Jerry Stannard 459 ChanningAve. Westfield, New Jersey ^7 V / /" > ->* .3^ ' ' A f-/.. / ^'^ ,?e - » — ^ /^-^^ GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. LONDON: LUXFORD & CO., PRINTERS, RATCLIFF HIGHWAY. FAMILIAR INTRODUCTION HISTORY OF INSECTS; heIng a new and greatlt improved edition of THE GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. EDWARD NEWMAN, F.L.S., Z.S., &c. \i^ "--5c-? LONDON : JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1841. " My wish and judgment about the affair has always been this ; that I should much prefer that some one of those, more skilful than myself, had undertaken it ; hut still that it is better even I should undertake it, than it he left undone." — Cicero. THIS ILLUSTRATED EDITION AN^ INTRODUCTORY WORK ON INSECTS, WRITTEN WITH A VIEW OF BLENDING AMUSEMENT WITH INSTRUCTION, IS INSCRIBED To WILLIAM YARRELL, Esq., WHOSE LABOURS HAVE CONTRIBUTED SO GREATLY TO RENDER NATURAL HISTORY A POPULAR PURSUIT, WITHOUT IN AXT DEGREE LOWERING ITS DIGNITY AS A SCIENCE. PREFACE. Teachers in science are nearly equally divided into two classes ; — those who know too much, and those who know too Uttle. Those of the first class, overloaded with science, cannot admit the possibihty of meeting with readers who have none ; and, therefore, their essays and introductions are so worded that it requires a tolerable proficiency to understand them. The teach- ers of the second class fall into the opposite eiTor; they curtail, garble, and popularize the writings of others without understanding them, forgetful that it requires a consummate knowledge of any science to abridge a work which treats of it ably and at large. The author submits, with much humility, that both classes are in error : he submits also that introductory works should be wiitten for those who know nothing of the subject on wliich they read, and hy those who possess, in themselves, some practical knowledge of the subject on which they write. VIU PREFACE. In accordance with these views the author has written the following pages; he supposes his reader utterly ignorant of Entomology, and endeavours to show him that it is the History of Insects, and the Art of Pre- serving Insects, and the Physiology of Insects, and the Classification of Insects : he does not address himself to the professed Entomologist; to such this work will be of little value. The First Book, entitled History of Insects, is a complete compilation ; a series of histories copied, in many instances verbatim, from the accounts of those authors who relate what themselves have witnessed. Objections will probably be raised to this plan, but the author thinks without reason. What good pui*pose would have been answered, had he so curtailed, trans- posed, and altered these histories, that their very authors should not have knoTNTi them ? On the contrary, is there not a good pui'pose answered in collecting to- gether the most interesting observations of Huber, Smeathman, Rusticus, Kirby, Spence, Clark, Fries, and Bevan ? No concealment is attempted : the au- thority for each history is given, except when dependent on the author's own observation, and thus the respon- sibility is removed from the compiler. PREFACE. IX f The Second Book, entitled Collection and Preser- vation of Insects, contains nothing worthy of comment ; it mil be useful to beginners, and thus the author's only object in wiiting it will be attained. The Third Book, entitled Physiology or Anatomy of Insects, is the record of the author's own observations : he has given the names employed by other writers, when he could understand to what parts they referred, but in names alone has he availed himself of their labours ; the facts, the descriptions, unless given as quotations, are entirely his own. The Fom'th Book, entitled Classification of Insects, may be chai'ged with being too original : it may be said that the author should have given the views and ar- rangements of others in preference to his own. He would ask, whose system was he to select ? Tliat liis own is the most simple and the most readily miderstood, no one will deny : that it is more perfect, or more ac- cm-ate, or more phUosopliical, than any other, he does not presume to contend. As for a chsquisition on system it would have been dangerous gi'ound ; pleasurable to the writer, but unprofitable to the reader : it would have doubled the size of the volume without adding a fraction to its value. TRRFACF. The want of an easy introduction to the Natural History of Insects has been felt by many. For the last two yeai's, during which time it has been generally known that he has contemplated the task, the author has received numerous and pressing soHcitations to proceed with it : he has at last made the attempt. He has done his best ; whether successfully or not. others must decide. Postscript, May, 1841. — This little book was ob- served as a caterpillar in 1835 ; in 1837 it disappeared and remained concealed as a quiescent and lethargic pupa, until, roused by the genial influence of the pre- sent spring, it has burst its cere-cloths and assumed the ornamented wings of the gay and volatile buttei'fly. We need scai'cely enquii'e the physical causes com- bining to induce this prolonged slumber : suffice it to know that the imago is at last on the wing, and per- chance ere long may be flitting amid the live oaks of America and the Eucalypti of AustraHa : it will be sure to flutter about its native home, and many a fair finger will lightly touch its wings, and many a bright eye rest well pleased on its decorations : even the schoolboy will regard it as a thing to be desired, and if obtained will consider it a treasure. PREFACE. XI To descend to prose — the first edition appeared in 1835. In 1837 a second edition was announced, from v/liicli circumstance it may fairly be concluded that the first was out of print ; but notwithstanding this an- nouncement, tlie second edition was delayed from month to month, until it was abandoned and almost forgotten : at length it was determined to reprint the work in its present illustrated and altered form. The illustrations are almost entirely original : one is coi)ied from Curtis, one or two from Shuckard and Spry, one or two fi'om Westwood : two of the draAvings, those at pages 27 and 96, ai*e by the author's brother; the others by himself, and with the exceptions above speci- fied, invariably from Nature : all the illustrations have been drawn and engi'aved expressly for this edition. The alterations are in every instance introduced with the view of making the work more easy to the beginner. The author would gladly have added to the number of pages, in fact, he had determined on doing so, he had prepared several most scientific and erudite passages, but " The hest laid sclicmes o' mice an' men Gang ait a-gley." On talking the matter over >vitli his publisher — and what author ever presumed to decide for himself? — PREFACE. it was deemed advisable to restrict the volume in its dimensions to three hundred pages, and in its charac- ter to a simple introduction, — a kind of " reading made easy" to the youthful butterfly-hunter. The author cannot lay down his pen before he has acknowledged the gratification he feels from the hberal encouragement his literary labours have received : it would be false modesty to pretend bhndness to the fact that the humble efforts of liis pen and pencil have been unusually successful ; and this knowledge raises in his heart a feeling of honest pride and gi'atitude he would fain express, yet knows not how. Reader, should the author persuade thee, by a pe- rusal of these pages, to follow in his footsteps, — to tread the paths which he has trodden, — to gaze with an enquiiing and delighted eye on those things which he has gazed on, — it is enough. He bids thee, affec- tionately, farewell! TABLE or CONTENTS. BOOK I. — History of Insects. Page. Chap. I. — History of Insects in general, 1. Of the Simulia, 3. Of the Ichneumon, 6. Of the Earwig, 10. Of the Locust, 12, Of the Ant-lion, - - ' 14 Chap. II. — History of the Silkworm, 17. Its introduction into Eu- rope, 18. Its introduction into England, 19. Changes of skin, 20. Spinning, 21. Eggs, ------- 23 Chap. III. — History of Breeze-flies, 25. Breeze-fly of the horse, 26. Of the sheep, 29. Of the ox, 30 Chap. IV. — History of the Honey-bee, 33. Of the queen bee, 34. Of the drones, 34. Of the queen's laying eggs, 35. Of swarm- ing, 36. Of the combs, 37. Of the honey, - - - - 39 Chap. V. — History of the Yellow Ant, 41. Description of an ants' nest, 42. Mode of building it, 43. Of the larva, 44. Of the pupae or ants' eggs, 45. Care taken of the larvse and pupae, 46. Final escape of the winged ants, 47. Their aerial journey, 49. Slave ants, .-_.-. ----50 Chap. VI. — History of the Sexton Beetle, - . . _ - 53 Chap. VII. — History of the White Ants, 57. Description of their hills, 58. Internal structure of the nest, 61. Subterranean passages, 63. Winding road and bridges, 64. Labourers, Sol- diers, Kings and Queens, 65. Oviposition of the Queen, 68. Wild bulls stand on the hills, , _ - . - - 72 Cha p. VIII. — Metamorphosis of Insects, 73. Metamorphosis described, Amorpha, 76. Necromorpha, Isomorpha, 77. Anisomorpha, - 78 TABLE OF CONTENTS. BOOK II. — On the Collection and Preservation of Insects. Page. Chap. I. — Apology for the Entomologist, - - - - - 85 Chap. II. — Of the dress and implements for the collector of Insects, 91 Chap. III. — Of collecting Insects, 97 Chap. IV. — Of killing, setting, naming and arranging Insects, 113. Of cabinets, 120. Of entomological hooks, 124. Of investi- gating Insects, - - - - - - - - - 127 BOOK III. — Physiology or Anatomy of Insects. Chap. I. — Of the organs of support or skeleton, - - - . 133 Chap. II. — On the head, legs, and wings of Insects, 153. Head, 154. Antennae, 155. Eyes, 158. Mouth, 159. Wings, 165. Legs, 168. Of Surface, --------- 171 Chap. III. — On the internal anatomy of Insects; of the Muscles, 178. Nerves, 180. The alimentary canal, 184. Organs of cir- culation, 186. The tracheae, 191 BOOK IV. — On System or Classification of Insects. Chap. I. — Classification of Insects in general, .... 199 Chap. II. — Of the Classification of Lepidoptera, - - . . 206 Chap. III. — Of the Classification of Diptera, .... 2I6 Chap. IV. — Of the Classification of Hymenoptera, - - - 230 Chap. V. — Of the Classification of Coleoptera, .... 246 Chap. VI. — Of the Classification of Orthoptera, Hemiptera, Neurop- tera, &c. - . - - 264 GRAMMAR ENTOMOLOGY. BOOK I. ON THE HISTORY OR ECONOMY OF INSECTS, Here subteiranean works and cities see, There towns aerial on the waving tree ; Learn each small people's genius, policies. The ants' republic and the realm of bees; How those in common all their stores bestow, And anarchy without confusion know ; And these for ever, though a monarch reign, Their separate cells and properties maintain. CHAPTER I. HISTORY OF INSECTS IN GENERAL. The histoiy of an insect, like the history of a man, is an account of life from first to last, from birth to death. Insects are so constituted, that the history of an individual is the history of its race : climate, season or circum- stance exercises but little power of creating differences among them ; a bee is as essentially a bee, and a butterfly a butterfly, at the equator as at the poles ; and in either si- tuation performs the same acts. Insects of all kinds, and in all situations, resemble each other in the following par- ticulars:— they proceed from the parent as eggs; the eggs are hatched and become grubs, in which state they eat, B i HISTOFY OF INSECTS. increase rapidly in size, and are invariably without wings ; the grubs, when full grown, become for a time motionless ; their skin opens, and from it comes forth the perfect insect, which has four ^vings, and does not increase in size. In a very great number of insects the grab changes its skin, and completely alters its form, when it becomes motionless; in- deed, almost as great a transformation takes place as on its final change to a perfect insect ; when tliis is the case, the animal, in its motionless state, is called a chrysalis. Thus we have four stages in the life of an insect, — four states which it is necessary thoroughly to understand ; the egg [ovum), which is motionless, and apparently lifeless; the gi-ub {larva), which is active, but without wings, vora- cious, and gi'ows rapidly; the chrysalis {piqia), which is quite motionless, and does not occiu: in all insects; the perfect insect {imago), wliich is active, has wings, does not grow, and wliich, by laying eggs, perpetuates its kind. The names egg, larva, pupa, and imago, are the terms generally employed in descriptions ; the three last answer equally well for Latin and English, but it must be borne in mind that the words, grub, maggot and caterpillar, are sy- nonymous with the term larva ; and perfect insect, Jly, &c., are synonymous with the term imago; and the English and Latin words are used in English descriptions almost indifferently. These transformations, often spoken of as the metamorphosis of insects, are in reality nothing more than a continual casting of the outer skin ; the larva often casts its skin fom- or five times, without any very remarkable change of form ; every casting of the skin is a step towards arriving at ultimate perfection. In every insect the skin must be cast a certain number of times, and the last cast- ing brings it to maturity. On accoimt of their small size, it is difiicult to find com- mon examples of the eggs of insects ; those laid on meat by HISTORY OF INSECTS. 3 the blue-bottle fly must be known to many; the silk-worm's eggs again are not unknown ; but the generality of insects' eggs are so concealed, and so little conspicuous, that they are found with difficulty. Examples of larvcd are numer- ous; the maggots fomid in wasps' nests and used in fishing, — the maggots in apples and nuts, — the maggots in cheese, and in decaying substances, — and the catei-pillars which devour our cabbages, and those which spin webs on our apple, pear, and plum trees, — are familiar to us all: these are insects in the larva state. The pupa state is more dif- ficult to find, because insects generally crawl away into crevices or hide themselves underground, before changing to tliis state ; an angular pupa, of a green colour, with small black spots, which produces a common white butterfly, may, however, be fi'equently seen on palings and garden walls, and the smooth brown pupae of moths are continually dug up in gardens. The imago, or perfect state, is exem- plified in butterflies, moths, gnats, flies, wasps, bees, ants, beetles, grasshoppers, earwigs, cockroaches, bugs, fleas, may-flies, and dragon-flies. All descriptions of insects in scientific works relate to the imago state, unless the con- trary is distinctly expressed. The mode in wliich the life of an insect is passed, differs very widely in the various states of its existence : it often happens that the larva inhabits the water and the imago the air ; sometimes the larva inhabits the water, the pupa inha- , bits the earth, and the imago retui'ns to the water. The following brief histories will in some degree exemplify this. History of the Simulia.* — The eggs of the Simulia or sandfly (sometimes also called the mosquito), appear to be at present unknown ; there is, however, little doubt, that like those of other gnats, they are deposited on the surface * Authority; — M. Fries, in ' Entomologisches Archives.' B 2 4 HISTORY OF INSECTS. of the water, and in that situation are hatched by the warmth of the sun combined with the moisture of the water. The larva, is found on the stems of water-plants {Phellandriimi, &c.), on those portions wliich are always covered by the water : it is long, cylindrical, considerably thickened pos- teriorly, and nearly transparent ; its head is distinctly sepa- rated fi-om the body, and is of an oblong form ; it has four jaws moving horizontally, each bifid at the tip, and two little homs in the usual place of antennse, inserted in the front of the head, rather towards each side ; each of these is com- posed of two joints, the first or basal joint stout, the second or apical one, divided into many rays, wliich fold back on the first joint : there are two veiy small eyes on each side of the head. The body of the larva is divided into twelve segments, besides the head ; of these, the second is incras- sated, and furnished below with a retractile conical foot ; the last segment is very minute, and furnished with two small prehensile feet : the air-tubes, so very plainly seen in other aquatic larvae, are totally wanting ; neither is there the least appearance of spiracles or breathing-holes in the sides. The motion of the larva in the water is tolerably brisk ; but on any object coming in contact with it, it instantly becomes motionless, attaches itself by the anterior prehen- sile foot, and remains for a long time perfectly still and im- movable. When it moves from one place to another, its progression is undulating, somewhat like that of a leech, being performed in this manner: — the anterior foot is firmly attached to some object, then the posterior pair of feet are brought up to it, the back arching up diuing t^ie operation ; the anterior foot then releases its hold ; the body is again elongated, the foot attached further on, and the posterior feet again brought up to it. The food of the larva is un- known : when full grown, it spins a Httle silken sheath, in shape like a watch-pocket, which is attached to the plant HISTORY OF INSECTS. O frequented by the larva, and in this it shortly changes to a pupa in an upright position : the case being always open at top, the head and shoulders of the pupa are seen projecting above it. The pupa much resembles that of a moth : it is perfectly motionless, of a brown colour, and exhibits very distinctly the parts of the perfect insect through its skin : from the back of its head arise, on each side, four hair-like appendages ; these are tubular, and appear to be designed for breathing. About the sixth of July the little creature bursts from its sheath ; the case of the chrysalis opens in a right line down the back, and the perfect insect emerges through the opening, surrounded by a bubble of air, and slowly begins to unfold its wings under the water ; finally, its skin being cast, and maturity attained, the imago dis- engages itself from its former habitation, and mounts within its bubble to the surface of the water, when the bubble bui'sts, and the creature, with its new organs, has acquired a new element. The imago is a small black fly, with two large transparent wings, which, f'^a:?*?'^-*:^'^ when at rest, repose horizontally on its back ; moderately long legs, and short stout anten- nae : it flies with ease, and somewhat sportively, rising and falUng. In this country it is found in the damp parts of woods, and other similar situations ; but, happily, in very limited numbers. There is scarcely any creature more annoying to men and animals, than this little fly : its attacks are made in in- numerable multitudes, and it is troublesome, not only from the pain and inflammation caused by its bite, but also from the intolerable itching occasioned by its crawling over the skin. In the woody and marshy parts of Lapland, these flies swarm in the months of July and August ; nay, even the summits of the highest mountains, though capped with perpetual snow, impose no obstacle to their progress. 6 HISTORY OF INSECTS. Among the numerous gnats and flies which feed on blood, these are the most to be feared ; impelled by an insatiable thirst they make their attack, and will have blood ; nothing- can repel or deter them. Whenever the garment of a tra- veller has accidentally slipped aside, and discovered a portion of his skin, however small, that exposed portion is instantly streaming with blood : in the southern parts of Lapland they are less troublesome than in the northern, although clouds of them occasionally appear, perfonning their evolutions in the air. The SimuUa seems to have adopted the world for its country : no known land appears to be without it ; all tem- peratures suit it — the polar snows and the blaze of tropical sands. Yet all the flies of wliich travellers complain as so dreadfully annoying, are not Simulice; — many of our commonest gnats have a similar taste for blood. Although from what is related, there can be no doubt that the blood of man is an acceptable food to the SimuUa, yet it is re- markable that the greatest multitudes of these creatures inhabit those bleak, inhospitable, and almost inaccessible regions where the foot of man seldom treads, and where other warm-blooded animals are scarcely known to exist. It is clearly ascertained that the female SimuUcB alone suck the blood of man ; the males spend their lives among the leaves of trees, or settle on flowers, from which they appear to derive nutriment; it is therefore far from impossible that, on the failure of animal, the females also may have recoui'se to vegetable food. History of the Ichneumon. — There are many butterflies and moths which increase so rapidly, that, without a check, their caterpillars would, in two or three years at the utmost, devour every gi*een leaf on the face of the earth, and ren- der it incapable of supporting its present inhabitants. The ichneumons are evidently created to act as a check to this HISTORY OF INSECTS. 7 devastation : they are generally small insects, with slender bodies, and have four transparent wings : they are very ac- tive, running about the stems and leaves of plants in search of catei-pillars, and fly very readily. The ichneumons are of many kinds : more than a thousand species have been described by naturalists ; and it is probable that every but- terfly, and every moth, indeed, almost every insect, has one peculiar to itself: the history of them all is nearly similar. The caterpillar of the tiger-moth is one of the most de- structive ; it devours, indiscriminately, lettuces, radishes, beans, peas and every other early production of om* gardens, and is most abundant in the spring, when these plants ai'e being reared : it is a very rough, hairy caterpillar, black above, with a red fringe on each side, and is preyed on by several ichneumons. The largest ichneumon {Pimpla Instigator) of the tiger-moth {Arctia caia) is often about an inch long, but varies much in size ; it has a black body and red legs, and emits a remarkably strong smell, something like burning pitch. In the spring, this ichneumon may be seen coursing over the leaves of lettuces, nettles and currant- bushes, on strawbeny-beds, &c., hunting for the object of its attack. When it has found a catei'pillar, it seizes it behind the head with its jaws ; at this operation the catei'pillar loosens its hold of the plant on which it was feeding, rolls itself suddenly into a ring, erects its bristles as stiffly as pos- sible, and falls to the ground : if the fall is great and among twigs, the ichneumon is sometimes dislodged, but this rarely happens. The female ichneumon has three bristles at its tail ; the middle one of these appears to be a tube for conveying its eggs into the body of the caterpillar, and is called an ovi- positor, the outer ones seem to serve as protectors to this ovipositor, and not to be used for piercing the catei'pillar. When the caterpillar can fall no farther, is frequently un- 8 HISTORY OF INSECTS. folds itself, and writhes about to dislodge its enemy ; out its struggles are useless : the ichneumon elevates its body into a kind of arch, bending the ovi- positor forward beneath it nearly to its mouth ; it then steadies the ovipositor by its hind legs, and, with a slight jerk, drives it into the skin of the caterpillar behind the head ; the egg is instantly de- posited, the ovipositor withdrawn and the ichneumon flies away. The caterpillar, immediately on the conclusion of this operation, remounts the plant on which it had previously been, and begins feeding eagerly, as before ; no difference whatever is to be discovered in its manner, in the quantity of food it consumes, or in the ra- pidity of its growth. When the caterpillar has attained its full size, it spins a web among leaves, on the ground, in a bush or against pal- ings, intermixing a considerable quantity of its own hairs ; and in this web it changes to a chrysalis. The egg of the ichneumon is very soon hatched and becomes a white mag- got, without feet, and with very little appearance of head ; it begins eating that part of the flesh of the caterpillar which is immediately in its neighboui'hood, and continues its course towards the tail, devouring all the fat and muscular parts not absolutely essential to motion and Ufe ; and, by the time the caterpillar of the moth is full grown, and becomes a chrysalis, the maggot of the ichneumon is full grown also, and occupies more than half of its interior. It is worthy of remark that this maggot, thus inhabiting for weeks the body of a caterpillar, and devouring its flesh, al- waj^s avoids those parts which are essential to life ; as though aware that the cessation of life in the caterpillar HISTORY OF INSECTS. 9 would ensure its own death, as it could not subsist on the putrifying carcass. After lying quiescent for some weeks, and frequently through the entire winter, the skin of the maggot is tin-own off, and it becomes a chrysalis, exhibiting very nearly the shape and appearance of the future fly ; the antennae and legs being placed before it, the wings small and folded by its side, and the ovipositor being- turned up a little over its back. The chrysalis is without motion, and much resembles that of the bee : in both in- stances the limbs are quite distinct from the body, and not united with it in a hard crustaceous cover as is the case in the chrysalis of the silk-wonn : this kind of chrysalis is said to be necromorphous, because its limbs are rigid, formally an-anged and perfectly motionless, as in death. The chrysalis state lasts but a few days, and the perfect insect emerges from it ; after this first escape, it has to pe- netrate the shell of the chrysalis of the tiger-moth, in wliich it is still imprisoned, and which is rendered much harder by the drying of the portions of animal matter left uncon- sumed by the maggot of the ichneumon. The ichneumon overcomes this difficulty by gnawing a hole, with its sharp and strong jaws, generally in that thin portion of the shell wliich covers the wing of the future insect : almost imme- diately on emerging, the ichneumon vibrates its wings, and flies away. The caterpillar of the tiger-moth is preyed on in a similar manner by the maggot of a two -winged fly ; and this mag- got, while thus devom-ing the interior of the caterpillar, is itself a prey to a minute kind of ichneumon, twenty of which sometimes feed in the maggot of a single fly. The manner in wliich the egg of this little ichneumon is introduced into the maggot of the fly, is at present unknown ; but as the fly fastens its egg exteriorly on the skin of the caterpillar, and does not perforate the skin to dej)osit it inside, as in the 10 HISTORY OF INSECTS. case of the great ichneumon before described, it is supposed the small ichneumon's egg is laid in the egg of the fly, while the latter is adhering to the skin of the caterpillar. The egg of the fly, which is placed on the neck of the cater- pillar, the only part from which the caterpillar could not remove it, is very conspicuous to an observer : in this situ- ation we cannot be smprised, then, that the ichneumon should discover it ; nor does it appear an improbable sup- position that the little creature seizes this opportunity of piercing the shell with her oviduct, and depositing her eggs amidst its contents. The maggot of the fly, as soon as it is hatched, pierces the skin of the caterpillar, and commences devoiuing, canying within it a horde of insidious parasites, which, though they interfere not with the due performance of its appointed work of destruction, yet, in the end, so weaken it that it never arrives at perfection. Very ingeni- ous experiments and calculations have proved, that four out of every five eggs that are laid, are prevented fi-om ar- riving at maturity by parasites attacking them in one or other of their stages j a fact which proves the immense importance of this seemingly insignificant tribe of animals. History of the Earwig. ^The earwig is one of our most common insects ; it is well known to every one, and is very generally an object of unconquerable dislike; the forceps at its tail, and the threatening manner in which these are turned over its back, to pinch anything of which it is afraid, render it peculiarly disgusting. The fore wings of the ear- wig are square, short, leathery pieces, wliich cover but a very small portion of the body : the insect is incapable of bending or folding them in any direction, or of using them as organs of flight. The hind wings are quite different from the fore wings : they are folded into a very small compass, and covered by the fore wings, except a small portion wliich protrudes from beneath them ; and, when examined in this HISTORY OF INSECTS. 