An introduction to entomology : or, Elements of the natural history of insects

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FuilitJted bi/longrnan,,IfursTjiees, Ornu Ic Brown, London, Jan j. i8jy.

AN

INTRODUCTION

TO

ENTOMOLOGY:

OR

*

^ ELEMENTS

OF THE

NATURAL HISTORY OF INSECTS:

WITH PLATES.

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

,, RECTOR OF BAllHAM,

AND

WILLIAM SPENCE, Esq. F.L.S.

J

SECOND EDITION.
VOL. II.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR XONGMAX, HURST, BEES, ORME, AND BROWNj

PATERNOSTER ROW. >

i

t

1818. ^

%

Ricliard utid Arthur luylur,
Prinlers, London.

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

Letter
XVI. Societies of Insects. f*^?^

1. Imperfect Societies, ^ ^^

XVII. Societies of Insects continued.

2. Perfect Societies.

While Ants. Ants, 26—106

XVIII. Perfect Societies of Insects continued.

m$ps. Humlle-lees, 107—120

XIX. Perfect Societies of Insects continued.

Hive-lee, 121—170

XX. Perfect Societies of Insects concluded.

Hive^hee, 171-217

XXI. Means by which Insectsdefend themselves, 218—269

XXII. Motions of Insects.

Larva and Pupa, 270—303

XXIII. Motions of Insects continued.

Imago, 304-374

XXIV. Noises produced by Insects 375 — 408

XXV. Luminous Insects 409—429

XXVI. Hybernation and Torpidity of Insects . . 430—465
XXVII. Instinct of Insects 466—530

ERRATA.

Page. Line.
54 17 after " whence" insert " in the first instance here related."
121 note, 1. ult. dele the comma after "vagina," and insert one after
" spicula."
for " was" read " were."

for " their sensorium" read " the sensorium of these insects."
for" common" read" carrion."

insert as a note to " H. ceneus." — " The insect alluded to under
this name, answers Fabricius's description of H. eeneuSj but
from Olivier's figure appears distinct from it."
416 29 after "ivory" insert "or rather ebony."

214

23

215

8

233

4

322

17

AN

INTRODUCTION

TO

ENTOMOLOGY,

LETTER XVL
SOCIETIES OF INSECTS,

IMPERFECT SOCIETIES.

1 SEE already) and I see it with pleasure, that you will
not content yourself with being a mere collector of in-
sects. To possess a cabinet w ell stored, and to know by
what name each described individual which it contains
should be distinguished, will not satisfy the loye that is
already grown strong in you for my favourite pursuit;
and you now anticipate with a laudable eagerness, the
discoveries that you may make respecting the history
and economy of this most interesting department of the
works of our Creator. I hail with joy this intention to
emulate the bright example, and to tread in the hal-
lowed steps of Swammerdam, JLeeuwenhoek, Redi,
Malpighi, Vallisnieri, Ray, Lister, Reaumur, De Geer,
Lyonet, Bonnet, the Hubers, &c. ; and 1 am confident
that a man of your abilities, discernment, and obser-
vation will contribute, in no small degree, to the trea-

VOI-. II f B

2 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

sures already poured into the general fund by these
your illustrious predecessors.

I feel not a little flattered when you inform me that
the details contained in my late letters relative to this
subject, have stimulated you to this noble re'^olution. —
Assure yourself, I shall think no labour lost, that has
been the means of winning- over to the science I love,
the exertions of a mind like yours.

But if the facts already related, however extraordi-
nary, have had power to produce such an effect upon
you, what Avill be the momentum, when I lay before
you more at large, as I next purpose, the most striking
particulars of the proceedings of insects in society, and
shovv the almost incredibly wonderful results of the
combined instii^ts and labours of these minute beings?
li^ comparison with these, all that is the fruit of soli-
tary efforts, though some of them sufliciently marvel-
lous, appear trilling and insignificant: as the works of
man himself, when they are the produce of the industry
and genius of only one, or a few individuals, though
they might be regarded with admiration by a being who
had seen nothing similar before, yet when contrasted
with those to which the union of these qualities in large
bodies has given birth, sink into nothing, and seem
unworthy of attention. Who would think a hut ex-
traordinary by the side of a stately palace, or a small
"village when in the vicinity of a populous and magni-
'ficent city ?

* Insects in society may be viewed under several lights,
and their associations are for various purposes and of
'different durations.

There are societies the objectof which is mutual de-

rMPEBFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS'. O

fence ; while that of others is the propagation of the
snccies. Some form marauding parties, and associate
for prey and plunder ; — others meet, as it should seem,
under certain circumstances, merely for the sake of
company ; — again, olliers are brought together by ac-
cidental causes, and disperse when these cease to ope-
rate ; — and finally, others, which may be said to form
proper societies, are associated for the nurture of their
voung, and, by the union of their labours and instincts,
for mutual society, help, and comfort, in erecting or
repairing their common habitation, in collecting provi-
sions, and in defending their fortress when attacked.

With respect to the duration of the societies of in-
sects, some last only during their first or larva state ;
and are occasionally even restricted to its earliest pe-
riod ; — some again only associate in their perfect or
imago state ; while w ith others, the proper societies
for instance, the association is for life. But if I divide
societies of insects into perfect and imperiect, it will,
I think, enable me to give you a clearer and better
view of the subject. By perfect societies I mean those
that are associated in all their states, live in a common
habitation, and unite their labours to promote a com-
mon olyject; — and hy iinperfeetf^oc\ei\G9, those that are
either associated during part of their existence only, or
else do not dwell in a common habitation, nor unite
their labours to promote a common object. In the pre-
sent letter I shall confine myself to giving you some
account o'l iniperfect societies. I

Imperfect societies may be considered as of five de-
scriptions : — associations for the sake of company only
—associations of males during the season for pairing —

B ^2

4 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OV INSECTS.

associations formed for the purpose of travelling of
emigratins: together — associations for feeding together
—and associations that undertake some common work.
The first of these associations consists chiefly of in-
sects in their perfect state. The little beetles called
whirlwigs (Gi/rinus, L.), — which may be seen cluster-
ing in groups under warm banks in every river and
every pool, and wheeling round and round with great
velocity ; at your approach dispersing and diving under
Water, but as soon as j'ou retire resuming their accus-
tomed movements, — seem to be under the influence of
the social principle, and to form their assemblies for
no other purpose but to enjoy together, in the sun-
beam, the mazy dance. Impelled by the same feeling,
in the very depth of winter, even when the earth is co-
vered with snow, the tribes of TipiiUdce (usually, but
improperly, called gnats) assemble in sheltered situa-
tions at midday, when the sun shines, and form them-
selves into choirs, that alternately rise and fall with
rapid evolutions^. To see these little aery beings ap-
parently so full of joy and life, and feeling the entire
force of the social principle in that dreary season, w hen
the whole animal creation appears to suffer, and the
rest of the insect tribes are torpid, always conveys to
my mind the most agreeable sensations. These little
creatures may always be seen at all seasons amusing
themselves with these choral dances ; which Mr. Words-
worth, in a late poem% has alluded to in the following
beautiful lines :

" Nor wanting here to entertain the thought,
Creatures that in communities exist,
' See also Markn'ick in White's NaU Hist, it, 23G. * The pxcunion.

IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 5

Less, as might seem, for general guardianship

Or through dependance upon mutual aid,

Than by participation of delight,

And a strict lovi- of fellowship combined.

What other s[)irit can it ha that prompts

The gilded summer flics to mix and weave

Their sports toge(her in the solar beam.

Or in the gloom and twilight hum their joy?"

Another association is that of males during the sea-
son of pairing'. Of this nature seems to be that of the
cockchafer and fernchafer (MeIolot?tha vulgaris and
solstitialis, F.), which, at certain periods of tlie year
and hours of the day, hover over the summits of the
trees and hedges like swarms of bees, affording, when
they alight on tlie ground, a grateful food to cats, pigs,
and poultry. The males of another root-devouring
beetle {HopUa nrgenfea, F.) assemble by myriads be-
fore noon in the meadows, when in these infinite hosts
you will not find even one female^. After noon the con-
gregation is dissolved, and not a single individual is to
be seen in the air'' : while those of Melolontha vulgaris
and solsiilialis are on the wing only in the evening.

At the same time of the day some of the short-lived
Ephemera; assemble in numerous troops, and keep
rising and failing alternately in the air, so as to exhi-
bit a very amusing scene. Many of these also are
males. They continue this dance from about an hour
before sun-set, till the dew becomes too heavy or too
cold for them, in the beginning of September, for two
successive years, I was so fortunate as to witness a

a The females {Scaraheeus argcnleiis, Marsh.) have red legs, and the
males (Scnrabo'us puluerulenliis, Marsh.) black,
'' Kirby in Linn. Trans, v. 250,

&' IJUPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

spectacle of this kind, which afforded me a more sub-
lime gratification than any work or exhibition of art
has power to communicate. — The first was in 1811 : —
taking an evening walk by a river near my house, Avhen
the sun declining fast towards the horizon shone fortii
without a cloud, the whole atmosphere over and near
the stream swarmed with infinite myriads of EphemercB
and little gnats of the genus Chiron omi4s, Latr., which
in the sun-beam appeared as numerous and more lucid
than the drops of rain, as if the heavens were shower-i
ing down brilliant gems. — Afterwards, in the following
year, one Sunday, a little before sun-set, I was enjoy-
ing a stroll with a friend at a greater distance from the
river, when in a field by the road-side the same pleas-
ing scene was renewed, but in a style of still greater
magnificence; for, from some cause in the atmosphere,
the insects at a distance looked much larger than they
really were. The choral dances consisted principally
of Ephemerae, but there were also some of Chironomi :
the former, however, being most conspicuous, attracted
our chief attention — alternately rising and falling, in
the full beam they appeared so transparent and glori-
ous, that they scarcely resembled any thing material—^
they reminded us of angels and glorified spirits drinlc-
Ing life and joy in the effulgence of the Divine favour'"-.
The bard of Twickenham, from the terms in which his
beautiful description of his sylphs is conceived in The
Rape of the Loch^ seems to have witnessed the pleasing-
scene here described :

a The authors of this work iiere the wifnosses of the m;i«>,nifi(ent
scene here described. It was on the second of September. The first was
on the ninth of thr.l month.

IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 7

• *' Some to the sun their insect wings unfold,

Waft on the breeze, or sink in ciuuds of gold ;

Transparent forms, too fine for mortal sight,

Their fluid bodies half dissolv'd in light;

JiOose to the wind their airy garments ilawj

Thin glittering textures of the filmy dew,

Dipt in the richest tincture of the skies,

Where light disports in ever miugiing dyes,

While every beam new transient colours flings,

Colours that change whene'er (hey wave their wings."

I wish you. may have the good fortune next year to
be a spectator of this all but celestial dance. In the
mean time, in May and June, their season of love, you
may often receive much gratification from observing
the motions of a countless host of little black flies of
the genus Empis, ( E. jjiaura, F.) which at this period
of the year assemble to wheel in aery circles over stag-
nant waters, with a rush resembling that of a hasty
shower driven by the wind.

The next description of insect associations is of those
that congregate for the purpose of travelling or emi-
grating together. De Geer lias given an account of
the larvae of certain gnats (Tipu/cc, L.) which assemble
in considerable numbers for this purpose, so as to form
a band of a finger's breadth, and of from one to two
yards in length. And, what is remarkable, while upon
their march, which is very slow, they adhere to each
other by a kind of glutinous secretion ; but when dis-
turbed they separate without difficulty^. Kuhn men-
tions another of the Tipulidce (from the antennae in his
figure, which is very indifferent, it should seem a spe-
cies of agaric-gnat (Mycetophila) ), the larvae of whicfi

. a De Geer, vi. 338.

B iMPERfECT SOCIETIES OE INSECTS.

live in society and emigrate in files, like the caterpiliaf
of the procession-moth. Fir^^t g^oes one, next follow
two, then three, &c., so as to exliibit a serpentine ap-
pearance, probably from their simultaneous undulating
motion and the continuity of the files ; whence the com-
mon people in Germany call them (or rather the file
"when on march) heerzourm, and view them with great
dread, regarding" them as ominous of war. These larvag
are apodes, white, subtransparent, with black heads'.
-^ — But of insect emigrants none are more celebrated
than the locusts, which, when arrived at their perfect
state, assemble as before related, in such numbers, as
in their flight to intercept the sun-beams, and to darken
whole countries; passing from one region to another,
and laying waste kingdom after kingdom :, — but upon
these I have already said much, and shall have occa-
sion again to enlarge. — The same tendency to shift
their quarters has been observed in our little indige^
nous devourers, the Aphides. Mr. White tells us,
that about three o'clock in the afternoon of the first
of August 1785, the people of the village of Selborne
were surprised by a shower of Aphides orsmother-flies,
which fell in those parts. Those that VTalked in the
street at tliat juncture found themselves covered with
these insects, which settledalso upon the hedges and in
the gardens, blackening ail the vegetables where they
alighted. His annuals were discoloured by them, and
the stalks of a bed of onions quite coated over for six
days after. These armies, he observes, were then, no
doubt, in a ^tate of emigration, and shifting their quar-?
ters i and might have come from the great hop-pianta-s

s Nalvrforsch. xvii. 2i6.

IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 9

tions of Kent or Sussex, the wind being- all that day
in the east. Tho) were observed at the same time in
great clouds about Farnham, and all along- the vale
from Farnham to Alton". A sisniiar emigration of
these flies I once witnessed, to my great annoyance,
ivhen travelling later in the year, in the Isle of Ely.
The air was so full of them, that they were incessantly
flying- into my eyes, nostrils, &c. ; and my clothes were
covered by them. And in 1814, in the autumn, the
Aphides were so abundant for a few days in the vici-
nity of Ipswich, as to be noticed with surprise by the
most incurious observers.

As the locust-eating- thrush (Turdus grj/llivorus,J^.)
accompanies the locusts, so the Coccinellra seem to pur-
sue the Aphides ; for I know no other reason to as-
sign for the vast number tliat are sometimes, especially
in the autumn, to be met w ith on the sea-coast or the
banks of large rivers. Many years ago, those of the
Jiumber v/ere so thickly strewed with the common
Lady-bird {C. septempmictata, L.), that it was difficult
to avoid treading upon them. Some years afterwards
I noticed a mixture of species, collected in vast num-
bers, on the sand-hills on the sea-shore, at the north-
Tvest extremity of Norfolk. My friend the Uev. Peter
L*athbury made long since a similar observation at
Orford, on the SutFoik coast ; and about five or six
years ago they covered the cliffs, as I have before rc^
marked'', of ail the watering-places on the Kentish and
Sussex coasts, to the no small alarm of the superstir
lious, who thought them forerunners of some direful
levil. These last probably emigrated with the Aphides
fioin the hop-grounds. Whether the latter and tlicir
? Nat, Ilht. ii. 101. ? Vo:.. I. 2d Ed. 2G1,

10 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS*

devoiirers cross the sea has not been ascertainecl j
that the Coccinella? attempt it, is evidejjt from their
alighting upon ships at sea, as 1 have witiiessed myself.
— This appears clearly to have been the case with an-
other emigrating insect, the sau-lly (Tenthredo) ofthe
turnip (which, though so njischievous, appears n?ver
to have been described ; it is nearly related to T. Cen-
iifoliw, Panz.)^. It is the general opinion in Norfolk,
Mr. Marshall informs us^, that Ihese insects come from
over sea. A farmer declared he saw them arrive in
clouds so as to darken the air ; the fishermen asserted
that they had repeatedly seen flights of them pass over
their heads when they were at a distance from land ;
and on the beach and cliffs they were in such quanti-
ties, that they might have been taken up by shovels-
full. Three miles in-land they were described as re-
sembling swarms of bees. This was in August 1782.
Unentomological observers, such as farmers and fisher-
men, might easily mistake one kind of insect for another ;
but snpposinj^ them correct, the swarms in question
might perhaps have passed from Lincolnshire to Nor-
folk.— Meinecken toils us, that he once saw in a village
in Anhah, on a clear day, about four in the afternoon,
such a cloud of dragon-flies (Libe/hdce, L.) as almost
concealed the sun, and not a little alarmed the villagers,
under the idea that they were locusts" ; several in-
stances are given by Rosel of similar clouds of these
insects having been seen in Silesia and other districts' ;
and Mr. Woolnough of HoUesley in Suffolk, a most
attentive observer of nature, once witnessed such an
army of the smaller dragon-flies {Agricriy F.) flying*

■ Fn. Germ. Inii. xli\. IS. " PMlos. T> am. Ixxiii. 217.

^ Nainrjonch. vi. 110. ^ ii. \6o.

IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. II

in-land from the sea, as to cast a slight shadow over a
field of four acres as they passed. — Professor Walch
states, that one night about eleven o'clock, sitting in
his study, his attention was attracted by what seemed
the pelting of hail against his window, which surpris-
ing him by its long continuance, he opened the window,
and found the noise was occasioned by a flight of the
froth frog'-hopper {Cicada sjmmar'ia^ L.), v»hich en-
tered the room in such numbers as to cover the table;
From this circumstance and the continuance of the
pelting, which lasted at least half an hour, an idea
may be formed of the vast host of this insect passing
over. It passed from east to west ; and as his window
faced the south, they only glanced against it oblique-
ly*. He afterwards witnessed, in August, a similar
emigration of myriads of a kind of beetle (Carabu^
vulgaris, L.)''. — Another writer in the same work,
H. Kapp, observed on a calm sunny day a prodigious
flight of the noxious cabbage-butterfly (Papilio Bras-^
sicce, Li.), which passed from north-east to south-west,
and lasted twer hours'". Kalm saw these last insects
midway in the British Channel"^. Liiidley, a writer
in the Royal MiUlari/ Chronicle, tells us, that in Bra-
zil, in the beginning of March 1803, for many days
successively there was an immense flight of white and
yellow butterflies, probably of the same tribe as the
cabbage-butterfly. They were observed never to set-
tle, but proceeded in a direction from north-west to
svuth-east. No buildings seemed to stop them from
steadily pursuing their course ; which being to the

* 'Naturforsch.v .111. " Ibid, xi. 95.

'' Ibid. 94. "* Truvds, i. 13.

12 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS,

ocean, at only a small distance, they must consequently
perish. It is remarked that at this time no other kind
of butterfly is to be seen, though the country usually
abounds in such a variety*. — Major Moor, while sta-
tioned at Bombay, as he was playing at chess one even-
ing" with a friend in Old Woman's Island, near that
place, witnessed an immense flight of bugs (Cimices),
which were going westward. They Avere so numerous
as to cover every thing in the apartment in which he was
sitting. — When staying at Aldeburgh, on the eastern
coast, I have, at certain times, seen innumerable in-
sects upon the beach close to the waves, and appa-
vcntly washed up by them. Though wetted, they were
quite alive. It is remarkable, that of the emigrating
insects here enumerated, the majority — for instance
the Libellulae, Coccinellae, Carabi, Cicadae, &c.— are
not usually social insects, but seem to congregate, like
swallows, merely for the purpose of emigration. What
incites them to this is one of those mysteries of nature,
which at present we cannot penetrate. A scarcity of
food urges the locusts to shift their quarters ; and too
confined a space to accommodate their numbers occa-
sions the bees to swarm : but neither of these motives
can operate in causing unsocial insects to congregate.
It is still more difficult to account for the impulse that
urges these creatures, with their fiimy wings and fra-
gile form, to attempt to cross the ocean, and expose
themselves, one would think, to inevitable destruction.
Yet, though we are unable to assign the cause of this
lingular instinct, some of the reasons which induced
the Creator to endow them with it maybe conjectured.

» B, Milil. Chron. for March 1815, p. 452.

IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 13

This is clearly one of the modes by which their num-
bers are kept within due limits, as, doubtless, the great
majority of these adventurers perish in the waters.
Thus, also, a greatsupply of food is furnished to those
fish in the sea itself, which at other seasons ascend the
rivers in search of them ; and jthis probably is one of
the means, if not the only one, to which the numerous
islands of this globe arc indebted for their insect po-
pulation. Whether the insects I observed upon the
beach wetted by the waves, had flown from our own.
shores, and falling- into the water had been brought
back by the tide ; or whether they had succeeded in
the attempt to pass from the continent to us, by flyin^^
as far as they could, and then falling had been brought
by the waves, cannot certainly be ascertained ; but
Kalm's observation inclines me to the latter opinion.

The next order of imperfect associations is that cf
those insects which feed together : — these are of two de-
•scriptions — those that associate in their^r^^or last state
only, and those that associate in all their states. The
first of these associations is often very short-lived : a
patch of eggs is glued to a leaf; when hatched, the
little larvae feed side by side very amicably, and a plea-
sant sight it is to see the regularity with which thf.^
■work is often done, as if by word of command ; but
when the leaf that served lor their cradle is consumed,
their society is dissolved, and each goes where he can
lo seek his own fortune, regardless of the fate or lot of
his brethren. Of this kind are the larvae of the saw-
i\\ of the gooseberry, whose ravages I have recorded
before*;, and that of the cabbage-butter fiy ; the latter,

• Voi. l.SdF.d. I'JT.

'14 IMr-ERFECT SOCIEtlES OF INSECT?.

however, keep longer together, and seldom wholly se*-
parate. In their final state, 1 have noticed that the in-
dividuals of Thrips JP/ij/sapus, the fly that causes us'in
hot weather such intolerable titillation, are very fond
of each other's company when they feed. Towards the
latter end of last July, walking through a wheat-field,
I observed that all the blossoms o? Convohulus arvensis,
though very numerous, were interiorly turned quite
black by the infinite number of these insects, which
were coursing about within them.

But the most interesting insects of this order are
those which associate in all their states. — Two popu-
lous tribes, the great devastators of the vegetable
world, the one in warm and the other in cold climates,
to which I have already alluded under the head of emi-
grations— you perceive I am speaking of Aphides and
Locusts — are the best examples of this order : although,
concerning the societies of the first, at present we can
only say that they are merely the result of a common
origin and station : but those of the latter, the locusts,
wear more the appearance of design, and of being pro-
duced by the social principle.

- So much as the world has sufit;red from these ani-
mals % it is extraordinary that so few observations have
been made upon their history, economy, and mode of
'proceeding. One of the best accounts seems to be
that of Profci^sor Pallas, in his Travels into the South-
em Provinces of the Hussian Empire. The species to
which his principal attention was paid appears to have
been the Gri/Uus ilalicus, in its larva and pupa states.
" In sei*eiie warm weather," says he, " the loc\ists ace

•See Vol. I. 2d Ed. 214.

IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS! 15

in full motion in the morning immediately after the
evaporation of the dew ; and if no dew has fallen, they
appear as soon as the sun imparts his genial warmth.
At first some are seen running about like messengers
among the reposing- swarms, which arc lying partly
compressed upon the ground, at the side of small emi-
nences, and partly attached to tali plants and shrubs.
Shortly after the whole body begins to move forward
in one direction and with little deviation. They re-
semble a swarm of ants, all taking the same course, at
small distances, but without touching each other : they
uniformly travel towards a certain region as fast as a
fly can run, and without leaping, unless pursued ; in
which case, indeed, they disperse, but soon collect
again and follow their former route. In this manner
they advance from morning to evening without halting,
frequently at the rate of a hundred fathoms and up-
%vards in the course of a day. Although they prefer
marching along high roads, footpaths, or open tracts;
yet when their progress is opposed by bushes, hedges,
and ditches, they penetrate through them : their way
can only be impeded by the waters of brooks or canals,
as they are apparently terrified at every kind of mois-
ture. Often, however, they endeavour to gain the op-
posite bank v,ith the aid of overhanging boughs ; and
if the stalks of plants or shrubs be laid across the wa-
ter, they pass in close columns over these temporary
bridges ; on which they even seem to rest and enjoy
the refreshing coolness. Towards sun-set the whole
swarm gradually collect in parties, and creep up the
plants^ or encamp on slight eminences. On cold,
cloudy, or rainy days they do not travel. — As soon as

16 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS*

they acquire wings they prof^ressively disperse, but stilt
fly about in large swarms^."

" In the month of May, when the ovaries of thest?
insects were ripe and turgid," says Dr. Shaw'', "each
of these swarms began gradually to disappear, and re-
tired into the Mettijiah, and other adjacent plains,
where they deposited their eggs. These were no sooner
hatched in June, than each of the broods collected it-
self into a compact body, of a furlong or more in square 5
and marching afterwards directly forwards toward the
sea, they let nothing escape them^ — thei/ Jcept their
ranks, like men of war; climbing over, as they advanced,
every tree or wall that was in their way; nay, they en-
tered into our very houses and bed-chambers, like sa

man?/ thieves. A day or two after one of these hordes

was in motion, others were already hatched to march

and glean after them. Having lived near a month

in this manner they arrived at their full growth,

and threw off their ni/mpha-state by casting their out-
ward skin. To prepare themselves for this change,
they clung by their hinder feet to some bush, twig, or
corner of a stone ; and immediately, by using an undl^-
lating motion, their heads would first break out, and
then the rest of their bodies. The whole transforma'-
tion was performed in seven or eight minutes; after
which they lay for a small time in a torpid and seem-
ingly in a languishing condition ; but as soon as the
sun and the air had hardened their wings, by drying
up the moisture that remained upon them after cast-
ing their sloughs, they reassumed their former vora;-
city, with an addition of strength and agility. Yet

" Tallaa,. ii. 422-6, " Travels^ 1S7.

IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 17

they ccntimiod not long in this state before they were
entirely dispersed." The species Dr. Shaw here speaks
of is probably not the Grj/llus migratorius, L.

The old Arabian fable, that they are directed in
their flio-hts by a leader or king% has been adopted,
but I think without sufficient reason, by several travel-
lers. Thus Benjamin Bullivant, in his observations
on the Natural History of New England'', says that
" the locusts have a kind of regimental discipline, and
as it were some commanders, which show greater and
more splendid wings than the common ones, and arise
first when pursued by the fowls or the feet of the tra-
veller, as I have often seriously remarked." And in
like terms Jackson observes, that " they have a govern-
ment amongst themselves simihir to that of the bees
and ants ; and when the {Sultan Jerraad) king of the
locusts rises, the whole body follow him, not one soli-
tary straggler being left behind*"." But that locusts
have leaders, like the bees or ants, distinguished from
the rest by the size and splendour of their wings, is a
circumstance that has not yet been established by any
satisfactory evidence ; indeed, very strong reasons may
be urged against it. The nations of bees and ants, it
must be observed, are housed together in one nest or
hive, the whole population of which is originally de-
rived from one common mother, and the leaders of the
swarms in each are the females. But the armies of
locusts, though they herd together, travel together,
and feed together, consist of an infinity of separate fa-
milies, all derived from different mothers, who have

a Bocliart, Hierozoic. ii. 1. 4. c. 2. 460. b In Phi!i>^. Tranit. for 1G98,
<• Jackson's Maroeco, 51.
VOL. It. c

18 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

laid their eggs in separate cells or houses in the earth t.
so that there is little or no analogy between the socie-
ties of locusts and those of bees and ants ; and this
pretended sultan is something quite different from the
queen-bee or the female ants. It follows, therefore, that
as the locusts have no common mother, like the bees,
to lead their swarms, there is no one that nature, by a
different organization and ampler dimensions, and a
more august form, has destined to this high office. The
only question remaining is, whether one be elected
from the rest by common consent as their leader, or
whether their instinct impels them to follow the first
that takes flight or alights. This last is the learned
Bochart's opinion, and seems much the most reason-
able *. The absurdity of the other supposition, that an
election is made, will appear from such queries as these,
at which you may smile — Who are the electors ? Are
the myriads of millions all consulted, or is the elective
franchise confined to a few .' Who holds the courts
and takes the votes? Who casts them up and declares
the result? When is the election made.? — The larvae
appear to be as much under government as the perfect
insect. — Is the monarch then chosen by his peers Avhen
they first leave the egg and emerge from their subter-
ranean caverns ? or have larva, pupa, and imago each
their separate king? The account given us in Scrip-
ture is certainly much the most probable, that the lo-
custs have no king, though they observe as much order
and regularity in their movements as if they were
under military discipline, and had a ruler over them''.
Some species of ants, as we learn from the admirable

a Bochart, Ilitrozoic. ubi supra. '^ Proverbs xxx. 27.

iMPEBFECt SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 19

history of them by M. P. Huber, though they go forth
by common consent upon their military expeditions,
yet the order of their columns keeps perpetually chan-
ging ; so that those who lead the van at the first setting
out, soon fall into the rear, and others take their place;
their successors do the same ; and such is the constant
order of their march. It seems probable, as these co-
lumns are extended to a considerable length, that the
object of this successive change of leaders is to convey
constant intelligence to those in the rear, of what is
going forward in the van. Whether any thing like
this takes place for the regulation of their motions in
the innumerable locust-armies, which are sometimes
co-extensive with vast kingdoms; or whether their in-
stinct simply directs them to follow the first that moves
or flies, and to keep their measured distance, so that,
as the prophet speaks, " one does not thrust another,
and they walk every one in his path%" must be left
to future naturalists to ascertain. And I think that
you will join with me in the wish that travellers, who
have a taste for Natural History, and some knowledge
of insects, would devote a share of attention to the
proceedings of these celebrated animals, so that we
might have facts instead of fables.

The last order of imperfect associations approaches
nearer to perfect societies, and is that of those insects
which the social principle urges to unite in some com-
mon work for the benefit of the community.

Amongst the Coleoptera^ Ateiichus pilularius^ a beetle
before mentioned, acts under the influence of this prin-
ciple. " I have attentively admired their industry and

a Joel ii. 8.
C 2

20 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

mutual assisting of each other," says Catesby, " hi
rolling- those globular balls from the place where they
made them, to that of their interment, which is usually
the distance of some yards, more or less. This they
perform breech foremost, by raising their hind parts,
forcing along the ball with their hind feet. Two or
three of them are sometimes eftaaffed in trundlinff one
ball, which, from meeting with impediments from the
unevenness of the ground, is sometimes deserted by
them : it is however attempted by others with success,
unless it happens to roll into some deep hollow chink,
%vhere they are constrained to leave it ; but they con-
tinue their work by rolling off the next ball that comes
in their way. None of them seem to know their own
balls, but an equal care for the whole appears to affect
all the community''."

Many larvas also of Lepkloptera associate with this
view, some of which are social only during part of theii
existence, and others during the whole of it. The
first of these continue together while their united la-
bours are beneficial to them ; but wlien they reach a
certain period of their life, they disperse and become
solitary. Of this kind are the caterpillars of a little
butterfly (Papilio Cinxia) which devour the narrow-
leaved plantain. The families of these, usually amount-
ing to about a hundred, unite to form a pyramidal
silken tent, containing several apartments, which is
pitched over some of the plants that constitute their
food, and shelters them both from the sun and tlse rain.
When they have consumed the provi?ion which it co^
vers, they construct a new one over other roots of thi*

aCatesbj's Carolirta^W. 111. See above, Vol.. I. 2d i.d. ^'50.

IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 21

plant ; and sometimes four or five of these encamp-
ments may be seen within a foot or two of each other.
Against winter they weave and erect a strongc r habi-
tation of a rounder form, not divided by any partitions,
in which they lie heaped one upon another, each being
rolled up. About April they separate, and continue
solitary till they assume the pupa.

Reaumur, to \vhom I am indebted for this account,
has also given us an interesting history of another in-
sect, the gold-tail-moth before mentioned, whose cater-
pillars are of this description. They belong to that
family of Bombyces, which envelop their eggs in hair
plucked from their own body. As soon as one of these
young caterpillars is disclosed from the egg, it begins to
feed; another quickly joins it, placing itself by its side;
thus they proceed in succession till a file is formed
across the leaf: — a second is then begun; aiul after
this is completed, a third— and so they proceed till the
whole upper surface of the leaf is covered: — i)ut as a
single leaf will not contain the whole family, the re-
mainder take their station upon the adjoining ones. No
sooner have they satisfied the cravings of hunger, than
they begin to think of erecting a common habitation,
which at first is only a vaulted web, that covers the
leaf they inhabit, but by their united labours in due
time grows into a magnificent tent of silk, containing
various apartments sufficient to defend and shelter
them ail from the attack of enemies and the inclemency
of the seasons. As our caterpillars, like eastern raon-
archs, are too delicate to adventure their feet upon
the rough bark of the tree upon which they feedj they

22 1MPER,F£CT SOCIETIES Of INSECTS.

lay a silken carpet over every road and pathway lead-
ing to their palace, which extends as far as they have
occasion to go for food. To the habitation just de-
scribed they retreat during heavy rains, and when
the sun is too hot : — they liiiewise pass part of the
night in them ; — and, indeed, at all times some may
usually be found at home. Upon any sudden alarm
they retreat to them for safety, and also when they cast
their skins : — in the winter they are wholly confined
to them, emerging again in the spring : but in May and
June they entirely desert them ; and, losing all their
love for society, live in solitude till they become pupae,
which takes place in about a month. When they de-
sert their nests, the spiders take possession of them ;
which has given rise to a prevalent though most absurd
opinion, that they are the parents of these caterpillars*.
, With other caterpillars the association continues
during the whole of the larva state. De Geer mentions
one of the TefithredimdcE of this description which form
a common nidus by connecting leaves together with
silken threads, each larva moreover spinning a tube of
the same material for its own private apartment, in
which it glides backwards and forwards upon its back''.
I have observed similar nidi in this country; the insects
that form them belong to the Fabrician genus Li/da.

The most remarkable insects, however, that arrange
under this class of imperfect associates, are those that
observe a particular order of march. Though they
move without beat of drum, they maintain as much
regularity in their step as a file of soldiers. It is a most

a Vol. I. 2d Ed. 476. Reaumur, ii. 125. > De Geer, ii. 1029.

IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 23

agreeable sig'lit, says one of Nature's most favoured
admirers, Bonnet, to see several hundreds of the larvae
of P.B. Neustria marching- after each other, some in
straight lines, others in curves of various inflection, re-
sembling, from their fiery colour, a moving cord of gold
stretched upon a silken ribband of the purest white;
this ribband is the carpeted causeway that leads to
their leafy pasture from their nest. Equally amusing
is the progress of another moth, the Pittjocampa^ be-
fore noticed ; they march together from their common
citadel, consisting of pine-leaves united and inwoven
with tlie silk which they spin, in a single line : in fol-
lowing each other they describe a multitude of grace-
ful curves of varying figure, thus forming a series of
living wreaths, which change their shape every mo-
ment : — all move with a uniform pace, no one pressing
too forward or loitering behind ; when the first stops,
all stop, each defiling in ex&ct military order*.

A still more singular and pleasing spectacle, when
their regiments march out to forage, is exhibited by
the Processionary Bomhyx. This moth, which is a
native of France, and has not yet been found in this
country, inhabits the oak. Each family consists of
from 600 to 800 individuals. When young, they have
no fixed habitation, but encamp sometimes in one place
and sometimes in another, under the shelter of their
web: but when they have attained two-thirds of their
growth, they weave for themselves a common tent, be-
fore described''. About sun-set the regiment leaves
its quarters; or, to make the metaphor harmonize with

" Bonnet, ii. 57, " Vol. I. 2d Ed. 418.

24 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

the trivial name of the animal, the monks their cosno-
bium. At their head is a chief, by whose movements
their procession is regulated. When he stops, all stop,
and proceed when he proceeds ; three or four of his
immediate followers succeed in the same line, the head
of the second touching the tail of the first : then comes
an equal series of pairs, next of threes, a>w{ -o on as
far as fifteen or twenty. The whole procession uioves
regularl} on with an even pace, each file treating upon
the steps of those that precede it. If the leader, ar-
riving at a particular point, pursues a different direc-
tion, all march to that point before they turn. Pro-
bably in this they are guided by some scent imparted
to the tracks by those that pass over them. Sometimes
the order of procession is different : the leader, who
moves singly, is followed by two, these are succeeded
by three, then come four, and so on. When the leader,
— who in nothing differs from the rest, and is probably
the caterpillar nearest the entrance to the nest, fol-
lowed, as I have described, — has proceeded to the
distance of about two feet, more or less, he makes a
halt ; during which those which remain come forth,
take their places, the company forms into files, the
inarch is resumed, and all follow as regularly as if they
kept time to music. These larvae may be occasionally
found at mid-day out of their nests, packed close one
to another without making any movement ; so that, al-
though they occupy a space sufficiently ample, it is not
easy to discover them. At otiier times, instead <)f being
simply laid side by side, they are formed into singular
masses, in which they are heaped one upon anothcrj

IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 25

and as it were interwoven together. Thus also they
are disposed in their nests. Sometimes their families
divide into two bands, which never afterwards unite \

I have nothing further of importance to commnni*
rate to vou on imperfect societies : in my next I shall
begin the most interesting subject that Entomology
offers; a subject, to say the least, including as great
a portion b »th of instruction and amusement as any
branch of Natural History affords ; — I mean those
perfect associations which have for their great object
the multiplication of the species, and the education, if
such a term may be here employed, of the young. This
is too fei'tile a theme to be confined to a single letter,
but must occupy several.

I am, c^e.

» Rt'fii'.iDur, ij. 180.

LETTER XVIL

SOCIETIES OF INSECTS CONTINUED.

PERFECT SOCIETIES. {White Auts and Aiits.)

The associations of insects of which my last letter gave
you a detail, were of a very imperfect kind, both as to
their object and duration : but those which I am now
to lay before you exhibit the semblance of a nearer
approach, both in their principle and its results, to
the societies of man himself, There are two kindred
sentiments, that in these last act with most powerful
energy — desire and affection. — From tlie first proceed
many wants that cannot be satisfied without the inter-
course, aid, and cooperation of others ; and by the last
we are impelled to seek the good of certain objects,
and to delight in their society. Thus self-love com-
bines with philanthropy to produce the social principle,
both desire and love alternately urging us to an inter-
course with each other; and from these in union ori-
ginate the multiplication and preservation of the spe-
cies. These two passions are the master-movers in
this business ; but there is a third subsidiary to them,
Avhich, though it trenches upon the social principle,
considered abstractedly, is often a powerful bond of
union in separate societies — you will readily perceive
that I am speaking of fear; — under the influence of this
passion these are drawn closer together, and unite more
intimately for defence against some comraonenemy,

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 27

and to raise works of munition that may resist his at-
tack. A

The main instrument of association is language, and
no association can be perfect where there is not a com-
mon tongue. The origin of nationality was diiTorence
of speech : — at Babel, when tongues were divided, na-
tions separated. Language may be understood in a
larger sense than to signify inllectionsof the voice, — it
may well include all the meansof making yourself un-
derstood by another, whether by sounds, gestures, signs,
or words : the two first of these kinds may be called na-
tural language, and the two last arbitrary or artificial.

I have said tliat perfect societies of insects exhibit
the semblance of a nearer approach, both in their prin-
ciple and its results, to the societies of man himself,
because, unless we could perfectly understand what in-
stinct is, and how it acts, we cannot, without exposing
ourselves to the charge of temerity, assert that these
are precisely the same.

But when we consider the object of these societies,
the preservation and multiplication of the species ; and
the means by winch that object is attained, the united
labours and cooperation of perhaps millions of indivi-
duals, it seems as if they were impelled by passions
very similar to those main-springs of human associa-
tions, which I have just enumerated. Desire appears
to stimulate them — love to allure them — fear to alarm
them. They want a habitation to reside in, and food
for their subsistence. Does not this look as if desire
were the operating cause, which induces them to unite
their labours to construct the one and provide the
other? Tiieir nests contain a numerous family of help-

SIS PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

less brood. Does not love here seem to urge them to
that exemplary and fond attention, and those unre-
mitted and indefatigable exertions manifested by the
whole community for the benefit of these dear objects?
Is it not also evidenced by their general and singular
attachment to their females, by their mutual caresses,
by their feeding each other, by tlieir apparent sympa-
tliy with suffering individuals and endeavours to re-
lieve them, by their readiness to help those that are in
difficulty, and finally by their sports and assemblies
for relaxation ? That fear produces its influence upon
them seepjs no less evident, when we see them, agi-
tated by the approachof enemies, endeavour to remove
Avhat is inost dear to them beyond their reach, unite
their efforts to repel their attacks, and to construct
Avorks of defence. They appear to have besides a com-
mon language ; for they possess the faculty, by signi-
ficative gestures and sounds, of communicating their
wants and ideas to each other»

There are, however, the following great differences
between human societies and those of insects. Man is
susceptible of individual attachment, which forms the
basis of his happiness, and the source of his purest and
dearest enjoyments : — whereas the love of insects seems
to be a kind of patriotism that is extended to the whole
community, never distinguishing individuals, unless,
as in the instance of the female bee, connected with
that great object.

Man also, endowed with reason, forms a judgement
from circumstances, and by a variety of means can at-
tain the same end. Besides the language of nature, ges-
tures, and exclamations, which the passions produce.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 29

Ire i» gifted with the divine faculty of speech, and cart
express his thoughts 'oy articulate sounds or artificial
language. — Not so our social insects. Every species
has its peculiar mode of proceeding, to which it adheres
as to the law of its nature, never deviating but under
the control of imperious circumstances ; for in parti-
cular instances, as you will see when I come to treat
of their instincts, tiicy know how to vary, though not
very materially, from the usual mode^. But they ne-
ver depart, like man, from the general system ; and,
in common with the rest of the animal kingdom, they
have no articulate language.

Human associations, under the direction of reason
and revelation, are also formed with higher views, — I
mean as to government, morals, and religion : — with
respect to the last of these, the social insects of course
can have nothing to do, except that by their vvonderful
proceedings they give man an occasion of glorifying his
great Creator; but in their instincts, extraordinary
as it may seem, they exhibit a semblance of the two
former, as will abundantly appear in the course of our
correspondence.

I shall not detain you longer by prefatory remarks
from the amusing scene to which I am eager to intro-
duce you ; but the following- observations of M. P. Hu-
ber on tliis subject are so just and striking, that I can-
not refrain from copying them.

a Plusieurs d'entre eux ( Jnserfex) savent uscrde ressources in£;e.nieii?es
dans les circonstances duficiles: ils sortcnt alors de leur routine accou-
tmnee et semblenl a2;ir d'apres la position dans laqijelle ils se trouvenf ;
«'>st la sans doiite I'liu des phenomi^nps les plus ciirieux de I'histoire na-
liirelle. Huber, Nouvelles Obsen'ntions sur la jibeiUts, ii. 198. — Com^
pare also ibid. 250, note N . R.

so PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

" The history of insects that live in solitude con-
sists of their generation, their peculiar habits, the
metamorphoses they undergo ; their manner of life
under each successive form ; the stratagems for the
attack of their enemies, and the skill with which they
construct their habitation : but that of insects which
fdlm numerous societies, is not confined to some re-
markable proceedings, to some peculiar talent : it offers
new relations, which arise from common interest; from
the equality or superiority of rank ; from the part which
each member supports in the society ; — and all i;hese
relations suppose a connexion between the different in-
dividuals of which it consists, that can scarcely exist
but by the intervention of language : for such may be
called every mode of expressing their wishes, their
wants, andeven their ideas, if that name may be given
to the impulses of instinct. It would be difficult to
explain in any other way that concurrence of all wills
to one end, and that species of harmony which the whole
of their institution exhibits."

The great end of the societies of insects being the
rapid multiplication of the species. Providence has
employed extraordinary means to secure the fulfilment
of this object, by creating a particular order of indivi-
duals in eacli society, which, freed from sexual pur-
suits, may give themselves wholly to labour, and thus
absolve the females from every employment but that of
furnishing the society from time to time with a sufficient
supply of eggs to keep up the population to its proper
standard. In the case of the Termites, the office of work-
ing for the society, as these insects belong to an order
whose metamorphosis is semi-complete^ devolves upon

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 31

the larvae ; the neuters, unless these should prove to be
the larvae of males, being the soldiers of the community.

From this circumstance perfect societies may be di-
vided into two classes ; the first including those whose
workers are larvce, and the second those whose workers
are neuters''. The white ants belong to the former of
these classes, and the social Ilj/menoptera to the latftr.

Before I begin with the history of the societies of
white ants, I must notice a remark that has been made
applying to societies in general — that numbers are es™
sential to the full development of the instinct of social
animals. This has been observed by Bonnet with re-
spect to the beaver'' ; by Reaumur of the hive-bee ; and
by M. P, Huber of the humble-bee *=. Amongst hymeno-
pterous social insects, however, the observation seems
not universally applicable, but only under particular
circumstances ; for in incipient societies of ants, humble-
bees, and wasps, one female lays the foundations of
them at first by herself; and the first brood of neuters
that is hatched is very small.

I have on a former occasion given you some account
of the devastation produced by the white ants, or Ter-
miles, the species of which constitute the first class
of perfect societies '^ ; I shall now relate to you some

a I employ ocrasionall y the teiiti neuters, though it is not perfectly pro-
per, for the sake of convenience; — strictly speaking, they may rather be
regarded as imperfect or sterile females. Yet certainly, as the imperfec-
tion of their organization unfits them for sexual purposes, the term nculer
is not absolutely improper. b (F.tiv. ix. 163.

c M. P. Huber in I,inn. Trans, vi. 256. Reaum. v.

J Vol I. 2d lid. i?4^^.

3:t PERFECT SOCIETIES OF IXSEGTS*

further particulars of their history, Avhich will, Ihope^
give you a better opinion of them.

The majority of these animals are natives of tropical
countries, though two species are indigenous to Eu-
rope; one of which, thought to have been imported, is
come so near to us as Bourdeaux. The fullest ac-
count hitherto given of their history is that of Mr.
Smeathmau, in the Philosophical Transactions ^or 1781 ;
which, since it has in many particulars been confirmed
by the observations of succeeding naturalists, though
in some things he was evidently mistaken, I shall
abridge for you, correcting him where he appears to
be in error, and adding from Latreiile, and the MS.
of a French naturalist resident on the spot, kindly fur-
nished by W. J. Hooker, esq.'^ what they have ob-
served with respect to those of Bourdeaux and Ceylon.
The white ants, though they belong to the Neuroptera
order, borrow their instinct from the hymenopterous
social tribes, and in conjunction with the ants(/brw2?"crt)
connect the two orders. Their societies consist of five
different descriptions of individuals — workers or larvaB
— nymphs or pupaa — neuters or soldiers — males, and
females.

1. The workers or larvse, answering to the hymeno-
pterous neuters, are the most numerous and at the
same time most active part of the communits : upon
whom devolves the office of erecting and repairing the
buildings, collecting provision, attending upon the fe-
male, conveying the eggs when laid to what Smeath-

a Author of a very interestini; Tour in Icelaiid,]a splendid Mqnograpij
«H (he Genus Jungerniamda, &c.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. S3

itian calls the nurseries, and feeding the young larvae
till they are old enough to take care of themselves.
They are distinguished from the soldiers by their di-
minutive size, by their round heads and shorter man-
dibles.

2. The nymphs or pupae. These were not noticed by
Smeathman, who mistook the neuters for them : — they
differ in nothing from the larvae, and probably are
equally active, except that they have rudiments of
wings, or rather the wings folded up in cases (Ptero-
thecce). They were first observed by Ivatreille ; nor
did they escape the author of the MS. above ailuded
tOj who mistook them for a different kind of larvae.

3. The neuters^ erroneously called by Smeathman
pupae. These are much less numerous than the work-
ers, bearing the proportion of one to one hundred, and
exceeding them greatly in bulk. They are also di-
stinguishable by their long and large head, armed with
very long subulate mandibles. Their office is that of
sentinels: and when the nest is attacked, to them is
committed the task of defending it. These neuters are
quite unlike those in the Hi/menoptera perfect socie-
ties, Avhich seem to be a kind of abortive females, and
there is nothing analogous to them in any other depart-
ment of Entomology.

4. and 5. Males and females, or the insects arrived
at their state of perfection, and <;apable of continuing
the species. There is only one of each in every sepa<p
rate society ; they are exempted from all participation
in the labours and employments occupying the rest of
the community, that they may be wholly devoted to
the furnishing of constant accessions to the population

VOL. II. D -

34t tEaPECt SOCIEtlES OF INSECTS.

of til? colony. Thougli at their first disclosure from
the pupa they have four wings, like the female ants
they soon cast them ; but they may then be distinguish*
ed from the blind larvae, pupse, and neuters, by iheir
large and prominent eyes^.

The first establishment of a colony of Termites takes
place in the following manner. In the evening, soon
after the first tornado, which at the latter end of the
dry season proclaims the approach of the ensuing rains,
these animals, having attained to their perfect state, in
which they are furnished and adorned with two pair of
wings, emerge from their clay-built citadels by myri-
ads and myriads, to seek their fortune. Borne on these
ample wings, and carried by the wind, they fill the air,
entering the houses, extinguishing the lights, and even
sometimes being driven on board the ships that are not
far from the shore. The next morning they are dis-
covered covering the surface of the earth and waters :
deprived of the wings which enable them to avoid their
numerous enemies, and which are only calculated to
C9.rry them a few hours, and looking like large mag-
gots; from the most active, industrious, and rapacious,
they are now become the most helpless and cowardly
beings in nature, and the prey of innumerable enemies,
to the smallest of which they make not the least resist-
ance. Insects, especially ants, which are always on
the hunt for them, leaving no place unexplored ; birds,
reptiles, bejists, an^ even man himself, look upon this

a The neuters in all respects bear a stronger analogy to the larvae than
to the perfect insects ; and, after all, may possibly turn out to be larv«,
perhaps of the males. Huber seems to doubt their being neuters. Nouv.
ObtM, 444, note *.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OP INSECTS. 35

event as their harvest, and, as you have been told be-
fore, make them their food ; so that scarcely a single
pair in many millions get into a place of safety, fuljfil
the first law of nature, and lay the foundation of anew
community. At this time they are seen running upon
the ground, the male after the female, and sometimes
two chasing one, and contending with great eagerness,
regardless of the innumerable dangers that surround
them, who shall win the prize.

The workers, who are continually prowling about in
their covered ways, occasionally meet with one of these
pairs, and, being impelled by their instinct, pay them
homage, and they are elected as it were to be king and
queen, or rather father and mother, of a new colony^:
all that are not so fortunate, inevitably perish; and,
considering the infinite host of their enemies, probably
in the course of the following day. The workers, as
soon as this election takes place, begin to inclose their
new rulers in a small chamber of clay, before descri-
bed^, suited to their size, the entrances to which are
only large enough to admit themselves and the neuters,
but milch too small for the royal pair to pass through ;
-^so that their state of royalty is a state of confinement,
and so continues during the remainder of their exist-
cilce. The impregnation of the female' is supposed to
take place after this confinement, and she soon begins
to furnish the infant colony with new inhabitants. The

a In this these animals vary from the usual instinct of the social Hif'
menoptera, the ants, the wasps, and the humble-bees — with whom the
females lay the first foundations of the colonies, unassisted by any neuters;
— -but in the swarms of the hive-bee an election may, perhaps, in some
instances, be said to take place. b Vol. 1. 2d £d. 5 IS.

D 2

36 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF iNSECTf.

care of feeding her and her male companion devolved
upon the industrious larvce, who supply them both with
every thing that they want. As she increases in di-
mensions, they keep enlarging the cell in which she is
detained. When the business of oviposition commences,
they take the eggs from the female, and deposit them
in the nurseries *. Her abdomen now begins gradually
to extend, till in process of time it is enlarged to 1500
or 2000 times the size of the rest of her body, and her
bulk equals that of 20,000 or 30,000 workers. This
part, often more than three inches in length, is now a
vast matrix of eggs, which make long circumvolutions
through numberless slender serpentine vessels : — it is
also remarkable for its peristaltic motion, (in this re-
sembling the female ant'',) which, like the undulations
of water, produces a perpetual and successive rise and
fall over the whole surface of the abdomen, and occa-
sions a constant extrusion of the eggs, amounting some-
times in old females to sixty in a minute, or eighty
thousand and upwards in twenty-four hours'^. As these
females live two years in their perfect state, how asto*
nishing must be tlie number produced in that time !

This incessant extrusion of eggs miist call for the at*
tention of a large number of the workers in the royal
chamber (and indeed it is always full of thsm), to take
them as they come forth and carry them to the nurse*
ries; in which, when hatched, they are provided with
food, and receive every necessary attention till they are

a See Vol. I. 2d Ed, 513, b Gould's Account of English Jnts, 22.

c The late John Hunter dissected two young queens. In the abdomen
he found two ovaries, consisting of many hundred oviducts, each contain-
ing iunumeiable eggs.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 37

able to shift for themselves.—- One remarkable circum-
stance attends these nurseries — they are always covered
with a kind of mould, amongst which arise numerous
globules about the size of a small pin's head. This is
probably a species oi Mitcor ; and by Mr. Kcinig-, who
found them also in nests of an East-Indian species of
Termes, is conjectured to be the food of the larvaB.

The royal cell has besides some soldiers in it, a kind
of body guard to the royal pair that inhabit it ; and the
surrounding apartments contain always many both la-
bourers and soldiers in waiting, that they may succes-
sively attend upon and defend the common father and
mother, on whose safety depend the happiness and
even existence of the whole community ; and whom
these faithful subjects never abandon even in the last
distress.

The manner in which the Termites feed the young
brood, before they commence their active life and are
admitted to share in the labours of the nest, has not,
as far as I know, been recorded by any writer : I shall
therefore leave them in their nurseries, and introduce
you to the bustling scene which these creatures exhi-
bit in their first state after they are become useful. To
do this, in vain should I carry you to one of their nests
• — you would scarcely see a single one stirring — though,
perhaps, under your feet there would be millions going-
and returning by a thousand different ways. Unless
1 possessed the power of Asmodeus in Le Diahle Boi-
teux, of showing you their houses and covered ways
with their roofs removed, you would return home as
wise as you came ; for these little busy creatures are
taught by Providence always to work under cover. If

S8 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS:.

they have to travel over a rock or up a tree, they vault
with a coping of earth the route they mean to pursue,
and they form subterranean paths and tunnels, some
of a diameter wider than the bore of a large cannon, on
all sides from their habitation to their various objects
of attack; or which sloping down (for they cannot well
mount a surface quite perpendicular) penetrate to the
depth of three or four feet under their nests into the
earth, till they arrive at a soil proper to be used in the
erection of their buildings. Were they, indeed, to
expose themselves, the race would soon be annihilated
by their innumerable enemies. This circumstance has
deceived the author of the MS. account of those in
Ceylon, who, speaking of the nests of these insects in
that island, which he describes as twelve feet high, ob-
serves, that " They may be considered as a large city,
which contains a great number of houses, and these

houses an infinite number of cells or apartments :

these cells appear to me to communicate with each
other, but not the houses. I have convinced myself,
by bringing together the broken walls of one of the ca-
vities of the nest or cone, that it does not communicate
with any other, nor with the exterior of the cone — a
very curious circumstance, which I will not undertake
to explain. Other cavities communicate by a very nar-
row tunnel." By not looking for subterranean com-,
inunications, he was probably led into this error.

You have before heard of their diligence in building.
Does any accident happen to their various structures,
or are they dislodged from any of their covered ways,
they are still more active and expeditious in repairing,
(Jetting out of si^ht as soon as possibiej— and they rati

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. S9

as fast or faster than any insect of their size, — in a sin-
gle night they will restore a gallery of three or four
yards in length. If, attacking the nest, you divide it
in halves, leaving the royal chamber, and thus lay open
thousands of apartments, all will be shut up with their
sheets of clay by the next morning; — nay, even if the
whole be demolished, provided the king and the queen
be left, every interstice between the ruins, at which
either cold or wet can possibly enter, will be covered,
and in a year the building will be raised nearly to its
pristine size and grandeur.

Besides building and repairing, a great deal of their
time is occupied in making necessary alterations in
their mansion and its approaches. The royal presence-
chamber, as the female increases in size, must be gra-
dually enlarged, the nurseries must be removed to a
greater distance, the chambers and exterior of the nest
receive daily accessions to provide for a daily increas-
ing population — and the direction of their covered ways
must often be varied, when the old stock of provision
is exhausted and new discovered.

The collection of provisions for the use of the colony
is another employment, which necessarily calls for in-^
cessant attention : these to the naked eye appear like
raspings of Avood; — and they are, as you have seen,
great destroyers of timber, whether wrought or un-
wrought : — but when examined by the microscope, they
are found to consist chiefly of gums and the inspissated
juices of plants, which, formed into little masses^ are
stored up in magazines made of clay.

When any one is bold enough to attack their nest
and make a breach in its walls^ the labourers, who are

40 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

incapable of fighting, retire within, and give place to
another description of its inhabitants, whose office it is
to defend the fortress when assailed by enemies: — these,
as observed before, are the neuters or soldiers. If the
breach be made in a slight part of the building, one
of these comes out to reconnoitre; he then retires and
gives the alarm. Two or three others next appear,
scrambling as fast as they can one after the other ; — to
these succeed a large body, who rush forth with as much
speed as the breach will permit, their numbers conti-s
nually increasing during the attack. It is not easy to
describe the rage and fury by which these diminutive
heroes seem actuated. In their haste they frequently
miss their hold, and tumble down the sides of their hill :
they soon, however, recover themselves, and, being
blind, bite every thing they run against. If the attack
proceeds, the bustle and agitation increase to a ten-
fold degree, and their fury is raised to its highest pitch.
•Wo to him whose hands or legs they can come at !. for
they will make their fanged jaws meet at the very first
stroke, drawing as much blood as will counterpoise
their whole body, and never quitting their hold, eveii
though they are pulled limb from limb. The naked
legs of the Negros expose them frequently to this in-
jury; and the stockings of the European are not suffi-*
cient to defend him.

On the other hand, if, after the first attack, you get a
little out of the way, giving them no further interruption,
supposing the assailant of their citadel is gone beyond
their reach, in less than half an hour they will retire
into the nest ; and before they have all entered, you
will see the labourers in motion, hastening in various

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 41

directions towards the breach, every one carrying in his
mouth a mass of mortar half as big as his body% ready
tempered : — this mortar is made of the finer parts of the
gravel, which they probably select in the subterranean
pits or passages before described, which, worked up to
a proper consistence, hardens to the solid substance
resembling stone, of which their nests are constructed.
As fast as they come up, each sticks its burthen upon
the breach ; and this is done with so much regularity
and dispatch, that although thousands, nay millions,
are employed, they never appear to embarrass or in-
terrupt one another. By the united labours of such
an infinite host of creatures the wall soon rises and the
breach is repaired.

While the labourers are thus employed, almost all
the soldiers have retired quite out of sight, except here
and there one, who saunters about amongst the la-
bourers, but never assists in the work. One in parti-
cular places himself close to the wall v/hich they are
building; and turning himself leisurely on all sides, as
if to survey the proceedings, appears to act the part of
an overseer of the works. Every now and then, at the
interval of a minute or two, by lifting up his head and
striking with his forceps upon the wall of the nest, he
makes a particular noise, which is answered by a loud
hiss from all the labourers, and appears to be a signal
for dispatch ; for, every time it is heard, they may be
seen to redouble their pace, and apply to their work

a The anonymous author before alluded to, who observed the Cejloti
white ants, says, that such was ihe size of the masses, which were tem-
pered"with a strong gluten, that they adhered though laid on the upper
part of the breach.

42 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

with increased diligence. Renew the attack, and this
amusing scene will be repeated : — in rush the labour-
ers, a]l disappearing- in a few seconds, and out march
the military as numerous and vindictive as before. —
When all is once more quiet, the busy labourers re-
appear, and resume their Avork, and the soldiers vanish.
Repeat the experiment a hundred times, and the same
■will always be the result ; — you will never find, be the
peril or emergency ever so great, that one order at-
tempts to fight, or the other to work.

You have seen how solicitous the Termites are to
move and work under cover and concealed from obser-
vation ; this, however, is not always the case ; — there
is a species larger than T. bel/icosus, whose "proceed-
ings I have been principally describing, which Mr.
Smeathman calls the marching- Termes {Termes via-
rum). He was once passing through a thick forest,
when on a sudden a loud hiss, like that of serpents,
struck him with alarm. The next step produced a re-
petition of the sound, which he then recognised to be
that of white ants : yet he was surprised at seeing none
of their hil's or covered ways. Following the noise,
to his great astonishment and delight he saw an army
of these creatures emerging from a hole in the ground ;
their number was prodigious, and they marched with
the utidost celerity. When they had proceeded about
a yard they divided into two columns, chiefly composed
of labourers, about fifteen abreast, following each other
in close order, and going straight forward. Here and
there was seen a soldier, carrying his vast head with
apparent difficulty, and looking like an ox in a flock of
sheep, who marched on in the same manner. At the

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 43

distance of a foot or two from the columns many other
soldiers were to be seen, standing- still or pacing- about
as if upon the look-out, lest some enemy should sud-
denly surprise their unwarlike comrades ; — other sol-
diers, which was the most extraordinary and amusing
part of the scene, having- mounted some plants and
placed themselves on the points of their leaves, ele-
vated from ten to fifteen inches from theg-round, hung
over the army marching- below, and by striking their
forceps upon the leaf, produced at intervals the noise
before mentioned. To this signal the whole army re-
turned a hiss, and obeyed it by increasing their pace.
The soldiers at these signal-stations sat quite still du-
ring the intervals of silence, except now aud then
making a slight turn of the head, and seemed as soli-
citous to keep their posts as regular sentinels. The
two columns of this army united after continuing sepa-
rate for twelve or fifteen paces, having in no part been
above three yards asunder, and then descended into the
earth by two or three holes. Mr. Srneathman continued
watching them for above an hour, during which time
their numbers appeared neither to increase nor dimi-
nish : — the soldiers, however, who quitted the line of
inarch and acted as sentinels, became much more nu-
merous before he quitted the spot. The larvas and
neuters of this species are furnished with eyes.

The societies of Termes luciftfgits, discovered by
Latreille at Bourdeaux, are very numerous ; but in-
stead of erecting artificial nests, they make their lodge-
ment in the trunks of pines and oaks, where the branches
diverge from the tree. They eat the wood the nearest
the bark, or the alburnum, without attacking the inte-

44: PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

nor, and bore a vast number of holes and irregular
galleries. That part of the wood appears moist, and
is covered with little gelatinous particles, not unlike
gum-arabic These insects seem to be furnished with
an acid of a very penetrating odour, which perhaps is
useful to them for softening the wood^. The soldiers
in these societies are as about one to twenty-five of the
labourers'^. The anonymous author of the observa-
tions on the Termites of Ceylon seems to have disco-
vered a sentry-box in his nests. " I found," says he,
*' in a very small ceil in the middle of the solid mass,
(a cell about half an incli in height, and very narrow,)
a larva with an enormous head. — Two of these indivi-
duals were in the same cell : — one of the two seemed
placed as sentinel at the entrance of the cell. I amused
myself by forcing the door two or three times; — the
sentinel immediately appeared, and only retreated
when the door was on the point to be stopped up, which
was done in three minutes by the labourers,"

I hope this account has reconciled you in some de-»
gree to the destructive Termites : — I shall uext intro-
duce you to social insects, concerning most of which
you have probably conceived a more favourable opi-
nion ; — I mean those which constitute the second class
of perfect societies, whose workers are not larvee, but
neuters. These all belong to the Hi/menoptera order
of Linne : — there are four kinds of insects in this order,
(which you will find as fertile in the instructors of man^
kind, as you have seen it to be in our benefactors,) that,
varying considerably from each other in their proceedi'

^ Lair. Hist. Nut. %\u.Q\, h Did. Hint. Nat. xxii, 51,58,

PfeRFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECtS. 45

irtgs as social animals, separately merit your attention :
namely, ants, wasps and hornets, humble-bees, and the
hive-bee. I begin with tb.e first.

Full of interesting" traits as are the history and eco-
nomy of the white-ants, and liowever earnestly they
may induce you to wish you could be a spectator of
them, yet they scarcely exceed those of an indisstrious
tribe of insects, whicli are constantly passing under our
eye. The ant has attracted universal notice, and been
celebrated from tlie carliost ages, both by sacred and
profane writers, as a pattern of prudence, foresight,
wisdom, and diligence. Upon Solomon's testimony in
their favour I have enlarged before : and for those of
other ancient writers, I must refer you to the learned
Bochart, who has collected them in his Hicrozoicon.

In reading what the ancients say on this subject, we
must be careful, however, to separate truth from error,
or we shall attribute much more to ants than of right
belongs to them. Who does not smile when he reads
of ants that emulate the wolf in size, the dog in shape,
the lion in its feet, and the leopard in its skin ; ants,
whose employment is to mine for gold, and from whose
vengeance the furtive Indian is constrained to fly on
the swift camel's back* ? But w hen we find the writer;-?
of all nations and ages unite in affirming, that, having
deprived it of the power of vegetating, ants store up
grain in their nests, Ave feel disposed to give larger
credit to an assertion, which, at first sight, seems to
savour more of fact than of fable, and does not attri-
bute rriore sagacity and foresight to these insects than
rn other instances they are found to possess. Writers
rn general, therefore, who have considered this sub-

a Bocharf, llicroroic. ii. J. iv. c. 52.

46 PERFECT SOCIETIES OP INSECTS.

ject, and some even of very late date, have taken it for
granted that the ancients were correct in this notion.
But when observers of nature began to examine the
manners and economy of these creatures more narrowly,
it was found, at least with respect to the European
species of ants, that no such hoards of grain were made
by them, and, in fact, that they had no magazines in
their nests in which provisions of any kind were stored
up. It was therefore surmised that the ancients, ob-
serving them carry about their pupae, which in shape,
size, and colour, not a little resemble a grain of corn,
and the ends of which they sometimes pull open to let
out the inclosed insect, mistook the one for the other,
and this action for depriving the grain of thecorculum.
Mr. Gould, our countryman, was one of the first histo-
rians of the ant, who discovered that they did not store
up corn ; and since his time naturalists have generally
subscribed to that opinion.

Till the manners of exotic ants are more accurately
explored, it would, however, be rash to affirm that
no ants have ma^^azines of provisions ; for although,
during the cold of our winters in this country, they
remain in a state of torpidity, and have no need of
food, yet in warmer regions, during the rainy sea-
sons, when they are probably confined to their nests, a
store of provisions may be necessary for them. Even
in northern climates, against wet seasons, they may
provide in this way for their sustenance and that of the
young brood, which, as Mr. Smeathman observes, are
very voracious, and cannot bear to be long deprived of
their food ; else why do ants carry worms, living in-
sects, and many other such things into their nests ? So-
lomon's lesson to the sluggard has been generally ad-

PEnFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 47

duced as a strong- confirmation of the ancient opinion :
it can, however, only relate to the species of a vvarni
climate, the habits of which, as I have just observed,
are probably different from those of a cold one ; — so
that his words, as commonly interpreted, nvay be per-
fectly correct and consistent with nature, and yet be
not at all applicable to the species that are indigenous
to Europe. But I think, if Solomon's words are pro-
perly considered, it will be found that this interpreta-
tion has been fathered upon them, rather than fairly
deduced from them. He does not affirm that the ant
which he proposes to his sluggard as an example, laid
up in her magazines stores of grain : " Go to the ant,
thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise ; which,
having neither captain, overseer, or ruler, prepares her
bread in the summer, and gathers her food in the har-
vest." These words may very well be interpreted
simply to mean, that the ant, with commendable pru-
dence and foresight, makes use of the proper seasons to
collect a supply of provision sufficient for her purposes.
There is not a word in them implying that she stores
up grain or other provision. She prepares her bread,
and gathers her food, — namely, such food as is suited to
her, — in summer and harvest, — that is, when it is most
plentiful, — and thus shows her wisdom and prudence
by using the advantages offered to her. The words
thus interpreted, which they may be without any vio-
lence, will apply to our European species as well as to
those that are not indigenous.

I shall now bid farewell to the ancients, and proceed
to lay before you what the observations of modern au-
thors have enabled me to add to the history of ants :-»-

48 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

the principal of thdse are Leeuwenlioeck, Swammer*
dam (who was the lirst that had recourse to artificial
means for observing their proceedings), Linne, Bonnet^
and especially the illustrious Swedish entomologist De
Geer. Gould also, m ho, though no systematical natu-
l^list, was a man of sense and observation, has thrown'
great light upon the history of ants, and anticipated se-
veral of what are accounted the discoveries of more
modern writers on this subject*. Latreille's Natural

aM. P. Huber, in the account which, in imitation of De Gecr, he has
given of the discoveries made by his predecessors in the history of ants,
having passed without notice, probably ignorant of the existence of sucir
a writer, those of our intelligent countryman Gould, I shall here give a
short analysis of them ; from which it will appear, that he was one of
their best, or rather their very best historian, till M. Huber's work came
Out. Wk Account of English Ants via.i ^vMWshv A in 1141, long before
either Linne or De Geer had written upon the subject,

I. Spccii-s. He describes five species of English ants; viz. I. The hill
ant (For»i/c« ru/a, L.). 2. Tim jet atit {F. fuliginnsa, La.U\). 3. The
red ant {Myrmica rubra, Latr. Formica, Lin.) : lie observes, that this
species alone is armed with a sting ; whereas, the others make a wound
with their mandibles, and inject the formic acid into it. 4. The common
yellow ant {F.Jlava, l.atr.): and 3. The small black ant {F.fusca, L.).

ir. Egg. He observes that the eggs producing males and females are
laid the earliest, and are the largest : — he seems, however, to have con-
founded the black and brown eggs of Aphides with those of ants.

III. Larva. These, when first hatched, he observes, are hairy, and
continue in the larva state twelve months or more. He, as well as De
Geer, was aware that the larvse of Myrmica rubra do not, as other antf^
do, spin a cocoon when they assume the pupa.

IV. Pupa. He found that female ants continue in this slate about six
weeks, and males and neuters only a month.

V. Imago, He knew perfectly the sexes, and was aware that fe-^
males cast their wings previous to their l>ecoming mothprs ; that, at the
lime of their swarms, large numbers of both sexes become the prey of
birds and fishes i that the surviving females, sometimes in numbers, go
yjder ground, particulaily in mole-hills, and lav eggs; but he had not

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 49

Itislory of Ants is likewise extremely valuable, not only
as giving a systematic arrangement and descriptions of
the species, but as concentrating tlie accounts of pre-
ceding authors, and adding several interesting facts e^
propria penu. The great historiographer of ants, how-
ever, is M. P. Huber ; vvlio has lately published a most
admirable and interesting work upon them, in which

discovered that tliey then act the part of neuters in the care of their
progeny. He knew also, that when there was more than one queen in
A nest, the rivals lived in perfect harmony.

With respect ro the neuters, he had witnessed the homage they pay
their queens or fertile females, continued even after their death; — this
homage, he however observes, which is noticed by no other author, ap-
pears often to be temporary and local— ceasing at certain times, and
being renewed upon a change ot residence. He enlarges upon their ex-
emplary Care of the eggs, larvae, and pupae. He tells us that the eggs, as
soon as laid, are taken by the neuters and deposited in heaps, and that
the neuters brood them. He particularly notices their carrying them,
with the larvaj and pupae, daily from the interior to the surface of the
■nest and back again, according to tlie temperature; and that they feed
the larvae by disgorging the food from their own stomach. He speaks
also of their opening the cocoons when the pupae are ready to assume the
imago, and disengaging them from them. With regard to their labours,
he found that they work all night, except during violent rains: — that their
instinct varies as to the station of their nest: — that their masonry is con-
solidated by no cement, but consists merely of mould ; — that they form
roads and trackways to and from their nests: — that they carry each other
in sport, and sometimes lie heaped one on another in the sun. — He su-
spects that they occasionally emigrate ; — he proves by a variety of ex-
periments that they do not hoard up provisions. He found they were
often infested by a particular kind of Gordius : — he had noticed also that
the neuters of F. rufa and Jlav a (which escaped M. Hnber, though he
observed it in F. rufescens, Latr.^ are of two sizes, which the writer of
this note can confirm by producing specimens: — and lastly, with Swan\-
merdam, he had recourse to artificial colonies, the better to enable him
to examine their proceedings, but not comparable to the ingenious^p-
paratus of M. Huber. \

VOL. II. E

50 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

Iicflias far outstripped all his predecessors. — Such are
the sources from which the following account of ants
is'principally drawn, intermixed with which you will
■find some occasional observations, — which your par-
tiality to your friend may, perhaps, induce you to
think not wholly devoid of interest, — that it has been
my fortune to make.

The societies of ants, as also of other Hi/menoptera,
differ from those of the Termites in having inactive
larvEe and pupae, the neuters or w^orkers cohibining in
themselves both the military and civil functions. Be-
sides the helpless larvae and pupae, which have no lo-
comotive powers, these societies consist of females,
males, and workers. The office o^ihe females, at their
first exclusion distinguished by a pair of ample wings,
(which however, as you have heard, they soon cast,)
is the foundation of new colonies, and the furnishing of
a constant supply of eggs for the maintenance of the
population in the old nests as well as in the new. These
are usually the least numerous part of the community'.
The office of the males, which are also winged, and at
the tiiPiO of swarming are extremely numerous, is
merely the impregnation of the females : after the sea-
son for this is passed, they die. Upon the workers^ de-

a Could says that the males anti females are nearly equal in number,
p. 62 ; but from liuber's observations it seems to follow that the former
are most numerous, p. 96.

b That the neuter ants, like those of the hive-bee, are imperfectly or-
jjanizcd females, appears from the following observation of iM. Huber
(Nouv- Ohserv. S^r. ii. 443.) — " F^es fourmis nous ont encore otl'ert a cet
egard une analogic tres frappante : a la verite, nous n'avohs jamais vu
pondre les ouvrieres, raais nous avons ete temoins de leur accouplcraent.
Ce fait pourroit etre atteste pur plusieurs mcmbres de la Socicte d'ilis-

J>ERFECT SOCIETIES OP INSECTS. 51

volves, except in nascent colonies, all the work, as well
as the defence of the community, of which they are the
most numerous portion. In some societies of ants the
workers are of two dimensions. — In the nests of F.rufa
and Jfava such were observed by Gould, the size of one
exceeding^ that of the other about one-third*. (In my
specimens, the large workers of F. rufa are nearly
three times, and of F.flava twice, the size of the small
ones.) All were equally engaged in the labours of the
colony. Large workers were also noticed by M. P.
Huber in the nests of F. rufescens^, but he could not
ascertain their office.

Having introduced you to the individuals of which
the associations of ants consist, I shall now advert to
the principal events of their history, relating first the
fates of the males and females. In the warm days that
occur from the end of July to the beginning of Septem-
ber, and sometimes later, the habitations of the various
species of ants may be seen to swarm with winged in-
sects, which are the males and females, preparing to
quit for ever the scene of their nativity and education.
Every thing is in motion — and the silver wings con-
trasted with the jet bodies which compose the animated
mass, add a degree of splendour to the interesting scene.
The bustle increases, till at length the males rise, as it

toire Natiirelle de Geneve, a qui nous I'avons fait voir; I'approche du
mile etoit toujours suivie de la inort de I'ouvriere; leur conformation
ne permet done pas (ju'elles dcvit nnent meres, mais Tinstinct du mMe
prouve da nioiiis que ce sont des femellcs." a Gould, 103.

b M. Huber calls this an apterous female; yet he could not discover
that they laid eggs: and he owns that they more nearly resembled the
workers than the females; and that he should have considered them as
such, had he seen (hesn mix with them in their excursions. //«6er, p. 351.

E 2

62 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

were by a generaliinpulse, into the air, and the females
accompany them. The whole swarm alternately rises
and falls with a slow movement to the height of about
ten feet, the males flying obliquely with a rapid zig-
zag motion, and the females, though they follow the
general movement of the column, appearing suspended
in the air, like balloons, seemingly with no individual
motion, and having their heads turned towards the
Avind.

Sometimes the swarms of a whole district unite their
infinite myriads, and, seen at a distance, produce an
effect resembling the flashing of an aurora borealis.
Rising with incredible velocity in distinct columns, they
soar above the clouds. Each column looks like a kind
of slender net-work, and has a tremulous undulating
motion, which has been observed to be produced by
the regular alternate rising and falling just alluded
to. The noise emitted by myriads and myriads of these
creatures does not exceed the hum of a single wasp.
The slightest zephyr disperses them ; and if in their
progress they chance to be over your head, if you
walk slowly on, they will accompany you, and regulate
their motions by yours. The females continue sailing
majestically in the centre of these numberless males,
who are all candidates for their favour, each till some
fortunate lover darts upon her, and, as the Roman
youth did the Sabine virgins, drags hi§ bride from the
sportive crowd, and the nuptials are consummated in
mid-air; though sometimes the union takes place on
the summit of plants, but rarely in the nests*. After
this danse de Vamour is celebrated, the males disap-

aDe Gecr, ii. 1104.

PEHFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 53

pear, probably dying, or becoming-, with many of the
females, the prey of birds or fish"; for, since they do
not return to the nest, they cannot be destroyed, as
some have supposed, like the drone bees, by the neu-
ters. That many, both males and females, become
the prey of fish, I am enabled to assert from my own
observation. — In the beginning of August IS 12, I was
going up the Orford river, in Suffolk, in a row-boat,
in the evening, when my attention was caught by an
infinite number of winged ants, both males and females,
at which the fish were every where darting, floating
alive upon the surface of the water. While passing
the river, these had probably been precipitated into it,
either by the wind, or by a heavy shower wliich had
just fallen. And M. Huber after the same event ob-
served the earth strewed with females that had lost
their wings, all of which could not form colonies'*.

Captain Haverfield, R.N. gave me an account of an
extraordinary appearance of ants observed by him in
the Medway, in the autumn of 1814, when he was first-
lieutenant of the Ciorinde — which is confirmed by the
following letter addressed by the surgeon of that ship,
now Dr. Bromley, to Mr. MacLeay :

"In September 1814, being on the deck of the hulk
to the Ciorinde, ray attention was drawn to the water
by <he first-lieutenant (Haverfield) observing there
was something black floating down with the tide. On
looking with a glass, I discovered they were insects. —
The boat was sent, and brought a bucket full of them
on board ; — they proved to be a large species of ant,
and extended from the upper part of Salt-pan reach out

a Goals, 99. b llubcr, 105.

54 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

towards the Great Nore, a distance of five or six
miles. The column appeared to be in breadth eight
or ten feet, and in height about six inche?, which I
suppose must have been from their resting one upon
another." Purchas seems to have witnessed a similar
phenomenon on shore. "Other sorts (of ants)," says
he, " there are many, of which some become winged
and fill the air with swarms, which sometimes happens
in England. On Bartholomew 1613 1 was in the
island of Foulness on our Essex shore, where were
such clouds of these flying pismires, that we could no
where fly from them, but they filled our clothes, yea
the floors of some houses where they fell were in a
manner covered with a black carpet of creeping ants ;
which they say drown themselves about that time of
the year in the sea"". ^

These ants were winged — whence this immense co*
lumn came was not ascertained. From the numbers
here agglomerated, one would think that all the ant-
hills of the counties of Kent and Surrey could scarcely
have furnished a sufficient number of males and females
to form it.

When Colonel Sir Augustus Frazer, of the Horse
Artillery, was surveying on the 6th of October 1813
the scene of the battle of the Pyrenees from the sum-
mit of the mountain called Pena de Aya, or Les Quatre
Couronnes, he and his friends were enveloped by a
swarm of ants, so numerous as entirely to intercept
their view, so that they were glad to remove to another
station, in order to get rid of them.

The females that escape from the injury of the ele-t

a n'grimage, 1090,

rERFEC;T SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. TjS

inoiits and their various onemies, become the founders
of new colonies, doing- ail the work, as 1 have related
in a former letter, that is usually done by the neuters^
M. P. Iluber has found incipient colonies, in which
were only a few workers engaged with their mother iu
the care of a small number of larvae ; and M. Perrot, his
friend, once discovered a small nest, occupied by a soli-
tary female, who was attending upon four pupae; only.
Such is the foundation and first establishment of those po-
pulous nations of ants with which we everywhere meet.
But tliough the jnajority of females produced in a
nest probably thus desert it, all are not allowed this
liberty. The prudent workers are taught by their in-
stinct that the existence of their community depends
upon the presence of a sufficient number of females.
Some therefore that are fecundated in or near the
spot they forcibly detain, pulling off their wings, and
keepini^ them prisoners till they are ready to lay their
egg's, or are reconciled to their fate. De Geer in a
nest of F. rufa observed that the workers compelled
some females that were come out of the nest, to re-enter
it''; and from M. P. Huber we learn that^ being seized
at the moment of fecundation, they are conducted into
the interior of the formicary, when they become en-
tirely dependent upon the neuters, who hanging per-
tinaciously to each leg prevent their going out, but
at the same time attend upon them with the greatest
care, feeding them regularly, and conducting- thein

a M. Huber observes t!iat fecundated females, after they have lost
their wings, make themselves a subterranean cell, some singly, others in
lominon. From which it appears that some colonies ha' e more thin ono
female, from their first establishment. l> ii. lOTl.

56 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

wliere the temperature is suitable to them, but never
quitting- them a single moment. By degrees these fe-
males become reconciled to their fate, and lose all de-«
sire of making their escape ; — their abdomen enlarges,
and they are no longer detained as prisoners, yet each
is still attended by a body-guard — a single ant, which
always accompanies her, and prevents her wants. — Its
station is remarkable, it being mounted upon her ab-
domen, with its posterior legs upon the ground. These
sentinels are constantly relieved ; and to watch the mo-
ment when the female begins the important work of
oviposition, and carry oif the eggs, of which she lays
four or five thousand or more in the course of the year^
seems to be their principal office.

When the female is acknowledged as a mother, the
workers begin to pay her a homage very similar to that
which the bees render to their queen. All press round
her, offer her food, conduct her by her mandibles thi'ougli
the difficult or steep passages of the formicary ; nay,
they sometimes even carry her about their city ; — she is
then suspended upon their jaws, the ends of which are
crossed; and, being coiled up like the tongue of a but-
terfly, she is packed so close as to incommode the carrier
but little. When she sets her down, others surround
and caress her, one after another tapping- her on the
head with their antennae. " In whatever apartment,"
says Gould^ '<' a queen condescends to be present,
she commands obedience and respect. An universal
gladness spreads itself through the whole cell, which
is expressed by particular acts of joy and exultation.
They have a particular way of skipping, leaping, and
standing upon their hitid-legs, and pvancing with tfe©

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 57

others. These frolics they make use of, both to congra-
tulate each other when they meet, and to show their re-
gard for the queen ; some of them gently walk over her,
others dance round her ; — she is generally encircled
with a cluster of attendants, who, if you separate them
from her, soon collect themselves into a body, and in-
close her in the midst \" Nay, even if she dies, as if
they were unwilling to believe it, they continue some-
times for months the same attentions to her, and treat
her with the same courtly formality as if she were alive,
and they will brush her and lick her incessantly''.

This homage paid by the Avorkers to their queens,
according to Gould, is temporary and local ; — when
!?he has laid eggs in any cell, their attentions, he ob-
served, seemed to relax, and she became unsettled and
uneasy. In the summer months she is to be met with
in various apartments in the colony ; and eggs also are
to be seen in several places, which induced him to be-
lieve that, having deposited a parcel in one, she re-
tires to another for the same purpose, tlius frequently
changing her situation and attendants. As there are
always a number of lodgements void of eggs but full
of ants, she is never at a loss for an agreeable station
and submissive retinue ; and by the time she has gone
her rounds in this manner, the eggs first laid are
brought to perfection, and her old attendants are glad
to receive her again. Yet this inattention after ovipo-
sition is not invariable ; the female and neuters some-
times unite together in the same cell after the eggs are
laid. On this occasion the workers divide their atten-
tion; and if you disturb them, some will run to thede-
u Gculd, p. 24— b Couipaie Gould p. 25, with Huber \';io, note (1.)

58 PERFECT SOCIETTES OF INSECTS.

fence of their queen, as well as of the eggs, which last,
however, are the great objects of their solicitude. This
statement diffeis somewhat from M. Ruber's ; but dif-
ferent S5)ecies vary in their instincts, wliich will account
for this and similar dissonances in authors who have
observed their proceedings. Mr. Gould also noticed
but very few females in ant-nes(s, sometimes only one ;
but M. Huber, who had better opportunities, found se-
veral, which he says live very peaceai>ly together,
showing- none of that spirit of rivalry sorenusrkabie in
the queen bee.

And here I must close my narrative of the life and
adventures of male and female ants ; but, as it will be
followed by a history of the stiil more interesting pro-
ceedings of the zeorkcrs, I think you will not regret the
exchange. I shall show these to you in many diiferent
views, under each'^of which you will find fresh reason to
admire them. My only fear will be lest you should think
the picture too highly coloured, and deem it incredible
that creatures so minute should so far exceed the largef
animals in wisdom, foresight, and sagacity, and make so
near an appi'oacli in these respects to man liimself. —
]My facts, however, are derived from authorities so re-
spectable, that I think they will do away any bias of
this kind that you may feel in your mind''.

I need not here repeat wliat i have said in a former
letter concerning the ex2mplary attention paid by these

a It mny be thought that many of the anecdotes related in the folloTV-
ing history of the. proceedings of neuter ants could not have been ob-
served by any one, unless he had been admitted into ananl-hill; but it
must be recollected thn( M. P. Ilubrr, from v/hose work the nn st extra-
ordinary facts are copiel, invented a kind of ant-hive, to constructed us
to enable him to observe their proceedings fiithoai disturbing them.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 59

kind foster-mothers to the youOjO^ brood of thoir colo-
nies ; nor shall 1 enlarge upon the buildiiis^and nature
of their habitations, which have been already noticed* ;
— but, without any of these, 1 have matter cnoiio-h to
fill the rest of this letter with interesting;- traits, while I
endeavour to teach you their language, to develojD their
affections and passions, and to delineate their virtues ; —
while I show them to you wlien engaged in war, and en-
able you to accompany them both in their military ex-
peditions in and their emigrations, — while 1 make you
a witness of their indefatigable industry and incessant
labours,— or invite you to be present, during- their
hours of relaxation, at tiieir sports and amusements.

That ants, though they are mute ani-nals. have the
means of communicating- to each other information of
various occurrences, and use a kind of language which
is mutually understood, will appear evident from the
following facts.

If those at the surface of a nest are alarmed, it is
wonderful in how short a time the alarm spreads
through the whole nest. It runs from quarter to quar-
ter ; the greatest inquietude seems to possess the com-
munity; and they carry with all possiUe dispatch their
treasures, the larvae and pupee, down to the lowest
apartments. Amongst those species of ants that do not
go much from home, sentinels seem to be stationed at
the avenues of their city. Disturbing- once the little
heaps of earth thrown up at the entrances into the nest
of F.Jlava^ which is of this description, I was struck by
observing a single ant immediately come out, as if to see
what was the matter, and this three separate times.

a Vol. I, 2d Ed. 479.

60 rERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

The F. herculaneay L. inhabits the trunks of hollow
trees on the continent, for it has not yet been found in
England, upon which tliey are often passing to and fro.
M. Huber observed that when he disturbed those that
were at the greatest distance from the rest, they ran to-
wards tliem, and, striking their head against them, com-
municated their cause of fear or anger, — that these, in
their turn, conveyed in the same way the intelligence to
others, till the whole colony was in a ferment, those neu-
ters which were within the tree running out in crowds
to join their companions in the defence of their habita-
tion. The same signals that excited the courage of the
neuters produced fear in the males and females, which,
as soon as the news of the danger was thus communi-
cated to them, retreated into the tree as to an asylum.

The legs of one of this gentleman's artificial formi-
caries were plunged into pans of water, to prevent the
escape of the ants ; — this proved a source of great en-
joyment to these little beings, for they are a very thirsty
race, and lap water like dogs^. One day, when he ob-
served many of them tippling very merrily, he was so
cruel as to disturb them, which sent most of the ants
in a fright to the nest; but some more thirsty than the
rest continued their potations. Upon this, one of those
that had retreated returns to inform his thoughtless
companions of their danger ; one he pushes v.'ith his
jaws ; another he strikes first upon the belly, and then
upon the breast; and so obliges three of them to leave
off their carousing, and march homewards ; but the
fourth, more resolute to drink it out, is not to be discom-
fited, and pays not the least regard to the kind blows.

a Gould, 92. De Geer, Li. 1067. Huber, 5. 132,

PEHFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS- Gl

with which his compeer, solicitous for his safety, re-
peatedly belabours him : — atlength, determined to have
his way, he seizes biin by one of his hind-legs, and gives
him a violent pull : — upon this, leaving his liquor, the
loiterer turns round, and opening his threatening- jaws
with every appearance of anger, goes very coolly to
drinking again; but his monitor, without further cere-
mony, rushing before him, seizes him by his jaws, and
at last drags him otf in triumph to the formicary^.

The langu age of ants, however, is not conlined mere-
ly to giving intelligence of the approach or presence of
danger; it is also co-extensive with all their other oc-
casions for communicating their ideas to each other.

Some, whose extraordinary history I shall soon re-
late to you, engage in military expeditions, and often
previouslysend out spies to collect information. These,
as soon as they return from exploring the vicinity, enter
the nest ; upon which, as if they liad communicated their
intelligence, tlie army immediately assembles in the
suburbs of their city, and begins its march towards that
quarter whence the spies had arrived. Upon the march,
communications are perpetually making between the
van and the rear ; and when arrived at the camp of
the enemy, and the battle begins, if necessary, couriers
are dispatched to the formicary for reinforcements'".

If you scatter the ruinsof an ant's nest in your apart-
ment, you will be furnished with anotherproof of their
language. The ants will take a thousand different
paths, each going by itself, to increase the chance of dis-
covery; they will meet and cross each other in all di-
rections, and perhaps will wander long before they can

a Huber, 13J. b Tbid. 237, 21 7, IGT.

62 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

find a spot convenient for their reunion. No sooner
does any one discover a little chink in the floor, through
which it can pass below, than it returns to its compa-
nions, and, by means of certain motions of its antennae,
makes some of them comprehend wliat route they are
to pursue to find it, sometimes even accompanying- them
to the spot; these, in their turn, become the guides of
others, till all know which way to direct their steps'^.

It is well known also, that ants give each other in-
formation when they have discovered any store of pro-
vision. Bradley relates a striking instance of this.
A nest of ants in a nobleman's garden discovered a
closet, many yards within the house, in whicli conserves
were kept, which they constantly attended till the nest
was destroyed. Some in their rambles must have first
discovered this depot of sweets, and informed the rest
of it. It is remarkable that they always went to it by
the same track, scarcely varying an inch from it, though
they had to pass through two apartments; nor could
the sweeping and c>eaning of the rooms discomfit them,
or cause them to pursue a different route'\

Here may be related a very amusing experiment of
Gould's. Having deposited several colonies of ants
(i^.^^^Ci^O if flower-pots, he placed them in some earthen
pans full of water, which prevented them from making
excursions from their nest. When they had been ac-
customed some days to this imprisonment, he fastened
small threads to the upper part of the pots, and ex-
tending them over the water pans fixed them in the
ground. The sagacious ants soon found out that by
these bridges they could escape from their moated

a Huber, 137. b Bradley, 134.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 63

castle. The discovery was communicated to the whole
society, and in a short time the threads were filled with
trains of busy workers passiniif to and fro*.

Ligon's account of the ants in Barbadoes affords an-
other most convincini^ proof of this : — as he has told
his tale in a very lively and interesting manner, I shall
give it nearly in his own words.

" The next of these moving little animals are ants or
pismires; and these are but of a small size, but great in
industry; and that which gives them means to attain to
this end is, they have all one soul. If I should say they
are here or there, I should do them wrong, for they are
every where ; under ground, where any hollow or loose
earth is ; asnongst the roots of trees ; upon the bodies,
branches, leaves and fruit of all trees; in all places with-
out the houses and within ; upon the sides, walls, win-
dows, and roofs without; and on the floors, side walls,
ceilings, and windows within; tables, cupboards, beds?
stools, all are covered with them, so that thoy are a kind

of ubiquitaries. We sometimes kill a cockroach,

and throw hsm on the ground ; and mark what they will
do with him : his body is bigger than a hundred of them,
and yet they will find the means to take hold of him, and
lift him up; and having him above ground, away they
carry him, and some go by as ready assistant?, if any be
weary ; and some are the officers that lead and show
the way to the hole into which he must pass; and if the
vancurriers perceive that the body of the cockroach
lies across, and will not pass through the hole or arch
through which they mean to carry him, order is given,

•I CiOiild, S,)..

64 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

and the body turned endwise, and this is done a foot be-
fore tliey come to the hole, and that without any stop
or stay ; and this is observable, that they never pull

contrary ways. A table being- cleared with great

care, by way of experiment, of all the ants that were
upon it, and some sugar being put upon it, some, after
a circuitous route, were observed to arrive at it, when
again departing without tasting the treasure, they
hastened away to inform their friends of their disco-
Tery, who upon this came by myriads ; — " and when
they are thickest upon the table," says he, " clap a
large book (or any thing fit for that purpose) upon
them, so hard as to kill all that are under it ; and when
you have done so, take away the book, and leave then^
to themselves but a quarter of an hour, and when you
come again, you shall find all those bodies carried away.
Other trials we make of their ingenuity, as this : —
Take a pewter dish, and fill it half full of water, into
which put a little gally-pot filled with sugar, and the
ants will presently find it and come upon the table ; but
when they perceive it environed with water, they try
about the brims of the dish where the gally-pot is near-
est ; and there the most venturous amongst them com-
mits himself to the water, though he be conscious how
ill a swimmer he is, and is drowned in the adventure ;
the next is not warned by his example, but ventures
too, and is alike drowned ; and many more, so that
there is a small foundation of their bodies to venture ;
and then they come faster than ever, and so make a
bridge of their own bodies ='."

a Hist, of Barbadocs, p. G3.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 65

The fact being- certain, that ants impart their ideas
to each other, we are next led to inquire by what
means this is accomplished. It does not appear that,
like the bees, they emit any significative sounds ; their
language, therefore, must consist of signs or gestures,
some of which I shall now detail. In communicating
their fear or expressing their anger, they run from one
to another in a semicircle, and strike with their head
or jaws the trunk or abdomen of the ant to which they
mean to give information of any subject of alarm. But
those remarkable organs, their antennae, are the prin-
cipal instruments of their speech, if I may so call it,
supplying- the place both of voice and words. When
the military ants before alluded to go upon their ex-
peditions, and are out of the formicary, previously to
setting- off, they touch each other on the trunk with
their antennae and forehead ; — this is the signal for
marching ; for, as soon as any one has received it, he
is immediately in motion. When they have any disco-
very to communicate, they strike with them those that
they meet in a particularly impressive manner. — If a
hungry ant wants to be fed, it touches with its two an-
tennae, moving- them very rapidly, tliose of the indivi-
dual from which it expects its meal : — and not only ants
understand this language, but even Aphides and Cocci,
which are the milch kine of our little pismires, do the
same, and will yield them their saccharine fluid at the
touch of these imperative organs. The helpless larvs
also of the ants are informed by the same means when
they may open their mouths to receive their food.

Next to their language, and scarcely different from
it, are the modes by wliich they express their affections

VOL. n. ' 1-

66 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSrrT«:.

and aversions. Whether ants, with man and some of
the larger animals, experience any thing like attach-
ment to individuals, is not easily ascertained ; but that
they feel the full force of tlie sentiment which we term
patriotism, or the love of the community to w hich they
belong, is evident from the whole series of tlieir pro-
ceedings, which all tend to promote the general good.
Distress or difficulty falling upon any member of their
society, generally excites their sympathy, and they do
their utmost to relieve it. M. Latreille once cut off the
antennae of an ant ; and its companions, evidently pity-
ing its sufferings, anointed the wounded part with a
drop of transparent fluid from their mouth : and who-
ever attends to what is going forward in the neighbour-
hood of one of their nests, will be pleased to observe
the readiness with which they seem disposed to assist
each other in difficulties. When a burthen is too heavy
for one, another will soon come to ease it of part of the
weight; and if one is threatened with an attack, all
hasten to the spot, to join in repelling it.

