ep-
posite orders of cells. Fuber, Nouvelles Observations, &c, ii. 34.

a Memoirs of the Wernerian Society, ii. 259. This however has been

denied, and seems inconsistent with the account given by Huber here-.

after detailed,

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 491

You must not imagine that all the cells of a hive are
of precisely similar dimensions. As the society con-
sists of three orders of insects differi ing in size, the aili
which are to contain the larve of each proportionably
differ, those built for the males being considerably
larger than those which are intended for the workers.
The abode of the larve of the queen bee differs still
more. It is not only much larger than any of the rest,
but of a quite different form, being shaped like a pear
or Florence flask, and csapod of a material much
coarser than common wax, of which above one hun-
dred times as much is used in its construction a as of pure
wax in that of a common cell. The situat ion, too, of
_ these cells (for there are generally three or four, and
sometimes many more, even up to thirty or forty, in
each hive) is very different from that of the common
cells. Instead of being in a horizontal they are placed
in a vertical direction, with the mouth downwards,
and are usually fixed to the lower edge of the combs,

from which they irregularly project like stalactites _

from the roof of a cavern.—The cells destined for the
reception of honey and pollen, differ from those which
the larve of the males and workers inhabit, only by
being deeper, and thus more capacious; in fact, the
very same cells are successively applied to both pur-
poses. When the honey is collected in great abundance,
and there is not time to construct fresh cells, the bees
lengthen the honey cells by adding a rim to them.
You will be anxious to learn the process which these
ingenious artificers follow in constructing their habi-
tations: and on this head I am happy that the recent
publication of anew edition of the celebrated Huber’s

d %

\

492 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

New Observations on Bees, in which this subject is for
the first time elucidated, will enable me to gratify your
curiosity.

But in the first place you must be told of an impor-
tant and unlooked-for discovery of this unrivalled de-
tector of the hidden mysteries of nature—that the
workers or neuters, as they are called, of a hive, con-
sist of two descriptions of individuals, one of which
he calls abeilles nourrices or petites abeilles, the other
abeilles ciriéres.—The former, or nurse-bees, are smaller
; than the latter; their stomach is not capable of such
| distention; and their office is to build the combs and
j cells after the foundation has been laid by the ciriéres ;
to collect honey; and to feed the larve. The abeilles
ciriéres are the makers of wax, which substance Huber
has now indisputably ascertained to be secreted, as
John Hunter long ago suspected, beneath the ventral

/
segments, from between which it is taken by the bees

when wanted, in the form of thin scales. The appa-

ratus in which the wax is secreted consists of four pair

of membranous bags or wax-pockets situated at the
base of each intermediate segment, one on each side,

which can only be seen by pressing the abdomen so as
to lengthen it, being usually concealed by the over-
lapping of the preceding segments. It should be ob-
served that this discovery was nearly made by our coun-
tryman Thorley, who in his Female Monarchy syy (1744)
says that he has taken bees with six pieces of wax
within the plaits of the abdomen, three on each side.
In these pockets the wax is secreted by some unknown
process from the food taken into the stomach, which in.
the wax-making bees is much larger than in the nurse-

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 493

bees, and afterwards transpires through the membrane
of the wax-pocket in thin laminæ. The nurse-bees,
however, do secrete wax, but in very small quantities.
—When wax is not wanted in the hive, the wax-makers
disgorge their honey into the cells.

‘The process of building the combs in a bee-hive, as
observed by Huber, is as follows:

The wax-makers having taken a due portion of ho-
ney or sugar, from either of which wax can be elabo-

rated, suspend themselves to each other, the claws of
the fore-legs of the lowermost being attached to those
of the hind pair of the uppermost, and form themselves
into a cluster, the exterior layer of which looks like a
kind of curtain. ‘This cluster consists of a series of
festoons or garlands, which cross each other in all di-

rections, and in which most of the bees turn their back
upon the observer: the curtain has no other motion
than what it receives from the interior layers, the fluc-
tuations of which are communicated to it.—All this
time the nurse-bees preserve their wonted activity and
pursue their usual employments.—The -wax-makers
remain immoveable for about twenty-four hours, during
which period the formation of wax takes place, and.
thin laminæ of this material may be generally perceived
under their abdomen. One of these bees is now seen
to detach itself from oné of the central garlands of the
cluster, to make a way amongst its companions to the
middle of the vault or top of the hive, and by turning
itself round to form a kind of void, in which it can
move itself freely. It then suspends itself to the cen-
tre of the space which it has clear ed, the diameter of
which is about an inch. , It next seizes one of the la-

494 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

mine of wax witha pincer formed by the posterior me-
tatarsus and tibia?, and drawing it from beneath the
abdominal segment, one of the anterior legs takes it
with its claws and carries it to the mouth. This leg
holds the lamina with its claws vertically, the tongue
rolled up serving for a support, and by elevating or
depressing it at will, causes the whole of its circumfe-
rence to be exposed to the action of the mandibles, so
that the margin is soon gnawed into pieces, which drop
as they are detached into the double cavity, bordered
with hairs, of the mandibles. These fragments, pressed
by others newly separated, fall on one side of the »
mouth, and issue from it in the form cfa very narrow
ribband. They are then presented to the tongue,
which impregnates them with a frothy liquor like a
bouillie. During this operation the tongue assumes all
sorts of forms; sometimes it is flattened like a spatu-
la; then like a trowel, which applies itself to the rib-
band of wax; at other times it resembles a pencil ter-
minating in a point. After having moistened the whole
of the ribband, the tongue pushes it so as to make it
re-enter the mandibles, but in an opposite direction,
where it is worked up anew. The liquor mixed with
the wax communicates to it a whiteness and opacity `
which it had not before ; and the object of this mixture
of bouillie, which did not escape the observation of
Reaumur?, is doubtless to give it that ductility and
tenacity which it possesses in its perfect state.
The foundress-bee, a name which this first beginner
of a comb deserves, next applies these prepared par-
a Vide Mon. Ap: Ange t. 12, * * e. 1, neut. fig. 19.