11 position, appear totally useless as organs of fliglit. When unfolded, the hind wings are remarkably beautiful ; they are of ample size, perfectly transparent, displaying prismatic colours when moved in the Hght ; and are intersected by veins, which radiate from near the centre to the margin. — The shape of these wings, when fully opened, is nearly that of the human ear ; and from this circumstance it seems highly probable that the original name of this insect was eoxwmg. Earwigs subsist principally on the leaves and flowers of plants, and on fruit ; and they are entirely nocturnal in- sects, retiring by day into dark crevices and comers, where they ai'e screened fi-om observation. The rapidity with which they devoiu- the petals of a flower is remarkable ; they clasp the edge of a petal in their fore legs, and then, stretcliing out their head as far as possible, bite out a mouthful ; then another moutliful nearer, and so on till the head is brought to the fore legs. This mode of eating is exactly that which is practised by the caterpillars of but- terflies and moths ; the part of a leaf or petal is eaten out in a semicircidar form, and the head is tlu-ust out to the extreme part, after every series of mouthfuls. Pinks, car- nations, and dahlias, very frequently lose all their beauty from the voracity of these insects. When the time of breeding has arrived, which is generally in the autumn, the . female retires for protection to the cracks in the bark of old trees, or the interstices of weather-boarding, or under heavy stones on the ground : here she commences laying her eggs. The eggs are usually from twenty to fifty in number : when the female has finished laying them, she does not forsake them as is the habit of other insects, but sits on them in the manner of a hen, until they are hatched. When the little ones leave the shell, they aie instantly 12 HISTORY OF INSECTS. very perceptibly larger than the eggs which contained them. They precisely resemble the parent in structure and habit, except that they are without wings ; they also differ in co- lour, being perfectly white. The care of the mother does not cease with the hatching of the eggs : the young ones run after her wherever she moves, and she continues to sit on them and brood over them with the greatest affection for many days. If the young ones are disturbed or scat- tered, or if the parent is taken away from them, she will, on the first opportunity, collect them again, and brood over them as carefully as before, allowing them to push her about, and cautiously moving one foot after another, for fear of hurting them. How the young ones ai-e fed until the mother's care for them has ceased, does not appear to have been ascertained ; for it is not until they are nearly half grown that they are seen feeding on vegetables with the rest. History of the Locust.^ — The locust, from the remotest ages, has had a greater power to injure man, than any other living creature. Its course is almost invariably accompanied by famine and pestilence : man is armed with no power to resist it. The locust was sent as a plague to the Egyi)tians, especially to punish them for their detention and oppression of the Israelites : the whole face of the country was covered by their multitudes. Afterwards, about the date 200 B.C., we have it on record, that locusts again swarmed in the same part of Africa, St. Augustin mentions another enor- mous swarm in the same region, which devoured every green leaf, and, eventually reaching the sea, perished by drown- ing : the mass of their corrupted bodies created so great a stench, that a pestilence ensued which cai-ried oflf nearly a million human beings. We are told by Mouffet, that in * Authority : — Kirby and Spcnce's ' Introduction to Eiitomology.' HISTORY OF INSECTS. 13 the year 591 a swarin of locusts visited Italy; tliey pursued their destructive coui'se, devouring every thing, until they reached the sea, in which they perished. The pestilence arising from the stench, carried off men and beasts to the number of more than a million. In 1478 the Venetian ter- ritory was \dsited by a swarm of locusts, wliich so completely destroyed the crops as to cause a famine, wherein more than thirty thousand persons died of starvation. In 1650, a swarm of locusts entered Russia. As they passed, the air was darkened by their numbers ; they covered the face of the earth ; the trees bent with their weight ; and in some places the mass of their dead bodies was four feet in depth. In 1 748 a swarm of locusts visited the Austrian dominions : at Vienna the breadth of the swarm exceeded tlrree miles, and so darkened the air, that one person could not see ano- ther at the distance of twenty paces. Major Moor witnessed in the Mahrattas, the ravages of a swarm of locusts that was five hundred miles in length, and so compact as completely to hide the sun, and occasion darkness. Mr. Barrow re- lates that in Southern Africa, in the years 1784 and 1797, a swarm of locusts covered an area of nearly two thousand square miles. When driven by a north-west wind into the sea, they formed upon the shore, for fifty miles, a bank three or four feet high : the stench from their putrifying bodies was perceptible at the distance of one hundred and fifty miles. In 1778 and 1780, a swarm of locusts visited Mo- rocco ; eveiy green thing vras eaten, and a dreadful famine ensuing, such vast numbers of people died of hunger in the streets of the towns, that their bodies lay imburied. The egg of the locust is deposited in the ground ; when it is hatched, the larva has all the appearance of a locust in miniatiu-e, except that it is without wings. Its work of de- stiiiction immediately commences ; it devours every blade of grass — every green leaf it can obtain. In the autumn 14 HISTORY OF INSECTS. it assumes the winged state, and then myriads assemble, and having stripped the earth of its mantle of green, rise in the air, and are driven by the wind, carrying with them destruction, famine, and pestilence. The shape and ap- peai'ance of the locust is that of our commonest grasshopper, but it gTeatly exceeds that insect in size ; it leaps with ease and agility, but, except in its migrations, does not rea- dily fly. The jaws of the locust are excessively hard and strong, capable of devouring not only the leaves, but, when these faO, the bark and even the solid wood of trees. The sound of their feeding, when in swai'ms, is as the rushing of flames driven by the wind. Haj)pily, in tliis country, the locust is very rare ; it has occasionally been driven over by winds, but has never been known to breed here. In the year 1748, a considerable number were obseiTcd, but not enough to do any serious injury. History of the Ant-lion j^ — The ant-lion is a native of Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, and Turkey, and probably of most of the tropical countries : it is a large fly with four long wings, beautifully reticulated, hke those of a common dragon-fly. The egg is laid by this fly either upon the sm-face of the ground or just below it, in sandy and loose soils ; the heat of the sun soon causes it to hatch and pro- duce a larva. The larva, in shape, has a slight resemblance to a wood-louse ; but the outline of its body is more oval, and the anterior part often considerably wider than the posterior : it has six legs, and the mouth is furnished with a pair of forceps, consisting of two incm-ved jaws, which give it a formidable appearance. Its food consists solely of the juices of other insects, particularly ants ; at first view it seems scarcely possible that it should ever procure a * Authority : — Kiiby and Spence's ' Introduction to Entomology. ' HISTORY OF INSECTS. 15 single meal : not only is its pace slow, but it can walk in no other direction than backwards ; its grim aspect, com- bined with tliis awkwardness in progi-ession, appears to offer insuperable obstacles to the captiu'e of its prey. The first step of the larva is to trace in the sand a circle, the destined boundary of its future abode : this being done, it proceeds to excavate the cavity by throwing out the sand by a process not less singular than effective. Placing itself in the inside of the circle which it had traced, it thrusts the hinder part of its body into the sand, and, with one of its fore legs, serving as a shovel, it charges its flat and square head with a load, which it immediately throws over tlie out- side of the circle, with a jerk sufficiently strong to carry it many inches. Walking backwards, and constantly repeat- ing the process, it soon arrives at the part of the circle from which it set out : it then traces a new circle within the first, and excavates a second furrow ; then a third within this, and so on, until, by a repetition of these operations, it ar- rives at the centre. It never loads its head with the sand lying on the outside of the circle, although it would be as easy to do this with the outer leg, as to remove the sand within the circle with the inner leg ; but it knows that it is the sand within the circle that is to be excavated, and it therefore constantly uses the leg next the centre. After the first series of circles is completed, a second, of less diameter, and deeper, is commenced within it ; and so on with others, until the hole assumes the shape of the im- pression of an inverted cone, when the work is finished. — As the constant use of one leg during the whole of this ope- ration, would necessarily exhaust the animal so much that it would be compelled to waste much time in recovering its strength, it adopts a plan which prevents this : the first cir- cle is excavated with one foot ; it then turns completely round, so that the second is excavated with the opposite 16 HISTORY OF INSECTS. foot ; and this alternation proceeds regularly through the whole work. Small stones are jerked out by its head, in the same manner as the sand ; but such as are too large and heavy to be jerked out, the ant-lion poises on its back, and keeping them steady by the motion of the segments of its body, carefully walks up the ascent with its burden and de- posits it beyond the margin. Sometimes the stone will sli^D from the back of the laboui'er, and roll down the side of the hole ; as often as this may happen the patient crea- ture renews its task, and never fails to accomplish it at last : but if it meet with a large or immovable stone, the work is abandoned, and another hole commenced in a more suita- ble spot. The hole is rather more than two inches deep ; the length of the ant-lion is about half an inch : the animal bui'ies itself in the sand at the bottom of the hole, its jaws alone being visible, and thus awaits the arrival of its prey. When an ant or any other insect steps on the margin of the pit, the sand slides from under its feet, its struggles but hasten its descent, and it falls headlong into the jaws of the enemy. Sometimes, especially after rain, when the parti- cles of sand adhere to each other, the intruder is able to arrest its downward progress, and begins to scramble up again ; no sooner does the ant-lion perceive this, than he shovels loads of sand on its head, and throws them with such skill that the poor insect is soon overcome, and carried to the bottom. When the body has been emptied of its juices, the shell is jerked out of the pit to a considerable distance, as if to avoid giving any cause of alarm to new comers. — After a period of nearly two years, the larva having attained its full growth, it retires deeper into the sand, spins a silken cocoon, and changes into a chiysalis, in which state it re- mains about three weeks, when the perfect insect emerges. n, Eggs of the silkworm, b, c, catei-pillars in a young state, d, the same full grown. e, cocoon of silk, /, chrysalis, g, perfect moth. CHAPTER II. HISTORY OF THE SILK-WORM.* From time immemorial silk has been a valuable article of commerce, and a favorite material for dress ; the archives of China speak of its existence five thousand years ago, but we are unable to discover the precise period of its earhest appropriation to the uses of man. The Cliinese are sup- posed to have discovered the art of preparing it 2700 years before the Christian era, when the empress Si-ling-chi is said to have observed the laboui-s of the silk-worms on wild mulberry-trees, and appHed their silk to use. From China the art passed to Persia, India, Arabia, and the whole of * Principal authority: — 'Cabinet Cyclopaedia,' No. 22, Silk Manu- facture. Also ' British Cyclopaedia,' Article " Silkworm." C 18 HISTOEY OF INSECTS. Asia. According to Latreille the city of Turfan, in Little Bucharia, was for a long period the rendezvous of the ca- ravans coming from the east, and the chief depot for the silk trade of China. It was the metropolis of Seres in Up- per Asia, or of the Serica of Ptolemy. The expedition of Alexander into Persia and India first introduced the know- ledge of silk to the Grecians, in the year 350 B.C., and with the increase of wealth and luxury in the Grecian court the demand for silk was prodigiously augmented. Thence it passed to Rome, probably about the time of Julius or Augustus Caesar, the Emperor Heliogabalus, about the year 220, being the first who wore a robe entirely of silk. Until A.D. 550, silk in its raw state only had been sent out of Chi- na, the exportation of insects being prohibited on pain of death, and up to this period the real nature of the material was unknown. Its introduction into Europe is said to have been accomplished in the following manner. Two Persian monks having been employed as missiona- ries in some of the christian churches, which, according to Cosmas, were already established in different parts of India, had penetrated into China. There, amidst their pious oc- cupations, they Adewed with a curious eye the common dress of the Chinese, the manufactiu-e of silk, and the myriads of silk-worms, whose education, either on trees or in houses, had once been considered the labour of qvieens. They soon discovered that it was impracticable to transplant the short-lived insect, but that in the eggs a numerous progeny might be preserved, and multiplied in a distant climate. They obsei^ved with interest the labours of the little creatm-e, and strove to make themselves acquainted with the manual arts employed in working up its productions into so great a variety of fabrics. On their return to the West, instead of communicating the knowledge thus acquired to their own countrymen, they proceeded on to Constantinople. The THE SILK-WOKM, 19 prospect of gain, or, as some have asserted, an indignant zeal excited by seeing a lucrative branch of commerce en- grossed by unbelieving nations, prompted them to impart to the emperor the secret, hitherto so well preserved by the Chinese, that silk was produced by a species of worm ; and to acquaint liim with their belief that the eggs might be suc- cessflilly transported, and the insects propagated in his do- minions. They hkewise explained to Justinian the modes of preparing and manufacturing the slender filament, mys- teries hitherto either altogether unknown or but imperfectly understood in Europe. By the promise of a great reward the monks were induced to return to China, and there, with much difficulty eluding the vigilant jealousy of the Chinese, they succeeded in obtaining a quantity of silkworms' eggs. These they concealed in a hollow cane, and at length, in the year 552, conveyed them in safety to Constantinople. The eggs were hatched at the proper season by the warmth of manvire, and the worms were fed with the leaves of the wild mulberry-tree. These worms, in due time, spun their silk, and propagated, under the carefiil tendance of the monks ; who also instructed the Romans in the whole pro- cess of manufacturing their production. For a period of more than six hundred years, the produc- tion of silk appears to have been confined to the eastern empire, until Roger I., king of Sicily, on returning fi-om his invasion of the East, introduced it into his kingdom, where it soon became an important occupation, and the manufac- ture of silk speedily attained a decided excellence. From Sicily we trace its progress over the greater part of Italy and Spain ; and thence, under Francis I., into France. James I. of England, stimulated by the success attending the production of silk in France during the reigns of Henry IV. and Louis XIII., made great efforts to accomplish its introduction into England. A second attempt was made in c 2 20 HISTORY OF INSECTS. the reign of Charles I., a third in that of George I., and a fourth very recently (1825), both in England and Ireland; but all these have proved unsuccessful, and it is now gene- rally beheved that our chmate is not suited for the purpose. Although the production of silk in England is abandoned, yet its manufactiu-e in this country is carried on to a prodi- gious extent, furnishing employment for more than five hundred thousand human beings. The quantity of silk an- nually consumed in England alone, amounts in weight to four millions of pounds ; in France, Germany, Italy, Tur- key, and the continent of Asia, it is also an article of great commercial importance. Silk is spun by a caterpillar called the silk-worm, which feeds on the leaves of the mulberry-tree : this caterpillar is produced from eggs, laid by a moth in the autumn of the preceding year. In May the eggs are hatched, and pro- duce small black caterpillars less than the tenth of an inch in length ; these daily increase in size, and gradually alter their colour till they become nearly white. In this country the caterpillar takes fifty-six days to ar- rive at perfection, during which time it invariably sheds its skin as many as four, and occasionally five times ; the cause of this occasional additional change is not known. After every change the caterpillar is lighter in colour, and has a larger head, than previous to the change ; it spins during five or six days, making about sixty-two days passed in the caterpillar state. In warmer chmates the catei-pillar arrives at its full growth in forty- seven days, and has finished spin- ning in five more, making together fifty-two days; these may be reckoned thus : — from the hatching to the first change, seven days ; changing, two days ; between the first and second change, seven days ; changing, two days ; be- tween the second and third change, seven days ; changing, three days ; between the third and foiu-th change, seven THE SILK-WORM. 21 days ; changing, four days ; from the fourth change to the period of beginning to spin, eight days; spinning, five days. When the caterpillar is about to change its skin it ceases to eat, holds its head up stiff, and appears ill and sulky ; the new head is plainly to be discovered through the trans- parent skin, behind the old one, and rather of a triangular shape — the apex of the triangle being uppermost ; after re- maining in this state two or three days, as above stated, the skin opens behind the head, which cracks longitudinally, and is cast with the skin ; the caterpillar then twists itself from side to side, and writhes about, while the skin gradu- ally slips from the body and comes off at the tail. Whilst the silk-worms are feeding, they should be kept very clean and abundantly supphed with fresh leaves; open trays, made of pasteboard, are very convenient for holding them; and from these, if supplied with food, they never wander. Care should be taken to preserve silkworms from birds and mice, both of wliicli are excessively fond of them; the influence of the sun is highly injurious to them, as are also cold north and east winds ; but plenty of air, in warm weather, is beneficial. The leaves should be given to the caterpillars perfectly dry; if brought from a distance, they preserve their fi'eshness for many days in a tin box, or on the cold bricks or stones of a cellar. After the fourth change the silk-worms require constant watching ; twice a day they should be carefully looked over, and those ready to spin picked out and placed in little cells, made of writ- ing-paper, about as large as one's thumb, open at one end and closely screwed up at the other ; these paper cells may be pinned to Unes crossing a room, and placed touching each other on the line. The period of a silk-worm's being ready to spin is plainly indicated by its ceasing to eat, and becoming suddenly more transparent and of a yellow colour; it will also begin to spin 22 HISTORY OF INSECTS. a few threads of silk among the leaves, or in a corner of the tray. The silk is elaborated in two long slender vessels lying at the sides of the stomach and intestines, and termi- nating in a single tube, through which the viscid fluid, of which the silken threads are composed, is forced by the pe- ristaltic action of the muscles. This tube terminates in the centre of the lower lip of the caterpillar. Although, how- ever, the two vessels unite into a single tube, it is evident that the silken threads are not united ; since we learn from the recent microscopical investigations of Dr. Ure,* that each of the silk threads was found to be composed of two distinct cylinders, which in good silk appear to be perfectly j)arallel and quite cylindrical ; the unevenness or the want of parallelism producing inferiority in the raw material. — Each of these cylinders varies in diameter from one two- thousand two hundredth part of an inch (the measure in silk of the best quality), to one eighteen hundredth of an inch. When imported, however, several distinct threads are found to be reeled together, which is done by the grower of the silk-worms, the threads being passed through several eyelets, and then wound off. The imported raw silks are of various qualities, depending upon the mode and time of feeding, as well as upon the food of the silk-worms. These compound threads are one five hundredth part of an inch in diameter, each being divisible into eight threads ; that is, into four pairs of cylinders, in the best silk. The specific gravity of silk, according to this author, is greater than had been generally supposed, being 1256 to 1200, and conse- quently greater than the strongest muriatic acid or water. When placed in the paper cell the silk-worm spins a few loose connecting threads, attached to eveiy side of the cell: it then forms a regular oval ball of silk, which is suspended * ' Trans. Ent. Soc' vol. i. Journ. of Proceedings, p. 50. THE SILK-WORM. 23 in the centre of the cell, and in the interior of this it con- tinues to work for five days. If the cells containing the spinning silk-worms are placed regularly on the line, in the order in which they begin to spin, then there will occur no difficulty in taking them off in the succession in which they stand, as the first in order on the line will be the first requiring to be wound off". After a silk-wonn has been ten days in the cell, its cocoon of yellow silk will be compact and complete ; this must be taken out of the cell and the exterior or waste silk stripped off", until a single thread runs by itself; an operation which will be much assisted by allowing the cocoon to float on warm water. When so much of the silk has been wound off", that the remainder appears of a thinner, paler and inferior quality, the thread should be broken, the remaining portion of the cocoon be- ing weak, gummy, and of little value ; this should be taken out of the water and laid aside, to prevent its getting en- tangled with the others. Within the cocoon is the chrysalis, from which the future moth is produced; these may be thrown on a tray containing bran, which will absorb the moisture that would otherwise remain on them after their long soaking. When silk-worms are reared for profit, there is a far greater number of chry- salides than are wanted; these may be given to fowls, which are exceedingly fond of them, and to which they afford a wholesome and nutritious diet. In a fortnight or three . weeks after the winding of the silk, some of the chrysalides will be found cracking and opening, and the perfect moths will then appear : these are small sluggish creatures, of a pale buff" colour, seldom leaving the tray, mat or paper on which they are placed, and where the females lay their eggs. As regards the hatching of the eggs, it is important to know that this may be retarded as long as the owner pleases, by subjection to a low temperature ; and it will be well for 24 HISTORY OF INSECTS. those who purpose keeping silk-worms for the sake of pro- fit, to defer the hatching of the eggs until the mulberry-trees are sufficiently forward to ensure a constant supply of food. The usual time for the hatching of silk-worms' eggs in this country is about the 12th of May, but a fortnight later is much better ; for at that time the mulberry-trees have not generally put forth their leaves, and great difficulty contin- ually occurs in procuring food : for, as far as we have yet learned, no other food than mulberry-leaves affords to silk- worms wholesome nutriment ; lettuce, dog-wood and black- currant leaves have been often tried, but without success. It may be remarked that in winding off the silk, when the single threads of half a dozen cocoons are found, they may be guided with one hand on a small reel constructed for the purpose, which may be turned with the other hand, the co- coons at the same time floating on a basin of warm water. a, Eggs of the breeze-fly of the horse, b, the same magnified, c, larva or hot. d, chrysalis. e, perfect insect, y, position of the female in the act of oviposition. CHAPTER III. HISTORY OF BREEZE-FLIES.* The name of gad-fly has been repeatedly given to the insects whose history is detailed in this chapter, but that term more properly belongs to those blood-sucking flies which cause such pain and misery to our horses, in pla- ces abounding in wood, especially in warm cloudy weather and before thunder showers. The present insects when in the larva state are termed "bots" in horses, "maggots" in sheep, and "wornils" or "warbles" in cows and oxen; and these three represent three divisions of the family, differing essentially in their history. The perfect insect produced from each kind of larva is properly termed a breeze-fly. * Authority : — An Essay on the Bots of Horses and other animals, by Bracy Clark, F.L.S. 26 HISTORY OF INSECTS. The opinions respectingthe breeze-fly of the horse, or hot as it is usually termed, as to the benefit or injury derived fi-om it, are very opposite ; some observers go so far as to assert that the larvae occasionally completely perforate the stomach of the horse, causing disease, pain, and even death ; others regard them as perfectly innocuous ; and one author, whose careful and laborious investigations en- title his opinions to the greatest respect, believes the effect of bots to be salutiferous rather than otherwise : this author is Mr. Bracy Clark, and from his masterly essay the fol- lovt^ing particulars are extracted. The female fly in approaching the horse for the purpose of oviposition, carries her body nearly upright in the air, the protruded ovipositor being curved inwards and up- wards. Suspending herself for a few seconds before the part of the horse on which she intends to deposit the egg, she suddenly darts upon it, and leaves the egg adhering to the hair : she hardly appears to settle, but merely touches the hair with the egg held out on the extreme point of the ovipositor (see fig. /), the egg adhering by means of a glutinous liquor with which it is covered. She then leaves the horse at a small distance, prepares a second egg, and, poising herself before the part, deposits it in the same way : the liquor dries, and the egg becomes firmly glued to the hair. This is repeated till four or five hun- dred eggs are sometimes placed on one horse. The skin of the horse is usually thrown into a tremulous motion on the touch of the insect, which merely arises from the very great irritability of the skin and cutaneous muscles at this season of the year, occasioned by the heat and continual teazing of the flies, till at length these muscles appear to act involuntarily on the slightest touch of any body whatever. The fly does not deposit her eggs at random on the horse's body, but selects those parts which are most likely BREEZE-FLIES. 27 to be nibbled by the horse : the inside of the knee is frequently chosen, but all naturalists must have remarked how commonly the eggs of the bot are deposited on that part of a horse's shoulder which he can never reach with his mouth, and thus, to a casual observer, it would seem that they must perish, and fail in the object for which their parent designed them. Now there is a provision of nature wliich exactly counteracts this difficulty. When horses are together in a pasture, and one of them feels an irritation on any part of the neck or shoulder which he cannot reach with his mouth, he will nibble another horse in the corre- sponding part of his neck or shoul- der, and the horse so nibbled will immediately perform the kind office required, and begin nibbling away in the part indicated. The horses, when they become used to this fly, and find it does them no injury by sucking their blood, hardly regard it, and do not appear at all aware of its object. When the eggs have remained on the hairs four or five days they become mature, after which time the slightest application of warmth and moisture is sufficient to bring forth in an instant the latent larva. At this time, if the lips or tongue of the horse touch the egg, its operculiun is thrown open and the young larva liberated : this readily adheres to the moist surface of the tongue, and is from thence conveyed with the food to the stomach. It is wor- thy of remark, that it is probable the greater part of the eggs deposited by this fly are taken up in consequence of the irritation of other flies, as the Tahani and Stomoxides, which, by perpetually settling on the skin, occasion a horse to nibble himself in those parts, and thus receive the larva? on the tongue and lips whence they are introduced into the stomach. The egg is glued on the hair with the broad end 28 HISTORY OF INSECTS. downward (page 25, figs, a, h), and is thus well disposed for the operation of the tongue in removing the operculum, which is of an oval figure, and surrounded with a pro- minent margin. The microscope shows the case of the egg to be shagreened in squares, or impressed longitudinally and transversely with delicate striae. When the larva or grub is hatched from the egg it is a small active worm, long in proportion to its thickness ; but as its growth advances it becomes proportionably thicker and broader, and beset with bristles. These larvae are very frequent in horses that have been at grass, and are in general found adhering to the white insensible tissue or coat which comes from the lining of the oesophagus, and extends over the upper part of the stomach. They make small, deep, round holes wherever they adhere to this white tissue, and sometimes so deep as to pass through it, but not tlii'ough the other layers or coats of the stomach. The larvae usually hang in dense clusters from the lining of the stomach, and maintain their hold by means of two dark brown hooks; between these a longitudinal slit or fissure is seen, which is the mouth of the larva. When the larvae are removed from the stomach with a sudden jerk so as not to injure them, they will, if fresh and healthy, attach themselves to any flaccid membrane, and even to the skin of the hand. For this purpose they sheath or draw back the hooks almost entirely within the skin, till the two points come close to each other ; they then present them to the membrane, and keeping them parallel till it is pierced through, they expand them in a lateral direction, and afterwards, by bringing the points downwards towards themselves, they include a sufficient piece of the mem- brane to enable them to remain firmly fixed for any length of time as at anchor, without requiring any further exertion. The body of the larva is of a whitish red colour, and ap- BREEZE-FLIES. 