The satisfaction they express at meeting after ab-
sence is very striking, and gives some degree of indi-
viduality to their attachment. M. Huber witnessed
the gesticulations of some ants, originally belonging to
the same nest, that, having been entirely separated from
each other four months, were afterwards brought to-
gether. Though this was equal to one-fourth of their
existence as perfect insects, they immediately recog-
nised each other, saluted mutually with their antennae,
and united once more to form one family.

They are also ever intent to promote each other's
welfare, and ready to share with their absent compa-

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. C7

nions any good thing they may meet with. Those that
go abroad feed those which remain in the nest; and if
they discover any stock of favourite food, they inform
the whole community, as we have seen above, and
teach them the way to it. M. Huber, for a particular
reason, having produced heat, by means of a flambeau,
in a certain part of an artificial formicary, the ants
that happened to be in that quarter, after enjoying it
for a time, hastened to convey the welcome intelligence
to their compatriots, whom they even carried suspend-
ed upon their jaws (their usual mode of transporting
each other) to the spot, till hundreds might be seen
thus laden with their friends.

If ants feel the force of love, they are equally suscep-
tible of the emotions of anger ; and when they are me-
naced or attacked, no insects show a greater degree of
it. Providence, moreover, has furnished them with
weapons and faculties which render it extremely for-
midable to their insect enemies, and sometimes, as I
have related on a former occasion, a great annoyance
to man himself'^. Two strong mandibles arm their
mouth, with which they sometimes fix themselves so
obstinately to the object of their attack, that they will
sooner be torn limb from limb than let go their hold ;
— and after their battles, the headof a conquered enemy
may often be seen suspended to the antennae or legs of
the victor, — a trophy of his valour, which, however
troublesome, he will be compelled to carry about with
him to the day of his death. Their abdomen is also
furnished with a poison-bag (loterium). in which is se-
creted a powerful and venomous fluid, long celebrated

a Vol. I. 2d Ed. p, 123,
F 2

6S PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

in chemical researches, and once caWed formic acid,
though now considered a modification of the acetic and
mafic''; which, when their enemy is beyond the reach
of their mandibles (I speak here particularly of the
hil!-ant, or F. rufa), standing erect on their hind-legs,
they ejaculate from their anus with considerable force,
so that from the surface of the nest ascends a shower of
poison, exhaling a strong sulphureous odour, sufficient
to overpower or repel any insect or small animal. Such
is the fury of some species, that with the acid, accord-
ing to Gould'', they sometimes partly eject, drawing it
back however directly, the poison-bag itself. If a stick
be stuck into one of the nests of the hill-ant, it is so sa-
turated with the acid as to retain the scent for many
hours. A more formidable weapon arms the species
of the genus Mi/rmica, Latr. ; for, besides the poison-
bag, they are furnished with a sting ; and their aspect
is also often rendered peculiarly revolting, by the ex-
traordinary length of their jaws, and by the spineswhich
defend their head and trunk.

But weapons without valour are of but little use :
and this is one distinguishing feature of our pygmy
race. Their courage and pertinacity are unconquer-
able, and often sublimed into the most inconceivable
rage and fury. It makes no difference to them whethei'
they attack a raite or an elephant; and man himself
instills no terror into their warlike breasts. Point your
finger towards any individual of F. rufa^ — instead of
running away, it instantly faces about, and, that it may
make the most of itself, stiffening its legs into a nearly

a See Fourcroy, Annates du Mmeum, no. 5. p. 338, 342. Some, how •
ever, still regard it as a distinct acid. b p. 34.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 69

straight line, it gives its body the utmost elevation it
is capable of; and thus

"Collecting all its might dilated stands"

prepared to repel your attack. Put your finger a little
nearer, it immediately opens its jaws to bite you, and
rearing upon its hind-legs bends its abdomen between
them, to ejaculate its venom into the wound ^.

This angry people, so well armed and so courageous,
we may readily imagine are not always at peace with
their neighbours; causes of dissension may arise to
light the flame of war between the inhabitants of nests
not far distant faom each other. To these little bus-
tling creatures a square foot of earth is a territory worth
contending for; — their droves of Aphides equally valu-
able with the flocks and herds that cover our plains ;
and the body of a fly or a beetle, or a cargo of straws
and bits of stick, an acquisition as important as the
treasures of a Lima fleet to our seamen. Their wars
are usually between nests of different species ; some-
times, however, those of the same, when so near as to
interfere with and incommode each other, have their
battles; and with respect to ants of one species, Mi/r-
micn rubra^ combats occasionally take place, contrary
to the o-eneral habits of the tribe of ants, between those
of the same nest. 1 shall give yon some account of all
these conflicts, beginning with the last. But I must
first observe, that the only warriors amongst our ants
are the neuters or workers; the males and females be-
ing very peaceable creatures, and always glad to get
out of harm's way.

The wars of the red ant {M. rubra) are usually be-

a See Fourcroy, Annalcs du Mmeum, no. 5. 343,

70 PERFECT SOCIETIES Of INSECTS.

tween a small number of the citizens ; and the object,
according to Gould, is to get rid of a useless member
of the community (it does not argue much in favour of
the humanity of this species if it be by sickness that
this member is disabled), rather than any real civil con-
test. " The red colonies," says this author, " are the
only ones I could ever observe to feed upon their own
species. You may fi'equently discern a party of from
five or six to twenty surrounding one of tlieir own kind,
or even fraternity, and pulling it to pieces. The ant
they attack is generally feeble, and of a languid com-
plexion, occasioned perhaps by some disorder or other
accident""." I once saw one of these ants dragged out
of the nest by another, without its head; it was still
alive, and could crawl about. A lively imagination
might have fancied that this poor ant was a criminal,
condemned by a court of justice to suffer the extreme
sentence of the law. It was more probably, however,
a champion that had been decapitated in an unequal
combat, unless v.e admit Gould's idea, and suppose
it to have suffered because it was an unprofitable
member of the community''. At another time I found
three individuals that were fighting with great fury,
chained together by their mandibles ; one of these
had lost two of the legs of one side, yet it appeared to
walk well, and was as eager to attack and seize its op-

a Gould, 104.
- b One would think the writer of the areoitnt of ants in Moaffet had
been witness to something similar. " If they see any one idle," says he,
■■' they not only drive him as spurious, witliout food, from the nest ; but
likewise, a circle of all ranks being assembled, cut off his head before the
gates, that he may be a warning to their children not to give themselves
up for the future to idleness and effeminacy." — 'Thcatr. Ins. 241.

PEHFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 71

ponents, as if it was unhurt. This did not look like
languor or sickness.

The v/ars of ants that are not of the same species
take place usually between those that differ in size ; and
the great endeavouring- to oppress tlie small are never-
theless often outnumbered by them, and defeated. Their
])attles have long been celebrated, and the date of them,
as if it were an event of the first importance, has been
formally recorded, ^neas Sylvius, after giving a very
circumstantial account of one contested with great ob-
stinacy by a great and small species on the trunk of a
pear-tree, gravely states, "This action was fought in
the pontificate of Eugenius the Fourth, in the presence
of Nicholas Pistoricnsis, an eminent lawyer, who re-
lated the whole history of the battle with the greatest
fidelity!" A similar engagement between great and
small ants is recorded by Olaus Magnus, in which the
small ones being victorious are said to have buried the
bodiesof their own soldiers, but left those of their giant
enemies a prey to the birds. This event happened
previous to the expulsion of the tyrant Christiern the
Second from Sweden ^.

M.P. Huber is the only modern author that appears
to have been witness to these combats. He tells us
that, when the great attack the small, they seek to take
them by surprise, (probably to avoid their fastening
themselves to their legs.) and, seizing them by the
upper part of the body, they strangle them with their
mandibles; but when the s'.nall have time to foresee
the attack, they give notice to their companions, who
rush in crowds to their succour. Sometimes, however,

aMoiiflct, Tlieatr. Ins. 242.

72 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

after suffering a signal defeat, the smaller species arfe
obliged to shift their quarters, and to seek an establish-
ment more out of the way of danger. Irl order to cover
their march, many small bodies are then posted at a
little distance from the nest. As soon as the large
ants approach the camp, the foremost sentinels instantly
fly at them with the greatest rage, a violent struggle
ensues, multitudes of their friends come to their assist-
ance, and, though no match for their enemies singly,
by dint of numbers they prevail, and the giant is either
slain or led captive to the hostile camp. The species
whose proceedings M. Huber observed were F. hercv.-
lanea, L. and F. sartguinea, Latr. neither of which have
yet been discovered in Britain^.

But if you would see more numerous armies engaged,
and survey war in all its forms, you must witness the
combats of ants of the same species, you must go into
the woods where the hill-ant of Gould (F. rt/fa, L.)
erects its habitations. There you will sometimes be-
hold populous and rival cities, like Rome and Carthage,
as if they had vowed each other's destruction, pouring
forth their myriads by the various roads that, like rays,
diverge on all sides from their respective metropolises,
to decide by an appeal to arms the fate of their little
world. As tlie exploits of frogs and mice were the
theme of Homer's muse, so, were I gifted like him,
might I celebrate on this occasion the exhibition of
Myrmidonian valour ; but, alas ! I am Davus, not
CEdipus ; you must therefore rest contented, if 1 do
my best in plain prose ; and I trust you will not com*
plain if, being unable to ascertain the name of any one
» Huber, 160.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 73

of my heroes, my Mi/rmidonomacJiia be perfectly ano-
nymous.

Figure to yourself two of tliese cities equal in sizf^
and population, and situated about a hundred paces
from each other ; observe their countless numbers,
equal to the population of two mighty empires. The
whole space which separates them for the breadth of
twenty-four inches appears alive with prodigious crowds
of their inhabitants. The armies meet midway be-
tween their respective habitations, and there join bat-
tle. Thousands of champions, mounted on more ele-
vated spots, engage in single combat, and seize each
other with their powerful jaws ; a still greater num-
ber are engaged on both sides in taking prisoners,
which make vain efforts to escape, conscious of the
cruel fate which awaits them when arrived at tlie hostile
formicary. The spot where the battle most rages is
about two or three square feet in dimensions : a pene-
trating odour exhales on all sides, — numbers of ants
are here lying dead covered with venom, — others, corn-
loosing groups and chains, are hooked together by their
legs or jaws, and drag each other alternately in con-
trary directions. These groups are formed gradually.
At first a pair of combatants seize each other, and rear-
ing upon their hind-legs mutually spirt their acid, then
closing they fall and wrestle in the dust. Again re-
covering their feet, each endeavours to drag off his an-
tagonist. If their strength be equal, they remain im-
moveable, till the arrival of a third gives one the ad-
vantage. Both, however, are often succoured at the
same time, and the battle still continues undecided —
others take part on each side, till chains are formed of

74 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

six, eight, or sometimes ten, all hooked together and
struggling pertinaciously for the mastery : the equili-
brium remains unbroken, till a number of champions
from the same nest arriving at once, compel them to let
go their hold, and the single combats recommence. At
the approach of night, each party gradually retreats
to its own city : but before the foliov/ing dawn the
combat is renewed with redoubled fury, and occupies
a greater extent of ground. These daily figiits con-
tinue till, violent rains separating the combatants, they
forget their quarrel, and peace is restored.

Such is the account given by M. Huber of a battle he
witnessed. In these engagements, he observes, their
fury is so wrought up, that nothing can divert them from
their purpose. Though he was close to them examin-
jno- their proceedings, they paid not the least attention
to him, being absorbed by one sole object, that of find-
ing an enemy to attack. What is most wonderful in
this history, though all are of the same make, colour,
and scent, every ant seemed to know those of his own
party; and if by mistake one was attacked, it was im-
mediately discovered by the assailant, and caresses suc-
ceeded to blows. Though all was fury and carnage in
the space between the two nests, on the other side the
paths were full of ants going to and fro on the ordi-
nary business of the society, as in a time of peace; and
the whole formicary exhibited an appearance of order
and tranquillity, except that on the quarter leading to
the field of battle crowds might always be seen, either
marching to reinforce the army of their compatriots, or
returning home with the prisoners they had taken",

a See Hiiber> chap, v.

I'ERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. iJ

which it is to be feared are the devoted victims of a
cannibal feast.

Having;, 1 apprehend, satiated you with the fury and
carnage of IMyrmidouian wars, I shall next bring for-
ward a scene still more astonishing, which at first, per-
haps, you will be disposed to regard as the mere illusion
of a lively imagination. What will you say when I tell
you that certain ants are affirmed to sally forth from
their nests on predatory expeditions, for the singular
purpose ofprocuring slaves to employ in their domestic
business; and that these ants are usually a ruddy race,
while their slaves themselves are black? I think I see
you here throw down my letter and exclaim — " What !
ants turned slave-dealers ! This is a fact so extraor-
dinary and improbable, and so out of the usual course
of nature, that nothing but the most powerful and
convincing evidence shall induce me to believe it." In
this I perfectly approve your caution ; such a solecism
in nature ought not to be believed till it has undergone
the ordeal of a most thorough investigation. Unfortu-
nately in this country we have not the means of satis-
fying ourselves by ocular demonstration, since none of
the slave-dealing ants appear to be natives of Britain.
W^e must be satisfied, therefore, with weighing the
evidence of others. Hear what M. P. Huber, the dis-
coverer of this almost incredible deviation of nature
from her general laws, has advanced to convince the
world of the accuracy of his statement, and you will, I
am sure, allow that he has thrown over his history a
colouring of verisimilitude, and that his appeal to tes-
timony is in a very high degree satisfactory.

" My readers, ' eays he, " will perhaps be tempted

76 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

to believe that I have suffered myself to be carried
away by the love of the marvellous, and ^hat, in order
to impart greater interest to my narration, I have given
M ay to an inclination to embellish the facts that I have
observed. But the more the wonders of nature have
attractions for me, the less do 1 feel inclined to alter
them by a mixture of the reveries of imagination. I
bave sought to divest myself of every illusion and pre-
judice, of the anibition of saying new things, of the
prepossessions often attached to perceptions too rapid,
the love of system, and the like. And I have endea-
voured to keep myself, if I may so say, in a disposition
of mind perfectly neuter, and ready to admit all facts,
of whatever nature they might be, that patient obser-
vation should confirm. Amongst the persons whom I
have taken as witnesses to the discovery of mixed ant-
bills, I can cite a distinguished philosopher (Prof.
Jurine) who was desirous of verifying their existence
by examining himself the two species united''."

He afterwards appeals to nature, and calls upon all
who doubt to repeat his experiments, which he is sure
will soon satisfy them: — a satisfaction which, as I have
just observed, in this country we cannot receive, for
want of the slave-making species. And now to begin
my history.

There are two species of ants which engage in these
excursions, F. rufescens and F. sanguinea, Latr. ; but
they do not, like the African kings, make slaves of
adults, their sole object being to carry off the helpless
infants of the colony which they attack, the larvae and
pupae; these they educate in their own nests, till they

a Huber, 287. Jurine, Hytnenopieren, 273.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECT3. 77

arrive at their perfect state, when they undertake all
the business of the society^. In the following account I
shall chiefly confine myself to what Huber relates of the
first of these species, and conclude ray extracts with his
history of an expedition of the latter to procure slaves.

The rufescent ants'* do not leave their nests to go
upon these expeditions, which last about ten weeks,
till the males are ready to emerge into the perfect
state; and it is very remarkable, that if any individuals
attempt to stray abroad earlier, they are detained by
their slaves, who will not suffer them to proceed. A
wonderful provision of the Creator to prevent the black
colonies from being pillaged when they contain only
male and female brood, vvliich would be tlieir total de-
struction, without being any benefit to their assailants,
to who!)) neuters alone are useful.

Their time of sallying forth is from two in the
afternoon till five, but more generally a little before
five : the weather, however, must be fine, and the
thermometer must stand at above 36° in the shade.
Previously to marching there is reason to think that

a It is not clear that our Willuj^hby bad no; some knowledge of this
extraordinary fact ; for in liis description of ants, speaking of tti ir cqrrt
of their pnpa^, he says, " tlint Ihey alao carry the aurelice ofothfrs into their
nestx, as if they ivcre their oiO!!." Rai, Ilisf. Jns. 69. — Goidd remarks con«
cerning the hill-ant, " This species is very rapacious after the vermhki
nmd nymphs of otJu'r ants. If you plare a parcel before or near their
colonies, they will, with remarkable greediness, seize and carry thenaoff,"
91, note *. Querj' — Do they this to devour them, or educate them ?
White made the same observation, Nat, Hist. ii. 278.

b This species forms a kird of link which connects Latreill/'s two ^c-
nera Formica and Mrr.nica, borrowing; t!'e .-ibilouiiiial squama from tlie
former, and the s'.ing from the latter.

78 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

they send out scouts to explore the vicinity; upon
whose return they emerge from their subterranean city,
directing their course to the quarter from which the
scouts came. They have various preparatory signals,
such as pushing each other with the mandibles or fore-
head, or playing with the antennae, the object of which
is probably to excite their martial ardour, to give the
word for marching, or to indicate the route tliey are to
take. The advanced guard usually consists of eight or
ten ants; but no sooner do these get beyond the rest,
than they move back, wheeling round in a semicircle,
and mixing with the main body, while others succeed
to their station. They have " no captain, overseer, or
ruler,'''' as Solomon observes, their army being com-
posed entirely of neuters, without a single female : thus
all in their turns take their place at the head, and then
retreating towards the rear, make room for others.
This is the usual order of their march : and the object
of it may be to communicate intelligence more readily
from one part of the column to another.

When w indjng through the grass of a meadow they
have proceeded to thirty feet or more from their own
habitation, they disperse; and, like dogs with their
noses, explore the ground with their antennas to detect
the traces of the game they are pursuing. The negro
forraicary, the object of their search, is soon disco-
vered ; some of the inhabitants are usually keeping
guard at the avenues, which dart upon the foremost of
their assailants with inconceivable fury. The alarm
increasing, crowds of its swarthy inhabitants rush forth
from every apartment; but their valour is exerted in

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 79

vain ; for the besiegers, precipitating themselves upon
them, by the ardour of their attack compel them tore-
treat within, and seek shelter in the lowest story ; great
numbers entering with them at the gates, while others
with their mandibles make a breach in the walls,
tiirough which the victorious army marches into the
besieged city. In a few minutes, by the same passages,
they as hastily evacuate it, each carrying off in its
mouth a larva or pupa which it has seized in spite of
its unhappy guardians. On their return home with
their spoil, they pursue exactly the route by which
they went to the attack. Their success on these ex-
peditions is rather the result of their impetuosity, by
which they damp the courage of the negroes, than of
their superior strength, though they are a larger ani-
mal ; for sometimes a very small body of them, not
more than 1 50, has been known to succeed in their at-
tack and to carry off their booty ^.

a Since the publication of the first edition of tliis volume I have met
w ith fresh confinTiation of the extraordinar3' history here related. Hav-
ing been induced to visit Paris this summer, and calling upon M. La-
treille (so justly celebrated as one of tlse first entomologists of the age,
and to whom I feel infinitely indebted for the friendly attentions which
he paid to me during my too short stay in that metropolis), he assured
me, that he had verified all the principal facts advanced by Hubcr. He
has also said the same in his Considerations nonvsUes et gcnerales sur les
iiiserfes vivaiU en Sncicle . (Mem. du Mus. iii. 407.) At the same time he
informed me that there was a nest of the rufescent ants in the Bois de
Boulogne, to which place he afterwards was so good as to accompany
me. We went on the 55th of June, The day was excessively Iiot and
sultry. A little before five in the afternoon we began our search. At
first we conld not discern a single ant in motion. In a minute or two>
liow ever, ray friend directed my attention to one individual — two or
three more next appeared — and soon a numerous army was to be seen
wiiidiii'; through the long gri!!« of a low ridge in which was their formi-

80 t»ERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS^

When from their proximity they are more readilytt?
be come at than those of the negroes, they sometimes
assault with the same view the nest of another species

carj'. Just at <he entrance of the wood from Paris, on the right-hand
and near the. road, is a bare place paled in for the Sunday amusement of
the lower orders — to this the ants directed their march, and upon enter-
ing it divided into two columns, which traversed it rapidly and with great
apparent eagerness; all the while exploring the ground with their an-
tenniC as t)ea;>ies With their noses, evidently as if in pursuit of game.
Those in the van, as liuher also observed, kept perpetually falling bark
into the main body. When they had passed this inclosure, they appeared
for some time to be at a loss, making no progress but only coursing about :
but after a few minutes delay, as if they had received some intelligence,
they resumed (heir march and soon arrived at a negro nest, which they
entered by one or two apertures. We could not observe that any ne-
groes were expecting their attack outside the nest, but in a short time a
few came out at another opening, and seemed to be making their escape.
Perhaps some conflict might have taken place within the nest, in the in-
terval between the appearance of these negroes and the entry of their
assailants. However this migFit be, in a few minutes one of the latter
made its appearance with a pupa in its mouth ; it was followed by three
or four more ; and soon the whole army began to emerge as fast as it could,
almostevery individual carrying its burthen. IVJostthat I observed seemed
to have pupae. I then traced the expedition back to the spot from which
I first saw tliem set out, which according to my steps was about 136 feet
from the negro formicary. The whnl.i business was transacted in little
more than an hour. Though I could tiare the ants back to a certain
spot in the ridge before men(ioned,wherethey first nppeared in the long
grass, I did not succeed in finding the entrance to their nest, so that I
was deprived of the pleasure of seeing the mixed society. As we dined
at anauhergec\ose to the spot, T proposed renewing my researches after
dinner; but a violent tempest of thunder and rain, though I attempted
It, prevented my succeeding ; and afterwards I had no opportunity of
revisiting the place.

M. Latreille very justly observes that it is physically impossible for
the rw/escen^ants, on account of the form of their jaws and the accessory
parts of the mouth, cither to prepare habitations for their family, tti
procure food, or to feed them. — Consideratiotu nvuvellis^ 8fc. p. 408.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 81

of ant, which I shall call the miners (F. aimcuhnia^ L.).
This species being- more courageous than the other, on
this account the rufescent host marches to the attack
in closer order than usual, moving with astonishing ra-
pidity. As soon as they begin to enter their habita-
tion, myriads of the miners rushing out fall upon them
■with great fury ; while others, well aware of their pur-
pose, making a passage through the midst of them,
carry off in their mouth the larvae and pupse. The sur-
face of the nest thus becomes the scene of an obstinate
conflict, and the assailants are often deprived of the
prey which they had seized. The miners dart upon
them, fight them foot to foot, dispute every inch of their
territory, and defend their progeny with unexampled
courage and rage. When the rufescents, laden with
pillage, retire, they do it in close order — a precaution
highly necessary, since tlieir valiant enemies, pursuing
them, impede their progress for a considerable distance
from their residence.

During these combats the pillaged ant-hill presents
in miniature the spectacle of a besieged city; hundreds
of its inhabitants maybe seen making their escape, and
carryingofFin different directions, toaplace of security,
some the young brood, and others their females that
are newly excluded : but when the danger is wholly
passed, they bring them back to their city, the gates
of which they barricade, and remain in great numbers
near them to guard the entrance.

Formica scmguinea^ as I observed above, is another
of the slave-making ants ; and its proceedings merit
separate notice, since they differ considerably from
those of the rufescents. They construct their nests

VOL. II, G

S2 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECT*.

imder hedges of a southern aspect, and likewise attack
the hills both of the negroes and miners. On the 15th
of July, alien in the morning, Huber observed a small
band of these ants sallying forth from their formicary,
and marching rapidly to a neighbouring nest of ne-
groes, around which it dispersed. The inhabitants,
rushing out in crowds, attacked them and took several
prisoners : those that escaped advanced no further, but
appeared to wait for succours ; small brigades kept fre-
quently arriving to reinforce them, which emboldened
them to approach nearer to the city they had block-
aded; upon this their anxiety to send couriers to their
own nest seemed to increase : these spreading a gene-
ral alarm, a large reinforcement immediately set out
to join the besieging army; yet even then they did not
begin the battle. Almost all the negroes, coming out
of their fortress, formed themselves in a body about two
foet square in front of it, and there expected the enemy.
Frequent skirmishes were the prelude to the main con-
flict, which was begun by the negroes. Long before
success appeared dubious they carried off their pupae,
and heaped them up at the entrance to their nest, on the
side opposite to that on which the enemy approached.
The young females also fled to the same quarter. The
sanguine ants at length rush upon the negroes, and at-
tacking them on all sides, after a stout resistance the
latter, renouncing all defence, endeavour to make off
to a distance with the pupa; they have heaped up : — the
host of assailants pursues, and strives to force from tliem
i'hese objects of their care. Many also enter the for-
micary, and begin to carry off the young brood that are
left in it. A continued chain of ants engaged in this

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS; 83

feliiployment extends from nest to nest, and the day and
part of the night pass before all is finished. A gar-
rison being left in the captured city, On the following
morning the business of transporting the brood is re-
newed. It often happens (for this species of ant loves
to change its habitation) that the conquerors emigrate
with all their family to the acquisition which their va-
lour has gained. All the incursions of F. sanguinea
take place in the space of a month, and they make only
five or six in the year* They will sometimes travel
150 paces to attack a negro colony.

After reading this account of expeditions undertaken
by ants for so extraordinary a purpose, you will be cu-
rious to know how the slaves are treated in the nests of
these marauders — whetherthey live happily^ orlaboui*
under an oppressive yoke. You must recollect that
they are not carried otF, like our negroes, at an age
when the amor patrice 2inA. all thecharitiesof life which
bind them to their country, kindred and friends, are
in their full strength, but in wh;/t may be called the
helpless days of infancy, or in their state of repose, be-
fore they can have formed any associations or imbibed
any notions that render one place and society more
dear to them than another. Preconceived ideas, there-
fore, do not exist to influence their happiness, which
must altogether depend upon the treatment which they
experience at the hands of their new masters. Here
the goodness of Providence is conspicuous; which, al-
though it has gifted these creatures with an instinct so
extraordinary, and seemingly so unnatural, has not
made it a source of misery to the objects of it.

You will here, perhaps, imagine that I have not suf-
G 2

84 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

fieiently taken into consideration the anxiety and pri-
vations undergone by the poor neuters, in beholding
those foster-childrenj for which they have all along- ma-
nifested such tender solicitude, thus violently snatched
from them : but when you reflect that. they are the com-
mon property of the whole colony, and that, conse-
quently, there can scarcely be any separate attachment
to particular individuals, you will admit that, after the
fright and horror of the conflict are over, and their
enemies have retreated, they are not likely to expe-
rience the poignant affliction felt by parents when de-
prived of their children ; especially when you further
consider, that most probably some of their brood are
rescued from the general pillage ; or at any rate their
females are left uninjured, to restore the diminished
population of their colonies, and to supply them with
those objects of attention, the larvae, &c. so necessary
to that development of their instincts in which consists
their happiness.

But to return to the point from which I digressed —
The negro and miner ants suffer no diminution of hap-
piness, and are exposed to no unusual hardships and
oppression in consequence of being transplanted into a
foreign nest. Their life is passed in much the same
employments as would have occupied it in their native
residence. They build or repair the common dwelling ;
they make excui'sions to collect food ; they attend upon
the females ; they feed them and the larvae ; and they
pay the necessary attention to the daily sunning of the
eggs, larvae, and pupae. Besides this, they have also to
feed their masters and to carry them about the nest.
This you will say is a serious addition to the ordinary

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INi5ECTS. 83

occupations of their own colonies : but when you con-
sider the greater division of labour in these mixed so-
cieties, which sometimes unite both negroes and miners
in the same dwelling, so that three distinct races live
together, from their vast numbers so far exceeding
those of the native nest, you will not think this too
severe employment for so industrious an animal.

But you will here ask, perhaps — " Do the masters
take no part in these domestic employments? At least,
surely, they direct their slaves, and see that they keep
to their work ? " — No sucli thing, I assure you — the
sole motive for their predatory excursions seems to be
mere laziness and hatred of labour. Active and in-
trepid as they are in the field, at all other times they
are the most helpless animals that can be imagined ; —
unwilling to feed themselves, or even to walk, their
indolence exceeds that of the sloth itself. So entirely
dependent, indeed, are they upon their negroes for
every thing, that upon some occasions the latter seem
to be the masters, and exercise a kind of authority over
them. They will not suffer them, for instance, to go
out before the proper season, or alone ; and if they re-
turn from their excursions without their usual booty,
they give them a very indifferent reception, showing
their displeasure, which however soon ceases, by at-
tacking them ; and when they attempt to enter the nest,
dragging them out. To ascertain w hat they would do
when obliged to trust to their own exertions, Huber
shut up thirty of the rufescent ants in a glazed box,
supplying them with larvae and pupse of their own kind,
with the addition of several negro pupse, excluding very
carefully all their slaves, and placing some honey in a

86 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

corner of their prison. Incredible as it may seem, they
made no attempt to feed themselves : and though at
first they paid some attention to their larvae, carrying
them here and there, as if too great a charge they soon
laid them down again; most of them died of hunger in
less than two days ; and the few that remained alive
appeared extremely weak and languid. At length,
commiserating their condition, he admitted a single
negro; and this little active creature by itself re-esta-
blished order — made a cell in the earth ; collected the
larvae and placed them in it ; assisted the pupae that
were ready to be developed; and preserved the life of
the neuter rufescents that still survived. What a pic-
ture of beneficent industry, contrasted with the bale-
ful effects of sloth, does this interesting anecdote af-
ford ! Another experiment which he tried made the
contrast equally striking. He put a large portion of
one of these mixed colonies into a woollen bag, in the
mouth of which he fixed a small tube of wood, glazed
at the top, which at the other end was fitted to the en-
trance of a kind of hive. The second day the tube was
crowded with negroes going and returning : — the inde-
fatigable diligence and activity manifested by them in
transporting the young brood and their rufescent mas-
ters, whose bodies were suspended upon their man-
dibles, was astonishing. These last took no active
part in the busy scene, while their slaves showed the
greatest anxiety about them, generally carrying them
into the hive; and if they sometimes contented them-
selves with depositing them at the entrance of the tube,
it was that they might use greater dispatch in fetching
the rest, The rufescent when thus set down remained

I

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 87

for a moment coiled up without motion, and then lei-
surely unrolling itself, looked all around, as if it was
quite at a loss what direction to take ; — it next went
up to the negroes, and by the play of its antennje seem-
ed to implore their succour, till one of them attending
to it conducted it into the hive.

Beings so entirely dependent, as these masters are
upon their slaves, for every necessary, comfort, and
enjoyment of their life, can scarcely be supposed to
treat them with rigour or unkindness : — so far from this,
it is evident from the preceding details, that they rather
look up to them, and are in some degree under their
control.

The above observations, Avith respect to the indo-
lence of our slave-dealers, relate principally to the ru-
fescent species ; for the sanguine ants are not altogether
so listless and helpless ; they assist their negroes in the
construction of their nests, they collect their sweet
fluid from the Aphides; ancf one of their most usual
occupations is to lie in wait for a small species of ant,
on which they feed ; and when their nest is menaced by
an enemy, they show their value for these faithful ser-
vants by carrying them down into the lowest apart-
ments, as to a place of the greatest security. Some-
times even the rufescents rouse themselves from the
torpor that usually benumbs tliem. In one instance,
when they wished to emigrate from their own to a de-
serted nest, they reversed what usually takes place on
such occasions, and carried all their negroes themselves
to the spot they had chosen. At the first foundation
also of their societies by impregnated females, there is
good reason for thinking, that, like those of other spe-

88 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

cies% they take upon themselves the whole charge of
the nascent colony. I must not here omit a most ex-
traordinary anecdote related by M. Huber. He put
into one of his artificial formicaries pupae of both spe-
cies of the slave-collecting ants, w hich, under the care
of some negroes introduced with them, arrived at their
imago state, and lived together under the same roof in
the most perfect amity.

These facts show Avhat effects education will produce
even upon insects ; that it will impart to them a new
bias, and modify in some respects their usual instincts,
rendering them familiar with objects which, had they
been educated at home, they would have feared, and
causing them to love those whom in that case they
would have abhorred. — It occasions, however, no fur-
ther change in their character, since the master and
slave, brought up with the same care and under the
game superintendence, are associated in the mixed for-
micary under laws entirely opposite''.

Unparalleled and unique in the animal kingdom as
this history may appear, you will scarcely deem the
next I have to relate less singular and less worthy of
admiration. That ants should have their milch cattle
is as extraordinary as that they should have slaves.
Here, perhaps, you may again feel a fit of incredulity
shake you; — but the evidence for the fact I am now
stating being abundant and satisfactory, 1 flatter my-
self it will not shake you long.

The loves of the ants and the aphides (for these last
are the kine in question) have long been celebrated ;
and that there is a connection between them you may

a Vol. I, 2d Ed. 369. b See Huber, chap, vii— xi.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 89

at any time, in the proper season, convince yourself;
for you will always find the former very busy on those
trees and plants on wJ.ich the latter abound : and if
you examine more closely, you will discover that their
object in thus attending upon them is to obtain the sac-
charine fluid, which may well be denominated their
milk", that they secrete.

This fluid, which is scarcely inferior to honey in
sweetness, issues in limpid drops from the abdomen of
these insects, not only by the ordinary passage, but also
by two setiform tubes placed, one on each side, just
above it. Their sucker being inserted in the tender
bark, is without intermission employed in absorbing
the sap, which, after it has passed through the system,
they keep continually discharging by these organs.
When no ants attend them, by a certain jerk of the
body, which takes place at regular intervals, they eja-
culate it to a distance : but when the ants are at hand,
watching the moment when the aphides emit their
fluid, they seize and suck it down immediately. This,
however, is the least of their talents ; for they abso-
lutely possess the art of making them yield it at their
pleasure ; or, in other words, of milking them. On
this occasion their *antennaB are their fingers; with
these they pat the abdomen of the aphis on each side
alternately, moving them very briskly ; a little drop of
fluid immediately appears, which the ant takes into its
mouth, one species (Mj/rmica rubra) conducting it with
its antennae, which are somewhat swelled at the end.

a The ant ascends the tree, says Linnc, t/iat it may mil!; its cows, i/n
Jphides, not kill them, Spst. Nat. 962. 3.

90 rEIlFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECT!?.

When it has thus milked one, it proceeds to another,
and so on, till being satiated it returns to the nest.

Not only the aphides yield this repast to the ants,
but also the Cocci, with whom they have recourse to
similar manrouvres, and with equal success ; only in
this case the movement of the antenna? over their body
may be compared to the thrill of the finger over the
keys of a piano-forte.

But you are not arrived at the most singular part of
this history, — that ants make a ^jr/>/)cr(y of these cows,
for the possession of which they contend with great
earnestness, and use every means to keep them to
themselves. Sometimes they seem to claim a right to
the aphides that inhabit the branches of a tree or the
stalks of a plant; and if stranger-ants attempt to share
their treasure with them, they endeavour to drive them
away, and maybe seen running about in a great bustle,
andexhibitingevery symptom of inquietude and anger.
Sometimes, to rescue them from their rivals, they take
their aphides in their mouth, they generally keep guard
round them, and when the branch is conveniently si-
tuated, they have recourse to an expedient still more
effectual to keep off interlopers, — they inclose it in a
tube of earth or other materials, and thus confine them
in a kind of paddock near their nest, and often com-
municating with it.

The greatest cow- keeper of all the ants, is one to be
met with in most of our pastures, residing in hemisphe-
rical formicaries, which are sometimes of considerable
diameter. I mean the yellow ant of Gould (F./lata).
This species, which is not fond of roaming from home,

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 91

and likes to have all its conveniences within reach,
osually collects in its nest a large herd of a kind of
Aphis, that derives its nutriment from the roots of grass
and other plants {Aphis radicum) ; these it transports
from the neighbouring roots, probably by subterra-
nean galleries, excavated for the purpose, leading from
the nest in all directions^; and thus, without going
out, it has always at hand a copious supply of food.
These creatures share its care and solicitude equally
with its own offspring. To the eggs it pays particular
attention, moistening them with its tongue, carrying
them in its mouth with the utmost tenderness, and
giving them the advantage of the sun. This last fact
I state from my own observation ; for once upon open-
ing one of these ant-hills early in the spiing, on a sunny
day, I observed a parcel of these eggs, which I knew
by their black colour, very near the surface of the nest.
My attack put the ants into a great ferment, and they
immediately began to carry these interesting objects
down into the interior of the nest. It is of great con-
sequence to them to forward the hatching of these eggs
as much as possible, in order to ensure an early source
of food for their colony; and they had doubtless in this
instance brought them up to the warmest part of their
dwelling with this view. M. Iluber, in a nest of the
same ant, at the foot of an oak, once found the eggs of
Aphis Querci/Sy L.

Our yellow ants are equally careful of their Aphides
after they are hatched, when their nest is disturbed
conveying them into the interior, fighting fiercely for

a Huber, 195. I have more than once found these Aphides in the nests
pf this species of ant.

92 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

them if the inhabitants of neighbouring formicaries,
as is sometimes the case, attempt to make them their
prey ; and carrying them about in their mouths to
change their pasture, or for some other purpose. When
you consider that from them they receive almost the
whole nutriment both of themselves and larvae, you
will not wonder at their anxiety about them, since tlie
wealth and prosperity of the community is in propor-
tion to the number of their cattle. Several other spe-
cies keep Aphides in their nests, but none in such
numbers as those of which I am speaking^.

When the population exceeds the produce of a coun-
try, or its inhabitants suffer oppression, or are not
comfortable in it, emigrations frequently take place,
and colonies issue forth to settle in other parts of the
fflobe: and sometimes whole nations leave their own
country, either driven to this step by their enemies, or
excited by cupidity to take possession of what appears
to them a more desirable residence. These motives
operate strongly on some insects of the social tribes. —
Bees and ants are particularly influenced by them.
The former, confined in a narrow hive, when their so-
ciety becomes too numerous to be contained conveni-
ently in it, must necessarily send forth the redundant
part of their population to seek for neAV quarters; and
the latter — though they usually can enlarge their
dwelling to any dimensions which their numbers may
require, and therefore do not send forth colonies, unless
we may distinguish by that name the departure of the

a See Huber, chap. vi. I have found Aphides in the nest of Myrmica
rubra. Boisier de Sauvages speaks of ants keeping their own Aphides,
and gives an interesting account of them, Journ. de Physique, i. 195.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. f)5

males and females from the nest — are often disgusterA
with their present habitation, and seek to establish
themselves in a new one : — either the near neighbour-
hood of enemies of their own species; annoyance from
frequent attacks of man or other animals ; their expo-
sure to cold or wet from the removal of some species of
shelter; or the discovery of a station better circum*-
stanced or more abundant in aphides ; — all these may
operate as inducements to them to change their resi-
dence. That this is the case might be inferred from
the circumstance noticed by Gould % which I have also
partly witnessed myself, that they sometimes transport
their young brood to a considerable distance from their
home. But M. Huber, by his interesting observations,
has placed this fact beyond all controversy ; and his
history of their emigrations is enlivened by some traits
so singular, that I am impatient to relate them to you.
They concern chiefly the great hill-ant {F. rufa)y
though several other species occasionally emigrate.

Some of the neuters having found a spot which they
judge convenient for a new habitation, apparently with-
out consulting the rest of the society, determine upon
an emigi'ation, and thus they compass their intention :
The first step is to raise recruits : — with this view they
eagerly accost several fellow citizens of their own or-
der, caress them with their antennje, lead them by their
mandibles, and evidently appear to propose the journey
to them. If they seem disposed to accompany them,
the recruiting officer, for so it may be called, prepares
to carry oft' his recruit, who, suspending himself upon
hismandibles,hangs coiled up spirally under his neck;

a (uuiUi, 42.

94 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECT?.

— all this passes in an amicable manner after muhicU
salutations. Sometimes, however, the recruiter takeS
the other by surprise, and drags him from the ant-hill
without giving him time to consider or resist. When
arrived at the proposed habitation, the suspended ant
uncoils itself, and, quitting its conductor, becomes a re-
cruiter in its turn. The pair return to the old nest,
and each carries off a fresh recruit, which being arrived
at the spot joins in the undertaking : — thus the num-
ber of recruiters keeps progressively increasing, till the
path between the new and the old city is full of goers
and comers, each of the former laden with a recruit.
What a singular and amusing scene is then exhibited
of the little people thus employed ! When an emigra-
tion of a rufescent colony is going forward, the negroes
are seen carrying their masters ; and the contrast of the
red with the black renders it peculiarly striking. The
little turf-ants (jF. ccespituin, L.) upon these occasions
carry their recruits uncoiled, with their head down-
wards and their body in the air.

This extraordinary scene continues several daysj
but when all the neuters are acquainted with the road
to the new city, the recruiting ceases. As soon as a
sufficient number of apartments to contain them are
prepared, the young brood, with the males and females,
are conveyed thither, and the whole business is con-
cluded. When the spot thus selected for their resi-
dence is at a considerable distance from the old nest,
the ants construct some intermediate receptacles, re-
sembling small ant-hills, consisting of a cavity fhlled
with fragments of straw and other materials, in which
they form several cells; and here at first they deposit

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 95

tlieir recruits, males, females, and brood, which they
afterwards conduct to the final settlement. Tliese in-
termediate stations sometimes become permanent nests,
which however maintain a connexion with the capital
city\

While the recruiting is proceeding, it appears to oc-
casion no sensation in the original nest; all goes on in
it as usual, and the ants that are not yet recruited pur-
sue their ordinary occupations: whence it is evident
that the change of station is not an enterprise under-
taken by the whole community. Sometimes many
neuters set about this business at the same time, which
gives a short existence (for in the end tiiey all re-
unite into one) to many separate formicaries. If the
ants dislike their new city, they quit it for a third, and
even for a fourth : and what is remarkable, they will
sometimes return to their original one before they are
entirely settled in the new station; when the re-
cruiting goes in opposite directions, and the pairs pass
each other on the road. You may stop the emigration
for the present, if you can arrest the first recruiter,
and take away his recruit''.

I shall now relate to you some other portions of
Myrmidonian History, which, though perhaps not so
striking and wonderful as the preceding details, are not
devoid of interest, and will serve to exemplify their
incredible diligence, labour, and ingenuity.

a Walking one day caily in July,, this summer (1815) in a spot where
I used to notice a single nest o^ Formica rufa, I observed that a new co-
iaony had been formed of considerable magrritude; and between it and
the original nest were six or seven smaller seitleraents.

b See Hiiber, chap. iv. ^ 3.

96 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS,

In this country it is commonly in March, earlier or
later accordinji^ to the season, that ants first make their
appearance, and they continue their labours till the
jniddle or latter end of October. They emerge usu-
ally from their subterranean winter-quarters on some
sunny day ; when, assembling in crowds on the surface
of the formicary, they may be observed in continual
motion, walking incessantly over it and one another,
without departing- from home; as if their object, before
they resumed their employments, was to habituate
themselves to the action of the air and sun\ This
preparation requires a few days, and then the business
of the year commences. The earliest employment of
ants is most probably to repair the injuries which their
habitation has received during their state of inactivity :
this observation more particularly applies to the hill-
ant (F. ru/a), all the upper stories of whose dwellings
are generally laid flat by the winter rains and snow ;
but every species, it may well be supposed, has at this
season some deranged apartments to restore to order,
or some demolished ones to rebuild.

After their annual labours are begun, few are igno-
rant how incessantly ants are engaged in building or
repairing their habitations, in collecting provisions,
and in the care of their young brood; but scarcely any
are aware of the extent to which their activity is car-
ried, and that their labours are going on even in the
night. — Yet this is a certain fact. — Long ago Aristotle
affirmed that ants worked in the night when the moon
was at the full''; and their historian Gould observes,
" that they even exceed the painful industrious bees-

a Gould, 67. De Geer, ii. 1054. ^ Hist. Animal. I. ix. c. 38.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 97

For the ants employ each moment, by day and night,
almost without intermission, unless hindered by exces*
sive rains*." M. Iluber also, speaking- of a mason-
ant, not found with us, tells us that they work after
sun-set, and in the nighf". To these I can add some
observations of my own, which fully confirm these ac-
counts. My first were made at nine o'clock at night,
when I found the inhabitants of a nest of the red ant
{Mi/rmica rubra) very busily employed ; I repeated
the observation, which 1 could conveniently do, the nest
being in my garden, at various times from that hour till
twelve, and always found some going and coming, even
while a heavy rain was falling. Having in the day
noticed some Aphides upon a thistle, I examined it
again in the night, at about eleven o'clock, and found
my ants busy milking their cows, which did not for the
sake of repose intermit their suction. At the same
hour, another night, I observed the little negro ant
(F.fusca) engaged in the same employment upon an
elder. About two miles from my residence was a nest
of Gould's hill-ant (F. rttfa), whi(!h, according to
M. Huber, shut their gates, or rather barricade them,
every night, and remain at home*^. Being desirous of
ascertaining the accuracy of his statement, early in
October, about two o'clock one morning, I visited this
nest, in company with an intelligent friend; and to our
surprise and admiration we found our ants at work,
some being engaged in carrying their usual burden,
sticks and straws, into their habitation, others going
out from it, and several were climbing the neighbour-
ing oaks, doubtless to milk their Aphides. The num-

a Gould, 68. I) Ui\bcT, 35, 42. c Hubcr, 23.

VOL. II. H

98 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

her of comers and goers at that hour, however, was
notjiing compared with the myriads that may always
be seen on these nests during- the day. It so happened
that oilr visit was paid while the moon was near the
full; so that wliether this species is equally vigilant
and active in the absence of that luminary yet remains
uncertain. Perhaps this circumstance might reconcile
Huber's observation with ours, and confirm the accu-
racy of Aristotle's statement before quoted. To the
red ant, indeed, it is perfectly indifferent whether the
moon shine or not ; they are always busy, though not
in such numbers as during the day. It is probable
that these creatures take their repose at all hours in-
differently ; for it cannot be supposed that they are
employed day and night without rest.

I have related to you in this and former letters most
of the works and employments of ants, but as yet I have
given you no account of their roads and track- ways. —
Don't be alarmed, and imagine I am going to repeat
to you the fable of the ancients, that they wear a path
in the stones*; for I suppose you will scarcely be
brought to believe that, as Hannibal cut a way for the
passage of his army over the Alps by means of vinegar,
so the ants may with equal effect employ the formic
acid : but more species than one do really form roads
which lead from their formicaries into the adjoining
country. Gould, speaking of his jet-ant (F.fuliginosa),
says that they make several main track-ways, (streets
he calls them,) with smaller paths striking off from
them, extending sometimes to the distance of forty feet
from their nest, and leading to those spots in which they

a Plic. IIL:. Nat. Ixi. c. 29.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 99

collect their provisions ; that upon these roads they
always travel, and are very careful to remove from them
bits of sticks, straw, or any thing that may impede their
progress ; nay, that they even keep low the herbs and
grass which grow in them, by constantly biting them
ofF% so that they may be said to mow their walks. But
the best constructors of roads are the hill-ants {F.riifa).
Of these De Geer says, " When you keep yourself
still, without making any noise in the woods peopled
with these ants, you may hear them very distinctly
walking over the dry leaves which are dispersed upon
the soil, the claws of their feet producing a slight sound
when they lay hold of them. They make in the ground
broad paths, well beaten, which may be readily distin-
guished, and which are formed by the going and coming
of innumerable ants, whose custom it is always to tra-
vel in the same route^." From Huber we further
learn, that these roads of the hill-ants aie sometimes a
hundred feet in length, and several inches wide; and
that they are not formed merely by the tread of these
creatures, but hollowed out by their labour '^. Virgil
alludes to their tracks in the following animated lines,
which, though not altogether correct, are very beau-
tiful :

'' So when the pismires, an industrious train,
Embodied rob some golden heap of grain,
Studious ere stormy winter frowns to lay
Safe in their darksome cells the treasured prey ;
In one long track the dusky legions lead
Their prize in triumph through the rerdant mead ;

a Gould, S7. b Dc Geer, ii. 1067. c Ilubcr, 146.

U 2

100 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

Here bending with the load, a ])anting throng
With force conjoin'd heave some huge grain along 5
Some lash the stragglers to the task assigned,
Some to their ranks the bands that lag behind :
They crowd the peopled path in thick array,
Glow at the work, and darken ail the way."

Bonnet^ observing that ants always keep the same
track both in going from and returning to their nest,
imagines that their paths are imbued with the strong
scent of the formic acid, which serves to direct them ;
but, as Huber remarks, though this may be of some use
to them, their other senses must be equally employed,
since it is evident, when they have made any discovery
of agreeable food, that they possess the means of di-
recting their companions to it, though it is scarcely
possible that the path can have been sufficiently impreg-
nated with the acid for them to trace their way to it by
scent. Indeed the recruiting system described above,
proves that it requires some pains to instruct ants in
the way from an old to a new nest ; whereas, were they
directed by scent, after a sufficient number had passed
to and fro to imbue the path with the acid, there would
be no occasion for further deportations ''.

Though ants have no mechanical inventions to di-
minish the quantum of labour, yet by numbers, strength,
and perseverance they effect what at first sight seems
quite beyond their powers. Their strength is wonder-
ful : I once, as I formerly observed, saw two or three of
them haling along a young snake not dead, which was of
the thickness of a goose-quill ''. St. Pierre relates, that
he was highly amused with seeing a number of ants car-
a-(Euv.dc Bonnet, i. 535. Huber, 191. 1* Vol. 1. 2d Ed. !e57.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 101

rying oft' a Patagonian centipede. They had seized it
by all its legs, and bore it along as workmen do a large
piece of timber*. The Mahometans hold, as Thevenot
relates, that one of the animals in Paradise is Solomon's
ant, which, when all creatures in obedience to him
brought him presents, dragged before him a locust, and
was therefore preferred before all others, because it
had brought a creature so much bigger than itself.
They sometimes, indeed, aim at things beyond their
strength ; but if they make their attack, they perti-
naciously persist in it though at the expense of their
lives. I have in my cabinet a specimen of Colliuris
/ongico/lis, Latr., to one of the legs of which a small
ant, scarcely a thirtieth part of its bulk, is fixed by its
jaws. It had probably the audacity to attack this giant,
compared with itself, and obstinately refusing to let
go its hold was starved to death ^. Professor Afzelius
once related to me some particulars with respect to a
species of ant in Sierra Leone, which proves the same
point. He says that they march in columns that ex-
ceed all powers of numeration, and always pursue a
straight course, from which nothing can cause them to
deviate: if they come to a house or other building,
they storm or undermine it ; if a river comes across
them, though millions perish in the attempt, they en-
deavour to swim over it.

This quality of perseverance in ants on one occar

a Voy. to Maurit. 7 1 .

b I was much amused, when dining in the forest of Fontainebleau this
summer, by the pertinacity with which the hill-ant {F. riifa) attacked
«iur food, haling from our very plates, while we were eating, long strips
;of meat many times their own size.

lOa PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

sion led to very important results, which affected a large
portion of this habitable globe ; for the celebrated con-
queror Tiniour, being once forced to take shelter from
his enemies in a ruined building, where he sat alone
many hours, desirous of diverting his mind from his
hopeless condition, he fixed his observation upon an
ant that was carrying a grain of corn (probably a pupa)
larger than itself up a high wall. Numbering the ef-
forts that it made to accomplish this object, he found
that the grain fell sixty-nine times to the ground, but
the seventieth time it reached the top of the wall.
" This sight (said Timour) gave me courage at the
moment ; and I have never forgotten the lesson it con-
veyed ^."

Madame Merian, in her Surinam Insects, speaking
of the large-headed ant {Formica megacephala, L.),
affirms that, if they wish to emigrate, they will construct
a living bridge in this manner : — One individual first
fixes itself to a piece of wood by means of its jaws, and
remains stationary ; with this a second connects itself;
a third takes hold of the second, and a fourth of the
third, and so on, till a long connected line is formed
fastened at one extremity, which floats exposed to the
wind, till the other end is blown over so as to fix itself
to tne opposite side of the stream, when the rest of the
colony pass over upon it, as a bridge ^. This is the
process, as far as I can collect it from her imperfect
account : — as she is not always very correct in her state-
ments, I regarded this as altogether fabulous, till I

a Related in the Quarterly Review for August 1816, p. 259,
b Insect. Surinam, p. 18. In her plate the ants are represented so
counected.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 103

met with the following history of a similar proceeding
in De Azara, which induces me to give more credit
to it.

He tells us, that in low districts in South America,
that are exposed to inundations, conical hills of earth
may be observed, about three feet high, and very near
to each other, which are inhabited by a little black ant.
When an inundation takes place, they are heaped to-
gether out of the nest into a circular mass, aboiit a foot
in diapoeter and four fingers in depth. Thus they rer
main floating upon the water while the inundation
continues. One of the sides of the mass which they
form is attached to some sprig of grass, or piece of
wood; and when the waters are retired, they return to
their habitation. When they wish to pass from one
plant to another, they may often be seen formed into
a bridge, of two palms length, and of the breadth of a
finger, which has no other support than that of its two
extremities. One would suppose that their own weight
would sink them ; but it is certain that the masses re-
main floating during the inundation, which lasts some
days'^.

You must now be fully satiated with this account of
the constant fatigue and labour to which our little pis-
mires are doomed by the law of their nature ; I shall
therefore endeavour to relieve your mind by introdu-
cing you to a more quiet scene, and exhibit them to you
during their intervals of repose and relaxation.

Gould tells us that the hill-ant is very fond of bask-
ing in the sun, and that on a fine serene morning you

a Voyages dam V^mriiqm Mtrid. i. 1ST.

104 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

may see them conglomerated like bees on the surface
of their nest, from whence, on the least disturbance,
they will disappear in an instant ''. M. Huber also
observes, after their labours are finished, that they
stretch themselves in the sun, where they lie heaped
one upon another, and seem to enjoy a short interval
of repose : and in the interior of an artificial nest, in
which he had confined some of this species, where he
saw many employed in various ways, he noticed some
reposing which appeared to be asleep ^.

But they have not only their time for repose ; they
also devote some to relaxation, during which they
amuse themselves with sports and games. " You may
frequently perceive one of these ants (F. rufa) (says
our Gould) run to and fro with a fellow-labourer in
his forceps, of the same species and colony. It appear-
ed first in the light of provisions; but I was soon un-
deceived by observing, that after being carried for some
time, it was let go in a friendly maiyier, and received
no personal injury. This amusement, or whatever title
you please to give it, is often repeated, particularly
amongst the hill-ants, who are very fond of this sportive
exercise '^." A nest of ants which Bonnet found in the
head of a teazle, when enjoying the full sun, which
seems the acme of formic felicity, amused themselves
with carrying each other on their backs, the rider hold-
ing with his mandibles the neck of his horse, and em-
bracing it closely with his legs ''. But the most circum-
stantial account of their sports is given by Huber. " I
approached one day," says he, '' one of their formicaries

a Gould, 69. b Huber, 73. c Gould, 103— d Bonnet, ii. 407.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 105

<lie is speaking of F. riifa) exposed to the sun and
sheltered from the north. The ants were heaped to-
gether in great numbers, and seemed to enjoy the tem-
perature which they experienced at the surface of the
nest. None of them were working : tliis multitude of
accumulated insects exhibited the appearance of a boil-
ing fluid, upon which at first the eye could scarce fix
itself without difficulty. But when I set myself to fol-
low each ant separately, I saw them approach each
other, moving their antennae with astonishing rapidity;
with their fore-feet they patted lightly the cheeks of
other ants: after these first gestures, which resembled
caresses, they reared upon their hind-iegs by pairs,
they wrestled together, they seized one another by a
mandible, by a leg or an antenna, they then let go their
hold to renew the attack ; they fixed themselves to
each other's trunk or abdomen, they embraced, they
turned each other over, or lifted each other up by turns
they soon quitted the ants they had seized, and en-
deavoured to catch others : I have seen some who en-
gaged in these exercises with such eagerness, as to pur-
sue successively several workers; and the combat did
not terminate till the least animated, having thrown
his antagonist, accomplished his escape by concealing
himself in some gallery^." He compares these sports
to the gambols of two puppies, and tells us that he not
only often observed them in this nest, but also in his
artificial one.

I shall here copy for you a memorandum I made last
year. " On the ninth of May, at half-past two, as I
>vas walking on the Plumstead road near Norwich,

•-• Hiiber, 170,—

106 PLRFECT SOCIETIES Of INSECTS.

on a sunny bank I observed a large number of ants
(Formica fusca, L,) agglomerated in crowds near the
entrances of their nest. They seemed to make no long
excursions, as if intent upon enjoying the sun-shine at
home; but all the while they were coursing about, and
appeared to accost each other with their antennae. Exa-
mining them very attentively, I at length saw one drag-
ging another, which it absolutely lifted up by its an-
tennae, and carrying it in the air. I followed it with my
eye, till it concealed itself and its antagonist in the nest.
I soon noticed another that had recourse to the same
manoeuvres ; but in this instance the ant that was at-
tacked resisted manfully, a third sometimes appearing
inclined to interfere : the result was, that this also was
dragged in. A third was haled in by its legs, and a fourth
by its mandibleo. What was the precise object of these
proceedings, whether sport or violence, I could not as-
certain. I walked the same way on the following morn-
ing, but at an earlier hour, when only a few comers and
goers were to be seen near the nest :" And soon leav-
ing the place, I had no further opportunity to attend
to them.

And now having conducted you through every apart-
ment of the formicary, and shown you its inhabitants
in every light, I shall leave you to meditate on the ex-
traordinary instincts with which their Creator has gift-
ed them, reserving what I have to say on the other so-
cial insects for a future occasion.

I am, &c.

LETTER XVIII.

SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

PERFECT SOCIETIES CONTINUED. (JFasfs and Hum-
ble-Bees.)

I SHALT, now call your attention to such parts of the
history of two other descriptions of social insects, wasps,
namely, and humble-bees^ as have not been related to
you in my letters on the affection of insects for their
young, and on their habitations. What I have to com-
municate, though not devoid of interest, is not to be
compared with the preceding account of the ants, nor
with that which w ill follow of the hive-bee. This, how-
ever, may ansa more from the deficiency of observa-
tions than the barrenness of the subject.

The first of these animals, zcasps, — with whose pro-
ceedings I shall begin, — we are apt to regard in a very
unfavourable light. They are the most impertinent
of intruders. If a door or window be open at the sea-
son of the year in which they appear, they are sure to
enter. When they visit us, they stand upon no cere-
mony, but make free with every thing that they can
come at. Sugar, meat, fruit, wine, are equally to their
taste ; and if we attempt to drive them away, and are
not very cautious, they will often make us sensible that
tliey are not to be provoked with impunity. Compared
with the bees, they may be considered as a horde of
thieves and brigands ; and the latter as peaceful, honest,

108 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS,

and industrious subjects, whose persons are attacked
and property plundered by them. Yet, with all this
love of pillag^e and other bad propensities, they are not
altogether disagreeable or unamiable ; they are brisk
and lively; they do not usually attack unprovoked;
and their object in plundering us is not purely selfish,
but is principally to provide for the support of the
young brood of their colonies.

The societies of wasps, like those of ants and other
social Hymenoptera^ consist of females, males, and
workers. The females may be considered as of two
sorts : first, the females by way of eminence, much
larger than any other individuals of the community,
equalling six of the workers (from which in other re-
spects they do not materially differ) in weight, and lay-
ing both male and female eggs. Then the small fe-
males, not bigger than the workers, and laying only
male eggs. This last description of females, which are
found also both amongst the humble-bees and hive-bees,
were first observed amongst the wasps by M. Perrot,
a friend of Ruber's^. The large females are produced
later than the workers, and make their appearance in
the following spring ; and whoever destroys one of them
at that time, destroys an entire colony, of which she
would be the founder. They are more worthy of praise
than the queen-bee ; since upon the latter, from her
very first appearance in the perfect state, no labour
devolves, — all her wants being prevented by a host of
workers, some of which are constantly attending upon
her, feeding her, and permitting her to suffer no fa-
tigue ; while others take every step that is necessary

a Huber, Nouv. Observ. ii. 443.

PEtlf ECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 109

fof the safety and subsistence of the colony. Not so
our female wasp ; — she is at first an insulated being
that has had the fortune to survive tlie rigours of win-
ter. When in the spring- she lays the foundation of her
future empire, she has not a single worker at her dis-
posal ; with her own hands and teeth she often hollows
out a cave w herein she may lay the first foundations of
her paper metropolis ; she must herself build the first
liouses, and produce from her own womb their first in-
habitants ; which in their infant state she must feed and
educate, before they can assist her in her great design.
At length she receives the reward of her perseverance
and labour ; and from being a solitary unconnected in-
dividual, in the autumn is enabled to rival the queen
of the hive in the number of her children and subjects;
and in the edifices which they inhabit — the number of
cells in a vespiary sometimes amounting to more than
16,000, almost all of which contain either an egg, a
grub, or a pupa; and each cell serving for three gene-
rations in a year ; which, after making every allowance
for failures and other casualties, will give a population
of at least 30,000. Even at this time, when she has so
numerous an army of coadjutors, the industry of this
creature does not cease, but she continues to set an
example of diligence to the rest of the community. — If
by any accident, before the other females are hatched,
the queen mother perishes, the neuters cease their la-
bours, lose their instincts, and die.

The number of females in a populous vespiary is con-
siderable, amounting to several hundred; they emerge
from the pupa about the latter end of August, at the
same time with the males, and fly in September and

110 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

October, when they pair. Of this large number of fe-
males, very few survive the winter. Those that are
so fortunate remain torpid till the vernal sun recalls
them to life and action. They then fly forth, collect
provision for their young brood, and are engaged in the
other labours necessary for laying the foundation of
their empire: but in the summer months they are
never seen out of the nest.

The male wasps are much smaller than the female,
but they weigh as much as two workers. Their an-
tennffi are longer than those of either, not, like theirs,
thicker at the end, but perfectly filiform ; and their
abdomen is distinguished by an additional segment.
Their numbers about equal those of the females, and
they are produced at the same time. They are not so
wholly given to pleasure and idleness as the drones of
the hive. They do not, indeed, assist in building the
nest, and in the care of the young brood ; but they are
the scavengers of the community ; for they sweep the
passages and streets, and carry off all the filth. They
also remove the bodies of the dead, which are some-
times heavy burthens for them ; in which case two unite
their strength to accomplish the work ; or, if a partner
be not at hand, the wasp thus employed cuts off the
head of the defunct, and so effects its purpose. As they
make themselves so useful, they are not, like the male
bees, devoted by the workers to an universal massacre
when the impregnation of the females, the great end of
their creation, is answered; but they share the general
lot of the community, and are suffered to survive till
the cold cuts off them and the workers together.

The toorkeis are the most numerous, and to us the

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. Ill

only troublesome part of the community ; upon whom
devolves the nuiin business of the nest. In the sum-
mer and autumnal months, they go forth by myriads
into the neighbouring country to collect provisions;
and on their return to the common den, after reserving
a sufficiency for the nutriment of the young brood, they
divide the spoil with great impartiality; — part being
given to the females, part to the males, and part to those
workers that have been engaged in extending and for-
tifying the vespiary. This division is voluntarily made,
without the slightest symptom of compulsion. Several
wasps assemble round each of the returning workers,
and receive tijcir rcs^pective portions. It is curious and
interesting to observe their motions upon this occasion.
As soon as a wasp, that has been filling itself with the
juice of fruits, arrives at the nest, it perches upon the
top, and disgorging a drop of its saccharine fluid, is
attended sometimes by two at once, who share the
treasure : this being thus distributed, a second and
sometimes a third drop is produced, which falls to the
lot of others.

Another principal employment of the workers is the
enlarging and repairing of the nest. It is extremely
amusing to see them engaged upon this foliaceous co-
vering. They work with great celerity; and though
a large number are occupied at the same time, there is
not the least confusion. Each individual has its por-
tion of work assigned to it, extending from an inch to
an inch and a half, and is furnished with a ball of ligne-
ous fibre, scraped or rather plucked by its powerfuf
jaws from posts, rails, and the like. This is carried in its
moutli, and is thus ready for immediate use : — but upon

112 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

this subject I have enlarged in a former letter''. The
workers also clean the cells, and prepare them to
receive another egg, after the imago is disclosed and
has left it.

There is good reason for thinking, and the opinion
has the sanction of Sir Joseph Banks, that wasps have
sentinels placed at the entrances of their nests, which
if you can once seize and destroy, the remainder will
not attack you. This is confirmed by an observation
of Mr. Knight's in i\\e Philosophical Transactions^, that
if a nest of wasps be approached without alarming the
inhabitants, and all communication be suddenly cutotf
between those out of the nest and those within it, no
provocation w ill induce the former to defend it and
themselves. But if one escapes from within, it comes
with a very different temper, and appears commissioned
to avenge public wrongs, and prepared to sacrifice its
life in the execution of its orders. He discovered this
when quite a boy.

It sometimes happens, that when a large number of
female wasps have been o])served in the spring, and an
abundance of workers has in consequence been ex-
pected to make their attack upon us in the summer and
autumn, but few have appeared. Mr. Knight observed
this in 1806, and supposes it to be caused by a failure
of males ''. I have since more than once made the same
observation, and Major Moor, as well as myself, no-
ticed it last year (1815). What took place here in the
present year (181G) may in some degree account for
it. Though the summer has been so wet, and one may
almost say winterly, there were in the neighbour-

a Vol. I. 2d Ed. p. 505. b For 180T, 242— c Ibid. 243.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 113

hood in which I reside abundance of wasps at the usual
time ; but, except on some few warm days, in which
they were very active, benumbed by the cold they were
crawling about upon the floors of ray house, and seemed
unable to fly. In this vicinity numbers make their
nests in the banks of the river. In the beginning of
October there was a very considerable inundation, after
which not a single wasp was to be seen. The conti-
nued wet that produces an inundation may also destroy
those nests that are out of the reach of the waters ; —
and perhaps this cause may have operated in those
years above alluded to, in which the appearance of the
workers in the summer and autumn did not correspond
with the large numbers of females observed in the
spring.

In ordinary seasons, in the month lately mentioned,
October, wasps seem to become less savage and san-
guinary ; for even flies, of which earlier in the sum-
mer they are the pitiless destroyers, may be seen to
enter their nests with impunity. It is then, probably,
that they begin to be first affected by the approach of
the cold season, when nature teaches them it is useless
longer to attend to their young. They themselves all
perish, except a few of the females, upon the first
attack of frost.

Reaumur, from whom (see the sixth Memoir of his
last volume) most of these observations are taken, put
the nests of wasps under glass hives, and succeeded so
effectually in reconciling these little restless creatures
to them, that they carried on their various works under
his eye : and if you feel disposed to follow his example,
I have no doubt you will throw light upon many parts

VOL. II. I

114 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

of their history, concerning which we are now in
darkness.

Having given you soine idea, imperfect indeed from
the want of materials, of the societies of wasps, I must
next draw up for you the best account I can of those of
the humble-bees. These form a kind of intermediate link
between the wasps and the hive-bees, collecting honey
indeed and making wax, but constructing their combs
and cells without the geometric precision of the latter,
and of a more rude and rustic kind of architecture;
and distinguished from both, though they approach
nearer to the bees, by the extreme hairiness of their
bodies.

The population of a humble-bees nest may be di-
vided into four orders of individuals : the large females ;
the small females ; the males ; and the workers.

The large j^wa/c^, like the female wasps, are the
original founders of their republics. They are often
so large, that by the side of the small ones or the work-
ers, which in every other respect they exactly resemble,
they look like giants opposed to pygmies. They are
excluded from the pupa in the autumn ; and pair in that
season, with males produced from the eggs of the small
females. They pass the winter under ground, and, as
appears from an observation of M. P. Huber, in a par-
ticular apartment, separate from the nest, and ren-
dered warm by a carpeting of moss and grass, but with-^
out any supply of food. Early in the spring, (for they
make their first appearance as soon as the catkins of
the sallows and v^'illows are^in flower,) like the female
wasps, they lay the foundations of a new colony with-

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 115

out the assistance of any neuters, which all perish before
the winter. In some instances however, if a conjec-
ture of M. de la Billardiere be correct, these creatures
have an assistant assigned to them. He says, at this
season (the approach of winter) he found in the nest of
Apis St/lvarutn (Kirby) some old females and workers,
whose wings were fastened together to retain them in
the nest by hindering them from flying ; these wings
in each individual were fastened together at the ex-
tremity, by means of some very brown wax applied
above and below*. This he conceives to be a precau-
tion taken by the other bees to oblige these indivi-
duals to remain in the nest and take care of the brood
that was next year to renew the population of the co-
lony. I feel, however, great hesitation in admitting
this conjecture, founded upon an insulated and per-
haps an accidental fact. For, in the first place, the
young females that come forth in the autumn, and not '
the old ones, are the founders of new colonies ; and
their instinct directs them to fulfil the great laws of
their nature without such compulsion ; and in the next,
the workers are never known to survive the cold of
winter.

The employment of a large female, besides the
care of the young brood before described, and the col-
lecting of honey and pollen, is principally the construc-
tion of the cells in which her eggs are to be laid ;
which M. P. Huber seems to think, though they oflen
assist in it, the workers are not able to complete by
themselves. So rapid is the female in this work, that
to make a cell, fill it with pollen, commit one or two

a Mriiiohrs du Muaeum, &,<:. «. 35.
1 2

116 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

eo-o-s to it, and cover them in, requires only the short
space of half an hour. Her family at first consists only
of workers, which are necessary to assist her in her la-
bours; these appear in May and June : but the males
and females are later, and sometimes are not produced
before August and September^. As in the case of
the hive -bee, the food of these several individuals dif-
fers; for the grubs that will turn to workers are fed
with honey and pollen mixed, while those that are
destined to be males and females are supplied with
pure honey.

. The instinct of these larger females does not de-
velop itself all at once : for it is a remarkable fact, that
when they are first hatched in the autumn, not being in
a condition to become mothers, they are no object of
jealousy to the small queens, (as we shall soon see they
are when engaged in oviposition,) and are employed in
the ordinary labours of the parent nest — that is, they
collect honey and pollen, and make wax ; but they do
not construct cells. The building instinct seems as it
were in suspense, and does not manifest itself till the
spring; when the maternal sentiment impels them at
the same time to lay eggs and to construct the cells in
which they are to be deposited.

I have told you above, that amongst the wasps a
&»naU kind of female has been discovered : this is the
oase also amongst the humble-bees, in whose societies

aP. Huber, ill Linn. Trans, vi. 264;. — This author says however, in
a,n(>(.ht r place (ibid. 285), tliat the male eggs are laid in the spring, at thf
same time with those that are to produce workers. Perhaps by the former
he means the male offspring of the small females, and by the latter tho^^e
of Ihe large ?

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 117

they are more readily detected: not indeed by any
observable difference between them and the workers,
but chiefly by the difference of their instincts : — from
the other females tliey are distinguished solely by their
diminutive size. Like those of the wasps and hive-
bees, these minor queens produce only male eggs,
which come out in time to fertilize the young females
that found the vernal colonies. M. P. Huber suspects
that, as in the case of the female bee, it is a different
kind of food that develops their ovaries, and so distin*
guishes them from the workers. They are generally
attended by a small number of males, who form their
court.

M. Huber, watching- at midnight the proceedings of
a nest which he kept under a glass, observed the inha-
bitants to be in a state of great agitation : many of these
bees were engaged in making a cell ; the queen-mother
of the colony, as she may be called, who is always ex-
tremely jealous of her pygmy rivals, came and drove
them away from the cell; — siie in her turn was driven
away by the others, which pursued her, beating their
wings with the utmost fury, to the bottom of the nest.
The cell was then constructed, and two of them at the
same time oviposited in it. The queen returned to
the charge, exhibiting similar signs of anger ; and,
chasing thejii away again, put her head into the cell,
when seizing the eggs that had been laid, she was ob-
served to eat them with great avidity. The same scene
was again renewed, with the same issue. After this, one
of the small females returned and covered the empty
cells with wax. When the mother-queen was removed,

118 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

several ofthe small females contended for the cell with
indescribable rage, all endeavouring to lay their eggs
in it at the same time. These small females perish in
the autumn.

The males are usually smaller than the large females,
and larger than the small ones and workers. They may
be known by their longer, more filiform, and slenderer
antennae ; by the different shape and by the beard of
their mandibles. Their posterior tibiae also want the
corhicula ^xxApecten that distinguish the individuals of
the other sex, and their posterior plantae have no au-
ricle. We learn from Reaumur that the male humble-
bees are not an idle race, but work in concert with the
rest to repair any damage or derangement that may
befall the common habitation.

The workers, which are the first fruits of the queen-
mother's vernal parturition, assist her, as soon as they
are excluded from the pupa, in her various labours.
To them also is committed the construction of the
waxen vault that covers and defends the nest. When
any individual larva has spun its cocoon and assumed
the pupa, the workers remove all the wax from it; and
as soon as it has attained to its perfect state, which takes
place in about five days, the cocoons are used to hold
honey or pollen. When the bees discharge the honey
into them upon their return from their excursions, they
open their mouths and contract their bodies, which
occasions the honey to fall into the I'eservoir. Sixty of
these honey-pots are occasionally found in a single
nest, and more than forty are sometimes filled in a day.
In collecting honey, humble-bees, if they cannot get

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 119

at that contained in any flower by its natural open-
ina^, will often make an aperture at the base of the co-
rolla, or even in the calyx, that they may insert their
proboscis in the very place where nature has stored up
her nectar '^. M. Huber relates a singular anecdote of
some hive-bees paying a visit to a nesl of humble-bees
placed under a box not far from their hive, in order to
steal or beg their honey ; which places in a strong light
the good temper of the latter. This happened in a time
of scarcity. The hive-bees, after pillaging, had taken
almost entire possession of the nest. Some humble-bees
which remained in spite of this disaster, went out to
collect provisions ; and bringing home the surplus after
they had supplied their own immediate wants, the hive-
bees followed them, and did not quit them till they had
obtained the fruit of their labours. They licked them,
presented to them their proboscis, surrounded them,
and thus at last persuaded them to part with the con-
tents of their honey-bags. The humble-bees after this
flew away to collect a fresh supply. The hive-bees did
them no harm, and never once showed their stings; —
so that it seems to have been persuasion rather than
force that produced this singular instance of self- denial.
This remarkable manoeuvre was practised for more
than three weeks; when the wasps being attracted by
the same cause, the humble-bees entirely forsook the
nest*".

The workers are the most numerous part of the com-
munity, but are nothing when compared with the num-
bers to be found in a vespiary or a beehive : — two or

a Hub. Nouv. Observ. ii. 375. b Ibid. 373—

120 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

three hundred is a large population for a humble-bees
nest ; in some species it not being more than fifty or
sixty. — They may more easily be studied than either
wasps or hive-bees, as they seem not to be disturbed
or interrupted in their works by the eye of an ob-
server^.

I am, &c.

a This account of the proceedings of hurabU -bees is chieflj' taken from
Reaumur, vi. 3Iem. I.; and M. P. Huber in Linn. Trans, vi, 214 —

LETTER XIX.

SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
PERFECT SOCIETIES CONTINUED. (The Hite-hce.)

1 HE glory of an all- wise and omnipotent Creator, you
will acknowledge, is wonderfully manifested by the va-
ried proceedings of those social tribes of which I have
lately treated : but it shines forth with a brightness
still more intense in the instincts that actuate the Jiive-
hee, and which I am next to lay before you. Indeed,
of all the insect associations, there are none that have
more excited the attention and admiration of mankind
in every age, or been more universally interesting, than
the colonies of these little useful creatures. Both Greek
and Roman writers are loud in their praise ; — nay,
some philosophers were so enamoured of them, that, as
I observed before % they devoted a large portion of
their time to the study of their history. Whether the
knowledge they acquired was at all equivalent to the
years that were spent in the attainment of it, may be
doubted : for, were it so, it is probable that Aristotle
and Pliny would have given a clearer and more con-
sistent account of the inhabitants of the hive than they
have done. Indeed, had their discoveries borne any
proportion to the long tract of time asserted to have
been employed by some in the study of these insect?,

" Vol. I. 2d Ed. 485.

122 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

they ought to have rivalled, and even exceeded, those
of the Reaumurs and Hubers of our own age.

Numerous, and wonderful for their absurdity, were
the errors and fables which many of the ancients adopt-
ed and circulated with respect to the generation and
propagation of these busy insects. For instance, — that
they were sometimes produced from the putrid bodies
of oxen and lions ; the kings and leaders from the
brain, and the vulgar herd from the flesh — a fable de-
rived probably from swarms of bees having been ob-
sei'ved, as in the case of Samson', to take possession of
tlie dried carcases of these animals, or perhaps from
the myriads of flies (for the vulgar do not readily di-
stinguish flies from bees) often generated in their pu-
trescent flesh. They adopted another notion equally
absurd; that these insects collect their young progeny
from the blossoms and foliage of certain plants. Amongst
others, the Cerinthus, the reed, and the olive-tree, had
this virtue of generating infant bees attributed to them**.
These specimens of ancient credulity will sufl[ice.

But do not think that all the ancients imbibed such
monstrous opinions. Aristotle's sentiments seem to
have been much more correct, and not very wide of
>vhat some of our best modern apiarists have advanced.
According to him, the kings (so he denominates the
queen-bee) generate both kings and Avorkers; and the
latter the drones. This he seems to have learned from
keepers of bees. The kings, says he in another place,
are the parents of the bees, and the drones their chil-
dren. It is right, he observes again, that the kings

a Judges xiv. 8, 9. b See Aristot. Hhl. Animal, 1. v. c. 22.

Virgil. Georgic. 1. iv.; and Mouict, 12 —

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 12S

(which by some were called mothers) should remain
within the hive unfettered by any employment, because
they aie made for the multiplication of the species*.
To tiie same purpose Riem of Lauten of the Palatinale
Apiarian Sociefj/, and Wilhelmi of the Lusatian, af-
firm that the queen lays the eggs which produce the
queens and workers ; and the workers those that pro-
duce the drones or males *•. Aristotle also tells us, that
gome in his time affirmed that the bees (the workers)
were the females, and the drones the males ; an opi-
nion which he combats from an analogy pushed rather
too far, that nature would never give offensive armour
to females '^. In another place he appears to think
that the workers are hermaphrodites : — his words are
remarkable, and seem to indicate that he was aware of
the sexes of plants : " having in themselves," says he,
'' like plants, the male and the female''."

Fables and absurdities, however, are not confined to
the ancients, nor even to those moderns who lived be^
fore Swammerdam, Maraldi, Reaumur, Bonnet, Schi-
rach, John Hunter, Huber, and their followers, by their
observations and discoveries had thrown so much light
upon this interesting subject. Even in our own times,
a Neapolitan professor, Monticelli, asserts, on the au-
thority of a certain father Tanoya, that in every hive
there are three sorts of bees independent of each other ;
viz. male and female drones — male and female, I mu&t
not say queens — call them what }ou will; and male
and female workers ; and that eacli construct their own

d Aristot, uM supr. c. 21. De General. JnimaK 1. iii. c. 10, where there
is some curious reasoning upon this subject. l> Bonnet, x. 199 — . 236 —
c Jliil. Animal. 1. v. c. t2. d De General. Animal, l.iii. c 10.'

124 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

cells ! ! ! Another writer, Mr. Huish, whose work has
just made its appearance, and whose presumption can
only be equalled by his ignorance % denies most of the
modern discoveries, and asserts that the queen always
remains a virgin ! ! Enough, liovvever, upon this sub-
ject. I shall now endeavour to lay before you the best
authenticated facts in the history of these animals; but
you must not expect an account of them complete i?5
all its parts; for, much as wc know, Bonnet's observa-
tion will still hold good : ''• The more I am engaged in
making fresh observations upon bees, the more stead-
fast is my conviction, that the time is not yet arrived
in which we can draw satisfactory conclusions with re-
spect to their policy. It is only by varying and com-
bining experiments in a thousand ways, and J)y placing
these industrious flies in circumstances more or less re-
moved from their ordinary state, that we can hope to
ascertain the right direction of their instinct, and the
true principles of their government''.

What I have further to say concerning these admi-
rable creatures, will be principally taken from the two
authors who have given the clearest and most satisfac-
tory account of them, Reaumur and the elder Huber ;
though I shall add from other sources such additional
observations as may serve better to elucidate their
history.

The society of a hive of bees, besides the young

a The following passage, in which he speaks of the Sphinx Atropos as
belonging to Linne's </!ree lepidopterous genera, will sufBciently justify
this assertion. The Death-headed Sphinx {Sphinx Atropos) is a gre^t
butterfly, and belongs also to the genus Phalcna, p. 126 ! ! !

b (Euvr. X. 191—

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 125

brood, consists of one female or queen ; several hun-
dreds of males or drones; and many thousand workers.
The female^ or queen, first demands our attention.
Two sorts of females have been observed amongst the
bees, a large one and a small. Mr. Needham was the
first that observed the latter ; and their existence,
M. P. Iluber tells us, has been confirmed by several
observations of his father. They are bred in cells as
large as those of the common queens, from which they
differ only in size. Though they have ovaries, they
have never been observed to lay eggs^. Having never
seen one of these, for they are of very rare occurrence,
my description must be confined to the common femalej
the genuine monarch of the hive''.

a Bonnet, x. P. Huber in hinn. Trans, vi. 283, Reaumur (v. 373)
observes that some queens are much larger than others; but he attributes
this difference of their size to the state of the eggs in their body.

b As every reader is not aware of the differences of form, &c. that di-
stinguish the females, males, and workers from each other (I have seen
the male mistaken for a distinct species, and placed in a cabinet as Apis
lagopcda, L.), I shall here subjoin a description of each. — The body of
the female bee is considerably longer than that of either the drone or
the worker. The prevailing colour in all three is the same, black or
black-brown ; but with respect to the female this does not appear to be
invariably the case; for — uot to insist upon Virgil's royal bees glittering
with ruddy or golden spots and scales, where allowance must be made
for poetic license — Reaumur affirms, after describing some differences of
colour in different individuals of this sex, that a queen may always be di-
stinguished, both from the workers and males, by the colour of her body *.
If this observation be restricted to the colour of some parts of her body,
it is correct ; but it will not apply to all generally (unless, as I suspect
may be the case, by the term body he means the abdomen), for, in all that
I have had an opportunity of examining, the prevailing colour, as I hiive
stated it, is the same.

The //eflrf is not larger than thatof the workers; but the <ow^!/e is shorter

* Reaumur, v. 375.

V26 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

There are two descriptions of males — one not bigger
than the workers, supposed to be produced from a male

and more slender, with straighter maxillae. Tlie mandibles are forficate,
and do not jut out like theirs into a prominent angle; they are of the
colour of pitch with a red tinge, and terminate in two teeth, the exte-
rior being acute, and the interior blunt or truncated. The labrum or
upper-lip is fulvous ; and the antennee are piceous.

In the trunk, the tegnlee or scales that defend the base of the wings are
nifo-piceous. The wings reach only to the tip of the third abdominal
■legraent. The tarsi and the apex of the tibiee are rufo-fulvons. The po-
■iterior tibia are plane above and covered with short adpressed hairs, hav-
ing neither the corbicula (or marginal fringe of hairs for carrying the
masses of pollen) nor the pecien; and the posterior pten<<E have neither
(he brush formed of hairs set in strisp, nor the auricle at the base.

The abdomen is consider.ably longer than the head and trunk taken to-
gether, receding from the trunk, elongato-conical, and rather sharp at
tlie anus. The dorsal segments are fulvous at the tip ; covered with very
short, pallid, and, in certain lights, shining adpressed hairs; the first seg-
ment being very short, and cover^'d with longer hairs. The ventral seg-
ments, except the anal, which is black, are fulvescent or rufo- fulvous, and
covered with soft longer hairs. The vagina of the spicula (commonly
called the sting) is curved.

The male bee, or drone, is quite the reverse of his royal paramour; his
body being thick, short, and clumsy, and very obtuse at each extremity *.
It is covered also, as to the head and trunk, with dense hairs.

The head is depressed and orbicular. The tongue is shorter and more
slender than that of the female ; and the mandibles, though nearly of the
same shape, are smaller. The eye.s are very large, meeting at the b«ick
part of the head. In the space between them are placed the antenna
and stemmata. The former consist of fourteen joints, including tiie
radicle, the fourth and fifth being very short and not easily distin-
guished.

The trunk is large. The imngs are longer than the body. The legi

* Virgil seems to have regarded the drone as one of the sorts of kings*
•r leaders of the bees, when he says, speaking of the latter,

"... lUe horridus alter

Desidia, latamquc trahcns inglorius alvnm."

Georgic. iv. 1, 93.

PEUPECT SOCIETIES OP INSECTS. 127

egg laid in a worker's cell. The common males are
much larger, and will counterpoise two workers.
I have before observed to you that there are two

arr short and slender. Tlie posterior tilnie are lon^, club-shaped, and
covered with inconspicuous hairs. The posterior planlte ari» furnished
underneath with thick-set scnpulcv, which they use to brush their bodies.

The chno-joints are fulvescent.

The abdomen is cordate, very short, being scarcely so long as th:^ head
und trunk together, consisiing of seven segments, which are fulvous at
their apex. Tlie first segment is longer than any of the succeeding ones,
and covered above with rather long hairs. The second and third dorsal
segments are apparently naked ; but under a triple lens, in a certain
light, some adpressed hairs may bt> perceived ;— the remaining ones are
hairy, the three last being infl?xed. Tlie ventral segments are very nar-
row, hairy, and fulvous.

The body of the workers is oblong.

The head triangular. The mandibles are prominent, so as to terminate
the head in an angle, toothless and forcipate. The tongue and rnaxillte ar«
long and incurved : the labrum and antennee black.

In the trunk the tegulce are black. The wings extend only to the
apex of the fourth segment of the abdomen. The legsnre all black, with
the digits only rather piceous. The posierior tibitB are naked above,
evteriorly longitudinally concave, and interiorly longitudinally convex;
furnished with lateral and recumbent hairs to form the corbicula, and
arraed at the end with the pecten. The upper surface of the posterior
piantte resembles that of the tibiee ; underneath they are furnished with,
a scapula or brush of stiff hairs set in rows : at the base they are armed
with stiff" bristles, and exteriorly with an acute appendage or auricle.

^he abdomen is a little longer than the head and trunk together; ob-
long,and rather heart-shaped — a transverse section of it is triangular.
It is covered with longisli flavo-pallid hairs: the first segment is short
with longer hair<; the base of the tiiree intermediate segments is covered,
anJas it were banded, with pale hairs. The apex of the three inter-
mediate ventral segments is rather fulvescent, and their base is distin-
guished on e«icli side by a trapeziform wax -pocket covered by a thin
i^emhr^ne. Thchtitig, or ratlier rngina, of the mpicula is straigtit.

128 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

sorts of workers, the wax-makers and nurses*. They
may also be further divided into fertile and sterile ^ :
for some of them, which in their infancy are supposed
to have partaken of some portion of the royaljelly, lay
male eggs. There is found in some hives, according-
to Huber, a kind of bees, which from having less doAvn
upon the head and thorax appear blacker than the
others, by whom they are always expelled from the
hive, and often killed. Perfect ovaries, upon dissec-
tion, were discovered in these bees, though not fur-
nished with eggs. This discovery induced M"^ Ju-
rine, the lady who dissected them, to examine the
common workers in the same way ; and she found in
all that she examined, what had escaped Swammerdam,
perfect though sterile ovaries ". It is worth inquiry,
though Mr. Huber gives no hint of this kind, whether
these were not in fact superannuated bees, that could
no longer take part in the labours of the hive. Thor-
ley remarks, which confirms this idea, that, if you
closely observe a hive of bees in July, you may per-
ceive many amongst them of a dark colour, with wings
rent and torn ; but that in September not one of them
is to be seen '^. Huber does not say whether the wings
of the bees in question were lacerated; but in super-
annuated insects the hair is often rubbed off the body,
which gives them a darker hue than that of more recent

a See Vol, I. 2d. Ed. p. 490.

b In liives where a queen laying male ca;gs has been killed, the workers
continue to make only male cells, though supplied with a fertile queen,
atit. the fertile workers lay eggs in them. Schirach, 238.

c Fubcr, ii. 425— «I Thorley, On Bees, 179.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 129

individuals of the same species. Should this conjec-
ture turn out true, tlieir banishment and destruction of
the seniors of the hive would certainly not show our
little creatures in a very amiable point of view. Yet
it seems the law of their nature to rid their community
of all supernumerary and useless members, as is evi-
dent from their destruction of the drones after their
M'ork is done.

It is not often that insects have been weighed ; but
Reaumur's curiosity was excited to know the weight
of bees; and he found that 3:j6 weighed an ounce, and
6376 a pound. According to John Hunter, an ale-house
pint contains 2160 Workers.

I have described to you the persons of the different
individuals that compose the society of the bee-hive
more in detail than 1 should otherwise have done, in
order that you may be the better able to form a judge-
ment upon a most extraordinary circumstance in their
history, which is supported by evidence that seems
almost incontrovertible. The fact to which I allude
is this — that if the bees are deprived of their queen,
and are supplied with comb containing young worker
brood only, they will select one or more to be edu-
cated as queens ; which, by having a royal cell erected
for their habitation, and being fed with royal jelly for
Hot more than two days, when they emerge from the
pupa state (though, if they had remained in the cells
which they originally inhabited, they would have turned
outworkers) will come forth complete queens, with their
form, instincts, and powers of generation entirely dif-
ferent. In order to produce this effect, the grub must
not be more than three days old ; and this is the age at

VOL, II. K

130 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF l\SECT8.

which, according to Schirach, (the first apiarist tvhrt
called the public attention to this miracle of nature,)
the bees usually elect the larvae to be royally educated ;
though it appears from Ruber's observations, that a
larva two days or even twenty-four hours old Avilldo'.
Their mode of proceeding is described to be as follows :
— Having chosen a grub, they remove the inhabitants
and their food from two of the cells which join that in
which it resides ; they next take dow n the partitions
which separate these three cells ; and, leaving the bot-
toms untouched, raise round tlve selected worm a cylin-
drical tube, which follows the horizontal direction of
the other cells : but since at the close of the third day
of its life its habitation must assume a different form
and direction, they gnaw away the cells below it, and
sacrifice without pity the grubs they contain, using the
wax of which they were formed to construct a new py-
ramidal tube, which they join at right angles to the
horizontal one, the diameter of the former diminish-
ing insensibly from its base to its mouth. During the
two days which the grub inhabits this cell, like the
common royal cells now become vertical'', a bee may
always be observed with its head plunged into it; and
when one quits it another takes its place. These bees
keep lengthening the cell as the worm grows older, and
duly supply it with food, which they place before its
mouth, and round its body. The animal, which can
only move in a spiral direction, keeps incessantly turn-
ing to take the jelly deposited before it; and thus

aHul)er, i. 137.

b Reaumur, wlio was however unacquainteil with this exiraordinary
Tait, has figured one of these cells, v. /. 32./. 3. h.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OP INSECTS. iSV

slowly Working downwards, arrives insensibly near the
orifice ofthe cell, just at the time that it is ready to as-
sume the pupa ; when, as before described, the workers,
shut up its cradle with an appropriate covering^.

When you have read this account, I fear, with the
celebrated John Hunter, you will not be very ready
to believe it, at least you will call upon me to bring
forth my " strong reasons" in support of it. What ! —
you will exclaim — can a larger and warmer house (for
the royal cells are affirmed to enjoy a higher tempera-
ture than those of the other bees''), a different and
more pungent kind of food, and a vertical instead of
a horizontal posture, in the first place, give a bee a
differently shaped tongue and mandibles ; render the
surface of its posterior tibiae fiat instead of concave ;
deprive them ofthe fringe of hairs that forms the basket
for carrying the masses of pollen ; of the auricle and
pecten which enable the workers to use these tibiae as
pincers'^; ofthe brush that lines the inside of their
plantaB ? Can they lengthen its abdomen ; alter its
colour and clothing ; give a curve to its sting ; de-
prive it of its wax-pockets, and of the vessels for se-
creting that substance ; and render its ovaries more
conspicuous, and capable of yielding female as well
as male eggs ? Can, in the next place, the seeming-
ly,, trivial circumstances just enumerated altogether
alter the instinct of these creatures ? Can they give
to one description of animals address and industry;
arid to the other astonishing fecundity? Can we con-
ceive them to change the very passions, tempers, and

a Compai*. Bonnet, x. 156, with Hiibcr, i. 134— b Schirach, 69.
c ]fubcr,t. 4, f. J— 3.

K2

1S2 PfiRF'ECT SOClfitlES OF INSECTS.

manners ? That the very same fetus, if fed with more
pungent food, in a higher temperature and in a verti-^
cal position, shall become a female destined to enjoy
love, to burn with jealousy and anger, to be incited
to vengeance, and to pass her time without labour —
that this very same foetus, if fed with more simple food,
in a lower temperature, in a more confined and hori-
zontal habitation, shall come forth a worker zealous
for the good of the community, a defender of the public
rights, enjoying an immunity from the stimulus of
sexual appetite and the pains of parturition — labo-
rious, industrious, patient, ingenious, skilful — inces-
santly engaged in the nurture of the young; in col-
lecting honey and pollen ; in elaborating wax ; in con-
structing cells, and the like ! — paying the most respect-
ful and assiduous attention to objects which, had its
ovaries been developed, it would have hated, and pur-
sued with the most vindictive fury till it had destroyed
them ! Further, that these factitious queens (I mean
those that the bees elect from amongst worker
brood, and educate to supply the place of a lost one
in the manner just described) shall differ remarkably
from the natural queens, (or those that have been
wholly educated in a royal cell,) in being altogether
mute* — All this, you will think, at first sight, so im-
probable, and next to impossible, that you will require
the strongest and most irrefragable evidence before
you will believe it.

In spite of all these powerful probabilities to the
contrary, this astonishing and seemingly incredible
fact rests upon strong foundations, and is estalblished

aHuber, L 292.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 133

by experiments made at different times, by different
persons of the highest credit, in different parts of Eu-
rope. The first who brought it before the public (as
I lately observed) was M. Schirach, secretary of an
Apiarian Society established at Little Bautzen in
Upper Lusatia. He observed, that bees when shut up
with a portion of comb, containing only worker brood,
would soon erect royal cells, and thus obtain queens :
— the experiment was frequently repeated, and there-
suit was almost uniformly the same. In one instance
he tried it with a single cell, and it succeeded'^. This
curious fact was communicated to the celebrated Bon-
net, who, though he hesitated long before he admitted
it, was at length fully convinced. M. Wilhelmi (Schi-
rach's brother-in-law), though at first he accounted for
the fact upon other principles, and objected strongly
to the doctrine in question, induced by the powerful
evidence in favour of it, at last gave up his former
opinion, and embraced it. And, to mention no more,
the great Aristomachus of modern times, M. Huber,
by experiments repeated for ten years, was fully con-
vinced of the truth of Schirach's position''.

The fact in question, though the public attention
was first called to it by the latter gentleman, had in-
deed been practically known long before he wrote.
M. Vogel, in a letter to Wilhelmi, asserts that nume-
rous experiments confirming this extraordinary fact
had been made by more than a hundred different per-
sons, in the course of more than a hundred years; and
that he himself had known old cultivators of bees who
ji4d unanimously declared to him, that, when proper
n Bouiiet, X. b Uuber, i, 132«

134 PERFECT SOCIETIES OE IMSECTS.

precautions were taken, in a practice of more than fifty
years, the experiment had never failed^. Signer Mon-
ticelli, the Neapolitan professor before mentioned,
informs us that the Greeks and Turks of the Ionian
Islands know how to make artificial swarms; and that
the art of producing queens at will has been practised
by the inhabitants of a little Sicilian island called
Favignana, from very remote antiquity ; and he even
brings arguments to prove that it was no secret to the
Greeks and Romans'', though had the practice been
common it would surely have been noticed by Ari-
stotle and Pliny.

