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'',1/
• ^
AN
INTRODUCTION
ENTOMOLOGY,
London :
rriutetl by Spottiswoode ami Co.,
New-street Square.
A2<
INTEODUCTION
TO
ENTOMOLOGY;
OR,
Elements
OF TriE
NATURAL HISTORY OF INSECTS:
COMPHISINU AN ACCOUNT OP
NOXIOUS AND USEFUL INSECTS,
OF TnEIK METAMOEPnOSES, FOOD, STRATAGEMS, HABITATIONS, SOCIETIES,
MOTIONS, NOISES, HYBERNATION, INSTINCT,
ETC. ETC.
BY
WILLIAM KIEBY, M.A. F.E.S. F.L.S.
KECTOK OF BAKHAM;
AND
WILLIAM SPENCE, Esq., F.R.S. F.L.S.
SEVENTH EDITION,
WITH AN APPENDIX RELATIVE TO THE ORIGIN AND
PROGRESS OF THE WORK.
LONDON:
LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.
1856.
ADVERTISEMENT
THIS SEVENTH EDITION.
This work is now published at one-sixth of the price of
the Sixth Edition, so as to bring it within reach of all de-
sirous of becoming acquainted with the Natural History of
Insects, and thus carrying out more effectually the object of
the Authors — that of introducing others to a branch of
science which they had found so delightful.
Though compressed by a smaller type into One Volume, it
contains every line of the Sixth Edition, which includes much
new matter not in the five preceding editions ; and, to render
the work more complete, the account of its origin and pro-
gress furnished by Mr. Spence to the "Life " of Mr. Kirby
by Mr. Freeman, is, with his permission, given as an
Appendix.
w. s.
London, April, 1856.
A 3
ADVERTISEMENT
THE SIXTH EDITION.
"When the present work was orginally published, the Authors
had no expectation that the demand for it would be so extensive
and permanent as it has proved ; and they need not say how gi'ati-
fying this unlooked-lbr result has been totlieir feelings, as realising
their earnest hope of assisting to remove the prejudices against
the study of Entomology, which existed in full force thirty years
ago when they took up the subject, but which have now happily
disappeared.
Though, however, a regular annual demand for a certain num-
ber of copies has always continued up to the present time, so as
to have exhausted the last edition, the publishers have suggested
that the future sale of the work, and its main object — that of ex-
tending the knowledge of insects — would be much forwarded, if
the first two volumes, treating of their manners and economy, were
published separately, so as to obviate the necessity to those who
do not care to pursue the study farther, of being burdened with
the heavy cost of two additional volumes of matter, chiefly tech-
nical, in which they feel no interest.
It is in compliance with this suggestion that these volumes
now appear as a distinct work, and (though greatly enlarged by
new matter) at a considerable reduction of price ; but at the same
time it is hoped that a new edition of the two remaining volumes
will follow at a future period, when they will be also given as a
distinct work, comprising the anatomy, physiology, orismology,
&c. of the science.
A 4
PREFACE
THE FIRST EDITION, 1815.
One principal cause of the little attention paid to Entomology in
this country has doubtless been the ridicule so often thrown upon
the science. The botanist, sheltered now by the sanction of
fashion, as formerly by the prescriptive union of his study with
medicine, may dedicate his hours to mosses and lichens without
reproach ; but in the minds of most men, the leax'ned as well as
the vulgar, the idea of the trifling nature of his pursuit is so
strongly associated with that of the diminutive size of its objects,
that an Entomologist is synonymous with every thing futile and
childish. Now, when so many other roads to fame and distinction
are open, when' a man has merely to avow himself a botanist, a
mineralogist, or a chemist, a student of classical literature, or of
political economy, to insure attention and respect, there are evi-
dently no great attractions to lead him to a science which, in nine
companies out of ten with which he may associate, promises to
signalise him only as an object of pity or contempt. Even if he
have no other aim than self-gratification, yet " the sternest stoic
of us all wishes at least for some one to enter into his views and
feelings, and confirm hiq^ in the opinion which he entertains of
himself: " but how can he look for sympathy in a pursuit un-
known to the world, except as indicative of littleness of mind ?
Yet such are the genuine charms of this branch of the study of
nature, that here as well as on the Continent, where, from being
X PREFACE.
equally slighted, Entomology now divides tlie empire with her sistei*
Botany, this obstacle would not have been sufficient to deter num-
bers from the study, had not another more powerful impediment
existed, — the want of a popular and comprehensive Introduction
to the science. While elementary books on Botany have been
multiplied amongst us without end and in every shape, Curtis's
translation of the Fundamenta Entomology, published in 1772,
Yeats's Institutions of Entomology, which appeared the year after,
and Barbut's Genera Insectorum, which came out in 1781, — the
two former in too unattractive, and the latter in too expensive a
form for general readers, — are the only works professedly devoted
to this object which the English language can boast.
Convinced that this was the chief obstacle to the spread of En-
tomology in Britain, the authors of the present work resolved to
do what was in their power to remove it, and to introduce their
countrymen to a mine ofpleasure, new, boundless, and inexhaust-
ible, and which, to judge fi'om their own experience, — formed in
no contracted field of comparison, — they can recommend as pos-
sessing advantages and attractions equal to those held forth by
most other branches of human learning.
The next question was, in what way they should attempt to
accomplish this intention. If they had contented themselves with
the first suggestion that presented itself, and merely given a trans-
lation of one of the many Introductions to Entomology extant in
Latin, German, and French, adding only a few obvious improve-
ments, their task would have been very easy ; but the slightest
examination showed that, in thus proceeding, they would have
stopped far short of the goal which they were desirous of reaching.
In the technical department of the science they found much con-
fusion, and numerous errors and imperfections ; the same name
sometimes applied to parts anatomically quite different, and dif-
ferent names to parts essentially the same, while others of primary
importance were without any name at all. And with refei-ence to
the anatomy and physiology of insects, they could nowhere meet
with a full and accurate generalisation of the various facts con-
nected with these subjects, scattered here and there in the pages
of the authors who have studied tliem.
They therefore resolved to begin, in some measure, de novo, to
PREFACE. xl
institute a rigorous revision of the terms employed, making such
additions and improvements as might seem to be called for ; and
to attempt a more complete and collected account of the existing
discoveries respecting the anatomical and physiological departments
of the science than has yet been given to the world ; — and to these
two points their plan at the outset was limited.
It soon, however, occurred to them, that it would be of little
use to write a book which no one would peruse ; and that, in the
present age of love for light reading, there could not be much hope
of leading students to the dry abstractions of the science, unless
they were conducted through the attractive portal of the economy
and natural history of its objects. To this department, therefore,
they resolved to devote the first and most considerable portion of
their intended work, bringing into one point of view, under dis-
tinct heads, the most intei'esting discoveries of Reaumur, De Geer,
Bonnet, Lyonet, the Hubers, &c., as well as their own individual
observations, relative to the noxious and beneficial properties of
insects, their affection for their young, their food, and modes of
obtaining it, their habitations, societies, &c. &c. ; and they were
the more induced to adopt this plan from the consideration that,
though many of the most striking of these facts have been before
presented to the English reader, a great proportion are unknown
to him ; and that no similar generalisation (if a slight attempt to-
wards it in Smellie's Philosophy of Natural History, and a confes-
sedly imperfect one in Latreille's Histoire Naturelle des Crustaces
et des Insectes be excepted) has ever been attempted in any lan-
guage. Thus the entire work would be strictly on the plan of the
Philosophia Entomologica of Fabricius, only giving a much greater
extent to the (Economia and Usus, and adverting to these in the
first place instead of in the last.
The epistolary form was adopted, not certainly from any idea of
their style being particularly suited to a mode of writing so diffi-
cult to keep from running into incongruities, but simply because
this form admitted of digressions and allusions called for in a
popular work, but which might have seemed misplaced in a stricter
kind of composition ; — because it is better suited to convey those
practical directions which in some branches of the pursuit the
student requires; — and, lastly, because by this form the objection
xii PREFACE.
against speaking of the manners and economy of insects before
entering upon the definition of them, and explaining the terms of
the science, — a retrograde course, which they have chosen from
their desire to present the most alluring side of the science first, —
is, in great measure, if not wholly obviated.
Such is the plan which the Authors chalked out for themselves ;
a plan which in the execution they have found so much more ex-
tensive than they calculated upon, that, could they have foreseen
the piles of volumes through which it has entailed upon them the
labour of wading, often to glean scarcely more than a single fact,
the numerous anatomical and technological investigations which
it has called for, and the long correspondence, almost as bulky as
the entire work, unavoidably rendered necessary by the distant
residence of the parties, they would have shrunk from an under-
taking of which the profit, if by great chance there should be any,
could not be expected to repay even the cost of books required in
it, and from which any fame must necessarily be confined to a very
limited circle. But having entered upon it, they have persevered:
and if they succeed in their grand aim, that of making converts
amongst their countrymen to a study equally calculated for pro-
moting the glory of God and the delight and profit of man, they
will not deem the labour of the leisure hours of six years ill be-
stowed.
And here it may be proper to observe, that one of their first and
favourite objects has been to direct the attention of their readers
" from nature up to nature's God." For, wheA they refiected upon
the fatal use which has too often been made of Natural History,
and that from the very works and wonders of God some philoso-
phists, by an unaccountable perversion of intellect, have attempted
to derive arguments either against His being and providence, or
against the religion revealed in the Holy Scriptures, they conceived
they might render some service to the most important interests of
mankind, by showing how every department of the science they
recommend illustrates the great truths of religion, and proves that
the doctrines of the TVord of God, instead of being contradicted,
are triumphantly confirmed by His Works.
" To see all things in God" has been accounted one of the peculiar
privileges of a future state ; and in this present life, " to see God in
PREFACK. xiii
all tilings" in the mirror of the creation to beliold and adore tjie
reflected glory of the Creator, is no mean attainment ; and it
possesses this advantage, that thus we sanctify our pursuits, and,
instead of loving the creatures for themselves, are led by the sur-
vey of them and their instincts to the love of Ilini who made and
endowed them.
Of their performance of the first part of their plan, in which
there is the least room for originality, it is only necessary for the
Authors to say, that they have done their best to make it as com-
prehensive, as interesting, and as useful as possible : but it is
requisite to enter somewhat more fully into what has been at-
tempted in the anatomical, physiological, and technical parts of
the work.
As far as respects the general physiology and inferfial anatomy
of insects, they have done little more than bring together and com-
bine the observations of the naturalists who have attended to these
branches of the science ; but the external anatomy they have
examined for themselves through the whole class, and, they trust,
not without some new light, being thrown upon the subject ; parti-
cularly by pointing out and giving names to many parts never
before noticed.
In the Terminologi/, or what, to avoid the barbarism of a word
compounded of Latin and Greek, they would beg to call the Oris-
mology of the science, they have endeavoured to introduce through-
out a greater degree of precision and concinnity, dividing it into
general and partial Orismology ; under the former head, defining
such terms as relate to Substatice, Resistance, Density, Proportion,
Figure, Form, Superficies (under which are introduced Sculpture,
Clothing, Colour, &c.), Margin, Termination, Incision, Ramifica-
tion, Division, Direction, Situation, Connection, Arms, &c. ; and
under the latter, those that relate to the body and its parts and
members, considered in its great subdivisions of Head, Trunk, and
Abdome?i. In short, they may rest their claim of at least aiming
at considerable improvement in this depai'tment upon the great
number of new terms, and alterations of old ones, which they have
introduced, — in external Anatomy alone falling little short of 150.
If it should be thought by any one that they have made too many
changes, they would remind him of the advice of Bergman to Mor-
xiv PREFACE.
veauj'when reforming the nomenclature of Chemistry, the sound-
ness of which Dugald Stewart has recognised: — ^' Ne faites grace
a aucune denomination impropre. Ceux qui savent deja, entendront
toujotirs ; ceux qui ne savent pas encore, entendront plutot."
Throughout the whole publication, wherever any fact of import-
ance not depending on their own authority is mentioned, a refer-
ence to the source whence it has been derived is generally given ;
so that, if the work should have no other value, it will possess that
of saving much trouble to future inquirers, by serving as an index
to direct them in their researches.
The Authors are perfectly sensible that, notwithstanding all
their care and pains, many imperfections will unavoidably remain
in their work. There is no science to which the adage. Dies diem
docet, is more strikingly applicable than to Natural History. New
discoveries are daily made, and will be made, it is probable, to the
end of time ; so that whoever flatters himself _that he can produce
a perfect work in this department, will be miserably disappointed.
The utmost that can reasonably be expected from naturalists, is to
keep pace with the progress of knowledge ; and this the authors
have used their best diligence to accomplish. Every new year since
they took the subject in hand, up to the very time when the first
sheets were sent to the press, numerous corrections and alterations
have suggested themselves ; and thus they are persuaded it would
be were they to double the period of delay prescribed by Horace.
But Poetry and Natural History are on a different footing ; and
though an author can plead little excuse for giving his verses to
the world while he sees it possible to polish them to higher excel-
lence, the naturalist, if he wishes to promote the extension of his
science, must be content to submit his performances to the public
disfigured by numerous imperfections.
In the introductory letter several of the advantages to be de-
rived from the study of Entomology are pointed out ; but there is
one which, though it could not well have been insisted upon in
that place, is too important to be passed over without notice, — its
value in the education of youth.
All modern writers on this momentous subject unite in recom-
mending in this view Natural History ; and if " the quality of ac-
curate discrimination, the ready perception of resemblances
PREFACE. ■ XV
amongst diversities, and slill more, the quick and accurate percep-
tion of diversity in the midst of resemblances, constitutes one of
the most important operations of the understanding; if it be in-
deed the foundation of clear ideas, and tlie acquisition of whatever
can be truly called knowledge depends most materially on the pos-
session of it ; " if '* the best logic be that which teaches us to sus-
pend our judgments;" and "the art of seeing, so useful, so
universal, and yet so uncommon, be one of the most valuable a man
can possess," there can be no doubt of the judiciousness of their
advice. Now of all the branches of Natural History, Entomology
is unquestionably the best fitted for thus disciplining the mind of
youth ; and simply from these circumstances, that its objects have
life, are gifted with surprising instincts admirably calculated to
attract youthful attention, and are to be met with every where. It
is not meant to undervalue the good effects of the study of Botany
or Mineralogy; but it is self-evident that nothing inanimate can
excite such interest in the mind of a young person as beings en-
dowed with vitality, exercising their powers and faculties in so
singular a way ; which, as Reaumur observes, are not only alive
themselves, but confer animation upon the leaves, fruits, and
flowers that they inhabit, which every walk offers to view, and on
which new observations may be made without end.
Besides these advantages, no study affords a fairer opportunity
of leading the young mind by a natural and pleasing path to the
great truths of Religion, and of impressing it with the most lively
ideas of the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Creator.
Not that it is recommended to make children collectors of in-
sects ; nor that young people, to the neglect of more important
duties and pursuits, should generally become professed Entomolo-
gists ; but, if the former be familiarised with their names, manners,
and economy, and the latter initiated into their classification, it will
be an excellent method of strengthening their habits of observation,
attention, and memory, equal perhaps, in this respect, to any other
mental exercise ; and then, like Major Gyllenhal, who studied En-
tomology under Thunberg about 1770, and, after an interval of
twenty years devoted to the service of his country, resumed his
favourite pursuit with all the ardour of youth, and is at this time
giving to the world a description of the insects of Sweden, in-
■XVI PREFACE.
valuable for its accuracy and completeness, tliey wouKd be pro-
vided in their old age with an object capable not merely of
keeping oiF that tcedium vitce so often inseparable from the relin-
quishment of active life, but of supplying an unfailing fund of
innocent amusement, an incentive to exercise, and, consequently,
no mean degree of health and enjoyment.
Some, who, wuth an ingenious author*, regard as superfluous
all pains to show the utility of Natural History in reference to the
common purposes of life, asking, " if it be not enough to open a
source of copious and cheap amusement, which tends to harmonise
the mind, and elevate it to worthy conceptions of nature and its
Author ? — if a greater blessing to a man can be offered than
happiness at an easy rate, unalloyed by any debasing mixture ? "
may think the earnestness displayed on this head, and the length
which has been gone in refuting objections, needless. But Entomo-
logy is so peculiarly circumstanced, that, without removing these
obstacles, there could be no hope of winning votaries to the pursuit.
Pliny felt the necessity of following this course in the outset of his
book which treats on insects ; and a similar one has been originally
called for in introducing the study even to those countries where
the science is now most honoured. In France, Reaumur, in each
of the successive volumes of his immortal work, found it essential
to seize every opportunity of showing that the study of insects is
not a frivolous amusement, nor devoid of utility, as his countrymen
conceived it ; and in Germany, Sulzer had to traverse the same road,
telling us, in proof of the necessity of this procedure, that on show-
ing his works on insects with their plates to two very sensible men,
one commended him for employing his leisure hours in preparing
prints that would amuse children and keep them out of miscliief,
and the other admitted that they might furnish very pretty patterns
for ladies' aprons ! And though in this country things are not now
quite so bad as they were when Lady Glanville's will was attempted
to be set aside on the ground of lunacy, evinced by no other act than
her fondness for collecting insects ; and Ray had to appear at'Exeter
on the trial as a witness of her sanity f ; yet nothing less than
line upon line can be expected to eradicate the deep-rooted preju-
* Dr. Aikin. f See Harris's Aureliafi under Fapilio Cinxia.
PREFACE. xvii
dices which prevail on this subject. " Okl impressions," as Reau-
mur has well observed, *' are with difficulty effaced. They arc
weakened, they appear unjust even to those who feel them, at the
moment they are attacked by arguments which fire unanswerable ;
but the next instant the proofs are forgotten, and the perverse
association resumes its empire."
The Authors do not know that any curiosity will be excited to
ascertain what share has been contributed to the work by each of
them ; but if there should, it is a curiosity they must be excused
from gratifying. United in the bonds of a friendship, which,
though they have to thank Entomology for giving birth to it, is
founded upon a more solid basis than mere community of scientific
pursuits, they wish that, whether blame or praise is the fate of their
labours, it may be jointly awarded. All that they think necessary
to state is, that the composition of each of the different depart-
ments of the work has been, as nearly as possible, divided between
them ; that though the letter, or series of letters, on any particular
subject, has been usually undertaken by one, some of the facts and
illustrations have generally been supplied by the other, and there
are a few to Avhich they have jointly contributed ; and that,
throughout, the facts for which no other authority is quoted, are
to be considered as resting upou that of one or other of the
authors, but not always of him, who, from from local allusions,
may be conceived the writer of the letter in which they are intro-
duced, as the matter furnished by each to the letters of the other
must necessarily be given in the person of the supposed writer.
In acknowledging their obligations to their friends, the first
place is due to Simon "Wilkin, Esq. of Costessey near Norwich, to
whose liberality they are indebted for the plates which illustrate
and adorn the work, which have been drawn and engi'aved at his
expense by Mr. John Curtis, whose intimate acquaintance with
the subject has enabled him to give to the figures an accuracy
which they could not have received from one less conversant with
the science.*
* This refers to the year 1815, when the first vohime of this work was pub-
lished. In the twenty-seven years since elapsed, Mr. Curtis's Entomological
labours, and especially his British Etitomology in sixteen volumes, equally
admirable for its scientific and artistical excellence, have deservedly gained him
a very high reputation wherever the science is cultivated.
a
xviii PREFACE.
To Alexander MacLeat, Esq. they are under particular obli-
gations for tlie warm interest he has all along taken in the work,
the judicious advice he has on many occasions given, the free ac-
cess in which he has indulged the authors to his unrivalled cabinet
and well-stored library, and the numerous other attentions and
accommodations by which he has materially assisted them in its
progress.
To the other friends who have kindly aided them in this under-
taking in any way, they beg here to offer their best thanks.
CONTENTS.
Page
LETTER I.
Introductory ---_■_. 1 jO
LETTER IL
Objectioks answered ---.-. J 1 30
That Entomology is a trifling pursuit - - - - 1 1
That Entomologists confine themselves chiefly to nomenclature - 20
That it leads to cruelty - - - - . - 27
LETTER IIL
Metamorphoses of Insects - - . - . 31 4^
States of Insects (egg, larva, &c.) - - - - - 33
(Orders of Insects) ...... 34
Tlieory of Metamorphoses - - - - - "36
Object of Metamorphoses . . - - .
LETTER IV.
Direct Injuries caused by Insects (Affecting Man Personally) 42 77
1. Insects which make man their food .... 43 53
Pediculus humanus, &c. --..._ 43
Acari - - - . - - . -46
Larva - - - - - - . -51
Fleas - - - - - - . -52
Chigoes . . - . - - -53
Harvest bugs, Ticks, &c. - - - - - 54
Bed Bugs, &c. ...... gg
Insects giving an electrical shock - . - .56
Horse Flies, &c. - - - - - - 57
Mosquitoes, &c. . - - - . . -58
2. Insects which attack man from revenge or fear - - 63 — 67
Bees, Wasps, &c. - - - . - - 63
a 2
CONTENTS.
Page
Insects which attack man from revenge or fear — continued.
Ants
64
Scorpions .----- "J
Centipedes, Tarantula, &c. - - - " -66
3. Insects siviply annoying to man . . - - 67 71
Thrips, Simulium, &c. - - - - " ' o(
House Fly 68
Hairy Caterpillars, &c. - - - - - - oy
4. Insects producing internal diseases . - - - 71 77
Beetles - - - - " " ' 1],
Caterpillars - - - - ' " ' ^^
Gad-flies, &c. - - - - " " " ^^
Bees collecting poisonous honey - - - - 76
LETTER V.
Indikect Injuries caused by Insects - ^ - - /8 89
1. Injuries to our living animal property . . - 78—89
To the Horse - - - - " " ' 1^
Ox ...---- 80
Sheep ----"■'!;
Deer .---••-
Dog ....--- 87
Hive Bee, &c, - - - - " " ^^
LETTER VI.
Indirect Injuries — continued ----- 90 1-'*
2. Injuries to our living vegetable property - - - - 90
To Field Crops 90—105
Wheat - - - - - - - 90
Wheat, &c., in granaries - - - - - 93
Rye, Barley - - - - " - "9*
Indian Corn, &c. - - - - * -95
Peas, Beans, &c. - - - - * - 95
Clover Seed - - -- " " -97
Pastures and Meadows - - - - - 97
Crops generally - - - - - - 99
Hops - 100
Sugar - - - - - - - 101
Cotton, Tobacco, and Coffee - - - - - 102
Carrots - 102
Potatoes - - - - - * - 103
Turnips - - - - - - "103
Beet - 105
To Garden Crops - ----- 105—117
Kitchen Garden ... - - 105—109
Radishes, Lettuces, &c. - . - » - 105
Cabbages, Cauliflowers, &c. ... - - 105
Peas, Beans, Carrots, &c. - - - - - 106
CONTENTS. xxi
Page
2. Injuries to our living vegetable property — continued.
Flower G.irden - - - - - 108
Stove and Greenhouse - - - - - 109
To Orchard and Fruitery - . . _ . 109 — 116
Raspberries - - - - - - -109
Gooseberries and Currants - - - - - 110
Cherries - - - - - - -110
riums - - - - - - - 111
Pears - - - - - - - 111
Apples - - - - - - -111
Peaches and Nectarines - - - - -113
Olives - - - - - . - 114
Chestnuts and Dates - - - - - -114
Pomegranates and Oranges - - - - -114
Grapes - - - - - - -115
Fruit trees generally - - - - - -116
To Plantations and Groves - - - - -117
By Beetles - - - - - - -117
Caterpillars - - -,- - -117
Aphides (honey-dew) - - - - "119
Insects attacking the interior of trees - - - 120
Insects attacking their bark and alburnum - - 121
LETTER VII.
Indirect Injuries — continued - ... - 125 — 131
The ravages of Locusts ----- 125 — 131
LETTER VIIL
Indirect Injuries — concluded ----- 130 — 143
3. Injuries to our dead property, whether animal or vegetable - 132 — 143
To our Food - - - - - - -132
Drugs - - - - - - - 135
Clothes - - - - - - - 135
Houses and Furniture - - - - - 136
Timber - - . - - - -137
Books, Pictures, &c. - - - - - 138
Dead Stock generally - . - - . 139
LETTER IX.
Indirect Benefits derived from Insects - . - 144 — 17
By maintaining a due balance between vegetable and animal pro-
ductions -------- 145
removing nuisances and deformities ----- 146
destroying noxious Insects - - - - - -150
serving as food for other animals - - - - - 160
promoting the fertilisation of plants ----- 167
a 3
Direct Benefits derived from Insects
CONTENTS.
Page
LETTER X,
- 171—191
- 171
As serving for the food of man ' " ' " " 178
As aftbrding Medicines - - " " " I18I
Dyes .-----
Wax ...---
- 185
TT ■ ' I . . - - 187
LETTER XL
Affection of Insects for their Young - - "
1. Insects which perish before their youvg come into existence - ^92—201
Butterflies - - " ' " " .193
Ichneumons -----
Sand Wasps, &c. - - - " " ' -197
Wild Bees ------
Beetles ---■"""
2. Insects which attend their young when hatched - - - ^^^^^^^
Mason Wasp --"■"' ^ 2^^
Saw Fly - - - " " " ' \ ^^^
Wood-boring Beetle --"""_ ^^^
Field Bug - - " " ' ' '. qqz
Earwigs - - - - - ■ " _ 2Q^
Spiders ---■■"... 206
Ants - - - _ _ 2]^Q
Wasps -"""''II 212
Bees
Humble Bees
Termites -
Food of Insects
- 213
- 214
LETTER XII.
- 216 — 226
Insects which feed on vegetables - - - " _ ^^^
animals - - - " " ' otq
both vegetables and animals - - " -^^
Time of feeding - - - " ' " _ ^22
Instruments of nutrition ---■'_ ^^4
Proportion of food consumed ---""" ^24
Power of abstinence --""■"
LETTER XIII,
Food of Insects — continued
227—244
227 244
Stratagems employed in procuring *'-""'_ 227
Threads of Spiders
Webs of House Spiders, &c.
Nets of Geometric Spiders
- 229
- 231
CONTENTS.
Pago
Stratagems employed in procuring food — continued.
Renewal of Geometric nets ----- 236
Other Spiders' webs - - - - - - 238
Spiders which do not form webs or nets . . - . 239
Diving Spider - - - - - - - 240
Ant Lion - - - - - - - 242
Leptis Vermileo .------ 244
LETTER XIV.
Habitations of Insects ----- 245 — 267
1 . Of solitary insects forming them for their young - - 245 — 257
Clothier Bees - - - - - - - 246
Carpenter Bees .---... 247
Mason Bees - - - - - - - 248
Upholsterer Bees ...... 250
Leaf-cutting Bees - - - - - -25 1
Mason Wasp - - - - - - - 252
Leaf-rolling Weevils ------ 253
Gall Flies - - - - - - - 253
2. Of solitary insects forming them for their own use - - 257 — 267
In the interior of leaves ------ 258
Of leaves cut off and rolled up - - - - - 258
Silk - - - - - - - - 260
Lichen, Stone, &c, - - ' - - - - 261
Grass, Bark, &c. {Psyche) - - - - - 262
Gummy cement {Clythra) _ - - . - 262
Wax (Galleria) - - - - - - 262
Wool or Hair (Caterpillars of Clothes Moths) - -263
Cotton ------- 264
Grass, Rushes, Sand, &c. (Caddis-worms) - - - 264
Earth and Silk with a trap door (Spiders) - - - 265
Air (diving Spider) - - - - - 267
LETTER XV.
Habitations of Insects — continued - - - - 268 — 289
3. Of insects living in society - - . - 268 — 289
Caterpillars - - - - - - - 268
Ants - - - - - - - - 269
Hive Bees - - - - - - - 272
• Humble Bees - - - . - - - - 280
Wasps - - - - - - - - 282
Termites ------- 285
xxiv CONTENTS.
Page
LETTER XVI.
Societies of Insects,
1. Imperfect societies - - - - - 290 — 303
Associations for company - - . _ - 291
of males . . . - . 292
for emigrating - - - - - 293
of Caterpillars . - . - . 293
Aphides . . . _ - 294
Lady-birds ..... 295
Turnip Saw-flies .... 295
Dragon-flies .... 295
Frog-hoppers ... - 296
Beetles ..... 296
Butterflies ..... 296
Field Bugs - - . . - 297
Locusts ..... 298
for mutual assistance .... 30O
Ateuchus pilulnrius .... 30O
Caterpillars ..... 30I
LETTER XVIL
Societies of Insects — continued .... 304 — 347
2. Perfect societies ( JFhite Ants and Ants) ... 304 — 347
WTiite Ants.
Individuals composing the society .... 307
Establishment of colonies ..... 308
Building and repairing habitations ~ . - - 310
Collecting food . - . - - - 310
Defence of habitations ..... 311
Termes lucifugus - - - - ~ -312
Ants.
Storing up food - - - - - -313
(Gould's "English Ants") - - - -315
Individuals composing the society - - - - 316
Formation of new societies — Winged Ants - - 317
Language - - - - - - -321
AflTections and aversions ..... 324
Formic acid ...... 325
Wars - - - - - - - 326
Slave-making ...... 328
Milch Cattle — Aphides, &c. - - - -335
Emigrations ------ 338
Working all night - - - - - - 342
Roads and track-ways ._--.- 343
Strength and perseverance ..... 344
Bridge-making _._._- 345
Repose and sleep ...... 345
Sports and games ...--- 346
CONTENTS. XXV
I'age
LETTER XVIII.
Perfect Societies of Insects — continued ... 348 — 355
fFasps. — Humble Bees - - . . . 348—355
JFasps.
Individuals composing the society . - - ■ 348
Labours of workers - _ - - 350
Storing up honey - - - - 350
Sentinels .-..-.. 35O
Humble Bees
Individuals composing the society - - - - 351
Employment of females . . . - . 352
Small females - - - - - - - 352
Parasitic Humble Bees ... - - 354
Temper and disposition - ■ _ - - 354
LETTER XIX.
Perfect Societies of Insects — continued - . < 356 — 379
Hive Bee ------ - 356—379
Individuals composing the society - - - ■ 357
Education of a new Queen ... - - 360
Larvae and pupa ---.... 365
Queen Bee ....... 36G
Combats of Queens ...... S67
First swarm conducted by the old Queen . . ^ . 368
Treatment of young Queens ..... 369
Devotion to the Queen . - . . ^ . 370
Loss of a Queen - - - - . - -371
Fecundation of the Queen . ~ . ^ . . 373
Oviposition by the Queen ,..--. 374
Swarming .... ... 375
LETTER XX.
Perfect Societies of Insects — concluded ... 380 — 403
Hive Bee ------ - 380—403
Drones - - - - - - - -381
Workers - - - - - - - - 382
collecting nectar - - - - - -383
pollen ...--. 385
propolis .--... 387
Distance of excursions ...... 388
Scouts -..-..-. 388
Population of a hive ...... 389
Transportation of hives .--.-- 390
Ventilation ....... 391
svi CONTENTS.
Page
Hive Bee — continued.
Cleanliness ---.---- 394
Language .-..---- 394
Anger - - - - - - - - 395
Wars - . - - - - - - 397
Enemies - - - - - - - - 399
Accidents ..------ 400
Temperature of the hive -_.--- 401
Instincts not mere sensations _.*-.- 402
LETTER XXL
Means by which Insects defend themselves - . . 404 — 430
1, Passive.
By imitating various substances, objects, and colours - - 404
their brilliant colours ..... 407
frightful aspect, horns, &c. .... - 407
spines, hairs, &c. - - - - - - 408
hardness and toughness - . - - . 409
involuntary offensive secretions ----- 409
power of vitality .-..«- 409
extraordinary multiplication - - - - -411
2. Active.
By rolling themselves into a ball - - - - - 411
simulating death - - - - - -412
assuming various attitudes - - - - -413
motions to alarm or escape their enemies - - - 41 5
noises - - - - - - -415
disgusting and powerful scents - - » - 416
scent-organs - - - - - - -416
explosive discharges - - - - - 418
emission of repulsive fluids - ' - - -419
their weapons of defence ----- 422
concealing themselves . . _ - - 424
feeding only by night . . - - - 428
especial modes of defence - - - - - 428
LETTER XXn. ^
Motions of Insects.
Larva and Pupa ------ 431—446
1. Of Larvce.
Destitute of proper legs ------ 432
Provided with proper legs ----- 438
Residing in water ------ 442
2, 0( Pupce - - - '■ - - - 443
CONTENTS. xxvii
LETTER XXIII. ^'**
Motions of Insects — continued.
Imago ----... 447 — 433
1. Wh'le in repose -----.. 447
2. Whih in action
Walking - . . - . . .443
Run"'"g - * 450
Jumping - - . - . . .451
Climbing -----.. 454
Inlying - 463
without wings (Spiders) - - - . . 464
with wings --..._ 4g()
Beetles ----.. 470
Earwigs ---._. 471
Stylops, &c. - - . . . -471
Grasshoppers, &c. - - . . - 471
Field Bugs, &c. - - - . . 472
May-flies, &c. - - . . . 472
Butterflies and Moths - - . . . 472
Bees, Wasps, &c. - - . . . 474
Flies, &c. ----.. 475
Swimming -----.. 473
Walking in or on water ->-_.. 473
Burrowing ---..., ^«q
Hovering 4gQ
Gyrations ------. 431
Dancing - - - . . . .^32
LETTER XXIV.
Noises produced by Insects - - - - . 434 500
While in motion - • ' . . . _ . .04
While feeding, &c. ----... 433
In calling, commanding, or giving an alarm - . . . 439
As expressive of fear, anger, sorrow, love, &c. .... 49 j
By Beetles - - . . . . _ ^g^
Field Bugs - - . . . . _ ^^'^^
Moths - - . . . . . ^93
Bees, &c. -----.. 493
Grasshopper tribe - - . . . 404
Crickets ----.".". 495
Locusts, &c.
Cicada, &c.
Luminous Insects
Glow-worms
Fire-flies
. 497
- 499
LETTER XXV.
- 503—515
. 503
- 505
xxviii CONTENTS.
Page
Luminous Insects — continued.
Other luminous Beetles .--... 506
Lantern-flies -------- 508
Other luminous insects - - - - - -510
Source of their luminous property ----- 512
Its remote cause - - - - - - -513
Its use - - - - - -- - 514
LETTER XXVL
Hybernation of Insects - - - ■ . 516 — 534
In the egg state ----_.- 517
pupa state - - -• - - - -518
larva state - - - - - - -518
perfect state - - - - - - -519
Time of hybernation ------ - 520
Site of hybernacula .-.--., 520
Solitary and social hybernation ----- 52I
Hybernation in several states ----_- 52I
Torpidity produced by cold ------ 52I
Variations of torpidity -----_.. 522
Some Insects never torpid ------ 523
State of the Hive Bee in winter ----- 504
Power of resisting cold by insects in different states - - - 526
Cause of this power ------- 528
Resumption of activity -_-,.- 529
Cause of hybernation ._--.- 530
LETTER XXVIL
Instinct of Insects ---... 535 — 557
Nature of instinct ------- 535
Definition of instinct ------- 537
Exquisiteness of the Instincts of Insects - _ - - 538
Variations of instinct ------- 539
Variations of instinct in the Hive Bee - _ . - 542
These variations not the result of reason - - _ - 549
Number of instincts in Insects - _ . - - 550
Extraordinary development of instinct in Insects - - - 556
Reason in Insects ------- 557
Insects gain knowledge from experience - - - - 562
receive and communicate information - - - - 564
are endowed with memory - . . - - 565
Appendix -.-.--.- 569
AK
INTRODUCTION
ENTOMOLOGY.
LETTER I.
Dear Sir,
I CANNOT wonder that an active mind like yours should experience no
small degree of tedium in a situation so Ihr renioveii, as j'ou represent
your new residence to be, from the " busy hum of men." Isothing
certainly can compensate for the want of agreeable society ; but since
your case, in this respect, admits of no remedy but patience, I am glad
you are desirous of turning your attention to some pursuit which may
amuse you in the intervals of severer study, and in part supply the voit!
of which you complain. I am not a little flattered that you wish to be
informed which class in the three kingdoms of nature is, in my opinion,
most likely to answer your purpose ; at the same time intimating that you
feel inclined to give the preference to Entomology, provided some ob-
jections can be satisfactorily obviated, which you have been accustomed
to regard as urged with a considerable semblance of reason against the
cultivation of that science.
Mankind in general, not excepting even philosophers, are prone to
magnify, often beyond its just merit, the science or pursuit to which they
have addicted themselves, and to depreciate any that seems to stand in
competition with their favourite : like the redoubted champions of
romance, each thinks himself bound to take the field against every one
that will not subscribe to the peerless beauty and accomplishments of
his own Dulcinea. In such conflict for pre-eminence I know no science
that, in this country, has come oft' worse than Entomology : her champions
hitherto have been so few, and their efforts so unavailing, that all her
rival sisters have been exalted above her ; and I believe there is scarcely
any branch of Natural History that has had fewer British admirers.
While Botany boasts of her hosts, she, though not her inferior either in
beauty, symmetry, or grace, has received the homage of a very slender
train indeed. Since therefore the merits of Entomology have been so
little acknowledged, you will not deem it invidious if I advocate the cause
of this distressed damsel, and endeavour to effect her restoration to her
just rights, privileges, and rank.
Things that are universally obvious and easy of examination, as they
are the first that fall under our notice, so are they also most commonly
INTRODUCTORY LETTER.
those which we first feel an inclination to study ; while, on the contrary-,
things that must be sought for in order to be seen, and which when
sought for avoid the approach and inquiring eye of man, are often the
last^to which he directs his attention. The vegetable kingdom stands in
the former predicament. Flora, with a liberal hand, has scattered
around us her charming productions ; they everywhere meet and allure
us, enchanting us by their beauty, regaling us by their fragrance, and
interesting us as much by their subservience to our luxuries and comfort,
as to the necessary support and well-being of our life. Beasts, birds, and
fishes, also, in some one or other of these respects, attract our notice ;
but insecls, unfortunate insects, are so far from attracting us, that we are
accustomed to abhor them from our childhood. The first knowledge
that we get of them is as tormentors; they are usually pointed out to us
by those" about us, as ugly, filthy, and noxious creatures ; and the whole
insect world, butterflies perhaps and some few others excepted, are de-
voted by one universal ban to proscription and execration, as fit only to
be trodden under our feet and crushed ; so that often, before we can
persuade ourselves to study them, we have to remove from our minds
prejudices deeply rooted and of long standing.
Another principal reason which has contributed to keep Entomology
in the background arises from the diminutive size of the objects of which
it treats. Being amongst the most minute of nature's productions, they
do not so readily catch°the eye of the observer ; and when they do, man-
kind in general are so apt to estimate the worth and importance of things
by their bulk, that because we usually measure them by the duodecimals
of an inch instead of by the foot or by the yard, insects are deemed too
insi'mificant parts of the creation, and of too little consequence to its
jxeneral welfare, to render them worthy of any serious attention or study.
What small foundation there is for such prejudices and misconceptions, I
shall endeavour to show in the course of our future correspondence ; my
object now, as the champion and advocate of Entomology, is to point out
to you her comparative advantages, and to remove the veil which has
hitherto concealed those attractions, and that grace and beauty, which
entitle her to equal admiration at least with her sister branches of Natural
History.
In estimating the comparative value of the study of any department m
this branch of science, we ought to contrast it with others, as to the rank
its objects hold in the scale of being ; the amusement and instruction
which the student may derive from it; and its utility to society at large.
With respect to public utility, the study of each of the three kingdoms
may perhaps be allowed to stand upon nearly an equal footing ; I shall
not, therefore, enter upon that subject till I come to consider the question
Old bono? and to point out the uses of Entomology, but confine myself
now to the two first of these circumstances.
As to rank, I must claim for the entomologist some degree of pre-
cedence before the mineralogist and the botanist. The mineral kingdom,
whose objects are neither organised nor sentient, stands certainly at the
foot of the scale. Next above this is the vegetable, whose lovely tribes,
though not endued with sensation, are organised. In the last and highest
place ranks the animal world, consisting of beings that are both organised
and sentient. To this scale of precedence, the great modern luminary of
Natural History, notwithstanding that Botany was always his favourite
INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 3
pursuit, has given his sanction, acknoulcd-nng in tiie preface to his Fauna
Sjac.,, that ahhough the vegetable kinodon. is nobler than the nn-neral,
W-. ' "?!'" 't' 'I'"'"^ cxee lent than the vegetable. Now it is an intlisl
eiro Im,; h!""'. 11' "\'"''' [''"' ^''^ "^"'■'^ ^"''"'^*' ^'"'' "'^.i^'^-^ tl''^ "'ore
beTho ,1 , ■; ^'- ^ •■ ''"' "^'^^'"•''t'O". however, I wonkf by no n.eans
be thought to depreciate or discountenance the study either of phints or
numerals. All the works of our Creator are great/ and worth'v of our
attention and investigation, the lowest in the scale as well as the hiojiest
the most minute and feeble as well as those that exceed in magnitude and
ni.ght. >or ought those whose inclination or genius leads them to one
department, to say to those who prefer another-" we have no need of
you -for each in his place, by diffusing the knowledge of his works, and
"irnrlLr '^^A "/.'"•'-'^''""f ^liscoveries, contributes to promote the
glo.N of tl e breat Architect of the universe and the good of his creatures.
It IS not my wish to claim for my favourite science more than of ri-ht
belongs to her ; therefore, when the question is concerning rank, I must
concede to the higher orders of animals, I mean Fishes, Aiuphibia Birds
and Quadiupeds, their due priority and precedence.' I shall only observe
he.e, that here may exist circumstances which countervail rank, and tend
to render the study of a lower order of beings more desirable than that of
a higher: when, for instance, the objects of the higher study are not to be
come at or preserved without great difficulty and expense ; when they are
crdL"/'"^ ■'■'■ r"'.'^'''" [''">' 'r ''^''•^'^'^>' ^^-^1' ascertained and known ■
circumstances which attach to the study of those animals that precede
insects while they do not attach to the study of insects themselves.
doubt L'Tv.''' I '",""^^"'^"' «»'• instruction of the student, much
doubtless maybe derived from anyone of the sciences alluded to; but
Entomology certainly ,s not behind any of her sisters in these resp'ects
wi 1\ n" r ''"'' ^^ "'''''^^'' f "•' ""-^'^"^ '"^ "^^'<^ "^^ discoveries, she
V 11 open to you a more ample field for these than either Botany 01' the
higher branches of ZooloL'y. -^
A new vcrlrbralc animal or plant is seldom to be met with even bv those
who have leisure and opportunity for extensive researches: but if Vou
collect insects, you will find, however limited the manor upo 1 wl ic^h o
can pursLie ^our game, that your efforts are often rewarded by the captm'e
logists, to. I have seldom seen a cabinet so meagre as not to possess some
unique s,,ec.men. N.y, though you may hav-e searched e^^"; sporin
you neighbourhood this year, turned over every stone, shaken eJe.7 bu h
3 ictTons' D .1 ''"■•' P""'; ^'^^ "'" "«^ '^^^'^ ^^hausted its insec^t pro-
ductions Do the same another year and another, and new treasures will
still continue to enrich vour cabinet. If you leave your own vidnity fir
an entomological excursion, your prospects of succes's are still furth r in
creased ; and even if confine.l in bad weather to your inn, the windows of
you apartment, as I have often experienced, will add to your stock If a
sudden shower obliges you at any time to seek shelter under a tree your
attention will be attracted, and the tedium of your station rdieved, Xe
.Jn^' 'J?'^^^^''' '■^"'^ ^'ere to be estimated by number of species or individual, of 1
species, the pre-eminence could be claimed bv insect« which frr.^ffhli..-
B 2
4 INTRODUCTORY LETTER.
the botanist could not hope to find even a new lichen or moss, by the
appearance of several insects, driven there perhaps by the same cause as
yourself, that you have not observed before. But should you, as I trust you
will, feel a desire to attend to the manners and economy of msects, and
become ambitious of making discoveries in this part of entomological
science, I can assure you, from long experience, that you will here find an
inexhaustible fund of novelty. For more than twenty years my attention
has been directed to them, and during most of my summer walks my eyes
have been employed in observing their ways ; yet I can say with truth,
that so far from having exhausted the subject, within the last six months
I have witnessed more interesting facts respecting their history than in
many preceding years. To follow only the insects that frequent your own
garden, from their first to their last state, and to trace all their proceed-
inn-s, would supply an interesting amusement for the remainder of your
life, and at its close you would leave much to be done by your successor ;
for'where we know thoroughly the history of one insect, there are hun-
dreds concerning which we'have ascertained little besides the bare fact of
their existence.
But numerous other sources of pleasure and information will open them-
selves to you, not inferior to what any other science can furnish, when
you enter more deeply into the study. Insects, indeed, appear to have
been nature's favourite productions, in which, to manifest her power and
skill, she has combined and concentrated almost all that is either beau-
tifiil'and graceful, interesting and alluring, or curious and singular, in every
other class and order of her children. To these, her valued miniatures,
she has given the most dehcate touch and highest finish of her pencd,
Numbers'^she has armed with glittering mail, which reflects a lustre like
that of burnished metals i; in others she lights up the dazzling radiance of
polished gems.^ Some she has decked with what looks like liquid drops,
or plates of gold and silver 3; or with scales or pile, which mimic the
colour and emit the ray of the same precious metals.* Some exhibit a
rude exterior, like stones in their native state ^, while others represent
their smooth and shining face after they have been submitted to the tool of
the polisher : others, again, like so many pigmy Atlases bearing on their
backs a microcosm, by the rugged and various elevations and depressions
of their tuberculated crust, present to the eye of the beholder no unapt
imitation of the unequal surface of the earth, now horrid with mis-shapen
rocks, ridges, and precipices — now swelling into hills and mountains, and
now sinking into valleys, glens, and caves «; while not a few are covered
■with branching spines, which fancy may form into a forest of trees.'^
What numbers vie with the charming offspring of Flora in various beau-
ties ! some in the delicacy and variety of their colours, colours not like
1 The genera Eumolpus, Lamprima, Bjjnchites. , i •
2 Cryptorhynchus corruscans. Gerniar (^Insect. Spec. Nov. i. 216.) regards this
insect as synonymous with Illiger's Eurhinus cupratus, the description of which
I had not seen when the Century of Insects {Linn. Trans, xii.) was written, nor
am I able now to speak decisively on the subject.— -K.
3 Erycina Cupido, Argynnis Passiflorce, Lathonia, &c.
4 Pepsis fuscipennis, argentata, &c.
5 The species of the genus Trox.
<5 Many of the Scarabaidce, Dynastidce, &c.
7 Many caterpillars of Butterflies (jNIerian, Surinam, t. xxii. xxv. &c.) and
of Sawfiies (Re'aum, v. t. sii. f. 7, 8—14.).
INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 5
those of flowers evanescent and fuf^itivc, but fixed and durable, surviving
their subject, and adorning it as much after death as they did when it was
ahve ; others, again, in tlie veiniiig and texture of tlieir wiiii^s; and others
in the rich cottony down that clothes them. To such perfection, indeed,
has nature in tliein carrietl her mimetic art, that you would declare, upon
beholiling some insects, that they had robbed the trees of their leaves to
form for themselves artificial wings, so exactly do they resemble them in
their form, substance, and vascular structure; some representing green
leaves, and others those that are dry and withered.' Nay, sometimes this
mimicry is so exqui.site, that you would mistake the whole insect for a por-
tion of the branching s|)ray of a tree." No mean beauty in some plants
arises from the fluting anil punctuation of their stems and leaves, and a
similar ornament conspicuously distinguishes numerous insects, which also
imitate with nudtiform variety, as may particularly be seen in tlie cater-
pillars of many species of certain tribes of butterflies (Xj/vip/ialida-), the
spines and prickles which are given as a Xo/i me tangere armour to several
vegetable productions.
In fishes the lucid scales, of varied hue, that cover and defend them, are
universally admired, and esteemeil their peculiar ornament; but place a
butterfly's wing under a microscope, that avenue to unseen glories in new
worlds, and you will discover that nature has endowed the most numerous
of the insect tribes with the same privilege, nudtiplying in them the forms ^
and diversifying the colouring of this kind of clothing beyond all parallel.
The rich and velvet tints of the plumage of birds are not superior to what
the curious observer may discover in a variety of Z(£7JiV/ci/;/c;'«, and those
many-coloured eyes which deck so gloriously the peacock's tail are imi-
tated with success by one of our most conunon butterflies.* Feathers are
thought to be peculiar to birds; but insects often imitate them in their
antennas'", wings '^^, and even sometimes in the covering of their bodies.^
We admire with reason the coats of quadrupeds, whether their skins be
covered with pile, or wool, or fur ; yet are not perhaps aware that a vast
variety of insects are clothed with all these kinds of hair, but infinitely
finer and more silky in texture, more brilliant and delicate in colour, and
more variously shaded than what any other animals can pretend to.
In variegation, insects certainly exceed every other class of animated
beings. Nature, in her sportive mood, when painting them, sometimes
imitates the clouds of iieaven ; at others, the meandering course of the
rivers of the earth, or the undulations of their waters : many are veined
like beautiful marbles; others have the semblance of a robe of the finest
net-work thrown over them ; some she blazons with heraldic insignia,
giving them to bear in fields sable — azure — vert — gules — argent and or,
fesses — bars — bends — crosses — crescents — stars, and even animals.** On
many, taking her rule and compasses, she draws with precision mathema-
tical figures ; points, lines, angles, triangles ®, squares, and circles. On
1 Various species of the families GrylUdcc and Blantida.
- JIany species of Phasmida:.
5 De Geer, I. t. 3. f. 1 — 3i. &c. Audouin, Hist, Pyr. de la Vigne, PI. 3.
■* Vanessa lo.
* Cukx, Cidronomus, and other Tlpidida.
^ Pterophorus.
7 Hairs of many of the Apidco. Mon. Ap. Aug. I. t. 10. **d. 1. f. 1. b.
"* Ptiiiui imperialis L.
" Trichius {Archimedius K.) delta F.
B 3
6 INTRODUCTORY LETTER.
others she pourtrays, with mystic hand, what seem like hieroglyphic sym-
bols, or inscribes them with the characters and letters of various languages,
often very correctly formed ^ ; and what is more extraordinary, she has
registered in others figures which correspond with several dates of the
Christian era.^
Nor has nature been lavish only in the apparel and ornament of these
privileged tribes ; in other respects she has been equally unsparing of her
favours. To some she has given fins like those of fish, or a beak resem-
bling that of birds ^ ; to others horns, nearly the counterparts of those of
various quadrupeds. The hull ^, the stag-', the rhinoceros*'', and even the
hitherto vainly sought for unjcorn''^, have in this respect many representatives
amongst insects. One is armed with tusks not unlike those of the elephant^;
another is bristled with spines, as the porcupine and hedgehog with quills'^;
a third is an armadillo in miniature ; the disproportioned hind legs of the
kangaroo give a most grotesque appearance to a fourth ^°; and the threaten-
ing head of the snake is found in a fifth." It would, however, be endless
to produce all the instances which occur of such imitations ; and I shall
only remark that, generally speaking, these arms and instruments in
structure and finishing far exceed those which they resemble.
But further, insects not only mimic, in a manner infinitely various,
every thing in nature, they may also with very little violence be regarded
as symbolical of beings out of and above nature. The butterfly, adorned
with every beauty and every grace, borne by radiant wings through the
fields of ether, and extracting nectar from every flower, gives us some idea
of the blessed inhabitants of happier worlds, of angels, and of the
spirits of the just arrived at their state of perfection. Again, other insects
seem emblematical of a different class of unearthly beings ; when we be-
hold some tremendous for the numerous horns and spines projecting in
horrid array from their head or shoulders ; — others for their threatening
jaws of fearful length, and armed with cruel fangs : when we survey the
dismal hue and demoniac air that distinguish others, the dens of darkness
in which they live, the impurity of their food, their predatory habits and
cruelt}', the nets which they sspread, and the pits which they sink to entrap
the unwary, we can scarcely help regarding them as aptly symbolising evil
demons, the enemies of man, or of impure spirits, for their vices and
crimes driven from the regions of light into darkness and punishment.^*
1 Acrocinus longimanus F., Yanessa C. album, Acronycta ij/, Plusia y.
2 On the underside of the primary wings near the margin in Argynnis Aglaia,
Lathonia, Selene, &c.
3 Einpis, Asiliis.
■* Onthophagus Taurus Curtis, Brit. Ent. t. 52.
^ Lucanus Cervus.
^ Oryctes.
1 '' Dynastes Hercules.
8 Andrena spinigera. Melitta, ** c K. and especial!}' Dicronoceplialas Hard-
w'lckii and Cyphonoceplwlus smaragdulus Westw., Arc. Ent. PI. 33. fig. 2.
9 Hispa.
10 Scarubccus macropus, Francillon. Now ascertained, by the discovery of numer-
ous specimens by the French collectors, to be the male of a species of the genus
Clirysina K. Mr. W. S. MacLeay informs us that he gave the manuscript name of
Eusceks to the group to which it belongs.
11 Raphidia ophiopsis.
12 This idea seems to have been present to the mind of Linne and Fabricins,
when they gave to insects such names as Beelzebub, Belial, Titan, Typhon, Nimrod,
Geryon, and the like.
INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 7
The sight indeed of a well-stored cabinet of insects will bring before
every beholder not conversant with them, forms in endless variety, which
before he would not have thought it possible could exist in nature, re-
sembling nothing that the other departments of the animal kingdom exhibit,
and exceeding even the wildest fictions of the most fertile imagination.
Besides prototypes of beauty anti synnnetry, there in miniature he will be
amused to survey (for the most horrible creatures, when deprived of the
power of injury, become sources of interest and objects of curiosity), to
use the words of our great poet,
all prodigious things.
Abominable, unutterable, and worse
'I'han tables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd.
Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimaeras dire.
But the pleasures of a student of the science to which I am desirous of
introducing vd", are far from being confined to such as result from an ex-
amination of the exterior form and decorations of insects ; for could
tliese, endless as they seem, be exhausted, or, wonderful as they are, lose
their interest, yet new sources, exuberant in amusement and instruction,
mav be opened, which will furnish an almost infinite lund lor his curiosity
to draw upon. The striking peculiarity and variety of structure which
they exhibit in their instruments of nutrition, motion, and oviposition ; in
their organs of sensation, generation, and the great fountains of vitality, —
indeed their whole system, anatomically considered, will open a world of
wonders to you with which you will not soon be satiated, and during your
survey of which you will at every step feel disposed to exclaim with the
Roman naturalist — " In these beings so minute, and as it were such non-
entities, what wisdom is displayed, what power, what unfathomable per-
fection !" ' But even this will not bring you to the end of your pleasures :
you must leave the dead to visit the living; you must behold insects when
full of life and activity, engaged in their several employments, practising
their various arts, pursuing their amours, and preparing habitations for
their progeny : you must notice the laying and kind of their eggs ; their
wonderful metamorphoses ; their instincts, whether they be solitary or
gregarious ; and the other miracles of their history — all of which will open,
to you a richer mine of amusement and instruction, I speak it without
hesitation, than any other department of Natural History can furnish. A
minute enumeration of these particulars would be here misplaced, and
only forestall what will be detailed more at large hereafter ; but a rapid
glance at a very few of the most remarkable of them may serve as a stimu-
lus to excite your curiosity, and induce you to enter with greater eager-
ness into the wide field to which I shall conduct you.