29 pears to be composed of eleven segments, surrounded with a double row of homy bristles, a longer and a shorter series, and placed alternately : the two last segments appear to be naked or destitute of them. These spines are of a reddish colour, except the points, which are black, and are directed towards the tail or large end of the Ian' a. The larva, when matured, quits the stomach of the ani- mal and falls to the ground, and finding a convenient place of retreat, undergoes its change to a chrysalis, the skin then losing its organization, and changing in colour to a reddish brown. After remaining torpid in the chrysalis state a few weeks, the superfluous moisture being removed and the parts of the future insect hardened by drying, it bursts from its confinement, and the fly makes its exit at the small end of the case. A few hours after quitting their shell they become dry, take wing, and seek their mates. A second species of breeze-fly has a still more wonderful history : its eggs are laid in the nostrils of sheep, from one to seven or eight in each individual, and these on becoming larvae, enter the frontal and maxillary sinuses, and even the horns, and feed on their secretions : when the larvae are young they are perfectly white and transparent, ex- cept two small, black, homy plates : as they increase in size the upper surface becomes marked with two transverse brown lines on each segment, the anterior being shorter and narrower than the posterior ; and some spots are also obser- vable on the sides. The body consists of twelve segments besides the head. These larvae move with considerable activity, holding with their tentacula to a fixed point and drawing up the body. When full grown the larvae fall through the nostrils of the sheep, and change to the pupa state lying on the earth or adhering to the side of a blade of grass : in about two months the case of the chrysalis opens, and the fly makes its appearance. 30 HISTORY OF INSECTS. Sheep are exceedingly annoyed by these flies, and to avoid them lie down in ruts with their heads close to the ground ; at other times we see them huddled together under trees in a dense mass or phalanx, the nose of each being pushed into the fleece of another. There is a third species of breeze-fly, far more formi- dable than either of those previously described : its eggs are laid on the backs and sides of cows and oxen, and the larvae hatched from them enter the hide, producing tumours as large as pigeons' eggs. The larva itself is of an oblong figure, larger at one extremity than at the other : the body is divided into ten or twelve segments by transverse bands, and these are again intersected by six longitudinal lines, Avhich purse up the skin, and produce along the sides a series of mammiform protuberances, each possessing at its extremity a respiratory pore : on each segment of the body may be obser^^ed ridges, or dotted promi- nent lines, interrupted however by the longitudinal lines already noticed : there are in pairs a narrower and broader Une of minute dots or points ; the narrower line is found, under a lens, to be formed of hooks bent towards the pos- terior extremity of the insect; the broader lines consist of smaller hooks bent in an opposite direction, or towards its head : it is probably by the aid of these hooks that the animal raises or dej)resses itself in the tumour, and finally, when mature, effects its escape. The food of the larva appears to be the pus or matter surrounding it in the tumour in which it exists : as regards the period of its continuing to feed we have little BREEZE-FLIES. 31 satisfactory information. Its colour when young is white, but as it advances towards maturity it becomes browner, and finally of a deep dark brown approaching to black : having attained its full size it presses itself against the upper part of the tumour, and by some unknown process makes an aperture in the hide of about sufficient size to admit a pea ; through this the larva wriggles itself a seg- ment at a time until it comes quite out, and falling to the ground seeks a convenient retreat in which to become a chrysalis. The chrysalis is of a dark brown colour, and in figure somewhat resembles the half of a walnut-shell, being narrower at one end than the other, flat on one side, and very rounded and convex on the other : after lying on the ground for some weeks a portion of the indurated skin or cover, of a triangular shape, is forced up at the smaller end, and through the aperture thus occasioned the fly emerges. The fly is large and handsomely coloured ; although the presence of the larva in the backs of cattle is frequently observable, the insect in its perfect state is rarely met with, and very few of our cabinets possess good specimens : it flies with rapidity, but apparently without noise, and never ventures over water. The act of oviposition appears to be attended with se- vere suffering, or apprehension at least, which makes the cattle run wild and furious, and gad or stray from the pastures, and hence the ancient epithet of gad-fly. When oxen are yoked to the plough, the attack of this fly is attended with real danger, since they become perfectly un- controllable, and often run directly forwards through the hedges, or whatever obstructs their way. On this account many ploughs are provided with a contrivance for setting the oxen immediately at liberty. When the cattle are at- tacked by this fly it is easily known by the extreme terror 32 HISTORY OF INSECTS. and agitation of the whole herd; the unfortunate object of the attack runs bellowing from among them, and seeks a refuge in the nearest water ; the tail becomes rigid, and is brandished aloft or held straight out from the body. Its frightened companions follow in the rear of the ani- mal attacked, and a wild and apparently unmeaning chase takes place, which, from the inelegant gallop of the cows, has often a very ludicrous effect. ■'■*.'««U«/',''.'LfiIj^ Representation of a Bee house on an approved construction. CHAPTER IV. HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE.* To the bee we are indebted for two valuable articles of commerce, — honey and wax : since the introduction of sugar, honey has become less an article of general use, and more one of luxury ; but wax is still extensively con- sumed throughout the civilized world. Honey is collected from flowers, is swallowed by the bees, and afterwards re- gurgitated : the bee, laden with honey, returns to the hive, enters a cell, pierces a hole in the crust on the surface of the honey already therein, disgorges the honey in large drops from its mouth, new models the crust, and closes up the hole ; this mode of proceeding is regularly adopted by * Authority : — Huber's Histoiy of the Hive Bee, as copied hy Dr. Bevan &c. 34 HISTORY OF INSECTS. every bee that contributes to the general store. Wax is secreted, as occasion may require, from small sacs, situ- ated between the segments of the body of the bee, on the under side ; it is used for constructing the combs in which the family provision of honey and the young brood are deposited : the wax of commerce is produced by melting down these combs. A bee-hive contains three kinds of individuals, — a queen, drones, and workers ; the queen is a female, and not only the ruler, but, in great part, the mother of the community ; the drones are males, and the workers are abortive females. The sole ofBce of the queen appears to be the laying of eggs, and this occupies her almost incessantly, as a single one only is deposited in each cell, thus causing her to be in continual motion : she is slow and majestic in her move- ments, and differs from the workers in being larger, having a longer body, shorter wings, and a curved sting. The queen is accompanied by a guard of twelve workers, an office which is taken in turn, but never intermitted : in whatever direction she wishes to travel, these guards clear the way before her, always with the utmost courtesy turn- ing their faces towards her, and when she rests from her labours, approaching her with humility, licking her face, mouth, and eyes, and fondling her with their antennae. The drones are all males ; they are less than the queen, but larger than the workers ; they live on the honey of flowers, but bring none home, and are wholly useless, ex- cept as being the fathers of the future progeny ; when this office is accomplished, they are destroyed by the workers. A buzzing commences in the hive; the drones and tlxfe workers sally forth together, grapple each other in the air, hug and scuffle for a minute, during which operation the stings of the workers are plunged into the sides of the drones, who, overpowered by the poison, almost instantly die. THE. HONEY-BEE. 35 The workers are the smallest bees in the hive, and by far the most numerous ; they have a longer lip for sucking honey than either of the others ; their thighs are furnished with a brush for the reception of the pollen of flowers, and their sting is straight. The workers do the entire work of the community ; they build the cells, guard the hive and the queen, collect and store the honey, elaborate the wax, feed the young, kill the drones, &c. The average number of these three kinds of bees in a hive is one queen, 2,000 drones, and 20,000 workers. The eggs are long, slightly curved, and of a blueish colour ; when laid, they are covered with a glutinous matter, which instantly dries, at- taching them to the bottom of the cell. For eleven months the queen lays only workers' eggs ; afterwards, those which produce drones : as soon as this change has taken place, the workers begin to construct royal cells, in which, without discontinuing to lay the drones' eggs, the queen deposits here and there, about once in three days, an egg which is destined to produce a queen. The workers' eggs hatch in a few days, and produce little white maggots, which immediately open their mouths to be fed ; these the workers attend to with untiring assiduity : in six days each maggot fills up its cell ; it is then roofed in by the workers, spins a silken cocoon, and becomes a chry- salis : and on the twenty-first day it comes forth a perfect bee. The drones emerge on the twenty-fifth day, and the queens on the sixteenth. It has been already stated, that the queen, for nearly a year, lays no eggs that are destined to produce queens ; it therefore follows, that if any evil befall her, the hive is left without a queen : it sometimes happens that she dies, or is taken away by the owner of the hive, to observe the result. For twelve hours little notice is taken of the loss ; it appears not to be known, and the workers labour as d2 30 HISTORY OF INSECTS. usual : after that period, a hubbub commences ; worlc is abandoned ; the whole hive is in an uproar ; every bee traverses the hive at random, and with the most evident want of purpose. This state of anarchy sometimes con- tinues for two days ; then the bees gather in clusters of a dozen or so, as though engaged in consultation, the result of which seems to be a fixed resolution to supply the loss. A few of the workers repair to the cells in which are deposit- ed the eggs of workers ; three of these cells are quickly bro- ken into one, the edges polished, and the sides smoothed and rounded, a single egg being allowed to remain at the bottom. When this egg hatches, the maggot is fed with a pecu- liarly nutritive food, called royal bee-bread, which is never given to any maggots but such as are to produce queens ; work is now resumed over the whole hive, and goes on as briskly as before : on the sixteenth day the egg produces a queen, whose appearance is hailed with every demon- stration of delight, and who at once assumes sovereignty over the hive. When, under ordinary circumstances, a young queen emerges from the chrysalis, the old one fre- quently quits the hive, heading the first swarm for the season, and flying to some neighbouring resting-place is obser\^ed by the owner, captured, placed under a new hive, and a new colony is immediately commenced. Before a swarm leaves the hive, sure indications are given of the intended movement ; the workers leave their various occupations and collect in groups, especially near the door of the hive, as though in consultation on the im- portant event about to take place. As the summer advances many queens are hatched; but the workers do not allow them instant liberty, as severe battles would take place between them and the reigning queen, in which one would be killed : the workers, there- THE HONEY-BEE. 37 fore, make a small hole in the ceiling of the royal cell, through which the captive queen thrusts her tongue, and receives food from the workers. In this state of confine- ment the young queen utters a low querulous note, which has been compared to singing. When the reigning, or a newly-created queen, finds one of these captives, she uses every effort to tear open the cell and destroy her rival : to prevent this, the workers often interpose, pulling her away by the legs and wings ; to this she submits for a short time, when, uttering a peculiar cry, called her voice of sove- reignty, she commands instant attention and obedience, and is at once freed from her assailants. The cocoon spun by the maggots of the workers and drones completely en- velopes the chrysalis ; but that spun by the maggot of the queen appears imperfect, covering only the upper end of the chrysalis : it has been supposed that they are thus de- signedly exposed to the attacks of other queens, and their destruction, before emerging, facilitated. When the chry- salis of the queen is about to change to a perfect insect, the bees make the cover of the cell thinner by gnawing away part of the wax ; and with so much nicety do they perform this operation, that the cover at last becomes pel- lucid, owing to its extreme thinness. The combs of a bee-hive comprise a congeries of hex- agonal cells, built by the bees as a receptacle for honey, and for the nurseries of their young : each comb in a hive is composed of two ranges of cells, backed against each other : the base or partition between this double row of cells is so disposed as to form a pyramidal cavity at the bottom of each. There is a continued series of these double combs in every well-filled hive ; the spaces between them being just sufficient to allow two bees, one on the surface of each comb, to pass without touching. Each cell is hexagonal, the six sides being perfectly equal. This 38 HISTORY OF INSECTS. figure ensures the greatest possible economy of material and space ; the outer edges of the cells are slightly thick- ened, in order to gain strength; the same part is also covered with a beautiful varnish, which is supposed to give additional strength. The construction of several combs is generally going on at the same time : no sooner is the foundation of one laid, with a few rows of cells attached to it, than a second and a third are founded on each side, parallel to the first, and so on till the hive is filled, the combs which were commenced first, being always in the most advanced state, and therefore the first completed. The design of every comb is sketched out, and the first rudiments laid by a single bee : this foundress-bee forms a block out of a rough mass of wax, drawn partly fi'om its own resources, but principally firom those of other bees, which furnish wax from the small sacs before described, taking out the plates of wax with their hind feet, and car- rying it with their fore feet to their mouths, where it is moistened, masticated, and rendered soft and ductile. The foundi'ess-bee determines the relative position of the combs and their distance from each other, the foundations which she marks serving as guides to the ulterior labours of the wax-working bees, and of those which build the cells, giving them the advantage of the margins and angles al- ready formed. The mass of wax prepared by the assist- ants, is applied by the foundress-bee to the roof or bottom of the hive, and thus a slightly double-convex mass is formed : when of svifficient size, a cell is sculptured on one side of it by the bees, who relieve one another in the labour. At the back, and on each side of this first cell, two others are sketched out and excavated : by this pro- ceeding the foundations of two cells are laid, the line be- twixt them corresponding with the centre of the opposite cells : as the comb extends, the first excavations are ren- THE HONEY-BEE. 39 dered deeper and broader ; and when a pyramidal base is finished, the bees build up walls from its edges, so as to complete what may be called the prismatic part of the cell. The cells intended for the drones are considerably larger and more substantial than those for the workers ; and being formed subsequently, they usually appear nearer the bottom of the combs : last of all are built the royal cells for the queens ; of these there are usually three or four, sometimes ten or twelve, in a hive, attached com- monly to the central part, but not unfrequently to the edge of the comb. The form of the royal cells is an oblong spheroid, tapering gradually downwards, and having the exterior full of holes : the mouth of the cell, which is al- ways at the bottom, remains open until the maggot is ready for transformation, and it is then closed like the rest. When a queen has emerged, the cell in which she was reared is destroyed, and its place supplied by a range of common cells : the site of this range may always be traced by that part of the comb being thicker than the rest, and forming a kind of knot. The common breeding cells of drones and workers are occasionally made the depositories of honey ; but the cells are never sufficiently cleansed to preserve the honey undeteriorated. The finest honey is stored in new cells constructed for the purpose of receiAing it, their form precisely resembling that of the common breeding cells : these honey-cells vary in size, being larger or smaller according to the productiveness of the sources from which the bees are collecting, and also according to the season. The cells formed in July and August being intended only for honey, are larger and deeper than those formed earlier : the texture of their walls is thinner, and thus they have more dip or inclination : this dip diminishes the risk of the honey's running out, which, from the heat of the weather at this season, and its consequent thinness. 40 HISTORY OF INSECTS. it is liable to do. When the cells intended for holding the winter's provision are filled, they are always closed with waxen hds, and are never re-opened till the whole of the honey in the unfilled cells is expended : the waxen lids are thus formed ; — the bees first construct a ring of wax within the verge of the cells, to which other rings are suc- cessively added, till the aperture of the cell is finally closed by a lid composed of concentric circles. Larva of the Bee. Pupa of the Bee. ADts climbiug gi-ass, &c. previously to taking their flight in Autumn. CHAPTER V. HISTORY OF THE YELLOW ANT. In describing ants, it should be observed that consi- derable difference exists in the manners of the different species: it is best, therefore, to confine our attention to one only, and for this purpose the yellow ants may be selected. These collect near their habitation all the little bits of stubble, wood, leaves, small pebbles, or any thing they can readily convey, that will serve to increase its height : thus, shells sometimes find their way to the heap, and not uncommonly also wheat, oats and barley; whence the fame which these little creatures have obtained for the virtue of providence, — a fame certainly undeserved on the score of making provision for the winter, as in that sea- son they never eat. * Authority : — ' Reclierches sur les Moeurs des Fourmis Indigenes,' par P. Huber. 42 HISTORY OF INSECTS, Although the hillock when complete appears but a care- less heap, it is in reality a most ingenious device for keep- ing out water, for evading the effects of wind, and the attacks of enemies, and yet more especially for receiving and husbanding the heat of the sun. The exterior of the hillock always presents the appearance of a dome ; the base being covered with earth and minute pebbles, the struc- ture is completely hidden from us. From the summit of the hillock, avenues carefully excavated like tunnels lead downwards into the interior, and the number of these ave- nues depends entirely on the population and extent of the nest : the external apertures of these avenues are of varied size ; there is sometimes a principal one at the top ; but usually there are several somewhat unequal ones, and around each are passages symmetrically arranged. These apertures are required to permit free egress to the mul- titudes of labourers of which the commonwealth is com- posed : not only do the needful labours of the commu- nity continually call them abroad, but they seem to prefer labouring in the open air, and, moreover, appear perfectly unconcerned at the presence of an observer ; in this the yellow ants differ from most other species, which often use their habitation as a protection from the sun. In the habitations of several species of ants, we never find an aperture of sufficient size to allow the entrance of enemies, or permit rain-water to penetrate. The dome, commonly of earth, is closed on every side, and has no aperture unless near the base, and not unfrequently the ants approach the nest by a serpentine gallery, many feet in extent. The yellow ants standing in crowds on their nest during the day, are quite fearless of any disturbance to the interior ; but at night when retired to the bottom of their habitation, they cannot perceive what is passing on the exterior : how then are they protected from the acci- THE YELLOW ANT. 43 dents which threaten them ? how comes it that the rain does not penetrate their habitation, open as it is on every side ? these simple questions appear to have obtained the attention of no naturalist before Huber. On closely watch- ing the appearance of one of these nests, he found it undergoing an hourly change, and that the apertures, so spacious in the middle of the day, gradually diminished in size towards the evening, and at night entirely disappeared ; the dome became closed in every part, and all the ants were concealed within. In order to accomplish this, the ants draw into the openings little bits of wood, placing them across the entrance and sinking the ends in the covering of the hill ; they then fetch others, laying them across the first, and so continue selecting other pieces, smaller and smaller as the work advances towards its accomplishment, and finally close the opening with bits of dried leaves, and similar materials. In the morning a few ants may be seen wandering about the exterior of the nest, the number gradually increasing as others emerge from the interior, under the little roofs formed at the entrance of each avenue, and these soon set to work, and begin to clear away the barricades. This em- ployment continues for hours, until at length the apertures are sufficiently extended, and the materials used in closing them distributed over the exterior of the nest. This is a daily labour unless it rains, or the morning threatens rain ; and if after it has been performed rain come on, they hasten to close the apertures as at night. At its commencement the nest is simply an excavation made in the earth : a number of the labourers wander about in quest of materials suitable for the superstructure ; others caiTy out particles of earth fi-om the interior, and these particles, interspersed with the fragments of wood and leaves brought in continually from every quarter, give a 44 HISTORY OF INSECTS. kind of stability to the edifice : it daily increases in size, the ants taking care to leave the spaces required for the galleries which lead to the exterior. The dome contains a number of spacious chambers, excavated by the labourers in the solid, compact substance of the edifice itself; but though spacious, these chambers are low, irregular in figure, and carelessly constructed, but convenient nevertheless for the purpose for which they are intended, that of containing the larvae and pupae at certain hours of the day. These chambers communicate with each other by means of gal- leries constructed in a similar manner. It is in these chambers that the eggs are first deposited by the parent, and respecting the eggs a remarkable fact has been observed ; on watching them from day to day, after their being first laid by the female, they have been found not only continually to vary in colour and foim, but to increase in size long before the emancipation of the larva or grub from its shell, an event which takes place at the end of fifteen days. On extrusion the body is perfectly transparent, the head and abdominal segments alone being visible ; the larvae have neither legs nor antennae, and are solely dependant on the labourers for support. They are most carefully protected by a number of labourers, who stand around them as a body-guard, each having its body bent and its sting protruded, ready for an instant attack on any insect enemy that might perchance have found its way into the interior of the nest. At the same time other la- bourers, in the chambers but apparently not on duty, appear to be spending the time of relaxation in sleep. Ants do not prepare for their larvae any particular kind of food, as is the case with bees and some other insects, but give them day by day whatever suitable food they meet with in the course of their peregrinations. The larvae, al- though apparently so helpless, are sufficiently knowing to THE YELLOW ANT. 45 (lemand and receive their food ; lengthening their bodies, and with their mouths sucking the mouths of the labourers, as little birds stretch out their necks and open their bills on the approach of their parents. The labourer opens his mouth, and gives to his little charge the required supply. As the larvce increase in size and strength, the aliment pro- vided for them becomes daily more solid and nutritious. When the larvae have attained their full growth they spin a silken covering, called by entomologists a cocoon : in this they completely enclose themselves, and remain perfectly quiescent without receiving any nutriment, awaiting the final change when they are to assume the form of perfect ants. This stage of its existence is the pupa, but is com- monly, although very erroneously, called the egg. " Ants' eggs," as they are vulgarly called, are a favourite food for partridges and pheasants, and are eagerly sought after by persons who rear these birds from the egg. The cocoon containing the pupa is of a long cylindrical form, of a dirty white colour, and is perfectly without motion. The pupa within the cocoon has now attained the form which it will finally possess ; its limbs are distinct, but want strength and consistence, and are covered by a skin which has yet to be cast. In colour it changes from white to a pale yellow, then to red, and finally becomes almost black ; its wings, if a male or female, are distinctly visible, but do not assume the shape, size, or character, they are hereafter destined to bear. As the laying of eggs continues for some weeks, and each egg is hatched, as before stated, at a period of fifteen days, it necessarily follows that the family, although equally progressing towards maturity, must be in different stages, so that eggs, larvae of all sizes, and pupae, abound in the nest at thie same time. When the rays of the sun warm the exterior of a nest thus stocked with inhabitants, a most 46 HISTORY OF INSECTS. animated scene takes place. The ants on the exterior are the first to feel the influence of the warmth : they enter the nest, run along the avenues and galleries to the various chambers, and communicate the intelligence to every ant they meet, tapping one gently with their antennae, and even biting another severely with their mandibles. At last the whole colony seems to partake of the excitement, and each labourer then carefully takes a larva or pupa in its mouth, conveys it through all the winding passages to the outside, and places it in such a position as to receive the rays of the sun. This operation is attended with vast exertion, for the pupae of the females are often more than double the weight of the labourers who carry them, and are not to be conveyed through the long circuitous passa- ges without a labour that appears almost incredible. Not- withstanding, however, the difficulties which have to be overcome in placing the larvae and pupae in this situation, they are seldom allowed to receive the full rays of the sun for a longer time than fifteen or twenty minutes, and are then conveyed into little cells, constructed on the exterior of the nest purposely to receive them, and protected from the too great ardour of the sun's rays, by a slight covering of chaff, stubble, or other light matter. As the heat of the sun de- creases in the afternoon, the larvae and pupae are again fully exposed to it for a short season as before, and are then carefully returned one by one, through the almost intermi- nable passages, each into the identical chamber fi-om which in the morning it was originally brought; and now the time of feeding has arrived, and this duty has to be care- fully performed. But it is not only to the sunning and feeding of the larvae that the care of the labourers in their behalf extends. It is an addition of duty to keep the larvae clean, and per- fectly fi-ee from all impurities ; and it is an almost incessant THE YELLOW ANT. 47 occupation to lick them over and over, cleansing every part of the body, and keeping it in a state of the most perfect whiteness. This care commences with the extrusion of the larva from the egg, and ceases not until it is about to assume the ensuing state of pupa or nymph. As soon as the insect is sufficiently mature to issue from the cocoon into which we have before traced it, the assistance of the labourers is again required. The pupae of ants, unlike those of other insects, know not how to es- cape from their self-wrought shroud, by moistening its texture and cutting it with their mandibles. They