Bonner, a British apiarist, asserts that he has had
successful recourse to the Lusatian experiment*^; and
Mr. Payne of Shipdam in Norfolk (who for many
years has been engaged in the culture of bees, and has
paid particular attention to their proceedings) relates
that he well remembers that the bees of one of his
hives, which he discovered had lost their queen, were
engaged in erecting some royal cells upon the ruins of
some of the common ones. He also informs me that
he has found Huber's statements, as far as he has had
an opportunity of verifying them, perfectly accurate.

As I think you will allow that the evidence just de-
tailed to you is abundantly sufficient to establish the
fact in question, we will now see whether any satisfac-
tory account can be given for such changes being pro-
duced by such causes. " It does not appear to me impro-
bable," says Bonnet, " that a certain kind of nutriment,
and in more than usual abundance, may cause a de-
velopment in the grubs of bees, of organs which would

aSchirach, 121-. b Iluber, ii. 453. c Bonner yn iices, 56.

PEUFECt SOGIETIES OF INSECTS. 1^5

never be developed without it. I can readily conceive
also, that a habitation considerably more spacious, and
differently placed, is absolutely necessary to the com-
plete development of organs which the new nutri-
ment may cause to grow in all directions*." And
again, with respect to the wings of the queen bee,
which do not exceed those of the workers in length,
he thinks that this may arise from their being- of a
substance too stiff to admit of their extension. Those
parts and points that were in a state to yield most easily
to the action which this kind of nutriment produced,
would be most prominent ; and the vertical position
of the grub and pupa, since nature does nothing in
vain, may probably assist this action, and render the
parts of the animal more capable of such extension
than if it continued in a horizontal position.

We know, with respect to the human species and
the larger animals, that numerous differences, both as
to the form and relative proportion of parts, occur
continually. The cause of these differences we can-
not always ascertain ; yet in many instances they may
either be derived from the nutriment which the embryo
receives in the womb, or from the greater or less di-
mensions or higher or lower temperature of that or-
gan— a case that analogically would not be very wide
of that of the grub or embryo of a bee inclosed in a cell.
Some of the differences in man I now allude to, may
often be caused by a particular diet in childhood ; a
warmer or a colder, a looser or a tighter dress, or the
like. Thus, for instance, the Egyptians, who went
bare-headed, had their skulls remarkably thick; while
aHuber, ii. ■445.

136 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF IXSECTS.

the Persians, who covered the head with a turban or
mitre, were distinguished by the tenuity of theirs.
Again, the inhabitants of certain districts are often re-
markable for peculiarities of form, which are evidently
produced by local circumstances.

The following reasoning may not be inapplicable to
the development or non-development, according to
their food and habitation, of the ovaries of these insects.
An infant tightly swathed, as was formerly the custom,
^n swaddling bands, without being allowed the free play
of its little limbs, fed with unwholesome food, or un-
cherished by genial warmth, may from these circum-
stances have so imperfect a development of its organs
as to be in consequence devoted to sterility. When a
cow brings forth two calves, and one of them is a female,
it is always barren, and partakes in part of the charac-
ters of the other sex*. In this instance, the space and
food that in ordinary cases are appropriated to one, are
divided between two; so that a more contracted dwell-
ing and a smaller share of nutriment seem to prevent
the development of the ovaries.

The following observations, mostly taken from an
essay of the celebrated anatomist John Hunter, in the
Philosophical Transactions, since they are intimately
connected with the subject that we are now consider-
ing, will not be here misplaced. In animals just born,
or very young, there are no peculiarities of shape, ex-
clusive of the primary distinctions, by which one sex
maybe known from the other. Thus secondary distinc-
tive characters, such as the beard in men, and the
breasts in women, are produced at a certain period c^f

W See J. Jlynter's Treatise o^ certain Parts of the Animal (Econoiuii^

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 137

life; and these secondary characters, in some instances,
are changed for those of the other sex ; which does not
arise from any action at the first formation, but takes
place when the great command " Increase and multi-
ply" ceases to operate. Thus women in advanced
]ife are sometimes distinguished by beards; and after
they have done laying, hen-birds occasionally assume
the plumage of the cock : this has been observed more
than once by ornitliologists, more particularly with re-
spect to the pheasant and the pea-hen^. — For females to
assume the secondary characters of males, seems cer-
tainly a more violent change, than for a worker bee,
which may be regarded as a sterile female, in conse-
quence of a certain process, to assume the secondary-
characters of a fertile female.

With respect to the variations of instinct and cha-
racter which result from the dift'erent modes of rear-
ing the young- bees that we are now considering ; it
would not, I think, be difficult to prove, that causes
at first sight equally inadequate have produced effects
full as important on the habits, tempers, and characters
of men and other animals : but as these will readily
occur to you, I shall not now enlarge upon them.

Did we know the causes of the various deviations,
as to form and the like, observable in the three king-
doms of nature, and could apply them, we should be
able to produce these deviations at our pleasure. This
is exactly what the bees do. Their instinct teaches
them that a certain kind of food, supplied to a grub iu'
habiting a certain dwelling, in a certain position, will

a Philas. Trans, 179:2. viii. 167. Hunter on certain Parts ofihe Animai
CEconomy, p. 65. Latliani, Synops. ii. 672. t. 80,

1S8 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

produce certain effects upon it, rendering- it different
from what it would have been under ordinary circum-
stances, and fitted to answer their peculiar wants.

I trust that these arguments and probabilities wil!
in some degree reconcile you to what at first sight seems
so extraordinary and extravagant a doctrine. If not
yet fully satisfied, I can only recommend your having
recourse to experiments yourself. Leaving you there-
fore to this best mode of proof, I shall proceed to an-
other part of my history : — but first I must mention an
experiment of Reaumur's, which seems to come well in
here. To ascertain whether the expectation of a queen
was sufncient to keep alive the instinct and industry of
the worker-bees, he placed in a glazed hive some royal
cells containing both grubs and pupae, and then intro-
duced about 1000 or 1500 workers and some drones.
These workers, which had been deprived of their
queen, at first destroyed some of the grubs in these
cells; but they clustered around two that were covered
in, as if to impart warnith to the pupae they contained;
and on the following day they began to work upon the
portions of comb with which he had supplied th<ini, in
order to fix and lengthen them. For two or three days
the work went on very leisurely, but afterwards their
labours assumed their usual character of indefatigable
industry''. There is no difficulty, therefore, when a
hive loses its sovereign, to supply the bees with an ob-
ject that will interest them, and keep their works in
progress.

There are a few other facts with respect to the larvae
and pupae of the bees, which, before I enter upon the

a Kcaum. v. 271 — . .

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 139

history of them in their perfect form, I shall now detail
to you. Sixteen days is the time assigned to a queen.
for her existence in her preparatory states, before she
is ready to emerge from her cell. Three she remains
in the egg ; when hatched she continues feeding five
more ; when covered in she begins to spin her cocoon,
which occupies another day : as if exhausted by this
labour, she now remains perfectly still for two days
and sixteen hours ; and then assumes the pupa, in which
state she remains exactly four days and eight hours —
making in all the period I have just named. A longer
time, by four days, is required to bring the workers to
perfection ; their preparatory states occupying twenty
days, and tijose of the male even twenty-four. The
former consumes half a day more than the queen in
spinning its cocoon, — a circumstance most probably oc-
casioned by a singular difference in the structure and
dimensions of this envelope, which I shall explain to
you presently. Thus you see that the peculiar cir-
cumstances which change the form and functions of a
bee, accelerate its appearance as a perfect insect; and
that by choosing a grub three days old, when the bees
want a queen, they actually gain six days ; for in this
case she is ready to come forth in ten days, instead of
sixteen, which would be required, was a recently laid
egg fixed upon *.

The larvaB of bees, though without feet, are not alto-
gether without motion. They advance from their first

a Huber, i. 215 — . Schirach asserts, that in cold weadier tlie disclo-
sure of the imago takes place two days later than in warm: and Ricm,
that in a bad season the eggs will remain in the cells many months witU-
0Ut hatching. Schirach, 79. 241.

140 PEItFECt SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

station at the bottom of the cell, as I before hinted, in
a spiral direction. This movement, for the first three
days, is so slow as to be scarcely perceptible ; but after
this it is more easily discerned. The animal now makes
two entire revolutions in about an hour and three quar-
ters ; and when the period of its metamorphosis arrives,
it is scarcely more than two lines from the mouth of
the celL Its attitude, which is always the same, is a
strong curve*. This occasions the inhabitant of a ho-
rizontal cell to be always perpendicular to the hori-»
zon, and that of a vertical one to he parallel with it.

A most remarkable difference, as I lately observed,
takes place in spinning their cocoons, — the grubs of
workers and drones spinning complete cocoons, while
those that are spun by the females are incomplete, or
open at the lower end, and covering only the head and
trunk and the first segment of the abdomen. This va-
riation is probably occasioned by the different forms
of the cells ; for, ifa female larva be placed in a workers
cell, it will spin a complete cocoon ; and, vice versa, if
a worker larva be placed in a royal cell its cocoon will
be incomplete''. No provision of the Great Author
of nature is in vain. In the present instance, the fact
which we are considering is of great importance to the
bees ; for, were the females wholly covered by the thick
texture of a cocoon, their destruction by their rival
competitors for the throne could not so readily be ac-
complished; they either would not be able to reach
them with their stings, or the stings might be detained
by their barbs in the meshes of the cocoon, so that they
\vould not be able to disengage them. On the use of

^ Schiracli, I. 3. f. 10. b JIuber, i. 224,

X

TERFECt SOCIETIES OF INSE€TS. 14t

Hiis instinctive and murderous hatred of their rivals I
shall soon enlarge.

When our young prisoners are ready to emerge,
they do not, like the ants, require the assistance of the
workers, but themselves eat through the cocoon and
the cell that incloses it. By a wise provision, which
prevents the injury or destruction of a cell, they gene-
rally make their way through the cover or lid with
which the workers had shut it up ; though sometimes,
but not often, a female will break through the side of
her prison'^.

Having thus shown you our little chemists in their
preparatory states, and carried you from the egg to
the cocoon, both of which may be deemed a kind of
cradle, in which they are nursed to fit them for two
very different conditions of existence, I must now in-
troduce you to a scene more interesting and diversified ;
in which all their wonderful instincts are displayed in
full action, and we see them exceed some of the most
vaunted products of human wisdom, art, and skill.

The queen-mother here demands our first attention^
as the personage upon whom, when established in her
regal dignity, the welfare and happiness of the apiarian
tiomraunity altogether depend. 1 shall begin my his-
tory with the events that befall her on her quitting the
royal cradle, and appearing in the perfect state. And
here you will find that the first moments of her life,
prior to her election to lead a swarm or fill a vacant
throne, are moments of the greatest uneasiness and
vexation, if not of extreme peril and vindictive i^.nd

a Ucautn. V. 598.

142 PERFECT SOCIETIES OP INSECTS.7

mortal warfare. The Homeric maxim, that " The go-
vernment of many is not ^ood%" is fully adopted and
rigorously adhered to in these societies. The jealous
Semiramis of the hive will bear no rival near her
throne. There are usually not less than sixteen, and
sometimes not less than twenty, royal cells in the same
nest; you may therefore conceive what a sacrifice is
made when one only is suffered to live and to reign.
But here a distinction obtains which should not be
overlooked : in some instances a single queen only h
wanted to govern her native hive ; in others several
are necessary to lead the swarms. In the first case in-
evitable death istiie lot of all but one; in the other, as
many as are wanted are preserved from destruction by
the precautions taken on that occasion, under the di-
rection of an all-wise Providence, by the workers.

I shall enlarge a little on each of these cases. In
the formicary, as we have seen, rival queens live to-
gether very harmoniously without molesting each other :
but there is that instinctive jealousy in a queen bee,
that no sooner does she discover the existence of an-
other in the hive, than she is put into a state of the most
extreme agitation, and is not easy until she has attack-
ed and destroyed her.

Naturalists had observed, that when there were two
queens in the same hive, one of them soon perished:
but some supposed (this was the opinion of Schiracb
and Riem) that the workers destroyed the supernu-
meraries. Reaumur, however, conjectured that these
queens attacked each other : and his conjecture has been
since confirmed by the actual observation of other na-

PERPECt SOCIETIES OP INSECTS. 143

turalists. Blassiere, the translator of Scliiracb, tells
us, as what he had himself witnessed, that the strongest
queen kills her rival with her sting ; and the same is
asserted by Iluber, whose opportunities of observation
were greater than those of any of his precursors'^.

The queen that is Hrst liberated from her confine-
ment, and has assumed the perfect or imago state (it is
to be supposed that the author is here speaking of a hive
which has lost the old queen), soon after this event
goes to visit the royal cells that are still inhabited.
She darts with fury upon the first with which she meets;
by means of her jaws she gnaws a hole large enough
to introduce the end of her abdomen, and with her
sting, before the included female is in a condition to
defend herself or resist her attack, she gives her a mor-
tal wound. The workers, who remain passive spec-
tators of this assassination, after siie quits the victim of
her jealousy, enlarge the breach that she has jmade,
and drag forth the carcase of a queen just emerged from
the thin membrane that envelops the pupa. If the ob-
ject of her attack be still in the pupa state, she is sti-
mulated by a less violent degree of rage, and contents
herself with making a breach in the cell : when this
happens, the death of the inclosed insect is equally cer-
tain, for the workers enlarge the breach, pull it out,
and it perishes''. If it happens, as it sometimes does,
that two queens are disclosed at the same time, the care
of Providence to prevent the hive from being wholly
despoiled of a governor is singularly manifested by a
remarkable trait in their instinct, which, when mutual
destruction seems inevitable, makes them separate from

a Schirach,209, note *. llubrr, i. 170— 'J lJu»)er, i. 171—

144r PfellFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS*

each other as if panic-struck. " Two young queens/^
saysM. Huber, " left their cells one day, almost at the
same moment ;— as soon as they came within sight, they
darted upon each other, as if inflamed by the most un-
governable anger, and placed themselves in such an
attitude, that the antennae of each were held by the
jaws of its antagonist ; head was opposed to head, trunk
to trunk, abdomen to abdomen ; and they had only to
bend the extremity of the latter, and they would have
fallen reciprocal victims to each other's sting." But
nature having decreed that these duels should not be
fatal to both combatants, as soon as they were thus cir-
cumstanced a panic fear seemed to strike them, and
they disengaged themselves, and epch fled away. After
a few minutes were expired, the attack was renewed
in a similar manner with the game issue ; till at last
one suddenly seizing the other by her wing, mounted
upon her and inflicted a mortal Wound'*.

The combats I have here described to you took place
between virgin queens ; but M. Huber found that those
which had been impregnated were actuated by the same
animosity, and attacked royal cells with a fury equally
destructive. AVhen another fertile queen had been in-
troduced into this hive, a singular scene ensued, which
proves how well aware the workers are that they can-
not prosper with two sovereigns. Soon after she was
introduced, a circle of bees was formed round the
stranger, not to compliment her on her arrival, or pay
her the usual homage, but to confine her, and prevent
her escape ; for they insensibly agglomerated them-
selves in such numbers round her, and hemmed her ia

a Huber, i. 174.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. l4-^

SO closely^ that in about a minute she was completely a
prisoner. Wliiie this was transacting', what was equally
remarkable, other workers assembled in clusters round
the leoitimate queen, and impeded all her motions; so
that soon she was not more at liberty than the intruder.
It seemed as if the bees foresaw the combat that was to
ensue between the two rivals, and were impatient for
the event; for they only confined them when they ap-
peared to avoid each other. . To witness the homage,
respect, and love that they usually manifest to theif
lawful ruler; the anxiety concerning her which they
often exhibit ; and the distrust which for a time (as
we shall see hereafter) they usually show towards
strange ones even when deprived of their own ; one
would expect that, rather than permit such a perilous
combat, they would unite in the defence of their sove-
reign, and cause the interloper to perish under the
stroke of their fatal stings. But no ; the contest for em-
pire must be between the rival candidates; no worker
must interfere in any otlier way than that which I have
described; no contending armies must fight the battles
of their sovereigns, for the law of succession seems to
be ^^ detur fortiori.'' But to return to my narrative.
The legitimate queen appearing inclined to move to-
wards that part of the comb on which her rival was
stationed, tiie bees immediately began to retire from
the space that intervened between them, so that there
was soon a clear arena for the combat. When they
could discern each other, the rightful queen rushing
furiously upon the pretender, seized her with her jaws
near the root of the w ings, and, after fixing her without
power of motion against the comb, with one stroke of

>V0L. IT. L

146 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

her sting dispatched her. If ever-so-many queens are
introduced into a hive, all but one will perish, and that
one will have won the throne by her own unassisted
valour and strength. Sometimes a strange queen at-
tempts of herself to enter a hive : in this case the
workers, who are upon the watch and who examine
every thing that presents itself, immediately seize her
with their jaws by the legs or wings, and hem her in
so straitly with a clustered circle of guards, turning
their heads on all sides towards her, that it is impos-
sible for her to penetrate within. If they retain her
prisoner too long, she dies either from the want of food
or air, but never from their stings^.

Here you may perhaps feel curious to know, sup-
posing the reigning queen to die or be killed, and the
bees to have discovered their loss, whether they would
then receive a foreigner that offers herself to them or
is introduced amongst them. Reaumur says they would
do this immediately^; but Huber, who had better means
of observing them, and studied them with more undi-
vided attention, affirms that this will not be the case,
unless twenty-four hours have elapsed since the death
of the old queen. Previously to this period, as if they
were absorbed by grief at their calamity, or indulged
a fond hope of her revival, an intruder would be treated
exactly as I have described. But when the period just
mentioned is passed, they will receive any queen that
is presented to them with the customary homage, and
she may occupy the vacant throned

I must now beg you to attend to what takes place in
the second case that I mentioned, where queens are

a Uuhetj i. 186. b Reaum. v. 268. c Huber, i. 190.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 147

tranted to lead forth swarms. Here you will, with
reason, suppose that nature has instilled some instinct
into the bees, by which these necessary individuals are
rescued from the fury of the reigning sovereign.

Did the old queen of the hive remain in it till the
young ones were ready to come forth, her instinctive
jealousy would lead her to attack them all as succes-
sively produced ; and being so much older and stronger,
the probability is that she would destroy them; in
which case there could be no swarms, and the race
would perish. But this is wisely prevented by a cir-
cumstance which invariably takes place — that the first
sWarm is conducted by this queen, and not by a newly
disclosed one, as Reaumur and others have supposed.
Previously to her departure, after her great laying of
male eggs in the month of May, she oviposits in the
royal cells when about three or four lines in length,
which the workers have in the mean time constructed.
These however are not all furnished in one day, — a
most essential provision, in consequence of which the
queens come forth successively, in order to lead suc-
cessive swarms. There is something singular in the
manner in which the workers treat the young queens
that are to lead the swarms. After the cells are co-
vered in, one of their first employments is to remove
here and there a portion of the wax from their surface,
so as to render it unequal; and immediately before the
last metamorphosis takes place, the walls are so thin
that all the motions of the inclosed pupa are perceptible
through them. On the seventh day the part covering the
head and trunk of the young female, if I may so speak>
is almost entirely unwaxed. Tbia operation of the bees

L 2

148 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

facilitates her exit, and probably Fenders the evapora*
tion of the superabundant fluids of the body of the pupa
more easy.

You will conclude, perhaps, when all things are thus
prepared for the coining forth of the inclosed female,
that she will quit her cell at the regular period, which
is seven days : — but you would be mistaken. Were
she indeed permitted to pursue her own inclinations,
this would be the case : but here the bees show how
much they are guided in their instinct by circumstances
and the wants of their society ; for did the new queen
leave her cell, she would immediately attack and destroy
thdse in the other cells ; a proceeding which they per-
mit, as I have before stated, when they only want a
successor to a defunct or a lost sovereign. As soon
therefore as the workers perceive — which the transpa-
rency of the cell permits them to do — that the young
queen has cut circularly through her cocoon, they
immediately solder the cleft up with some particles
of wax, and so keep her a prisoner against her will.
Upon this, as if to complain of such treatment, she
emits a distinct sound, which excites no pity in the
breasts of her subjects, who detain her a prisoner two
days longer than nature has assigned for her confine-
ment. In the interim, she sometimes thrusts her tongue
through the cleft she has made, drawing it in and out
till she is noticed by the workers, to make them un-
derstand that she is in want of food. Upon perceiving
this they give her honey, till her hunger being satis-
fied she draws her tongue back — upon which they stop
the orifice with wax^.

a llubrcr, i. ^30.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 149

You may think it perhaps extraordinary that the
workers should thus endeavour to retard the appear-
ance of their youn^ females beyond its natural limit :
but when I explain to you the reason for this seeming-
incongruity of instinct, you will adore the wisdom that
implanted it. Were a queen permitted;) to leave her
cell as soon as the natural term for it arrived, it would
require some time to fit her for flii^ht, and to lead forth a
fiwarm ; during- which interval a troublesome task would
be imposed upon the workers, who must constantly de-
tail her a prisoner to prevent lier from destroying her
rivals, which would require the labours and attention
of a much larger number than are necessary to keep Iter
confined to her cell. On this account they never suf-
fer her to come forth till she is perfectly fit to take her
flight. When at length she is permitted to do this, if
she approaches the other royal cells, the workers on
guard seem greatly irritated against her, and pull and
bite and chase her away ; and she enjoys tranquillity
only while she keeps at a distance from them. As her
instinct is constantly urging her to attack them, this
proceeding is frequently repeated. Sometimes stand-
ing in a particular and commandinj^ attitude, she utters
that authoritative sound which so much affects tlic
bees ; they then all hang down their heads and remain
motionless; but as soon as it ceases, they resume their
opposition. At last she becomes violently agitated,
and, communicating her agitation to others, the confu-r
sion more and more increases, till a swarm leaves the
hive, which she either precedes or follows. In the
same manner the other young queens are treated while
there are swarms to go forth ; but when the hive is suf-

150 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSEC^TS.

ficiently thinned, and it becomes troublesome to guard
them in the manner here described, they come forth
unnoticed, and fight unimpeded till one alone remains
to fill the deserted throne of the parent hive. — You see
here the reason why the eggs that produce these queens
are not laid at the same time, but after some interval,
that they may come forth successively. For did they
all make their appearance together, it would be a
much more laborious and difiicult task to keep them
from destroying each other.

When the bees thus delay the entrance of the young
queens into their world, they invariably let out the
oldest first ; and they probably know their progress to
maturity by the emission of the sound lately mentioned.
The accurate Huber took the trouble to mark all the
royal cells in a hive as soon as the workers had co-
vered them In, and he found that they were all libe-^
rated according to seniority. Those first covered first
emit the sound, and so on successively; whence he con-
jectures that this is the sign by which the workers dis-
cover their age. As their captivity, however, is some-
times prolonged to eight or ten days, this circumstance
in that time may be forgotten. In this case he supposes
that their tones grow stronger as they grow older,
by which the workers may be enabled to distinguish
them. It is remarkable that no guard is placed roun^
the mute queens bred according to the Lusatian me-
thod, which, when the time for their appearance is
come, are not detained in captivity a single moment ;
but, as you have heard, are left to fight, conquer^ ov
die^,

a Iluber, i. 286.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 151

You must not think, however, from what I have been
saying", that tlie old queen never destroys the young
onespreviously to her leading; forth the earliest swarm.
She is allowed the most uncontrolled liberty of action;
and if she chooses to approach and destroy the royal
cells, her subjects do not oppose her. It sometimes
happens, when unfavourable weather retards the first
swarm, that all the royal progeny perishes by the sting
of their mother, and then no swarm takes place. It is
to be observed that she never attacks a royal cell till its
inhabitant is ready to assume the pupa, therefore much
will depend upon their age. When they arrive at this
state, her horror of these cells, and aversion to them,
are extreme : she attacks, perhaps, and destroys seve-
ral; but finding it too laborious, for they are often nu-
merous, to destroy the whole, the same agitation is
caused in her as if she were forcibly prevented, and she
becomes disposed to depart, rather than remain in the
midst of her rivals, though her own ofl'spring.

But though the bees, in one of these cases, appear
such unconcerned spectators of the destruction of royal
personages, or rather, the applauders and inciters of
the bloody fact; and in the other show little respect to
them, put such a restraint upon their persons, and ma-
nifest such disregard to their wishes ; yet when they
are once acknowledged as governors of the hive, and
leaders of the colony, their instinct assumes a new and
wonderful direction. From this moment they become
the '''"'publka cura^'' the objects of constant and univer-
sal attention ; and wherever they go, are greeted by a
homage which evinces the entire devotion of their sub-
jects. You seemed amused and interested in no slight

;152 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

degree by what I related in a former letter of the
marked respect paid by the ants to their fentales'*; but
this will bear no comparison with that shown by the in-
}iabitant«! of the hive to their cr een. She appears to
be the very soul of all their actions, and the centre of
their instincts. When they are deprived of her, or of
the means of replacing her, they lose all their activity,
and pursue no longer their daily labours. In vain the
flowers tempt them with their npctar and ambrosial
dust: they collect neither ; they elaborate no wax, and
build no cells ; they scarcely seem to exist ; and, in-
deed, would soon perish, were not the means of restoring
their monarch put within their reach. But, if a small
piece of comb containing the brood grubs of workers be
given to them, all seem endued with new life : their
instincts revive; they immediately set about building
royal cells ; they feed with their appropriate food the
grubs they have selected, and every thing proceeds in
the usual routine. Virgil has described this attach-
ment of the bees to their sovereign with great truth and
spirit in the following lines;

*' Lydiiii nur Mede so much his king adores,
Nor tiiose on iNilus' or Hydaspes' shores:
The state united stands whUe ho remains.
But should he full, what dire confusion reigns !
Their waxen combs and honey, late their joy, '

With grief and rage distracted, they destroy :
lie guards the works, with avye they him surround,
And crowd about him with triumphant sound ;
Him frequent on their duteous shoulders bear,
Bleed, fall, and die for him in glorious war,"

See above, p. 56.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INsSECTS. 153

r M. Huber tlius describes the consequences of the loss
lofa queen. — When the queen is removed from a hive,
at first the bees seem not to perceive it, their order and
tranquillity not being disturbed, and their labours pro-
ceeding- as usual. About an hour after her departure,
inquietude begins to manifest itself amongst theni; the
. care of the young brood no longer engages their atten-
tion, and they run here and there, as if in great agita-
tion. This agitation, however, is at fust confined to a
small portion of the community. The bees that are
.first sensible of their loss meet with others, they mu-
tually cross their antenucB, and strike them lightly.
By this action they appear to communicate the sad in-
telligence to those who receive the blow, who in their
turn impart it in the same way to others. Disorder
and confusion increase rapidly, till the whole popula-
tion is in a tumult. Then the workers may be seen
running over the combs, and against each other; im-
petuously rushing to the entrance and quitting the
hive; from thence they spread themselves all around,
.they re-enter, and go out again and again. The hum
in the hive becomes very loud, and increases the tu-
mult, which lasts two or three hours, rarely four or
rive: they then return and resume their wonted care
;of the young; and if the hive be visited twenty-four
hours after the departure of the queen, it will be seen
that they have taken steps to repair their loss by fillinii
some of the cells with a larger quantity of jelly than is
the usual portion of common larvae; which however is
mtended, it seems, not for the food of the inhabitant,
I)ut for a eiishicn to elevate it, since it is found uncon-

154 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS*

sumed in the cell when the grub is descended into the
pyramidal habitation afterwards prepared for it*.

If, after being removed, their old queen is restored
to the hive, they instantly recognise her, and pay her
the usual attentions : but if a strange one be introduced
within the first twelve hours after the old one is lost,
she is kept a close prisoner till she perishes : if twenty-
four hours, as I have before hinted, have expired since
they lost their queen, and you introduce a new one, at
the moment you set this stranger upon a comb, the
workers that are near her first touch her with their an-
tennae, and then pass their proboscis over all parts of
her body : place is next given to others, who salute
her in the same manner : — all then beat their wings at
the same time, and range themselves in a circle round
their new sovereign. A kind of agitation is now com-
municated to the whole surface of the comb, which
brings all the bees upon it to see what is going forward.
This may be called the first shout of the applauding
multitude to welcome the arrival of their new sove-
reign. The circle of courtiers increases, they vibrate
their wings and bodies, but without tumult, as if their
sensations were very agreeable. When she begins to
move, the circle opens to let her pass, and all follow
her steps. She is received with similar demonstrations
of loyalty in the other parts of the hive, is soon ac-
knowledged queen by all, and begins to lay eggs. —
Reaumur put some bees into a hive without their
queen, and then introduced to them one that he had
taken when half perished with cold, and kept inabox^, in

aHuber, ii. 396 —

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. IS.'j

which she had covered herself with powder. The bees
immediately owned her for tlieir queen, employed them-
selves very anxiously in cleaning her and warming her,
sometimes turning- her upon her back for this purpose
•—and then began to construct cells in their new habi-
tation^. Even when'the bees have got young brood,
have built or are building royal cells, and are engaged
in feeding these hopes of their hive, knowing that their
great aim is already accomplished, they cease all these
employments when this intruder comes amongst them.

With regard to the ordinary attention and homage
that they pay to their sovereigns — the bees do more
than respect their queen, says Reaumur, they are con-
stantly on the watch to make themselves useful to her,
and to render her every kind office ; they are for ever
offering her honey; they lick her with their proboscis,
and wherever she goes she has a court to attend upon
her''. It may here be observed, that the stimulant
which excites the bees to these acts of homage is the
pregnant state of their queen, and her fitness to main-
tain the population of the hive; all they do being with
9. view to the public good : for while she remains a
virgin she is treated with the utmost indifference,
which is exchanged, as soon as impregnation has taken
place, for the above marks of attachment''.

The instinct of the bees, however, does not always
enable them to distinguish a partially fertile queen
from one that is universally so. What I mean is this
— A queen, whose impregnation is retarded beyond the
twenty-eighth day of her whole existence, lays only
male eggs, which are of no use whatever to the com-

"Reaura. v, 262, b Reauia. v. Pref. xv. clluber, i. 269,

156 FEliriiCT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS,

munity, unless they are at the same time provided wiih
a sufficient supply of workers. Yet even a queen of
this description, and sometimes one that is entirely
sterile, is treated by them with the same respect and
homage as a fertile one. This seems to evince an ami'
able feeling- in these creatures, attachment to the per-
son as well as to the functions of the sovereigu: vvhich
is further manifested by their unwillingness at first to
receive a new sovereign upon the loss ordeath of their
old one. Nay, this respect is sometimes shown to the
carcase of a defunct queen, which Iluber assures us he
has seen bees treat with the same attention that tliey
had shown her when alive; for a long time preferring
her inanimate corpse to the fertile queens that he
offered to them^. He attributes this to some agreeable
sensation which they e?iperience from their queens, in--
dependent of their fecundity. But since virgin queens,
as we have seen, do not excite it, more probably it is
a remnant of their former attachment, first excited by
Iier fecundity, and afterwards t^trengthened and conti-
nued by habit.

I may here introduce an interesting anecdote re-
lated by Reaumur, which strongly marks the attach-
ment of bees to their queen when apparently lifeless, lie
took one out of the water quite motionless, and seem-
ingly dead, which had lost part of one of its legs. Bring-
ing it home, he placed it amongst some workers that he
had found in the same situation, most of which he haci
revived by means of warmth ; some however still being
in as bad a state as the poor queen. No sooner dici
these revised workers perceive the latter in this wretgh-?

a Huber, i, 322,

PERFECT SOCIBTIES OF INSECtS. 157

ril condition, than they appeared to compassionate I>er
case, and did not cease to lick her with their tongues
till she showed signs of returning animation ; which the
bees no sooner perceived, than they set up a general
hum, as if for joy at the happy event. All this time
they paid no attention to the workers who w ere in the
same miserable state ^.

On a former occasion I have mentioned the laying of
the eggs by the queen'' ; but as I did not then at all en-,
large upon it, I shall now explain the process more in
detail. In a subsequent letter I shall notice, what has
so much puzzled learned apiarists — her fecundation ;
which is now ascertained beyond contradiction, from
the observations of M. Huber, to take place in the open
air, and to be followed by the death of the unfortunate
male''. It is to be recollected that, from September to
April, generally speaking, there are no males in the
hives ; yet during this period the queen often ovipo-
sits: a former fecundation, therefore, must fertilize all
the eggs laid in tliis interval. The impregnation, in
order to ensure complete fertility, must not be too long
retarded; for, as I before observed, if this be delayed
beyond the twenty-eighth day of her existence, her
oraries become so vitiated, that she can no longer lay
eggs that will produce workers, but can only furnish
the hive with a male population ; which, however high
a privilege it may be accounted amongst men, is the
reverse of it amongst the bees. When this is the case,
the abdomen of the queen becomes so enlarged that
she is no longer able to fly '^; and, what is remarkable,

a Rtaum. V. 266. b Vol. I. 2d Ed. 376.

e HubrT, i. G3 — d Schiracli, 257.

158 PERFECT SOCIETIES OP INSECTS.

she loses that instinctive animosity which stimulates
the fertile ones to attack their rivals^. Thus she seems
to own that she is not equal to the duties of her station,
and can tolerate another to discharge them in her room.
When we consider how much virgin queens are slighted
by their subjects, we may suppose that nature urges?
them to take the opportunity of the first warm day,
when the males fly forth, to pair with one of them.

When fecundation has not been retarded, forty-six
hours after it has taken place, the queen begins to lay-
eggs that will produce workers, and continues for the
subsequent eleven months, more or less, to lay thera
solely; and it is only after this period that an uninter-
rupted laying of male eggs commences. — But when it
has been retarded, after the same number of hours she
begins laying male eggs, and continues to produce these
alone during her whole life. From hence it should
seem to follow, that the former kind of eggs are first
in the oviducts, and, if impregnation be not effected
within a given time, that all the worker embryos perish.
Yet how this can take place with respect to those that
in a fertile queen should succeed the laying of male
eggs, or be produced in the second year of her life,
seems difficult to conceive ; — or how the male embryos
escape this fate, which destroys all the females, both
those that are to precede them and those that are to
follow them. Is it impossible that the sex of the em-
bryo may be determined by the period at which the
aura seminalis vivifies it, and by the state of the ovary
at that time ? In one state of the ovary this principle
may cause the embryos to become workers, iij another

a Uuber, i. 319—

"PERFECT SOCIETIES OP INSECTS. 159

males. And something of this kind perhaps may be
the cause of hermaphrodites in other animals. But
this I give merely as conjecture*: the truth seems
enveloped in mystery that we cannot yet penetrate.
Huber is of opinion that a single impregnation ferti-
lizes all the eggs that a queen will produce during 1 or
whole life, which is sometimes more than two years''.
But of this enough.

I said that forty-six hours after impregnation the
queen begins laying worker eggs ; — this is not, how-
ever, invariable. When her impregnation takes place
late in the year, she does not begin laying till the fol-
lowing spring. Schirach asserts, that in one season a
single female will lay from 70,000 to 100,000 eggs'".
Reaumur says, that upon an average she lays about
two hundred in a day, a moderate swarm consisting of
12,000, which are laid in two months ; and Huber,
that she lays above a hundred. All these statements,
the observations being made in different climates, and
perhaps under different circumstances, may be true.
The laying of worker eggs begins in February, some-
times so early as January**. After this, in the spring,
the great laying of male eggs commences, lasting
thirty days ; in which time about 2,000 of these eggs
are laid. Another laying of them, but less consider-

a This conjecture receives strong confirination from the following ob»
serrations of Sir E. Home, which I met with since it came into my mind.
From the nipples present in man, which sometimes even aiTord milk,
and from the general analogy between the male and female organs of
generation, he supposes the germ is originally fitted to become either
sex ; and that which it shall be is determined at the time of impregna-
tion by some unknown cause- Philos. Trans. 1799. 157.

b i. 106— c Schirach, 7. 13. <> Ibid. 13, Tharley, 105.

160 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

able, takes place in autumn. In the sea^^on of ovipo-^
sition, the queen may be discerned traversing the
combs in all directions with a slow step, and seeking
tor cells proper to receive her eggs. As she walks, she
keeps her head inclined, and seems to examine, one by
Oi!e, all the cells she meets with. When she finds one
to her purpose, she immediately gives to her abdomen
the curve necessary to enable it to reach the orifice of
the cell, and to introduce it within it. The eggs are
set in the angle of the pyramidal bottom of the cell, or
in one of the hollows formed by the conflux of the sides
of the rhombs, and, being besmeared with a kind of
gluten, stand upright. If, however, it be a female that
lays only male eggs, they are deposited upon the lowest
of the sides of the cell, as she is unable to reach the
bottom*.

While our prolific lady is engaged in this employ*
ment, her court consists of from four to twelve at-
tendants, which are disposed nearly in a circle, with
their heads turned towards her. After laying from
two to six eggs, she remains still, reposing for eight
or nine minutes. During this interval the bees in her
train redouble their attentions, licking her fondly with
their tongues. Generally speaking, she lays only one
egg in a cell ; but when she is pressed, and there are
not cells enough, from two to four have been found in
one. In this case, as if they were aware of the conse-
quences, the provident workers remove all but one.
From an experiment of Huber's it appears that the
instinct of the queen invariably directs her to deposit
worker eggs in worker cells; for When he confined one-

a. Bonnet, s. 958, Svo Kd.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 161

■Juring her course of laying- worker eggs, where she
«ould only come at male cells, she refused to oviposit
in them ; and trying in vain to make her escape, they
at length dropped from her; upon which the workers
devoured them. Retarded queens, however, lose this
instinct, and often, though they lay only male eggs,
oviposit in worker cells, and even in royal ones. In
this latter case the workers themselves act as if they
suffered in their instinct from the imperfect state of
their queen ; for they feed these male larvcB with royal
jelly, and treat them as they would a real queen.
Though male eggs deposited in worker cells produce
«mall males, their education in a royal cell with "royal
<iainties" adds nothing to their ordinary dimensions^.

The swarming of bees is a very curious and interest-
ing subject, to which, since a female is the sine qua non
on this occasion, I may very properly call your atten-
tion here. You will recollect that I said something
"upon the principle of emigrations, when I was amusing
you with the history of ants^; but the object with them
seems to be merely a change of station for one more
convenient or less exposed to injury, and not to dimi-
nish a superabundant population. Whereas, in the
■societies of the hive-bee, the latter is the general cause
t)f emigrations, which invariably take place every year,
if their numbers require it; if not, when the male eggs
are laid, no royal cells are constructed, and no swarm
is led forth. What might be the case with ants, were
they confined to hives, we cannot say. Formicaries in
general are capable of indefinite enlargement, therefore
want of room does not cause emigration ; — but bees

a Hubcr, i. 122— b Sec above, p. 5T.

VOL. II. M

162 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

being confined tea given space, which they possess not
the means of enlarging, — to avoid the ill effects result-
ing from being too much crowded, when their popula-
tion exceeds a certain limit, they must necessarily emi-
grate. Sometimes — for instance, when wasps have got
into a hive — the bees will leave it, in order to fly from
afi inconvenience or enemy which they cannot otherwise
avoid ; but it does not very often happen that they
wholly desert a hive.

Apiarists tell us that, in this country, the best season
for swarming is from the middle of May to the middle
of June ; but swarms sometimes occur so early as the
beginning of April, and as late as the middle of Au-
gust*. The first swarm, as I before observed, is led
by the reigning queen, and takes place when she is so
much reduced in size, in consequence of the number
of eggs she has laid, (for previously to oviposition
her gravid body is so heavy that she can scarcely drag
it along,) as to enable her to fly with ease. The most
indubitable sign that a hive is preparing to swarm, — so
says Reaumur, — is when on a sunny morning, the wea-
ther being favourable to their labours, few bees go out
of a hive, from which on the preceding day they had
issued in great numbers, and little pollen is collected.
This circumstance, he observes, must be very embar-
rassing to one who attempts to explain all their pro-
ceedings upon principles purely mechanical. Does it
not prove, he asks, that all the inhabitants of a hive,
or almost all, are aware of a project that will not be
put in execution before noon, or some hours later ?
For why should bees, who worked the day before witl>

" a Keys On Bees, 16,

TPCUFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 163

Wo much activity, cease their labours in a habitation
Which they are to quit at noon, were they not aware
that they should soon abandon it^? The appearance
of the males, and the clustering of the population at
the mouth of the hive, (though this last is less to be
relied upon, being often occasioned by extreme heat,)
are also indications of the approach of this event. A
good deal depends, however, on the warmth of the at-
mosphere and the state of the weather either to acce-
lerate or retard it. Another sign is a general hum in
the evening, which is continued even during the night,
— all seems to be in a bustle, the greatest restlessness
agitates the bees. Sometimes to hear this hum the
ear must be placed close to the hive, when clear and
"sharp sounds may be distinguished, which appear to be
produced by the vibration of the wings of a single bee.
This hum by some has been gravely construed into an
harangue of the queen to animate her subjects to the
great undertaking which she now meditates — the found-
ing of a new empire. There sometimes seem to hap-
pen suddenly amongst them, says Reaumur, events
which put all the bees in motion^ for which no account
can be given. If you observe a hive with attention,
you may often remain a long time and hear only a slight
murmur, and then, all in a moment, a sonorous hum
will be excited, and the workers, as if seized with a
^anic terror, may be seen quitting their various la-
bours, and running off in different directions. At these
hioments if a youiig queen goes out, she will be fol-
lowed by a numerous troop.

Iluber has given a very lively and interesting ac-

a ReJiuoi. v. 61 1.
M 2

164 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

count of the interior proceedings of the hive on this
occasion. The queen, as soon as she began to exhi-
bit signsof agitation, no longer laid her eggs with order
as before, but irregularly, as if she did not know what
she was about. She ran over the bees in her way :
they in their turn struck her with their antennae, and
mounted upon her back ; none offered her honey, but
she helped herself to it from the cells in her path. The
Usual homage of a court attending round her was no
longer paid. Those however that were excited by her
motions followed her, rousing such as were still tran-
quil upon the combs. She soon had traversed the whole
hive, when the agitation became general. The workers,
now no longer attentive to the young brood, ran about
in all directions ; even those that returned from foraging,
before the agitation was at its height, no sooner entered
the hive than they participated in these tumultuous
movements, and neglecting to free themselves from
the masses of pollen on their hind legs, ran wildly
about. At length there was a general rush to the out-
lets of the hive, which the queen accompanied, and the
swarm took place ^.

It is to be observed that this agitation, excited by
the queen, increases the customary heat of the hive to
a very high temperature, which the action of the sun
augments till it becomes intolerable, and which often
causes the bees accumulated near the mouth of the hive
to perspire so copiously, that those near the bottom,
who support the weight of the rest, appear drenched
with the moisture. This intolerable heat determines
the most irresolute to leave the hive. Immediately
a Huber, i. 251.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OP INSECTS. 165

before the swarming, a louder hum than usual is heard,
many bees take flight, and, if the queen be at their
head, or soon follows them, in a moment the rest rise in
crowds after her into the air, and the element is filled
with bees as thick as the falling snow. The queen at
first does not alight upon the branch on which the
swarm fixes ; but as soon as a group is formed and clus-
tered, she joins it : after this it thickens more and more,
all the bees that are in the air hastening to their com-
panions and their queen, so as to form a living mass of
animals supporting themselves upon each other by the
claws of their feet. Thus they sometimes are so con-
catenated, each bee suspending its legs to those of an-
other, as to form living chaplets*. After this they soon
become tranquil, and none are seen in the air. Before
they are housed they often begin to construct a little
comb on the branch on which they alight''. Sometimes
it happens that two queens go out with the same swarm ;
and the result is, that the swarm at first divides into
two bodies, one under each leader ; but as one of
these groups is generally much less numerous than the
other, the smallest at last joins the largest, accompa-
nied by the queen to whom they had attached them-
selves; and, when they are hived, this unfortunate
candidate for empire falls sooner or later a victim to

a Some critics have found fault with Mr. Southey for ascribing, in his
Curse of Ke/iama, to Camdeo, the Cupid of Indian inytholo^iy, a how
strung with bees. The idea is not so absurd as they imagine ; and the
poet doubtless was led to it by his knowledge of the natural history of
these animals, and that they form themselves info strings oi chaplcts.—
See Reaum. v. /. x.xii. /". 3. b Reaumur, 615-641.

166 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

the jealousy of her rival. Till this great question is
decided the bees do not settle to their usual labours*.
If no queen goes out with a swarm, they return to the
hive from whence they came.

As in regular monarcliies, so in this of the bees, the
first-born is probably the fortunate candidate for the
throne. She is usually the most active and vigorous;
the most able to take flight; and in the best condition
to lay eggs. Though the queen that is victorious, and
mounts the throne, is not, as Virgil asserts, resplen-
dent with gold and purple, and her rival hideous, sloth-
ful and unwieldy '', yet some differences are observ-
'able ; the successful candidate is usually redder and
larger than the others : these last, upon dissection, ap-
pear to have no eggs ready for laying, while the formerj
which is a powerful recommendation, is usually full of
them. Eggs are commonly found in the cejls twenty-
four hours after swarming, or at the latest two or three
days.

You may think, perhaps, that the bees which emi-
grate from the parent hive are the youth of the colony;
but this is not the case, for bees of all ages unite to
form the swarms. The numbers of which they consist
vary much, Reaumur calls 12,000 a moderate swarm ;
and he mentions one which amounted to more thai;!
three timer; that number (40^000), A swarm seldom.

a Reaumur, 615-644.

b " Alter erit maculis auro squalentibus ardens,
(Nam duo sunt genera) hie melior, insignis et ore,
Et rutilis clarus squarais: ille horrjdus alter
Pesidi^i lataraque trahens inglorius alvum."

Qeorg. iv. 91— :

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 167

or never takes place except when the sun shines and
the air is calm. Sometimes, when every thing seems
to prognosticate swarming, a cloud passing over the
sun calms the agitation; and afterwards, upon his
shining forth again, the tumult is renewed, keeps aug-
menting, and the swarm departs". On this account the
confinement of the queens, before related, is observed
to be more protracted in bad weather.

The longest interval between the swarms is from
seven to nine days, which usually is the space that in-
tervenes between the first and the second. The next
flies sooner, and the last sometimes departs the day after
that which preceded it. Fifteen or eighteen days, in
favourable weather, are usually sufficient for throwing
the four swarms. The old queen, when she takes flight
with the first swarm, leaves plenty of brood in the cells,
which soon renew the population*'.

It is not without example, though it rarely happens,
that a swarm conducted by the old queen increases so
much in the space of three weeks as to send forth a
new colony. Being already impregnated, she is in a
condition to oviposit as soon as there are cells ready to
receive her eggs : and an all-wise Providence has so
ordered it, that at this time she lays only suck as pro-
duce workers. And it is the first employment of her
subjects to construct cells for this purpose ". The young

a Bees are generally thought to foresee the state of the weather: but
they are not always right in their prognostics; for Reaumur witnessed a
swarm, which after leaving the hive at half-past one o'clock were over,
taken by a very heavy shower at three.

b Huber, i.27I. c Ibid.^SO,

168 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

queens that conduct the secondary swarms usually paip
the day after they are settled in their new abode ; when
the indifference with which their subjects have hitherto
treated them is exchanged for the usual respect and ho-
mage.

We may suppose that one motive with the bees for
following the old queen, is their respect for her ; but
the reasons that induce them to follow the virgin queens,
to whom they not only appear to manifest no attach-
ment, but rather the reverse, seem less easy to be as-
signed. Probably the high temperature of the hive
during these times of tumultuous agitation may be the
principal cause that operates upon them. In a popu-
lous hive the thermometer commonly stands between
92° and 97"; but during the tumult that precedes swarm-
ing it rises above 104", a heat intolerable to these ani-
mals^. This is M. Huber's opinion. Yet still, though
a high temperature will well account for the departure
of the swarm from the hive with a virgin queen, if
there were really no attachment, (as he appears to
think,) is it not extraordinary, that Avhen this cause no
longer operates upon them, they should agglomerate
about her, as they always do, be unsettled and agi-
tated without her, and quiet when she is with them ?
Is it not reasonable to suppose that the instijict which
teaches them what is necessary for the preservation of
their society, — at the same time that it shows them that
witliout a queen that society cannot be preserved, — im-
pells them in every case to the mode of treating her
which will most effectually influence her conduct, and

a Hiiber, i. 305.

PEUFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 169

ivive it that direction which is most beneficial to the
community ?

Yet, with respect to the treatment of queens, instinct
does not invariably direct the bees to this end. There
are certain exceptions, produced perhaps by artificial
or casual occurrences, in which it seems to deviate,
yet as we should call it amiably, from the rule of the
public advantage. Retarded queens, which, as I have
observed, lay male e^^s only, deposit them in all cells
indiiForently, even in royal ones. These last are treated
by the workers as if they were actually to become
queens. Here their instinct seems defective : — it ap-
pears unaccountable that tliey should know these eggs,
as they do, wlien deposited in workers cells, and give
Ihem a convex covering when about to assume the
])upa ; unless, perhaps, the size of the larva directs
them in this case.

The amputation of one of the antennas of a queen
bee appears not to affect her perceptibly ; but cutting
off both these important organs produces a very striking
derangement of all her proceedings — She seems in a
species of delirium, and deprived of all her instincts;
every thing is done at random ; yet the respect and ho-
mage of the workers towards her, though they are re-
ceived by her with indifference, continue undiminished.
If another in the same condition be put in the hive, the
bees do not appear to discover the difference, and treat
them both alike : but if a perfect one be introduced,
even though fertile, they seize her, keep her in con-
finement, and treat her very unhandsomely. One
may conjecture from this circumstance, that it is by

170 PERFECT SOCIETIES OP INSECTS.

those wonderful organs, the antennae, that the bees
know their own queen. If two mutilated queens meet,
they show not the slightest symptom of resentment.
While one of these continues in the hive, the workers
never think of choosing another ; but if she leaves it,
they do not accompany her, probably because the heat
is not increased by her putting them into the prepa-
ratory agitation*.

I am, &c.

a Hiiber, i. 316.

LETTER XX.

SOCIETIES OF INSECTS,

PERFECT SOCIETIES CONCLUDED.

JriAViNG given you a history sufficiently ample of the
queen or female bee, I shall next add some account of
the drone or male lee; but this will not detain you
long-, since " to be born and die" is nearly the sura
total of their story. Much abuse, from the earliest
times, has been lavished upon this description of the
inhabitants of the hive, and their indolence and glut-s-
tony have become proverbial. — Indeed, at first sight, it
seems extraordinary that seven or eight hundred indi-
viduals should be supported at the public expense,
and to common appearance do nothing all the while
that may be thought to earn their living. But the
more we look into nature, the more we discover the
truth of that common axiom, — that nothing is made in
vain. — Creative Wisdom cannot be caught at fault.
Therefore, where we do not at present perceive the
reasons of things, instead of cavilling at what we do
not understand, we ought to adore in silence, and
wait patiently till the veil is removed which, in any par-
ticular instance, conceals its final cause from our sight.
The mysteries of nature are gradually opened to us,
one truth making way for the discovery of another :
but still there will always be in nature, as well as in

173 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

revelation, even in those things that fall under our daily
observation, mysteries to exercise our faith and hu-
mility ; so that we may always reply to the caviller, —
*' Thine own things and those that are grown up with
thee hast thou not known; how then shall thy vessel
comprehend the way of the Highest?"

V^arious have been the conjectures of naturalists,
even in very recent times, with respect to the fertiliza-
tion of the eggs of the bee. Some have supposed, — and
the number of males seemed to countenance the sup-
position,— that this was effected after they were depo-
Eited in the cells. Of this opinion Maraldi seems to
have been the author, and it was adopted by Mr. De-
braw of Cambridge, who asserts that he has seen the
f^maller males (those that are occasionally produced in
cells usually appropriated to workers) introduce their
abdomen into cells containing eggs, and fertilize them ;
and that the eggs so treated proved fertile, while others
that were not remained sterile. The common or large
drones, which form the bulk of the male population
of the hive, could not be generally destined to this
office, since their abdomen, on account of its size, could
only be introduced into male and royal cells. Bonnet,
however, saw some motions of one of these drones,
^vhich, while it passed by those that were empty, ap-
peared to strike with its abdomen the mouth of the cells
containing eggs^. Swammerdam thought that the fe-
male was impregnated by efiiuvia which issued from
the male**. Reaumur, from some proceedings that he
witnessed, was convinced that impregnation took place
according to the usual law of nature, and, as he sup-

a Bonnet, x. 25P. b jiibl. Nd. i. i2I. h. ed. Hill.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 173

posed, within the hiv^e'. This opinion Huber has con-
firmed by indubital)le proofs; but he further discovered
that these aniuials pair abroad, in the air, during the
flight of the queen : a fact which renders a large num-
ber of inaies necessary, to ensure lier impregnation in
due time to lay eggs that vviil produce workers'*. Iluber
also observed those appearances which induced Debraw
to adopt the opinion I mentioned just now, and was at
first disposed to think them real : but afterwards, upoii
a nearer inspection, he discovered that it was an illu-
sion caused by the reflection of the rays of light '^.

In.fine weather the drones, during the warmest part
of the day, take their flights ; and it is then that they
pair with the queen in mid air, the result being inva-
riably the death of the drone. No one has yet disco-
vered, unless the proceedings observed by Debraw and
Bonnet may be so interpreted, that when in the hive
they take any share in the business of it, their great
employment within doors being to eat. Their life how-
ever is of very short duration, the eggs that produce
drones being laid in the course of April and May, and
their destruction being usually accomplished in the
months of July and August. The bees then, as M.
Huber observes, chase them about, and pursue them
to the bottom of the hives, where they assemble in
crowds. At the same time numerous carcases of drones
may be seen on the ground before the hives. Hence he
conjectured, though he never could detect them en-
gaged in this work upon the combs, that they were
stung to death by the workers. To ascertain how their
death was occasioned, he caused a table to be glazed,
on which he placed six hives, and under this table he

a Rcaum. v. 503— i> Huber, i. 24— o i!>id, 37 —

174: PJ^RFECf SOClEttES OF INSECTS^

employed the patient and indefatigable Biirnens, whd
■was to him instead of eyes, to watch their proceedingSc
On the fourth of July this accurate observer saw the
massacre going on in all the hives at the same time,
and attended by the same circumstances. The table!
was crowded with workerSj wliO, apparently in great
fage, darted upon the drones as soon as they arrived
at the bottom of the hive, seizing them by their an-
tennae, their legs, and their wings ; and killing- them
by violent strokes of their sting, which they generally
inserted between the segments of the abdomen. The
tnoment this fearful weapon entered their body, the
poor helpless creatures expanded their wings and ex-
pired. After this, as if fearful that they were not suffi-
ciently dispatched, the bees repeated their strokes, so
that they often found it difficult to extricate their sting.
On the following day they were equally busy in the
work of slaughter ; but their fury, their own having
perished, was chiefly vented upon those drones, which,
after having escaped from the neighbouring hives, had
sought refuge with them. Not content with destroy-
ing those that were in the perfect state, they attacked
also such male pupae as were left in their cells ; and
then dragging them forth, sucked the fluid from their
bodies and cast them out of the hive ^.

But though in hives containing a queen perfectly
fertile (that is, which lay both worker and male eggs,>
this is the unhappy fate of the drones ; yet in those
where the queen only lays male eggs, they are suffered
to remain unmolested ; and in hives deprived of their
queen, they also find a .secure asylum *'.

What it is that, in the former instanpe^ excite? the

a liubcr, i. 195. b Ibid, i99.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS* 175

fury of the bees against the males, is not easy to dis-
cover ; but some conjecture may perhaps be formed
from the circumstances last related. When only males
are produced by the queen, the bees seem aware that
something more is wanted, and retain the males ; the
same is the case when they have no queen ; and when
one is procured, they appear to know that she would not
profit them without the males. Their fury then is con-
nected with their utility : when the queen is impreg-
nated, which lasts for her whole life, as if they knew
that the drones could be of no further use, and would
only consume their winter stores of provision, they de*
stroy them ; which surely is more merciful than expel-
lingthem, in which case they must inevitably perish from
hunger. But when the queen only produces males,
their numbers are not sufficient to cause alarm ; and
the same reasoning applies to the case when there is
no queen.

Having brought the males from their cradle to their
untimely grave, and amused you with the little that is
known of their uilei^enfful history, I shall now, at last,
call you to attend to^ the proceedings of the workers
themselves ; and here I am afraid, long as I have de-
tained you, I must still press you to expatiate with me
in a more ample field; but the spectacles you will be-
hold during our excursion will repay, I promise you,
any delay or trouble it may occasion.

When I consider the proceedings of these little crea-
tures, both in the hive and out of it, they are so nume-
rous and multifarious, that I scarcely know where to
begin. You have already, however, heard much of

176 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

their internal labours, in the care and nurture of the
young; the construction of their combs*; and their
proceedings with respect to their queens and their
paramours. It vvilltherefoi^ change the scene a little,
if we accompany them in their excursions to collect the
various substances of which they have need**. On these
occasions the principal object of the bees is to furnish
themselves with three different materials : — the nectar
of flowers, from which they elaborate honey and wax;

a. Vol. I. 2d. Ed. 3T5— and 481—

b The following beautiful lines by Professor Smjth are extremely ap-
plicable to tliis part of a bee's labours:

" Thou cheerful Eee ! crme, freely come.
And travel round my woodbine bower I
Delight me with thy wandering hum,
' And rouse me from my musing hour;

Oh ! try no more those tedious fields.
Come tabte the sweets my garden yields:
The treasures of each blooming mine.
The bud, the blossom, — all are thine.

" And careless of this nooD-tide heat,

I'll follow as thy ramble guides ;
To watch thee pause and chafe thy feet.

And sweep them o'er thy downy sides:
Then in a flower's bell nestling lie.
And all thy envied ardor ply !
Then o'er the stem, fho' fair it grow,
With touch rejecting, glance, and go.

" O Nature kind ! O labourer wise !

That roam'st along the summer's ra) ,
Clean'st every bliss thy life supplies,

And meet'st prepared thy wintry day !
Go, envied go — with crowded gates
The hive thy rich return awaits ;
Bear home thy store, in triumph gay,
Aj}d shame each idler of the day,"

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 177

Jhe pollen or fertilizinn; dust of the anthers, of which
they make what is called boe-bread, serving as food
both to old and youni>; ; and the resinous substance
called by the ancients Propolis, Pissoceros, &c. used
in various ways in rendering the hive secure and giv-
ing the finish to the combs. The first of these sub-
stances is the pure fluid secreted in the nectaries of
flowers, w hich the length of their tongue enables them
to reach in most blossoms. The tongue of a bee, you
are to observe, though so long and sometimes so in-
flated *, is not a tube through which the honey passes,
nor a pump acting by suction, but a real tongue which
laps or licks the honey, and passes it down on its upper
surface, as we do, to the mouth, which is at its base
concealed by the mandibles^. It is conveyed by this
orifice through the cesophagus into the first stomach,
which we call the honey-bag, and which, from being
very small, is swelled when full of it to a considerable
size. Honey is never found in the second stomach,
(which is surrounded with muscular rings, and resem-
bles a cask covered with hoops from one end to the
other,) but only in the first : in the latter and the intes-
tines the bee-bread only is discovered. How the wax
is secreted, or what vessels are appropriated to that
purpose, is not yet ascertained. Huber suspects that a
cellular substance, consisting of hexagons, which lines
the membrane of the wax-pockets, may be concerned
in this operation. This substance he also discovered
in humble-bees (which though they make wax have no
wax-pockets), occupying all the anterior part or base
of the segments •=. • If you wish to see the wax-pockets

a Reaum, v. f. xxviii./. 1, 2. b Ihid./. 7. o. t ltubei;ii.3--.f. h.f.8.
TOL. II. JS

178 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

in the hive-bee, you must press the abdomen so as to
cause it to extend itself; you will then find on each of
the four intermediate ventral segments, separated by
the carina or elevated central part, two trapeziform
whitish pockets, of a soft membranaceous texture : on
these the laminaB of wax are formed, and they are found
upon them in different states, so as to be more or less
perceptible. I must here observe that, besides Thor-
ley, who seems to have been the first apiarist that ob-
served these laminae, Wildman was not ignorant of
them, nor of the wax being formed from honey ^ : we
must not therefore permit foreigners to appropriate to
themselves the whole credit of discoveries that have
been made, or at least partially made, by our own
countrymen.

Long before Linne had discovered the nectary of
flowers, our industrious creatures had made themselves
intimate with every form and variety of them ; and no
botanist, even in this enlightened era of botanical sci-
ence, can compare with a bee in this respect. The
station of these reservoirs, even where the armed sight
of science cannot discover it, is in a moment detected
by the microscopic eye of this animal.

She has to attend to a double task — to collect mate-
rials for bee-bread as well as for honey and wax. Ob-
serve a bee that has alighted upon an open flower.
The hum produced by the motion of her wings ceases,
and her employment begins. In an instant she unfold^s
her tongue, which before w as rolled up under her head.
With what rapidity does she dart this organ between
the petals and the stamina ! Atone time she extends it

* a Wildman, 43,

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 179

to its full length, then she contracts it ; she moves it
about in all directions, so that it may be applied both
to the concave and cx>nvex surface of a petal, and wipe
them both ; and thus by a virtuous theft robs it of all
its nectar. All the while this is going- on, she keeps
herself in a constant vibratory motion. The object of
the industrious animal is not, like the more selfish but-
terfly, to appropriate this treasure to herself. It goes
into the honey-bag as into a laboratory, where it is
transformed into pure honey ; and when she returns
to the hive, she regurgitates it in this form into one of
the cells appropriated to that purpose ; in order that,
after tribute is paid from it to the queen, it may consti-
tute a supply of food for the rest of the community.

In collecting honey, bees do not solely confine them-
selves to flowers, they will sometimes very greedily
absorb the sweet juices of fruits : this I have frequently
observed with respect to the raspberries in my garden,
and have noticed it, as you may recollect, in a former
letter-^. They will also eat sugar, and produce wax
from it ; but from Huber's observations, it appears not
calculated to supply the place of honey in the jelly
with which the larvae are fed'\ Though the great mass
of the food of bees is collected from flowers, they do
not wholly confine themselves to a vegetable diet; for,
besides the honeyed secretion of the Aphides, the pos-
session of which they will sometimes dispute with the
ants% upon particular occasions they will eat the eggs
of the queen. They are very fond also of the fluid that
oozes from the cells of the pupae, and will suck eagerly

a Vol, 1. 2d Rd. 197. b Hiibrr, li. 82.

c Abbe Boisicr, quoted in Mills on Bees, 24.

N 2

180 PERFECT SOCIETIES Ojp INSECTS^

all that is fluid in their abdomen after they are destroy-*
ed by their rivals '^. — Several flowers that produce much
honey they pass by ; in some instances from inability ta
get at it. Thus, for this reason probably, they do not
attempt those of the trumpet-honeysuckle, (L&nicera
sempervirens^ L.) which, if separated from thegermen
after they are open, will yield two or three drops of the
purest nectar. So that were this shrub cultivated with
that view, much honey in its original state might be ob-
tained from a small number of plants. In other cases,
it appears to be the poisonous quality of their honey
that induces bees to neglect certain flowers. You have
doubtless observed the conspicuous white nectaries of
the crown imperial, (Fritillaria imperialism L.) and
that they secrete abundance of this fluid. It tempts in
vain the passing bee, probably aware of some noxious
quality that it possesses. The oleander (Nerium Olemi'
der, L.) yields a honey that proves fatal to thousands of
imprudent flies ; but our bees, more wise and cautious^
avoid it. Occasionally, perhaps, in particular seasons,
wlien flowers are less numerous than common, this in-
stinct of the bees appears to fail them, or to be over-
powered by their desire to collect a sufficient store of
honey for their purposes, and they suffer for their want
of self-denial. Sometimes whole swarms have been de-
stroyed by merely alighting upon poisonous trees. This
happened to one in the county of West Chester in the
province of New York, which settled upon the branches
of the poison-ash (Rhus Vernix, L.). In the following
morning the imprudent animals were all found dead, and
swelled to more than double their usual size"'. Whether
a Scbirach,45. Huber, i. 179. t> Nicholson's Journal) xxiii. ^Sl,

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 181

the honey extracted from the species of the genus Kal-
mia, Andromeda, Rhododendron, &c. be hurtful to the
bees themselves, is not ascertained ; but, as has been
before observed, it is often poisonous to man ^. The
Greeks, as you probably recollect, in their celebrated
retreat after the death of the younger Cyrus, found a
kind of honey at Trebisond on the Euxine coast, which,
though it produced no fatal eftects upon them, rendered
those who ate but little like men very drunk, and those
who ate much like mad men or dying persons; and
numbers lay upon the ground as if there had been a
defeat. Pliny, who mentions this honey, calls it mce-
nomenon, and observes that it is said to be collected
from a kind of Rhododendron, of which Tournefort
noticed two species there ^.

When the stomach of a bee is filled with nectar, it
next, by means of the feathered hairs '^ with which its
body is covered, pilfers from the flowers the fertilizing
dust of the anthers, the pollen ; which is equally ne-
cessary to the society with the honey, and may be named
the ambrosia of the hive, since from it the bee-bread is
made. Sometimes a bee is so discoloured with this
powder as to look like a different insect, becoming
white, yellow, or orange, according to the flowers in
which it has been busy. Reaumur was urged to visit
the hives of a gentleman, Avho on this account thought
his bees were different from the common kind"^. He
suspected, and it proved, that the circumstance just
jnentioned occasioned the mistaken notion. When the

a VoL.T. 2d Ed, 143.

bXenoph. Jnuhas. 1. iv. Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. xxi. c. 13.

c Reauin, v. t. xxvi, /. 1. d Ibid. 285.

182 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

body of the bee is covered with farina, with the brushes
of its legs, especially of the hind ones, it wipes it off:
not, as we do with our dusty clothes, to dissipate and
disperse it in the air, but to collect every particle of
it, and then to knead it and form it into two little
masses, which she places, one in each, in the baskets
formed by hairs'* on her hind legs.

Aristotle says that in each journey from the hive,
bees attend only one species of flower*"; Reaumur,
however, seems to think that they fly indiscriminately
from one to another : but Mr. Dobbs in the Philoso-
phical Transactions '^.f and Butler before him, asserts
that he has frequently followed a bee engaged in col-
lecting pollen, &c. and invariably observed that it con-
tinned collecting from the same kind of flowers with
which it first began ; passing over other species, how-
ever numerous, even though the flower it first selected
was scarcer than others. His observations, he thinks,
are confirmed — and the idea seems not unreasonable —
by the uniform colour of the pellets of pollen, and their
different size. Reaumur himself tells us that the bees
enter the hive, some with yellow pellets, others with
red ones, others again with whitish ones, and that some-
times they are even green : upon which he observes,
that this arises from their being collected from parti-
cular flowers, the pollen of whose anthers is of those
colours'*. Sprengel, as before intimated'', has made an
observation similar to that of Dobbs. It seems not im^
probable that the reason why the bee visits the same

aKirby, Monogr. jip. Angl. i. t.\2. **. e. 1. neut. f. 19. a. b.

b Hist. Anim. 1. Lx. c. 40. c xlvi. 536.

d uhi supra, 301 . e y ol. I. 2d Ed, 295.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 18S

Species of plants during one excursion may be this: —
Her instinct teaches her that the grains of pollen which
enter into the same mass should be homogeneous, in
order perhaps for their more effectual cohesion; and
thus Providence also secures two important ends, — the
impregnation of those flowers that require such aid,
by tiie bees passing from one to another; and the
avoiding the production of hybrid plants, from the ap-
plication of the pollen of one kind of plant to the stigma
of another. When the anthers are not yet burst, the
bee opens them with her mandibles, takes a parcel of
pollen, which one of the first pair of legs receives and
delivers to the middle pair, from which it passes to one
of the hind legs.

If the contents of one of the little pellets be examined
under a lens, it will be found that the grains have all
retained their original shape. A botanist practised in
the figure of the pollen of the different species of com-
mon plants might easily ascertain, by such an exami^
nation, whether a bee had collected its ambrosia from
one or more, and also from what species of flowers.

In the months of April and May, as Reaumur tells
us, the bees collect pollen from morning to evening ;
but in the warmer months the great gathering of it is
from the time of their first leaving the hive (which is
sometimes so early as four in the morning) to about
10 o'clock A. M. About that hour all that enter the
hive may be seen with their pellets in their baskets ;
but during the rest of the day the number of those so
furnished is small in comparison of those that are not.
In a hive, however, in which a swarm is recently esta-
blished, it is generally brought in at all parts of the day.

184 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

He supposes, in order for its being formed into pellets,
that it requires some moisture, which the heat evapo-
rates after the above hour ; but in the case of recently
colonized hives, that the bees go a great >vay to seek
it in moist and shady places ^.

When a bee has completed her lading, she returns
to the hive to dispose of it. The honey is disgorged
into the honey-pots or cells destined to receive it, and
is discharged from the honey-bag by its alternate con-
traction and dilatation. A cell will contain the con-
tents of many honey-bags. When a bee comes to dis-
gorge the honey, witli its fore legs it breaks the thick
cream that is always on the top, and the honey which
it yields passes under it. This cream is honey of a
thicker consistence than the rest, which rises to the top
in the cells like cream on milk : it is not level, but forms
an oblique surface over the honey. The cells, as you
know, are usually horizontal, yet the honey does not
run out. The cream, aided probably by the general
thickness of the honey and the attraction of the sides
of the cell, prevents this. Bees, when they bring home
the honey, do not always disgorge it; they sometimes
give it to such of their companions as have been at work
within the hive*". Some of the cells are filled with honey
for daily use, and some with what is intended for a re-
serve, and stored up against bad weather or a bad sea-
son : these are covered with a waxen lid*^.

The pollen is employed as circumstances direct.

a Reaum. v. 302. — comp. 433. I have seen bees out before it was lis^ht,

Ilube r observes that the honey for store is collected hy the wa.i-

niaking bees only {abeilles cirieres), and that the nurses {abeillen nourrko)

gather no more than what is wanted for themselves and companloni ^=it^

work ill the hive, ii, 66. c Reauui. v. 448,

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 185

When the bee laden with it arrives at the hive, she
sometimes stops at the entrance, and very leisurely de-
tacliing- it by piecemeal, devours one or both the pel-
lets on her legs, chewing them with her jaws, and pass-
ing- them then down the little orifice before noticed.
Sometimes she enters the hive, and walks upon the
combs ; and whether she walks or stands, still keeps
beating her wings. By the noise thus produced, which
seems a call to some of her fellow-citizens, three or
four go to her, and placing themselves around her, be-
gin to lighten her of her load, each taking and devour-
ing- a small portion of her ambrosia : this they repeat,
if more do not arrive to assist them, three or four
times, till the whole is disposed of*". Wiklman ob-
served them on this occasion supporting themselves
upon their two fore feet ; and making several motions
with their wings and body to the right and left, which
produced the sound that summoned ther assistants •".
This bee^bread, as I said before, is generally found in
the second stomach and intestines, but the honey never;
which induced Reaumur to think (but he was mistaken)
that the bees elaborated wax from it : and he observes,
that the bees devour this when they are busily en-
gaged in constructing combs *". When more pollen is
collected than the bees have immediate occasion for,
they store it up in some of the empty cells. The laden
bee puts her two hind legs into the cell, and with the
intermediate pair pushes off the pellets. W^hen this is
done, she, or another bee if she is too much fatigued
with her day's labour, enters the cell with her head
firstj and remains there some time; she is engaged in

a Re.ium, V. 418— '' p, 33. t uhi supr. i\9.

186 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

diluting- the pellets, kneading them, and packing them
close: and so they proceed till the cell is filled*. A
large portion of the cells of some combs are filled with
this bread, which one while is found in insulated cells,
at another in cells amongst those that are filled with
honey or brood. — Thus it is everywhere at hand for use.
You have seen how the bees collect and employ two
of the materials that I mentioned ; 1 must now advert
to the third — the Propolis. Huber was a long time un-
certain from whence the bees procured this gummy re-
sin; but it at last occurred to him to plant some cut-
tings of a species of poplar (before their leaves were
developed, when their leaf-buds were swelling, and
besiiieared and filled with a viscid juice,) in some pots,
whicli he placed in the way of the bees that went from
his hives. Almost immediately a bee alighted upon a
twig, and soon Avith its mandibles opened a bud, and
drew from it a thread of the viscid matter which it
contained ; with one of its second pair of legs it took
it from the mouth, and placed it in the basket: thus it
proceeded till it had given them both their load*^. I
have myself seen bees very busy collecting it from the
Tacamahaca {Populus halsamifera, L.). But this is an
old discovery, confirmed by recent observation ; for
MoufFet tells us from Cordus, that it is collected from
the gems of trees, instancing the poplar and the birch '^.
Riem observes that it is also collected from the pine and
fir. The propolis is soft, red, will pull out in a thread,
is aromatic, and imparts a gold colour to white po-
lished metals. It is employed in the hive not only in

a Compare Reaum. 420, and Huber, ii.2J, with "VVildman, 40.
b Iluber, ii. 2G0. c Jnscct.TheatT.2Q. Schirach,241.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 18T

finishing- the combs, as I related in my letter on Habi-
tations^; but also in stopping every chink or orifice
by which cold, wet, or any enemy can enter. They
cover likewise with it the sticks which support the
combs, and often spread it over a considerable portion
of the interior of the hive. Like the pellets of pollen,
it is carried on the posterior tibiae, but the masses are
lenticular*^.

Mr. Knight mentions an instance of bees using an
artificial kind of propolis. He had caused the decor-
ticated part of some tree to be covered with a cement
composed of bees-wax and turpentine : finding this to
their purpose, they attacked it, detaching it from the
tree by their mandibles, and then, as usual, passing it
from the first leg to the second, and so to the third.
When one bee had thus collected its load, another
often came behind and despoiled it of all it had col-
lected ; a second and third load were frequently lost in
the same manner ; and yet the patient animal pursued
its labours without showing any signs of anger".

Bees in their excursions do not confine themselves to
the spot immediately contiguous to their dwelling, but,
when led by the scent of honey, will go a mile from it.
Huber even assigns to them a radius of half a league
round their hive for their ordinary excursions ; yet from
this distance they will discover honey with as much
certainty as if it was within their sight. To prove
that it is by their scent that bees find it out, he put
some behind a window-shutter, in a place where it could
not be seen, leaving the shutter just open enough for

a Vol. T. 2d Ed. 500. b Reaum. nU supr. 437—

c Philos. Trans. 1807,242,

188 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

insects, if they liked, to get at it. In less than a quar-
ter of an hour four bees, a butterfly, and some house-
flies had discovered it. At another time he put some
into boxes, with little apertures in the lid, into which
pieces of card were fitted, which he placed about two
hundred paces from his hives. In about half an hour
the bees discovered them, and traversing- them very in-
dustriously, soon found the apertures, when, pushing
in the pieces of card, they got to the honey. That
contained in the blossom of many plants is quite as
much concealed, yet the acuteness of their scent en-
ables them to detect it.

These insects, especially when laden and returning
to their nest, fly in a direct line, which saves both time
and labour. How they are enabled to do this with
such certainty as to make for their own abode without
deviation, I must leave to others to explain. Con-
nected with this circumstance, and the acuteness of
their smell, is the following curious account, given in
i\\e PJulosophical Transactions for 1721, of the method
practised in New England for discovering where the
wild hive-bees live in the woods, in order to get their
honey. The honey-hunters set a plate containing ho-
ney or sugar upon the ground in a clear day. The
hees soon discover and attack it : having secured two
or three that have filled themselves, the hunter lets one
go, which, rising into the air, flies straight to the nest:
he then strikes off at right angles with its course a few
hundred yards, and letting a second fly, observes its
course by his pocket-compass, and the point where the
two courses intersect is that where the nestis situ^ted^^

a j.xii,\. 145.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 189

Tlie natural station of bees is in the cavities of de-
cayed trees; such trees, Mr. Knight teHs us, they will
discover in the closest recesses, and at an extraordi-
nary distance from the hive ; in one instance it was a
mile: and at swarming, they sometimes are inclined to
settle in such cavities. After the discovery of one, from
twenty to fifty, who are a kind of scouts, may be found
examining- and keeping possession of it. They seem
to explore every part of it and of the tree with the
greatest attention, even surveying the dead knots and
the like*. When a hive stands unemployed, a swarm
will also sometimes send scouts to take possession of it.

How long our little active creatures repose before
they take a second excursion I cannot precisely say.
In a hive the greatest part of the inhal)itants generally
appear in repose, lying together, says Reaumur, but
this probably for a short time. Huber tells us, that
bees may always be observed in a hive with the head
and thorax inserted into cells that contain eggs, and
sometimes into empty ones ; and that they remain in
this situation fifteen or twenty minutes so motionless,
that did not the dilatation of the segments of the abdo-
men prove the contrary, they might be mistaken for
dead. He supposes their object is repose from their
labours ''. The queen, for this purpose, enters the large

a Knight in Philos. Trans, for 1807,231. Marshall, JgricuU. of Norfolk.

b It has been supposed, and the supposition was adopted originally in
this work (Voi. I. 1st Ed. p. 371), that the object in this case is brood-
ing the eggs; but upon further consideration we incline to Huber's opi-»
nion, that, it has no connexion with it, the ordinary temperature of the
liive being sufficient for this purpose: and the circumstance of their en-
tering unoccupied cells proves that this attitude has no particular con-
nexion with the eggs. Huhr,\. 2\Z — " When large pieces of comb," says

190 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

cells of the males, and continues in them without mo-
tion a very long time. Even then the workers form a
circle round her, and brush the uncovered part of her
abdomen. The drones while reposing do not enter
the cells, but cluster in the combs, and sometimes re-
main without stirring a limb for eighteen or twenty
hours ^.

Reaumur observes, that in a hive the population of
which amounts to 18,000, the number that enter the
hive in a minute is a hundred ; which, allowing four-
teen hours in the day for their labour, makes 84,000 :
thus every individual must make four excursions daily,
and some five. In hives where the population was
smaller, the numbers that entered were comparatively
greater, so as to give six excursions or more to each
bee**. But in this calculation Reaumur does not seem
to take into the account those that are employed within
the hive in building or feeding the young brood; which
must render the excursions of each bee still more nu-
merous. He proceeds further to ground upon this
statement a calculation of the quantity of bee-bread
that may be collected in one day by such a hive ; and
he found, supposing only half the number to collect it,
that it would amount to more than a pound ; so that in
one season, one such hive might collect a hundred

Wildnian (p. 45), " were broken off and left at the bottom of the hive,
a great number of bees have gone and placed themselves upon them."
This looks like incubation. Reaumur however affirms (p. 591) that if
part of a comb falls and loses its perpendicular direction, the bees, as if
conscious that they would come to nothing, pull out and destroy all the
larvae. They might perhaps remain perpendicular in the case observed
by Wildman.

a Reaum. v, 431. Huber, ii. 212. b Reaum. v. 432 —

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 191

pounds". What a wonderful idea does this give of the
industry and activity of these little useful creatures !
And what a lesson do they read to the members of so-
cieties that have both reason and religion to guide their
exertions for the common good ! Adorable is that
Great Being who has gifted them with instincts, which
render them as instructive to us, if we wi-ll condescend
to listen to them, as they are profitable.

While I am upon this part of the story of bees, I
cannot pass over the account Reaumur has given from
Maillet of the transportation of hives in Egypt from
one place to another, before alluded to**, to enable
them to make in greater abundance their collections
of honey, &c. Towards the end of October, when the
inundations of the Nile have ceased, and the husband-
men can sow their land, saintfoin is one of the first
things that is sown ; and as Upper Egypt is warmer
than the Lower, the saintfoin gets there first into blos-
som. At this time, bee-hives are transported in boats
from all parts of Egypt into the upper district, and are
there heaped in pyramids upon the boats prepared to
receive them; each being numbered by the individual
to which it belongs. In this station they remain some
days ; and when they are judged to have got in the
harvest of honey and pollen that is to be collected
there, they are removed two or three leagues lower
down, where they remain the same time ; and so they
proceed till towards the middle of February, when
having traversed Egypt, they arrive at the sea, from
whence they are dispersed to their several owners.
John Hunter observes, that when the season for lay-
ii Reaum. V. 434— b Vol. I, 3tl Ed. 331. Reaumur, v. 698—

192 . PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

ing- is over, that for collecting honey comes on (he
means, probably, for making the principal collection of
it); and that when the last pupa is disclosed, the cell
it deserts, after being- cleaned, is immediately filled
with it ; and as soon as full is covered with pure wax :
but this only holds with respect to the cells containing
honey for winter use, those destined to receive that
which forms their food when bad weather prevents
tliem from going out, being left open^. Sometimes,
when the year is remarkably favourable for collecting
honey, the bees Avill destroy many of the larvas to make
room for it ; but they never meddle with the pupae^
When no more honey is to be collected, they remain
quiet in the hive for the winter. Mr. Hunter found
that a hive ffrew lighter in a cold than in a warm week ;
he found also, that in three months (from November
10th to February 9th) a single hive lost 72 oz. l|drani'*.

Water is a thing of the first necessity to these in-
sects ; but they are not very delicate as to its quality,
but rather the reverse ; often preferring what is stag-
nant and putrescent, to that of a running stream". I
have frequently observed them busy in corners moist
with urine ; perhaps this is for the sake of the saline
particles to be there collected.

A new-born bee, as soon as it is able to use its wings,
seems perfectly aware, without any previous instruc-
tion, what are to be its duties and employments forthe
rest of its life. It appears to know that it is born for
society, and not for selfish pursuits ; and tlierefore it
invariably devotes itself and its labours to the benefit

a Philos. Tiam. 1792, 160, Comp. Reaum. v, 450,

a Reaum. ibhi. 391— lliiiUei, ibid. 161 — c Reaum. ibid. 69T,

PERFfiCT SOCIETIES OP INSECTS. 193

of the community to which it belongs. Walking upon
the combs, it seeks for the door of the hive, that it may
sally forth and be useful. Full of life and activity, it
then takes its first flight ; and, unconducted but by its
instinct, visits like the rest the subjects of Flora, ab-
sorbs their nectar, covers itself with their ambrosial
dust, which it kneads into a mass and packs upon its
hind legs; and if need be, gathers propolis, and returns
unembarrassed to its own hive*.

Instances of the expedition with which our little fa-
vourites accomplish their various objects you have had
several ; but this is never more remarkable than when
they settle in a new hive. At this time, in twenty-four
hours they will sometimes construct a comb twenty
inches long by seven or eight wide ; and the hive will
be half filled in five or six days ; so that in the first
fifteen days as much wax is made as in the whole year
besides''.

In treating of the various employments of the bees,
I must not omit one of the greatest importance to
them — the ventilation of their abode. When you con-
sider the numbers contained in so confined a space ;
the high temperature to which its atmosphere is raised ;
and the small aperture at which the air principally en-
ters, you will readily conceive how soon it must be ren-
dered unfit for respiration, and be convinced that there
must be some means of constantly renewing it. If you
feel disposed to think that the ventilation takes place,
as in our apartments, by natural means, resulting from
the rarefaction of the air by the heat of the hive, and
the consequent establishment of an interior and exte-

a R<auni. v. 602. *> Ibid- 656.

VOB. II. O

It)|; IPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

rior current — a simple experiment will satisfy you that
this cannot be. Take a vessel of the size of a bee-hive,
with a similar or even somewhat larger aperture — in-
troduce a lighted taper, and if the temperature be
raised to more than 140°, it will go out in a short
time. We must therefore admit, as Huber observes^
that the bees possess the astonishing- faculty of attract-
ing the external air, and at the same time of expelling
tliat which has become corrupted by their respiration.

What would you say, should I tell you that the bees
upon this occasion have recourse to the same instru-
ment which ladies use to cool themselves when an
apartment is overheated ? Yet it is strictly the case.
By means of their marginal hooks, they unite each
piair of wings into one plane slightly concave, thus
acting upon the air by a surface nearly as large as pos-
sible, and forming for them a pair of very ample fans^
which in their vibrations describe an arch of 90°. Thesfr
vibrations are so rapid as to render the wings almost
invisible. When they are engaged in ventilation, the
bees by means of their feet and claws fix themselves as
firmly as possible to the place they stand upon. The-
first pair of legs is stretched out laefore ; the second
extended to the right and left; whilst the third, placed
very near each other, are perpendicular to the abdo-
men, so as to give that part considerable elevation.

Maraldi, and after him Reaumur, long ago noticed
this action of the bees; but they attributed to it an ef-
fect the reverse of that which it really produces ; the
former imagining it to occasion directly the high tem-
perature of the hive, and the latter indirectly ''. It

a ii. 339. b Reaum. v. 672.

PERFECT SOC^ETl£.Sf«F INSECTS. 195

was reserved for Huber to discover the true cause of
it ; and from him the chief of what I have to say upon
the subject will be derived*.

During the sumraera certain number of workers — for
it is to the workers solely that this office is committed
— may always be observed vibrating their wings before
the entrance of their hive ; and the observant apiarist
will find upon examination, that a still greater num-
ber are engaged within it in the same employment. All
those thus circumstanced that stand without, turn their
head to the entrance ; while those that stand within,
turn their back to it. The station of these ventilators
is upon the floor of the hive. They are usually ranged
in files, that terminate at the entrance ; and sometimes,
but not constantly, form so many diverging rays, pro-
bably to give room for comers and goers to pass. The
number of ventilators in action at the same time varies;
it seldom much exceeds twenty, and is often more cir-
cumscribed. The time also that they devote to this
function is longer or shorter according to circum-
stances : some have been observed to continue their
vibrations for nearly half an hour without resting,
suspending the action for not more than an instant, as
it should seem to take breath. When one retires,
another occupies its place ; so that in a hive well
peopled there is never any interruption of the sound
or humming occasioned by this action; by which it may
always be known whether it be going on or not.

This humming is observable not only during the
heats of summer, but at all seasons of the year. It
sometimes seems even more forcible in the depth of

a Iliiber.ii. 338— 362.
o 2

196 PERFECT sbcIETIES OF INSECTS.

winter than when the temperature of the atmosphere
is higher. An employment so constant, which always
occupies a certain number of bees, must produce as
constant an effect. The column of air once disturbed
within, must give place to that without the hive : thus
a current being established, the ventilation will be per-
petual and complete.

To be convinced that such an effect is produced, ap-
proach your hand to a ventilating bee, and you will
find that she causes a very perceptible motion in the
air. Huber tried an experiment still more satisfac-
tory. On a calm day, at the time when the bees had
returned to their habitation — having fixed a screen be-
fore the mouth of the hive to prevent his being misled
by any sudden motion of the external air — he placed
within the screen little anemometers or wind-gauges,
made of bits of paper, feather, or cotton, suspended by
a thread to a crotch. No sooner did they enter the
atmosphere of the bees than they were put in motion^
being alternately attracted and repelled to and from the
aperture of the hive with considerable rapidity. These
attractions and repulsions were proportioned to the
number of bees engaged in ventilation, and, though
sometimes less perceptible, were never entirely sus-
pended. Burnens tried a similar experiment in the
winter, when the thermometer stood in the shade at 33°.
Having selected a well-peopled hive, the inhabitants of
which appeared full of life and sufficiently active in the
interior, and luted it all around, except the aperture to
the platform on which it stood, he stuck in the top a
piece of iron wire which terminated in a hook, to which
he fastened a hair with a small square of very thin

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 197

paper at the other end ; this was exactly opposite to the
aperture, at the distance of about an inch from it. As
soon as the apparatus was fixed, the hair with its paper
pendulum began to oscillate more or less, the greatest
oscillations on both sides being an inch, by admeasure-
ment, from the perpendicular: if the paper was moved
by force to a greater distance, the vibrations did not
take place, and the apparatus remained at rest, lie
then made an opening in the top of the hive, and
poured in some liquid honey : soon after there arose a
hum, the movement in the interior increased, and
some bees came out. The oscillations of the pendu-
lum upon this became more frequent and intense, and
extended to fifteen lines or an inch and a quarter from
the perpendicular ; but when the paper was removed
to a greater distance from the aperture it remained at
rest.

Huber, at the proposal of M. de Saussure, in order
to ascertain whether artificial ventilators would pro-
duce an analogous effect, got a mechanical friend to
construct for him a little mill with eighteen sails of tin.
He also prepared a large cylindrical vase, into which
he could, at an aperture in the box upon which it was
fixed, introduce a lighted taper. In one side of this
bo^t was another aperture to represent that of a hive,
but larger. The ventilator was placed below, and
luted at the points of contact, and anemometers were
suspended before the aperture. The first experiment
was the introduction of the taper, without putting the
ventilator in motion. Though the capacity of the ves-
sel was about 3228 cubic inches, the flame soon dimi-
nished, and went out in about eight minutes, and the

198 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

anemometers continued motionless. The same expe-
riment was next repeated with the door shut, with
precisely the same result. After the air of the vessel
had been renewed, the taper was again introduced,
and the ventilator set in motion : immediately, as ap-
peared by the oscillations of the anemometers, two
currents of air were established, and the brilliancy of
the flame was not diminished during the whole course
of the experiment, which might have been prolonged
for an indefinite time. A thermometer placed in the
lower part of the apparatus rose to 112°; and the
temperature was evidently still more elevated at the
top of the rieceiver.

The Creator often has one end in view in the ac-
tions of animals, (and nothing more conspicuously dis-
plays the invisible hand that governs the universe,)
while the agents themselves have another. This pro-
bably is the case in the present instance, since we can
scarcely suppose that the bees beat the air with their
wings in order to ventilate the hive, but rather to re-
lieve themselves from some disagreeable sensation w hich
oppresses them. The following experiments prove that
one of their objects in this action, as it is with ladies
when they use their fans, is to cool themselves when
they suffer from too great heat. When Huber once
opened the shutter of a glazed hive, so that the solar
rays darted upon the combs covered with bees, a hum-
ming, the sign of ventilation, soon was heard amongst
them, while those which were in the shade remained
tranquil. The bees composing the clusters which often
are suspended from the hives in summer, when they are
incommoded by the heat of the sun, fan themselves with

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 19§

great energy. But if by any means a shadow is cast over
any portion of the group, the ventilation ceases there,
while it continues in the part which feels the heat of
the sun. The same cause produces a similar effect upon
humble-bees, wasps, and hornets.

Amongst the bees, however, it is remarkable that
ventilation goes on even in the depth of winter, when
it cannot be occasioned by excess of heat. — This there-
fore can only be regarded as a secondary cause of the
phenomenon. From other experiments, which, having
already detained you too long, I shall not here detail,
it appears that penetrating and disagreeable odours
produce the same effect''. Perhaps, though Huber
does not say this, the odour produced by the congre-
gated myriads of the hive may be amongst the princi-
pal motives that impel its inhabitants to this necessary
action.

Whatever be the proximate cause, it is I trust now
evident to you, that the Author of nature, having as-
signed to these insects a habitation into which the air
cannot easily penetrate, has gifted them with the means
of preventing the fatal effects wiiich would result from
corrupted air. An indirect effect of ventilation is the
elevated temperature which these animals maintain,
without any effort, in their hive : — but upon this 1 shall
enlarge hereafter.

Bees are extremely neat in their persons and habi-
tations, and remove all nuisances with great assiduity,
at least as far as their powers enable them. Some-
times slugs or snails will creep into a hive, which with
all their address they cannot readily expel or carry out.

a Iluber, ii. 359— ■

200 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

But here their instinct is at no loss ; for they kill them,
and afterwards embalm them with propolis, so as to
prevent any offensive odours from incommoding them.
An unhappy snail, that had travelled up the sides of a
glazed hive, and which they could not come at with
their stings, they fixed, a monument of their vengeance
and dexterity, by laying this substance all around the
mouth of its shell *. When they expel their excre-
ments, they go apart that they may not defile their
companions : and in winter, when prevented by ex-
treme cold, or the injudicious practice of wholly closing
the door of the hive, from going out for this purpose,
their bodies sometimes become so swelled from the ac-
cumulation of feces in the intestines, that when at last
able to get out they can no longer fly, so that falling
to the ground in the attempt, they perish with cold, the
sacrifice of personal neatness''. When a bee is dis-
closed from the pupa and has left its cell, a worker
comes, and taking out its envelope carries it from the
hive ; another removes the exuviae of the larva, and a
third any filth or ordure that may remain, or any pieces
of wax that may have fallen in when the nascent image
broke from its confinement. But they never attempt
to remove the internal lining of silk that covers the
walls, spun by the larva previous to its metamorphosis,
because, instead of being a nuisance, it renders the cell
more solid ".

Having now described to you the usual employments
of my little favourites both within doors and without,
I shall next enlarge a little upon their language, me-

a Reaum. v. 442. b Bonner On Bees, 10?.

c Reaum. ubi supr, 580-60Q,

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 20l

mory, tempers, manners, and some other parts of their
history.

" Brutes" (it is the remark of Mr. Knight) " have
language to express sentiments of love, of fear, of an-
ger ; but they seem unable to transmit any impression
they have received from external objects. But the lan-
guage of bees is more extensive; if not a language of
ideas, it is something very similar^." You have seen
above that the organ of the language of ants is their
antennae. Huber has proved satisfactorily, that these
parts have the same use with the bees. He wished to
ascertain whether, when they had lost a queen (intel-
ligence which traverses a whole hive in about an hour)
they discovered the sad event by their smell, their
touch, or any unknown cause. He first divided a hive
by a grate, Avhich kept the two portions about three or
four lines apart ; so that they could not come at each
other, though scent would pass. In that part in which
there vvas no queen, the bees were soon in great agi-
tation ; and as they did not discover her where she was
confined, in a short time they began to construct royal
cells, which quieted them. He next separated them
by a partition through which they could pass their an-
tennae, but not their heads. In this case the bees all
remained tranquil, neither intermitting the care of the^
brood, nor abandoning their other employments; nor
did they begin any royal cell. The means they used
to assure themselves that their queen was in their vi-
cinity and to communicate with her, was4o pass their
antennae through the openings of the grate. An infi-
nite number of these organs might be seen at onpe, as

a In Fhilos. Trans. 1807, 239.

202 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

it were, inquiring, in all directions; and the queen was
observed answering these anxious inquiries of her sub-
jects in the most marked manner ; for she was always
fastened by her feet to the grate, crossing her antennae
with those of the inquirers. Various other experiments,
which are too long to relate, prove the importance of
these organs as the instrument of communicating with
each other, as well as to direct the bee in all its pro-
ceedings^. Besides their antennae, the bees also cause
themselves to be understood by certain sounds, not in-
deed produced by the mouth, but by other parts of
their body : — but upon this subject 1 shall have occa-
sion to enlarge hereafter.

That bees can remember agreeable sensations at
least, is evident from the following anecdote related by
Huber. — One autumn some honey was placed upon a
window — the bees attended it in crowds. The honey
was taken away, and the window closed Avith a shutter
all the winter. In the spring, when it was re-opened,
the bees returned, though no fresh honey had been
placed there''.