The lord of the creation plumes himself upon his powers of invention,
and is proud to enumerate the various useful arts and machines to which
they have given birth, not aware that " He who teacheth man knowledge "
has instructed these despised insects to anticipate him in many of them.
The builders of Babel doubtless thought their invention of turning earth
into artificial stone a very happy discovery" ; yet a little bee^ had prac-
tised this art, using indeed a ditTerent process, on a small scale, and the
white ants on a large one, ever since the world began. Man thinks that
1 Plin. Hist. Nat.l. 11. c. 2. 2 Gen. xi. 3.
* Megachile muraria,
B 4
8 INTRODUCTORY LETTER.
he stands unrivalled as an architect, and that his buildings are without a
parallel among the works of the inferior orders of animals. He would be
of a different opinion did he attend to the history of insects : he would
find that many of them have been architects from time immemorial ; that
they have had their houses divided into various apartments, and containing
staircases, gigantic arches, domes, colonnades, and the like ; nay, that even
tunnels are excavated by them so immense, compared with their own size,
as to be twelve times bigger than that of Sir M. I. Brunei under the
Thames. ^ The modern fine lady, who prides herself on the lustre and
beautj' of the scarlet hangings which adorn the stately walls of her drawing-
room, or the carpets that cover its floor, fancying that nothing so rich and
splendid was ever seen before, and pitying her vulgar ancestors, who were
doomed to unsightly white-wash and rushes, is ignorant all the while, that
before she or her ancestors were in existence, and even before the boasted
Tyrian dye was discovered, a little insect had known how to hang the
walls of its cell with tapestry of a scarlet more brilliant than any her rooms
can exhibit", and that others daily weave silken carpets, both in tissue and
texture infinitely superior to those she so much admires. No female
ornament is more prized and costly than lace, the invention and fabrication
of which seems the exclusive claim of the softer sex. But even here they
have been anticipated by these httle industrious creatures, who often de-
fend their helpless chrysalis by a most singular covering, and as beautiful
as singular, of lace.* Other arts have been equally forestalled by these
creatures. What vast importance is attached to the invention of paper !
For nearly six thousand years one of our commonest insects has known
how to make and apply it to its purposes* ; and even pasteboard, superior
in substance and polish to any we can produce, is manufactured by
another.^ We imagine that nothing short of human intellect can be equal
to the construction of a diving-bell or an air-pump — yet a spider is in the
daily habit of using the one, and, what is more, one exactly similar in
principle to ours, but more ingeniously contrived; by means of which she
resides unwetted in the bosom of the water, and procures the necessary
supplies of air by a much more simple process than our alternating buckets^
— and the caterpillar of a little moth knows how to imitate the other,
producing a vacuum, when necestsary for its purposes, without any piston
beside its own body.'' If we think with wonder of the populous cities
which have employed the united labours of man for many ages to bring
them to their full extent, what shall we say to the white ants, which
require only a few months to build a metropolis capable of containing an
infinitely greater number of inhabitants than even imperial Nineveh, Baby-
lon, Rome, or Pekin, in all their glory ?
That insects should thus have forestalled us in our inventions ought to
urge us to pay a closer attention to them and their ways than we have
hitherto done, since it is not at all improbable that the result would be
many useful hints for the improvement of our arts and manufactures, and
1 The white ants. 2 Megachih Papaveris.
s The late ingenious Mr. Paul, of Harlston in Norfolk, under the bArk of a
tree discovered a considerable portion of a fabric of this kind, Avhich from its
amplitude must have been destined for some other purpose.
* The common wasp. ^ Chartergus nidulans.
• Argyroneta aquatica. 7 Tinea serratella L.
INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 9
perliaps for some beneficial iliscovcries. The painter might thus probably
be f'lirnishecl with more brilhant pigments, the liyer with more delicate tints,
and the artizan with a new antl improved set of tools. In this last respect
insects deserve particular notice. All their operations are performed with
admirable precision and dexterity ; and though they do not usually vary
the mode, yet that mode is always the best that can be conceived for at-
tainini: the end in view. The instriuucnts also with which they are provided
are no less wonderful and various than the operations themselves. They
have their saws, and files, and augurs, and gimlets, and knives, and lancets,
and scissors, and forceps, with many other similar implements; several of
whicii act in more than one capacity, and with a complex and alternate
motion to which we have not yet attained in tiic use of our tools. Nor is
the fact so extraordinary as it may seem at first, since " He who is wise in
heart and w onderful in workiui,' " is the inventor and fabricator of the
apparatus of insects ; which may be considered as a set of miniature pat-
terns drawn for our use by a Divine hand. I shall hereafter give }ou a
more detailed account of some of the most striking of these instruments ;
and if you study insects in this view, you will be well repaid for all the
labour and attention you bestow upon them.
But a more important species of instruction than any hitherto enumera-
ted may be derived (rom entomological pursuits. If we attend to tlie history
and manners of insects, they will furnish us with many useful lessons in
Ethics, anil from them we may learn to improve ourselves in various virtues.
We have indcetl the ins[)ired authority of tlie wisest of mankind for studying
them in this view, since he himself wrote a treatise upon them, and sends
his sluggard to one for a lesson of wisdom.^ And if we value diligence and
indefatigable industry, judgment, prudence, and foresight, economy, and
frugality ; if we look upon modesty and diffidence as feniale ornaments ; if
we revere parental afiection ; of all these, and many more virtues, insects
in their various instincts exhibit several striking examples, as you will see
in the course of our correspondence.
With respect to religious instruction insects are far from unprofitable ;
indeed in this view Entomology seems to possess jjcculiar advantages above
every other branch of Natural History. In the larger animals, though we
admire the consummate art and wisdom manifested in their structure, and
adore that Almighty [jower and goodness, which by a wonderful machinery,
kept in motion liy the constant action and re-action of the great positive
and negative powers of nature, maintains in full force the circulations
necessary to life, perception, and enjoyment ; yet as there seems no dispro-
portion between the objects and the different operations that are going on
in them, and we see that they afford sufficient space for the play of their
systems, we do not experience the same sensations of wonder and astonish-
ment that strike us when we behold similar operations carried on without
interruption in animals scarcely visible to the naked eye. That creatures,
which in the scale of being are next to nonentities, should be elaborated
with so much art and contrivance, have such a number of parts both internal
and external, all so highly finished and each so nicely calculated to answer
its end ; that they should include in this evanescent form such a variety of
organs of perception and instruments of motion, exceeding in number and
peculiarity of structure those of other animals; that their nervous and
1 1 Kings, iv. 33. Prov. vi. 6—8.
10 INTRODUCTORY LETTER.
respiratory systems should be so complex, their secretory and digestive
vessels so various and singular, their parts of generation so clearly developed,
and that these minims of nature should be endowed with instincts in many
cases superior to all our boasted powers of intellect — truly these wonders
and miracles declare to every one who attends to the subject, " The hand
that made us is divine." We are the work of a Being infinite in power, in
wisdom, and in goodness.
But no religious doctrine is more strongly established by the history of
insects than that of a superintending Providence. That of the innumera-
ble species of these beings, many of them beyond conception fragile and
exposed to dangers and enemies without end, no link should be lost from
the chain, but all be maintained in those relative projoortions necessary for
the general good of the system ; that if one species for a while preponderate,
and instead of preserving seem to destroy, yet counter-checks should at the
same time be provided to reduce it within its due limits ; and further, that
the operations of insects should be so directed and overruled as to effect
the purposes for which they were created, and never exceed their com-
mission : nothing can furnish a stronger proof than this, that an unseen
hand holds the reins, now permitting one to prevail , and now another, as
shall best promote certain wise ends ; and saying to each, " Hitherto shalt
thou come and no further."
So complex is this mundane system, and so incessant the conflict between
its component parts, an observation which holds good particularly with
regard to insects, that if, instead of being under such control, it were left
to the agency of blind chance, the whole must inevitably soon be deranged
and go to ruin. Insects, in truth, are a book in which whoever reads under
proper impressions cannot avoid looking from the effect lo the Cause, and
acknowledging his eternal power and godhead thus wonderfully displayed
and irrefragably demonstrated : and whoever beholds these works with the
eyes of the body must be blind indeed if he cannot, and perverse indeed if
he will not, with the eye of the soul, behold in all his glory the Almighty
Workman, and feel disposed, with every power of his nature, to praise and
magnify
Him first. Him last. Him midst, Him without end.
And now having led you to the vestibule of an august temple, which in
its inmost sanctuary exhibits enshrined in glory the symbols of the Divine
Presence, I should invite you to enter and give a tongue to the Hallelujahs,
which every creature in its place, by working his will with all its faculties,
pours forth to his great Creator : but I must first endeavour to remove, as
I trust I shall effectually, those objections to the study of these interesting
beings which I alluded to in the outset of this letter, and this shall be the aim
of my next address.
I am, &c.
11
LETTER 11.
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
In my last I nave you a general view of the science of Entomology, and
cnileavoureil to prove to you that it possesses attractions and hcauty suf-
ficient to reward any student who may profess himself its votary. I am
now to consider it in a less alluring light, as a pursuit attended by no
small degree of obloquy, in consequence of certain objections thought to
be lU'ged with great force against it. To obviate these, and remove every
scruple from your mind, shall be the business of the present letter.
Two principal objections are usually alleged with great confidence
against the study anil pursuit of insects. By some they are derided as
trifling and unimportant, and decmeil an egregious waste of time and
talents ; by others they are rej)robated as unleeling and cruel, and as
tending to harden the heart.
I. 1 shall begin with the first of these objections — that the entomo-
logist is a mere trifler. As for the silly outcry and abu-e of the ignorant
vulgar, who are always ready to laugh at what they do not understand,
and because insects are minute objects conclude that the study of them
nuist be a childish pursuit, J shall not waste words upon what I so cor-
dially des])ise. But since even learned men and philosophers, from a
partial and prejudiced view of the subject, having recourse to this
common-place logic, are sometimes disposed to regard all inquiry into
these minutiae of nature as useless and idle, and the mark of a little mind ;
to remove such prejudice and misconceptions I shall now dilate somewhat
upon the subject of Cid boiw?
When we see many wise and learned men pay attention to any parti-
cular department of science, we may naturally conclude that it is on
account of some profit antl instruction which they foiesee may be derived
from it ; and therefore in defending Entomology I shall first have recourse
to the (irgumnititm ad verecundiam, and mention the great names that have
cultivated or recommended it.
We may begin the list with the first man that ever lived upon the
earth, for we are told that he gave a name to every living creature',
amongst which insects must be included ; and to give an appropriate
name to an object necessarily requires some knowledge of its distin-
guishing properties. Indeed one of the principal pleasures and employ-
ments of the paradisiacal state was probably the study of the various
works of creation. - Before the fall the book of nature was the Bible of
man, in which he could read the perfections and attributes of the invisible
Godhead^, and in it, as in a mirror, behold an image of the things of the
spiritual world. Moses -also a[)pears to have been conversant with our
little animals, and to have studied them with some attention. This he has
shown, not only by being aware of" the distinctions which separate the
various tribes of grasshoppers, crickets, &c. (^Grijllus, L.) into different
1 Gen. ii. 19. 2 Linn. Fn. Suec. Trxf. 5 Kom. i. ID, 20.
12 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
genera\ but also by noticing the different direction of the two anterior
from the four posterior legs of insects ; for, as he speaks of them as going
upon four legs", it is evident that he considered the two anterior as arms.
Solomon, the wisest of mankind, made Natural History a peculiar object
of study, and left treatises behind him upon its various branches, in which
creeping things or insects were not overlooked^ ; and a wiser than Solomon
directs our attention to natural productions, when he bids us consider the
lilies of the field'*, teaching us that they are more worthy of our notice
than the most glorious works of man : he also not obscurely intimates that
insects are symbolical beings, when he speaks of scorpions as synonymous
with evil spirits^; thus giving into our hands a clue for a more profitable
mode of studying them, as furnishing moral and spiritual instruction.
If to these scriptural authorities we add those of uninspired writers,
ancient and modern, the names of many worthies, celebrated both for
wisdom and virtue, may be produced. Aristotle among the Greeks, and
Pliny the elder among the Romans, may be denominated the fathers of
Natural History', as well as the greatest philosophers of their day; yet
both these made insects a principal object of their attention : and in more
recent times, if we look abroad, what names greater than those of Redi,
Malpighi, Vallisnieri, Swaminerdam, Leeuwenhoek, Reaumur, Linne, De
Geer, Bonnet, and the Rubers ? and at home, what philosophers have
(.lone more honour to their country and to human nature than Ray, Wil-
lughby. Lister, and Derham ? Yet all these made the study of insects one
of their most favourite pursuits ; and, as if to prove that this studv is not
incompatible with the highest flights of genius, we can add to the list the
name of one of the most sublime of our poets, Gray, who was very
zealously devoted to Entomology ; as were the celebrated modern artists,
Fuseli and Stothard, and that prodigy of talent, our Dr. Thomas Young,
one of whose first essays was upon the habits of spiders, and above all,
the immortal Cuvier, who began his career in this science, and retained
for it to the last a strong predilection.® As far, therefore, as names have
^- Levit. xi. 21, 22. Lichtenstein in Linn. Trans, iv. 51, 52.
2 Levit. xi. 20. conf. Bochart, Hierozoic. ii. 1. 4. c. 9. 497, 498.
5 1 Kings, iv. 33. * Luke, xii. 27. 5 Ibid. x. 19, 20.
6 Several manuscript volumes of Cuvier's descriptions of insects, and beautifully
accurate figures hy his Qwn pen, begun to be written and drawn when he was but
seventeen years of age, and continued for five or six years following, still exist
(fac-similes of some of which have recently been published in Silbermann's Revue
JSntomologiqiie) ; and it was, as he himself avowed, the marvels which he discovered
in the organisation of insects which elevated his genius to the stiil higher concep-
tions which made him the first naturalist of the age. In acknowledging the honour
■which the Entomological Society of France had conferred on him, in electing liim
an honorary member, he thus expressed himself in his letter, dated, alas! but a
fortnight before his death. " I sliould have been more worthy of the honour for-
merly, when in my youth this fine science occupied all my leisure moments, but if
other branches of natural history have not permitted me to give myself up to it with
the same ardour, 1 do not the less feel always the greatest interest in it." " If," said
he one day to his friend, Professor Audouin, " I had not studied insects when I was
at college from taste, I should, at a later period, from reason and necessity." For lie
was convinced that the habit of devoting the entire attention to the examination of
minute details, and the experience of the danger of falling into error the moment
this habit is deviated from, are most useful preliminaries to the study of the higher
animals, and to enable us to derive from it its most valuable fruits. " Are you an
entomologist? " he aske.d, one day in M. Audouin's presence, a young man who had
ventured to speak to him of some remarkable peculiarity which he fancied he had
discovered in dissecting a human subject. " No," replied the medical student.
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 13
weight, the above enumeration seems sufficient to shelter tiie votaries of
this pleasing science from the charge of tolly.
But we do not wish to rest our defence upon authorities alone ; let the
voice of reason be heard, and our justification will be complete. Tlie en-
tomologist, or, to speak more generally, the naturalist (for on tiiis question
oi Ctii hono? every student in all departments of Natural History is con-
cerned), if the following considerations be allowed their due weight, may
claim a much higher station amongst the learned than has hitherto been
conceded to him.
There are two principal avenues to knowledge — the study of words and
the study of things. JSkill in the learned languages being often necessary
to enal)le us to acquire knowledge in the former way, is usually considered
as knowledge itself; so that no one asks Cui bono? when a person devotes
himself to the study of verbal criticism, and employs his time in correcting
the errors that have cre|)t into the text of an ancient writer. Indeed it
must be ownetl, though perhaps too nuich stress is sometimes laid upon it,
that this is very useful to enable us to ascertain his true meaning. ]5ut
after all, words are but the arbitrary signs of ideas, and have no value
independent of those ideas, further than what arises from congruity and
harmonv, the mind lieing dissatisfied when an idea is expressed by ina-
dequate words, and the ear offended when their collocation is inhar-
monious. To account the mere knowledge of words, therefore, as wisdom,
is to mistake the cask for the wine, and the casket tor the gem. I say all
this because knowledge of words is often extolled beyond its just merits,
and put for all wisdom ; while knowledge of things, especially of the pro-
ductions of nature, is derided as if it were mere foil}-. We should re-
collect that God hath condescended to instruct us by both these ways,
and therefore neither of them should be depreciated. He hath set before
us his word and his world. The former is the great avenue to truth and
knowledge bv the study of words, and, as being the immediate and autho-
ritative revelation of his will, is entitled to our ■principal attention; the
latter leads us to the same conclusions, though less directly, by the study
of thingx, which stands next in rank to that of God's word, and before
that of any work of man. And whether w^e direct our eyes to the planets
rolling in their orbits, and endeavour to trace the laws by which they
are guided through the vast of space, whether we analyse those powers
and agents by which all the operations of nature are performed, or whether
we consider the various productions of this our globe, from the mighty
cedar to the microscopic mucor — from the giant elephant to the invisible
mite, still we are studying the works and wonders of our God. The book,
to whatever paje we turn, is written by the finger of him who created us;
and in it, provided our minds be rightly disposed, we may read his eternal
verities. And the more accurate and enlarged our knowledge of his
works, the better shall we be able to understand his word ; and the more
" Well then," rejoined Cuvier, " I advise you to dissect .an insect. I leave the
species to your own choice: it may be tlie largest you can lind ; and having' done
this, review your supposed discovery, and if you still think it exact, I will take
your word Cor it." The j'oung man, a friend of IM. Audouin, submitted with ajrood
grace to tliis test, and having acquired more dexterity and more caution, came
shortly to thank Cuvier for his advice, and to confess his former mistake. " You
see," said the latter, smiling, " that my touchstone was not bad." ( Audouiu — Notice
sur George Cuvier. Ann. Soc, Ent. de France, i. 317.)
14 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
practised we are in his word, the more readily shall we discern his trutli
in his works; for, proceeding from the same great Author, they must,
when rightly interpreted, mutually explain and illustrate each other.
Who then shall dare maintain, unless he has the hardihood to deny
that God created them, that the study of insects and their ways is trifling
or unprofitable ? Were they not arrayed in all their beauty, and sur-
rounded with all their wonders, and made so instrumental (as I shall
hereafter prove them to be) to our welfare, that we might glorify and
praise him for them ? Why were insects made attractive, if not, as Ray
y/ell expresses it, that they might ornament the universe and be delightful
objects of contemplation to man ? ' And is it not clear, as Dr. Paley has
observed, that the production of beauty was as much in the Creator's
mind in painting a butterfly or in studding a beetle, as in giving symmetry
to the human frame, or graceful curves to its muscular covering?^ And
shall we tiiink it beneath us to study what he hath not thought it beneath
him to adorn and place on this great theatre of creation ? Nay, siiall we
extol those to the skies who bring together at a vast expense the most
valuable specimens of the arts, the paintings and statues of Italy and
Greece, all of which, however beautiful, as works of man, fall short of
perfection ; and deride and upbraid those who collect, for the purpose of
admiring their beauty, the finished and perfect chef-d'ceuvres of a Divine
artist? May we gaze with rapture unblamed upon an Apollo of Belve-
dere, or Venus de Medicis, or upon the exquisite paintings of a Raphael
or a Titian, and yet when we behold with ecstasy sculptures that are pro-
duced by the chisel of the Almighty, and the inimitable tints laid on by
his pencil, because an insect is the subject, be exposed to jeers and ridicule ?
But there is another reason, which in the present age renders the study
of Natural History an object of imjiortance to every well-wisher to the
cause of religion, who is desirous of exerting his faculties in its defence.
For as enthusiasm and false religion have endeavoured to maintain their
ground by a perversion of the text oi Scripture, so also the patrons of infi-
delity and atheism have laboured hard to establish their impiety by a
perversion of the text of nature. To refute the first of these adversaries
of truth and sound religion, it is necessary to be well acquainted with the
luord of God ; to refute the second, requires an intimate knowledge of his
works ; and no department can furnish Inm with more powerful arguments
of every kind than the world of insects — every one of which cries out in
an audible voice. There is a God — he is Almighty, all-wise, all-good — his
watchful providence is ever, and every where, at work for the preservation
of all things.
But since mankind in general are too apt to look chiefly at this world,
and to regard things as important or otherwise in proportion as they are
connected with sublunary interests, and promote our present welfare, I
shall proceed further to prove that the study of insects may be productive
1 "Qureri fortasse k nonniillis potest, Quis Papiliomim nsus sit.' Eespondeo,
Ad ornatum Universi, et ut hominibus spectaculo sint : ad rura illustranda velut
tot bracteoe inservientes. Quis enini eximiam earum pulchritudinem et varieta-
tem contemplans niira voluptate non afRciatur? Quis tot colorum et schematum
elegantias naturaj ipsius ingenio excogitatas et artifici penicillo depictas ciuiosis
oculis intuens, divinas artis vestigia eis impressa non agnoscat etmiretur?" Kai.
Hist. Ins. 109.
3 Nat. Theol. 213.
OBJECTIONS AXSWEllED. 15
of consulerable utility, even in tliis view, and may be regarded in some
sort as a necessary or at least a very useful concomitant ot many arts and
sciences.
The importance of insects to us both as sources of good or evil, I shall
endeavour to prove at large hereafter ; but for the present, taking this for
granted, it necessarily follows that the study of them nuist also be im-
portant. For when we suffer from them, if we do not know the cause,
how are we to apply a remedy that may diminish or prevent tlieir ravages?
Ignorance in this respect often occasions us to mistake our enemies for
our friends, and our friends for our enemies ; so that when w'C think to do
good we only do harm, destroying the innocent and letting the guilty
escape. Many such instances have occurred. You know the orange-
coloureil fly of the wheat, and have read the account of the damage done
by this little insect to that important grain ; you are aware also that it is
given in charge to threj little parasites to keep it within due limits ; yet at
first it was the general opinion of unscientific men, that these destroyers
of our enemy were its parents, and the original source of all the mischief. '
Middleton, in his " Agriculture of Jilkld/cac.r," speaking of the Plant-louse
that is so injurious to the bean, tells us that the lady-birds arc supposed
either to generate or to feed upon them. - Had he been an entomologist,
he would have been in no iloubt whether they were beneficial or injurious :
on the contrary, he would have recommended that they should be en-
couraged as friends to man, since no insects are greater devoiu'ers of the
Aphides. The confounding of the apple Aphis, or American blight
(.1. lanigcra ''), that has done such extensive injury to our orchards, with
others, has led to proceedings still more injurious. This is one of those
species from the skin of which transpiies a white cottony secretion.
S»ome of the proprietors of orchards about Evesham, observing an insect
which secreted a similar substance upon the poplar, imagined that from
this tree the creature which they had found so noxious was generated ;
and in consequence of this mistaken notion cut down all their [)oplars. *
The same indistinct ideas might have induced them to fell all their larches
and beeches, since they also are infested by Aphides which transpire a
similar substance. Had these persons possessed any entom.ological know-
ledge, they would have examined and compared the insects before they
had formed their opinions, and being convinced that the poplar and apple
Aphis are distinct species, would have saved their trees.
But could an entomological observer even ascertain the species of any
noxious insect, still in many cases, without further information, he may fail
short of his purjjose of prevention. Thus we are told that in Germany
the gardeners and country people, with great industry, gather whole
baskets full of the caterpillar of the destructive cabbage moth (Alamestra
Brassicce), and then bury them, which, as Roesel well observes^, is just as
1 Kirby, in Linn. Trans, iv. 232. 235. See also a letter signed C. in the
Gent. 3Iag. for August, 1795. This little insect produces no (julls like manj' of
the species of the genus (Latr. Gen. Crust, et. Ins. iv. 253. Meig. Dipt. i. 94.),
yet it corresponds with the characters of Cecidomijia laid down both by Latreille
and Jleigen.
2 P. 192.
•5 See Latr. Families Naturelles du Regne Animal, 420. This insect has had
four generic names given to it. — Lachnus hy llliger, Eriosoma by Leach, Myzoxijle
by Blot, and Schizoneura by Hartig in Germar's Zeitschr. f. d. Entomol.
■* CoUett, in Month. Mag. xxxii. 320.
5 Roesel, I. iv. 170.
16 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
if we should endeavour to kill a crab by covering it with water ; for many
of them being full grown and ready to pass into their next state, which
they do underground, instead of destroying them by this manoeuvre, their
appearing again the following year in greater numbers is actually facilitated.
Yet this plan applied to our common cabbage caterpillar, which does not
go underground, would succeed. So that some knowledge of the manners
of an insect is often requisite to enable us to check its ravages effectually.
With respect to noxious caterpillars in general, agriculturists and gardeners
are not usually aware that the best mode of preventing their attacks is to
destroy the female fly before she has laid her eggs, to do which the moth
proceeding from each must be first ascertained. But if their research were
carried still further, so as to enable them to distinguish the pupa and dis-
cover its haunts, and it would not be at all difficult to detect that of the
greatest pest of our gardens, the cabbage butterfly, the work might be still
more effectual! v accomplished. Some larva; are polyphagous, or feed upon a
variety of plants ; amongst others that of the yellow-tail moth (Porfhesia
chrysorrhoca) ; yet gardeners think they have done enough if they destroy
the web-like nests which so often deform our fruit-trees, without suspect-
ing that new armies of assailants will wander from those on other plants
which they have suffered to remain. Thus will thousands be produced in
the following season, which, had they known how to distinguish them,
miaht have been extirpated. Another instance occurred to me, when
walking with a gentleman in his estate at a village in Yorkshire. Our
attention was attracted bj' several circular patches of dead grass, each
having a stick with rags suspended to it, placed in the centre. I at once
discerned that the larva of the cock-chafer had eaten the roots of the grass,
which being pulled up by the rooks that devour this mischievous grub,
these birds had been mistaken by the tenant for the cause of the evil, and
the rags were placed to frighten away his best friends. On inquiry why he
had set up these sticks, he replied, " He couldn't beer to see'd nasty craws
pull up all'd gess, and sae he'd set'd bairns to hing up some aud clouts to
flay 'em avi^ay. Gin he'd letten 'em alean they'd sean hev reated up all'd
close." Nor could I convince him by all that I could say, that the rooks
were not the cause of the evil. Even philosophers sometimes fall into
gross mistakes from this species of ignorance. Dr. Darwin has observed,
that destroying the beautiful but injurious wood-peckers is the only alter-
native for preventing the injury they do to our forest trees by boring into
them ^ ; not being aware that they bore only those trees which insects have
previously attacked, and that they diminish very considerably the number
of such as are prejudicial to our forests.
From these facts it is sufficiently evident that entomological knowledge
is necessary both to prevent fatal mistakes, and to enable us to check with
effect the ravages of insects. But ignorance in this respect is not only
unfit to remedy the evil ; on the contrary, it may often be regarded as its
cause. A large proportion of the most noxious insects in every country
are not indigenous, but have been imported. It was thus that the moth
(Gal/eria Mellonclla) so destructive in beehives, and the asparagus beetle
(Crioceris Asparagi), were made denizens of Sweden.^ The insect that
has destroyed all the peach trees in St. Helena was imported from the Cape ;
and at home (not to mention bugs and cock-roaches) the great pest of our
1 Fhytohgia, 518. 2 Pn. Suec. 567. 1383.
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 17
orchards, before mentioned, the apple Aphis, there is good reason to believe
was introduced with some I'orcijin apple-trees. Now, extensive as is our
commerce, it is next to impossible, by any precautions, to prevent the im-
portation of these noxious aj^cnts. A cart;o of wheat from North America
might present us witii the famed Hessian fly, which some years ago caused
such trepidation in our cabinet ; but though introduced, the presence of
these insects, were Entomology a more general pursuit, would soon be
detected, and the evil at once nipt in the bud ; whereas in a country where
this science was not at all or little cultivated, they wouUl most probably
have increased to such an extent before they attracted notice, that every
efibrt to extirpate them would be ineffectual.
It is necilless to insist upon the importance of the study of insects, as
calculated to throw light upon some of the obscurest points of general
physiology ; nor would it be difficult, though the task might be invidious,
to point out how grossly incorrect and deficient are many of the speculations
of our most eminent philosophers, solely from their ignorance of this
important branch of Natural History. How little qualified would that
physiologist be to reason conclusively upon the mysterious subject of gene-
ration, who should be ignorant of the wonderful and unlooked-for fact,
brought to light by the investigations of an entomologist, that one sexual
intercourse is sufficient to fertilise the eggs of numerous generations of
Aphides ! And how defective would be all our reasonings on the powers
of nutrition and secretion, had we yet to learn that in insects both are in
action unaccompanied by the circulating system and glands of larger
animals !
In another point of view entomological information is very useful. A
great deal of unnecessary mischief is produced, and unnecessary uneasiness
occasioned, by what are called vulgar errors, and that superstitious re-
liance upon charms, whicli prevents us from having recourse to remedies
that are really efficacious. Thus, for instance, eating figs and sweet things
has been supposed to generate lice.' Nine \ar\ss of the moth of the wild
teasel enclosed in a reed or goose quill have been reckoned a remedy for
ague.- Matthiolus gravely affirms that every oak-gall contains either a
fly, a s[)ider, or a worm ; and that the first foretells war, the second pes-
tilence, and the third famine.^ In Sweden the peasants look upon the
grub of the cock-chafer as furnishing an unfailing prognostic whether the
ensuing winter will be mild or severe; if the animal have a bluish hue (a
circumstance which arises from its being replete with food) they affirm it
will be mild, but, on the contrary, if it be white, the weather will be severe ;
and they carry this so far as to foretell, that if the anterior part be white
and the posterior blue, the cold will be most severe at the beginning of
the winter. Hence they call this grub Bcm'drkehe-mask, or prognostic
worm.* A similar augury as to the harvest is drawn by the Danish pea-
sants from the mites which infest the common dung beetle {Geotrupes
stercoiarius), called in Danish Skarnhosse or Torbist. If there are many cf
these mites between the fore feet, they believe that there will be an early
^ Amoreux, 27G.
2 Rai. Cat. Cnnt. 45. Hist. Ins. 341.
3 Comment, in Dioscor. 1. 1. c. 23. 214. Lesser L. ii. 280.
* De Geer, iv. 275, 27G.
C
18 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
harvest, but a late one if they abound between the hind feet.^ The
appearance of the death's head hawk-moth {Acherontia Atropos) has in
some countries produced the most violent alarm and trepidation amongst
the people, who, because it emits a plaintive sound, and is marked with
what looks like a death's head upon its back, regarded it as the messenger
of pestilence and death.* We learn from Linne that a similar super-
stition, built upon the black hue and strange aspect of that beetle, prevails
in Sweden with respect to Blajjs mortisaga^ ; and in Barbadoes, according
to Hughes, the ignorant deem the appearance of a certain grasshopper in
their houses as a sure presage of illness to some of the family.*
One would not think that the excrements of insects could be objects of
terror ; yet so it has been. Many species of Lepidoptera, when they
emerge from the pupa state, discharge from their anus a reddish fluid,
which, in some instances, where their numbers have been considerable, has
produced the appearance of a shower of blood ; and by this natural fact,
all those bloody showers, recorded by historians as preternatural, and
regarded where they happened as fearful prognostics of impending evils,
are stripped of their terrors, and reduced to the class of events that happen
in the common course of nature. That insects are the cause of these
showers is no recent discovery ; for Sleidan relates that in the year 1553
a vast multitude of butterflies swarmed through a great part of Germany,
and sprinkled plants, leaves, buildings, clothes, and men, with bloody
drops, as if it had rained blood.^ But the most interesting account of an
event of this kind is given by Reaumur, from whom we learn that in the
beginning of July, 1608, the suburbs of Aix, and a considerable extent of
country round it, were covered with what appeared to be a shower of
blood. We may conceive the amazement and stupor of the populace upon
such a discovery, the alarm of the citizens, the grave reasonings of the
learned. All agreed however in attributing this appearance to the powers
of darkness, and in regarding it as the prognostic and precursor of some
direful misfortune about to befall them. Fear and prejudice would have
taken deep root upon this occasion, and might have produced fatal effects
upon some weak minds, had not M. Peiresc, a celebrated philosopher of
that place, paid attention to insects. A chrysalis which he preserved in
his cabinet let him into the secret of this mysterious shower. Hearing a
fluttering, which informed him his insect was arrived at its perfect state,
he opened the box in which he kept it. The animal flew out and left
behind it a red spot. He compared this with the spots of the bloody
shower, and found they were alike. At the same time he observed there
was a prodigious quantity of butterflies flying about, and that the drops
of the miraculous rain were not to be found upon the tiles, nor even upon
the upper surface of the stones, but chiefly in cavities and places where
rain could not easily come. Thus did this judicious observer dispel the
ignorant fears and terror which a natural phenomenon had caused.^
The same author relates an instance of the gardener of a gentleman
being thrown into a horrible fright by digging up some of the curious cases
^ Detharding de Insecth Coleopteris Danicis, 9.
2 Reaum. ii. 289. This insect and its caterpillar is finely figured in Mr. Cur-
tis's elegant and scientific Brithh Entomology, t. 147.
3 Faun. Suec. 822. 4 Nat. Hist, of Barbad. 85.
^ Quoted in Mouff"et, 107. s Eeaum. i. 667.
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 19
which I shall hereafter describe to you, of the leaf-cutter bees, and which
he conceived to be the effect of witchcraft portendinsr some terrible misfor-
tune. By the advice of the priest of the parish he even took a journey
from Kouen to Pans, to siunv tiieni to his master : but he, happily havino-
more sense than the man, carried them to M. NoUet, an eminent naturalist"
who havmg seen smnlar productions was aware of the cause, and opcnin<^
one ot the cases, whde the gardener stood aghast at his temerity, pointed
out the grub that it contained, and thus sent him back with a li"<'iit heart
relieved from all his apprehensions. ^ ° '
Every one has heard of the death-watch, and knows of the superstitious
notion ot the vulgar, that in whatever house its drum is heard one of the
family will die before the end of the year. These terrors, in particular in-
stances, where they lay hold of weak minds, especially of sick or hypo-
chondriacal persons, may cause the event that is supposed to be prognosti-
cated. A small degree of entomological knowledge would relieve" them
from all their fears, and teach them that this heart-sickening tick is caused
by a small beetle (Aiwbium tesscltalum) which lives in timber, and is merely
a call to Its companion. Attention to Entomoloay may therefore be
rendered very useful in this view, since nothing certainly is more desirable
than to deliver the human mind from the dominion of superstitious fears
and false notions, which, having considerable influence on the conduct of
mankind, are the cause of no small portion of evil.
But as we cannot well guard against the injuries produced by insects, or
remove the evil, whether real or arising from misconceptions respecting
them, which they occasion, unless we have some knowledge of them • so
neither without such knowledge can we apply them, when beneficial' to
our use. ^ow it is extremely probable that they miijht be made vastly
more subservient to our advantage and profit than at present, if we were
better acquainted with them. It is the remark of an author, who himself
is no entomologist: "We have not taken animals enough into alliance
with us. The more spiders there were in the stable, the less would the
horses suffer from the flies. The great American fire-fly should be im-
ported into tepain to catch mosquitos. In hot countries a reward should be
offered to the man who could discover what insects feed upon fleas " - It
would be vvorlh our while to act upon this hint, and a similar one'of Dr.
JJarwin. lliose insects might be collected and preserved that are known
to destroy the Apludos and other injurious tribes; and we should thus be
enabled to direct their operations to any quarter where they would be
most serviceable ; but this can never be done till experimental agricul-
turists and gardeners are conversant with insects, and acquainted with their
properties and economy. How is it that the Great Bein^ of beinc^s
preserves the system which he has created from permanent injury, in con-
sequence of the too great redundancy of any individual species, but by em-
ploying one creature to prey upon another, ami so overruling and directincr
the instincts of all, that they may operate most where they are most wanted"
We cannot better exercise the reasoning powers and faculties with which
he has endowed us, than by copying his example. We often employ the
larger animals to destroy each other, but the smaller, especially insects wc
have totally neglected. Some may think, perhaps, that in aiming to do
o ^^^"™- vi- 99. 100. Kirby Mon. Ap. Ana. i. 157, 158.
^ Southey's Madoc, 4to. Notes, 519.
20 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
this we should be miilty of presumption, and of attempting to take the
government and direction of things out of the hands of Providence : but
this is a very weak argument, which might with equal reason be adduced
to prove that when rats and mice become troublesome to us, we ought not
to have recourse to dogs, ferrets, and cats to exterminate them. When
any species multiplies upon us, so as to become noxious, we certainly have
a just right to destroy it, and what means can be more proper than those
which Providence itself has furnished ? We can none of us go further or
do more than the Divine Will permits ; and he will take care that our
efforts shall not be injurious to the general welfare, or effect the annihila-
tion of any individual species.
Again, with regard to insects that are employed in medicme or the arts,
if the apothecary cannot distinguish a Cantharis or blister-beetle from a
Carabus or Cetonia, both of which beetles I have found iiiixed with the
former, how can he know whether his druggist furnishes him with a good
or bad article ? And the same observation may with still greater force
apply to the dyer in his purchase of cochineal, since it is still more difficult
to distinguish the wild sort from the cultivated. There are, it is probable,
many insects that might be employed with advantage in both these depart-
ments; but unless Entomology be more generally studied by Kcientific
men, who are the only persons likely to make discoveries of this kind, than
it has hitherto been, we must not liope to derive further profit from them.
It seems more particularly incumbent upon the professors of the divine art
of healing to become conversant with this as well as the other branches of
Natural History ; for not only do they derive some of their most useful
drugs from insects, but many also of the diseases upon which they are
consulted, as we shall see hereafter, are occasioned by them. For want of
this kind of information medical men run the risk of confounding diseases
perfectly distinct, at least as to the animal that causes them. It would be
a most desirable thing to have professors in each branch of Natural History
in our universities, and to make it indispensable, in order to the obtaining
of any decree in physic, that the candidate should have attended these
lectures. ''We may judge from the good effects that the arts have derived
from the present very general attention to Chemistry how beneficial would
be the consequence if Entomology were equally cultivated ; and I shall
conclude this paragraph with what I think may be laid down as an incon-
trovertible axiom:— That the profit we derive from the works of creation
will be in proportion to the accuracy of our knowledge of them and their
properties, i • i •
I trust I have now said enough to convince you and every thmkmg man
that the study of insects, so far from being vain, idle, trifling, or unprofitable,
may be attended with very important advantages to mankind, and ought at
least to be placed upon a level with many other branches of science, against
which such accusations are never alleged.
But I must not conceal from you that there are objectors who will still
return to the charge. They will say, "We admit that the pursuits of the
entomoloaist are important when he directs his views to the destruction of
noxious insects ; the discovery of new ones likely to prove beneficial to
man ; and to practical experiments upon their medical and econo-
mical properties. But where are the entomologists that in fact pursue
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 21
this course? Do they not in reality wholly disregard the economical
department of their science, and content themselves with making as large a
collection of species as possible ; ascertaining tiic names of snch as are
already described ; describing new ones ; and arranging the whole in their
cabinets under certain families and genera ? And can a study with these
sole ends in view deserve a better epithet than trifling ? Even if the en-
tomologist advance a step further, and invent a new system for the distri-
bution of all known insects, can his laborious undertaking be deemed any
other than busy idleness V What advantage does the world derive from
having names given to ten or twenty thousand insects, of which numbers
are not bigger tliau a pin's head, and of which probably not a hundredth
part will ever be of any use to mankind?"
Now in answer to this supposed objection, wliich I have stated as forcibly
as I am able, am\ which, as it may be, and often is, urged against every
branch of Natural History as at present studied, well deserves a full con-
sideration, I might in the first place deny that those who have the highest
claim to rank as entomologists do confine their views to the systen)atic
<lepartment of the science to the neglect of economical observations ; and
in |)roof of my assertion, I might refer abroad to a Linne, a Reaumur, a
De lieer, a Huber, and various other names of the highest reputation; and
at home to a Ray, a Lister, a Derham, a Marsham, a (Curtis, a Clark, a
Roxburgh, &c. lint I do not wish to conceal that though a large pro-
portion of entomologists direct their views much further than to the mere
nomenclature of their science, there exists a great number, probably the
majority, to whom the objection will strictly apply- Now I contend, and
shall next endeavour to prove, that entomologists of this description are
devoting their time to a most valuable end ; and are conferring upon society
a benefit incalculably greater than that derived from the labours of many
of those who assume the privilege of despising their pursuit.
Even in favour of the mere butterfly-hunter — he who has no higher aim
than that of collecting a picture of Lepkloptera, and is attached to insects
solely by their beauty or singularity, — it would not be difficult to say
much. Can it be necessary to declaim on the superiority of a people
amongst whom intellectual pleasures, however trifling, are preferred to
mere animal gratifications ? Is it a thing to be lamented that some of the
Spitalfields weavers occupy their leisure hours in searching for the Adonis
butterfly (Polj/ommatiis Adonis'), and others of the more splendid Lejndop-
tera^, instead of spending them in playing at skittles or in an alehouse?
Or is there in truth any thing more to be wished than that the cutlers of
Sheffield were accustomed thus to employ their Saint ]\Iondoi/s ; and to
recreate themselves after a hard day's work, by breathing the pure air of
their surrounding hills, while in search of this " untaxed and undisputed
game * ; " and that more of the Norwich weavers were fond of devoting
^ Ilaworth, Lepid. Brit. 44. 57.
2 Oft have I smiled the happy piide to see
Of humble tradesmen in their evening glee.
When of some pleasing fancied good possest,
Each grew alert, was busy and was blest :
Whether the call-bird yield the hour's delight.
Or magnified in microscope the mite ;
Or whether tumblers, croppers, carriers seize
The gentle mind ; they rule it and they please.
C 3
22 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
their vacant time to plant-hunting, like Joseph Fox, recorded by Sir
James Smith as the first raiser of a Lycopodium from seed? ^
Still more easy is it to advocate the cause of another description of
entomologists — the general collectors. These, though not concerning
themselves with the system, contribute most essentially to its advancement.
We cannot expect that princes, noblemen, and others of high rank or large
fortune who collect insects, should be able or willing to give up the time
necessary for studying them systematically ; but their museums being
accessible to the learned entomologist, afford him the use of treasures
which his own limited funds or opportunities could never have brought
together. As to others of less consequence that content themselves with
the title of collectors, they also have their use. Having devoted them-
selves to this one department, they become more expert at it than the
philosopher who combines deep researches with the collection of objects ;
and thus are many species brought together for the use of the systematist,
that would otherwise remain unknown.
But to proceed to the defence of the systematic entomologists. — These
may be divided into two great classes : the first comprising those who
confine themselves to ascertaining the names of the insects they collect ;
the second, those who, in addition, publish descriptions of new species,
new arrangements of intricate genera, or extrications of entangled synonyms,
and who, in other respects, actively contribute to the perfection of the
system.
Now with regard to the first class, setting aside what may be urged in
behalf of the study of insects considered as the work of the Creator, it is
easy to show that, even with such restricted views, their pursuit is as com-
mendable, and as useful both to themselves and the community, as many
of those on which we look with the greatest respect. To say the least in
their favour, they amuse themselves innocently, which is quite as much as
can be urged for persons who recreate their leisure hours with music,
painting, or desultory reading. They furnish themselves with an unfaiHng
provision of that "grand panacea for the tcedium vitcs" — employment — no
unimportant acquisition, when even Gray was forced to exclaim, with re-
ference to the necessity of "always having something going forward"
towards the enjoyment of life, " Happy they who can create a rose-tree or
erect a honey-suckle ; that can watch the brood of a hen, or see a fleet of
their own ducklings launch into the water ! " '^ And, like the preceding
class, they collect valuable materials for the use of more active labourers,
being thus at least upon a par with the majority of book-collectors and
antiquaries.
There is my friend the weaver ; strong desires
Eeign in his breast ; 'tis beauty he admires :
See to the shady grove he wings his way,
And feels in hope the rapture of the day —
Eager he looks, and soon, to glad his eyes,
From the sweet bower by nature form'd arise
Bright troops of virgin moths, and fresh-born butterflies.
* « * «
He fears no bailifPs wrath, no baron's blame;
His is untax'd and undisputed game.
Crabbe's Borough, p. 110.
1 Linn. Trans, ii. 315.
2 Letter to Dr. Wharton. Mason's Life of Gray, p. 28.
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 23
But this is the smallest half of the value of their pursuit. With what
view is the study of the mathematics so peuerally recommended ? Not cer-
taiuly for any |)ractical purpose — not to n)ake the hulk of those who attend
to them astronomers or engineers. But simply to exercise and strengthen
the intellect — to give the mind a iiabit of attention and of investigation.
Now for all these [)urposes, if I do not go so far as to assert that the mere
ascertaining of the names of insects is equal to the study of the mathe-
matics, I luive no hesitation in afiirming that it is nearly as effectual ; and
with respect to giving a habit of minute attention, superior. Such is the
intricacy of nature, such the imperfection of our. present arrangements,
that the discovery of the name of almost any insect is a problem, calling in
all cases for acuteness and attention, and in some for a balancing of evi-
dence, a calculation of the chances of error as arduous as are required in a
perplexed law case, and a process of ratiocination not less strict than that
wiiich satisfies the mathematician. In proof of which assertion I need
only refer any conipetent judge to tiie elaborate disquisitions of Laspeyres,
called for by one work alone on the lepidopterous insects of a single dis-
trict— the U'iiner I'crzi'ic/iniss, which occupy above two hundred octavo
|)ages *, and must have cost the learned author nearly as much labour of
mind as the Diiclor Dubitantiiim did Bisiiop Taylor.
Do not ap[)rehend that this occasional perplexity is any deduction from
the attractions of the science : though in itself, in some respects, an evil,
it forms in fact to many minds one of the chief of them. The pursuit
of truth, in whatever path, affords pleasure : but the interest would cease
if she never gave us trouble in the chase. Horace Walpole used to say,
that from a child he could never bring himself to attend to any book that
was not full of proper names; and the satisfaction which he felt in dry
investigations concerning noble authors, and obscure painters, is experi-
enced by many an entomologist who spends hours in disentangling the
synonymy of a doubtful species. Nor would it be easy to prove that the
wordy researches of the one are not to every practical purpose as valuable
as those of the other. We smile at the Frenchman told of by Menage,
that was so enraptured with the study of heraldry and genealogy as to
lament the hard case of our forefather Adam, who could not possibly
amuse himself with such investigations.- But many an entomologist,
who has felt the delicious sensation attendant upon the indisputable
ascertainment of an insect's name after a long search, will feel inclined
to indulge in similar grief for the unhappy lot of his successors, when all
shall be smooth sailing in the science.
But in behalf of those who are more eminently entitled to be called
entomologists — those who, not content with collecting and investigating
insects, occupy themselves in naming and describing such as have been
before unobserved ; in instituting new genera or reforming the old ; and,
to say all in one word, in perfecting the system of the science, — still
higher claims can be urged. Suppose that at this moment our dictionaries
of the French and German languages were so very defective, that we were
unable by the use of them to profit from the discoveries of their philoso-
phers ; the labours of a Michaelis being a sealed book to our theologists,
and those of La Place to our astronomers. On this supposition, would
1 lUig. Mug. ii. 33. iv. 3. ' Andrew's Anecdotes, 152.
C 4
24 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
not one of the most important literary undertakings be the compilation of
more perfect dictionaries, and would not the humblest contributor to such
an end be deemed most meritoriously engaged ? Now precisely what an
accurate dictionary of a particular language is towards enabling the world
to participate in the discoveries published in that language, is a system of
Entomology towards enabling mankind to derive advantage from any
discoveries relative to insects. A good system of insects, containing all
the known species arranged in appropriate genera, families, orders and
classes, is in fact a dictionary, putting it within our power to ascertain the
name of any given insect, and thus to learn what has been observed re-
specting its properties and history, as readilv as we determine the meaning
of a new word in a lexicon. In order to impress upon you more for-
cibly the absolute need of such a system, I must enter into still further
detail.
There is scarcely a country in which several thousand insects may not
be found. Now, without some scientific arrangement, how is the observer
of a new fact respecting any one of them to point out to distant countries,
and to posterity, the particular insect he had in view ? Suppose an ob-
server in England were to find a certain beetle which he had demonstrated
to be a specific for consumption ; and that it was necessary that this
insect, which there was reason to believe was common in every part of
the world, should be administered in a recent state. Would he not be
anxious to proclaim the happy discovery to sufferers in all quarters of the
globe ? As his remedy would not admit of transportation, he would have
no other means than by describing it. Now the question is, whether, on
the supposition that no system of Entomology existed, he would be able to
do this, so as to be intelligible to a physician in North America, for in-
stance, eager to administer so precious a medicine to his expiring patient ?
It would evidently be of no use to say that the specific was a beetle : there
are thousands of different beetles in North America. Nor would size or
colour be any better guide : there are hundreds of beetles of the same size
and the same colour. Even the plant on which it fed would be no suffi-
cient clue ; for many insects, resembling each other to an unpractised eye,
feed on the same plant, and the same insect in different countries feeds
upon different plants. His only resource, then, would be a coloured figure
and full description of it. But every entomologist knows that there exist
insects perfectly distinct, yet so nearly resembling each other, that no
engraving nor any language other than that strictly scientific can possibly
discriminate them. After all, therefore, the chances are that our disco-
verer's remedy, invaluable as it might be, must be confined to his own
immediate neighbourhood, or to those who came to receive personal
information from him. But with what ease is it made known when a
system of the science exists ! If the insect be already described, he has
but to mention its generic and trivial names, and by the aid of two words
alone, every entomologist, though in the most distant region — whether a
Swede, a German, or a Frenchman — whether a native of Europe, of Asia,
of America, or of Africa, knows instantly the very species that is meant,
and can that moment ascertain whether it be within his reach. If the
species be new and undescribed, it is only necessary to indicate the genus
to which it belongs, the species to which it is most nearl}' allied, and to
describe it in scientific terms, which may be done in few words, and it.
can at once be recognised by every one acquainted with the science.
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 25
You will think it hardly credible that there should be so much difficulty
in describing an insect intelligibly without the aid of system ; but an
argiuiientitin ad homincm, supported by some other facts, will, I conjecture,
render this matter more coiii[)reIu'nhible. You have doubtless, like every
one else, in the showery ilays of summer, felt no little rage at the fiifSy
which at such times take the lilierty of biting our legs, and contrive to
make a comlortable meal through the interstices of their silken or cotton
coverings. Did it, I pray, ever enter into your conception that these bloocU
thirsty tormentors are a diH'erent species from those flies which you are
wont to see extending the lips of their little proboscis to a piece of sugar
or a drop of wine? I dare s<iy not. But the next time you have sacri-
ficed one of the former to your just vengeance catch one of the latter and
compare them. I question if, after the narrowest comparison, you will
not still venture a wager that they are the very same species. Yet you
would most certainly lose your bet. They are not even of the same genus
— one belonging to the genus Musca {M. domestica), and the other to the
genus Stomoxys (S. ca/ci/raiis) ; and on a second examination you will
find that, however alike in most respects, they differ widely in the shape of
their proboscis ; that of the Stomoxys being a horny sharp-pointed wea-
pon, capable of piercing the flesh, while the soft blimt organ of the Musca
is perfectly incompetent to any such operation. In future, while you no
longer load the whole race of the house-fly with the execrations which
properly belong to a quite different tribe, you will cease being surprised
that an ordinary description should be insufficient to discriminate an in-
sect. It is to this insufficiency that we must attribute our ignorance of so
many of the insects mentioned by the older naturalists, previously to the
systematic improvements of the immortal Liime : and to the same cause
we must refer the impossibility of determining what species are alluded to
in the accounts of many moilern travellers and agriculturists who have
been ignorant of Entomology as a science. Instances without number
of this impossibihty might be adduced, but I shall confine myself to
two.
One of the greatest pests of Surinam and other low regions in South
America, is the insect called in the West Indies, where it is also trouble-
some, the chigoe (Pule.v penetrans^ a minute species, to the attacks of
which I shall again have occasion to advert. This insect is mentioned by
almost all the writers on the countries where it is found. Not less than
eight or ten of them have endeavoured to give a full description of it, and
some of them have even figured it ; and yet, strange to sa\', it was not
certainly known whether it was a flea {Pulex L.), a louse (Pediculus L.),
or a mite (Acanis L.), till a competent naturalist undertook to investigate
its history, and in a short paper in the Siveduh Transactions ^ proved that
Linne was not mistaken in referring it to the former tribe, with which also
the more recent investigations of an eminent British Entomologist, I. O.
Westwood, Esq , have shown that it must be arranged, though, from some
diffi:;rence in its structure as well as habits, he has adopted the generic name
(slightly altered) pro[)osed by the Rev. L. Guilding, and has called it
Sarcopsj/I/a penetrans. *
The second instance of the insufficiency of popular description is even
^ Swartz in Konql. Vet. Ac. nija Handl. ix. 40.
2 Tram. Ent. S'oc. Land. ii. 199—203.
26 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
more extraordinary. In 1788 an alarm was excited in this country by the
probability of importing, in cargoes of wheat from North America, the in-
sect known by the name of the Hessian fly, whose dreadful ravages will be
adverted to hereafter. However the insect tribes are in general despised,
they had on that occasion ample revenge. The privy council sat day after
day anxiously debating what measures should be adopted to ward off the
danger of a calamity more to be dreaded, as they well knew, than the plague
or pestilence. Expresses were sent off in all directions to the officers of
the customs at the ditferent outports respecting the examination of cargoes
— despatches written to the ambassadors in France, Austria, Prussia, and
America, to gain that information of the want of which they were now so
sensible ; and so important was the business deemed, that the minutes of
council and the documents collected from all quarters fill upwards of two
hundred octavo pages. ^ Fortunately England contained one illustrious
naturalist, the most authentic source of information on all subjects which
connect Natural History with Agriculture and the Arts, to whom the privy
council had the wisdom to apply ; and it was by Sir Joseph Banks's ento-
mological knowledge, and through his suggestions, that they were at length
enabled to form some kind of judgment on the subject. This judgment
was, after all, however, very imperfect. As Sir Joseph Banks had never
seen the Hessian fly, nor was it described in any entomological system, he
called for facts respecting its nature, propagation, and economy, which
could be had only from America. These were obtained as speedily as
possible, and consist of numerous letters from individuals, essays from
magazines, the reports of the British minister there, &c. &c. One would
have supposed that from these statements, many of them drawn up by
farmers who had lost entire crops by the insect, which they profess to have
examined in every stage, the requisite information might have been acquired.
So far, however, was this from being the case, that many of the writers
seemed ignorant whether the insect be a moth, a fly, or what they term a
bug. And though from the concurrent testimony of several, its being a
two-winged fly seemed pretty accurately ascertained, no intelligible
description was given from which any naturalist could infer to what genus
it belonged, or whether it was a known species. With regard to the history
of its propagation and economy the statements were so various and con-
tradictory, that though he had such a mass of materials before him. Sir
Joseph Banks was unable to reach any satisfactory conclusion. -
Nothing can more incontrovertibly demonstrate the importance of
studying Entomology as a science than this fact. Those observations, to
which thousands of unscientific sufferers proved themselves incompetent,
, would have been readily made by one entomologist well versed in his
science. He would at once have determined the order and genus of the
insect, and whether it was a known or new species ; and in a twelvemonth
at furthest he would have ascertained in what manner it made its attacks,
and whether it were possible that it might be transmitted along with grain
into a foreign country ; and on these solid data he could have satisfactorily
pointed out the best mode of eradicating the pest, or preventing the exten-
sion of its ravages.