b Reaum, v. 424.

t

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS, 495

cels of wax against the vault of the hive, disposing
them with the point of her mandibles in the direction
which she wishes them to take: and she continues these
manœuvres until she has employed the whole lamina
that she had separated from her body, when she takes
a second, proceeding in the same manner. She gives
herself no care to compress the molecules of wax which
she has heaped together; she is satisfied if they adhere
to each other. At length she leaves her work, and is
lost inthe crowd of her companions. Another succeeds,
and resumes the employment; then a third; all follow
the same plan of placing their little masses; and ifany
by chance gives them a contrary direction, another
coming removes them to their proper place. The re-
sult of all these operations is a mass or little wall of
wax with uneven surfaces, five or six lines long, two
lines high, and half a line thick, which descends per-
-pendicularly below the vault of the hive. In this first
work is no angle nor any trace of the figure of the cells.
it is a simple partition in a right line without anyin-
flection. i 5 Z
The wax-makers having thus laid the foundation of '
a comb, are succeeded by the nurse-bees, which are `
alone competent to model and perfect the work. The |
former are the labourers, who convey the stone and |
mortar; the latter the masons, who work them up into
the foin which the intended structùre requires. One
ofthe nurse-bees now places itself horizontally on the
vault of the hive, its head corresponding to the centre
of the mass or wall which the wax-makers have left,
and which is to form the partition of the comb into two
opposite assemblages of cells; and with its mandibles,

A96 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

rapidly moving its head, it moulds in that side of the

wall a cavity which is to form the base of one of the
cells to the diameter of which it is equal. When it has
worked some minutes it departs, and another takes its
place, deepening the cavity, heightening its lateral
margins by heaping up the wax to right and left by
means of its teeth and fore-feet, and giving them amore
upright form. More than twenty bees successively
employ themselves in this work. When arrived ata
certain point, other bees begin on the yet untouched
and opposite side of the mass; and commencing the
bottom of two cells, are in turn relieved by others.
While still engaged in this labour, the wax-makers
return and add to the mass, augmenting its extent.
every way, the nurse-bees again continuing their ope-
rations.—A fter having worked the bottoms of the cells
of the first row into. their proper forms, they polish
them and give them their finish, while others begin
the outline of a new series.

| The cells themselves, or prisms which result from
| the re-union and meeting of the sides, are next con-
structed. These are engrafted on the borders of the
cavities hollowed in the mass. The bees begin them
by making the contour of the bottoms, which at first is
unequal, of equal height: thus all the margins of the
cells offer an uniformly level surface from their first
origin, and until they have acquired their proper length.
The sides are heightened in an order analogous to that
which the insects follow in finishing the bottoms of the
cells; and the length of these tubes is so perfectly
proportioned that there is no observable inequality
between them.—lIt is to be remarked, that though the

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS, AQT

general form of the cells is hexagonal, that of those
first begun is pentagonal, the side next the top of the
hive, and by which the comb is attached, being much
broader than the rest ; whence the combis more strongly
united to the hive than if these cells were of the ordi-
nary shape. It of course follows that the base of these

- cells, instead of being formed like those of the hexa-
gonal cells of three rhomboids, consists of one rhom-
boid and two tr apeziums, |

The form of a new comb is lenticular, its thickness
‘always diminishing towards the edges. This gradation
is constantly observable while it keeps enlarging in
circumference; but as soon as the bees get sufficient
space to lengthen it, it begins to lose this form and to
assume parallel surfaces: it has then received the
shape which it will always preserve.

The bees appear to give the proper forms to the bot-
toms ofthe cells by means of their antenne, which ex-
traordinary organs they seem to employ as directors
by which their other instruments are instructed ‘to
execute a very complex work. They do not remove a
single particle of wax until the antennæ have explored

the surface that is to be sculptured. By the use of these

organs, which are so flexible and so readily applied to

all parts, however delicate, that they can perform the

functions of compasses in measuring very minute ob-

, jects, they can work in the dark, and raise those won-
derful combs the first production of insects.

Every part ofthe work appearsa natural pees ee

ofthat which precedes it, so that chance has no share
in the admirable results witnessed. The bees cannot

depart from their prescribed route, except in ‘conses
S VOI aara 2K

\

495 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

\

quence of particular circumstances which alter the basis
oftheirlabour. The original mass of wax is never aug-
mented but by an uniform quantity; and what is most
astonishing, this augmentation is made by the wax-
makers, who are the depositaries of the primary matter;
and possess not the art of sculpturing the cells.