scarcely possess sufficient strength to enable them to move. The cocoon in which they are enclosed is of too compact a texture, and of too strong a material, for the unassisted prisoner to tear it open. How the indefatigable assistants ascertain the exact period when it requires to be liberated, remains, and ever must remain, a profound secret. They may be observed mounting on a cocoon when its occupant has arrived at maturity ; they may be seen scraping away the silken texture, and, having inserted their mandibles into the aperture, using them as we use a pair of scissors, cut- ting across the cocoon in a direct line. At the period of emancipating the winged ants a great deal of excitement prevails in the nest. Some of the la- bourers may be seen arduously at work, in the operation of cutting open a cocoon, while others with great gentle- ness are drawing through the aperture the newly-born mother of a future colony. The labour of these assiduous attendants does not end here ; for when the perfect ant is at last drawn from its cocoon, it is not in a state to take its flight and provide for itself; on the contrary, it is weak and helpless, and every part of its body and limbs is swathed in a delicate satiny membrane or skin, which has to be carefully removed before it can even stand upon its 48 HISTORY OF INSECTS. feet. This new difficulty the labourers have now to over- come ; first, with the utmost gentleness stripping the an- tennae and palpi ; then the legs, the wings, and lastly the body. The next care is to feed the newly-born insect, for which process it always appears in readiness. When all the newly-matured ants have thus been eman- cipated, the labourers carry away the empty cocoons and skins to the furthest part of the exterior of the nest, and sometimes take them to a considerable distance. For some time the new-born ants remain under the careful superin- tendence of the labourers : they are attended in all their wanderings about the nest, and are made acquainted with all its galleries and chambers : the wings of the males and females, previously folded together, are extended, and this is always accomplished with such skill and tenderness that these delicate members are never injured by the operation ; in fine, these founders of future colonies are in all respects served with unremitting attention until their final departure from the nest. It need scarcely be observed, that besides the males and females, or winged ants, numerous labourers are continu- ally emerging from the cocoons, and these are in every respect similar to the other labourers which have been taking charge of them ; and as soon as their limbs have attained sufficient strength and firmness, they join their nurses in the cares and labours of the community. We have now traced the history of the ants, and seen the care which has been bestowed on them up to the moment of their having obtained wings, and the power of transporting themselves from place to place ; let us now observe them under their altered condition. In the autumn we frequently observe one of their hillocks closely covered with a liv- ing mass of winged ants, which continue to promenade, as it were, over its entire surface : they mount on every THE YELLOW ANT. 49 plant in the vicinity of their nest, and the labourers (for now the entire population of the nest has turned out) ac- company them as closely as possible, following them to the extreme tip of every blade of grass, and when at length those possessed of wings spread them in preparation for flight, the labourers will often hold them back, as if loath to trust them alone, or desirous of sharing the perils of their trackless course. If the temperature is unfavourable, either from cold or wet, at the period of the grand autumnal pro- duction of winged ants, they remain in the nest for several days, until a favorable change in the weather takes place, when the labourers open all the avenues to the exterior, and the winged multitude passes forth at the portals in glit- tering and iridescent panoply. When the air is warm and still they rise in thousands, and sailing, or rather floating on the atmosphere, leave for ever the scene of their former existence. Myriads of these flying ants, attracted by the brilliant surface of water illumined by an autumnal sun, rush into the fatal current and are seen no more : myriads are de- voured by birds, and but a small proportion of the immense swarm which left the nest escapes and lives to found new colonies. Each female, immediately on alighting from her aerial voyage, examines the situation in which chance has placed her, and if she find it adapted to her purpose she turns her head back over her shoulders, and with her sharp man- dibles shears ofl" the wings which bore her from the place of her nativity. Strange as this propensity may seem, it is dictated by an unerring instinct, for the object for which wings were given her is now accomplished, and henceforth they would prove an incumbrance, and retard, rather than assist, the performance of her duties. Sometimes a few workers, wandering at this period of excitement far from E 60 HISTORY OF INSECTS. their home, may happen to meet with her, and if so, they unite their hibom's with hers in excavating a small and humble dwelling in the earth, which serves as the nucleus of a future colony : in all operations the female, now a queen, takes a most energetic part, and continues to labour until she has laid eggs, when the conduct of the workers undergoes a great change, for they now treat her with the most marked respect, and consider her worthy the honours of a sovereign. But it not unfrequently happens that the queen or mother ant, excavates without assistance her future dwelling-place, and in perfect solitude lays her eggs, feeds the larvae, and pays every requisite attention to the pupae. Slave Ants. — The most remarkable fact connected with the history of ants, is the propensity possessed by certain species to kidnap the workers of other species, and compel them to labour for the benefit of the community, thus using them completely as slaves ; and, as far as we yet know, the kidnappers are red or pale-coloured ants, and the slaves, like the ill-treated natives of Africa, are of a jet black. The time for capturing slaves extends over a period of about ten weeks, and never commences until the male and female ants are about emerging from the pupa state, and thus the ruthless marauders never interfere with the con- tinuation of the species : this instinct seems specially pro- vided, for were the slave ants created for no other end than to fill the station of slavery to which they appear to be doomed, still even that office must fail were the attacks to be made on their nests before the winged myriads have departed, or are departing, charged with the duty of con- tinuing their kind. When the red ants are about to sally forth on a ma- rauding expedition, they send scouts to ascertain the exact position in which a colony of negroes may be found ; these scouts having discovered the object of their search, return SLAVE ANTS. 51 to the nest and report their success. Shortly afterwards the army of red ants marches forth, headed by a van- guard, which is perpetually changing; the individuals which constitute it, when they have advanced a little before the main body, halting, falling into the rear, and being re- placed by others : this vanguard consists of eight or ten ants only. When they have arrived near the negro colony, they disperse, wandering through the herbage and hunting about, as if aware of the propinquity of the object of their search, yet ignorant of its exact position. At last they discover the settlement, and the foremost of the invaders rushing impetuously to the attack, are met, grappled with, and frequently killed by the negroes on guard : the alarm is quickly communicated to the interior of the nest; the negroes sally forth by thousands, and the red ants rushing to the rescue, a desperate conflict ensues, which, however, always terminates in the defeat of the negroes, who retire to the innermost recesses of their habitation. Now follows the scene of pillage ; the red ants with their powerful man- dibles tear open the sides of the negro ant-hill, and rush into the heart of the citadel. In a few minutes each of the invaders emerges, carrying in its mouth the pupa of a worker negro, which it has obtained in spite of the vigi- lance and valour of its natural guardians. The red ants return in perfect order to their nest, bearing with them their living burdens. On reaching the nest the pupae ap- pear to be treated precisely as their own, and the workers when they emerge perform the various duties of the com- munity with the greatest energy and apparent good will ; they repair the nest, excavate passages, collect food, feed the larvas, take the pupas into the sun-shine, and perform every office which the welfare of the colony seems to require ; in fact, they conduct themselves entirely as if fulfilling their original destination. e2 52 HISTOKY OF INSECTS. One of the authors of the 'Introduction to Entomology' being in Paris in 1817, called on the late M. Latreille, and accompanied by that learned entomologist, visited the Bois de Boulogne for the purpose of observing this singular phenomenon, and was highly gratified in being able com- pletely to verify the whole of M. Huber's statements. (I, larva of the Spxton Beetle, b, pupa, c, perfect beetle. CHAPTER VI. HISTORY OF THE SEXTON BEETLE.* The sexton beetle is about an inch in length ; it is of a black colour, and so fetid that the hands smell for hours after handling it ; and if it crawl on woollen clothes which are not washed, the smell continues for several days. The sexton beetle lays its eggs in the bodies of putrifying dead animals, which, when practicable, it buries in the ground. In Russia, where the poor jDeople are buried but a few inches below the surface of the ground, the sexton beetles avail themselves of the bodies for this purpose, and the graves are pierced with their holes in every direction ; at evening, hundreds of these beetles may be seen in the church-yards, * Authority : — Rusticus of Godalming. See Entomological Magazine, vol. iii. p. 506. 54 HISTORY OF INSECTS. either buzzing over recent graves, or emerging from them. The sexton beetle in this country seldom finds so conveni- ent a provision for him, and he is under the necessity of taking much more trouble ; he sometimes avails himself of dead dogs and horses, but these are too great rarities to be his constant resort; the usual objects of his search are dead mice, rats, birds, frogs, and moles ; of these a bird is most commonly obtained. In the neighbourhood of towns, every kind of garbage that is thrown out attracts these beetles as soon as it begins to smell, and it is not unusual to see them settling in our streets, enticed by the grateful odour of such substances. The sexton beetles hunt in couples, male and female ; and where six or eight are found in a large animal, they are almost sure to be males and females, in equal numbers ; they hunt by scent only, the chase being mostly performed when no other sense would be very available, viz., in the night. When they have found a bird, great comfort is expressed by the male, who wheels round and round above it, like a vulture over the putrifying carcass of some giant of the forest, — the fe- male settles on it at once, without this testimonial of satis- faction ; the male at last settles also, and a savoury and ample meal is made before the great work is begun. After the beetles have appeased the calls of hunger, the bird is abandoned for a while ; they both leave it to explore the earth in the neighbourhood, and ascertain whether there is a place suitable for interment; if on a ploughed field there is no difficulty ; but if on grass, or among stones, much labour is required to draw it to a more suitable place. The operation of burying is performed almost entirely by the male beetle, the female mostly hiding herself in the body of the bird about to be buried, or sitting quietly upon it, and allowing herself to be buried with it : the male be- gins by digging a fuiTow all round the bird, at the distance THE SEXTON BEETLE. 55 of about half an inch, turning the earth outside ; his head is the only tool used in this operation ; it is held sloping outwards, and is exceedingly powerful. After the first fur- row is completed another is made within it, and the earth is thrown into the first furrow ; then a third furrow is made, and this is completely under the bird, so that the beetle whilst working at it is out of sight : now, the operation can only be traced by the heaving of the earth, which soon forms a little rampart round the bird : as the earth is moved from beneath, and the surrounding ramjaart increases in height, the bird sinks. After mcessant labour for about three hours the beetle emerges, crawls upon the bird, and takes a survey of his work. If the female is on the bird, she is driven away by the male, who does not choose to be intruded on during the important business. The male beetle then remains for about an hour perfectly still, and does not stir hand or foot; he then dismounts, dives again into the grave, and pulls the bird down by the feathers for half an horn* ; its own weight appears to sink it but very little. At last, after two or three hours' more labour, the beetle comes up, again gets on the bird, and again takes a survey, and then drops down as though dead, or fallen suddenly fast asleep. When sufficiently rested he rouses himself, treads the bird firmly into its grave, pulls it by the feathers this way and that way, and having settled it to his mind, begins to shovel in the earth ; this is done in a very short time, by means of his broad head. He goes behind the rampart of earth, and pushes it into the grave with ama- zing strength and dexterity; the head being bent directly downward at first, and then the nose elevated with a kind of jerk, which sends the earth forwards. After the grave is thus filled up, the earth is trodden in, and undergoes another keen scrutiny all round, the bird being completely hidden ; the beetle then makes a hole in the still loose earth, 5G HISTORY OF INSECTS. and having buried the bird and his own bride, next buries himself. The female having laid her eggs in the carcass of the bird, in number proportioned to its size, and the pair hav- ing eaten as much of the savoury viand as they please, they make their way out, and fly away. The eggs are hatched in two days, and produce fat scaly grubs, which run about with great activity ; these grubs grow excessively fast, and very soon consume all that their parents had left. As soon as they are full grown they cease eating, and bur- rowing further in the earth become pupae. The length of time they remain in this state appears uncertain ; but when arrived at the perfect state, they make round holes in the ground, from which they come forth. There are several beetles which possess this singular propensity to perform the office of sexton, and are therefore equally deserving of the name ; they may be readily obtained from the bodies of dead animals, and are not unfrequently to be shaken from a mole-tree. White Ants. , labourer, b, under side of its head magnified, c, soldier, d, one of its jaws magnified. e. king, after losing his wings, f, queen. CHAPTER VII. HISTORY OF THE WHITE ANTS.* Next to the locusts, the wliite ants may be reckoned the most destructive insects known to man ; not only articles of food, but clothing, fences, trees, and even houses, are doomed to fall before them. They live in immense com- munities, consisting of a king and queen, soldiers, and labourers; the king and queen are perfect insects, male and female ; the soldiers are said to be the pupa state, and the labourers the larva state, of the same insect. The only office of the king and queen is to increase their kind ; the queen laying eggs to the amount of eighty thousand every day. It is the office of the soldiers to attack every object * Extracted from an " Account of the Temiites of Africa, by Henry Smeathinan." Read before the Royal Society, 15th Feb. 1781. 58 HISTORY OF INSECTS. or living thing that in any way injures or endangers the safety of the nest ; this duty they perform with the most reckless bravery, the labourers retiring within the nest dur- ing the time of danger. The offices of the labourers are manifold ; they take the eggs from the queen as fast as she lays them, convey them to the nurseries, tend them until hatched ; they feed the young, store provisions, build the nest, repair damages, and perform every kind of labour re- quisite for the good of the community. The nests of the wliite ants are so numerous all over the island of Bananas, and the adjacent continent of Africa, that it is scarcely possible to stand upon any open j)lace, such as a rice -plantation or other clear spot, where one or more of these buildings is not to be seen within fifty paces. In some parts near Senegal, as mentioned by Mons. Adan- son, their number, magnitude, and closeness of situation, make them appear hke the villages of the natives. These buildings are usually termed " liills, " from their outward appearance, which is that of httle hills, generally pretty much in the form of sugar-loaves, and about ten or twelve feet in height. These hills continue quite bare until they are six or eight feet high ; but in time become, like the rest of the earth, almost covered with grass and other plants, and in the dry season, when the herbage is burnt up by the rays of the sun, somewhat resemble very large hay-cocks. The exterior of the building is one large shell in the man- ner of a dome, large and strong enough to enclose and shelter the interior fi'om the vicissitudes of the weather, and the inhabitants from the attacks of natural or acciden- tal enemies. It is always, therefore, much stronger than the interior building, which is the habitable part, divided with a wonderful kind of regularity and contrivance into an amazing number of apartments, for the residence of the king and queen and the nursing of their numerous proge- WHITE ANTS. 59 ny ; or for magazines, which are always found well filled with stores and provisions. These hills make their first appearance above ground by a little tmret or two in the shape of sugar-loaves, which are run a foot high, or more. Soon after, at some little distance, while the former are in- creasing in height and size, the ants raise others, and so go on increasing the number and widening them at the base, till their works below are covered with these turrets, which they always raise the highest and largest in the middle, and by filling up the intervals between each turret, collect them, as it were, into one dome. They are not very curious or exact about these turrets, except in making them very solid and strong; and when, by the junction of them, the dome is completed, for which purpose the turrets answer as scaffolds, they take away the middle ones entirely, ex- cept the tops (which, joined together, make the crown of the cupola), and apply the clay to the building of the works within, or to erecting firesh turrets for the purpose of rais- ing the hillock still higher ; so that no doubt some part of the clay is used several times, like the boards and posts of a mason's scaffold. The outer shell or dome is not only of use to protect and support the interior buildings from external violence and heavy rains, but to collect and preserve a regular degree of genial warmth and moisture, which seems very ne- cessary for hatching the eggs and cherishing the young ones. The royal chamber, so called on account of its being adapted for, and occupied by, the Idng and queen, appears to be, in the opinion of this little people, of the most con- sequence, being always situated as near the centre of the interior building as possible, and generally about the height of the common surface of the ground at a pace or two from the liillock. It always resembles the shape of half an egg or an obtuse oval within, and maybe supposed to represent 60 HISTORY OF INSECTS. a long oven. In the infant state of the colony, it is not above an inch or thereabout in length ; but in time will be increased to six or eight inches, or even more, being always in proportion to the size of the queen, who, increasing in bulk as in age, at length requires a chamber of such dimen- sions. The floor of this singular part is perfectly horizontal ; and in large hillocks, sometimes an inch thick and upwards of solid clay. The roof also, which is one solid and well- turned oval arch, is generally of about the same solidity, but in some places it is not a quarter of an inch thick : this is on the sides where it joins the floor, and where the doors or entrances are made level therewith, at pretty equal dis- tances from each other. These entrances will not admit any animal larger than the soldiers or labourers, so that the king and the queen (who is, at full size, a thousand times the weight of a king) can never possibly go out. The royal chamber, if in a large hillock, is surrounded by an innu- merable quantity of others of different sizes, shapes, and dimensions ; but all of them are arched, the arches being sometimes circular and sometimes elliptical or oval. These either open into each other, or communicate by passages equally wide, and being always empty are evidently made for the soldiers and attendants, of whom it will soon appear great numbers are necessary, and of course always in wait- ing. These apartments are joined by the magazines and nurseries. The former are chambers of clay, and are al- ways well filled with a kind of provisions, which, under the microscope, appear to consist of the gums or inspissated juices of plants. These are thrown together in little masses, some of which are finer than others, and resemble the sugar about preserved fruits ; others are like tears of gum, one quite transparent, another like amber, a third brown, and a foiuth quite opaque, as we often see in parcels of ordi- WHITE ANTS. 61 nary gums. These magazines are intermixed with the nurseries, which are totally different from the rest of the apartments ; for these are composed entirely of wooden materials, seemingly joined together with gums. They are called nurseries, because they are invariably occupied by the eggs and young ones ; the latter appear at first in the shape of labourers, but white as snow. These nurseries are exceedingly compact, and divided into very small irregu- larly-shaped chambers, not one of which is to be found half an inch in width. They are placed all round the royal apartments, and as near as possible to them. When the nest is in the infant state, the nurseries are close to the royal chamber ; but as in process of time the queen en- larges, it is necessary to enlarge tliis chamber also for her accommodation ; and as she then lays a greater number of eggs, and requires a greater number of attendants, so is it necessary to enlarge and increase the number of the adja- cent apartments ; for which purpose the small nurseries that are first built are taken to pieces, rebuilt a little farther off, and a size larger, their number being at the same time in- creased. The nurseries are always found slightly overgrown with mould, and plentifully sprinkled with white globules, about the size of a small pin's head. These may at first be mistaken for eggs ; but on being examined under a micro- scope, they evidently appear to be a species of fungus, in shape like our edible mushroom in the young state in which it is pickled. They appear, when whole, white like snow a little thawed and then fi-ozen again, and when bruised, seem composed of an infinite number of pellucid particles, approaching to oval forms, and difficult to separate ; the mouldiness seems likely to be the same kind of substance. The nurseries are enclosed in chambers of clay, like those which contain the provisions, but much larger. In the early state of the nest they are not larger than a hazel nut, 62 HISTORY OF INSECTS. but in old hills are often as large as the head of a child a year old. The royal chamber is situated nearly on a lerv^el with the surface of the ground, at an equal distance from all the sides of the building, and directly under the apex of the hill. It is surrounded on all sides, both above and below, by what may be called the royal apartments, which have only labourers and soldiers in them, and can be intended for no other purpose than for these to wait in, either to guard or serve their common father and mother, on whose safety depends the happiness, and probably even the ex- istence, of the whole community. These apartments com- pose an intricate labyrinth, which extends a foot or more in diameter from the royal chamber on every side. Here the nurseries a;id magazines of provisions begin, and, be- ing separated by small empty chambers and galleries which go round them, or communicate from one to the other, are continued on all sides to the outward shell, and attain two thirds or three fourths of its height, leaving an open area in the middle, under the dome, which very much resembles the nave of a cathedral ; this is surrounded by three or four very large gothic -shaped arches, which are sometimes two or three feet high next the front of the area, but diminish very rapidly as they recede from thence, like the arches of aisles in perspective, and are soon lost among the innu- merable chambers and nurseries behind them. These chambers and the passages communicating with them, being arched, help to support each other ; and vfliile the interior large arches prevent their falling into the centre, and keep the area open, the exterior building supports them on the outside. There are, comparatively speaking, few openings into the great area, and they, for the most part, seem intended only to admit into the nurseries that genial warmth which the dome collects. The interior building WHITE ANTS. G3 or assemblage of nurseries, chambers, &c., has a flattish top or roof, without any perforation, which would keep the apartments below dry, in case through accident the dome should receive any injury, and let in water : and it is never exactly flat aaid uniform, because the labourers are always adding to it by building more chambers and nurseries ; so that the diidsions or columns between the future arched apartments resemble the pinnacles upon the points of some old buildings, and demand particular notice, as affording one proof that for the most part the insects project their arches, and do not make' them by excavation. The sub- terraneous passages wliich run under the lowest apartments in the hill, in various directions, are of an astonisliing size, being wider than the bore of a large cannon. These pas- sages or galleries, which are very thickly lined with the same kind of clay of which the hill is composed, ascend the inside of the extern^al shell in a spiral manner, winding round the whole building up to the top, and intersecting each other at different heights, opening either immediately into the dome in various places, or into the interior buildings, the new turrets, &c., and sometimes communicating there- with by other galleries of different bores or diameters, either circular or oval. From every part of these large galleries are various small pipes or galleries, leading to different parts of the building. Under the ground there are a great many which lead downwards by sloping descents, three and four feet perpendicularly, among the gravel ; from this the labouring Termites cull the finer parts, wliich, being worked up in their mouths to the consistence of mortar, form that solid clay or stone of which all their hills and build- ings, except the nurseries, are composed. Other galleries again ascend, leading out horizontally on every side, and are carried under ground, near to the surface, a vast dis- tance j for if you destroy all the nests within a hun- 64 HISTORY OF INSECTS. dred yards of your house, the inhabitants of those which are unmolested farther off", will nevertheless carry on their subterranean galleries, and invade the goods and merchan- dize contained in it, by undermining them, and do great mischief, if you are not very circumspect. But to retm-n to the cities from whence these extraordi- nary expeditions and operations originate : — it seems there is a degree of necessity for the galleries under the hills be- ing thus large, as they are the great thoroughfares for all the labourers and soldiers going forth or returning upon any business whatever, whether fetching clay, wood, water, or provisions ; and they are certainly well calculated for the purposes to which they are applied, by the spiral slope wliich is given them ; for if they were upright, the labour- ers would not be able to carry on their building with so much facility, as they ascend perpendicularly with great difficulty, and the soldiers can scarcely do it at all. It is on this account that a road like a ledge is sometimes made on the perpendicular side of any part of the building within their hill ; this road is flat on the upper surface, and half an inch wide, ascending gradually like a staircase, or like those roads which are cut on the sides of liills and moun- tains which would otherwise be inaccessible; by this and similar contrivances, they travel with great facility to every internal part. This too is probably the cause of their build- ing a kind of bridge, of one vast arch, which answers the pm-pose of a flight of stairs from the floor of the area to some opening on the side of one of the columns supporting the large arches, an arrangement which must shorten the distance exceedingly to those labourers who have to carry the eggs from the royal chamber to some of the upper nur- series, a distance which, in some hills, would be four or five feet in the most direct line, and much more if carried through all the winding passages leading through the inner WHITE ANTS. C5 chambers and apartments. One of these bridges, of an el- liptic form, was found to measure half an inch in breadth, a quarter of an inch in thickness, and ten inches in length. It was strengthened by a small arch at the bottom, and the footway on its upj)er surface was grooved throughout its entire length, either for the purpose of affording greater security to the labourers in passing over it, or from being so worn by their constant treading. It has been before