1 Young's Annals of Agriculture, xi. 40G.
2 The American Entomologist Say, was the first who satisfactorily determined
the species and genus of the insect in question. Say on Cecidomyia Destructor, la
Tourn. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philadelph., i. ; and Kirby in Loudon's Mag. Nat. Hist., i.
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 27
But it is not merely in travellers and popular observers that tlic want of
a systematic knowledge of Entomology is so deplorable. A great portion
of the labours of the profoundest naturalists has been from a similar cause
lost to the world. Many of the insects concerning which lleaurnur and
Bonnet have recorded the most interesting circumstances, cannot, from
their neglect of system, be at this day ascertained.' The former, as Beck-
niann- states on the authority of his letters, was before his death sensible
of his great error in this res|)ect ; but Bonnet, with singular inconsistency,
constantly maintained the inutility of system, even on an occasion when,
from his ignorance of it, Sir James Smith, speaking of his experiments on
the barberry, fouiul it quite impossible to make him comprehenil what
plant he referred to. ^
So great is the importance of a systematic arrangement of insects. Yet
no such arrangement has hitherto been completed. Various fragments
towanls it, indeed, exist. But the work itself is in tiie state of a dictionary
wanting a considerable proportion of the words of the language it professes
to explain ; ami placing tliose whicli it does contain in an order often so
arbitrary and defective, that it is diflicult to discover even the page con-
taining the word you are in search of. Can it be denied, tiien, that they
are most meritoriously employed who devote themselves to the removal of
these defects — to the perfecting of the system — and to clearing the path of
future economical or physiological observers from the obstructions which
now beset it ? And who that knows the vast extent of the science, and
how impossible it is that a divided attention can embrace the whole, will
contend that it is not desirable that some labourers in the field of litera-
ture should devote themselves entirely anil exclusively to this object?
Who that is aware of the importance of the comprehensive views of a
Fabricius, an Illiger. or a Latreille, and the infinite saving of time of which
their inquiries will be productive to their followers, will dispute their claim
to rank amongst the most honourable in science?
11. No objection, I think, now remains against addicting ourselves to
entomological pursuits, but that which seems to have the most weight with
you, and which indeed is calculated to make the deepest impression upon
the best minds — I mean the charge of inhumanity and cruelty. That the
science of Entomology cannot be |)roperly cultivated without the death of
its objects, and that this is not to be effected without putting them to some
pain, must be allowed ; but that this substantiates the charge of cruelty, I
altogether deny. Cruelty is an unnecessary infliction of suffering, when a
person is fond of torturing or destroying God's creatures from mere wan-
tonness, with no useful end in view; or when, if their death be useful and
lawful, he has recourse to circuitous modes of killing them where direct
ones would answer equally well. This is cruelty, and this with you I
abominate ; but not the infliction of death when a just occasion calls for it.
They who see no cruelty in the sports of the field, as they are called, can
never, of course, consistently allege such a charge against the Entomologist ;
the tortures of wounded birds, offish that swallow the hook and break the
1 No one knew Reaumur's Abeille Tapissiere, until Latreille, happily combining
system with attention to the economy of insects, proved it to be a new species —
liis Megachile Papaveris. — Hist, de Fotirinis, 297.
2 B'ibliotliek, vii. 310.
3 Tour on the Continent, iii. 150.
28 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
line, or of the hunted hare, being, beyond comparison, greater than those
of insects destroyed in the usual mode. With respect to utility, the sports-
man who, though he adds indeed to the general stock of food, makes
amusement his primary object, must surely yield the palm to the Entomo-
logist, who adds to the general stock of mentid food, often supplies hints
for useful improvements in the arts and sciences, and tlie objects of whose
pursuit, unlike those of the former, are preserved, and may be applied to
use for many years.
But in the view even of those few who think inhumanity chargeable
upon the sportsman, it will be easy to place considerations which may
rescue the Entomologist from such reproof. It is well known that, in pro-
portion as we descend in the scale of being, the sensibility of the objects
that constitute it diminishes. The tortoise walks about after losing its
head ; and the polypus, so far from being injured by the application of the
knife, thereby acquires an extension of existence. Insensibility almost
equally great may be found in the insect world. This, indeed, might be
inferred a priori; since Providence seems to have been more prodigal of
insect life than of that of any other order of creatures, animalcula perhaps
alone excepted. No part of the creation is exposed to the attack of so
many enemies, or subject to so many disasters ; so that the few individuals
of each kind which enrich the valued museum of the entomologist, many
of which are dearer to him than gold or gems, are snatched fron) the
ravenous maw of some bird or fish or rapacious insect — would have been
driven by the winds into the waters and drowned, or trodden underfoot by
man or beast ; for it is not easy, in some parts of the year, to set foot to
the ground without crushing these minute animals ; and thus also, instead
of being buried in oblivion, they have a kind of immortality conferred upon
them. Can it be believed that the beneficent Creator, whose tender
mercies are over all his works, would expose these helpless beings to such
innumerable enemies and injuries, were they endued with the same sense
of pain and irritability of nerve with the higher orders of animals ?
But this inference is reduced to certainty, when we attend to the facts
which insects every day present to us, proving that the very converse of
our great poet's conclusion, as usually interpreted,
. . . The poor beetle that we tread upon
In corporeal sufterance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies,
must be regarded as nearer the truth. ^ Not to mention the peculiar orga-
nisation of insects, which strongly favours the idea I am inculcating, but
which will be considered more properly in another place, their sang-froid
upon the loss of their limbs, even those that we account most necessary to
life, irrefragably proves that the pain they suffer cannot be very acute.
Had a giant lost an arm or a leg, or were a sword or spear run through his
body, he would feel no great inclination for running about, dancing or
eating; yet a crane-fly (Tipula) will leave half its legs in the hands of an
1 Shakspere's intention, however, in this passage, was evidently not, as is often
supposed, to excite compassion for the insect, but to prove that
The sense of Death is most in apprehension,
the actual pang being trifling. — Pleasure for Measure, Act iii. Sc. 1.
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 29
unlucky boy who has endeavoured to catch it, and will fly here and there
with as nnich agility and unconcern as if nothing iiad happened to it ; and
an insect impaled upon a pin will often devour its prey with as much
avidity as when at liherty. Were a giant eviscerated, his hody divided in
the middle, or his head cut off" it would he all over with him; he would
move no more ; he would be dead to the calls of hunger, or the emotions
of fear, anger, or love. Not so our insects. I have seen the common
cock-chafer walk about with apparent indifterence after some bird had
nearly em|)tied its hody of its viscera: an humble-bee will eat honey with
greediness though deprived of its abdomen ; and I myself latelv saw an
ant.^which had been brought out of the nest by its comrades, walk when
dcpnved of its head. The head of a wasp will attempt to bite after it is
separated from the rest of the body ; and the abdomen under similar cir-
cumstances, if the finger he moved to it, will attempt to sting. And, wiiat
is more extraordinary, the headless trunk of a male Maiitin has been known
to unite itself to the other sex ' ; and a dragon-fly to eat its own tail, as
we learn from J F. Stephens, Esq., author of the valuable " Illustrations
of British Entomology," who, while entomologising near Whittleseamcre,
having directed the tail of one of these insects which he had caught to its
mouth, to make an experiment whether the known voracity of the tribe
would lead it to bite itself, saw to his astonishment that it actually bit oft'and
ate the four terminal segments of its body, and then by accident escapin*'
flew away as briskly as ever ! "^ These facts, out of hundreds that might be
adduced, are surely sufficient to [irove that insects do not experience the
same acute sensations of pain with the higher order of animals, which
Providence has endowed with more ample means of avoiding them. And
since they were to be exposed so universally to attack and injury, this is a
most merciful provision in their favour ; for, were it otherwise, considering
the wounds, and dismemberments, and lingering deaths that insects often
suflxT, what a vast increase would there be of the general sum of pain and
misery! You will now, I think, allow that the most humane person need
not hesitate a moment whether he shall devote himself to the study of En-
tomology on account of any cruelty attached to the pursuit.
But if some morbid sentimentalist should still exclaim, "Oh! but 1
cannot persuade myself, even for scientific purposes, to inflict the slightest
degree of jniin upon the most insensible of creatures — " Pray, sir or
madam, I would ask, should your green-house be infested by A|)hides, or
your grapery by the seniianimate Coccus, would this extreme of tenderness
induce you to restrict your gardener from destroying them? Are you
willing to deny yourself these unnecessary gratifications, and to resign your
favourite flowers and fruit at the call of your fine feelings? Or will you
give up the shrimps, which by their relish enable 30U to play a better part
with your bread and butter at breakfast, and thus, instead of adding to it,
contribute to diminish the quantity of food ? If not, I shall only desire
you to recollect that, for a mere personal indulgence, you cause the death
of an infinitely greater number of animals than all the entomologists in the
world destroy for the promotion of science."
To these considerations, which I have no doubt you will think conclusive
as to the unreasonableness and inconsistency of the objections made against
1 Dr. Smith's Tour, i. 1G2. Journ. de Pht/s. xxv. 336.
2 Stephens in Ent. Mag. i. 518.
30 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
the study of entomology on the score of cruelty, I shall only add that I do
not intend them as an apology for other than the most speedy and least
painful modes of destroying insects. Every degree of unnecessary pain
becomes cruelty, which I need not assure you 1 abhor ; and from my own
observations, however ruthlessly the entomologist may seem to devote the
fewifspecimens wanted for scientfic purposes to destruction, no one in
ordinary circumstances is less prodigal of insect life. For my own part, I
question whether the drowning individuals, which I have saved from
destruction, would not far outnumber all that I ever sacrificed to science.
My next letter will be devoted to the metcmorphoses of insects, a subject
on which some previous explanation is necessary to enable you to understand
those distinctions between their different states which will be perpetually
alluded to in the course of our correspondence ; and having thus cleared
the way, I shall afterwards proceed to the consideration of the injuries and
benefits of which insects are the cause. I am, &c.
31
LETTER III.
METAMORPHOSES OF INSECTS.
Were a naturalist to announce to the world the discovery of an animal
which for the first five years of its life existed in the form of a serpent ;
which then penetrating into the earth, and weaving a shroud of pure silk
of the finest texture, contracted itself within this covering into a body
without external mouth or limbs, and resembling, more than anything else,
an Egyptian nuimniy ; and which, lastly, after remaining in this state
without food and without motion for three years longer, should at the end
ot that period burst its silken cerements, struggle through its earthy covering,
and start into day a winged bird, — what think you would be the sensation
excited by this strange piece of intelligence ? After the first doubts of its
truth were dispelled, what astonishment would succeed ! Amongst the
learned, what surmises! — what investigations! Amongst the vulgar, what
eager curiosity and amazement ! All would be interested in the history of
such an unheard-of phenomenon ; even the most torpid would flock to the
sight of such a prodigy.
But, you ask, "To what do all these improbable suppositions tend?"
Simply to rouse your attention to the mctamorplioses of the insect world,
almost as strange and surprising, to which lam now about to direct your
view, — miracles which, though scarcely surpassed in singularity by all that
poets have feigned, and though actually wrought every day beneath our
eyes, are, because of their commonness, and the minuteness of the objects,
unheeded alike by the ignorant and the learned.
The butterfly which amuses you with his aerial excursions, one while
extracting nectar from the tube of the honeysuckle, and then, the very
image of fickleness, flying to a rose as if to contrast the hue of its wings
with that of the flower on which it reposes, did not come into the world
as you now behold it. At its first exclusion from the egg, and for some
months of its existence afterwards, it was a worm-like caterpillar, crawling
upon sixteen short legs, greedily devouring leaves with two jaws, and
seeing by means of twelve eyes so minute as to be nearly imperceptible
without the aid of a microscope. You now view it furnished with wings
capable of rapid and extensive flights : of its sixteen feet ten have dis-
appeared, and the remaining six are in most respects wholly unlike those
to which they have succeeded ; its jaws have vanished, and are replaced
by a curled-up proboscis suited only for sipping liquid sweets ; the form of
its head is entirely changed, — two long horns project from its upper sur-
face ; and instead of twelve invisible eyes, you behold two, very large, and
composed of at least seventeen thousand convex lenses, each supposed to
be a distinct and effective eye !
Were you to push your examination further, and by dissection to compare
the internal conformation of the caterpillar with that of the butterfly, you
would witness changes even more extraordinary. In the former you would
find some thousands of muscles, which in the latter are replaced by others of a
form and structure entirely different. Nearly the whole body of the cater-
32 METAMORPHOSES.
pillar is occupied by a capacious stomach. In the butterfly it is has become
converted into an almost imperceptible thread-like viscns ; and the abdomen
is now filled by two large packets of eggs, or other organs not visible in the
first state. In the former, two spirally-convoluted tubes were filled with
a silky gum ; in the latter, both tubes and silk have almost totally vanished ;
and changes equally great have taken place in the economy and structure
of the nerves and other organs.
What a surprising transformation ! Nor was this all. The change from
one form to the other was not direct. An intermediate state not less
singular intervened. After casting its skin even to its very jaws several
times, and attaining its full growth, the caterpillar attached itself to a leaf
by a silken girth. Its body greatly contracted : its skin once more split
asunder, and disclosed an oviform mass, without exterior mouth, eyes, or
limbs, and exhibiting no other symptom of life than a slight motion when
touched. In this state of death-like torpor, and without tasting .food, the
insect existed for several months, until at length the tomb burst, and out of
a case not more than an inch long, and a quarter of an inch in diameter,
proceeded the butterfly before you, which covers a surface of nearly four
inches square.
Almost every insect which you. see has undergone a transformation as
singular and surprising, though varied in many of its circumstances. That
active little fly, now an unbidden guest at your table', whose delicate palate
selects your choicest viands, one while extending his proboscis to the
margin of a drop of wine, and then gaily flying to take a more sold repast
from a pear or a peach ; now gamboling with his comrades in the air, now
gracefully currying his furled wings with his taper feet, was but the other
da}' a disgusting grub, without wings, without legs, without eyes, wallowing,
well pleased, in the midst of a mass of excrement.
The " grey-coated gnat," whose humming salutation, while she makes
her airy circles about your bed, gives terrific warning of the sanguinary
operation in which she is ready to engage, was a few hours ago the inha-
bitant of a stagnant pool, more in shape like a fish than an insect. Then
to have been taken out of the water would have been speedily fatal ; now
it could as little exist in any other element than air. Then it breathed
through its tail ; now through openings in its sides. Its shapeless head,
in that period of its existence, is now exchanged for one adorned with
elegantly tufted antennae, and furnished, instead of jaws, with an apparatus
more artfully constructed than the cupping-glasses of the phlebotomist —
an apparatus, which, at the same time that it strikes in the lancets, com-
poses a tube for pumping up the flowing blood.
The " shard-born beetle," whose " sullen horn," as he directs his
" droning flight" close past your ears in your evening walk, calling up in
poetic association the lines in which he has been alluded to by Shakspeare,
Collins, and Gray, was not in his infancy an inhabitant of air, the first
period of his life being spent in gloomy solitude, as a grub, under the
surface of the earth. The shapeless maggot, which you scarcely fail to
meet with in some one of every handful of nuts you crack, would not
always have grovelled in that humble state. If your unlucky intrusion
upon its vaulted dwelling had not left it to perish in the wide world, it
1 " Coenis etiam non vocatus ut Musca advolo." Aristophon in Pythagorista
apud Athenajum. (MoufFet, 66.)
METAMORniOSES. 33
\^-oiild have continued to reside there until its full growth had been at-
tained. Then it would have gnawed itself an opening, and, having entered
the earth, and passed a tew months in a state of inaction, would at length
have emerged an elegant beetle furnished with a slender and very long
ebony beak : two wings, and two wing-cases, ornamented with yellow
bands ; six feet ; and in every respect unlike the worm from which it
proceeded.
That bee but it is needless to multiply instances, a sufficient
number has been adduced to show that the apparently extravagant suppo-
sition with which 1 set out may be paralleled in the insect world; and that
the metamorphoses of its inhabitants are scarcely less astonishing than
would be the transformation of a serpent into an eagle.
These changes I do not purpose explaining minutely in this place : they
will be adverted to more fully in subsequent letters. Here I mean merely
to give you such a general view of the subject as shall impress you with
its claims to attention, and such an explanation of the states through
which insects |)ass, and of the different terms made use of to designate
them in each, as shall enable you to comprehend the frequent allusions
which must be made to them in our future correspondence.
The states through which insects pass are four : the egg; the larva;
the pupa ; and the imago.
The first of these need not be here adverted to. In the second, or im-
mediately after the exclusion from the egg, they are soft, without wings,
and in sliape usually somewhat like worms. This Linne called the larva
state, and an insect when in it a larva, adopting a Latin word signifying a
mask, because he considered the real insect while under this form to be as
it were masked. In the English language we have no common term that
applies to the second state of all insects, though we have several for that
of different tribes. Thus we call the coloured and often hairy larvae of
butterflies and moths caterpillars ; the white and more compact larvas of
flies, many beetles, &c., grubs or maggots^ ; and the depressed larvae of
many other insects ivoriiis. The two former terms I shall sometimes use
in a similar sense, rejecting the last, which ought to be confined to true
vermes ; but I shall more commonly adopt Linne's term, and call insects
in their second state, larvce.
In this period of their life, during which they eat voraciously and cast
their skin several times, insects live a shorter or longer period, some only
a few days or weeks, others several months or years. They then cease
eating; fix themselves in a secure place; their skin separates once more
and discloses an oblong body, and they have now attained the third state
of their existence.
From the swathed appearance of most insects in this state, in which
they do not badly resemble in miniature a child trussed up like a mummy
in swaddling clothes, according to the barbarous fashion once prevalent
1 Gentils, or gentles, is a synonjinous word employed by our old authors, but
is now obsolete, except with anglers. Thus Tusser, in a passage pointed out to
me by Sir Joseph Banks : —
" Rewerd not thy sheep when j-e take off his cote
With twitches and patches as brode as a grote ;
Let not such ungentlenesse happen to thine,
Least fly with her gentils do make it to pine."
34 METAMORPHOSES.
here, and still retained in many parts of the Continent, Linne has called it
the ptcpa state, and an insect when under this form a jjupa — terms which
will be here adopted in the same sense. In this state most insects eat no .
food ; are incapable of locomotion ; and, if opened, seem filled with a
watery fluid, in which no distinct organs can be traced. Externally, how-
ever, the shape of the pupae of different tribes varies considerably, and
different names have been applied to them.
Those of the beetle and bee tribes are covered with a membranous skin,
enclosing in separate and distinct sheaths the external organs, as the an-
tennae, legs, and wings, which are consequently not closely applied to the
body, but have their form for the most part clearly distinguishable. To
these Aristotle originally gave the name of nymphce \ which was continued
by Swammerdam and other authors prior to Linne (who calls them in-
complete pupae), and has been adopted by many English writers on
insects.
Butterflies, moths, and some of the two-winged tribe, are in their pupa
state also enclosed in a similar membranous envelope; but their legs,
antennae, and wings, are closely folded over the breast and sides ; and the
Avhole body enclosed in a common case or covering of a more horny con-
sistence, which admits a much less distinct view of the organs beneath it.
As these pupae are often tinged of a golden colour, they were called from
this circumstance chrysalides by the Greeks, and aurelice by the Romans,
both which terms are in some measure become anglicized ; and though not
strictly applicable to ungilded pupae, are now often given to those of all
lepidopterous insects.' These by Linne are denominated oi^ec/et/ pupjE.
I have said that mcst insects eat no food in the pupa state. This quali-
fication is necessary, because in the metamorphoses of insects, as in all
her other operations, nature proceeds by measured steps, and a very con-
siderable number (the tribe of locusts, cockroaches, bugs, spiders, &c.)
not only greatly resemble the perfect insect in form, but are equally
capable with it of eating and moving. As these insects, however, cast
their skins at stated periods, and undergo changes, though slight, in their
1 Hi&t. Anim. 1. 5. c. 10.
2 In explanation of the terms Lepidoptera, Lepidopterous, Coleoptera, &c., which
will frequently occur in the following pages before coining regularly to defini-
tions, it is necessary here to state that they have reference to the names given by
entomologists to the different orders or tribes of insects, as under : —
1. Coleoptera, consisting of Beetles.
2. Strepsiptera, of the genera Xmos and Stt/lops.
3. Dermaptera, of the Earwigs.
4. Orthoptera, of Cockroaches, Locusts, Grasshoppers, Crickets, Spectres,
Mantes, &c.
5. Hemiptera, consisting of Bugs, Cicadce, Water-scorpions, Water -boat-men.
Plant-lice, Cochineal Insects, &c.
6. Trichoptera, consisting of the flies produced by the various species of Case-
worms, Phryganea, L.
7. Lepidoptera, consisting of Butterflies, Hawkmoths, and 3Ioths.
8. Neuroptera, consisting of Dragon-flies, Ant-lions, Ephemerce, &c.
9. Hymenoptera, consisting of Bees, Wasps, and other insects armed with a sting
oi',ovipositor, and its valves.
10. Diptera, consisting of Flies, Gnats, and other two-winged insects.
11. Aphaniptera, consisting of the Flea tribe.
12. Aptera, of Mites, Lice, &c.
METAMORPHOSES. 35
external and internal conformation, they are regarded also as being subject
to metamorphoses. These pupiu may be subdivided into two classes : first,
those comprised, with some exceptions, under the Linncan Aplcra, which
in almost every respect resemble the perfect insect, and were called by
Linne complete pupit ; and, secondly, those of the Linncau order Ilcmi-
ptcra, which resemble the perfect insect, except in having only the rudi-
ments of wings, and to whicii the name of scwi-coniphlc puirjc was
applied by Liinie, and that o^ scmi-m/viphs by some other authors. There
is still a fifth kind of pu|)a', which are not, as in other instances, excluded
from the skin of the larva, but remain concealed under it, and were hence
called by Linne conrctatc pup;v. These, wiiich are peculiar to Hies and
some other dipterous genera, may be termed cascd-ui/iiiplin.
When, therefore, we employ the term pupa, we refer indifferently to the
third state of any insect, tiie particular order being indicated iiy the con-
text, or an explanatory epithet. The terms c//>ysfi/is (dropping anrclia,
which is superfluous), ni/mpli, soiii-iii/iiip/i, and cfi.ie(l-7n/mj)//, on the other
hantl definitely pointing out the particular sort of [)upa meant : just as in
Botany, the conniion icrm pericarp applies to all seed-vessels, the several
kinds being designated by the names of capsule, silide, &c.
The envelope o( cased-niimphx, which is formed of the skin of the larva,
considerably altered in form and texture, may be conveniently called the
piipariutn : but to the artificial coverings of different kinds, whether of silk,
wood, or earth, kc, which many insects of the other orders fabricate for
themselves previously to assuming the [)npa state, and which have been
called by different \\ riters, pods, codn, InisJis, and bcana, I shall continue the
more definite French term cocon, anglicized into cocoon.
After remaining a shorter or longer period, some species only a few
hours, others months, others one or more years, in the pupa state, the
enclosed insect, now become n)ature in all its parts, bursts the case which
enclosed it, quits the pupa, and enters upon the fourth and last state.
We now see it (unless it be an apterous species) furnished with wings,
capable of propagation, and often under a form altogether different from
those which it has previously borne — a perfect beetle, butterfly, or other
insect. This Linne termed the imago state, and the animal that had
attained to it the imri<;(> ; because, having laid aside its mask, and cast off
its swaddling bands, being no longer disguised or confined, or in any respect
imperfect, it is now become a true representative or image of its species.
This state is in general referred to when an insect is spoken of without the
restricting terms larva or pupa.
Such being the singularity of the transformations of insects, you will not
think the ancients were so wholly unprovided with a show of argument as
we are accustomed to consider them, for their belief in the possibility of
many of the marvellous metamorphoses which their poets recount. Utterly
ignorant as they were of modern physiological discoveries, the conversion
of a caterpillar into a butterfly must have been a fact sufficient to put to a
nonplus all the sceptical oppugners of such transformations. And however
we may smile, in this enlightened age, at the inference drawn not two cen-
turies ago by Sir Theodore INIayerne, the editor of Mouffet's work on
insects, " that if animals are transmuted so may metals ^", it was not, in
fact, with his limited knowledge on these subjects, so very preposterous.
D 2
36 METAMORPHOSES.
It is even possible that some of the wonderful tales of the ancients were
grafted on the changes which they observed to take place in insects. The
death and revivification of the phoenix, from the ashes of which, before
attaining its perfect state, arose first a ivorm (o-koAtjI), in many of its parti-
culars resembles what occurs in the metamorphoses of insects. Nor is it
very unlikely that the doctrine of the metempsychosis took its rise from
the same source. What argument would be thought by those who main-
tained this doctrine more plausible, in favour of the transmigration of souls,
than the seeming revivification of the dead chrysalis ? What more probable
than that its apparent re-assumption of hfe should be owing to its receiv-
ing for tenant the soul of some criminal doomed to animate an insect of
similar habits with those which had defiled his human tenement ? ^
At the present day, however, the transformations of insects have lost
that excess of the marvellous, which might once have furnished arguments
for the fictions of the ancients, and the dreams of Paracelsus. We call
them metamorphoses and transformations, because these terms are in
common use, and are more expressive of the sudden changes that ensue
than any new ones. But, strictly, they ought rather to be termed a series
of developments. A caterpillar is not, in fact, a simple but a compound
animal, containing within it the germ of the future butterfl\% enclosed in
what will be the case of the pupa, which is itself included in the three or
more skins, one over the other, that will successively cover the larva.
As this increases in size these parts expand, present themselves, and are in
turn thrown off, until at length the perfect insect, which had been con-
cealed in this succession of masks, is displayed in its genuine form. That
this is the proper explanation of the phenomenon has been satisfactorily
proved by Swammerdam, Malpighi, and other anatomists. The first-men-
tioned illustrious naturalist discovered, by accurate dissections, not only
the skins of the larva and of the pupa encased in each other, but within
them the very butterfly itself, with its organs indeed in an almost fluid
state, but still perfect in all its parts.^ Of this fiict you may convince
yourself without Swammerdam's skill, by plunging into vinegar or spirit of
wine a caterpillar about to assume the pupa state, and letting it remain
there a ievf days for the purpose of giving consistency to its parts ; or by
boiling it in water for a few minutes. A very rough dissection will then
enable you to detect the future butterfly ; and you will find that the wings,
rolled up into a sort of cord, are lodged between the first and second seg-
ment of the caterpillar; that the antennae and trunk are coiled up in front
of the head ; and that the legs, however different their form, are actually
sheathed in its legs. Malpighi discovered the eggs of the future moth in
the chrysalis of a silkworm only a few days old*, and Reaumur those of
another moth (I{j/2^ogi/)mia dispar) even in the caterpillar, and that seven
1 Epist Dedicat.
2 " A priest who has drunk wine shall migrate into a moth or fly, feeding on
ordure. He Avho steals the gold of a priest shall pass a thousand times into the
bodies of spiders. If a man shall steal honey, he shall be born a great stinging
gnat; if oil, an oil-drinking beetle ; if salt, a cicada; if a household utensil, an
ichneumon fly." Institutes of Menu, 353.
3 Hill's Swamm. ii. 24. t. 37. f. 2. 4.
* De Bomlyce, 29.
METAMORPHOSES. 87
or eight ilays before its change into the pupa.* A caterpillar, then, may
be regarded as a locomotive egg, having for its embryo the included
butterH y, which after a certain period assimilates to itself the animal sub-
stances by which it is surrounded ; has its organs gradually developed ;
and at length breaks through the shell which encloses it.
This explanation strijjs the subject of every thing miraculous, yet by no
means reduces it to a simple or uninteresting operation. Our reason is
confounded at the reflection that a larva, at first not thicker than a thread,
includes the germs of its own triple, or sometimes octuple, teguments ;
the case of a ciirysalis, and of a buttcrHy, all curiously folded in each
other ; with an apparatus of vessels for breathing and digesting, of nerves
for sensation, and of muscles for moving; and that these various forms of
existence will undergo their successive evolutions, by aid of a few leaves
received into its stomach. And still less able are we to comprehend how
this organ should at one time be capable of digesting leaves, at another
only honey ; how one while a silky fluid shoidd be secreted, at another
none ; or how organs at one period essential to the existence of the insect
should at another be cast ofT, anil the whole system which sujjported them
vanish.*
Nor does this explanation, though it precludes the idea of that re-
semblance, in every particular, which, at one time, was thought to obtain
between the metamorphosis of insects, especially of the Lepidojitcra order,
and the resurrection of the body, do away that general analogy which
cannot fail to strike every one who at all considers the subject. Even
Swanmierdam, whose observations have proved that the analogy is not so
complete as had been imagined, speaking of the metamorphosis of insects,
uses these strong words : " This process is formed in so remarkable a
manner in butterflies, that we see therein the resurrection painted before
our eyes, and exemplified so as to be examined by our hands." ^ To see,
indeed, a caterpillar crawling upon the earth sustained by the most
ordinary kinds of food, which, when it has existed a few weeks or months
under this humble form, its appointed work being finished, passes into an
intermediate state of seeming death, when it is wound up in a kind of
shroud and encased in a coffin, and is most commonly buried under the
earth (though sometimes its sepulchre is in the water, anil at others in
various substances in the air), and after this creature and others of its
tribe have remained their destined time in this death-like state, to behold
earth, air, and water give up their several prisoners : to survey them, when,
called by the warmth of the solar beam, they burst from their sepulchres,
cast off their cerements, from this state of torpid inactivity, come forth, as
a bride out of her chamber — to survey them, I say, arrayed in their
nuptial glory, prepared to enjoy a new and more exalted condition of life,
in which all their powers are developed, and they are arrived at the per-
' Reaum. i. 359.
^ Dr. Herold (^Enticickelungs geschichte der Sclimetterlinge), and other nioilern
physiologists, deny that the germs of tlie skins of the caterpillar and chrysalis
and of the future butterfly exist in the young caterpillar ; but, for reasons assigned
in detail in another place (vol. iii. edit. 5. pp 52 — G2.), the theory of Swammerdani
and Bonnet, as above explained, is here preferred.
5 Hill's Swamm. i. 127. a.
D 3
38 METAMORPHOSES.
fection of their nature ; when no longer confined to the earth they can
traverse the fields of air, their food is the nectar of flowers, and love begins
his blissful reign; — who that witnesses this interesting scene can help
seeing in it a lively representation of man in his threefold state of existence,
and more especially of that happy day, when, at the call of the great Sun
of Righteousness, all that are in the graves shall come forth, the sea shall
give up her dead, and death being swallowed up of life, the nations of the
blessed shall live and love to the iiges of eternity ? "
But although the analogy between the different states of insects and those
of the body of man is only general, yet it is much more complete with
respect to his soul. He first appears in his frail body — a child of the
earth, a crawling worm, his soul being in a course of training and prepara-
tion for a more perfect and glorious existence. Its course being finished, it
casts off" the earthly body, and goes into a hidden state of being in Hades,
where it rests from its works, and is prepared for its final consummation.
The time for this being arrived, it comes forth clothed with a glorious
body, not like its former, though germinating from it, for, though " it is
soivn an anbnal body, it shall he raised a spiritual body" endowed with aug-
mented powers, faculties, and privileges commensurate to its new and
happy state. And here the parallel holds perfectly between the insect and
the man. The butterfly, the representative of the soul, is prepared in the
larva for its future state oF glory ; and if it be not destroyed by the ichneu-
mons and other enemies to which it is exposed, symbolical of the vices that
destroy the spiritual life of the soul, it will come to its state of repose in
the pupa, which is its Hades ; and at length, when it assumes the imago,
break forth with new powers and beautj^ to its final glory and the reign of
love. So that in this view of the subject well might the Italian poet
exclaim :
Non v' accorgete voi, che noi siam' vermi,
Nati a formar 1' angelica farfalla ? ^
The Egyptian fable, as it is supposed to be, of Cupid and Psyche, seems
built upon this foundation. " Psyche," says an ingenious and learned
writer, " means in Greek the human soul ; and it means also a butterfly^, of
which apparently strange double sense the undoubted reason is, that a
butterfly was a very ancient symbol of the soul : from the prevalence of
this symbol, and the consequent coincidence of the names, it happened
that the Greek sculptors frequently represented Psyche as subject to Cupid
in the shape of a butterfly ; and that even when she appears in their works
under the human form, v.-e find her decorated with the light and filmy wings
of that gay insect."^
The following beautiful little poem falls in so exactly with the subject I
have been discussing, that I cannot resist the temptation I feel to copy it
1 Do you not perceive that we are caterpillars, born to form the angelic but-
terfly ?
2 It is worthy of remark, that in the north and west of England the moths
that fly into candles are called saules (souls), perhaps from the old notion that
the souls of the dead fly about at night in search of light. For the same rea-
son, probably, the common people in Germany call them ghosts (geistchen).
3 Nares's Essays, i. 101, 102.
METAMORPHOSES. 39
for you, especially as I am not aware that it has appeared anywhere but in
a newspaper : —
THE BUTTERFLY'S BIRTH-DAY.
BY THE AUTHOR OF " THE BUTTERFLY'S BALL."
The shades of night were scarcely fled ;
Tho air was iiiiid, tlie winds were still ;
And slow the slanting sun-beams spread
O'er wood and lawn, o'er heath and hill :
From fleecy clouds of pearly hue
Had dropt a short but balmy shower,
That hung like gems of morning dew
On ever}' tree and every flower :
And from the blackbird's mellow throat
Was pour'd so loud and long a swell,
As echoed with responsive note
From mountain side and shadowy dell.
When bursting forth to life and light.
The oUspring of enraptured May,
The BuTTiiUFi.Y, on pinions bright,
Launch'd in full splendour on the day.
Unconscious of a mother's care.
No infant wretchedness she knew ;
But as she felt the vernal air,
At once to full perfection grew.
Her slender form, ethereal light,
Her velvet-textured wings infold ;
With all the rainbow's colours bright.
And dropt with spots of burnish'd gold.
Trembling with joy awhile she stood.
And felt the sun's enlivening ray ;
Drank from the skies the vital flood,
And wondered at her plumage gay !
And balanced oft her broidered wings,
Through fields of air prepared to sail :
Then on her vent'ro us journey springs.
And floats along the rising gale.
Go, child of pleasure, range the fields,
Taste all the joys that spring can give.
Partake what bounteous summer yields,
And live whilst yet 'tis thine to live.
Go sip the rose's fragrant dew,
The lily's honeyed cup explore.
From flower to flower the search renew,
And rifle all the woodbine's store :
And let me trace thy vagrant flight,
Thy moments too of short repose.
And mark thee then with fresh delight
Thy golden pinions ope and close.
But hark I whilst thus I musing stand
Pours on the gale an airy note,
And breathing from a viewless band,
Soft silvery tones around me float !
D 4
40 METAMORPHOSES.
— They cease — but still a voice I hear,
A whisper'd voice of hope and joy,
Thy hour of rest approaches near,
" Prepare thee, mortal ! — thou must die I
" Yet start not ! — on thy closing eyes
" Another day shall still unfold,
" A sun of milder radiance rise,
" A happier age of joys untold.
" Shall the poor worm that shocks thy sight,
" The humblest form in nature's train,
" Thus rise in new-born lustre bright,
" And yet the emblem teach in vain ?
" Ah ! where were once her golden eyes,
" Her glittering wings of purple pride ?
" Concealed beneath a rude disguise,
" A shapeless mass to earth allied.
" Like thee the hapless reptile lived,
" Like thee he toil'd, like thee he spun,
" Like thine his closing hour arrived,
" His labour ceased, his web was done.
" And shalt thou, number'd with the dead,
" No happier state of being know?
" And shall no future morrow shed
» On thee a beam of brighter glow?
" Is this the bound of power divine,
" To animate an insect frame ?
" Or shall not He who moulded thine
" Wake at his will the vital Hame.
« Go, mortal ! in thy reptile state,
" Enough to know to thee is given ;
« Go, and the joyful truth relate ;
" Frail child of earth ! high heir of heaven !
A question here naturally presents itself -Why are insects subject to
these chanses 9 For what end is it that, instead of preserving, like other
animals\ the same general form from infancy to old age they appear at one
neriod under a shape so different from that which they finally assume; aiid
why should they pass through an intermediate state of torpidity so extraordi-
narv ' I can only answer that such is the will of the Creator, who doubtless
had the wisest ends in view, although we are incompetent satisfactorily to
discover them Yet one reason for this conformation may be hazarded. A
very important part assigned to insects in the economy of nature, as 1
shall hereafter show, is that of speedily removing superabundant and de-
1 A few vertebrate animals, viz. frogs, toads, and newts, undergo metamor-
rhnst. in some respects analogous to those of insects; their first form as tadpoles
SfnTvery^ffeS^^^^^ thft which they afterwards assume. These reptiles
too fs wen as snakes, cast their skin by an operation somewhat similar to that
JnVr J There is nothing, however, in their metamorphoses at all resembling the
.T«tP in insects f See, however. Von Baer's article on the Analogies of the
Sstma ions of Insects and the Higher Animals in the Annales des Sciences
S Cording to Mr. J. V. Thompson, both the common barnacles and many
SLeTrdergo metamorphoses, but to what extent these changes take place m
the latter does not seem clearly ascertained.
METAMORPHOSES. 41
caying animal and vegetable matter. For such agents an insatiable voracity
is an indispensable qualification, and not less so unusual |)o\vers of multipli-
cation. But these faculties are in a great degree incompatible. An insect
occupied in the work of reproduction could not continue its voracious
feeding. Its life, therefore, after leaving the egg, is divided into three
stages. In the first, as larva, it is in a state of sterility ; its sole object is
the satisfying its insatiable hunger ; and, for digesting the masses of food
which it consumes, its intestines are almost all stomach. This is usually
by much the longest period of its existence. Having now laid up a store
of materials for the devtlo|)ment of the future perfect insect, it becomes a
pupa ; and during this inactive period the important process slowly pro-
ceeds, uninterrupted by tlie calls of appetite. At length the perfect insect
is disclosed. It now often requires no food at all ; and scarcely ever more
than a very small quantity ; for the reception of which its stomach has
been contracted, in some instances, to a tenth of its former bulk. Its
almost sole object is now the nmltiplication of its kind, from wiiich it is
diverted by no other propensity ; and this important duty being performed,
the end of its existence has been answered, and it expires.
It must be confesseil that some objections might be thrown out against
this hypothesis, yet I think none that would not admit of a plausible answer.
To these it is foreign to my purpose now to attend, and I shall conclude
this letter by pointing out to you the variety of new relations which this
arrangement introduces into nature. One individual unites in itself, in fact,
three species, whose modes of existence are often as different as those of
the most distantly related animals of other tribes. The same insect often
lives successively in three or four worlds. It is an inhabitant of the water
during one period ; of the earth during another ; and of the air during a
third ; and fitted for its various abodes by new organs and instruments, and
a new form in each. Think (to use an illustration of Bonnet) but of the
cocoon of the silk-worm ! How many hands, how many machines does
not this little ball put into motion ! Of what riches should we not have
been deprived, if the moth of the silk-worm had been born a moth, without
having been previously a caterpillar ! The domestic economy of a large
portion of mankind would have been formed on a plan altogether different
from that which now prevails.
I am, &c.
42
LETTER IV.
INJUEIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
DIRECT INJURIES.
In the letter which I devoted to the defence of Entomology, I gave you
reason to expect, more effectually to obviate the objection drawn from the
supposed insignificance of insects, that I should enter largely into the
question of their importance to us both as instruments of good and evil.
This I shall now attempt ; and, as I wish to leave upon your mind a
pleasant impression with respect to my favourites, I shall begin with the
last of these subjects — the injury which they do to us.
The Almighty ordains various instruments for the punishment of offend-
ing nations ; sometimes he breaks them to pieces with the iron rod of war ;
at others the elements are let loose against them ; earthquakes and floods
of fire, at his word, bring sudden destruction upon them ; seasons un-
friendly to vegetation threaten them with famine ; the blight and mildew
realise these threats; and often, the more to manifest and glorify his
power, he employs means, at first sight, apparently the most insignificant
and inadequate to effect their ruin ; the numerous tribes of insects are his
armies ', marshalled by him, and by his irresistible command impelled to
the work of destruction : where he directs them they lay waste the earth,
and famine and the pestilence often follow in their train.
The generality of mankind overlook or disregard these powerful, because
minute, dispensers of punishment ; seldom considering in how many ways
their welfare is affected by them ; but the fact is certain, that should it
please God to give them a general commission against us, and should he
excite them to attack, at the same time, our bodies, our clothing, our
houses, our cattle, and the produce of our fields and gardens, we should
soon be reduced, in every possible respect, to a state of extreme wretched-
ness ; the prey of the most filthy and disgusting diseases, divested of a
covering, unsheltered, except by caves and dungeons, from the inclemency
of the seasons, exposed to all the extremities of want and famine; and in
the end, as Sir Joseph Banks, speaking on this subject, has well observed ^,
driven with all the larger animals from the face of the earth. You may
smile, perhaps, and think this a high-coloured picture, but you will recol-
lect, I am not stating the mischiefs that insects commonly do, but what
they would do, according to all probability, if certain counter-checks re-
straining them within due limits had not been put in action ; and which
they actually do, as you will see, in particular cases, when those counter-
checks are diminished or removed.
Insects may be said, without hyperbole, to have established a kind of
universal empire over the earth and its inhabitants. This is principally
Joel, ii. 25.
2 On the Blight in Corn, p. 9.
DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 43
conspicuous in the injuries wliicli tlicv occasion, for nothing in nature that
possesses or has |)ossesse<i animal or vegetable life is safe from their
inroads. Neither tiie cunning of the fox, nor the swiftness of the horse or
deer, nor the strength of the buffalo, nor the ferocity of the lion or tiger,
nor the armour of the rhinoceros, nor the giant bulk or sagacity of the
elephant, nor even the authority of imperial man, who boasts himself to be
the lord of all, can secure them from becoming a prey to these despised
beings. The air atJonls no protection to the birds, nor tiie water to the
fish ; insects pursue them all to their most secret conclaves and strongest
citadels, and compel them to submit to their sway. Flora's empire is still
more ex|)osed to their cruel tlomination and ravages; and there is scarcely
one of her innumerable subjects, from the oak, the glory of the forest, to
the most minute lichen that grows upon its trunk, that is not destined to
be the food of these next to nonentities in our estimation. And when life
departs from man, the inferior animals, or vegetables, they become univer
sally, sooner or later, the inheritance of insects.
I shall principally besj)cak your attention to the injuries in question as
they affect ourselves. These may be divided into direct and indirect. By
direct injuries I mean every species of attack upon our own persons ; and
by indirect, such as are made upon our property. To the former of these
1 shall confine myself in the present letter.
Insects, as to their direct attacks upon us, may be arranged in three
principal classes. Those, namely, which seek to make us their food ;
those whose object is to prevent or revenge an injury which they either
fear, or have received from us ; and those which indeed offer us no
violence, but yet incommode us extremely in other ways.
I hope I shall not too much offend your delicacy if I begin the first class
of our insect assailants with a very disgusting genus, which Providence
seems to have created to punish inattention to personal cleanliness. But
though this pest of man must not be wholly passed over, yet, since it is
unfortunately too well known, it will not be at all necessary for me to
enlarge upon its history. I shall only mention one fact which shows the
astonishingly rapid increase of these animals, where they have once gotten
possession. It is a vulgar notion, that a louse in twenty-four hours may
see two generations ; but this is rather overshooting the mark. Leeuwen-
hoek, whose love for science overcame the nausea that such creatures are
apt to excite, proves that their nits or eggs are not hatched till the eighth
day after they are laid, and that they do not themselves commence laying
before they are a month old. He ascertained, however, that a single
female louse may, in eight weeks, witness the birth of five thousand de-
scendants. ^ You remember how wolves were extirpated from this
country, but perhaps never suspected any monarch of imposing a tribute
of lice upon his subjects. Yet we are gravely told that in Mexico and
Peru such a po/l-tax was exacted, and that bags full of these treasures
were found in the palace of Montezuma! I !'- Were our own taxes paid
in such coin, what little grumbling would there be !
Two other species of this genus, besides the common louse, are, in this
1 Leeuw. Epist. 98. 169G.
2 Bingley, Anim. Biogr. first edition, ill, 437, St. Pierre's Studies, &c., i. 312.
44 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY IXSECTS.
country, parasites upon the human body. — But already I seem to hear
you exclaim, " Why dwell so long on creatures so odious and nauseating,
whose injuries are confined to the profanum vulgus? Leave them there-
fore to the canaille — they are nothing to us." Not so fast, my friend —
recollect what historians and other writers have recorded concerning the
Phthiriasis, or pedicular disease ; and you must own that, for the quelUng
of human pride, and to pull down the high conceits of mortal man, this
most loathsome of all maladies or one equally disgusting, has been the
inheritance of the rich, the wise, the noble, and the mighty ; and in the
list of those that have fallen victims to it, you will find poets, philosophers,
prelates, princes, kings, and emperors. It seems more particularly to have
been a judgment of God upon oppression and tyranny, whether civil or
religious. Thus the inhuman Pheretima mentioned by Herodotus, An-
tiochus Epiphanes, the Dictator Sylla, the two Herods, the Emperor
Maximin, and, not to mention more, the great persecutor of the Pro-
testants, Philip the Second, were carried off by it.
I say b}' this malady, or one equally disgusting, because it is not b)"^ any
means certain, though some learned men have so supposed, that all these
instances and others of a similar nature, standing also upon record, are to
be referred to the same specific cause ; since there is very sufficient reason
for thinking that at least three diflFerent descriptions of insects are con-
cerned in the various cases that have been handed down to us under the
common name oi Phthiriasis. As the subject of maladies connected with
insects or produced by them, is both curious and interesting, although no
writer, that I am aware of, has given a full consideration, and at the same
time falls in with my general design, I hope you will not regard me as
guilty of presumption, and of intruding into the province of medical men,
if I enter rather largely into it, and state to you the reasons that have
induced me to embrace the above hypothesis, leaving you full liberty to
reject it if you do not find it consonant to reason and fact. The three
kinds of insects to which I allude, as concerned in cases that have been
deemed Phthiriasis, are lice (Pediciili, L.), mites (Acari, L.), and Larvce in
general. ^
As far as the habits of the genus Pediculus, whether inhabiting man or
the inferior animals, are at present known, it does not appear from any
well-ascertained fact, that the species belonging to it are ever subcutaneous.
For this observation, as far as it relates to man, I can produce the highest
medical authority. " The louse feeds on the surface of the skin," says
the learned Dr. Mead in his JMedica Sacra ; and Dr. Willan, in his palmary
work on Cutaneous Diseases, remarks with respect to the body-louse, " that
the nits, or eggs, are deposited on the small hairs of the skin," and that
" the animals are found on the skin or on the linen, and not under the
cuticle, as some authors have represented." And he further observes,
that " many marvellous stories are related by Forestus, Schenkius, and
others, respecting lice bred under the skin, and discharged in swarms from
abscesses, strumous ulcers, and vesications. The mode in which Pediculi
are generated being now so well ascertained, no credit can be given to
these accounts." Thus far this great man, who however supposes (in
1 The terms Acariasis and Scbolechiasis have been applied to the diseases pro-
duced bv Acari and Larva.
DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 45
which opinion Dr. Batcnian concurs with him) that the authors to whom
lie aUudcs hail mistaken for lice some otiier species of insects, which are
not unfrequentiy found in putrefactive sores.
If these observations he aUowed their chie weight, it will follow, that a
disease produced hv animals residing under the cuticle cannot he a true
Plilhmnsis, and therefore the death of the poet Alcman, and of I'herecydes
Syrius the philosopher mentioned by Aristotle, nuist have heen occasioned
by some other kind of insect. For, speaking of the lice to which he
attributes these catastrophes, he says that "they are produced in the flesh
in small pustule-like tumours, which have no pus, and from which when
punctureil they issue."' For the same reason, the disorder which Dr.
Heherden has described in his Cowmoitdrieii, from the conununications of
Sir E. ^\'ilmot, under the name of jMorbus pcdiciilaris, nuist also be a dif-
ferent disease, since, with Aristotle, he likewise represents the insects as
inhabiting tumours, from which they may be extracted when opened by a
needle. He says, indeed, that in every respect they resemble tiie common
lice, except in being wiiiter ; but medical men, who were not at the same
time entomologists, might easily mistake an Acarus for a Pediculus.-
Dr. Willan, in one case o( Prurigo soii/is, observed a number of small
insects on the patient's skin and linen. They were quick in their motion,
and so minute that it required some attention to discover them. He took
them at first for small Pcdiculi ; but under a lens they a[)peared to him
rather to be a nondescript species of Pulex^ ; yet the figure he gives has
not the slightest likeness to the latter genus, while it bears a striking re-
semblance to the former. It is not clear whether his draughtsman meant
to represent the insect with six or with eight legs: if it had only six, it
was probably a Pediculus ; but if it had eight, it would form a new genus
between the Acarina and the hexapod Aptcra. Dr. Bateman, in reply to
.some queries put to him, at my request, by our common and lamented
friend Dr. Reeve, relates that he understood from Dr. Willan, in conver-
sation, that the insect in question jumped in its motion. This circumstance
he regards as conclusive against its being a Pediculus ; but such a con-
sequence does not necessarily follow, since it not seldom happens that
insects of the same tribe or genus either have or have not this faculty ;
for instance, compare Scirtes with Cyphon, small beetles, and Acarus Scabiei
with other Acari*
Dr. Willan has quoted with approbation two cases from Amatus Lusi-
tanus, which he seems to think correctly described as Phthiriasis. In one
of them, however, which terminated fatally, the circumstances seem rather
hyperbolically stated — 1 mean, where it is said that two black servants
had no other employment than carrying baskets full of these insects to the
«;ea I ! Perliaps you will think I draw largely upon your credulity if I call
1 Hist. Animal. 1. 5. c. 31.
^ From the terms employed by Aristotle and Dr. Mead in their account of these
cases, it appears that the animal they meant could not be maggots, but something
bearing a more general resemblance to lice.
^ On Cutaneous Diseases, 87, 88. ; and t. 7. f. 4
* Latreille at first considered this as belonging to a distinct genus from the com-
mon mite (^Acarus domesticus). which he named Sarcoptes ; but upon its being dis-
covered that it also has mandibles, he suppressed it (N. Diet. d^Hist. Nut. xxi.
tiil.) ; but it has been since resumed by M. Dugfes and other authors.
46 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
upon you to believe this ; I shall therefore leave you to act as you please.
— Thus much for pure Phthiriasis, which term ought to be confined to
maladies produced by lice. I shall only further observe, that as many
species as exist of these, which are the causes of disease, so many kinds of
Phthiriasis will there be. ^
Acari, or mites, are the next insect sources of disease in the human
species, and that not of one, but probably of many kinds, both local and
general. They are distinguished from Pediculi not only by their form, but
also often by their situation, since they frequently establish themselves
under the cuticle. With respect to local disorders, Dr. Adams conjec-
tures that Acari may be the cause of certain cases of Ophthalmia. Sir J.
Banks, in a letter to that gentleman, relates that some seamen belonging
to the Endeavour brig, being tormented with a severe itching round the
extremities of the eyelids, one of them was cured by an Otaheitan woman,
who with two small splinters of bamboo extracted from between the cilia
abundance of very minute lice, which were scarcely visible without a lens,
though their motion when laid on the thumb, was distinctly perceived.
These insects were probably synonj'mous with the Ciron des paiipieres of
Sauvages. ^ — Le Jeune, a French physician quoted in MoufFet, describes a
case, in which what seems a different species, since he calls them rather
large, infested the white of the eye, exciting an intolerable itching. ^ Dr.
Mead, from the German Ephemerides, gives an account of a woman suck-
ling her child, from whose breast proceeded very minute vermicles. "* These
were probably mites, and perhaps that species, which, from its feeding upon
milk, Linne denominates Acariis Lactis. The great author last mentioned
describes an insect, a native of America, under the name of Fediculus Rici-
noides, which, upon the authority of Rolander, he informs us, gets into the
feet of people as they walk, sucks their blood, oviposits ^ in them, and so
occasions ver}' dangerous ulcers. It would be an Acarus, he observes,
but it has only six legs. Now Hermann affirms, that some species of
Trombidium (a genus separated by Fabricius from Acarus) have in no state
more than six legs. ^ Others of the tribe of Acarina, and the insect in
question amongst the rest, may be similarly circumstanced ; or those that
Rolander examined might have been larvee, which in this tribe are usually
hexapods.
Linne appears to have been of opinion that many contagious diseases
are caused by mites. "^ How far he was justified in this opinion I shall not
here inquire ; facts alone can decide the question, and observations made
1 For further information on this disease, see the valuable Manual of Ento-
mology by Dr. Burmeister, for an English translation of which we are indebted to
Mr. Shuckard (p. 307.), where, it is contended, but surely on inconclusive evidence,
that Fediculus tahescenlhim, Alt. {Dissertatio de Phthiriads, Bonnse, 1820) is pro-
duced by spontaneous generation.
2 On Morbid Poisons, 306, 307. S Mouffet, 267.
4 Medica Sacra, 104, 105.
^ It is to be hoped this new word may be admitted, as the laying of eggs cannot
othenvise be expressed without a periphrasis. For the same reason its substantive
Opposition will be employed.
6 Mem. Apterologique, 19.
■^ Insecta ejusmodi minutissima, forte Acaros diverse speciei causas esse diversorum
morborum contagiosorum, ab analogia et experientia hactenus acquisita, facili
credimus negotio. Amcen, Ac. v. 94.
DIRECT INJURIES CALSED BY INSECTS. 47
by men acquainted with Entomology as well as the science of diseases.
Considerable deference ami attention, iiowever, are certainly due to the
sentiments of so great a naturalist, in whom these necessary qualifications
were united in no conuuon degree. With respect to the dysentery and
the itch, he affirms that this hail been manifested to his eyes. You will
wish |)robably to know the arguments that may be adduced in confirma-
tion of this opinion ; I will therefore endeavour to satisfy you as well as I
am able. The following history given by Linne seems to prove the dysen-
tery connected with these hnimals.
ilolander, a student in Entomology, while he resided in the house of the
illustrious Swede, was attacked by the disca.se in question, which quickly
gave way to the usual remedies. Eight days after it returned again, and
was as before soon removed. A third time, at the end of the same period,
he was seized with it. All the while he had been living like the rest of
the family, who had nevertheless escaped. This, of course, occasioned no
little inciuiry into the cause of what had happened. Linne, aware that
Bartholinus had attributed the dysentery to i)iser/s, which he professed to
have seen, recommended it to his pupil to examine his fasces. Rolander,
following this advice, discovered in them innumerable animalcules, which
upon a close examination proved to be mites. It was next a question how
he alone came to be singled out by them ; and thus he accounts for it. It
was his habit not to drink at his meals ; but in the night, growing thirsty,
he often sipped some liquid out of a vessel made of juniper wood. In-
specting this very narrowly, he observed, in the chinks between the ribs, a
white line, which, when viewed under a lens, he found to consist of innu-
merable mites, precisely the same with those that he had voided. Various
experiments v.ere tried with them, and a preparation of rhubarb was found
to destroy them most eifectually. He afterwards discovered them in
vessels containing acids, and often under the bung of casks. ' In the in-
stance here recorded, the dysentery, or diarrhoea, was evidently produced
by a species of mite, which Linne hence called Acarus Dt/seutcrin ; but it
would be going too far, I apprehend, to assert that they are invariably the
cause of that disease.