The bees never begin two masses for combs at the
same time; but scarcely are some rows of cells con-
structed in the first, when two other masses, one on each
side of it, are established at equal distances from it and
sparalleltoit, andthen again two more exterior to these.
The combs are always enlarged and lengthened in a
progression proportioned tothe priority of their origin:
the middle comb being constantly advanced beyond the —
two adjoining ones by some rows of cells, and they be-
yond those that are exterior to them.. Was it permit-
ted to these insects to lay the foundation of all their
combs at the same time, they could not be placed con-
veniently nor parallel to each other. So with respect
to the cells, the first cavity determines the place of all
that succeed it.

Alarge number of bees work at the same dime: on the
same comb; but they are not moved to it by a simul-

taneous but by a successive impulse. A single bee be-

| gins every partial operation, end many others in suc-

À cession add their efforts to hers, each appearing to act
~ individually in a direction impressed either by the
workers who have preceded it, or by the condition i®
whichit finds the work. The whole population of wax-
makers is in a state of the most complete inaction till -
one bee goes forth to lay the foundations of the first

comb. Immediately others second her intentions, add-

/

HABITATIONS OF ENSEOTS, A99 ©

ing to the height and length of the mass; and when
they cease to act, a bee, if the term may be used, of
another profession, one of the nurse-bees, goes to form
the draught of the first cell; in which altsi is siereedeil
by others.

The diameters of the cells intended for the larvee of -
workers is always 22 lines, that of those meant for the
larve of the males or drones 34 lines. The male cells
are generally in the middle of the combs, or in their
sides ; rarely in their upper part. They are never in-
sulated, but form a corresponding group on both sides
the comb. When the bees form male cells below those
of neuters, they construct many rows of intermediate
ones, the diameter of which augments progressively
till it attains that ofa male cell; and they observe the
same method when they revert from male cells to those
of neuters. It appears to be the oviposition of the
queen which decides the kind of cells that are to be
made: while she lays the eggs of workers, no male
_ cells are constructed; but when she is about to lay.the -
eggs of males, the neuters appear to know it and act,
accordingly.— When there is a very large harvest of
‘honey, the bees increase the diameter and even the
length of their cells. At this time many irregular
combs may be seen with cells of twelve, fifteen, and
éven eighteen lines in length. Sometimes also they
have occasion to shorten the cells. When they wish to
lengthen an old ċomb, the tubes of which have acquired
their full dimensions, they gradually diminish the thick~
hess of its edges, gnawing down the sides of the cells:
till it assumes the lenticular form : they: then. engraft a
mass of wax round it, and so proceed with new cells:

2K2

500 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS;

_ Variations, as has been already hinted, sometimes

‘take place in the position and even form of the combs.
Occasionally the bees construct cells of the common
shape upon the wood to which the combs are fixed,
_ without pyramidal bottoms, and from them continue
their work as usual. These cells with a flat bottom,
or rather with the wood for their bottom, are more ir-
regular than the common ones ; some of their orifices
~ arenotangular, and their dimensions are not exact, but
all are more or less hexagonal. Once when disturbed,
Huber observed them to begin their combs on one of
the vertical sides of the hive instead of on the roof.
When particular circumstances caused it, as, for in-
stance, when glass was introduced, to which they do
~ not like to fix their combs, he remarked that they con-
stantly varied their direction; and by repeating the at-
_ tempt, he forced them to form their combs in the most
- fantastic manner. Yet glass is an artificial substance,
against which instinct putes cannot have provided
them: there is nothing in hollow trees, their natural
habitation, resembling it— When they change the di-
rection of their combs, they enlarge the cells of one
side to two or three times the diameter of those of the
other, which gives the requisite curve.

To complete the detail of these interesting disco- _
veries of the elder Huber, I must lay before you the
following additional observations of his son.

The first base of the combs upon which the bees
_ work holds three or four cells, sometimes more.—The
-| comb continues of the same width for three or four

i inches, and then begins to widen for three quarters of
\ its length. The bees engaged at the bottom lengthen

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS, 501

it downwards; those on the sides widen it to right
and left; a those which are. employed above the
thickest part extend its dimensions upwards. , The
more a comb is enlarged below, the more it is neces-
sary that it should be enlarged upwards to the top of
the hive. The bees that are engaged in lengthening
the comb, work with more celerity than those which
increase its width; and those that ascend or increase
-its width upwards, more slowly than the rest.. Hence
it arises that it is longer than wide, and narrower to-
wards the top than towards the middle-—The first
formed cells are usually not so deep as those in the
middle; but when the comb is ofa certain height, they —
_ are in cals to lengthen these cells so essential to the
_ solidity of the whole, sometimes even making them
longer than the rest.—The cells are not gotti} ho-
rizontal; they are almost always a little higher to-
` wards théir mouth than at their base, so that their axis
is not perpendicular to the partition that separates the.
two assemblages. They sometimes vary from the hori-
zontal line more than 20°, usually 4° or 5°. When
the bees enlarge the diameter of the cells preparatory
to the formation of male cells, the bottoms often con-
sist of two rhomboids and two hexagons, the size and
form of which vary, and they correspond with four i in-
stead of three opposite cells.—The works of bees are
symmetrical less perhaps in minute details than consi-
dered as a whole. Sometimes, indeed, their combs
have a fantastic form; but this, if traced, will be found.
to be caused by circumstances: one irregularity occa-
sions another, and both usually have their origin in
the dispositions which we make them adopt. The in-

502 ' HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

_ constancy of climate, too, occasions frequent interrup-
tions, and injures the symmetry of the combs; for a
work resumed is always less perfect than one followed
up until completed.