observed that each community of white ants consists of a king and queen, soldiers, and la- bourers. The labourers are the most numerous, there being at least a hundred of them to one soldier. They are in this state about one fourth of an inch long, and twenty- five of them weigh about a grain ; so that they are not so large as ^ome of our ants. From their external habit and fondness for wood, they have been very expressively called wood-lice by some people ; and the whole genus has been known by that name, particularly among the French. — They run as fast or faster than any other insects of their size, and are incessantly bustling about their affairs. The second order, or soldiers, have a very different form from the labourers, and by some authors have been supposed to be the males, and the former neuters ; but they are in fact the same insects as the foregoing, only they have under- gone a change of form, and approached one degree nearer to the perfect state. They are now much larger, being half an inch long, and equal in bulk to fifteen of the labourers. The third order, or the insect in its perfect state, varies in form still more than ever. The head, thorax and abdomen, differ almost entirely fi'om the same parts in the labourers and soldiers ; and besides this, the animal is now furnished with four fine, large, brownish, transparent wings, with which, at the time of emigration, it is to wing its way in search of a new settlement. In short, it differs so much F 66 HISTORY OF INSECTS. from its form and appearance in the other two states, that it has never been supposed to be the same animal, but by those who have seen it in the nest; and some of these have distrusted the evidence of their senses. In the winged state they are also much altered in their size as well as form. Their bodies now measure between six and seven tenths of an inch in length, and their wings above two inches and a half from tip to tip, and they are equal in bulk to about thirty labourers, or two soldiers. — They are now also fiu'nished with two large eyes, one on each side of the head, and very conspicuous ; if they have any before, they are not easily to be distinguished. Probably in the two first states their eyes, if they have any, may be small, like those of moles; for as they live, like these animals, always under ground, they have as little oc- casion for these organs, and it is not to be wondered at that we do not discover them ; but the case is much altered when they arrive at the winged state, in which they are to roam, though but for a few hours, through the wide air, and explore new and distant regions. In this form the animal comes abroad during or soon after the first tornado, which at the latter end of the dry seasoir proclaims the approach of the ensuing rains, and seldom waits for a second or third shower, if the first, as is generally the case, happens in the night and brings much wet after it. The numbers that are to be found the next morning all over the surface of the earth, but particularly on the water, is astonishing ; for their wings are only calculated to carry them a few hours, and after the rising of the sun not one in a thousand is to be found with four wings, unless the morn- ing continues rainy, when here and there a solitary being is seen winging its way from one place to another, as if so- licitous only to avoid its numerous enemies, particularly various species of ants, which arc hunting on every spray, \VHITE ANTS. G7 on every leaf, and in every possible place, for this unhappy race, of which probably not a pair in many millions get into a place of safety, fulfil the first law of nature, and lay the foundation of a new community. Not only do ants, birds and reptiles, but even the inha- bitants of the country, eagerly seek after these wingless creatures and devour them with the greatest avidity. Mr, Smeathman himself considered them delicious and delicate eating. It is wonderful that a pair should ever escape so many dangers and get into a place of security. Some, however, are so fortunate; and being found by some of the labouring insects that are continually running about the surface of the ground under their covered galleries, which will short- ly be described, are elected kings and queens of new states ; all those which are not so elected and preserved certainly perish, and most probably in the course of the following day. The manner in which these labourers protect the happy pair from their innumerable enemies, not only on the day of the massacre of almost all their race, but for a long- time afterwards, seems to justify the use of the term, elec- tion. The little industrious creatures immediately enclose them in a small chamber of clay suitable to their size, into which at first they leave but one small entrance, large enough for themselves and the soldiers to go in and out, but much too small for either of the royal pair to make use of; and when necessity obliges them to make more entran- ces, they are never larger : so that of course, the voluntary subjects charge themselves with the task of providing for the offspring of their sovereigns, as well as to work and fight for them, until they shall have raised a progeny capa- ble at least of dividing the task with them. The business of oviposition soon commences, and the labourers, having constructed a small wooden nursery, as before described, F 2 68 HISTORY OF INSECTS. cany the eggs and lodge them there as fast as they can ob- tain them from the queen. About this time a most extraordinary change begins to take place in the queen, to which we have nothing similar, except in the jigger of the West Indies ( Pulex penetrans of Linneus), and in the different species of Coccus (cochi- neal). The abdomen of this female begins gradually to extend and enlarge to such an enormous size, that in an old queen it will increase so as to become fifteen hundred or two thousand times the bulk of the rest of her body, and twenty or thirty thousand times the bulk of a labovuer, as will be found on carefully weighing and computing the dif- ferent states. The skin between the segments of the abdo- men extends in every direction ; and at last the segments are removed to half an inch distance from each other, al- though at first the length of the whole abdomen is not half an inch. They preserve their dark brown colour, and the upper part of the abdomen is marked with a regular series of brown bars throughout its entire length, while the inter- vals between them are covered with a thin, delicate, trans- parent skin, and appear of a fine cream colour, a little shaded by the dark colour of the intestines and watery fluid seen here and there beneath. The animal is supposed to be upwards of two years old when the abdomen is increased to three inches in length ; and they are sometimes found nearly twice that size. The abdomen is now of an irregu- lar oblong shape, being contracted by the muscles of every segment, and is become one vast matrix full of eggs, which make long circumvolutions through an innumerable quan- tity of very minute vessels that circulate round the inside in a serpentine manner, which would exercise the ingenu- ity of a skilful anatomist to dissect and develope. This singular matrix is not more remarkable for its amazing extension and size, than for its peristaltic motion, which WHITE ANTS. 69 resembles the undulation of waves, and continues inces- santly without any apparent effort of the animal ; so that one part or other is alternately rising and falling in per- petual succession, and the matrix seems never at rest, but is always protruding eggs, to the number of sixty in a minute in old queens, or eighty thousand and upwards in one day of twenty-four hours. These eggs are instant- ly taken from the body of the queen by her attendants, ( of whom there always are, in the royal chamber and the galleries adjacent, a sufficient nvnnber in waiting), and carried to the nurseries, some of which in a large nest may be four or five feet distant, in a straight line, and con- sequently much farther by their winding galleries. Here, after they are hatched, the young are attended and provid- ed with every thing necessary, until they are able to shift for themselves, and take their share of the labours of the community. The working and the fighting insects never expose them- selves to the open air, but either travel under ground, or within such trees and substances as they destroy, except indeed when they cannot proceed by their latent passages, and find it convenient or necessary to search for plunder above ground. In that case they make pipes of the mate- rial with which they build their nests. The larger sorts use the red clay, the turret-builders use the black clay, and those which build in trees employ the same ligneous sub- stances of which their nests are composed. With these materials they completely line most of the roads leading from their nests into the various parts of the country, and travel out and home with the utmost security in all kinds of weather. If they meet with a rock or any other obstruction, they will make their way upon the surface ; and for that purpose erect a covered way or arch, still of the same ma- terials, continuing it with many windings and ramifications 70 HISTORY OF INSECTS. through large groves ; and having, where it is possible, subteiTanean pipes running parallel with them, into which they sink and save themselves, if their galleries above ground are destroyed by any violence, or the tread of men or animals alarm them. When a person accidentally enters any solitary grove, where the ground is pretty well co- vered with their arched galleries, they give the alann by loud hissings, which are distinctly heard at every step ; soon after this their galleries may be searched in vain for the insects ; but little holes are found, just large enough to admit of their escape into the subterraneous roads. These galleries are of sufficient size to allow the Termi- tes to pass and repass without stopping each other (though there are always numerous passengers), and to shelter them equally from light and air, as well as from their ene- mies, of which the ants, being the most numerous, are the most formidable. The Termites, except their heads, are exceedingly soft, and are covered with a very thin and delicate skin ; being blind, they are no match on open ground for the ants, who can see, and are all of them covered with a strong, horny shell not easily pierced, and are of dispositions bold, active and rapacious. Whenever the Termites are dislodged from their covered ways, the various species of ants, which are probably as numerous above ground as the Termites are in their subterranean passages, instantly seize and drag them away to their nests, to feed the young brood. They are therefore exceedingly solicitous about preserving their covered ways in good repair ; and if one of these be de- molished for a few inches in length, it is wonderful how soon they will rebuild it. At first in their hm-ry they run in to. the open part an inch or two, but stop so suddenly that it is evident they are surprised ; for though some Avill run straight on, and get under the ftirther part of the arch as WHITE ANTS. 71 speedily as possible, most of them run back as fast, and very few will venture through that part oi^ie gallery which is left uncovered. In c. few minutes they may be seen en- gaged in rebuilding the arch, and even if three or foui' yards of their gallery have been destroyed, it will be restored by the next morning ; and on again opening it, the Termites will be found as numerous as ever, passing both ways. If the gallery be several times destroyed, they will at length seem to give up the point, and build another in a different direction ; but if the old one led to some favorite plunder, in a few days they will rebuild it again, and unless the nest be destroyed they never totally abandon their gallery. The TermUes generally make their approaches to the nest under ground, descending below the foundations of houses and stores at several feet from the surface, and rising again either in the floors, or entering at the bottoms of the posts of which the sides of the buildings are composed, they bore quite through them, following the course of the fibres to the top, or making lateral perforations and cavities here and there as they proceed. While some are employed in gutting the posts, others ascend from them, entering a rafter or some other part of the roof; if they once find the thatch, which seems to be a favourite food, they bring up wet clay, and build their pipes or galleries through the roof in various directions, as long as it will support them ; sometimes eat- ing the palm-tree leaves and branches of which it is com- posed, and perhaps (for variety seems very pleasing to them) the rattan or other running plant which is used as a cord to tie the various parts of the roof together, and that to the posts which support it : thus, with the assistance of the rats, which, during the rainy season are apt to shelter themselves there and to burrow through it, they very soon rain the house by weakening the fastenings and exposing it to the wet. In the mean time the posts will be perfor- 72 HISTORY OF INSECTS. ated in every direction as full of holes as the timber in the bottoms of ships which has been bored by the worms ; the fibrous and knotty parts being left to the last. In carrying on this business they sometimes find, by some means or other, that the post has a certain weight to support, and then, if it is a convenient track to the roof, or is itself a kind of wood agreeable to them, they bring their mortar, and as fast as they take away the wood replace the vacancy with that material, wliich being worked together by them closer and more compactly than human strength or art could ram it, when the house is pulled to pieces, the posts formed of the softer kinds of wood are often found reduced almost to a shell, and all or most of them trans- formed from wood to clay, as solid and as hard as many kinds of free-stone used for building in England. When the hills are more than half their height, it is the practice of the wild bulls to stand as sentinels upon them while the rest of the herd is ruminating below. a, common ciicket in tbe larva state, b, ditto iu the (so called) pupa state, perfect state. CHAPTER VIII. METAMORPHOSIS OF INSECTS.* The preceding chapters serve to illustrate, in some degree, the remarkable change in form and manner of life which is so peculiarly characteristic of insects. This change has in all ages attracted admiration. What can be more wonder- ful than the fact that an unsightly worm should pass through a shrouded and death-like sleep, and should wake at last a glorious butterfly, to bask in sunshine, float on the impal- pable atmosphere, and quaflf the luscious nectar of beaute- ous flowers ! Well might such a miracle be made a poet's theme ! Well might those philosophers, on whose minds * The substance of this chapter was read before the Linnean Society, on the 1st of April, 1834, and subsequently published in the 3rd vol. of Ihe ' Entomological Magazine.' 74 HISTORY OF INSECTS. there dawned, albeit dimly, the great truth of an after life, — well might they imagine their toilsome existence typified in the cateipillar, their descent to the quiet grave in the tomb-hke repose of the chrysalis, and the hereafter they sighed for, in the spuit-hke resuiTection of the happy hut- tei-fly : and seizing with avidity the idea, well might they designate these aerial creatures by the name of '' souls." * Wonderfid indeed is tliis transformation from one form to another, and a source of wonder and admiration it ever must remain : yet science has offered us an explanation, which, while it increases rather than diminishes our admi- ration, strips the subject of that paradoxical seeming which led some of our predecessors to suppose that one animal was actually converted into another. It is now estabUshed beyond a doubt, that the wings, legs, and other parts of the butterfly, pre-exist in the chrysalis and even in the cater- pillar : these facts have been ascertained by immersing the chrysalis and caterpillar in boihng water, and dissecting them when a greater degree of solidity has thus been given to their Aarious parts. It may be observed of organized beings in general, that when they first exist they possess little or no similarity to the creatures they are destined to become : or in other words, to the parents to which they owe their existence. AVe may take as wide a range as we please in examining the truth of this position ; amongst vegetables, compare the acorn with the oak tree ; among animals, the egg with the gorgeous peacock. When an organized being has reached perfection, it precisely resembles its parent. The degrees or steps by wliich a being moimts to this perfection and si- milarity to its parent, constitute that which in an insect is termed metamorphosis. * "^vx^i signifies a " soul. " METAMORPHOSIS. 75 A few words as to the cause of metamorphosis. In even- organized being we trace these three tendencies ; firsts to haA-e its component parts become unfit for their fimctions ; secondly^ to throw off or discard all parts thus becoming unfit ; thirdly, to form, create, or supply, fresh portions in lieu of those thus thrown off. In tliis threefold tendency we shall find a solution of all the mysterious changes we behold in animals and vegetables ; whether we regard the loosening of teeth, the shedding of hair, the moulting of feathers, the casting of skins or the falling of leaves. This change of substance is generally obsei^vable in the exterior covering, but in man, the most perfect animal, it is more obvious in the bones. Numberless experiments prove that the substance of bones is continually changing ; some por- tions are constantly undergoing absorption, others secre- tion. Thus certain particles of matter escape to fulfil other ends, while new particles, introduced as ahment for the system, are mixed with its fluids and msh to supply the place of those which have escaped. All animals possessing an internal skeleton or frame of bones similar to that of man, like man also exhibit this ten- dency more strongly in their bones than in any of their less solid parts. Now in insects the skeleton is external, and exactly comparable to an indurated skin ; yet it serves the same purpose as the skeleton of other animals. Tliis dif- ferent situation of the skeleton accounts in great measure for the difference in the effects of the tendency to change, for while in the larger animals these efiects are concealed fi-om view, and are going on without any consciousness on the part of the animal, in an insect they are very apparent, and fi'om their locality temporarily detract from its present well-being, always causing sickness, and often death. There are many animals, as crabs, lobsters, &c., which resemble insects in the possession of an external skeleton. 76 HISTORY OF INSECTS. but from these, insects may at once be distinguished by their being furnished with six legs and four wings ; they also differ in wanting that singular property possessed by crabs and lobsters, of rejjroducing a limb that has been ac- cidentally lost. The great value of these characters is proved by the imjjortance attached to the exceptions which have been detected ; flies have two of their wings small and imperfect ; butterflies have the first pair of legs unfit- ted for walking; and a Dr. Heineken thought he found something like a re-production of the antennae of cock- roaches. The beings, therefore, of which the ' Grammar of Entomology ' professes to treat, are animals which possess an external skeleton, which are provided with four wings and six legs, which cannot re-produce an injured limb, and finally, which arrive at perfection by undergoing meta- morphosis in one or other of the following modes. 1. By passing through an amorphous state, — AMORPHA ; In which the penultimate state is provided neither with mouth nor organs of locomotion ; consequently it neither eats nor moves, nor does it bear any resemblance to the perfect state. This group contains two classes of insects. Class I. Lepidoptera ; in which the perfect insect has four fully developed wings, all of them covered with a kind of scales, which are symmetrically arranged on each other, like the scales of a fish or the tiles of a house. The silk- worm, p. 17, and all moths and butterflies, are examples of this class. Class II. DiPTERA ; in which the perfect insect has two fully developed wings, and two merely rudimentary ones, which are distinguished by the name of halteres METAMORPHOSIS. 77 or poisers. The breeze-fly, p. 25, and all two-winged flies, are examples. 2. By passing through a necromorphous state, — NECROMORPHA ; In which the penultimate state is provided with mouth and organs of locomotion, detached from the body, but so en- veloped in a case that it can employ neither. The resem- blance therefore to the perfect insect is very considerable, except in the total want of motion. This group contains two classes of insects. Class III. Hymenoptera ; in which the perfect insect has four fully developed wings, all of them transparent or membranous, and without scales. The honey-bee, p. 40, and bees and wasps generally, are examples of this class. Class IV. CoLEOPTERA ; in wliich the perfect insect has two fully developed wings, and two wing-cases which cover the wings. The sexton beetle, p. 53, and all other beetles, are the examples. 3. By passing through an isomorphous state, — ISOMORPHA; In wliich all the states are active and voracious, and of si- milar form. Tins group contains two classes of insects. Class V. Orthoptera; in which the perfect insect has four wings, the first pair being leathery, of little use in flight, and often very minute and scarcely apparent; the mouth is furnished with two strong mandibles, meeting transversely. Crickets, p. 73, and grasshop- pers are the examples. 78 HISTORY OF INSECTS. Class VI. Hemiptera ; in which the perfect insect has four wings, a portion of the first pair often being lea- thery : the mouth is a tubular sucker, formed for ex- tracting the sap of plants. Plant-bugs and plant-lice are the examples. 4. By passing through no uniform state, — ANISOMORPHA ; In which the Amorphous, Necromorphous, and Isomor- phous characters appear, together with others not possessed by those groups. This group contains but one class of in- sects. Class VII. Neuroptera; in which the perfect insect has four reticulated wings. Dragon-flies are exam- ples, as are also the white ants at p. 57. The first or Amorphous group, is again divisible into two minor groups, dependant on the circumstance of throwing off or retaining the prior skin when in the quies- cent state ; those which thi'ow off tliis skin, as butterflies and moths, exhibit the eyes, antennae, legs and wings of the future insect, and such a chrysalis is called pupa ader- inata : those which retain the prior skin, as flies, exhibit no trace of the situation of the limbs, and such a chrysalis is called pupa dermata. The insects of the last section, possessing, as they cer- tainly do, the extreme character of the Amorpha, neverthe- less, as has previously been stated, testify a very evident approach to the neighbouring Necromorpha ; for when the skin or covering of the quiescent insect is broken, a per- fectly Necromorphous form is disclosed ; and thus, though nothing could appear more different than the exterior ap- pearance of the two, yet this examination proves that the METAMORPHOSIS. 79 real difference exists only in the circumstraice of one group retaining the covering of the prsvious state longer than the other group. If we select two well-known insects, the breeze-ily and the honey-bee, we shall find little or no dif- ficulty in tracing the similarity. The grubs or maggots from which these insects proceed, are not very dissimilar ; but the grub of the fly merely ceases to feed, becomes qui- escent, and hardens externally (page 25, fig. d), while that of the bee ceases to eat, is walled in its cell by the workers, lines its cell with silk, casts its covering and becomes qui- escent, every limb being distinct, detached, and perfect (p. 40), but enveloped in a delicately soft and smooth skin, and perfectly motionless. This is the true Necromorphous character. Now^ the breeze-fly, on the contrary, is Amor- phous ; but if a few days before the perfect insect appears, the hard and apparently inorganic case which covers it be gently opened, we find within a form precisely resembling the Necromorphous form of the bee just described; whence it appears clear that the so-called pupae of the bee and the fly are neither substantially nor numerically the same state. Every ecdysis or sloughing is a transformation ; so that, calling the imago, as it certainly is, the ultimate state, then the so-called pupa of the bee is the penultimate, and the so-called pupa of the fly the antepenultimate. The differ- ence is thus explained : — the fly, on assuming the perfect state, casts two skins, the bee only one. In turning to the other section of the Amor'pha, namely, the Amorpha adermata, including the butterflies, moths, &c., we find, on examining them in the quiescent state, abundant evidence that we have before us not only organ- ized but animated beings ; in these the grubs, before be- coming quiescent, cast their covering in the same manner as the bee ; but still, unlike that insect, retain two distinct coverings, thus resembling the Amorpha dermata. Both 80 HISTORY OF INSECTS. these coverings are cast at the same time ; the interior one, fine, semi-transparent, and delicately soft, must have been observed by all who have paid any attention to the rearing of Lepidoptera. Now the whole of the Necromorpha, as far as has yet been ascertained, finally undergo a single, and the whole of the Amorpha, on the other hand, a double ecdysis. The Ismnorpha, of wliich the common cricket is an ex- ample, have no quiescent state ; nor can we find that they possess any state precisely equivalent to that portion of the lives of the two great groups we have been comparing. Their whole existence between the egg and the imago con- sists of a gradual series of approaches to perfection ; and during this interval reproduction has been known to take place. No character is yet discovered by which the penultimate, antepenultimate, and prior states can be de- tennined. In the heterogeneous group, Anisomorpha, a group in metamorphosis, as in all other characters, equally related to the other three, we find a typical and distinct section in the dragon-flies. These, like the Isomorpha, have no qui- escent state : their preparatory state is aquatic, active and voracious : when arrived at the period for assuming the imago, they leave the water, and fixing their feet firmly to a slender stick or blade of grass, emerge from a double skin and fly away. The exterior skin is hard, corneous, and brittle ; the interior soft, fine and pliable. The May- fly, one of the Anisomorphous insects, has a metamorphosis still more striking, and one that has been deemed anoma- lous and unaccountable. In the antepenvQtimate skin it leaves the water, and attaches itself by the legs like the dragon-fly. Its antepenultimate skin then opens on the back ; the insect emerges and flies away, leav-ing that one skin only — that beautifully delicate skin which the dra- METAMORPHOSIS. 81 gon-fly quits simultaneously with the harder one, being still retained by the May-fly. Here then we have the strange fact of an insect's flying before it reaches the imago ; that is, flying in its penultimate state. In twenty or thirty mi- nutes at farthest it settles again, casts its skin, and becomes a perfect imago. It thus appears that although, until the final ecdysis, no insect arrives at perfection, yet, before that period, even in the state immediately preceding, it may feed, run, and even fly ; or may swim, crawl, barely move, or be without mo- tion, without apparent life, or without apparent organiza- tion. It appears that the apparently lifeless or quiescent state may be entered without ecdysis ; that ecdysis itself may be either single or double ; that the states called pu- pa, in various tribes, are neither substantially nor numeri- cally the same. That comparing the few insects herein noticed, the fly, the bee, the cricket, the dragon-fly and the May-fly, all of which represent great orders, we shall find it perfectly impossible to apply, if we aim at precision, any other than a numerical denomination to their intermediate states ; and finally, therefore, that insects, like higher ani- mals, have but three eras of existence, — the foetal, the adolescent, and the adult. As to the number of times ecdysis takes place in the life of an insect, little can be said at present owing to the care- lessness and imperfection of our researches; and on this account it will be found safer to count downwards from the imago, than upwards from the egg. Although the contrary has been asserted, and perhaps generally believed, it yet remains to be proved, that the grubs of Diptera and acule- leate Hymenoptera undergo any ecdysis until full grown. The order Tenthredinites, on the contrary, and tlie Lepid- optera, change very frequently, with some exceptions ; for 82 HISTORY OF INSECTS. example, the caterpillar figured below sheds its skin but once : it produces the privet-moth. These various facts, so simple, so obvious, so plain, so completely within the reach of the most cursory obsenxr, proclaim that each variation in the number or manner of ecdysis is but another mode of metamorphosis ; proclaim that metamorphosis, though in insects a complete and oft- repeated ecdysis, is but another instance of that constant loss and reparation of substance which is incident to all organized beings ; proclaim the existence of a general uniformity of plan, with which the widest differences, the greatest discrepancies, are not only compatible, but are essential to perfect harmony, are the surest and safest guides to natural arrangement, and serve, like the key- stone of an arch, to unite objects previously devoid of con- tinuity ; proclaim finally the greatness of Him whose will shapes the whole into perfection. ..