From the earliest times our little citizens of the hive
have had the character of being an irritable race.
Their anger is without bounds, says Virgil ; and if they
are molested, this character is no exaggeration. Some
individuals, however, they will suffer to go near their
hives, and to do almost any thing : and there are others
to whom they seem to take such an antipathy, that they
will attack them unprovoked. A great deal will probably
depend upon this — whether any thing has happened to
put them out of humour. The bees usually do not attack

a Huber, ii. 407— b Ibid. 315,

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS'. 203

me ; but I remember one day last year, when the as-
paragus was in blossom, which a large number were at-
tending, I happened to go between my asparagus beds ;
which discomposed them so much, that I was obliged
to retreat with hasty steps, and some of them flew after
me; I escaped however unstung. Thorley relates an
anecdote of a gentleman, wlio desirous of securing a
swarm of bees that had settled in a hollow tree, rashly
undertook to dislodge them. He succeeded; but though
he had used the precaution of securing his head and
hands, he was so stung by the furious animals, that a
violent fever was the consequence, and his recovery
was for some time doubtful. The strength of his con-
stitution at length prevailed; and the hole of the tree
being stopped, the survivors of the battle settled upon
a branch, were hived, and became the dear-bought
property of their conqueror^.

"tn Mungo Park's last mission to Africa, he was much
annoyed by the attack of bees, probably of the same
tribe with our hive-bee. His people, in search of honey,
disturbed a large colony of them. The bees sallied
forth by myriads, and attacking men and beasts indis-
criminately, put them all to the rout. One horse and
six asses were either killed or missing in consequence
of their attack; and for half an hour the bees seemed
to have completely put an end to their journey. Isaaco
upon anotlier occasion lost one of his asses, and one of
his men was almost killed by them''.

a Thorley, 16 — The Psalmist alludes to the fury of these crratuies,
when hi says of his entmies, " They compassed me about likt bees."
Ps. cxviii. \'2.

b Park's Last Mudon, 133. 297. Corap. Journal, 331 .

204 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF IJSfSECTS.

BeeSj however, if they are not molested, are not
usually ill-tempered : if you make a captive of their
queen, they will cluster upon your head, or any other
part of your body, and never attempt to sting you. I
remember, when a boy, seeing the celebrated Wildman
exhibit many feats of this kind, to the great astonish-
ment and apprehension of the uninformed spectators.
The writer lately quoted (Thorley) was assisted once
by his maid-servant to hive a swarm. Being rather
afraid, she put a linen cloth as a defence over her head
and shoulders. When the bees were shaken from the
tree on which they had alighted, the queen probably
settled upon this cloth ; for the whole swarm covered
it, and then getting under it, spread themselves over
her face, neck, and bosom, so that when the cloth was
removed she was quite a spectacle. She was with great
difficulty kept from running off with all the bees upon
her ; but at length her master quieted her fears, and
began to search for the queen. He succeeded; and
hoped when he put her into the hive that the bees
w ould follow : but they only seemed to cluster more
closely. Upon a second search he found another queen,
(unless the same had escaped and returned,) whom
seizing, he placed in the hive. The bees soon missed
her, and crowded after her into it ; so that in the space
of two or three minutes not one was left upon the poor
terrified girl. After this escape, she became quite a
heroine, and would undertake the most hazardous em-
ployments about the hives*.

Many means have been had recourse to for the di-
spersion of mobs and the allaying of popular tumults,

a Thorley, 150—

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

205

In St. Petersburgh (so travellers say) a fire-engine
playing upon them does not always cool their choler;
but were a few hives of bees thus employed, their dis-
comfiture would be certain. The experiment has been
tried. Lesser tells us, that in 15'25, during the confu-
sion occasioned by a time of war, a mob of peasants as-
sembling in Hohnstein (in Thuringia) attempted to pil-
lage the house of the minister of Elende ; who having
in vain employed all his eloquence to dissuade thera
from their design, ordered his domestics to fetch his
bee-hives, and throw them in the middle of this furious
mob. The effect was what might be expected ; they were
immediately put to flight, and happy if they escaped un-
stung*.

The anger of bees is not confined to man ; it is not
seldom excited against their own species. From what
I have said above respecting the black bees'' and their
fate, it seems not improbable that, when the workers
become too old to be useful to the community, they are
either killed, or expelled the society Reaumur, who
observed that the inhabitants of the same hive had often
mortal combats, was of opinion that this was their ob-
ject in these battles '', which take place, he observes, in
fine or warm vi^eather. On these occasions the bees
are sometimes so eager, that examining them with a
lens does not part them : — their whole object is to pierce
each other with their sting, the stroke of which, if once
it, penetrates to the muscles, is mortal. In these en-
gagements the conqueror is not always able to extri^
cate this weapon, and then both perish. The duration
of the conflict is uncertain; sometimes it lasts an hour,

1 Lesser, L.ii. 171. 6 See above, p. 128. c Reaum. v. 360-365.

206 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

and at others is very soon determined : and occasion-
ally it happens that both parties, fatigued and despair-
ing of victory, give up the contest and fly away.

But the wars of bees are not confined to single com-
bats; general actions now and then take place between
two swarms. This happens when one takes a fancy to
a hive that another has pre-occupied. In fine warm
weather, strangers, that wish to be received amongst
them, meet with but an indifferent welcome, and a
bloody battle is the consequence. Reaumur witnessed
one tliat lasted a whole afternoon, in which many vic-
tims fell. In this case the battle is still between indi-
viduals, who at one time decide the business within the
hive, and at another at some distance without. In the
former case the victorious bee flies away, bearing her
victim under her body between her legs, sometimes
taking a longer and sometimes a shorter flight before
she deposits it upon the ground. — She then takes her
repose near the dead body, standing upon her four an-
terior legs, and rubbing the two hinder ones against
each other. If the battle is not concluded within the
hive, tJie enemy is carried to a little distance, and then
dispatched.

This strange fury however does not always show
itself on this occasion; for now and then some friendly
intercourse seems to take place. Bees, from a hive in
Mr. Knight's garden, visited those in that of a cottager,
a hundred yards distant, considerably later than their
usual time of labour, every bee as it arrived appearing
to be questioned. Oi^ the tenth morning, however, the
intercourse ceased, ending in a furious battle. On
another occasion, an intimacy took place between two

PERFCCT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 207

hives of his own, at twice the distance, which ceased
on the fifth day. Sometimes he observed that tliis com-
l^iunication terminated in the union of two swarms; as
in one instance, where a swarm had taken possession
of a hollow tree'% it is probable tJiat the reception of
one swarm by another may depend upon their num-
bers, and the fitness of their station to accommodate
them. Thorley witnessed a battle of more than two
days continuance, occasioned by a strange swarm forcing
their way into a hive''. Two swarms that rise at the
same time sometimes fight till great numbers have been
destroyed, or one of the queens slain, when both sides
cease all their enmity and unite under the survivor*^.

These apiarian battles are often fought in defence
of the property of the hive. Bees that are ill managed,
and not properly fed, instead of collecting for them-
selves, will now and then get a habit of pillaging flora
their more industrious neighbours : these are called by
Schirach corsair bees, and by English writers, robbers.
They make their attack chiefly in the latter end of Ju-
ly, and during the month of August. At first they act
with caution, endeavouring to enter by stealth ; and
then, emboldened by success, come in a body. If one
of the queens be killed, the attacked bees unite with the
assailants, take up their abode with them, and assist
in plundering their late habitation''. Schirach very
gravely recommends it to apiarists whose hives are
attacked by these depredators, to give the bees some
honey mixed with brandy or wine, to increase and

a "^Mlos. Trans. 1807, 2.S4— b 166. c Thorley, ibid. Coinp.

Mills On Bees, 63. a Corap. Schirach, 49. Mills, 62— Thorley,

1G3—

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INJECTS.

inflame their courage, that they may more resolutely
defend their property against their piratical assailants''.
It is however to be apprehended, that this method of
making- them pot-valiant might induce them to attack
their neighbours, as well as to defend themselves.

Sometimes combats take place in which three or four
bees attack a single individual, not with a design to
kill, but merely to rob : one seizes it by one leg, another
by another; till perhaps there are two on each side,
each having hold of a leg, or they bite its head or
thorax. But as soon as the poor animal that is thus
haled about and maltreated unfolds its tongue, one of
the assailants goes and sucks it with its own, and is
followed by the rest, who then let it go. These in-
sects, however, in their ordinary labours are very kind
and helpful to each other ; I have often seen two, at
the same moment, visit the same flower, and very
peaceably despoil it of its treasures, without any con-
tention for the best share.

As the poison of bees exhales a penetrating odour,
M. Huber was curious to observe the effect it might
produce upon them. Having extracted with pincers
the sting of a bee and its appendages impregnated with
poison, he presented it to some workers, which were
settled very tranquilly before the gate of their man-
sion. Instantaneously the little party was alarmed ;
none however took flight, but two or three darted upon
the poisoned instrument, and one angrily attacked the
observer. When however the poison was coagulated,
they were not in the least affected by it — A tube im-
pregnated with the odour of poison recently ejected

a 51.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 200

bDJng presented to them, aftccted them in tlie same
manner". This circumstance may sometimes occasion
battles amongst them, that are not otherwise easy to be
accounted for.

Anger is no useless or hurtful passion in bees ; it is
necessary to them for the preservation of themselves
and their property, which, besides those of their own
species, are exposed to the ravages of numerous ene-
mies. Of these I have alreadj'^ enumerated several of
the class of insects, and also some beasts and birds that
have a taste for bees and their produce ''. The Mcrops
Apiaster (which has been taken in England), the lark
and other birds catch them as they fly. Even the frog
and the toad are said to kill great numbers of bees ;
and many that fall into the water probably become the
prey of fish. The mouse also, especially the field-
mouse, in winter often commits great ravages in a hive,
ifthe base and orifices are not well secured and stopped ^
Thorley once lost a stock by mice, which made a nest
and produced young amongst the combs'^. The tit-
mouse, according to the same author, will make a noise
at the door of the hive, and when a bee comes out to see
what is the matter, will seize and devour it. He has
known them cat a dozen at a time. The swallows will
assemble round the hives and devour them like grains
of corn ^. I need only mention spiders, in whose webs
they sometimes meet with their end, and earwigs and
ants, which creep into the hive and steal the honey ^

Upon this subject of the enemies of bees, I cannot
persuade myself to omit the account Mr. White has
given of an idiot-boy, who from a child showed a strong

a ii. 386-- b Vor,. I. 2d Ed. 164, and 280. 288.

c Schiracli, 52. '^ 170. e FJeaiira. v. 710. f Thorley, 171

VOL. II. r

210 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

propensity to bees. They were his food, his amusement,
his sole object. In the winter he dozed away his time
in his father's house, by the fire-side, in a torpid state,
seldom leaving the chimney-corner : but in summer he
was all alert and in quest of his game. Hive-bees,
humble-bees, and wasps were his prey wherever he
found them. He had no apprehension from their
stings, but would seize them with naked hands, and
at once disarm them of their weapons, and suck their
bodies for the sake of their honey-bags. Sometimes he
would fill his bosom between his shirt and skin with
these animals ; and sometimes he endeavoured to con-
fine them in bottles. He was very injurious to men
that kept bees ; for he would glide into their bee-
gardens, and sitting down before the stools, would rap
with his fingers, and so take the bees as they came out.
He has even been known to overturn the hives for the
sake of the honey, of which he was passionately fond.
Where metheglin was making, he would linger round
the tubs and vessels, begging a draught of wlrat he
called bee-wine. As he ran about, he used to make a
humming noise with his lips resembling the buzzing of
bees. This lad was lean and sallow, and of a cadave-
rous complexion ; and except in his favourite pursuit, in
which he was wonderfully adroit, discovered no manner
of understanding. Had his capacity been better, and
directed to the same object, he had perhaps abated
much of our wonder at the feats of a more modern ex-
hibiter of bees ; and we may justly say of him now,
" Thou,

Had thy presiding star propitious shone,

Should'st Wilduian be." =

a White's iVa<. Hist. 8vo. i. 330—

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 211

The worker bees are annual insects, though the queen
will sometimes live more than two years; but, asevery
swarm consists of old and young-, this is no argument
for burning them. It is a saying of bee-keepers in Hol-
land, that the first swallow and the first bee .foretell
each other ^. This perhaps may be correct there ; but
with us the appearance of bees considerably precedes
that of the swallow ; for when the early crocuses open,
if the weather be warm, they may always be found busy
in the blossom.

The time that bees will inhabit the same stations is
wonderful. Reaumur mentions a countryman who pre-
served bees in the same hive for thirty years ^. Thor-
ley tells us that a swarm took possession of a spot un-
der the leads of the study of Ludovicus Vivos in Ox-
ford, where they continued a hundred and ten years,
from 1520 to 1630''. These circumstances have led
authors to ascribe to bees a greater age than they caa
claim. Thus Mouffet, because he knoAV a bees-nest
which had remained thirty years in the same quarters,
concludes that they are very long-lived, and very sapi-
ently doubts whether they even die of old age at all ^ ! ! !
Which is just as wise as if a man should contend, be-
cause London had existed from before the time of Ju-
lius Caesar, that therefore its inhabitants must be im-
mortal.

Bees are subject to many accidents, particularly, as
I have. said above, they often fall or are precipitated

a Swamm. Bib. Nat. Ed. Hill, !. 160. h uM supr. 665.
ens— «l T/(f«<r. J«.s-. 21.

P 2

^12 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

by the wind into water ; and though like the cat a Loe*
has not nine lives, nor

" J\ine times emerging from the crystal flood,
She mews to every watery god,"

yet she will bear submersion nine hours ; and, if exposed
to suHicient heat, be reanimated. In this case their pro-
boscis is generally unfolded, and stretched to its full
length. At the extremity of this, motion is first per-
ceived, and then at the ends of the legs. After these
symptoms appear they soon recover, fold up the tongue,
and plume themselves for flight^. Experimentalists
may therefore, without danger, submerge a hive of
bees, when they want to examine them particularly,
for they will all revive upon being set to the fire.
Reaumur says that in winter, during frosts, the bees
remain in a torpid state. He must mean severe frosts;
for Huber relates an instance, when upon a sudden
emergency, the bees of one of his hives set themselves
to work in the middle of January ; and he observes
that they are so littld torpid in winter, that' even when
the thermometer abroad is below the freezing point, it
stands high in populous hives. Swammerdam, and
after him the two authors last quoted, found that some-
times, even in the middle of winter, hives have young
brood in them, which the bees feed and attend to ''. In
an instance of this kind, which fell under the eye of

a Reaum. v. 340 —

b January 11, 1818. My bees were out, and very alert this day. Tiie
thermometer stood abroad in the shade at 51 5° When the sun shour
there was quite a cluster of them at the mouth of the hives, and grefit
numbers were buzzing about in the air before them.

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 213

Huber, the thermometer stood in the hive at about 92°.
in colder climates, however, the bees will probably be
less active in the winter. They are then generally si-
tuated between the combs towards their lower part.
But when the air grows milder, especially if the rays
of the sun fall upon the hive and warm it, they awake
from their lethargy, shake their wings, and begin
to move and recover their activity; with which their
wants returning, they then feed upon the stock of
honey and bee-bread which they have in reserve. The
lowest cells are first uncovered, and their contents
consumed ; the highest are reserved to the last. The
honey in the lowest cells being collected in the autumn,
probably will not keep so well as the vernal.

The degree of heat in a liive in winter, as I have
just hinted, is great. A thermometer near one, in
the open air, that stood in January at 6|° below the
freezing point, upon the insertion of the bulb a little
way into the hive, rose to 22|° above it ; and could it
have been placed between the conib"^, where the bees
themselves were agglomerated, the mercury, Reaumur
conjectures, would have risen as high as it does abroad
in the warm days in snmmer^. Huber says that it
stands in frost at 86° and 88° in populous hives''. In
May, the former author found, in a hive in which he
had lodged a small swarm, that the thermometer indi-^
cated a degree of heat above that of the hottest days of
summer*". He observes that their motion, and even
the agitation of their wings, increases the heat of their
atmosphere. Often, Avhen the squares of glass in a hive
appeared cold to the touch, if either by design or

■'' V, 671. b i.35J. Note"*. c ulti guar.

214 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

chance he happened to disturb the bees, and the ag-
glomerated mass in a tumult began to move different
ways, sending forth a great hum, in a very short time
so considerable an accession of heat was produced,
that when lie touched the same squares of glass, he felt
them as hot as if they had been held near a fierce fire.
By teasing the bees the heat generated was sometimes
so great, as to soften very much the wax of the combs,
and even to cause them to fall^. This generation of
heat in bee-hives seems to be one of those mysteries of
nature that has not yet been satisfactorily accounted
for. Generally speaking, insects appear to have no
animal heat ; the temperature of their bodies being
usually that of the atmosphere in which they happen
to be. But bees are an exception to this rule, and pro-
duce heat in themselves. Whether they are the only
insect that can do this, as John Hunter affirms, or
whether others that are gregarious, such as humble-
bees, wasps, and ants, may not possess the same faculty,
seems not yet clearly ascertained. The heat in the
hive in the above instance was evidently occasioned by
the tumult into which the bees were put; and the hum,
and motions that followed it, Avas probably the result of
their anger. But how these act physically, in an ani-
mal that has no circulation, I am unable to say ; and
must leave the question, like my predecessors, unde-
cided.

And now, having detailed to you thus amply the
wonderful history and proceedings of the social tribes
of the insect world, you will allow, I think, that I have
a Reaum. v, 672.

PERFECT SOCIETIES or INSECTS. S 15

redeemed my pledge, when I taught you to expect that
this history would exceed in interest and variety and
marvellous results every thing that 1 had before related
to you. I trust, moreover, that you will scarcely feel
disposed to subscribe to that opinion, though it has the
sanction of some great names, which attributes these
almost miraculous instincts to mere sensation ; which
tells us, that their sensorium is so modelled with re-
spect to the difterent operations that are given them in
charge, that it is by the attraction of pleasure alone
that they are determined to the execution of them ;
and that, as every circumstance relative to the succes-
sion of their different labours is pre-ordained, to each of
them an agreeable sensation is affixed by the Creator :
and that thus, when the bees build their cells ; when
they sedulously attend to the young brood; when they
collect pi-ovisions ; this is the result of no plans, of no
affection, of no foresight; but that the sole determining
jnotive is the enjoyment of an agreeable sensation at-
tached to each of these operations^. Surely it would
be better to resolve all their proceedings at once into
a direct impulse from the Creator, than to maintain a
theory so contrary to fact; and which militates against
the whole history w hich M. Huber, who adopts this
theory from Bonnet, has so ably given of these crea-
tures. That they may experience agreeable sensations
from their various employments, nobody will deny ; but
that such sensations instruct them how to perform their
several operations, without any plan previously im-
pressed upon their sensorium, is contrary both to rea-
son and experience. They have a plan, it is evident ;

aliHber, i. 313,

216 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.

and that plan, which proves that it is not mere sensa-
tion, they vary according- to circumstances. As to af-
fection— that bees are irritable, and feel the passion of
anger, no one will deny ; that they are also susceptible
of fear, is equally evident; and if they feel anger and
fear, why may they not also feel love? Further, if they
have recourse to precautions for the prevention of any
evil that seems to threaten them, how can we refuse
them a degree o^ foresight? Must we also resolve all
their patriotism, and the singular regard for the welfare
of their community, which seems constantly to actuate
them, and the sacrifices, even sometimes of themselves,
that they make to promote and ensure it, into indivi-^
dual self-love ? We would not set them up as rivals
to man in intelligence, foresight, and the affections ;
but they have that degree of each that is necessary for
their purposes. On account of the difficulties attend-
ing all theories that give them some degree of these qua-
lities, to resolve all into mere sensation, is removing
one difficulty by a greater.

That these creatures from mere selfishness build
their combs, replenish them with the fruit of their un-
wearied labours, attend so assiduously to the nurture
of the young brood, lavish their caresses upon their
queen, prevent all her wants, give a portion of the
honey they have collected to those that remain in the
hives, assist each other, defend their common dwelling,
and are ready to sacrifice themselves for the public
good — is an anomaly in rerum natura that ought never
to be admitted, unless established by the most irrefraga-
ble demonstration; — and I think you will not be disposed
without full proof to yield yourself to a mere theory,

PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 217

SO contradictory of all the facts we know relative to
this subject.

After all, there are mysteries, as to the primum mO"
bile, a nono^st these social tribes, that with all our
boast h1 reason we cannot fathom ; nor develop satis-
factorily the motives that urge them to fulfil in so re-
markable though diversified away their different de-
stinies. One thing- is clear to demonstration, that by
these creatures and their instincts, the power, wisdom
and goodness of the Great Father of the universe
are loudly proclaimed ; the atheist and infidel con-
futed; the believer confirmed in his faith and trust ia
Providence, which he thus beholds watching-, with in-
cessant care, over the welfare of the meanest of his
creatures; and from which he may conclude that he,
the prince of the creation, will never be overlooked or
forsaken : and from them what lessons may be learned
of patriotism and self-devotion to the public good; of
loyalty ; of prudence, temperance, diliigence, and
self-denial. — But it is time at length to put an end to
tiiis long disquisition.

T am, &c.

LETTER XXL

MEANS BY WHICH INSECTS DEFEND
THEMSELVES.

^Vv HEN a country is particularly open to attack, or sur-
rounded by numerous enemies, who from cupidity or
hostile feelings are disposed to annoy it, we are usually
led to inquire what are its means of defence? whether
natural, or arising from the number, courage, or skill
of its inhabitants. The insect tribes constitute such a
nation : with them infinite hosts of enemies wage con-
tinual war, many of whom derive the Avhole of their
subsistence from them : and amongst their own tribes
there are numerous civil broils, the strong often prey-
ing upon tlie weak, and the cunning upon the simple :
so that unless a watchful Providence (which cares for
all its creatures, even the most insignificant,) had sup-
plied them with some mode of resistance or escape, this
innumerable race must soon be extirpated. That such
is the case, it shall be my endeavour in this letter to
prove; in which I shall detail to you some of the most
remarkable means of defence with which they are pro-
vided. For the sake of distinctness I shall consider
these under two separate lieads, into which indeed they
naturall) divide themselves : — Passive means of de-
fence, such as are independent of any efforts of the in-
sect ; and active means of defence, such as result from
certain efforts of the insect in the employment of those

MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 219

instincts and instruments with which Providence has
furnished it for this purpose.

I. The principal passive means of defence with
which insects are provided, are derived from their co-
lour and form, by which they either deceive, dazzle,
alarm, or annoy their enemies ; or from their substance,
involuntary secretions, vitality, and numbers.

They often deceive them by imitating various sub-
stances. Sometimes they so exactly resemble the soil
which they inhabit, that it must bo a practised eye which
can distinguish them from it. Thus, one of our scarcest
British weevils (Curculio nebuhsi^s, L.), by its gray co-
lour spotted with black, so closely imitates the soil con-
sisting of white sand mixed with black earth, on which
I have always found it, that its chance of escape, even
though it be hunted for by the lyncean eye of an ento-
mologist, is not small. Another insect of the same tribe
{Brachyrhimis scahriculus, F.), of which I have ob-
served several species of common dors {Harpalus,
Latr.) make great havoc, abounds in pits of a loamy
soil of the same colour precisely with itself; a circum-
stance that doubtless occasions many to escape from
their pitiless foes. — Several other weevils, for instance
Brachj/tiii?2us niveus and cretaccus, F., resemble chalk,
and perhaps inhabit a chalky or white soil.

Many insects also are like pebbles and stones, both
rough and polished, and of various colours ; but since
this resemblance sometimes results from their attitudes,
I shall enlarge upon it under my second head : whether,
however, it be merely passive, or combined with action,
we may sa'^ely regard it as given to enable them to
elude the vigilance of their enemies.

§20 MEAxXS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS'.

A numerous host of our little animals escape front
birds and other assailants by imitating the colour of the
plantSjOrpartsof them, which they inhabit; orthetwigs
of shrubs and trees ; their foliage, flowers, and fruit.
Many of the mottled moths, which take their station
of diurnal repose on the north side of the trunks of
trees, are with difficulty distinguished from the gr?.y
and green lichens that cover them. Of this kind are
'Noctua aprilina and Psi, F. The caterpillar of N.
AlgcE, F. when it feeds on the yellow Lichen jumperiniis,
is always yellow ; but when upon the gray Lichen saxa-
lilis its hue becomes gray ^. This change is probably
produced by the colour of its food. Phryganea aira^ a
kind of may-fly, frequents the black flower-spikes of the
common sedge {Carex riparia), which fringes the banks
of our rivers. I have often been unable to distinguish
it from them, and the birds probably often make the
same mistake and pass it by. — A jumping bug, very
similar to one figured by Schellenberg '', also much
resembles the lichens of the oak on which I took it.

The Spectre tribe (Phasma, Licht.) go still further
in this mimicry, representing a small brsnch with its
spray. I have one from Brazil eight inches long, that,
unless it was seen to move, could scarcely be conceived
to be any thing else ; the legs, as well as the head,
having their little snags and knobs, so that no imita-
tion can be more accurate. Perhaps this may be the
species mentioned by Molina '^^ which the natives of
Chili call " The Devil's Horsed"

aFa.hr.Forlesungen,321. hCimic.Helvet.t. iii./.3. cHisf.ofChili,\.n2.
A Since the first edition of this volume was printed, a lady from the
West Indies looking at my cabinet, upon being shown this insect, ex-
claimed " Oh, that is The Devil's Horse "

MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 221

Other insects, of various tribes, represent the leaves
of plants, living, decaying, and dead ; some in their
colour, and some both in tiieir colour and shape. The
caterpillar of a moth {Noctua .LigustrL F.) that feeds
upon the privet, is so exactly of the colour of the un-
derside of the leaf, upon which it usually sits in the
day-time, that you may have the leaf in your hand and
yet not discover it^. — Tlie tribe of grasshoppers, called
Lociistce by Fabric! us, though the true Locust does
not belong to it, in the veining, colour, and texture
of their elytra, resemble green leaves''. — The genera
Montis and Phasjna — named praying-insects and spec-
tres— also of the Orthopiera order, often exhibit the
same pecuiiarity. — Others of them, by the spots and
mixtures of colour observable in these organs, repre-
sent leaves that are decaying in various degrees. —
Those of several species of Mantis likewise imitate dry
leaves, and so exactly, by their opacity, colour, rigi-
dity, and veins, that, were no other part of the animal
visible, even after a close examination, it would be
generally affirmed to be nothing but a dry leaf. Of
this nature is the Mantis siccifolia, F., and two or three
Brazilian species in my cabinet, that seem undescribed,
which I will show you when you give me an opportu-
nity. But these imitations of dry leaves are not con-
fined to the Orthoptera order solely. Amongst the
Hemiptera, the Coreus paradoxus, F., a kind of bug,
surprised Sparrman not a little. He was sheltering
himself from the mid-day sun, when the air was so still

a Brahm Inseklen Kalender, ii. 383.

b Hence we have LocuHa dtrifoUa, laurifoKa, camellifoUci, myrtifolia,
saJuif9lia,&c,

222 MEA\S OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.

and calm as scarcely to shake an aspen leaf, and saw
with wonder what he mistook for a little withered, pale,
crumpled- leaf, eaten as it were by caterpillars, flutter-
ing from the tree. The sight appeared to him so very
extraordinary, that he left his place of shelter to con-
template it more nearly; and could scarcely believe his
eyes, when he beheld a living insect, in shape and colour
resembling a fragment of a withered leaf with the edges
turned up and eaten away as it were by caterpillars,
and at the same time all over beset with prickles*. —
A British insect, one of our largest moths {Bomhyx
quercifolia^ F.) called by collectors the Iwppet-moth^
affords an example from the Lepidoptera order of the
imitation in question, its wings representing, both in
shape and colour, an arid brown leaf. Some bugs, be-
longing to the genus Tingis, P., simulate portions of
leaves in a still further state of decay, when the veins
only are left. For, the thorax and elytra of these in-
sects being reticulated, with the little areas or meshes
of the net-work transparent, this circumstance gives
them exactly the appearance of small fragments of ske-
letons of leaves.

But you have probably heard of most of these spe-
cies of imitation : I hope, therefore, you will give
credit to the two instances to which I shall next call
your attention, of insects that even mimic flowers and
fruit. With respect to the former, I recollect to have
seen in a collection made by Mr. Masson at the Cape
of Good Hope, a kind of Pnenmora, Thunb. — ar-
ranged by Linnc with the grasshoppers (Giyllus) — the
elytra of which were of a rose- or pink-colourj which,

a Voyage, &c. ii. 16.

MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 223

shrovvdlng its vesiculose abdomen, gave it much the
appearance of a fine flower. — A most beautiful and
brilliant beetle, of the genus Chlamj/s, Knoch, as yet
undescribed, and found by Captain Hancock in Brazil,
by the inequalities of its ruby-coloured surface, strik-
ingly resembles some kinds of fruit. — And to make the
series of imitations complete, a minute black beetle,
with ridges upon its elytra, (Hister sulcatus, OViv.)^,
when lying without motion, is very like the seed of an
umbelliferons plant. The dog-tick is not unlike a small
bean ; which resemblance has caused a bean, commonly
cultivated as food for horses, to be called the tick-bean.
The Palma Christi, also, had probably the name of Ri-
cinus given to it from the similitude of its seed to a tick.
Another tribe of these little animals, before alluded
to, is secured from harm by a different kind of imita-
tion, and affords a beautiful instance of the wisdom of
Providence in adapting means to their end. Some
singular larva;, with a radiated anus"^, live in the nests
of humble-bees, and are the offspring of a particu-
lar genus of flies, (Volucella, Geoffr., Plerocera, Mei-
gen), many of the species of which strikingly resemble
those bees in shape^ clothing, and colour. Thus has
the Author of nature provided that they may enter
these nests and deposit their eggs undiscovered. Did
these intruders venture themselves amongst the humble-
bees in a less kindred form, their lives would probably
pay the forfeit of their presumption. Mr. Sheppard
once found one of these larvas in the nest of Apia

a Oliv. Entomolog. i. no. 8. 17.

b Plate. XIX. Fig. 11. Vor. I. 2d Ed.266. LaUcWie, Gen. Crust,
el Ins. iv, 322.

2^1 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECT?.

Raklla.) K., but we could not ascertain what the ffv
was. Perhaps it might be Plerocera bomhi/hms^ Meig.,
which resembles those humble-bees that have a red
anus.

The brilliant colours in which many insects are ar-
rayed, may decorate them M'ith some other view than
that of mere ornament. They may dazzle their ene-
mies. The radiant blue of the upper surface of the
wings of a giant butterfly, abundant in Brazil {Papilio
JMenelaus, L.), which from its size would be a ready
prey for any insectivorousbirds, by its splendour (which
I am told, when the insect is flying in the sunshine, is
inconceivably bright,) may produce an effect upon the
sight of such birds, that may give it no small chance of
escape. Latreille has a similar conjecture with re-
spect to the golden wasps (Chr?/sis, L.). These ani-*
mals lay their eggs in the nests of such Hi/menoptera,
— wasps, bee- wasps (Benibe.r, L.), and bees, — as are
redoubtable for their stings ; and therefore have the
utmost occasion for protection against these murderous
weapons. Amongst other defences the golden wasps
are adorned with the most brilliant colours, which by
their radiance, especially in the sunny situations fre-
quented by these insects, may dazzle the eyes of their
enemies, and enable them to effect unhurt the purpose
for which they were created^.

The frightful aspect of certain insects is anothoi'
passive mean of defence by which they sometimes strike
beholders, especially children, often great insect tor-
mentors, with alarm, and so escape. The terrific and
protended jaws of the stag-beetle (Lucanus Cervus^ L.)

a Latreille, AnnaU d:i Mus, 1810. 5.

MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 225

in Europe, and of the stag-horn Capricorn beetle (Pn-
onus ccrvicornis^ F.) in America, may save them from
the cruel fate of the poor cockchafer % whose gyrations
and motions, when transfixed by a pin, too often form
the amusement of ill-disciplined children. The threat-
ening horns also, prominent eyes, or black and dismal
hue of many other Co/eojj/e?'a belonging to the Linnean
genera Scarabceus, Ciciiidelay and Carabus, may produce
the same elfect.

But the most striking instances of armour are to be
found in the Hemiptera order amongst the Cicadiadce.
In some of these, the horns that rise from the thorax
are so singular and monstrous, that nothing parallel to
them can be found in nature. Of this kind is the Ci-
cada spinosa, Stoll '', the Centrotus clavatus, F. '^, and
more particularly the Centrotus globularis, F.^, so re-
markable for the extraordinary apparatus of balls and
spines, which it appears to carry erect, like a standard,
over its head. What is the precise use of all the va-
rieties of armour with which these little creatures are
furnished it is not easy to say, but they may probably^
defend them from the attack of some enemies.

Under this head I may mention the long hairs, stifl^
bristles, sharp spines, and hard tubercular prominences
with which many caterpillars are clothed, bristled, and
studded. That these are means of defence is rendered
more probable by the fact that, in several instances,

a One would almost wish that the same superstition prevailed here
which Sparrman observes is common in Sweden, with respect to these ani-
mals. " Simple people," says he, " believe that their sins will be forgiven
if they set a cockchafer on its legs." Voyage, i. 28. b Clgales,/. 83,

c Ibid./. 115. Coquebert, lUuslr. Ic. ii. t, xxviii./. 5.

tl Stoll, C/jrt?fj,/. 163. Corop. Fallas, SpiciV. Zoof. /. i./. 12.
TOL. 11. Q

226 MEA.NS OF DEFENCE OF INSECtSi

the animals so distinguished, at their last moult, pre-
vious to their assuming the pupa, (in which state they
are protected by other contrivances,) appear with a
smooth skin, without any of the tubercles, hairs, or
gpines for which they were before remarkable ^. Won-
derful are the varieties of this kind which insects ex-
hibit : — but upon these I shall treat more at large on a
future occasion. I shall only here select a few facts more
particularly connected with my present subject. The
caterpillar of the great tiger-moth (Bombi/x Caja, F.),
■Avhich is beset with long demise hair, when rolled up
— an attitude it usually assumes if alarmed — cannot
then be taken without great difficulty, slipping repeat-
edly from the pressure of the fingers. If its hairs do
not render it distasteful, this may often be the mean
of its escape from the birds. — That little destructive
l)eetle, Anthrenus Museorum^ F., which so annoys the
entomologist, if it gets into his cabinets, wfien in the
larva state, being covered with bunches of diverging
hairs, glides from between your lingers as if it were
lubricated with oil. The two tufts of hairs near the
tail of this are most curious in their structure, being
jointed through their Avhole length, and terminating in
a sharp halberd-shaped point^. — I have a small lepido-
pterous caterpillar from Brazil, the upper side of which
is thickly beset with strong, sharp, branching spines,
which would enter into the finger, and would probably
render it a painful morsel to any minor enemy.

a Rcaum. v. 94.

b This was first pointed out to me by Mr. Briggs of the Post-office,
^\ ho sent me an accurate drawing of the animal and of one of it^ hair$.
1 did not at that time discover that it had been figured l^y De Geer, iv,
i. viii./.l-T.

/JheAns of defence of insects. 227

The powers of amioi/ancc, by means of their hair,
with which the moth of the fir, and the procession-moth,
before noticed % are gifted, are doubtless a defensive
armour to them. — Madame Merian has figured an
enormouscaterpillar of this kind, — which unfortunately
she could not trace to the perfect insect, — by the very
touch of which her hands, she says, were inflamed, and
that the inflammation was succeeded by the most ex-
cruciating pain*'. The vesicatory beetles, likewise,
{Li/tta vesicatoria, F., &c.) are not improbably de-
fended from their assailants by the remarkable quality,
so useful to suffering mortals, that distinguishes them.

Your own observation must have proved to you, that
insects often escape great perils, from the crush of the
foot, or of superincumbent weights, by the hardness
oT the substance that covers great numbers of thera.
The elytra of many beetles of the genus Ilister are so
nearly impenetrable, that it is very difficult to make a
pin pass through them ; and the smaller stag-beetle
(L?icanus parallelopipedus, L.) will bear almost any
weight-T-the head and trunk forming a slight angle with
the abdomen — which passes Over it upon the ground.
Other insects are protected by the toughness of their
skin. A remarkable instance of this is afforded by the
common forest-fly (Ilippobosca equina, L.), which, as
was before observed *^, can scarcely be killed by the ut-
most pi'essure of the finger and thumb.

The involuntary/ secretions of these little beings
may also be regarded as means of defence, which either
conceal them from their enemies, make them more

a Vlwt. 1. 2d Ed. p. 131. b Insect. Surinam, t. 37.

e Vol. I.iSd Ed. p. 119.

Q 2

22S MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.

difficult to be attacked, or render them less palata-
ble. Thus, the white froth often observable upon rose-
bushes, and other shrubs and plants, called by the vul-
gar frog-spittle, — but which, if examined, will be found
to envelop the larva of a small hemipterous insect
(Cicada spumaria, L.)? from whose anus it exudes, al-
thouo^h it is sometimes discovered even in this con-
cealment by the indefatigable wasps, and becomes their
prey, — serves to protect the insect, which soon dies
when exposed, not only from the heat of the sun and
from violent rains, but also to hide it from the birds and
its other foes. — The cottony secretion that transpires
through the skin of many species of Aphis, Chermes^
and Coccus, and in which the eggs of the latter are often
involved, may perhaps be of use to them in this view^ ;
either concealing them — for they look rather like little
locks of cotton, or feathers, than any thing animated —
or rendering them distasteful to creatures that would
otherwise prey upon them. — The same remark may
apply to the slimy caterpillars of some of the saw-flies
(Tenihredo, L., 7\ Cerasi, Scrophularice, Sfc). The
<;oat of slime of these animals, as Professor Peck ob-
serves % retains its humidity though exposed to the
fiercest sun. — Under this head I shall also mention the
phosphoric insects : the glow-worm {Lampi/ris) ; the
lantern-fly (jFm /o-or«); the fire-fly (E later) ; and the
electric centipede (Scolopendra electrica, L.) ; since the
light emitted by these animals may defend them from the
attack of some enemies. Mr. Sheppard once floticed a
Carabus running round the last-mentioned insect, when
shioing, as if wishing but afraid to attack it.

a Nat' Hist, of the Slug-isorm, 7.

MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS,' 229

Various insects, doubtless, find the wonderful mia-
lily^ with which they are endowed another mean of
defence; at least of obviating the effects of an attack.
So that, when to all appearance they are mortally
wounded, they recover, and fulfil the end of their
creation. Indeed female jLe/j/f/opfera, especially of the
larger kinds, will scarcely die, do what you will, till
they have laid their eggs. — Dr. Arnold, a most acute
observer, relates to Mr.MacLeay, that having pinned
Scolia quadrimaculafa, F., a hymenopterous insect,
down in the same box with many others, amongst which
was the humming-bird hawk-moth (Sphinx stellata-
rum, L.), its proper food; it freed itself from the pin
that transfixed it, and, neglecting all the other insects
in the box, attacked the Sphinx, and pulling it to
pieces devoured a large portion of its abdomen.

AVe often wonder how the cheese-mite {Acariis Siro,
L.) is at hand to attack a cheese wherever deposited;
but when we learn from Leeuwenhoek, that one lived
eleven weeks gummed on its back to the point of a
needle without food, our wonder will be diminished''.
Another species of mite (A, vegetans, L.) was observed
by De Geer to live some time in spirits of wine'^. This
last circumstance reminds me of an event which befel
myself, that I cannot refrain from relating to you, since
it was the cause of my taking up the pursuit I am re-

a The penetrating o;enius of Lord Verulam discovered in a great degree
the cause of this vitality. " They stirre," says he, speaking of insects,
" a good while after their heads are off, or that they be cut in pieces ;
which is caused also for that their vital spirits are more diffused thorowout
all their parts, and lesse confined to organs than in perfect creatures,"
Sylu. Sylvar. cent. vii. ^ 697.
b Loeuw. Epist. 17, l(i94. c De Geer, vii. 127.

230 MEANS OF DEFEXCE OF INSECTS.

commending to you. One morning I observed on
my study window a little lady-bird yeilov/ with black
dots (Coccinella 22-pt(nctata, L.) — " You are very
pretty," said I to myself, " and I should like to have a
collection of such creatures." Immediately I seized
my prey, and not knowing how to destroy it, I im-
mersed it in geneva. After leaving it in this situa-
tion a day and a night, and seeing it without motion,
I concluded it was dead, and laid it in the sun to
dry. It no sooner, however, felt the warmth than it
began to move, and afterward flew away. From this
time I began to attend to insects. — The chamfelecn-fly
(^StratT/omis Chamwleon, F.) was observed by Swam-
merdam to retain its vital powers after an immersion
equally long in spirits of wine. Goedart affirms that
this fly, on which account it was called chamBeleon,
will live nine months without food ; a circumstance,
if true, more wonderful than what I formerly re-
lated to you with respect to one of the aphidivorous
flies ^. — If insects will escape unhurt from a bath of
alcohol, it may be supposed that one of water will
be less to be dreaded by them. To this they are
often exposed in rainy weather, when ruts and hol-
lows are filled with water : but when the water is
dried up, it is seldom that any dead carcases of in-
sects are to be seen in them. Mr. Curtis submerged
tlie fragile aphides for sixteen hours ; when taken
out of the water they immediately showed signs of life,
and out of four, three survived the experiment : — an
immersion of twenty-four hours, however, proved
fatal to them^.

a Bib. Nat. ii. d 3. Vol. I. 2d Ed. p. 400. b Linn. Trans, vi. 84.

WEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. ZJl

Thelate ingenious, learned, and lamented Dr. Reeve
of Norwich once related to me that he found in a hot
fountain on the top of a mountain, near Leuk in the
Valais in Switzerland, in which the thermometer stood
c;t205^, transparent larvae, probably of gnats, or some
such insect. — Lord Bute also, in a letter to my late le-
vered friend, the Rev. William Jones of Nayland, im-
parts a similar observation made by His Lordship at the
baths of Abano, near the Euganian mountains, on the
borders of the Paduan states. They are strong, sul-
phureous, boiling springs, oozing out of a rocky emi-
nence in great numbers, and spreading over an acre of
the top of a gentle hill. In the midst of these boiling
springs, within three feet of five or six of them, rises g.
tepid one about blood warm. But the most extraor-
dinary circumstance that he relates is, that not only
confervas were found in the boiling springs, but num-
bers of small black beetles, that died upon being taken
out and plunged into cold water '^. — And once, having
taken in the hot dung of my cucumber-bed a small
beetle {Li/ctus Juglandis, F.), 1 immersed it in boil-
ing water; and after keeping it submerged a suffi-
cient time, as I thought, to destroy it, upon taking it
out, and laying it to dry, it soon began to move and
walk. Its native station being of so high a tempe-
rature. Providence has fitted it for it, by giving it
extraordinary powers of sustaining heat. Other in-
sects are as remarkable for bearing any degree of
cold. Some gnats that De Geer observed, survived
after the water in which they were was frozen into a

a J. Mason Good's Anniversary Oration^ delivered March 8, ISOS^befure
the Medical Socid}} of London, p. jI.

;^32 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS,

mass of ice : and Reaumur relates many simitar in-
stances^.

The last passive means of defence that I mentioned,
was the multiplication of insects. Some specie?, the Aphi-
des for instance, and the Grasshoppers and Locusts,
have such an infinite hostof enemies, that were it not for
their numbers the race would soon be annihilated. — But
as passive means of defence have detained us sufficiently
long, it is enough to have touched upon this head. Let
us then now proceed to such as may be called active j
in which the volition of the animal bears some part,

II. The active means of defence, which tend to se-
cure insects from injury ar attack, are much more nu-
merous and diversified than the passive ; and also more
interesting, since they depend, more or less, upon the
efforts and industry of these creatures themselves.
When urged by danger, they endeavour to repel k
either by having recourse to certain attitudes or mo-
tions ; producing particular noises ; emitting disagree-
able scents or fluids; employing their limbs; or wea-
pons, and valour; concealing themselves in various
ways; or by counteracting the designs and attack of
their enemies by contrivances that require ingenuity
and skill.

The attitudes which insects assume for this purpose
are various. Some are purely imitative, as in many
instances detailed above. I possess a diminutive rove-
beetle (Aleochara complicans, K. Ms.) to which ray at-
tention was attracted as a very minute, shining, round,
black pebble. This successful imitation was produceti
ftDe Geerjvi. 355; comp. 320, and Reaum. ii, 141-147,

MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 255

by folding its head under its breast, and turning up its
abdomen over its elytra; sotliattlic most piercing and
discriminating eye would never have discovered it to be
an insect. — I have observed that a common beetle (S?7-
j)ha thoracica, L.) when alarmed has recourse to a si-
milar manceuvre. Its orange-coloured tliorax, the rest
of the body being black, renders it particularly conspi-
cuous. To obviate this inconvenience, it turns its head
and tail inwards till they are parallel with the trunk and
abdomen, and gives its thorax a vertical direction, whew
it resembles a rough stone. — The species of another
genus of beetles {Agathidium^ F.) will also bend both
head and thorax under the elytra, and so assume the
appearance of shining globular pebbles.

Related to the defensive attitude of the two last-
mentioned insects, and precisely the same with that of
the Armadillo (Das?/pus, L.) amongst quadrupeds, is
that of one of the species of woodlouse {ArmadUlo vul-
garis, Latr.). This insect when alarmed rolls itself up
into a iittle ball. In this attitude its legs and the un-
derside of the body, which are soft, are entirely covered
and defended by the hard crust that forms the upper
surface of the animal. These balls are perfectly sphe-
rical, black, and shining, and belted with narrow white
bands, so as to resemble beautiful beads; and could
they be preserved in this form and strung, would make
very ornamental necklaces and bracelets. At least so
thought Swammerdam's maid, who, finding a number
of these insects thus rolled up in her master's garden,
mistaking them for beads, employed herself in stringing
thera on a thread ; w hen, to her great surprise, the
vjoor animals beginning to move and struggle for their

^54^ MEANS OF defe:nce of insects.

liberty, crying out and running- away in the utmost alarm
Khe threw down her prize''. — The golden-wasp tribe
also, (Chrj/sis and Parnopes, F.) all of which I suspect to
be parasitic insects, roll themselves up, as I have often
observed, into a little ball when alarmed, and can thus
secure themselves — the upper surface of the body being
remarkably hard, and impenetrable to their weapons — •
from the stings of those Ili/menoptera whose nests they
enter with the view of depositing their eggs in their
offspring. Latreille noticed this attitude in Parnopes
cornea^ which, he tells us, Bemhex rostrata pursues,
though it attacks no other similar insect, with great
fury ; and, seizing it with its feet, attempts to dispatch
it with its sting, from which it thus secures itself*.

Other insects endeavour to protect themselves from
danger by simulating death. The common dung-chafer
(Scarabceus stercorarius^ L.) when touched, or in fear,
sets out its legs as stiff as if they were made of iron-
wire — which is their posture when dead — and remain-
ing perfectly motionless, thus deceives the rooks which
prey upon them, and like the ant-lion before cele-
brated "^ will eat them only when alive. A different
attitude is assumed by one of the tree-chafers {Hoplia
pulxerulenUi) probably with the same view. It some-
times elevates its posterior legs into the air, so as
to form a straight vertical line, at right angles with
the upper surface of its body. — Another genus of in-
sects of the same order, the pill-beetles {hyrrhus^ F.,
dstela. Marsh.), have recourse to a method the re-
verse of this. They pack their legs, which are short

a Hill's Svsamm. i. 174. b Jnn. du Mus. 1810. 5,

c Vol. I. 2d EcL p. 42S.

MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 235

and flat, so close to their body, and lie so entirely
without motion when alarmed, that they look like a
dead body, or rather the dung of some small animal. —
Amongst the weevil tribe, the species of Illiger's genus
Cri/ptorynchus ( Ei/nchccnus^ F., Curculio, Latr.), when
an entomological linger approaches them, as 1 have
often experienced to my great disappointment, apply-
ing their rostrum and legs to the underside of their
trunk, fall from the station on which you hope to en-
trap them, to the ground or amongst the grass; where,
lying- without stirring a limb, they are scarcely to be
distinguished from the soil around them. Thus also,
doubtless, they often disappoint the birds as well as the
entomologist. — A little timber-boring beetle {Anohium
jjertinax, F.), (and others of the genus have the same
faculty,) which, when the head is withdrawn somewhat
within the thorax, much resembles a monk with his
hood, has long been famous for a most pertinacious si-
mulation of death. All that has been related of the
heroic constancy of American savages, when taken and
tortured by their enemies, scarcely comes up to that
which these little creatures exhibit. You may maim
them, pull them limb from limb, roast them alive over
a slow fire'', but you will not gain your end ; not a
joint will they move, nor show by the least symptom
that they suffer pain. Do not think, however, that I
ever tried these experiments upon them myself, or that
I recommend you to do the same. I am content to
believe the facts that I have here stated upon the con-
current testimony of respectable witnesses, without
feeling any temptation to put the constancy of the poor

a De Gccr, iv. 229.

2SG MEANS OF DEFEXCE OF INSECTS.

insect again to the test. — A similar apathy is shown by
some species of savv-fiy {Tenthredo, L.), which when
alarmed conceal their antennae under their body, place
their legs close to it, and remain without motion even
when transfixed by a pin. — Spiders also simulate death
by folding up their legs, falling from their station, and
remaining motionless ; and when in this situation, they
may be pierced and torn to pieces without their exhi-
biting the slightest symptom of pain''.

There is a certain tribe of caterpillars called sur*
veyors (Geoiyietrce), that will sometimes support them-
selves for whole hours, by means of their posterior
legs, solely upon their anal extremity, forming an an-
gle of various degrees with the branch on which they
are standing, and looking like one of its twigs. Many
concurring circumstances promote this deception. The
body is kej)t stiff and immoveable, with the separations
of the segments scarcely visible ; it terminates in a
knob, the legs being applied close, so as to resemble
the gem at the end of a twig ; besides which, it often
exhibits intermediate tubercles which increase the re-
semblance. Its colour too is usually obscure, and si-
milar to that of the bark of a tree. So that, doubtless,
the sparrows and other birds are frequently deceived
by this mancEuvre, and thus balked of their prey,
llosel's gardener, mistaking one of these caterpillars
for a dead twig, started back in great alarm when upon
attempting to break it olFhe found it was a living ani-
mal ''.

But insects do not always confine themselves to at-
titudes by which they meditate escape or concealment;

a SmcUie, riul. of Nat. Hist. i. 150. b Ros. I. v. 27.

WEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 2S7

they sometimes, to show their courage, put themselves
in a posture of defence, and even have in view t!!e
annoyance as well as the repelling of their foes. The
great rove-beetle {Staphf/Unus olens, F.) presents an
object sufficiently terrific, when with its large jaws ex-
panded, and its abdomen turned over its head, like a
scorpion, it menaces its enemies, some of which this
ferocious attitude may deter from attacking it. Mr.
Bingley informs us that the giant earwig (Forficula
giganlea, F.), a rare species that his researches have
added to the catalogue of British insects, turns up over
its head, in a similar manner, its abdomen, which being
armed at the end with a large forceps must give it an
appearance still more alarming*.

The caterpillars of some hawk-moths (Sphinx, L.),
particularly that which feeds upon the privet, when
they repose, holding strongly with their prologs the
branch on which they are standing, rear the anterior:
part of their body so as to form nearly a right angle
with the posterior ; and in this position it will remain
perfectly tranquil, — thus eluding the notice of its ene-
mies, or alarming them, — perhaps for hours. Reau-
mur relates that a gardener in the employment of the
celebrated Jussieu used to be quite disconcerted by the
self-sufficient air of these animals, saying they must be
very proud, for he had never seen any other caterpillars
hold their head so high''. From this attitude, which
precisely resembles that which sculptors have assigned
to the fabulous monster called by that name, the terra
Sphinx has been used to designate this genus of insects.
— The caterpillar of a moth (Bombj/x camelina, F.)
» PsATK I. Fig, 7. Linn, Trans, x. -iOl— i> Reaujw. ij. 253.

238 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.

noticed by the author just quoted, whenever it rests
from feeding, turns its head over its back, then become
concave, at the same time elevating its tail, the extre-
mity of which remains in a horizontal position, with two
short horns like ears behind it. Thus the six anterior
legs are in the air, and the whole animal looks like a qua-
druped in miniature ; the tail being its head — the horns
its ears — and the reflexed head simulating a tail curled
over itsback^. In this seemingly unnatural attitude
it will remain without motion for a very long time.

Some lepidopterous larvs, that fix the one half of
the body and elevate the other, agitate the elevated
part, whether it be the head or the tail, as if to strike
what disturbs thera*^. The giant caterpillar of a large
North- American moth (Bombt/x regalis, F.) is armed
behind the head and at the back of the anterior se<;-
ments with seven or eight strong curved spines from
half to three-fourths of an inch in length. Mr. Abbott
tells us that this caterpillar is called in Virginia the
hickory-horned devil, and that when disturbed it draws
up its head, shaking or striking it from side to side ;
which attitude gives it so formidable an aspect, that no
one, he affirms, will venture to handle it, people in ge-
neral dreading it as much as a rattle-snake. When, to
convince the Negroes that it was harmless, he himself
took hold of this animal in their presence, they used to
reply that it could not sting him, but would them '^.
The species of a genus of beetles separated f*om Can-
tharis, L., under the name oi Malachius, F,, endeavour
to alarm their enemies and show their rage by puffing

a Reaum. ii.260. t. 20./. 10. 11. Compare Sepp IV. t. \.f. 3-7.
b Ibid.i. 100. c Smith's AbboWs Ins. of Georgia, ii. 121v

MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECT.?. 250

out and inflating four vesicles from the sides of tlieir
bodj', which are of a bright red, soft, and of an irregu-
lar shape. When the cause of alarm is removed, they
are retracted, so that only a small portion of them ap-
pears ^.

Insects often endeavour to repel or escape from as-
sailants by their motions. Mr.White, mentioning a wild
bee that makes its nest on the summit of a remarkable
hill near Lewes in Sussex, in the chalky soil, says :
*' When people approach the place these insects begin
to be alarmed, and with a sharp and hostile sound dash
and strike round the heads and faces of intruders. I
have often been interrupted myself while contemplat-
ing the grandeur of the scenery around me, and have
thought myself in danger of being stung''." — The hive-
bee will sometimes have recourse to the same expe- ^
dient, when her hive is approached too near, and thus
give you notice what you may expect if you do not
take her warning and retire. — Humble-bees when dis-
turbed, whether out of the nest or in it, assume some
very grotesque and at the same time threatening at-
titudes. If you put your finger to them, they will
either successively or simultaneously lift up the three
legs of one side ; turn themselves upon their back ;
bend up their anus and show their sting accompanied
by a drop of poison. Sometimes they will even spirt out
that liquor. When in the nest, if it be attacked, they
also beat their wings violently and emit a great hum''.

These motions menace vengeance ; those of some
other insects are merely to effect their escape. Thus I

a De Geer, iv. T4, b Nat. Hist. ii. 268.

c P. liuber in Linn, Trans, vi. 219. Kirby, Mon, Jp. Angl. i. 201.

240 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS,

have observed that the species of the May-fly triba

Phri/ganea, L., Trichoptera^ K.*), when I have at-
tempted to take them, have often glided av/ay from un-
der my hand — v/ithout moving their limbs that I could
discover — in a remarkable manner. I once observed a
weevil (Braclnyrhinns, F.) upon a rail, which, when it
saw me, slidcd sideways, and then rolled off. To notice
the ordinary motions of insects, which are often means
by which they escape from danger, would here be pre-
mature, since they will be fully considered in a subse-
quent letter. I shall therefore only mention the zigzag
iiight of butterflies and the traverse sailing of humble-
bees, which certainly render it more difficult for the
birds to catch them while on tlie wing.

I^oises are another mean of defence to which insects*
Lave occasional recourse. I have heard the lunar
dung-beetle {Copris hoiaris, F.) when disturbed utter
a shrill sound. Gcoirupes Oro?nedon, F., another of
the ScarabceidcBy Mas observed by Dr. Arnold to make,
when alarmed, a kind of creaking noise, which it pro-
duced by rubbing its abdomen against its elytra. A
third of the same tribe, Trox sabulosus, F., emits a
small sibilant or chirping noise, as I once observed
when I found several feeding in a ram's horn. The
" drowsy hum" of beetles, humble-bees, and other in-
sects, in their flight, may tend to preserve them from
some of their aerial assailants. And the angry chidings
of the inhabitants of the hive, which are very distin-
guishable from their ordinary sounds, may be regarded
as warning voices to those from whom they apprehend
evil or an attack. 1 have before observed that the

a Kirby in Linn, Trans, xi. 87, note *.

ItfEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 241

death's-head hawk-moth (Sphinx Atropos, L.), when
menaced by the stings often thousand bees enraj^ed at
her depredations upon their property, possesses the
secret to disarm them of their fury ^. This insect, wlw^n
in fear or danger, is known to produce a sharp, shrill,
mournful cry, which with the superstitious has added
to the ahirm produced by the symbol of death which
signalizes its thorax''. This cry, there is reason to
believe, aft'ects and disarms the bees, so as to enable
her to proceed in her spoliations with impunity '^. One
of these insects being' once brought to a learned divine,
who w as also an entomologist, when he was unwell, he
was so much moved by its plaintive noise, that, instead
of devoting it to destruction, he gave the animal its life
and liberty. I might say more upon tliis subject of de-
fensive noises ; but I shall reserve what I have further
to communicate, to a letter which I purpose devoting to
the sounds produced or emitted by insects.

You are acquainted with the singular property of
the skunk ( Viverra putorius, L.), which repels its as-
sailants by the fetid vapour that it explodes ; but per-
haps are not aware that the Creator has endowed many
insects with the same property and for the same pur-
pose— some of which exhale powerful or disagreeable
odours at all times, and from the general surface of their
body ; while they issue from others only through par-
ticular organs, and when they are attacked.

Of the former description of defensive scents there

a Vol. I, 2d Ed. 1G5. b Ibid. 31.

c Huber appears to be of this opinion; he does not, however, lay great
stress upon it. Yet there seems no other way of accounting for the impu-
nity with which this animal commits its depredations.^ Huber, ii. 299 —

VOL. II. R

^42 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.

are numerous examples in almost every order ; ioi*,
next to plants and vegetable substances, insects, of any
part of the creation, afford the greatest diversity of
odours. In the Coleoptera order a very common beetle,
the whirlwig- {Gijrinus Natator^ L.)? will infect your
finger for a long time with a disagreeable rancid smell ;
while two other species, G. minutus and vil/osus, are
scentless. — Those unclean feeders, the carrion beetles
(Silphce, L.), as might be expected from the nature of
their food, are at the same time very fetid. — Pliny tells
us of a Blatta, — which, from his description, is evi-
dently the darkling-beetle (Blaps moriisaga, F.), and
which he recommends as an infallible nostrum, when
applied with oil extracted from the cedar, in otherwise
incurable ulcers, — that was an object of general dis-
gust on account of its ill scent, a character which it still
maintains *. — Numbers of the CarabidcE (a kind of black
beetles that run very fast, and are found under stones,
and m places that have not a free circulation of air,)
exhale a most disagreeable and penetrating odour,
which De Geer observes resembles that of rancid
butter, and is not soon got rid of It is produced, he
says, from an unctuous matter that transpires through
the body ^ ; but I am rather inclined to think it pro-
ceeds from the extremity. — I have noticed that some
small beetles of the Omalium genus Grav. — for in-
stance O. rivulare, and another species that I once found
in abundance on the primrose (O. Primulce, K. Ms.),
especially the latter — are abominably fetid when taken,
and that it requires more than one washing to free the
fingers from it. Every one knows that the cock-roachj

a Hist. Nat, 1. axix. c, 6. b Jv. 86.

MEANS OF DEFE^^CE OF INSECTS. 243

[Ulaita orient alls, L.), belonging to the Orthoptera or-
der, is not remarkable for a pleasant scent; — but none
are more notorious for their bad character in this re-
spect than the bug tribe (Cimicidce)., which almost uni-
versally exhale an odour that mixes with the scent of
cucumbers another extremely unpleasant and annoy-
ing. Some liowever are less disgusting, particularly
Li/gceus Hyoscyumi^ F., which yields, De Geer found,
an agreeable odour of thyme ^. — Several lepidopterous
larvae are defended by their ill smell ; but I shall only
particularize the silk- worms, which on that account are
said to be unwholesome. — Phryganea grandis^ a kind
of May-fly, is a trichopterous insect that oflfends the
nostrils in this way ; but a worse is Hemerohius Perla^
a golden-eyed and lace-winged fly, of the next order,
whose beauty is counterbalanced by a strong scent of hu-
man ordure that proceeds from it. — Numberless //y-
menoptera act upon the olfactory nerves by their ill or
powerful eflluvia. One of them, an ant ( Formica foetiday
De Geer, fa'tens, Oliv.), has the same smell with the
insect last mentioned •*. Our common black ant (F.fuli'
ginosa, Latr.), whose curious nests in trees have been
before described to you*", is an insect of a powerful and
penetrating scent, which it imparts to every thing with
which it comes in contact; andFabricius distinguishes
another (F, analis, Latr., foetens, F.) by an epithet
ifostidissima) which sufficiently declares its properties.
Many wild bees (Meliifa, K., Andrena, F.) are distin-
guished by their pungent alliaceous smell. Crahro
U-Jlavuniy Helw., a wasp-like insect, is remarkable for
the perti^trating and spirituous effluvia of ether that it
a De Geer, iii. 249. 374. b Ibid. 611. c Vol. I. 2d Ed. 483.
11 2

244 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECT&.

exhales*. Indeed there is scarcely any species in this
order that has not a peculiar scent. — Some dipterous
insects — though these in general neither offend nor de-
light us by it — are distinguished by their smell. Thus
Musca myslacea^ L., a fly that in its grub state lives
in cow-dung, savours in this respect, when a deni-
zen of the air, of the substance in which it first drew
breath. And another {M. eijnipsea, L.) emits a fra-
grant odour of baum ''. — I have not much to tell you
with respect to apterous insects, except that lulus ter-
restris, a common millepede, leaves a strong and dis-
agreeable scent upon the fingers when handled ''. Most
of the insects I have here enumerated, probably, are
defended from some enemy or injury by the strong va-
pours that exhale from them ; and perhaps some in the
list produce it from particular organs not yet noticed.

I shall next beg your attention to those insects that
emit their smell from particular organs. Of these,
some are furnished with a kind of scent-vessels, which
I shall call osmatcria ; while in others it issues from the
intestines at the ordinary passage. In the former in-
stance the organ is usually retractile within the body,
being only exerted when it is used : it is generally a
bifid vessel, something in the shape of the letter Y.
Linne, in his generic character of the rove-beetles^
(Slap/ij/linus), mentions two oblong vesicles as proper
to this genus. These organs, — which are by no means
common to the whole genus, even as restricted by late
writers, — are its osmateria, and give forth the scent for
which some species, particularly S. brunnipes, are re-

a Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl. i. 136. note a. b Dc Gcer, vi.^35. fi%
t Ibid. vii. 581,

MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 245

iTiarkable. If you press the abdomen hard, you \\i\\
find that these vesicles are only branches from a com-
mon stem ; and you may easily ascertain that the smell
of this insect, which mixes something- extremely fetid
with a spicy odour, proceeds from their extremity. — A
similar organ,, half an inch in Icngtli, and of the
eame shape, issues from the neck of the caterpillar of
the swallow-tail butterfly (Papilio jVachaon, L.) ".
When I pressed this caterpillar, says Bonnet, near
its anterior part, it darted forth its horn as if it meant
to prick me with it, directing- it towards my fingers ;
but it withdrew it as soon as I left off pressing it.
This horn smells strongly of fennel, and probably is
employed by the insect, by means of its powerful scent,
to drive away the flies and ichneumons that annoy it.
A similar horn is protruded by the slimy larva of
JP. Anchises^ L., as also P. Apollo and many other
Eqintes^. — Another insect, the larva of a species of
saw-fly (Tentliredo) described by De Geer, is furnished
with osmateria, or scent-organs, of a different kind.
They are situated between the five first pair of in-
termediate legs, which they exceed in size, and are
perforated at the end like the rose of a watering-pot.
If you touch the insect, they shoot out like the horns of
a snail, and emit a most nauseous odour, which remains
long upon the finger; but when the pressure is re-
moved they are withdrawn within the body''. — The
grub of the poplar-beetle {Chri/somehi Populi^ L.)
also is remarkable for similar organs. On each of the
nine intermediate dorsal segments of its body is a pair

a Plate XIX. Fi6. 1. a. b Mcrian Surinum. 17. Jones in Linn,

Trans, ii, 64. c De Gcer, ii. 9S9 — ■ t. xx.wii./. 0.

246 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECT3.

of Dlack, elevated, conical tubercles, of a hard sub-*
stance; from all of these when touched the animal
emits a small drop of a white milky fluid, the smell of
which, De Geer observes, is almost insupportable, being
inexpressibly strong and penetrating. These drops
proceed at the same instant from all the eighteen scent-
organs; which forms a curious spectacle. The insect,
however, does not waste this precious fluid; each drop
instead of falling, after appearing for a moment and
dispensing its perfume, is withdrav/n again within its
receptacle, till the pressure is repeated, when it re-
appears *.

I shall now introduce you to the true counterparts of
the skunk, which explode a most fetid vapour from the
ordinary passage. I have lately hinted that the scent of
many Carabida; is thus emitted. Ilarpalus prasinus, a
beetle of this tribe, combats its enemies with repeated
discharges of smoke and noise : but the most famous
for their exploits in this way are those, which on this
account are distinguished by the name of bombardiers,
(^Bracliimts^Y.). The most common species (/J. cre-
pitans, F.), which is found occasionally in many parts
of Britain, when pursued by its great enemy, Calosonia
Inquisitor, P., seems at first to have no mode of escape ;
when suddenly a loud explosion is heard, and a blue
smoke, attended by a very disagreeable scent, is seen
to proceed from its anus, which immediately stops the
progress of its assailant ; when it has recovered from
the effect of it, and the pursuit is renewed, a second
discharge again arrests its course. The bombardier cai\

a De Geer, v. 291. Compare Ray's LellerSf 43. See Plate XVUIo
Fig. 1.

MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. §47

fire its artillery twenty times in succession if necessary,
and so gain time to effect its escape. — Another species,
Brachinus Displosor, makes exY>\osions similar to those
of B. crepitans: when irritated it can give ten or
twelve good discharges ; but afterwards, instead of
smoke it emits a yellow or brown fluid. By bending the
joints of its abdomen it can direct its smoke to any par-
ticular point. M. Leon Dufour observes that this
smoke has a strong and pungent odour, which has a
striking analogy with that exhaled by the Nitric Acid.
It is caustic, reddening white paper, and producing on
the skin the sensation of burning, and forming red
spots, which pass into brown, and though washed re-
main several days^.

Another expedient to which insects have recourse to
rid themselves of their enemies, is the emission of dis-
agreeable JIuids. These some discharge from the
mouth ; others from the anus ; others again from the
joints of the limbs and segments of the body ; and a
few from appropriate organs.

You have doubtless often observed a black beetle
crossing pathways with a slow pace, which feeds upon
the different species of bedstraw {Galium, L.), called
by some the bloody-nose beetle {Chrysomela tenehri-
cosa,F.). This insect, when taken, usually ejects from
its mouth a clear drop or two of red fluid, which will
stain paper of an orange colour. The carrion-bettles
(Si/pha and Necrophorus, F.), as also the larger Ca-
rabi, defile us, if handled roughly, with brown fetid
saliva. Mr. Sheppard having taken one of the latter
(C. violaceus, L.) applied it in joke to his son's face,

a^inn, Jm Mus. xviii. 70.

248 MEANS OF DEFENCL OF INSECTS.

and was surprised to hear him immediately cry out as
if hurt: repeating- the experiment with another of his
boys, he complained of its making- him smart : upon this
he touched himself with it, and it caused as much pain
as if, after shaving, he had rubbed his face with spirits
of wine. This he observed was not invariably the
case with this beetle, its saliva at other times bein?
harmless. JHence he conjectures that its caustic na-
ture, in the instance here recorded, might arise from
its food ; which he had reason to think had at that time
been the electric centipede ( Scolopendra electrica, L.). —
Juesser having* once touched the anal horn of the cater-
pillar of some sphinx, suddenly turning its head round,
it vomited upon his hand a quantity of green, viscous,
and very fetid fluid, whicl), tliough he washed it fre-
quently with soap and fumed it with sulphur, infected
it for two days'*. — Lister relates that he saw a spider,
when upon being" provoked it attempted to bite,
emit several times small drops of very clear fluid''. — -
Mr. Briggs observed a caterpillar caught in the Aveb
of one of our largest spiders, by means of a fluid which
it sent forth entirely dissolve the great breadth of
threads with which the latter endeavoured to envelop
it, as fast as produced, till the spider appeared quite
exhausted'. — The caterpillars also of a particular tribe
of saw-flies, remarkable for the beautiful pennated an-^

• a Lesser L. i. 281. note 6. b De Jraneis 27.

c This S"'"'*^"!'"^" i^ of opinion that spiders possess the means ofre-r
dissolvinn their webs. He observed one, when its net was broken, run
up its thread, and gathering a considerable mass of the web into a ball,
suddenly dissolve it with fluid. He also observes, that when windwig up
3 powerful prey, a spider can form its threads into a broad sheet.

MEANS OF DEFENCE OP INSECTS. 21P

lemiaB of the males {Pleronus Jurine)'', when disturb-
ed eject a drop of fluid from their n.outh. Those of one
ypecies inhabitins^ the fir-tree {Pi. Pini) are ordina-
rily stationed on the narrow leaves of that tree — which
they devour most voraciously in the manner that we
eat radishes — with their head towards the point. Some-
times two are enga<red opposite to each other on the
same leaf. They collect in groups often of more than
a hundred, and keep as close to each other as they can.
When a branch is stripped they all move together to
another. If one of these caterpillars be touched or
disturbed, it immediately with a twist lifts the anterior
part of its body, and emits from its mouth a drop of
clear resin, perfectly similar both in odour and con-
sistence to that of the fir''. What is still more remark-
able, no sooner does a single individual of the group
give itself this motion, than all the rest, as if they were
moved by a spring, instantaneously do the same*^. Thus
these animals fire a volley as it were at their annoyers,
the scent of which is probably sufficient to discomfit any
ichneumons, fiies, or predaceous beetles that may be
desirous of attacking them.

Amongst those which annoy their enemies by the
emission of fluids from their anus are the larger Carabi.
These, if roughly handled, will spirt to a considerable
distance an acrid, caustic, stinking liquor, which if it
touch the eyes or the lips occasions considerable pain"^. —
The rose-scented Capricorn (Cercmibj/x moschatus,lj.)
produced a similar effect upon Mr. Sheppard by simi-

a Jiirine Hymenopt. t. v'l.f. 8. b De Geer, ii. 97 I.

f I owe the knowledge of this circumstance to Mr, MacLcuy.
»l Dc Geer, iv. S6. GeolTr, i. 141.

250 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.

lar means. The fluid in this had a powerful odour of
musk. — The acid of ants has long- been celebrated, and
is one of their most powerful means of defence. When
the species that have no sting- make a wound with their
jaws, they insinuate into it some of this acid, the ef-
fluvia produced by which are so subtile and penetra-
ting, that it is impossible to hold your head near the
nest of the hill-ant {Formica rufa, L.), when the ants
are much disturbed, Avithout being almost suffocated.
This odour thus proceeding from myriads of ants, is
powerful enough, it is said, to kill a frog, and is pro-
bably the means of securing the nest from the attack
of many enemies. — Dr. Arnold observed a species of
bug (Scutellera, F.) abundant upon some pohgamous
plant which he could not determine, and in all their
different states. They were attended closely by hosts
of ants, and when disturbed emitted a very strong
smell. One of these insects ejected a minute drop
of fluid into one of his eyes, which occasioned for
some hours considerable pain and inflammation. In
the evening, however, they appeared to subside ; —
but on the following morning the inflammation was
renewed, became worse than ever, and lasted for three
days.

Other insects, when under alarm, discharge a fluid
from the joints and segments of their body. You have
often seen what has been called the unctuous or oil
beetle (Meloe Proscarabceus, L.), and I dare say, when
you took it, have observed orange-coloured or deep-
yellow drops appear at its joints. As these insects feed
upon acrid plants, the species of crowfoot or RanuH'
culusj it is probable that this fluid partakes of the na-

MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS, 251

lure of their food and is very acrimonious — and thus
may put to flight its insect assailants or the birds, from
neither of which it could otherwise escape, being a very
slow and sluggish and at the same time very conspi-
cuous animal. Another beetle (Phnelia collaris, F.)^
has likewise this faculty. — The lady-bird, we know,
has been recommended as a cure for the tooth-ache.
This idea may have taken its rise from a secretion of
this kind being noticed upon it. I have observed that
one species {CoccineUa hipunctata, L,) when taken
ejects from its joints a yellow fluid which yields a pow-
erful but not agreeable scent of opium. — Asilus crahrof
ififormis, L., a dipterous insect, once when I took it,
emitted a white milky fluid from its proboscis, the joints
of the legs and abdomen, and the anus.-^—The common
scorpion-fly, likewise, upon the same occasion ejects
from its proboscis a brown and fetid drop^. Some in-
sects have peculiar organs from which their fluids issue,
or are ejaculated. Thus, the larvas of saw-flies when
taken into the hand cover themselves with drops, ex-
uding from all parts of their body, of an unpleasant
penetrating scent '^. That of Tenlhredo lutea^ L. of the
same tribe, from a small hole just above each spiracle,
syringes a similar fluid in horizontal jets of the diame-
ter of a thread, sometimes to the distance of more than
a foot '^— -The caterpillar of the great emperor moth
(Bomb?/x Pavonia major, F., Saturnia Pi/ri, Schrank)
^Iso spirts out, when the spines that cover them are

a Fab. Ent. Syst. Em. i. 104. 26. In Si/st. Eleulh. (i. 135.5.) it isninde
an Aids.

b De Geer, ii. 734. c Reaumur, v. 96. d De Geer, ii. 'J,S7—

2j2 means of defence of INSECY!?.

touched, clear lymph from its pierced tubercles*. — •
Willughby has remarked a curious circumstance with
respect to a water-beetle {Di/tisciis cinereus, Marsh.)
which ought not to be overlooked. A transverse line
of a pale colour is observable upon the elytra of the
male; where this line terminates certain oblong pores
are visible, from which he affirms he has often seen a
milky fluid exuding''; and what may conlirm his state-
ment, I have more than once observed such a fluid
issue from Dytisci of the same family. — The caterpillar
of the puss-moth (Bo7nbi/x xinula), as well as those of
several other species, has a cleft in the neck between
the head and the first pair of legs. From this issues,
at the will of the animal, a singular syringe, laterally
bifid ; the branches of which are terminated by a nip-
ple perforated like the rose of a watering-pot. By
means of this organ, Avhen touched, it will syringe a
fluid to a considerable distance, which, if it enters the
eyes, gives them acute but not lasting pain. The animal
Avben taken from the tree on which it feeds, though
supplied with its leaves, loses this faculty, with which
it is probably endowed to driveoff the ichneumons that
infest iV. — And, to name no more, the great tiger-
moth {Bonib^x Caja, F.), when in its last or perfect
state, has near its head a remarkable tuft of the most
brilliant carmine, from amongst the hairs of which, if
the thorax be touched, some minute drops of transpa-
rent water issue, doubtless for some similar purpose''.
The next active means of defence with which Crea-

a Rosel, iv. 162. De Geer, i. 273. h Rai. Hist. Tns. 9h n. 3,
c De Geer, i. 324— d Ibid, i. 208.

MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 933

tJve Wisdom has endowed these busy tribes, are those
limbs or weapons with which tliey are furnished. The
insect lately mentioned, the puss-moth, besides the
syringes just described, is remarkable for its singular
forked tail, entirely dissimilar to the anal termination
of the abdomen of most other caterpillars. This tait
is composed of two long cylindrical "tubes moveable
at their base, and beset with a great number of short
stiff spines. When the animal walks, the two branches
of the tail are separated from each other, and at every
step are lowered so as to touch the plane of position ;
hence we may conclude that they assist it in this mo-
tion and supply the place of hind legs. If you touch
or otherwise incommode it, from each of the above
branches there issues a long, cylindrical, slender,
fleshy, and very flexible organ of a rose colour, to
which the caterpillar can give every imaginable curve
or inflexion, causing it sometimes to assume even a
spiral form. It enters the tube, or issues from it, in the
same manner as the horns of snails of slugs. These
tails form a kind of double whip, the tubes represent-
ing the handle, and the horns the thong or lash,
with which the animal drives away the ichneumons
and flies that attempt to settle upon it. Touch any
part of the body, and immediately one or both the horns
will appear and be extended ; and the animal will, as
it were, lash the spot where it feels that you incom-
mode it. De Geer, from whom this account is taken,
says that this caterpillar will bite very sharply". —
Several larvae of butterflies, distinguished at their
head by a semicoronet of strong spines, figured by
a De Geer, i. 322—

254 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECtS.

Madame Merian, are armed with singular anal organs ^^
which may have a similar use. Rcisel when he first
saw the caterpillar of the puss-moth stretched out his
hand with great eagerness, so he tells us, to take the
prize; but when in addition to its grim attitude he
beheld it dart forth these menacing catapults, appre-
hending they might be poisonous organs, his courage
failed him. At length without touching the monster,
he ventured to cut off the twig on which it was, and
let it drop into a box ''I The caterpillar of the gold-
tail moth {Bomhi/x chrysorhcea^ F.) has a remarkable
aperture, which it can open and shut, surrounded by a
rim on the upper part of each segment. This aperture
includes a little cavity, from which it has the power
of darting forth small flocks of a cottony matter that
fills if. This manosuvre is probably connected with
our present subject, and employed to defend it from
its enemies. It also ejects a fluid from its anus. '

There is a moth in Nevv Holland, the larva of which
annoys its foes in adifferent way : from eight tubercles
in- its back it darts forth, when alarmed, as many
bunches of little stings, by which it inflicts very pain-
ful and venomous wounds'^.

The caterpillar of the moth of the beech {Bomhyx
Fagi, F.), called the lobster, is distinguished by the
vmcommon length of its anterior legs. Mr. Stephens,
an acute entomologist, relates to me that he once saw
this animal use them to rid itself of a mite that incom-
moded it. They are probably equally useful in deli-
vering it from the ichneumon and its other insect ene-

a Ins. Swiiiam. t. viii. xxiii. xxxii. b I, iv. 122.

<; llcauia. li. Ij5. t. vii./. 4 — 7. d Lewin's Prodromus,

MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 255

mies. — Dr. Arnold has made a curious observation
(confirmed by Dr. Porsstrom with respect to others of
the ^enus) on the use of the long- processes or tails that
distinguish the secondary wings of Ilesperia larhas.
These processes, he remarks, resemble antennae, and
when the butterfly is sitting- it keeps them in constant
motion ; so that at first sight it appears to have a head
at each extremity; which deception is much increased
by a spot resembling an eye at the base of the processes.
These insects, perhaps, thus perplex or alarm their as-
sailants.— Goedart pretended that the anal horn with
which the caterpillars of so many hawk-moths (Sphinx}
are armed, answers the end of a sting instilling a dan-
gerous venom : but the observations of modern ento-
mologists have proved that this is altogether fabulous,
since the animal has not the power of moving them*.
Their use is still unknown.

Whether the long and often tremendous horns on
the head, thorax, and even elytra, with which man/
insects are armed, are beneficial to them in the view
under consideration, is very uncertain. They are often
sexual distinctions, and have a reference probably
rather to sexual purposes and the economy of the
animal, than to any thing else. They may, however, in
some instances deter enemies from attacking them, and
therefore it was right not to omit them wholly, though
I shall not further enlarge upon them. — Their mandi-
bles or upper jaws, though principally intended for
mastication, — and in the case of the Hymenoptera^ as
instruments for various economical and mechanical
usesj — are often employed to annoy their enemies or
a De Geer, i. 149—

256 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.

assailants. I once suffered considerable pain from tlie
tite of the common water-beetle (Di/tisa^s marginalis^
L.)? fi'^ ^vel! as from that of the great rove-beetle (Sta-
phi/linusolens, F.); but the most tremendous and effec-
tualweapon with which insects are armed — though this,
except in the case of the scorpion, is also a sexual instru-
ment, and useful to the females in oviposition — is their
sting. With this they keep not only the larger animals,
but even man himself, in awe and at a distance. But
en these I enlarged sufficiently in a former letter*.

These weapons, tremendous as they are, would be
of but little use to insects if they had not courage to
employ them : in this quality, however, they are by no
nieans deficient; for, their diminutive size considered,
they are, many of them, the most valiant animals in
nature. The giant bulk of an elephant would not de-
ter a hornet, a bee, or even an ant, from attacking it,
if it was provoked. I once observed a small spider
walking in my path. On putting my stick to it, it im-
mediately turned round as if to defend itself. On the
approach of my finger, it lifted itself up and stretched
out its legs to meet it. — In Ray's Letters mention is
made of a singular combat between a spider and a toad
fought at Hetcorne near Sittinghurst'' in Kent; but

a Mr. MacLeay relates to me, from the communications of Mr. E,
Forster, the folio wins; particulars respecting the history of Mutilla cuc-
einea, L,, which from this account appears to be one of the most redoubt-
able of stinging insects. The females are most plentiful in Maryland, ia
the months of July and August, hut are never very numerous. They are
very active, and have been observed to take flies by surprise. A person
stung Sy one of them lost his senses in five minute*, and was so ill for-
several days that his life was despair.d of.

b Hcdcorne near SiUingbourne ?

MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 257

as the particulars and issue of this famous duel are not
given, I can only mention the circumstance, and con-
jecture that the spider was victorious "" I Terrible as
is the dragon-fly to the insect world in general, putting
to flight and devouring whole hosts of butterflies, may-
flies, and others of its tribes, it iristils no terror into
the stout heart of the scorpion-fly (Panorpa communis,
L<.)j though much its inferior in size and strength. Ly-
onet saw one attack a dragon-fly of ten times its own
bigness, bring it to the ground, pierce it repeatedly
with its proboscis; and had he not by his eagerness
parted them, he doubts not it would have destroyed this
tyrant of the insect creation ''.

When the death's-head hawk-moth was introduced
by Huber into a nest of humble-bees, they were not
affected by it, like the hive-bees, but attacked it and
drove it out of their nest, and in one instance their
stings proved fatal to it ". — A black beetle, probably a
Harpalus or CarahuSy devours the eggs of the mole-
cricket, or Gri/llotalpa. To defend them, the female
places herself at the entrance of the nest — which is a
neatly smoothed and rounded chamber protected by
labyrinths, ditches, and ramparts — and whenever the
beetle attempts to seize its prey, she catches it and
bites it asunder ^.

I know nothing more astonishing than the wonder-
ful muscular strength of insects, which in proportion
to their size exceeds that of any other class of aninlals,
and is likewise to be reckoned amongst their means of

a Dr. Lon? in Ray's Letters, 370. b Lesser L. i. 263. Note |,

c Huber,2V(,uo. Obs. ii. 301 — d Bingley, Animal Biogr. iii. 1st Ed.
247— White, Nat. Hist. ii. 82.

VOL. II. S

258 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS,

defence. Take one of the common chafers or dung'
beetles (Scarabceus stercorarius^ L., or Copris lunaris,
F.) into your hand, and observe how he makes his
way in spite of your utmost pressure ; and read the ac-
counts which authors have left us of the very great
weights that a flea will easily move, as if a single man
should draw a waggon with forty or fifty hundred
weight of hay : — but upon this I shall touch hereafter,
and therefore only hint at it now.

We are next to consider the modes o^ concealment to
which insects have recourse in order to escape the ob-
servation of their enemies. One is by covering them-
selves with various substances. Of this description is
a little water-beetle {Elophorus aqualicus, F.), which
is always found covered with mud, and so when feed-
ing at the bottom of a pool or pond can scarcely be di-
stinguished, by the predaceous aquatic insects, from
the soil on which it rests. Another very minute insect
of the same order {Limnius ceneus, Miill. Elmis, Latr.)
that is found in rivulets under stones and the like,
soujetimes conceals its elytra with a thick coating of
mud, that becomes nearly as hard as stone. 1 never
met with these animals so circumstanced but once ;
then, however, there were several which had thus de-
fended themselves, and I can now show you a speci-
men.— We have two species of a minute coleopterous
genus {Geori/ssus) lately established, one of which, {G.
arenifera, K. Trox dubius, Panzer,) living in wet spots
where the toad-rush (Juncus bttfonius, L.) grows, covers
itself with sand; and another (G. cretifera, K.) Avhich
frequents chalk, whitens itself all over with that sub-
stance. As this animal, when clean, is very black, were it

MEANS OF DEFENtE OF INSECTS. 259

hot for this manceuvre, it would be too conspicuous upoii
its white territory to have any chance of escape from the
birds and its other assailants.-^No insect is more cele-
brated for rendering itself hideous by a coat of dirt than
the Reduvius personatus^ P., a kind of bug sometimes
found in houses. When in its two preparatory states,
every part of its body, even its legs and antennae, is so
covered with the dust of apartments, consist ing of a mix-
ture of particles of sand, fragments of wool or silk, and
similar matters, that the animal at first would be taken
for one of the ugliest spiders. This grotesque appear-
ance is aided and increased by motions equally awk-
ward and grotesque, upon which I shall enlarge here-
after. If you touch it with a hair-pencil or a feather,
this clothing will soon be removed, and you may be-
hold the creature unmasked, and in its proper form.
It is an insect of prey ; and amongst other victims will
devour its more hateful congener the bed-bug^. Its
slow movements, combined with its covering, seem to
indicate that the object of these manoeuvres is to con-
ceal itself from observation, probably, both of its ene-
mies and of its prey. It is therefore properly noticed
under my present head.

As Hercules, after he had slain the Nemean lion,
made a doublet of its skin, so the larva of another in-
sect (Ilemerobius C/iri/sops,Ij., a lace-winged fly with
golden eyes,) covers itself with the skins of the luckless
Aphides that it has slain and devoured. From the
head to the tail, this pygmy destroyer of the helpless
is defended by a thick coat, or rather mountain com-
posed of the skins, limbs, and down of these creatures,

a De Geer, iii. 233— Geoffr. HisU Im. i. 437 .
S 2

260 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.

Reaumur, in order to ascertain how far this covering-
was necessary, removed it, and put the animal into a
glass, at one time with a silk cocoon, and at another
with raspings of paper. In the tirst instance, in the
space of an hour it had clothed itself with particles of
the siik ; and in the second, being again laid bare, it
found the paper so convenient a material, that it made
ef it a coat of unusual thickness''.

Insects in general are remarkable for their cleanli-
ness ; — however filthy the substances which they inha-
bit, yet they so manage as to keep themselves person-
.ally neat. Several, however, by no means deserve
this character : and I fear you will scarcely credit me
when I tell you that some shelter themselves under an
umbrella formed of their own excrement ! You will
exclaim, perhaps, that there is no parallel case in all
pature ; — it may be so; — yet as I am bound to confess
;the faults of insects as well as to extol their virtues, I
must not conceal from you this opprobrium. Beetles
of three different genera are given to this Hottentot
habit. The first to which I shall introduce you is one
that hfis long been celebrated under the name of the
beetle of the lily {Lema jnerdigera, F., Cantaridc de'
Gigli, Vallisn.). The Iarv£B of this insect have a very
tender skin, which appears to require some covering
from the impressions of the external air and from the
rays of the sun; and it finds nothing so well adapted
to answer these purposes, and probably also to conceal
itself from the birds, as its own excrement, with which
it covers itself in the following manner. Its anus is re-
.niarkably situated, being on the back of the last seg-

a Ileuum. iij. o91.

MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 261

ment of the body, and not at or under its extremity, as
obtains in most insects. By means of such a position,
the excrement when it issues from the body, instead of
being pushed away and falling, is lifted up above the
back in the direction of the head. When entirely
clear of the passage, it falls, and is retained, though
slightly, by its viscosity. The grub next, by a move-
ment of its segments, conducts it from the place where
it fell to the vicinity of the head. It effects this by
swelling the segment on which the excrement is depo-
sited, and contracting the following one, so that it ne-
cessarily moves that way. Although, when discharged,
it has a longitudinal direction, by the same action of
the segments the animal contrives to place every grain
transversely. Thus, when laid quite bare, it will
cover itself in about two hours. There are often
many layers of these grains upon the back of the insect,
so as to form a coat of greater diameter than its body.
When it becomes too heavy and stiff, it is thrown off,
and a new one begun ^. — The larvaB of the various spe-
cies of the tortoise-beetles (Cassida, L.) have all of
them, as far as they are known, similar habits, and are
furnished besides with a singular apparatus, by means
of which they can elevate or drop their stercorarious
parasol so as most effectually to shelter or shade them.
The instrument by which they effect this is an anal
fork, upon which they deposit their excrement, and
which is sometimes turned up and lies flat upon their
backs ; at others forms different angles, from very
acute to very obtuse, with their body ; and occasionally

a Reaum, iii. 220 — Coaipare Vallisnieii Esperienz> ed Osservaz. 195.
Ed. 1T26.

262 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.

is unbent and in the same direction with it". In some
species the excrement is not so disgusting as you may
suppose, being formed into fine branching filaments.
This is the case with C. maculata, L.**. — In the cognate
genus Imatidium, the larvae also are merdigerous ;
and that of /. Leayaman^ Latr., taken by Colonel
Hardwicke in the East Indies, also produces an as-
semblage of very long filaments, that resemble a dried
fucus or a filamentous lichen, — The clothing of the
Tinece, clothes-moths and others, and also of the case-
worms, having enlarged upon in a former letter % I
need not describe here.

Some insects, that they may^ not be discovered and
become the prey of their enemies when they are re-
posing, conceal themselves in flowers. The male of a
little bee (Apis Campanularum, K., Heriades, Latr.)? a
true Sybarite, dozes voluptuously in the bells of the dif-
ferent species of Campanula — in which, indeed, I have
often found other kinds asleep. Linne named another
Bpec'ies ^orisomn is on account of a similar propensity.
A third, a most curious and rare species {Melitta spi'
nigera, K.), shelters itself when sleeping, at least I once
found it there so circumstanced, in the nest-like umbel
of the wild carrot. You would think it a most extra-
ordinary freak of Nature, should any quadruped sleep
suspended by its jaws, (some birds however are said, I
think, to have such a habit, and Sits Bahyroussa one
something like it,) — yet insects do this occasionally.
L/inne informs us that a little bee {Apis variegatay^asses
the night thus suspended to the beak of the flowers of

a Reaiim. 233 — b Kirby in Linn. Trans, iii. !(\.

f you I. ?d Ed, 460-70,

MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 263

Geranium phceum : and I once found one of the vespi-
tbrm bees {Apis Goodeninna, K., Nomada, F.) hanging
by its mandibles from the edge of a hazel- leaf, apparently
asleep, with its limbs relaxed and folded. On being dis-
engaged from its situation it became perfectly lively.

There is no period of their existence in which insects
usually are less able to help themselves, than during
that intermediate state of repose which precedes their
coming forth in their perfect Ibrnvs. I formerly ex-
plained to you how large a portion of them during this
state cease to be locomotive, and assume an appear-
ance of death*. In this help'ess condition, unless Pro-
vidence had furnished them with some means of secu-
rity, they must fall an easy prey to the most insignificant
of their assailants. But even here they are taught to
conceal themselves from their enemies by various and
singular contrivances. Some seek for safety by bury-
ing themselves, previously to the assumption of the
pupa, at a considerable depth under the earth ; others
bore into the heart of trees, or into pieces of timber;
some take their residence in the hollow stalks of plants;
and many are concealed under leaves, or suspend them-
selves in dark places, where they cannot readily be
seen. But in this state they are not only defended
from harm by the situation they select, but also by the
covering in which numbers envelop themselves ; for,
besides the leathery case that defends the yet tender
and unformed imago, many of these animals know how
to weave for it a costly shroud of the finest njaterial=!,
through which few of its enemies can make their way ;
— and to this curious instinct, as 1 long since observed,

a Vot. I. 2d r.d, 66—

264' MEANS OF DEFEMCE OF INSECTS. -

we owe one of the most valuable articles of commerce,-
the silk that gives lustre to the beauty of our females.'
These shrouds are sometimes double. Thus the larvJB
of certain saw-flies spin for themselves a cocoon of a
soft, flexible, and close texture, which they surround
with an exterior one composed of a strong kind of net-
work, which withstands pressure like a racket^. Here
nature has provided that the inclosed animal shall be
protected by the interior cocoon from the injury it
might be exposed to from the harshness of the exterior,
while the latter by its strength and tension prevents it
from being hurt by any e'.ternal pressure.

But of all the contrivances by which insects in this
state are secured from their enemies, there is none more
ingenious than that to which the may-flies ( hvyganea^
L.) have recourse for this ])urp()se. You have heard
before that these insects are at first aqurtic, and inha-
bit curious cases made of a variety of materials, which
are usually open at each end''. Since they must re-
side in these cases, when they are become pupa;, till
the time of their final change approaches, if they are
left open, how are the animals, now become torpid,
to keep out their enemies ? Or, if they are wholly
closed, how is tl.e water, which is necessary to their
respiration and life, to be introduced? These saga-
cious creatures know how to compass both these ends
at once. They fix a grate or portcullis to each extre-
mity of their fortress, which at the same time keeps out
intruders and admits the water. These grates they
weave witli silk sj>un from theiranusinto strong threads,
which cross each other, and are not soluble in vv^ater.

a Reauni. v. 100. b Vol. I. 2d Ed. 467--

MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 265

One of them, descri!*e(l by De Geer, is very remark-
able. It consists of a small, thickish, circular lamina
of brown silk, becoming as bard as gum, which exactly
fits the aperture of the case, and is fixed a little within
the margin. It is pierced all over with holes disposed
in concentric circles, and separated by ridges which
go from the centre to the circumference, but often not
quite so regularly as the radii of a circle or the spokes
of a wheel. These radii are traversed again by other
ridges, which follow the direction of the circles of
holes ; so that the two kinds of ridges crossing each
other form compartments, in the centre of each of
which is a hole^.

Under this head I shall call your attention to another
circumstance that saves from their enemies innumera-
ble insects : — I mean their coming forth for flight or for
food only in the night, and taking tiieir repose in va-
rious places of concealment during the day. The
infinite hosts of moths {Phalcena^ L.), — amounting in
this country probably to a thousand species, — with few
exceptions, are all night-fliers. And a considerable
proportion of the other orders,— exclusive of the Hy-
menoptera and Diptera, which are mostly day-fliers, —
are of the same description. Many larvce of moths also
come out only in the night after their food, lying hid
all day in subterraneous or other retreats. Of this
kind is that of Noctua pulla and Ni/cterohhis^ whose
proceedings have been before described''. The cater-
pillar of another moth {Noctua subterranea, F.) never
ascends the stems of plants, but remains, a true Tro-

a Reaum. iii. 170. De Gcer, ii. 519. 545, Plate XVII. f ic. II.
b Vol. I. 2d Ed. 45G.

266 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.

glodyte, always in its cell under ground, biting the
stems at their base, which falling, bring thus their
foliage within its reach ^.

The habitations of insects are also usually places of
retreat, which secure ihem from many of their ene-
mies : — but I li^ve so fully enlarged upon this subject
on a former occasion'', that it would be superfluous to
do more than mention it here.

I am now to lay before you some examples of the
contrivances, requiring skill and ingenuity, by which
our busy animals occasionally defend themselves from
the designs and attack of their foes. Of these I have
already detailed to you many instances, which I shall
not here repeat ; my history therefore will not be very
prolix. — I observed in my account of the societies of
wasps, that they place sentinels at the mouth of their
nests. The same precaution is taken by the hive-bees,
particularly in the night, when they may expect that
the great destroyers of their combs, Tinea mellonella ^Y .
and its associates'^, will endeavour to make their way
into the hive. Observe them by moonlight, and you
will see the sentinels pacing about with their antennaB
extended, and alternately directed to the right and left.
In the mean time the moths flutter round the entrance;
and it is curious to see with what art they know how to
profit of the disadvantage that the bees, which cannot
discern objects but in a strong light, labour under at
that time. But should they touch xi moth with these
organs of nice sensation, it falls an immediate victim to
their just anger. The moth, however, seeks to glide

a Fab. Ent. SysU Em. iii, TO. 200, b Vol. I. 2d Ed, 431-^

c Ibid. 166.

MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 267

between the sentinels, avoiding with tlie utmost caution,
as if she were sensible that her safety depended upon
k, all contact with their antennae. These bees upon
guard in the night, are frequently heard to utter a very
short low hum ; but no sooner does any strange insect
or enemy touch their antenna?, than the guard is put
into a commotion, and the hum becomes louder, re-
sembling that of bees when they fly, and the enemy is
assailed by workers from the interior of the hive"^.

To defend themselves from the death's-head hawk-
moth, they have recourse to a ditFerent proceeding. In
seasons in which they are annoyed by this animal, they
often barricade the entrance of their hive by a thick
wall made of wax and propolis. This wall is built
immediately behind and sometimes in the gateway,
which it entirely stops up ; but it is itself pierced with
an opening or two sufficient for the passage of one or
two workers. These fortifications are occasionally
varied : sometimes there is only one wall, as just de-
scribed, the apertures of which are in arcades, and
placed in the upper part of the masonry. At others
many little bastions, one behind the other, are erected.
Gateways masked by the anterior walls ; and not cor-
responding with those in them, are made in the second
Hne of building. These casemated gates are not con-
structed by the bees without the most urgent necessity.
When their danger is present and pressing, and they are
as it were compelled to seek some preservative, they
have recourse to this mode of defence'', which places
the instinct of these animals in a wonderful light, and
shows how well they know how to adapt their proceed-.

a Jluber, Nouv, Obs. ii. 412. iJ Ihid, 294-^

268 MEANS OF DEt'ENCE Ol' INSECTS.

ings to circumstances. Can this be merely sensitive ?
When attacked by strange bees, they have recourse to
a similar manceuvre ; only in this case they make but
narrow apertures, sufficient for a single bee to pass
through. — Pliny affirms that a sick bear will provoke
a hive of bees to attack him in order to let him blood*.
What will you say, if humble-bees have recourse to a si-
milar manoeuvre ? It is related to me by Dr. Leach, from
the communications of Mr. Daniel Bydder — an inde-
fatigable and well-informed collector of insects, and ob-
server of their proceedings — that Apis terrestris, when
labouring under ^carm^i^'' from the numbers of a small
mite {Gammasus Gymnopterorum^ F.) that infest it,
will take its station in an ant-hill; where beginning to
scratch, and kick, and make a disturbance, the ants im-
mediately come out to attack it, and falling foul of the
mites, they destroy or carry them all off; when the
bee, thus delivered from its enemies, takes its flight.

In this long detail, the first idea that will, I should
hope, strike the mind of every thinking being, is the
truth of the Psalmist's observation — that the tender
mercies of God are over all his works. Not the least
and roost insignificant of his creatures is, we see, de-
prived of his paternal care and attention ; none are
exiled from his ail-directing providence. Why then
should man, the head of the visible creation, for whom
all the inferior animals were created and endowed ; for
whose well-being, in some sense, all these wonderful
creatures with their miraculous instincts, whose history
I am giving you, were put in action, — why should he
ever doubt, if he uses his powers and faculties rightly^

■A Hist. Nat. 1. viii. c. 36. b Vol. I. 2d Ed. 99—

MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 269

that his Creator will provide him with what is neces-
sary for his present state ? — Why should he imagine
that a Being-, whose very essence is Love, unless he
compels him by his own wilful and obdurate wicked-
ness, will ever cut him off from his care and provi-
dence ?

Another idea that upon this occasion must force it-
self into our mind is, that nothing is made in vain.
When we find that so many seemingly trivial varia-
tions in the colour, clothing, form, structure, motions,
habits, and economy of insects are of very great im-
portance to them, we may safely conclude that the pe-
culiarities in all these respects, of which we do not yet
know the use, are equally necessary : and we may al-
most say, reversing the words of our Saviour, that not
a hair is given to them without our Heavenly Fatlier.

r am, &c.

LETTER XXn.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. {Larva and Pupa.)

Amongst the means of defence to which insects have
recourse, I have noticed their motions. These shall b^
the subject of the present letter. I shall not, however^
confine myself to those by which they seek to escapd
from their enemies ; but take a larger and more com-
prehensive survey of them, including not only every
species of locomotion, but also the movements they give
to different parts of their body when in a state of re*
pose : and in order to render this survey more com-
plete, I shall add to it some account of the various or-
gans and instruments by which they move.

Whenever you go abroad in summer, wherever you
turn your eyes and attention, you will see insects in
motion. They are flying or sailing everywhere in the
air ; dancing in the sun or in the shade ; creeping
slowly, or marching soberly, or running swiftly, or
jumping upon the ground; traversing your path in all
directions ; coursing over the surface of the waters, or
swimming at every depth beneath ; emerging from a
subterranean habitation, or going into one ; climbing
up the trees, or descending from them ; glancing from
flower to flower; now alighting upon the f^arth and
waters, and now leaving them to follow the impulse of
their various instincts; sometimes travelling singly; at

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. ' 271

other times in countless swarms : these the busy chil-
dren of the day, and those of the ni<rht. If you return
to your apartment — there are these ubiquitaries — some
flying about — others pacing against gravity up the walls
or upon the cieling — others walking with ease upon
the glass qf your windows, and some even venturing
to take tlieir station on your own sacred person, and
asserting their right to the lord of the creation.

This universal movement and action of these restless
little animals gives life to every part and portion of our
globe, rendering even tiie most arid desert interesting.
From their visitations every leaf and flower become
animated ; the very dust seems to quicken into life, and
the stones, like those thrown by Deucalion andPyrrha,
to be metamorphosed into locomotive beings. In the
variety of motions which they exhibit, we see, as Cu-
vier remarks'', tliose of every other description of ani-
mals. They walk, run, and jump with the quadru-
peds ; they fly with the birds; they glide with the ser-
pents ; and they swim with the fish. And the provi-
sion made for these motions in the structure of their
bodies is most wonderful and various. " If I was
minded to expatiate," says the excellent Derham, " I
might take notice of the admirable mechanism in those
that creep; the curious oars in those amphibious in-
sects tnat"s\yim and walk; the incomparable provision
made in the^ feet of such as walk or hang upon smooth
surfaces ; ^he great strength and spring in the legs of
such as leap ; the strong-made feet and talons of such
as dig ; and, to name no more, the admirable faculty
of such as cannot fly, to convey themselves with speed

i* J nafom. Compar. i. 444.

272 MbXIONS OF INSECTS.

and safety, by the help of their webs, or some other
artifice, to make their bodies lighter than the air^."

Since the motions, and instruments of motion, of in-
sects are usually very different in their preparatory
states, from what they are in the imago or perfect state,
1 shall therefore consider them separately, and divide
ray subject into — motions of larvae, — motions of pupae,
— and motions of perfect insects.

I. Amongst larvcB there are two classes of movers —
Apodous larvEE, or those that move without legs, — and
Pedate larvae, or those that move by means of legs. I
must here observe, that by the term legs, which I use
strictly, I mean only jointed organs, that have free mo-
tion, and can walk or step alternately : not those spu-
rious legs without joints, that have no free motion, and
cannot walk or take alternate steps ; such as support
the middle and anus of the larvas of most Lepidopfei'a
and saw-flies (TenthredinidcE).

Apodous larvae seldom have occasion to take long
jburneys; and many of them, except when about to as-
sume the pupa, only want to change their place or pos-
ture, and to follow their food in tlie substance, whether
animal or vegetable, to which, when included in the
egg, the parent insect committed them. Legs there-
fore would be of no great use to them, and to these
last a considerable impediment. They are capable of
three kinds of motion; — they either walk, or jump, or
swim. I use zoalking in an improper sense, for want of
a better term equally comprehensive : for some may be
stiid to niove by gliding; and others (I mean those

a PTtysku-Thcol. I'A. 13. 363.

MOTIONS Of INSECTS. ^73

that, fixing- the head to any point, bring the tail up to
it, and so proceed) by stepj iiig.

The motion of serpents was ascribed by some of the
ancients (who were unable to conceive that it could be
eftected naturally, unless by the aid of legs, wings, or
fins,) to a preternatural cause. It was supposed to re-
semble the '•'■incessus deoritm^'''' and procured to these
animals, amongst other causes, one of the highest and
most honourable ranks in the emblematical class of
their false divinities*. Had they known Sir Joseph
Banks's late discovery, — that some serpents push them-
selves along by the points of their ribs, which Sir
E. Home has found to be curiously constructed for this
purpose, — their wonder would have been diminished,
and their serpent-gods undeified. But though serpents
can no longer make good their claim to motion more
deonim^ some insects may take their places; for there
are numbers of larv£e, that having neither legs, nor
ribs, nor any other points by which they can push
themselves forward on a plane, glide along by the al-
ternate contraction and extension of the segments of
their body. Had tlie ancient Egyptians been aware
of this, their catalogue of insect divinities would have
been wofully crowded. In this annular motion, the
animal alternately supports each segment of the body
upon the plane of position, which it is enabled to do by
the little bundles of muscles attached to the skin, that
take tlieir origin within the body**.

I shall begin the list of walkers, the movements of
which are aided by various instruments, with one which
is well known to most people,— the grub of the nut-

a Encyd. Brit,, art. Physiology, 709. b Cuvier, Jnat. Corny, i. 430,
VOL.11. T

274 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

Aveevil (Curculio Nucum, L.). When placed upon a
table, after lying fome time, perhaps, bent in a bow,
with its head touching its tail, at last it begins to move,
which, though in no certain direction, it docs with
more speed than might be expected. Rcisel I'ancied
that this animal had feet furnished with claws ; but in
this, as De Geer justly observes, he was altogether
mistaken, since it has not the least rudiment of them,
its motion being produced solely by the alternate con-
traction and extension of the segments of the body, as-
sisted, perhaps, by the Heshy prominences of its sides.
— Other larvcB have this annular motion aided by a
slimy secretion, which gives them further hold upon
the plane on which they are moving, and supplies in
some degree the place of legs or claws. That of the
weevil of the common figwort {Cionus Scrophularice,
Latr.) is always covered with slime, which enables it, —
though it renders its appearance disgusting, — to walk
with steadiness, by the mere lengthening and shortening
of its segments, upon the leaves of that plant^.— Of this
kind also are those larvae, mentioned above '', received
by De Geer from M. Ziervogel, which, adhering to
each other by a slimy secretion, glide along so slowly
upon the ground as to be a quarter of an hour in going
tlie breadth of the hand, whence the natives call their
bands Gards-drag".

As a further help, others again call in the assistance
of their unguiform mandibles. These, which are pe-
culiar to grubs with a variable membranaceous head,
especially those of the lly tribe (3Iuscid(e), when the
animal does not use them, are retracted not only within

a De Geer, V. 210. b See above, p. 7. c De Geer, vi. 338.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 275

the head, but even within the segments behind it*; but
when it is moving' they are protrnded, and lay hold of
the surface on which it is placed. They were long
ago noticed l)y the accurate Ray. " This blackness in
the head," says he, speaking of the maggot of the com-
mon llesh ily, " is caused by two black spines or hooks,
which when in motion it puts forth, and fixing them
in the ground, so drags along its body*"." — The larvae
of the aphidivorous flies {St/rpl/us, F.), the ravages of
w hich amongst the Aphides 1 have before described to
you '^, transport themselves from place to place in the
same way, walking by means of their teeth. Fixing
their hind part to the sidjstance on which they are
moving, they give their body its greatest possible ten-
sion; and, if I may so speak, thus take as long a step
as they can : next, laying hold of it with their mandi-
bles, by setting free the tail and relaxing the tension,
the former is brought near the head. Thus the animal
proceeds, and thus will even walk upon glass''. Some
grubs, as the lesser house-fly (Musca domestica minor,
De Geer), have only one of these claw-teeth : and in
some they have the form as well as the office of legs''.
Bonnet mentions an apodous larva, that, before it can
use its mandibles, is obliged to spin, at certain intervals,
little hillocks or steps of silk; of which it then lays hold
by them, and so drags itself along.

Besides their mandibular hooks, some of these grubs

a De Geer, vi. 65. b Hht. Lis. 270. c Vol. I. 2d Ed. 264.
d Reaumur, iii. 369.

e Vol. 1. 2d Ed. 138. De Geer, vi, 76. Reaumur, iv. 376. Swamm.
Bibl. Nat. Ed. Hill, ii. 46. a. t. xxxix./. 3. h h.

T 2

5^6

MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

supply the want of legs by means of claws at their anns^
Thus that of the flesh-fly, Ray tells us in tlie place just
<|Uoted, pushes itself by the protruded spines (if its tail.
The larva also of a long-legged gnat ( Tipula rcplicata,
L.), which in that state lives in the water, is furnished
with these aiial claws, which, in conjunction with its an-
nular tension and relaxation, and the hooks of its mouthy
assist it in walking over the aquatic plants'*.

A remarkable difterence, according to their station,
obtains in the bots ofgad-Hies; those that are subcutane-
ous {CutkoUc, Clark) having no unguiform mandibles;
while those that are gastric {GastricoJce, Clark), and
those that inhabit the maxillary sinuses ofanimals(C«-
•a'cofe, Clark), are furnished with them. In tlvisvve evi-
dently see Creative Wisdom adapting means to their
end. For the cuticular bots having no plane surface
to move upon, and imbibing a liquid food, in them the
mandibular hooks would be superfluous. But they are
furnished with other means by which they can accom-
plish such motions, and in contrary directions, as are ne-
cessary to them; the anterior part of each segment be-
ing beset with numbers of very minute spines, not visi-
ble except under a strong magnifier, sometimes arranged
in bundles, which all look towards the anus ; and the
posterior part is as it were paved with similar hooks, but
smaller, which point to the head. Thus we may con-
ceive, when the animal wants to move forward, that it
pushes itself by the first set of hooks, keeping the rest,
which would other wise impede motion in that direction,
pressed close to its skin — or it may depress that part

a De Geer, vi. 335,

MOTIONS OP INSECTS. 277

of the seg^nient ; — and wlion it would move backwards
that it employs the second '. The other descriptions of
bot?, not being- embedded in the flesh but fixed to a
plane, are armed with the mandibles in question, by
which they can not only suspend themselves in their
several stations, but likewise, with the aid of the spines
with which their segments also are furnished, move at
their pleasure ''. Other larvse of flies, as well as the
bots, lire furnislied with spines or hooks — by which
lliey take stronger hold — to assist them in their mo-
tions. Those mentioned in my last letter as inhabiting
the nests of humble-bees'^, besides the six radii that
arm their anus, and which perhaps may assist them in
locomotion, have the margin of their body fringed with
a double row of short spines '\ which are, doubtless,
useful in the same way.

The next order of walkers amongst apodous larvas
are those that move by means of fleshy tuberculiform
or pediform prominences, — which last resemble the
spurious legs of the caterpillars of most Lepidopfera.
Some, a kind of monopods, have only one of such pro-
minences, which being always fixed almost under the
head, may serve, in some degree, the purpose of an
unguiform mandible. The grub of a kind of gnat ( Ti-
pula stercoraria, De Geer), and also another, probably
of the Tipulidan tribe (found by De Geer in a subpu-
trescent stalk of Angelica which he was unable to trace

a Reaum. iv. 416. t. xxxvi. /. 5. Compare Clark On the Bots, &c. 48.

b Mr. Clark (ibid. 62) observed only rough points on the bofs of the
sheep, but these also have spines or hooks looking towards the anus.
Reaum. iv. 556. t. xxxv. /« 11, 13, 15. 1 also observed them myself in
the same grub. c See above, p. 223.

dPLATEXlX. FiC. 11.

278 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

to the fly), have each a fleshy leg on the underside of
the first segment, which points towards the, head and
assists them in their motions "". — Others again go a little
further, and are supported at their anterior extremity
by' a pair of spurious legs. An aquatic larva of a most
singular form, and of the same tribe, figured by Reau-
mur, is this circumstanced. In this case the processes
in question proceed from the head, and are armed with
claws ''. Would you think it — another Tipnlidan grub
is distinguished by three legs of this kind ? It was first
noticed by De Geer under the name of Tipula maculata
{Tani/pus, Meig.), who gives the following account of
its motions and their organs : — It is found, he observes,
in the water of swampy places and in ditches, is not
bigger than a horse-hair, and about a quarter of an
inch in length. Its mode of swimming is like that of a
serpent, with an undulating motion of the body, and it
sometimes walks at the bottom of the water and upon
aquatic plants. The most remarkable part of it are
its legs, called by Latreille, but it should seem impro-
perly, tentacula. They resemble, by their length and
rigidity, wooden legs. The anterior leg is attached to
the underside, but towards the head, of the first seg-
ment of the body. It is long and cylindrical, placed
perpendicularly or obliquely, according to the different
movements the animal gives it, and terminates in two
feet, armed at their extremity by a coronet of long move-
able hooks. These feet, like the tentacula of snails, are
retractile within the leg, and even within the body,
so that only a little stump, as it were, remains with-

a De Geer, vi. /. xxii. f. 15, /. t. xviii, f. S, p%
b Reaiun. v. t. vi. f. 5, mm.

MOTIONS OF INSECT.?. 279

out. The insect moves them both together, as a lame
man does his crutches, either backwards or forwards.
The two posterior legs are placed at the anal end of
the body. They are similar to the one just described,
but larger, and entirely separate from each other, being
not, like them, retractile within the body, but always
stiff and extended. These also are armed with hooks.
In Avalking, this larva uses these two legs much as the
caterpillars of tlie moths, called Gconwlrcr, do theirs.
By the inflection of the anus it can give them any kind
of lateral movement, except that it can neither l)end
nor shorten them, since like a wooden leg, as 1 have
before observed, they always remain stiff and extend-
ed''. Lyonet had observed this larva, or a species
nearly related to it ; but he speaks of it as having four
legs, two before and two behind. Pro])ably, when he
examined them, the common base, from which the feet
I are branches, was retracted within the body"*.

Generally speaking, however, in these apodous walk-
ers the place of legs is supplied by fleshy and often
retractile mamillse or tubercles. By means of these and
a slimy secretion, unaided by mandibular hooks, the ca-
terpillar of a little moth {Ifeputlus Tcstudo, Y.Apoda^
Haworth) moves from place to place '^. — A subcuta-
neous larva belonging to the same order, that mines
the leaves of the rose, moves also by tubercular legs
assisted by slime. It has eighteen homogeneous legs,
with which, when removed from its house of conceal-
ment, it will walk well upon any surface, whether ho-

aDeCecr, vi. 395—. Plate XXIII. Fig. 7. Foreleg, u. Hind-
legs, iS. b Lesser Z.. i, 96. i;o;e t.
»; Klemann, Be?7)rtg-t, 33?.

280 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

rizontal, inclined, or even vertical*. But the greatest
number of legs of this kind that distinguish any known
larva, is to be observed in that of a two- winged fly
(SccEva Pj/raslri,F.) that devours the Aphides of the
rose. This animal has six rows of tubercular feet, with
which it moves, each row consisting of seven, making
in all forty-two''. — The grub of the weevil of the dock
(Curculio RumiciSy L.) has twenty-four tubercular legs ;
but, what is remarkable, the six anterior ones, being
longer than the rest, seem to represent the real legs,
while the others represent the spurious ones, of lepi-
dopterous larvcB. These legs, however, are all fleshy
tubercles, and have no claws, the place of which is
supplied by slime which covers all the underside of the
body, and hinders the animal from falling ^ Another
weevil (Lixus paraplecticus, F.) produces a grub in-
habiting the water-hemlock, which has only six tuber-
cles that occupy the place and are representatives of
the legs of the perfect insect''.

Some larvaB have these tubercles armed with claws.
The maggot of a fly described by De Geer under the
name o{ JMusca plumata, but which Linne makes a va-
riety of Sj/rphus mj/sfaceus, F., has six pair of them,
each of which has three long claws. This aniuial has
a radiated anus, and seems related to those flies that
live in the nests of humble-bees^.

Insects in the peculiarities of their structure, as we
have seen in many instances, sometimes realize the
wildest fictions of the imagination. Should a traveller
tell you that he had seen a quadruped whose legs v.ere

a De Geer, i. 447— . t.xxxi.f. 17. b Tbid. vi. HI.

c Ibid, V. 233. d Ibid. i:28. e Ibid. vi. 137. /, viii./. 8, ".

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 281

on its hack, you would immediately conclude that he
was playing^ upon your credulity, and had lost that re-
gard to truth which ought to distii)f»uish the narratives
of persons of his dcficription. What then will you say
to me, when I affirm, upon the evidence of two most
unexceptionable witnesses, Reaumur and De Geer,
that there are insects which exhil»it this extraordinary
structure ? The grub of a little gali-tly, appearing to
be Ci/nips Quercus inferus of Linne — which inhabits a
ligneous gall resembling a berry to be met with on the
underside of oak-leaves — was found by the former to
have on its back, on the middle of each segment, a re-
tractile ilcsljy protuberance that resemliled strikingly
the spurious legs of some caterpillars. A little atten-
tion will convince any one, argues Reaumur, that the
legs of insects circumstanced like the one under consi-
deration, if it has any, should be on its back. For this
grub — inhabiting a spherical cavity, in which it lies
rolled up as it were in a ring — when it wants to move,
will be enabled to do so, in this hollow sphere, with
much more facility, by lueans of legs on the middle of
its back, than if they were in their ordinary situation "^.
So wisely has Providence ordered every thing. — An-
other similar instance is recorded by De Geer, which
indeed had previously been noticed, though cursorily,
by the illustrious Frenchman ''. There is a little larva,
he observes, to be found at all seasons of the year, the
depth of winter excepted, in stagnant waters, which
keeps its body always doubled as it were in two, against

a Reaum. iii. 496. t. xXv.f. ?,

'-'> Ibid. Mam. de CAcad, Roy. des Scien. de Paris, An. 1714. j , "^OS.

282

MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

the sides of ditches or the stalks of aquatic plants. If
it is placed in a glass half full of Avater, it so fixes
itself against the sides of it, that its head and tail are
in the water while the remainder of the body is out
of it; thus assuming- the form of a siphon, the tail
end being the longest. When this animal is disposed
to feed, it lifts its head and places it horizontally on
the surface of the water, so that it forms a right angle
with the rest of the body, which always remains in a
situation perpendicular to the surface. It then agi-
tates, with vivacity, a couple of brushes, formed of
hairs and fixed in the anterior part of the head, which
producing a current towards the mouth, it makes its
meal of the various species of aniraalcula, abounding
in stagnant waters, that come within the vortex thus
produced. As these animals require to be firmly fixed
to the substance on which they take their station, and
their back is the only part, when they are doubled as
just described, that can apply to it, — they are furnished
with minute legs armed with black claws, by which
they are enabled to adhere to it. They have ten of
these legs : the four anterior ones, which point towards
the head and are distant from each other, are placed
upon the fourth and fifth dorsal segments of the body ;
and the six posterior ones, which point to the anus and
are so near to each other as at first to look like one
leg, are placed on the eighth, ninth, and tenth. When
the animal moves, the body continues bent, and the
sixth segment, which is without feet and forms the
summit of the curve, goes first f. De Geer named the

a De Gf.er, vi. 380— /. xxiv,/. U9.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 283

fly it produces Tipida amphibia: it seems not clear,
from his figure, to which of the modern genera of the
Tipulida; it belongs.

I come now to the jumping apodes, and one of this
description will immediately occur to your recollec-
tioji, — that I mean which revels in our richest cheeses,
and produces a little black shining fly (Tephritis putris,
F.). These maggots have long been celebrated for their
saltatorious powers. They effect their tremendous leaps
— laugh not at the term, for they are truly so when
compared with what human force and agility can ac-
complish— in nearly the same manner as salmon are
stated to do when they wish to pass over a cataract,
by taking their tail in their mouth, and letting it go
suddenly. When it prepares to leap, our larva first
erects itself upon its anus, and then, bending itself into
a circle by bringing its head to its tail, it pushes forth
its unguiform mandibles, and fixes them in two cavi-
ties in its anal tubercles. All being thus prepared, it
jiext contracts its body into an oblong, so that the two
halves are parallel to each other. This done, it lets
go its hold with so violent a jerk that the sound pro-
duced by its mandibles may be readily heard, and the
leap takes place. Svvammerdam saw one, whose length
did not exceed the fourth part of an inch, jump in this
manner out of a box six inches deep; which is as if at,
man six feet high should raise himself in the air by
jumping 144 feet! He had seen others leap a great
deal higher*. The grub of a little gnat lately noticed
(Tipiila stercoraria, De Geer) has a similar faculty,
though executed in a manner rather different. These

n ; vyati.in. Bi'jl. Nat. Ed. HiU, ii, 64 b.

284 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

larvae, which inhabit horse-dung, though deprived of
feet, cannot move by annular contraction and dilata-
tion ; but are able, by various serpentine contortions,
aided by their mandibles, to move in the substance
which constitutes their food. Should any accident re-
move them from it. Providence has enabled them to
recover their natural station by the power I am speak-
ing of When about to leaj), they do not, like tlie
cheese-fly, erect themselves so as to form an angle with
the plane of posilion ; but lying horizontally, they
bring the anus near the head, regulating the distance
by the length of the leap they mean to take; when hx-
ing it firmly, and then suddenly resuming a rectilinear
position, they are carried through the air sometimes
to the distance of two or three inches. They appear to
have the power of flattening their anal extremity, and
even of rendering it concave; by means of which it
niay probably act as a sucker, and so be more firmly
fixable ^. — The grub of a fly whose proceedings in that
state I have before noticed^ (Lrptis Vermileo^ F), will,
when removed from its habitation, endeavour to re-
cover it by leaping. Indeed this mode of motion seems
often to be given to this description of larva? by Pro-
vidence, to enable them to return to their natural sta-
tion, when by any accident they have wandered away
from it.

Many apodous larvae inhabit the water, and there-
fore must be furnished with means of locomotion proper
io that element. To this class belongs the common
gnat {Cidcx pipiens, L.), which being one of our great-
est torments, compels us to feel some curiosity about
a De Geer, vi. 389— ^ Vol. I. 2d Ed. 43':.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. I§85

its history. Its larva is a very singular creature, fur-
nished with a remarkable anal apparatus for respira-
tion, by which it usually remains suspended at the sur-
ftice of tlie water. If disposed to descend, it seenis to
sink by the weight of Its body ; but wlien it would
move upwards again, it eflects its purpose by alter-
nate contortions of the upper and lower halves of it,
and thus it moves with much celerity. The laminae or
swimmers, which terminate its anus% are doubtless of
use to it in promoting this purpose. It does not, that
I ever observed, move in a lateral direction, but only
from the surface downwards, and vice versa. — Another
dipterous larva (Corethra culiciformis, Meig-,) which
much resembles that of the gnat in form, differs from
it in its motions and station of repose. For, instead of
being suspended at the surface with its head down-
wards, it usually, like fishes, remains in a horizontal
position in the middle of the water. When it ascends
to the surface, it is always by means of a few strokes
of its tail, so that its motion is not equable, sed per
saltus. It descends again gradually by its own weight,
and regains its equilibrium by a single stroke of the
tail''. — A well known lly {Stratj/omis Chamceleon, F.),
in its first state an aquatic animal, often remains sus-
pended, by its radiated anus, at the surface of the
water, with its head downwards. But when it is dis-
posed to seek the bottom or to descend, by bending the
radii of its tail so as to form a concavity, it includes in
them a bubble of air, in brilliancy resembling silver
or pearl; and then sinks with it by its own weight.
AVhen it would return to the surface it is by means of

a Rtaiiin. iv. /. 43./. 3. nn. b De Geer, v;.375. t. xxiii./. 4,5.

286 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

this bubble, which is, as it were, its air-balloon. If it
moves upon the surface or horizontally, it bends its
body alternately to the right and left, contracting it-
self into the form of the letter S ; and then extending
itself again into a straight line, by these alternate move-
ments it makes its way slowly in the water''.

I have dwelt longer upon the apodous larvs, or
those that are without what may be called proper legs,
analogous to those of perfect insects, because the ab-
sence of these ordinary instruments of motion is in
numbers of them supplied in a way so remarkable and
so worthy to be known ; and because in them the wis-
dom of the Creator is so conspicuously, or, I should
rather say, so strikingly manifested — since it is doubt-
less equally conspicuous in the ordinary routine of na-
ture. But aberrations from her general laws, and
modes, and instruments of action, often of rare occur-
rence, impress us more forcibly than any thing that
falls under our daily observation.

I come now to pedate larvae, or those that move by
means of proper or articulate legs. These legs (gene-
rally six in nun)ber, and attached to the underside of
the three first segments of the body) vary in larvae oi'
the different orders : but they seem in most to have
joints answering to the hip (coxa) ; trochanter ; thigh
(^ femur) ; shank (tibia) ; foot (tarsus), of perfect in-
sects, the legs of which they include. Cuvier, speaking
of Coleopterji and some Ncnroplera, mentions only three
joints. But many in these orders (amongst which he
included the Trichoptera) have the joints I have euu-

a Swamra. BiA.NaU Ed. Hill,ii. 44. b. 47. a.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 287

merated. To name no more, the Scaraba;ida^, Dj/tiscij
Silpha;, Stap/ij//hii, Ciclmklw, and Gi/rini, amongst co-
leopterous larvae ; and the PhrT/ganew, as well as the
Lib(iluUd(v and Ephemercv, amongst Cuvier's NeurO'
ptera, — have these joint-, and in many the last termi-
nates in a double claw''. In some coleopterous genera
the tarsus seems absent or obsolete. The larva of the
lady -bird (Coccinclla) affords an example of the for-
mer kind, and that o^ ChrT/somela of the latter''. These
joints are very visible in the legs of caterpillars of Z*e-
pidoptera, and their tarsus is armed with a single claw".
The larva; that have these legs walk with them some-
times very swiftly. In stepping- they set forward at the
same time the anterior and posterior legs of one side,
and the intermediate one of the other; and so alter-
nately on each side.

Pedate larvje are of two descriptions : those that to
perfect legs add spurious ones with or without claws,
and those that have only perfect legs. I begin with
the former — those that have both kinds of legs. But
first I must make a few remarks upon spurious legs.
Because their muscles, instead of the horny substance
that protects them in perfect legs, are covered only by
a soft membrane, they have been usually denominated
membranaceous legs : since, however, they are tempo-
rary, vanishing altogether when the insect arrives at
its perfect state, — are merely used, for they do not
otherwise assist in this motion, as props to hinder its

a For examples of larvae Laving these joints, sec Dc Geer, iv. 289.
i.xiii.f.W. t.xv.f.li. ii. t.xVi.f.3. /,xvi. /.5, 6, t.x\x.fA.&c.
Ibid. V. ^xi. /. il. t. ix. /. 9, o.
c Lyonet, TraiU Anatom. t. iii. /. 8.

288 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

long body, when it walks, from trailing- on the ground;
to push agairjst the plane of position ; and, by means
of their hooks or ciaws, to fix itself firmly to its sta-
tion when it feeds or reposes, — I shall therefore call
them prolegs (propedes). These organs consist of
three or four folds, and are commonly terminated,
though not always, by a coronet or semicoronet of very
minute crooked claws or hooks. These claws, which
sometimes amount to nearly a hundred on one proleg,
are alternately longer and shorter. They are crooked
at both enus, and. are attached to the proleg by the
back by means of a membrane, which covers about
two-thirds of their length, leaving their two extremi-
ties naked. Of these the upper one is sharp, and the
lower blunt. The sole, or part of the prolegs within
the clav»'s, is capable of opening and shutting. When
the aniiiial walks, that they may not impede its mo-
tion, it is shut, and the claws are laid fiat with their^
points inwards ; but Avhen it wishes to fix itself, the
sole is opened, becoming of greater diameter than be-
fore, and the claws stand erect with their points out-
wards. Thus they can lay stronger hold of the plane
of position''.

The number of these prolegs varies in different spe-
cies and families. In the numerous tribes of saw-flies
{Tenthredo, L.), the larvae of which resenible those of
I.epidopfera, and are called by Reaumur spurious ca-
terpillars {fausses chenilles), one family {Cinibex^ F.
J^ophyrus^ Latr.) has sixteen prolegs; a second {Hy-
lotoma, Latr. &c.) fourteen: another {Tenllircdo, F.)
twelve; and a fourth {Lyda^ F.) none at all, having only

a Lyonet,8£— ^ iii./. 10-16.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 289

the six perfect legs. — The majority of larvae of Lepi-
doptera have ten prolegs, eight being attached, a pair on
each, to the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth segments
of the body, and two to the twelfth or anal segment^.
The caterpillar of the puss-moth {P. Bomhi/x Vinula^
1^.) and some others, instead of the anal prolegs, have
two tails or horns. A heniigeometer, described by De
Geer, has only six intermediate prolegs, the posterior
pair of which are longer than the rest to assist the anal
pair in supporting the body in a posture more or less
erect ''. Other hemigeometers, of which kind is the
larva of Noctua Gamma, F. '', have only six prolegs,
four intermediate and two anal. The true geometers or
surveyors {Geometi'oi) have only two intermediate and
two anal prolegs. Many grubs of Coleoptera, espe-
cially those of Staphj/lini, Silphce, &c. which are long
and narrow, are furnished with a stiff joint at the anus,
which they bend downwards and use as a prop to pre-
vent their body from trailing. This joint, though with-
out claws, may be regarded as a kind of proleg, which
supports them when they walk "^ ; and probably may
assist their motion by pushing against the plane of po-
sition.

With respect to the larvsB that have only perfect
legs, having just given you an account of these organs,
I have nothing more to state relating to their struc-
ture. I shall therefore now consider the motions of
pedate larvaa, under the several heads of walking or
running, jumping, climbing, and swimming.

a Lyonet, uhi supr. t. 1. /. 4. b De Geer, i. 379. /. xxv. /. 1-3.

c Vol. 1. 2d Ed. 193. d De Geer, i. 12. 40. t. i. /. 27. q.

t.y\.f. 11. e.

VOL. II. U

^0 MOTIONS Ol' INSECTS.

Amongst those that walk, some are remarkable for
the sloM'ness of their motion, while others are extremely
swift. The caterpillar of the hawk-moth of the Fili-
pendula {Zi/gcena Filipendulce, F,) is of the former de-
scription, moving in the most leisurely manner; while
thatof J3owiZ>y.r lejwrina, F., a moth unknown in Britain,
is named after the hare, from its great speed. The ca-
terpillar of another moth, the species of which seems
not to be ascertained, is celebrated by De Geer for the
wonderful celerity of its motions. When touched it
darts away backwards as well as forwards, giving its
body an undulating motion with such force and rapi-
dity, that it seems to fly from side to side^. — Cuvier
observes, that the grubs of some coleopterous and neu-
ropt^rous insects, which have only the six perfect legs,
by means of them lay hold of any surrounding object,
and, fixing themselves to it, drag the rest of their body
to that point ; and that those of many Capricorn beetles
and their affinities (but that of Callidium violaceum is
an apode '') have these legs excessively minute and al-
most nothing; that they move in the sinuosities which
they bore by the assistance of their mandibles, with
which they fix themselves, and also of several dorsal
and ventral tubercles, by which they are supported
against the sides of their cavity, and push themselves
along, in the same manner as a chimney-sweeper — by
the pressure of his knees, elbows, shoulder-blades,
and other prominent parts — pushes himself up a chim-
ney ^ The larva of the ant-lion {Mi/rmeleon) — with the
exception of one species, which moves in the common

a De Geer, i. 424. b Kirbj in Linn. Trans, v. 258.

c Aiiatom. Comp, i. 430.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 291

^vay — always walks backwards, even when its legs are
cut off.

The jumpers amongst pedate larvae, as far as they
are known, are not very numerous, and will not de-
tain you long. When the caterpillar of Noctua Qua-
dra, F., a moth not uncommon, would descend from
one branch or leap to another, it approaches to the
edge of the leaf on which it is stationed, bends its body
together, and retiring a little backwards, as if to take
a good situation, leaps through the air, and however
high the jump, alights on its legs like a cat. That of
enother moth (Pi/ralis rostralis, F.) will also leap to a
considerable height ^.

Another species of motion, which is peculiar to
larvae, — their mode I mean of climbing, — as it merits
particular attention, will occupy more time. I have
already related so many extraordinary facts in their
history, that I promise myself you will not disbelieve me
if I assert that insects either use ladders forthis purpose,
or a single rope. You may often have seen the cater-
pillar of the common cabbage-butterfly climbing up
the walls of your house, and even over the glass of
your windows. When next you witness this last cir-
cumstance, if you observe closely the square upon
which the animal is travelling, you will find tliat, like
a snail, it leaves a visible track behind it. Examine
this with your microscope, and you will see that it con-
sists of little silken threads, which it has spun in a
zigzag direction, forming a rope-ladder, by which it
ascends a surface it could not otherwise adhere to.
The silk as it comes from the spinners is a gummy

a Rosel, I. iv. 112. vi. 14.
u 2

292 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

fluid, which hardens in the air; so that it has no diffi-
culty in makinjo- it stick to the glass. — Many caterpil-
lars that feed upon trees, particularly the geometers,
have often occasion to descend from branch to branch,
and sometimes, especially previously to assuming the
pupa, to the ground. Had they to descend by the
trunk, supposing them able to traverse with ease its
rugged bark, what a circuitous route must they take
before they could accomplish their purpose ! Provi-
dence, ever watchful over the welfare of the most in-
significant of its creatures, has gifted them with the
means of attaining tl.ese ends, without all this labour
and loss of time. From their own internal stores they
can let down a rope, and prolong it indefinitely, which
will enable them to travel where they please. Shake
the branches of an oak or other tree in summer, and
its inhabitants of this description, whether they were
reposing, moving, or feeding, will immediately cast
themselves from the leaves on which they were sta-
tioned; and however sudden your attack, they are ne-
vertheless still provided for it, and will all descend by
means of the silken cord just alluded to, and hang sus-
pended in the air. Their name of geometer was given
them, because they seem to measure the surface they
pass over, as they walk, with a chain. If you place one
upon your hand, you w ill find that they draw a thread
as they go ; when they move, their head is extended
as far as they can reach with it ; then fastening their
thread there, and bringing up the rest of their body,
they take another step; never moving without leaving
this clue behind them ; the object of which, however,
is neither to measure, nor to mark its path that it may

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 293

find it again : but thus, whenever the caterpillar falls
or would descend from a leaf, it has a cord always
ready to support it in the air, by lengthening- whicli it
can with ease reach the ground. Thus it can drop
itself without danger from the summit of the most
lofty trees, and ascend again by the same road. As
the silky matter is fluid when it issues from tlie spinners,
it should seem as if the weight of the insect would be
too great, and its descent too rapid, so as to cause it
to fall with violence upon the earth. The little ani-
mal knows how to prevent such an accident, by de-
scending gradually. It drops itself a foot or half a
foot, or even less, at a time ; then making a longer or
shorter pause, as best suits it, it reaches the ground
at last without a shock. From hence it appears that
these larvae have power to contract the orifice of the
spinners, so as that no more of the silky gum shall is-
sue from it; and to relax it again when they intend to
resume their motion downwards : consequently there
must be a muscular apparatus to enable them to effect
this, or at least a kind of sphincter, which, pressing the
silk, can prevent its exit. From hence also it appears,
that the gummy fluid which forms the thread must have
gained a degree of consistence even before it leaves
the spinner, since as soon as it emerges it can support
the weight of the caterpillar. — In ascending, the ani-
mal seizes the thread with its jaws as high as it can
reach it; and then elevating that part of the back that
corr:}sponds with the six perfect legs, till these legs be-
come higher than the head, with one of the last pair it
catches the thread; from this the other receives it, and
so a step is gained : and thus it proceeds till it has

294 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

ascended to the point it wishes to reach. At this time
if taken it will be found to have a packet of thread,
from which, however, it soon disengages itself, between
the two last pairs of perfect legs''. To see hundreds of
these little animals pendent at the same time from the
boughs of a tree, suspended at different heights, some
working their way downwards and some upwards, af-
fords a very amusing spectacle. Sometimes when the
wind is high, they aie blown to the distance of several
yards from the tree, and yet maintain their threads un-
broken. I witnessed an instance of this last summer,
when numbers were driven far from the most extend-
ed branches, and looked as if they were floating in
the air.

Having related to you what is peculiar in the mo-
tions of pedate larvae upon the earth and in the air, I
must next say something with respect to their locomo-
tive powers in the water. Numbers of this description
inhabit that element. — Amongst the beetles, the genera
Dj/tiscus, Jfj/drophilus, Gyrinus, Elmis, Parnus, He-
terocerns, Elophorus, Hydrcena^ &c. amongst the bug
tribes (Cimicidce), Gerris, Velia, Uj/drometra, Noto-
necta, Sigara, Nepa, Ranatra^ Naucoris ; a ^ew Lepi-
doptera ; the majority of Trichoptera ; Libelhtla, Aeshjia,
Agrion, Sialis, Ephemera, &c. anKuigst the Neurop-
tera ; Culex and many of the Tipulidce from tiie dipte-
rous insects ; and from the Aptera, AtaXy some PodurcE,
and many of the Oniscida^, &c. — All these, in their
larva state, are aquatic animals.

The motions of these creatures in this state are
various. Some walk on the ground under water ; some

a Reaum. ii. 315 —

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 295

move in midwater, either by the same motion of the
legs as they use in walking", oi' by strokes, as in swim-
ming; others for this purpose employ certain laminae,
which terminate tlicir tails, as oars ; others again swim
like fish, with an equable motion ; sonle move by the
force of the water which they spirt from their anus ;
others again swim about in cases, or crawl over ihe
submerged bottom ; and others walk even on the sur-
face of the water. I shall not now enlarge on all these
kinds of water-motion, since many will come under
consideration hereafter.

There are two descriptions of larvas of Hydroiplnli^
one furnished with swimmers or anal appendages, by
means of which they are enabled to swim; the other
have them not, and hence are not able to rise from the
bottom *. The lar vaa o^Dijthci^ by means of these nata-
tory organs, will swim, though slowly, and every now
and then rise to the surface for the sake of respiration.
Those of Epliemerce^ when they swim, apply their legs
to the body, and swim witli the swiftness and motions
offish''. Those of the true may-fly (Semblis lufaria,
F.), on the contrary, use their legs in swimming, and
at the same time, by alternate inflexions, give to their
bodies the undulations of serpents'^. But the larvas of
certain dragon-flies {Aeshna and Libellula, F.) will af-
ford you the most amusement by their motions. These
larvae commonly swim very little, being generally found
walking at the bottom on aquatic plants; when neces-
sary, however, they can swim well, though in a sin-
gular manner. If you see one swimming, you will
find that the body is pushed forward by strokes, be-

a Miger,^nn. du Mus. aiv. -Ill . b De Geer, ii. 621. c Ibid. 72S—

296 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

tween which an interval takes place. The legs are
not employed in producing this progressive motion, for
they are then applied close to the sides of the trunk,
in a state of perfect inaction. But it is effected by a
strong ejacula*tion of water from the anus. When I
treat upon the respiration of insects, I shall explain to
you the apparatus by which these animals separate
the air from the water for that purpose ; in the pre-
sent case it is subsidiary to their motions, since it is
by drawing in and then expelling the water that they
are enabled to swim. To see this, you have only to
put one of these larvae into a plate with a little water.
You will find that, while the animal moves forward, a
current of water is produced by this pumping, in a
contrary direction. As the larva, between every stroke
of its internal piston, has to draw in a fresh supply of
water, an interval must of course take place between
the strokes. Sometimes it will lift its anus out of the
water, when a long thread of water, if I may so speak,
issues from it^.

II. I am next to say something upon the motions
of insects in their pupa state. This is usually to our
little favourites a state of perfect repose; but, as I
long since observed"', there are several that, even when
become pupae, are as active and feed as rapaciously as
they do when they are either larvae or perfect insects.
The Dermaptera, Orthoptera, I/einiptera, many of the
Neuroptera, and the majority of the Aptera, are of this
description. With respect to their motions, we may

a De Geer, ii. 675 — Compare Ileaura. vi. 3D3 —
bVoi.. 1. 2d Ed. 68.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 297

therefore consider pupae as of two kinds — active pupae
and qidesccnl pupae.

The motions of most insects whose pu[jae are acthc,
are so similar in all their states, except where the
wings are concerned, as not to need any separate ac-
count. I shall therefore request you to wait for what
I have to say upon them, till I enter upon those of the
imago. One insect, however, of this kind, moving dif-
ferently in its preparatory states, is entitled to notice
under the present head. — In a late letter, I mentioned
to you a bug (Rcduvius personatus, F.) which usually
covers itself with a mask of dust, and fragments of
various kinds, cutting a very grotesque figure'^. Its
awkward motions add not a little to the effect of its
appearance. When so disposed, it can move as well
and as fast as its congeners ; yet this does not usually
answer its purpose, which is to assume the appearance
of an inanimate substance. It therefore hitches along
in the most leisurely manner possible, as if it was
counting its steps. Having set one foot forward (for
it moves only one leg at a time), it stops a little before
it brings up its fellow, and so on with the second and
third legs. It moves its antennae in a similar way,
striking, as it were, first with one, and then, after an
interval of repose, with the other ^. — The pupae of gnats
also, as well as those of many other aquatic Diptera,
retain their locomotive powers, not however the free
motion of their limbs. When not engaged in action,
they ascend to the surface by the natural levity of their
bodies, and are there suspended by two auriform re-
spiratory organs in the anterior part of the trunk,

a See above, p. 259. b De Geer, iii. 28^1.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

their abdomen being then folded under the breast;
when disposed to descend the animal unfolds it, and
by sudden strokes which she gives with it and her anal
swimmers to the water, she swims, to the right and
left as well as downwards, with as much ease as the
larva*.

Bonnet mentions a pupa which climbs up and down
in its cocoon, — and that of the common glow-worm
{Lampyris noctiluca, L.) will sometimes push itself
along by the alternate extension and contraction of
the segments of its body''. — Others turn round when
disturbed. That of a weevil (Curculio Arator, L.),
which spins itself a beautiful cocoon like fine gauze, and
which it fixes to the stalks of the common spurrey (Sa-
gina arvensiSf L.), upon my touching this stalk, whirled
round several times with astonishing rapidity. — The
chrysalis of a scarce moth {Bomhi/x dispar, F.) when
touched turns round with great quickness ; but, as if
fearful of breaking the thread by which it is suspended
by constantly twisting it in one direction, it performs
its I gyrations alternately from left to right, and from
right to left"^. Generally speaking, quiescent pupfe
when disturbed show that they have life, by giving
their abdomen violent contortions.

But the most extraordinary motion of pupae is jump-
ing. In the year 1810 I received an account from a
very intelligent young lady, who collected and studied
insects with more than common ardour and ability,
that a friend had brought her a chrysalis endued with
this faculty. It was scarcely a quarter of an inch in

a De Geer,vi. SOS. b Ibid. iv. 43.

c Dumcril, Trail. Element, ii. 49. n. 603.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

length ; of an oval form ; its colour was a semitrans-
parent brown, with a w! ite opake band round the
middle. It was found attached, by one end, to the leaf
of a bramble. It repeatedly jumped out oi an open
pill-box that was an inch in heioht. When put into a
drawer in which some other insects were impaled, it
skipped from side to side, jassing- over their backs for
nearly a quarter of an hour with surprising agility.
Its mode of springing seemed to be by balancing itself
upon one extremity of its case. About the end of Oc-
tober one end of the case grew black, and from that
time the motion ceased; and about the middle of April,
in the following year, a very minute ichneumon made
its appearance by a hole it had made at the opposite
end. — So(ne time after I had received this history, I
happened to have occasion to look at Reaumur's Me-
moir upon the enemies of caterpillars, where I met with
an account of a similar jumping chrysalis, if not the
same. Round the nests of the processionary Bombyx,
before noticed % he found numerous little cocoons sus-
pended by a thread three or four inches long to a twig
or a leaf, of a shortened oval form, and close texture,
but so as the meshes might be distinguished. These
cocoons were rather transparent, of a coffee-brown co-
lour, and surrounded in the middle by a whitish band.
When put into boxes or glasses, or laid on the hand,
they surprised him by leaping. Sometimes their leaps
were not more than ten lines, at others they were
extended to three or four inches, both in height and
length. When the animal leaps, it suddenly changes
its ordinary posture (in which the back is convex and

a.VcL. I. 2(! Kcl, 478; aod above, p. 23.

SOO MOTIONS OF INSECT?,

touches the upper part of the cocoon, and the head and
anus rest upon the loAver), and strikes the upper part
with the head and tail, before its belly, which then be-
comes the convex part, touches the bottom. This oc-
casions the cocoon to rise in the air to a height propor-
tioned to the force of the blow. At first sight this fa-
culty seems of no great use to an animal that is sus-
pended in the air; but the winds may probably some-
times place it in a different and unsuitable position,
and lodge it upon a leaf or tuig- : in this case it has
it in its power to recover its natural station. Reau-
mur could not ascertain the fly that should legitimately
come from this cocoon, for different cocoons gave dif-
ferent flies : whence it was evident that these ich-
neumons were infested by their own parasite ^ This
might be the case with that of the lady just mentioned.
Perhaps, properly speaking, in this last instance the
motions ought rather to be regarded as belonging to a
larva; but as it had ceased feeding, and had inclosed
itself in its cocoon, I consider it as belonging to the
present head.

You may probably here feel some curiosity to be in-
formed how the numerous larvae that are buried in their
pupa state, either in the heart of trees, under the earth,
or in the waters, effect their escape from their various
prisons and become denizens of the air, especially as
you are aware that each is shrowded in a winding sheet
and cased in a coffin. In most, however, if you exa-
mine this coffin closely, you will see resurgam writ-
ten upon it. What I mean is this. The puparimn or
case of the animal is furnished with certain acute points

a Reaum. ii. iHO.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. SQl

{admifdcuhi), generally single, but in some instances
forked, looking- towards the anus, and usually placed
upon transverse ridges on the back of the abdomen,
but sometimes arming tlie sides or the margins of the
segments. By this simple contrivance, aided by new-
born vigour, when the time for its great change is ar-
rived, the included prisoner of hope, if under ground,
pushes itself gradually upwards, till reaching the sur-
face its head and trunk emerge, when an opening in
the latter being effected by its efforts, it escapes from
its confinement, and once more tastes the sweets of li-
berty and the joys of life. Those that are inclosed in
trees and spin a cocoon, are furnished with points on
the head, with which they make an opening in the for-
mer. The pupa of the great goat-moth {Bombyx CoS'
sus, F.) thus, by divers movements, keeps disengaging
itself from this envelope, till it arrives at a hole in the
tree which it liad made when a caterpillar ; when its
anterior part having emerged, it stops short, and so
escapes a fall that might destroy it. After some re-
pose, in consequence of very violent efforts, the pu-
parium opens, and it escapes from its prison^-.

The insects of the Trichoptera order {Phryganea^ L.)
are quiescent when they first assume the pupa, but be-
come locomotive towards the close of their existence in
that state. Since they inhabit the water when they be-
come pupae, Providence has furnished them with the
means of quitting that fluid without injury, when they
are to exchange it for the air ; which in their winged
siate is their proper sphere of action. I have before

a I^one(, Trait. Anat. 15 —

302 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

described to you the grates which shut up their cases
when they became quiescent''; if they had no means
of piercing these grates, they would perish in the wa-
ters. The head of these pupae is provided at first with
a particular instrument, which enables them to effect
this purpose. The anterior part of the head is armed
with a pair of hooks in form resembling the beak of a
bird ; and with this, previously to their last change,
they make an opening in the grate which, though it
once defended, now confines them. But at this moment,
perhaps, the insect has a considerable space of water
to rise through before she can reach the surface. This
is all wisely provided for; before she leaves the en-
velope which covers her body, she emerges from the
water, and fixes herself upon some plant or other ob-
ject, the summit of which is not overflowed. But you
will here, perhaps, ask — How can a pupa in her enve-
lope, with all her limbs set fast, do this? This affords
another instance of the wise provision of the benefi-
cent Father of the universe for the welfare of his crea-
tures. The antennae and legs of this tribe of insects,
when they are pupae, are not included, as is the case
with most that are quiescent in that state, in the gene-
ral envelope ; but each in a separate one, so as to al-
low it free motion. Thus the insect Avhen the time is
come for its last change can use them (except the hind-
legs, which being partly covered by the wing-cases re-
main without motion) with ease. It then stretches out
its antennsB, and steering with its legs makes for the
surface. De Geer saw one just escaped from it's case

a See above, p. 264.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 303

run and swir.i with surprising agility over the bottom
of a saucer, in which he had put some cases of these
flies ; and at last when he held a piece of stick to it,
it got upon it, and having emerged from the water,
prepared to cast its envelope. It is remarkable, that
the envelope of the intermediate tarsi, like the poste-
rior ones of Dytisci, is fringed on one side with hairs,
to enable the insects to use them as swimming feet%
while those neither of the larva nor imago are so cir-
cumstanced.

I am, &c.

a De Geer, ii. 518—

LETTER XXm.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. (Imago.)

III. 1 HE motions of insects in their perfect or imago
state are various, and for various purposes ; and the
provision of organs by which they are enabled to effect
them is equally diversified and wonderful. It will be
convenient to divide this multifarious subject; I shall
therefore consider their motions under two principal
heads : — motions of insects reposing — and motions of
insects in action ; — and this last head I shall further
subdivide into motions whose object is change of place,
and sportive motions.

The first of these, motions of insects reposing, will
not detain us long. The most remarkable is that of
the long-legged gnats or crane-flies (TipulcB, F.). —
When at rest upon any wall or ceiling, sometimes stand-
ing upon four legs, and sometimes upon five, you may
observe them elevate and depress their body alternately.
This oscillating movement is produced by the weight
of their body and the elasticity of their legs, and is con-
stant and uninterrupted during their repose. Unless
it be connected with the respiration of the animal, it is
not easy to say what is the object of it. — Moths, when
feeling the stimulus of desire, or under alarm, set their
whole body into a tremor*. A living specimen of the

a Peck iu Linn. Trans, xi. 92.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 305

hawk-moth of the willow being onee brought me, upon
placing it upon my hand, after ejecting a milky fluid
from its anus, it put its wings and body into a most ra-
pid vibration, ^hich continued more than a minute,
when it flew away. — A butterfly, called by Aurelians
"The large skipper," (Ilesperia Sj/lvanus, F.) when
it alights, — which it does very often, for they are never
long on the wing, — always turns half-way round ; so
that, if it settles with its head from you, it turns it to-
wards you.

Others of the motions in question are merely those
of parts. Butterflies, when standing still in the sun,
as you have doubtless often observed,

" Their goldeo pinions ope and close ;"

thus, it should seem, unless this motion be connected
with their respiration, alternately warming and cool-
ing their bodies. — ^You have probably noticed a very
common little fly, of a shining black, with a black spot
at the end of its wings {Tephritis vibrans, Latr., Seio-
ptera, K. Ms.). It has received its trivial name (vi-
brans) from the constant vibration which, when re-
posing, it imparts to its wings. This motion also, I
have reason to think, assists its respiration. — Some in-
sects when awake are very active with their antennae,
though their bodies are at rest. I remember one even-
ing attending for some time to the proceedings of one
of those may-flies {PhrT/ganea, L.) that are remark-
able, like certain moths, for their long antennae. It was
perched upon a blade of grass, and kept moving these
organs, which were twice as long as itself, in all direc-^
tions, as if by means of them it was exploring ©^very

VOL. II. X

306 MOTIONS OP INSECTS.

thing that occurred in its vicinity. — Many Tipulas, and
likewise some mites (Acarus vibrans and Gamasus tno-
iatorius, F.), distinguished by long anterior legs, from
this circumstance denominated pedes motatorii by Linne,
holding them u[) in the air impart to them a vibratory
motion, resembling that of the antennae of some in-
sects*.— I scarcely need mention, what must oO^en have
attracted your attention, the actions of flies when they
clean themselves ; how busily they rub and wipe their
head and thorax with their fore legs, and their wings
and abdomen with their hind ones. — Perhaps you are
not equally aware of tlie use to which the rove -beetles
(Stuphj/linus, L.) put their long abdomen. They turn
it over their back not only to put themselves in a tlireat-
ening attitude, as I lately related'^, but also to fold up
their wings with it, and pack them under their short
elytra.

With respect to the motions of insects in action^ they
may be subdivided, as was just observed, into motions
whose object is change of place — and sportive motions.

The locomotions of these animals are walking, run-
ning, jumping, climbing, flying, swimming, and bur-
rowing. I begin with the walkers.

The mode of their walking depends upon the num-
ber and kind of their legs. With regard to these,
insects may be divided into four natural classes ; viz.
Hexapodsy or those that have only six legs : such are
those of every order except the Aptera of Linne, of
which only three or four genera belong to this class. —
Octopods, or those that have eight legs, including the
a De Geer, vi. 335. b See above, p. 237.

MOTIONS OP 1N9ECT9. 307

tribes of mites {Acaridcn) ; spiders {Araneidce) ; long-
legged spiders {Phalangidce) ; and scorpions (Scorpi-
onidce): — Pol //pods, or those that ha\e fourteen legs,
consisting of the woodlouse tribe (Oniscidcp) ; — and
M?/riapods, or those that have more than fourteen legs
— often more than a hundred — composed of the two
tribes of centipedes {Scolopendridce) and millepedes
(JididcL'). The first of these classes may be denomi-
nated proper, and the rest improper insects. The legs
of all seem to consist of the same general parts ; the
hip, troclianter, thigh, shank, and foot ; the four first
being usually without joints (though in the Araneidce,
&c. the shank has two), and the foot having from one
to above forty*.

In walking and running, the hexapods, like the larvae
that have perfect legs, move the anterior and posterior
leg of one side and the intermediate of the other alter-
nately, as I have often witnessed. De Geer, however,
affirms, that they advance each pair of legs at the same
time^; but this is contrary to fact, and indeed would
make their ordinary motions, instead of walking and
running, a kind of canter and gallop. Whether those

a The most common number of joints in the tarsus is from two to five ;
but the PhalangidtD have sometimes more than forty. In these, under a
lens, this part looks like a Jointed antenna.

Geoftroy, and after him most modern entomolooisfs, has taken the
primary divisions of the Coleoptera order from the number of joints in the
tarsus; but this, althou2;!i perhaps in the majority of cases it may aiford
a natural division, will not universally. For — not to mention the in-
stance of Pselaplius, clearly belonging to the Slaphylinidtr — both Oxyte-
his, Grav., and another genus that I liavc separated from it {Carpali~
mifs, K. Ms,), have only two joints in their tarsi. In this tribe, therefore,
it can only be used for secondary divisions. K, •> iii. 284.

X 2

308 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

that have more than six feet move in this way — which
is not improbable — from the difficulty of attending at
the same time to the movements of so many members,
is not easily ascertained.

The dog-tick {Ixodes Ricinus^ F.), if when young
and active it moves in the same way that it does when
swoln to an enormous size with blood, seems to afford
an exception to the mode of walking just described. It
first uses, says Ray, its two anterior legs as antennae
to feel out its way, and then fixing them, brings the
next pair beyond them, which being also fixed, it takes
a second step with the anterior, and so drags its bloated
carcase along ^. — Redi observes, that when scorpions
walk they use those remarkable comb-like processes at
the base of their posterior legs to assist them in their
motions, extending them and setting them out from
the body, as if they were wings : and his observation is
confirmed by Amoreux, who calls them ventral swim-
mers''.— I have often noticed a millepede {Julus ter-
restris, L.), frequently found under the bark of trees,
and where there is not a fi'ee circulation of air, the
motions of which are worthy of attention. Observed at
a little distance, it seems to glide over the surface, like
a serpent, without legs; but a nearer inspection shows
how its movement is accomplished. Alternate portions
of its numerous legs are extended beyond the line of
the body, so as to form an obtuse angle with it, while
those in the intervals preserve a vertical direction. So
that, as long as it keeps moving, little bunches of the
legs are alternately in and out from one end to the
other of its long body ; and an amusing sight it is to

a Hist. Ins. 10. , b Redi Optisc, i. 80. Amoreux, 44 —

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 309

see the undulating line of motion successively begin-
ning at the head and passing oft" at the tail. — The mo-
tion of centipedes (Scolopendra), as well as that of this
insect and its congeners, is retrogressive as well as pro-
gressive. Put your finger to the common one (S. mor-
sitans, L.), and it will immediately retrograde, and with
the same facility as if it was going forwards. This dif-
ference, however, is then observable — it uses its four
hind legs, which, when it moves in the usual way, are
dragged after it. — Almost all the other apterous insects,
as well as many of those in the other orders, can move
in all directions ; backwards, and towards both sides,
as well as forwards. Bonnet mentions a spider (not a
spinner) that always walked backwards when it at-
tacked a large insect of its own tribe; but when it had
succeeded in driving it from a captive fly, which how-
ever it did not eat, it walked forwards in the ordinary
way".

Insects vary much in their walking paces : some
crawling along; others walking slowly; and others
moving with a very quick step. The field-cricket
(Aclieta campestris, F.) creeps very slowly — the bloody-
nose beetle {Chri/somela tenebricosa) and the oil-beetle
(Meloe Proscarahceus) march very leisurely ; the spider-
wasps (Po»?p!Y««,F.) walk by starts, as it were, vibra-
ting their wings, at the same time, witliout expanding
them ; while flies, ichneumons, wasps, &c., and many
beetles, walk as fast as they can. One insect, a kind of
snake-fly (Raphidia Majitispa, F.), is said to walk upon
its knees. The crane-flies (Tipula oleracea, L.) and
shepherd-spiders (Phalangium, L.) have legs so dispro-
portionately long, that they seem to walk upon stilts;

a CEuvr. ii. 426,

SIO MOTIONS 01-' INSECTS.

but when we consider that they have to walk over and
amongst grass, — the former laying its eggs in meado\Ts,
— rwe shall see the reason of this conformation. In-
sects do not always walk in a right line ; for I have
often observed the little midges (Ps7/c/wda, Latr.),
when walking up glass, moving alternately from right
to left and from left to right, as humble-bees fly, so as
to describe small zig-zags.

Numerous are the insects that run. Almost all the
predaceous tribes, the black dors, clocks, or ground-
beetles {Carah idee), and their fellow destroyers the Ci-
cindelidce, — which last Linne, with much propriety, has
denominated the tigers of tlie insect world, — are gifted
with uncommon powers of motion, and run with great
rapidity. The velocity, in this respect, of ants is also
very great. — Mr. Delisie observed a fly — so minute as
to be almost invisible — which ran nearly three inches
in a demi-second, and in that space made 540 steps.
Consequently it could take a thousand steps during one
pulsation of the blood of a man in health''. Which is
as if a man, whose steps measured two feet, should run
at the incredible rate of more than twenty miles in a
minute ! How astonishing then are the powers with
which these little beings are gifted ! — The forest-fly
(Uippobosca), and its kindred genus Ornithomi/ia pa-
rasitic upon birds, are extremely difficult to take, as I
have more than once experienced, from their extreme
agility. I lost one from this circumstance two years
ago that I found upon the sea-lark {Charadrius Hiati-
cula, L.), and which appeared to be non-descript.
Another most singular insect, which though apterous
is nearly related to these — I mean the louse of the bat

a Lesser, I. i. 248, note 24.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 311

{Nt/cteribia Vespertilionis, Latr.), is still more remark-
able for its swiftness. Its legs, as appears from the ob-
servations of Colonel Montague, are fixed in an unusual
position on the upper side of the trunk. " It trans-
ports itself," to use the words of the gentleman just
mentioned, " with such celerity, from one part of the
animal it inhabits, to the opposite and most distant,
although obstructed by the extreme thickness of the

fur, that it is not readily taken." " When two or

three were put into a small phial, their agility appeared
inconceivably great; for, as their feet are incapable of
fixing upon so smooth a body, their whole exertion was
employed in laying hold of each other; and in this
most curious struggle they appeared actually flying in
circles : and when the bottle was reclined, they would
frequently pass from one end to the other w ith asto-
nishing velocity, accompanied by the same gyrations :
if by accident they escaped each other, they very soon
became motionless : and as quickly were the whole put
in motion again by the least touch of the bottle, or the
movement of an individual. — Incredibly great also is
the rapidity with which a little reddish mite, with two
black dots on the anterior part of its back (Gama'
sus Baccarum, F.), common upon strawberries, moves
along. Such is the velocity with which it runs, that it
appears rather to glide or fly than to use its legs.

When insects walk or run, their legs are not the only
members that are put in motion. They will not, or
rather cannot, stir a step till their antenna are removed
from their station of repose and set in action. When
<he chafers (Scarabceidce) are about to move, these

a Linn, Trans, xi. 13.

312 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

organs, before concealed, instantly appear, and the
laminae which terminate them being- separated from
each other as widely as possible, they begin their march.
They employ their antennae, however, not as feelers to
explore surrounding objects, — their palpi being rather
used for that purpose, — but, it should seem, merely
to receive vibrations, or impressions from the atmo*
sphere, to which these laminae, especially in the male
cockchafers {Melolonthce^ F.), present a considerable
surface. Yet insects that have filiform or setaceous an-
tennae appear often to use them for exploring. When
the turnip-beetle {Haltica oleracea, F.) walks, its an-
tennae are alternately elevated and depressed. — The
same thing takes place with some woodlice {Omscidce)^
which use them as tactors, touching the surface on each
side with them, as they go along. This is not however
constantly the use of this kind of antennae ; for I have
observed that Cantharis livida, L. — a narrow beetle
with soft elytra, common in flowers, — when it walks
vibrates its setaceous antennae very briskly, but does
not explore the surface with them. The parasitic tribes
of Ichneumonidce, especially the minute ones, when
they move vibrate these organs most intensely, and
probably by them discover the insect to which the law
of their nature ordains that they should commit their
eggs ; some even using them to explore the deep holes
in which a grub, the appropriate food of their larva,
lurks ^. But upon this subject I shall have occasion to
enlarge when I treat of the senses of insects. — Antennae
are sometimes used as legs. A gnat-like kind of bug
{Gerris vagabundns, F.) has very short anterior legs,

a Marsham in Linn. Trans, iii. 26 —

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 313

or rather arras, while the two posterior pair are very
long. Its antennae also are long-. Wlien it walks,
which it does very slowly, with a solemn measured step,
its fore legs, which perhaps are useful only in climbing-,
or to seize its prey, are applied to the body, and the
antennae being bent, their extremity, which is rather
thick, is made to rest upon the surface on which the
animal moves, and so supply the place of fore legs^. —
I have observed that mites often use the long hairs with
which the tail of some species is furnished, to assist them
in vyalking.

Another mode of motion with which many insects are
endowed is jumping. This is generally the result of
the sudden unbending of the articulations of the poste-
rior legs and other organs, which before had received
more than their natural bend. This unbending im-
presses a violent rotatory motion upon these parts, the
impulse of which being communicated to the centre
of gravity, causes the animal to spring into the air
with a determinate velocity, opposed to its weight
more or less directly •*. Various are the organs by
which these creatures are enabled to ett'ect this mo-
tion. The majority do it by a peculiar conformation
of the hind legs ; others by a pectoral process ; and
others, again, by means of certain elastic appendages
to the abdomen.

The hind legs of many beetles are furnished with re-
markably large and thick posterior thighs. Of this de-
scription are several species of weevils {CurculionidcB) ;
for instance, Rynchcenus Alni, &c., F., and Ramphus
Jlavicornisj Clairv. ; the whole tribe of skippers (Hal"

a De Geer, iii, 324 — b Ciivier, yinat. Comp. i. 496 —

314 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

tica, F.)? and the splendid African tribe of Sagra, F.%
&c. The object of these disproportioned and clumsy
thighs is to allow space for more powerful muscles, by
which the tibiae, when the legs are unbent, are impelled
with greater force. In the Orthoptera order all the
grasshoppers {Gryllidce^ — including the genera Gryl-
lotalpo ; Acheta ; Tridactijlus ; Gtyllus ; Locusia ;
Pneumora ; Truxalis ; Acrydium ; and Tetrix of La-
treille — are distinguished by incrassated posterior
thighs ; which however are much longer, more taper-
ing and shapely, (they are indeed somewhat clumsy in
the two first genera, the crickets,) than those of most
of the Coleoptera that are furnished with them. When
disposed to leap, these insects bend their hind leg so as
to bring the shank into close contact with the thigh —
which has often a longitudinal furrow armed with a
row of spines on each side, to receive it. The leg being
thus bent, they suddenly unbend it with a jerk, when
pushing against the plane of position, they spring into
the air often to a considerable height and distance.
A locust, which however is aided by its wings, it is said
will leap two hundred times its own length''. — Aristo-
phanes, in order to make the gi-eat and good Athenian
philosopher, Socrates, appear ridiculous, represents
him as having measured the leap of a flea ". In our
better times scientific men have done this without being
laughed at for it, and have ascertained that, compara-
tively, it equalled that of the locust, being also tw^o
hundred times its length. Being affected by muscular
force, without the aid of wings, this is an astonishing

a Oliv. Entom. n. 90, <. i. b Swamm, Bibl Nat. Ed. Hill, i. 123. b,

c Aristopii. Nuhci, Act. i. Sc 2,

MOTIONS OF INSRCTS. 31.5

]eap. — There are several insects however, that,aUhougIi
they are furnished with incrassated posterior thighs,
do not jump. Of this description are some beetles be-
longing- to the genus Neci/dalis^ (Oedemera, Oliv.) F.,
in which this seems a peculiarity of the male : and
amongst the Hi/mcuoplera^ not to mention others, se-
veral species of C/ialcis, F., and all tViat are known of
that singular genus Leucospis.

Many insects, that jump by means of their posterior
legs, have not these thighs. This is said to be the
case with Scaphidium^ a little tribe of beetles^: and one
of the same order, that seems to come between Anobium
and Plilinus, found by our friend the Rev. R. Sheppard,
and which I have named after him Choragus Sheppardi,
is similarly circumstanced. — In the various tribes of
frog-hoppers (Cicadiado'.), the posterior tibias appear to
be principally concerned in their leaping. These are
often very long, and furnished on their exterior mar-
gin with a fringe of stiff hairs, or a series of strong
spines, by pressing which against the plane of position
they are supposed to be aided in effecting this motion.
On this occasion they bend their legs like the grass-
hoppers, and then unbending kick them out with vio-
lence''. Many of them, amongst the rest Cicada spu-
maria, have the extremity of the above tibiae armed
with a coronet of spines ; these are of great use in
pushing them off when the legs are unbended. This
insect, Avhen about to leap, places its posterior thighs
in a direction perpendicular to the plane of position,
keeping them close to the body ; it next with great vio-
lence pushes them out backwards, so as to stretch the

« Trost, Beiirage: 40. b J)e Geer, iii, 161.

316 MOTIONS OF INSECTg.

leg in a right line. These spines then lay hold of the
surface, and by their pressure enable the body to spring
forwards, when, being assisted by its wings, it will
make astonishing leaps, sometimes as much as five or
six feet, which is more than 250 times its own length ;
or as if a man of ordinary stature should be able at
once to vault through the air to the distance of a quar-
ter of a mile. Upon glass, where the spines are of no
use, the insect cannot leap more than six inches ^. — The
species of another genus of this order (Chermes, L.),
that jump very nimbly by pushing out their shanks, are
perhaps assisted in this motion by a remarkable horn
looking towards the anus, which arms their posterior
hip. — Some bugs that leap well, JLj/gwus saltatorius, F.,
&c., seem to have no particular apparatus to assist
them, except that their posterior tibiae are very long.
— Several of the minute ichneumons also jump with
great agility, but by what means I am unable to say. —
There is a tribe of spiders, not spinners, that leap even
sideways upon their prey. One of these (Aranea sce-
nica, L., Sallicus, Latr., Attus, Walck.), when about
to do this, elevates itself upon its legs, and lifting
its head seems to survey the spot before it jumps.
When these insects spy a small gnat or fly upon a wall,
they creep very gently towards it Avith short steps, till
they come within a convenient distance, when they
spring upon it suddenly like a tiger. — Bartram ob-
served one of these spiders that jumped two feet upon
a humble-bee. The most amusing account, however,
of the motions of these animals is given by the cele-
brated Evelyn in his Travels. When at Rome, he

a De Geer, iii. 1T8.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 317

often observed a spider of this kind luintinjv the flies
which alii^hted upon a rail on which was its station.
It kept crawling under the rail till it arrived at the
part opposite to the fly, when steal inp^ up it would at-
tempt to leap upon it. If it discovered that it was not
perfectly opposite, it would immediately slide down
again unobserved, and at the next attempt would come
directly upon the fly's back. Did the fly happen not to
be within a leap, it would move towards it so softly,
that its motion seemed not more perceptible than that
of the shadow of the gnomon of a dial. If the intended
prey moved, the spider would keep pace with it as ex-
actly as if they were actuated by one spirit, moving
backwards, forwards, or on each side without turning.
When the fly took wing, and pitched itself behind the
huntress, she turned round with the swiftness of thought,
and always kept her head towards it, though to all ap-
pearance as immoveable as one of the nails driven into
the wood on which was her station : till at last, being
arrived within due distance, swift as lightning she made
the fatal leap and secured her prey*. I have had an
opportunity of observing very similar proceedings in
Salticus scenicuSy Latr.

But the legs of insects are not the only organs by
which they leap. The numerous species of the elastic
beetles (Elater, L.), skip-jacks as some call them, per-
form this motion by means of r pectoral process or mu-
cro. These animals having very short legs, when laid
upon their backs, cannot by their means recover a
prone position. To supply this seeming defect in their
structure, Providence has furnished them with an in-

a Lvelyn, quoted in Hooke's Microgr. 200—.

318 MOTIONS OF INSECT?:.

strument which, when they are so circumstanced, ena-
bles them to spring into the air and recover their stand-
ing. If you examine the breast {pectus) of one of these
insects, you will observe between the base of the an-
terior pair of legs a short and rather blunt process, the
point of v/hich is towards the anus. Opposite to this
point, and a little before the base of the intermediate
legs, you will discover in the after-breast (posfpectus)
aratherdeepcavity, in which the point is often sheathed.
This simple apparatus is all that the insect wants to
effect the above purpose. When laid upon its back, in
your hand if you please, it will first bend back, so as
to form a very obtuse angle with each other, the head
and trunk, and abdomen and metathorax, by which
motion the mucro is quite liberated from its sheath ;
and then bending them in a contrary direction, the
mucro enters it again, and the former attitude being
briskly and suddenly resumed, the mucro flies out with
a spring, and the insect rising, sometimes an inch or
two into the air, regains its legs and moves off. The
upper part of the body, by its pressure against the
plane of position, assists this motion, during which the
legs are kept close to its underside. Cuvier, when he
says that man and birds are the only animals that can
leap vertically % seems to have forgotten this leap of
Elaters, which is generally vertical, the trunk being
vertically above the organ that produces the leap.

Other insects again leap by means of the abdomen or
some organs attached to it. An apterous species — be-
longing to the Ichneumonidcc, and to the genus CVy-
ptus, F. — takes long leaps by first bending its abdomen

nAiuii. Ccmi). i. 4'J8.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 319

inwards, as De Geer tliinks, and then pushing it with
force along the plane of por,itioM^. — Tiiere is a tribe of
minute insects amongst the Jplcra, found often under
bark, sometimes on the water, and in various other
situations, which Linnc has named Podura, a terra
implying that they have a leg in their tail. This is
literally the fact. For the tail, or anal extremity, -ef
these insects is furnished with an indexed fork"*, which,
though usually bent under the body, they have the
power of unbending; during which action, the forked
spring, pushing powerfully against the plane of posi-
tion, enables the animal to leap sometimes two or three
inches. What is more remarkable, these little ani-
mals are by this organ even empowered to leap upon
water. There is a minute black species (P. aquatica^ L.)
w hich in the spring is often seen floating on that con-
tained in ruts, hollows, or even ditches, and in such
infinite numbers as to resemble gunpowder strewed
upon the surface. When disturbed, these black grains
are seen to skip about as if ignited, jumping with as
much ease as if the fluid were a solid plane, that resists
their pressure. — The insects of another genus — sepa-
rated from Podura by Latreille under the name of
Sminthurus — have also an anal spring, which when
bent under the body nearly reaches the head. These,
which are of a more globose form than Podura, are so
excessively agile that it is almost impossible to take
them. Pressing their spring against the surface on
which they stand, and unbending it with force, they are
out of your reach before your finger can come near
them. One of them, .S'. fuscus, besides the caudal
a ii, «10, b Plate XV. Fig, 10.

320 MOTI0]S9 OF INSECTS'.

fork, has a very singular organ, the use of which is to
prevent it from falling from a perpendicular surface,
on which they are often found at a great height from
the ground. Between the ends of the fork there is an
elevated cylinder or tube, from which the animal,
when necessary, can protrude two long, filiform, flex-
ible transparent threads covered with a slimy secre-
tion. By tliese, when it has lost its hold, it adheres to
the surface on which it is stationed^. — Another insect
related to the common sugar-louse, and called by La-
treille Machilis poli/poda (Lepisma, F.), in some places
common under stones '', has eight pair of springs, one
on each ventral segment of the abdomen, by means of
which it leaps to a wonderful distance, and with the
greatest agility.

Climbing is another motion of insects that merits par-
ticular consideration : since, as this includes their powef
of moving against gravity — as we see flies and spiders
do upon our ceilings, and up perpendicular surfaces
even when of glass — it affords room for much interest-
ing and curious inquiry. Climbing insects may be di-
vided into four classes. — Those that climb by means of
their claws ; — those that climb by a soft cushion of
dense hairs, that, more or less, lines the underside of the
joints of their tarsi, the claw-joint excepted ;— those
that climb by the aid of suckers, which adhere (a va-
cuum being produced between them and the plane of
position) by the pressure of the atmosphere ;— and
those that are enabled to climb by means of some sub-
stance which they have the power of secreting.

a De Geer^vii. 38—. /. iii./. 10. rr.

b This insect abounds at East Farleigh, near Maidstone.

MOTIONS OF INSECTSi S21

The first order of climbers — those that climb by
Cleans of their claws — includes a large proportion of in-
sects, especially in the Coleoptera order — the majority
of those that have five joints in their tarsi being- of this
description. The predaceous tribes, particularly the
numerous and prowling- ground-beetles (Corabiflcb)^
often thus asdend the plants and trees after their prey.
Thus one of them, the beautiful but ferocious Colosoma
Sj/cophanta, mounts the trunk and branches of the oak
to commit fearful ravages amongst the hordes of cater-
pillars that inhabit it ^. By these the less savage but
equally destructive tree-chafers{3Ielolonthce), and those
enemies of vegetable beauty the rose-chafers (Cetonia
aiirata), are enabled to maintain their station on the
trees and shrubs that they lay waste. And by these
also the water-beetles (D?/lisct{s, Il2/drophilus, &c.)
climb the aquatic plants.— But it is unnecessary further
to enlarge upon this head ; I shall only observe, that
in most of the insects here enumerated, the claws ap-
pear to be aided by stilT hairs or bristles.

Other climbers ascend by means o^ cushions {puhilU)
composed of hairs, as thickly set as in plush or velvety
with which the underside of tlie joints of their tarsi —
the claw-joint, which is always naked, excepted — are
covered. These cushions are particularly conspicuous
in the beautiful tribe of plant-beetles {Chrysomela^ F.).
A common insect of this kind, before mentioned, called
the bloody-nose beetle (C. tenebricosa)^ by the aid of
these is enabled to adhere to the trailing plants, the
various species of b^ed-straw {Galium), on which it
feeds ; and by these will support itself against gravity ;

a Reaiim; ii. 457. ^

VOL* Iti Y

322 MOTIONS OP INSECTS.

for both this and C. goeitingensis will walk upon the
hand with their back downwards, and it then requires a
rather strong- pull to disengage them from their station.
— The whole tribe of weevils (Curcttliomdce) are also
furnished with these cushions, but not always upon all
their joints, some having them only at their apex; and
the palm-weevil (Calandra JPalfnariim, F.) at the ex-
tremity solely of the last joint but one. — Those bril-
liant beetles the Btiprestes have also these cushions, as
have likewise the numerous tribes of capricorn-beetles
[Ceramh^cidcB). The larvae of these being timber-
borers, the parent insect is probably thus enabled to
adhere to this substance whilst it deposits its eggs. In-
deed in some species of the former genus the cushions
wear the appeai-ance of suckers. — While the linear
species of Ilelojjs, F. are without them, they clothe all
the tarsi of //. ceneus. In two other genera of the same
order, Silpha and Cicindela, the anterior tarsi of the
males are furnished with them; in these therefore they
may be regarded, like the suckers of the larger water-
beetles (Di/tisci), as given for sexual purposes. The
three first joints of the anterior tarsi of many of the
larger rove-beetles {Staphi/Unus^ L.) are dilated so as
to form, as in the last-mentioned insects, an orbicular
patella, but covered by cushions. Since in them this
is not peculiar to the males, it is probably given that
they may be able to support their long bodies when
climbing.

But the most remarkable class of climbers consists of
those that are furnished \y'\\}x an apparatus by which
they can form a 'vacuum^ so as to adhere to the plane
on which they are moving by atmospheric pressure.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 323

That flies can walk upon glass placed vertically, and
in general against gravity, has long been a source of
wonder and inquiry ; and various have been the opi-
nions of scientific men upon the subject. Some ima-
gined that the suckers on the feet of these animals
were spunges filled with a kind of gluten, by which
they were enabled to adhere to such surfaces. This
idea, though incorrect, was not so absurd as at first it
may aeem ; since we have seen above in many instances,
and very lately in that of the Sminthurus fusctis, that
insects are often aided in their motions by a secretion
of this kind. Hooke appears to have been one of the
first who remarked that the suspension of these animals
was produced by some mechanical contrivance in their
feet. Observing that the claws alone could not effect
this purpose, he justly concluded that it must be prin-
cipally owing to the mechanism of the two palms, pat-
tens, or soles as he calls the suckers ; these he de-
scribes as beset underneath with small bristles or ten-
ters, like the wire teeth of a card for working wool,
which, having a contrary direction to the claws, and
both pulling different ways, if there be any irregula-
fity or yielding in the surface of a body, enable the fly
to suspend itself very firmly. That they walk upon
glass, he ascribes to some ruggedness in the surface;
and principally to a smoky tarnish which adheres to it,
by means of which the fly gets footing upon it^. But
these tenter-hooks in the suckers of flies, and this
smoky tarnish upon glass, are mere fancies, since they
can walk as well upon the cleanest glass as upon the
most tarnished. Reaumur also attributes this faculty

a Microgr. 170,
Y 2

324 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

of these animals to the hairs upon their suckers ^. That
learned and pious naturalist, Dr. Derham, seems to
have been one of the first who gave the true solution
of this enigma. " Flies," says he, " besides their sharp
hooked nails, have also skinny palms to their feet, to
enable them to stick on glass and other smooth bodies,
by the pressure of the atmosphere^.'''' He compares
these palms to the curious suckers of male Dytisci,
before alluded to, and illustrates their action by a com-
mon practice of boys, who carry stones by a wet piece
of leather applied to their top. Another eminent and
excellent naturalist, the late Mr. White, adopted this
solution. He observes that in the decline of the year,
when the mornings and evenings become chilly, many
species of flies retire into houses and swarm in the
windows : that at first they are very brisk and alert :
but, as they grow more torpid, that they move with dif-
ficulty, and are scarcely able to lift their legs, which
seem as if glued to the glass; and that by degrees many
do actually stick till they die in the place. Then no-
ticing Dr. Derham's opinion as just stated, he further
remarks, that they easily overcome the atmospheric
pressure when they are brisk and alert. But, he pro-
ceeds, in the decline of the year this resistance becomes
too mighty for their diminished strength ; and we see
flies labouring along, and lugging their feet in windows
as if they stuck fast to the glass ".

Sir Joseph Banks, to whom every branch of Natural
History becomes daily more indebted, has lately ex-
cited an inquiry, the results of which have confirmed

aiv. 259. ft Physico-Thcol. Ed. 13. 363, note b.

« Nat. Hist. ii. 274.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 325

Dorham's system concerning this motion of animals
against gravity. When abroad, he had noticed that a
lizard, on account of the sound that it emits before rain,
named the Gecko* (Laccrta Gecko, L.), could walk
against gravity up the walls of houses; and comparing
this with the parallel motions of flies, he was desirous
of having the subject more scientifically illustrated
than it had been. This inquiry was put into the able
hands of Sir Everard Home, so justly celebrated as a
comparative anatomist, who was assisted in it by the
incomparable pencil of Mr. Bauer : and it has been
proved most satisfactorily, that it is by producing a va-
cuum between certain organs destined for that purpose
and the plane of position, sufficient to cause atmor
spheric pressure upon their exterior surface, that the
animals in question are enabled to walk up a polished
perpendicular, like the glass in our windows and the

a Amoen. Acad. i. 549. The Gecko, probably, is not the only lizard
that walks against gravity. St. Pierre mentions one not longer than a
finger, that, in the Isle of France, climbs along the walls, and even up
the glass after the flies and other insects, for which it watches with great
jpatience. These lizards are sometimes so tame that they will feed out of
the hand. — Voyage, &c. 73. Major Moor and Captain Green observed si-
imilar lizards in India, that ran up the walls and over the ceilings after
the mosqiiitos. Ilasselquist says that the Gecko is very frequent at
Cairo, both in the houses and without them, and that it exhales a very
deleterious poison from the lobuli between the toes. He saw two women
and a girl at the point of death, merely from eating a cheese on which it
had dropped its venom. One ran over the hand of a man, who endea-
voured to catch it; and immediately little piistuL s, resembling those oc-
casioned by the stinging-nettlcj rose all over the parts the creature had
touched, — Voyage, '220. M. Savigny, however, who examined this ani-
mal in Egypt, assures me that this account of Hasselqiiist's, as far as it re-
lates to the venom of the Gecko, is not correct.

3'26 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

chunam walls in India, or with their backs downward
on a ceiling-, without being brought to the ground by
the weight of their bodies.

The instruments by which a fly effects this purpose
are two suckers connected with the last joint of the tarr
sus by a narrow infundibular neck, which has power of
motion in all directions, immediately under the root of
each claw. These suckers consist of a membrane ca^
pable of extension and contraction; they are concavo-
convex with serrated edges, the concave surface being
downy, and the convex granulated. When in action
they are separated from each other, and the membrane
expanded so as to increase the surface : by applying
this closely to the plane of position, the air is suffi-
ciently expelled to produce the pressure necessary to
keep the animal from falling. When the suckers are
disengaged, they are brought together again so as to
be confined within the space between the two claws.
This maybe seen by looking at the movements of a fly
in the inside of a glass tumbler with a common micro-
scope*. Thus the fly you see does no more than the
leach has been long known to do, Avhen moving in a
glass vessel. Furnished with a sucker at each extremity,
by means of these organs it marches up and down at its
pleasure, or as the state of the atmosphere inclines it.

Dipterous insects, which in general have these or-
gansj and some three on each foot**, are not exclusively
gifted with them; for various others in different or-t
ders have them, and some in greater numbers. As I
lately observed, the cushions of the Buprestes are some^

? Philos. Trans. 1816. 32b. L xviii. /. 1-7. b Ibid. /. 8-11.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 327

thing very like them, particularly those of B. fascicu-
laris, Li. — A Brazilian beetle in my cabinet, belong-
ing to the family of the Cleridw, but not arranging well
under any of Latreille's genera, which I have named
Prioccra variegata, has curious involuted suckers on
its feet. — The strepsipterous genera, Sfj/lops, K. and
Xenos, R., are remarkable for the vesicles of membrane
that cover the underside of their tarsi, whicli, though
flaccid in old specimens, appear to be inflated in the living
animal or those that are recent '^. It is not improbable
that tliese vesicles, whicli are large and hairy, may act
in some degree as suckers, and assist it in climbing.

The insects of the Orthoptera order are, many of
them, remarkable for two kinds of appendages con-
nected with my present subject, being furnished both
w ith suckers and cushions. The former are concavo-
convex processes, varying in shape in different species —
being sometimes orbicular, sometimes ovate or oblong,
and often wedge-shaped — which terminate the tarsus
between the claw, one on each foot. They are of a
hard substance, and seem capable of free motion. In
some instances'', another minute cavity is discoverable
at the base of the concave part, similar to that in Cim-
hex iutea'^. The latter, the cushions, are usually con-
vex appendages, of an oblong form, and often, though
not always, divided in the middle by a very deep lon-
gitudinal furrow, attached to the underside of the tarsal
joints. Sir E. Home is of opinion that the object of
these cushions is to take oiF the jar, when the body of

a Kirby in Linn. Trans, x'l. 106. f. viii. /. 13. a.

b I observed this in the hind legs of a variety of Grijllits migratorius.

c Philos. Trans. 1816. t. xix. f.5.

3^ MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

the animal is suddenly brought from a state of motion
to a state of rest ^. This may very likely be one of their
uses, but there are several circumstances which mili-
tate against its being the only one. By their elasti-
city they probably assist the insects that have them in
their leaps ; and when they climb they may in some
degree act as suckers, and prevent them from falling.
But their usevvill be best ascertained by a review of
the principal genera of the order. Of these the cock-
roaches (B/o/^o), the spectres (Phasma), and the pray-
ing-insects (Mantis), are distinguished by tarsi of five
joints''. The grasshoppers with setaceous antennae (Lo-
custa, F.) have four tarsal joints. Those with filiform
antennae {Grj/llus, F. and Acrydhim, F.), those with
ensiform (Truxatis, F.), and the crickets (Acheta, F.),
have only three. In Blatta, the variations with re-
spect to the suckers and cushions (for many species
are furnished with both) are remarkable. The former
in some (Biatta gigantea, L.) are altogether wanting;
in others (jB. Petiveriana, L.) they are mere rudiments;
and in others (B, Maderce) they are more conspicuous,
and resemble those of the GrijlUdce. The cushions also
in some are nearly obsolete, and occupy the mere ex-
tremity of the four first tarsal joints (B. orientalis,
americana, capensis, &c.). In B. Petiveriana there is
none upon the first joint ; but upon the extremity of

a Philos. Trans. 1816. p. 325.

1» In a specimen in my cabinet of Blatta giganiea, the posterior and
anterior tarsi of one side havi^ only four joints, while the intermediate
one has live. On the otht-r side the hind leg is broken ojf, but the an.?
terior and intermediate tarsi have both five joints. In another specimen
pn^ posterior tarsus has four and the other five joints.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 329

ihe four last, not excepting the claw-joint, there is a
Kiinute orbicular concave one, resembling a sucker,
hi others (B. gigftnica, &c.) they extend the length
of the four first joints, and are very conspicuous. In
some (B. Mouffeti, K.^), which have no claw-sucker,
there appears to be a cavity in the extremity of the
claw-joint, which may serve the purpose of one. These
cushions are usually of a pale colour : but in one speci-
men of a hairy female which I have, from Brazil, they
are black. The spectre genus {PJuisma) exhibits no
particular varieties in this respect. The tarsal joints
of the legs have cushions at their apex, which appear
to be bifid. They have a large orbicular sucker be-
tween the claws. In Mantis the fore feet have neither
of the parts in question, and the others have no suckers.
They have cushions on the four first tarsal joints of the
two last pair of legs, which, though smaller, are shaped
much like those in Pliasma. In Lociista the feet have
no suckers between the claws, but they are distinguish-
ed by two oval, soft, concave, and moveable processes
attached to the base of the first joint of the tarsus,
which probably act as suckers''- In this genus there
are two cushions on the first joint of the tarsi, and one
on each of the two following ones '^. — The species of

a This insect, which is remarkable for having the margin of its thorax
reflpxed, was long since well figured in Mouffet's work {13,0. fig. injima).
It has not, however, been described by any other author I have met with.
It is common in Brazil. Some specimens are pallid, while others are of
ft dark brown.

b De Geer, iii. 421. t. xxi.f. 13. h. This author has also noticed tho
cushions in this genus and Gryllus, and the claw-sucker in the latter, whicji
f)e thinks are analogous to those of the fly. Ibid. 462. i. xxii,/. "? -8,

c Philos. Trans. 1816, t. xxi.f. 8-13.

330 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

tlie Fabrician genus Gryllus come next. This genus;
is now called Acri/dium by Latreille after GeofFroy ;
but, since it includes the true locust^ it ought to have
retained the name Locusta given by Linne to the tribe
to which it belongs. All these insects have the ter-
minal sucker between the claws, three cushions on the
jfirst joint of the tarsus, and one on the second^; and
the same conformation also distinguishes the feet of
Truxalis, F. In the species o^ Acri/dium, F. (TetriXy
Latr.), the cushions, I believe — for in the dead insect
they are the reverse of conspicuous — ^^are arranged
nearly as in the two preceding genera, but these in-
sects are without the claw-sucker. And lastly, Acheia,
F., has neither suckers nor cushions. From this state-
ment it seems to follow — since Blatla, Phasma, and
Mantis^ that do not leap, are provided with cushions ;
and Acheta, F., a heavy tribe of insects that does, are
without them — that their object cannot be exclusively
to break the fall of the insects that have them. And
for the same reason we may conclude, that they must
have some further use than augmenting their elasticity
when they jump. When we consider that Blattce-^
many of which have no suckers, or very small ones —
are climbing insects (I have seen B ., ge^^manica run,up
and down the walls of an apartment with great agi-
lity), and that the long and gigantic apterous spectres
&c. {PJiasmn) require considerable means to enable
them to climb the trees in which they feed, and to
maintain their station upon them, we may conclude
that these cushions, by acting in some degree as suckers,
may promote these ends.

a Philos. Trans. 1816. t. xxi.f, 1-9.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 331

Amongst the Ilemiptera, Cheivnes and many of the
Cicadiada''' are furnished with the claw-siiekers; but
the noisy Tettigonice, as well as the tribes oi' Cimicidce, at
least as far as my examination of them has gone, have
them not. De Geer has observed, speaking of a small
fly of this order (Thrips JPhj/sapits, L.), that the ex-
tremity of its feet is furnished with a transparent mem-
branaceous flexible process, like a bladder. He further
says that, when the animal fixes and presses this ve-
sicle on the surface on which it walks, its diameter is
increased, and it sometimes appears concave, the con-
cavity being in proportion to the pressure ; which made
him suspect that it acted like a cupping-glass, and so
produced the adhesion^. This circumstance affords
another proof that the cushions in the Ortlioptera may
act the same part; they appear to be vesicular; and in
numbers of specimens, after death, I have observed
that they becbme concave, particularly in Lociista vi-
ridissima.

In Cimbex^ and others amongst the saw-fly tribes
(Tenthredimdce), the claw-sucker is distinguished by
this remarkable peculiarity, that its upper surface is
concave'", so that before it is used it must be bent in-
wards. Besides these, at the extremity of each tarsal
joint these animals are furnished with a spoon-shaped
sucker, which seems analogous to the cushions in the
Gryllidce : and, what is more remarkable, the two spurs
(calcaria) at the apex of the shanks have likewise each
a minute one*^. — Various other insects of this order
have the claw- suckers. Amongst others the common

aDe Gecr, iii. 132. 173. b Ibid. 7.

c Philos. Trans. 1816. t, x\x,f. 3,^, i\ It>id, t. xix. f. 1-9.

SSy MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

M'asp ( Vespa vulgaris) is by these enabled to walk up
and down our glass windows.