At first the substance of the cellsi is of a dead white,
semitransparent, soft, and though even, not smooth :
but in a few days it loses most of these qualities, or

rather acquires new ones; a yellow tint spreads over
the cells, particularly het interior surface ; their
edges become thicker, and they have acquired a con-

_sistence, which at first they did not. possess, The
combs also when finished are heavier than the unfi<
nished ones: these last are broken by the slightest
touch, whereas the former will bend sooner than break,
Their orifices also have something adhesive, and they
melt less readily; whence it is evident that the finish-
ed combs contain something not present in the unfi-

nished ones, In examining the orifice of the yellow —
cells, their contour appeared to the younger Huber te

be besmeared with a reddish varnish, unctuous, strong-
scented, and similar to, if not the same as, propolis.
Sometimes there were red threads in the interior, which |
were also applied. round the sides, rhombs, or trape-
ziums. This solder, as it may be called, placed at
the point of contact of the different parts, and at the
summit of the angles formed by their meeting, seemed
to give solidity to the cells, round the axis of the
longest of which there were sometimes one or twe
redzones, Fromsubsequent experiments, M, Huber
ascertained that this substance was actually propolis,
collected from the buds of the poplar. . He saw them
with their mandibles draw a. thread from the mass of

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS: 508

propolis that was most conveniently situated, and
breaking it by a sudden jerk ofthe head, take it with
the claws of their fore-legs, and then, entering the cell,
place it at the angles and sides, &c. which they had:
previously planished. The yellow colour, however, is’
- not given by the propolis, and it is not certain to what
it is owing.—The bees sometimes mix wax and pro-'
polis and make an amalgam, known to the ancients and
called by them Mitys and Pissoceros, which they use
in rebuilding cells that have been destroyed, in Asa
to strengthen and support the edifice*.

We know but little ofthe proceedings of the species
of bees not indigenous to Europe, which live ‘in socie- .
ties and construct combs like that cultivated by us. A
traveller in Brazil mentions one there which builds
a kind of natural hive: “ On an excursion towards: |
upper Tapagippe,” says he, “ and skirting the dreary’
woods which extend to the interior, I observed the’
trees more loaded with bees’ nests than even in the :
neighbourhood of Perto Seguro. They consist of a
ponderous shell of clay, cemented similarly to martins’
nests, swelling from high trees about a foot thick, and
forming an oval mass full two-feet in diameter. When .
broken,. the wax is arranged as in our sab. and the
honey abundant”.”

- Humble-bees are the only tribe besides the hive-bee,
that in this part of the world construct nests py the-

a Nouvelles Observations sur les Abeilles, par Francois Huber, iis 10l- .
288. 1 observed the bees collecting Pre. this yee from the hag of .
Populus balsamifera. ei Bases 24

b Lindley in R, Military Chronicle, March 1815, 449,

504 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

united labour of the society. The habitations eom~
posing them are of a rude construction, and the streets
are arranged with little architectural reg ularity. The
number of inhabitants, too, is small, rarely exceeding
_ two or three hundred, and often not more than twenty.
The nests of some species, as of Apis lapidaria, A. ter-
restris, &c. are found’ under ground at the depth of a
foot or more below the surface; but as the internal
structure of these does not essentially differ from that
of the more singular habitations of 4. Muscorum, and
as some of the subterranean species occasionally adopt
the same situation; I shall confine my description to
the latter.

These nests, which do not exceed. six or eight
inches in diameter, are generally found in meadows
and pastures, and sometimes in hedge-rows where the
soil is entangled with roots. The lower half occupies
a cavity in the soil, either accidentally found ready
made, or excavated with great labour by the bees.
The upper part or dome of the nest is composed of a
thick felted covering of moss, having the interior ceil-
ing coated with a thin roof of coarse wax for the pur-
pose of keeping out the wet. The entrance is in the
lower part, and is generally through a gallery or co-

‘vered way, sometimes more than a foot in length and
half an inch in diameter, by means of which the nest is
more effectually concealed from observation, On re-
moving the coping of moss, the interior presents to our
view a very different scene from that witnessed in a
bee-hive. Instead of numerous vertical combs of w aX,

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 505°

/

more elevated parts of the lower, and. connected to-

gether by small pillars of wax. Each of these combs
consists of several groups of pale-y ellow oval bodies
of three different sizes, those in the middle being the
largest, closely joined to each other, and each group
connected with those next it by slight joinings of wax, ,
These oval bodies are not, as you might suppose, the
work of the old bees, but the silken cocoons spun by
the young larve. Some are closed at the upper ex-
tremity; others, which chiefly oceupy the lower combs,
have this part open. The former are those which yet in-
clude their immature tenants; the latter are the empty
cases from which the young bees have escaped, On
the surface of the upper comb are seen several masses
of wax of a flattened spheroidal shape, and of very
various dimensions: some above an inch and others
not a “quarter of an inch in diameter; which on being
opened are found to include a number of larve sur-
rounded with a supply of pollen moistened with tap :

of the female, hicks after ‘Seeing hae eggs in them >
furnishes them with a store of pollen and honey; and,
when this is consumed, supplies the larve with a daily
provision „as has been described in a former letter, until
they are sufficiently grown to spin the cocoons before
spoken of. Lastly, in all the corners of the combs, and
especially in the middle, we observe a considerable
number of small goblet-like vessels, filled with honey
and pollen, which are not, as in the case of the hive- į
hee, the fabrication of the workers, but are chiefly the |
empty cocoons left by the larve. It falls to the workers, i
however, to cut off the fr agments o silk from the oris

\

506 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

fice of the cocoon, which, after giving it a regular cir-
cular form, they strengthen by a ring or elevated tube
of wax made in a different shape by different species ;
and to coat them internally with a lining of the same
; material. They even occasionally construct honey-pots
| entirely of wax’.