^'=^^^5^*i«i GRAMMAR ENTOMOLOGY. BOOK II. ON THE COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. Above the sovereign oak a sovereign skims, The purple Emperor, strong in wing and limbs ; The fair Camilla takes her flight serene, Adonis blue, and Paphia, silver queen; With every filmy fly, from mead to bower, And hungi-y Sphinx, who threads the honeyed flower ; She o'er the Larkspur's bed, where sweets abound, Views every bell and hums the approving sound. CKAIUiE, f J 2 Tlie Purple Emperor Butterfly, or Empiror ijf JIoiocco. CHAPTER I. APOLOGY FOR THE ENTOMOLOGIST. Peter Pindar, in his tale of Sir Joseph Banks and the Emperor of Morocco, not only gives the opinion of the un- lettered rustic on the subject of insect-hunting, but his own opinion, and the opinion of ninety-nine persons out of a hundred, even at the present day ; namely, that a person who could take an interest in pursuing a butterfly must be a madman. The collector of insects must therefore make up his mind to sink in the opinion of his friends ; — to be the object of the undisguised pity and ridicule of the mass of mankind, from the moment in which he commences so insignificant a pursuit : and precisely in proportion as he enters on the subject scientifically, will this pity and ridi- 86 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. cule increase. Ai-gument with others, in these cases, is wholly useless ; but each individual may say to himself: — Insects are wonderfully and beautifully made ; they appear equal, often superior, in structure and in powers, to any other work of the great Creator; He, moreover, in their unaccountable instincts, appears directly to guide the ac- tions of each without the medium of reason or memory. How can these beings, thus so immediately under the care of the Creator, be too insignificant for me to notice ? It will not be amiss at the same time to reflect, that con- sidered in relation to ourselves insects are not unimportant. Cantharides, a drug of great value, and which, as the prin- cipal ingredient of blisters, is yet unequalled, is the name given to beetles collected in great abundance fiom ash and other trees in the south of Europe ; they are merely dried and pounded, and are at once fit for use. Silk, an article of dress, and one which gives employment and consequent means of subsistence to millions of human beings, is, as we have already related, the produce of the silk-worm. Ink, an article of immense importance in our communications with each other, and in the preservation of knowledge, is principally made from galls produced on trees by a minute insect called the gall-fly. Cochineal, the most valuable and beautiful of dies, is an insect which feeds on a species of Cactus, in Mexico, and other parts of the continent of America. Kermes, the most brilliant scarlet die known pre^iously to the discovery of America, is an insect found abundantly on the Quercus coccifera, in the south of Eu- rope : this was the celebrated Phoenician die. Shell-lac, a glutinous substance, now of very great importance in the manufacture of hats, and of value as an ingredient of print- ers' ink, is secreted by an insect which swarms on the trunks of several kinds of trees in India. Wax, that en- lightens our drawing-rooms, and in combination is applied APOLOGY FOR THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 87 to a great variety of purposes, is manufactured by the bee, whose history has ah*eady been related. Honey is another production of the same industrious insect; and although much of its value has departed since the introduction of sugar, it is still an article of luxury. Mead, a wholesome and delicious beverage, for which this country has long been famous, and the manufacture of which is still carried on with great skill and success in some of our counties, is made from honey. Locusts, as an article of food, are spo- ken of in Scripture. The inhabitants of Fez, Morocco, and adjacent countries, eat them at this day; and the Hotten- tots hail the coming of the locusts with delight, and are said to fatten on them. The fructijication of many plants is entirely accomplished by different species of bees, which convey the pollen from plant to plant, and also from the stamens to the stigma of the same plant. As food for birds and fishes, insects may be considered by far the prin- cipal article ; there is scarcely a bird or a fish but devours them with avidity. The turnip-Jly has the power of destroying almost the whole crop of that excellent and useful vegetable, and as yet no certain cure for its ravages is known. Rusticus, an author before quoted, has ascertained that salting the seed acts in a good degree as a preventive. The hop-Jly has the power of destroying the produce of the hop in the most remarkable manner : the crop appears exclusively dependant on the scarcity or abundance of this insect. The locust, by causing pestilence or famine, has in all ages possessed the power of sweeping millions of human beings from the face of the earth. The mosquito, by its unceasing attacks, is capable of rendering life an almost insupporta- ble burden : gnats and other flies, in hot countries, have an influence over us scarcely less fearful. Economy of space and materials in architecture is taught 88 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. US by the bee ; the construction of the honeycomb m hex- agonal cells, with triangular bottoms, accomplishes these objects in perfection : geometricians can discover no pos- sible improvement on the plan which bees adopt. The strength of an arch is taught us by the white ant, whose plaster domes are so strong that men may safely ascend them, and it has been said that wild bulls stand on them. Mortar is made by several kinds of bees, and of the best possible composition, hardening almost instantly on expo- sure, and not being liable to be moistened again by wet. Nocturnal lights are recommended to us by the use made of them by the various fire-flies, which illuminate the trees in tropical countries all night long with their sparkling- lamps. These facts, combined with the foregoing histories, tend to show that insects perform no very inconsiderable part in creation ; and that, whether as instruments of convenience and utility, as sources of injury and annoyance, or as ex- amples of industry and economy, they cannot reasonably be despised. It is further objected against the entomologist, by those who would allow there is some reason in the preceding considerations, that he unnecessarily takes away animal life ; — that he causes unnecessary pain ; — and that the pursuit is altogether hardening to the heart. On the sub- ject of taking life. We meet with few individuals in our daily intercourse with the world, who would not consider it a praiseworthy action, and indeed almost a matter of du- ty, to tread on a worm in his garden, or to crush a wasp or a spider in his window, and this avowedly for the sake of his personal convenience ; an entomologist, if we make as strong a case against him as possible, takes the lives of the same beings for his personal gratification in a scientific view; surely, self heing the object in both instances, the APOLOGY FOR THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 89 charge of cruelty is equally applicable to both. But let us go farther : the common destroyer has heard of some won- derful mischief done by the worm, the wasp, and spider ; he therefore kills as many as possible. The entomolo- gist knows their history ; he knows they do much more good than harm ; he therefore kills as few as possible. — The animosity against these tribes originates in a want of knowledge of Entomology. As to causing pain. To sup- port this charge it is insisted, that were we treated as we treat insects, we should suffer intense agony. This is very true, but very poor argument ; because, before we can rea- son from ourselves, we must prove a similarity of circum- stances. If a man could walk about for days without his head, and if his head continued eating and drinking for days without a body, then it would be fair to judge of the sensations of an insect by those of a man ; for the heads and bodies of insects freely perform these feats. Then as regards hardening the heart. Entomologists, with con- stantly regarding the beautiful structure of insects, acquire such a kind feeling for them that they seldom or never un- necessarily kill the objects of their study, and almost inva- riably take much more care than indifferent persons to avoid doing them any injury. And the various schemes which have been invented for killing insects in the most expedi- tious manner, prove, at least, that the entomologist is not willing to occasion them suffering. Thus can the entomologist readily answer the charges brought against his pursuits, as either frivolous or cruel : but something more than this is needful. It is no merit in reasoning creatures to spend their time on subjects which possess merely the negative recommendation of be- ing harmless. Before we give up any great portion of our time to Entomology, we should believe it to be a useful study; we should convince ourselves that the just classifi- 90 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. cation of the countless tribes of insects, exercises the mind aright by increasing its powers of speculation and reflec- tion : we should trace in the beautiful and well-adapted structure of insects, the handywork of an allwise Creator ; and in their wondrous instincts, acting without tuition, His continued and watchful care for the preservation of beings which we have been but too ready to regard with feel- ings of aversion or contempt. The figure below represents the beautiful caterpillar of the spurge hawk-moth. The clap-net used by Entomologists. CHAPTER II. OF THE DRESS AND INSTRUMENTS FOR THE COLLECTOR OF INSECTS. Insects may be taken in nearly all places, at nearly all times, and under nearly all circumstances ; but still it is necessary to describe those places, times, and circum- stances which insure the greatest success. However, be- fore starting the entomologist on Ms hunting excursion, we must fit him out for his emj)loy. Dress is an article of great importance, both as to material and make. The best material with which the author is acquainted is called last- ing. It has these advantages : it is light ; it keeps out much wet ; it does not catch the thorns of brambles and other bushes ; it does not feel cold when wet. These are matters not to be despised by him who often wanders for 92 COLLECTION AND PEESERVATION OF INSECTS, hours without a chance of shelter ; and a cape made of cloth, and waterproofed with Raper's patent, is very ser- viceable in a long wet walk ; it does not oppress the wearer by preventing the escape of perspiration. The best colour is green : as to shape of coat, the common shooting jacket is by far the most convenient. There should be am^^le cross pockets outside, on the hip ; also several breast poc- kets, particularly two (at least) very small ones, for glass vials containing spirits to stand upright in : these should be inside the left breast of the coat, so that the right hand can conveniently reach them. Close to these vial-pockets, and sewed into the stuff of the coat, should be a large pin- cushion, containing two or tln-ee different sizes of pins, so arranged, in three columns, that the hand might at once take of either kind without the assistance of the eye to direct it. Two sizes of pins are all that are generally required ; but a third kind, very slender indeed, is used for very minute moths. There are two shops in London, and perhaps more, at which pins are sold expressly for the use of entomologists: these are, Durnford's, in Gracechurch Street, and Hale's, in the Dover Road ; but the art of making pins is not yet arrived at sufficient perfection to satisfy the entomologist. The universal fault is, that the heads come off, and then the insect on the pin cannot be moved without great risk. The principal implements of the collector are boxes and nets. The boxes should be of mahogany, opening readily, on brass hinges ; length seven inches, breadth four inches, depth two inches; the top and bottom should be lined with fine soft cork, and covered with white paper. The pockets of a shooting jacket will readily carry three or four such boxes as these. Besides these boxes, there should be two long cylindrical tin boxes for the caterpillars of Lepi- do]3tera : the tin not only keeps the caterpillars cool, but INSTRUMENTS. 93 it causes the leaves on which they feed to retain their freshness many days. Tin boxes are also useful to bring home Diptera ahve : in this case a cylinder of tin passes through the lid of the box, and is corked at the top. The clap-net, represented at the head of this chapter, is the grand weapon of the entomologist. This is a large piece of muslin, four feet long and nearly three wide, sup- ported on two light rods, a, a, which pass along a border, b, Z», made of brown holland, or other strong substance, bend towards each other at an obtuse angle, and meet at the top of the net, c : one of these rods is held in each hand, the handles being the parts uncovered, and lettered a, a, the net is fixed to each rod by means of a piece of tape, which passes through a hole made in the rod at d, d, and is tied firmly in a bow. The rods of the clap-net are each composed of five pieces, united by ferules ; when taken to pieces and placed in the net, the latter may be folded in a very moderate compass, slipped into a brown holland case, and put in the coat pocket. For this kind of net both green and white muslin are used ; but white is much the best, as the small insects are more readily distinguished on it; green muslin however has the merit of being less conspicuous, which under some circumstances is an advantage, for instance, in those country lanes where the pedestrians are unused to such an ex- hibition, the white net never fails to attract a little crowd, which causes some shght inconvenience to the entomologist as well as loss of time, for he is invariably under the necessity of explaining to the by-standers what he is doing. This net is the best for pursuing butterflies and moths on the wing ; the hunter tries to get the net under the object, and strikes upwards, closing the rods at the same 94 COLLECTION AND PKESERVATION OF INSECTS. time. A loose bag is formed, by a fold of the musliu, across the bottom of the net, e ; this prevents any thing from getting out. The same net is held in one hand under the boughs of trees, &c., while these are beat by the stick of the water-net held in the other hand ; and thus, besides perfect insects, a great number of caterpillars may be obtained. The other nets used by entomologists are of many kinds ; these two are the best : first, the forceps, with handles like those of scissors, with holes for the finger and thumb, and two circular or octagonal frames of iron, on which muslin or cheese cloth is stretched. This instrument is par- ticularly useful for taking the Diptera and HjTuenoptera, which settle on umbelliferous flowers. The forceps should be kept in the right hip pocket of the coat, to afford a greater facility in taking them out when wanted to be used with celerity : but it must be borne in mind that this weapon is never to be tnisted when insects are on the wing ; because its size is so small that the object at which you snap is beyond your reach before the forceps can close, however correct your aim : and a repetition of the snap is seldom attended with better success. The second net is the water-net. It is _.-'' ~ composed of a strong hoop of iron, jointed so as to fold up in a convenient formj on this hoop is fastened a strong bag net, made of cheese cloth ; the hoop has a male screw which fits a female screw at the end of a stout stick, about four feet in length. With this instrument all water insects are taken ; the water straining off" through the net, and the insects remaining at the bottom : the manner in which it is used is shown at the end of this chapter. INSTRUMENTS. 95 The same net, or a lighter one of similar form, screwed on a similar or the same stick, is called the sweeping net, and is used for sweeping gi-ass, on which my- riads of minute insects are always to be found : the weeds on the banks of rivers and canals are also excessively productive in insects, which can only be taken in this manner. In walking through meadows it will be found a good plan to hold this net in such a position that it may continually strike the project- ing blades of grass. The entomologist should be providedwith two wide- mouthed viak ; one empty and perfectly dry, having a quill passing through the cork, and going a consi- derable way below it : this quill may be stopped at top by a second small cork : within the vial some blotting-paper may be kept, which not only absorbs any moisture, but serves as something to crawl on for the living insects which are taken from time to time and dropped through the quill. The other vial should be made very strongly, well corked, and three parts filled with spirit : common whisky is the best spirit; pure alcohol injures the colours of beetles, and gin makes them sticky. A digger is another useful instrument : it is simply a piece of round iron, about fifteen inches long, bent round at one end, and furnished with a wooden handle at the other. This serves to rip the bark off dead trees, and to dig at the roots of living ones for chrysalides. . Quills cut off close to the feather are very useful for bringing home minute insects of all classes. The aperture should be most carefully corked, the corks being cut ex- pressly for the pm-pose, and should be of sufficient length to go half an inch into the quill, and thus not liable to come out in the pocket. Finally, pill-boxes, obtainable of any druggist, complete 96 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. the outfit of the entomologist. There is now an excellent kind maniifactiu-ed, the tops and bottoms of wliich never come out : it is important to get these. It is important also to avoid sitting on pill-boxes, as it must interfere with their stnicture : to avoid this, the author carries them in a breast pocket. Noutui'iial Moth tiyiiif; by Moonlight. CHAPTER III. ON COLLFXTING INSECTS. Lepidoptera fly mostly in the night : when the air is warm and the sky serene, and the moon is lighting up the fringes of the clouds, the downy moths wing their way from the bushes and crevices where they have spent the hours of daylight, and wander in the woods and over the meadows, each bent on the task of continuing its kind, or seeking food in the nectaries of flowers. Hvmdreds may be seen fluttering round the blossoms of brambles, ivy, martagon lily, honeysuckle, and jasmine. But although these noc- turnal wanderers delight in the moonbeams, some of them vaulting in graceful aerial dances round the tops of trees, it is not on such nights that the collector will meet with H 98 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. most success, for they are then beyond his reach. All night- flying moths are attracted by the light of a candle or lan- tern, the brilliancy of which appears to increase exactly in proportion to the darkness of the night. Availing them- selves of this propensity on the part of the moths, many entomologists sally forth to the woods at night provided with a bright bull's-eye lantern, fastened in front by a leathern strap going round the waist, and armed with a clap-net to catch them on the wing, and a pair of forceps to take them when settled on flowers. Others less ven- turesome illuminate their rooms, and hold a levee of moths during the live-long night. Tliis mode of collecting has the great advantage of allowing the entomologist to read or write, or occupy himself as he pleases : if cold, the windows may be kept closely shut, and the moths will knock for admittance ; and, not deterred by the severe blow they receive by flying with all their might against the in- tervening glass, will hover about the window until it is opened to admit them. For the purpose of attracting moths a sinumbra lamp has been found the best. When a moth comes to the lamp it may readily be taken in the forceps, or in a tumbler or wine-glass : or if it fly to the ceiling and begin buzzing about, the clap-net must be used or it will very soon injure the beautiful downy crest on its thorax, and thus render itself unfit for a cabinet specimen. When taken in the clap-net it may be trans- ferred to a tumbler, and the tumbler inverted on the table. It is then a good plan to light a small piece of Gei*man tinder about half the size of a sixpence, and introduce it under the edge of the tumbler ; the moth is almost instantly stupified by the smoke of the tinder, and may be readily taken out and pierced with a pin. In the second volume of the 'Entomological Magazine,' the Rev. C. S. Bird has given a most interesting account of his captures at COLLECTING. 99 Burglifield, by means of a sinumbra lamp; and in the fifth volume of the same work, is a delightful detail of Mr. Doubleday's nocturnal entomologising, during his resi- dence at Trenton Falls in the United States. The berries of the yew are most attractive to moths. When these berries are thoroughly ripe, the moths will so completely gorge themselves with the luscious saccharine juice, that they make scarcely any attempt to escape when approached by the entomologist. A bull's-eye lantern is indispensable in seeking moths while thus engaged : a strong light must be thrown on the tree, and every twig carefully examined. When a moth is seen, if within reach, it may be taken with the forceps, pinned, and at once trans- feiTed to the pocket box : if beyond reach of the forceps, a bag-net on a long stick must be carefully held beneath it, and the twig on which it is settled must be gently touched with another stick held in the other hand, when it will almost invariably fall into the bag-net, whence it must be taken with the forceps, and then pinned as before : the singular instinctive propensity which many insects have to feign death when alarmed, contributes greatly to the ease with which moths are thus taken. A very pleasant account of this mode of entomologising is given by Mr. Walton in the second volume of the 'Entomological Ma- gazine. ' At Norbury Park, near Dorking, Mr. Walton captured in this way eighty moths per night, from the 10th of October to the 14th of November. . Sweets of all kinds, as honey, sugar, &c., appear to at- tract moths quite as well as the more natural juices of flowers and fruits. An empty sugar-hogshead is an unfail- ing lure : the plan is simply to place in some open situa- tion, as a meadow, a large garden, or an open space in a wood, a sugar-hogshead which has just been emptied, and to which, of course, some small quantity of sugar still ad- H 2 100 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. heres. The moths do not come immediately, but in the course of two or three nights it will be visited by swarms, and its attractive power continues, particularly on moist evenings, as long as any saccharine matter remains.* If the hogshead be heated it will be still more attractive, t East India sugar-bags have been employed for the same purpose, with very great success, and on these the moths may be captured with far greater facility than on a sugar- hogshead, which from its shape is less accessible. A plan used by the oldest collectors, and one which, as regards individual species, is perhaps the most successful of all, is to place a female moth that has recently emerged from the chrysalis, in a small wooden box with a gauze lid, and take the captive into a wood, when the males of the same species will congregate by hundreds, perfectly fearless of the propinquity of the entomologist ; they will run about over his clothes and hands, and even creep into the pocket of his coat if he happen to have placed there his attractive captive. It has been ascertained that moths thus attracted have travelled miles in so short a space of time, that they must have approached in an almost direct line. Nearly the whole of the night-flying moths may occa- sionally be captured in the day : they are found reposing on the north side of the trunks of trees, or park palings, in out-houses, summer-houses, sheds, &c., also in thick bushes, whence they may be beaten into the clap-net, both sticks of which must then be held in the left hand. Many moths thus disturbed from their diurnal slumber immedi- ately take flight, and are very diflScult to overtake and catch; others drop at once into the net and are quickly secured. Some moths fly at twilight only, and of these the larger * Mr. Doubleday in ' Entomological Magazine.' f Mr. Dale in ditto. COLLECTING. 101 Sphingides or hawk-moths may be quoted as examples ; these are particularly fond of the blossoms of the honey- suckle, and this plant, especially if in the neighbourhood of the sea-coast, will be found an excellent lure for them. The hawk-moths are very difficult to procure, and though we have a large number of occasional visitors among this tribe, few cabinets are supplied with British specimens of more than half the species ; the practice of giving high prices for these beautiful moths, oifers a temj)tation to the cupidity of dealers which it is next to impossible to resist, and in consequence hundreds of exotic specimens are an- nually imported, their pins exchanged, their position al- tered, and their claim as natives solemnly averred. Every young collector of British insects should most carefully ab- stain from the purchase of these expensive rarities ; or it he wish to adorn his cabinet with them, he may frequently find opportunities of obtaining French, Spanish, Italian, or German specimens at a very low price, and these should be carefully ticketed with the name of the locality whence they were obtained, and kept apart from those which he knows to have been captured in Britain. Some of the spe- cies of hawk-moths fly only in the sunshine, and do not settle on flowers whilst extracting their sweets, but hover about them, thrusting their long suckers into the corollas ; this mode of feed- ing, and their elegant appear- ance, has obtained for them the name of Immming-hirds. Two of the species may often be seen in the spring, hovering about the flowers of the common bugle \ these have transparent 102 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. win gs, and possess but a very slight resemblance to the generality of moths. Another species frequents our gera- niums and jasmines at all times of the year. Butterflies are to be met with only in the day-time : they delight in sunshine, and are particularly attracted by flow- ers. Some butterflies, as the purple emperor (p. 85), are fond of flying high in the air, and around the tops of the highest oak trees, seldom coming down within reach of the clap-net. The emperor generally fixes his station on the summit of a lofty oak, Mr. Haworth, in his excellent work entitled ' Lepidoptera Britannica,' observes that the empe- ror invariably fixes his throne on the summit of a lofty oak, from the utmost sprigs of which he performs his aerial ex- cursions ; in these he will sometimes ascend until lost to sight from his extreme height : if he meet with another emperor, the monarch of some neighbouring oak, a battle always ensues ; they fly up and up, fighting by the way, and when exhausted, descend and often settle on the very sprigs whence they rose. The emperor is only to be taken in a bag-net, fixed to a rod twenty or thirty feet in length; unless he should condescend, as is sometimes the case in very dry weather, to come to the ground in order that he may enjoy its moisture. It has been observed of this and other high-flying butterflies, that a stone thrown into the air will induce them to follow it in its descent. In captur- ing most of our butterflies there is little difliculty : they fly slowly and languidly along our hedge-rows, and are very fond of settling on flowers and on the moist or muddy pla- ces in roads or woods ; the clap-net is the only efficient instrument for securing them. Another net, of a complex structure, is sometimes used ; it is composed of a stick or handle, and two parallel pieces of whalebone, which, being pushed outwards, form a hoop, and to this is attach- ed a large muslin bag : when a Initterfly is captured, this COLLECTING. 103 net is let off by a kind of trigger, when the pieces of whale- bone again become parallel. This weapon, like the armour worn at a lord mayor's show, is little more than a gaudy incumbrance. The pupae of butterflies are mostly to be found suspended in out-houses and sheds, on walls, palingS; trunks of trees, &c., and those of moths are to be obtained plentifully in the winter and spring, by digging at the roots of trees and in gardens. The caterpillars of butterflies and moths are to be found in abundance on the leaves of trees throughout the sum- mer, and may be beaten or shaken into a clap-net and taken home in tin boxes. To rear caterpillars it is necessary to be provided with numerous square cages ; the lower part, for about a third of the height, should be of tolerably strong wood-work, and the upper part a mere frame covered with gauze. The lower part is better if lined with tin or lead, and must be filled with earth, in which many of the cater- pillars will bury themselves previously to assuming the chrysalis state ; sprigs of the plants on which the caterpil- lars feed, should be stuck into a narrow-necked vial filled with watei", and placed within the cage, and the caterpillars should be placed on the leaves. The cages must be kept in a cool, and, if possible, a moist situation. The larvae will do as well thus artificially reared, as in a state of na- ture ; they will spin among the leaves, or on the sides of the cage, or hide themselves in the earth ; in nearly every instance the moths will emerge rather before than after the usual time, and will generally be more perfect and finer specimens than can be obtained in any other way. In the cages in which caterpillars are thus reared ichneumons will be constantly making their aj)pearance, and these should be preserved with great care, and if it is known on what species of lepidopterous insect they ai'e parasitical, the fact 104 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. ought to be carefully noted, for although it may not be ser- viceable at the moment when noticed, it may afterwards become valuable, and serve to illustrate some important point in the natural history of insects, Diptera, or flies and gnats, seem to be inhabitants of every place under the sun ; they settle on man, horses, and cattle, to suck their blood ; on all kinds of flowers to eat their pollen or extract their honey ; on leaves either to sun themselves or to sip the honey-dew ; on all kinds of putrefying substances, either for the sake of food or as a dwelling for their young ; palings, walls, trunks of trees, blades of grass and corn, are very favorite resorts ; and lastly, they seem to have made themselves perfectly at home in our houses, parading our windows, roosting on our ceilings, feasting on our sweets, and performing aerial gambols in our drawing-rooms. It seems idle to attempt to give instructions as to the finding and capturing ani- mals of so common occurrence : the sweeping net will be found most useful for those frequenting grass, and the for- ceps for nearly all other situations in which they may occur. The class Hymenoptera includes bees, wasps, sand- wasps, ants, ichneumons, and saw-flies : bees are to be taken in great abundance on sunny sandy banks in spring, and on flowers in summer and autumn ; the same situations may be searched with advantage for wasps, sand-wasps, &c. : ichneumons and saw-flies will generally be found on leaves and flowers ; and ants on the ground, and on herbs and shrubs. All kinds of Hymenoptera may be occa- sionally beaten from trees and shrubs into the clap-net, but the best instrument for this class is the forceps. There is one tribe of minute parasitical Hymenoptera called Clial- ciiUtes, the species of which are to be obtained by sweeping grass, (Sec, under oak trees, with a muslin sweeping-net ; COLLECTING. 