That Scabies, or the itch, is occasioned by a mite, is not a doctrine
peculiar to the moderns. Mouffet mentions Abinzoar, called also Aven-
zoar, a celebrated Hispano-Arabian physician of Seville, who flourished in
the twelfth century, as the most ancient author that notices it. He calls
these mites little lice that creep under the skin of the hands, legs, and feet,
exciting pustules full of fluid. - Joubert, quoted by the same author, de-
scribes them under the name of Sirones, as always being concealed beneath
the epidermis, under which they creep like moles gnawing it, and causing a
most troublesouie itching. It appears that Moufl^et, or whoever was the
author of that part of the Thealnnu Insectoritm, was himself also well ac-
quainted with these animals, since he remarks that their habitation is not in
the pustule but near it ; a remark afterwards confirmed by Linne ^, and more
recently by Dr. Adams.* In common with the former of these authors,
1 Amim. Ac. v. 94—98. 2 Mouffet, 266.
s Acarus sub ipsa pustula minimi quiprendus est, sed longius recessit, sequendo
niRam cuticulse obscrvatur. Amcen. Ac, v. 95. not. **.
* Observations, &c. 296.
48 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
Mouffet further notices the effect of warmth upon them in exciting motion.^
Our intelligent countryman also observes that they cannot be Pediculi, since
they live under the cuticle, which lice never do.^ In the epistle dedi-
catory, the editor speaks also of them as living in burrows which they have
excavated in the skin near a lake of water ; from which, if they be ex-
tracted with a needle and put upon the nail, they show in the sun their
red head and the feet with which they walk.^ And to close my veteran
authorities, Junius thus explains the word Acariis, as I find him quoted in
Gonldman's useful dictionary, " A small worm, which eats under the skin,
and makes burrows in itching hands."*
In more modern times, microscopical figures have been added to descrip-
tions of the insect. Bonomo first furnished this valuable species of eluci-
dation. His figures, however, which are copied by Baker in his work on
tlie microscope, are far from accurate.^ Those of De Geer and Dr. Adams
are much more satisfactory, and mutually confirm each other.^ From
them it is evident that the same insect inhabits the scabies of Sweden and
Madeira. Dr. Bateman, in the letter before alluded to, informs his corre-
spondent, that he had seen that from Madeira, and gives it as his opinion,
that there cannot be a doubt of the existence of an Acarus Scabiei ; an
opinion which he repeats in his late work on Cutaneous Diseases, and which,
according to Hermann ^, has been also rendered unquestionable by Wich-
mann in his Etiologie de la Gale (Hanovre, 1786), a work I have not had
an opportunity of consulting. From all this we may regard the point as
so far settled that an animal of this kind exists at least as an occasional
concomitant of scabies.
This fact being ascertained, a more complex inquiry remains, which
branches out into two distinct questions. Is scabies always produced by
these insects? Or, if this be not the case, is the animate scabies a distinct
disease from the inanimate?
It is very remarkable that Linne, a physician as well as a naturalist,
and De Geer, one of the most accurate observers that ever existed,
should both assign the insect in question as the undoubted cause of the
common scabies of their country ; the one applying to the disease he was
speaking of the epithet of commiinissima, and observing the fact to be
notorious (cuique liquet), and the other designating it by its well known
French name, La Gale.^ And is it not equally remarkable that such
1 Extractus acu et super ungue positus, movet se si solis etiam calore adjuvetur,
nhi supr. Ucgui impositus vix movetur : si vero oris calido halitu affletur, agilis in
ungue cursitat. Fn. Suec. 1975.
2 Neque Syrones isti sunt de pediculorum genere, ut Johannes Langius ex Aris-
totele videtur asserere : nam illi extra cutem vivunt, hi vero non. ubi supr.
3 Imo ipsi Acari pras exiguitate indivisibiles, ex cuniculis prope aquie lacum quos
foderunt in cute, acu extracti et ungue inipositi, caput rubrum, et pedes quibus
gradiuntur ad solem produnt. p. vi.
4 Teredo sive exiguus vermiculus, qui subter cutem erodit agitque cuniculos in
pruriginosis manibus. Gouldman tells us these Acari were also called Hand-worms.
Another English name is also given in Mouffet, viz. Wlieale-worms.
5 Osservazioni intorno a pelticelli del corpo umano fatte dal Dottor Gio Cosimo
Bonomo, &c. /. 1—3. Baker, On llicrosc. i. t. 13. /. 2.
6 De Geer, vii. t 5. /. 12. 14.
7 Mem. Apterologique, 79.
8 I am informed by my learned friend Alexander Mac Leay, Esq., late secretary
DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 40
men as Jolin Hunter, Dr. Ilcberdcn, Dr. Batcman, Dr. Adams, and Mr.
Baker, should never, in this country, liave l)een able to meet with it ?
Did it indeei! exist in our connnon scabies, it seems impossible that it
could have escaped the observation ot^ the two last of these gentlemen ;
Dr. Adams being so well (|ualified to detect it from his observations in
Madeira, and Mr. Baker from his expcrtness in microscopical researches.
Dr. Batcman, in the letter above quoted, says, " I have luinted it with a
good magnifier in many cases of itch, both in and near the pustules, and
in the red streaks or furrows, imt always without success." In his work
on CutancQux Diseases, he tells us, however, that he has seen it, in one
instance, when it had been taken from the diseased surface by another
I)ractitioner. And though Dr. Willan in his book, speaks of the Acarux
as the concomitant of this disease, yet his learned friend just men-
tioned observes, that he admitted that it was not to be found in ordi-
nary cases, and indeed never seemed to have made up his mind upon the
subject. When I was at Norwich, in 1812, Dr. Reeve very kindly accom-
pauTed me to the House of Industry there, to examine a patient whose
body was very full of the pustules of this disorder ; but though we used a
good magnifier, we could discover nothing like an insect. I must observe,
however, that our examination was made in December, in severe weather,
wlien the cold might, perhaps, render the animal torpid, and less easy to
be discovered.
From the above facts it seems fair to infer that this animal is not invari-
ably the cause of scabies, but that there are cases with which it has no
connection. Now, from this inference, would not another also follow,
that the disease produced by the insect is specifically distinct from that in
which it cannot be found? Sauvages and Dr. Adams are both of this
opinion ', the former assigning to it the trivial name of vcnnicu/nris, and
the latter proving by very satisfactory arguments, that it is different from
tiie other. If they were both animate diseases, but derived from two
distinct species of animals (for it seems not impossible that even our com-
mon itch may be caused by a mite more minute than the 3ther, and so
more difficult to find), they would properly be considered as distinct
species ; much more, therefore, if one be animate and the other inanimate.
Nay this, I should think, would lead to a doubt whether even their gemts
were the same. I shall dismiss this part of my subject with the mention
of a discovery of Dr. Adams, which seems to have escaped both Linne
and De Cieer, that the Acarus Scabivi is endowed with the faculty of leap-
ing (in this respect resembling the insect found by Willan in Prurigo senilis
mentioned above), for which purpose its four posterior thighs are in-
crassated.-
to the Linnean Society, that in the north of Scotland, the insect of the itch is well
known, and easily discovered and extracted.
1 This opinion Dr. Bateman thinks probably the true one. Cutan. Dis. 197.
• It may be mentioned here as a remarkable fact, that the Acarus Scahiei was dis-
covered by M. Latreille upon a New Holland quadruped {Phascolomys fusca Geoffr.)
of the Marsupian tribe. N. Diet, d'llist. Nat. xxi. 222. Much light has recently
been thrown on the history of Acarus Scabiei by M. A. Dug^s, who regards it as
forming the distinct genus Sarcoptes (Ann. de Sci. Aat. 2d. Serie, iii. 255.), and by
MM. Bande, Rennucci, Scfdillot, and Blainville, the last of whom has given a critical
£
50 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
But besides these Acarine diseases, there seems to be one (unless with
Linne we regard the plague as of this class ') more fearful and fatal than
them all. You will, perhaps, conjecture I am speaking of that described
by Aristotle and Sir E. Wilmot as the Phthiriasis, and your conjecture
will be right. But some think, and those men of merited celebrity, that
mites have nothing to do in these and similar cases, for that maggots
were the parasites mistaken for lice. This, from the passage above
quoted, appears to have been Dr. Willan's opinion, to which, in the letter
so often referred to, Dr. Bateman subscribes, adding as a reason for ex-
cluding mites from being concerned, that, " they are too minute, and
never have been seen in such numbers as to be mistaken for lice." But
both vary in size, some of the former being larger than some of the latter.
And allowing them to be ever so minute, yet when they issue in swarms,
as mites from a cheese, they would be very visible, were it only from
their motion. Besides, as they are furnished with legs, their motions
resemble those of lice infinitely more than do the contortions of maggots.
So that a mite would be deemed a louse much sooner by an unentomo-
logical observer than would a maggot. Whether mites have ever been
seen in such numbers as to be mistaken for lice, is the point in question,
and therefore, b}' itself, cannot be admitted for a valid argument. Though
Acarm Scabiei does not appear to swarm in ordinary cases, yet this is
certainly no reason why other species may not do so. Where it has
once made a settlement, how incredibly, and in how short a space of time,
does the Siro or cheese-mite multiply ! Acarus destructor and many other
species are equally rapid in their increase. — Millions of bee are said by
Lafontaine, whom Hermann calls a very exact describer, to show themselves
in Plica polonica, on the third day of the disease^ ; but whether the last-
mentioned author be correct in thinking it more probable that they are
mites ^ I have not the means of judging.
I shall now produce two instances where mites were evidently con-
cerned. Dr. Mead, from the German Epkemerides, relates the miserable
case of a French nobleman, from whose eyes, nostrils, mouth, and urinar}'
passage, animalcules of a red colour, and excessively minute, broke forth
day and night, attended by the most horrible and excruciating pains, and
at length occasioned his death. The account further says, that they
were produced from his corrupted blood. This was probably a fancy
originating in their red colour ; but the whole history, whether we con-
sider the size and colour of the animals, or the places from which they
issue, is inapplicable 'to larvce or maggots, and agrees very well with
mites, some of which, particularly Leptiis autumnalis, are of a bright red
colour. The other case, and a very similar one, is that recorded by
Mouffet of Lady Penruddock, concerning whom he expressly tells us,
that Acari swarmed in every part of her body — her head, eyes, nose, lips,
gums, the soles of her feet, &c., tormenting her day and night, till, in spite
of every remed}', all the flesh of her body being consumed, she was at
length relieved by death from this terrible state of suffering, Mouflet
attributes her disease to the Acarus Scabiei, but from the symptoms and
history of this parasite in his report in the Kout. Ann. du Mus. iv. 213. See also
Kaspail's Memoire Comparatif sur VHist. Nat. de VInsecte de la Gale.
1 Amoen. Ac. ubi snpr. 101.
2 Traites de Chirurgie, &c. Leipsig, 1792. 3 Mem. Apterolog. 78.
DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 51
fetal result, it seems to have been a different and inucli more terrific animal.
He supposes in tliis instance, the insect to have been generated by drink-
ing goat's nnlk too copiously. This, if correct, would lead to a conjecture
that It nuglit have been ti)e A. Lurtis L.'
These cases I hope will satisfy you that mites, as well as lice, are the
cause of diseases in the luunan frame. This, indeed, as has been before
observecl, is allowed on all iiaiids witli respect to that of the itch ; and it
is, certamiy, not more improbable that man should be exposed to the
attack of several s])ecics of this genus, than that three or four kinds of
Pcdiculus should infest him. If you are convinced by what I have written,
you will concur witii me in thinking that the one are as much entitled to*
give their name to tlie disease wiiicli they produce as the other; and the
term Acanasis, by wiiich, with due reference to medical men, I propose to
distinguish generically all acarine diseases, will not be refused its place
amongst your Genera Murborum.
I shall now proceed to the remaining class of diseases mistaken for
1 hthiriasis ; those, namely, wiiich are produced by larva:. There are two
terms employed by ancient authors, Eula- (Eu\ai), and Scolcx (2«co\7?|),
which seem properly to denote larva> ; but there is often such a want of
precision in the language of writers unacquainted with Natural History
that It IS very difficult to make out what objects they mean • and ex-
pressions whicli, strictly taken, should be understood of larvae,' may pro-
bably have sometimes been used to denote the cause of either the pedicular
or acarine disease. Eula; which term, though given by Hesychius as
synonymous with Scolex, is b}' Plutarch used as of different import- seems
properly to mean those larvie which are generated in dead carcases, at
least so Homer has more than once applied it^: it is therefore a word of
a much more restricted sense than Scolcx, which probably belongs to the
larvae ot every order of insects: for so Aristotle employs'it, when he says
that all insects produce a Scolcx, or are larviparous.* Yet when Homer
compares riarpalion stretched dead upon the ground io ?iScolcx\ it should
seem as if he used the word for an earth-worm, which Aristotle commonly
calls by a figurative periphrasis, " Entrails of the earth." "^^ In the Holy
^scriptures this word is used to signify larva; which prey upon and are th*-
torment of living bodies. ^ It may on this account, perhaps, be regarded
as generally meaning such larv«, to whatever order or genus they belon-.
Dr. IMead, therefore, is most probably right when he considers tlie
disease stated by the ancients to be caused by Eula: or Scolcclies, com-
monly translated worms, as distinct from Phthiriasis ; and if so the in-
human Pheretima, who swarmed with Eula:, and Herod A^rippa who
was eaten ot Scolcches^ were probably neither of them destroyed either by
Fediculi or Acari, but by larva? or maggots. And when Galen prescribed
a remedy for ulcers inhabited by Scolcches, observing that animals similar
to those generated by putrid substances are often found in abscesses, he
1 A new species of mite has just been described by M. Simon, which lives iu tbe
diseased and normal hair-sacs of man. Mailer's Archiv 184-'> p '>78
2 /« Artaxerx. 3 7/; .;. j/ 599. ^ j ^j 4^
■» lot 4e ekTO//a iravra <rxa>X7;xoT0X£(. Be General. Animal. I. 2. c. 1
* //. V. 1. 654, 655.
« Tr,; £>TV-a. De Animal. Incessu, c. 9. De General. Animal. 1. 3. c. 11.
7 Mark, ix. 44. 46. 48.
8 2xcXr,xocptoTOf. Acts, xii. 23.
£ 2
52 DIEECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
probably meant the same thing. The proper appellation of this genus of
diseases would be Scolechiash.'^
This dissertation may perhaps appear to you rather prolix and tedious ;
yet to settle the meaning of terms is of the first importance. To inquire
what ancient writers intended by the words which they employ, and
whether such as have been usually regarded as synonymous are really so,
raav often furnish us with a clue to some useful or interesting truth ; and
not seldom enable us to rescue their reputation from much of the censure
which has been inconsiderately cast upon it. Because they did not know
everything, or so much as we do, we are too apt to think that they knew
nothing. "That they fell into very considerable errors, especially in subjects
connected with Natural History, cannot be denied ; but then it ought to
be considered that they possessed scarcely any of those advantages by
which we are enabled to penetrate into nature's secrets. The want of the
microscope alone was an effectual bar to their progress in this branch of
science. Yet, in some instances, when they took a general view of a sub-
ject, they appear to have had very correct ideas. This observation parti-
cularly applies to the philosopher of Stagira, whose mighty mind and
lyncean eye, in spite of those mists of prejudice and fable that enveloped
the age in which he lived, enabled him in part to pierce through the gloom,
and comprehend and behold the fair outline that gives^ symmetry, grace,
and beauty to the whole of nature's form, though he mistook, or was not
able to trace out, her less prominent features and minor lineaments.
It is now time to return from this long digression, which, however, is
closely connected with the subject of this letter, to the point from vvhich
I deviated. Taking my leave of the disgusting animals which gave rise to
it, I proceed to call your attention to another of our pigmy tormentors
(Pulex irritans), whicli, in the opinion of some, seems to have been re-
garded as an agreeable rather than a repulsive object. " Dear miss," said
a lively old lady to a friend of mine (who had the misfortune to be con-
fined to her bed by a broken limb, and was complaining that the fleas tor-
mented her), don't you like Jleas? Well, I think they are the prettiest
little merry things in the world. — I never saw a dull flea in all my life,"
The celebrated Willughby kept a favourite flea, which used at stated times
to be admitted to suck the palm of his hand ; and enjoyed this privilege
for three months, when the cold killed it. And Dr. Townson, from the
encomium which he bestows upon these vigilant little vaulters, as sup-
plyincT the place of an alarum and driving us from the bed of sloth, should
seem'to have regarded them with feelings much more complacent than
those of Dr. Clarke and his friends, when their hopes of passing " one
night free from the attacks of vermin" were changed into despair by the
information of the laughing Sheik, that " the king of the fleas held his
court at Tiberias : " or than those of MM. Lewis and Clarke, who found
them more tormenting than all the other plagues of the Missouri country,
where they sometimes compel even the natives to shift their quarters. If
you unhappily view them even in this unfavourable light, and have found
ordinary methods unavaihng for ridding yourself of these unbidden guests,
I can furnish you with a probatum est recipe, which the first-mentioned
traveller tells us the Hungarian shepherds (who seem to have been
1 See Memoir by the Eev. F. W. Hope, containing a great number of cases of
Scolechiasis, in the 2d volume of the Trans, of the Ent. Soc. of London.
DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 53
stupidly insensible to their value as alarums) find completely effectual to
put to flight these insects and their neighbours the lice. This is not, as
you may be tempted to think, by a remarkable attention to cleanliness. —
Quite the reverse. — They grease their linen with hoii's lard, and thus
render tlicmselves disgusting even to fleas I If this does not satisfy, I
have another recipe in store for you. You may shoot at them with a
cannon, as report says did Christina queen of Sweden, whose piece of
artillery, of Lilliputian calibre, which was employed in this warfare, is still
exhibited in the arsenal of Stockholm.' But, seriously, if you wish for an
effectual remetly, that prescribed by old Tusser, in the following lines, will
answer your purpose: —
" While wormwood hath seed, get a handfull or twaine,
To save against March, to make flea to refraine :
Where chamber is sweeped, and wormwood is strown,
No flea for his life dare abide to be known."
To this family belongs an insect, abundant in the West Indies and Soutn
America, the attacks of which are infinitely more serious than those of the
common flea. You will readily conjecture that I am speaking of the
celebrated Chigoe or J/ggrrx, called also Nigiia, Tiiiigiia, and Pirpic^ (Pulex
[Sarcopsj//ia] pciictruiis), one of the direst personal pests with which the sins
of man have been visited. AH disputes concerning the genus of this insect
would have been settled long before Swartz's time (who first gave a satis-
factory description and figure of it, proving it to be a Pnlex, as has been
observed above), had success attended the patriotic attempt of the Ca-
puchin friar recorded by Walton in his History of St. Domingo, who
brought away with him from that island a colony of these animals, which
he permitted to establish themselves in one of his feet ; but unfortunately
for himself, and for science, the foot intrusted with the precious deposit
mortified, was obliged to be amputated, and with all its inhabitants com-
mitted to the waves. According to UUoa, and his opinion is confirmed by
Jussieu, there are two South American species of this mischievous insect.
It is described as generally attacking the feet and legs^, getting, without
being felt, between the skin and the flesh, usually under the nails of the
toes, where it nidificates and lays its eggs, which previously swell out the
abdomen to a great size; and it timely attention be not paid to it, which,
as it occasions no other uneasiness than itching (the sensation at first, I am
assured, is rather pleasing than otherwise), is sometimes neglected, it mul-
tiplies to such a degree, as to be attended by the most fatal consequences,
often, as in the above instance, rendering amputation necessary, and some-
times causing death. ^ The female slaves in the West Indies are frequently
employed to extract these pests, which they do with uncommon dexterity.
Yarico, so celebrated in prose and verse, performed this kind office for
1 Linn. Lack. Lapp. ii. 32. note *.
2 Latreille after De Geer (vii. 153.) supposes the Pique and Nigua of Ulloa to be
synonyniious with Ixodes amerlcanus, L. Hist. Nat. vii. 364. ; but it is evident from
Ulloa s descriptions {Voy.i. 63. Engl. Trans.) that they are synonymous with the
Chigoe, or Pulex penetrans.
5 Captain Hancock, late commander of His Majesty's ship the Foudroyant, to
whose friendly exertions I am indebted for one of the finest collections of Brazil in-
sects ever brought to England, informs me that they will attack any exposed part
of the body. He had them once in his hand.
* Piso and Margr. Ind. 289.
E 3
54 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
honest Ligon, who says, in his History of Barbadoes, " I have had ten
(C/iegoea) taken out of my feet in a morning, by the most unfortunate
Yarico, an Indian woman." ^ Humboldt observes, "that the whites born
in the torrid zone walk barefoot with impunity in the same apartment
where a European recently landed is exposed to the attack of this animal.
The Nigita therefore distinguishes what the most delicate chemical analysis
could not distinguish, the cellular membrane and blood of a European
from those of a creole white." -
You have already, perhaps, been satiated with the account before given
of our enemies of the Acartts tribe ; there are a iew, however, which
I could not with propriety introduce there, as they do not take up
their abode and breed in us, which nevertheless annoy us considerably.
One of these is a hexapod so minute, that, were it not for the uncommon
brilliancy of its colour, which is the most vivid crimson that can be con-
ceived, it would be quite invisible. It is known by the name of the
harvest-bug {Leptus aidumnalis), and is so called, I imagine, from its attack-
ing the legs of the labourers employed in the harvest, in the flesh of which
it buries itself at the root of the hairs, producing intolerable itching,
attended by inflammation and considerable tumours, and sometimes even
occasioning fevers.^ — A similar insect is found in Brazil, abounding in the
rainy season, particularly during the gleams of sunshine, or fine days that
intervene ; as small as a point, and moving very fast. These animals get
upon the linen and cover it in a moment ; afterwards they insinuate them-
selves into the skin and occasion a most intolerable itching. They are with
difficulty extracted, and leave behind them large livid tumours,which sub-
side in a day or two. An insect very tormenting to the wood- cutters and
the settlers on the Mosquito shore and the bay of Honduras, and called by
them the doctor, is thought to be synonymous with this.* — More serious
consequences have been known to follow the bite of another mite related
to the above, if not the same species, common in Martinique, and called
there the Bete rouge. When our soldiers in camp were attacked by this
animal, dangerous ulcers succeeded the symptoms just mentioned, which,
in several cases, became so bad, that the limb affected was obliged to be
taken ofF.^
I was once collecting insects in Norwood, near London, when my hands
were covered by a number of small hungry ticks, which were so greedy
after blood, that they penetrated deep into my flesh, giving me no little
pain ; and it was not without difficulty that I extracted them. I suspect
that this was the dog-tick (Ixodes Ricinus) v/hich is often found on plants;
but I am not certain, as I neglected to examine it, my attention at that
time being almost wholly given to Coleoptera. Lyonnet seems to have been
attacked, in one of his entomological excursions, by the same or a similar
insect, which he broke, so firmly had it fixed itself, in endeavouring to
1 P. 65.
2 Personal Narrative, E. T. v. 101. See Mr. Westwood's description of this in-
sect (which, as before observed, he has separated as a distinct genus under the name
of Sarcopsylla penetrans) in Trans. Ent. Sac. Loud. ii. 199. ; and also Mr. Sell's ob-
servations on its economy and habits, ii. 196.
5 Natural Miscell. ii. t. 42.
4 Lindley in the Royal 3Iilitary Chronicle for March 1815, p. 459.
^ I owe this information to the late Kobinson Kittoe, Esq., formerly Clerk of the
Cheque in the King's Yard, Woolwich.
DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 5.5
extract it ; and lie was obliged to lay open the place, lest an abscess should
be formed.^ Ikit the worst of all the tick tribe is the American {Ixodes
nmcricanns) described by Professor Kalm. This insect, which is related
to the preceding, is found in the woods of North America, and is equally
an enemy to man and beast. They are there so infinitely numerous, that
if you sit down upon the ground, or upon the trunk of a tree, or walk with
nakeil feet or legs, they will cover you, and, plunging their serrated rostrum
into the bare places of the body, begin to suck your blood, going deeper
and deeper till they are half buried in the flesh. Though at first they occa-
sion no uneasiness, when they have thus made good their settlement, they
produce an intolerable itching, followed by acute pain and large tumours. It
is now extremely difficult to extract them, the animal rather suffering itself
to be pulled to pieces than let go its hold ; so that the rostrum and head,
being often left in the wound, produce an inflammation and suppuration
which render it deep and dangerous. These ticks are at first very small,
sometimes scarcely visible, but by suction will swell themselves out till
they are as big as the end of one's finger, when they often fall to the
ground of themselves.- The serrated haustelliim of the ticks, which, like
the barbed sting of a bee, cannot be extracted unless the animal co-operates,
is well worth your inspection ; and the species which infests our dogs is
so common tiiat you will have no difficulty in procuring one for ex-
amination.^
I have now introduced you to the principal insects of the Aptera order
of Linne, which, in spite of all his care and all his power, assail the lord
of the creation, and make him their food. You will here, however,
perhaps accuse me of omitting one very prominent annoyer of our comfort
and repose, which you think belongs to this tribe — the bed-bug [Ciniex lee-
tularius). When you are a more practised entomologist, you will see
clearly that this, though it has no wings, appertains to another order :
nevertheless it may be introduced here without impropriety. Though now
too common and well known in this country, it was formerly a rare insect.
Had it not, two noble ladies, mentioned by Mouflet, would scarcely have
been thrown into such an alarm by the appearance of bug-bites upon them;
■which, until their fears were dispelled by their physician, who happened
also to be a naturalist, they considered as nothing less than symptoms of
the plague. Being shown the living cause of their fright, their fears gave
place to mirth and laughter. ■* Commerce, with many good things, has also
introduced amongst us many great evils, of which noxious insects form no
small part ; and one of her worst presents were doubtless the disgusting
animals now before us. They seem, indeed, as the above fact proves, to
have been productive of greater alarm at first than mischief, at least if we
may judge from the change of name which took place upon their becoming
common. Their original English name was Chinche or Wall-louse ^ ; and
the term Bug, which is a Celtic word, signifying a ghost or goblin, was
applied to them after Ray's time, most probably because they were con-
1 Lesser L. ii. 222. note *. 2 j)q Geer, vii. 154. 160.
3 The renowned venomous bug of Persia (Malleh de Mianeh) has been ascertained
to be a species ■of Argas by Count Fischer de Waldheim.
■* Theatr. Ins. 270. This happened in 1503 ; which circumstanca refutes South-
all's opinion that bugs were not known in England before 1G70.
* Kai, Hist. Ins. 7. Mouffet, 269. They were called also punez, from the French
punaise.
£ 4
56 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
siderecl as "terrors by night." ^ But however horrible bugs may have been
in the estimation of some, or nauseating in that of others, many of the
good people of London seem to regard them with the greatest apathy, and
take very little pains to get rid of them ; not generally, however, it is to be
hoped, to such an extent as the predecessor of a correspondent in
Nicholson's Journal, who found his house so dreadfully infested by them,
that it resembled the Banian hospital at Surat^, all his endeavours to
destroy them being at first in vain. And no wonder ; for, as he learned
from a neighbour, his predecessor would never suffer them to be disturbed
or his bedsteads to be removed, till, in the end, they swarmed to an
incredible degree, crawling up even the walls of his drawing-room ; and
after his death millions were found in his bed and chamber furniture. '
The winged insects of the order to which the bed-bug belongs, often
inflict very painful wounds. — I was once attacked by a small species, near
Cimex Nemorum L. {Hylophila K,), which put me nearly to as much torture
as the sting of a wasp. The water boatman {Notonecta glauca), an insect
related to the Cimicidce, which always swims upon its back, made me suffer
still more severely, as if I had been burned, by the insertion of its rostrum ;
but the wound was not followed by any inflammation ; and long before me
Willughby had made the same discovery and observation. * St. Pierre, in
his Voyage to Mauritius^ mentions a species of bug found in that island,
the bite of which is more venomous than the sting of a scorpion, and is
succeeded by a tumour as big as the egg of a pigeon, which continues for four
or five da^'S. ^ You are well acquainted with the history and properties of
the Raia Torpedo and Gymnotus electricus ; but I dare aver, have no idea
that any insect possesses their extraordinary powers. — Yet I can assure
you, upon good authority, that Reduvius serratus, commonly known in the
West Indies by the name of the ivheel-biig, can, like them, communicate an
electric shock to the person whose flesh it touches. The late Major-
general Davis, of the Royal Artillery, well known as a most accurate
observer of nature, and an indefatigable collector of her treasures, as well
as a most admirable painter of them, once informed me, that when abroad,
having taken up this animal and placed it upon his hand, it gave him a con-
siderable shock, as if from an electric jar, with its legs, which he felt as
1 Hence our English word Bug-hear. In Matthews's Bible, Ps. sci. 5. is ren-
dered, " Thou shalt not nede to be afraid of any bugs bj' night." The word in this
sense often occurs in Shakspeare, Winter^s Tale, act iii. so. 2, 3. Hen. VI. act v.
sc. 2. Hamlet, act v. sc. 2. See Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, i. 329. in quot-
ing which work it may be observed that the author was a zealous entomologist.
{Life in Annual Obituary.)
2 The Banian hospital at Surat is a most remarkable institution. At my visit,
the hospital contained horses, mules, oxen, sheep, goats, monkeys, poultry, pigeons,
and a variety of birds. The most extraordinary ward was that appropriated to rats
and mice, bugs, and other noxious vermin. The overseers of the hospital frequently
hire beggars from the streets, for a stipulated sum, to pass a night amongst the fleas,
lice, and bugs, on the express condition of suffering them to enjoy their feast without
molestation. Forbes's Oriental Memoirs.
5 Nicholson's Journal, xvii. 40.
* Proboscis in cutem intmsa acerrimum dolorera excitat, qui tamen brevi cessat.
Rai, Hist. Lis. 58.
5 The Benchucha, or great black bug of the Pampas of South America, a species of
Reduvius, is a far more obnoxious species than our common bed-bug. See C. Dar-
win's Personal Narrative, iii. 403.
DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 57
high as his shoulders ; and, dropping the creature, he observed six marks
upon his hand where the six feet had stood.'
You may now j)ossibly think that I have nearly gone through the cata-
logue of our pcr.soiial assailants of the insect tribes. If such, however, is
your expectation, I fear you w\ll be disappointed, since I have many more,
and some tremendous ones, to enumerate : but as a small compensation
for such a detail of evils and injuries to which our species is exposed from
foes seemingly so insignificant, and of acts of rebellion of the vilest and
most despised of our subjects against our boasted supremacy, the objects
to which 1 shall next call your attention are not, like most of our apterous
enemies, calculated to excite disgust and nausea when we see them or
speak of them ; nor do they usually steal upon us during the silent hours
of repose (though I must except here the gnat or mosquito), but are many
of them very beautiful, and boldly make their attack upon us in open day,
when we are best able to defend ourselves. Borne on rapid wings,
wherever they find us, they endeavour to lay us under contribution, and
the tribute they exact is our blood. Wonderful and various are the
weapons that enable them to enforce their demand. What would you
think of any large animal that shouKl come to attack you with a tremen-
dous apparatus of knives and lancets issuing from its mouth ? Yet such
are the instruments by means of which the fire-eyed and blooil-thirsty
horse-riy {Tnhanus L.) makes an incision in your flesh ; and then, forming a
siphon of them, often carries otf many drops of your blood." The pain
they inflict, when they open a vein, is usually very acute. A fly of this
kind not only occasioned Mr. Sheppard considerable pain by its bite,
but also produced swelling and blackness round one eye ; and the flesh of
his cheek and chin was so enlarged from it as to hang down. And
Mr. W. y. MacLeay thus describes to me the annoyance he suffered from
one of them. " I went down the other day to the country, and was fairly
driven out of it by the Hicmatopota pluvialk, which attacked me with such
fury, that although I did not at last venture beyond the door without a
veil, my face and hands were swelled to that degree as to be scarcely yet
recovered from the effects of their venom. I was obliged, on my return to
town, to stay two days at home. Whenever this insect bites me it has
this effect, and I have never been able to discover any remedy for the
torture it puts me to." In this country, however, the attacks of these
flies are usually not frequent enough to make them more than a minor
" misery of human life ; " but the burning-fly (briilot) or sand-fly of Ame-
rica* and the West Indies, which seem to be the same insect, causes a
much more intolerable anguish, which has been compared to what a red-
hot needle or a spark of fire would occasion us to endure. Lambert, in
1 Two similar instances of effects on the human system, resembling electric
shocks, produced by insects, have been communicated to the Entomological Society
by Mr. Yarrell ; one, mentioned in a letter from Lady de Grey, of Groby, in which
the shock was caused, by a beetle, one of the common Elaferida, and extended from
the hand to the elbow on suddenly touching the insect; the other, caused by a large
hairy lepidopterous caterpillar, picked up in South America by Capt. lilakeney,
K.N., who felt on touching it a sensation, extending up his arm, similar to an elec-
tric shock, of such force that he lost the use of the arm for a time, and his life was
even considered in danger by his medical attendant. {Trans. Ent. Soc. Loud. iii.
proc. viii. xxiii.)
2 One took eight drops from Reaumur, iv. 230.
5 Bartram'8 Travels, 383.
58 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
his Travels through Canada, &c. says, " They are so very small as to be
hardly perceptible in their attacks ; and your forehead will be streaming
with blood before you are sensible of being amongst them ^ ; " — and Cap-
tain Back, in his Journeij to the Arctic Sea (p. 1 17.), speaking of the
misery occasioned by these little tormentors, the brulots (including also
niosquitos), observes, " There is certainly no form of wretchedness
among those to which the chequered life of a Voi/ageur is exposed, at once
so great and so humiliating, as the torture inflicted by these puny blood-
suckers. To avoid them is impossible. At last, subdued by pain and
fatigue, he throws himself in despair with his face to the earth, and half
suffocated in his blanket, groans away a kvr hours of sleepless rest." We
have one species {Stomoxj/s calcitrans), alluded to in a former letter, as so
nearly resembling the common house-fly, which, though its oral instru-
ments are to appearance not near so tremendous, is a much greater tor-
ment than the horse-fly. This little pest, I speak feelingly, incessantly
interrupts our studies and comfort in showery weather, making us even
stamp like the cattle by its attacks on our legs ; and, if we drive it away
ever so often, returning again and again to the charge. In Canada they
are infinitely worse. " I have sat down to write," says Lambert (who,
though he calls it the house-fly, is evidently speaking of the Stomoxys),
" and have been obliged to throw away my pen in consequence of their
irritating bite, which has obliged me every moment to raise my hand to
my eyes, nose, mouth, and ears in constant succession. When I could no
longer write, I began to read, and was always obliged to keep one hand
constantly on the move towards my head. Sometimes in the course of a
few minutes I would take half a dozen of my tormentors from my lips,
between which I caught them just as they perched." -
The swallow-fly {Craterina Hirimdinis^), whose natural food is the bird
after which it is named, has been known to make its repast on the human
species. One found its way into a bed of the Rev. R. Sheppard, where it
first, for several nights, sorely annoyed a friend of his, and afterwards
himself, without their suspecting the culprit. After a close search, how-
ever, it was discovered in the form of this fly, which, forsaking the nest of
the swallow, had by some chance taken its station between the sheets,
and thus glutted itself with the blood of man. — In traveUing between
Edam and Purmerend in North Holland (July 21. 1815), in an open
vehicle, I was much teased by another bird-fly (^Ornithomyia avicidaria)
(two individuals of which I caught) alighting on my head, and inserting its
rostrum into my flesh. — Mr. Sheppard remarks, as a reason for this dere-
liction of their appropriate food, that no sooner does life depart from the
bird that these flies infest than they immediately desert it and take flight,
alighting upon the first living creature that they meet with ; which if it be
not a bird they soon quit, but, as it should seem from the above facts,
not before they have made a trial how it will suit them as food.
But of all the insect-tormentors of man, none are so loudly and uni-
versally complained of as the species of the genus Culex L., whether known
by the name of gnats or mosquitos.'^ P»iny» after Aristotle, distinguishes
1 i. 127. The West India sand-fly was noticed by the late Kobinson Kittoe, Esq.,
who however did not recollect their fetching blood.
2 Travels, &c. i. 126. 5 See Curtis's Brit. Ent t. 122.
■* It has been generally supposed by naturalists, that the Mosquitos of America
belong to the Linnean genus Cidex ; but the celebrated traveller Humboldt asserts
DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 59
well between Hi/menoptera and Diptcra, when lie says tiie former have
their sting in the tail, and the latter in the moulli ; and that to the one
this weapon is given as the instrument of vengeance, and to the other of
avidity.' But the instriuneiU of avidity in the genus of which I am
speaking, is even more terrible tlian that of vengeance in most insects that
are armed with it : like the latter also, as appears from the consequent
inflanmiation and tumour, it instils into its wound a poison ; the |)rincipal
use of which, however, is to render the hlood more fluid, and fitter for
suction. This weapon, which is more complex than the sting of hymeno-
pterous insects, consistmg of five pieces hesides the exterior sheath, some
of which seem simply lancets, while others are liarhed like the spicula of
a hee's sting, is at once calculated for piercing the flesh and forming a
siphon adapted to imbihe the blood.'- There are several species of this
genus whose bite is severe, but none is to be compared to the common
gnat {Cnlcx pipicus L.), if, as has been generally affirmed, it be synonymous
with the mosquito (though, in all probability, several species are con-
founded under both names) ; and to this, the most insatiable of blood-
suckers, I shall principally direct your attention.*
In this country they are .justly regarded as no trifling evil; for they
follow us to all our haunts, intrude into our most secret retirements, assail
us in the city and in the country, in our houses and in our fields, in the
sun and in the shade : nay they pursue us to our pillows, and either keep
us awake by the ceaseless hum of their ra[)id wings (which, according to
the Baron C. de Latour, are vibrated .3000 times per minute *), and their
incessant endeavours to fix themselves upon our face, or some uncovered
part of our body ; or if in spite of them we fall asleep, awaken us by the acute
pain which attends the insertion of their oral stings ; attacking with most
aviility tlie softer sex, and trying their temper by disfiguring their beauty.
But although with us they are usually rather teasing than injurious, yet
upon some occasions they have approached nearer to the character of a
plague, and emulated with success the mosquitos of other climates. Thus,
we are told that in the year 1736 they were so numerous, that vast
columns of them were seen to rise in the air from Salisbury cathedral, which
at a distance resembled columns of smoke, and occasioned many people to
that the term Mosquito, signifying a little fly is applied there to a Simulium Latr.
(^Simulia Meig.), and that the (7M/;'ces, whieh are equally nnnierous and annoying, are
called Zancudoes, which means hnci leqs. The former, he says, are what the French
call Moustiquc!:, and the latter Marintionins. {Personal Narrative, E. T. v. 93.) Hum-
boldt's remark, however, refers onh' to South America; Mr. West wood informing us
that Mosquito is certainly applied to a species of Culex in the United States, the in-
habitants giving the name of lAack-fly to a small Simulium. See " An Introduction
to the Modern Classification of Insects, by J. O. Westwood, F.L.S." 2 vols. Lond.
1830 — 18-11. (ii. 510.), a work invaluable to the entomologist both for its systematic
details and vast mass of original and collected facts relative to the affinities, habits,
and economv of insects.
1 Plin. liist. Nat. 1. xi. c. 28. Aristot. Hist. Animal. 1. i. c. 5.
- Pliny was aware of this double office of the proboscis of a gnat, and has well
described it. " Telum vero perfodiendo tergori quo spiculavit ingenio.* Atque ut
in capaci, cum cemi non possit exilitas, ita reciprooa geminavit arte, wifodiendo acu-
minatum YiariiQT sorhendoque, fistulosum esset." Hist. Nat. 1. xi. c. 2.
^ Humboldt has described several South American species. Personal Narrative,
V. 97. note *. Engl. Tr.
* Westwood, Mod. Class, of Ins. ii. 509.
66 DIRECT ^JURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
think that the cathedral was on fire. A similar occurrence, in like manner
givinn; rise to an alarm of the church being on fire, took place in July 1812
at Sagan in Silesia.^ In the following year at Norwich, in May, at about
six o'clock in the evening, the inhabitants of that city were alarmed by the
appearance of smoke issuing from the upper window of the spire of the
cathedral, for which at the time no satisfactory account could be given, but
which was most probably produced by the same cause. And in the year
176fi, in the month of August, they appeared in such incredible numbers
at Oxford as to resemble a black cloud, darkening the air, and almost
totally intercepting the beams of the sun. One day, a little before sunset,
six columns of them were observed to ascend from the boughs of an apple-
tree, some in a perpendicular and others in an oblique direction, to the
height of fifty or sixty feet. Their bite was so envenomed, that it was
attended by violent and alarming inflammation; and one when killed usually
contained as much blood as would cover three or four square inches of
wall.- Our great poet Spenser seems to have witnessed a similar appear-
ance of them, which furnished him with the following beautiful simile : —
" As v/hen a STvanne of giiate .it eventide
Out of the fennes of Allan doe arise.
Their murmuring small trumpets sowndenwide,
Whiles in the air their clust'ring army tiies.
That as a cloud doth seem to dim the skies ;
Ne man nor beast may rest or take repast
For their sharp wounds and noyous injuries.
Till the fierce northern wind with blust'ring blast
Doth blow them quite away, and in the ocean cast."
In Marshland in Norfolk, as I learn from a lady who had an opportunity
of personal inspection, the inhabitants are so annoyed by the gnats, that
the better sort of them, as in many hot climates, have recourse to a gauze
covering for their beds, to keep them off during the night. Whether this
practice obtains in other fen districts I do not know. ^
But these evils are of small account compared with what other countries,
especially when we approach the poles or the line, are destined to suffer
from them : for there they interfere so much with ease and comfort, as to
become one of the worst of pests and a real misery of human life. We
may be disposed to smile perhaps at the story Mr. Weld relates from
General Washington, that in one place the mosquitos were so powerful as
to pierce through his boots "* (probably they crept within the boots) : but
in various regions scarcely any thing less impenetrable than leather can
withstand their insinuating weapons and unwearied attacks. One would at
first imagine that regions where the polar winter extends its icy reign
would not be much annoyed by insects : but however probable the suppo-
sition, it is the reverse of fact, for nowhere are gnats more numerous.
These animals, as well as numbers of the TipularkB of Latreille, seem en-
1 Germar's Magazin de Erdomologie, i. 137.
2 Pli'dos. Trans. 1767, 111. 113. I once witnessed a similar appearance at Maid-
stone in Kent.
3 A small British species of Ceratopogon (one of the midge familj' of TipuUdai) is
occasionalh' very troublesome by settling upon the uncovered parts of the body and
sucking the blood.
* Weld's Travels, 8vo. edit. 205. Yet Moutfet affirms the same : " Morsu crudeles
et venenati, triplices caligas, imo ocreas, item perforantes." 81.
DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 61
dowed with the privilege of resisting any degree of cold, and of hearing any
degree of heat. In Liipland iheir numbers are so prodigious as to be com-
pared to a flight of snow when the flakes fall thickest, or to the dust of the
earth. The natives cannot take a mouthful of fooil, or lie ilown to sleej)
in their cabins, unless they be fumigated almost to suflTocation. In the air
you cannot draw your breath without havhig your mouth and nostrils filleil
with them; and unguents of tar, fish-grease, or cream, or nets steeped in
fetid bircii-oil, are scarcely sufficient to protect even the case-hardened
cuticle of the Laplander from their bite.' In certain districts of France,
the accurate Reaumur informs us that he has seen people whose arms and
legs have become quite monstrous from wounds inflicted by gnats ; and in
some cases in such a state as to render it doubtful whether amputation
would not be necessary." In the ncigiibourhooil of the Crimea the Russian
soldiers are obliged to sleep in sacks to defend themselves from the
niosquitos ; and even this is not a sufficient security, for several of them
die in consequence of mortification produced by the bites of these furious
blood-suckers. This fact is related by Dr. Clarke, and to its probability
his own painful experience enabled him to speak. He informs us that the
bodies of himself and his companions, in spite of gloves, clothes, and
hauilkerchiefs, were rendered one entire wound, and the consequent
excessive irritation and swelling excited a considerable degree of fever.
In a most sultry night, when not a breath of air was stirring, exhausted by
fatigue, pain, and heat, he sought shelter in his carriage ; and though
almost suflbcated, could not venture to open a window for fear of the
niosquitos. Swarms nevertheless found their way into his hiding-place ;
and, in spite of the handkerchiefs with which he had bound up his head,
filled his mouth, nostrils, and ears. In the midst of his torment he suc-
ceeded in lighting a lamp, which was extinguished in a moment by such a
prodigious number of these insects, that their carcases actually filled the
glass chimney, and formed a large conical heap over the burner. The noise
they make in flying cannot be conceived by persons who have only heard
gnats in England. It is to all that hear it a most fearful sound. ^ Travel-
lers and mariners who have visited warmer climates give a similar account
of the torments there inflicted by these little demons. One traveller in
Africa complains that after a fifty miles journey they would not suffer him
to rest, and that his face and hands appeared, from their bites, as if he
was infected with the small-pox in its worst stage.^ In the East, at Ba-
tavia. Dr. Arnold, a most attentive and accurate observer, relates that their
bite is the most venomous he ever felt, occasioning a most intolerable
itching, which lasts several days. The sight or sound of a single one either
[irevented him from going to bed for a whole night, or obliged him to rise
many times. This species, which I have examined, is distinct from the
common gnat, and appears to be nondescript. It approaches nearest to
C. anntilatus, but the wings are black and not spotted. And Captain
Stedman in America, as a proof of the dreadful state to which he and his
soldiers were reduced by them, mentions that they were forced to sleep
with their heads thrust into holes made in the earth with their bayonets,
and their necks wrapped round with their hammocks. *
'^ Acerbi's Traveh, ii. 5. SI, 35. 51. Linn. Flor. Lapp. 380, 381. Lack. Lapp. ii.
108. De Geer, vi. 303. 304. 2 Eeaum. iv. .573.
' Dr. Clarke's Traveh, i. 388. ■* .Jackson's 3Iaroccn, 57,
5 Travels, ii. 93.. Mr. W. S. MacLeay, in a letter I received from him, ob-
62 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
From Humboldt also we learn that " between the little harbour of
Higuerote and the mouth of the Rio Unare the wretched inhabitants are
accustomed to stretch themselves on the ground, and pass the night buried
in the sand three or four inches deep, leaving out the head only, which they
cover with a handkerchief." This illustrious traveller has given an
account in detail of these insect plagues, by which it appears that amongst
them there are diurnal, crepuscular, and nocturnal species, or genera : the
2Ios(]idios or Sinni/ia flying in the day ; the Temporaneros, probably a kind
of Culex, flying during twilight ; and the Zancudos or Cidices in the night.
So that there is no rest for the inhabitants from their torment day or night,
except for a short interval between the retreat of one species and the attack
of another. We learn from this author that the sting or bite of the
Simul'mm is as bad as that of the Stomoxi/s before noticed,^
The Rhagio Columbaschensis of Fabricius, a native of Banat and the
adjacent parts of the banks of the Danube, is a species of Siniulium, and
one of the most obnoxious of all the insects which attack man and do-
mestic animals. (See Kollar's work on Obnoxious Insects; a translation
of part of which, by the Misses Loudon, has recently been published.
The work of Pohl and Kollar on the obnoxious insects of Brazil also
contains many notices of their attacks upon man.)
It is not therefore incredible that Sapor, king of Persia, as is related,
should have been compelled to raise the siege of Nisibis by a plague of
gnats, which, attacking his elephants and beasts of burthen, so caused the
rout of his army, whatever vve may think of the miracle to which it was
attributed" ; nor that the inhabitants of various cities, as Mouffet has col-
lected from different authors ^ should, by an extraoniinary multiplication
of this plague, have been compelled to desert them ; or that by their
power to do mischief, like other conquerors who have been the torment of
the human race, they should have attained to fame, and have given their
name to bays, towns, and even to considei'able territories.*
served, speaking of his residence at the Havana. " The disagreeables are ants,
scorpions, m3gales, and mosquitos. The latter were quite a pest on my first
arrival within the tropics ; but now I mind them about as much as I did gnats in
England."
' Humboldt's Personal Narrative, E. T. v. 87. Most writers bj' the term mos-
quitos mean gnats; and for them it is chiefly employed, but may be regarded as
including both plagues.
2 Theodorit. Hist. Eccl. 1. ii. c. 30.
3 Mouffet, 85. Amoreux, 119.
4 Viz. Mosquito Bay in St. Christopher's; Mosquitos, a town in the Island of
Cuba ; and the Mosquito country in Xorth America. Though in many cases it may
be impossible to prevent the attacks of gnats, it is certain that a little care would
often secure the inmates of houses, distant from stagnant Avaters, from these pests,
for which they have solely to thank their open water-tubs or cisterns in their gar-
dens, in which they are constantly breeding. Dr. Franklin, whose admirable habit
of minute observation embraced all subjects, long since pointed this out, and I myself
found that the gnats which so annoyed us in the house we occupied at Pisa late in the
autumn of 1830, as to require gauze inosquito curtains to all the beds, though it was
far distant from the river or any pond, all proceeded from an open ornamental stone
cistern in the garden, constantly left half- full of water ; and I am persuaded that
to a similar cause may be chiefly attributed the gnats so often found in continental
towns not situated near to canals or stagnant pools. The remedy is equalh' ob\ious and
easy. Either open water-tubs and cisterns should be proscribed, or a few small fish
kept in them to destroy the larvie of the gnats as fast as they breed. Trees being
DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. G3
And now, which seems to you the greatest terror, that tlic forest should
resound with the roar of the lion or the tij,'er, or with the hum of the
gnat y Which evil is most to be deprecated, the neighbourhood of the^e
ferocious animals, terrible as the}' are for their cruelty and strength, or to
live amidst the polar or tropical myriads of mosquitos, and be subject to
the tortiue of tlieir incessant attacks? When \ou consider that from the
one, prudence and courage may secure or defcntl us without any material
sacrifice of our daily comforts ; while to be at rest from the other, we
must either render ourselves disgusting by filthy unguents, or be suffocated
1)V fumigations, or be content to be bonml, head, hand, ami foot, shut out
from the respiration of the connnon air, and even thus scarcely escape
from their annoyance; you will feel convinced that the former is the more
tolerable evil of the two, and be inclined to think that those cities, from
which the lions were driven away by the more powerful gnats, were no
great gainers by the exchange.' With what grateful hearts ought the pri-
vileged iniiabitants of these happy islands to acknowledge and glorify the
goodness of that kind Providence which has distinguished us from the
less favoureil nations of the globe, by what may be deemed an immunity
from this tormenting pest ! for the inroads which they make on our
comfort, when contrasted with what so many other people of every climate
suffer from them, are mere nothing. When we behold on one side of us
the ravages of the wide-wasting sword, on another those of infectious
disease or pestilence, on a third famine destroying its myriads, and on a
fourth life rendered uncomfortable by the terror of " noisome beasts," and
the attack of noxious insects; and when we look at home and see every
one eating his bread in peace, protected in his enjoyments by equal laws
without fearing the sword of the oppressor ; not scourged by pestilence or
famine, exposed to the attack of no ferocious animal, and comparatively
speaking but slightly visited by the annoyance of insect tormentors ; and
especially when we further reflect that it is his mercy and not our merits
which has induced him thus to overwhelm us with blessings, while other
countries have been made to drink deep of the cup of his fury, we shall
see reason for an increased degree of thankfulness and gratitude, and,
instead of repining, be well content with our lot, though our offences
have not wholly been passed over, and we have been " beaten with few
stripes."
Besides the insects that seek to make us their food, there are others
which, although we are apt to regard them with the greatest horror, do
not attack us with this view, but usually to revenge some injury which
they have received, or apprehend from us. Foremost in the list of these
are those with four wings, which, according to the observation of Pliny
before quoted, carry their weapon, an instrument of revenge, in their tad.
generally found to harb.our gnats, are, on this account, banished from the neighbour-
hood of dwelling houses in America and other hot countries, to the great loss of the
occupants in other respects ; but I have been informed by a friend that at Trieste it
has been observed that horse-chestnut trees planted near a house, so far from en-
couraging gnats, drive them awa}', none ever appearing in houses surrounded with
these trees, though abundant where other kinds prevail, a fact which, if confirmed in
other countries, would be well worth acting upon,
1 MoufTet, 85.
64 DIRECT IN^JURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
These all belong to the Linnean order Hymenoptera ; and the tremendous
arms with which they annoy us, are two darts finer than a hair, furnished
oti their outer side at the end with several barbs not visible to the naked
eye, and each moving in the groove of a strong and often curved sheath,
frequently mistaken for the sting, which, when the darts enter the flesh,
usually injects a drop of subtle venom, furnished from a peculiar vessel in
which it is secreted, into the wound, occasioning, especially if the darts be
not extracted, a considerable tumour, accompanied by very acute pain-
Many insects are thus armed and have this power. Twice I have been
stung by an Ichneumon ; first by one with a concealed sting, and after-
wards by another of the family of Pimpla Manifestator, with a very long
exserted one. I had held the insect by its sting, which it withdrew from
between my fingers with surprising force, and then, as if in revenge, stung
rne. Pompilus viaticus, one of the spider- wasps, once, in this way, gave
me acute pain, Mr. W. S. MacLeay states that at the Havana he was
once stung by a gigantic Pompilus (probably P. Heros), from which he
suffered a very short-lived pain, but the wound bled as if punctured by a
pin. The bleeding, he conjectures, carried off the venom. But the insects
which in this respect principally attract our notice by exciting our fears,
are the hive-bee, the wasp, and the hornet. The first of these, the bee,
sometimes manifests an antipathy to particular individuals, whom it attacks
and wounds without provocation ; but the two last, though apparently
the most formidable, are not so ill-tempered as they are conceived to be,
seldom molesting those who do not first interfere with or disturb them.
We learn from Scripture that the hornet (but whether it was the common
species is uncertain) was employed by Providence to drive out the im-
pious inhabitants of Canaan, or subdue them under the hands of the
Israelites.^ — The effect produced by the sting of these animals is different
in different persons. To some they occasion only a very shght incon-
venience or a momentary pain ; others feel the smart of the wounds which
they inflict for several days, and are thrown into fevers by them; and to
some they have even proved fatal. ^ Yet these insects are certainly, in
general, but a trifling evil. They become, however, especially tvasps, a
very serious one to many, from the mere dread of being stung by them,
even though they should not carry their fears to the same length with the
lady mentioned by Dr. Fairfax®, in the Philosophical Transactions, who had
such a horror of them that during the season in which they abound in
houses, she always confined herself to her apartment. An insect of a
tribe never before suspected of being endowed with such a mode of annoy-
ance, one of the order Lepidoptera, found at the Cape of Good Hope, is
said to defend itself when captured by stinging, whence it is there named
the Bee-moth, and it is added that the puncture, which is very painful, is
speedily followed by swelling and inflammation.''