The most curious circumstance in the construction
of these nests, is the mode in which the bees transport
the moss employed in forming the roof. When they
have discovered a parcel of this material conveniently
situated upon the ground, five or six insects place
themselves upon it in a file, turning the hinder part of
their bodies towards the quarter to which it is meant
to be conveyed. The first takes a small portion, and
with its jaws and fore-legs as it were felts it together.
When the fibres are sufficiently entangled, it pushes
them under its body by means of the first pair of legs;
the intermediate pair receive the moss, and deliver it
to the last, which protrude it as far as possible beyond
the anus, When by this process the insect has formed
behind it a small ball of well-carded moss, the next bee
pushes it to the third, which consigns it in like manner
to that behind it; and thus the balls are conveyed to
the foot of Ais Hest; and from thence elevated to the |
summit, much in the same way that a file of labourers
transfer a parcel of cheeses.from a vessel or cart to a
warehouse, It is easy to perceive that a vast saving
of time must ensue from this well contrived division of
labour; the structure rising much more rapidly than if.
every individual had been employed first in carding his

materials, and then in transferring them to the spot.

a Huber, Linn. Tr. vi. 212-298, b Reavm. vie T410.

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. _ 507

Wasps, though ferocious and cruel towards their
fellow-insects, are civilized and polished in their inter-
course with each other, and form a community whose
architectural labours will not suffer on comparison
even with those of the peaceful inhabitants of a bee-
hiye. Like these, the great object of their industry is
the erection of a structure for their beloved progeny,
towards which they discover the greatest tenderness
and affection, and-they even in like manner construct
combs consisting of hexagonal. cells for their recep-
tion; but the substance which they make use of is very
Siar to the wax employed by bees, and the gene-
ral plan of their city differs in many respects from that
of a bee-hive,

The common wasp’s nest, sedate situated in a ca-
vity under ground, is of an oval figure, about sixteen
or eighteen inches long by twelve or thirteen broad,
Externally it is surrounded by a thick coating of nu-
merous leaves of a sort of grayish paper, which do not
touch each other, but haye a small interval between
each, so that, if the rain should chance to penetrate
one or two of them, its progress is speedily arrested,
On removing this external covering, we perceive that
the interior consists of from twelve ta fifteen circular
combs of different sizes, not rang ed vertically as ina
bee-hiye, but horizontally, so as to form so many di- .
stinet and parallel stories. Each comb is composed of
a numerous assemblage of hexagonal cells formed of
the same paper-like substance as the exterior covering
of the nest, and, according to a discovery of Dr. Bar-
clay, each, as in those of bees, a distinct cell, the par-

~
508 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

tition walls being double*. These cells, which, as wasps

do not store up any food, serve merely as the habita-

tions of their young, are not, like those of the honey-

bee, arranged in two opposite layers, but in one only,

their entrance being always downwards: consequently

the upper part of the comb, composed of the bases of
the cells, which are not pyramidal but slightly convex,

forms a nearly level floor, on which the inhabitants can
conveniently pass and repass, spaces of about half an

inch high being left between each comb. Although the

combs are fixed to the sides of the nest, they would not

be sufficiently strong without further support. The

ingenious builders, therefore, connect each comb to

that below it by a number of strong cylindrical columns
or pillars, having according to the rules of architecture

` their base and capital wider than the shaft, and com-

posed of the same paper-like material used in other

parts of the nest, but of a more compact substance.

The middle combs are connected by a rustic colonnade
of from forty to fifty of these pillars; the upper and

lower combs by a smaller number.

- The cells, which in a, populous nest are not fewer

than 16,000, are of different sizes, corresponding to

_ that of the three orders of individuals which compose

the community; the largest for the grubs of females,

the smallest for those of workers. The last always

occupy an entire comb, while the cells of the males.
and females are often intermixed.—Besides openings

which are left between the walls of the combs to admit

of access from one to the other, there are at the bottom

of each nest two holes, by one of which the wasps uni»

a Memoirs of the Wernerian Society, ii, 260.

1

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 509

formlyenter, and through the other issue from the nest,

and thus avoid all confusion or interruption of their
common labours. As the nest is often a foot and a half
under ground, it is requisite that a covered way should
lead to its entrance. This is excavated by the wasps,
who are excellent miners, and is often very long and
tortuous, forming a Kaba road to the subterranean
city, well known to the inhabitants though its entrance
is concealed from incurious eyes. ‘he cavity itself
which contains the nest is either the abandoned habi-
tation of moles or field-mice, or a cavern purposely dug
out by the wasps, which exert themselves with such
industry as to accomplish the arduous Se eae in
a few days.