We learn from De Geer that several mites (Aca-
ridce), to fii^ish with the Aplera^ have something of this
kind. Among these is the cheese-mite {Acarus Siro^
F.) : its four fore feet being terminated by a vesicle
with a long neck, to which it can give every kind of
inflexion. When it sets its foot down, it enlarges and
inflates it; and when it lifts it up, it contracts it so that
the vesicle almost entirely disappears. This vesicle is
between two claws ^. — The itch acarus {A. Scabiei, L.)
is similarly circumstanced. — Ixodes Ricinus and Re-
duvius have also tJiese vesicles — which are armed with
two claws — on all their feet''.

I am next to consider those climbers that ascend and
descend, and probably maintain themselves in their
station, by the assistance of a secretion which they have
the power of producing. You will immediately per-
ceive that I am speaking of the numerous tribes of
spiders {Araneidce)^ which, most of them, are endowed
with this faculty. Every body knows that these insects
ascend and descend by means of a thread that issues'
from them ; but perhaps every one lias not remarked
— when they wish to avoid a hand held out to catch
them, or any other obstacle — that they can sway this
thread from the perpendicular. When they move up
or down, their legs are extended, sometimes gathering
in and sometimes guiding their thread"^; but when their
motion is suspended, they are bent inwards. These ani-

a De Geer, vii. 91. t. v./. 6, 7.

b IMd. 96— <.v./. 13, 14, 17, 19, ^vL/,2, 5,

c Vol. I, 2d Ed, 407,

TMOTIONS OF INSECTS^ 533

tn^h, although they have no suckers or other appa-
ratus—except the hairs of their legs and the three
claws of their biarticulate tarsi, to enable them to do it
— can also walk against gravity, both in a perpendicular
and a prone position. Dr. Hulse, in Ray's Letters,
s«eins to have furnished a clue that will very well
explain this. I give it you in his own homely phrase.
" They," spiders, " will often fasten their threads in
several places to the things they creep up; the manner
is by beating" their bums or tails against them as they
creep along^." Fixing their anus by means of a web, the
anterior part of their body, when they are resting, we
can readily conceive, would be supported by the claws
and hairs of their legs ; and their motion may be ac-
complished by alternately fixing one and then the other.
But you will remember I give you thismerely as con-
jecture, having never verified it by observation.

It may not be amiss to mention here another apte-
rous insect that reposes on perpendicular or prone sur-
faces, without either suckers or any viscous secretion
by which it can adhere to them. I mean the long-legged
or shepherd spiders {Phalangium, L.). The tarsi of
these insects are setaceous and nearly as fine as a hair,
consisting sometimes of more than forty joints, those
toward the extremity being very minute, and scarcely
discernible, and terminating in a single claw. These
tarsi, which resemble antennae rather than feet, are ca-
pable of every kind of inflexion, sometimes even of a
spiral one. These circumstances enable them to ap-
ply their feet to the inequalities of the surface on which
they repose, so that every joint may in some measure

a 63.

^4 MbtlONS OF INSECTS.

become a point of support. Their eight legs also^
which diverge from their body like the spokes from the
nave of a wheel, give them equal hold of eight almost
equidistant spaces, which, doubtless, is a great stay to
them.

The next species of locomotion exhibited by perfect
insects is Jlt/ing. I am not certain whether under this
head I ought to introduce the sailing of spiders in the
air ; but as there is no other under which it can be
more properly arranged, I shall treat of it here. I
shall therefore divide flying insects into those that fly
without wings, and those that fly with them.

I dare say you are anxious to be told how any ani-
mals can fly without wmgs, and wish me to begin with
them. As an observer of nature, you have often, with-
out doubt, been astonished by that sight occasionally
noticed in fine days in the autumn, of webs — commonly-
Called gossamer webs — covering the earth and float-
ing in the air ; and have freqviently asked yourself —
What are these gossamer webs ? Your question has
from old times much excited the attention of learned
naturalists. It was an old and strange notion that
these webs were composed of dew burned by the sun.

" The fine nets which oft we woven see

Of scorched dew,"

says Spenser. Another, fellow to it, and equally ab-
surd, was that adopted by a learned man and good na-
tural philosopher, and one of the first fellows of the
Royal Society, Robert Hooke, the author of Micro"
graphia. " Much resembling a cobweb," says he, ^' or
a confused lock of these cylinders, is a certain white

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. S55

Substance which, after a fogg, may be observed to fly
up and down the air : catching several of these, and ex-
amining- them with my microscope, I found them to be
much of the same form, looking most like to a flake of
Worsted prepared to be spun ; though by what means
they should be generated or produced is not easily ima-
gined : they were of the same weight, or very little
heavier than the air; and Uis not unlikelj/, but that
those great zshite clouds^ liiat appear all the summer limey
may he of the same substance'^.'" So liable are even the
wisest men to error when, leaving fact and experiment,
they follow the guidance of fancy. Some French na-
turalists have supposed that these Jils de la Vierge, as
they are called in France, are composed of the cot-
tony matter in which the eggs of the Coccus of the vine
(C. Viiis, I^.) are enveloped^. In a country abound-
ing in vineyards this supposition would not be absurd;
but in one like Britain, in which the vine is confined
to the fruit-garden, and the Coccus seldom seen out of
the conservatory, it will not at all account for the
phaenomenon. — What will you say, if I tell you that
these webs (at least many of them) are air-balloons —
and that the aeronauts are not

" Lovers who may bestride the gossamer
That idles in tiic wanton summer air.
And yet not fall" —

Jiut spiders, who long before Montgolfier, nay, ever since

a Ulicrogi; 202. It has been objected to an excellent primitive writer
(Clemens liomanus), that he believed the absurd fable of the phcenix.
Rut surely this may be allowed for in him, who was no naturalist, when
a scientific natural philosopher could believe that the clouds are made of
spiders web t ■> b Latrrille, Hist. Nat. xii. 3S8.

336 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

the creation, have been in the habit of sailing througTi
the fields of ether in these air-iight chariots! This
seems to have been suspected long ago by Henry Moore j
^vho says,

" As light and thin as cobwebs that do fly
In the blew air, caiis'd by the autumnal sun,
TJiat boils the dew rha' on the earth doth lie,
May Si.'em this whitish ni^ then is tlic scnm ;

Unless that wiser men make't ihejield-spider's loom^."

Where he also alludes to the old opinion of scorched
dew. But the first naturalists who made this discovery
appear to have been Dr. Hulse and Dr. Martin Lister — •
the former first observing that spiders shoot their webs
into the air ; and the latter, besides this, that they
were carried upon them in that element''. This last
gentleman, in fine serene weather in September, had
noticed these webs falling from the heavens, and in
them discovered more than once a spider, which he
named the bird. On another occasion, whilst he was
watching the proceedings of a common spider, the ani-
mal suddenly turning upon its back and elevating its
anus, darted forth a long thread, and vaulting from
the place on which it stood, was carried upwards to a
considerable heighjt. Numerous observations after-
Wards confirmed this extraordinary fact; and he fur-
ther discovered, that while they fly in this manner, they
pull in their long thread with their fore feet, so as to
form it into a ball — or, as we may call it, air-balloon —
of flalie. The height to which spiders will thus ascend
he affirms is prodigious. One day in the autumn,
when the air was full of webs, he mounted to the top
a Quoted in the Atheneeum, v. 126. b Raj's Lftters. 69, 36-^

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 337

of the highest steeple of York minster, from whence he
could discern the floating; webs still very high above
him. Some spiders that fell and were entangled upon
the pinnacles he took. They were of a kind that
never enter houses, and therefore could not be sup-
posed to have taken their flight from the steeple'^. It
appears from his observations, that^this faculty is not
confined to one species of spider, but is common to
several, though only in their young- or half-grown
state*"; whence we may infer, that when full-grown
their bodies are too heavy to be thus conveyed. One
spider he noticed that at one time contented itself with
ejaculating- a single thread, while at others it darted
out several, like so many shining rays at the tail of a
comet. Of these, in Cambridgeshire in October, he
once saw an incredible number sailing in the air*^.
Speaking of his Ar. suhfuscus mimitissimis oculis, &c.
he says, " Certainly this is aa excellent rope-dancer,
and is wonderfully delighted with darting its threads :
nor is it only carried in the air, like the preceding ones ;
but it effects itself its ascent and sailing: for, by means
of its legs closely applied to each other, it as it were
balances itself, and promotes and directs its course
no otherwise than as if nature had furnished it with
wings or oars'*." A later, but equally gifted observer
of nature, Mr. White, confirms Dr. Lister's account.

a Ray's lexers, 37. 87. Lister De Aran. ^0. Lister illustrates the
force with which these creatuWes shoot their thread, by a homely, though
very forcible simile : " Rcsupinata (says he) aimm in ventura tledil, filum-
que ejaculata est quo plane modo robustissimus juvenis e distentissima
vesicli urinam."

b Be JraneU,6.21. 64. 75—. 79—. c Ibid. 79—. a Ibid. 85.
TOL. II. Z

558 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

" Every clay in fine weather in autumn," says he, "do
1 see these spiders shooting out their webs, and mount-
ing- aloft: they will go otF from the finger, if you will
take them into your hand. Last summer one alighted on
my book as I was reading in the parlour; and running
to the top of the page and shooting out a web, took its
departure from thence. But what I most wondered at
was, that it went off with considerable velocity in a
place where no air was stirring; and 1 am sure that I
did not assist it with my breath. So that these little
crawlers seem to have while mounting some locomo-
tive power without the use of wings, and move faster
than the air in the air itself'^." A writer in the last
number of Thomson's Annals of PhUosophi/^, under
the signature of Carolan, has given some curious ob-
servations on the mode in which some geometric spiders
shoot and direct their threads, and fly upon them ; by
which it appears, that as they dart them out they guide
them as if by magic, emitting at the same time a stream
of air, as he supposes, or possibly some subtile electric
fluid. One which was running upon his hand, dropped
hv its thread about six inches from the point of his
finger, when it immediately emitted a pretty long line
at a right angle with that by which it was suspended.
This thread, though at first horizontal, quickly rose
upwards, carrying the spider along with it. When it
had ascended as far above his finger as it had dropped
before below it, it let out the thread by which it had
])een attached to it, and continued flying smoothly up-
wards till it nearly reached the roof of the room, when
it veered on one side and alighted on the wall. In fly-
a Nut. Hist. i. 3ST. b No. lii. 306—.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 339

ing", its motion was smoother and quicker than when a
spider runs along' its thread. He observes, that as the
line lengthens behind them, the tendency of spiders to
rise increases. — 1 have myself more than once observed
these creatures take their flight, and find the following
memorandum with respect to their mode of proceeding-.
" The spider first extends its thighs, shanks, and feet
into a right line, and then elevating its abdomen till it
becomes vertical, shoots its thread into the air, and flies
off from its station." It is not often, however, that an
observer can be gratified with this interesting sight,
since these animals are soon alarmed. I have frequently
noticed them — for at the times when these webs are float-
ing in the air they are very numerous — on the vertical
angle of a post, or pale, or one of the uprights of a gate,
with the end of their abdomen pointing upwards, as if to
shoot their thread previously to flying off': when, upon
my approaching to take n nearer view, they have low-
ered it again, and persisted in disappointing my wish
to see them mount aloft. The rapidity with which the
spider vanislies from the sight upon this occasion and
darts into the air, is a problem of no easy solution. Can
the length of web that they dart forth counterpoise the
weight of their bodies? Or have they any organ analo-
gous to the natatory vesicles of fishes % which contri-
butes at their will to render them buoyant in the air?
Or do they rapidly ascend their threads in their usual
way, and gather them up, till having collected them
into a mass of sufficient magnitude, they give themselves
to the air, and are carried here and there in these cha-
riots? I must here give you Mr. White's Very curious

* Cnyier, Annt. C<>mp. i.504.
Z 2

340 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

account of a shower of these webs that he witnessed.
On the 21st of September 1741, intent upon field di-
versions, he rose before day-break ; but on going out,
he found the whole face of the country covered with a
thick coat of cobweb drenched with dew, as if two or
three setting-nets had been drawn one over the other.
When his dogs attempted to hunt, their eyes were so
blinded and hood-winked that they were obliged to lie
down and scrape themselves. This appearance was
followed by a most lovely day. About nine A. M. a
shower of these webs (formed not of single floating
threads, but of perfect flakes, some near an inch broad,
and five or six long,) was observed falling from very
elevated regions, which continued without interruption
during the whole of the day; — and they fell with a ve-
locity which showed that they were considerably hea-
vier than the atmosphere. When the most elevated
station in the country where this was observed was
ascended, the webs were still to be seen descending
from above, and twinkling like stars lit the sun, so as
to draw the attention of the most incurious. The flakes
of the web on this occasion hung so thick upon the
hedges and trees, that baskets-full might have been
collected. No one doubts, he observes, but that these
webs are the production of small spiders, which swarna
in the fields in fine weather in autumn, and have a
power of shooting out webs from their tails, so as to
render themselves buoyant and lighter than the air^.
In Germany these flights of gossamer appear so con-
stantly in autumn, that they are there metaphorically
called ^' Der Jlie§^ender Sommer^^ (the flying or depart-

« Nat. Hist. i. 325—^

MOTIONS OP INSECTS^ S41

ing summer) ; and authors speak of the web as often
hanging in flakes like wool on every hedge and bush
throughout extensive districts.

Here we may inquire — Why is the ground in these
serene days covered so thickly by these webs, and what
becomes of them ? What occasions the spiders to
mount into the air, and do the same species form both
the terrestrial and aerial gossamer? — And what causes
the webs at last to fall to the earth ? I fear I cannot to
all these queries return a fully satisfactory answer; but
I will do the best I can. At first one would conclude
from analogy, that the object of the gossamer which
early in the morning is spread over stubbles and fal-
lows— and sometimes so thickly as to make them appear
as if covered with a carpet, or rather overflown by a sea,
of gauze, presenting, when studded with dew-drops,
as I have often witnessed, a most enchanting spectacle
— is to entrap the flies and other insects as they rise
into the air from their nocturnal station of repose, to
take their diurnal flights. But Dr. Strack's observa-
tions render this very doubtful : for he kept many of
the spiders that produce these webs in a large glass
upon turf, where they spun as when at liberty, and he
could never observe them attempt to catch or eat — even
when entangled in their webs — the flies and gnats with
which he supplied them ; though they greedily sucked
water when sprinkled upon the turf, and remained
lively for two months without other food*. As the
single threads shot by other spiders are usually their
bridges, this perhaps may be the object of the webs in

a Neue SchrifUn der Naturfomchenden GessdUchaft zu Halle 1810. v.
Heft ,

342 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

question ; and thus the animals may be conveyed from
furrow to furrow or straw to straw less circuitously,
and with less labour, than if they had travelled over
the ground. As these creatures seem so thirsty, may
we not conjecture that the drops of dew, with which
they are always as it were strung, are a secondary ob-
ject with them ? So prodigious are their numbers, that
sometimes every stalk of straw in the stubbles, and
every clod and stone in the fallows, swarms with them.
Dr. Sti'ack assures us that twenty or thirty often sit
upon a single straw, and that he collected about 200Q
in half an hour, and could have easily doubled the
number had he wished it : he remarks, that the cause
of their escaping the notice of other observers, is their
falling to the ground upon the least alarm.

As to what becomes of this immense carpeting of
web there are different opinions. Mr. White conjec-
tures that these threads, when first shot, might be eur
tangled in the rising dew, and so drawn up, spiders and
all, by a brisk evaporation, into the region where the
clouds are formed^. But this seems almost as inad-
missible as that of Hooke, before related. An ingeni-
ous and observant friend, thinking the numbers of the
flying spiders not sufficient to produce the whole of the
phenomenon in question, is of opinion that an equi-
noctial gale, sweeping along the fallows and stubbles
coated with the gossamer, must bring many single
threads into contact, which, adhering together, may
gradually collect into flakes; and that being at length
detached by the violence of the wind, they are carried
along with it : and as it is known that such winds oftew

a Nat. Hist. i. 326.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

convey even sand and earth to great heights, he deems it
highly probable that so light a substance may be trans-
ported to so great an elevation, as not to fall to the earth
for some days after, when the weather has become se-
rene, or to descend upon ships at sea, as has sometimes
happened. This, which is in part adopted from the
German authors, is certainly a much more reasonable
supposition than the other ; but some facts seem to
militate against it: for, in the first place, thougli gos-
samer often occurs upon the ground when there is
none in the air, yet the reverse of this has never been
observed ; for gossamer in the air, as in the instance re-
corded by Mr. White, is always preceded by gossamer
on the ground. Now, since the weather is constantly
calm and serene when these showers appear, it cannot
be the wind that carries the Aveb from the ground into
the air. Again, it is stated that these showers take place
after several calm days* : now, if the web was raised by
the wind into the air, it would begin to fall as soon as
the wind ceased. Whence I am inclined^ to think that
the cause assigned by Dr. Lister is the real source of
the whole phenomenon. Though ordinary observers
have overlooked them, he noticed these spiders in the
air in such prodigious numbers, that he deemed them
suflficient to produce the effect. I shall not, however,
decide positively; but, having stated the different opi-
nions, leave you to your own judgement.

The next query is. What occasions the spiders to
mount their chariots and seek the clouds? Is it in pur-
suit of their food ? Insects, in the fine warm days in
which this phenomenon occurs, probably take higher

a Ray's Ltlicrs, 36.

344 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

flights than usual, and seek the upper regions of the at-
mosphere ; and that the spiders catch them there, ap-
pears by the exuviae of gnats and flies, which are often
found in the falling webs'*. Yet one would suppose
that insects would fly high at all times in the summer
in serene warm weather. Perhaps the flight of some
particular species constituting a favourite food of our
little charioteers — the gnats, for instance, which we
have seen sometimes rise in clouds into the air*" — may
at these times take place ; or the species of spiders that
are most given to these excursions, may not abound in
their young state — when only they can fly — at other
seasons of the year.

Whether the same species that cover the earth with
their webs produce those that fill the air, is to be our
next inquiry. Did the appearance of the one always
succeed that of the other, this might be reasonably con-
cluded : — but the former, as I lately observed to you,
often occurs without being followed by the latter. Yet,
since itshoul^ seem that the aerial gossamer, though it
does not always follow it, is always preceded by the
terrestrial, this warrants a conjecture that they may be
synonymous. Two German authors, Bechstein'^ and
Strack**, have described the spider that produces gossa-
mer in Germany under the name of Aranea obtextrLv^,
But it is not clear, unless they have described it at dif-
ferent ages, when spiders often greatly change their
appearance, that they mean the same species. The
former describes his as of the size of a small pin's head,

a Ray's Letleis, 42. Lister De Araneis, 8. b Vol. I. 2d Ed. 1 15.

c Lichtenber^ uiid Voight Magazhu 1789. vi. 53 — .

d Ntve Schriften der Nalurforscfi. &c. 1-810. v. Hefr. 41-56.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 345

with its eight eyes disposed in a circle, having a black-
brown body and light-yellow legs : while Dr. Strack
represents his A. ohtextrix as more than two lines in
length ; eyes four in a square, and two on each side
touching each other ; thorax deep brown with paler
streaks; abdomen below dull white, above dark cop-
per brown, with a dentated white spot running longi-
tudinally down the middle. The first of these, if di-
stinct, as I suspect they are, agrees very well with the
young of one which Lister observed as remarkable for
taking aerial flights'*; and which 1 have most usually
seen so engaged. The other may possibly be that be-
fore noticed, which he found in such infinite numbers
in Cambridgeshire ^. If this conjecture be correct, it
will prove that the same species first produce the gos-
samer that covers the ground, and then, shooting other
threads, mount upon them into the air.

My last query was. What causes these webs ulti-
mately to fall to the earth ? Mr. White's observation
will I think furnish the best answer. " If the spiders
have the power of coiling up their webs in the air, as
Dr. Lister affirms, then when they become heavier than
the air they will fall '^." The more expanded the web,
the lighter and more buoyant, and the more condensed,
the heavier it must be.

I trust you will allow from this mass of evidence,
that the English Arachnologists — may I coin this terra ?
— were correct in their account of this singular phe-
nomenon ; and think, with me, that Swammerdam (who
however admits that spiders sail on their webs), and
after him De Goer, were rather hasty when they stig-

« Dc JiantL, 66, b ibid. 79. c:Sai. Hist. i. 356.

34l6 motions of insects.

matized the discovery that these animals shoot their
webs into the air, and so take flight, as a strange and
unfounded opinion^. The fact, though so well authen-
ticated, is indeed strange and wonderful, and affords
another proof of the extraordinary powers, unparal-
leled in the higher orders of animals, with which the
Creator has gifted the insect world. Were indeed
man and the larger animals, with their present pro-
pensities, similarly endowed, the whole creation would
soon go to ruin. But these almost miraculous powers
in the hands of these little beings only tend to keep it
in order and beauty. Adorable is that Wisdom, Power,
and Goodness, that has distinguished these next to
nothings by such peculiar endowments for our preser-
vation as if given to the strong and mighty would
work our destruction.

After the foregoing marvellous detail of the aerial
excursions of our insect air-balloonists, I fear you will
think the motions of those which fly by means o[ wings
less interesting. You w ill find, however, that they are
not altogether barren of amusement. Though the
wings are the principal instruments of the flight of in-
sects, yet there are others subsidiary to them, which I
shall here enumerate, considering them more at large
under the orders to which they severally belong. These
are wing-cases (i?(^/rrt, Tegmina, and H emelytra) ',
winglets {Alidce); poisers {Halteres) ; tailets (CffZ/f/M-
loe) ; booklets {Hamuli) ; base-covers ( Tegulee)^ &c.
Besides, their tails, legs, and even antenna assist them,
in some instances, in this motion.

As wings are common to almost the whole class, I

a Swamm. Eibl. Nat. Ed. Hill. i. 24. De Geer, vii. 190.

, MOTIONS OF INSECTS. S47

sliall consider their structure here. Every wing con-
sists of two membranes, more or less transparent, ap-
plied to each other : the upper membrane being very
strongly attached to the nervures (Neurce), and the
lower adhering more loosely, so as to be separable
from them. Tlie nervures" are a kind of hollow tube,
— above elastic, horny, and convex ; and flat and
nearly membranaceous below, — which take their origin
in tb.e trunk, and keep diminishing gradually, the mar-
ginal ones excepted, to their termination. The ves-
sels contained in tRe nervures consist of a spiral thread,
whence tliey appear to be air-vessels communicating
with the tracheal in the trunk. — The expansion of the
wing at the will of the insect is a problem that can
only be solved by supposing that a subtile fluid is intro-
duced into these vessels, which seem perfectly analo^
gous to those in the wings of birds ; and that thus an
impulse is communicated to every part of the organ,
sufficient to keep it in proper tension. We see by this
that a wing is supported in its flight like a sail by its
cordage ''. It is remarkable that those insects which
keep the longest on the wing, the dragon-flies (Libel-
lulidce) for instance, have their wings most covered
with nervures. The wings of insects in flying, like
those of other flying animals, you are to observe, move
vertically or up and down.

In considering the flight of insects, I shall treat of
that of each order separately, beginning with the Co-

a French naturalists use this term (nerviire) for the veins of wings,
leaves, &c., restricting nerve inerf) to the ramifications from the brain
jvnd spinal marrow. We have adopted the term, which we express iu
l^atin by neura, from the Greek viv^a. b Juriiie Hymenopt. 19^

348 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

leoptera or beetles. Their subsidiary instruments of
flight are their wing-cases (Eli/ira), and in one instance,
winglets (Ahtlce). The former'^ — which in some are of
a hard horny substance, and in others are softer and
more like leather, though they are kept immoveable in
flight, are probably, by their resistance to the air, not
without their use on this occasion. The winglets are
small concavo-convex scales, of a stiff membranaceous
substance, generally fringed at their extremity ''. I
know at present of only one coleopterous insect that lias
them (D^tiscits marginalis, L.)- They are placed under
the elytra at their base. Their use is unknown ; but
it may probably be connected with their flight. The
wings of beetles •= are usually very ample, often of a
substance between parchment and membrane. The
nervures that traverse and extend them, though not
numerous, are stronger and larger than those in the
wings of insects of the other orders, and are so dispersed
as to give perfect tension to the organ. When at rest
— except in Molorchus^ Artruclocerus, Necj/dalis, and
some other genera — they are folded transversely under
the elytra, generally near the middle, with a lateral
longitudinal fold, but occasionally near the extremity ''.
When they prepare for flight, their antennae being set
cut, the elytra are opened so as to form an angle with
the body and admit the free play of the wings, and they
then fly off, striking the air by the vertical motion of
these organs, the elytra all the while remaining im-
moveable. During their flight the bodies of insects of

a Plate X. Fig. 1. b Platf. XXIII. Fjg. 6. a. c Plate X. Fig. 4.
(1 In Plath XXIII. Fig. 5. the wings of Dytiscus marginaUs are re-
^)reieiUcd as they appear when folded.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 349

this order, as far as I have observed them, are always
in a position nearly vertical, which gives to the larger
sorts, tiie stag-beetle for instance, a very singular ap-
pearance. Olivier, probably having some of the larger
and heavier beetles in his eye, affirms that the wings
of insects of this order are not usually proportioned to
tire weight of their bodies, and that the muscular ap-
paratus that moves them is deficient in force. In con-
sequence of which, he observes, they take flight with
difficulty, and fly very badly. The strokes of their
wings being frequent, and their flight short, uncertain,
heavy, and laborious, they can use their wings only in
very calm weather, the least wind beating them down.
Yet he allows that others, whose body is lighter, rise
into the air and fly with a little more ease ; especially
when the weather is warm and dry, their flights how-
ever being short, though frequent. He asserts also,
that no coleopterous insect can fly against the wind'*.
These observations may hold perhaps Avith respect to
many species ; but they will by no means apply gene-
rally. The cockchafer (3 felolontha vulgaris), if thrown
into the air in the evening, its time of flight, will take
wing before it falls to the ground. The common dung-
chafer {Scarabcetis stcrcorarins) — wheeling from side to
side like the humble-bee — -flies with great rapidity and
force, and, with all its dung-devouring confederates,
directs its flight with the utmost certainty, and proba-
bly often against the wind, to its food. The root-de-
vourers or tree-chafers {Melolontha, I{oplia,&c.) sup-
port themselves, like swarming bees, in the air and over
the trees, flying round in all directions. The Staphj/li-

a Entomol. i. 1.

350 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

nidce and Donacice^ in warm Iveather, fly off fiom theiV
station with the utmost ease ; — their wings are un-
folded, and they are in tlie air in an instant, especially
the latter, as I have often found when 1 have attempted
to take them. None are more remarkable for this than
tTie Cicindelce, which, however, takiiig- very short flights,
are as easily marked down as a partridge, and afford as
much amusement to the entomologist, as the latter to
the sportsman. — It is to be observed that many insects
in this order have no wings, and the female glow-
worms neither wings nor elytra.

Many persons are not aware that the insects of the
next order, the Dermaptera, can fly : but earw igs ( For-
Jicida), their size considered, are furnished with very
ample and curious Avings, the principal nervures of
which are so many radii, diverging from a conmion
point near the anterior margin. Between these are
others which, proceeding from the opposite margin,
terminate in the middle of the wing". These organs,
when at rest, are more than once folded both trans-
versely and longitudinally.

Wings equally ample, forming the quadrant of a
circle, and with five or six nervures diverging from
their base, distinguish the strepsipterous tribe. When
unemployed these are folded longitudinally. It is not
easy to ascertain the use of their spurious elj tra, which
are fixed at the base of their anterior legs ; but pos-
sibly tliey may be serviceable in their flight''.

Probably in the next or Aev {Orihopitro),i\\e Teg-
inina, or wing-covers — since they are usually of a much
thinner substance than elytra — assist them in flying;,
a Plate X. Fig. 5. b Plate II. I'm. I-

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 351

They are however quite covered by irregular reticu-
lations, produced by various nervures sent forth by
the longitudinal ones, and running- in all directions.
When at rest the inner part of one laps over that of
the other ^ : but in ditferent genera there is a singular
variation in this circumstance. Thus in B/allu, Pliasma^
and male Locustre, and generally speaking-, but not in-
variably, in Grj/ilus, F. and Triixalis,— the left elytrum
laps over the right : but in Mantis, F. ; Manlispa, Latr. ;
^ome female JLoc//.if^r? ; Achcla ; and Gri/Uotalpa, Latr. -
the right is laid over the left. The wings in this order,
though always ample and larger than the tegmina, do
not invariably form a quadrant of a circle, falling- often
short of it. They are extended by means of nervures,
which, like so many rays, diverge from the base of the
wing, and are intersected alternately by transverse
ones, which thus form quadrangular areas, arranged
like bricks in a waP. When at rest, they are lono-itu-
dinally folded. The flight of these insects, as far as it
has been observed, much resembles, it is said, that of
certain birds. Ray tells us that both sexes of the
house-cricket {Acheta domestica, F.) fly with an undu-
lating motion, like a woodpecker, alternately ascend-
ing with expanded wings, and descending with folded
ones ^. The field- and mole-crickets (Ac/iela cainpestris

and Gri/Uotalpa, F.), as we learn from Mr. White *=,

and, since the structure of ..their wings is similar, pro-
bal)ly the other Orthoptera — fly in the same way.

Ilemipterous insects, witli respect to their Ilemely-
tra. may be divided into two classes. Those in which
they are all of the same substance — varying from meni-

a Plate X. Fig. 2. . b Uht. Iii^. 03. civ^^ //jj.^. n, gj.

352 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

brane to a leathery or horny crust^ — and those in whicti
the base and the apex are of different substances ; the
first being generally corneous, and the latter membra-
naceous*". The former division includes the Cicadiadm ;
Aphis-. Chermes; Thrips; ixwA Coccus ., — and the latter
the Cimicidce, comprehending besides the Linnean ge-
nus Cimex, Notonecta; Sigma; Nepa; Ranatra; and
Naucoris of Fabricius. The posterior tibiae of some of
this last division (Lj/gcens pfij/llopus,foliacem,8ic.,F.)
are furnished on each side with a foliaceous process —
which may act the part of out-riggers, and assist them in
their flights I can give you no particular information
with respect to the aerial movements of the insects of
this order: the British species that belong to it are
generally so minute that it is not easy to trace them
with the naked eye ; and unless some kind optician,
which is much to be wished, would invent a telescope
by which the proceedings of insects could be examined
at a distance, there is no other way of studying them.
The four wings of the next order, the Trichoptera
or case-worm flies, both in their shape and nervures
resemble those of many moths'^; only instead of scales
they are usually covered with hairs, and the under
win""S, which are larger than the upper, fold longitu-
dinally. Some of these flies, I have observed, move
in a direct line, with their legs set out, which makes
them look as if they were walking in the air. In fly-
in"- they often apply their antenna; to each other,
stretching them ont straight, and thus probably are
assisted in their motion.

a Plate IT. Fig. 4. b Plate X. Fig. S. II. fjc. 3.
c Plate XV. Fig. 2. d Plate 111. Fig. 4.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. SjS

The Lepidoptera vary so infinitely in the shape, com-
parative magnitude, and appendages of their wings,
that I should detain you too long did I enlarge upoii so
multifarious a subject. I shall therefore only observe,
that one species is described, both by L\onel and De
Geer* (Plmfa-na he.vaptera, F?), as having six wings;
forbesidesthefourordinary ones, ithasa vvinglet(^''///ff)
attached to the base ot the lower one, and placed, when
the wings are folded, between it and the upper. These
organs in this order you know are covered with scales
of various shape''. Their nervures are diverging rays,
which issue either from a basal area or from the base
itself, and terminate in the exterior margin''. The
wings of many male butterflies, hawk-moths, and moths,
are distinguished by a reniarkable apparatus, noticed
by De Geer, and since by many other na(uraiiits'', for
keeping them steady and underanged in their flight.
The upper wings, on their underside near their base,
have a minute process, bent into a hook (Ilainus), and
covered with hairs and scales. In this hook one or
more bristles ( Tendo), attached to the base of the under
^ving-, have their play. When the fly unfolds its wings,
the hook does not quit its hold of the bristle, which
moves to and fro in it as they expand or close. The
females, which seldom fly far, often have the bristles,
but never the hook. The hairy tails of some insects,
Sesia, F., belonging to the hawk-moth tribe, are ex-
panded vt^hen they fly, so as to form a kind of rudder,

a Lesser, L. i. 109, note *. De Geer, ii. 460—. t. ix. f. 9.
b Plate XXII. Fro. 1— « Plate X. Fis. 6.

«l De Geer, i. 173. t. x.f. 4. Linn. Trans, i. 135—.
VOL. II. 2 A

35i MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

which enables them to steer their course with tnore
certainty.

The insects of this, and of every other order, except
the Coleopter'a, fly with their bodies in a horizontal
position, or nearly so. As their wings are usually so
ample, we need not wonder that the Lepidoptera are
excellent fliers. Indeed they seem to flit untired from
flower to flower and from field to field; impelled at
one while by hunger, and at another by love or mater-
nal solicitude. — The distance to which some males will
fly is astonishing. That of one of the silk-worm moths
(Bombt/x Paphia^ F.) is stated to travel sometimes
more than a hundred milesin this way ^. — Our most beau-
tiful butterfly, the purple emperor (Pajnlio Iris, L.),
when he makes his first appearance fixes his throne on
the summit of some lofty oak, from whence in sunny
days, unattended by his empress, who does not fly, he
takes his excursions. Launching into the air from one
of the highest twigs, he mounts often to so great a
height as to become invisible. When the sun is at the
meridian his loftiest flights take place ; and about four
in the afternoon he resumes his station of repose ''. —
The large bodies of hawk-moths {Sphinx, F.) are car-
ried by wings remarkably strong both as to nervures
and texture, and their flight is proportionably rapid
and direct. That of butterflies is by dipping and rising
alternately, so as to form a zig-zag line with vertical
angles, which the animal often describes with a skip-
ping motion, so that each zig-zag consists of smaller

a Linn. Trans, vii. 40.
Haworth Lepidopt. Diit. i. 19.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 365

ones. This doubtless renders it more difficult for the
birds to take them as they fly; and thus the niale^
when paired, often flits away with the female.

Amongst the Neuropterous tribes the most conspi-
cuous insects are the dragon-flies (Libellulidce), which
— their metamorphosis, habits, mode of iife, and charac-
ters considered — form a distinct natural order of them-
selves. Their four wings, which are nearly equal in
size, are a complete and beautiful piece of net-work,
resembling the finest lace, the meshes of which are
usually filled by a pure, transparent, glassy membrane.
In two of the genera belonging to this tribe, the wings,
when the animal is at rest, are always expanded, so
that they can take flight in an instant, no previous un-
folding of these organs being necessary. In Agrion^
the other genus of the tribe, the wings when they re-
pose are not expanded. I have observed of these in*-
sects, and also of several others in different orders,
that without turning they can fly in all directions—^
backwards, and to the right and left, as well as for-
wards. This ability to fly all ways, without having to
turn, must be very useful to them when pursued by a
bird. Leeuwenhoek once saw a swallow chasing an
insect of this tribe, which he calls nMordello^ in a me-
nagerie about a hundred feet long. The little crea-
ture flew with such astonishing velocity — to the right
— to the left — and in all directions — that this bird of
rapid wing and ready evolution was unable to overtake
and entrap it ; the insect eluding every attempt, and
being generally six feet before it*. Indeed, such is the
power of the long wings by which the dragon-flies are

a Lcpuw. Epist. 6. Mart. 1717.
2 A 2

S56 MOTION* OF INSECTg.

distinguished, particularly in Mshna and Lihelhda^ and
such the force of the muscles that move them, that they
seem never to be wearied with flying. I have ob-
served one of the former genus sailing for hours ov?r
a piece of water — sometimes to and fro, and sometimes
wheeling from side to side ; and all the while chasing,
capturing, and devouring the various insects that came
athwart its course, or driving away its competitors —
without ever seeming tired, or inclined to alight.
Another species (jEshna variegata) very common in
Janes and along hedges, which flies like the Ortho'
ptera, in a waving line, is equally alert and active after
its prey. This, however, often alights for a moment,
and then resumes its gay excursive flights. The spe-
cies of the genns Agrion cut the air with less velocity ;
but so rapid is the motion of their wings, that they be-
come quite invisible. Hawking always about for prey,
tlie Agrions, from the variety of the colours of different
individuals, form no uninteresting object during a sum-
mer stroll. With respect to the mode of flight of the
other neuropterous tribes I have nothing to remark ;
for that of the EphemercE, which has been most noticed,
I shall consider under another head.

The next order of insects, the Hi/menoptera, attract
also general attention as fliers, and from our earliest
years. The ferocious hornet, with its trumpet of ter-
ror; the intrusive and indomitable wasp; the booming-
and pacific humble-bee, the frequent prey of merciless
school-boys; and that universal favourite, the indus-
trious inhabitant of the hive, — all belonging to it, — are
fArailiar to every one. And in summer-time there is
scarcely a flower or leaf in field or garden, which is

MOTIONS OF INSECT&rf 367

wot visited by some of its numerous tribes. The four
wings of these insects, the upper pair of which are
larger than the under, vary much in their nervures.
From the saw-flies ( 7>w<Are<^/>?/c?fle), whose wings are;
nearly as much reticulated as those of some Neifro-
ptera, to the minute Clialcis and Psilus, in whicii these
organs are without nervures, there is every interme-
diate variety of reticulation that can bo imagined^. It
has been observed, that the nervures of the wings are
usually proportioned to the weight of the insect. Thus
the saw-flies have generally bodies thicker than thosa
of most other Hymenoptera, while those that have^
fewer nervures are iriore slender. This, however, does,
not hold good in all cases — so that the dimensions and
cut of the wings, the strength of their nervures, and
the force of their muscles, must also be taken into con-
sideration. The wings of many of these insects when,
expanded, are kept in the same plane by means of
small hooks {Hamuli) in the anterior margin of the,
under wing, wiiich lay hold of the posterior margin of
the upper''. Another peculiarity also distinguishes
them. Base-covers ( Tegulct), or small concavo-convex
shields, protect the base of the wings from injury % or
displacement.

The most powerful fliers in this order are the humble-
bees, which, like the dung-chdifierfi (Scarabceus), traverse
the air in segments of a circle, the arc of which is alter-
nately to right and left. The rapidity of their flight is
80 great, that could it be calculated, it would be found,
the size of the creature considered, far to exceed that

R Jurine Hymenopt. t. 2-5. l> Kirby Mon. Ap. Jngl. i. 96. 108

;. iiii. /. 19. c Ibid. %. 107. t.v.J. 8. M.

358 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

of any bird. — The aerial movements of the hive-bee
are more direct and leisurely. When leaving the hive
for an excursion, I have observed that as soon as they
come out they turn about as if to survey the entrance^
and then wheeling round in a circle, fly off. When
they return to the hive, they often fly from side to side,
as if to examine before they alight. When swarming,
the heads of all are turned towards the group at the
mouth of their dwelling ; and upon rising into the
air these little creatures fly so thick in every direction,
as to appear like a kind of net-work with meshes of
every angle. The queen also, upon going forth, when
her object is to pair, after returning to reconnoitre, be-
gins her flight by describing circles of considerable di-
ameter, thus rising spirally with a rapid motion '^. The
object of these gyrations is probably to increase her
chance of meeting with a drone. — I have not much to
tell you with respect to the flight of other insects of
this order, except that a spider-wasp {Pompilus viati-
cuS) F.), whose sting is redoubtable, and which often,
when we are in the vicinity of sandy sunny banks, ac-
companies our steps, has a kind of jumping movement
when it flies.

The next order, the Diptera, consists altogether of
two-winged flies : — but to replace the under wings of
the tetrapterous insects, they are furnished with poisers,
and numbers of them also with winglets. The poisers
(Haltcres) are little membranaceous threads placed
one under the origin of each wing, near a spiracle, and
terminated by an oval, round, or triangular button,
which seems capable of dilatation and contraction.

» Huber, i. 38.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 359

The animal moves these organs with great vivacity,
often when at rest, and probably when flying. Their
winglets (^Alulce) are different from those of Dytiscus
marginalis, and the moth before noticed. Like them,
they are of rigid membrane^ and fringed ; but they con-
sist generally of two concavo-convex pieces (some-
times surrounded by a nervure), situated between the
wing and the poisers, which, when the insect reposes,
fold over each other like the valves of a bivalve shell ;
but when it flies they are extended. The use of neither
of these organs seems to have been satisfactorily as-
certained. Dr. Derham thinks they are for keeping
the body steady in flight ; and asserts, that if either a
poiser or winglet be cut off, the insect will fly as if one
side overbalanced the other, till it falls to the ground;
and that if both be cut off, they will fly awkwardly and
unsteadily, as if they had lost sovne very necessary
part^. Shelver cut off the winglets of a fly, leaving
both wings and poisers, but it could no longer fly. He
next cut off the poisers of another, leaving the wings
and winglets, and the same result followed. He found,
upon removing one of these organs, that they were not
properly compared to balancers. Observing that a -
common crane-fly (Tipula crocata) moved the knee of
the hinder tibia in connexion with the wing and poiser,
he cut it off, and it could no longer fly : this last ex-
periment, however, seems contradicted by the fact,
which has been often observed, that the insects of this
genus will fly when half their legs are gone. He after-
wards cut off both its poisers, when it could neither
fly nor walk. Hence he conjectures that the poisers

a Phys. Theol. 13th Ed. 366, note ((.)

360 MOTIONS OP INSECTS.

are connected with the feet, and are air-holders*. I
have ofien seen tiles move their poisers very briskly
when at rest, particularly Scioptera vibrans, before
inenfioned. This renders Shelver's conjecture — that
they are connected with respiration — not iinprohable.
Perliaps by tl'.eir action vSome effect may be produced
upon the spiracie in their vicinity, either as to the
opening- or closing of it.

There are three classes of fliers in this order, the
form oi whose bodies, as well as the shape and circum-
stances of their wings, is different. First are the slen-
der flies — the gnats, gnat-like flies, and crane-flies
(Tipii/id(e). The bodies of these are light, their wings
narrow, and their legs long, and they have no wing-
lets. Next are those whose bodies, though slender,
are more weighty — the Asilidce, Conopsidce, &c. ; these
have larger wings, shorter legs, and very minute and
sometimes even obsolete winglets. Lastly come the
flies, the MuscidcE^ and their affinities, whose bodies
being short, thick, and olten very heavy, are furnished
not only vvith proportionate wings and shorter legs,
but also vvith conspicuous winglets. From these com-
parative differences and distinctions, we may conjec-
ture in tlie first place — since the lightest bodies are
furnished with the longest legs, and the heaviest with
•tiie shortest — that the legs act as poisers and rudders,
that keep them steady while they fly, and assist them
in directing their course ''; and in the next — since the

a Wi'demann's Aichiv. ii. 210 — .

b To those that frpqucnt meadows and pastures ( Tipiila oleracea, L. &c.)
Ihey are also useful, as I have before obferved, as stilts, to enable them
to walk over the grass. Reautn. v. Pref. i. t. iii./. 10.

MOTIONS OP INSECTS. SGI

winglets arc largest in the heaviest bodies, and alto-
gether vvantinj:^ in the lightest— that one of their prin*
cipal uses is to assist the wings when the insect is flying.

The flight of the Tipulidan genera is very various.
Sometimes, as I have observed, they fly up and down
with a zig-zag- course; at others in vertical curves of
small diameter, like some birds; atothers, again, in hori-
zontal curves: — all these lines they describe with a kind
of skipping motion. Sometimes they would seem to flit
in every possible way — upwards, downwards, athwart,
obliquely, and sometimes almost in circles. The common'
gnat {Ciilex plpicns) seems to sail along also in various
directions. The motion of its wings, if it does not fly
like a hawk, is so rapid as not to be perceptible. When
the crane-fly (Tipula oleracea)^is upon the wing, its
fore-iegs are placed horizontally, pointing forwards,
and the lour hind ones stretched out in an opposite
direction, the one forming the prow, and the other the
•tern of the vessel, in its voyage through the ocean of
air. The legs of another insect of this tribe {Ilirtcea
Marci) all point towards the anus in flight, the long
anterior pair forming an acute angle with the body: —
thus, perhaps, it can better cut the air.

I have often been amused in my walks with the mo-
tions of the hornet-fly {Asilus crabroniformis, L), be-
longing to the second division just mentioned. This
insect is carnivorous, living upon small flies. When
you are taking your rambles, you may often observe it
alight just before you; — as soon as you come up, it flies
a little further, and will thus be your avant-courier for
the w hole length of a long field. This usually takes
place, I seem to have observed, when a path lies under

362 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

a hedge ; and perhaps the object of this manoeuvre may
be the capture of prey. Your motions may drive a
number of insects before you, and so be instrumental
in supplying it with a meal. Other species of the ge-
nus have the same habit.

The aerial progress of the fly tribes (Muscidce), in-
cluding the gad-flies (CEstrus) ; horse-flies ( Tabimus) ;
carrion-flies (3Iitsca), and many other genera — which
constitute the heavy horse amongst our two- winged fliers
— is wonderfully rapid^ and usually in a direct line. An
anonymous observer in Nicholson's t/owrwa/^ calculates
that, in its ordinary flight, the common house-fly (Blusca
domesiica, L.) makes with its wings about 600 strokes,
which carry it five feet, every second. But if alarmed,
he states their velocity can be increased six or seven-
fold, or to thirty or thirty-five feet, in the same period.
In this space of time a race-horse could clear only ninety
feet, which is at the rate of more than a mile in a minute.
Our little fly, in her swiftest flight, will in the same space
of time go more than the third of a mile. Now com-
pare the infinite difference of the size of the two animals
(ten millions of the fly would hardly counterpoise one
racer), and how wonderful will the velocity of this mi-
nute creature appear ! Did the fly equal the race-horse
in size, and retain its present powers in the ratio of its
magnitude, it would traverse the globe with the rapi-
dity of lightning.

It seems to me, that it is not by muscular strength
alone that many insects are enabled to keep so long
upon the wing. Every one who attends to them must
have noticed that the velocity and duration of their

a 4to. iii. 36.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 363

flights depend much upon the heat or coolness of the
atmosphere; especially the appearance of the sun.
The warmer and more unclouded his beam, the more
insects are there upon the wing, and every diurnal spe-
cies seems fitted for longer or more frequent excur-
sions. As these animals have no circulating fluid ex-
cept the air in their tracheae and bronchiae, their loco-
motive powers, with few exceptions, must depend alto-
gether upon the state of that element. When the ther-
mometer descends below a certain point they become
torpid, and when it reaches a certain height they re-
vive; so that the air must be regarded, in some sense,
as their blood, or rather the caloric that it contains ;
which when conveyed by the air, it circulates quickly
in them, invigorates all their motions, enter- into the
muscles and nervures of their wings, maintaining their
tension, and by the greater or less rapidity of its pulsa-
tions accelerating or diminishing their action.

Having given you all the information that I can col-
lect with respect to the motions of perfect insects in the
air^ I must next say something concerning their modes
of locomotion in or upon the water. These are of two
kinds, swimming and walking. Obsei-ve — 1 call that
movement swimming, in which the animal pushes itself
along by strokes — while in walking, the motion of the
legs is not different from what it would be if they were
on land. Most insects that swim have their posterior
legs peculiarly fitted for it, either by a dense fringe of
hairs on the shank and foot, as in the water-beetles
(Di/tiscus)^, or the water-boatmen {Notonecla) ; or by
having their terminal joints very much dilated — as in
the whirlwig {Gyrinus) — so as to resemble the paddle
a Plate XIV. Fig. 6.

3Gi MOT JONS or INSECTS.

• of an oar^. When the Dytisci rise to the silrfacc to
take in fresh air — a silver bubble of which may often
be seen suspended at their anus — they ascend, as it
should seem, merely in consequence of their being spe-
cifically lighter than the water; but when they descend
or move horizontally, which they do with considerable
rapidity, it is by regular and successive strokes of thek
swimming' legs. While they remain suspended at the
surface, these legs are extended so as to fonn a right
angle with their body. The Notonecfce swim upon their
back, which enables them to see readily and seize the
insects that fall upon ihe water, which are their prey.
Sigarfi, however, a cognate genus separated from No-
tonecta by Fabricius, swmss in the ordinary way. As
the Gyrini are usually in motion at the surface, whirl-
ing round and round in circles, it is probable that their
legs are best adapted to this movement. They dive
down, however, with great ease and velocity when
alarmed. The common water- bug (Gem's (acusiris,
I^atr.), though it never goes under water, will some-
times swim upon the surface, which it does by strokes
of the intermediate and posterior legs''. These, how-
ever, are neither fringed nor dilated, but very long and
slender, with claws, not easily detected, situated un-
der the apex of the last joint of the foot, which covers
and conceals them. The underside of their body — as
is the case with Elophonis^ F., and many other aquatic
insects — is clothed with a thick coat of gray hairs like
satin, which in certain lights have no small degree of
lustre, and protect its body from the effects of the water-

a Mr. Briggs observes that this insect appears to move all its legs at
«ncc, with wonderful rapidity, by which motion it produces a radiating
vibration on the surface of the water, b De Grer, iii. 314.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. o(}3

Seme insects, that are not naturally aquatic, if they
fall into the water will swim very well. 1 once saw a
kind of grasshopper (yJaydium, F.), which by the pow-
erful strokes of its hind legs pushed itself across a
stream with great rjipidity.

Other insects wall:, as it were, in the water, moving
their legs much in the same way as they would do on
the land. Many smaller species of water-beetles, be-
longing- to the genera Il^drophilus, Efophorus, Ht/<-
driena, Parnus., Elmis, &c., thus win their way in the
waves. — Thus also the water-scorpion (Nepa) pursues
its prey ; and the little water-mites {Ilydrachna) may
be seen in every pool thus working their little legs with
great rapidity, and moving about in all directions. —
Some spiders also will not only traverse the surface of
the waters, but, as you have heard with respect to one %
descend into tlieir bosom. There are other insects
moving in this way that are not divers. Of this kind
are the aquatic bugs (Gerris lacustris, Hrjdromctnt
Stagno)-i(m, Velia JRhulorum, &c., Latr.). The first
can walk, run, and even leap, which it does upon its
prey, as well as swim upon the surface. The second,
remarkable for its extreme slenderness, and for its pro-
minent hemispherical eyes — which, though they are
really in the head, appear to be in the middle of the
body — rambles about in chase of other insects, in con-'
aiderable numbers, in most stagnant waters. Tho
Velia is to be met with chiefly in running- streams and
rivers, coursing very rapidly over their waves. The
two last species neither jump nor swim.

I ana next to say a few words upon the motions of

*YoB. 1. 2d Ed. ns.

.566 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

insects that burrozo, either to conceal themselves 6t
their young. Though the latter is not always a loco-
motion, I shall consider it Under this head, to preserve
the unity of the subject. Many enter the earth by
means of fore legs particularly formed for the purpose.
The flat, dentated anterior shanks, with slender feet,
that distinguish the chakrs (Scarabceidce) — all of which
in their first states live under ground, and many occa-
sionally in their last — enable them to make their way
either into the earth or out of it. Two other genera
of beetles (Scarites and Clivina, Latr.) '^ have these
shanks palmated, or armed w ith longer teeth at their
extremity, for the same purpose. But the most re-
markable burrower amongst perfect insects is that sin-
gular animal the mole-cricket {Gryllotalpa vulgaris,
Latr.) ''. This creature is endowed with wonderful
strength, particularly in its thorax and fore legs. The
former is a very hard and solid shell or crust, covering
like a shield the trunk of the animal ; and the latter are
uncommonly fitted for burrowing, both by their strength
and construction. The shanks are very broad, and
terminate obliquely in four enormous sharp teeth "^j
like so many fingers : the foot consists of three joints
— the two first being broad and tooth-shaped, and
pointing in an opposite direction to the teeth of the
shank ; and the last small, and armed at the extremity
with two short claws. This foot is placed inside the
shank, so as to resemble a thumb and perform the of-
fice of one''. The direction and motion of these hands,
as in moles, is outwards ; thus enabling the animal

a Plate XV. Fig. 5. b Plate II. Fig. 2.

e Plate XV. Fir. 6. a. ^ Ibid. 6.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 5bv

«iost effectually to remove the earth when it burrows.
By the help of these powerful instruments, it is asto-
nishing how instantaneously it buries itself This
creature works under ground like a jfield-mouse, raising
a ridge as it goes ; but it does not throw up heaps like
its namesake the mole. They will in this manner un-
dermine whole gardens ; and thus in wet and swampy
situations, in which they delight, they excavate their
curious apartments, before described. — The field-
cricket {Achcta campestris) is also a burrower, but by
means of different instruments ; for with its strong
jaws, toothed like the claws of a lobster, but sharper,
in heaths and other dry situations it perforates and
rounds its curious and regular cells. The house-cricket
(A.domeslica), which, on account of the softness of the
mortar, delights in new-built houses, with the same
organs, to make herself a covered-way from room to
room, burrows and mines between the joints of the
bricks and stones *.

But of all the burrowing tribes, none are so nume-
rous as those of the order Hymeno'ptera. Wherever
you see a bare bank, of a sunny exposure, you always
find it full of the habitations of insects beloneins: to it :
— and besides this, evQX"^ rail and old piece of timber is
with the same view perforated by them. Bees; wasps;
bee-wasps (JBemhex) ; spider-wasps {Pompilus) ; fly-
wasps (Mellmus, Cerceris, Crabro), with many others,
excavate subterranean or ligneous habitations for their
young. None is more remarkable in this respect than
the sand- wasp {Ammophila, K.), or as it might be better
named — since it always commits its eggs to caterpillars

a WJiite Nat. Hist. ii. 80. 72, 7G.

5C8 MOTIONS or insects.

which it inhumes — the caterpillar- wasp. It digs its bur-
rows by ?cratc3)in^ with its fore legs like a clog or a rab-
bit, dispersing with its ind ones, which are particularly
constructed for that purpose, the sand socoJiected*.

Since most of these burrows are designed for the re-
ception of the eggs of the burrowers, 1 shall next de-
scribe to 30U the manner in v/hich one of the long-
legged gnats, or crane-flies (TZ/^w/a variegata, L.) — a
proceeding to which I was myself a witness — oviposits.
Choosing a south bank bare of grass, she stood with her
legs stretched out on each side, and kept turning her-
self half round backwards and forwards alternately.
Thus the ovipositor, which terminates her long cvlin-
drical pointed abdomen, made its way into the hard
soil, and deposited her eggs in a secure situation. All,
however, were not committed to the same burrow; for
she every now and then shifted her station, but not
more than an inch from where she bored last. While
she was thus engaged, I observed her male companion
suspended by one of his legs on a twig, not far from
her. The common turf-boring crane*fly (T. oleracea, 1j.)
when engaged in laying eggs, moves over the grass
with her body in a vertical position, by the help — her
four anterior legs being in the air — of her two posterior
ones, and the end of her abdomen, which performs the
office of another. Whether in boring, like T. variegata,
!«he turns half round and back, does not appear flrom
Reaumur's account''.

I now come to motions whose object seems to be
sport and amusement rather than locomotion. They

a Linn,. Trans, iv, SOO— . b t, SO —

M()TIONS Ot" INSECTS. 369

hiay be considered as of three kinds — hovering — gyrar
tions — and dancing.

You have often in the woods and other places seen
flies suspended as it were in the air, their wings all the
while moving so rapidly as to be almost invisible. This
koverinp;, which seems peculiar to the aphidivorous flies,
has been also noticed by Do Geer^. I have frequently
amused myself with watching them t, but when I have
endeavoured to entrap them with my forceps, they have
immediately shifted their qufirters, and resumed their
amusement elsewhere. The most remarkable insects
in this respect are the sphinxes, and from this they
doubtless took their name of hawk-moths. When they
unfold their long tongue, Jtnd wipe its sweets from any
nectariferous flower, they always keep upon the wing,
suspending themselves over it til! they have exhausted
them, Avhen they fly away (o another. The species
called by collectors the hununing-bird (S. Stellatnrum^
L/.), and by some persons mistaken for a real one, h
remarkablfe foi* this, and the motion of its wings is in-
conceivably rapid''.

The gt/ratlons of insects take place either when they
are reposing, or when they are flying or swimming. — ^
I was once much diverted by observing the actions of a
minute moth {Tinea) upon a leaf on which it was sta-
tioned. Making its head the centre of its revolutions^
it turned round ind round with considerable rapidity,
as if it had the vertigo, for some time. I did not, how-
ever, succeed in my attempts to take it. — Scaliger no-
ticed a similar motion in the book-crab (Chelifer can-^
croides) '^i

a vi. 104. b Ilai. Hist. Ins. 133. 1. c Lesser, L. i. 248, note 22,
VO|^. U. '2 H

SIO MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

Reaumur describes in a very interesting and lively
way the gyrations of the EpheraeraB before noticed",
round a lighted flambeau. It is singular, says he,
that moths which fly only in the night, and shun the
day, should be precisely those that come to seek the
light in our apartments. It is still more extraordinary
that these Ephemera? — which appearing after sun-set,
and dying before sun-rise, are destined never to behold
the lio-ht of that orb — should have so strong an incli-
nation for any luminous object. To hold a flambeau
when they appeared was no very pleasant office ; for
he who filled it, in a few seconds had his dress covered
with the insects, which rushed from all quarters to him.
The light of the flambeau exhibited a spectacle which
enchanted every one that beheld it. All that were pre-
sent, even the most ignorant and stupid of his domes-
tics, were never satisfied with looking at it. Never had
any armillary sphere so many zones, as there were here
circles, which had the light for their centre. There
was an infinity of them — crossing each other in all di-
rections, and of every imaginable inclination — all of
which were more or less eccentric. Each zone was
composed of an unbroken string of Ephemerae, resem-
bling a piece of silver lace formed into a circle deeply
notched, and consisting of equal triangles placed end
to end (so that one of the angles of that which followed
touched the middle of the base of that which preceded),
and moving with astonishing rapidity. The wings oi'
the flies, which was all of them that could then be di-
stinguished, formed this appearance. Each of these
creatures, after having described one or two orbits^ fell

a Vol. I. 2d I'A. 282—.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. S71

iipon the earth or into the water, but not in conse-
quence of being burned^. Reaumur was one of the
most accurate of observers ; and yet 1 suspect that
the appearance he describes was a visual deception,
and for the followini^ reason. I was once walking in
the day-time with a friend'', when our attention was
caught by myriads' of small flies, which were dancing
under every tree ; — viewed in a certain light they ap-
peared a concatenated series of insects (as Reaumur
has here described his EphemeraB) moving in a spiral
direction upwards ; — but each series, upon close exa-
mination, we found was produced by the astonishingly-
rapid movement of a single fly. Indeed when we con-
sider the space*that a fly will pass through in a second,
it is not wonderful that the eye should be unable to
trace its gradual progress, or that it should appear pre-
sent in the whole space at the same instant. The fly
We saw was a small male Ichneumon.

Other circular motions of sportive insects take place
in the waters. Linne, in his Lapland tour, noticed a
black Tipula which ran over the water, and turned
iound like a Gyrinus'^. This last insect I have often
mentioned ; — it seems the merriest and most agile of all
the inhabitants of the waves. Wonderful is the velocity
with which they turn round and round, as it were, pur-
suing each other in incessant circles, sometimes moving
in oblique, and indeed in every other direction. Now
and then they repose on the surface, as if fatigued with
their dances, and desirous of enjoying the full eiFect of

a Reauin.vi. 484. t. xW.f.l.

b The persons observing the appearance here related Were the nuUiors
of I hi* work. c Lack. Lapp. i. 194.

2 B 2

372 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

the sun-beam : if you approach, they are instahtant^-
ously in motion again. Attempt to entrap them with
your net, and they are under the water and dispersed
in a moment. When the danger ceases they re-appear
and resume their vagaries. Covered with lucid armour,
when the sun shines they look like little dancing masses
of silver or brilliant pearls^.

But the motions of this kind to which I particularly
wish to call your attention, are the choral dances of
males in the air ; for the dancing sex amongst insects is
the masculine, the ladies generally keeping themselves
quiet at home. These dances occur at all seasons of
the year, both in winter and summer, though in the
former season they are confined to the hardy TipulidaB.
In the morning before twelve, the Hoplicc, root-beetles
before mentioned, have their dances in the air, and
the solstitial and common cockchafer appear in the
evening — the former generally coming forth at the sum-
mer solstice — and fill the air over the trees and hedges
with their myriads and their hum. Other dancing in-
sects resemble moving columns — each individual rising
and falling in a vertical line a certain space, and which
will follow the passing traveller — often intent upon
other business, and all-unconscious of his aerial com-
panions— -for a considerable distance.

Towai'ds sun-set the common Ephemerae ( E. vulgata,
L.), distinguished by their spotted wings and three long-
tails (Candulce), counnence their dances in the meadows
near the rivers. They assemble in troops, consisting
sometimes of several hundreds, and keep rising and
falling continually, usually over some high tree. They

a Compare Oliv, Entoinol. iii. Gyiinui 4.

MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 373

rise beating the air rapidly with their wings, till they
have ascended five or six feet above the tree ; then they
descend to it with their wings extended and motion-
less, sailing like hawks, and having their three tails
elevated, and the lateral ones so separated as to form
nearly a right angle with the central one. These tails
seem given them to balance their bodies when they de-
scend, which they do in a horizontal position. This
motion continues two or three hours without ceasing,
and commences in fine clear weather about an hour be-
fore sun-set, lasting till the copious falling of the dew
compels them to retire to their nocturnal station^.
Our mok common species, which 1 have usually taken
for the E. vulgata, varies from that of de Geer in its
proceedings. I found them at the end of May dancing
over the meadows, not over the trees, at a much earlier
hour — at half-past three — rising in the way just de-
scribed, about a foot, and then descending, at the di-
stance of about four or five feet from the ground. An-
other species, common here, rises seven or eight feet.
1 have also seen Ephemerae flying over the water in a
horizontal direction. The females are sometimes in
the air, when the males seize them, and they fly paired.
These insects seem to use their fore legs to break the
air; they are applied together before the head, and
look like antennas. — Empis maura^ a little beaked fly,
I have observed rushing in infinite numbers like a
shower of rain driven by the wind, as before observed ''j
over waters, and then returning back.

It is remarkable that the smaller TipuUdce will fly
unwetted in a heavy shower of rain, as I have often

a De Geer, ii. 6S8 — . b See above, p. 7.

374; MOTIONS OF INSECTS.

observed. How keen must be their sight, and how
rapid their motions, to enable them to steer between
drops bigger than their own bodies, which, if they fell
upon them, must dash them to the ground !

Amidst this infinite variety of motions, for purposes
so numerous and diversified, and performed by such a
multiplicity of instruments and organs, who does not
discern and adore the Great First Mover ? From
him all proceed, by him all are endowed, in him all
move : and it is to accomplish his ends, and to go on
his errands, that these little, but not insignificant be-
ings are thus gifted ; since it is by them that he main-j
tains this terraqueous globe in order and beauty, thus;
rendering it fit for the residence of his creature man.

I am, &c.

LETTER XXIV.

ON THE NOISES PRODUCED BY
INSECTS.

X HAT insects, though they fill the air with a variety of
sounds, have no voice, may seem to you a paradox, and
you may be tempted to exclaim with the Roman natu-
ralist. What, amidst this incessant diurnal hum of bees ;
this evening- boom of beetles; this nocturnal buz of
gnats ; this merry chirp of crickets and grasshoppers ;
this deafening- drum of Cicada, have insects no voice !
If by voice we understand sounds produced by the air
expelled from the lungs, which, passing through the
larynx, is modified by the tongue, and emitted from the
mouth, — it is even so. For no insect, like the larger
animals, uses its mouth for utterance of any kind : in
this respect they are ail perfectly mute ; and though
incessantly noisy, are everlastingly silent. Of this fact
the Stagy rite was not ignorant, since, denying them a
voice, he attributes the sounds emitted by insects to
another cause. But if we feel disposed to give a larger
extent to this word ; if we are of opinion that all sounds,
however produced, by means of which animals deter-
mine those of their own species to certain actions, me-
rit the name of voice ; then I will grant that insects
have a voice. But, decide this question as we will, we
ajl know that by some means or other, at certain sea-
sons and on various occasions, these little creatures

376 NOISES OF INSECTS.

make a great din in the world. I must therefore now
bespeak your attention to this department of their hi-
story.

In discussing this subject, I shall consider the noises
insects emit — during their motions — when they are feed-
ing, or otherwise employed — when they are calling or
commanding — or when they are under the influence of
the passions ; of fear, of anger, of sorrow, joy, or love.

The only kind o? locomotion during which these ani-
mals produce sounds, is flying : for though the hill-ants
(Formica rufa, L.)j as I formerly observed % make a
rustling noise with their feet when walking over dry
leaves, I know of no other insect the tread of which is
accompanied by sound — except indeed the flea, whose
steps, a lady assures me, she always hears when it paces
over her night-cap, and that it clicks as if it was walk-
ing in pattens ! That the flight of numbers of insects
is attended by a humming or booming is known to aU
most every one ; but that the great majority move
through the air in silence^ has not perhaps been so often
observed. Generally speaking, those that fly with the
most force ahd rapidity, and with wings seemingly mo-
tionless, make the most noise ; while those that fly
gently and leisurely, and visibly fan the air with their
wings, yield little or no sound.

Amongst the beetle tribes (Coleoptera), none is more
noticed, or more celebrated for " wheeling its droning-
flight," than the common dung-chafer (Scarabceus ster-
corarius, L*.) and its affinities. Linne affirms — but the
prognostic sometimes fails — that when these insects fly
ill numbers, it indicates a subsequent fine day**, The

a gee above, p, 97. b Si/st, NaU 550. 42.

NOISES OF INSECTS. 377

truth is, they only fly in fine weather. Mr. White has
remarked, that in the dusk of the evening beetles begin
'to buz, and that partridges begin to call exactly at the
same time*. The common cockchafer, and that which
appears at the summer solstice {Mclolontha viflgaris and
sohtitialis, F.), when they hover over the summits of
trees in numbers, produce a hum somewhat resembling
that of bees swarming. Perhaps some insect of this
kind may occasion the humming in the air mentioned
by Mr. White, and which you and I have often heard
in other places. " There is," says he, " a natural oc-
currence to be met with in the highest part of our
down on the hot summer days, which always amuses
me much, without giving me any satisfaction with re-
spect to the cause of it; — and that is a loud audible
humming of bees in the air, though not one insect is to
be seen.— — Any person would suppose that a large
vSwarm of bees was in motion, and playing about over
his head^."

'< Resounds the living surface of the ground — -
Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum
To him who muses through the woods at noon,
Or drowsy shepherd as he lies rcclin'd."

The hotter the weather, the higher insects will soar ;
and it is not improbable that the sound produced by
numbers may be heard, when those that produce it are
out of sight. — The burying-beetle (Necropliorus Ves-
pillo, F.), whose singular history*^ so much amused you,
as well as Cicindda sylvatica of the same order, flies
likewise, as I have more than once witnessed, with a
considerable hum.
ji Nat. Hid. ii. 254. b Jbid. 236. c Vol. I, 2d Ed. 351—.

37S NOISES OF INSECTS.

Whether the innumerable locust armies, to which I
have so often called your attention, make any noise in
their flight, I have not been able to ascertain ; tlje
mere impulse of the wings of myriads and myriads of
these creatures upon the air, must, one would think,
produce some sound. In the symbolical loclists men*
tioned in the Apocalypse^, this is compared to the
sound of chariots rushing to battle : an illustration
which the inspired author of that book would scarcely
have had recourse to, if the real locusts winged their
way in silence.

Amongst the Hemiptera^ I know only a single spe-
cies that is of noisy fliglit; though doubtless, were the
attention of entomologists directed to that object, others
would be found exhibiting the same peculiarity. The
insect I allude to (Coreus marginaius^ F.) is one of the
numerous tribe of bugs; when flying, especially when
hovering together in a sunny sheltered spot, they emit
a hum as loud as that of the hive-bee.

From the magnitude and strength of their wings, it
might be supposed that many lepidopterous insects
would not be silent in their flight ; — and indeed many
of the hawk-moths {Sphinx^ F.), and some of the
larger moths {Bomhyx^ F.), are not so; B. Cossus, for
instance, is said to emulate the booming of beetles by
means of its large stiff wings; whence in Germany it
is called the humming-bird (Brumm- Vogel). — But the
great body of these numerous tribes, even those that
fan the air with "sail-broad vans," produce little or
no sound by their motion. I must therefore leave
them, as well as the Trichoptera and Neuroptera, which

a Rev. ix. 9.

NOISES OF INSECTS. o79

are equally barren of insects of sounding wing — and
proceed to an order, the Hi/menoptera^ in which the
insects that compose it are, many of them, of more fame
for this property.

The indefatigable hive-bee, as she flies from flower
to flower, amuses the dbserver with her hum, which,
though monotonous, pleases by exciting the idea of
happy industry, that wiles the toils of labour with a
song. When she alights upon a flower, and is en-
gaged in collecting its sweets, her hum ceases ; but it
is resumed again the moment that she leaves it. — The
wasp and hornet also are strenuous hummers ; and when
they enter our apartments, their hum often brings ter-
ror with it. But the most sonorous fliers of this order
are the larger humble-bees, whose bombination, boom"
iiig, or bombing, may be heard from a considerable di-
stance, gradually increasing as the animal approaches
jou, and when, in its wheeling flight, it rudely passes
close to your ear, almost stunning you by its sharp,
shrill, and deafening sound, Many genera, however,
of this order fly silently.

But the noisiest wings belong to insects of the dipte-
rous order, a majority of which, probably, give notice
of their approach by the sound of their trumpets. Most
of those, however, that have a slender bod) , — the gnat
genus (Culex) excepted, — explore the air in silence. Of
this description are the Tipulidce, the Asilidce, the ge-
nus Empis, and their affinities. The rest are more or
less insects of a humming flight; and with respect to
ma3)y of them, their hum is a sound of terror and dis-
may to those who hear it. To man, the trumpet of the
gnat or mosquito ; and to beasts, that of the gad-fly ;

S80 NOISES OF INSECTS.

the various kinds of horse flies (Tabanus, StomoX)/s,
Ilippobosca) ; and of the Ethiopian zinib, as I have
before related at large % is the signal of intolerable
annoyance. Homer, in his Balrachomi/omachia^ long
ago celebrated the first of these as a trumpeter —

" For their sonorous trumpofs far lenown'd,
Of battle the dire charge mosquitos sound."

Mr. Pope, in his translation, with his usual inaccuracy,
thinking no doubt to improve upon his author, has
turned the old bard's gnats into hornets. In Guiana
these animals are distinguished by a name still more
tremendous, being called the devil's trumpeters ''. I
have observed that early in the spring, before their
thirst for blood seizes them, gnats when flying emit no
sound. At this moment (Feb. ISth) two females are
flying about my windows in perfect silence.

After this short account of insects that give notice
when they are upon the wing by the sounds that pre-
cede them, I must inquire by what means these sounds
are produced. Ordinarily, except perhaps in the case
of the gnat, they seem perfectly independent of the will
of the animal ; and in almost every instance, the sole
instruments that cause the noise of flying insects are
their wings, or some parts near to them, wliich, by their
friction against the trunk, occasion a vibration — as the
fingers upon the strings of a guitar — yielding a sound
more or less acute in proportion to the rapidity of their
flight — the action of the air perhaps upon these organs
giving it some modifications. Whether, in the beetles
that fly with noise, the elytra contribute more or less

A Vol, I, 2d Ed. 1 13. 146— h Stedman's Surinam^ i, 34.

NOISES OF INSECTS. S81

to produce it, seems not to have been clearly ascer-
tained : yet, since they fly with force as vvell as velo-
city, the action of the air may cause sorre motion in
them, enough to occasion friction. With respect to
Diptera, Latreille contends that the noise of Hies on
the wing cannot be the result of friction, because their
wings are then expanded ; but though to us flies seem
to sail through the air without moving these organs,
yet they are doubtless all the while in motion, though
too rapid for the eye to perceive it. When the aphi-
divorous flies are hovering, the vertical play of their
wings, though very rapid, is easily seen ; but when
they fly off it is no longer visible. Repeated experi-
ments have been tried to ascertain the cause of sound
in this tribe, but it should seem with different results.
De Geer, whose observations were made upon one of
the flies just mentioned, appears to have proved that,
in the insect he examined, the sounds were produced
by the friction of the root or base of the wings against
the sides of the cavity in which they are inserted. To
be convinced of this, he afiirms, the observer has nothing
to do but to hold each wing w ith the finger and thumb,
and stretching them out, taking care not to hurt the
animal, in opposite directions, thus to prevent their
motion, — and immediately all sound will cease. For
further satisfaction he made the following experiment.
He first cut olTthe wings of one of these flies very near
the base; but finding that it still continued to buz as
before, he thought that the winglets and poisers, which
he remarked were in a constant vibration, might oc-
casion the sound. Upon this, cutting both off, he ex-
amined the mutilated fly with a microscope, and found

SS2 NOISES OF INSECT!?.

that the remaining fragments of the wings were in con-
stant motion all the time that the buzzing continued :
but that upon pulling them up by the roots all sound
ceased^. Shelver's experiments, noticed in ray last
letter, go to prove, with respect to the insects that he
examined, that the winglets are more particularly con-
cerned with the buzzing. Upon cutting otf the wings
of a lly — but he does not state that he pulled them up
by the roots — he found the sound continued. He next
cut off the poisers — the buzzing went on. This expe-
riment was repeated eighteen times with tlie same re-
sult. Lastly, when he took off the winglets, either
wholly or partially, the buzzing ceased. This, how-
ever, if correct, can only be a cause of this noise in the
insects that have winglets. Numbers have them not.
He next, therefore, cut off the poisers of a crane-fly
(Tiptdu crocata, L.), and found that it buzzed when it
moved the wing. He cut off half the latter, yet still
the sound continued ; but when he had cut off the whole
of these organs the sound entirely ceased''.

Aristophanes in his Clouds, deriding Socrates, intro-
duces Chajrephon as asking that philosopher whether
gnats made their buz with their mouth or their tail '^.
Upon which Mouffet very gravely observes, that the
Sound of one of these insects approaching is much mor^
acute than that of one retiring ; from whence he very
sapiently concludes, that not the tail but the mouth
must be their organ of sound''. But after all, the fric-
tion of the base of the wings against the thorax seems
to be the sole cause of the alarming buz of the gnat

a Dc Geer, vi. 13. h Wiedemann's Jrchiv. ii. 210, 21T.

t/tcti.Sc.'i. <» I\loi>flet, 81.

T^OlSES OF INSECTS. 383

as well as that of other Diptera. The warmer the
weather, the greater is their thirst for blood, the more
forcible their flight, the motion of their wings more
rapid, and the sound produced by that motion more
intense. In the niglit — -hut perhaps this may arise from
the universal stillness that then reigns — their hum ap-
pears louder than in tl.e day : whence its tones may
seem to be modified by the will of the animal.

Sounds also are sometimes emitted by insects when
they are feeding or otherwise emploi/cd. The action of
the jaws of a large number of cockchafers produces a
noise resembling- the sawing of timber; that of the
locusts has been compared to the crackling of a flame
of fire driven by the wind ; indeed the collision at the
same instant of myriads of millions of their powerful
jaws must be attended by a considerable sound. The
timber-borers also — the Buprestes ; the stag-horn bee-
tles (Lucani) ; and particularly the capricorn-beetles
{Ceramhi/cida') — the mandibles of whose larvae resem-
ble a pair of mill-stones " — most probably do not feed in
silence. A little v/ood-louse (Psocus pulsatorius, Latr.)
— which on that account has been confounded with the
death-watch — is said also, when so engaged, to emit a
ticking noise. — Certain two-winged flies seen in spring,
distinguished by a very long proboscis (Bombi/lius, L.),
hum all the time that they suck the honey from the
flowers ; as do also many hawk-moths, particularly that
called from this circumstance the humming-hhd (Sphinx!
Slellaiarum L.), which, while it hovers over them,
unfolding its long tongue, pilfers their sweets without
interrupting its song. — The giant cock-roach (Blaita

uLimi. Trans, v. 255. t. xii. f, 7. b.

SSi NOISES OF INSECTS.

oiga}ilea, L.), wliich abounds in old timber houses in
the warmer parts of the worldj makes a noise when
the family are asleep like a pretty smart rapping with
the knuckles — three or four sometimes appearing to
answer each other. — On this account in the West In-
dies it is called the Drummer', and they sometimes
beat such a leveille, that only good sleepers can rest
ibr thcm^. As the animals of this genus generally
come forth in the night for the purpose of feeding, this
noise is probably connected with that subject.

Insects also, at least many of the social ones, emit
peculiar noises while engaged in their various ew/?/o?/-
merits. If an ear be applied to a wasps or humble-
bees nest, or a bee-hive, a hum more or less intense
nmy alv\ ays be perceived. Were I disposed to play
upon your credulity, 1 might tell you, with Gcedart,
that in every humble-bees nest there is a trumpeter,
who early in the morning, ascending to its summit,
vibrates his wings, and sounding his trumpet for the
space of a quarter of an hour, rouses the inhabitants to
work! But since Reaumur could never witness this,
I shall not insist upon your believing it, though the
relater declares that he had heard it w ith his ears, and
seen it with his eyes, and had called many to witness
the vibrating and strepent wings of this trumpeter
humble-bee^. — The blue sand-wasp (Ammoplnla cj/a-'
nea), which at all other times is silent, when engaged
in building its cells emits a singular but pleasing sound,
which may be heard at ten or twelve yards distance '^.
Some insects also are remarkable for a peculiar mode

a Dniry's Insects, iii. Preface. b Lister's Goedart, 244—. Com-

pare Reaum. vi. 30. c Bingley, Animal Biogr. iii. 1st Ed. 335,

NOISES OF INSECTS. 385

of callings commanding^ or giving an alarm. I have
before mentioned the noise made by the neuters or sol-
diers amongst the white ants, by Avhich they keep the
labourers, who answer it by a hiss, upon the alert and
to their work". This noise, which is produced by
striking any substance with their mandibles, Smeath-
man describes as a small vibrating sound, rather shriller
and quicker than the ticking of a watch. It could be
distinguished, he says, at the distance of three or four
feet, and continued for a minute at a time with very
short intervals. When any one walks in a solitary
grove, where the covered ways of these insects abound,
they give the alarm by a loud hissing, which is heard
at every step''. — " When house-crickets are out," says
Mr. White, " and running about in a room in the
night, if surprised by a candle they give two or three
shrill notes, as it were for a signal to their followers,
that they may escape to their crannies and lurking-
holes to avoid danger*^."

Under this head I shall consider a noise before al-
luded to*^, which has been a cause of alarm and terror
to the superstitious in all ages. You will perceive that
I am speaking of the death-watch — so called, because
it emits a sound resembling the ticking of a watch, sup-
posed to predict the death of some one of the family in
the house in which it is heard. Thus sings the muse
of the witty Dean of St. Patrick on this subject :

'* A wood-worm

That lies in old wood, like a hare ia her form :

a See above, p. 41. b Philos. Trans. 1781. 48. 38.

c Nat. Hist. ii. 262. d Vol. I. 2d Ed. 37 .

VOL. II. 2 C

S86 NOISES OP INSECTS.

With teeth or with claws it will bite or will scratchy "

And chambermaids christen this worm a death-watch:

Because like a watch it always cries click;

Then woe be to those ia the house who are sirk !

For, sure as a gun, they will give up the ghost,

If the maggot cries click, when it scratches the post ;

But a kettle of scalding hot water injected.

Infallibly cures the timber affected :

The omen is broken, the danger is over.

The maggot wiJ! die, and the sick will recover,"

To add to the effect of this noise, it is said to be made
only when there is a profound silence in an apartment,
and every one is still.

Authors were formerly not agreed concerning the
insect from which this sound of terror proceeded, some
attributing it to a kind of wood-louse, as I lately ob-
served, and others to a spider; but it is a received
opinion now, adopted upon satisfactory evidence, that
it is produced by some litt^ beetles belonging- to the
timber-boring genus Anobium, F. Swammerdam ob-
serves, that a small beetle, which he had in his collec-
tion, having firmly fixed its fore legs, and put its in-
flexed head between them, makes a continual noise in
old pieces of wood, walls, and ceilings, which is some-
times so loud, that upon hearing it, people have fan-
cied that hobgoblins, ghosts, or fairies wci'e wandering
around them ^. Evidently this was one of the death-
watches. Latreille o])served Anobium striatum, F.
produce the sound in question by a stroke of its mandi-
bles upon the wood, ^vhich was answered by a similar
noise from within it. But the species whose proceed-

»mbl.Nat.Ed. lilll, i, 125.

NOISES OF INSECTS. 387

ings hkve been most noticed by British observers is
A. tcssellatum, F. When spring- is far advanced, these
insects are said to commence their ticking, which is
only a call to each other, to which if no answer be re-
turned, the animal repeats it in another place. It is
thus produced. Raising itself upon its hind legs, with
the body somewhat inclined, it beats its head with great
force and agility upon the plane of position ; and its
strokes are so powerful as to make a considerable im-
pression if they fall upon any substance softer than
wood. The general number of distinct strokes in suc-
cession is from seven to nine or eleven. They follow
each other quickly, and are repeated at uncertain in-
tervals. In old houses, where these insects abound,
they may be heard in warm weather during the whole
day. The noise exactly resembles that produced by
tapping moderately with the nail upon the table ; and
when familiarized, the insect will answer very readily
the tap of the nail^.

The queen bee has long beon celebrated for a pecu-
liar sound, producing the most extraordinary effects
upon her subjects. Sometimes, just before bees swarm,
-^—instead of the great hum usually heard, and even in
the night — if the ear be placed close to the mouth of
the hive, a sharp clear sound may be distinguished,
which appears to be produced by the vibration of the
wings of a single bee. This, it has been pretended, is
the harangue of the new queen to her subjects, to in-
spire them with courage to achieve the foundation of
a new empire. But Butler gives to it a different in-

a Shaw's Nat. Misc. iii. 104. Phil. Trans, xxxiii. 159. Compare
Uumeril Tiaite ElemenU ii. 91. n. C9-J.

2 c 2

388 NOISES OF INSECTS.

terpretation. He asserts, that the candidate for the
new throne is then with earnest entreaties, lamenta-
tions, and groans, supplicating the queen-mother of
the hive to grant her permission to lead the intended
colony ; — that this is continued, before she can obtain
her consent, for two days ; when the old queen relent-
ing gives her fiat in a fuller and stronger tone. That
should the former presume to imitate the tones of the
sovereign, this being the signal of revolt, she would be
executed on the spot, with all whom she had seduced
from their loyalty '^. — But it is time to leave fables:
I shall therefore next relate to you what really takes
place. You have heard how the bees detain their
young queens till they are fit to lead a swarm. — I then
mentioned the attitude and sound that strike the for-
mer motionless''. When she emits this authoritative
sound, reclining her thorax against a comb, the queen
stands with her wings crossed upon her back, which,
without being uncrossed or further expanded, are kept
in constant vibration. The tone thus produced is a
very distinct kind of clicking, composed of many notes
in the same key, which follow each other rapidly. This
sound the queens emit before they are permitted to
leave their cells ; but it does not then seem to affect
the bees. But when once they are liberated from con-
finement and assume the above attitude, its effects upon
them are very remarkable. As soon as the sound was
heard, Huber tells us, bees that had been employed in
plucking, biting^ and chasing a queen about, hung
do^\ n their heads and remained-'altogether motionless;

« Rcaum. v. 6!5. Butler's Female Monarchy, c. v. \ 4.
•> See above, \., !49 —

NOISES OF INSECTS. 389

and whenever she had recourse to this attitude and
sound, they operated upon them in the same manner.
The writer just mentioned observed differences both
with re£^ard to the succession and intensity of the notes
and tones of this royal song : and, as he justly remarks,
there may be still finer shades which, escaping our or-
gans, may be distinctly perceived by the bees^. He
seems however to doubt by what means this sound is
produced. Reasoning analogically, the motion of the
wings should occasion it. We have seen that they are
in constant motion when it is uttered. Probably the
intensity of the tones and their succession are regulated
])y the intensity of the vil)rations of the vvings. Reau-
mur remarks, that the different tones of the bees,
whether more or less grave or acute, are produced by
the strokes, more or less rapid, of their wings against
the air, and that perhaps their different angles of incli-
nation may vary the sound. Tlie fiiction of their
bases likewise against the sides of the cavity in which
they are inserted, as in the case of the fly lately men-
tioned, or against the base-covers (Tegidce), may pro-
duce or modulate their sounds, a bee whose wings are
eradicated being perfectly mute''. This last assertion,
however, is contradicted by John Hunter, who affirms
that bees produce a noise independent of tlieir wings,
emitting a shrill and peevish sound though they are cut
off, and the legs held fast ^. Yet it does not appear from
his experiment that the wings were eradicated. And
if they were only cut off, the friction of their base might
cause the sound. I have before noticed the reraark-

aHubcr, i. 260. ii. 292— b Rcauni.v. G17.

c Philos. Tram. 1732.

390' NOISES OF INSECTS.

able fact, that the tjueens educated according to M.
Schirach's method aie absolutely mute : on which ac-
count the bees keep no guard around their cells, nor
retain them an instant in them after their transforma-
tion ^.

The passions, also, which urge us to various excla-r
mations, elicit from insects occasionally certain sounds.
Fear, anger, sorrow, joy, or love and desire, they ex-
press in particular instances by particular noises. I
shall begin with those which they emit when under any
alarm. One larva only is recorded as uttering a cry of
alarm, and it produces a perfect insect remarkable for
the same faculty: I allude to SpMnx Atropns. Its ca-f
terpillar, if disturbed at all, draws back rapidly, making
at the same time a rather loud noise, which has been
compared to the crack of an electric spark''. — You
would scarcely think that any quiescent pupcc could
show their fears by a sound, — yet in one instance this
appears to be the case. De Geer having made a small
incision in the cocoon of a moth, which included that
of its parasite Ichneumon (/. Cantator, De G.), the in-
sect concealed within the latter uttered a little cry,
similar to the chirping of a small grasshopper, conti-
nuing it for a long time together. The sound was pro-
duced by the friction of its body against the elastic sub-
stance of its own cocoon, and was easily iniitated by
rubbing a knife against its surface '^.

But to come to/jer/ecHnsects. Many beetles when
taken show tljeir alarm by the emission of a shrill, sibi-
lant, or creaking sound — which some compare to the
chirping of young birds — produced by rubbing their

r^ Iluber, i. 292— b Fuessl.^ro^iu. 8. 10. c De Geer, vii. 534.

NOISES OF INSECTS. S91

elytra with the extremity of their abdomen. This is
the case with the dung-chafers (Scarahoius vernalis,
stercor^aritis, and Copris lunaris) ; with the carrion-
chafer ( Trox sabi(losus) ; and others of the Scarahceidce,
The burj ing-beetle {Necrophoms Vespillo), Auchenia
mdanopa, E. B., Crioccris mcrdigera, and Dytiscus
Hermanm., and many other Co/eo/;/errt produce a simi-
lar noise by the same means. When this noise is made,
the movement of the abdomen may be perceived ; and
if a pin is introduced under the elytra it ceases. Long
after many of these insects are dead the noise may be
caused by pressure. Rosel found this with respect to
the Scarabcpidce^, and I have repeated the experiment
with success upon Necrophorus VespiUo. The Capri-
corn tribes (Ccrambj/cidce) emit under alarm an acute
or creaking sound — which Lister calls querulous, and
Dumeril compares to the braying of an ass** — by the
friction of the thorax, which they alternately elevate
and depress, against the neck, and sometimes against
the base of the elytra *■, On account of tliis, Prionus
coriarius^ F. is c2i[\eA the Jldler in Germany''. Two
other coleopterous genera, Cj/chri/s and Clylns^ make
their cry of Noli me tangere by rubbing their thorax
against the base of the elytra. Pimelia, another beetle,
does the same by the friction of its legs against each
other ^. And, doubtless, many more Coleopiera, if ob-
served, would be found to express their fears by simi-
lar means.

In the other orders the examples of cries of terror are

a Ftosel, II. 208 b Rai. 77/47. Ins. 284. Dumeril, Trait. Ekment,

ii.IOO. n. 17. c Dp (iepr,v. 58.69. Ro?rl, II. iii. 5,

dRospljibid. e Latr. /7?s7. iVrif. x. 2G4,

^2 NOISES OF INSECTS.

much less numerous. Ahug(Clmex subapterus, JieG.)
when taken emits a sharp sound, probably with its ro-
strum, by moving its head up and down =*. Ray makes
a similar remark with respect to another bug (Reduvius
personatuSy F.), the cry of which he compares to the
chirping of a grasshopper ''. Mutilla europcea, a hy-
menopterous insect, makes a sibilant chirping, as I once
observed at Southwold, Avhere it abounds, but how
produced I cannot say. The most remarkable noise,
however, proceeding from insects under alarm, is that
emitted by the death's-head hawk-moth, and for which
it has long been celebrated. The Lepidoptera, though
some of them, as we have seen, produce a sound when
they fly, at other times are usually mute insects : but
this alarmist — for so it may be called, from the terrors
which it has occasioned to the superstitious •" — when it
walks, and more particularly when it is confined, or
taken into the hand, sends forth a strong and sharp cry,
resembling that of a mouse, but more plaintive, and
even lamentable, which it continues as long as it is
held. This cry does not appear to be produced by the
wings ; for when they, as well as the thorax and abdo-
men, are held down, the cries of the insect become still
louder. Schrceter says that the animal, when it utters
its cry, rubs its tongue against its head ^ ; and Rcisel,
that it produces it by the friction of the thorax and ab-
domen ^. But Reaumur found, after the most atten-
tive examination, that the cry came from the mouth,
or rather from the tongue ; and he thought that it was
produced by the friction of the palpi against that organ.

a De Geer, iii. 2S9. b Hut. Jus. 56. c Vol. I. 2d Ed. 34.

d Naturforscher Stk. xxi. TT. e III. 16.

NOISES OF INSECTS. 393

When, by means of a pin, he unfolded the s;piral tongue,
the cry ceased ; but as soon as it was rolled up again be-
tween the palpi it was renewed. Henextpreventedi;he
palpi from touching it, and the sound also ceased; and
.upoji removing- only one of them, though it continued,
it became nnich more feeble^. Huber, however, denies
that it is produced by the friction of the tongue and pal-
pi'': but, as he has not stated his reasons for this opinion,
I think his assertion that he has ascertained this cannot
be allowed to countervail Reaumur's experiments.

I must next say a few words upon the angry chidings
of our little creatures; for tlieir anger sometimes vents
itself in sounds. 1 have often been amused with hear-
ing' the indignant tones of a humble-bee while lying
upon its back. When I held my finger to it, it kicked
and scolded with all its might. Hive-bees when irri-
tated emit a shrill and peevish sound, continuing even
when they are held under water, which Joha Hunter
says vibrates at the point of contact with the air-holes
at the root of their wings *=. This sound is particularly
sharp and angry when they fly at an intruder. The
same sounds, or very similar ones, tell us when a wasp
is offended, and we may expect to be stung; — but this
passion of anger in insects is so nearly connected with
their fear, that I need not enlarge further upon it.

Concerning their shouts ofjoj/ and cries o{ sorrow I
have little to record : that pleasure or pain makes a diffe-
rence in the tones of vocal insects is not improbable ; but
our auditory organs are not fine enough to catch all their
different modulations. When Schirach had once smoked

a Reaum. ii. 500—. b Nouv. Obs. ii. 300. note *.

c In P/ii!os. Tram. 1792.

594 NOISES OF INSECTS.

a hive to oblige the bees to retire to the top of it, the
queen with some of the rest flew away. Upon this,
those that remained in the hive sent forth a most plain-
tive sound, as if they were all deploring their loss:
when their sovereign was restored to them, these lugu-
brious sounds were succeeded by an agreeable hum-
ming, which announced their joy at the event''. Hu-
ber relates, that once when all the worker-brood was
removed from a hive, and only male brood left, the
bees appeared in a state of extreme despondency.
Assembled in clusters upon the combs, they lost all their
activity. The queen dropped her eggs at random ; and
instead of the usual active hum, a dead silence reignetl
in the hive*".

But love is the soul of song with those that may be
esteemed the most musical insects, the grasshopper
irilyes (Gri/Ilidce), and the long celebrated Cicada (5 ef-
ifgonia, F.). You would suppose, perhaps, that the
ladies would bear their share in these amatory strains.
But here you would be mistaken — female insects are
too intent upon their business, too coy and reserved to
tell their love even to the winds. — The males alone

" Formosam resonare docont Amaryllida sylvas."

With respect to the Cicadcc, tliis was observed by
Aristotle ; and Pliny, as usual, has retailed it after
him*^. The observation also holds good with respect
to the Gr^UidcE and other insects, probably, whose
love is musical. Olivier however has noticed an ex-
ception to this doctrine ; for he relates, that in a spe-

a SrJiirarh, 73— b i. 226— .

P- Aristot. lUst. AnimA. v. c. 30. Plin. Ilht. Nat. 1. xi. c. 26.

NOISES OF INSECTS. S95

cles of beetle (Pimelia striata^ F.), the female has a
round granulated spot in the middle of the second seg-
ment of the abdomen, by striking- which against any
hard substance, she produces a rather loud sound, and
that the male, obedient to this call, soon attends her,
and they pair*.

As I have nothing to communicate to you with re-
spect to the love-songs of other insects, my further ob-
servations will ])e confined to the two tribes lately
mentioned, the Gryllidoc and the Cicadce.

No sound is to me more agreeable than the chirping
of most of the Gryllidie ; it gives life to solitude, and
always conveys to my mind the idea of a perfectly
happy being. As these creatures are now very pro-
perly divided into several genera, I shall say a few
words upon the song of such as are known to be vocal,
separately.

The remarliable genus Pneumora — whose pellucid
abdomen is blown up like a bladder, on which account
they are called Blaazops by the Dutch colonists at the
Cape — in the evening, for they are silent in the day,
make a tremulous and tolerably loud noise, which is
sometimes heard on every side''. How their sound is
produced is not stated.

The cricket tribe are a very noisy race, and their
chirping is caused by the friction of the bases of their
elytra against each other. For this purpose there is
sometJiing peculi^ar in their structure, which I shall
describe to you. The elytra of both sexes are divided
longitudinally into two portions ; a vertical or lateral
one, which covers the sides ; and a horizontal or dorsal

• a O'iv. Entt'inoK i. Prof. ix. b Sparrman, Voy. i, 312.

396 NOISES OP INSECTS.

one, which covers the back. In the female both these
portions resemble each other in their nervures; vvhich
running- obliquely in two directions, by their intersec-
tion form numerous small lozenge-sliaped or rhom-
boidal meshes or areolets. The elytra also of these have
no elevation at their base. In the males the vertical
portion does not materially differ from that of the fe-
males ; but in the horizontal the base of each elytrum
is elevated so as to form a cavity underneath. The
nervures also, which are stronger and more prominent,
run here and there very irregularly with various in-
flexions, describing curves, spirals, and other figures
difficult and tedious to describe, and producing a vari-
ety of areolets of different size and shape, but generally
larger than those of the female : particularly towards
the extremity of the wing you may observe a space
nearly circular, surrounded by one nervure, and di-
vided into two areolets by another^. The friction of
the nervures of the upper or convex surface of the base
of the left-hand elytrum — which is the undermost —
against those of the lower or concave surface of the base
of the right-hand — which is the uppermost one — will
communicate vibrations to the areas of membrane, more
or less intense in proportion to the rapidity of the fric-
tion, and thus produce the sound for which these crea-
tures are noted.

The merry inhabitant of our dwellings, the house-
cricket {Acheta domestica^ F.), though it is often heard
by day, is most noisy in the night. As soon as it grows
dusk, their shrill note increases till it becomes quite an
annoyance, and interrupts conversation. When the

a Compare De Gecr, iii. 612.