105 they may also be occasionally found in company with many minute Diptera on our windows, and this situation may prove a very proHfic one when an entomologist on his travels is detained by a rainy day. Coleoptera, or beetles, are to be found every where : on the flowers, leaves, and bark of living plants ; on the bark and wood of dead or dying trees ; in the carcasses of dead animals; in living or putrefying Fungi; in all kinds of dung and rubbish ; in flom- ; in corn ; under stones and logs of timber ; in cellars ; under faggot-stacks ; in earth, at the roots of trees ; in sand and gravel pits ; in moss ; in mud ; in water ; and very frequently flying in the air. Beetles are captured with greater facility than any other class of insects : the best instruments are, the clap-net for holding under trees while you beat the leaves ; the forceps for taking them off" flowers ; a digger for sand or gravel pits, and earth at the roots of trees, or for stripping the bark off a decaying trunk ; and finally the water-net, which may be used with great success where there are many water-plants growing in little stagnant pools. When bee- tles are taken, as a general rule they may be put in a glass vial filled with weak spirits of wine, but a few which are of bright or delicate colours may be carried home alive in tin boxes, vials, quills, or pill-boxes. In the winter months moss should be brought home from the woods and shaken over a white cloth ; by this process an immense number of minute beetles may be obtained. Orthoptera are generally found in the autumn in dry meadows : there are but few species inhabiting this coim- try, and these may be taken with the clap-net; their cap- ture will be found troublesome, and there are so many individuals in proportion to the number of species, that entomologists have very much neglected them, thinking them scarcely worth the toil of collecting. Crickets in- 106 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. habit houses, mills, and bakehouses ; and the mole-cricket burrows in the loose soil of marshy commons, banks, and moist gardens. Cockroaches, like crickets, seek the habi- tations of men, and, as regards the larger species, are never to be found in a perfectly wild state in this coimtry. Earwigs secrete themselves in cracks and crevices by day, and in the night devour the petals of flowers, and when they can obtain an entrance, the jjulpy parts of ripe fruit. Hemiptera are mostly found on trees and shrubs : the plant-bugs are known to every one by theii- very disagree- able smell ; a collection of them is only to be obtained by beating into a clap-net. Three or four species inhabit the larch fir; two inhabit the juniper; one the fm'ze; others do not appear attached to any particular species of plant, but seem to love variety : although they are furnished with wings they are rarely to be seen on the wing ; they fly heavily, slowly, and a very short distance at a time. Aphites, blights or plant-lice, are also found on vegetables, and the singular little frog-hoppers, or cuckoo-spittle insects in the same situations. A few of the Hemiptera, as the water-measurer and water-boatman, frequent stag- nant pools, canals, or the still places in running streams ; the former may be seen skimming over the surface, its body and legs being armed with a velvety down, which prevents it ever becoming wet ; the boatman dives under the water, occasionally coming to the surface for a supply of air; the long legs projecting from its sides have much the appearance of oars, and it uses them for the same purpose, propelling itself through the water by powerftd and simultaneous strokes. These aquatic Hemiptera are only to be taken in the water-net. Lastly, the Neuroptera are of varied manners, and have various propensities. The dragon-flies have a more pow- erful and rajjid flight than any other insects ; hke swallows. COLLECTING, 107 they appear to be possessed of untiring wings; it is a beautiful thing to behold one of the larger species hovering over a pool with quivering wings, intently watching for prey, then to see it soar aloft, sailing backwards and for- wards, round and round, until nearly lost to sight, and then to mark its descent with the rapidity of an arrow to within a yard of the surface of the pool, where it will hover as before. For such a daring fly as this no instru- ment but the clap-net can be used with much probabiHty of success, and great patience on the part of the collector is requisite ; pursuit would be of no avail whatever ; his only chance is to wait silent and motionless : the fly will approach nearer and nearer, until every mark on liis beau- tiful body is distinctly visible : as if attracted by curiosity he will circle slowly round the head of the hunter, at last hovering over the pool immediately before his face ; now is the time for an instantaneous stroke ; great activity and absolute perfection in the use of the weapon are re- quisite ; the eye should measure the exact distance, and strike rather beyond the object; if the stroke fail, the hunter may as well abandon the pursuit, his game will be too wary to give him a second chance. There are many species of smaller slender-bodied dragon-flies, frequenting ditches and water-plants, which have a languid and feeble flight, and are taken without trouble. The May-flies or caddews, stone-flies, &c., frequent watery places, consti- tuting the principal food of fish, and the angler would do well to study attentively their different forms and times of appearance, with a view to manufacture their hkenesses ; this has been in a degree attempted, and our fishing-tackle shopkeepers make up queer tilings to which they give the name of flies : it is said that trouts sometimes rise to these nondescripts ; if this be true they must possess a much greater development of the organ of inquisitiveness than 108 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. of that of alimentiveness. All fisherman's flies are to be met with towards evening, and may then be readily taken on the wing, or may be beaten during the day from bushes overhanging running streams. The above is a brief sketch of the haunts of the more abundant orders of insects, and the modes by wliich they may be taken : it would be impossible, within the limits of a work like this, to record the dwellings of each species ; this knowledge is to be acquired by practice and careful observation. No portion of the study of Entomology will be found more interesting than its Geography : the authors who have given most attention to this subject are Latreille and MacLeay, but neither of these has been fortunate in laying down any rules on the subject that are likely to be of per- manent utility to the collector. It must be obvious to every one who has seen a box of insects from the Brazils, Africa, New Holland, or China, how great is the variety, how large the size, how brilliant the colours of the produc- tions of those countries, when compared with the insects of our own; and it is absolutely necessary to obtain some general knowledge of the geographical distribution of par- ticular forms of insects, and the causes influencing those forms, before any extended views of the science can be entertained. It will be found, on inspecting a well-filled cabinet of insects, that there are many giant groups, as ScarabcBUS, Buprestis, &c. which possess scarcely a repre- sentative in the British islands ; while other groups, such for instance as contain the death's head hawk-moth and the stag beetle, may be considered as duly represented in this country by those gigantic species : and in one tribe of insects, known by the vulgar appellation of devil's coach- horses (genus Staphylinus), the immediate neighbourhood of London produces, as far as we yet know, a greater num- COLLECTING. 109 ber of species than the entire continents of South America and Africa. Thus the entomologist who ventures beyond our temperate islands, must not lay his plans as he would for our native insects, but must first obtain an idea of the products of the country he is about to visit, from a careful insj)ection of some national or other large collection. The gigantic butterflies and beetles of South America, and the huge and grotesque species of walking leaves or Mantides^ require different treatment in their capture and preserva- tion to that which we would bestow on our humbler tribes. The boxes wherein to collect them must be of larger di- mensions, the pins must be longer and stronger, and the bottles for those which are to be brought home in spirits must be very capacious, and very wide in the mouth ; and however great may be supposed the facility of obtaining the requisite stock of materials when abroad, it will be found the more prudent course to take fi-om home every article that can be obtained there, with the exception of spirits, which, alas ! are but too abundant wherever what is called civilization has begun, or wherever the white man has set his foot. The dress of the entomologist under the vertical rays of a tropical sun, must be adapted to the heat he has to bear ; and every reasonable precaution should be used against the bites of poisonous snakes, gad-flies, &c. — Where the heat is intense, life is no sooner extinct in an animal than the process of putrefaction commences, and in a few hours it would become a mass of corruption : it is therefore indispensable to empty the bodies of some of the larger insects, filling the cavity with cotton wool, or some other material, soft, elastic and dry. Finally, when the entomologist is rewarded with abundant success, his care must not cease ; for the ants and white ants which abound in the tropics, will penetrate his store-houses and lay waste their contents. To guard as far as possible against such a 110 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. termination to his labours and his hopes, he must have an abundant supply of camphor and spirits of turpentine, and must enclose his boxes in a tin case, so carefully fitted that the most minute insect will fail to find an entrance. The entomologist visiting foreign countries cannot be too particular in recording the exact locality of each capture ; and in reference to this important subject, the author begs to be allowed to quote the following excellent observations by Mr. Doubleday, from the 2nd volume of the ' Entomolo- gical Magazine.' " Perhaps there is no branch of Entomology more worthy of attention than the geographical distribution of insects ; yet this is totally disregarded by almost every entomologist. He who carefully excludes from his collection of British insects every doubtful species, arranges in his exotic cabi- net species after species, genus after genus, without once thinking of indicating the part of the world whence they have been obtained ; or, if he does note this, it is in so ge- neral a manner that little is to be learnt from it, — a line of one of six different colours, which serve to indicate Europe, Asia, New Holland, Africa, and North and South America, being thought abundantly sufficient. " In Dejean's ' Catalogue des Coleopteres' we certainly find the native country of each species pointed out rather more clearly ; but sometimes, even there, we are left to guess as to what part of a region, extending over 50° of la- titude, and as many of longitude, and offering, at its two extremities, a difference of 30° Fahr. of temperature, is the principal station of an insect. Besides this deficiency in exactness, there is an omission of still more consequence : — no notice is taken of the range over which a species extends. " From this want of care and accuracy in pointing out that country which is the principal station of a species, and COLLECTING. Ill the extent of its range over other countries, arise difficulties which overwhehii us in our attempts to arrive at anything like a correct viev»^ of the geography of insects ; and which, joined to our limited knowledge of extra-European species, forbid our speaking with confidence on any part of this subject. It has been well and truly observed with regard to plants, by an illustrious traveller [the Baron Humboldt], that it is impossible to enter fully into their geography, unless we are thoroughly acquainted with the distinctions, the characters and the names of each species. — 'Ne tamen obliviscare, quemadmodum Physiologia animalium sine Anatome esse non potest, neque Geologia sine Oryctogno- sia, eodem modo te Geographiam Plantarum penitus inspi- cere non posse, nisi Botanicae innitens, singularum specie- rum notas, characteres, nomina accuratissime dignoscas. " Much has been written by entomologists on the subject of weather, but imless we are to imagine the collector totally devoid of sense, we shall scarcely suppose he will choose wet or windy days for the pursuit of insects on the wing. He will find it of much more importance to take a hint or two as to the time of day : early in the morning insects will be found in abundance on the foliage of trees, and they are then generally in a heavy or drowsy state, which allows of their being readily beaten into the clap- net : if the weather prove warm after 9 o'clock they will be actively running or flying, or perhaps settled on flowers; in either case the difficulty of capturing them is increased. Butterflies are on the wing from sunrise to noon, and fi-om 2 o'clock till sunset; then they become drowsy and fly more languidly, settling repeatedly, and apparently seek- ing roosting-places for the night. As to seasons for insects, Httle can be done in the way of laying down general rules. In Britain butterflies are abundant in May, August, and September; moths in 112 COLLECTION AND TRESERVATION OF INSECTS. May, June, and October ; caterpillars in May, June, and September : collectors often speak of the spring beating and autumnal beating for caterpillars. Entomologists will soon find that particular insects are attached to particular flowers : who has not seen the honey-bee revelling on a bank of thyme ? or the peacock butterfly perched on our commonest thistle, closing his beautiful wings, and exhi- biting only their sable surface ? Canibcrweil Beauty Buttcilly, with canl braces, sliowuig the mode in whicli a Butteitly should be set. CHAPTER IV. OF KILLING, SETTING, ARRANGING AND NAMING INSECTS. Although the author is fully satisfied that insects have not the acute sense of pain possessed by ourselves and warm-blooded animals, yet he wishes to impress on the collector of insects, that it is unjustifiable to subject any animal to even the possibility of suffering for our own gra- tification. Therefore let us resolve to adhere to two rules; jirsty to destroy no more specimens than are really requi- site ; secondly, to kill them in the most certain and expe- ditious manner : under any circumstances, the reflection that we have done this will be agreeable. Butterflies and moths require to be pinned immediately on being taken ; the pin is passed through the very centre I 114 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. of the mesothorax,* or that part to which the wings are at- tached, the finger and thumb of the left hand, at the same time, pinching the insect under the wings. A slight pinch kills a butterfly, but it is far otherwise with a thick-bodied moth ; these seem to jjossess an excess of vitality. There are several modes by which moths may be killed, but some of these are not at all times convenient ; however, it will be best to give them all, and then the reader may avail himself of one or other, according to circumstances. First, take the moth by the wings, held together over its back, and then dip its body suddenly in boiling water ; immediately on withdrawing it, it will be found that life and motion are completely extinct ; but the downiness of the body will have received an injury which it never eflFectually recovers. Secondly, fix a piece of thin cork firmly at the bottom of a gallipot; then, having pinned the moth, as before describ- ed, through the mesothorax, stick the pin in the cork, and invert the gallipot in a basin of boiling water : the steam produces death almost instantly, and does not injure the plumage of the moth. Thirdly, having pinned the moth, take its body between the finger and thumb of the left hand, then withdraw the pin, and having previously prepared a sharp-pointed piece of quill or wood, dip it in pnissic acid or a strong solution of oxalic acid, and introduce it into the aperture made by the pin ; death follows almost instantly. A fourth mode of killing moths as well as other insects, has been recorded by Mr. Stephens, in the second volume of the ' Entomological Magazine ; ' it is as follows : — " take three or four juicy leaves (the younger the better, with, if a more powerful effect is required, a small portion of the tip of the stalk) of the common laurel ; break or cut them into * These anatomical terms will be fully explained ia the following book, entitled ' Physiology of Insects.' PRESERVATION. 115 small pieces, and criisli them quickly between two stones, in a thin piece of paper ; screw up the produce in the lat- ter, with as little exposure to the air as can be avoided, and fix the mass by a pin in a corner of the collecting-box, in which the living insects are to be previously placed ; keep the box closely shut, and in about five minutes every spe- cimen will have expired. It is necessary that the external air should be excluded, otherwise the fumes of prussic acid which are evolved from the crushed leaves, will become too much attenuated to affect the respiratory organs of the in- sects, and the latter will partially revive if too speedily ex- posed to the vivifying influence of a purer atmosphere. I have tried the experiment rather extensively upon insects of various families ; Bomhi and Helophill die very rapidly, in less than two minutes, and without any struggling, as is the case when heat &c. is applied ; and moths, in a state of repose, expire without a single previous motion : conse- quently the process I have recommended is most admirably adapted for killing the larger Lepidoptera almost immedi- ately upon their capture, and thus fine specimens may be conveyed home uninjured. I yesterday killed a gigantic spider in less than half a minute ; and a specimen of He- lops cccruleus, with one or two fresh-captured Philoiithi, at liberty in the box, were also dead when it was opened. I therefore strongly recommend the above process to the notice of the practical entomologist, as being, from its con- venience, better adapted for general application than any hitherto proposed." Diptera and Hymenoptera are generally best carried home alive in pill-boxes, vials, or quills, as recommended in the previous chapter ; the same also with very minute moths : Coleoptera of almost every kind may be safely im- mersed in the vial of spirits : Orthoptera and Hemiptera, if large, may be pinned ; if small, put in pill-boxes : dragon- 116 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSERTS. flies require to be pinned. Diptera and Hymenoptera should, when sufficiently large, be pinned, like the Lepid- optera, through the centre of the mesothorax ; Coleoptera, through the right wing-case ; Orthoptera, through the pro- thorax ; and Hemiptera, through the mesothorax, generally in this class a triangular plate : dragon-flies should be pin- ned in the centre between the four wings. All insects taken home alive in pill-boxes may be killed thus. Open the lids of the boxes a very Httle way, just so as to admit the passage of air, but not the exit of the in- sect ; then make a pile of the boxes, thus partially opened, on a piece of soft leather placed on a table ; invert a pint basin over the boxes ; bum one or two matches under the basin. If the basin and boxes are placed close to the edge of the table, the facility of burning a match under the basin is increased. The basin should be pressed down, and the leather precludes the ingress of fresh air and the egress of the sulphur-smoke; if the boxes are examined in a few minutes, the insects will be found j)erfectly dead. But it must be borne in mind that the fumes of sulphur have dif- ferent effects on different colours ; yellow and red retain their brightness when submitted to it, or even acquire ad- ditional lustre, but blues and greens, on the contrary, are frequently totally destroyed. All kinds of insects are killed instantaneously by immer- sion in boiling water ; and with the exception of Diptera and Lepidoptera, none are materially injured by the process. The minute insects brought home in quills may be readily killed by immersing the quill in hot water, at the same time holding the cork between the finger and thumb. The bee- tles brought home in spirits should be subjected to this process, first, as a cleansing and purifying operation ; se- condly, because the spirit appears only to stupify and de- prive them of motion, so that without this second killing PRESERVATION. 117 they generally revive. All insects killed in water should be very carefully spread on blotting paper; those large enough for pinning should be then selected, and left until thoroughly dried; those which are so small as to be injured by a pin should be removed to a sheet of pasteboard ; each should be floated on a drop of water, and the water with- drawn by a camels' hair brush. The legs and wings usu- ally spread out neatly of themselves, but if they do not, a little assistance from the brush will accomplish it ; the board should then be carefully put away, and the insects will dry in the position in which they were left, but are so slightly attached to the board that a touch of the pencil will remove them. A number of very small pieces of card should next be prepared ; they should be triangular, with one angle very acute; a pin should be passed through each, near the base; then with a fine brush touch the acute point of the card with clean transparent gum-water, and again moistening the brush take up one of the insects and place it on the gum, to which it will instantly adhere. All minute Hymenop- tera may be mounted in tliis way. The wings of minute Diptera are more difficult to deal with, being of a softer texture. As few of these should be mounted as possible, and great care should be exercised in the operation ; the rest of the Diptera should be pinned. The minute insects brought home alive in the vial may be instantly killed by immersing the vial in hot water, after which they may be tnounted at any future opportunity, when more time can be spared for the operation : each vial should be labelled with the date and place, when and where taken; and thus a winter's amusement may be provided. In setting, i. e. arranging the legs and wings of those in- sects sufficiently large to require pinning, there are two modes : the first is to place the wings horizontally, the se- 118 COLLECTION AND TRESERVATION OF INSECTS. cond is to bend them so as to touch the drawer ; the first is the continental, the second tlie English plan. In setting insects ^^'ith expanded wings, a piece of stiff card, pinned through with a stout pin, supports the wings from below ; another similar piece is placed on the wings above; the two pieces holding the wing iuunovably fixed, (see tlie fi- gure at the head of this chapter) : Uie legs are held in their places by a bent pin. In Lepidoptcra, Diptera, Ilymen- optera, some Orthoptera, and in Neuroptera, the wings are tlms spread, but not in Coleoptera. In Coleoptera the ha- bit Avould generally be totally destroyed by opening and spreading out the wings : insects of this class, and also ge- nerally those of the class Hemiptera, are set with the vdngs and \\'ing-cases quietly folded in tlie usual position on tlieir backs; the legs and antenn.T, however, are carefully placed, and arranged by means of the bent pins. The bent pins are reduced to this more convenient shape by means of an instrument somewhat resembling a pair of pliers ; it was invented by My. George Waring, of Bristol, and is now very commonly employed by entomologists : the old plan was, to fasten a foot in its place by a small card brace. For all the operations of preserving insects, nicely corked setting-boards, about a foot squai'e, should be prepared, and on these all the insects should remain mi til perlectly dry and stiff; after which, if kept in a warm room, there is little dangei* of their receiving any injury. These setting- boards should slide into a case, one above another, to the number of six or seven : the sides of this case should be made of mahogany, but the back and front must be co\ ered with \^•ire-gauze, or some other material equally adapted for the free passage of air ; a matter of very great impor- tance, for if insects are placed in a cabinet before they are thoroughly dried, they speedily become disfigured with mould, and are moreover much more liable to the attacks PUKSERVATION. 1 J '.) of minute Acari &c., wljich much disfigure and often to- tally destroy them. The value of a collection of inBects is of course very much enhanced l^y exhibiting them in all their states; this, however, is but little attended to. A few of our larger Le- pidopterous larvae have been preserved in spirits, but this plan obviously precludes the simultaneous exhibition of tlie larva and imago. Various other plans of preserving cater- pillars have been tried; the following, recorded by Mr. Fennel in the 'Entomological Magazine,' appears the best. If the cateqjillar be hairy or spiny, enlarge the posterior orifice, and from thence endeavour, by gentle pressure per- formed with a smooth instrument, to squeeze out as much of the contents of the inside as possible : and while thus operating let the subject Ije laid on a sheet of blotting-pa- per, that the moisture exuded being imbibed, may be pre- vented from wetting and spoiling the hairs and spines. — This done, insert frequently fresh pieces of dry blotting- paper rolled round the end of a smooth piece of stick, and continue tf> do so until the dryness of the paper, when re- tracted, indicates that no moisture remains within. Let the skin be now distended into its proper shape, by means of a stuffing of down or other soft material, taking the pre- caution to guard against the attacks of destructive insects, by enclosing within a small quantity of camphor, cayenne pepper and red oxide of lead. In preserving hairless caterpillars, care must be taken that their colours be not removed by a too rough application of the absorbing in- strument. The chrysalis of Lepidoptcrous insects is very readily preserved ; it requires to be left until thoroughly hardened ; then vitality destroyed by immersion in boiling water ; and when dried, it is fit for the cabinet. The ma- jority of Lepidoptera spin something like silk before they change into a chrysalis ; this is usually called a cocoon. 120 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. and the shape in which it is formed, its textuie, its degree of compactness, and finally, its situation, whether on pal- ings and trunks of trees, amid the leaves of trees, or among leaves fallen to the ground, often afford the characters by which entomologists have distinguished one group from another, and can never fail to excite our admiration at the immense diversity exhibited in the mode in which the continuation of each species is infallibly provided for. Cabinets. — A well-made cabinet is of the greatest impor- tance, and is not to be obtained without some difficulty : every cabinet-maker will at once take your order, but what is called tradesman-like acumen will prevent his doing you justice. Many parts of the cabinet are not visible from the exterior, and it is almost impossible to persuade a trades- man to use good and seasoned wood for those parts which are not exposed to sight; it is therefore absolutely neces- sary to inspect the work while in progress, to examine the wood, and ascertain that it is thoroughly seasoned j if the wood retains any sap it is of no use, as it invariably warps and thus prevents the drawers from moving, and the cabi- net becomes useless. Nothing but the best mahogany must be used ; a great variety of wood has been tried, par- ticularly a kind of resinous cedar, which has a colour and grain much resembling mahogany, but which is far worse for cabinets than the most resinous deal ; after the cabinet has been a short time built, it will become saturated with resin, and all the insects it contains vrill be speedily spoil- ed. Other cheap woods are also much in use, and are ve- neered in front with mahogany, and the parts which are exposed on taking out a drawer are smeared over with a brownish composition to keep up the deception. A cabinet should consist of two tiers of drawers, fifteen or twenty in each tier : if the number be fifteen only, there CABINETS. 