When the cavity and entrance to it are completed,
the next part of the process is to lay the foundations of
the city to be included in it, which, contrary to the
usual custom of builders, wasps begin at the top, con- `
tinuing downwards. I have already told you that the |
coatings which compose the dome are a sort of rough ©
but thin paper, and that the rest of the nest iscomposed
of the same substance variously applied. “‘ Whence,”
you will inquire, “ do the wasps derive it?” They are
manufacturers of the article, and prepare it froma
material even more singular than any of these which
have of late been proposed for this purpose; namely,
the fibres of wood*. These they detach by means of

- their jaws from window-frames, posts and rails, &c.,

a Reaumur says decaying wood, vi. 182; but White asserts (and my
own observations confirm his opinion) that wasps obtain their paper
from sound timber; hornets, only from that which is decayed. Whites
= Nat, Hist by Markwick, ii. 228.

510 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS,

and, when they have amassed a.heap of the filaments, -
moisten the whole with a few drops of a viscid glue
| from their mouth, and, kneading it with their jaws into
a sort of paste or papier måché, fly off with it to their
nest. This ductile mass they attach to that part of the
building upon which they are at work, walking back-
wards and spreading it into lamine of the requisite
thinness by means of their jaws, tongue, and legs. This
operation is repeated several times, until at length, by
aid of fresh supplies of the material and the combined
exertions of so many workmen, the proper number of
layers of paper that are to compose the roof is finished.
This paper is as thin as that of the letter which you
are reading g; and you may form an idea of the labour
_ which even the exterior of a wasp’s nest requires, on
being told that not fewer than fifteen or sixteen sheets
of it are usually placed above each other with slight
intervening spaces, making the whole upwards of an
inch and a half in thickness. When the dome is com-
pleted, the uppermost comb is next begun, in which;
as well as all the other parts of the building, precisely
the same material and the same process, with little va+
riation, are employed. In the structure of the con-
necting pillars there seems a gréater quantity of glue
made use of than in the rest of the work, doubtless
with the view of giving them a superior solidity.—
When the first comb is finished, ‘the continuation of |
the roof or walls of the building is‘ brought down
. lower; anew comb is erected; and thus the work suc-
cessively proceeds until the whole is finished. As a
comparatively small proportion of the society is en«

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. Uu

gaged in constructing the nest, its entire completion is
the work of several months: yet, though the fruit of
such severe labour, it has scarcely been finished a few
weeks before winter comes on, when it merely serves
for the abode of a few benumbed females, and is en-
tirely abandoned at the approach of spring; wasps ne-
ver using the same nest for more than one season®,

The nests of the hornet in their general construction
resemble those of the common wasp, but the paper of
which they are composed is of a much more rough tex-
ture; the columns which support the:comb are higher
and more massive; and that in the centre larger than
the rest. ain

These last, as well as wasps, conceal their nest, sus-
pending it in the corners of outhouses, &e.; but there

are other species which construct their habitations in
open day-light, affixing them to the branches of shrubs
or trees. ;

One of these, PASE by Latreille, the work of
Vespa holsatica, F., a species not uncommon with us,
resembles in shape a cone of the cedar of Lebanon, and
is composed of an envelope and the. comb, the former
consisting of three partial envelopes, each of the in-
terior of which is longer than the preceding.- The
comb comprises about thirty hexagonal cells circularly
arranged, those of the circumference being lower and
smaller”.

A vespiary cominishad similar to the above, but ofa
depressed globular figure, and composed of more nu-
merous envelopes, so as to assume a considerable re-
semblance:to a half-expanded Provence rose, is figured

a Reaum, vi, Mem, 6, b-Annales du Muséum d? Hist. Nat, i289.

‘512 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

by Reaumur*: and for a very beautiful specimen ap#
parently of the same kind (except that it contains but
one stage of cells), which was found in the garden at
‘East-Dale, I am indebted to the kindness of Henry
‘Thompson, esq. of Hull. |

Another species (Vespa Parietum??) attaches its
small group of about twenty inverted crucible-like
cells to a piece of wood without any covering®.

But all these yield in point of singularity of struc-
ture to the habitation of Polistes nidulans, (Vespa char-
taria, Oliv.) a native of Cayenne, which constructs its
nest of a beautifully polished white and solid paste-
board, impenetrable by the weather. These are in
-shape somewhat like a bell, often a foot and a half
long, and fixed by their upper end to the branch of a
tree from which they are:securely suspended. Their
‘interior is composed of numerous concave horizontal
combs, with the openings of the cells turned dowr-
wards, fastened to the sides without any pillars, and
| having a hole through each to admit of access to the
uppermost‘. patie

I cnosE my account of the habitations of insects with
‘the description of those constructed by the Termites,
-a tribe alluded to in former letters.
~ The different species, which are numerous, build

nests of very various forms. Some (T. atrox and mor-
dax, Sm:) construct upon the ground a cylindrical
turret of clay about three quarters of a yard high,
~ surrounded by a projecting conical roof, so as in shape
evi, 19: LR b Rösel Vesp. t. 7. f. 8.
e Rösel IL viii, 30. &@Reaum, vi 224.

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS, 513.