NOISES OF INSECTS. 397

male sins^s, he elevates the elytra so as to form an
acute angle with the body, and then rubs them against
each other by a horizontal and very brisk motion*.
The learned Scaliger is said to have been particularly
delighted with the chirping of these animals, and was
accustomed to keep them in a box for his amusement.
We are told that they have been sold in Africa at a
hig;h price, and employed to procure sleep''. If they
could 1)0 used to supply the place of laudanum, and lull
the restlessness of busy thought in this country, the
exchange would be beneficial. Like many other noisy
persons, crickets like to hear nobody louder than them-
selves. Ledelius relates that a woman, who had tried
in vain every method she could think of to banish them
from her house, at last got rid of them by the noise
made by drimis and trumpets, which she had procured
to entertain her guests at a wedding. They instantly
forsook the house, and she heard of them no more'^.

The field-cricket (Acheta campestris, F.) makes a
shrilling noise— still more sonorous than that of the
house-cricket — which may be heard at a great distance.
Mouffet tells us, that their sound may be imitated by
rubbing their elytra, after they are taken off, against
each other''. "Sounds," says Mr. White, "do not
always give us pleasure according to their sweetness
and melody ; nor do harsh sounds always displease.

Thus the shrilling of the field-cricket, though sharp

and stridulous, yet marvellously delights some hearers,
filling their minds with a train of summer ideas of every

a De Geer, iii. 517. Sec :iIso White,. Vn^ Hist, ii.76;— and Rai. Hist.
Jns. 63. b Mouftbt, 136. c Cotdniitls's Jnimat. N-it. vi 2S.

(! Ins. Tlieafr. 134.

S98 NOISES OF INSECTS.

thing- that is rural, verdurous, and joyous." One of
iiiese crickets, when confined in a paper cage and set in
the sun, and supplied with plants moistened with water
— for if they are not wetted it will die — will feed, and
thrive, and become so merry and loud, as to be irksome
in the same room where a person is sitting*.

Having never seen a female of that extraordinary
animal the mole-criclcet {GryUolulpa -culgarh^ Latr.), I
cannot say what diiFerence obtains in the reticulation
of the elytra of the two sexes. The male varies in this
respect from the other male crickets, for they have no
circular area, nor' do the nervures run so irregularly;
the areolets, however, toward their base are large,
with very tense membrane. The base itself also is
scarcely at all elevated. Circumstances these, which
demonstrate the propriety of considering them distinct
from the other crickets. This creature is not however
mute. Where they abound they may be heard about
the middle of April singing their love-ditty in a low,
dull, jarring, uninterrupted note, not unlike that of
the goat-sucker (Cflpn?wM/»7/5 enropcBus^ L.), but more
inward**. I remember once tracing one by its shrilling
to the very hole, under a stone, in the bank of my ca-^
nal, in which it was concealed.

Another tribe of grasshoppers (Locusta, F.) — the
females of which are distinguished by their long ensi-
form ovipositor- — like the crickets, make their noise by
the friction of the base of their elytra. And the chirp-
ing they thus produce is long, and seldom interrupted,
which distinguishes it from that of the common grass-
hoppers (Gri/Uus, F.). What is remarkable, the grass-

a Kat.Iiisl.W. 13. b Ibid. 81.

NOISES OF INSECTS. 399

Iwppevlark (Sj/lvia locustella), Avhich preys upon them,
makes a similar noise. Professor Lichtenstein in the
JLinnean Transactions has called the attention of na-
turalists to the eye-like area in the right wing of the
males of this genus''; but he seems not to have been
aware that De Geer had noticed it before him as a
sexual character ; who also, with good reason, sup-
poses it to assist these animals in the sounds they pro-
duce. Speaking of Lociista viridisshna-^ common with
us— he says, " In our male grasshoppers, in that part
of the right elytrum which is folded horizontally over
the trunk, there is a round plate made of very fine
transparent membrane, resembling a little mirror or
piece of talc, of the tension of a drum. This mem-
brane is surrounded by a strong and prominent ner-
vurcj and is concealed under the fold of the left ely-
trum, which has also several prominent nervures an-
swering to the margin of the membrane or ocellus.
There is," he further remarks, "every reason to be-
lieve that the brisk movement with which the grass-
hopper rubs these nervures against each other, pro-
duces a vibration in the membrane augmenting the
sound. The males in question sing continually in the
hedges and trees during the months of July and Au-
gust, especially towards sun-set and part of the night.
When any one approaches they immediately cease
their song''."

The last description of singers that 1 shall notice
amongst the Gryllidae, are those that are more com-
monly denominated grasshoppers (Giyllus, F.). To
this genus belong the little chirpers thiit we hear in

a Linn. Trans, iv. 51— b De Geer,iii. 429,

400 NOISES OF INSECTS.

every sunny bank, and which make vocal every heath.
They begin their song — which is a short chirp regularly
interrupted, in which it diifers from that o^ the Locusta
— long before sun-rise. In the heat of the day it is in-
termitted, and resumed in the evening. Tiiis sound is
thus produced : — Applying its posterior shank to the
thigh, the animal rvibs it briskly against the elytrum%
doing this alternately with the right and left legs,
which causes the regular breaks in the sound. But
this is not their whole apparatus of song — since, like
the Tettigoniffi, they have al^oa tympanum or drum."
De Geer, who examined the insects he describes with
the eye of an anatomist, seems to be ihe only entomo-
logist that has noticed this organ. " On each side of
the first segment of the abdomen," says he, " immedi-
ately above the origin of the posterior thighs, there is
a considerable and deep aperture of rather an oval
form, which is partly closed by an irregular flat plate
or operculum of a liard substance, but covered by a
wrinkled flexible membrane. The opening left by
this operculum is semi-lunar, and at the bottom of
the cavity is a white pellicle of considerable tension,
and shining like a little mirror. On that side of the
aperture which is towards tlie head, there is a little
oval hole, into which tlie point of a pin may be intro-
duced without resistance. When the pellicle is re-
moved, a large cavity appears. In my opinion this
aperture, cavity, and above all the menjbrane in ten-
sion, contribute much to produce and augment the
sound emitted by the grasshopper''." This descrip-
tion, which was taken from the migratory locust (G. mi~

a Dc Gcer, iii.470. l> Ibid. 47). t. xxiii./, 2. 3.

NOIsns OF INSECTS. 401

gratorius, L.)? answers tolerably well to the tympanum
of our common grasshoppers, only in them the aperture
s6ems to be rather semicircular, and the wrinkled
plate — which has no marginal hairs — is clearly a conti-
nuation of the substance of the segment. This appa-
ratus so much resembles the drum of the Cicadae, that
there can be little doubt as to its use. The vibrations
caused by the friction of the thighs and elytra striking
upon this drum, are reverberated by it, and so intense-
ness is given to the sound. In Spain, we are told
that people of fashion keep these animals — called there
Grillo — in cages, which they name Grilleria, for the
sake of their song^.

I shall conclude this diatribe upon the noises of in-
sects, with a tribe that have long been celebrated for
their musical powers; I mean the Cicadce, including
the two genera Fulgora, L. and Tettigonia, F. The
FulgorcB appear to be night-singers, while the Cicadm
sing usually in the day. The great lantern-fly {FuU
gora laternaria, L.)? fi'om its noise in the evening—
nearly resembling the sound of a cymbal, or razor-
grinder when at work — is called Scare-sleep by the
Dutch in Guiana. It begins regularly at sun-set''.
Perhaps an insect mentioned by Ligon as making a
great noise in the night in Barbadoes, may belong to
this tribe. " There is a kind of animal in the woods,"
says he, " that I never saw, which lie all day in holes
and hollow trees, and as soon as the sun is down begin
their tunes, which are neither singing nor crying, but
the shrillest voices I ever heard : nothing can be so
nearly resembled to it as the mouths of a pack of sroall

a Osbeck's Vuit. i. 71. b Stcdraan"? Surinam, ii. S7,

VO!.. II. i O /

409 JfOlSES OF IxNSECTS.

beagles at a distance; and so lively and chirping the
noise is, as nothing can be more delightful to the ears,
if there were not too much of it; for the music hath no
internnssion till morning, and then all is husht^."

The species of the other genus, Tetiigonia, F., called
by the ancient Greeks — by whom they were often kept
in cages for the sake of their song — TettLv, seem to
have been the favourites of every Grecian bard from
Homer and Hesiod to Anacreon and Theocritus. Sup-
posed to be perfectly harmless, and to live only upon
the dew, they were addressed by the most endearing
epithets, and were regarded as ail but divine. One
bard entreats the shepherds to spare the innoxious
Tettix, that nightingale of the Nymphs, and to make
those mischievous birds the thrush and blackbird their
prey. Sweet prophet of the summer, says Anacreon,
addressing this insect, the Muses love thee, Phcebus
himself loves thee, and has given thee a shrill song;
old age does not wear thee; thou art wise, earth-born,
musical, impassive, without blood ; thou art almost
like a god"*. So attached were the Athenians to these
insects, that they were accustomed to fasten golden
images of them in their hair, implying at the same
time a boast that they themselves, as well as the Ci-
cadae, were Terrmjilii. They were regarded indeed
by all as the happiest as well as the most innocent of
animals — not, we w ill suppose, for the reason given by
the saucy Rhodian Xenarchus, when he says,
" Happy the Cicadas' lives,
Since they all have voiceless wives."
if the Grecian Tettix or Cicada had been distin-

a Ilis(, o/Barbadoes, 65, l> Epi^ramtn. Deled Ab- 234.

NdlSES OF INSECTS. 403

giiished by a harsh and deafening note, like those of
some other countries, it would hardly have been an ob-
ject of such affection. That it was not, is clearly proved
by the connexion which v» as supposed to exist between
it and music. Thus the sound of this insect and of the
harp were called by one and the same name''. A Ci-
cada sitting upon a harp was a usual emblem of the sci-
ence of music, which was thus accounted for: — When
two rival musicians, Eunomus and Ariston, were con-
tending- upon that instruuient, a Cicada flying to the
former and sitting upon his harp, supplied the place of
a broken string, and so secured to him the victory''*
To excel this animal in singing seems to have been the
highest commendation of a singer; and even the elo-
quence of Plato was not thought to suffer by a compa-
rison with it*". At Surinam the noise of the Tettigonia
Tibicen is still supposed so much to resemble the sound
of a harp or lyre, that they are called there harpers
(Lierman)^. Whether the Grecian Cicadas maintain
at present their ancient character for music, travellers
do not tell us.

Those of other countries, however, have been held
in less estimation for their powers of song ; or rather
have been execrated for the deafening din that they
produce. Virgil accuses those of ftaly of bursting the
very shrubs with their noise^; and Dr. Smith observes
that this species, which is very common, makes a most
disagreeable dull chirping ^ Another, Tetligonia sep"
lendecim — which fortunately, as its name imports, ap-

a Gr. Tt^iTifffia. b Mouffet, Theatr. 130.

c'hSu8tȣ nxaraiy, xeci TiT'Tti,ni ktoXccXcs. d Merian Surinam. 49.

« Et cantu querulae rumpent arbusta cicadic. Gcorg. iii. 828.
' Smith'!! 7bHr, iii. 95.

2 J) 2

404! NOISES OF INSECTS.

pears 6tily once in seventeen years — makes suchf a con*
tinual din from morning to evening that people cannot
hear each other speak. They appear in Pennsylvania
in incredible numbers in the middle of May*. — " In
the hotter months of summer," says Dr. Shaw, "espe-
cially from midday to the middle of the afternoon, the
Cicada, tstti^, or grasshopper, as we falsely translate
it, is perpetually stunning our ears with its most ex-
cessively shrill and ungrateful noise. It is in this re-
spect the most troublesome and impertinent of insects,
perching upon a twig and squalling sometimes two or
three hours without ceasing ; thereby too often dis-
turbing the studies, or short repose that is frequently
indulged, in these hot climates, at those hours. The
rsTTj^ of the Greeks must have had a quite different
voice, more soft surely and melodious; otherwise the
fine orators of Homer, who are compared to it, can be
looked upon no better than loud loquacious scolds''." —
An insect of this tribe, and I am told a very noisy one,
has been found by Mr. Daniel Bydder, before men-
tioned, in the New Forest, Hampshire. Previously to
this it was not thought that any of these insect musi-
cians were natives of the British Isles. — Captain Han-
cock informs me that the Brazilian Cicada sing so
loud as to be heard to the distance of a mile. This is
as if a man of ordinary stature, supposing his powers of
voice increased in the ratio of his size, could be heard
all over the world. So that Stentor himself beconaes
a mute when compared with these insects.

You feel very curious, doubtless, to know by vyhat

a Collinson in Philos. Trans. 1163. Stoll, Cigahs, 26.
b .'/Vate/i, 2d Ed. ISe.

NOISES or INSECTS. 405

)ncans these little animals are enabled to emit such
prodifl^ious sounds. I have lately mentioned to you the
drum of certain grasshoppers ; this, however, appears
to be an organ of a very simple structure : but since it
is essential to the economy of the Cicadae that their
males should so much exceed all other insects in the
loudness of their tones, they are furnished with a much
more complex, and indeed most wonderful, apparatus,
Avhich I shall now describe. If you look at the under-
side of the body of a male, the first thing- that will
strike you is a pair of large plates of an irregular form
— in some semi-oval, in others triangular, in others
again a segment of a circle of greater or less diameter
— covering the anterior part of the belly, and fixed to
the trunk between the abdomen and the hind legs*.
These are the drum-covers or opercula, from beneath
which the sound issues. At the base of the posterior
legs, just above each operculum, there is a small
pointed triangular process (pessellmn)^, the object of
which, as Reaumur supposes, is to prevent them from
being too much elevated. When an operculum is re-
moved, beneath it you will find on the exterior side a
hollow cavity, with a mouth somewhat linear, which
seems to open into the interior of the abdomen "^ : next
to this, on the inner side, is another large cavity of an
irregular shape, the bottom of which is divided into
three portions; of these theposterior is lined obliquely
with a beautiful membrane, which is very tense — in
some species semi-opake, and in others transparent—

a Plate VIII. Fig 1. 8. a a, Rpaum. v. t. xvi./. 5. u n.

b Plate VIII. Fig. 18, b b. Reaum. ubi svpra, t. svi. f. M.b.

c Reaum. ibid. /. 3. 1 1,

406 NOISES OF INSECTS).

and reflects all the colours of the rainbow. This mir-
ror is not the real origan of sound, but is supposed to
modulate it". The middle portion is occupied by a
plate of a horny substance, placed horizontally and
forming the bottom of the cavity. On its inner side this
plate terminates in a carina or elevated ridge, com-
mon to both drums''. Between the plate and the after-
breast (postpectus) another membrane, folded trans-
versely, fills an oblique, oblong, or semi-lunar cavity*^.
In some species 1 have seen this membrane in tension
— probably the insect can stretch or relax it at its plea-
sure. But even all this apparatus is insufficient to
produce the sound of these animals; — one stil more
important and curious yet remains to be described.
This organ can only be discovered by dissection. A
portion of the first and second segments being removed
from that side of the back of the abdomen which an-
swers to the drums, two bundles of muscles meeting
each other in an acute angle, attached to a place oppo-
site to the point of the mucro of the first ventral seg-
ment of the abdomen, will appear''. In Reaumur's
specimens these bundles of muscles seem to have been
cylindrical ; but in one I dissected ( Tetiigonia capensis)
they were tubiform, the end to which the true drum is
attached being dilated^. These bundles consist of a
prodigious number of muscular fibres applied to each
other, but easily separable. Whilst Reaumur was
examining one of these, pulling it from its place with a
pin, he let it go again, and immediately, though the
animal had been long dead, the usual sound was

a'Reaum.uij supra,/. 3. mm. b Ibid, q.q, c. c Ibid, wn,

4 Ibiil./. 6.//. e Ibid,/. 9. //. Plate VIII. Fig. 19. bb. "

NOISES OF INSECTS. 407

emitted. On each side of the drum-cavitios, when the
opercula are removed, another cavity of a lunulute
sluipe, opening into the interior of tlie abdomen, is ob-
servable^. In this is the true drum, the principal or-
gan of sound, and its aperture is to the Cicada what
our larynx is to us. If these creatures are unable
themselves to modulate their sounds, here are parts
enough to do it for them : for the mirrors, the mem-
branes, and the central portions, with their cavities,
all assist in it. In the cavity last described, if you re-
move the lateral part of the first dorsal segment of the
abdomen, you will discover a semi-opaque and nearly
semicircular concavo-convex membrane with trans-
verse folds — this is the drum'^. Each bundle of mus-
cles, before mentioned, is terminated by a tendinous
plate nearly circular, from which issue several little
tendons that, forming a thread, pass through an aper-
ture in the horny piece that supports the drum, and are
attached to its under or concave surface. Thus the
bundle of muscles being alternately and briskly relaxed
and contracted, will by its play draw in and let out the
drum : so that its convex surface being thus rendered
concave when pulled in, when let out a sound will be
produced by the effort to recover its convexity ; which,
striking upon the mirror and other membranes before
it escapes from under the operculum, will be ijiodulated
and augmented by them ". 1 should imagine that the

a Reaum. ubi supr.f. 3. II. b Ibid./. 6.^^/9.

c Plate VIII. Fig. 19, cc. The figure given in this plate does not
show the drums clearly ; but the principal object of it was to exhibit the
bundles of muscles, which are of a different form from those in Reaumur's
figures. In the above figure, a. is the mirror ,• bb. the bunches of mm'
cles; cc. the drums; d. the back of the abdomen; e. the belly.

408 NOISES OF INSECTS.

muscular bundles are extended and contracted by the
alternate approach and recession of the trunk and ab-
domen to and from each other.

And now, my friend, what adorable wisdom, what
consummate art and skill are displayed in the admira-
ble contrivance and complex structure of this wonder-
ful, this unparalleled apparatus ! The Great Cre-
ator has placed in these insects an organ for producing
and emitting sounds, which in the intricacy of its con-
struction seems to resemble that which he has given to
man, and the larger animals, for receiving them. Here
is a cochlea ; a meatus ; and, as it should seem, more
than one tympanum.

J am, &c.

LETTER XXV.

ON LUMINOUS INSECTS.

We boast of our candles, our wax-lights, and our
Argand-lanips, and pity our fellow-men who, ignorant
of our methods of producing artificial light, are con-
demned to pass their nights in darkness. We regard
these inventions as the results of a great exertion of
human intellect, and never conceive it possible that
other animals are able to avail themselves of modes of
illumination equally efficient; and are furnished with
the means of guiding their nocturnal evolutions by
actual lights, similar in their effect to those which we
make use of. Yet many insects are thus provided.
Some are forced to content themselves with a single
candle, not more vivid than the rush-light which glim-
mers in the peasant's cottage; others exhibit two or
ibur, which cast a stronger radiance ; and a few can
display a lamp little inferior in brilliancy to som€ of
ours. Not that these insects are actually possessed of
candles and lamps. You gre aware that I am speak-
ing figuratively. But Providence has supplied them
with an effectual substitute — a luminous preparation
or secretion, which has all the advantages of our lamps
and candles without their inconveniences ; which gives
light sufficient to direct their motions, while it is' inca-

410 LUMINOUS INSECTS.

pable of burning; and whose lustre is maintained with-
out needing fresh supplies of oil or the application of
the snuffers.

Of the insects thus singularly provided, the common
glow-worm (Lamp?/ris noctiluca) is the most familiar
instance. Who that has ever enjoyed the luxury of a
summer evening's walk in the country, in the southern
parts of our island, but has viewed with admiration
these " stars of the earth and diamonds of the night?"
And if, living like me in a district where it is rarely
met with, the first time you saw this insect, chanced
to be, as it was in my case, one of those delightful
evenings which an English summer seldom yields, when
not a breeze disturbs the balmy air, and " every sense
is joy," and hundreds of these radiant worms, studding
their mossy couch with mild effulgence, were presented
to your wondering eye in the course of a quarter of a
mile, — you could not help associating with the name
of glow-worm the most pleasing recollections. No
wonder that an insect, which chiefly exhibits itself on
occasions so interesting, and whose economy is so
remarkable, should have afforded exquisite images
and illustrations to those poets who have cultivated
Natural History.

If you take one of these glow-worms home with you
for examination, you will fjnd that in shape it some-
what resembles a caterpillar, only that it is much more
depressed; and you will observe that the liglit pro-
ceeds from a pale-coloured patch that terminates the
underside of the abdomen. It is not, liowever, the
iarva of an insect, but the perfect female of a winged
beetle, from which it is altogether so different, that

LUMINOUS INSECTS. 411

nothing but actual observation could have inferred the
fact of their being- the sexes of the same iiisect. In the
course of our inquiries you will find that sexual difte-
rences even more extraordinary exist in the insect
\vorld.

It has been supposed by many that the males of tlie
different species of JLaw7/}7/m do not possess the pro-
perty of giving out any light ; but it is now ascertained
that this supposition is inaccurate, though tlieir light
is much less vivid than that of tJic female. Ray first
pointed out this fact with respect to L. nGctiluca'' .
Geoifroy also observed that the male of this species \\zi
four small luminous points, two on each of the two last
segments of the belly'' : and his observation has been
recently confirmed by Miiiler. This last entomologist,
indeed, saw only two shining spots ; but from the in-
sect's having the power of withdrawing them out of
sight so that not the smallest trace of light remains, he
thinks it is not improbable that at times two other
points still smaller may be exhibited, as Geoifroy
has described. In the males of L. Splcndidula and of
L. hemiptera the light is very distinct, and may be seen
in the former while flying'^. — The females have the
same faculty of extinguishing or concealing their light
— a very necessary provision to guard them from the
attacks of nocturnal birds : Mr. White even thinks
that tliey regularly put it out between eleven and
twelve every night'' : and they have also the power of
rendering it for a while more vivid than ordinary.

Authors who have noticed the luminous parts of <he

a. Hist. Ins. 81. h Jlist. abre^. i. 1C8. <• ll'.igpr Mag. iv. 195.

^ Nnt. Hist. ii,279.

.412 LUMINOUS INSECTS.

eonimon female glow-worm, having usually contented
themselves with stating that the light issues from the
three last ventral segments of the abdomen* ; I shall give
you the result of some observations I once made upon
this subject. One evening, in the beginning of July,
meeting with two of these insects, I placed them on my
hand. At first their light was exceedingly brilliant, so
as to appear even at the junctions of the upper or dor-
sal segments of the abdomen. Soon after I had taken
them, one withdrew its light altogether, but the other
continued to shine. While it did this it was laid upon
its back, the abdomen forming an angle with the rest
of its body, and the last or anal segment being kept in
constant motion. This segment was distinguished by
two round and vei'y vivid spots of light; which, in the
specimen that had ceased to shine, were the last that
disappeared, and they seem to be the first parts that
become luminous when the animal is disposed to yield
its light. The penultimate and antepenultimate seg-
ments each exhibited a middle transverse band of yel-
low radiance, terminated towards the trunk by an
obtusely-dentated line ; a greener and fainter light
being emitted by the rest of the segment.

Though many of the females of the different species
of Lampi/ris are without wings and even elytra, (in
which circumstance they differ from all other apterous
Coleoptera^) this is not the case with all. The female
ot L. italica, a species common in Italy, and which, if
we may trust to the accuracy of the account given by
Mr. Waller in the Philosophical Transaclions for 1684,
would seem to have been taken by him in Hertford-
it GeoflFi-. i, 167. De Gecr, iv. 35.

LUMINOUS INSECTS. 413

shirr, is winged ; and when a number of these moving
stars are seen to dart through the air in a dark night,
nothina; can have a more beautiful effect. Dr. Smith
tells us that the beaus of Italy are accustomed in an
evening to adorn the heads of the ladies with these ar-
tificial diamonds by sticking them into their hair; and
a similar custom, as I have before informed you% pre-
vails amongst the ladies of India.

Besides the difTorent species of the genus Lamp?/ris,
all of which are probably more or less luminous, an-
other insect of the beetle tribe, Elaler noctiluciis, is en-
dowed with the same property, and that in a much
higlier degree. This insect, which is an inch long,
and about one-third of an inch broad, gives out its
principal light from two transparent eye-like tubercles
placed upon the thorax ; but there are also two lumi-
nous patches concealed under the elytra, which are not
visible except when the insect is flying, at which time
it appears adorned with four brilliant gems of the most
beautiful golden-blue lustre : in fact, the whole body is
full of light, which shines out between the abdominal
segments when stretched. The light emitted by the
two thoracic tubercles alone is so considerable, that
the smallest print may be read by moving one of these
insects along the lines; and in the West India islands,
particularly in St. Domingo, where they are very com-
mon, the natives were formerly accustomed to employ
these living lamps, which they called CucuiJ, instead of
candles in performing their evening household occupa-
tion-. In travelling at night they used to tie one to
each great to? : and in fishing and hunting required no

« Vor- I. 2d E-1.3i5.

414 JLUMliNOUS INSECtr.

other flambeau^. — Southey has happily introduced thl?
insect in his " Madoc'" as furnishing the lamp by which
Coatel rescued the British hero from the hands of the
Mexican priests.

'* She beckoned and descended, and drew out
From underneath her vest a cage, or net
It rather might be called, so line the twigs
Which knit it, where, confined, two Fire-flies gave
Their lustre. By that light did Madoc first
Behold the features of his lovely .'^aide."

Pietro Martire tells us that the Cucuij serve the na--
lives of tlie Spanish West India islands not only in-
stead of candles, but as extirpators of the gnats, which
are adreadful pest to the inhabitants of the low grounds.
They introduce a few fire-Hies, to which the gnats are
a grateful food, into their houses, and by means of
these "commodious hunters" are soon rid of the in-
truders. "How they are a remedy," says this author,
" for so great a mischiefe it is a pleasant thing to hear.
Hee who understandeth he hath those troublesome
guestes (the gnattes) at home, diligently hunteth after
the Cucuij. Whoso wanteth Cucuij goeth out of the
house in the first twilight of the night, carrying a
burning fire-brande in his hande, and ascendeth ttie
next hillock tliat the Cucuij mayseeit,and heeswingeth
the fire-brande about, calling Cucuius aloud, and beat-
eth the ayre with often calling out Cucuie, Cucuie"
He goes on to observe, that the simple people believe
the insect is attracted by their invitations ; but that,
for his part he is rather inclined to think that the fire

a Pieiro Martire, T/i^ Decudes of the Neva World, quoted in Mad^c,

LUMINOUS INSECTS. 41.5

is the magnet. Having obtained a sufficient number
of Cucuij, the beetle-hunter returns home and lets them
fly looae in the house, where they diligently seek the
g-nats about the beds and the faces of those asleep, and
devour them''. — These insects are also applied to pur-
poses of decoration. On certain festival days, in the
month of June, they are collected in great numbers,
and tied all over the garments of the young people, who
gallop through the streets on horses similarly orna-
mented, producing on a dark evening the effect of a
large moving body of light. On such occasions the
lover displays his gallantry by decking his mistress with
these living gems''. And according to P. Martire,
" many wanton wilde fellowes" rub their faces with
the flesh of a killed Cucuius, as boys with us use phos-
phorus, " with purpose to meet their neighbours with
a flaming countenance," and derive amusement from
their fright.

Besides Elater noclilucus, E. igniius and several
others of the same genus are luminous. Not fewer than
twelve species of this family are described by Illiger
in the Berlin Naturalist Societi/'s JSIagazine'^ .

The brilliant nocturnal spectacle presented by these
insects to the inhabitants of the countries where they
abound cannot be better described than in the language
of the poet above referred to, who has thus related its
first effect upon the British visitors of the new world :

" Sorrowing wc beheld

The night come on ; but soon did night display
More wonders than it veil'd : innuraerous tribes

a P, Martire, nJn siipr. b Walton's Present State of the Spaniah

Cciluniei, i. 128. c Ja/irffang, i. 141.

'ttG LUMI^NOl}S INSECTS.

From the wood-cover swarra'd, and darkness made
Their beauties visible : one while they streamed
A bright blue radiance upon flowers that closed
Their gorgeous colours from the eye of day ;
Now motionless and dark, eluded search,
Self-shrouded; and anon, starring the sky,
Rose like a shower of fire."

The beautiful poetical imagery with which Mr.
Southey has decorated this and a few other entomolo-
gical facts, will make you join in my regret that a morp
extensive acquaintance with the science has not enalaled
hira to spread his embellishments over a greater num-
ber. The gratification which the entomologist derives
from seeing his favourite study adorned with the grace?
of poetry is seldom unalloyed with pain, aj'ising from
the inaccurate knowledge of the subject in the poet.
Dr. Darwin's description of the beetle to which the nut-
maggot is transformed may delight him (at least if he
be an admirer of the Darwinian style) as he read?>
for the first time,

"So sleeps in silence the Curculio, shut
In the dark chamber of the cavern'd nut ;
Erodes with ivory beak the vaulted shell,
And quits on filmy wings its narrow cell."

But when the music of the lines has allowed him roam
for pause, and he recollects that they are built wholly
upon an incorrect supposition, the Curculio never in-
habiting the nut in its beetle shape, nor employing its
ivory beak upon it, but undergoing its transformation
underground, he feels disappointed that the passage
has not truth as well as sound. — Mr. Southey, too, has
fallen into an error : ho confounds the fire-fly of St.

LUMINOUS INSECTS. 417

Domingo {Elater nocliliicus) with a quite difFerent in-
sect, the lantern-fly {FuJgora laternaria) of Madam Me-
rian; but happily this error does not affect his poetry.

But to return from this digression. — If we are to be-
lieve Mouffet, (and the story is not incredible,) the ap-
pearance of the tropical fire-flies on one occasion led
to a more important result than might have been ex-
pected from such a cause. He tells us, that when Sir
Thomas Cavendish and Sir Robert Dudley first landed
in the West Indies, and saw in the evening an infinite
number of moving lights in tlie woods, which were
merely these insects, they supposed that the Spaniards
were advancing upon them, and immediately betook
themselves to their ships'^: — a result as well entitling
the Elaters to a commemoration feast, as a similar good
office the land-crabs of Hispaniola, which, as the Spa-
niards tell, (and the story is confirmed by an anniver-
sary Fiesta de 16s Cangrejos,) by their clattering — mis-
taken by the enemy for the sound of Spanish cavalry
close upon their heels — in like manner scared away a
body of English invaders of the city of St. Domingo **.

An anecdote less improbable, perhaps, and certainly
more ludicrous, is related by Sir James Smith of the ef-
fect of the first sight of the Italian fire-flies upon some
Moorish ladies ignorant of such appearances. These
females had been taken prisoners at sea, and, until they
could be ransomed, lived in a house in the outskirts of
Genoa, where they were frequently visited by the re-
spectable inhabitants of the city ; a party of whom, on go-
ing one evening, were surprised to find the house closely
shut up, and their Moorish friends in the greatest grief

a 112. b Walton's Hispaniola, i. 39.

VOL. II. 2 15

418 LUMINOUS INSECTS.

and consternation. On inquiring into the cause, they
ascertained that some of the Lcwrp7/ris italicahad found
their way into the dwelling, and that the ladies within
had taken it into their heads that these brilliant guests
were no other than the troubled spirits of their rela-
tions ; of which idea it was some time before they could
be divested. — The common people in Italy have a su-
perstition respecting these insects somewhat similar,
believing that they are of a spiritual nature, and
proceed out of the graves, and hence carefully avoid
them ^.

The insects hitherto adverted to have been beetles,
or of the order Coleoptera. But besides these, a genus
in the order Hemiptera, called Fidgora, includes seve-
ral species which emit so powerful a light as to have
obtained in English the generic appellation of Lantern-'
jlies. Two of the most conspicuous of this tribe are
the F. laternaria and F. candelaria ; the former a na-
tive of South America, the latter of China. Both, as
indeed is the case with the whole genus, have the ma-
terial which diffuses their light included in a hollow
subtransparent projection of the head. In F. candelaria
this projection is of a subcylindrical shape, recurved at
the apex, above an inch in length, and the thickness of
a small quill. We may easily conceive, as travellers
assure us, that a tree studded with multitudes of these
living sparks, some at rest and others in motion, must
at night have a superlatively splendid appearance. — In
F. laternaria, which is an insect two or three inches
long, the snout is much larger and broader, and more
of an oval shape, and sheds a light the brilliancy of

a Tow on the Continent, 2d Edit. iii. 85.

LUMINOUS INSECTS. 419

which transcends that of any other luminous insect.
Madam Merian informs us, that the first discovery
which she made of this property caused her no small
alarm. The Indians had brought her several of thesei
insects, which by day-light exhibited no extraordinary
appearance, and sl)e inclosed them in a box until she
should have an opportunity of drawing them, placing
it upon a table in her lodging-room. In the middle of
the night the confined insects made such a noise as to
awake her, and slie opened the box, the inside of
which to her great astonishment appeared all in a
blaze ; and in her fright letting it fail, she was not less
surprised to see each of the insects apparently on fire.
She soon, however, divined the cause of this unex-
pected phenomenon, and re-inclosed her brilliant guests
in their place of confinement. She adds, that the light
of one of these Fulgorce is sufficiently bright to read a
newspaper by : and though the tale of her having
drawn one of these insects by its own light is without
foundation, s!ie doubtless might have done so if she
had chosen*. — Another species {F. pi/rrhorT/nchus) is
f}gured by Mr. Donovan in his Insects of India, of*

a Ins. Stir. 49. — Tlie above account of the luminous properties of
Fulgora lalcrnaria is given, because nep;ative evidence ought not hastily
to be allowed to set aside facts positively asserted by an author whose
Veracity is unimpcached ; but it is necessary to state, that not only have
several of tlic inliabitants of Cayenne, according to the French Dic-
tionnaire (Vltisloirc Nuturelle, denied that this insect shines, in which de-
nial they are joined by M. Richard, who reared the species {Encyclo-
peaie.j art. Fnlgora) ; but the learned and accurate Count HofTmansegg
informs us, that his insect collector Sieber, a practised entomologist of
thirty years standing, arid who, when in the Brazils for some years, took
many specimens, affirms, that he never saw a single one in the 1 ast lu»
luiaous. Der Gesdhchafl Naturf. Fr. zu Berlin Mag. i. 153i
2 E 2

LUMINOUS INSECTS.

which the light, though from a smaller snout than that
of F. laternaria, must assume a more splendid and stri-
king appearance, the projection being of a rich deep
purple from the base to near the apex, which is of a
fine transparent scarlet ; and these tints will of course
be imparted to the transmitted light.

In addition to the insects already mentioned, some
others have the power of diffusing light, as two species
of Scolopendra (S. electrica and phosphorea), and pro-
bably others of the same genus. In these the light is
not confined to one part, but proceeds from the whole
body. S. electrica is a common insect in this country,
residing under clods of earth, and often visible at
night in gardens. S. phosphorea, a native of Asia, is an
obscure species, described by Linne, on the authority
of C. G. Ekeberg, the captain of a Swedish East India-
man, who asserted that it dropped from the air, shining
like a glow-worm, upon his ship, when sailing in the
Indian ocean a hundred miles (Swedish) from the con-
tinent. However singular this statement, it is not in-
credible. The insect may either, as Linne suspects,
have been elevated into the atmosphere by wings with
which, according to him, one species of the genus is
provided ; or more piobably, perhaps, by a strong
wind, such as that which raised into the air the shower
of insects mentioned by De Geer as occurring in Swe-
den in the winter of 1749, after a violent storm that
had torn up trees by the roots, and carried away to a
great distance the surrounding earth, and insects which
had taken up their winter quarters amongst it ^ That

a De Geer, iv. 63. — These insects, which were chiefly Staphylini, L.,
email Scarabtei, L., spiders, caterpillars, but particularly the larvae of

LUMINOUS INSECTS. 421

the wind may convey the light body of an insect to the
above-mentioned distance from land, you will not dis-
pute when you call to mind that our friend Hooker, in
his interesting Tour in Iceland, tells us that the ashes
from the eruption of one of the Icelandic volcanos in
1755 were conveyed to Ferrol, a distance of upwards
of 300 miles*. — Lastly, to conclude my list of luminous
insects, Professor Afzelius observed " a dim phospho-
ric light" to be emitted from the singular hollow an-
tennae o{ Pmisits sphcerocerus^. A similar appearance
has been noticed in the eyes of Noctua Psi, Bom-
hyx Cossus, and other moths. Chiroscelis bifenestrata
of Lamarck, a beetle, has two red oval spots covered
with a downy membrane on the second segment of the
abdomen, which he thinks indicate some particular or-
gan perhaps luminous*^: and M. Latreille informs me
that a friend of his, who saw one living which was brought
from China to the Isle of France in wood, found that
the ocelli in the elytra of Buprestis oceUata were lu-
minous.

But besides the insects here enumerated, others may
be luminous which have not hitherto been suspected of
being so. This seems proved by the following fact.
A learned friend "^ has informed me, that when he was

Cantharisfusca, fell in such abundance that they might have been taken
from the snow by handfuls. — Other showers of insects which have been
recorded, as that in Hungary, 20th November 1672 {Ephem, Nat. Curios,
1673.80.),and one mentioned in the newspapers ofJuly 2d, 1810, to have
fallen in France the January preceding, accompanied by a shower of
red snow, may evidently be explained in the same manner.

a p. 40T. b Linn. Trans, iv. 261. c Latr. Hist. Nat. x. 262.

<l Rev. Dr. Sutton of Norwich.

422 LUMINOUS INSECTS.

cirrate of Ickleton, Cambridgeshire, in 1780, a farmer
of that place of the name of Simpringham brought to
him a mole-cricket {Gryllotalpa vulgaris^ Latr.), and
told him that one of his people, seeing a Jack- o"* lantern,
pursued it and knocked it down, when it proved to be
this insect, and the identical specimen shown to him.

This singular fact, while it renders it probable that
some insects are luminous which no one lias imagined
to be so, seems to afford a clue to the, at least, partial
explanation of the very obscure subject of ignes fatui,
and to show that there is considerable ground for the
opinion long ago maintained by Ray and Willughby,
that the majority of these supposed meteors are no
other than luminous insects. That the large varying
lambent flames, mentioned by Beccaria to be very com-
mon in some parts of Italy, and the luminous globe seen
by Dr. Shaw'* cannot be thus explained, is obvious.
These were probably electrical phenomena : certainly
not explosions of phosphuretted hydrogene, as has been
suggested by some, which must necessarily have been
momentary. But that the ignis fatuus mentioned by
Derham as having been seen by himself, and which he
describes as flitting about a thistle**, was, though he
seems of a different opinion, no other than some lumi-
nous insect, I have little doubt. Mr. Sheppard informs
me that, travelling one night between Stamford and
Grantham on the top of the stage, he observed for
more than ten minutes a very large ignis fatuus in the
low marshy grounds, which had every appearance of
^eing an insect. The wind was very high : consequently,

a Travels, 2d Ed. 334. b Phil. Trans. 1T29. 201.

LUMINOUS INSECTS. 423

had it been a vapour, it must have been carried for-
ward in a direct line ; but this was not the case. It
had the same motions as a Tipula, flyings upwards and
downwards, backwards and forwards, sometimes ap-
pearing- as settled, and sometimes as hovering in tlie
air. — Whatever be the true nature of these meteors, of
which so much is said and so little known, it is singu-
lar how few modern instances of their having been ob-
served are on record. Dr. Darwin declares, that
though in the course of a long life he had been out in
the night, and in the places where they are said to ap-
pear, times without number, he had never seen any
thing of the kind : and from the silence of other philo-
sophers of our own times, it should seem that their ex-
perience is similar.

With regard to the immediate source of the lumi-
nous properties of these insects, Mr. Macartney, to
whom we are indebted for the most recent investiga-
tion on the subject, has ascertained that in the common
glow-worm, and in Elater noctilucus and ignitus, the
light proceeds from masses of a substance not generally
differing, except in its yellow colour, from the intersti-
tial substance (corps graisseux) of the rest of the body,
closely applied underneath those transparent parts of
the insects' skin which afford the light. In the glow-
worm, besides the last-mentioned substance, which,
when the season for giving light is passed, is absorbed,
and replaced by the common interstitial substance, he
observed on the inner side of the last abdominal seg-
ment two minute oval sacs formed of an elastic spirally-
wound fibre similar to that of the tracheae, containing

^t24 LUMlJfOUS INSECTS.

a soft j-ellow substance of a closer texture than that
which lines the adjoining region, and affording a more
permanent and brilliant light. This light he found to
be less under the control of the insect than that from
the adjoining luminous substance, which it has the
power of voluntarily extinguishing, not by retracting
it under a membrane, as Carradori imagined, but by
some inscrutable change dependent upon its will: and
when the latter substance was extracted from living
glow-worms it afforded no light, while the two sacs in
like circumstances shone uninterruptedly for several
hours. Mr. Macartney conceives, from the radiated
structure of the interstitial substance surrounding the
•oral yellow masses immediately under the transparent
spots in the thorax of Elatcr noctilucus, and the sub-
transparency of the adjoining crust, that the intersti-
tial substance in this situation has also the property of
shining — a supposition which, if De Geer and other
authors be correct in stating that this insect has two
luminous patches under its elytra, and that the inci-
sures between the abdominal segments shine when
stretched, may probably be extended to the whole of
the interstitial substance of its body. — What peculiar
organization contributes to the production of light in
the hollow projections of Fi/lgora laternaria and cande'
laria, the hollow antenna of Pausus sphcerocerus, and
under the whole integument of Scolopendra electrica^
Mr. Macartney was una!)le to ascertain. Respecting
this last he remarks, what 1 have myself observed, that
there is an apparent effusion of a luminous fluid on its
surface, that may be received upon the hand, which ex-
hibits a phosphoric light for a few seconds a^rwards ;

MTMINOUS INSECTS, 425

and tliat it vv ill not shine unless it have been previously
exposed for a short time to the solar light*.

With respect to the remote cause of the luminous
property of insects, philosophers are considerably di-
vided in opinion. The disciples of modern Chemistry
have in general, with Dr. Darwin, referred it to the
slow combustion of some combination of phosphorus
secreted from their fluids by an appropriate organiza-
tion, and entering into combination with the oxygene
supplied in respiration. This opinion is very plausibly
built upon tlie ascertained existence of phosphoric acid
as an animal secretion ; the great resemblance between
the light of phosphorus in slow combustion and animal
light; the remarkably large spiracula in glow-worms;
and upon the statement, that the light of the glow-worm
is rendered more brilliant by the application of heat
and oxygene gas, and is extinguished by cold and by
hydrogene and carbonic acid gases. From these last
facts Spallanzani was led to regard the luminous mat-
ter as a compound of hydrogene and carburetted hydro-
gene gas. Carradori having found that the luminous
portion of the belly of the Italian glow-worm {Lampt/-
ris ilalica) shone in vacuo, in oil, in water, and when un-
der other circumstances where the presence of oxygene
gas was precluded, with Brugnatelli ascribed the pro-
perty in question to the imbibition of light separated
from the food or air taken into the body, and after-

a Phil. Trnns. 1810, p. 281.— Mr. Macartney's statement on this point
is not very clear. He probably means that the insect w ill not shine in a
(lark place in the day time, iinlesr, previously exposed to the f»^5ar light:
for it is often seen to shine at right when it coiiid have had no recent ex-
pssure to the snn.

426 LUMINOUS INSECTS.

wards secreted in a sensible form''. Lastly, Mr. Ma-
cartney having- ascertained by experiment that the light
of a glow-worm is not diminished by immersion in wa-
ter, or increased by the application of heat; that the
substance aftbrding- it, though poetically cniplojed for
lighting- the fairies' tapers'", is incapable of inflamma-
tion if applied to the flame of a candle or red-hot iron;
and when separated from the body exhibits no sensible
heat on the thermometer's being applied to it — rejects
the preceding hyj)otheses as unsatisfactory, but without
substituting- any other explanation; suggesting, how-
ever, that the facts he observed are more favourable
to the supposition of light being a quality of matter
than a substance''.

Which of these opinions is the more correct I do not
pretend to decide. But though the experiments of Mr.
Macartney seem fairly to bear him out in denying the

a Jniud. di C/iimica,xn\. 1797. PhiJ. Mag. ii. 80.

l> " And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs,
And light them at the fiery glow-worms' eyes."

c Some experiments made by my friend the Rev. R. Sheppard on the
glow-worm are worthy of being recorded. — One of the receptacles
being extracted with a penknife continued himinous; but on being im-
mersed in camphorated spirit of wine became immediately extinct.
The animal, with one of its receptacles uninjured, being plunged into the
same spirit, became apparently lifeless in less than a minute; but the re-
ceptacle continued luminous for five minutes, the light gradually disap-
pearing.— Having extracted the luminous matter from tlic receptacles,
in two days they were healed, and filled with luminous matter as before.
He found this matter to lose its luminous property, and become dry and
glossy like gum, in about two minutes; but it recovered it again on being
moistened with saliva, and again lost it when dried. When the matter
was extracted from two or three glow-worms, and covered with liquid
gum-arabic, it continued luminous for upwards of a quarter of an hour.

LUMINOUS INSECTS. 427

existence of any ordinary combination of phosphorus
in luminous insects, there exists a contradiction in
many of the statements, which requires reconciling; be-
fore final decision can be pronounced. The diiferent
results obtained by Forster and Spallanzani, who as-
sert that glow-worms shine more brilliantly in oxygene
gas, and by Beckerheim, Dr. Ilulme, and Sir II. Davy,
who could perceive no such effect, may perhaps be ac-
counted for by the supposition tliat in tlie latter in-
stances the insects Imving- been taken more recently,
might be less sensible to the stimulus of the gas than
in the former, where possibly their irritability was, as
Brown would say, accumulated by a longer abstinence :
but it is not so easy to reconcile the experiment of Sir
H. Davy, who found the light of the glow-worm not
to be sensibly diminished in hydrogene gas^, with those
of Spallanzani and Dr. Hulme, who found it to be ex-
tinguished by the same gas, as well as by carbonic
acid, nitrous and sulphuretted hydrogene gases''. Pos-
sibly some of these contradictory, results were occa-
sioned by not adverting to the faculty vt'hich the living
insect possesses of extinguishing its lights at pleasure;
or different philosophers may have experimented on
different species of Lampyris.

The general use of this singular provision is not
much more satisfactorily ascertained than its nature.
I have before conjectured — and in an instance I then
related it seemed to be so — that it may be a means of
defence against their enemies •=. In different kinds of
jnsectSj however, it may probably have a different ob>-

a PhUos. Trans. 1810, p. 587, b Ibid. ISO!, j). 483,

F Spc above, p. 228. ,

42S LUMINOUS IJSSECrS.

ject. Thus in the lantern-flies (Fulgora), whose light
precedes them, it may act the part that their name im-
ports, enabling them to discover their prey, and to steer
themselves safely in the night. In the tire-flies (Eluier)^
if we consider the inhnite numbers that in certain cli*
mates and situations present themselves every where in
the night, it may distract the attention of tlieireneuiies
or alarm them. And in the glow-worm — since their
light is usually most brilliant in the female ; in some
species, if not all, present only in the season M'hen the
sexes are destined to meet ; and strikingly more vivid
at the very moment when the meeting takes place ^ —
besides the above uses, it is most probably intended to
conduct the sexes to each other. This seems evidently
the design in view in those species in which, as in the
common glow-worm (L. noctiluca, L.), the females are
apterous. The torch which the wingless female, doomed
to crawl upon the grass, lights up at the approach of
night, is a beacon which unerringly guides the vagrant
male to her " love-illumined form," however obscure
the place of her abode. It has been objected, how-
ever, to this explanation, that — since both larva and
pupa, as De Geer observe^]'', and the males shine as
well as the females — the meeting of the sexes can
scarcely be the object of their luminous provision.
But this difficulty appears to me easily surmounted.
As the light proceeds from a peculiarly organized sub-
stance, which probably must in part be elaborated in
the larva and pupa states, there seems nothing incon-
sistent in the fact of so}ne light being then emitted,
with the supposition of its being destined solely for

•■' ]V^ull?r in Jliig. Mag. iv. 178. •> iv. i9.

LUMINOUS INSECTS. 42^1

use in the perfect state : and the circumstance of the
male having the same luniinoiis property, no more
proves that the superior brilliancy of the female is not
intended for conducting him to her, than the existence
of nipples and sometimes of milk in man proves that
the breast of woman is not meant for the support of
her offspring. We often see, without being able to
account for the fact, except on Sir E. Home's idea,
that tlie sex of the ovum is undetermined', traces of
an organization in one sex indisputably intended for
the sole use of the other.

I am, ■Sec.

« Phil. Tram. 1199. 157.

LETTER XXVl

ON THE HYBERNATION AND TORPP
DITY OF INSECTS.

If insects can boast of enjoying- a greater variety of
food than many other tribes of animals, this advantage
seems at first siglit more than counterbalanced in our
climates, by the temporary nature of their supply. The
graminivorous quadrupeds, with few exceptions, how-
ever scanty their bill of fare, and their carnivorous
brethren, as well as the whole race of birds and fishesj
can at all seasons satisfy, in greater or less abundance,
their demand for food. But to the great majority of
insects, the earth for nearly one half of the year is A
barren desert, affording no appropriate nutriment. As
soon as winter has stripped the vegetable world of its
foliage, the vast hosts of insects that feed on the leaves
of plants must necessarily fast until the return of^
spring: and even the carnivorous tribes, such as the
CarahidcB, Ichneumonida;, Spliegiadce, &c. would at
that period of the year in vain look for their accus-
tomed prey.

How is this difficulty provided for? In what mode
has the Universal Parent secured an uninterrupted
succession of generations in a class of animals for the
most part doomed to a six months' deprivation of the
food which they ordinarily devour with such voracity ?
By a beautiful series of provisions founded on the fa-

HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 4Sl

culty, common also to some of the larger animals, of
passing the winter in a state of torpor — hy ordaining
that t]ie insect shall live through that period, either in
an incomplete state of its existence when its organs of
nutrition are undeveloped, or, if the active epoch of its
life has commenced, that it shall seek out appropriate
hyhernacida or winter quarters, and in them fall into
a profound sleep, dming which a supply of food is
equally unnecessary.

In two of the four states of existence common to in-
sects, in which different tribes pass the winter, namely,
the egg and the pupa state, the organs for taking food
(except in some cases in the latter) are not developed,
and consequently the animal is incapable of eating.
The existence of insects in these states during the win-
ter, differs from their existence in the same form in sum-
mer only in the greater length of its term. In both
seasons food is alike unnecessary, so that their hy-»
Ijernation in these circumstances has liUle or nothing
analogous to that of larger animals. With this, how-
ever, strictly accords their hybernation in the larva
and imago states, in which their abstinence from food
is solely owing to the torpor that pervades them, and
the consequent non-expenditure of the vital powers.—
I shall attend to tiio peculiarities of their hybernation
in each of these states in the order just laid dovvn ;
premising that we have yet much to learn on this sub-
ject, no observations having been instituted respect-
ing the state in which multitudes of insects pass the
winter.

It is probable that some insects of almost every order
hybernate in the ei^g state : though that these must be

432 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.

comparatively few in number, seems proved from two
considerations : first, That the majority of insects as-
sume the imago, and deposit their eggs in the summer
and early part of autumn, when the heat suffices to hatch
them in a short period : and secondly, That the eggs
of a very large proportion of insects require for their
due exclusion and the nutriment of the larvae spring-
ing from them, conditions only to be fulfilled in sum-
mer, as all those which are laid in young fruits and
seeds ; in the interior and galls of leaves ; in insects
that exist only in summer, &c. &c. The insects which
pass the winter in the egg state are chiefly such as
have several broods in the course of the year, the
females of the last of which lay eggs that, requiring
more heat for their development than then exists, ne-
cessarily remain dormant until the return of spring.

The situation in which the female insect places her
eggs in order to their remaining there through the
winter, is always admirably adapted to the degree of
cold which they are capable of sustaining ; and to the
ensuring a due supply of food for the nascent larvae.
Thus, with the former view, Gri/llus verrucivorus and
many other insects whose eggs are of a tender con-
sistence, deposit them deep in the earth out of the
reach of frost; and with the latter, Bombi/x Neustria,
3. castrensis, B. dispar^ and some other moths, de-
parting from the ordinary instinct of their congeners,
which teaches them to place their eggs upon the hates
of plants, fix theirs to the stem and branches only.
That this variation of procedure has reference to the
hybernation of the eggs of these particular species, is
abundantly obvious. Insects whose eggs are to be

HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 433

hatched in summer, usually fix them slightly to the
leaves upon which the larvae are to feed. But it is
evident thtit, were this plan to be adopted by those
whose eggs remain through the Avinter, their progeny
might be blown away along with the leaf to which they
are attached, far from their destined food. These,
therefore, choose a more stable support, and carefully
fasten them, as has just been observed, either to the
trunk or branches of the tree, whose young leaves in
spring are to be the food of the excluded larvae. The
latter plan is followed by the female o^ Bomhyj^ Neus-
tria, which curiously gums her eggs in bracelets round
the twigs of the hawthorn, &c. But another provi-
sion is demanded. Were these eggs of the usual deli-
cate consistence, and to be attached with the ordinary
slight gluten, they would have a poor chance of sur-
viving the storms of rain and snow and hail to which
for six or eight months they are exposed. They are
therefore covered with a shell much more hard and
thick than common ; packed as closely as possible to
each other ; and the interstices are filled up with a te-
nacious gum, which soon hardens the whole into a
8olid mass almost capable of resisting a penknife. Thus
secured, they defy the elements, and brave the blasts
of winter uninjured. — The female of Bomhi/x dispar,
whose eggs have a more tender shell, glues them in
an oval mass to the stem of a tree (whence the German
gardeners call the larvJE Stamm-rcmpe), and then covers
them with a warm non-conducting coat of hairs pluck-
ed from her own body, equally impervious to cold aild
wet.

Another of those beautiful relations between objects
VOL. II. 2 r

434 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.

at first sight apparently unconnected, which at every
step reward the votaries of Entomology, is afforded
by the coincidence between the period of the hatching
in spring of eggs deposited before winter, and of the
leafing of the trees upon which they have been fixed,
and on whose foliage the larvae are to feed : which two
events, requiring exactly the same temperature, are
always simultaneous. Of this fact I have had a striking
exemplification the last spring (1816). On the 20th
of E^ebruary, observing the twigs of the birches in the
Hull Botanic Garden to be thickly set, especially about
the buds, with minute oval black eggs of some insect
with which I was unacquainted, I brought home a small
branch and set it in ajar of water in my study, in which
is a fire daily, to watch their exclusion. On the 28th of
March I observed that a numerous brood of Aphides
(not A. Befulce, as the wings were without the dark
bands of that species) had been hatched from them, and
that two or three of the lower buds had expanded into
leaves, upon the sap of which they were greedily feast,
ins-. This was full a month before either a leaf of the
birch appeared, or the egg of an Aphis was disclosed
in the open air. — To view the relation of which I am
speaking with due admiration, you must bear in mind
the extremely different periods at which many trees
acquire their leaves, and the consequent difference de-
manded ir. the constitution of the eggs which hyber-
nate upon dissimilar species, to ensure their exclusion,
though acted upon by the mme temperature, earlier
or later, according to the early or late foliation of these
specie?. There is no visible difference between the
conformation of the eggs of the Aphis of the birch and

HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 435

those of the Aphis of the ash ; yet in the same exposure
those of the former shall be hatched, simultaneously
with the expansion of the leaves, nearly a month ear-
lier than those of the latter : thus demonstrably prov-
ing that the hybernation of these eggs is not accidental,
but has been specially ordained by the Author of na-
ture, who has conferred on those of each species a pe-
culiar and appropriate organization.

A niu<^h greater number of insects pass the winter
in the pupa than in the egg state ; probably nine-tenths
of the extensive order Lepidoptera, many in Hymen-
optera, and several in other orders. In placing these
pupae in security from the too great cold of winter and
the attacks of enemies, the larvte from which they are
to be metamorphosed exhibit an anxiety and ingenuity
evidently imparted to them for this express design. A
few are suspended without any covering, though usually
in a sheltered situation. But by far the larger num-
ber are concealed under leaves, in the crevices of trees,
&c., or inclosed in cocoons of silk or other materials
wh'ch will be described to you in a subsequent letter,
and often buried deep under ground out of the reach of
frost. — ^One reason why so many lepidopterous insects
pass the winter as pupae, has been plausibly assigned
by Rosel, in remarking that this is the case with all
the numerous species which feed on annual plants. As
these have no local habitation, dying one year and
springing up from seed in another quarter the next, it
is obvious that eggs deposited upon them in autumn
would have no chance of escaping destruction ; and that
even if the larvae were to be hatched before winter,
and to hybernate in that state, they would have no eer-

^ F 2

436 HYBERNATION OF INSEGTS.

tainty of being in the neighbourhood of their appro-
priate food the next spring. By wintering in the pupa
state, these accidents are etfectually provided against.
The perfect insect is not ready to break forth until the
food of the young, which are to proceed from its eggs,
is sprung up.

To the insects which hybernate in the larva state, of
course belong, in the first place, all those which exist
under that form more than one year ; as many Melo-
lonthoe^ Elateres, Ceramb?/ces, Bupresles^ and several
species of Lihellula, Ephemera., &c. There are also
many larvaB wliich, though their term of life is not a
year, being hatched from the es,^ in autumn, neces-
sarily pass the winter in that state, as those of several
Anobia and other wood-boring insects ; o^Tortria: TVcc-
herana and others of the same family ; of the second
broods of several butterflies, &c. Many of these re-
siding in the ground or in the interior of trees need no
other hybernacula than the holes which they constantly
inhabit; some, as the aquatic larvae, merely hide them-
selves in the sides or muddy bottom of their native
pools ; while others seek for a retreat under moss, dead
leaves, stones, and the bark of decaying trees. Most
of these can boast of no better winter quarters than a
simple unfurnished hole or cavity; but a few, more
provident of comfort, prepare themselves an artificial
habitation. With this view the larva of Bomht/x Cos-
sus, L., as formerly observed in describing the habita-
tions of insects % forms a covering of pieces of wood
lined with fine silk; those of Bomhi/x Humuli, Noctua
radicca, and some other moths, excavate under a stone

ayoL. I.2d Ed.455.

HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 437

a cavity exactly the size of their bodies, to which they
give all round a coating- of silk"; and the larvaB of jPa-
pilio Cratcegi inclose themselves in autumn in cases of
the same material'*, and thus pass the cold season in
small societies of from two to twelve, under a common
covering formed of leaves. Bonnet mentions a trait of
the cleanliness of these insects which is almost ludi-
crous. He observed in one of these nests a sort of
sack containing nothing but grains of excrement; and
a friend assured him that he had seen one of these ca-
terpillars partly protrude itself out of its case, the hind
feet first, to eject a similar grain ; so that it would seem
the society have en their establishment a scavenger,
whose business it is to sweep the streets and convey the
rejectamenta to one grand repository '^ \ This, however
singular, is rendered not improbable from the fact that
beavers dig in their habitations holes solely destined
for a like purpose''.

A very considerable number of insects hybernate in
ihe perfect state, chiefly of the orders Coleoptera, Hemi'
ptera, Hi/menoptera, and Diptera, and especially of the
first. Papilio Urficce, lo, and a few other lepidopterous
species, with a small proportion of the other orders,

a Brahm, Ins.Kal. n. 59. 118.

b I have reason to think that the larvas of some species of Hemerobius
thus protect themselves by a net-like case of silken threads; at least I
fuiind one to-day (December 3d, 1816) inclosed in a case of this de-
scription concealed under the bark of a tree ; and it is not very likely
that it could be a cocoon, both because the inhabitant was not a pupa,
which state, according to Reaumur, is assumed soon after the cocoon is
fabricated (iii. 385); and because the same author describes the cocoons
of these insects as perfectly spherical and of a very close texture (384);
while this was oblong, and the net-work with rather wide meshes.

c(£mu, ii.72, A Ibid. ix. 161.

438 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.

occasionally survive the winter ; but the bulk of these
are rarely found to hybernate as perfect insects. Of
coleopterous insects, Schmid, to whom we are indebted
for some valuable remarks on the present subject % says
that he never found, or heard of any entomologist find-
ing, a hybernating individual of the common cockchafer
{Melolontha vulgaris)^ or of the stag-beetle {Lucanus
Cervus) ; and suggests that it is only those insects
which exist but a short period as larvae, as most of the
tribe of Curculionidce, CoccinellidcB, &c., that survive
the winter in the perfect state ; while those which live
more than one year in the larva state, as the species
just mentioned, are deprived of this privilege.

Towards the close of autumn the whole insect world,
particularly the tribe of beetles, is in motion. A ge-
neral migration takes place : the various species quit
their usual haunts, and betake themselves in search of
secure hybernacula. Different species, however, do not
select precisely the same time for making this change of
abode. Thus many CoccinellcE, Cimices, and Muscidce
are found out of their winter quarters even after the
commencement of frost; while others, as Schmid has re-
marked, make good their retreat long before any severe
cold has been felt : in fact, I am led to believe, from my
own observations, that this is the case with the majority
of coleopterous insects ; and that the days which they
select for retiring to their hybernacula, are some of the
warmest days of autumn, when they may be seen in great
numbers alighting on walls, rails, path-ways, &c,, and
running into crevices and cracks, evidently in search of
some object very different from those which ordinarily

a Ulig. M(Lg. i, 209-'i28.

HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 439

guide their movements. I have noticed this assemblage
in different years, but more particularly in the last au-
tumn (1816). Walking on the banks of the Humber on
the 14th of October about noon, — the day bright, calm,
and deliciously mild, Fahrenheit's thermometer 58" in
the shade, — my attention was first attracted by the path-
ways swarming with numerous species of rove -beetles
(Staphi/linus, Oxj/telus, Aleochara, &c.), which kept
incessantly alighting, and hurrying about in every di-
rection. On further examination I found a similar as-
semblage, with the addition of multitudes of other bee-
tles, HalliccPy Nitidulce, Curculiones, Cri/ptophagi, &c.
on every post and rail in my walk, as well as on a wall
in the neighbourhood ; and on removing the decaying
mortar and bark, I found that some had already taken
up their abode in holes, from their situation with their
antennae folded, evidently meant for winter quarters.
I am not aware that any author has noticed this re-
markable congregation of coleopterous insects previ-
ously to hybernating, which it is so difficult to explaia
on any of the received theories of torpidity, except the
pious Lesser, who so expressly alludes to it, and with-
out quoting any other authority, that he would seem tq
have derived the fact from his own observation ^.

a Lesser, L. i. 236. — Lyoiiet inserts a note to explain that Lessei^'s re-
mark is to be understood onlj of such insects as live in societies; and adds,
that solitary species do not assemble to pass the winter together. Les-
ser, however, says nothjn"; about these insects passing the winter together,
us his translator erroneously understands him ; but merely that they as-
semble as U preparing to retire for the winter, which my oivn observa-
tions, as above, confirm. His expression in the original German is,
" gleichsam als wenn sie sich zu ihrer winter-r.ihe feitig machen wol-
ten." Edit. Frankfurt und Leipsig 1738, p. 152.

44.0 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.

The site chosen by different perfect insects for theii^
hybernacula is very various. Some are content with
insinuating themselves under any large stone, a collec-
tion of dead leaves^ or the moss of the sheltered side of
an old wall or bank. Others prefer for a retreat the
lichen or ivy-covered interstices of the bark of old
trees, the decayed bark itself, especially that near the
roots, or bury themselves deep in the rotten trunk; and
a very great number penetrate into the earth to the
depth of several inches. The aquatic tribes, such as
Di/iisci, Ili/drophili, &c. burrow into the mud of their
pools ; but some of these are occasionally met with un-
der stones, bark, &c. In every instance the selected
dormitory is admirably adapted to the constitution,
mode of life, and wants of the occupant. Those in-
sects which can bear considerable cold without injury,
are careless of providing- other than a slight covering ;
while the more tender species either enter the earth
beyond the reach of frost, or prepare for themselvesi
artificial cavities in substances such as moss and rotten,
wood, which conduct heat with difficulty, and defend
them from an injuriously low temperature. It does not
appear that any perfect insect has the faculty of fabri-
cating for itself a winter abode similar to those formed
of silk, &c. by some larvae. Schmid, indeed, has men-
tioned finding Rhagium mordux and Inquisilor^ F. in
such abodes, constructed, as he thought, of the inner
bark of trees ; but these, as liliger has suggested, were
more probably the deserted dwellings of lepidopterous*
larvae, of which the beetles in question had taken pos-
session "". — Most ijisects place themselves ia their hy-

a lUig. Mag. I 216.

HYBETINATION OF INSECTS. 441

bernacula in the attitude which they ordinarily assume
when at rest ; but others clioose a position peculiar to
their winter abode. So most of the Carahidce adhere
by their claws to the under side of the stone, which
serves for their retreat, their backs being next to the
ground ; in which posture, probably, they are most
etfectually protected from wet. Sfaphi/Unus sanguino-
ientus, Gravenhorst, and others of the same family,
coils itself up like a snake, witli the head in the centre.

The majority of in:^ects pas ; the Avinter in perfect
solitude. Occasionally, however, several individuals
of one species, not merely of such insects as Harpalus
(Cai^abus, L.) prasinus, Chnex aptert/s, &c., which
usually in summer also live in a sort of society, but of
others which are never seen thus to associate, as IIc/l-
iica oleracea, Carabus intrfcatiis, and several Coccinellce^
&c. are found crowded together. This is perhaps often
more through accident than design, as individuals of
the same species are frequently met with singly ; yet
that it is njot wholly accidental, seems proved by the
fact that such assemblages are generally of the same
genus and even species. Sometimes, however, insects
of dissimilar genera and even orders are met with to-
gether. Schraid once in February found the rare Xo-
mechusa strumosa. Gravenhorst, {SUipli^Unus, L.) tor-
pid in an ant-hill in the mitlstofa conglomerated lump
of ants, with which it was closely interwined^.

By far the greater proportion of insects pass the
winter only in one or other of the several states of
egg, pupa, larva, or imago, but are never found to hy-
bernate in more than one. Some specieSj however,

a lllijc, Mag, i. 491.

442 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.

depart from this rule. Thus Aphis Rosce.^ Cardui, and
probably raai)y others of the genus, hybernate both in
the egg and perfect state * ; Papilio Cardui, Rhamni^
and some other species, usually in the pupa, but often
in the perfect state also ; and Papilio lo, according to
the accurate Brahm, in the three states of egg, pupa,
and imago ^. It is probable that in these instances the
perfect insects are females, which, not having been
impregnated, have their term of life prolonged beyond
the ordinary period.

The first cold weather, after insects have entered
their winter quarters, produces effects upon them si-
milar to those which occur in the dormouse, hedgehog,
and others of the larger animals subject to torpor.
At first a partial benumbment takes place ; but the in-
sect if touched is still capable of moving its organs.
But as the cold increases all the animal finictions cease.
The insect breathes no longer, and has no need of a
supply of air '^; its nutritive secretions cease, and no
more food is required ; the muscles lose their irritabi-
lity*^; and it has all the external symptoms of death.
In this state it continues during the existence of great
cold, but the degree of its torpidity varies with the
temperature of the atmosphere. The recurrence of a
mild day, such as we sometimes have in winter, infuses
a partial animation into the stiffened animal : if dis-
turbed, its limbs and antennae resume their power of
extension, and even the faculty of spirting out their de-
fensive fluid is re-acquired by many beetles^. But

a Kyberin Gerniar Magazin der Entcmolngie, ii. 2.

l> Ins. Kcil. ii. 188. c Spallanzani, Rapports dc Vy(ir, &V. i. 'SO.

d Carlisle in Phil. Trans. 1805, p, 25. e Schmid in lllig. Mag. i. 222.

HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 443

however mild the atmosphere in winter, the great
bulk of hybernating insects, as if conscious of the de-
ceptions nature of their pleasurable feelings, and that
no food could then be procured, never quit their quar-
ters, but quietly wait for a renewal of their insensibi-
lity by a fresh accession of cold.

On this head I have had an opportunity of making
some observations which, in the paucity of recorded
facts on the hybernation of insects, you may not be sorry
to have laid before you. The second of December 1816
was even finer than many of the preceding days of the
season, which so happily falsified the predictions that
the unprecedented dismal summer would be followed
by a severe winter. The thermometer was 46" in the
shade ; not a breath of air was stirring ; and a bright
sun imparted animation to troops of the winter gnat
(Tiichocera hiemalis^ Meig.), which frisked under every
bush; to numerous PsychodoR; and even to the flesh-
fly, of which two or three individuals buzzed past me
while digging in my garden. Yet though these insects,
Avhich I shall shortly advert to as exceptions to the ge-
neral rule, were thus active, the heat was not sufficient
to induce their hybernating brethren to quit their re-
treats. Removing some of the dead bark of an old
apple-tree, I soon discovered several insects in their
winter-quarters. Of the little beetie Lebia quadri-
notata, Duftsphmid Faun. Aastr. {Carabus puncioma'
culatus, Ent. Brit.), I found six or eight individuals,
and all so lively, that though remaining perfectly quiet
^n their abode until disturbed, they ran about with
their ordinary activity as soon as the covering of bark
was displaced. The same was the case with a colony

444 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.

of earwigs. Two or three md'ividuals of Lehia qua'
drhnacidata showed more torpidity. When first unco-
vered their antenns were laid back ; and it was only
after the sun had shone some seconds upon them that
they exhibited symptoms of animation, and after stretch-
ing- out these organs began to walk. Close by them
lay a single Ilhynchxnus Pomonim, but in so deep a
sleep that at first I thought it dead. It gave no sign of
life when placed on my hand, quite hot with the exer-
cise of digging ; and it was only after being kept there
some seconds, and breathed upon several times, that it
first slowly unfolded its rostrum, and then its limbs.
It deserves remark, that all these insects, thus diffe-
rently affected, were on the same side of the tree, un-
der a similar covering of bark, and apparently equally
exposed to the sun, which shone full upon the cover-
ing of their retreat*.

All insects, however, do not undergo this degree of

a Since writing the above, I have had another opportunity of confirm-
ing the observations here made. The last week of January 1817, in the
neighbourhood of Hull, was most delicious weather — calm, sunny, dry,
and genial — the wind south-west, the thermometer from 47° to 52° every
"day, and at night rarely below 40°; in fact, a week much finer than we
can often boast of in May : the 27th of the month was the most delight-
ful day of the whole: the air swarmed with Trichocera hiemalis, Psychodce,
and numerous other Diplera, and the bushes were hung with the lines of
the gossamer-spider as in autumn. Yet, with the exception of Aphodius
contaminaius, I did not observe a single coleopterous insect on the wing,
nor even an individual tempted to crawl on the trunks of the trees, under
the dead bark of which I found many in a very lively state. Five or
six individuals of Haltica Nemnrum were still very lethargic; and two of
Scarabceus stercurarius, which I accidentally dug up from their hyber-
nacula in the earth at the depth of six or eight inclies, though the
yicari upon them were quite alert, exhibited every symptom of c6in|)lete
torpor.

HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 44'5

torpidity. In fact, there are some, though but few,
which cannot, at least in our climate, strictly be said to
hybcrnate, understanding- by that term passing the win-
ter in one selected situation in a greater or less degree
of torporj without food. Not to mention Phaloina
G. hrumata, and some other moths, which are disclosed
from the pupa^ in tlie middle of winter, and can there-
fore be scarcely regarded as exceptions to the rule,
some in.iccts are torpid only in very severe weather,
and on fine mild days in winter come out to eat. This
is the case with the larva of Noclita fuUginosa^ L.^ ;
and Lyonet asserts that there are many other cater-
pillars which cat and grow even in the midst of slight
frost''. Amongst perfect insects, troops of Trichocera
Memalis^ the gnat whose choral dances have been before
described*", may be constantly seen gamboling in the air
in the depth of winter when it is mild and calm, accom-
panied by the little Psychoda, so common in w indow s,
several Muscidce, spiders, and occasionally some Apho-
dii and Staphj/linida; : and the societies of ants, as well
as their attendant Aphides, are in motion and take
more or less food during the whole of that season when
the cold is not intense. The younger Huber informs
us that ants become torpid only at 2° Reaum. below
freezing (27^ Fahrenheit), and apparently endeavour
to preserve themselves from the cold, when its ap-
proach is gradual, by clustering togetlier. When the
temperature is above this point they follow their ordi-
nary habits (he has seen them even walk upon the
snow), and can then obtain the little food which they
require in winter from their cows the Aphides, which,

a Kiaiiiu, Jns. Kal, ii. 31, ^ Lesser, L, i. 255. c Sec above, p, 4. 372.

446 HYBERNATION OF INSECT!^.

by an admirable provision, become lethargic at pre-
cisely the same degree of cold as the ants, and awake
at the same period with theni^.

Lastly, there are some few insects which do not
seem ever to be torpid, as Podura nivalis^ L., and the
singular apterous insect recently described by Dalman,
Chionea araneo'ides^, both of which run with agility on
the snow itself; and the common hive-bee ; though with
regard to the precise state in which this last passes the
winter, this part of its economy has not been made the
subject of such accurate investigation as is desirable.

Many authors have conceived that it is the most na-
tural state of bees in winter to be perfectly torpid at
a certain degree of cold, and that their partial revi-
viscency, and consequent need of food in our climate,
are owing to its variableness and often comparative
mildness in winter; whence they have advised placing
bees during this season in an ice-house, or on the north
side of a wall, where the degree of cold being more
uniform, and thus their torpidity undisturbed, they
imagine no food would be required. So far, however,
do these suppositions and conclusions seem from being
warranted, that Huber expressly affirms that, instead of

a Recherches, 20'2. — In dis^aiing in my garden on the 26tli of January
ISn, I turned up in three or four places colonies of Myrmica rubra, Lafr.
in their winter retreats, each of which comprised apparently one or two
hundred ants, with several larva; as big as a grain of mustard, closely
clustered together, occupying a cavity the size of a hen's egg, in tena-
cious clay, at the depth of six inches from the surface. They were very
lively; but though Fahrcnheil's Ihermometer stood at 47° in the shade, T
did not then, nor at any other time during tlie very mild winter, see a
single ant out of its hybernacuhun.

b Kongl. I'd. Jcad. Handling. 1816. lOi.

HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 447

being torpid in winter, the heat in a well-peopled hive
continues + 24" or 25** of Reaumur (86** Fahrenheit)^
when it is several degrees below zero in the open air;
that they then cluster together and keep themselves iri
motion in order to preserve their heat*; and that in the
depth of winter they do not cease to ventilate the hive by
the singular process of agitating their wings before de-
scribed''. He asserts also that, like Reaumur, he has
in winter found in the combs brood of all ages; which,
too, the observant Bonner says he has witnessed''; and
which is confirmed by Swammerdam, who expressly
states that bees tend and feed their young even in the
midst of winter*^. To all these weighty authorities
may be added that of John Hunter, who, as before no-
ticed, found a hive to grow lighter in a cold than in a
warm week of winter ; and that a hive from Novem-
ber 10th to February 9th lost more than four pounds
in Aveight*^; whence the conclusion seems inevitable,
that bees do eat in winter.

On the other hand, Reaumur adopts (or rather, per-
haps, has in great measure given birth to) the more
commonly received notion, that bees in a certain degree
of cold are torpid and consume no food. These are his
words : — " It has been established with a wisdom which
we cannot but admire, — with that wisdom with which
every thing in nature has been made and ordained, —
that during the greater part of the time in whicli the
country furnishes nothing to bees, they have no longer
need to eat. The cold which arrests the vegetation of
plants, which deprives our fields and meadows of their
flowers, throws the bees into a state in which nourish-

a Huber, i. 131. b Ibid. ii. 344. 358. Sec above, p. 193—

c Conner On Bccf, 104. * Jliilx r, i. .%1. e p/,,7. Trans. h<)(). !GI .

44S HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.

ment ceases to be necessary to them : it keeps them in
a sort of torpidity (etigourdissement), in which no tran-
spiration from tl^em takes phice ; or, at least, during
which the quantity of that which transpires is so incon-
siderable, that it cannot be restored by aliment with-
out their lives being- endangered. In winter, while it
freezes, one may observe without fear the interior of
hives that are not of glass ; for we may lay them on
their sides, and even turn them bottom upwards,without
putting any bee into motion. We see the bees crowded
and closely pressed one against the other : little space
then suffices for them^"." In another place, speaking
of the custom in some countries of putting bee-hives
during winter into out-houses and cellars, he says that
in such situations the air, though more temperate than
out of doors during the greater part of winter, " is
yet sufficiently cold to keep the bees in that species
of torpidity which does away their need of eating''."
And lastly, he expressly says that the milder the
weather, the more risk there is of the bees consuming
their honey before the spring, and dying of hunger ;
and confirms his assertion by an account of a striking
experiment, in which a hive that he transferred during
winter into his study, where the temperature was usu-
ally in the day 10 or 12^ R. above freezing (^9'^ F.),
though provided with a plentiful supply of honey, that
if they had been in a garden would have served theia
past the end of April, had consumed nearly their whole
stock before the end of February*^.
■ Now, how are we to reconcile this contradiction .*
— for, if Huber be correct in asserting that in frosty-
weather bees agitate themselves to keep off the cold,

a Reaum. v. 6GT. b Ibid. 68-^. c Ibid, 6G3,

HYUERNATION OF INSECTS. 449

and ventilate their hive ; — if, as both he and Swam-
iiierdani state, they feed their young brood in the depth
of winter — it seems impossible to admit that they ever
can be in the torpid condition which Reaumur sup-
poses, ill which food, so far from being necessary, is in-
jurious to them. In fact, Reaumur himself in another
place informs us, that bees are so infinitely more sen-
sible of cold than the generality of insects, that they
perish >vhen in numbers so small as to be unable to
generate sufficient aninuil heat to counteract the ex-
ternal cold, even at 11° R. above freezing'' (57° F.) ;
which corresponds with what Huber has o!)served (as
quoted above) of the high temperature of well-peopled
hives, even in very severe weather. We are forced,
then, to conclude that this usually most accurate of ob-
servers hos in the present instance been led into error,
chiefly, it is probable, from the clustering of bees in.
the hives in cold weather; but which, instead of being,
as he conceived, an indication of torpidity, would seem
to be intended, as Huber asserts, as a preservative
against the benumbing effects of cold.

Bees, then, do not appear to pass the winter in a
state of torpidity in our climates, and probably not in
any others. Populous swarms inhabiting hives formed
of the hollow truidis of trees, used in many northern
regions, or of other materials that are bad conductors
of heat, seem able to generate and keep up a tempera-
ture sufficient to counteract the intensest cold to which
they are ordinarily exposed. At the same time, how-
ever, 1 think we may infer, that though bees are not
strictly torpid at that lowest degree of heat which they

a Ilcaiim. 67 S. Compare also 673.
VOL. II. 2 G

4i50 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.

can sustain, yet that when exposed to that degree they
consume considerably less food than at a higher tem-
perature ; and consequently that the plan of placing
hives in a north aspect in sunny and mild winters may
be adopted by the apiarist with advantage. John Hun-
ter's experiment, indeed, cited above, in which he found
that a hive grew lighter in a cold than in a warm week,
seems opposed to this conclusfon.; but an insulated ob-
servation of this kind, which we do not know to have
been instituted with a due regard to all the circum-
stances that required attention, must not be allowed to
set aside the striking facts of a contrary description
recorded by Reaumur and corroborated by the almost
universal sentiment of writers on bees. — After all, how-
ever, on this point, as well as on many others connected
with the winter economy of these endlessly-wonderful
insects, there is evidently much yet to be observed, and
many doubts which can be satisfactorily dispelled only
by new experiments.

The degree of cold which most insects in their diffe-
rent states, while torpid, are able to endure with im-
punity, is very various ; and the habits of the different
species, as to the situation which they select to pass
the winter, are regulated by their greater or less sen-
sibility in this respect. Many insects, though able to
sustain a degree of cold sufficient to induce torpidity,
would be destroyed by the freezing temperature, to
avoid which they penetrate into the earth or hide them-
selves under non-conducting substances; and there can
be little doubt that it is with this view that so many
species while pupai are thus secured from cold by co-

HYBERNATION OF INSECT*. 45i

coons of silk or other materials. Yet a very great pro-
portion of insects in all their states are necessarily sub-
jected to an extreme degree of cold. Many eggs and
pupae are exposed to the air without any covering ;
and many,'both larva; and perfect insects, are sheltered
too slightly to be secure from the frost. This they are
either able to resist, remaining unfrozen though ex-
posed to the severest cold, or, which is still more sur-
prising, are uninjured by its intensest action, recover-
ing their vitality even after having been frozen into
lumps of ice.

The eggs of insects are filled with a fluid matter, in-
cluded in a skin infinitely thinner than that of hens'
eggs, which John Hunter found to freeze at about 15"
of Fahrenheit. Yet on exposing several of the former,
including those of the silkworm, for five hours to a
freezing mixture which made Fahrenheit's thermo-
meter fall to~38° below zero, Spallanzani found that
they were not frozen, nor their fertility in the slightest
degree impaired. Others were exposed even to 56°
below zero, without being injured*.

A less degree of cold suffices to freeze many pupas
and larvaB, in both which states the consistency of the
animal is almost as fluid as in that of the egg. Theii*
vitality enables them to resist it to a certain extent, and
it must be considerably below the freezing point to af-
fect them. The winter of 1813-14 was one of the se-
, verest we have had for many years, Fahrenheit's ther-
mometer having been more than once as low as 8° when
the ground was wholly free from snow; yet almost the
first objects which I observed in my garden, in the com-

a Tracts, 22.
2 G 2

452 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.

niencement of spring, were numbers of the caterpillars
of the gooseberry-moth {Phalcena G. grossulariata)^
which, thougli they had passed the winter with no other
shelter than the slightly projecting^ rim of some large
garden-pots, were alive and quite uninjured; and these
and many other larvae never in my recollection were so
numerous and destructive as in that spring : whence, as
well as from the corresponding fact recorded with sur-
prise by Boerhaave, that insects abounded as much
after the intense winter of 1709, during- which Fahren-
heit's thermometer fell to 0, as after the mildest season,
we may see the fallacy of the popular notion, that hard
winters are destructive to insects^.

But though many larvae and pupae are able to resist
a great degree of cold, when it increases to a certain
extent they yield to its intensity and become solid
masses of ice. In this state we should think it impos-
sible that they should ever revive. That an animal
whose juices, muscles, and whole body have been sub-
jected to a process which splits bombshells, and con-
verted into an icy mass that may be snapped asunder
like a piece of glass, should ever recover its vital
powers, seems at first view little less than a miracle ;
and, if the reviviscency of the v^heel animal ( Vorticella
rotatoriaynnA of snails, &c. after years of desiccation,
had not made us familiar with similar prodigies, might
have been pronounced impossible ; and it is probable
that many insects when thus frozen never do revive.
Of the fact, however, as to several species, there is no
doubt. It was first noticed by Lister, who relates that

a Vid. Spciice in Transactions of the HoriicuH. Soc, of London, ii. 148.
Couipttrc lleauin. ii. 111.

HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 455

he had found caterpilhirs so frozen, that n^hen dropped
into a glass they chinked like stones, which neverthe-
less revived =*. Reaumur, indeed, repeated this expe*-
rinient without success ; and found that when the larvae
o^ Bomhi/x Piti/ocampn, F. were frozen into ice by a
cold of 15° R. below zero (2° F. belovy zero), they
could not be made to revive''. But other trials have
fully confirmed Lister's observations. My friend Mr.
Stickney, before mentioned as the author of a valuabl(6
Essay on the Grub (larva of Tipiila olentcca) — to ascer*
tain the effect of cold in destroying this insect, exposed
some of them to a severe frost, which congealed them
into perfect masses of ice. When broken, their whole
interior was found to be frozen. Yet several of these
resumed their active powers. Bonnet had precisely
the same result with the pupae of Papilio Brassicce,
which, by exposing to a frost of 14'' R. below zero
(0^ F.), became lumps of ice, and yet produced butter-
flies'^. Indeed, thecircumstance that animals of a much
more complex organization tlian insects, namely, serv
pents and fishes, have been known to revive after being
frozen, is sufficient to dispel any doubts on this head^
John Hunter, though himself unsuccessful in his at-
tempts to reanimate carp and other animals that had
been frozen, confesses that the fact itself is so well
authenticated as to admit of no question''.

On w hat principle a faculty so extraordinary and so
contrary to our common conceptions of the nature of
animal life depends, I shall not attempt to explain.
Nor can any thing very satisfactory be advanced with

a Lister. Goedart. de Inseclts, 76. b Keaum. ii. 142.

c OEuvres, vi. 12. il Obseivuthns on the Animal Economi/^9Q,

454: HYBEBNATION OF INSECTS.

t'egard to the source of the power which many insects
in sonie states, and almost all in the egg state, have of
resisting intense degrees of cold without becoming fro-
zen. It is clear.that the usual explanation of the same
faculty to a lc!?s<legreein the warm-blooded animals —
the constant prodiiction of animal heat from the caloric
set free in tlw*. decomposition of the respired air — will
jiot avail us here. For, first, the hive-bee, which has
the capacity of evolving animal heat in a much greater
degree than any other insect, is killed by a cold consi-
derably less than that of freezing. Secondly, many
large larvae, as Reaumur has observed, are destroyed
by a less degree of cold than smaller species whose re-
spiratory organization is necessarily on a much less
extensive scale. And thirdly, the eggs of insects — in
;which, though they probably are in some degree acted
(Upon by the oxygen of the atmosphere, nothing like re-
spiration takes place— can endure a much greater in-
tensity of cold than either the larvae or pupae produced
from them.

Nor can we refer the eflect in question to the thin-
joess or thickness — the greater or less non-conducting
power-— of the skin of the animal. Reaumur found that
the subterranean pupae of many moths perished with a
cold of 7^ or 8'' R. below zero (14° F.), while the ex-
posed pupae of Papilio Brassicce and other species en-
dured 15° or 16° without injury^; (a proof, by the way,
that the different economy of these insects, as to their
choice of a situation in their state of pupae, is regulated
by their power of resisting cold,) but no difference in
the substance of the exterior skin is perceptible. And

a Reaum. ii. 146 —

HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 455

the eggs of insects have usually thinner skins than
pupae, and yet they are unaffected by a degree of cold
much superior.

In the present state, then, of our knowledge of ani-
mal physiology, we must confess our ignorance of the
cause of these phenomena, which seem never to have
been sufficiently adverted to by general speculators on
the nature of animal heat. We may conjecture, in-
deed, either that they are owing to some peculiar and
varying attraction for caloric inherent in the fluids
which compose the animal, and which in the egg state,
like spirit of wine, resist our utmost producible arti-
ficial cold ; or that, as John Hunter seems to infer with
respect to a similar faculty in a minor degree in the
hen's egg, the whole are to be referred to some un-
known power of vitality. The latter seems the most
probable supposition ; for Spallanzani found that the
blood of marmots, which remains fluid when they are
exposed to a cold several degrees below zero of Fahren-
heit, freezes at a much higher temperature when drawn
fi'om the animal ^ ; and it is reasonable to conjecture
that the same result would follow if the fluids filling
the eggs of insects were collected separately, and then
exposed to severe cold.

Spring is, of course, the period when insects shake
off the four or five months' sleep which has sweetly
banished winter from their calendar, quit their dormi-*-
tories, and again enter the active scenes of life. It is
impossible to deny that the increased temperature of
this season is the immediate cause of their reappear-

A Rapports lie V^ir, S^c, it. ^15.

456 HY15EUNAT10N OF INSECTS.

ance; for they leave their retreats much earlier in for-
ward than in backward springs. Thus in the early sprinc^
of 1805 (to me a memorable one, since in it 1 began my
entomological career, and had anxiously watched its
first approaches in order to study practically the science
of which I had gained some theoretical knowledge in
the winter.) insects M'ere generally out by the middle
of March ; and before the 30th, I find, on referring to
my entomological journal, that I had taken and inves-
tigated (1 scarcely need add, not always Avith a coirect
result,) fifty-eight coleopterous species : while in the
last untoward spring (1816) I did not observe even a
bee abroad until the 20th of April ; and the first butter-
fly that I saw did not appear until the 26th.
• There are, however, circumstances connected with
this reappearance, which seem to prove that something
onoie than the mere sensation of warmth is concerned
in causing it. I shall not insist upon the remarkable fact
yvhich Spallanzani has noticed, that insects reappear
in spring at a temperature considerably lower than
that at which they retired in autumn ; because it may
be plausibly enough explained by reference to their in-
creased irritability in spring, the result of so long an
abstinence from food, and their consequent augmented
sensibility to the stimulus of heat. But if the mere
perception of warmth were the sole cause of insects
ceasing to hybernate, then we might fairly infer, that
species of apparently similar organization, and placed
in similar circumstances, would leave their winter
quarters at the same time. This, however, is far
from being the case. Reaumur observed that the lar-
vte of Pajrilio Cinaia quitted their nest a full month

HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 457

sooner than those o^ Bornhi/x chri/sorrhca^. The rea-
son is obvious; but cannot be referred to mere sensa-
tion. The former live on grass, and on the leaves of
plantain, whicli they can meet with at the beginning
of March — the period of their appearance : the latter
eat only the leaves of trees which expand a month
later. It might, indeed, be still contended, that this
fact is susceptible of explanation by supposin^^ that the
organization of these two species of larva, though ap-
parently similar, is yet in fact different, that of the
one being constituted so as to be acted upon by a less
degree of heat than that of the other : and this solu-
tion would be satisfactory if the torpidity of these larvae
were uninterrupted up to the very period at which they
quit their nest. But facts do not v.arrant any such
supposition. You have seen'' that the temperature of
a mild day even in winter awakens many insects from
their torpidity, though without inducing them to leave
their hybernacula; and it is therefore highly impro-
bable that the larvae of H. chrysorrhea should not often
have their torpid state relaxed during the month of
March, when we have almost constantly occasional
bright days elevating the thermometer to above £0''.
Yet as they still do not, like the larvEB of P. C'mxia,
leave their nest, it seems obvious that something more
than the sensation of heat is the regulator of the move-
ments of each. Not, however,, to detain you here un-
necessarily, I shall not enlarge at present on this point,
but shall pass on, in concluding this letter, to advert
to the causes which have been assigned for the hyber-
nation and torpidity of animals, and to state my own
a Reaum. ii. 170. ^ See above, 443-6.

458 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.

ideas on the subject, which will equally apply to the
termination of this condition in spring.

The authors who have treated on these phenomena
have generally^ referred them to the operation of cold
UDon the animals in which they are witnessed, but act-
ing in a different manner. Some conceive that cold,
combined with a degree of fatness arising from abund-
ance of food in autumn, produces in them an agreeable
sensation of drowsiness, such as we know, from the ex-
perience of Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander in Terra
del Fuego, as well as from other facts, is felt by man
when exposed to a very low temperature ; yielding to
w hich, torpidity ensues. Others, admitting that cold is
the cause of torpidity, maintain that the sensations which
precede it are of a painful nature ; and that the re-
treats in which hybernating animals pass the winter
are selected in consequence of their endeavours to
escape from the di&agreeable influence of cold.

I have before had occasion to remark'' the inconclu-
siveness of many of the physiological speculations of
very OQiinent philosophers, arising from their ignorance
of Entomology, which observation forcibly applies in
the present instance. The reasoners upon torpidity
have almost all confined their view to the hybernating
quadrupeds, as the marmot, dormouse, &c., and have
thus lost sight of the far more extensive series of facts
supplied by hybernating insects, which would often at

a Here must be excepted my lamented friend the late Dr. Reeve of
Norwich, who, in his ingenious Essuy on the Torpidity of Animals, Uas
come to nearly the same conclusion as is adopted in this letter; but, by
omitting to make a distinction between torpidity and hybernation, he
bas not done justice to his own iJcas.

b Vol. I. 2d Ed. 3S.

HYBERNATION OF INSF.CTf?. 459

once have set aside their most confidentlyrasserted hy-
potheses. If those who adopt the fonuer of the opi-
nions above alluded to, liad been aware that nuincious
insects retire to their hybernaciila (as has been before
observed) on some of the finest days at the close of
autumn, they could never have contended that this
movement, in which insects disphiy extraordinary ac-
tivity, is caused by the agreeable drozosiness consequent
on severe cold ; and the very same fact is equally con-
clusive against the theory, that it is to escape the pain
arising from a low temperature that insects bury them-
eelves in their winter quarters.

In fact, the great source of the confused and unsatis-
factory reasoning which has obtained on this subject,
is, that no authoi-, as far as my knowledge extends, has
kept steadily in view, or indeed has distinctly per-
ceived, the difference between torpidity and hyberna-
tion ; or, in other words, between the state in which ani-
mals pass the winter, and their selection of a situation
in which they may become subject to that state.

That the torpidity of insects, as well as of otsier hy-
bernating animals, is caused by cold, is unquestionable.
However early the period at which a beetle, for exam-
ple, takes up its winter quarters, it does not suffer
that cessation of the powers of active life which we
understand by torpidity, until a certain degree of cold
has been experienced ; the degree of its torpidity varies
with the variations of temperature ; and there can be
no doubt that, if it were kept during winter from the
influence of cold, it would not become torpid at all —
at least this has proved the fact with marmots and dor-
juice thus treated; and the Aphis of the rose (A. Rosce\

460 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.

which becomes torpid in winter in the open air% re-
tains its activity and gives birth to a numerous pro^
geny upon rose trees preserved in greenhouses and
warm apartments.

But, can we, in the same way, regard mere cold as
the cause of the hyhcrnalion of insects ? Is it wholly
owing to this agent, as most writers seem to think —
to feelings either of a pleasurable or painful nature
produced by it — that prcvioitsli/ to becoming torpid
they select or fabricate connnodious retreats precisely
adapted to the constitution and wants of diiFerent spe-
cies, in which they quietly wait the accession of tor-
pidity and pass the winter? In my opinion, certainly
not.

In the first place, if sensations proceeding from cold
lead insects to select retreats for hybernating, how
comes it that, as above shown, a large proportion of
them enter these retreats before any severe cold has
been felt, and on days considerably warmer than many
that preceded them? If this supposition have any mean-
ing, it must imply that insects are so constituted that,
when a certain degree of cold has been felt by them,
the sensations which this feeling excites impel them
to seek out hybernacula. Now the thermometer in
the shade on the V4th of October 1816, when I observed
vast numbers thus employed, was at 58" — this then, on
the theory in question, is a temperature sufficiently
low to induce the requisite sensations. But it so hap-
pens, as I learn from my meteorological journal (which
registers the greatest and least daily temperature as
indicated by a Six's thermometer), that on the 31st

V a Rjber iii Germar's Mag. dcr Exit. ii. 3.

HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 461

August 1816 the greatest heat was not more than 52%
or six degrees lower than on the 1 1th of October: yet it
was six weeks later that insects retired for the winter !

But it may be objected, that it is perhaps not so
much the precise degree of cold prevailing on tlic day
when insects select their liybernacula, that regulates
their movements, as (he lower degree which may have
obtained for a few nights previously, and which may
act upon their delicate organization so as to influence
their future proceedings. Facts, however, are again
indirect opposition to tlie explanation; for 1 find that,
for a week previously to the 14th of October 181G, the
thermometer was never lower at night than 48°, while
in the first week of August it was twice as low as 16",
and never higher than 50\^

As a last resource, the advocates of the doctrine I
am opposing, may urge, that possibly insects may even

a Since the publication of the first cdiiion of this vohimo, I have had
an opportunity of inakins; some observations wliich strongly corroborate
the above reasoning. The month of October in the present year
(1817) set in extremely cold. From the first to the sixth piercing north
and north-west «inds blew; the tliermomcler at HjiM, though the sun
shone brightly, in the day-time was never higher than from 52° to 56",
nor at night tiian 36° ; in fact, on the first and third it sunk as low as 34",
and on the second to 31": anil on those dajs, at eight in the morning,
the grass was covered v\rth a white hoar frost ; in short, to every one's
feelings the weather indicated December rather than Oc(o!)cr. Here
then was every condition fuUilled that the theory 1 am opposing can
require; consequently, according to that theory, such a state of the
atmosphere should have driven every iiybernating insect to its winter
quarters. But so far was this from being the case, that on the lifth,
when I made an excursion purposely to as,-crtain the fact, I fuuiul all'
the insects still abroa.l \'j hie!! I had m^t will: s;x w.'cks before in similar
situatiuus.