121 is abundance of room for a book-case to stand above tliem, which is not only convenient, but has an agreeable effect. The drawers should be enclosed in front by two folding doors, all the edges of which must be carefully covered with velvet; by this precaution dust is effectually excluded. Each drawer should be from fifteen to eighteen inches square, and two or two and a half inches deep ; the smaller size is sufficient for British insects, the larger for tropical or extra-European. Each drawer should be covered with thin slices of very soft cork ; these slices are glued toge- ther at the edges, and fastened to the bottom of the drawer by small tacks and glue, the tacks, or rather brads, being without heads. When the cork is secm:ed its siu'face must be made perfectly smooth by rubbing it with pumice-stone, and the whole is then neatly covered with white paper, the paper being pasted on the cork. It will be found that the cork admits the pin on which an insect is placed, to pass into it with the greatest facility, and yet is sufficiently elas- tic to retain it steadily in its place. The sides of the draw- ers must be double, leaving a vacant space for powdered camphor, a substance that serves to preserve all specimens of Natvu'al History from the attacks of moths, mites, &c., Avhich would otherwise find their way in, and cause rapid devastation. The drawer is covered by a pane of the best flatted glass, carefully fixed with putty in a square frame, and the frame is nicely fitted to the drawer, thus ensuring the exclusion of any dust that may have passed the folding doors. Before placing insects in a cabinet, it is usual to rule the paper at the bottom of the drawers with ink or pencil lines, thus providing for the arrangement of the insects in paral- lel columns, of a width varied in proportion to the size of the insects. In the first edition of the ' Grammar of Ento- mology,' the author recommended this plan, but he has 122 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. subsequently found it a matter of convenience to omit the lines altogether ; he thinks the drawers are neater without them, and moreover, on occasionally re-arranging a collec- tion, and, as it increases, this is absolutely necessary, the lines of a former ruling require to be obliterated and others introduced, a task which occasions great trouble and loss of time. Mr. Stephens has, with great labour and assiduity, com- piled 'A Systematic Catalogue of British Insects,' including all the species which have been ascertained to be natives of this country ; this catalogue is almost universally em- ployed for the arrangement of British insects, and will be found very useful to the young entomologist, who must how- ever be cautioned against using or noticing names which have no reference to a description attached to them, as such names will never be adopted by scientific men ; those names only have a claim on our notice, under which insects or other animals have been actually described and published: and it is very doubtful whether any names be really admis- sible until descriptions of the individuals to which they refer have been published in Latin, which is considered peculiarly the language of science. Mr. Stephens has published a synopsis of his Catalogue in a smaller form, and printed on one side only, so that the names may be cut out and used for labelling cabinets. This plan saves much trouble, and gives a neat and finished appearance to a ca- binet ; each name is a distinct label, and should be pinned in the drawer, the generic name, printed in capital letters, being placed at the head of the genus, and the specific names in small letters below the species. Attached to the name is the initial or part of the name of the author who gave it ; thus SPHINX, L., or SPHINX, Lin., signifies that Linneus gave the name of Sphinx. Lepidoptera should be placed with extended wings, fol- CABINETS. 123 lowing each other m a line of three, four or more, if a variable species ; the upper specimens should be males, the lower females. Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Neurop- tera should be arranged in the same way. Coleoptera should be placed in rows, three abreast ; the upper three males, the lower three females. All these should have closed wings, as the under wings are not at present em- ployed for any scientific purpose, neither do they in any way add to the beauty or neatness of a collection. Or- thoptera should be placed three males and three females abreast, as the Coleoptera, and then a single open-winged specimen below them : the same plan should be adopted with the Hemiptera. Preserved insects should be kept perfectly dry. They are subject to three very annoying casualties, which it must be the constant study of the entomologist to coun- teract ; these are destruction by mites, «&c., mouldiness, and greasiness. Destruction by mites, the larvas of Der- mestites, Ptinites, and Tineites, is very much avoided by attending to three rules : put every specimen into the drawers perfectly dry; never leave the glass off; and keep a good supply of camphor always in the drawer. Either of these depredators makes its presence instantly known by an appearance of dust below the specimen attacked. The best way on discovering this, is to take out the insect, and if a beetle, to dip it instantly in boiling water; then, after thoroughly drying it, return it to its place. If any other insect, baking in a moderately hot oven will be found an effectual cure. Mouldiness is completely remedied in beetles by immer- sion in boiling water, and after brushing them with a camel's hair pencil, drying them thoroughly, and returning them to their places ; in other insects, spirits of wine care- fully applied with a camel's hair pencil effects a cure. 124 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. Greasiness is a constant cause of trouble with insects, particularly moths. Commencing in the body, it gi-adually spreads until the whole moth looks as though it had been dipped in oil ; from the insects the oil runs down on the drawer below it, soiling the paper, and spoihng the ap- pearance of the collection. No preventive to this is known, but a greasy insect may be restored by immersing it in naphtha, or essential oil of petroleum, and allowing the oil to evaporate before the insect is returned to its place. Of Entomological Books. — As the author intends this for an introductory work on Entomology, and has done his best to make it as complete as he was able, it would be but a poor compliment to his readers, after giving them so much trouble, were he to tell them of the necessity of buying other introductions. Works descriptive of species, will, however, be found highly essential, and the author will give a list of all the British ones with which he is ac- quainted, and such foreign ones as he considers to be j)ecu- liarly useful ; he will arrange the books in the same order in which insects are classified at page 76. Lepidoptera. — 1. British Lepidoptera ('LepidopteraBri- tannica'), by Adrian Hardy Haworth, 1803, et seq., being published in four parts. One volume, pp. 586, without plates. This work is written in Latin ; it contains concise and accurate descriptions of the British Lepidoptera, known at the time the author wrote. 2. 'Illustrations of British Entomology,' Part Haustellata, by James Francis Stephens. Four volumes, with numerous plates. This work is written in English ; it contains descriptions of all the known British Lepidoptera. 3. ' Conspectus of But- terflies and Moths,' by James Rennie. One volume, no plates. This work is written in English, and contains descriptions of nearly all the British Lepidoptera. BOOKS. 1'25 Diptera. — ' Systematic Description of the European Two- winged Insects,' by J. W, Meigen. In six volumes, with numerous plates. A short Latin description of each insect is given ; the remainder of the work is in German. Nearly all the British species are described. Hymenoptera. — 1. Natural History of Ants, and a collec- tion of Memoirs and Observations on Bees, by P. A. La- treille, in one volume. This work is written in French. It contains descriptions of all the Ants (or nearly so) inhabi- ting this country. 2. 'An Essay on the Indigenous Fosso- rial Hymenoptera; comprising a description of all the British Species of Sand-wasps,' by W. E. Shuckard. 3. 'Systema Piezatorum,' by J. C. Fabricius. One volume, written in Latin. Since this work was published, much knowledge has been gained concerning the insects which it describes. 4. Monograph of the Bees of England ('Monographia Apum Anglian'), by William Kirby, in two volumes, with plates. This work is written in Latin, and is one of the most perfect entomological works any country has yet produced. Modem discoveries have, however, added some facts concerning identity of species. 5. 'Es- say on Parasitic Hymenoptera,' by A. H. Haliday, pub- lished in the Entomological Magazine. 6. Monograph of Chalcidites ('Monographia Chalciditum'), by Francis Wal- ker, published in the Entomological Magazine, vol. i. pp. 12, 115, 367, 455 ; vol. ii. pp. 148, 286, 340, and concluded as a separate work : this most laborious monograph con- tains descriptions of every British species. 7. Article ' Insecta,' by Wilham Elford Leach, published in the Edin- burgh Encyclopaedia, vol. ix. p. 142. Three British genera and species described. 8. European Ichneumonology, ( ' Ichneumonologia Europaja'), by J. L. C. Gravenhorst, three volumes, written in Latin. An excellent and most la- borious work. 9. Monograph of the Tenthredoes ( ' Mono- 126 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. graphia Tentliredinetarum'), by Le Pelletier de Saint-Far- geau, one small volume, written in Latin. Most of the British species are very clearly described in this work. It may here be observed, that we have no general work on Hymenoptera. Coleoptera. — 1. British Entomology, ('Entomologia Britannica'), vol. i., Coleoptera, by Thomas Marsham, (written in Latin), one volume, without plates ; a most in- valuable book, on account of the neatness and scientific accuracy of the specific descriptions. 2. 'Illustrations of British Entomology,' Part Mandibulata ; written in Eng- lish, with a short Latin specific description of each spe- cies. Five volumes, with numerous plates. Tliis work contains descriptions of all the known British Coleoptera. 3. ' Manual of British Beetles,' by J. F. Stephens, one vo- lume, containing short descriptions of all the British species. 4. ' British Coleoptera Delineated,' consisting of figures of all the genera of British Beetles, drawn in outline by W. Spry, edited by W. E. Shuckard. One species of each genius is figured and described. Orthoptera. — ' Illustrations of British Entomology,' Part Mandibulata, written in English, with a short Latin descrip- tion of each species. This work contains descriptions of all our British species. Hemiptera. — There is no work containing arranged de- scriptions of the British species. Neuroptera. — 1. 'Illustrations of British Entomology,' Part Mandibulata ; written in English, with a short Latin description of each species. This work contains descrip- tions of all our British species. 2. Memoir on the Larva of Nemoura, by F. J. Pictet, published in the Annals of the Natural Sciences, vol. xxvi. p. 369 ; and of Perla, vol. xxviii. p. 44. Both these memoirs are written in French. 3. ' Description of some Nondescript Species of May-flies INVESTIGATION. 127 of Anglers,' by John Curtis, published in the London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine, vol. iv. 4. Re- searches into the History and Anatomy of the Phryganites, ('Recherches pour servir a I'Histoire et a I'Anatoraie des Phryganides'), by Frangois Jules Pictet ; one volume, 20 plates : a work of very great research and extraordinary merit. 5. Monograph of the European Dragon-flies, ('Monographia Libellularura Europoearum'), by P. L. Vander Linden, 42 pages, without plates. This little work is MTitten in Latin, and is very complete and excellent of its kind. 6. Entomological Hours, ('Horae Entomologicae'), by Toussaint de Charpentier, one vol. 4to., with plates. In this work the species of the genus Libellula are accu- rately described in Latin. 7. ' Synonymy of the Perlites, together with brief descriptions of the old, and of a few new species,' by Edward Newman, published in vol. iii. of the Magazine of Natural History. Of Investigating Insects. — Having pointed out the best mode by which a collection may be made, and the books which will be most useful in naming it, it remains that we add a few words on the application of objects to de- scriptions, and descriptions to objects. Character in insects is the variation in the mode or measure of development of any integral portion of either system of organs. Those characters are the best which are founded on such portions of a system of organs as are most readily observed ; the organs of support afford these. It would be a work of insuperable difficulty had we to examine the interior of an insect to decide its species. All animals have a tendency to vary in those parts of the body which are the most remote from the centre : the extremi- ties in quadrupeds, or in birds, afford us the best charac- ters on this ground. Take a lobster, a prawn, a shrimp. 128 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. and a crayfish ; spread them on a setting board, you wiW find the extreme points, the tail, toes and antennae, display the differences : so, in insects, take the extremities. The extremities of an insect are the wings, the tarsi, the head ; and these afford abundant characters. First, take the most obvious parts, the parts most easily observed ; then consult the more concealed parts, as the mouth ; but even in the mouth try the palpi before the jaw or the lip fi-om which they rise. In investigating insects, a good glass is a matter of great importance ; and here I cannot resist the pleasure it will give me most heartily to recommend Messrs. Bentley and Chant, of King's Head Court, St. Martin's-le-Grand. Being themselves good entomologists, they know exactly what entomologists require, and take every pains to supply it. The knowledge of the principal orders of insects is very soon acquired ; many we have known from our childhood upwards, as hutterjlies {Papilionites,) or crickets {Ache- lites). It is the safest plan to begin with large well-known groups first ; the knowledge of a few of these leads us to desire an acquaintance with the rest. After the orders are pretty well known, the study of spe- cies must be begun ; for it is a remarkable fact, which the author cannot explain, that classes, orders and species, are much more readily ascertained, and much more obvious to the casual observer, than the intermediate divisions of stirpes, families and genera. It may also be observed, that in general, even with scientific investigators, there is less doubt as to the limits of classes, orders and species, than those of the other divisions. Genera are the most difficult groups to make out ; they depend almost entirely on artificial characters, and their limits have never been agreed on by any two of the numerous writers on entomology. Most descriptions are written in Latin, or a language INVESTIGATION 129 intended for Latin ; many words used are peculiar to Ento- mology, and these the author will endeavom- to explain in the following pages ; other words are purely English, with what is supposed to be a Latin termination added. Examples of this: — setaceous is latinized setaceus ; gross is grossus ; expansion is expansio ; rudimental is rudi- mentalis ; peiiolate is petiolaius; hroivn is hrunneus ; grey is griseus ; bronze is hronzeus ; anterior is anterior. Many Latin words are altered to make opposites ; margi- natus signifies having a margin; and to describe an object that has no margin, the word immarginatus is made ; words or names are often latinized by the simple addi- tion of us or um. All these are to be considered errors ; but we must bow in some degree to usage by adopting errors. Still we should be careful not to enlarge the list ; and in describing, we must avoid obvious incongruities, and not describe in Latin without some knowledge of that language in its unadulterated state. Reading Latin is a very different matter from writing it ; and the author has endeavoured so to explain the technical terms, that the reader may understand almost any Latin description he may meet with, by occasionally consulting a Latin dic- tionary. Those who are desirous of obtaining a knowledge of foreign insects will find great advantage from studying the collection in the British Museum ; and it is with great plea- sure the author bears witness, not only to the readiness of the officers of that establishment to afford every facility to those who are desirous of consulting the collections with a scientific object, but to the rapid progress which is now making in the Entomological department, of which he is competent to form a more correct opinion than of either of the others : this change is in gi'eat measure attributable to the zeal, industry and ability of Mr. Adam White, a junior 130 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. officer. It is however but justice to observe that a similar spirit of improvement is obvious in the other branches of Natural History, and that the entire establishment is rapidly becoming an honour to the country in which we live. GRAMMAR ENTOMOLOGY. BOOK III. PHYSIOLOGY OR ANATOMY OF INSECTS. To trace in Nature's most minute design The signature and stamp of power divine ; Contrivance intricate expressed with ease, Where unassisted sight no beauty sees ; The shapely limb, the lubricated joint, Within the small dimensions of a point, Muscle and nerve miraculously spun, — His mighty work, who speaks, and it is done. COWPEE, k2 Skeleton of a large Water Beetle, as seen from below. B, the head. D D, the prothorax. F i^, the mesothorax. H fl^, the metathorax. a a, fore legs, e e, fore wings, ii, middle legs. 0 o, hind wings, u u, hind legs, y, antennse. CHAPTER I. OF THE ORGANS OF SUPPORT, OR SKELETON. The Physiology of Insects is the account of how they are made : there are in every animal four essential elements, — matter, motion, sensation, and mind. Matter is inert — it does not move by its own powers ; it is tangible — the touch ascertains that it resists : matter in animals has various degrees of consistency ; convenience, however, has suggested its division into solid and fluid. 134 PHYSIOLOGY OF INSECTS. Matter, chiefly in its solid form, is the element of which the systems of organs are composed ; and organs are the in- struments by which functions are performed : in all animals there are seven systems of organs to perform seven series of fimctions. The seven systems of organs and their respective functions are these : — hones, ior support ; mus- cles, for motion ; air-tubes, for respiration ; blood-vessels, for circulation ; alimentary canal for digestion ; nerves, for sensation ; and the organs of the sexes, for reproduc- tion. The fluids in insects are blood and various secre- tions : the blood is supplied by nutriment transmitted from the alimentary canal : the solid parts are renevred by secre- tions from the blood. Motion, in the animal frame, is of two kinds ; dominant motion, which acknowledges not the authority of the mind ; for instance, circulation of the blood : and subservient motion, which operates only in accordance with the behests of mind. Sensation is the ultimate power of matter so perfected as to take cognizance of facts beyond the limits of the body : sensation is of two kinds ; that derived from external ob- jects, which appears the aim of animal life, and conduces to its maintenance, and that which conveys information from matter to mind, and behest from mind to matter. Mind is the commanding element ; the other elements in acting obey it, but in existence and characters are inde- pendent of it : no powers of mind can prevent the exist- ence, or change the characters of matter, motion, or sensa- tion: mind argues, then commands; it takes cognizance of causes, and provides for consequent effects, before the other elements can obey its behests. The great powers of mind are speculation and retention: speculation is the power w^hich supposes an event that has not yet occurred ; OF THE SKELETON. 135 and retention is the power of preserving an image left on the mind by an event that has occurred. Of the connexion of mind vrith the organs which it commands we know nothing ; mind itself is only known by its effects : its commands are carried by the nerves ; a fact ascertained by separating a nerve ; after which separation, the mind no longer con- trols the parts to which that nerve extended its branches. The physiology of insects is, however, properly confined to the description of their systems of organs, and to the fiinctions which these organs perform : therefore, excepting as connected with the organs, no fiirther notice will be taken of any other element than matter. With regard to the anatomical nomenclature employed in the following pages, it will be, perhaps, advisable to make one or two observations. The author has studiously guarded against the admission of those terms which are of recent date, and seem invented without any other object than that of caprice : in every instance he goes back to the earliest name of which the meaning is clearly defined : he has invented no name except for parts which he found totally nameless. The authorities for the nomenclature of the external or osseous parts of insects, are Fabricius, Sa- vigny, Audouin, and Straus-Durckheim. The laboiurs of Fabricius and Savigny have been noticed with tolerable accuracy in Kirby and Spence's ' Introduction to Ento- mology'; those of Audouin with more skill by Mr. Mac- Leay, in the 'ZoologicalJoumal' ; and those of Straus by Mr. Doubleday, in the 'Entomological Magazine.' The author of this work has attempted to build a uniform anatomical nomenclature on his own observations, seeking amid these learned authors for the prior name given to each part : a portion of the result was published in the 'Entomological Magazine' under the title of Osteology of Insects, but the subject not being adapted to the taste of 136 PHYSIOLOGY OF INSECTS. the Entomologists of this country, it was abandoned. The terms now used are in accordance with those employed in the essay in question. The chapter terminating the history of insects, and treat- ing of their transformations, may perhaps be more strictly applicable to the present branch of the subject ; but the author trusts that those graver and more scientific pages will serve, in some measure, to exjtlain the changes previously described, and lead the enquiring mind to seek further information on the highly interesting subject of insect l^hysiology. In the chapter in question it has been ex- plained that insects, instead of an internal framework of bones supporting the softer parts, have their external skin or covering indurated, incrassated, ossified, invested with powers possessed by a skeleton or framework of bones, and fulfilling the very offices for which such a framework is designed, namely, supporting the softer parts, and afford- ing points of attachment for the muscles. This indurated skin envelopes the animal in the manner of a suit of ar- mour, enclosing and protecting from injury those parts which are softer and more immediately connected with vitality: in its composition this skeleton possesses more or less of the elements found in the bones of vertebrated animals. In order to admit of perfect freedom in the performance of those numerous acts in which an insect's life is passed, it is essential that this bony covering should be possessed of the power of turning to the right or left, upwards or downwards ; otherwise constant difficulty must occur. To accomplish this, the body, which is very long in proportion to its breadth, is divided into thirteen segments, the inter- stices between these being filled up by a softer and more flexible portion of the same skin. This division of the body into segments is exhibited very clearly in the earlier OF THE SKFXETON. 137 stages of an insect's life, and we see it much more dis- tinctly in a larva than in a perfect insect ; and here it will be proper to observe, that the sliin or covering /«k which has subsequently to become so corneous ^ . .r~^ "^ and solid that the term skin seems almost theo- ^i ~i retical, is generally in larvae, thin, soft and flex- ible, in an equal degree with that of animals possessing the more obvious support of an inter- nal skeleton. The figure in the margin is in- tended to show the segments in the larva of a large beetle, each separated from its neighbours in order that the division may be more clearly exemplified. In the caterpillar of the emperor moth, at page 130, the same segmental division is equally manifest, with the exception that the segments are there represented imited, as in a w-C^^ state of nature. The caterpillar of the spurge y- -^P hawk-moth, at page 90, is another exemplifi- Elater. cation of the same structure, the divisions bemg less manifest, but still to be traced ; the thirteenth segment, or that posterior to the horn, being the only one not distinct- ly defined. See also the larva of the cricket, at page 73 ; of the sexton beetle, at page 53 ; of the bee, at page 40, &c. In examining larvae, the young entomologist should pay particular attention to certain prehensile appendages erro- neously called legs, and more correctly false legs : the absence, presence, number and situation of these, has been so correctly observed by entomological writers, that the genus of a moth or saw-fly may frequently be correctly given by a careful inspection of its larva. In the figure of the privet hawk-moth, at page 82, these false legs alone are used to hold it to the twig on which it is standing, the six real legs being unemployed : this is the usual and natural position of the insect when at rest : when eating 138 PHYSIOLOGY OF INSECTS. or crawling the six true legs are brought into action, clasping or embracing the twig, as shown in the figure of the sjDurge hawk-moth caterpillar, at page 90. It is not, however, in caterpillars that the entomologist will find this division into segments of the greatest impor- tance : in the perfect insect the modification of these seg- ments, and the appendages which they bear, supphes the only means by which gi'oups of insects, and even individual species, can be distinguished from each other. The most r-~\r\ simple form of a perfect insect will best ex- A \ — (j \y hibit the existence of these segments. In the giant Phasma, or walking stick as it has been termed, — a large and singular insect, inhabiting Brazil and other hot climates, — the division into segments is not only more ob- vious, but from the entire absence of wings more satisfactorily defined than in any insect inhabiting this country ; the author has there- fore selected it to show the thirteen segments in what may be termed their most simple form. In this, as in the preceding figure, each seg- ment is separated from its neighbours, and it U will be observed that the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, u ~~ a bear, each of them, an appendage on each Y ai side, a, i, u, y, making four pairs of appen- ' dages ; those on the first segment are antennae ; Phasma. ^^ remainder are legs. These animals crawl on the ground or on trees, feeding on leaves, &c., and so much resemble dried sticks or living twigs, as to deceive the birds, which would othei*wise prey on them. Very similar in form and appearance to Phasma is another large and very singular group of insects, called Mantis or walking leaves, and these are usually provided with wings or additional appendages attached to the third Q - OF THE SKELETON. 139 and fourth segments, e, o, and thus we have before us all the organs of locomotion possessed by insects. Although so nearly resembling Phasma in appearance, ^<~^ the species oi Mantis are totally different from ^ ^ them in mode of life ; feeding on living in- sects, and displaying great savageness and cruelty of disposition, fighting each other with the most determined courage and fero- city, and using their fore legs, which are peculiarly constructed for the purpose, as weapons of offence : this employment of the fore legs renders it essential that they should possess greater muscular power than those of the quiet Phasma, and if we compare the size ^ ^ of the second segment in these two insects, m _rj we can scarcely fail being struck with the q j— |. difference which they exhibit. ^ . . Q Q By examining the Mantis it will be seen s ca U - C3 that the posterior edge of each segment after w ^^ the fourth, protrudes over the anterior edge ' ^ /. 1 /. 11 • 111 • Mantis. of the followmg segment, thus the alternation of flexible and inflexible portions of the skin allows not merely a fi*ee motion to the right or left, upwards or down- wards, but of increase or decrease in length, at the plea- sure of the insect: contraction is performed by the segments being drawn one within another, and elongation by extending and separating the rings : this action, which is very observable in the bodies of the wasp or honey bee, is represented by the sliding of the tubes of a telescope. The names of the thirteen segments of insects, and the limbs which they bear, are as follow ; and in the figures which the author has drawn to illustrate the subject, similar references are invariably used, a plan which will be found to save much trouble, as all confusion is thus avoided. 140 PHYSIOLOGY OF INSECTS. 1 . Caput or head A — B 2. Protliorax C — D 3. Mesothorax E—F 4. Metathorax G — H 5. Propodeon I — J 6. Podeou K—L 7. Metapodeon M—N 8. Octoon 0—P 9. Ennaton Q—R 10. Decaton S — T 11. Protelum U—V 12. Paratehim W—X 13. Teliim Y—Z Propedes or forelegs a Proalae or fore wings e Mesopedes or middle legs i MetalsB or hind wings o Metapedes or hind legs u Antennae y In each of the segments the Roman capital letter refers to the upper surface, and the Italic letter to the lower. With the exception of the first the segments have no English names, the Latin ones are therefore universally employed, and this is preferable to burthening the mind with two names for the same part. The first segment is the head; it consists of a skull in which are situated two feelers or antenn