éonsiderably to resemble a mushroom, and composed
interiorly of innumerable cells of various figures and
dimensions. Others, as T. Destructor, F. (T. Arbo-
rum, Sm.) prefér a more elevated site, and build their
hests, which are of different sizes, from that ofa hat to
that of a sugar-cask, and composed of pieces of wood
glued together, amongst the branches of trees often
seventy or eighty feet high. But by far the most cu-
rious habitations, and to which, therefore, I shall con-
fine a minute description, are those formed by the
Termes Jatahs (T. bellicosus, Sm.), a species very com-
mon in Guinea and other parts of the coast of Africa,
of whose proceedings we have a very particular and in-
teresting account in the 71st volume of the Philosophi-
cal Transactions, from the pen of Mr: Smeathman.
These nests are formed entirely of clay, and are ge-
nerally twelve feet high and broad in proportion, so
that when a cluster of them, as is often the case, are
placed together, they may be taken for an Indian yil-
lage, and are in fact sometimes larger than the huts
which the natives inhabit. The first process in the
erection of these singular structures, is the elevation
of two or three turrets of clay about a foot high, and in
shape like a sugar loaf. These, which seem to be the
scaffolds of the future building, rapidly increase in
number and height, until at length being widened at
the base, joined at the top into one dome, and consoli-
‘dated all round into a thick wall of clay, they form a
building of the size above mentioned, and of the shape
of a hay-cock, which when clothed, as it generally soon
becomes, with a coating of grass, it at a distance. very
much resembles. When the building has assumed this
Vou. I. . 21,

514 -HABITATIONS OF INSECTS,

its final form, the inner turrets, all but the tops, which
project like pinnacles from different parts of. it, are re-
moved, and the clay employed over again in other
services. 5 -*
It is the lower part alone of the building that is oc+
cupied by the inhabitants. The upper portion or domes
which is very strong and solid, is left empty, serving
principally as a defence from the vicissitudes of the
weather and the attacks of natural or accidental ene-
mies, and to keep up in the lower part a genial w armth
and moisture necessary to the hatching of the eggs and
cherishing of the young ones: The inhabited portion
is occupied by the royal chamber, or habitation of the.
king and queen; the nurseries for the young; the store-
houses for food; and innumerable galleries, passages,
and empty rooms :—arranged according to the follow-

ing plan. | Ties
In the centre of the building, just under the apex,

and nearly ona level with the surface of the ground, is
placed the royal chamber, an arched vault of a semi-
oval shape, ornotunlike a long oven; at first not above
an inch long, but enlarged as the queen increases in
bulk to the length of eight inches or more. In this
apartment the king and queen. constantly reside ; and
from the smallness of the entrances, which are barely
large enough to admit their more diminutive subjects,
can never possibly come out; thus, like many human

otentates, purchasing their sovereignty at the deat
rate of the sacrifice of liberty. Immediately adjoining
the royal chamber, and surrounding it on all sides to
the’ extent of a foot or more, are placed. what Mr.
Smeathman calls the royal apartments; an inextricable

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 515

labyrinth of innumerable arched rooms of different
Shapes and sizes, either opening into each other or com-
municating by common passages, and intended for the
accommodation of the soldiers and attendants, of whom
many thousands are always in waiting on their royal
master and mistress. Next to the royal apartments
come the nurseries and the magazines. The former are.
invariably occupied by the eggs and young ones, and in
the infant state of the nest are placed close to the royal
chamber; but when the queen’s augmented size re-
quires a larger apartment, as well as additional rooms
for the increased number of attendants wanted to re-
move her eggs, the small nurseries are taken to pieces,
rebuilt at a greater distance a size bigger, and their
number increased at the same time. In substance they
differ from all the other apartments, being formed of
particles of wood apparently joined together with gums.
A collection of these compact, irregular, and small
wooden chambers, not one of which is half-an inch in
width, is inclosed in a common chamber of clay some-
times as big as a child’s head.—Intermixed with the
nurseries lie the magazines, which are chambers of clay
always well stored with provisions, consisting of parti-
cles of wood, gums, and the inspissated juices of plants.
These magazines and nurseries, separated by small
empty chambers and galleries, which run round them
or communicate from one to the other, are continued
on all sides to the outer wall of the building, and reach
Up within it two-thirds or three-fourths of its height.

They do not, however, fill up the whole of the lower
part of the hill, but are confined to the sides; leaving
an open area in the middle, under the dome, very much

2u2 |

516 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

- yesembling the nave of anold cathedral, having its roof
supported by three or four very large Gothic arches, of
which those in the middle of the area are sometimes
two and three feet high, but as they recede on each side
rapidly diminish like the arches of aisles in perspective.
A flattish roof, imperforated in order to keep out the
wet, if the dome should chance to be injured, covers
the top of the assemblage of chambers, nurseries, &c. ;
and the area, which is a short height above the royal
chamber, has a flattish floor also water-proof, and so
contrived as to let any rain that may chance to get in
run off into the subterraneous passages. |

_ These passages or galleries, which are of an asto-
nishing size, some being above a foot in diameter and
perfectly cylindrical, lined with the same kind of clay
of which the hill is composed, served originally, like
thecatacombs of Paris, as the quarries whence the ma-
terials of the building were derived, and afterwards as
the grand outlets by which the Termites carry on their
depredations at a distance from ther habitations. They
run ina sloping direction under the bot:om of the hill
to the depth of three or four feet, and then branching
out horizontally. on every side, are carried under
ground, near to the surface, to a vast distance. At
their entrance into the interior they communicate with
other smaller galleries, which ascend the inside of the
outer shell in a spiral manner, and, winding round the
whole building to the top, intersect each other at dif-
ferent heights, opening either immediately into the
dome in various places, and into the lower half of the
building, or communicating with every part of it by
other smaller circular or oval galleries of different dia-