462 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.

have their sensations affected by the cold some days
before it comes on, in the same way as we know that
spiders and some other animals are influenced by
changes of weather previously to their actual occur-
rence. But once more I refer to my meteorological
journal ; and I find that the average lowest height of
the thermometer, in the week comprising the latter
end of October and beginning of November 1816, was
434° : M hilo in the week comprising the same days of
the month of the end of August and beginning of Sep-
tember it was only 44f° — a difference surely too incon-
siderable to build a theory upon.

I have entered into this tedious detail, because it is
of importance to the spirit of true philosophizing to
show what little agreement there often is between
facts and many of the hypotheses, which authors of
the present day are, from their determination to ex-
plain every thing, led to promulgate. But in truth
there was no absolute need for imposing this fatigue
upon your attention ; for the single notorious consi-
deration that in this climate, as well as in more south-
ern ones, we not unfrequently have sharp night-frosts
in summer, and colder weather at that season than in
the latter end of autumn and beginning of winter, and
yet that insects do hybernate at the latter period, but
do not at the former, is an ample refutation of the no-
tion that mere cold is the cause of the phenomenon. If,
indeed, the hybernacula of insects were simply the un-
derside of any dead leaf, clod, or stone, that chanced
to be in the neighbourhood of their abode, it might
still be contended, that such situations were alwai/s re-

HYBERNATION OF. INSECTS. 463

sorted to by them on the occurrence of a certain de-
gree of cold, but that they remained in them only
when its continuance had induced torpidity : and it
seems to have been in this view that most reasoners
on this subject have regarded the hybernation of the
larger animals, to which they have exclusively directed
their attention. But had they been acquainted (as sure-
ly the investigators of such a question ought to have
been) with the economy, of the class of insects, in which
not merely a few species, as among quadrupeds, but
ninety-nine hundredths of the whole, in our climates,
hybernate, they would have known that their hyber-
nacula are in general totally distinct from their ordi-
nary retreats in casual cold weather; and that many
of them even fabricate habitations requiring consider-
able time and labour, expressly for the purpose of
their winter residence— which last fact in particular,
on their theory, admits of no satisfactory explanation.
We may say, and truly, that the sensation of fatigue
causes man to lie down and sleep ; but we should
laugh at any one who contended that this sensation
forced him first to make a four-post bedstead to repose
upon.

In the second place, if we grant for a moment that
it is cold which drives insects to their hybernacula,
there are other phenomena attending the state of hy-
bernation which on this supposition are inexplicable.
If cold led insects to enter their winter quarters, then
they ought to be led by the cessation of cold to quit
them. But, as has been before observed, we have
often days in winter milder than at the period of hy-

464 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.

bernating, and in which insects are so roused from
their torpidity as to run about nimbly when molested
in their retreats ; yet though their irritability must
have been increased by a two or three months inac-
tivity and abstinence, they do not leave them, but
quietly remain until a fresh accession of cold again in-
duces insensibility.

In short, to refer the hybernation of insects to the
mere direct influence of cold, is to suppose one of the
most important acts of their existence given up to the
blind guidance of feelings which in the variable cli-
mates of Europe would be leading them into perpe-
tual and fatal errors — which in spring would be in-
ducing them to quit their ordinary occupations, and
prepare retreats and habitations for winter to be quit-
ted again as soon as a few fine days had dispelled
the frosty feel of a May week; and in a mild winter's
day, when the thermometer, as is often the case, rises
to 50^ or 55°, would lure them to an exposure that
must destroy them. It is not, we may rest assured, to
such a deceptions guide that the Creator has intrusted
the safety of so important a part of his creatures :
their destinies are regulated by feelings far less liable
to err.

What, you will ask, is this regulator ? I answer
Instinct — that faculty to which so many other of the
equally surprising actions of insects are to bo referred ;
and which alone can adequately account for the phe-
nomena to be explained. Why, indeed, should we
think it necessary to go further ? We are content to
refer to instinct, the retirement of insects into the earth

HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 465

previously to becoming pupae, and the cocoons which
they then fabricate ; and why should we not attribute
to the same energy, their retreat into appropriate hy-
bernacula, and tlie construction by many species of ha-
bitations expressly destined for their winter residence!
The cases are exactly analogous; and the insect knows
no more tliat its hybernaculum is to protect it from too
severe a degree of cold during winter, than does the
full-fed caterpillar when it enters the earth that it
shall emerge a glorious butterfly.

I am, &c.

VOL. II. 1 H

LETTER XXVII.

ON THE INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

J. HE greater part of those surprising facts connected
with the manners and economy of insects, of which the
relation has occupied the preceding letters, is (o be re-
ferred, I have told you, to their instinct. But what,
you will ask, is this instinct ? — of what nature is this
foculty which produces effects so extraordinary ?

To this query I do not pretend to give any satis-
factory answer. As I am quite of Bonnet's opinion^
that philosophers will in vain torment themselves to
define instinct, until they have spent some time in the
head of an animal without actually being that animal
— a species of metempsychosis through which I have
never passed — I shall not attempt to explain what
this mysterious energy is. It will not, however, I
imagine, be very cfifficult to show what it is not ; and
some observations with this view, followed by an enu-
meration of peculiarities which distinguish the instincts
of insects from those of other tribes of animals, and a
short inquiry whether their actions are guided solely
by instinct, will form the substance of this letter.

I. It is quite superfluous at this day to controvert
the explanations of instinct advanced by soipe of the

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 467

philosophers of the old school, such as that of Cud-
worth, who referred thi;; faculty to a certain plastic na-
ture; or that of Des Cartes, who contended that ani-
mals are mere machints. Nor, I fancy, would you
thank me for entering- into an elaborate refutation of
the doctrine of Mylius, that many of the actions deemed
instinctive are the etfect of painful corporeal feelings ;
the cocoon of a caterpillar, for instance, being the re-
sult of a fit of the colic, produced by a superabund-
ance of the gum which fills its silk-bags, and which ex-
uding, is twisted round it, by its uneasy contortions, into
a regular ball. Still less need I advert to the notable
discovery of some pupils of Professor Winckler, that
the brain, alias the soul, of a bee or pider, is impress-
ed at the birth of the insect with certain geometrical
figures, according to which models its works are con-
structed,— a position which these gentlemen demon-
strate very satisfactorily by a memorable experiment
in which they themselves were able to hear triangles.

It is as unnecessary to waste any words in refutation
of the nonsense (for it deserves no better name) of
Buftbn, who refers the instinct of societies of insects to
the circumstance of a great number of individuals being
brought into existence at the same time, all acting with
equal force, and obliged by the similarity of their in-
ternal and external structure, and the conformity of
their movements, to perform each the same actions,
in the same place, in the most convenient mode for
themselves, and least inconvenient for their compa-
nions; whence results a regular, well-proportioned,
and symmetrical structure : and he gravely tells us
that the boasted hexagonal cells of bees are produced

2 11 ^

468 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

by the reciprocal pressure of the cylindrical bodies of
these insects against each other* ! !

Nor is it requisite to advert^at length to the expla-
nations of instinctive actions more recently given by
StefFens, a Cernian author (one of the transcenden-
talists, I conclude, from the incomprehensibility of his
book to ray ordinary intellect), who says that the pro-
ducts of the vaunted instinct of insects are nothing but
" shootings out of inorganic animal masses" (anorgis-
che ansch'ussey ; and by Lamarck *", who attributes them
to certain inherent inclinations arising from habits im-
pressed upon the organs of the animals concerned in
producing them, by the constant efflux towards these
organs of the nervous fluid, which during a series of
ages has been displaced in their endeavours to per-
form certain actions which their necessities have given
birth to. The mere statement of an hypothesis of
which the enunciation is nearly unintelligible, and
built upon the assumption of the presence of an unseen
fluid, and of the existence of the animal some millions
of years, is quite sufficient, and would even be unne-
cessary if it were not of such late origin. Neither
shall I detain you with any formal consideration of
the hypothesis advanced by Addison and some other
authors, that instinct is an immediate and constant im-

a Wst. Nat. Edit. 1785, v. 277.

b Reitrage zitr inne.rn Natur^iMcldchtc der Eidc 1801, p. 298,
c In his F/iilosopiiir, Zooiogique, raris 18C9 (ii. 325) — a work which
every zoolosrist wiil, 1 think, join wilh mo in ref retting should be de-
voted to metaphvsical diiquiiilioiis built on the most gratuitous assump-
tions, insteadof comprising that luminous generalization oi facts rela-
tive to the animal world which is so great a desideratum, and for per-
forming which satidfactorily this eminent naturalist is so well qualified.

IJJSTINCT OF INJECTS. 469

pulse of the Deity; which, to omit other obvious ob-
jections, is sufficiently refuted by the fact, that animals
in their instincts are sometimes at fault, and commit
mistakes, which on the above supposition could not in
any case happen.

The only doctrine on the subject of instinct requiring
any thing like a formal refutation, is that which, con-
tending for tlie identity of this faculty wit]i reason in
man, maintains that all the actions of animals, however
complicated, are, like those of the human race, the re-
sult of observation, invention, and experience. This
theory, maintained by the sceptics, Pythagoras, Plato,
and some other ancient philosophers, and in modern
times by llelvetius, Condillac, and Smellie, has been
by none more ingeniously supported than by Dr. Dar-
win, who in the chapter treating on instinct, in the
first volume of Zoonomia^ has brought forward a collec-
tion of facts which give it a great air of plausibility.
This plausibility, however, is merely superficial; and
the result of a rigorous examination by any competent
judge is, that the greater part of Dr. Darwin's facts
bear more strongly in favour of the dissimilarity of in-
stinct and reason than of their identity: and that those
few wliich seem to support the latter position, are
built upon the relations of persons ignorant of natural
history, who have confused together distinct species of
animals. Thus, because some anonymous informant
told him that hive-bees when transported to Barba-
does, where there is no winter, ceased to lay up a store
of honey. Dr. Darwin infers that all the operations of
these insects are guided by reason and the adaptation
of means to an end — a very just inference, if the state-

470 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

ment from which it is drawn were accurate; but that
it is not so, is known to e\ery naturalist acquainted
with the fact that many different species of bees store
up honey in the hottest climates ; and that there is no
authentic instance on record of the hive-bees' altering*
in any age or climate their peculiar operations, which
are now in the coldest and in the hottest regions pre-
cisely what they w ere in Greece in the time of Aristotle,
and in Italy in the days of Virgil. Indeed the single
fact, depending on the assertions of such accurate ob-
servers as Reaumur and Swammerdam, that a bee as
soon after it is disclosed from the pupa as its body is
dried and its wings expanded, and before it is possible
that it should have received any instruction, betakes
itself to the collecting of honey or the fabrication of a
cell, which operations it performs as adroitly as the
most hoary inhabitant of the hive, is alone sufficient to
set aside all the hear-say statements of Dr. Darwin,
and should have led him, as it must every logical rea-
soner, to the concluHion, that these and similar actions
of animals cannot be referred to any reasoning pro-
cess, nor be deemed the result of observation and ex-
perience.— It is true, it does not follow that animals,
besides instinct, have not, in a degree, the faculty of
reason also; aod as I shall in the sequel endeavour to
show, many of the actions of insects can be adequately
explained on no other supposition. But to deny, as
Dr. Darwin does, that the art with which the caterpil-
lar weaves its cocoon, or the unerring care witli ^^hich
the moth places her eggs upon food that she herself
can never use, are the effects of instinct, is as unphi-
losophical and contrary to fact, as to insist that the

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 471

eagerness with which, though it has never tasted milk,
the infant seeks for its mother's breast, is the effect of
reason.

Instinct, then, is not the result of a plastic nature ;
of a system of machinery ; of diseased bodily action ;
of models impressed on the brain ; nor of organic
shootings-out : — it is not the effect of the habitual de-
tennination for ages of the nervous fluid to certain or-
gans ; nor is it either the impulse of the Deity, or
reason. Without pretending to give a logical defini-
tion of it, which while we are ignorant of the essence
of reason is impossible, we may call the instincts of
animals those unknown faculties implanted in their
constitution by the Creator, by which, independent of
instruction, observation, or experience, and without a
knowledge of the end in view, they are impelled to the
performance of certain actions tending to the well-being
of the individual and the preservation of the species :
and with this description, which is in fact merely a
confession of ignorance, we must, in the present state
of metaphysical science, content ourselves.

I here say nothing of that supposed connexion of the
instinct of animals with their sensations, which has
been introduced into many definitions of this mysteri-
ous power, for two reasons. In the first place, this
definition merely sets the world upon the tortoise; for
what do we know more than before about the nature of
instinct, when we have called it with Brown, a predis-
position to certain actions when certain sensations exist,
or with Tucker have ascribed it to the operation of
the senses, or to that internal feeling called appe-
tite ? But, secondly, this connexion of instinct with
bodily sensation, though probable enough in some in-

472 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

stances, is by no means generally evident. We may
explain in this way the instincts connected with hun-
ger and the sexual passion, and some other particular
facts, as the laying of the eggs of the flesh-fly in the
flowers of Stapelia /lirsuta, instead of in carrion their
proper nidus, and of those of the common house-fly in
snuff*'' instead of dung; for in these instances the smell
seems so clearly the guide, that it even leads into error.
But what connexion between sensation and instinct do
we see in the conduct of the working-bees, which fabri-
cate some of the cells in a comb larger than others, ex-
pressly to contain the eggs and future grubs of drones,
thoGgh these eggs are not laid by themselves, and are
still in the ovaries of the queen ? So, we may plau-
sibly enough conjecture that the fury with which, in
ordinary circumstances, at a certain period of the year,
the working-bees are inspired towards the drones, is
the effect of some disagreeable smell or emanation pror
ceeding from them at that particular time : but how
can we explain on similar grounds, the fact that in a
hive deprived of a queen, no massacre of the drones
takes place ? Lastly, to onut here a hundred other
instances, as many of them will be subsequently ad-
verted to, if we may with some show of reason sup-
pose that it is the sensation of heat which causes bees
to swarm ; yet what possible conception can we form
of its being bodily sensations that lead bees to send out
scouts in search of a hive suitable for the new colony,
several days before swarming ?

a Dr. Zinken £;on;ii)nt Sommer says, (iirit if in Aua;tist and Si-pfcinber a
snufT-box be left open, it will be seen to be froq'.>.ei;tid by the common
house-fly {Miisca doiutstica), the rg;;s of which will be found to h;ive been
deposited amongst th snnflT. Genii;ir jllng. dcr Eu!. 1. ii, 1S9.

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 473

After these observations on tlie nature of instinct,
generally, I pass on to contrast in several particulars
the instincts of insects with those of other animals; and
thus to bring together some remarkable instances of
the former which have not hitherto been laid before
you, as well as to deduce from some of those already
related, inferences to which it did not fall in with my
design before to direct your attention. This contrast
may be conveniently made under the three heads of— •
the exquisiteness of their instincts — their number — and
their extraordinary development.

The instincts of by far the majority of the superior
animals are of a very simple kind, only directing- them
to select suitable food; to propagate their species ; to
defend themselves and their young from harm ; to ex-
press their sensations by various vocal modulations ;
and to a few other actions which need not be particu-
larized. Others of the larger animals, in addition to
these simpler instinctive propensities, are gifted with
more extensive powers ; storing up food for their win-
ter consumption, and building nests or habitations for
their young, which they carefully feed and tend.

All these instincts are common to insects, a great
proportion of which are in like manner confined to these.
But a very considerable number of this class are en-
dowed with instincts of an exquisiieness to which the
higher animals can lay no claim. What bird or fish,
for example, catches its prey by means of nets as art-
lully woven and as admirably adapted to their pur-
poses as any that ever fisherman or fowler fabricated ?
Vet such nets are constructed by the race of spiders.
What beast of prey thinks of digging a pit-fall in the

474 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

track of the animals which serve it for food, and at the
bottom of which it conceals itself, patiently waiting
until some unhappy victim is precipitated down the
sides of its cavern ? Yet this is done by the ant-lion
and another insect. Or, to omit the endless instances
furnished by wasps, ants, the Termites, &c., what ani-
mals can be adduced which, like the hive-bee associat-
ing in societies, build regular cities composed of ceils
formed with geometrical precision, divided into dwell-
ings adapted in capacity to different orders of the so-
ciety, and storehouses for containing a supply of provi-
sion ? Even the erections of the beaver, and the pen-
sile dwelling of the tailor-bird, must be referred to a
les? elaborate instinct than that which guides the pro^
cedures of these little insects — the complexness and yet
perfection of whose operatioiis, when contrasted with
the insignificance of the architect, have at all times
caused the reflecting observer to be lost in astonish-
ment.

It is, however, in the deviations of the instincts of in-
sects and their accommodation to circumstances that the
exquisiteness of these faculties is most decidedly mani-
fested. The instincts of the larger animals seem ca-
pable of but slight modification. They are either ex-
ercised in their full extent or not at all- A bird, when
its nest is pulled out of a bush, though it should be
laid uninjured close by, never attempts to replace it in
its situation ; it contents itself with building another.
But insects in similar contingencies often exhibit the
most ingenious resources, their instincts surprisingly
accommodating themselves to the new circumstances in
which they are placed, in a manner more wonderful

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 475

and incomprehensible than the existence of the facul-
ties themselves. Take a honey-comb, for instance. If
every comb that bees fabricate were always made 'pre-
cisely alike — with the same general form, placed in the
same position, the cells all exactly similar, or where
varying- with the variations always alike ; — this struc-
ture would perhaps in reality be not more astonishing
than many of a much simpler conformation. But when
we know that in nine instances out often the combs in
a bee-hive are thus similar in their properties, and yet
that in the tenth one shall be found of a form altoge-
ther peculiar; placed in a different positiort; with
cells of a different shape — and all these variations evi-
dently adapted to some new circumstance not present
when the other nine were constructed, — we are con-
strained to admit that^nothing in the instinct of other
animals can be adduced, exhibiting similar exquisite-
ness : just as we must confess an ordinary loom, how-
ever ingeniously contrived, far excelled by one capable
of repairing its defects when out of order.

The examples of this variation and accommodation
to circumstances among insects are very numerous ; and
as presenting many interesting facts in their history not
before related, I shall not fear wearying you with, a
pretty copious detail of them, beginning with the more
simple.

It is the m'a{\\\Q.io{ Scarahaeixsxeriudh to roll up pel-
lets of dung, in each of whicli it deposits one of its
eggs; and in places where it meets with cow- or horse-
dung only, it is constantly under the necessity of havin,^
recourse to this process. But in districts where sheep
gire kept, it wisely saves its labour, and ingeniously

476 ijrsTiNCT OF insects.

avails itself of the pellet-shaped balls ready made to its
hands which the excrement of these animals supplies*.

A caterpillar described by Bonnet, which from being
confined in a box was unable to obtain a supply of the
bark with which its ordinary instinct directs it to make
its cocoon, substituted pieces of paper that were given
to it, tied them together with silk, and constructed a
very passable cocoon with them.— In another instance
the same naturalist having opened several cocoons of a
moth (Noctua Verbasci, F.), which are composed of a
mixture of grains of earth and silk, just after being-
finished; the larvae did not repair the injury in the
same manner. Some employed both earth aiid silk ;
others contented themselves with spinning a silken veil
before the opening'*.

The larva of the cabbage-butterfly {Pdpilio Uras-
sicce, L.) when about to assume the pupa state, com-
monly fixes itself to the under-side of the coping of a
wall or some similar projection. But the ends of tiie
slender thread which serves for its girth would not
adhere firmly to stone or brick, or even wood. In
such situations, therefore, it previously covers a space
of about an inch long and half an inch broad with a
web of silk, and to this extensive base its girth can be
securely fastened. That this proceeding, however, is
not the result of a blind unaccommodating instinct,
seems proved by a fact which has come under my own
observation. Having fed some of these larvae in a box
covered by apiece of muslin, they attached themselves
to this covering; but as its texture afforded a firm hold
to their girth, they span no preparatory web.

a Sturm, Deuischland^s Fauna, i. 27. b CLluvres, ii. 238. See above, p. 260.

INSTINCT OP INSECTS. 477

Apis Muscorum^ L., and some other species of hum-
ble-bees cover their nests with a roof of moss. M. P.
Huber having placed a nest of the former under a bell
glass, he stufied the interstices between its bottom and
the irregular surface on which it rested, with a linen
cloth. This cloth, the bees, finding* themselves in a si-
tuation n here no moss was to be had, tore thread from
thread, carded it with their feet into a felted mass,
and applied it to the same purpose as moss, for which
it was nearly as well adapted. — Some other humble-
bees tore the cover of a book with which he had closed
the top of the box that contained them, and made use
of the detached morsels in covering their nest''.

The larva o^ Bombyx Cossus, L., whith feeds in the
interior of trees, previously to fabricating a cocoon and
assuming the pupa state, forms for the egress of the
future moth a cylindrical orifice, except when it finds
a suitable hole ready made. When the moth is about
to appear, the chrysalis with its anterior end forces an
opening in the cocoon. If the orifice in the tree has
been formed by itself, in which case it exactly fits its
body, it oiiirelj/ quits the cocoon, and pushes itself half
way out of the hole, where it remains secure from fall-
ing until the moth is disclosed. But if the orifice, hav-
ing been adopted, be larger than it ought to have been,
and thus not capable of supporting the pupa in this
position, the provident insect pushes itself only half
waj/ out of the cocoon, which thus serves for the sup-
port which in the former case the wood itself afibrded^'.
The variations in the procedures of the larva of a
little moth (Tinea, F.) described by Reaumur, whose

a Linn. Trans, vi. 251 — . b Ljonet, Truile anatonilquc, t^c. 16—.

478 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

habitation has been before noticed' — one of thos^
which constantly reside in a subcylindrical case — are
still more remarkable. This little caterpillar feeds
upon the elm, the leaves of which serve it at once
for food and clothinsf. It eats the parenchyma or
inner pulp, burrowing between the upper and under
membranes, of portions of which cut out, and pro-
perly sewed together, it forms its case. Its usual plan
is, to insinuate itself between the epidermal mem-
branes of the leaf, close to one of the edges. Parallel
with this it excavates a cavity of suitable form and di-
mensions, gnawing the pulp even out of every projec-
tion of the serratures, but carefully avoiding to sepa-
rate the membranes at the very edge, which with a
wise saving of labour it intends should form one of the
seams of its coat; and as the little miner is not embar-
rassed with the removal of the excavated materials,
which it swallows as it proceeds, a cavity sufficiently
large is but the work of a few hours. It then lines it
with silk, at the same tiuje pushing it into a more cy-
lindrical shape ; and lastly, cutting it off at the two
ends and inner side, it sews up the latter with such
nicety that the suture is scarcely discoverable ; and is
now provided with a case or coat exactly titting its
body, open at the two end-^, by one of which it feeds
and by the other discharges its excrement, having on
one side a nicely-joined seam, and the other — that
which is couimonly applied to its back — composed of
the natural marginal junction of the membranes of the
leaf.

Such are the ordinary operations of this insect, which.

a Vol. I. -2d Ed. 4j8 —

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 479

when it h considered that the case is rather fusiform
than cylindrical ; that the end through which it eats
is circular, and the other curiously three-cornered like
a cocked-hat; and that consequently its cloth requires
to be very irregularly and artfully cut, to be accommo-
dated to such a figure — it must be admitted, are the re-
sult of an instinct of no very simple kind. Compli-
cated, however, as these manoeuvrts seem, our ingeni-
ous workman is not confined to them. By way of put-
ting its resources to the test, Reaumur cut off the ser-
rated edge from the nearly-finished coat of one of them,
and exposed the little occupant to the day. He ex-
pected that it would have quitted its mutilated gar-
ment and commenced another ; and so it certainly
would, had it been guided by an invariable instinct.
But he calculated erroneously. Like oiie of its bro-
ther tailors of the biped race, it knew how " to cut its
coat according to its clotis," and immediately setting
about repairing the injury sewed up the rent. Nor
was this all. The scissars having cut off one of the
projections intended to enter into the construction of
tlie triangular end of its case, it entirely changed the
original plan, and made that end the head which had
been first designed for the tail.

On another occasion Reaumur observed one of these
larvae to cut out its coat from the very centre of a leaf,
where it is obvious a series of operations wholly dilFer-
ent must be adopted, the two membranes composing it
necessarily requiring to be cut and sewed on two sides
instead of on one only. But what was most striking
in this new procedure was the alteration which the ca-
terpillar ma,dc in the period of sewing up its garment.

480

INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

When these larvae cut out their case from th6 edge of
a leaf, they seem aware that, if they were to detach it
entirely from the inner side before the process of sew-
ing, lining-, &c., is completed, having no support on the
exterior edge, it would be liable to fall down ; at the
sanie time they could not sew together tlic membranes
composing it at the inner side, without cutting thejn in
part from the leaf. While, therefore, they divide the
major part of their inner side from the leaf, they artfully
leave theni attached to it by one of the large nerves at
each end; and these supports they do not cut asunder
until the intermediate space has been sewed up, and
they are ready to step, with their house on their back,
upon the terra Jirma of the disk of the leaf In this in-
stance, therefore, the larvee do not wholly separate
their case from the leaf, until it is sewed. But when
the same larvs cut out their materials from the n^iddle
of the leaf, where, though completely cut round, they
are retained in their situation secure from ail danger of
falling by the serratures of the incisions made by the
jaws of the larvae, these little tailors vary their mode,
and entirely detach the pieces from the surrounding
leaf, before they pi'oceed to set a stitch into them''.

In the preceding instances the variation of instinct
takes place in the same individual, but Bonnet men-
tions a very curious fact in which it occurs in different
generations of the same species. There are annually,
he informs us, two generations of the Angoumois moth,
an insect which has been before mentioned'', as destruc-
tive to wheat ; the first appear in Blay and June, and
lay their eggs upon the ears of wheat in the fields; the

^ Reaum. iii. 1 12-1 19. i> Vol. 1, '2d Ed. ITS.

' INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 481

second appear at the end of the summer or in autumn,
and these lay their eggs upon wheat in the granaries.
These last pass the winter in the state of larvae, from
which proceeds the first generation of moths. But
what is extremely singular as a variation of instinct,
those motlis which are disclosed in JMoi/ and June in
the granaries, quit them with a rapid flight at sun-set,
and betake themselves to the yet unreaped fields, where
they lay their eggs ; while the moths which are dis-
closed in the granaries after harvest, stay there, and
never attempt to go out, but lay their eggs upon the
stored wheat''. — This is as extraordinary and inexpli-
cable as if a litter of rabbits produced in spring were
impelled by instinct to eat vegetables, while another
produced in autumn should be as irresistibly directed
to choose flesh.

It is, hovvever, into the history of the hive-bee that
we must look for the most striking examples of varia-
tion of instinct ; and here, as in every thing relating to
this insect, the work of the elder Huber is an unfailing
source of the most novel and interesting facts.

It is the ordinary instinct of bees to lay the founda-
tion of their combs at the top of the hive, building them
perpendicularly downwards ; and they pursue this plan
so constantly, that you might examine a thousaiKl
(probably ten thousand) hives, without finding any ma-
terial deviation from it. Yet Huber in the course of
his experiments forced them to build their combs per-
pendicularly upward"*; and, what seems even more re-
marka])le, in an horizontal direction'.

The combs of bees are always at an uniform distance

a CF.m-res, ix. 370. ^ Hiibfr, il. Itl! — . «-• Ibid. ii. iXQ.

VOL. II. * 2 I

482 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

from each other, namely about one third of an inch,
which is just wide enough to allow them to pass easily
and have access to the youn^ brood. On the approach
of winter, when their honey-cells are not sufficient in
number to contain all the stock, they elongate them
considerably, and thus increase their capacity. By
this extension the intervals between the combs are
unavoidably contracted; but in winter well-stored ma-
gazines are essential, while from their state of compa-
rative inactivity spacious communications are less ne-
cessary. On the return of spring, however, when the
cells are wanted for the reception of eggs, the bees
contract the elongated cells to their former dimensions,
and thus re-establish the just distances between the
combs which the care of their brood requires^. But
this is not all. Not only do they elongate the cells of
the old combs when there is an extraordinary harvest
of honey, but they actually give to the new cells which
they construct on this emergency a much greater dia-
meter as well as a greater depth''.

The queen-bee in ordinary circumstances places
each egg in the centre of the pyramidal bottom of the
cell, where it remains fixed by its natural gluten : but
in an experiment of Huber, one whose fecundation had
been retarded, had the first segments of her abdomen
no swelled that she was unable to reach the bottom of
the cells. She therefore attached her eggs (which
were those of males) to their lower side, two lines
from the mouth. As the larvae always pass that state
in the place where they are deposited, those hatched
from the eggs in question remained in the situation

a Huber, i. 348. ' b Ibid. ii. 227.

INSTINCT OP INSECTS. 483

assigned them. But the working-bees, as if aware that
in these circumstances the cells would be too short to
contain the larvaB when fully grown, extended their
lengthy even before the eggs were liatched^.

Bees close up the cells of the grubs, previously to
their transformation, with a cover or lid of wax ; and
in hanging its abode with a silken tapestry before it
assumes the pupa state, the grub requires that the cell
should not be too short for its movements. Bonnet
having placed a swarm in a very flat glass hive, the
bees constructed one of the combs parallel to one of
the principal sides, where it was so straight that they
could not give to the cells their ordinary depth. The
queen, however, laid eggs in them, and the workers
daily nourished the grubs, and closed the cells at the
period of transformation. A few days afterwards he
was surprised to perceive in the lids, holes more or
less large, out of which the grubs partly projected, the
cells having been too short to admit of their usual
movements. He was curious to know how the bees
would proceed. He expected that they would pull all
the grubs out of the cells, as they commonly do when
great disorders in the combs take place. But he did
not sufficiently give credit to the resources of their
instinct. They did not displace a single grub — they
left them in their cells : but as they saw that these cells
were not deep enough, they closed them afresh with
lids much more convex than ordinary, so as to give to
them a sufficient depth ; and from that time no more
holes were made in the lids.

The working bees, inclosing up the cells containing

aHuber, i. 119.
2i 2

48i INSTINCT Of INSECTS.

larva?, invariably give a convex lid to the large celk
of drones, and one nearly flat to the smaller cells of
workers : but in an experiment instituted by Huber to
ascertain the influence of the size of the cells on that
of the included larvae, he transferred the larvae of work-
ers to the cells of drones. AYhat was the result ? Did
the bees still continue blindly to exercise their ordi-
nary instinct ? On the contrary, they now placed a near-
ly Jlat lid upon these large cells, as if well aware of
their being occupied by a different race of inhabitants ^.

On some occasions bees, in consequence of Ruber's
arrangements in the interior of their habitations, have
begun to build a comb nearer to the adjoining one than
the usual interval ; but they soon appeared to perceive
their error, and corrected it by giving to the comb a
gradual curvature, so as to resume the ordinary di-
stance''.

In another instance in which various irregularities
had taken place in the form of the combs, the bees, in
prolonging one of them, had, contrary to their usual
custom, begun two separate and distant continuations,
which in approaching instead of joining would have
interfered with each other, had not the bees, apparently
foreseeing the difliculty, gradually bent their edges so
as to make them join with such exactness that the}
could afterwards continue them conjointly".

In constructing their combs, bees, as you have been
before told, in my letter on the habitations of insect?,
form the first range of cells — that by which the comb
is attached to the top of the hive — of a different shape
from the rest. Each cell instead of being hexagonal

a Huber, j. 233. b Ibid. ii. '239. c Ibid, ii. 210.

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 485

is pentagonal, having the fifth broadest side fixed to
the top of the hive, whence the comb is mnch more se-
curely cemented to that part, than if the first range of
cells had been of the ordinary construction. For some
time after their fabrication, the combs remain in this
state ; but at a certain period the bees attack the first
range of cells as if in fury, gnaw away the sides with-
out touching the lozenge-shaped bottoms; and having
mixed the wax with propolis, they form a cement well
known to the ancients under the names of Mifj/s or Com'
jnosis and Pissoceros, which they substitute in the place
of the removed sides of the cells, forming of it thick and
massive walls and heavy and shapeless pillars, which
they introduce between the comb and the top of the
hive so as to agglutinate them firmly together. Huber,
who first in modern times Avitnessed this remarkable
modification of the architecture of bees, observed, that
not only are they careful not to touch the bottoms of
the cells, but that they do not remove at once the cells
on both sides of the comb, which in that case might
fall down; but they work alternately, first on one side
and then on the other, replacing the demolished cells
as they proceed, with mitys, which firmly fixes the comb
to its support.

The object of this substitution of mitys for wax
seems clear. While the combs are new and only par-
tially filled with honey, the first range of cells, origin-
ally established as the base and the guide for the py-
ramidal bottoms of the subsequent ones, serves as a
sufficient support for them. But when they contain a
store of several pounds, the bees seem to foresee the
danger of such a weight proving too heavy for the thin

4i36 lASlIJVCT OF INSECTS.

waxen walls by which the combs are suspended, and
providently hasten to substitute for them thicker walls,
and pillars of a more compact and viscid material.

But their foresight does not stop here. When they
have sufficient wax, they make their combs of such a
breadth as to extend to the sides of the hive, to which
they cement them by constructions approaching- more
or less to the shape of cells. But when a scarcity of
wax happens before they have been able to give to
their combs the requisite diameter, a large vacant space
is left between the edges of these combs, which are
only fixed by their upper part, and the sides of the
hive; and they might be pulled down by the weight of
the honey, did not the bees insure their stability by in-
troducing large irregular masses of wax between their
edges and the sides of the hive. — A striking instance
of, this art of securing their magazines occurred to Hu-
ber. A comb, not having been originally well fastened
to the top of his glass hive, fell down during the win-
ter amongst the other combs, preserving, however, its
parallelism with them. The bees could not fill up the
space between its upper edge and the top of the hive,
because they never construct combs of old wax, and
they had not then an opportunity of procuring new :
at a more favourable season they would not have he-
sitated to build a new comb upon the old one ; but it
being inexpedient at that period to expend their pro-
vision of honey in the elaboration of wax, they pro-
vided for the stability of the fallen comb by another
process. They furnished themselves with wax from
the other combs, by gnawing away the rims of the cells
more elongated than the rest, and then betook them-

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 487

selves in crowds, some upon the edges of the fallen
comb, others between its sides and those of the adjoin-
ing- combs; and there securely fixed it, by constructing
several ties of diflferent shapes between it and the glass
of the hive ; some were pillars, others buttresses, and
others beams artfully disposed and adapted to the lo-
calities of the surfaces joined. Nor did they content
themselves with repairing the accidents which their
masonry had experienced ; they provided against those
which might happen, and appeared to profit by the
warning given by the fall of one of the combs to conso-
lidate the others and prevent a second accident of the
same nature. These last had not been displaced, and
appeared solidly attached by their base ; whence Ru-
ber was not a little surprised to see the bees strengthen
their principal points of connexion by making them
much thicker than before with old wax, and forming
numerous ties and braces to unite them more closely
to each other and to the walls of their habitation. —
What was still more extraordinary, all this happened
in the middle of January, at a period when the bees
ordinarily cluster at the top of the hive, and do not
engage in labours of this kind**.

You will admit, I think, that these proofs of the re-
sources of the architectural instinct of bees are truly
admirable. If, in the case of the substitution of mitys
for the first range of waxen cells, this procedure in-
variably took place in evert/ bee-hive at ajixed period
— when, for example, the combs are two-thirds filled
with honey — it would be less surprising : but there is
nothing of this invariable character about it. It does

a Huber, ii. 280.

488 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

not, as Huber expressly informs us^, occur at any marked
and regular period, but appears to depend on several
circumstances not always combined. Sometimes the
bees content themselves with bordering the sides of
the upper cells with propolis alone, without altering
their form or giving them greater thickness. And it
is not less remarkable that, from the instances last
cited, it appears that tliey are not confined to one kind
of cement for strengthening and supporting their combs,
but avail themselves of propolis, wax, or a mixture
of both, as circumstances direct.

Not to weary you with examples of the modifications
of instinct we are considering, I shall introduce but
three more : — the first, of the mode in which bees ex-
tend the dimensions of an old comb; the second, of that
which they adopt in constructing the male cells and
connecting them with the smaller cells of workers;
and the last, of the plan pursued by them Avhen it be-
comes necessary to bend their combs.

You must have observed that a comb newly made
becomes gradually thinner at its edges, the cells there,
on each side, progressively decreasing in length : but
in time these marginal cells, as they are wanted for the
purposes of the hive, are elongated to the depth of the
rest. Now suppose bees, from an augmentation of the
size of their hive, to have occasion to extend their
combs either in length or breadth, the process which
they adopt is this : They gnaw away the tops of the
marginal cells until the combs have resumed their ori-
ginal lenticular form, and then construct upon their
edges the pyramidal lozenge-shaped bottoms of cells,

' a Huber, \i. 2S4, nale *.

INSTINCT or INSECTS. 489

upon which the hexagonal sides are subsequently raised,
as in their operation of cell-buildin<^. This course of
proceeding is invariable : they never extend a comb
in any direction whatever, without having first made
its edges thinner, diminishing its thickness in a portion
sufficiently large to leave no angular projection. —
Huber observes, and with reason, in relating this sur-
prising law which obliges bees partially to demolish
the cells situated upon the edges of the combs, that it
deserves a more close examination than he found him-
self competent to give it : for, if we may to a certain
point form a conception of tlie instinct which leads
these animals to employ their art of building cells, yet
how can we conceive of that which in particular cir-
cumstances forces them to act in an opposite direction,
and determines them to detnolish what they have so la-
boriously constructed^?

Drones, or male bees, are more bulky than tl^e work-
ers ; and you have been told, in speaking of the habi-
tations of insects, that the cells which bees construct
for rearing the larvae of the former, are larger than
those destined for the education of the larvae of the
latter. The diameter of the cells of drones is always
34- lines (or twelfths of an inch); that of those of workers
2|- lines: and these dimensions are so constant in their
ordinary cells, that some authors have thonglit they
might be adopted as an universal and invariable scale
of measure, which would have the great recommenda-
tion of being every where at hand, and at all events
would be preferable to our hurley-corns. Several ranges
of male cells, sometimes from thirty to forty, are usually

a Iluber, ii. 2SS.

490 liNSTlNCT OF INSECTS.

found in each comb, generally situated about the middle.
Now as these cells are not isolated, but form a part of the
entire comb, corresponding- on its two faces — by what
art is it that the bees unite hexagonal cells of a small,
with others of a larger diameter, without leaving any
void spaces, and without destroying the uniformity and
regularity of the comb ? This problem would puzzle
an ordinary artist, but is easily solved by the resources
of the instinct of our little workmen.

When they are desirous of constructing the cells of
males below those of workers, they form several ranges
of intermediate or transition cells, of which the diame-
ter augments progressively, until they have reached
that range where the male cells commence : and in the
same manner, when they wish to revert to the model-
ling of the cells of workers, they pass by a gradually
decreasing gradation to the ordinary diameter of the
cells of this class. — We commonly meet with three or
four ranges of intermediate cells before coming to those
of males; the first ranges of which participate in some
measure in the irregularity of the former.

But it is upon the construction of the bottoms of the
intermediate ranges of cells that this variation of their
architecture chiefly hinges. The bottoms of the regu-
lar cells of bees are, as you are aware, composed of
three equal-sized rhomboidal pieces ; and the base of
a cell on one side of the comb is composed of portions
of the bases of tliree cells on the other : but the bot-
toms of the intermediate cells in question (though
their orifices are perfectly hexagonal) are composed of
four pieces, of which two are hexagonal and two rhom-
boidal; and each, instead of corresponding with three

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 491

cells on the opposite side, corresponds with Jour. The
size and the shape of the four pieces composing the
bottom, vary; and these intermediate cells, a little
larger than the third part of the three opposite eells,
comprise in their contour a portion of the bottom of a
fourth cell. Just below the last range of cells with re-
gular pyramidal bottoms, are found cells with bottoms
of four pieces, of which tliree are very large, and one
very small, and this last is a rhomb. The two rhombs
of the transition cells are separated by a considerable
interval ; but the two hexagonal pieces are adjacent
and perfectly alike. A cell lower, we perceive that
the two rhombs of the bottom are not so unequal : the
contour of the cell has included a greater portion of
the opposite fourth cell. Lastly, we find cells in pretty
considerable number, of which the bottom is composed
of four pieces perfectly regular — namely, two elon-
gated hexagons and two equal rhombs, but smaller than
those of the pyramidal bottoms. In proportion as we
remove our view from tlie cells with regular tetrahe-
dral bottoms, whether in descending or from right to
left, we see that the subsequent cells resume their or-
dinary form ; that is to say, that one of their rhombs is
gradually lessened un^il it finally disappears entirely;
and the pyramidal form re-exhibits itself, but on a
larger scale than in the cells at the top of the comb.
This regularity is maintained in a great number of
ranges, namely, those consisting of male cells ; after-
wards the ceils diminish in size, and we again remark
the tetrahedral bottoms just described, until the cells
have once more resumed the pi'oper diameter of those
of workers.

492

INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

It is, then, by encroaching in a small degree upon
the cells of the other face of the comb, that bees at
length succeed in giving greater dimensions to their
cells; and the graduation of the transition cells being
reciprocal on the two faces of the comb, it follows that
on both sides each hexagonal contour corresponds with
four cells. — When the bees have arrived at any degree
of this mode of operating, they can stop there and con-
tinue to employ it in several consecutive ranges of
cells : but it is to the intermediate degree that they ap-
pear to confine themselves for the longest period, and
we then find a great number of cells of vt'hich the bot-
toms of four pieces are perfectly regular. They niiglit,
then, construct the whole comb on this plan, if their
object were not to revert to the pyramidal form with
w hich they set out. — In building the male cells, the
bees begin their foundation with a block or mass of
wax thicker and higher than that employed for the
cells of workers, without which it would be impracti-
cable for tlsem to preserve the same order and symme-
try in working on a larger scale.

Irregularities (to use the language of Huber, from
whom the above details are abstracted,) have often been
observed in the cells of bees. Reaumur, Bonnet and
other naturalists cite them as so many examples of im-
perfections. What would have been their astonish-
ment if they had been aware that part of these ano-
malies are calculated; that there exists as it were a
moveable harmony in the mechanism by which the cells
are composed! If, in consequence of the imperfection
of their organs or of their instruments, bees occasion-
ally constructed some of their cells unequal; or of parts

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. A93

badly put together, it would still manifest some talent
to be able to repair these defects, and to compensate
one irregularity by another : but it is far more asto-
nishing that they know how to quit their ordinary rou-
tine when circumstances require that they should build
male cells ; tluit they should be instructed to vary tlie
dimensions and the shape of each piece so as to return
to a regular order ; and that, after having constructed
thirty or forty ranges of male cells, they again leave the
regular order on which these were formed, and arrive
by successive diminutions at the point from which they
set out. How should these insects be able to extricate
themselves from such a difficulty — from such a compli-
cated structure? how pass from the little to the great,
from a regular plan to an irregular one, and again re-
sume the former ? These are questions which no knowji
system can explain *.

Here again, as observed in a former instance, the
wonder would be less, i^ evert/ comb contn'ined a certain
number of transition and of male ceils, constantly si-
tuated in one and the same part of it : but this is far
from being the case. The event which alone, at w^hat-
ever period it may happen, seems to determine the bees
to construct male cells, is the oviposition of the queen.
So long as she continues to lay the eggs of workers not
a male cell is founded ; but as soon as she is about to
lay male eggs, the workers seem aware of it, and you
then see them form their cells irregularly, impart to
them by degrees a greater diameter, and at length pre-
pare suitable ranges of cradles for all the male race''.
—You must perceive how absurd it would be to refer

a Uiiber, ii. 2'^l-286. 244-2iT. b Ibid, ii, 256.

494 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

this astonishing variation of instinct to any mere change
in the sensations of the bees ; and to what far-fetched
and gratuitous suppositions we must be reduced, if we
adopt any such explanation. We can but refer it to
an instinct of which we know nothing; and so referring
it, can we help exclaiming with Huber, " Such is the
grandeur of the views and of the means of ordaining
wisdom, that it is not by a minute exactness that she
marches to her end, but proceeds from irregularity to
irregularity, compensating one by another : the admea-
surements are made on high, the apparent errors ap-
preciated by a divine geometry ; and order often results
from partial diversity. This is not the first instance
which science has presented to us of preordained irre-
gularities which astonish our ignorance, and are the
admiration of the most enlightened minds : So true it
is, that the more we investigate the general as well as
particular Inws of this vast system, the more perfection
does it present'."

It is observed by M. P. Huber, in his appendix to
the account of his father's discoveries relative to the
architecture of bees, that in general the form of the
prisms or tubes of the cells is more essential than that
of their bottoms, since the tetrahedral-bottomed trans-
ition cells, and even those cells which being built
immediately upon wood or glass, were entirely with-
out bottoms, still preserved their usual shape of hexa-
gonal prisms. But a remarkable experiment of the
elder Huber shows that bees can alter even the form of
their cells when circumstances require it, and that in a
way which one would not have expected.

e Huber, ii. 230.

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 495

Having placed in front of a comb which the bees
wereconstructing, aslipof glass, they seemed immedi-
ately aware that it would be very difficult to attach it
to so slippery a surface : and instead of continuing the
comb in a straight line, t]u>y bent it at a rigid angle, so
as to extend beyond the slip of glass, and ullimately
fixed it to an adjoining part of the wood-work of the
hive which the glass did not cover. This deviation, if
the comb had been a mere simple and uniform mass of
Wax, would have evinced no small ingenuity; but you
will bear in mind that a comb consists on each side or
face, of cells, having between them bottoms in common :
and if you take a comb, and having softened the wax by
heat, endeavour to bend it in any part at a right angle,
you will then comprehend the difficulties which our
little architects had to encounter. The resources of
their instinct, however, were adequate to the emer-
gency. They made the cells on the convex side of the
bent part of the comb much larger, and those on the
concave side much smaller than usual; the former hav-
ing three or four times the diameter of the latter. But
this was not all. As the bottoms of the small and larffe
cells were as usual common to both, the cells were not
regular prisms, but the small ones considerably wider at
the bottom than at the top, and conversely in the large
ones ! — What conception can we form of so wonderful
a flexibility of instinct? How, as Huber asks, can we
comprehend the mods in which sxh a crowd of labour-
ers, occupied at the same time on the edge of the comb,
could agree to give to it the same curvature from one
extremity to the other ; or how they could arrange to-
gether to construct on one face cells so small, while on

496 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

the other they imparted to them such enlarged dimen-
sions ? — And how can we feel adequate astonishment
tliat they should have the art of making cells of such
diiferent sizes correspond*?

After this long but I flatter myself not wholly unin-
teresting enumeration, yon will scarcely hesitate to ad-
mit that insects, and of these the bee pre-eminently, are
endowed with a much more exquisite and flexible in-
stinct than the larger animals. But you may be here
led to ask, Can all this be referred to instinct ? Is not
this pliability to circumstances — this surprising adap-
tation of means for accomplishing an end — rather the
result of rf<250wP

You will not doubt my allowing the appositeness of
this question, when I frankly tell you, that so strikingly
do many of the preceding facts seem at lirst view the
effect of reason, that in my original sketch of the letter
you are now reading, I had arranged them as instances
of this faculty. But mature consideration has con-
vinced me (though I confess the subject has great dif-
ficulties) that this view was fallacious ; and that though
some circumstances connected with these facts may, as
I shall hereafter show, be referable to reason, the facts
themselves can only be consistently explained by re-
garding them as I have here done, as examples of
variations of particular instincts : — and this on two ac-
counts.

In the first place, these variations, however singular,
are limited in their extent : all bees are, and have always
been, able to avail themselves of a. certain number,

-a Huher, ii.SlU— .

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 497

but not to increase that number. Bees cemented their
combs when becoming heavy, to the top of the hive, with
mitys, in the time of Aristotle and Pliny as they do now ;
and there is every reason to believe that then, as now,
they occasionally varied their procedures, by securing
them with wax or with propolis only, either added to
the upper range of cells, or disposed in braces and ties
to the adjoining combs. But if in thus proceeding they
were guided by reason, why not under certain circum-
stances adopt other modes of strengthening their combs ?
Why not, when wax and propolis are scarce, employ
mudy which they might see the martin avail herself of
so successfully ? Or why should it not come into the
head of some hoary denizen of the hive, that a little of
the mortar with which his careful master plasters the
crevices between his habitation and its stand, might
answer the end of mitys ? " Si seulement ils elevoient
une fois des cabanes quarrees," (says Bonnet when
speaking as to wha,t faculty the works of the beaver are
to be referred,) *' mais ce sont eternellement des ca-
banes rondes ou ovales * :" — and so we might say of the
phenomena in question : — Show us but one instance of
bees having substituted mud or mortar for mitys, pis-
soceros, or propolis, or wooden props for waxen ties,
and there could be no doubt of their being here guided
by reason. But since no such instance is on record ;
since they are still confined to the same limits — however
surprising the range of these limits — as they were two
thousand years ago ; and since the bees emerged from
their pupae but a few hours before, will set themselves
as adroitly to work and pursue their operations as 8ci-

a ffitd'res, ix. 159.
VOL. II. 2 K

498 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

entifically as their brethren, who can boast 1*he experi-
ence of a long life of twelve months duration ; — we
must still regard these actions as variations of instinct.

In the second place, no degree of reason that we can
with any share of probability attribute to bees, could be
competent to the performance of labours so compli-
cated as those we have been considering, and which,
if the result of reason, would involve the most exten-
sive and varied knowledge in the agents. Suppose a
man to have attained by long practice the art of mo-
delling wax into a congeries of uniform hexagonal cells,
withpyramidal bottoms composed each of three rhombs,
resembling the cells of workers among bees. Let him
now be set to make a congeries of similar but larger
cells (answering to the male cells), and unite these
with the former by other hexagonal cells, so that there
should be no disruption in the continuity or regularity
of the whole assemblage, and no vacant intervals or
patching at the junctions either of the tubes or the bot-
toms of the cells ; — and you would have set him no
very easy task — a task, in short, which it may be
doubted if he would satisfactorily perform in a twelve-
month, though gifted with a clear head and a compe-
tent store of geometrical knowledge, and which, if de-
stitute of these requisites, it may be safely asserted that
he would never perform at all. How then can we
imagine it possible that this difficult problem, and others
of a similar kind, can be so completely and exactly
solved by animals of which some are not two days old,
others not a week, and probably none a year ? The
conclusion is irresistible — it is not reason but instinct
that is their guide.

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 4^9

The second head under which I proposed contrast-
ing- the instincts of insects with those of the lari^er ani-
mals, was that of their number in the same individual.
— In the latter this is for the most part very limited,
not exceeding- (if we omit those common to almost all
animated beings) eight or ten distinct instincts. Thus
in the common duck, one instinct leads it at its birth
from the egg- to rush to the water ; another to seek its
proper food ; a third to pair with its mate ; a fourth to
form a nest; a fifth to sit upon its eggs till hatched; a
sixth to assist the young- ducklings in extricating them-
selves from the shell ; and a seventh to defend them
when in danger until able to provide for themselves :
and it would not be easy, as far as my knowledge ex-
tends, to add many more distinct instinctive actions
to the enumeration, or to adduce many species of the
superior classes of animals, endowed with a greater
number.

But how vastly more manifold are the instincts of the
majority of insects ! It is not necessary to insist upon
those differences which take place in the same insect in
its different states, leading it to select one kind of food
in the larva, and another in the perfect state ; to defend
itself in one mode in the former, and in another in the
latter, &c. — because, however remarkable tJiese varia-
tions, they may be referred with great plausibility to
those striking- changes in the organic stniclure of the
animal, which occur at the two periods of its existence.
It is to the nundjer of instincts observable in the same
individual of many insects in their perfect state that I
now confine myself; and as the most striking- example
of the whole I shall select the hive-bee, — begging- you
2 K ^

500 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

to bear in mind that I do not mean to include those
exhibited by the queen, the drones, or even those of
the workers, termed by Hubercmere* (wax-makers) ;
but only to enumerate those presented by that portion
of the workers, termed by Huber nourrices or petites
aheilles (nurses), upon whom, as you have been before
told '*, with the exception of making wax, laying the
foundation of the cells, and collecting honey for be-
ing stored, the principal labours of the hive devolve.
It will be these individuals alone that I shall understand
by the term bees, under the present head : and though
the other inhabitants of the hive may occasionally con-
cur in some of their actions and labours, yet it is ob-
vious that so many as are those in which they distinctly
take part, so many instincts must we regard them as
endowed with.

To begin, then, with the formation of the colony: — .
By one instinct bees are directed to send out scouts pre-
viously to their swarming in search of a suitable
abode''; and by another, to rush out of the hive after the
queen that leads forth the swarm, and follow wherever
she bends her course. Having taken possession of
their new abode, whether of their own selection or
prepared for them by the hand of man, a third instinct
teaches them to cleanse it from all impurities ' ; a fourlji
to collect propolis ; and with it to stop up every crevice
except the entrance ; a fifth to ventilate the hive for
preserving the purity of the air; and a sixth to keep a
constant guard at the door*^.

In constructing the houses and streets of their new

a Vol. I. 2d Ed. 490. b See above, p. 189.

c Ruber, n. 102. d Ibid. i. 186. ii, 41?.

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 501

city, or the cells and combs, there are probably several
distinct instincts exercised ; but not to leave room for
objection, I shall regard them as the result of one only :
yet the operations of polishing the interior of the cells,
and soldering their angles and orifices with propolis,
which are sometimes not undertaken for weeks after the
cells are built ^; and the obscure but still more curious
one of varnishing them with the yellow tinge observable
in old combs ; — seem clearly referable to at least two
distinct instincts. The varnishing process is so little
connected with that of building, that, though it takes
place in some combs in three or four days, it does not
in others for several months, though both are equally
employed for the same uses ''. Huber ascertained by
accurate experiment that this tinge is not owing to the
heat of the hives; to any vapours in the air which they
include ; to any emanations from the wax or honey ;
nor to the deposition of this last in the cells ; but he in-
clines to think it is occasioned by a yellow matter which
the bees seem to detach from their mandibles, and to
apply to the surface which they are varnishing, by re-
peated strokes of these organs and of the fore feet''.

In their out-of-door operations several distinct in-
stincts are concerned. By one they are led to extract
honey from the nectaries of flowers ; by another to col-
lect pollen after a process involving very complicated
manipulations, and requiring a singular apparatus of
brushes and baskets ; and that must surely be consi-
dered a third, which so remarkably and beneficially
restricts each gathering to the same plant '^. It is clearly

a Huber, ii. 264—. Vol. I. 2d Ed. 500. h Huber, ii. 274.
c Huber, ii. 275 — •' See above, p. 182.

502 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

a distinct instinct which inspires bees with such dread
of rain, that even if a cloud pass before the sun, they
return to the hive in the greatest haste ^ ; and that seems
to me not less so, which teaches them to find their way
back to their home after the most distant and intricate
wanderings. When bees have found the direction in
which their hive lies, Huber says they fiy to it with an
extreme rapidity, and as straight as a ball from a mus-
ket '' : and if their hives were always in open situations,
one might suppose, as Huber seems inclined to think,
that it is by their sight they are conducted to them.
But hives are frequently found in small gardens em-
bowered in wood, and in the midst of villages sur-
rounded and interspersed with trees and buildings, so
as to make it impossible that they can be seen from a
distance. If you had been with me in 1815, in the fa-
mous Pays de Waes in Flanders — where the country
is a perfect flat, and the inhabitants so enamoured ei-
ther of the beauty or profit of trees, that their fields,
which are rarely above three acres in extent, are con-
stantli/ surrounded with a double row, making the
whole district one vast wood — you would have pitied
the poor bees if reduced to depend on their own eye-
sight for retracing the road homeward. In vain during
my stay at St. Nicholas I sallied out at every outlet to
try to gain some idea of the extent and form of the
town. Trees — trees — trees — still met me, and inter-
cepted the view in every direction ; and I def\ any in-
habitant bee of this rural metropolis, after once quit-
ting its hive, ever to gain a glimpse of it again until
nearly perpendicularly over it. The bee;-:, therefore,

a fhiber, i. 3j6. b Ibid. ii. ojT.

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 503

of the Pays de Waes, and consequently all other bees,
must be led to their abodes by instinct, as certainly as
it is instinct that directs the migrations of birds or of
fishes, or domestic quadrupeds to find out their homes
from inconceivable distances*. — When they have
reached the hive, another instinct leads them to regur-
gitate into the extended proboscis of their hungry com-
panions who have been occupied at home, a portion of
the honey collected in the fields ; and another directs
them to unload their legs of the inasses of pollen, and
to store it in the cells for future use.

Several distinct instincts, again, are called into ac-

a The following striking anecdote of this last species of instinct in an
aniiniil not famed for sagacity, was related to me bj' Lieutenant Alder-,
son, (royal engineers,) who was personally acquainted with the facts. —
In !\larch 1816 an ass, the property of Captain Dundas, R. N., then at
Malta, was shipped on board the Ister frigate, Captain Forrest, hound
from Gibraltar for that island. The vessel having struck on some sands
off the Point de Gat, at some distance from the shore, the ass was thrown
overboard to give it a chance of swimming to land — a poor one, for the
sea was running so high that a boat which left the ship was lost. A few
days afterwards, however, when the gates of Gibraltar were opened in
the morning, the ass presented himself for admittance, and proceeded to
the stable of Mr. Weeks, a merchant, which he had formerly occupied,
to the no small surprise of this gentleman, who imagined that from some
accident the animal had never been shipped on board the Ister. On the
return of this vessel to repair, the mystery was explained ; and it tuined
out that Valiante (so the ass was called) had not only swam safely to
shore, but , without guide, compass, or travelling map, had found his way
from Point de Gat to Gibraltar, a distance of more than two hundred
miles, which he had never traversed before, through a mountainous and
intricate country, intersected by streams, and in so short a period that he
could not have made one false turn. His not having been stopped on the
road was attributed to the circumstance of his having been formerly used
to whip criminals upon, which was indicated to the peasants, who have
a superstitious horror of such asses, by the holes in his ears, to which the
persons flogged were tied.

504 INSTINCT OP INSECTS.

tion in the important business of feeding the young
brood. One teaches them to swallow pollen, not to
satisfy the calls of hunger, but that it may undergo in
their stomach an elaboration fitting it for the food of
the grubs ; and another to regurgitate it when duly
concocted, and to administer it to their charge, propor-
tioning the supply to the age and condition of the reci-
pients. A third informs them when the young grubs
have attained their full growth, and directs them to
cover their cells with a waxen lid, convex in the male
cells, but nearly flat in those of workers ; and by a
fourth, as soon as the young bees have burst into day,
they are impelled to clean out the deserted tenements
and to make them ready for new occupants.

Numerous as are the instincts I have ah-^ady enu-
merated, the list must yet include those connected with
that mysterious principle which binds the working bees
of a hive to their queen : — the singular imprisonment in
which they retain the young queens that are to lead off
a swarm, until their wings be sufficiently expanded to
enable them to fly the moment they are at liberty, gradu-
ally paring away the waxen wall that confines them to
their cell to an extreme thinness, and only suffering it
to be broken down at the precise moment required ; — the
attention with which, in these circumstances, they feed
the imprisoned queen by frequently putting honey upon
her proboscis, protruded from a small orifice in the lid
of her cell ; — the watchfulness with which, when at the
period of swarmipg more queens than one are required,
they place a guard over the cells of those undisclosed,
to preserve them from the jealous fury of their excluded
rivals ; — the exquisite calculation with which they iti-s

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 505

variably release the oldest queens the first from their
confinement ; — the singular love of monarchical do-
minion, by which, when tno queens in other circum-
stances are produced, they are led to impel them to
combat until one is destroyed ; — the ardent devotion
which binds them to the fate and fortunes of the sur-
vivor;— the distraction which they manifest at her loss,
and their resolute determination not to accept of any
stranger until an interval has elapsed sufficiently long
to allow of no chance of tlie return of their rightful
sovereign ; — and (to omit a further enumeration) the
obedience which in the utmost noise and confusion they
show to her well-known hum.

1 have now instanced at least thirty distinct instincts
with which every individual of the nurses amongst the
working-bees is endowed : and if to the account be
added their care to carry from the hive the dead bo-
dies of any of the community; their pertinacity in their
battles, in directing their sting at those parts only of
the bodies of their adversaries which are penetrable by
it ; their annual autumnal murder of the drones, &c.
&c. — it is certain that this number might be very con-
siderably increased, perhaps doubled.

At the first view you will be inclined to suspect some
fallacy in this enumeration, and that this variety of ac-
tions ought to be referred rather to some general prin-
ciple, capable of accommodating itself to different cir-
cumstances, than to so many different kinds of instinct.
But to what principle ? Not to reason, the faculty to
which we assign this power of varying accommodation.
All the actions above adduced come strictly under the
description of instinctive actions, being all performed

506 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

by every generation of bees since the creation of the
world, and as perfectly a day or two after their birth
as at any subsequent period. And as the very essence
of instinct consists in the determinate character of the
actions to which it gives birth, it is clear that every
distinctly different action must be referred to a distinct
instinct. Few will dispute that the instinct which
leads a duck to resort to the water is a different instinct
from that which leads her to sit upon her eggs; for the
hen tijough endowed with one is not with the other.
In fact, they are as distinct and unconnected as the
senses of sight and smell ; and it appears to mo that it
would be as contrary to philosophical accuracy of lan-
guage, in the former case to call the two instincts mo-
dificiilions of each other, as in the latter so to designate
the two senses ; and as we say that a deaf and blind man
has fewer senses than other men, so strictly we ought not
to speak of instinct as one faculty (though to avoid cir-
cumlocution 1 have myself often employed this common
mode of expression), or say that one insect has a greater
or less share of instinct than another, but more or fewer
instmcts. — That it is not always easy to determine what
actions are to be referred to a distinct instinct and what
to a modification of an instinct, I am very ready to ad-
mit; but this is no solid ground for regarding all in-
stincts as modifications of some one principle. It is
often equally difficult to fix the limits between instinct
aiul reason; but we are not on this account justified in
deeming them the same.

This multitude of instincts in the same individual,
becomes more wonderful when considered in another
point of view. Were they constantly to follow each

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 507

other in regular sequence, so that each bee necessarily
first began to build cells, then to collect honey, next
pollen, and so on, we might plausibly enough refer,
them to some change in the sensations of the animal,
caused by alterations in the structure and gradual de-
velopment of its organs, in the same way as on similar
principles we explain the sexual instincts of the supe-
rior tribes. But it is certain that no such consecutive
series prevails. The different instincts of tlie bee are
called into action in an order regulated solely by the
needs of the society. If combs be wanted, no bee col-
lects honey for storing until they are piovided^: and
if, when constructed, any accident injure or destroy
them, every labour is suspended until the mischief is
repaired or new ones substituted^. When the crevices
round the hive are effectually secured with propolis,
the instinct directing the collection of this substance
lies dormant : but transfer the bees to a new hive
which shall require a new luting, and it is instantly re-
excited. But these instances are superfluous. Every
one knows that at the same moment of time the citizens
of a hive are employed in the most varied and opposite
operations. Some are collecting pollen; others are in
search of honey; some busied at home in the first con-
struction of the cells ; others in giving them their last
polish; others in ventilating the hive; others again in
feeding the young brood and the like.

Now, how are we to account for this regularity of
procedure — this undeviating accuracy with which the
precise instinct wanted is excited — this total absence
of all confusion in the employment by each inhabitant

a Huber, ii. 64. b ibid. ii. 138.

508 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

of the hive, of that particular instinct out of so many
whjch the good of the community requires ? No think-
ing man ever witnesses the complexness and yet regu-
larity and efficiency of a great establishment, such as
the Bank of England, or the Post-office, without mar-
velling that even human reason can put together with
so little friction and such slight deviations from cor-
rectness, machines whose wheels are composed not of
wood and iron, but of fickle mortals of a thousand dif-
ferent inclinations, powers, and capacities. But if such
establishments be surprising even with reason for their
prime mover, how much more so is a hive of bees whose
proceedings are guided by their instincts alone ! We
can conceive that the sensations of hunger experienced
on awaking in the morning should excite into action
their instinct of gathering honey. But all are hungry;
yet all do not rush out in search of flowers. What
sensation is it that c?e/a/w5 a portion of the hive at home,
unmindful of the gnawings of an empty stomach, busied
in domestic arrangements, until the return of their
roving companions ? Of those that fly abroad, what
conception can we form of the cause which, while one
set is gathering honey or pollen, leads another com-
pany to load their legs with pellets of propolis ? Are
we to say that the instinct of the former is excited by
one sensation, that of the latter by another ? But why
should one sensation predominate in one set of bees,
while another takes the lead in a second ? — or how is
it that these different instincts are called up precisely
in the degree which the actual and changing state of
things in the hive requires ? — Of those which remain
at home, what is it that determines in one party the

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 509

instinct of building cells to prevail; in another that of
ventilating the hive ; in a third that of feeding the
ybung brood ? For my own part, I confess that the
more I reflect on this subject, and contrast the diver-
sity of the means with the regularity and uniformity of
the end, the more I am lost in astonishment. The
effects of instinct seem even more wonderful than those
of reason, in the same manner as the consentaneous
movements of a mighty and divided army, which, though
under the command of twenty generals and from the
most distant quarters, should meet at the assigned spot
at the very hour fixed upon, would be more surprising
than the steam-moved operations, however complex, of
one of Boulton's mints.

For the sake of distinctness and compression, I have
confined myself in considering the number of the in-
stincts of individual insects to a single species, the bee;
but if the history of other societies of these animals-
wasps, ants, &c. detailed in my former letters, be duly
weighed, it will be seen that they furnish examples of
the variety in question fully as striking. These coi -
roborating proofs I shall leave to yo\ir own inference,
and proceed to the third head, under which I proposed
to consider the instincts of insects — that of their ex-
traordinary development.

The development of some of the instincts of the
larger animals, such as those of sex, is well known to
depend upon their age and the peculiar state of the
bodily organs ; and to this, as before observed, the suc-
cession of different instincts in the same insect, in its
larva and perfect state, is closely analogous. But

510 INSTliNCT OF INSECTS.

what I have now in view is that extraordinary deve-
lopment of instinct, which is dependent not upon the age
or any change in the organization of the animal, but upon
external events — wiiicli in individuals of the same spe-
cies, age, and structure, in some circumstances slum-
bers unmoved, but may in others be excited to the most
singular and unlooked-for action. In illustratino- this
property of instinct, which, as far as I am aware, is not
known to occur in any of the larger animals, I shall
confine myself as before to the hive-bee ; the only insect,
indeed, in which its existence has been satisfactorily as-
certained, though it is highly probable that other species
living in societies may exhioit the same phenomenon.

Several of the facts occurring in the history of bees
might be referred to this head ; but I shall here advert
only to the treatment of the drones by the workers
under different circumstances, and to the operations of
the latter consequent upon the irretrievable loss of the
queen — facts which have been before stated to you, but
to the principal features of which my present argument
makes it necessary that I should again direct your at-
tention.

If a hive of bees be this year in possession of a queen
duly fertilized, and consequently sure the next season
of a succession of males, all the drones, as I have be-
fore stated", towards the approach of winter are mas-
sacred by the workers with the most unrelenting fero-
city- To this seemingly cruel course they are doubt-
less impelled by an imperious instinct; and as it is re-
gularly followed in every hive thus circumstanced, it
would seem at the first view to be an impulse as inti-

a Stc above, p. 173—.

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 511

I

niately connected with tlie organization and very ex-
istence of tlie workers, and as incapable of change, as
that which leads theiii to build cells or to store up ho-
ney. But this is far from being the case. However
certain the doom of the drones this autumn, if the hive
be furnished with a duly-fertilized queen, their undis-
turbed existence over the winter is equally sure if the
hive have lost its sovereign, or her impregnation have
been so retarded as to make a succession of males in
the spring doubtful. In such a hive the workers do not
destroy a single drone, though the hottest persecution
rages in all the hives around them.

Now, how are we to explain this diiference of con-
duct? Are we to suppose that the bees know and rea-
son upon this alteration in the circunistances of their
community — that they infer the possibility of their en-
tire extinction if the whole male stock were destroyed
when without a queen — and that thus influenced by a
wise policy they restrain the fury they would other-
wise have exercised ? This would be at once to make
them not only gifted with reason, but endowed with a
power of looking before and after, and a command over
the strongest natural propensities, superior to what
could be expected in a similar case even from a soci-
ety of men ; and is obviously unwarrantable. The
only probable supposition is, clearly, that a new instinct
is developed suited to the extraordinary situation in
which the community stands, leading them now to re-
gard with kindness the drones, for whom otherwise
they would have felt the most violent aversion.

In this instance, indeed, it would perhaps be more
strictly correct to say (which, however, is eqiraiJy won-

51^ INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

derful,) that the old instinct M'as extinguished; but in
the case of the loss of a queen, to which I am next to
advert, which is followed by positive operations, the
extraordinary development of a new and peculiar in-
stinct is indisputable.

In a hive which no untoward event has deprived of
its queen, the workers take no other active steps in the
education of her successors — those of which one is to
occupy her place when she has flown off at the head
of a new swarm in spring — than to prepare a certain
number of cells of extraordinary capacity for their re-
ception while in the egg, and to feed them when be-
come grubs with a peculiar food until they have at-
tained maturity. This, therefore, is their ordinary in-
stinct ; and it may happen that the workers of a hive
may have no necessity for a long series of successive
generations to exercise any other. But suppose them
to lose their queen. Far from sinking into that inac-
tive despair which was formerly attributed to them, af-
ter the commotion which the rapidly-circulated news
of their calamity gave birth to has subsided, they be-
take themselves with an alacrity from which man when
under misfortune might deign to take a lesson, to the
active reparation of their loss. Several ordinary cells,
as was before related at large % are without delay
pulled down, and converted into a variable number of
royal cells capacious enough for the education of one
or more queen-grubs selected out of the unhoused
working grubs — which in this pressing emergency are
mercilessly sacrificed — and fed with the appropriate
royal food to maturity. Thus sure of once more ac-

a Sec above, p. 130 — .

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 513

Xjuiring- a head, the hive return to their ordinary la-
bours, and in about sixteen days one or more queens
are produced; one of which, after being indebted to
fortune for an elevation as singular as that of Cathe-
rine the First of Russia, steps into day and assumes
the reins of state.

To this remarkable deviation from the usual pro-
tedures of the community, the observations above made
in the case of the drones must be applied. We can-
not account for it by conceiving- the working bees to
be acquainted with the end which their operations have
in view. If we suppose them to JmoxD that the queen
and working-grubs are originally the same, and that to
convert one of the latter into the former it is only ne-
cessary to transfer it to an apartment sufficiently spa-
cious and to feed it with a peculiar food, we confer
upon them a depth of reason to which Prometheus,
when' he made his clay man, had no pretensions — an
original discovery, in short, to which man has but just
attained after some thousand years of painful research,
having escaped all the observers of bees from Aristo-
machus to Swammerdam and Reaumur of modern
times. We have no other alternative, then, but to
refer this phenomenon to the extraordinary develop-
ment of a new instinct suited for the exigency, how-
ever incomprehensible to us the manner of its excite-
ment may appear.

II. Such, then, are the exquisiteness, the number,
and the extraordinary development of the instincts of
insects. But is instinct the sole guide of tl^eir actions ?
Are they in every case the blind agents of irresistible

VOL. II. 2 L

514 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

impulse? These queries, I have already hinted, can-
not in my opinion be replied to in the affirmative ; and
I now proceed to show, that though instinct is the chief
guide of insects, they are endowed also with no incon-
siderable portion o^ reason.

Some share of reason is denied by few philosophers
of the present day to the larger animals. But its ex-
istence has not generally (except by those who reject
instinct altogether) been recognised in insects; proba-
bly on the ground that, as the proportions of reason and
of instinct seem to coexist in an inverse ratio, the for-
mer might be expected to be extinct in a class in which
the latter is found in such perfection. This rule, how-
ever, though it may hold good in man, whose instincts
are so few and imperfect, and whose reason is so pre-
eminent, is far from being confirmed by an extended
survey of the classes of animals generally. Many qua-
drupeds, birds, and fishes, with instincts apparently
not very acute, do not seem to have their place sup-
plied by a proportionably superior share of reason :
and insects, as I think the facts I have to adduce will
prove, though ranking so low in the scale of creation,
seem to enjoy as great a degree of reason as many ani-
mals of the superior classes, yet in combination with
instincts much more numerous and exquisite.

I must premise, however, that in so perplexed and
intricate a field, I am sensible how necessary it is to
tread with caution. A far greater collection of facts
must be made, and the science of metaphysics generally
be placed on a more solid foundation than it now can
boast, before we can pretend to decide, in numerous
cases, which of the actions of insects are to be deemed

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 51i5

)|^urely instinctive, and which the result of reason.
What I advance, therefore, on this head, I wish to be
regarded rather as conjectures, that, after the best con-
sideration I am able to give to a subject so much beyond
my depth, seem to me plausible, than as certainties
to which I require your implicit assent.

That reason has nothing to do with the major part
of the actions of insects is clear, as I have before ob-
served, from the determinateness and perfection of
these actions, and from their being performed inde-
pendently of instruction and experience. A young bee
(I must once more repeat) betakes itself to the complex
operation of building cells, with as much skill as the
oldest of its compatriots. We cannot suppose that it
has any knowledge of the purposes for which the cells
are destined ; or of the effects that will result from its
feeding the young larvae, and the like. And if an in-
dividual bee be thus destitute of the very materials of
reasoning as to its main operations, so must the society
iijr general.

Nor in those remarkable deviations and accommo-
dations to circumstances, instanced under a former head,
can we, for considerations there assigned, suppose in-
sects to be influenced by reason. These deviations are
still limited in number, and involve acts far too com-
plex and recondite to spring from any process of ratio-
eination in an animal whose term of life does not ex-
ceed two years.

It does not follow, however, that reason may not
have a part in inducing some of these last-mentioned
actions, though the actions themselves are purely in-
stinctive. I do not pretend to explain in what way or
2 12

51b INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

degree they are combined ; but certainly some of the
facts do"not seem to admit of explanation, exception
this supposition . Thus, in the instance above cited from
Huber, in which the bees bent a comb at right angles
in order to avoid a slip of glass, the remarkable varia-
tions in the form of the cells can only, as I have there
said, be referred to instinct. Yet the original deter-
mination to avoid the glass seems, as Huber himself ob-
serves, to indicate something more than instinct, since
glass is not a substance against which Nature can be sup-
posed to have forewarned bees, there being nothing in
hollow trees (their natural abodes) resembling it either
in polish or substance : and what was most striking in
their operations was, that they did not wait until they
had reached the surface of the glass before changing
the direction of the comb, but adopted this variation
at a considerable distance, as though they foresaw the
inconveniences which might result from another mode
of construction ^. — However difficult it may be to form
a clear conception of this union of instinct and reason
rn the same operation, or to define precisely the limits
of each, instances of these »^^.rec? actions are sufficiently
common among animals to leave little doubt of the
feet. It is instinct which leads a greyhound, to pursue
a hare ; but it must be reason that directs " an old
greyhound to trust the more fatiguing part of the chase
to the younger, and to place himself so as to meet the
hare in her doubles''."

As another instance of these mixed actions in which
both reason and instinct seem concerned, but the for-
mer more decidedly, may be cited the account which

a Huber, ii. 219. b Hiune's Essay on the Reason of Animals.

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 51T

Huber gives of the manner in which the bees of some
of his neighbours protected themselves against the at-
tacks of the death's-head moth (Sphinx Atropos), laid
before you in a former letter % by so closing the en-
trance of the hive with walls, arcades, casements, and
bastions, built of a mixture of wax and propolis, that
these insidious marauders could no longer intrude them-
selves.

We can scarcely attribute these elaborate fortifica-
tions to reason simply ; for it appears that bees have
recourse to a similar defensive expedient when attacked
even by other bees ; and the means employed seem too
subtle and too well adapted to the end to be the result
of this faculty in a bee.

But on the other hand, if it be most probable that in
this instance instinct was chiefly concerned, if we im-
partially consider the facts, it seems impossible to deny
that reason had some share in the operations. Pure
instinct would have taught the bees to fortify them-
selves on the Jirst attack. If the occupants of a hive
had been taken unawares by these gigantic aggressors
one night, on the second, at least, the entrance should
have been barricadoed. But it appears clear from the
statement of Huber, that it was not until the hives had
been repeatedly attacked and robbed of nearly their
whole stock of honey, that the bees betook themselves
to the plan so successfully adopted for the security of
their remaining treasures ; so that reason taught by
experience, seems to have called into action their dor-
mant instinct''.

If it be thus probable that reason has some influence

a See above, p. 26T. b Huber, ii. 289—

518 INSTINCT OF^NSECTS.

upon the actions of insects, which must be mainly re-
garded as instinctive, the existence of this faculty is?
still more evident in numerous traits of their history
where ins-tinct is little if at all concerned. An insect
is taught by its instincts the most unerring means to
the attainment of certain ends; but these ends, as I
have already had occasion more than once to remark,
are limited in number, and such only as are called for
by its wants in a state of nature. We cannot reason-
ably suppose insects to be gifted with instincts adapte4
for occasions that are never likely 1o happen. If there-
fore we find them, in these extraordinary and improba-
ble emergencies, still availing themselves of the means
apparently best calculated for ensuring their object ;
— and if in addition they seem in some cases to gain
knowledge by experience ; if they can communicate
information to each other ; and if they are endowed
with memory — it appears impossible to deny that they
are possessed of )'eason. — I shall now produce facts
in proof of each of these positions; not by any means
all that might be adduced, but a few of the most stri-
king that occur to me.

First, then, insects often in cases not likely to be
provided for by instinct, adopt means evidently designed
for effecting their object.

A certain degree of warmth is necessary to hatch a
hen's eggs, and we give her little credit for reason in
sitting upon them for this purpose. But if any one
had ever seen a hen make her nest in a heap of fer-
menting dung, among the bark of a hot-bed, or in the
vicinity of a baker's oven, where, the heat being as well

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 519

adapted as the stoves of the Egyptians to bring her
chickens into life, she left off the habit of her race, and
saved herself the trouble of sitting upon them, — we
should certainly pronounce her a reasoning hen : and
if this hen had chanced to be that very one figured and
so elaborately described by Professor Fischer, with
the profile of mi old zGoman^y a Hindoo metaphysician at
least could not doubt of her body, however hen-like,
being in truth directed in its operations by the soul of
some quondam amateur of poultry-breeding. Now
societies of ants have more than once exhibited a de-
viation from their usual instinct, which to me seems
quite as extraordinary and as indicative of reason as
would be that supposed in a hen. A certain degree
of warmth is required for the exclusion and rearing of
their eggs, larvae and pupge ; and in their ordinary
abodes, as you have been already told"^, they undergo
great daily labour in removing their charge to different
parts of the nest, as its temperature is affected by the
presence or absence of the sun. But Reaumur, in re-
futing the common notion of ants being injurious to
bees, tells us that societies of the former often saved
themselves all this trouble, by establishing their colo-
nies between the exterior wooden shutters and panes
of his glass hives, where, owing to the latter substance
being a tolerably good conductor of heat, their progeny
was at all times, and without any necessity of changing
their situation, in a constant, equable, and sufficitint

a See Fischer's Beschreibung eines Huhns mit nienschenahnlkhern Pro-
file, 8vo, St. Petersburg 1816, and a translation in Thomson's .^nnafa of
Phil, viii, 241.
b Vol. I. 2d Ed, 364.

520 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

temperature ^. Bonnet observed the same fact. He.
found that a society of ants had piled up their young
to the height of several inches, between the flannel-
lined case of his glass hives and the glass. When dis-
turbed they ran away with them, but always replaced
them ^

I am persuaded that after duly considering these
facts, you will agree with me that it is impossible con-
sistently to refer them to instinct, or to account for
them without supposing some stray ant, that had in-
sinuated herself into this tropical crevice, first to have
been struck with the thought ot^ what a prodigious sav-
ing of labour and anxiety would occur to her compa-
triots by establishing their society here ; — that she had
communicated her ideas to them; — and that they had
resolved upon an emigration to this new-discovered
country — this Madeira of ants— whose genial clime
presented advantages which no other situation could
offer. Neither instinct, nor any conceivable modifi-
cation of instinct, could have taught the ants to avail
themselves of a good fortune which but for the inven-
tion of glass hives would never have offered itself to a
generation of these insects since the creation ; for there
is nothing analogous in nature to the constant and
equable warmth of such a situation, the heat of any ac-
cidental mass of fermenting materials soon ceasing, and
no heat being given out from a society of bees when
lodged in a hollow tree, their natural residence. The
conclusion, then, seems irresistible, that reason must
have been their guide, inducing a departure from their
natural instinct as extraordinary as would be that of a

a Rcaum. V. 709. V> (Euvres,n. ilQ,

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 521

lien which should lay her eggs in a hot-bed, and cease
to sit upon them.

The adaptation of means to an end not likely to
have been provided for by instinct, is equally obvious
in the ingenious mode by which a nest of humble-bees
propped up their tottering comb, the particulars of
which having before mentioned to you % I need not
here repeat.

There is perhaps no surer criterion of reason than,
after having tried one mode of accomplishing a pur-
pose, adopting another more likely to succeed. Insects
are able to stand this test. A bee which Huber watched
while soldering the angles of a cell with propolis, de-
tached a thread of this material with which she entered
the cell. Instinct would have taught her to separate
it of the exact length required ; but after applying it
to the angle of the cell, she found it too long, and cut
off a portion so as to fit it to her purpose ''.

This is a very simple instance ; but one such fact is
as decisive in proof of reason as a thousand more com-
plex, and of such there is no lack. Dr. Darwin (whose
authority in the present case depending not on hearsay,
but his own observation, may be here taken,) informs
us, that walking one day in his garden he perceived
a wasp upon the gravel walk with a large fly nearly a?
big as itself which it had caught. Kneeling down he
distinctly saw it cut off the head and abdomen, and then
taking up with its feet the trunk or middle portion of
the body to which the wings remained attached, fly
away. But a breeze of wind acting upon the wings
pf the fly turned round the wasp with its burthen, and

a Vol. I. 2d Ed. 360. b Huber, ii. 268.

522 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

impeded its progress. Upon this it alighted again on
the gravel walk, deliberately sawed off first one wing
and then the other; and having thus removed the cause
of its embarrassment, flew off with its booty^. Could
any process of ratiocination be more perfect? " Some-
thing acts upon the wings of this fly and impedes my
flight. If I wish to reach my nest quickly, I must get
rid of them — to effect which, the shortest way will be
to alight again and cut them off." These reflections,
or others of similar import, must be supposed to have
passed through the mind of the wasp, or its actions are
altogether inexplicable. Instinct might have taught
it to cut off the wings of all flies, previously to flying
away with them. But here it first attempted to fly with
the wings on, — was impeded by a certain cause, — dis-
covered what this cause was, — and alighted to remove
it. The chain of evidence seems perfect in proof that
nothing but reason could have been its prompter.

An analogous though less striking fact is mentioned
by Reaumur on the authority of M. Cossigny, who
witnessed it in the Isle of France where the Spheges
are accustomed to bury the bodies of cockroaches
along with their eggs for provision for their young.
He sometimes saw one of these Spheges attempt to
drag after it into its hole a dead cockroach, which was
too big to be made to enter by all its efforts. After
several ineffectual trials the Sphex came out, cut off its
elytra and some of its legs, and thus reduced in com-
pass drew in its prey without difficulty''.

Under this head I shall mention but one fact more. —
A friend of Gleditsch the observer of the singular eco-

a Zoonomia, i. 183. b Reaum. vi. 283.

INSTINCT OP INSECTS. 523

nomy of the burying beetle {Necrophorus Vespillo) re-
lated in a former letter % being desirous of drying a
dead toad, fixed it to the top of a piece of wood which
he stuck into the ground. Rut a short time after-
wards, he found that a body of these indefatigable lit-
tle sextons had circumvented him in spite of his pre-
cautions. Not being able to reach the toad, they had
undermined the base of the stick until it fell, and then
buried both stick and toad''.

In the second place, insects gain knowledge front eX'
perience, which would be impossible if they were not
gifted with some portion of reason. In proof of their
thus profiting, I shall select from the numerous facts
that might be brought forward, two only, one of which
has been already slightly adverted to''.

M. P. Huber, in his valuable paper in the sixth
volume of the Linnean Transactions'^, states that he has
seen large humble-bees, when unable from the size of
their head and thorax to reach to the bottom of the
long tubes of the flowers of beans, go directly to the
calyx, pierce it as well as the tube w ith the exterior
horny parts of their proboscis, and then insert their
proboscis itself into the orifice and abstract the honey.
They thus flew from flower to flower, piercing the tubes
from without, and sucking the nectar, while smaller
humble-bees or those with a longer proboscis entered
in at the top of the corolla. Now from this statement
it seems evident, that the larger bees did not pierce the
^ottoms of the flowers until they had ascertained by

a Vol. 1. 2d Ed. 351 . b Gleditsch Physic. Bot. (Econ. Jbhandl. iii. SSOw
e See above, p. 1 18. «1 p. 222.

524 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

trial that tliey could not reach the nectar from the top ;
but that having- once ascertained by experience that
the flowers of beans are too strait to admit them, they
then, without further attempts in the ordinary way,
pierced the bottoms of all the flowers which they
wished to rifle of their sweets. — M. Aubert du Petit-
Thouars observed that humble-bees and X?/locopa
%iiolacea gained access in a similar manner to the
nectar of Antirrhinum Linariu and majus, and Mira-
hilis Jalappa ; as do the common bees of the Isle of
France to that of Canna indica^; and I have myself
more than once noticed holes at the base of the long"
nectaries of Aquilcgia vulgaris, which I attribute to
the same agency.

My second fact is supplied by the same ants, whose
sagacious choice of the vicinity of Reaumur's glass
hives for their colony has been just related to you.
He tells us that of these ants, of which there were such
swarms on the outside of the hive, not a single one was
ever perceived within ; and infers that, as they are
such lovers of honey, and there was no difliculty in
finding crevices to enter in at, they were kept Avithout,
solely from fear of the consequences''. Whence arose
this fear ? We have no ground for supposing ants en-
dowed with any instinctive dread of bees; and Reau-
mur tells us, that when he happened to leave in his
garden, hives of which the bees had died, the ants then
never failed to enter them and regale themselves with
the honey. It seems reasonable, therefore, to attri-
bute it to experience. Some of the ants no doubt had
tried to enter the peopled as they did the empty hive,

a Nouvcau BiiUclln des Sciences- i. 4.>. W Rcanm. v. 709.

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 555

hnt had been punished for their presumption, and the

dear-bo

munity.

dear-bought lesson was not lost on the rest of the com

Insects, in the third place, are able mutually to com-'
mitnicate and receive information, which, in whatever
way effected, would be impracticable if they were devoid
of reason. Under this head it is only necessary to re-
fer you to the endless facts in proof, furnished by almost
every page of my letters on the history of ants and of
the hive-bee. I shall therefore but detain you for a
moment with an additional anecdote or two, especially
with one respecting the former tribe, which is valuable
from the celebrity of the relater.

Dr. Franklin was of opinion that ants could commu-
nicate their ideas to each other ; in proof of which he
related to Kalm, the Swedish traveller, the following
fact. Having placed a pot containing treacle in a closet
infested with ants, these insects found their way into
it, and were feasting very heartily when he discovered
them. He then shook them out and suspended the pot
by a string from the ceiling. By chance one ant re-
mained, which, after eating its fill, with some difficulty
found its way up the string, and thence reaching the
ceiling, escaped by the wall to its nest. In less than
half an hour a great company of ants sallied out of
their hole, climbed the ceiling-, crept along the string
into the pot, and began to eat again. This they con-
tinued until the treacle was all consumed, ona swarm
running up the string while another passed down '. If

a Kalin's Travtls in North .Iiitcrtia, s. 239.

5/26 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

seems indisputable that the one ant had in this instance
conveyed news of the booty to his comrades, who would
not otherwise have at once directed their steps in a body
to the only accessible route.

A German artist, a man of strict veracity, states that
in his journey through Italy he was an eye-witness to
the following occurrence. He observed a species of
Scarabceus busily engaged in making, for the reception
of its egg, a pellet of dung, v/hich when finished it
rolled to the summit of a small hillock, and repeatedly
suffered to tumble down its side, apparently for the sake
of consolidating- it by the earth which each time ad-
hered to it. During this process the pellet unluckily fell
into an adjoining hole, out of which all the efforts of
the beetle to extricate it were in vain. After several
ineffectual trials, the insect repaired to an adjoining
heap of dung, and soon returned with three of his com-
panions. All four now applied their united strength
to the pellet, and at length succeeded in pushing it
out; which being done, the three assistant beetles left
the spot and returned to their own quarters^.

Lastly, insects are endowed with memo7y, which
(at least in connexion with the purposes to which it is
subservient) implies some degree of reason also ; and
their historian may exclaim with the poet who has so
well sung the pleasures of this faculty.

Hail, Memory, hail ! thy unirersal reign
Guards the least link of Being's glorious chftln.

a lUiger Mag. i. 488»

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 527

In the elegant lines in which tliis couplet occurs %
ivhich were pointed out to me by my friend Dr. Alder-
son of Hull, Mr. Rogers supposes the bee to be con-
ducted to its hive by retracing the scents of the various
flowers which it has visited : but this idea is more po-
etical than accurate, bees, as before observed'', flying
straight to their hives from great distances. Here, as
I have more than once had occasion to remark in si-
milar instances, we have to regret the want of more
correct entomological information in the poet, who
might have employed with as much effect, the real fact
of bees distinguishing their own hives out of numbers
near them, when conducted to the spot by instinct.
This recognition of home seems clearly the result of
memory ; and it is remarkable that bees appear to re-
collect their own hive rather from its situation, than
from any observations on the hive itself"; just as a man

a " Hark ! the bee winds her small but mellow horn,
Blithe to salute the sunny smile of morn.
O'er thymy downs she bends her bus^ course.
And many a stream allures her to its source.
'Tis noon, 'tis night. That eye so finely wrought,
Beyond the search of sense, the soar of thought,
^fow vainly asks the scenes she left behind;
Its orb so full, its vision so confin'd !
Who guides the patient pilgrim to her cell ?
"Who bids her soul with conscious triumph swell ?
With conscious truth retrace the mazy clue
Of varied scents that charm'd her as she flew ?
Hail, Memory, hail ! thy universal reign
Guards the least link of Being's glorious chain."

tj See above, p. 188 and 502.

If a hive be removed out of its ordinary position, the first day after
this removal, the bees do not fly to a distance without having visited ail

528 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

is guided to his house from his memory of its position
relative to other buildings or objects, without its being
necessary for him even to cast a look at it. If, after
quitting- my house in a morning, it were to be lifted
out of its site in the street by enchantment, and re-
placed by another with a similar entrance, I should
probably, even in the day time, enter it, Avithout being
struck by the change ; and bees, if during their absence
their old hive be taken away, and a similar one set in
its place, enter this last, and if it be provided with
brood comb contentedly take up their abode in it, never
troubling themselves to inquire what has become of
the identical habitation which they left in the morning,
and with the inhabitants of which, if it be removed
to fifty paces distance, they never resume their con-
nexion'^.

If, pursuing my illlustration, you should object that
no man would thus contentedly sit down in a new
house without searching after the old one, you must
bear in miiid that I am not aiming to show that bees
have as precise a memory as ours, but only that they
are endowed with some portion of this faculty, which I
think the above fact proves. Should you view it in a
different light, you will not deny the force of others
that have already been stated in the course of our cor-
respondence ; such as the mutual greetings of ants of
the same society when brought together after a separa-
tion of four months''; and the return of a party of bees

tlie nei'^hbouring objects. The queen does the same thing when flying
into the air for fecundation. Huber, Rechercltes sur les Fourmis, 100.

a See the account of the mode in which the Favignanais increase the
number of their hives by thus dividing them. Huber, ii. 459.

b See above, p. 66.

INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 529

in spring to a window, where in the preceding autumn
they had regaled on honey, though none of this sub-
stance had been again placed there ^.

But the most striking fact evincing the memory of
these last-mentioned insects has been communicated to
me by my intelligent friend Mr. William Stickney, of
Ridgemont, Holderness. About twenty years ago, a
swarm from one of this gentleman's hives took posses-
sion of an opening beneath the tiles of his house,
whence, after remaining a few hours, they were dis-
lodged and hived. For many subsequent years, when
the hives descended from this stock were about to swarm,
a considerable party of scouts were observed for a few
days before to be reconnoitring about the old hole
under the tiles ; and Mr. Stickney is persuaded, that
if suffered they would have established themselves
there. He is certain that for eight years successively
the descendants of the very stock that first took posses-
sion of the hole frequented it as above stated, and not
those of any other swarms ; having constantly noticed
them, and ascertained that tiiey were bees from the
original hive by powdering them while about the tiles
with yellow ochre, and watching their return. And
even at the present time there are still seen every
swarming season about the tiles, bees, which Mr. Stick-
ney has no doubt are descendants from the original
stock.

Had Dr. Darwin been acquainted with this fact, he
would have adduced it as proving that insects can con-
vey traditionary information from one generation to
another ; and at the first glance the circumstance of

a See above, p. 202.
VOL. II. 2 M

530

'INSTINCT OP INSECTS.

the descendants of the same stock retaining a know-
ledge of the same fact for twenty years, during which
period there must have been as many generations of
bees, would seem to warrant the inference. But as it is
more probable that th^ party of surveying scouts of the
first generation was the next yekr accompanied by
others of a second, who in like manner conducted their
bre^ren of the third, and these last again others of the
fourth generation, and so on, — I draw no other con-
clusion from it than that bees are endowed with me-
mory, which I think it proves most satisfactorily.

I am, &c.

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

PRINTED BY RICHARD AND ARTHUR TAYLOR, LONDON,

V

ALESE i FLAMlHAJIt.

FUfe.T

"^ fAuxJca cUU^ «A ,a.cMi/r^

Abluihid lii/Zon/)man. Mirst R^ef, Orme artdSr^ vn .LoTuLin, , Jan. j. 1S17.

EXPLANATION OF THE ^LATES.

PLATE IV.

HyMENOPTERA.

Fig. 1. Sirex Gigas.

2. Evania appcndigaster magnified.

3. Nomada Marshauiella.

DiPTERA.

4. Pedicia rivosa.

5. Scricomyia Lapponum.

PLATE V.

Fig. 1. Oxypterum Kirbyanum. Leach, magnified.
Aphaniptera.

2. Pulex irritans magnified.

Aptera.

3. Ricinus Pavonis magnified.

4. Aranca marginata. Donovan,

5. Chelifer cancroides magnified.

6. Scolopendra forficata.

An INTRODUCTION io ENTOMOLOGY;

Or, Ei^EiwENTs of the Naturai, History of Insects.

By WILLIAM KIRBY, M.A. F.R. and L.S.
And WILLIAM SPENCE, ESQ. F.L.S.

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