A?its are insects of this order, which, though our indigenous species may
be regarded as harmless, in some countries are gifted with double means
of annoyance, both from their sting and their bite. A green kind in New
South Wales was observed by Sir Joseph Banks to inflict a wound
1 Dent. vii. 20. Josh. xxiv. 12. 2 Amoreux, 242.
3 Philos. Trans, i. 201.
* Oken's Ids, 1831, p. 1917., from a letter received by Dr. Reich, from the Cape of
Good Hope, quoted in JBurmeister's Manual of Ent. p. 381.
DU^ECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 65
scarcely less painful than the sting of a bee.' Another, from the intoler-
able anguish occasioned by its bite, which resembles that produced by a
spark of fire and seems attended by venom, is called the Jire-aiif. Captain
Stedinan relates that this caused a whole company of soldiers to start and
jump about as if scalded with boiling water; and its nests were so
numerous that it was not easy to avoid them.^ We are told of a third
species, which emulates the scor|)ion in the malignity of its sting or bite.-'
Knox, in his account of (Ceylon, mentions a black ant, calleil by the natives
Coddia, which he says "bites desperatclj', as bad as if a man were burnt
by a coal of fire; but they are of a noble nature, and will not begin unless
you disturb them." The reason the Cinghalese assign for the horrible
pain occasioned by their bite is curious, and will serve to amuse you.
" Formerlv these ants w ent to ask a wife of the Xot/a, a venomous and
noble kind of snake ; and because they had such a high sj)irit to dare to
offer to be related to such a generous creature, they had this virtue be-
stowed upon them that they should sting after this manner. And if they
had obtained a wife of the Noya, they should have had the privilege to
sting full as bad as he."* Stcdman's story of a large ant that stripped the
trees of their leaves, to feed, as was supposed, a blind serpent under
ground ^ is somewhat akin to this ; as is also another, related to me by a
friend of mine, of a species of Mantis, now in my cabinet, taken in one of
the Indian Islands, which, according to the received opinion amongst the
natives, was the parent of all their serpents. Whence, unless perhaps
from their noxious qualities, could this idea of a connexion between in-
sects and these reptiles be derived ? But to return from this digression —
Madame Merian's Ant of Visitation {Alta cephahtes) will be considered
in a subsequent letter : but I cannot here omit a circumstance mentioned
by Don Felix de Azara, a Spanish traveller, who confirms her account, —
that these animals are so alarming and tremendous in their attacks, that if
they enter a house in the night, the inhabitants are obliged to rise with all
speed and run off in their shirts.
I must next direct your attention to an insect, which perhaps more than
any other has been in every age an object of terror and abhorrence — I
mean the redoubted scorpion. And though I shall not, with Aristotle, tell
you of Persian kings employing armies for several days in destroying them ;
or, with Pliny, of countries that they have depopulated; yet my account
will not be devoid of that species of interest which the dread of its power
to do us injury imparts to any object. Could you see one of these fero-
cious animals, perhaps a foot in length, a size to which they sometimes
attain, advancing towards you in their usual menacing attitude, with its
claws expanded, and its many-jointed tail turned over its head ; were your
heart ever so stout, I think you would start back and feel a horror come
across you ; and though you knew not the animal, you would conclude
that such an aspect of malignity must be the precursor of malignant effects.
Nor would you be mistaken, as you will presently see. This alarming
animal, though, like hymenopterous insects, it is armed with a sting, is in
norespect related to that order, and forms the only genus, at present
known, of the others that is so armed. Even its sting is totally different
1 Hawkesworth's Cook, iii. 223. 2 Stedman, ii. 94.
' Lingley, iii. 385. first eclit. * Knox's Ceylon, 2-L ^ Stedman, ii. 142.
r
66 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
from that of bees, wasps, and other Hymenoptera, being more analogous to
the venomous tooth of serpents ; it wounds us with no barbed darts con-
cealed in a sheath, but only with a simple incurved macro terminating an
ampullaceous joint. Two orifices, or, according to some, three, are said
to instil the poison, which, we are informed, is sometimes as white as milk.
This venom in our European species is seldom attended, except to minor
animals, by any very serious consequences ; yet when it is communicated
by the scorpion of warmer climates it produces more baneful effects. The
sting of certain kinds common in South America causes fevers, numbness
in various parts of the body, tumours in the tongue, and dimness of sight,
which symptoms last from twenty-four to forty-eight hours. The only
means of saving the lives of our soldiers who were stung by them in Egypt,
was amputation. One species is said to occasion madness ; and the black
scorpion, both of South America and Ceylon, frequently inflicts a mortal
wound.^ No known animal is more cruel and ferocious in its manners ;
they kill and devour their own young without pity as soon as they are
born, and they are equally savage to their fellows when grown up. Terrible
however and revolting as these creatures appear, we are gravely told by
Naude, that there is a species of scorpion in Italy which is domesticated,
and put between the sheets to cool the beds during the heats of summer ! ! °
I must next say something of insects that annoy us solely by their jaw-v.
Of this description is Galeodes araneoides, which is related to the scorpion,
although devoid of a sting. The bite of this animal, which is a native of
the Cape of Good Hope and of Russia ^, is represented to be often fatal
both to man and beast. Another species of Galeodes is described by Pro-
fessor Lichtenstein, which from the trivial name that he has given it
(fatalis), may be supposed to be as venomous as the former.*
The bite of one of the centipedes (Scolopeiidra morsitans) — the under jaws,
or rather arms, of which are armed with a strong claw, furnished like the
sting of the scorpion with an orifice, visible under a common lens, from which
poison issues — is less tremendous than that of the animal last mentioned:
but though not mortal, its wounds are more painful than those produced
by the sting of the scorpion ; and as these animals creep every where, even
into beds, they must be very annoying in warm climates where they abound.
Dr. Martin Lister in his Travels, has given us a figure of an insect related
to this genus, that he saw in Plumier's collection, which appears to have
been eighteen inches in length, and three quarters of an inch in width,
having ninety-five legs on each side, the first eight of which are armed with
double claws, and two inches of the tail being without legs. It may form
a distinct genus, and is probably a native of South America. Yet even
this monstrous insect is nothing to those at Carthagena, mentioned by
Ulloa (if indeed we may credit his account, or if his translator has not mis-
taken his meaning), which sometimes exceeded a yard in length and five
inches in breadth ! The bite of this gigantic serpent-like creature, lie tells
1 DUoa's Voy. i. 61, 62. Dr. Clarke's Travels, i. 486. Amoreux, 197. Mr.
W. S. MacLeay relates to me that soon after his arrival at the Havana he was stung
by an immense scorpion, but was a^jreeahly surprised to find the pain considerably
less than the sting of a wasp, and of incomparably shorter duration.
2 Andrew's A7iecdotes, 427. See on the subject of Scorpions, Amoreux, 41 — 54.
176—205.
3 Fab. Sujy}l 294. 2. * Catal. Ham. 1797, 151—195.
DIRFXT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 67
us, is mortal, as well it may, if a timely remedy be not applied. From its
cylindrical form it should be a Jiifim^
In this catalomie of noxious insects I must not omit those which every-
where force themselves upon our notice, aftd arc viewed with general
disj;ust. I mean the numerous family of Araclinc, the insidious spiders.
Few of these, however, are really personal a.ssailants of man. The
principal is that which has given rise to so nuich discussion, and has
so much employeil the pens of naturalists and physicians — tiie famous
Tamntuln (Li/cosa Tarantula). The eflects ascribed to its wounds, and
their wonderful cure supposetl to be wrought by music and dancing, have
long been celebrated : but after all there seems to have been more of fraud
than of truth in the business; and the whole evil appears to consist in
swelling and iuHainmation. Dr. Clavitio submitted to be bitten by this
animal, and no bad eifects ensued ; and the Count de Borch, a Polish
nobleman, bribed a man to undergo the same experiment, in whom the only
result was a swelling in the hand, attended by intolerable itching. The
fellow's sole remedy was a bottle of wine, which charmed away all his pain
without the aid of pipe and tabor.-
There is, however, a spider (77/cnV//«w l3-^u(fatiim) the bite of which
is said to be very dangerous, and even mortal. Thiebaut de Berneaud, in his
Vo^a^e to Elba ^, affirms that in the Volterrano he knew that several country
people and domestic animals died in consequence of it. And, according to
Mr. Jackson, a spider, called there the Tcndaranian, is found in Marocco,
which has venomous powers equally formidable. The bite of this insect,
which is about the size and colour of a hornet, but rounder, and spins a
web so fine as to be almost invisible, is said to be so poisonous that the
person bitten survives but a few hours. In the cork-forests the .sportsman,
eager in his pursuit of game, frequently carries away on his garments this
fatal insect, which is asserted always to make towards the head before in-
flicting its deadly wound.^
I suspect you will think this list long enough ; and I believe it includes
the most remarkable insects that assail the surface of our bodies, to answer
either the demands of hunger or the stimulus of revenge. There is how-
ever a third class of insect annoyers, as I observed at the beginning of this
letter, which, though they neither make us their food, nor attack us under
the impulse of fear or revenge, incouniiode us extremely in other ways.
These must now be detailed to you.
How extremely unpleasant is the sensation which that very minute fly
(Thrip.1 pht/sapim) excites in sultry weather, merely by creeping over our
skin ! I have sometimes found this almost intolerable. A similar torment
reckoned by Ulloa, a kind of mosquito, infests the inhabitants of Cartha-
gena in South America. They are there called Manias Blancax, and
creeping between the threads of the gauze curtains that keep off the former
pest, though they do not bite, occasion an itching that is dreadfidly tor-
menting.^ But these are nothing compared with the teasing attacks o.
1 Ulloa's Voyage, i. 61. 2 Amoreux, 217. 226. See also C7— 70.
3 p. 31. * Jackson's Marocco, second edit.
* Ulloa, i. 64. Probably the Cafafi, a while fly noticed by Humboldt, is
sjTionymous with this of Ulloa, which could only be prevented from creeping
between the threads of the curtains bv keeping them wet. Personal Narrative^
E. T. v. 107.
F 2
68 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY IXSECTS.
another gnat (^Smulium reptans), which, as Linne informs us, who mis*
named it a Ciilex, is so incredibly numerous in Lapland, as entirely to
cover a man's body, turning a white dress into a black one, occupying
the whole atmosphere, filling the mouth, nostrils, eyes, and ears of tra-
vellers, and thus preventing respiration, and almost choking them. These
little animals, he says, do not bite, but torture incessantly by their titilla-
tion.^ — In New South Wales a small ant was observed by Sir Joseph
Banks, inhabiting the roots of a plant, which when disturbed rushed out
by myriads, and running over the uncovered parts of the body, produced a
sensation of this kind that was worse than pain.
The common house-fly is with us often sufficiently annoying at the
close of summer, so as to have led the celebrated Italian Ugo Foscolo,
when residing here, to call it one of his three " miseries of life." "^ But
we know nothing of it as a tormentor compared with the inhabitants of
southern Europe. — "1 met (says Arthur Young in his interesting Travels
through France), between Pradelles and Thuytz, mulberries and flies at the
same time ; by the term Jlies I mean those myriads of them which form
the most disagreeable circumstance of the southern climates. They are
the first torments in Spain, Italy, and the Olive district of France : it is
not that they ,bite, sting, or hurt, but they buzz, tease, and worry j your
mouth, eyes, ears, and nose, are full of them . they swarm on every eatable,
— fruit, sugar, milk, everything is attacked by them in such myriads, that
if they are not incessantly driven away by a person who has nothing else
to do, to eat a meal is impossible. They are, however, caught on pre-
pared paper and other contrivances with so much ease and in such quan-
tities, that were it not from negligence, they could not abound in such
incredible quantities. If I farmed in these countries, I think I should
manure four or five acres every year with dead flies. — I have been much
surprised that the late learned Mr. Hai-mer should think it odd to find,
by writers who treated of southern climates, that driving away flies was an
object of importance. Had he been with me in Spain and in Languedoc
in July and August, he would have been very far from thinking there was
anything odd in it." ^
J Lach. Lapp. i. 208, 209. Fl. Lapp 382, 383. It appears, however, from other
.authors, that they do bite.
3 Annual Obituary, 1828, p. 393.
3 Young's Travels in France, i, 298. These flies are equally troublesome and
tormenting in Sweden (see Amcen. Acad. iii. 343.), and also in the United States,
where Mr. Stewart and Capt. Marrj'at make frequent and grievous complaints of
them, the latter asserting that in some places they were fifty to the square inch,
as I believe thej' literally were in a small inn where we took breakfast in September,
1830, on our road to Chamouni from Geneva.
It is a remarkable, and, as yet, unexplained fact, that if nets of thread or string
with meshes a full inch square, be stretched over the open windows of a room in
summer ©r autumn, when flies are the greatest nuisance, not a single one will ven-
ture to enter from without, so that by this simple plan a house may be kept free from
these pests, while the adjoining ones which have not had nets applied to their win-
dows, will swarm with them. In order, however, that the protection should be effi-
cient, it is necessary that the rooms to which it is applied should have the light enter
by one side only ; for in those which have a thorough-light the flies pass through the
meshes without scruple. For a fuller account of these singular facts, the reader is
referred to a paper by W. Spence in Trans. Ent. Soc. Land. vol. i. p. 1., and also to
one in the same work, vol. ii. p. 45. by the Rev. E. Stanley, now Lord Bishop of
Norwich, who having made some of the experiments suggested by Mr. Spence,
DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. GO
Oiir friend Captain Green, of tiic sixth regiment of the East Intlia Com-
pany's native troops, relates to nic, that in India, when the mangoes are ripe,
which is the hottest part of the sununer, a very minute bhick fly makes its
appearance, which, because it flies in swarms into the eyes, is very
troublesome, and causes much pain, is called tliere the eiic-Jly. At this
season the eyes are attackcil by a disease, sup|)osed to be occasioned by
eating the mangoes, but more probably the result of the irritation produced
by the fly in question, which, however, they admit, carries the inl'ectioiv
from one person to another.
You know that the hairs taken from the pods of Dolichos pntricns and
%ircns L., commonly called C()w/ia<.u- and Cow-itch S occasion a most violent
itching, but perhaps are not aware that those of the caterpillars of several
moths^will i)roduce the same disagreeable eflect. One of these is the pro-
cession-moth (Cnct/iocampa proccssionea), of which Reaunnn- has given so
interesting an account. Inconsequence of their short stiif hairs sticking
in his skin, after hamlling them he suff'ereil extremely for several days ;
and being ignorant at first of the cause of the itching, and rubbing his eyes
with his hands, he brought on a swelling of the eyelids, so that he could
scarcely open them. Ladies were affected even by going too near the nest
of the animal, and found their necks full of troublesome tumours, occa-
found that by extemling over the outside of bis windows nets of a very fine pack-
thread with meshes IJ inch to the square, so fine and comparatively invisible that
there was no apparent diminution either of light or tlie distant view, he was enabled
for the remainder of the summer and autumn to enjoy the fresh air with open win-
dows without the annoyance he had previously experienced from the intrusion of
tiies, often so troublesome that he was obliged on the hottest days to forego the
luxury of admitting the air by even partially raising the sashes. " But no sooner
(he observes) had I set my nets than I was relieved from my disagreeable visitors.
1 could perceive and hear them hovering on the other side of my barriers ; but
though they now and then settled on the meshes, I do not recollect a single instance
of one venturing to cross the boundar}-."
It is singular, too, as was first pointed out by Mr. W. B. Spence {Ent. Trans, i.
7.) that Herodotus 2200 years ago stated that the Egyptian fishermen protected
themselves in a similar manner from the attacks of mosquitos by spreading their
fishing-nets over their beds, a fact which has greatly puzzled all his commentators,
who, not conceiving the possibility of mosquitos being kept oft' by fishing-nets which
must necessarilj' have wide meshes, have supposed the fother of history to have
alluded to some protection of fine linen similar to the gauze nets now used against
these insects. But in this, as in so many other instances, the supposed error is not
that of Herodotus, but of his commentators, who, ignorant of the fact above related
as to flies being excluded by wide-meshed nets, could not conceive of it in the case
of mosquitos ; yet, in confirmation of its accuracy, I have been told by a friend that
he was assured by a gentleman, who had travelled in America, that he had often
had mosquito nets with meshes an inch square put over his bed, and had found them
a perfect security from their bites, though, as is well known, they will creep through
any small hole in an ordinary gauze net.
in concluding this long note it may be observed that the number of house flies might
be greatly lessened in large towns, if the stable dung in which their larvai are
chiefly supposed to feed, were kept in pits closed by trap doors, so that the females
could" not deposit their eggs in it. At Venice where no horses are kept, it is said
there are no house flies, a statement which I regret not having heard before being
there, that I might have inquired as to its truth.
1 Cowhage has been administered with success as an anthelmintic, as has likewise
spun glass pounded ; the spicula of these substances destroying the worms. The
hair of the caterpillars here alluded to, and perhaps also of the larva of Euprepia
Caja (the Tiger- Moth), might probablv be equally efficacious.
F 3
70 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
sioned by short hairs, or fragments of hair, brought by the wind.^ Of
this nature also, is the famous Piti/ocajyipa of the ancients, the moth of
the fir (Cnethocampa Pityocampa), the hairs of which are said to occasion
a very intense degree of pain, heat, fever, itching, and restlessness. It was
accounted by the Romans a very deleterious poison, as is evident from the
circumstance of the Cornelian law "ZJe sicariis" being extended to persons
who administered PiUjocumpa.-
In these cases the injury is the consequence of irritation produced by
the hair of the animal ; but there are facts on record, which prove that the
juices of many insects are equally deleterious. Amoreux, from a work of
Turner, an English writer on cutaneous diseases, has given the following
remarkable history of the ill effects produced by those of spiders. When
Turner was a young practitioner, he was called to visit a woman, whose
custom it was, every time she went into the cellar with a candle, to burn
the spiders and their webs. She had often observed when siie thus
cruelly amused herself, that the odour of the burning spiders had so much
affected her head, that all objects seemed to turn round, which was occa-
sionally succeeded by faintings, cold sweats, and slight vomitings : but,
notwithstanding this, she found so much pleasure in tormenting these
poor animals, that nothing could cure her of this madness, till she met
with the following accident : the legs of one of these unhappy spiders
happened to stick in the candle, so that it could not disengage itself ; and
the body at length bursting, the venom was ejaculated into the eyes and
upon the lips of its persecutrix. In consequence of this, one of the former
became inflamed, the latter swelled excessively, even the tongue and gums
were slightly affected, and a continual vomiting attended these symptoms.
In spite of every remedy the swelling of the lips continued to increase,
till at length an old woman, by the simple application for fifteen days of
the leaves and juice of plantain, together with some spider's web, ran
away with all the glory of the cure.^ UUoa gives us a remarkable account
of a species of spicier, or perhaps mite, of a fiery red colour, common in
Popayan, called Coya or Coyba, and usually found in the corners of walls
and among the herbage, the venom of which is of such malignity, that on
crushing the insect, if any fall on the skin of either man or beast, it imme-
diately penetrates into the flesh, and causes large tumours, which are soon
succeeded by death. Yet, he further observes, if it be crushed between
the pahns of the hands, which are usually callous, no bad consequence
ensues. People who travel along the valleys of the Neyba, where these
insects abound, are warned by their Indian attendants, if they feel any-
thing stinging them, or crawling on their neck or face, not so much as to
lift up their hand to the place, the texture of the Coya being so delicate
that the least force causes them to burst, without which there is no
danger, as they seem otherwise harmless animals. The traveller points
out the spot where he feels the creature to one of his companions, who,
if it be a Coya, blows it away. If this account does not exaggerate the
1 Reauin. ii. 191. 195. According to Dr. Nicholai, the processionary caterpillars also
secrete from the external surface of their skin a sharp juice which assumes a farina-
ceous form, and is very injurious to those that inspire it, causing workmen, who are
occupied in woods where the caterpillars are numerous, to sicken very rapidly.
(Burmeister, Manual of Ent. 510.)
• Mouffet, 185. Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. xxxviii. c. 9. Amoreux, 158.
3 Amoreux, 210—212.
DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 71
deleterious quality of the jnice.s of this insect, it is the most venomous
animal that is known ; for he describes it as uuich smaller than a buy.
The only rcnieily to which the natives liave recourse for |)revcTiting the ill
effects arising from its venom is, on the first a|)pearance of tlie swelling,
to swing the ])atient over the flame of straw or long grass, which they do
with great dexterity : after this operation he is reckoned to be out of
danger.' — The poisoned arrows which Indians employ against their
enemies have been long celebrated. The Coya may, in the western world,
have furnished the poison for this purpose. An author quoted in Lesser
tells us that an ant as big as a bee is sometimes used, and that the wound
inriictcd by weapons tinctured with their venom is incurable. Patterson
also gives a receipt by which the natives of the southern extremity of
Africa prepare what they reckon the most effectual poison for the point of
their arrows. They mix the juice of a species oi Mitjihorbia, ami a cater-
pillar that feeds on a kind of sumach {Rhus L.), and when the mixture is
dried it is fit for use."
And now I think you will allow that I have made out a tolerable list of
insects that attack or annoy man's boily externally, and a sufficiently
doleful history of them. That the subject, however, may be complete, I
shall next enumerate those that, not content 'with afflicting him with
exterior pain or evil, whether on the surface or under the skin, bore into
his flesh, descend even into his stomach and viscera, derange his whole
system, and thus often occasion his death. The punitive insects here
emi)lo\eil are usually larv:E of the various orders, and they are the cause
of that genus of diseases I before noticed, and proposed to call Scliole-
ekiasis.
I shall begin my account with the first order of Linne, because people in
general seem not aware that any beetles make their way into the human
stomach. Yet there is abundant evidence, which proves beyond contro-
versy that the meal-worm (Tenebrio Alo/itor), although its usual food is
tlour, has often been voided both by male and female patients ; and in one
instance is stated to have occasioned death. ^ How these grubs should
get into the stomach it is difficult to say — perhaps the eggs may have been
swallowed in some preparation of flour. But that the animal should be
able to sustain the heat of this organ, so far exceeding the temperature to
which it is usually accustomed, is the most extraordinary circumstance of
all. — Dr. Martin Lister, who to the skill of the physician added the most
1 Ulloa's Voyage, b. vi. c. 3. Hamilton ( Travels in Colombia, as quoted in the
Literary Gazette, April 28. 1827) also mentions a spider called tiie Caya, rather
large, found in the broken ground and among the rocks, from the body of which a
poison so active is emitted, that men and mules have died in an hour or two after
the venomous moisture had fallen on them. This is evidently the same insect
with that mentioned by Ulloa, and contirms the above account of its venomous
effects.
2 Waterton {Wanderings in S. America, 53.) gives the recipe by which the
Macou.iho Indians prepare the poison, in which they dip their arrows. It consists
of a vine called the Wourali, which is the principal ingredient ; the roots and
stalks of some other plants; two species of ants, the sting of one of which is so
venomous that it produces a fever; a quantity of the strongest Indian pepper (Cap-
sicum), and the pounded fangs of two kinds of serpents.
3 Tulpius, Wbs. 3Ied. 1. ii. c. 51. t. 7. f. 3. Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journ.
n. 35. 42 — i8. Derbam, Physic. Theol. 378. note b. Lowthorp, Philos. Trans.
iii. 135.
F 4
72 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
profound knowledge of nature, mentions an instance, communicated to him
by Mr. Jessop, of a girl who voided three hexapod larvae similar to what
are found in the carcases of birds', probably belonging either to the genus
Dermestes, or Anthrenus : and in the German Epiiemerides the case also of
a girl is recorded, from an abscess in the calf of whose leg crept black
worms resembling beetles.^
The larvas of some beetle, as appears from the description, seem to have
been ejected even from the lungs. Four of these, of which the largest was
nearly three quarters of an inch long, were discovered in the mucus ex-
pelled after a severe fit of coughing by a lady afflicted with a pulmonary
disease ; and similar larvae of a smaller size were once afterwards dis-
charged in the same way.^
No one would suppose that caterpillars^ which feed upon vegetable sub-
stances, could be met with ahve in the stomach; yet Dr. Lister gives an
account of a boy who vomited up several, which, he observes, had sixteen
legs.* The eggs perhaps might have been swallowed in salad ; and, as
vegetables make a part of most people's daily diet, enougii might have
passed into the stomach to support them when hatched. — Linne tells us
that the caterpillar of a moth (^Aglossa jnngiunalis), common in houses, has
also been found in a similar situation, and is one of the worst of our insecc
infesters.-— In a very old tract, which gives a figure of the insect, a cater-
pillar of the almost incredible length of the middle finger is said to have
been voided from the vostrils of a young man long afflicted with dreadful
pains in his head>* — But the most extraordinary account with respect to
lepidopterous larvae (unless he has mistaken his insects) is given by Azara,
the Spanish traveller before quoted; who says that in South Am.erica
there is a large brown mollt, which deposits its young in a kind of saliva
upon the flesh of persons who sleep naked ; these introduce themselves
under the skin without being perceived, where they occasion swelling
attended by inflammation and violent pain. When the natives discover it,
they squeeze out the larvae, which usually amount to five or six."
But amongst all the orders, none is more fruitful in devourers of man
than the Diptera. The Bot-flies (CEstnis L.) you have, doubtless, often
heard of, and how sorely it annoys our cattle and other quadrupeds ; but
I suspect have no notion that there is a species appropriated to man. The
existence, indeed, of this species seems to have been overlooked by ento-
mologists (though it stands in Gmelin's edition of the Systema Naturce'',
upon the authority of the younger Linne), till Humboldt and Bonpland
mentioned it again. Speaking of the low regions of the torrid zone, where
the air is filled with those myriads of mosquitos which render uninhabitable
a great and beautiful portion of the globe, they observe that to these may
be joined the Oestrus Hom'mis, which deposits its eggs in the skin of man,
causing there painful tumours.* Gmelin says that it remains beneath the
1 Phihs. Trans. 1665, x. 391. Shaw's Ahridg. ii. 224.
2 Mead, Med. Sacr. 105. , ' London Medical Review, v. 340.
4 Philos. Trans, ubi. supr^.
5 Fulvius Angelinus et Viiicentius Alsarius, Deverme admirando per nares egresso.
Ravennfe, 1610.
s Azara, 217. I cannot help suspecting this to be synouymous with the QLstrus
Hominis next mentioned.
7 From Pallas, N. JVord. Beytr. i. 157.
8 Essai sur la Geograph, des Plantes, 136.
DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 73
skin of the abdomen six months, penetrating deeper, if it be disturbed, and
becomin;^ so dangerous as sometimes to occasion death. Tiic imago he
describes as l)eing of a brown colour, and about the size of tiie common
house-fly ; so that it is a small species compared with the rest of the
genus. ' Even the gad-fly of the ox, leaving its proper food, has been
known to oviposit in the jaw of a woman, and the bots produced from
the eggs finally caused her death. ^ Other flies also of various kinds thus
penetrate into us, either preying upon our flesh, or getting into our intes-
tines. Leeuwenhoek mentions the case of a woman whose leg had been
enlarging with glandular bodies for some years. Her surgeon gave him
one that he had cut from it, in which were many small maggots : these he
fed with flesh till they assumed the pupa, when they produced a fly as
large as the flesh-fly.^ — A patient of Dr. Reeve of Norwich, after suffering
for some time great pain, was at last relieved by voiding a considerable
number of maggots, which auree precisely with those described by De
Geer as the larvie of his Musca donicslica minor (Ant/iunij/ia ciinicularls
Meig.), a fly which he speaks of as very common in apartments.' — In
Paraguay the flesii-flies are said to be uncommonly numerous and noxious.
Azara relates^ that, afier a storm, when the heat was excessive, he was
assailed by such an army of them, that in less than half an liour his clothes
were quite white with their eggs, so that he was forced to scrape them off
with a knife; adding, that he has known instances of persons, who, after
having bled at the nose in their sleep, were attacked by the most violent
headaches ; when at length several great maggots, the offspring of these
flies, issuing from their nostrils, gave them relief. — In Jamaica a large blue
fly buzzes about the sick in the last stages of fever ; and when they sleep
or doze with their mouths open, the nurses find it very difficult to prevent
these flies from laying their eggs in the nose, mouth, or gums. An instance
is recorded of a lady, who after recovering from a fever, fell a victim to
the maguots of this fly, which from the nose found their way through the
OS cnbrijhrnie into the cavity of the skull, and afterwards into the brain.^
One of the most shocking cases of Scolccluasis 1 ever met with is related
in Bell's Weckli/ Messenger in the following words : " On Thursday,
June 2b. died at Asbornby (Lincolnshire), John Page, a pauper belonging
1 For an investigation of the question, whether man is attacked by a distinct
species of (Estrus, see a report ou the statements of MM. Koulin, Howship,
Say, Gueriu, &c., made to VAcademie des Scietices, 1833, by MM. Isidore
Geoffry Saint Ililaire, and Dumeril (copied in An7i. Soc. Ent. de France, ii.
518.), who, on the whole, though with some hesitation, pronounce for the atfirm-
ative Yet most of the facts passed in review seem rather to support the idea
that species of (Estrus, whose proper abode is in other animals, occasionally at-
tack man.
- Clark in Linn. Trans, iii. 323. note.
3 Leeuw. Epist. Oct. 17. 1G87, ubi suprL De Geer, xi. 26, 27.
* Edinh. Med. and Surp. Journ. ^ p. 216.
<* Leinpriere, On the Diseases of the Army in Jamaica, ii. 182. See Trans. Ent.
Soc. Land. i. proc. xlvi. in which various cases are recorded by W. Sells, Esq. (an acute
observer, whose untimely death entomology has recently had to deplore), as coming
under his own observation in Jamaica, of dies being hatched in the human body ; in
one instance, in a neglected blister on the chest ; in another, in the gums and inside
of the cheek ; in a third, in the ear ^ aud in a fourth, in the passages of the nostrils,
out of which the negro who was the sufferer counted not fewer than 235 larvje (of
Mr. Sell believes, the blue-bottle-fiy), which in a fortnight dropped out by applica-
tions of oil and tobacco smoke.
74 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
to Silk-Willoiighby, under circumstances truly singular. He being of a
restless disposition, and not choosing to stay in the parish workhouse,
was in the habit of strolling about the neighbouring villages, subsisting on
the pittance obtained from door to door : the support he usually received
from the benevolent was bread and meat; and after satisfying the cravings
of nature, it was his custom to deposit the surplus provision, particularly
the meat, betwixt his shirt and skin. Having a considerable portion of
this provision in store, so deposited, he was taken rather unwell, and laid
himself down in a field in the parish of Scredington — when from the heat
of the season at that time, the meat speedily became putrid and was of
course struck by the flies : these not only proceeded to devour the in-
animate pieces of flesh, but also hterally to prey upon the living substance ;
and when the wretched man was accidentally found by some of the in-
habitants, he was so eaten by the maggots that his death seemed inevi-
table. After clearing away as well as they were able these shocking
vermin, those who found Page conveyed him to Asbornby, and a surgeon
was immediately procured, who declared that his body was in such a state
that dressing it must be little short of instantaneous death ; and in fact
the man did survive the operation but a few hours. When first found,
and again when examined by the surgeon, he presented a sight loathsome
in the extreme ; white maggots of enormous size were crawling in and
upon his body, which they had most shockingly mangled, and the re-
moving of the external ones served only to render the sight more horrid." ^
— A medical friend of mine, at Ipswich, gave me this winter an apode
larva, voided by a person of that place with his urine, which I now pre-
serve in spirits, and can show you when you visit me. It appears to me
to belong to the Diptera order, yet not to the fly tribes (Taiij/stovia Latr.),
but rather to the Tipulai-icB of that author, with which, however, it does
not seem to agree so entirely as to take away all doubt. It is a very sin-
gular larva, and I can find none in any author that I have had an oppor-
tunity of consulting which at all resembles it. That you may know it,
should you chance to meet with it, I shall here describe it. Body, three-
fourths of an inch in length, and about a line in breadth ; opaque, of a
pale yellow colour ; cyhndrical, tapering somewhat at each extremity ;
consisting of twenty articulations without the head : head reddish brown,
heart-shaped, much smaller than the following joint ; armed with two
unguiform mandibles ; with a biarticulate palpus attached exteriorly to the
base of each. These mandibles appear to be moved by a narrow black
central tendon under the dorsal skin, terminating a little beyond the base
of the first segment ; besides this, there are four others, two on each side
of it, the outer ones diverging, much slenderer, and very short. The last
or anal joint of the body very minute ; exserting two short, filiform horns,
or rather respiratory organs. I could discover, in this animal, no respi-
ratory plates, such as are found in the larvEe of Muscidce, c^c, nor were
the tracheae visible. When given to me it was alive and extremely active,
writhing itself into various contortions with great agility. It moved, like
other dipterous larvae, by means of its mandibles. Upon wetting my
fingers more than once, to take it up when it had fallen from a table upon
1 In passing through this parish in the spring of 1814, I inquired of the mail-
coachman whether he had heard of this story; and he said the fact was well
known.
DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 75
which it was placed, the saline taste with which it was imbued was so
powerful thiit it was some time before it was dissipated from my mouth. ^
— I sliall only iiientiou one more instance, because it is a singular one.
The larva of Iltlophilux pcndidus, a fl\' peculiarly formed by nature for
inhabitini; /////V/.«, has been found in the stomach of a woman.*
You will smile when I tell you that I have met with the prescription of
a famous urine-doctor, in which he reconunends to his credulous patient
to take a certain number of soiv bugs per diem, by this name distiniiui.shing,
as I sup|)0se, the pill-millepede {Annadillo vu/iraris), ouce a very favourite
remedy. What effect they proiiuced in this case I was not informed ;
but the learned Bonnet relates that he had seen a certificate of an English
physician, dated July 1763, stating that, some time before, a young woman
who had swallowed these animals alive, as is usually done, threw up a pro-
digious number of thcniof all sizes, which must have bred in her stomach.^
— Another apterous species appears to have been detected in a still more
remarkable situation. Hermann, the author of the admirable Jlfcmoirc
Aptcrologi(iiu\ whose untimely death is so much to be lamented, informs us
tiiat an Acarus figured and described in his vyork {A. vmrghiatus), was ob-
served by his artist running on the corpus callosinn of the brain of a patient
in the military hospital at Strasbourg, which had been opened but a minute
before, and the two hemispheres and the ;;?'« 7>;(7to- just separated. He
adds that this is not the first time that insects have been found in the
brain. Cornelius Gemma, in his Cosmocritica, p. 24'1., says that on dissect-
ing the brain of a woman there were found in it abundance of vermicles and
pxinaises.*
It was customary in many countries in ancient times to punish certain
malefactors by exposing them to be devoured by wild beasts : but to expose
them to insects for the same purpose was a refinement in cruelty which
seems to have been peculiar to the despots of Persia, We are informed
that the most severe punishment amongst the Persians was that of shut-
ting up the offender between two boats of equal size ; they laid him in one
of them upon his back, and covered him with the other, his hands, feet, and
head being left bare. His face, which was placed full in the sun, they
moistened with honey, thus inviting the flies and wasps, which tormented
him no less than the swarms of maggots that were bred in his excrements
and body, and devoured him to the very entrails. He was compelled to
take as much food as was necessary to support life, and thus existed some-
times for several days. Plutarch informs us, that Mithridates, whom
Artaxerxes Longimanus condemned to this punishment, lived seventeen
days in the utmost agony; and that, the uppermost boat being taken off at
ids death, they found his flesh all consumed, and myriads of \^ orms gnaw-
ing his bowels.' Could any natural objects be made more horrible and
effectual instruments of torture than insects were in this most diabolical
invention of tyranny ? ®
1 Specimens of a dipterous lan-a, of which, like the above, several had been dis-
charged with the urine of a patient, were exhibited to the Entomological Society
April 4. 1*!-10, by Professor Owen, who pointed out the great singularity of the case,
and the difficulty of accounting for the existence of the lan^a in the bladder. (^Pro-
ceeditigs of Ent. Soc. Lond. p. 7.)
2 PfiUos. Mag. ix. 366.
' Bonnet, v. 144.
♦ Mtm. Apterolog. 79. ^ Universal History, iv. 70. ed. 1779.
^ For numerous cases of insects occasionally found in the human body, see a
76 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
In this enumeration of evils derived from insects, I must not wholly pass
over the serious and sometimes fatal effects produced upon some persons by
eating honey, or even by drinking mead. I once knew a lady upon whom
these acted like poison, and have heard of instances in which death was
the consequence. Sometimes, when bees extract their honey from
poisonous plants, such results have not been confined to individuals of a
particular habit or constitution. A remarkable proof of this is given by
Dr. Barton in the fifth volume of The American Philosophical Transactions.
In the autumn and winter of the year 1790 an extensive mortality was
produced amongst those who had partaken of the honey collected in the
neighbourhood of Philadelphia. The attention of the American govern-
ment was excited by the general distress, a minute inquiry into the cause
of the mortality ensued, and it was satisfactorily ascertained that the honey
had been chiefly extracted from the flowers of Kahnia laiifolia. Though the
honey mentioned in Xenophon's well-known account of the effect of a
particular sort eaten by the Grecian soldiers during the celebrated retreat
after the death of the younger Cyrus did not operate fatally, it gave those
of the soldiers who ate it in small quantities the appearance of being intoxi-
cated, and such as partook of it freely, of being mad or about to die,
numbers lying on the ground as if after a defeat. A specimen of this
honey, which still retains its deleterious properties, was sent to the Zoolo-
gical Society in 1834, from Trebizond on the Black Sea, by Keith E.
Abbott, Esq"!^
Amongst other direct injuries occasioned by these creatures, perhaps,
out of regard for the ladies, I ought to notice the alarm which many of
them occasion to the loveliest part of the creation. When some females
retire from society to avoid a wasp, others faint at the sight of a spider,
and others, again, die with terror if they hear a death-watch : these ground-
less apprehensions and superstitious alarms are as much real evils to those
who feel them as if they were well founded. But having already adverted
to this subject, I shall here only quote the observation of a wise man, that
" Fear is a betraying of the succours that reason offereth." ^ The best
remedy, therefore, in such cases, is going to reason for succour. In a few
instances, indeed, the evil may take root in a constitutional defect ; for there
seems to be some foundation for the doctrine of natural antipathies : but,
generally speaking, in consequence of the increased attention to Natural
History, the reign of imaginary evils is ceasing amongst us, and what used
very valuable paper in Trans. Eiit. Soc. Lond. ii. 257. by the Eev. F. W. Hope,
F.R.S., in which the whole are brought together in a tabular form, so that the
kind of insect, the local affection, and various other particulars, can be seen at a
glance. Mr. Hope proposes to adopt the term Canthariasis for those diseases
which originate with coleopterous insects, whether in the perfect or larva state ;
that of Myasis for those caused by dipterous larvte, Avhile he restricts the term
Scolecliiasis to those resulting from lepidopterous larvaa. Of the first (in-
cluding two cases arising from the earwig), he enumerates thirty-eight cases ; of
the second, sixty-four ; and of the third, seven. He suggests that the eggs of many
of these larvae have been introduced into the stomach with bread, butter, cheese,
and even upon cooked food, upon which they have been deposited by the parent
beetles or files in our larders and cellars, &c. ; others with ripe fruit or raw vegetables,
as lettuces, water-cresses, &c. ; and others again in impure and turbid water.
1 Xenophon, Anabas. 1. iv. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. i. proc. xxxi.
2 Wisd. xvii. 12.
DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 77
to shake the stout hearts of our superstitions ancestors with anile terrors
is become a sultject of interesting inquiry to tiieir better informed descend-
ants, even of the weaicer sex.
And now, my friend, I flatter myself you feel disposed to own the truth
of my position, however it might startle you at first, and will candidly
acknowledge that I have proved the empire of these despised insects over
man's person ; and that, instead of being a race of insignificant creatures,
wiiich we may safely overlook, as having no concern with, they may, in
the hands of Divine Providence, and even of man, become to us fearful in-
struments of evil and of punishment. I shall next endeavour to give you
some idea of the indirect injuries which they occasion us by attacking our
property, or interfering with our pleasure or comfort — but this must be
the subject of another letter.
I am, &c.
78
LETTER V.
INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
INDIKECT INJURIES.
Having detailed to you the direct injuries which we suffer from insects,
I am now to call your attention to their indirect attacks upon us, or the
injury which they do our property ; and under this view also you will own,
with the fullest conviction, that they are not beings that can with prudence or
safety be disregarded or despised. Our property, at least that part exposed to
the annoyance of these creatures, may be regarded as consisting of animal
and vegetable productions, and that in two states ; when they are hving,
namely, and after they are dead. I shall therefore endeavour to give
you a sketch of the mischief which they occasion, first to our living animal
property, then to our living vegetable property ; and, lastly, to our dead
stock, whether animal or vegetable.
Next to our own persons, the animals which we employ in our business
or pleasures, or fatten for food, individually considered, are the most valu-
able part of our possessions — and at certain seasons, hosts of insects of
various kinds are incessant in their assaults upon most of them. — To begin
with that noble animal the horse. See him, when turned out to his pasture,
unable to touch a morsel of the food he has earned by his labours. He
flies to the shade, evidently in great uneasiness, where he stands continually
stamping from the pain produced by the insertion of the weapons sheathed
in the proboscis of a little fly {Stomoxys calcitrans) before noticed as attack-
ing ourselves.' This alights upon him sometimes in one place and some-
times in another, and never lets him rest while the day lasts. See him
again when in harness and travelling. He is bathed in blood flowing from
innumerable wounds made by the knives and lancets of various horse-flies
(Tabanus L.), which assail him as he goes, and allow him no respite" ;
and consider that even this is nothing to what he suffers in other climates
from the same pest. In North America, vast clouds of different species —
so abundant as to obscure every distant object, and so severe in their bite
as to merit the ap[)ellation of burning flies — cover and torment the horses
to such a degree as to excite compassion even in the hearts of the pack-
horsemen. Some of them are nearly as big as humble-bees ; and, when they
pierce the skin and veins of the unhappy beast, make so large an orifice
that, besides what they suck, the blood flows down its neck, sides, and
shoulders in large drops like tears, till, to use Bartram's expression, " they
are all in a gore of blood." Both the dog-tick and the American tick
before mentioned, especially the latter, also infest the horse. Kalm affirms,
that he has seen the under parts of the belly, and other places of the body,
1 See above, p. 25.
2 Once travelling through Cambridgeshire with a brother entomologist in a
gig, our horse was in the condition here described, from the attack of Tabanus
rusticus.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 79
so covered by them, that he could not introduce the point of a knife
between them. They were deeply buried in the flesh ; and in one in-
stance that he witnessed, the miserable creature was so exhausted by
continual suction, that it fell, and afterwards died in great agonies.'
No quadruped is more infested by the gad- or bot-fly, sometimes also
improperly called the breese', than the horse. In this country no fewer
than three species attack it. The most connnon sort, known by the name
of the horse-bee ((ExfrK.i E(jui), deposits its eggs (which being covered
with a slimy substance adhere to the hairs) on such parts of the body as
the animal can reach with its tongue ; and thus, unconscious of what it is
doing, it unwarily introduces into its own citadel the troops of its enemy.
Another species {IE. lurmorrlnmlalis) is still more troublesome to it,
ovipositing upon the lips ; and in its endeavours to efiect this, from the
excessive titillation it occasions, giving the poor beast the most tlistressing
uneasiness. At the sight of this fly horses are always much agitated,
tossing their heads about in the' air to drive it away; and, if this does not
answer, galloping off to a distant part of their pasture, and, as their last
resource, taking refuge in the water, where the gad-flies never follow them.
We learn from Hcauuuir, that in France the grooms, when they observe
any bots (which is the vulgar name for the larva^ and pupte of these flies)
about the anus of a horse or in its dung, thrust their hand into the passage
to search for more ; but this seems a useless precaution, which must
occasion the animal great pain to answer no good end ; for when the bots
are passing through the body, having ceased feeding, they can do no further
injury. In Sweden, as De Geer informs us, they act much more sensibly :
those that have the care of horses are accustomed to clean their mouths
and throats with a particular kind of brush, by which method they free
them from these disagreeable inmates before they have got into the stomach,
or can be at all prejudicial to them.*
Providence has doubtless created these animals to answer some benefi-
cial purpose ; and Mr. Clark's judicious conjectures are an index which
points to the very kind of good our cattle may derive from them, as acting
the part of perpetual stimuli or blisters : yet when they exceed certain
limits, as is often the case with similar animals employed for purposes
equally beneficial, they become certainly the causes of disease, and some-
times of death.
How troublesome and teasing is that cloud of flies {Anthomi/ia mctcorica)
which you must often have noticed in your summer rides hovering round
the head and neck of your horse, accompanying him as he goes, and causing
a perpetual tossing of the former ! ' — And still more annoying in Lap-
land, as we learn from Linne^, is the furious assault of the minute horse-
gnat {Citlex eqitbius L.), which infests these beasts in infinite numbers,
running under the mane and amongst the hair, and piercing the skin to
suck their blood. — An insect of the same genus is related to attack them
in a particular district in India in so tremendous a manner as to cause in-
1 De Geer, vii. 158.
2 See Sir. W. S. MacLeayin Linn. Trans, xiv. 355.
3 De Geer, vL 295. * Amcen. Acad. iii. 358.
5 Linn. Flor. Lapp. 376. Lach. Lapp. i. 233, 234. This insect from Linne''s
description is probably no Cukx, but perhaps a Simulium Latr. (Simulia
Meig.)
80 i:ndirect injuries caused by insects.
curable cancers, which finally destroy them.^ — But of all the insect tor-
mentors of these useful creatures, there is none more trying to them than
the forest-fly {Hippobosca equina). Attaching themselves to the parts
least covered with hair, particularly under the belly between the hind legs,
they irritate the quietest horse, and make him kick so as often to hazard
the safety of his rider or driver. This singular animal runs sideways or
backwards like a crab; and, being furnished with an unusual number of
claws, it adheres so firmly that it is not easy to take it off; and even if you
succeed in this, its substance is so hard, that by the utmost pressure of
your finger and thumb it is difficult to kill it ; and if you let it go with
life, it will immediately return to the charge. — Amongst the insect plagues
of horses, t should also have enumerated the larva of Liviis paiap/ecHciis,
which Linne considers as the cause of the equine disease called in Sweden,
after the Phellandrhim aquaticum, " Stcd-ra" had not the observations of
the accurate De Geer rendered it doubtful whether the insect be at all con-
nected with this malady.^
Another quadruped contributing greatly to our domestic comfort, from
which we derive a considerable portion of our animal food, and which, on
account of its patient and laborious character when employed in agricul-
ture, is an excellent substitute for the horse (you will directly perceive I
am speaking of the ox, whether male or female), is also not exempt from
insect domination. At certain seasons the whole terrified herd, with their
tails in the air, or turned upon their backs, or stiffly stretched out in the
direction of the spine, gallop about their pastures, making the country re-
echo with their lowings, and finding no rest till they get into the water.
Their appearance and motions are at this time so grotesque, clumsy, and
seemingly unnatural, that we are tempted rather to laugh at the poor
beasts than to pity them, though evidently in a situation of great terror
and distress. The cause of all this agitation and restlessness is a small
gad- or bot-fly (CE. Bovis) less than the horse-bee, the object of which,
though it be not to bite them, but merely to oviposit in their hides, is not
put into execution without giving them considerable pain.
When oxen are employed in agriculture, the attack of this fly is often
attended with great danger, since they then become perfectly unmanage-
able ; and, whether in harness or yoked to the plough, will run directly
forward. At the season when it infests them, close attention should be
paid, and their harness so constructed that they may easily be let loose.
Reaumur has minutely described the ovipositor, or singular organ by
which these insects are enabled to bore a round hole in the skin of the
animal and deposit their eggs in the wound. The anus of the female is
furnished with a tube of a corneous substance, consisting of four pieces,
which, like the pieces of a telescope, are retractile within each other. The
last of these terminates in five points, three of which are longer than the
others, and hooked : when united together they form an instrument very
much like an auger or gimlet ; only, having these points, it can bite with
more effect.^ He thinks the infliction of the wound is not attended by
much pain, except where very sensible nerves are injured, when the
1 Life of General Thomas, 186.
2 Linn. It. Scand. 182. De Geer, v. 227—230.
3 Mr. Clark, however, is of opinion that the gad-fly does not pierce the skin of the
animal, but only glues its eggs to it ; the young larvae when hatched burrowed into
the flesh. Essay on the Bots of Horses and other Animals, p. 47.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 81
animal, appearin<i to be seized with a kind of frenzy, begins to gambol,
and run witb such swiftness that nothing can stop it. From this sem-
blance of temporary madness in oxen when pursued and l)orcd bv the
CEstrus, the Greeks applied the term to any sudden fit of fury or violent
impulse in tiie human species, calling sucli ebullition an (itslrux. The
female fly is observed to be very expeilitious in oviposition, not more than
a few seconds; and while she is performing the operation, the animal
attempts to lash her off", as it does other flies, with its tail. The circular
hole, made by the auger just described, always continues open, and in-
creases in diameter as the larva increases in size ; thus enabMug it to
receive a sufficient supply of air by means of its anal respiratory plates,
which are usually near the orifice. — But though these insects thus torment
and territy our cattle, they do them no material injury. Indeed they
occasion considerable tumours under the skin, where the bots reside,
varying in number from three or four to thirty or fort}' ; but these seem
unattended by any pain, ami are so far from being injurious, that tliev are
rather regarded as proofs of the gootlncss of the animal, since these flies
only attack young and healthy subjects. The tanners also prefer those
hides that have the greatest number of bot-holes in them, which are always
the best and strongest.'
Tile Stomoxys, and several of the other flies befjre enumerated, as well
as the dog and American ticks, are as prejudicial to the ox as to the horse.
One species of Hippobosca, I have reason to believe, is appropriated to
them ; yet, since a single specimen only has hitherto been taken ~, little
can be said with respect to it. — A worse pest than any hitherto enumerated
is a minute fly, concerning the genus of which there is some doubt, Fabricius
considering it as a Rhagio (i?. columhasclicnsis) and Latreille as a Simu-
lium ^ ; but to whatever genus it may belong, it is certainly a most de-
structive little creature. In Servia and the Bannat it attacks the cattle
in infinite numbers, penetrates, according to Fabricius, their generative
organs, but according to other accounts their nose and ears, and by its
poisonous bite destroys them in the short space of four or five hours.
Much injury was sustained in 1813 from this insect in the palatinate of
Arad, in Hungary, and in the Bannat ; in Banlack not fewer than two
hundred horned cattle perishing from its attacks, and in Versetz, five
hundred. It appears towards the latter end of April or beginning of May
in such indescribable swarms as to resemble clouds, proceeding, as some
think, from the region of Mehadia, but according to others from Turkey.
Its approach is the signal for universal alarm. The cattle fly from their
pastures ; and the herdsman hastens to shut up his cows in the house, or,
when at a distance from home, to kindle fires, the smoke of which is
found to drive off" this terrible assailant. Of this the cattle are sensible,
1 Much of the information here collected is taken from Eeaiim. iv. 3Iem. 12. ; and
Clark in Linn. Trans, ui. 289.
2 The writer of the present letter is possessor of this specimen, which he took on
himself in a field where oxen were feeding.
' In the Systema Antliatorum (p. 56.) Fabricius most strangely considers this
insect as synonymous with Culex reptans L., calling it Scatopse reptans, and
dropping his former reference to Pallas, and account of its injurious properties.
Meigen (Dipt. i. 294.) makes this insect a Simulia, under the name of 5. maculata.
It is represented by Coquebert, whose figure is copied in the translation of Kollar's
work referred to above, and also in the next page.
82 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
and as soon as attacked run towards the smoke, and are generally pre-
served by it.^
Tabani in this country do not seem to annoy our oxen so much as they
do our horses : perhaps for this immunity they may be indebted to the
thickness of their hides ; but Virgil's beautiful description of the annoy-
ance shows that the Grecian CEstrus, called by the Romans Asilus,
evidently is one of the Tahnnidce. As the passage has not been very cor-
rectly translated, I shall turn poet on the occasion, and attempt to give it
you in a new dress.
Through waving groves where Selo's torrent flows,
And where, Albonio, thy green Ilex grows,
Myriads of insects flutter in the gloom,
(CEstrus ill Greece, Asilus named at Rome,)
Fierce and of cruel hum. By the dire sound.
Driven from the woods and shady glens around.
The universal herds in terror fly ;
Their lowings shake the woods and shake the sky,
And Negro's arid shore
In some parts of Africa also insects of this tribe do incredible mischief.
What would you think, should you be told that one species of fly drives
both inhabitants and their cattle from a whole district ? Yet the terrible
Tsaltsalya or Zimh of Bruce (and the world seems now disposed to give
more credit to the accounts of that traveller) has power to produce such
an effect. This fly, which is a native of Abyssinia, both from its habits
and the figure, appears to belong to the Tabanidce, and perhaps is conge-
nerous with the CEstrus of the Greeks.^
1 Fabr. Ent. Syst. Em. iv. 276. 22. Latr. Hist. Nat. &c. xiv. 283. Leips. Zeit.
July 5. 1813, quoted in Germar's Mag. der Ent. ii. 185. In Kbllars Treatise on In-
sects injurious to Gardeners, Foresters, and Farmers (Lond. 1840), a valuable work,
for a translation of which from the German into English we are indebted to the
Misses Loudon, it is stated ( p. 70.) that Dr. Schonbauer, late Professor of Natural
History at Pesth, has ascertained that the swarms of this fly, which he calls Siinulia
Columbaschensis, instead of proceeding, as the Wallachians universallj' believe, from
the jaws of the dragon killed by St. George, and buried in certain caves in the
limestone mountains near Columbaez in Servia, out of the mouths of which they
issue like smoke, in fact are bred in the extensive swamps in this district, passing
all their states of egg, larva, and nymph in water. Vast swarms appeared in 1830
in a large tract of Austria, Hungary, and Moravia, overflowed by the river Marsch,
and hundreds of horses, cows, and swine perished from their bite. Men are equally
attacked by this scourge, but can more easil)' defend themselves ; and there are not
wanting solitary examples of little children dying from the excessive inflammation
consequent on their numerous punctures.
2 It is by no means clear that the (Estrus of modem entomologists is synonymous
with the insects which the Greeks distinguish by that name. Aristotle not only de-
scribes these as blood-suckers {Hist. Animal. 1. viii. c. 11.), but also as furnished with
a strong proboscis (1. iv. c. 7.). He observes likewse that they are produced from an
animal inhabiting the waters, in the vicinity of which they most abound (1. viii. c. 7.).
And JElisin {Hist. 1. vi. c. 38.). gives nearly the same account. Comparing the
CEstrus with the Myops (synonymous perhaps with Tabanus Latr., except that
Aristotle afiirms that its larvae live in wood, 1. v. c. 19.), he says, the CEstrus for a fly-
is one of the largest ; it has a stiff and large sting (meaning a proboscis), and emits
a certain humming and harsh sound ; but the Mj-ops is like the Cynomyia — it hums
more loudlj' than the CEstrus, though it has a smaller sting.