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 517

meters. The necessity for the vast size of the main
underground galleries evidently arises frum the cir-
cumstance of their being the great thoroughfares for
the inhabitants, by which they fetch their clay, wood,
water, or provision; and their spiral and gradual
ascent is requisite for the easy access of the ‘Termites,
which cannot but with great difficulty ascend a perpen-
dicular. To avoid this inconvenience in the interior
vertical parts of the building, a flat path-way, half an
inch wide, is often made to wind gradually, like a road
cut out of the side of a-mountain, by which they travel
with great facility up ascents otherwise impracticable.
The same ingenious propensity to shorten their labour
seems to have given birth to a contrivance still more
extraordinary. This is a kind of bridge of one vast -
arch, sprung from the floor of the area to the upper
apartments at the side of the building, which answers
the purpose of a flight of stairs, and must shorten the
distance exceedingly in transporting eggs from the
royal chambers to the upper nurseries, which in some
hills would be four or five feet in the straightest line,
and much more if carried through all the winding pas-
sages which lead through the inner chambers and apart-
ments. Mr. Smeathman measured one of these bridges,
which was half an inch broad, a quarter of an inch thick,
and ten inches long, making the side of an elliptic arch
of proportionable size, so that it is wonderful it did not
‘fall over or break by its own weight before they got it
Joined to the side of the column above. It wasstrength-
‘ened by a small arch at the bottom, and had a hollow
or Sroove all the length of the upper surface, either
‘nade purposely for the greater safety of the passengers,

518 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.

or else worn by frequent treading. It is not the least
surprising circumstance attending this bridge, the Go-
thic arches before spoken of, and in general all the
arches of the various galleries and apartments, that,
as. Mr. Smeathman saw every reason for believing,
the Termites project their arches, and do not, as one
would have supposed, excavate them.

Consider what incredible labour and diligence, ac-
companied by the most unremitting activity and the
most unwearied celerity of movement, must be ueces-

sary to enable these creatures to accomplish, their size

considered, these truly gigantic works. That such di-
minutive insects, for they are scarcely the fourth ofan
inch in length, however numerous, should, in the space
of three or four years, beable to erect a building twelve
feet high and of. a’ proportionable bulk, covered by a
vast dome, adorned without by numerous pinnacles and
turrets, and sheltering under its ample arch myriads of
vaulted apartments of various dimensions, and con-
structed of different materials—that.they should more-
over excavate, in different directions and at different
depths, innumerable subterranean roads or tunnels,
some twelve or thirteen inches in diameter, or throw
an arch ofstone over other roads leading from the me-
tropolis into the adjoining country to the distance of
several hundred feet—that they should project and
finish the, for them, vast interior stair-cases or bridges
lately described—and, finally, that the millions neces-
gary to execute such Herculean labours, perpetually
passing to and fro, should never interrupt or interfere
with each other, is a miracle of nature, or rather of the
Author of nature, far exceeding the most boasted works

‘

HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 519

and structures of man : for, did these creatures equal
him in size, retaining their usual instincts and activity,
their buildings would soar to the astonishing height of
more than halfa mile, and their tunnels would expand
to a magnificent cylinder of more than three hundred
feet in diameter ; before which the pyramids of Egypt
and the aqueducts of Rome would lose all their cele-
brity, and dwindle into nothings*, So that when in the
commencement of my last letter I promised to intro-
duce you to insects whose labours produced edifices
more astonishing than those of the mightiest Egyptian
monarchs, the pyramids, my promise, whatever you
then thought of it, was the reverse of hyperbolical.

Tam, &c.

a The most elevated of the ‘pyramids of Egypt is not more than 600
feet high, which, setting the average height of man at only five feet, is
not more than 120 times the height of the workmen employed. Whereas
the nests of the Termites being at least twelve feet high, and the insects
themselves not exceeding a quartér of an inch in Stature, their edifice is
upwards of 590 times the height of the builders ; which, supposing them
of human dimensions, would be more than half a mile, The shaft of the
Roman aqueducts was lofty enough to permit a man on horseback to

travel in them. :

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME,

PRINTED BY RICHARD AND ARTHUR TAYLOR, LONDON.

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.

——

PLATE I.

COLEOPTERA.

Fig. 1. Calosoma Sycophanta.

2. Staphylinus cyaneus. |
3. Siagonium quadricorne, Nov, Gen. K. magnified.
4. Malthinus.
5. Molorchus.
6. Meloe.
DERMAPTERA:
7. Forficula gigantea.

PLATE II.

STREPSIPTERA.

1. Xenos Peckii. Linn. Trans.
ORHTOPTERA.

2. Acheta Gryllotalpa.

3. Blatta germanica.

HEMIPTERA.
4. Ledra aurita.
5. Cimex rufipes.

PLATE IH.

4 LEPIDOPTE A
ig. 1. Papilio dispar mas?
2. Sesia asiliformis.

3. Bombyx pulchella.
. TRICHOPTERA.
` 4. Phryganea varia? -
NEUROPTERA.
5. Libellula cancellata.
6. Raphidia notata, Fab. Mantiss.

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