These characters and circumstances do not at all agree with the modem
CEstrus, which, so far from being a blood-sucker furnished with a strong proboscis,
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 83
Small as this insect is, wc must ackno\vled^e the elephant, riiinoceros»,
lion, and tiirer, vastly Ins infc-riors. The appearance, nav the very sound
ot It, occasions more trepidation, movements, and disorder, both in tiie
human and brute creation, than whole herds of the most ferocious wild
beasts in tenfold greater numbers than thev ever are would |)r<)duce. As
soon as this plague appears, and their buzzing is heard, all the cattle for-
sake their food, and run wildly about the jilaiu till they die worn out with
Jatigue, fright and hunger. No remedy remains for the residents on such
•spots but to leave the black earth and hasten down to the sands of Atbara
and there they remain while the rains last. Camels, and even elephants
aiul rliinoceroses, though the two last coat themselves with an armour
of miul, are attacked by this winged assassin, and afflicted with numerous
tumours. All the inhabitants of the sea-coast of Melinda down to Cape
Cardefui, to Saba and tiie South of the Red Sea, are obliged in the be-
ginning of the rainy season to remove to the next sand \o prevent all
their stock of cattle from being destroyed. This is no partial emigration
— tlie inliabitants ot all the countries from the mountains of Alu'ssinia
northward, to the confluence of the Nile and Astaboras, are once a year
obliged to change their abode and seek protection in the sands of Beja •
nor IS there anv alternative or means of avoiding this, though a hostile
band were in the way capable of spoiling them of half their substance. ^
1 lis tiy IS truly a Beelzebub ^• and perhaps it was this, or some species
related^ to it, that was the prototype of the Philistine idol worshipped
under that name and in the form of a fly,
I must not conclude this subject of insects hurtful to our cattle without
noticing a beetle much talked of by the ancients for its mischievous pro-
perties in this respect. You will soon and rightlv conjecture that 1 am
speaking ot the Buprestis \ so called from the injury which it has been
supposed to occasion to oxen or kine.
iModern writers have been much divided in their opinion to what genus
this celebrated insect belongs. All, indeed, have regarded it as of the
Lolcojitera order ; but here their agreement ceases. ^ Linnc- should seem
to have looked upon it as a species of the genus to which he has given its
name ; but tliese, being timber insects, are not very likelvto be swallowed by
cattle with their food. Gcoftroy thinks it to be a Carabus or Cmnde/a,
out with as little reason, since the species of these genera do not feed
amongst the herbage ; and though they are sometimes found runnin<»
SeLAlvL 7 "''*?• ^i '*'"°' ^^f *^^ ^'^""'ty of water, to which our cattle
generallv fly as a refuge from it. It seems more probable that the (Estrus of
d wh.Vh U\ ''• '" l^ruce-sZ/;„J, represented in his figure with a long probos-
r«/lS "^^.^'^^I'^'JPPearance in the neighbourhood of rivers, and belongs to the
labamda.t ^or further mformation the reader should consult Mr. W. S Mac-
Trlnl ^^Itr^''^ *"' ^^^ '"'"'''^ '"'""^'^ ^''"■'" ^""^ ^*'^"' ^^' ^''^ ^"Cients. Linn.
tLL^VTI''^ a species of ^.Vr»s which infests the rhinoceros is figured in the
J rans. r^nt. ,Soc. of London, vol. il. pi ''2 fio- 1
• JBruce's Travels, 8vo. ii. 315. • o- •
3 Heb. anrjjyp, literally "Lord-Fly." See 2 Kings, i. 2.; and Bochart,
Hieiozoic. ps. u. 1. 4. c. 1». p. 490. & ' ' x^u^-uaii,
* Bum- Cow or Ox, from fiovf bos, and 7rpr,'jw inflammo. M. LatreiUe translates it
Lrcve-bceiif, but improperly.
G 2
84 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
there, yet their motions are so rapid, that it is not very likely that cattle
would often swallow them while feeding.
M. Latreille, in an ingenious essay on this insect' suspects it to belong
to the genus JlTel'de, and as this feeds upon herbs (il/. ProscarabcBus and
M. violaceus, upon the Ranunculi, so widely disseminated in our pastures),
his opinion seems to rest upon more solid grounds than that of his prede-
cessors ; but yet, I think, the insect in question rather belongs to Mylabris,
and for the following reason.
In order rightly to ascertain what insect this really was, we must en-
deavour to trace it in the country in which it received its name and cha-
racter. This country was certainly Greece; and there such an animal,
retaining nearly its own name, and accused of being the cause of the same
injury to cattle, still exists. For Belon informs us, that on Mount Athos
there is found a winged insect like the blister-beetle, but yellow, larger,
and of a very offensive smell, which feeds upon various plants, and is
called Voiipristi by the caloyers or monks, who assert that when horses or
other cattle even feed upon the herbs which the animals have touched
they die from inflammation, and that it is an immediate poison to oxen.'^
This, therefore, most probably was the Buprestis of the Greek Avriters ;
and as Pliny usually compiled from them, it may be regarded as his also,
which he tells us was a caustic insect, and prepared in the same manner
as the blister-beetle.* He further observes that it was scarce in Italy.
The Greek insect of Mount Athos M. Latreille supposes to be a Mylabris,
and in this I agree with him ; and, therefore, this is the proper genus to
which the original Greek Buprestis, the true type of the insect in question,
ought to be referred, and not Meloe.
Whether this animal be really guilty to the extent of which it is accused,
admits of considerable doubt ; but as I have not the means of ascertaining
this, I shall leave the question for others who are better informed to
decide.
But of all our cattle none are more valuable and important to us than
our Jlocks ; to them we look not only for a principal part of our food, but
also for clothing and even light. Thick as is their coat of wool, it does
not shield them from the attack of all-subduing insects : on the contrary,
it affords a comfortable shelter to one of their enemies of tiiis class,
regarded by Linne as a species of Hippobosca, but properly separated from
that genus by Latreille under the name of Mclo])hagus.'^ This is com-
monly called the sheep-louse, and is so tenacious of life, that we are told
by Ray it will exist in a fleece twelve months after it is shorn, and its
excrements are said to give a green tinge to tlie wool very difficult to be
discharged. — You have doubtless often observed in the heat of the day
the sheep shaking their heads and striking the ground violently with their
fore feet ; or running away and getting into ruts, dry dusty spots or gravel
pits, where crowding together they hold their noses close to the ground.
The object of all these actions and movements is to keep the gad-fly ap-
propriated to them {CE. Ovis) from getting at their nostrils, on the inner
margin of which they lay their eggs, from whence the maggots make their
1 Annalesdu Museum. — X* Ann. N" xi. p. 129.
2 Observations de plusieurs Shigularites, &c., 1. 1. c. 45. p. 73. of the edition in Sir
Joseph Banks's library.
3 Hist. Nat. 1. xxix. c. 4. * See Curtis, Brit. Ent. t. 142.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 85
way into the head, feeding in the maxillary and frontal sinuses on the
nnicilage there prothiced. When full-m*o\vn, tliey fall through the nos-
trils to the ground, and assume the pupa. Whether the animal suffers
much pain from these troublesome assailants is not ascertained. Some-
times the n)agi,'ots make their way even into the brain. I have been in-
formed by a very accurate and intelligent friend, tiiat, on opening the
head of one of his shecj) which died in consequence of a vertigo, three
maggots were found in it in a line Just above the eyes, and that behind
them there was a bladder of water. — Perhaps you are not aware that the
bots we are speaking of, or rather those in the head of goats, have been
prescribed as a remedy for the epilepsy, and that from the tri|)od of Del-
phos. Vet so we arc told on the authority of Alexander Trallien.
Whether Democrates, who consulted the oracle, was cured by this remedy
does not appear ; the story shows however that the ancients were aware
of the station of these larviE. — The conunon saying that a whimsical per-
son is funggnti/, or has got maggots in Ids lienil, [lerhaps arose from the
freaks the sheep have been observetl to exhibit when infested by their
bots. — The tlesh-fly is also a great annoyance to the Heecy tribe, especi-
ally in fenny countries ; and if constant attention be not paid them, they
are soon devoured by its insatiable larvae. In Lincolnshire, a principal
profit of the tlruggists is derived from the sale of a mercurial ointment
used to destroy them. — In trojiical countries the sheep tVequently suffer
from the ants. Bosnian relates that when in Guinea, if one of his was
attacked by them in the night, which often happened, it was invariably
destroyed, and was so expeditiously devoured that in the morning only the
skeleton would be left.
Of our domestic animals the least infested by insects, I mean as to the
number of species that attack it, is the swine. With the exception of its
louse, which seems to annoy it principally by exciting a violent itching, it is
exposed to scarcely any other plague of this class, unless we may suppose
that it is the biting of flies, which in hot weather drives it to "its wallow-
ing in the mire."
Under this head we maj' include the deer tribe, for though often wild,
those kept in parks may strictly be deemed domestic ; and the rein-deer
is quite as much so to the Laplander as our oxen and kine are to us. We
learn from Reaumur that the fallow-deer is subject to the attack of two
species of gad-fly ^ : one which, like that of the ox, deposits its eggs in an
orifice it makes in the skin of the animal, and so |)roduces tumours ; and
another, in imitation of that of the sheep, ovipositing in such a manner
that its larvas when hatched can make their way into the head, where
they take their station, in a cavity near the pharynx. He relates a curious
notion of the hunters with respect to these two species. Conceiving them
both to be the same, they imagine that they mine for themselves a painful
path under the skin to the root of the horns ; which is their common
rendezvous from all parts of the body ; where, by uniting their labours
and gnawing indcfatigably, they occasion the annual casting of these orna-
mental as well as powerful arms. This fable, improbable and ridiculous
1 Mr. Curtis {Brit. Ent. t. 106.) under the name of OEstrus pictus has figured a
fine specie.s of gad-fly taken in the New Forest, which he conjectures may be bred
from the deer. It may probably be one of the species here alluded to.
G 3
86 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
as it is, has had the sanction of grave authorities.^ — The CEstri last men-
tioned inhabit, in considerable numbers, two fleshy bags as big as a hen's
egg, and of a similar shape, near the root of the tongue. Reaumur took
between sixty and seventy bots from one of them, and even then some
had escaped. What other purpose these two remarkable purses are in-
tended to answer, it is not easy to conjecture. He supposes that the
parent fly must enter the nostrils of the deer, and pass down the air pas-
sages to oviposit in them ; but probably such a manoeuvre is unnecessary,
since there seems no reason, supposing the eggs to be laid in the nostrils,
why the larva when hatched cannot itself make its way down to the above
station, as easily' as that of the sheep into the maxillary sinuses. Or,
which perhaps is more likely, when the animal draws in the air, the eggs
or larvae may be carried down with it, in both cases, to the place assigned
to them by Providence.^
No animal, however, is so cruelly tormented by Qistri as the rein-deei- ;
for besides one synonymous apparently with this of the deer (CE. nasalis),
from which they endeavour to relieve themselves by snorting and blow-
ing ^ they have a second which produces bots under their skin ; not im-
probably the same species that in a similar way attacks the latter, as I
have stated above. We have heard that the vaccine disease is derived
from the cow and the horse, and the small-pox is said to have originated
in the heels of the camel : but neither the ingenious Dr. Jenner nor any
other writer on this subject has informed us that the rein-deer is subject
to the distemper last named ; yet Linne quotes the learned work of a
Swedish physician on S^/philis, who gravely gives this as a fact I ! ■* The
inoculator, in truth, is the gad-fly, the tumours it causes are the pustules,
and its larvee are the pus. — It is astonishing how dreadfully these poor
animals in hot weather are terrified and injured by them : ten of these
flies will put a herd of five hundred into the greatest agitation. They can-
not stand still a minute, no not a moment, without changing their posture,
puffing and blowing, sneezing and snorting, stamping and tossing continu-
ally ; every individual trembling and pushing its neighbour about. The
ovipositor of this fly is similar to that of the ox-bree&e, consisting of
several tubular joints which slip into each other; and therefore Linne was
probably mistaken in supposing that it lays its eggs upon the skin of the
animal, and that the bot, when it appears, eats its way through it ^ : there
can be little doubt (or else what is the use of such an apparatus ?) that it
bores a hole in the skin and there deposits the eggs. About the beginning
of July the rein-deer sheds its hair, which then stands erect — at this time
tlie fly is always fluttering about it, and takes its opportunity to oviposit.
The bots remain under the skin through the whole winter, and grow to the
size of an acorn. Six or eight of these are often to be found in a single
* Reaum. v. 69. Dictionnaire de Trevoux, article Cerf.
2 For the account of the CEstrus of the deer, see Reaum. v. 67 — 77.
3 Linn. Lack. Lapp. ii. 45. In the passage here referred to, Linne speaks of
two species of CEstrus, though the mode of expression indicates that he consi-
dered them as the same. One was CE. nasalis, from which they freed themselves
by snorting, &c., the other CE. Tarandi, which formed the pustules in their backs,
la Si/st. Nat. 969. 3. he strangely observes under the former species, " Habitat in
eqaorum fauce, per nares intrans 1 " confounding probably CE. veterinus of ilr. Clark
with the true CE. nasalis.
■* Lack. Lapp. i. 280. • 5 L'lor. Lapp. 79.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 87
rein-deer that has onlv seen one winter ; and these so emaciate them,
that frequcntlv one third of their niiniber perish in consequence. Even
those that are full-grown sufft-r i;reatly from this insect. The Hy follows
the animals over preci|<ices, vallcvs, the snow-covered mountains, and even
the highest alps ; to which, in onler to avoid it, they often fiy with great
swiftness in a direction contrary to the wind. By this constant agitation
and endeavour to escape from the attack of their enemy they are kept
from eating during the day. standing always upon the watch, with erect
ears and attentive eyes, that they may observe whether it comes near
them.' The rein-deer are teased also by a peculiar species of Tabanus
(7^. ianiJi(liiiu.i), which, by a singular instinct, instead of their skin, makes
its incision in their horns when tender.
Our f^o^s, the faithful guardians of our other domestic animals and
possessions, the attached companions of our walks, and instruments of
many of our pleasures and amusements, cannot de.end themselves from
insect annoyance. They have their peculiar louse, and the flea sucks their
blood in common with that of their master; you must also often have
noticed how nuich they suffer from the tlog-tick, which, when once it has
fixed itself in their flesh, will in a short time, from the size of a pin's head,
so swell itself out by gorging their blood that it will etn'.al in dimensions
what is called the tick-bean. In the West Indies these ticks, or one hke
them, get into the ears and head of the dogs, and so annoy them and wear
them out that they cither die or are obliged to be killed.*
Some of the most esteemed dainties of our tables are supplied from
such of the winged part of the creation as we have domesticated. These
also have a louse (Xin)nis) appropriated to them, and the gorgeous
peacock is infested by one of extraordinary dimensions and singular form.
Pigeons, in addition, often swarm with the bed-bug, which makes it ad-
visable never to have their lockers fixed to a dwelling-house. In their
young, if your curiosity urges you to examine them, you may find the
larva of the flea, which in its perfect state often swarms in poultry.
Amongst our most valuable domestic animals I shall be very unjust and
ungrateful if I do not enumerate those industrious little creatures the bees,
from whose incessant labours and heaven-taught art we derive the two
precious productions of honey and wax. They are also infested by nume-
rous insect-enemies, some of which attack the bees themselves, while
others despoil them of their treasures. — They have parasites of a pecu-
liar genus (if indeetl they are not the young larvae of Meloe), although
at present regarded as belonging to Pediculus*, and mites (Gamasiis
1 Linn. Flor. La)rp. 379. - Mr. Kittoe.
' Melittophagus Mus. Kirby. See Man. Ap. Angl. ii. 168. {TriiinguUnus'D'aSoxa.')
I copy the following memorandum respecting M. melltta: from my common-place
book, May ".•1812. On the tiowers of Ficaria, Taraxacum, and Bellis, I found a
great number of this insect, which seemed extremely restless, running here and
there over the flowers, and over each other, with great swiftness, mounting the
anthers, and sometimes lifting themselves up above them, as if looking for some-
thing. One or two of them leaped upon my hand. Near one of these flowers I
found a small Andrena or Halictus, upon which some of these creatures were busy
sucking the poor animal, so that it seemed unable to fly away. When disclosed
from the egg, I imagine they get on the top of these flowers to attach themselves to
any of the Andrenidm that may alight on them, or come sufficiently near for them
to leap on it. — K.
G 4
88 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
gymnopterorum) are frequently injurious to them. In Germany the bee-
louse (Braula ccBca Nitsch), which is about the size of a flea and allied to
the Hipj)oboscce, often infests populous hives so as greatly to annoy the
bees by fixing itself upon them (sometimes two, three, or more on a single
bee), and making them restless and indisposed to their usual labours. ^
That universal plunderer the wasp, and his formidable congener the hornet,
often seize and devovu' them, sometimes ripping open their body to come
at the honey, and at others carrying ofFtliat part in which it is situated.
The former frequently takes possession of a hive, having either destroyed
or driven away its inhabitants, and consumes all the honey it contains.
Nay there are certain iillers of their own species, called by apiarists cor-
sair-bees, which plunder the hives of the industrious. — From the curious
account which Latreille has given us of Philanthus apivorus, a wasp-like
insect, it appears that great havoc is made by it of the unsuspecting
workers, which it seizes while intent upon tlieir daily labours, and carries
off to feed its young.' Another insect, which one would not have suspected
of marauding propensities, must here be introduced. Kuhn informs us,
that long ago (in 1799) some monks who kept bees, observing that they
made an unusual noise, lifted up the hive, when an animal flew out, which,
to their great surprise no doubt, for they at first took it for a bat, proved
to be the death's head hawk-moth (Ac/ieronfia atrojws), already celebrated
as the innocent cause of alarm ; and he remembers that several, some
years before, had been found dead in the bee-houses.^ M. Huber, also, in
ISO^, discovered that it had made its way into his hives and those of his
vicinity, and had robbed them of their honey. In Africa, we are told, it
has the same propensity ; which the Hottentots observing, in order to
monopolise the honey of the wild bees, have persuaded the colonists that
it inflicts a mortal wound.* This moth has the faculty of emitting a
remarkable sound, which he supposes may produce an effect upon the
bees of a hive somewhat similar to that caused by the voice of their queen,
which as soon as uttered strikes them motionless, and thus it may be
enabled to commit with impunity such devastation in the midst of myriads
of armed bands. ^ The larva3 of two species of moth {Gal/eria cereajia,
and Mellonella) exhibit equal hardihood with equal impunity. They,
indeed, pass the whole of their initiatory state in the midst of the combs.
Yet in spite of the stings of the bees of a whole republic, tliey continue
their depredations unmolested, sheltering themselves in tubes made of
grains of wax, and lined with silken tapestry, spun and wove by themselves,
which the bees (however disposed they may be to revenge the mischief
which they do them by devouring what to all other animals would be
indigestible, their wax) are unable to penetrate. These larvae are some-
times so numerous in a hive, and commit such extensive ravages, as to
force the poor bees to desert it and seek another habitation.
I shall not delay you longer upon this subject by detailing what luild
animals suffer from insects, further than by observing that the two creatures
of this description in which we are rather interested, the hare and the
1 Kollar on Ins. inj. to Gardeners, &c. 73.
2 Latreille, Hist, des Fourmis, 307—320.
3 Naturforscher, Stk. xvi. 74.
* Quoted from Campbell's Travels in South Africa, in the Quarterly Review for
July, 1815, 315. 5 Huber, Pref xi— xiii.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY^IN SECTS. 89
rabbit, do not escape their attack. The hare in Lapland is more tormented
by the gnats than any other quadruped. To avoid this |)cst it is obliged
to leave the cover of the woods in full day, and seek the plains : hence
the hunters say, that of three litters which a hare produces in a year, the
first dies by the cold, the second by gnats, and only the third escapes
and conies to maturity.' — We learn from the ingenious Mr. Clark, that
the American rabbit and hare are infested by the largest species of
Q-lstrus- vet discovered ; and our domestic rabbits sometimes swarm
with the beil-bng. This was the case with some kept by two young
gentlemen at my house last summer to such a degree, that 1 found it
necessary to have them killed.
Nor are the inhabitants of the waters sheltered by their peculiar element
from these universal assailants. The larva? of Dytisci, fixing themselves
by their suctorious mandibles to tlie hotly oi Jish, doubtless destroy an
infinite number of the young fry of our ponds. Some species of salmon
(AV//w() J'ario L.) are the food of an animal which Linne has arranged
under Pediculus ; and probably many others of the finny tribes may, like
the birds, have their peculiar parasites. Even shell-fish do not escape, for
the Xt/mphon grossipcs enters the siiell of the muscle and devours its
inhabitant. 1 am, 6cc.
1 De Geer, ii. 83.
3 Considered by Mr. Clark as a new genus, which he has named Cuterehra, and
of which he has described three species. — Essay on the Bots of Horses, &c. p. 63.
t. 2 f. 24—29.
90
LETTER VI.
INJUEIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
INDIRECT INJURIES — Continued.
Having endeavoured to give you some idea of the mode in which
insects estabUsh and maintain their empire over man and his train of de-
pendent animals, I shall next call your attention to his livino^ vegetable pos-
sessions, whether the produce of the forest, the field, or the garden ;
whether necessary to him for his support, convenient for his use, or mi-
nistering to his comfort, pleasure, and delight : — and here you will find
these little creatures as busily engaged in the work of mischief as ever,
destroying what is necessary, deranging what is convenient, marring what
is beautiful, and turning what should give us pleasure into an object of.
disgust.
Let us begin with the produce of our fields. — Bread is called " the staff
of life : " yet should Divine Providence in anger be pleased to give the
rein to the various insects which, in the different stages of its growth,
attack the plant producing it, how quickly would this staff be broken !
From the moment that wheat begins to emerge from the soil, to the time
when it is carried into the barn, it is exposed to their ravages. One of its
earliest assailants in this country is that of which Mr. Walford has given
an account in the Linnean Tramactions, taking it for the wire-worm ; but,
as Mr. Marsham observed, not correctly, it being probably the larva of
some coleopterous insect, perhaps of one of the numerous tribe of Bra-
chyptera or rove-beetles, which are not universally carnivorous. This
animal was discovered to infest the wheat in its earliest stage of growth
after vegetation had commenced ; and there was reason to believe that it
began even with the grain itself. It eats into the young plant about an
inch below the surface, devouring the central part ; and thus, vegetation
being stopped, it dies. Out of fifty acres sown with this grain in 1802,
ten had been destroyed by the grub in question so early as October. ' —
Other predaceous Coleoptera will also attack young corn. This is done by
the larva of Zabrus gibbus, both with respect to wheat and barley. In the
spring of 1813 not less than twelve German hides (Hiifen), equal to two
hundred and thirty English acres, of wheat, were destroyed by it in the
canton of Seeburg, near Halle, in Germany ; and Germar (who, with
other members of the Society of Natural History at that place, ascertained
the fact) suspects that it was the same insect described by Cooti, an
Itahan author, which caused great destruction in Upper Italy in 1776.
not only is the larva, which probably lives in that state three years, thus
injurious, but, what one would not have expected, the perfect beetle itself
attacks the grain, both of wheat and barley, when in the ear, clambering
1 Linn. Trans, ix. 156—161.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 91
up the stems at nijjht in vast numbers to jjct at it. The Rev. G. T. Rudd,
when resiiiingat Kimpton near Anilover, Hants, where this insect abounds,
not only saw it, as chd his brother, gnaw offtiie tip of the husk from the
end of a grain of barley, and then gradually draw the milky grain out of
its sheath, consuming it as it came forth, till the whole grain had ilisap-
pearetl, and repeating the operation till seven or eight grains had been
eaten, but was fully satisfied, on killing and dissecting it, that it had fed on
the juicy inunature grain.' Along with the larvaj of this insect were
found, in the proportion of about one fourth, those of another beetle
(^JMclolontlia riijirortii.i), vviiich seemed to contribute to the mischief."
()tlier beetles, generally supposed to be carnivorous, as Amara comviunis
tririd/is, &c., are also stated by M. Zinunermann to feed on wheat.^
The cater|)illars of a moth {.Igrotis scgehim) occasionally devastate large
tracts of wheat and rye by eating the roots, stem, and leaves, in Northern
Germany, Prussia, Poland, and Russia*; but this species with us is
chiefly injiwious to turnips and garden vegetables.
Mr. Markwick has given us the history of a fly that attacks wheat in a
later period of its growth, which, if it be not indeed the same, appears to
be nearly related to the j\Iitscn pitmi/ioius of Bierkander^ (Oscinis F.),
accused by him of being extremely injurious to rye in the spring. Our
insect was discovered on the first-sown wheats early in that season, mak-
ing its lodgement in the very heart of the principal stem just above the
root, which stem it invariably destroyed, giving the crop at first a most
unpromising appearance, so that there seemed scarcely a hope of any
produce. But it proved in this and other instances that year (1791) that
the plant, instead of being injured, derived great benefit from this circum-
stance ; for, the main steni perishing, the root (which was not hurt) threw
out fresh shoots on every side, so as to yield a more abundant crop than
in other fields where the insect had not been busy. These flies, therefore,
seem to belong to our insect benefactors ; and I should not have intro-
duced them here, had it not been probable that in some instances later in
the spring they may attack the lateral shoots of the wheat, and so be in-
jurious. It is also not unlikely that the new progeny, which is disclosed
in May, may oviposit in barley or some other si)ring corn, which would
bring the next generation out in time for the wheat sown in the autumn.
These flies are amongst the last, and, in some seasons, the most numerous,
that take shelter in the windows of our apartments when the first frosts
indicate the approach of winter, previous to their becoming torpid during
that season. When this little animal was first observed in England, it
created no small alarm amongst agriculturists, lest it should prove to be
the Hes.fian jly, so notorious for its depredations in North America; but
Mr. Marsham, by tracing out the species, proved the alarm to be un-
1 Ent. Mag. ii. 182.
2 Gemiar's Mag. der Ent. i. 1 — 10. Llr. Stephens, in his Illustrations of British
Entomologij (No. I. p. 4.) very judiciously asks, "May not these lierhivorous larvaj have
been the principal cause of the mischief to the wheat, while those of the Zabrus
contributed rather to lessen their numbers than to destroy the corn?" But this
query does not account for their being found, when in the perfect state, attacking
the ear. I have seen cognate beetles devouring the seeds of umbelliferous plants.
3 Silbermann, Rev. Ent. ii. 201.
* KciUar on Ins. injurious to Gardeners, &c. 94 — 101.
5 Act. Stockh. 1778, 3. n. 11. and 4. n. 4. Marsham in Linn. Trans, ii. 79.
92 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
founded.^ That there was sufficient cause for apprehension, should it
have so turned out, what I have formerly stated concerning the latter insect,
and the additional facts which I shall now adduce, will amply show.
The ravages of the animal just alluded to, which was first noticed in
1776, and received its name from an erroneous idea that it was carried by
the Hessian troops in their straw from Germany, were at one time so
universal as to threaten, where it a])peared, the total abolition of the cul-
ture of wheat ; though the injury which it now occasions is much less
than at first. It commences its depredations in autumn, as soon as the
plant begins to appear above ground, when it devours the leaf and stem
with equal voracity until stopped by the frost. When the return of spring
brings a milder temperature the fly appears again, and deposits its eggs in
the heart of the main stems, which it perforates, and so weakens, that when
the ear begins to grow heavy, and is about to go into the milky state, they
break down and perish. All the crops, as far as it extended its flight, fell
before this ravager. It first showed itself in Long Island, from whence it
proceeded inland at about the rate of fifteen or twenty miles annually, and
by the year 1789 had reached 200 miles from its original station. I must
observe, however, that some accoimts state its progress at first to have
been very slow, at the rate only of seven miles per annum, and the damage
inconsiderable ; and that the wheat crops were not materially injured by
it before the year 1788. Though these insect hordes traverse such a
tract of country in the course of the year, their flights are not more than
five or six feet at a time. Nothing intercepts them in then- destructive
career, neither mountains nor the broadest rivers. They were seen to
cross the Delaware like a cloud. The numlrers of this fly were so great,
that in wheat-harvest the houses swarmed with them, to the extreme
annoyance of the inhabitants. They filled every plate or vessel that was
in use ; and five hundred were counted iu a single glass tumbler exposed
to them a few minutes with a little beer in it.^
America suffers also in its wheat and maize from the attack of an insect
of a different order ; which, for what reason I know not, is called the
chintz bug-fly. It appears to be apterous, and is said in scent and colour
to resemble the bed-bug. They travel in immense columns from field to
field, like locusts, destroying every thing as they proceed ; but their injuries
are confined to the states south of the 40th degree of north latitude.^
From this account the depredator here noticed should belong to the
i Linn. Trans, ii. 76 — 80.
2 Encyclopmd. Britann. viii. 489 — 495. Though the ravages of the Hessian Qy in
the United States have not been so extensive of late, much injury is still occasionally
suflfered from it, as stated by Mr. Say, who described it under the name of Cecido-
viyia destructor, and as I learn from E. C. Herrick, Esq. of New Haven, Connecti-
cut, who has taken great pains to ascertain the metamorphosis and economy of this
insect ; and either this or an allied species described by JNI. Kollar, destroyed a large
proportion of the wheat crops in Hungary in 1833, and extended itself also to
France. Dr. Hammerschmidt, who has also given an account of this insect, has
called it Cecidomyia tritici, supposing it to be the same with the insect described by
Mr. Marsham and Mr. Kirby ; but as the mischief done by the larva of the former
is caused by its eating into the stem and weakening the whole plant, while the
latter is injurious by destroying the pollen of the blossom, the two insects are evi-
dently very distinct, as indeed their different colour proves. — Kollar on Ins. injurious
to Gardeners, &c. 118.
3 Young's Annals of Agriculture, xi. 471.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 93
tribe of (irocorisa^ Latr. ; but it seems very difficult to conceive Iiow an
insect that lives by suction, and has no mandibles, could destroy these
j)lants so totally.
When the wheat blossoms, another marauder, to which Mr. Marsham
first called the attention of the public, takes its turn to make an attack
upon it, uuiler the form of an orange-coloured gnat, which introducing its
long retractile ovipositor into the centre of the corolla, there ile|)osits its
eggs. These being hatched, the larvae, perhaps by eating the pollen, pre-
vent the ini|)regMation of the grain, and thus in some seasons destroy the
twentieth part of the crop.-
Much mischief is also sometimes done by a species of T/irips (T. cerea-
//;;ff Haliday), a minute insect, often abundant on flowers, which, insinu-
ating itself between the internal valve of the corolla and the grain, inserts its
rostrum into this last, and causes it to shrivel'-; and according to Vassali
Eandi-', as quoted by INIr. Ilaliday, the same species also attacks the stem
at a still earlier period, causing the abortion of the ears, and sometimes to
such an extent that in 1S05 (in which year the w-heat in England, also,
suffered ap|)arently from this cause) one third of the wiieat crop on the
richest plains of Piedmont was destroyed by this seemingly insignificant
little insect.'
One would think, when laid up in the barn or in thegranarv, that wheat
would be secure from injury ; but even there the weevil (Calandni grannria),
in its imago as well as in its larva state, devours it ; and sometimes this
pest becomes so infinitely numerous, that a sensible man, engaged in the
brewing trade, once told me, speaking perhaps rather hyperbolically, that
they collected and destroyed them by bushels : and no wonder, for a single
pair of these destroyers may produce in one year above 6000 descendants.
There are three other insects that attack the stored wheat, which are more
injurious to it than even the weevil. One is a minute species of moth
{Tinea granclla L.). of which Leeuwenhoek has given us a full history
under the name of the wolf. Another is a species of the same genus, at
present not named, which, as we are informed by Du Hamel, at one time
committed dreadful ravages in the province of Angoumois in France. The
third is Trogosita caraboidcs, a kind of beetle, the grub of which, called
Caddie, Olivier tells us did more damage to the housed grain in the
southern provinces of France than either the weevil or the wolf.^
In this place, too, must be noticed the caterpillars of a moth {Caradrina
cubicularis), which Mr. Raddon told me were found in such quantities in a
wheat-stack near Bristol, when taken down to be thrashed, that he could
have gathered them up by handfuls, and they had done much injury to the
grain. '^
Here I may just mention a few other insects which devour grains that
are the food of man, concerning which I have collected no other facts.
The rice-weevil (Calandm on/za') is very injurious to the useful grain after
which it is named ; as is likewise another small beetle, Lucius deniatus P.
(Sj/lvanus Latr.); and an Indian grain, called in the country Jo^an-e, which
1 Tiptda tritici K., belonging to Latreille's genus Cecidomyia. — Maisliam and
Kirby in Linn. Trans, iii. 242—245. iv. 225—239. v. 96—110.
2 kirliv in Linn. Trans, iii. 2it. 3 Mem. Acad. Turin, x\'i. Ixxvi.
■* Haliilay in Entom. May. v. 444. 5 Qliv. ii. n. 19. 3, 4.
^ Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. ii. proc. xlii.
94 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
appears to be a species of Holcus or Milium, is the appropriate food of
another species of Calandra^, which I found abundant in it.
Rye, in this island, is an article of less importance than wheat ; but in
some parts of the Continent it forms a principal portion of the bread-
corn. Providence has also appointed the insect means of causing a scarcity
of this species of food. The fly before noticed (Oscuiis pumi/ionis) intro-
duces its eggs into the heart of the shoots of rye, and occasions so many
to perish, that from eight to fourteen are lost in a square of two feet.*
This fly, in 1839, did much damage to the rye at Grignon, in France^, and
in 1841 to that near Kingston, Surrey .''^ A small moth, also {Margarita
secalis), which eats the culm of this plant within the vagina, thus destroys
many ears. In common with wheat and barley, it also suffers from Leeu-
wenhoek's wolf and the weevil, when stored in granaries.
Bark)/ likewise, another of our most valuable grains, has several insect
foes, besides the beetle (Zabrus gibhus), already alluded to (p. 134.). The
gelatinous larva of a saw-fly {Tenthredo L.) preys upon the upper surface
of the leaves, and so occasions them to wither. Miisca hordei of Bier-
kander also assails the plant. A tenth part of the produce of this grain,
Linne affirms, is annually destroyed in Sweden by another fly, not yet
discovered in Britain (Oscinis frit) , which does the mischief by getting into
the ear ; as does likewise O, lineata F. Dr. J. N. Sauter has described a
flv which he calls Tipula cerealis (most probably a species of Cecidomyia),
the larvas of which, eating the stem of barley and spelt (a kind of dwarf
wheat), did great injury to these crops in the grand duchy of Baden in
1813 and 1816; and the same, or an allied species, is supposed to have
formerly destroyed the oats in Styria and Carinthia.^ A small species of
moth described by Reaumur, though not named b}' Linne, which may be
called TiHert hordei {Vpsolop/ms granellus?), devours the grain when laid up
in the granary. This fly deposits several eggs, perhaps twenty or thirty,
on a single grain ; but as one grain only is to be the portion of one larva,
they disperse when hatched, each selecting one for itself, which it enters
from without at a place more tender than the rest ; and this single grain
furnishes a sufficient supply of food to support the caterpillar till it is
ready to assume the pupa. Concealed within this contracted habitation,
the little animal does nothing that may betray it to the watchful eye of
man, not even ejecting its excrements from its habitation ; so that there
may be millions within a heap of corn, where you would not suspect there
was one.®
1 Curculio testaceus, Ent. Brit.
2 Marsham in Linn. Trans, ii. 80. De Geer notices the injurj' done by this
flv to rve, and observes that before it had been attributed to frost, ii. 68.
"5 Ann. Ent. Snc. de France, viii. p. xiii.
4 Proceed, of Ent, Soc. Lond. Oct. 5. 1840.
5 KoUar on Ins. inj. to Gardeners, &c. 124.
6 Act. Stoclih. 17o0, 128. Reaum. ii. 480, &c. Barley, like wheat, and indeed
all white corn, is much injured in the granaries of the corn-dealer by the larva
of the little moth {Tinea graneUa\L.'), the wolf of Leeuwenhoek before referred to.
Oii visiting those of Messrs. Hellicar, Bristol, in October, 1837, -with my friend
W. Raddon, Esq., we found the barley h"ing on the floors covered with a gauze-
like tissue formed of the fine silken threads spun by the larvfe in traversing its
surface, on recently quitting it for the purpose; of undergoing their metamorphosis
in the ceiling of the granary, formed of the joists and wooden floor of the story
above. What was remarkable, as Mr. Raddon communicated to the Entomological
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 95
I have not observed that oats suffer from insects, except from the uni-
versal subterranean destroyer of the grasses, the wire-worm, of wliicli I
shall give you a more full account hereafter ; and occasionally from an
Aphis.
Buckwlindt (^Puli/<i<i)iu)u J}ii;o/)i/niin), a grain little cultivated with us,
except as food for pheasants, but which is an important crop on the Con-
tinent on poor sandy soils, is sometimes wholly cut off, by the larvie of a
moth (Aiiio/is trUici), which afterwards devours the rye sown to replace the
buckwheat ; and millet, also a considerable continental crop, is occasionally
nmch damaged by the larva- of another moth {Boti/x silaccalit;), which,
eating into the stem of the plants, causes them to wither and die.'
'I'he only important grain that now remains unnoticed is the maize, or
Indian corn Besides the chintz bug-fly, a little beetle- {Plialcrtn coniuta)
appears to tlevour it ; and it lias proliably other unrecorded enemies. The
(iuinea corn of America {IIolcus hicolor), as well as other kinds of grain,
is, according to Abbott, often much injured by the larva of a moth {Noctua
fnisiperda Smith), which feeds upon the main shoot.^
Next to grain pulse is useful to us, both when cultivated in our gardens
and in our fields. Peas and hcans, \\h\c\\ form so material a part of the
produce of the farm, are exposed to the attack of a numerous host of
insect depredators ; indeed the former, on account of their ravages, is one
of the most uncertain of our crops. The annuals from which in this
Society (^Trans. ii. proc. Ixvii.), was the great depth to which the larvae had bored
in the wood, even through knots tilled with turpentine, so as to convert portions of
the wood-work in places quite into a honey-comb, and thus to be almost as injurious
to the building as to the corn stored in it. Our first idea was that this boring was
simply for the purpose of gnawing oft' portions of wood with which to form their
cocoons before becoming pupa;, but the powdery masses hanging from the entrance
of the holes had, when viewed imder a lens, so completely the appearance of excre-
ment, that we were at last forced to the conclusion, however strange and improbable
it may seem, that these lan^aj, after eating ad libitum of barley, voluntarily quit it,
and actually eat and digest fir-wood, even to the very knots saturated with turpen-
tine. In fact, the great depth to which they bore is inconsistent with the sup-
position of their object being merely to detach woody fibres as a covering for their
cocoons. That their main purpose (whether we suppose the excavated wood to be
eaten and digested or not) is to provide a retreat for the larva;, which remain in this
state the whole winter, and do not become pupa; till spring, is proved by the fact that
it is from the mouths of these holes (after every portion of the excrement hanging
from them has been swept away, and the whole ceiling thickly lime-washed, as it is
every autumn) that the moths emerge by thousands in the month of June, as yearly
takes place in Messrs. Hellicar's granaries. The further investigation, which is so
evidently required, as to the strange anomaly of these larv;c seeming to eat and di-
gest wood after devouring as much barley as they choose, I have recommended to
my friend G. H. K. Thwaite, Esq., of Bristol, whose habits of close observation so
well fit him for throwing light on the subject ; and meanwhile it may be here ob-
served, that the facts stated of the great damage done to vessels that bring bones,
hoofs, and horns from Brazil, and in one case to a large parcel of cork-wood, by the
larvae of Dermestes vulpinus, which, after eating their fill of animal matter, attack
wood and cork, seem of an analogous kind to those above mentioned, unless in these
instances the wood Jand cork are merely gnawed, and not eaten and digested. —
(See Trans. Ent. Soc. Land. ii. proc. Ixviii. ; and Shuckard's Elements of Brit.
Ent. i. 189.)
1 KiiUar on Ins. inj. to Gardeners, &c. 102 — 110.
^ This insect was taken in maize by Mr. Sparshall of Xorwich.
2 Smith's Abbott's Insects of Georgia, 191.
96 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. '
country both these plants suffer most are the Aphides, commonly called
leaf-lice, but which properly should be denominated plant-lice. As almost
every animal has its peculiar loiise, so has almost every plant its peculiar
plant-louse ; and, next to locusts, these are the greatest enemies of the
vegetable world, and, like them, are sometimes so numerous as to darken
the air.^ The multiplication of these little creatures is infinite, and almost
incredible. Providence has endued them with privileges promoting fecun-
dity which no other insects possess : at one time of the year they are
viviparous, at another oviparous ; and, what is most remarkable and
without parallel, the sexual intercourse of one original pair serves for all
the generations which proceed from the female for a whole succeeding
year. Reaumur has proved that in five generations one Aphis may be the
progenitor of 5,904',900,000 descendants ; and it i^ supposed that in one
year there may be twenty generations.^ This astonishing fecundity ex-
ceeds that of any known animal ; and we cannot wonder that a creature
so prolific should be proportionably injurious : some species, however, seem
more so than others. Those that attack wheat, oats, and barley, of which
there are more kinds than one, seldom multiply so fast as to be very
noxious to those plants ; while those which attack pulse spread so rapidlj',
and take such entire possession, that the crop is greatly injured, and some-
times destroyed by them. This was the case with respect to peas in the
year 1810, when the produce was not much more than the seed sown;
and many farmers turned their swine into their pea-fields, not thinking
them worth harvesting. The damage in this instance was caused solely
by the Aphis, and was universal throughout the kingdom, so that a suffi-
cient supply for the navy could not be obtained. The earlier peas are
sown the better chance they stand of escaping, at least in part, the effects
of this vegetable Phthiriasis. Beans are also often great sufferers from
another species of plant-louse, in some districts, from its black colour,
called the Collier, in others the Dolphin, which begins at the top of the
plant, and so keeps multiplying downwards. The best remedy in this case,
which also tends to set the beans well, and improves both their quality
and quantity, is to top them as soon as the Aphides begin to appear, and
carrying away the tops to burn or bury them. In a late stage of growth
great havoc is often made in peas by the grub of a small beetle {Bruchus
granarius^, which will sometimes lay an egg in every pea of a pod, and thus
destroy it. Something similar, I have been told (I suspect it is a short-
snouted weevil), occasionally injures beans. In this country, however,
the mischief caused by the Bruchus is seldom very serious ; but in North
America another species (B. jnsi), which is also found here, but not to
any very injurious extent, is most alarmingly destructive, its ravages
having been at one time so universal as to put an end in some places to
the cultivation of that favourite pulse. No wonder, then, that Kalm should
have been thrown into such a trepidation upon discovering some of these
pestilent insects just disclosed in a parcel of peas he had brought from
that country, lest he should be the instrument of introducing so fatal an
evil into his beloved Sweden.^ In the year 1780 an alarm was spread in
1 I say this upon the authority of Mr. Wolnough of Hollesley (lateof Boyton) in
Suffolk, an intelligent agriculturist, and a most acute and accurate observer of
nature.
2 Keaum. vi. 566. 3 Kalm's Travels, i. 173.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. i)7
some parts of France, that peo|)le had been poisoned by eating worm-
eaten peas, and they were t'orbidden by anfhority to be exposed for sale
in the market ; but the fears of tlie public were soon removed l\v the ex-
amination of some scientific n)en, who found the cause of the injury to be
the insect of which I am now speakin<f.' Another species of Bruchus
(B. pcctiniconiis) devours the peas in Cliina and Barbary. A leguminous
seed, much used w hen boiled as food for horses in hulia, known to Euro-
peans by the name of Gniw, but in the Tamul dialect called Kn/ao, and by
the Moors CoolU-c, is the appropriate food of a fourth kind of Bruchus,
related to the last, but having the antenmc, which in the male are pec-
tinated, nnich shorter than the body. It is, perhaps, IL sculcllarix. A
parcel of this seed - given me by Captain (ireen was full of this insect,
several grains containing two. Indeed, in tropical climates, the seeds of
almost every pod-bearing plant, as of the genera G/tditsia, TItenbroma,
jMimosa, Robiuia, &c., are eaten by some species of Bruchus, as are the
cocoa-nut and palm-nut.^ Molina, in his History of Chili, tells us of a
beetle, which he names Luatnus pihtius, that infests the beans in that
country ; — a circumstance quite at variance with the habits of the Ln-
canklce, which all prey upon timber. This insect was probably a Fhaleria,
in which genus the mandibles are protruded from the head, like those of
Lucaniis ; and one species, as we have seen above, feeds upon maize.
Great profits are sometimes derived by farmers from their crops of
clover-seed : but this does not happen very often ; for a small weevil
( Apia?! Jiavifemorafuni), vi\\\ch abounds everywhere at almost all times of
the year, feeds upon the seed of the purple clover, and in most seasons
does the crop considerable damage ; so that a plant of the fairest appear-
ance will, in consequence of the voracity of this little enemy, produce
scarcely any thing. Another species {ApionJ/avipes) infests the Dutch or
white clover.^ The young plants of purple clover, when just sprung, are
often, as Mr. Joseph Stickney pointed out to me, much injured by the
same little jumping beetles {Haltica) that attack the turnips. In Germany,
where Rape is more extensively grown than with us for the seed, the crop
sometimes wholly fails from the attacks of a small grub, supposed to be
that of a weevil of the genera Ncdyus or Ceuiorhi/nchus, which, piercing the
stalks from the base to the summit, deprives the blossom of the due supply
of sap, and thus causes it to perish.^
But not only, if let loose to the work of destruction, might insects an-
nihilate our grain and pulse, they w(fldd also deprive the earth of that
beautiful green carpet which now covers it, and is so agreeable and so re-
freshing to the sight. When you see a large tract of land lying fallow, as
is sometimes the case in open districts, with no intervening patches of
verdure, how unpleasant and uncomfortable is it to your eye! What then
would be your sensations were the whole face of the earth bare, and not
dressed by Flora ? But such a state of things would soon take place if, to
1 Amoreux,288.
- I have raised plants from this seed, which appear from the foliage to belong
either to Phaseolus or DoUchos.
^ Westwood, Mod. Class of Ins. i. 330. ; and in Loudon's Gardener^s Mag. No. 87.
p. 287.
* Markwick, Marsham, and Lehmann, in Linn. Trans, vi. 142 — . ; and Kirby in
ditto, ix. 37. 42. n. 19. 23.
* Keferstein in Silbermann's Reiue Ent. i. 135.
H
98 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
punish us, or to teach us thankfulness to the great Arbiter of our fate,
the insects that feed upon the g7-ass of our pastures were to become as
generally numerous as they are occasionally permitted to do. One of the
worst of these ravagers is the grub of the common cockchafer (Melolont/ta
vulgaris). This insect, which is found to remain in the larva state four years,
sometimes destroys whole acres of grass, as I can aver from my own ob-
servation. It undermines the richest meadows, and so loosens the turf
that it will roll up as if cut with a turfing-spade. These grubs did so much
injury about seventy years ago to a poor farmer near Norwich, that the
court of that city, out of compassion, allowed him 25/., and the man and
his servant declared that he had gathered eighty bushels of the beetle.^
In the year 1785 many provinces of France were so ravaged by them, that
a premium was offered by the government for the best mode of destroying
them. They do not confine themselves to grass, but eat also the roots of
corn ; and it is to feast upon this grub more particularly that the rooks
follow the plough.^
The larva also of another species of a cognate genus (Hoplia pulveru-
lenta) is extremely destructive in moist meadows, rooting under the herb-
age, so that, the soil becoming loose, the grass soon withers and dies.
Swine are very fond of these grubs, and will devour vast numbers of them,
and the rooks lend their assistance.
Amongst the Lepidoptera, the greatest enemy of our pastures is the
Charccas Graminis, which, however, is said not to touch the foxtail grass.
In the years 1740, 1741, 1742, 1748, 1749, they multiplied so prodigiously
and committed such ravages in many provinces of Sweden, that the mea-
dows became quite white and dry as if a fire had passed over them.^ This
destructive insect, though found in this country, is luckily scarce amongst
us ; but our northern neighbours appear occasionally to have suffered
greatly from it. In 1759, and again in 1802, the high sheep farms in
Tweeddale were dreadfully infested by a caterpillar, which was probably
the larva of this moth ; spots of a mile square were totally covered by
them, and the grass devoured to the root.* In 18.35, the larvae of this
moth so infested some districts in Bohemia, that Prince Clary, by em-
ploying two hundred men for four and a half days, collected twenty-three
bushels, computed to contain four and a half millions of caterpillars.^
Grasses, both natural and artificial, are attacked by the larvae of several
species of beetles. Those of Coccinella impunctata (which with C. Argus
Scriba, and other species, live on»vegetable food) destroy, in Germany,
sainfoin, clover, and tares ; those of Colaspis barbara, in Spain, whole fields
of lucerne (Medicago saliva ^') ; and those of Galleruca Tanaceti, natural
pasturage, having greatly injured that of Mount Jura in Switzerland in
1 Philos. Trans. 1741. 581.
2 There would seem to be a prospect of cockchafers being made in some degree to
repay the previous injury they cause, if the statement in the newspapers (June,
1841) be correct, that M. Breard, mayor of Honfleur in France, and proprietor of
an oil-mill having offered one franc per bushel for cockchafers, procured seventeen
bushels, from which he obtained twenty-eight quarts of good lamp-oil. A kind of
grease has also lately been made from them in Hungary.
3 De Geer, ii. 341. Amcen. Acad. iii. 355.
4 Farmers Mag. iii. 487.
5 Kollar on Ins. injurious to Gardeners, Sec. 105. 126.
^ Dufour, Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, v. 372.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 99
1833.' Even the seeds of grasses have their insect enemies. Mr. H.
Gibbs stated at the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society, May 5.
1841, that ireiierally not one in a dozen of the seeds of the luu/ai/ grasaes
(Ahpcciirus) vegetate, owing to their vitality being destroyed by a small
orange-coloured grub (CWidomi/ia f),-
Most of the insects I have hitherto mentioned attack our crops partially,
confining themselves to one or two kinds only ; but there are some
species which extend their ravages indifferently to a//. Of this description
is the Pi/ralis {'^) fiiinicntdHs, which moth, Pallas tells us, is an almost
universal pest in the government of Kasan in Russia, often eating the
greater part of the spring corn to the root.^ To this we are fortunately
strangers ; but another, well known by the name of the wire-worm, causes
annually a large diminution of the produce of our fields, destroying indis-
criminately wheat, rye, oats, and grass. This insect, which has its name
apparently from its slender form and uncommon hardness and toughness,
ib the grub of one of the elastic beetles termed by Linne Elater lineatus,
but by Bierkander, to whom we are indebted for its history, E. Segetis*
(Agriuf(.s lineatus Eschscholtz). The late ingenious INIr. Paul of Starston
in Norfolk (well known as the inventor of a machine to entrap the turnip-
beetle, which may be ap])licd by collectors with great advantage to general
purposes ), has also succeeded in tracing this insect from the larva to the
imago state. His larvae produced Elater obscurtis of Mr. INIarshau), which,
however, comes so near to E. Segctls that it is doubtful whether it be
more than a variety. The other species, however, of the genus have
similar larva-, many of which probably contribute to the mischief. When
told that it lives in its first (or feeding) state not less than five years,
during the greatest part of which time it is supported by devouring the
roots of grain, though it will also attack and often much injure turnips,
potatoes, &C., you will not wonder that its ravages should be so extensive,
and that whole crops should sometimes be cut oft" by it. As it abounds
chieHy in newly broken-up land, though the roots of the grasses supply it
with food, it probably does not do any great injury to our meadows and
pastures.^
' Dufour, Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, iii. 19,
2 Gardener's Chronicle, 1841. p. 311.
5 Pallas's Travels in South Russia, i. 30.
* Marsham in Communications to the Board of Agricxdture, iv. 412. Plate viii.
fig. 4. and Linn. Trans, ix. IGO.
• The wire-worm is particularly destructive for a few years in gardens recently
converted from pasture-ground. In the Botanic Garden at Hull thus circumstanced
a great proportion of the annuals sown in 1813 were destroyed by it. Avery simple
and effectual remedy in such cases was mentioned to me by Sir Joseph Banks. He
recommended that slices of potato stuck upon skewers should be buried near the
seeds sown, examined everj' day, and the wire-worms which collect upon them in
great numbers destroyed.
This plan of decoying destructive animals from our crops by offering them more
tempting food is excellent, and deserves to be pursued in other instances. It was
very successfully employed in 1813 by .J. M. Kodwell, Esq., of Barham Hall, near
Ipswich, one of the most skilful and best-informed agriculturists in the county of Suf-
folk, to preserve some of his wheat-fields from the ravages of a small grev slug, which
threatened to demolish the plant. Having heard that turnips had been used with
success to entice the slugs from wheat, he caused a sufficient quantity to dress eight
acres to be got together ; and then, the tops being divided and the apples sliced, he
directed the pieces to be laid separately, dressing two stetches with them and omit-
H 2
100 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
Here also ma}^ be included the larva of the long-legged gnat (Tipula
oleracea), known in many parts by the name of the grub, which is some-
times very prejudicial to the grass in marshy lands, and at others not less
so to corn. Reaumur informs us that in Poitou, in certain years, the grass
of whole districts has been so destroyed by it, as not to produce the
food necessary for the sustenance of the cattle.^ In many parts of Eng-
land, in Holderness particularly, it cuts off a large proportion of the wheat
crops, especially if sown upon clover-lays.- Reaumur concludes from the
observations he made that it lives solely upon earth, and consequently that
the injury which it occasions, arises from its loosening the roots of corn
and grass by burrowing amongst them : but my friend Mr. Stickney, the
intelligent author of a treatise upon this insect, is inclined to think from
his experiments that it feeds on the roots themselves. However this may
be, the evil produced is evident ; and it appears too from the observations
of the gentleman last mentioned, that this animal is not killed by lime
applied in much larger doses than usual.^
Our national beverage ale, so valuable and heartening to the lower
orders, and so infinitely preferable to ardent spirits, is indebted to another
vegetable, the hop, for its agreeable conservative bitter. This plant, so
precious, has numerous enemies in the Lilliputian world to which I am
introducing you. Its roots are subject to the attack of the caterpillar of a
singular species of moth (^Hepiahis Humuli), known to collectors by the
name of the ghost, that sometimes does them considerable injury.* —
A small beetle, also {Haltica concinna) is particularly destructive to the
tender shoots early in the year ; and upon the presence or absence of
Aphides, known by the name of t\\ejli/, as in the case of peas, the crop of
every year depends ; so that the hop-grower is wholly at the mercy of
insects. They are the barometer that indicates the rise and fall of his
wealth, as well as of a very important branch of the revenue, the difference
in the amount of the duty on hops being often as much as 200,000/. per
annum, more or less in proportion as t\\ejly prevails or the contrary.^
ting two alternateh', till the whole field of eight acres was gone over. On the fol-
lowing morning he'employed two women to examine and free from the slugs, which
they did into a measure, the tops and slices ; and when cleared, they were laid upon
those stetches that had been omitted the day before. It was observed invariabh',
that in the stetches dressed with the turnips no slugs were to be found upon the
wheat or crawling upon the land, though they abounded upon the turnips ; while on
the undressed stetches they were to be seen in great numbers both on the wheat and
on the land. The quantity of slugs thus collected was near a bushel. — Mr. Eodwell
is persuaded that by this plan he saved his wheat from essential injury.
1 Reaum. v. 11.
2 Two species are confounded under the appellation of the grub, the larvaj namely
of Tipula oleracea and cornichm, which last is very injurious, though not equally with
the first. In the rich district of Sutik Island in Holderness, in the spring of 1813,
hundreds of acres of pasture were entirely destroyed by them, being rendered as
completelj' brown as if thej' had suffered a three months' drought, and destitute of
all vegetation except that of a few thistles. A square foot of the dead turf being
dug up, 210 grubs were coiinted in it! and, what furnishes a striking proof of the
prolific powers -of these insects, the next year it was difiicult to find a single one.
3 Sticknev'S Ohsei-vations on the Grub.
4 De Geer, i. 487.
5 It would not be difiicult to show that nearly the whole of this large sum, and their
own still greater losses, are thrown away by the hop planters from their ignorance
IKDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 101
If the bcer-drinkcr be thus interested in the history of these animals,
equally so is the drinker of tea. Indeed .iiignr is an article so universally
useful and agreeable, that what concerns the cane that produces it seems
to concern every one. This also atlbrds a teniptini? food to insects. The
caterpillar of a white moth, called the horcr, for destroying which a gold
medal has been long oflered by the Society of Arts, is, in this respect, a
great nuisance, boring into the centre of the stem, and often destroying a
great pro|)ortion of the crop. Tills insect (for his essay on which he
received the oH'ered medal) has been described by the Rev. L. Guilding, in
the Transactions of the Socicti/ of Arts (xlvi. l-t.3.), under the name of J^iatreea
Saccliari, which, however, Mr. Westwood conceives is identical with
PhaUena saccliaralis Fab.' An ant also {Formica atmlis) makes a lodgment
in the interior of tiie sugar-cane in Guinea, and destroys it. — Another
species of the latter genus does not devour it, and is tiierefore improperly
called Formica saccliarivora by Linne ; but, by making its nest for shelter
under the roots so injures the plants that they become unhealthy and un-
productive. These insects about seventy years ago appeared in such
infinite hosts in the island of Granada, as to put a stop to the cultivation
of this plant ; and a reward of 20,000/. was otil-red to any one who should
discover an effectual mode of destroying them. Their numbers were in-
credible. They descended from the hills like torrents, and the plantations,
as well as every path and road for miles, were filled with them. Many
domestic quadrupeds perished in consequence of this plague. Rats, mice,
and reptiles of every kind became an easy prey to them : and even the
birds, which they attacked whenever they alighted on the ground in search
of food, were so harassed as to be at length unable to resist them. Streams
of water opposed only a temporary obstacle to their progress, the foremost
rushing blindly on to certain death, and fresh armies instantly following,
till a bank was formed of the carcases of those that were drowned suffi-
cient to dam up the waters, and allow the main body to pass over in safety
below. Even the all-devouring element of fire was tried in vain. When
lighted to arrest their route, they rushed into the blaze in such mvriads of
of entomolosry. Led by their old prejudices of the Qy being produced hy cold
winds, &c., they do nothing towards its destruction, though if aware of the way in
which it is generated (as lately explained), and that by killing each female as it
appears early in the spring, thej' would prevent the birth not of thousands but of
millions of aphides, were they to take measures for thus lessening the number of
their destructive enemy, they might in great measure secure themselves from its
attacks. The aphides being so soft are killed with the slightest pressure ; so that it
is merely necessary to rub an infested leaf between the thumb and lingers, with a
force quite insufficient to injure its texture, to destroy every aphis upon it ; and, from
experiments which I myself made in the hop-grounds of Worcestersliire when at
Malvern in 1838, I am persuaded that every leaf of each hop plant might be thus
cleared of the female aphides, first attacking it in spring, by women or children
mounted on step-ladders for this purpose, in ten minutes or less ; so that six plants
being cleared per hour, sixty might be cleared per day at an expense of a shilling
for labour, and the first cost of a few step-ladders; and by repeating the operation
every week or fortnight, there can be no doubt a hop plantation might be effectually
preser\'ed from the fly ; as it might earlier in the spring from the fiea (Haltica con-
cinna), by shaking them into a kind of wide and deep sieve (divided into two halves
with a circular space for tlic hop poles and hop stems) with a linen bottom and bag
for preventing them from jumping out again.
' ^\■estwood, Modern Classif. of Ins. ii. 411.
u 3
109 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
millions as to extinguish it. Those that thus patriotically devoted them-
selves to certain death for the common good, were but as the pioneers or
advanced guard of a countless army, which by their self-sacrifice was
enabled to pass unimpeded and unhurt. The entire crops of standing
canes were burnt down, and the earth dug up in every part of the
plantations. But vain was every attempt of man to effect their destruc-
tion, till in 1780 it pleased Providence at length to annihilate them by the
torrents of rain wliich accompanied a hurricane most fiital to the other
West India Islands. This dreadful pest was thought to have been im-
ported.^ More recently great mischief has been done to the sugar planta-
tions in the island of St. Vincent, by a species of mole-cricket {Gryllotalpa
didactyla Latr.), which destroys the young shoots and bores into the plant- ;
and to those of the island of Granada by the Delphux sacchanvora, an
homopterous insect, allied to that producing the cuckoo-spit, which attacks
the leaves in such numbers and with such voracity, that some plantations
which formerly made three hundred hogsheads of sugar per annum, had
not made more than eighty or ninety in ISSi, at which time, as stated by
J. C. Johnstone, Esq., two thirds of the island were suffering from its
ravages, and the insect was extending itself to the neighbouring islands.^
Besides these enemies, the sugar-cane has also its Aphis, which sometimes
destroys the whole crop ^; and, according to Humboldt and Bonpland, the
larva oi Elater noctilucus feeds on it^, as do two weevils [Calandra Fnlma-
rnm and C. Sacchari Guild.), whose history has been given by the late Rev.
L. Guilding.^
Three other vegetable productions of the New World, cotton, tohncco,
and coffee, which are also valuable articles of commerce, receive great
injury from the depredations of insects. M'Kinnen, in his tour through
the West Indies, states that in 1788 and 1794 two thirds of the crop of
cotton in Crooked Island, one of the Bahamas, was destroyed by the
clte^iille (probably a lepidopterous larva') ; and the red bug, an insect
equally noxious, stained it so much in some places as to render it of little
or no value. Browne relates that in Jamaica a bug destroys whole fields
of this plant, and the caterpillar of that beautiful butterfly Hclicopis Ciipido
also feeds upon it.® That of a hawk-moth. Sphinx Carolina, is the greatest
pest of tobacco : and it is attacked likewise by the larva of a moth,
Phakcna Rhe.vice Smith ^, and by other insects of the names and kind of
which I am ignorant ; and the coffee plantations in Guadeloupe and other
of the West Indian Islands are ravaged bv the larvae of a little moth
(E/ackista Coffeellay^
Roots are another important object of agriculture, which, however, as to
1 Castle in Philos. Trans, xxx. 346.
2 Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. ii. proc. x. xxiv. xxxi.
3 Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. i. proc. xxvii. Ixx. and Westwood, in Mag. Hat. Hist.
vi. 407.
4 Brown's Civil and Nat. Hist, of Jamaica, 430.
* Essai sur la Geographie des Plantes, 136.
6 Westwood, Modern Class, of Ins. i. 347.
7 At the meeting of the Entomological Society on the 6th June, 1842, Mr. W. W.
Saunders read a memoir on Depressaria Gossypiella, a small moth, the caterpillar of
which is very destructive to the cotton crops in India.
^ M'Kinnen, 171. Browne, uhi supr. Merian, Ins. Stcr. 10.
9 Smith and Abbot, Insects of Georgia, 199.
10 Gue'rin-Me'neville, Bev. Zool. 1842, p. 24.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 103
many of tliem, they may seem to be defended by the earth that covers them,
do not escape the attack of insect-enemies. — Tlie van-ot, whicli forms a
vaiualile part of the crop of the sand-land farms in Siitiblk, is often very
much injured, as is also tlie parsnip, by a small centipede (^(jtopliilits clec-
tririis ), and another polypod {I'oli/dcsuuis complaualiis), which cat into various
labyrinths the upper part of their roots ; and they are both sometimes
totally destroyed by the mag<;ot of some dipterous insect, probably one of
the Mitscidtc. I had an opportunity of noticing this in the month of July,
in the year 1812, in the garden of our valued friend the Rev. Revett
Sheppard, of Offton in Suftolk. The plants appeared many of them in a
dying state ; and upon drawing them out of the ground to ascertain the
cause, these larvae were fouml with their head anil half of their body im-
mersed in the root in an oblique direction, anil in many instances they had
eaten off the end of it.' The larva of a little moth (^Ha-miins daiiccl/a),
described by Bouche, feeds upon the seeds l>oth of the carrot and parsnip,
covering the umbel with a silken web, and in some years destroys the
whole crop.-
Amcrica has made us no present more extensively beneficial, compared
with which the mines of Potosi are worthless, than the jjotafo. This in-
valuable root, which is now so universally cultivated, is often, in this
country, considerably injured by the two insects first mentioned as attack-
ng the carrot, and also by the wire-worm. The Death's-head hawk-moth
(Ac/icro)ifia Atropos) in its larva state feeds upon its leaves, though without
much injury. In America it is said to suffer much from two beetles
{Cantlinris cinerea and viUnta), of the same genus with the blister-beetle ' ;
and another species, C. verticalis, in 1839 wholly destroyed the leaves of
the crops at Volterra in Tuscany.^ In the island of Burbadoes some
hemipterous insect, supposed to be a Tcttigoitia, occasionally attacks them.
In IT^-t and 1735 vast swarms devoured almost every vegetable production
of that island, particularly the potato, and thus occasioned such a failure
of this excellent esculent, especially in one parish, that a collection was
made throughout the island for the relief of the poor, whose principal food
it forms.
The chief dependence of our farmers for the sustenance of their cattle
in the winter is another most valuable root, the turnip, the introduction of
which into our system of agriculture has added millions to our national
revenue ; and they have often to lament the loss and distress occasioned
by a failure in this crop, of which these minor animals are the cause. On
its first coming up, as soon as the cotyledon leaves are unfolded, a whole
host of little jumping beetles, composed chieHy of Haltica Xeniorum
called by farmers the ^^^ and blac/c Jac^-,hut assisted also by other species,
1 The larv'je above noticed were probably those of Fsila Rosce Meigen (^Psilomyia
Roste Macquart), which Kbllar (p. 161.) describes as attacking carrots, residing
chiefly in the main root near the end.
- KoUar on Ins. inj. to Gardeners, &c. 155.
3 llliger, Mag. i. 256.
* Passerini, quoted in Rev. Zool. 1841, p. 354.
5 The farmers would do well to change the name of this insect from turmp-fly to
turnip-flea, since, from its diminutive size and activity in leaping, the latter name is
much the most proper. The term, the fly, might with propriety be restricted to the
Hop-aphis, and other species of the same genus ; and this is the more desirable, be-
cause the hop is also subject to the attack of a Haltica, which the hop planters are
judiciously beginning to distinguish bv the name of the "flea."
' H 4
104 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
as H. concinna, attack and devour them ; so that, on accouut of their
ravages, the land is often obliged to be resown, and frequently with no
better success. It has been calculated by an eminent agriculturist, that
from this cause alone the loss sustained in the turnip crops in Devonshire
in r/86, was not less than 100,000/.^ Much damage is also sometimes
occasioned by a little weevil {Kcdyus contractus), which in the same
manner pierces a hole in the cuticle. When the plant is more advanced,
and out of danger from these pigmy foes, the black larvae of a saw-fly
(^Atkalia CentifoUce), called by the farmers the " black" and " nigger" cater-
pillars, take their place, and occasionally do no little mischief, whole
districts being sometimes nearly stripped by them ; so that in 1782 and
1783, many thousand acres were on this account ploughed up : and in
1835, 1836 and 1837, the injury was not less extensive.'- The caterpillar
of the cabbage-butterfly (Pontia Jirassiccs), is also sometimes found upon
the turnip in great numbers ; and Sir Joseph Banks informs me that forty
or fifty of the insects before mentioned, called by Mr. Walford the wire-
worm, but more probably, as there observed, the larvas of one of the tribe
oi Bracht/jHera or rove-beetles, have been discovered in October just below
the leaves in a single bulb of this plant. — The small knob or tubercle often
observable on these roots is inhabited by a grub, which resembles one found
in similar knobs on the roots of Sinapis arvensis (from which I have bred
Nedyus contractus and N. assimihs^ small weevils nearly related to each
other), and like it produces a small weevil, Ceutorhynchus sulcicoUk. This,
however, does not seem to affect their growth. Great mischief is occa-
sionally done to the young plants by the wire-worm. I was shown a field
last summer in which they had destroyed one-fourth of the crop, and the
gentleman who showed them to me calculated that his loss by them would
be 100/. One year he sowed a field thrice with turnips, which were twice
wholly, and the third time in great part, cut off by this insect.^ The roots
are also sometimes seriously injured by the caterpillars of the moth
(Agrotis Segetum) before mentioned, as destructive to wheat crops on the
Continent. Whether the disease to which turnips are subject, in some
parts of the kingdom, from the form of the excrescences into which the
^ Young's Annals of Agriculture, vii. 102. For a full history oiHaltica Nemorum,
from the egg to its perfect state, see the very valuable paper of Henry Le Keux,
Esq., in the Transactions of the Entomological Society of London (ii. 24.), who,
though no entomologist or agriculturist, has by his practical good sense and habits
of patient and accurate observation, thrown more light on this previously' obscure
subject than all his predecessors.
2 Marshal in Fhilos. Trans. Ixxiii. 1783. See Trans. Ent. Sac. Lond. i. proc. lxvi.,ii.
proc. Ixxviii. and the admirable Prize Essaj', containing a full history of this insect by
G. Newport, Esq., 1838. See also the valuable papers on this insect, and on the tuniip'-
flea in Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, vol. ii. by John
Curtis, Esq,
5 Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. ii. proc. xxx. A striking instance of the use of hand-
picking (in most cases by far the most effective mode of getting rid of insects) ap-
peared in the West Briton, a provincial paper, in November, 1838, stating that Mr.
G. Pearce of Pennare Goran had saved an acre and a half of turnips, sown to replace
wheat destroyed by the wire-worm and attacked by hosts of these larvaj, by setting
boys to collect them, who, at the rate of three half-pence per 100, gathered 18,000,
as many as 50 having been taken from one turnip. Thus at an expense of only 1/. 2s. 6d.
an acre and a half of turnips, worth from 5/. to 71. or more, was saved ; while as the
boys could each collect 600 per day, 30 days' employment was given to them at 9rf.
per day, which they would not otherwise have had.
INDUIECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 10.5
bull) slioots, called Jinqers and toes, be occasionctl by insect!?, is not cer-
tainly known.' Another root, the Jiecl, which has within the last twenty
years been almost as extensively cultivated in I'rance for the manufacture
of sugar as turnips with us, is much injured by a small beetle, a new
species of Cri/ptopliagus described by M, Macquart (C. Uctcc), which
devours the plants as soon as they appear above ground. -
We have wamlereil long enough about the fields to observe the progress
of insect devastation : let us now return home to visit the domains of
Flora and Pomona, that we may see whether their subjects are exposed
to equal maltreatment. If we begin with the Icilchcn-gnrden, we shall find
that its various productions, ministering so materially to our daily comfort
anil enjoyment, almost all suffer more or less from the attack of the
animals we are considering. — Thus, the earliest of our table dainties,
radis/ici, are devoured by the maggot of a fly (^Anthomi/ia Jiadicuni), assisted
by those of a very small beetle {Lahidiitu j)orcatt(s^), and our Icltiices by
the caterpillars of several species of moth; one of which is the beautiful
tiger-moth (Eupicpia Caja), another the pot-herb moth ( Manwstra o/e-
racca), a third anonymous, described by Reaumur, as beginning at the
root, eating itself a mansion in the stem, and so destroying the plant before
it cabbages."* And when they are come to their perfection and ap[)car fit
for the table, their beauty and delicacy are often marred by the troublesome
earwig, which, insinuating itself into them, defiles them with its excrements ;
while the seed is often nearly wholly destroyed (as was the case in Suffolk
in 1836 and the three following years) by the grubs of a % {Anthomyia
Lnctucce Bouche) which live in the involucre, and feed on the seeils and
receptacle.^ What more acceptable vegetable in the spring than brocoli ?
Yet how dreadfully is its foliage often ravaged in the autumn by numerous
hordes of the cabbage-butterfly ! so that, in an extensive garden, you will
sometimes see nothing left of the leaves except the veins and stalks. —
What more useful, again, than the cabbage 'i Besides the same insect,
w hich injures them in a similar way, and a species of field-bug (Peutafoma
crnata), which pierces the leaves like a sieve *^, in .some countries they are
infested by the caterpillar of a most destructive moth (^Mamestra Brassicce),
to which I have before alluded ; which, not content with the leaves, pene-
trates into the very heart of the plant." — One of the most delicate and
1 Spence's Observations on the Disease in Turnips called Fingers and Toes, Hull,
1812, 8vo.
2 Ann. Sc. Nat. xxiii. 94. quoted by Westwood, 3Iod. Class, of Ins. i. 148.
3 Kyber in Germar"s Mag. der Entom. i. 1.
'' Reaum. ii. 471.
5 Curtis in Gardener's Chronicle, 1841, p. 363.
^ KoUur on Ins. inj. to Gardeners, Sec. p. 148.
^ De Geer, ii. 440. In the summer of 182G wiien at Brussels, I observed that de-
licious vegetable of the cabbage tribe so largely cultivated there under the name of
Jets de choujc, and which in England we call Brussels sjjrouts, to be materially in-
jured in the later stages of its growth by the attacks of the turnip-flea, and other
little beetles of the same genus { Halt ica), which were so numerous and so universal!}-
prevalent, that I scarcely ever examined a full-grown plant from which a vast num-
ber might not have been collected. Some plants were almost black with them, the
species most abundant being of a dark copper tinge. They had not merely eroded
the cuticle in various parts, so as to give the leaves a brown bbstered appearance,
buf had also eaten them into large holes, at the margin of which I often saw them
in the act of gnawing; and the stunted and unhealthy appearance of the plants
106 moiRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
admired of all table vegetables, concerning which gardeners are most apt
to pride themselves, and bestow much pains to produce in perfection, I
mean the cauliflower, is often attacked by a fly, which, ovipositing in that
part of the stalk covered by the earth, the maggots, when hatched, occasion
the plant to wither and die, or to produce a worthless head.^ Even when
the head is good and handsome, if not carefully examined previous to
being cooked, it is often rendered disgusting by earwigs that have crept
into it, or the green caterpillar of Pontia Rapce. In 1836, as we learn from
Mr. Westwood, great injury was done in the market gardens to the west
of London to the cauliflowers and other plants of the cabbage tribe by a
species oi aphis covered with a purple powder, which had not been before
observed by the gardeners, who called it a new kind of blight.^
Our peas, beans, carrots, parsnips, turnips, and potatoes are attacked in
the garden by the same enemies that injure them in the fields^; I shall
therefore dismiss them without farther notice, and point out those which
infest another of our most esteemed kinds of pulse, kidney beans. These
are principally Aphides, which in dry seasons are extremely injurious to
them. The fluid which they secrete, falling upon the leaves, causes them
sufficiently indicated the injurious effect of this interruption of the proper office of
the sap. What was particularly remarkable, considering the locomotive powers of
these insects, was that the young turnips, sown in August after the wheat and rye,
close to acres of Brussels sprouts (which all round Brussels are planted in the open
fields among other crops), infested by myriads of these insects, were not more eaten
by them than they usually are in England, and produced good average crops. It
would seem, agreeably to a fact which I shall mention in its place in spealdng of the
food of insects, that they prefer the taste of leaves to which they have been accus-
tomed, to younger plants of the same natural family ; and hence perhaps the previous
sowing of a crop of cabbage-plants in the corner of a field meant for turnips, might
allure and keep there the great bulk of these insects present in the viciuit}', until the
turnips were out of danger.
1 Perhaps this fly is the same which Linne confounded with TacMna' Larvarum,
which he says he had found in the roots of the cabbage {Syst. Nat. 992. 78.). I say
" confounded,^'' because it is not likely that the same species should be parasitic in an
insect, and also inhabit a vegetable.' It is obviously the same described by Kollar
from Bouche' under the name of Anthomyia Brassicw (159.), which he states often
destroys whole fields of cabbages by boring into the roots and stalks.
- Trans. Ent. Soc. Land. ii. proc. xxi.
•^ On examining some young garden peas and beans about four inches high, I
observed the margins of the leaves to be gnawed into deep scollops by a little wee-
vil (Sitona Uneata), of which I found from two to eight on each pea and bean, and
many in the act of eating. Not only were the larger leaves of every plant thus
eroded, but in many cases the terminal j'oung shoots and leaves were apparently ir-
reparably injured. I have often noticed this and another of the short-snouted Cur-
culios (5. tibialis) in great abundance in pea and bean fields, but was not aware till
now that either of them was injurious to these plants. Probably both are so, but
v.-liether the crop is materiallj' affected by them must be left to further inquiry.
Garden beans still more than the field kinds, Mr. Curtis informs us, greatly suttered
in 1841, from the holes which humble-bees (Bombus terrestris and lucorum) made in
the blossoms (as they usually do) to get out the honey contained in the nectary,
which operation injuring the pods in their earliest state, four-fifths of them were
destroyed, and produced no beans. (Curtis in Gardener's Chron. 1841, p. 485.)
When at Shrewsbury in August 1839, I found almost everj' pod of the garden peas
brought to market inhabited by a single yellowish-white lepidopterous larva, three
or four lines long, which had eaten more or less of each pea, but which, though
several assumed the pupa state and entered the earth in the box in which they were
placed, never became perfect moths.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 107
to turn black as if sprinkled with soot ; and tiie nutriment beini; subtracted
from the pods by their constant suction, they are preventctl from coming
to their proper size or perfection. The beans also which they contain are
sometimes devoured by the caterpillar of a small moth. ' — Onions, which
add a relish to the poor man's crusts and cheese, and form so material an
incredient in the most savory dishes of the rich, are also the favourite food
oi' the maggot of a Hy, that often does considerable damage to the crop. —
From this maggot (for a supply of onions containing which I have to thank
my friend Mr. Campbell, surgeon of Hedon, near Hull, w here it is very
injurious, particularly in light soils) I have succeeded in breeding the fly,
which proves of that tribe of the Linnean genus Musca, now called An-
ihumi/ia. Being ajiparently undescribcd. and new to my valued corre-
spondent Count Iloti'iuausegg, to whom I sent it, I call it A. Ccpamm. —
The diuretic asparagus, tow ;u-ils the close of the seasan, is sometimes ren-
dered unpalateable by the numerous eggs of the asparagus beetle (Crioccris
.hparagi), anil its larvje feetl upon the foliage after the heatls branch out.
— Cucumbers with us enjoy an immunity from insect assailants ; but in
America they are depriveil of this privilege, an unascertained species,
called there the cucumber fly, doing them great injury.- — The plants of
spinach are sometimes eaten bare by the blackish-browu caterpillars of the
lovely little moth Glijpliiiptcni.v R(csclla.^ — Horse-radish (as well as the
cabbage tribe) is attackeil by the larvae of another moth, Mcsographe for-
fcalis:^ — Anil to name no more, mushrooms, which arc frequently culti-
vated and much in request, often swarm with the maggots of various
Dipteia and Colcoptera.
The insects just enumerated are partial in their attacks, confining them-
selves to one or two kinds of our pulse or other vegetables. But there
are others that devour more indiscriminately the produce of our gardens ;
and of these in certain seasons and countries we have no greater and more
universal enemy than the caterpillar of a moth called by entomologists
Flusia Gamma, from its having a character inscribed in gold on its primary
wings, which resembles that Greek letter. This creature affords a preg-
nant instance of the power of Providence to let loose an animal to the
work of destruction and punishment. Though common with us, it is
seldom the cause of more than trivial injury ; but in the year 1735 it was
so incredibly nudtiplied in France as to infest the whole country. On the
great roads, wherever you cast your eyes, you might see vast numbers
traversing them in all directions to pass from field to field ; but their
ravages were particularly felt in the kitchen-gardens, where they devoured
every thing, whether pulse or pot-herbs, so that nothing was left besides
the stalks and veins of the leaves. The credulous multitude thought they
■were poisonous, report affirming that in some instances the eating of them
had been followed by baneful effects. In consequence of this alarming
idea, herbs were banished for several weeks from the soups of Paris. For-
tunately these destroyers did not meddle with the corn, or famine would
have followed m their train. Reaumur has proved that a single pair of
these insects might in one season produce 80,000 ; so that were the
friendly Ichneumons removed, to which the mercy of Heaven has given it
1 Reaum. ii. 479. 2 Barton in Philos. Magaz. ix. 62.
5 KoUar's Ins. inj, to Gardeners, &c. p. 157. * Ibid. p. 155.
108 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
in charge to keep their numbers within due limits, we should no longer
enjoy the comfort of vegetables with our animal food, and probably soon
become the prey of scorbutic diseases.^ — I must not overlook that sin-
gular animal the mole-cricket {Gryllotalpa vulgaris), which is a terrible
devastator of the produce of the kitchen-garden. It burrows under
ground, and devouring the roots of plants thus occasions them to wither,
and even gets into hot-beds. It does so much mischief in Germany, that
the author of an old book on gardening, after giving a figure of it, exclaims,
" Happy are the places where this pest is unknown ! "
The flowers and shrubs that form the ornament of our parterres and
pleasure-grounds, seem less exposed to insect depredation than the pro-
duce of the kitchen-garden ; yet still there are not a few that suffer li-om
it. The foliage of one of our greatest favourites, the rose, suffers from the
caterpillars of the little rose-moths, Tinea (Oniix) rodophagella Kollar,
Tortrix (^Argi/rotozci) Bergmanniana ~, and of several other moths, and
often loses all its loveliness and lustre from the excrements of the Aphides
that prey upon it. The leaf-cutter bee also {Megachile ^ centuncularis), by
cutting pieces out to form for its young its cells of curious construction,
disfigures it considerably ; and the froth frog-hopper (^Aphrophora spu-
viarin), aided by the saw-fly of the rose (Hj/lotuma Rosce), as well as
others of the same family, contributes to check the luxuriance of its growth,
and to diminish the splendour of its beauty ; but all these evils are nothing
compared with the wholesale devastation sometimes made on the roots of
this shrub by the larvjE of cockchafers, which in two years destroyed
at Chenevieres sur Maine in France, 100,000 rose-trees in M. Vibert's
nurseries, which he was forced to abandon, Reaumur has given the his-
tory of a fly {Merodon Narcissi) whose larva feeds in safety within the
bulbs of the Narcissus, and destroys them ; and also of another, though
he neglects to describe the species, which tarnishes the gay parterre of the
florist, whose delight is to observe the freaks of nature exhibited in the
various many-coloured streaks which diversify the blossom of the tulip, by
devouring its bulbs."* — Sedums, and other out-of-door plants in pots,
are often greatly injured by having the upper part of their roots gnawed by
the larvae of a beetle, Otiorhynchus sidcatus.^ — Ray notices another insect
mentioned by Swammerdam, probably Bibio hortidana, which he calls the
deadliest enemy of the flowers of the spring. He accuses it of despoiling
the gardens and fields of every blossom, and so extinguishing the hope of
the year.® But you must not take up a prejudice against an innocent
creature, even under the warrant of such weighty authority ; for the insect
which our great naturalist has arraigned as the author of such devastation
is scarcely guilty, if it be at all a culprit, in the degree here alleged against
it. As it is very numerous early in the year, it may perhaps discolour the
vernal blossoms, but its mouth is furnished with no instrument to enable
it to devour t\\&[a.. Lastly, to omit various other enemies of our parterres,
as the wire-worm, &c., I may mention that universal pest, the enrwig,
1 Reaum. ii. 337.
2 West wood iu Loudon's Gard. Mag. Sept. 1837.
5 Apis. **, c. 2. a. K. 4 Reaum. iv. 499.
^ Westwood in Loudon's Gardeners Mag. 1837. No. 85.
® Rai, Hist. Ins. Prolegom. si.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 109
aijainst which the florist is obliged to use various precautions to protect
his choicest cnniations, pinivs, and dahlias from its ravages.
In our s/ovcs and ^rceu/ioust's the Apiiides often reign triumphant ; for,
if they be not discovered and destroyed when tiieir numbers are small,
their increase becomes so rapid, and their attack so indiscriminate, that
every plant is covered and contaminated by them, beauty being converted
into ileformity, and objects before the most attractive now exciting only
nausea and disgust. The coccus (C'. Ilcspcridum) also, which looks like
an inanimate scale upon the bark, docs considerable injury to the two prime
ornaments of onr conservatories, the orange and the myrtle; drawing off
the sap by its pectoral rostrum, and thus depriving the plant of a portion
of its nutriment, at the same time that it causes un|)leasant sensations in
the beholder from its resemblance to the pustule of some cutaneous
disease. Similar injury is done by the mealy-bug {Coccus Adoniditm L.)
to many soft-leaved dicotyledonous plants, such as the coflbe-tree, Justicia,
&c., as well as to Aliisa, Caiuui, &c. ; and various species of scale insects,
separatedf roni Coccus by Bouche under the names of Asp'uliotus Xcr'ti,
RoscCy Sec, attack the oleanders, roses, bays, cactuses, tic. ; while the red
spider (Eri/t/ira-us telarius), spinning its web over the under surface of the
leaves, draws out their juices with its rostram, and thus enfeebles, and, if
unmolested, in the end, destroys them.'
I nuist next conduct you from the garden into the orchard and fruitcry ;
and here you will find the same enemies still more busy and successful in
their attempts to do us hurt. The strawberry, which is the earliest
and at tlie saiue time most grateful of our fruits, enjoys also the privi-
lege of being almost exempt from insect injury. A jumping weevil {Or-
cliesles Fragarkc) is said by Fabricius to inhabit this plant; but as the
same species is abundant in this country upon the beech, the beauty of
which it materially injures by the numberless holes which it pierces in the
leaves, and has, I believe, never been taken upon the strawberry, it seems
probable that Smidt's specimens might have fallen upon the latter from
that tree." The only insect I have observed, feeding ui)on this fruit is the
ant, and the injury that it does is not material. The raspberry, the fruit of
which arrives later at maturity, has more than one species of these animals
for its foes. Its foliage sometimes suffers much from the attack of ALe-
lolontha horticola^,-d little beetle related to the cockchafer: when in flower,
the footstalks of the blossom are occasionally eaten through by a more
minute animal of the same order, Bi/lurus tovicntosus, which I once saw
prove fatal to a whole crop, and of which the larva feeds upon the
fruit itself; and bees frequently anticipate us, and, by sucking the fruit
with their proboscis, spoil it for the table. (Tooseberries and currants,
those agreeable and useful fruits, a common object of cultivation both to
1 Kijllar on Ins. inj. to Gardeners, &c. 178 — 182.
2 This kind of misnomer frequently occurs in entomological authors. — Thus, for
instance, the CurcuUo {Rlujnchites) Alliaria of Linne', feeds upon the hawthorn, and
Curculio (^Cryptorliynchus) Lapathi upon the willow (Curtis iu Linn. Trans, i. 86.);
but as AlUaria is common in hawthorn hedges, and docks often grow under willows,
the mistake in question easily happened ; when, however, such mistakes are dis-
covered, the Trivial Name ought certainly to be altered.
' I consider this insect as the t\-pe of a new subgenus {Phyllopertha K. MS.),
which connects those tribes of Melolontha F., that have a mesosternal prominence
with those that have not. Of this subgenus I possess six species. It is clearly dis-
tinct from Anisoplia, under which De Jean arranges it.
110 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
poor and rich, have their share of enemies in this class. The all-attacking
Aphides do not pass over thein, and the former especially are sometimes
greatly' injured by them; their excrement falling upon the berries renders
them clammy and disgusting, and they soon turn quite black from it. In
July, 1812, I saw a currant-bush miserably ravaged by a species of Coccus,
very much resembling the Coccus of the vine. The eggs were of a beauti-
ful pink, and enveloped in a large mass of cotton-like web, which could
be drawn out to a considerable length. Sir Joseph Banks once showed
me a branch of the same shrub perforated down to the pith by the cater-
pillar of JEgeria tipuliformis: the diminished size of the fruit pointing out,
as he observed, where this enemy has been at work. In Germany, where,
perhaps, this insect is more numerous, it is said not seldom to destroy the
larger bushes of the red currant.^ The foliage of these fruits often suffers
much from the black and white caterpillar of Abraxas grossidariata, and
sometimes from those of Halias Vauaiin ; but their worst and most destruc-
tive enemy is that of a small saw-fly (^Nematus Grossu/ai-ice Dahlbom).
This larva is of a green colour, shagreened as it were with minute black
tubercles, which it loses at its last moult. The fly attaches its eggs in
rows to the under side of the leaves. When first hatched, the little ani-
mals feed in society ; but having consumed the leaf on which they were
born, they separate from each other, and the work of devastation proceeds
with such rapidity, that frequently, where many families are produced on
the same bush, nothing of the leaves is left but the veins, and all the fruit
for that year is spoiled. -
Upon the leaves of the cherry, which usually succeeds the gooseberry,
in common with those of the pear and several other fruit-trees, the slimy
larva of another saw-fly {Selandria Cerasi) makes its repast, yet without
being the cause of any very material injury. But in North America, a
second species nearly related to it, known there by the name of the shig-
worm, has become prevalent to such a degree as to threaten the destruction
not only of the cherr}', but also of the pear, quince, and plum. In 1797,
they were so numerous that the smaller trees were covered by them ; and
a breeze of air passing through those on which they abounded became
charged with a very disagreeable and sickening odour. Twenty or thirty
were to be seen on a single leaf; and many trees, being quite stripped,
were obliged to put forth fresh foliage, thus anticipating the supply of the
succeeding year, and cutting off the prospect of fruit.^ — In some parts of
Germany the cherry-tree has an enemy equally injurious. A splendid
beetle of the weevil tribe {RJiynchites Bacchus) bores with its rostrum
through the half-grown fruit into the soft stone, and there deposits an egg.
The grub produced from it feeds upon the kernel, and, when about to
1 Wiener Verzeich. 8vo. 29.
2 Fabricius seems to have regarded the saw-fly that feeds upon the sallow (Neinatus
Caprece), not only as synonymous with that which feeds upon the osier, but also with
our Httle assailant of the gooseberry and currant. Yet it is very evident from Reau-
mur's account, whose accuracy may be depended upon, that they are all distinct species.
Fabricius's description of tht fly agrees with the insect of the gooseberry, but that
which he has given of the larva belongs to the animal inhabiting the sallow. Pro-
bably, confounding the two species, lie described the imago from the insect of the
former, and the larva (if he did not copy from Reaumur or Linne) from that of the
latter. Linne was correct in regarding Reaumur's three insects as distinct species,
though he appears to be mistaken in referring to him under N.flavus, as the saw-fly
of the currant and gooseberry is not wholly yellow.
3 Peck's Nat. Hist, of the Slvg-worm. 9.
IXDIKECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. Ill
become a pupa, gnaws its way tlirougli tlie cherry, and sometimes not one
in a thousand escapes.' This insect is tbrtunately rare with us, and has
usually been found upon the black thorn. Tlie cherry-fly also (Tcphritis
Ccnisi) provides a habitation lor its maggot in tlie same fruit, which it in-
variably spoils.-
The thtilrent varieties of the plum are every }ear more or less injured
by Aphides; and a Coccus (C. IW.ficcv f) sometimes so abounds upon them
that every twig is thickly beaded with the red semigloi)ose bodies of the
gravid females, vviiose progeny in spring exhaust the trees by |)umping out
the sap. In (iermany, as we learn from M. Schmidbergcr, while the plum-
trees surter from having their bark injured by two bark-boring beetles
( Sai/i/ttis ha-morrhous and .S'. I'niiii), their fruit is destroyed by tiie larvae
of a beetle ( lifii/tic/iilc.s ciipreus), of a moth {Carpocapsa nigricaiia), and of
a saw-Hy (^Tcntlircilo xl/o;io).*
The pear tree is liable to have its bark pierced in this country by the
larvae of Carpocapsa Wivbernua, which often lays the foundation of canker ';
and in America by those of two beetles {Smli/lus pi/ri, and Strohl Peck'') ;
its sap is injuriously drawn off by P-sj/l/a pj/ri ; its leaves have their paren-
chyma eaten away from under the cuticles, so as to give them a blistered
a|)pearance, by the larva of the pretty little moth Tinea Clcrkella L. ; and
while the blossoms are rendered .nbortive by the attacks of tiie grub of a
beetle {Anlhimomos pyri KoUar), the fruit is caused to drop off prema-
turely and rot by the larvse of not fewer than three minute tipulidan flies
(Sciara pyri Schmidberger, Sciara Schmidhergeri Kollar, and CcciJomyia
nigra Meigen*'), and also by that of a four small winged fly, observed by
Mr. Knight, which would seem to be a saw-fly, and is probably the
species which Reaumur saw enter the blossom of a pear before it was quite
open, doubtless to deposit its eggs in the embryo fruit. He often found in
young pears on opening them, a larva of this genus." A little moth like-
wise is mentioned by Mr. Forsyth as very injurious to this tree.^
But of all our fruits none is so useful and important as the apple, and
none suffers more from insects, which according to Mr. Knight are a more
frequent cause of the crops failing than frost. Here, as in the pear-trees,
the bark, and consequently the whole tree, suffers from the larvae of
Carpocapsa Wa-berana, and of Tinea corticella L., as well as of a Scolytux
nearly related to S. destructor^ but perhaps distinct, which I found infesting
it in Guernsey in 183G ; and in Austria the larva of another beetle
{Trypodcndron disjmr) pierces into the heart of young healthy trees, and
destroyed ]\[. Schmidberger several of his stock.'* The sap is often
injuriously drawn off by Psylla mali "^ ; and by a minute Coccus, of which
the female has the exact shape of a muscle-shell (C. arborum linearis
GeofJr.), andwhich Reaumur has accurately described and figured." This
species so abounded in 1816 on an apple-tree in my garden, that the whole
bark was covered with it in every part ; and I have since been informed
1 Trost Kleiner Beytrag. ,S8. 2 Reaum. ii. 477.
3 Kollar on Ins. inj. to Gardeners, Sec. 237. 232. 268.
* See observations on this insect in Trans, of Hort. Soc. ii. 25. by W. Spence.
5 Westwood. Mod. Class, of Ins. i. 353.
6 Kollar, ubi supr. 250.^289. 292.
7 Reaum. ubi supr. 475. 8 (),i Fruit Trees, 271.
^ Kollar on Ins. inj. to Gardeners, &c. 256. ^i Ibid. 278.
^'> Reaum. iv. G9. t. 5. f. 6, 7.
112 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
by Joshua Haworth, jun. Esq., of Hull, that it equally infests other trees
in the neighbourhood. Even the fruit of a golden pippin which he sent
me were thickly beset with it. But the insect which most injures our
apple-trees by drawing oft" their sap, and which has been known in this
country only since the year 1787, is the apple-aphis, called by some the
Coccus, and by others the American blight. This is a minute insect, covered
with a long cotton-like wool transpiring from the pores of its body, which
takes its station in the chinks and rugosities of the bark, where it increases
abundantly, and, by constantly extracting the sap, causes ultimately the
destruction of the tree. Whence this pest was first introduced is not
certainly known. Sir Joseph Banks traced its origin to a nursery in
Sloans Street ; and at first he was led to conclude that it had been im-
ported with some apple-trees from France. On writing, however, to
gardeners in that country', he found it to be wholly unknown there. It
was therefore, if not a native insect, most probably derived from North
America, from whence apple-trees had also been imported by the proprietor
of that nursery, Whatever its origin, it spread rapidly. At first it was
confined to the vicinity of the metropolis, where it destroyed thousands of
trees. But it has since found its way into other parts of the kingdom,
particularly into the cyder counties J and in 1810 so many perished from
it in Gloucestershire, that, if some mode of destrojing it were not dis-
covered, it was feared the making of cyder must be abandoned. Sir Joseph
Banks long ago extirpated it from his own apple-trees, by the simple
method of taking off all the rugged and dead old bark, and then scrubbing
the trunk and branches with a hard brush. ^
Even in the very commencement of their existence our choicest apple-
trees are attacked by insects; for the j'oung grafts, as I am informed by an
intelligent friend, Mr. Scales, are frequently destroyed, sometimes many
hundreds in one night, in the nurseries about London, by Curculio vastator
Marsh. {Otiorhynchus notatus), ox\e oi the short-snouted weevils; as are
in the neighbourhood of Warsaw the grafts of this and other fruit-trees
by a smaller weevil Polydrusus (^Nemoicus) oblongus ~, which with us eats the
leaves of both apple and pear trees. The blossoms, in common with those
of the pear and cherry, are attacked by the figure-of-eight moth {Ejnsema
ccerideocephal(t), which Linne denominates the pest of Pomona ; and still
more effectually by the grub of a reddish long-snouted weevil (^Anllionomus
poniornm), which eating both the blossom and organs of fructification
precludes all hope of fruit. If this danger be escaped, and the fruit be
set, it is then in Austria often destroyed by Rhi/ncJiites Bacchus, the same
splendid weevil which attacks the cherry ; and Reaumur has given us the
history of a species of moth common in this country (Carpocapsa pomonella),
the caterpillar of which feeds in the centre of our apples, thus occasioning
1 This Aphis is evidently the insect described in Illiger's Magazin, i. 450. under
the name of A. lanigera, as having done great injury to the apple-trees in the
neighbourhood of Bremen in 1801. That it is an Aphis and no Coccus is clear from
its oral rostrum and the wings of the male, of which Sir Joseph Banks had an ad-
mirable drawing by Mr. Bauer. On this Aphis see Forsyth, 265. ; 3Ionthly Mug.
xxxii. 320. ; and also for August, 1811 ; and Sir Joseph Banks in the Horticultural
Society^ s Transactions, ii. 1G2. Those Aphides that transpire a cottony excretion are
now considered, as before stated, as belonging to a distinct genus, under the name of
Lachnus, lllig. ; Myzoxyle, Blot ; Eriosoma, Leach.
' Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, viii. Bull. viii.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 113
them to fall ; as iloes also the larva of one of the saw-flies {Tcnthvedo
iistudima), as oliscrveil by Mr. Wcstwood, ami the first instance known of
one of this tribe feeding in the interior of fruits.'
Our more dainty and delicate fruits, at least such as are usually so
accounted, the apricot, the peach, anil the nectarine, originally of Asiatic
origin, are not less subject to the empire of insects than the homelier
natives of Europe. Certain Ap/iidcs form a convenient ami sheltered
habitation for themselves, by causing portions of the leaves to rise into
hollow red convexities; in these they resiiie, and with their rostrum
pumping out the sap, in time occasion them to curl up, and thus deform
the tree and injure the produce. The fruit is attackeil by various other
enemies of this class, against which we find it not easy to secure it : wasps,
earwigs, flies, wood-lice, and ants, which last communicate to it a disagreeable
flavour, all share with us these ambrosial treasures ; the first of them as it
were opening the door, by making an incision in the rind, and letting in all
the rest. The nucleus of the apricot is also sometimes inhabited by the
caterpillar of a moth, which, feeding on the kernel, causes the fruit to fall
prematurely.'- And much injiny is done to this tree by the larva of a little
nioth (Ditula aiigimlioirina), by devouring the young blossom-buds and
tying the young shoots together with its silken thread, so as to stop their
growth.^ Jn this country however, these fruits may be regarded as mere
luxuries, and therefore are of slight consequence ; but in North America
they constitute an important part of the general produce, at least the peach,
serving both as food for swine, and furnishing by distillation a spirit. The
ravages committed upon them there by insects are so serious, that pre-
miums have been offered for extirpating them. A s^iecies of weevil,
perhaps a Rhynchiics, enters the fruit when unripe, probably laying its eggs
within the stone, and so destroys them. And two kinds of /.ijgccnay by
attacking the roots, do a still greater injury to the trees.'* — A Coccus, as
it should seem from the description, imported about thirty years ago from
the Mauritius, or else with the Constantia vine from tlie Cape of Good
Hope, has destroyed nearly nine-tenths of the peach trees in the Island of
St. Helena, where formerly they were so abundant, that, as in North
America, the swine were fed with their fruit. Various means have been
employed to destroy this plague, but hitherto without success."' — The
imperial pine apple, the glory of our stoves, and the most esteemed of the
gifts of Pomona, cannot, however precious, be defended from the injuries
of a singular species of mite, before mentioned, the red Spider of gardeners,
(Eri/t/irccus telarius), which covers it, and other stove plants, with a most
ilelicate, but at the same time very pernicious, web ; and the Coccus
hromelice is often as great a pest, preying upon the leaves and young fruit
beneath a white downy secretion.'^ — The olive-tree» so valuable to the
1 Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. iii. proc. xxxii.
2 M. lie la Hire in Reaum. ii. 478.
3 Westwood in Loudon's Gardener's Mat). No. 94. Jan. 1838.
4 Dr. Smith Bartou's Letter in PhUos. jlagaz. xxii. 210. — William Davy, Esq.,
American Consul of tbe port of Hull, long resident in the United States, informed
me, that though he had abundance of peaches at his country-house, German Town,
near Philadelphia, he could never succeed with the nectarine, the fruit constantly
fallinff ott', perforated by the grub of some insect.
^ Descr. of the I. of St. Helena, 147.
6 Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. i. proc. Ixiv. ; and see also Westwood's Obs. i. 206.
114 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
inhabitants of the warmer regions of Europe, often nourishes in its berries
the destructive maggot of a fly (Dacus olece) ; and the caterpillar of a
little moth {Tinea oleella), which preys upon the kernel of the nucleus,
occasions them to fall before they are ripe. The larvce of two beetles
Hylesinus oleiperda and Pliluiotribus oUce, attack the bark and alburnum of
the young branches ; another beetle, Otiorhynchus meridionalis Schcin.,
devours the young shoots and leaves ; and the sap is injuriously abstracted
by Coccus olecE, and by Pst/lla olece Fons.^, as well as by Thrips j^hysapus,
which in Tuscany has of late years threatened the olive trees of some
districts with destruction, by attacking the young leaves and buds." —
Every one who eats nuts knows that they are very often inhabited by a
small white grub; this is the offspring of a weevil {Balaninus nucuju),
remarkable for its long and slender rostrum, with which it perforates the
shell when young and soft, and deposits an egg in the orifice. In France
it sometimes ha|)pens, when the chestnuts promise an abundant crop, that
the fruit falls before it comes to maturity, scarcely any remaining upon the
trees. The caterpillar of a moth which eats into its interior is the cause of
this disappointment. ^ Of fruits the date has the hardest nucleus ; yet
an insect of the same tribe with the above, that feeds upon its kernel, is
armed with jaws sufficiently strong to perforate it, that it may make its
escape when the time of its change is arrived, and assume the pupa
between the stone and the flesh. And anotlier moth, the Pyralis brunnea,
feeds on the pulp of the fruit, and there undergoes its metamorphosis.*
The date is eaten also by a beetle which Hasselquist calls a Dermestes.^ —
Another foreign fruit, the tamarind, has its stone, which is nearly as hard
as that of the date, attacked bya weevil of thesame genus as the corn-weevil,
of which, in the larva state, sometimes as manyas forty are found in a single
stone.® The pomegranate, in the East Indies, has its interior eaten by the
caterpillar of the hair-streak butterfly {Thecla Isocrates), of whose
economy Mr. Westwood has given so interesting an account.'
In these last-named fruits, however, we have a far slighter interest than
in another of our imported ones, the orange, of which, in 184 1 (including
lemons), we consumed upwards of 302,000 chests, paying a gross duty of
63,975/., and which may be regarded as the most valuable of the whole,
combining a highly intrinsic excellence, with a price which brings it within
the reach of all. It appears, however, from the interesting and important
facts stated by W. S. MacLeay, Esq., that we might have oranges still
cheaper, were it not for a little fly (CeratUis citriperda), which lays its eggs
in them before their shipment from the Azores ; and the grubs subsequently
disclosed often so greatly injure them, that the orange merchants calculate
on losing one-third of their average importations, and of course reimburse
themselves by a proportionate advance of the price to the consumers.®
1 M. Boyer de Fonscolombe in Ann. Soc. Eni. de France, ix. 101.
2 Passerini, Alcuni Notizie, &c.
3 Reaum. ii. 505. ■* Guerin-Meneville, Revue Zoolog. 1841, p. 246.
5 Ibid. ii. 507. and Hasselquist's Travels in the Levant, 428.
* Christy in Trans. Ent. Soc. Land. i. 7 Ibid. ii. 1.
8 Zoological Journ. iv. 475. This fl}-, which Dr. Heineken states is common in
Madeira, and that he has also hatched it from lemons and peaches (Zool. Journ. v.
199.), seems to be the same species with Petalophora ( Tr^yjeta Wied. ), capitata
Macq. (Dipteres, ii. 454.), so named from the two singular clavate processes between
the eyes of the male. It may be easily obtained from decaying oranges, on the out-
side of which the grub assumes the pupa state.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 115
One of the most ilelicious, and at the same time most useful, of all our
fruits is the i;ra|)e : to this, as you know, we are indebted for our raisins,
for our currants, for our wine, and for our brandy ; you cannot therefore
but feel interested in its history, and desire to be informcil, whether, like
those before enumerated, this choice gift of Heaven, whose produce
'• cheereth (iod and man," * must also be the prey of insects. There is a
singular beetle, common in Hungary (Lrl/irus CVp/ifi/otcs), which gnaws
oft" the voimg shoots of the vine, and drags them backward into its burrow,
where it feeds upon them : on this account the country peo|)le wage con-
tinual war with it, destroying vast numbers.'- Five other beetles also
attack this noble |)lant : three of them, mentioned by French authors,
(li/ii/nc/ii/es Bacchus, Eiiwo/pus vilis, and Ilnlticn olcracca), devour the
young shoots, the foliage and the footstalks of the fruit, so that the latter
is prevented from coming to maturity^ ; a fourth (C corruptor Host), by a
German, which seems closely allied to Ol'wrln/nchus iiotatiai, before men-
tioned, if it be not tiie same insect, which destroys the young vines, often
killing them the first year, and is accounted so terrible an enemy to them,
that not only the animals, but even their eggs, are searched for and
destroyeil, and to forward this work people often call in the assistance of
their neighboiu's."* And a fifth, Ol'iorlit/nchns sulcaliis, also occasionally does
considerable injury to the vine in this country, by gnawing off" the young
shoots."' Various lepidopterous larvae are still more injurious to the vine.
In the Crimea the small cater|)illar of a Procris or Ino (genera separated
from Sp/iinx L.), related to /. slaticcs, is a most destructive enemy. As
soon as the buds open in the spring, it eats its way into them, especially
the fruit-buds, and devours the germ of the grape. Two or three of these
caterpillars will so injure a vine, by cree[)ing from one germ to another,
that it will bear no fruit nor produce a single regular shoot the succeeding
year.'' In Italy, especially in Piedmont and Tuscany, the vines are often
devastated by the larva of another species of the same genus, Procris
anipclopfiaga Passerini'; in Germany a different species does great injury
to the young branches, preventing their expansion by the webs in which it
involves them*; and a fourth (Tortrix fasclana) makes the grapes them-
selves its food : a similar insect is alluded to in the threat contained in
Deuteronomy'', while in France it is the caterpillar of a small moth, the
Tortrix i-itaiia Bosc. {Pyraits vitana and Pdlerana Fab., P. danticana
Walck.), which does the most injury by gnawing the footstalk of the
leaves and branches of grapes"^', and of late years to such an extent in the
iNIaconnais and other districts, that the attention of the government having
1 That is, " High and Low," Judges, is. 13.
^ Sturm, Deutschlayid's Fauna, i. .5.
5 Latreiile, Hist. Nat. xi. (JG. 331.— According to Kollar (1G3.), however, in
Austria it is R. betideti, and not 7?. Bacchus, which is injurious to the vines; and
the case is the same, according to JI. Silbermann, as to the vines of Alsatia and the
banks of the Rhine.
* Host in .Jacquin. Cnllect. iii. 297.
5 Westwood in Loudon's Gardener's Mag. for April, 1837.
• Pallas's Travels in S. Russia, ii. 241.
7 Memoria sopra due Specie d' Insetti 7ioscivi, &C.
8 Jacquin. Collect, ii. 97.
" Deut. xxviii. 39.
^^ Walckenaer in Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, iv. 687. ; Gue'rin, art. Fyrale, Diet.
PittoresquedHist. Nat. pp. 409—416.
I 2
116 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
been called to the mischief, under their direction m}' lamented friend
Professor Audouin was, at the period of his untimely death, which Ento-
mology so deeply deplores, engaged on a fine work embracing a complete
history of the insect, with figures of it in every state, and an account of
the best means of destroying it. The worst pest of the vine in this
country is its Coccus (C. vitix). This animal, which fortunately is not suffi-
ciently hardy to endure the common temperature of our atmosphere,
sometimes so abounds upon those that are cultivated in stoves and green-
houses, that their stems seem quite covered with little locks of white
cotton ; which appearance is caused by a filamentous secretion transpiring
through the skin of the animal, in which they envelop their eggs. Where
they prevail, they do great injury to the plant by subtracting the sap from
its foliage and fruit, and causing it to bleed ^; and, to close the list without
extending it by alluding with M. Walckenaer to the insects only occa-
sionally injurious to the vine, you are perfectly aware of the eagerness
with which ivasps, flies, and other insects, attack the grapes when ripe,
often leaving nothing but the mere skin for their lordly proprietor.
There are some of these creatures that attack indiscriminately all fruit-
trees. One of these is the Cicada septencleclm (so called because, ac-
cording to Kalm, it appears only once in seventeen years'^). The female
oviposits in the pith of the twigs of trees, where the grubs are hatched
and do infinite damage both to fruit and forest-trees.^ Birds greedily
devour them ; and a curious fact is mentioned by Dr. Harlan of Phila-
delphia (who confirms their septendecenary appearance), that young
fowls which eat them lay eggs with colourless yolks. ^ Another, the
caterpillar of the butterfly of the hawthorn (Picrk crafccgi), which, in 1791,
in some parts of Germany stripped the fruit-trees in general of their
foliage.^ in France also, in 1731 and 17.32, that of a moth, which seems
related to the brown-tail moth {Porthesia aurifliui), whose history has been
given by the late Mr. Curtis, was so numerous as to occasion a general
alarm. The oaks, elms, and white-thorn hedges looked as if some burning
wind had passed over them and dried up their leaves ; for, the insect
devouring only one surface of them, that v/hich is left becomes brown and
dry. They also laid waste the fruit-trees, and even devoured the fruit,
so that the parliament published an edict to compel people to collect and
destroy them ; but this would in a great measure have been ineffectual,
had not some cold rains fallen, which so completely annihilated them
that it was difficult to meet with a single individual.'^ In Germany, ac-
cording to M. Schmidberger, the larvae of the following moths, Porthesia
chrysorrhcea, Ciisiocampa neustria, Hiipogi/mna dispar, Episema cceruleo-
cephala, Yponomeuta padella, and especially Cheimatobia brumata, which he
calls the most ruinous of the whole, are all more or less injurious to fruit
trees generally. ' In the north of France, as we learn from Mr. West-
wood, one of these caterpillars, that of the small ermine moth ( Yponomeuta
1 According to M. Walckenaer, in his elaborate and learned Essay on the Insects
injurious to the Vine {Ann. Sot: Ent. de France, iv. 687.) it is the Coccus adonidum
•which is injurious to ^^nes in hot-houses in France, while the Coccus vitis attacks
those in the open air.
2 Travels, ii. G. ^ Collinson in Philos. Trans, liv. x. 65.
4 Trans. Ent. Sac. Land. i. proc. xxx.
5 Rose], 1. ii. 15. 6 Keaum. ii. 122.
7 Kollar on Lis. inj. to Gardeners, &c. 190 — 229.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 117
j)a(iflla), is often so numerous as to defoliate the apple trees by the road
sides for miles. ' Three s[)ecies of beetles also, R/ii/ur/iitex alitar'uc, which in
t!ie larva state bores into the xounji shoots, and Xcwoirtis ofj/(»igiis and
Pht/llnpcrthn liorticola, whicii attack the leaves as perfect insects, join their
lepiiioptorous brethren in (lermaiiy in a general assault on fruit-trees.
If we (juit the orchard and fruit-garden for a walk in our plantationx and
groves, we shall still be forced to witness the sad effects of insect devasta-
tion ; and when we see, as sometimes ha{)pens, the hedges and trees en-
tirely deprived of their foliage, and ourselves of the shade we love from
the ferviil beam of the noonday sun ; when the singing birds have deserted
them ; and all their music, which has so often enchanted us by its melody,
variety, and sweetness, has ceased — we shall be tempted in our hearts
to wish the whole insect race was blotted from the page of creation.
Numerous are the agents employed in this work of destruction. Amongst
the beetles, various cockchafers (^Mclolontha viilgam, Amphimalla sohti-
tialix, and Phi/llopcrlha /lorticn/a), in their perfect state, act as conspicuous
a part in injuring the trees, as their grubs do in destroying the herbage.
Besides the leaves of the fruit-trees, they devour those of the .sycamore,
the lime, the beech, the willosv, and the elm. They are sometimes, es-
pecially the common one, astonishingly numerous. MoufFet relates, (but
one would think that there must be some mistake in the date, since they are
never so early in their appearance,) that on the 24th of February, 1574,
such a number of them fell into the river Severn as to stop the wheels of
the water-mills.- It is also recorded in the Philosophical Transactions,
that in 1688 they filled the hedges and trees of part of the county of Gal-
way in such infinite numbers, as to cling to each other in clusters like bees
when they swarm ; on the wing they darkened the air, and produced a
sound like that of distant drums. When they were feeding, the noise of
their jaws might be mistaken for the sawing of timber. Travellers and
people abroad were very much annoyed by their continual fl}ing in their
faces ; and in a short time the leaves of all the trees for some miles round
were so totally consumed by them, that at midsummer the country wore
the aspect of the depth of winter.^
But the criminals to whom it is principally owing that our groves are
sometimes stripped of the green robe of summer are the various tribes of
Lepidoptera, especially the nightfliers or moths, myriads of whose cater-
pillars, in certain seasons, despoil whole districts of their beauty, and our
walks of all their pleasure. Some of these, like the cockchafers, or the
caterpillars of Clisiocampa ncustria, Porlhesia chri/sorrhcea, &c., before men-
tioned as attacking most fruit-trees, are also general feeders on forest
trees, though some of the species usually prefer particular kinds when
accessible. Thus in 1731 the oaks of France were terribly devastated
by the larva oi Hypogymna dispar*; as are often those of Germany by that
^ Loudon's Gardener s Mag. Oct. 1837.
2 Mouffet, 160.
' Philos. Trans, xix. 741.
■* Keaum. i. o87. These larvae were so extremely numerous in 1826 on the lines
of the Allee Verte at Brussels, that many of the trees of that noble avenue, though
of great age, were nearly deprived of their leaves, and afforded little of the shade
which the unusual heat of the summer so urgenth' required. The moths which in
autumn proceeded from them, when in motion towards night, swarmed like bees, and
subsequently on the trunk of every tree might be seen scores of females depositing
f 13
118 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
of Cnethocampa processionea ; and those of England by the leaf-rolling
caterpillar of the pretty little green moth Tortrix virldana. Our ehns have
their leaves frequently drilled into holes by the little jumping weevil,
Orcliestes fagi, and the beech, alder, &c., are partially disfigured by other
species of this saltatorial tribe. In France, however, the elms sustain a
much more serious injury from the larva of another larger beetle {Galle-
ruca calmariensis), the leaves being sometimes so covered with them, and
rendered so brown, as to have the appearance of having been struck by
lightning, as was the case with the fine promenades of Rouen, when I was
there in 1836. Cheimafobia brumata is likewise a fearful enemy to the
foliage of almost every kind of tree.' The woods in certain provinces of
North America are in some years entirely stripped by the caterpillar of
another moth, which eats all kinds of leaves. This happening at a time
of the year when the heat is most excessive, is attended by fatal conse-
quences; for, being deprived of the shelter of their foliage, whole forests
are sometimes entirely dried up and ruined.- The brown tail moth, before
alluded to, which occasionally bares our hawthorn hedges, has been ren-
dered famous by the alarm it caused to the inhabitants of the vicinity of
the metropolis in 1782, when rewards were offered for collecting the cater-
pillars, and the churchwardens and overseers of the parishes attended to
see them burnt by bushels. You may have observed, perhaps, in some
cabinets of foreign insects, an ant, the head of which is very large in pro-
portion to the size of its bodv, with a piece of leaf in its mouth many
times bigger than itself. These ants, called in Tobago parasol ants (^Atta
cephalotes), cut circular pieces out of the leaves of various trees and plants,
which they carry in their jaws to their nests ; and they will strip a tree of
its leaves in a night, a circumstance which has been confirmed to me by
Captain Hancock.* Stedman mentions another very large ant, being at
least an inch in length, which has the same instinct. It was a pleasant
spectacle, he observes, to behold this army of ants marching constant!}' in
the same direction, and each individual with its bit of green leaf in its
their down-covered patch of eggs. In the Park they were also veiy abundant ; and
it may be s<afely asserted that if one half of the eggs deposited were to be hatched,
in 1827 scarcely a leaf would remain in either of these fiivourite places of public re-
sort. Happily, however, this calamity was prevented by natural means. Of the
vast number of patches of eggs which I saw on almost every tree in the park about
the end of September, I could two months afterwards, to my no small surprise, dis-
•cover scarcely one, though the singularity of the fact made me examine closelj'.
For their disappearance 1 have no doubt the inhabitants of Brussels are indebted to
the tit-mouse {Parus), the tree-creeper (^Certhia familiaris), and other small birds
known to derive part of their food from the eggs of insects, and which abound in the
Park, where they may be often seen running up and down the trunks of the trees, at
once providing their own food and rendering a service to man, which all his powers
would be inadequate completely to effect.
IJeaumur (ii. 1U6.) in certain seasons found these patches of eggs so numerous, that
in the Bois de Boulogne there was scarcely an oak, the under side of the branches of
which were not covered by them for an extent of seven or eight feet. He informs
us that the eggs are not hatched till the following spring.
1 De Geer, ii. 45"2. 2 Kalm's Travels, ii. 7.
3 The same intelligent gentleman related to me, that a person having taken some
land at Bahia in the Brazils, he was compelled bj' these ants, which were so numer-
ous as to render everj' effort to destroy them ineffectual, to relinquish the occupation
of it. Their nests were excavated to the astonishing depth of fourteen feet. Merian,
Insect. Sur. 18. Smeathman on Termites, Phil. Trans. Ixxi. 39. note 35.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. HI)
mouth. I The insects injiirioiis to clcciduous trees mostly leave the fir anil
pine tribes untouched ; but these, on the other liand, are subject to have
tlieir lohage ravai;id by a great variety of insect enemies peculiar to them-
selves, to some extent in this country, but far more on the Continent, as
by the larv;u of \arious moths (^DcndioUmit.s jnn'i, PsUiira mounclia, Acliatia
pinipcnlc, liitpalus jibuarius, OrtltotaMiia lurionana and rcniiiclla, &c.) ; and
of not fewer than tiiree species of saw-fly (Lop/n/rus pini and nifiis and
PcnnpliUius cri/t/iror<p//a/a)J- The injury thus caused to trees by insects
is not confined to the mere loss of their leaves for one season ; for it oc-
casions them to draw upon the funds of another, by sending forth prema-
ture shoots and making gems unfoKI, that, in the ordinary course, would
not have put forili their foliage till the following year.
Other insects, though they do not entirely devour the leaves of trees
and plants, yet considerably diminish their beauty. Tiius, for instance,
sometimes the subcutaneous larvce undermine thcni, when the leaf ex-
hibits the whole course of their labyrinth in a pallid, tortuous, gradually
dilating line — at others, the 7o/7;7Vc'.v disfigure them by rolling them up,
or the leaf-cutter bees by taking a piece out of them, or certain Tinece
again by eating their under surface, and so causing them to wither either
partially or totally. You have doubtless observed what is called the honcy-
dcw u()on the maple and other trees, concerning which the iearneil Roman
naturalist Pliny, gravely hesitates whether he shall call it the sweat of the
heavens, the saliva of the stars, or a liquid produced by tlie purgation of the
air ! I ^ Perhaps you may not be aware that it is a secretion of Aphides,
whose excrement has the privilege of emulating sugar and honey in sweet-
ness and purity. It, however, often tarnishes the lustre of those trees in
which these insects are numerous, and is the lure that attracts the swarms
of ants which you may often see travelling up and down the trunk of the
oak and other trees. ^ The larch in particular is inhabited by an Aphis
transpiring a waxy substance like filaments of cotton : this is sometimes so
infinitely multiplied upon it as to whiten the whole tree, which often
perishes in consequence of its attack. The beech is infested by a similar
one. Some animals also of this genus inhabiting the jjoplar, elm, lime,
and w'illow, reside in galls they have produced, that disfigure the leaves or
their footstalks. Perhaps those resembling fruit, or flowers, or moss, pro-
duced by the Aphis of the fir (Aphis abictis), the different species of gall-
gnats (Cecidomi/ia) , or occasioned by the puncture and ovij)osition of the
various kinds of gall-flies (Cynips), may be regarded rather as an ornament
1 Stedman, ii. 142.
2 Kijllar, on Ins. inj. to Gardeners. Sec. 323 — 356.
3 Hist. Nat. I. xi. c. 12.
■* It is contended by some observers, that besides the honey-dew caused by Aphides,
there is another arising solely from a morbid exudation of the saccharine juices of trees.
This is certainly possible ; but I may observe, that in the course of more than thirty
years which I have attended to this subject (seven of them spent on the Continent,
where the greater heat niifjht be supposed likely to cause morbid vegetable action), I
have never met with any horrey-dew which did not seem to me very clearly referable
to Aphides as its origin ; though, from the circumstance of their having been all
swept away by the attacks of their natural enemies and other causes, while their sac-
charine excretion remains on the leaves for weeks in a dry time, and after being
moistened by a slight dew may have every appearance of being a recent morbid exu-
dation, and may, even after verj* copious dews, fall on the ground, a casual obscrs'er
may often be plausibly led to a different conclusion.
I 4
120 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
than as an injury to a tree or shrub ; yet when too numerous they must
deprive it of its proper nutriment, and so occasion some defect. And
probably the enormous uwns, and other monstrosities and deformities
observable in trees, may have been originally produced by the bite or in-
cision of insects.
Besides exterior insect enemies, living trees are liable to the ravages
of many that are interior. These'Jnterior feeders may be divided into two
great classes — those which bore into the heart and substance of the
wood, and those which feed upon the inner bark, with the adjoining
alburnum OY sap-wood- Amongst the former the larva of a large weevil
{Cri/ptorhynchiis lapathi) bores into the wood of the willow and sallow,
■which thus in time often become so hollow as to be easily blown down.'
The stag-beetle tribe, or Lucanidce, have a similar appetite ; but the most
extensive family of timber-borers are the Capricorn beetles -, including the
Fabrician genera of Prionus, Cerambi/x, Lamia, Stenocorus, Leptura, Bha-
glum, Gnoma, Sai^erda, Callidium ', and Clytus. The larva of these, as
soon as hatched, leaves its first station between the bark and wood, and
begins to make its way into the solid timber (some of them plunging even
into the iron heart of the oak), where it eats for itself tortuous paths, at its
first starting perhaps, not bigger than a pin's head, but gradually increasing
in dimensions as the animal increases in magnitude, till it attains in some
instances to a diameter of one or two inches. Only conceive what havoc
the grub of the vast Prionus giganteus must make in abeam ! Percival is
probably speaking of this beetle, when, in his account of Ceylon, he tells
us, " There is an insect found here which resembles an immense over-
grown beetle. It is called by us a carpenter, from its boring large holes in
timber, of a regular form, and to the depth of several feet, in which, when
finished, it takes up its habitation."* Seeing the perfect insect come out
of these holes, an unentomological observer would naturally conclude that
the beetle he saw had formed it, and lived in it ; but, doubtless, the whole
was the work of the grub. Of ail the Coleopterous genera, there is none
the species of w'hich are generally so rich, resplendent, and beautiful, as
those of Buprestis : these likewise, in their first state, there is abundant
reason to believe, derive their nutriment from the produce of the forest,
in which they sometimes remain for many years before they assume their
perfect state, and appear in their full splendour, as if nature required more
time than usual to decorate these lovely insects. We learn from Mr.
1 Lewin in Linn. Trans, iii. 1. Curtis in ditto, i. 86.
- See Kirby in Linn. Trans, v. 250. — More than a hundred species of the Ca-
pricorn tribe, many of them nondescripts, were collected near Rio de Janeiro by Cap-
tain Hancock of the Foudroyant.
3 The larva of a Callidium (which Dr. Leach has discovered to be C. bajulum)
sometimes does material injury to the wood- work of the roofs of houses in London,
piercing in every direction the fir-rafters (in whicli it most probably took up its resi-
dence while they were growing as trees), and, when arrived at the perfect state,
making its way out even through sheets of lead one-sixth of an inch thick, when
they happen to have been nailed upon the rafter in which it has assumed its final
metamorphosis. I am indebted to the kindness of Sir Joseph Banks for a specimen
of such a sheet of lead, which, though only eight inches long and four broad, is thus
pierced with twelve oval holes, of some of which the longest diameter is a quarter
of an inch ! Mr. Charles Miller first discovered lead in the stomach of the larva of
this insect.
4 P. 310.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 121
Marsham that tlie grub of B. .iploidida was ascertained to have existcil
in the wood of a ileal table more tlian twenty 3'cars.i
Another tribe of internal wootl-borei's belong to the genus Sircx of the
order Hynienoptera. ^Ir. Stepiiens informs nie that the iir-trees in a
plantation of Mr. Foljamhe's, in Yorkshire, were destroyed by the larvae
of Sirc.v gigas ; while those of another, belonging to the same gentleman,
in Wiltshire, met with a similar fate from the attacks of Sircx juvcncus.
In proof of the ravages made by this last insect, Mr. Raddon exhibited to
the Entomological Society a portion of the wood of a fir-tree from
Bewdley Forest, Worcestershire, of which twenty feet of its length was so
perforated by its larv:t as to be only fit for fire-wood ; and being placed
in an out-house, five or six of the perfect insects came out every morning
for several weeks." When fir-trees thus attacked are cut down, it often
happens that the larv;L> of the species of Sircx inhabiting them have not
attained their full <:rov\th at the time the wood has been employed as the
joists or planks for Hoors, out of which the perfect insect, even years after,
emerge, to the no small surprise, and even alarm of the inmates. An in-
stance of this, where several specimens of A\ g'gns were seen to come out
of the floor of a nursery in a gentleman's house, to the great discomfiture
both of unrse and children, is related by Mr. Marsham, on the authority
of Sir Jose|)h Banks ^ ; and a similar circumstance, stated by Mr. Ingpen,
occurred in the house of a gentleman at Henlow, Bedfordshire, from the
joists of the Hoors of which whole swarms, literally " thousands," of Sirex
duplex Shuckard ', emerged from innumerable holes, large enough to admit
a small pencil-case, causing great terror to the occupants. As the house
had been built about three years (the joists of British timber), there
could be no doubt of the larva; having been more than that time in arriv-
ing at their perfect state.'* Amongst the most formidable wood-borers
with us is the larva of the great goat-moth (^Cossus /igiiipcrda*'), which
attacks willows, poplars, and occasionally even elms and oaks ; and from
its large size, and living above two years in the larva state, the holes which
it makes are a great deduction from the value of the tree, even if it be not
entirely destroyed. The larvae of Zcuzera cescuU, though much smaller,
has similar habits, and is injurious by boring into apple, pear, and walnut
trees.
The insects which attack the bark of trees mostly belong to the family
of Scolytidce Westwood (including the genera Scolylus, lli/lcainus, Hyhirgus,
Tomicus, Sec.) ; a numerous tribe of beetles, the larvas of which, after being
hatched from the eggs deposited by the parent beetle, excavate in the sub-
stance of the inner bark, and partly also in the adjoining alburnum or
sap-wood, lateral parallel channels more or less sinuous, proceedmg on each
side from a central one (that in which the eggs were placed), and thus
giving to the under side of the detached bark and exposed alburnum, that
pinnated labyrinthine appearance, and fancied resemblance to letters,
■which made Linne affix to one of these insects, to be presently alluded to,
the trivial name of Typograp/ius. When in small numbers these larvae
1 Linn. Trans, x. 399. - Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. i. proc. Ixxxv.
5 Linn. Trans, x. 403.
•* This species inhabits the Spruce-fir (^Pinus nigra). — Shuckard in Loudon's
Mag. of Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 632.
* Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. ii. proc. Ixxxii. ; and iii. proc. iL
6 Curtis, Brit. Ent. t, tiU.
122 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
may do no great injury ; but where they abound, as they often do, by
interrupting the course of the descending sap, and admitting wet be-
tween the bark and wood, decay speedily ensues, and the tree perishes.
Almost every kind of tree is liable to the assaults of one or more species
of this tribe of insects. Even fruit-trees, as the apple, plum, &c., have
each their Scoli/tus ; and at Rouen I found a species, I believe unde-
scribed, which feeds on the mountain ash. It is to our large forest-trees,
however, that they are most injurious. Thus the common ash is assailed
by Hiilesinu.1 fraxini, the pinnated labyrinths of whose larvae you can
hardly fail to observe on the first piece of loose l)ark you detach from
the rough-split posts and rails made of this wood ; while the bark-borer of
the oak is a small beetle of an allied genus, Scolytus jyygmcEus, which with
us does no great harm, but so abounded of late years in the Bois de
Vincennes, near Paris, that 40,000 trees were killed by it ; and many of
the finest elms in St. James's Park and Kensington Gardens ', as well as
in the promenades of various cities in the north of France, have fallen
victims to another of this tribe, Scolytus destructor, whose trivial name well
characterises the frequency and severity of its ravages.^
1 MacLeay in Edin. PhU. Journ. xi. 123.
^ While residing at Brussels in the spring of 1836, having pointed out to Dr.
George, Professor of Botany at the University, that many of the elms in the park
were infested with this insect, and that there was imminent risk of this noble pro-
menade, which consists almost wholly of elms, being destroyed by it, he brought the
subject under the notice of the burgomaster and municipal council, who very wisely
had the diseased trees cut down, as well as the many much younger but equally in-
fested trees of the Boulevards, and the bark of the whole peeled off and carefully
burnt. I afterwards found, in a tour along the north coast of France through Nor-
mandy, &c., that the elms in the promenades (almost always formed of this tree), in
all the large towns, were in a course of rapid destruction by this same Scohjtus
destructor, particularly at Calais, Boulogne, Rouen, Havre, and Caen; and numerous
observations convinced me that the general opinion that these insects attack only
those trees which are previously diseased from natural decay is altogether erroneous,
and that Professor Audouin's discovery is as important and correct as novel —
namely, that though it is quite true that the female Scolyti never laj' their eggs
except in trees which are in a declining state ; yet it is equally certain that the
healthiest elms, where Scolyti abound, are constanth' brought into this languishing
state bythe attacks of the males, or, as JI. Audouin conceives, of both sexes (see remarks
on this point by W. Spence in Trans. Ent. Soc. Land, ii, proc. xlv.), upon the bark
for food; so that in consequence of the loss of sap from the numerous holes which
they gnaw, and the subsequent mischief from the rain joenetrating into them, the
trees are soon brought into that unhealthy condition which the instinct of the
female requires to induce her to lay her eggs in them. (Spence in Trans. Ent.
Soc. Land. ii. proc. xiii. xv. xx. xxv. ; Audouin in Ann. Ent. Soc. de France, Bull.
Jan. 4, 1837. ; Silbermann, Rev. Entom. iv. 115., where Dr. Ratzeburg is cjuoted as
stating that the large weevil {Pissodes notatus) in like manner attacks the bark of
young pines with its trunk, and thus renders the trees unhealthy before the female
deposits her eggs in them.) For a further description of the mischief done by
Scolt/tus destructor, and the means of preventing its extension, see a communication
by W. S. under the article U/mus, in Mr. Loudon's Arboretum et Fruticetuni Britan-
nicuni; to which admirable work the reader is also referred for more complete details
than could be here given in the valuable contributions hj Mr. Westwood relative to
insects injurious to this and other species of forest-trees.
It may be here mentioned, though somewhat out of place, for the purpose of draw-
ing the attention of Entomologists to a new tribe of insect-parasites of which no
account appears to have been given in books, that in examining closeh' the pup* of
Scoli/tus destructor at Brussels, I found them lined in different parts of their external
surface, but especially on the throat and about the cases of the elytra, with numer-
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 123
It would occupy too inucli space to notice in iletail all the bark-boring
beetles which attack the various species of pine and fir trees, which are very-
numerous, coiiiprisin<:7'()?»/cH5 piuastn,Lnnris mkrogni pints, fi/j)o<.naphus, and
chalcogra pints, (which I lountl in 1837, in the larva, pupa, and iniaj;o states,
in the bSirk of Norway fir masts im|)()rted to iSoutliampton), llylitrgus
piiiipntlii, as well as two large weevils, Pissodrs luttiilits and ])iiti, which
have similar habits, &c. Sec. ; and I will conchule the list with stating as
a sample of the whole the ravages committed by one of the tribe, Tomicus
fi/poiira pints,: in Germany, where it sometimes attacks the inner bark in
such vast numbers, 80,000 being somttimes found in a single tree, tiiat it
is infinitely more noxious than any of those that bore into the wood ; and
such is its vitality, that tliough the bark be battered and the tree plunged
into water, or laid upon the ice or snow, it remains alive and unhurt. The
leaves of the trees infested by these insects |irst become yellow; the trees
themselves then die at the top, and soon entirely perish. Their ravages have
long been known in Germany under the name of ll'iiriii /rdliiiiss (decay
caused by worms); and in the old liturgies of that country the animal
itself is formally mentioned under its vulgar appellation, " The Turk."
ons transparent eel-shaped vermicles, not easily visible to the naked eye from their
small size, being not more than one ciphth or one tenth of a Hne in length, but per-
ceptible throui;h a pocket lens, especially when exposure to the air or the warm
breath had made them elevate their tails (or heads, whichever they may be), a
movement which sometimes takes place speedily, but at others onh' altera consider-
able examination, when they present the appearance of so many animated hairs
twisting and curling themselves in various directions. These vermicles, under M.
Wesmael's poweiful compound microscope, mth which he was so good as to assist
me in examining them, exhibit not the slightest trace either of mouth or other ex-
ternal organ, nor of intestines, nor of internal vessels of any kind, which, if any such
existed, might be easily seen through their transparent skin and body. This absence
of all appearance of external and internal organs (the inside of the body seeming
tilled with granular molecules), added to their shape, which is filiform and very
slender, sharply attenuated at each extremity, and their hyaline colom-, with very
indistinct traces under a high magnifying power of about twenty segments, each as
long as broad, are all the characters they afford. These characters, or rather nega-
tion of characters, might perhaps suffice to bring these vermicles under the genus
Vibrio as formerly extended by Miiller and Bory de St. Vincent, (to which, from
their resemblance to the so-called vinegar eels. Vibrio anguilla, I at first referred
them,) but scarcely as it has been recently restricted b}' Ehrenberg, especially as all
his species of this genus ( Vibrio^ reside in water. From their connection with an
animal, thej' might be regarded as referable to the Oj:yuri, were it not that neither
my own nor M. NVesmael's close examination could ever discover any trace of their
existence in the interior of either the larva, pupa, or imago of Scolytus. Their
wholly exterior habitat seems also to exclude them from coming under Professor
Owen's genus Trichina, of his group Protehnintha, which, from its shape and sim-
plicity of structure, might possibly include them, but «hich inhabits the cellular
tissue between tlie muscular tibres, enclosed in a cyst in which it lies coiled up.
Leaving it to future examination to decide the true genus and relations of these
vermicles, I shall here merely observe, in addition to what has been above said, that
I have found tliem upon a large proportion of the pup;u of Scolytus destructor, and
occasionally on some of the larvje in an advanced stage of growth, and also on the
pupa; of Hyksinus frnxini; and in such distant localities, and at such difterent
periods of the year, that I am persuaded that their occurrence was not accidental,
but that they are true external parasites, of the family of Scolytidw in the pupa
(and partly in the larva) state, in which, however, they do not seem materially to
injure them, nor prevent them from becoming perfect insects. (See Spence in
Trans. Ent. Soc. Land. ii. proc. xv.)
124 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
This pest was particularly prevalent, and caused incalculable mischief, about
the year l66o. In the beginning of the last century it again showed itself
in the Hartz forests — it re-appeared in 1757, redoubled its injuries in
1769, and arrived at its height in 1783, when the number of trees destroyed
by it in the above forests alone was calculated at a million and a half,
and the inhabitants were threatened with a total suspension of the work-
ing of their mines, and consequent ruin. At this period these Tomici,
when arrived at their perfect state, migrated in swarms like bees into Suabia
and Franconia. At length, between the years 1784 and 1789, in conse-
quence of a succession of cold and moist seasons, the numbers of this
scourge were sensibly diminished. It appeared again, however, in 1790;
and so late as 1796 there was great reason to fear for the few fir-trees that
were left.^
When the sap flows from a tree in consequence of the attacks of the
above-mentioned insects, or any other cause'", it is attended by various
beetles, as Cetonia aurata, several Nitidulcs and Brachyptera^ &c., which
prevent it from healing; and if the bark be anywhere separated from the
wood, a numerous army of wood-lice, earwigs, spiders, field-bugs, and
similar subcortical insects take their station there, and prevent a re-
union.
The seeds of forest as well as of fruit-trees are doubtless subject to
injuries from insects ; but these being more out of the reach of observa-
tion, have not been much noticed. Acorns, however, a considerable article
with nurserymen, are said to have both a moth and a beetle that prey upon
them ; and, whac is remarkable, though sometimes one larva of each is
found in the same acorn, yet two of either kind are never to be met with
together.^ The beetle is probably the CurcuUo (Balaninus) glandium of
Mr, Marsham, and is nearly related to the species whose grub inhabits the
nut.
Having now conducted you round, and exhibited to you the melancholy
proofs of the universal dominion of insects over our vegetable treasures
while growing or endued with the principle of vitality, in their separate
departments, I must next introduce you to a pest worse than all put together,
which indiscriminately attacks and destroys every vegetable substance that
the earth produces, and which, wherever it prevails, carries famine, pesti-
lence, and death in its train. Happily for this country — and we cannot
be too thankful for the privilege — we know this scourge of nations only
by report. The name oi Locust, which has been such a sound of horror in
other countries, here only suggests an object of interesting inquiry. But
the ravages of locusts are so copious a theme that they merit to be con-
sidered in a separate letter.
I am, &c,
1 Wilhelm's Recreations from Nat. Hist., quoted by Latreille, Hist. Nat. xi,
194.
2 While attending to the Scolyti infesting the common elm during the tour in
the north of France in 1836, above referred to, I noticed in the liquid matter so often
seen constantly oozing fi-om the large ulcers in this tree, a dipterous larva in consider-
able numbers, of which this exudation is evidently the natural food ; and having
bred some of them, they produced very minute gnat-like flies, of the genus Cerato-
pogon, probably (but I have not the specimens now at hand to compare with his
description) C. flavifrons of Guerin {Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, ii. 165.), which he
found in a similar situation.
2 Reaum. ii. 502.
125
LETTER Vll.
INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
INDIRECT INJURIES — Continued.
To look at a /ocusf in a cabinet of insects, you would not, at first sight,
ciccni it capable ot" l)eing the source of so much evil to mankind as stands
on record against it. " Tiiis is but a small creature," you would say,
" and the mischief which it causes cannot be far beyond the proportion of
its bulk. The locusts so celebrated in history must surely be of the Indian
kind mentioned by Pliny, which were three leet in length, with legs so
strong that the women used them as saws. I sec, indeed, some resem-
blance to the horse's head, but where are the eyes of the elephant, the
neck of the bull, the horns of the stag, the chest of the lion, the belly of
the scorpion, the wings of the eagle, the thighs of the camel, the legs of the
ostricii, and the tail of the serpent, all of which the Arabians mention as
attributes of this widely-dreaded insect destroyer'; but of which in the
insect before me I discern little or no likeness?" Yet, although this ani-
mal be not very tremendous for its size, nor very terrific in its appearance,
it is the very same whose ravages have been the theme of naturalists and
historians in all ages, and upon a close examination you will fiml it to be
pecfiliarly fitted and furnished for the execution of its office- It is armed
with two pairs of very strong jaws, the upper terminating in short and the
lower in long teeth, by which it can both lacerate and grind its food — its
stomach is of extraordinary capacity and powers — its hind legs enable it
to leap to a considerable distance, and its ample vans are calculated to
catch the wind as sails, and so to carry it sometimes over the sea; and
although a single individual can effect but little evil, yet when the entire
surface of a country is covered by them, and every one makes bare the spot
on which it stands, the mischief produced may be as infinite as their num-
bers. So well do the Arabians know their power, that they make a locust
say to Mahomet, " We are the army of the Great God ; we produce
ninety-nine eggs ; if the hundred were completed, we should consume the
whole earth and all that is in it."-
Since it is possible you may not have paid particular attention to the
accounts given by various authors, both ancient and modern, of the almost
incredible injury done to the human race by these creatures, I shall now lay
before you some ot the most striking particulars of their devastations that
I have been able to collect.
The earliest plague of this kind which has been recorded, appears also
to have been the most direful in its immediate effects that ever was inflicted
upon any nation. I am speaking, as you may well suppose, of the locusts
' Bochart, Hierozoic. I*, ii. I. iv. c. 5. 475. * Ibid,, ttbi supr. c. C. 485.
126 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
with which the Egyptian tyrant and his people were visited for their op-
pression of the IsraeHtes. Only conceive to yourself a country so covered
by them, that no one can see the face of the ground — a whole land dark-
ened, and all its produce, whether herb or tree, so devoured that not the
least vestige of green is left in either.^ But it is not necessary for me to
enlarge further upon a history, the circumstances of which are so well
known to you.
To this species of devastation Africa in general seems always to have
been peculiarly subject. This may be gathered from the law in Cyrenaica,
mentioned by Pliny, by which the inhabitants were enjoined to destroy the
locusts in three different states, three times in the year — first their eggs,
then their young, and lastly the perfect insect.^ And not without reason
was such a law enacted ; for Orosius tells us that in the year of the world
.3800, Africa was infested by such infinite myriads of these animals, that
having devoured every green thing, after flying off to sea they were
drowned, and being cast upon the shore they emitted a stench greater than
could have been produced by the carcasses of 100,000 men.^ St. Augus-
tine also mentions a plague to have arisen in that country from the same
cause, which destroyed no less than 800,000 persons (octingenta homimim
millia) in the kingdom of Masanissa alone, and many more in the terri-
tories bordering upon the sea.''^
From Africa this plague was occasionally imported into Italy and Spain ;
and a historian, quoted in Mouffet, relates that in the year 591 an infinite
army of locusts, of a size unusually large, grievously ravaged part of Italy;
and being at last cast into the sea, from their stench arose a pestilence
which carried off near a million of men and beasts. In the Venetian ter-
ritory, also, in 1478, more than 30,000 persons are said to have perished
in a famine occasioned by these terrific scourges. Many other instances of
their devastations in Europe, in France, Spain, Italy, Germany^, &c., are
recorded by the same author. In 1 6.50, a cloud of them was seen to enter
Russia in three different places, which from thence passed over into Poland
and Lithuania, where the air was darkened by their numbers. In some
places they were seen lying dead, heaped one upon another to the depth of
four feet ; in others they covered the surface like a black cloth, the trees
bent with their weight, and the damage they did exceeded all computation.^
At a later period, in Languedoc, when the sun became hot they took wing
and fell upon the corn, devouring both leaf and ear, and that with such
expedition that in three hours they would consume a whole field. After
having eaten up the corn, they attacked the vines, the pulse, the willows,
and lastly the hemp, notwithstanding its bitterness.^ Sir H. Davy informs
us* that the French government in 1813 issued a decree with a view to
occasion the destruction of grasshoppers.
Even this happy island, so remarkably distinguished by its exemption
from most of those scourges to which otlier nations are exposed, was once
1 Exod. X. 5. 14, 15.
2 Hist. Nat. 1. xi. c. 29. A similar law was enacted in Lemnos, by which every
one was compelled to bring a certain measure of locusts annually to the magistrates.
Plin. ibid.
5 Oros. contra Pag. 1. v. c. 2. ■* Lesser, L. 247. note 46.
5 Moufifet, 123. 6 Bingley, iii. 258.
7 Philos. Trans. 1686.
* Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, 233.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 127
alarmed by the appearance of locusts. In 17+8 they were observed here
in considerable nnnibers, but providentially they soon perisiicd without
propagating. These were evidently stragglers from the vast swarms which
in the preceding year did such infinite damage in VVallachia, Moldavia,
Transylvania, Hungary, and Poland. One of" these swarms, which entered
Transylvania in August, was several hundred fathoms in width (at Vienna
the breadth of one of them was tliree miles), and extended to so great a
length as to be four hours in passing over the Red Tower; and such was
its density that it totally interce|)ted the solar light, so that when they flew
low one person could not see another at the distance of twenty paces.'
A similar account has been given mc by a friend of mine' long resident
in India. He relates that when at I'oonah he was w itness to an immense
army of locusts which ravaged the Mahratta country, and was supposed to
come from Arabia (this, if correct, is a strong proof of their power to
pass the sea under favourable circumstances). The column they com-
posed, my friend was informed, extended five hundred miles; and so com-
pact was it, when on the wing, that, like an eclipse, it completely hid the
sun, so that no shadow was cast by any object, and some lofty tombs dis-
tant from his residence not more than two iiundred yards were rendered
quite invisible. This was not the Locux/a viigratoria, but a red s[)ecies ;
which circumstance much increased the horror of the scene; for, cluster-
ing upon the trees after they had stripped them of their foliage, they im-
parted to them a sanguine hue. The peach was the last tree that they
touched.
Dr. Clarke, to give some idea of the infinite numbers of these animals,
compares them to a flight of snow when the flakes are carrieil obliquely
by the wind. They covered his carriage and horses, and the Tartars
assert that people are sometimes suffocated by them. The whole face of
nature might have been described as covered by a living veil. They con-
sisted of two species, L, tatarica and migratoria ; the first is almost twice
the size of the second, and, because it precedes it, is called by the Tartars
the herald or messenger. ^ The account of another traveller, Mr. Bar-
row, of their raviiges in the southern parts of Africa (in 1784 and 1797)
is still more striking: an area of nearly two thousand square miles n)ight
be said literally to be covered by them. When driven into the sea by a
N.W. wind, they formed upon the shore for fifty miles a bank three or four
feet high, and when the wind was S.E. the stench was so powerful as to
be smelt at the distance of 150 miles.'
From 1778 to 1780 the empire of Marocco was terribly devastated by
them ; every green thing was eaten up, not even the bitter bark of the
orange and pomegranate escaping — a most dreadful famine ensued. The
poor were seen to wander over the country deriving a miserable subsist-
ence from the roots of plants; and women and children followed the
camels from whose dung they picked the undigested grains of barlev,
which they devoured with avidity : in consequence of this, vast numbers
perished, and the roads and streets exhibited the unburied carcasses of the
dead. On this sad occasion fathers sold their children, and husbands
1 PhUos. Trans, xlvi. 30.
2 Jlajor Jroor, author of the The Xarrative of Captain Little's Detachment, The
Hindu Pantheon, &c.
5 Travels, i. 348. , 4 Travels, &c. 257.
128 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
their -wives. ^ When they visit a country, says Mr. Jackson, speaking of
the same empire, it behoves every one to lay in provision for a famine, for
they stay from three to seven years. When they have devoured all other
vegetables, they attack the trees, consuming first the leaves and then the
bark. From Mogador to Tangier, before the plague in 1799, the face of
the earth was covered by them: — at that time a singular incident oc-
curred at El Araiche. The whole region from the confines of the Sahara
was ravaged by them ; but on the other side of the river El Kos not one
of them was to be seen, though there M'as nothing to prevent their flying
over it. Till then they had proceeded northward ; but upon arriving at
its banks they turned to the east, so that all the country north of El
Araiche was full of pulse, fruits, and grain — exhibiting a most striking
contrast to the desolation of the adjoining district. At length they were
all carried by a violent hurricane into the Western Ocean ; the shore, as
in former instances, was covered by their carcasses, and a pestilence was
caused by the horrid stench which they emitted .- but when this evil
ceased, their devastations were followed by a most abundant crop. The
Arabs of the Desert, " whose hands are against every man,"" and who
rejoice in the evil that befalls other nations, when they behold the clouds
of locusts proceeding from the north, are filled with gladness, anticipating
a general mortality, which they call El-Kliere (the benediction) ; for,
when a country is thus laid waste, they emerge from their arid deserts and
pitch their tents in the desolated plains.^ — The neighbouring kingdom of
Spain has often suffered from the ravages of locusts. So recently as
May, 1841, an article in the Constitutionnel French newspaper states as
follows : " Such immense quantities of locusts have appeared this year in
Spain that they threaten in some places entirely to destroy the crops. At
Daimiel, in the province of Ciudad-Real, three hundred persons are con-
stantly employed in collecting these destructive insects, and though they
destroy seventy or eighty sacks every day, they do not appear to diminish.
There is something frightful in the appearance of these locu.sts proceeding
in divisions, some of which are a league in length and 2000 paces in
breadth. It is sufficient if these terrible columns stop half an hour on
any spot, for every thing growing on it — vines, olive-trees, and corn — to
be entirely destroyed. After they have passed, nothing remains but the
large branches and the roots, which being under ground have escaped
their voracity." And in a late work of travels in the same country we
find the following passage : — "During our ride (from Cordova to Seville),
we observed a number of men advancing in skirmishing order across the
country, and thrashing the ground most savagely with long flails. Curious
to know what could be the motives for this Xerxes-like treatment of the
earth, we turned out of the road to inspect their operations, and found
they were driving a swarm of locusts into a wide piece of linen, spread on
the ground some distance before them, wherein they were made prisoners.
These animals are about three times the size of an English grasshopper.
They migrate from Africa, and their spring visits are very destructive; for
in a single night they will entirely eat up a field of corn."*
1 Southey's Thalaba, i. 171.
2 Gen. xvi. 12. S Jackson's Travels in Marocco, 54.
* Scott's Excursions in the Mountains of Ronda and Granada. The same plan is
adopted for the destruction of these insects in some parts of the United States ;
Deep trenches being dug at the end of fields into which the grasshoppers are driven
with branches, and then destroyed by throwing the earth upon them.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS: 129
The noise the locusts make when engaged in tiie work of destruction
has been compared to the souud of a flame of fire driven by the wind, and
the efil'ct of their bite to that of fire. ' The poet Southey has very
strikingly described the noise produced by their flight and approach: —
" Onward they came, a <lark continuous cloud
Of congregated luyriads numberless.
The rushing of whose wings was as the sound
Of a broad river headlong in its course
Plunged from a mountain summit, or the roar
Of a wild ocean in the autumn storm,
Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks ! " ^
But no account of the appearance and ravages of these terrible insects,
for correctness and sublimity, comes near that of the prophet Joel, " A
day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness,
as the morning spread upon the mountains ; a great people and a strong:
there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even
to the years of many generations. A fire devoureth before them, and
l>ehind them a flame burnelh : the land is as the garden of Eden before
them, and beliind them a desolate wilderness ; yea, and nothing shall
escape them. Like the noise of ciiariots^ on the tops of mountains shall
they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a
strong people set in battle arra\'. Before their faces the people shall be
much pained : all faces sliall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty
men; they shall climb the wail like men of war; and they siiall march
every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks ; neither shall
one thrust anotli^r, they shall walk every one in his path : and when they
fall upon the sword they shall not be wounded. They shall run to and
fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the
houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall
quake before them, the heavens shall tremble : the sun and the moon shall
be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining ! " The usual way in
which they are destroyed is also noticed by the prophet. " I will remove
far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren
ami desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward
the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come
up, because he hath done great things!" '
I think, after a serious consideration of all these well attested facts,
when locusts contend with the two-legged destroyers of the human race
for proud {)re-eminence in mischief, you will find it difficult to determine
to which the palm should be decreed; and you will admire the propriety
with which, in the above and other passages of Holy Writ, thev are
selected as symbols of the great ravagers of the eai"th of our own species.
In many of the above instances these devastators appear to have crossed
the seas, but Hassel(|uist asserts that they are not formed for such ex-
tensive flights. '• The grasshopper or locust," says he, " is not formed for
travelling over the sea, — it cannot fly far, but must alight as soon as it
1 See Bochart. Hierozoic. P. 1. iv. c. 5. 474, 475,
2 Southey's Thalaba, i. 169.
^ Of the symbolical locusts in the Apocalypse it is said — "And the sound of their
wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses running to battle," ix. 9.
* Joel, ii. 2-10. 20.
K
130 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
rises ; for one that came on board us a hundred certainly were drowned.
We observe in the months of May and June a number of these insects
coming from the south, and directing their course to the northern shore ;
they darken the sky like a thick cloud ; but scarcely have they quitted the
shore, when they, who a moment before ravaged and ruined the country,
cover the surface of the sea with their dead bodies. By what instinct do
these creatures undertake this dangerous flight ? Is it not the wise insti-
tution of the Creator to destroy a dreadful plague to the country ? " '
Locusts, however, as we have seen, take much longer flights than this
author supposes them able to do. It is probable that their ability in this
respect may depend a good deal upon their species, their age, and the
state and direction of the wind ; for, as was the case with the Egyptian
plague,
a pitchy cloud
Of locusts warping on the eastern wind"
may by a powerful blast be carried over a broad river, or even the sea,
from one country to another. This idea is strongly confirmed by an
account, exhibiting internal marks of authenticity, which appeared in the
Alexandria Herald, an American newspaper ; in which it is stated, that at
the distance of 200 miles from the Canary Islands, the nearest land, the
ship Georgia, Capt. Stokes, from Lisbon to Savannah, while sailing with
a fine breeze from the south-east, was, on the 21st of Nov. 1811, all at
once becalmed. " A hght air afterwards sprung up from the north-east,
at which time there fell from the cloud an innumerable quantity of large
grasshoppers, so as to cover the deck, the tops, and every* part of the ship
they could alight upon. They did not appear in the least exhausted ; on
the contrary, when an attempt was made to take hold of them, they
instantly jumped, and endeavoured to elude being taken. The calm, or a
very light air, lasted fully an hour, and during the whole of the time these
insects continued to fall upon the ship and surround her : such as were
within reach of the vessel alighted upon her ; but immense numbers fell
into the sea, and were seen floating in masses by the sides." Two bottles
of them were preserved for inspection ; the insects were of a reddish hue,
with red and grey speckled wings. It is clear from this account, if it be
admitted as authentic, that locusts can go far from land when the wind is
strong, and likewise it seems equally clear that in a calm they cannot
support themselves in the air. The principal difficulty is, how these locusts
could make their way against the wind, which they must have done if they
came with the black cloud, as the words seem to intimate. Perhaps this
cloud was brought by a different current of air from that which im-
pelled the ship. A similar statement is given in the Essex (Massachusetts)
Register in an extract from a letter of the mate of the brig Levant of
Boston, who writes, " that after having encountered a severe gale on the
1.3th September (1839), when in lat. 18^ north, and the nearest land being
over 450 miles, they were surrounded for two days by large swarms' of
locusts of a large size ; and in the afternoon of the second day, in a squall
from the north-west, the sky was completely black with them. They
covered every part of the brig immediately, sails, rigging, cabin, &c. It is
^ Voyage to the Levant, 444.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 131
a little singular how they could have supported themselves in the air so
long, as there was no land to the north-west for several thousand miles.
Two days afterwards, the weather being moderate, the brig sailed through
swarms of tlicm floating dead upon the waters."^
With respect to the course which the locusts pursue, Hasselquist has
observed that thev migrate in a direct meridian line from south to north,
fassing from the deserts of Arabia, which is the great cradle of them, to
'alestinc, Syria, Caramauia, Natolia, Bithynia, Constantinople, Poland,
&c. — they never turn either to the east or to the west." But this must be
a niistiiken notion; for those which Major Moor saw at Poonah, of which
I have given an account above ^, must have come due east. ]Mr. Jackson
also noticed their course north of the line to be towards the south * ; and
Sparrman tells us that those south of the line migrate in the same
direction.*
I fear that Ilasselquist's question, — Could they not by fright, or some
other method, be turned from their dreadful course, to steer for some
river, and by that means be obliged to destroy themselves ? '^ — must be
answered in the negative. All such experiments, it is to be apprehended,
would be about as effectual as sending an army, with all the apparatus of
war, to take the field against them, as this author says is done in Syria,
where the Bashaw of Tripoli once raised a force of 4000 soldiers to fight
the locusts, and very summarily ordered all to be hanged who, thinking it
beneath them to waste their valour upon such pigmy foes, refused to join
the party.'' I am, &c.
1 Ann. jVat. Hist. vi. 527. The authenticity of the above accounts is fully proved
by a fact mentioned by Mr. Darwin, — that a'large grasshopper (Acri/dium) flew on
board the Beagle when she was to windward of the Cape de Verd Islands, and when
the nearest point of land, not directly opposed to the trade-wind, was Cape Blauco,
on the west of Africa, 370 miles distant. (Journal in Voyages of the Adventure and
Beagle, p. 186,)
2 Voyage to the Levant, p. 446, 447, ' See p. 127.
4 Travels, 54. * Travels, i. 366.
6 Travels, 'i.bb. ^ Travels,^!,
K 2
132
LETTER VIII.
INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
INDIRECT INJURIES — concluded.
I HAVE not yet arrived at the end of my catalogue of noxious insects. I
have introduced you, indeed, to those that annoy man in his own person,
in his domestic animals, in the produce of his fields, gardens, orchards, and
forests ; in a word, in every thing that is endued with the vital principle :
but I have as yet said nothing of the injuries which he receives from them
in that part of his property, consisting either of animal or vegetable matter,
from luliich that principle is departed. And with these I shall conclude this
melancholy detail of evils inflicted upon us by the very animals I am
enticing you to study. The rest of my correspondence, I flatter myself, will
paint them in more inviting colours.
The insects to which I now allude may be divided into those that
attack and injure our food, our drugs and medicines, our clothes, our
houses and furniture, our timber, and even the objects of our studies and
amusements.
Various are those that attempt to share our food with us. Flour and
meal are eaten by the grub of Tenebrio molitor, best known by the name of
the meal-worm, which will remain in it two years before it goes into its
state of inactivity : — its ravages, however, are not confined to flour alone,
for it will eat any thing made of that article, such as bread, cakes, and the
like. Old flour is also very apt to be infested by a mite I^Acariis farincE)}
In long voyages the biscuit sometimes so swarms v/ith the weevil and
another beetle {Dermestes paniceus L.), that they are swallowed with
every mouthful ; and even the ground peas so abound with these little
vermin that a spoonful of soup cannot be taken free from them." Bread is
also devoured by Trogosita caraboides, a larger beetle before alluded to.
Every one is aware that our animal food suffers still more than our
farinaceous from insects ; but perhaps you would not expect that our
hams, bacon, and dried meats should have their peculiar beetle. Yet so it
is ; and this beetle (^Dermestes lardarius), when a grub, sometimes commits
1 Amcen. Acad. iii. 345.
2 Sparrman, i. 103. This insect, by Swedish entomologists, is supposed to be a
species of Aiiobinm F. {Ptinus L.) ; but the specimen preserved in the Linnean
cabinet is Silpha rosea of Mr. Marsham {Caciculn pectoralis Jleg.). A small beetle
of the first family of Cryptophagus Gyllenhal swarms often in the sliip biscuit, and
may probably be the insect Sparrman here complains of under the name of JJermes-
tespaniceus. It is probable, however, that there is a mistake as to the specimen in
tlie Linnean cabinet, as there is no doubt that Anobium paniceum Stephens is verj'
injurious to biscuit, of which Mr. Raddon exhibited to the Entomological Society
several perforated in all directions by the larvae of this insect, which, strange to say
he found to feed also on Cayenne pepper. ( Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. i. proc. Ixxxv.
ii. proc. Ixxi.)
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 133
great devastation in them ; as does that of another described l\v De Geer
under tlic name of 'J'fnrhrio lardarhis} How nuicli otir fresh meat of all
kintis, our poultry ami fish, arc exposed to the flesh-fly, whose maggots
will turn us disgusted from our tables, if we do not carefully guard these
articles from being blown by them, you well know; — and assailants more
violent, hornets, wasps, ami the great rove-beetle (Crroj)/ii/iis iiiaxillontts),
if butchers do not |)rotect their shambles, will carry ofi" no inconsiderable
j)ortion of their meat. A small cock-roach {Blatta /nppnititri), which I
have taken upon our eastern coast, swarms in the huts of the Laplanders,
and will sometimes annihilate in a single day, a work in which a carrion-
beetle (Silplia /appotiira) joins, their whole stock of dried fish.- The
quantity of sugar that flies and wasps will devour if they can come <it it,
especially the latter, the diminutive size of the creatures considered, is
astonishing: — in one year long ago, when sugar was mucli cheaper than
it is now, a tradesman told me he calculated his loss, by the was[)s alone,
at twenty pounds. A singular spectacle is exhibited in India (so Captain
Green relates) by a small red ant with a black head. They march in long
files, about three abreast, to any place where sugar is kept ; and when
they are saturated, return in the same order, but by a different route. If
the sugar, upon which they are busy, be carried into the sun, they
immediately desert it. What is very extraordinary, these ants are also
fond of oil. Sweetmeats and preserves are very subject to be attacked by
a minute oblong transparent mite with very short legs, and without any
hair upon its body. ()ur butter and lard are stated to be eaten by the
caterpillar of a moth (Ag/oxxa j)i)igui)ia/is). Ti/rophaga^ casei, the parent
fly of the jumping cheese maggot, loses no opportunity, we know, of laying
its eggs in our fresh cheeses, and when they get dry and old the mite
(^Acanis siru) settles her colonies in them, which multiply incredibly. Other
substances, more unlikely, do not escape from our pigmy depredators.
Thus Reaumur tells us of a little moth whose larva feeds upon chocolate,
observing very justly that this could not have been its original food.*
Both a moth and a beetle {Sj/ivmiics frumentarius?) were detected by
Leeuwenhoek preying upon two of our spices, the mace and the nutmeg.^
The maggots of a fly (^Drosoplnln cel/aris) are found in vinegar, in the
manufactories of which the perfect insects swarm in incredible numbers ;
others I have found in wine, which turn to a minute fly, of a yellow colour,
with dark eyes and abdomen, which, though near Anthomyia as to its
wings, appears to belong to a distinct genus not published by Meigen,
which in my MS. stands under the name of Oinopota ventralk*^ ; and sonie-
1 De Geer, v. 46. This insect appears nearly related to Mr. Marsham's Cor-
ticaria pulla (^E. B. i. 11. 14.; Latridius porcatus Herbst), if it be not tlie same
insect.
- Amoen. Acad. iii. 345.
3 Tliis name has long been given to this insect, and the characters of the genus
were drawn by Mr. Curtis before the publication of Meigen's fifth volume (in
which the genus is called Piopliila) ; it is therefore retained. (See Curtis, Brit.
Ent. t. 126.)
* Reaum. iii. 27G. 5 Leeuwenh. Ejiist. 99.
^ Thougli our foreign wines, after being deposited in bottles in our cellars, would
seem secure from the attacks of insects, a friend of S. S. Saunders, Esq., found, on
removing his stock from one cellar to another, that the corks of many of the bottles
had been so eaten as to let the wine leak out. The authors of this mischief seem to
have been chiefly cockroaches, which had gnawed off the corks of the claret only so
K 3
134 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
times even water in the casks of ships, in long voyages, so abounds with
larvae of this tribe as to render it extremely disgusting. Browne, in his
History of Jamaica, mentions an ant (Formica omnivora L.), probably be-
longing to Myrmica, that consumes or spoils all kinds of food ; which
perhaps may be the same species that has been observed in Ceylon by
Percival, and is described by him as inhabiting dwelling-houses, and
speedily devouring every thing it can n)eet with. If at table any one drops
a piece of bread, or of other food, it instantly appears in motion as if
animated, from the vast number of these creatures that fasten upon it in
order to carry it off. They can be kept, he tells us, by no contrivance
from invading the table, and settling in swarms on the bread, sugar, and
such things as they like. It is not uncommon to see a cup of tea, upon
being poured out, completely covered with these creatures, and floating
dead upon it like a scum. ^
In some countries the number of flies and other insects that enter the
house in search of food, or allured by the light, is so great as to spoil the
comfort of almost every meal. We are told that during the rainy season
in India, insects of all descriptions are so incredibly numerous, and so
busy every where, that it is often absolutely necessary to remove the lights
from the supper table : — were this not done, moths, flies, bugs, beetles,
and the like, would be attracted in such numbers as to extinguish them
entirely. When the lights are retained on the table, in some places they
are put into glass cylinders, which St. Pierre tells us is the custom in the
Island of Mauritius^ ; in others the candlesticks are placed in soup plates,
into which the insects are precipitated and drowned. Nothing can exceed
the irritation caused by the stinking bugs when they get into the hair or
between the linen and the body ; and if they be bruised upon it the skin
comes off ? ^ To use the language of a poet of the Indies from whom some
of the above facts are selected, —
" On every dish the booming beetle falls,
The cockroach plays, or caterpillar crawls :
A thousand shapes of variegated hues
Parade the table or inspect the stews.
To living walls the swarming hundreds stick.
Or court, a dainty meal, the oily wick ;
Heaps over heaps their slimy bodies drench.
Out go the lamps with suffocating stench.
When hideous insects every plate defile,
The laugh how empty and how forced the smile ! " *
far as they were unimpregnated with the wine ; but finding the sweet flavour of the
Persian shiraz and old hock more to their taste, had encroached upon the corks of
these so deeply as to allow the wine to escape. A few individuals of two mimite
beetles, Crt/ptophagus cellaris and Myccetcea hirta, a minute Acarus, and Atropos iig-
narius, were found on the corroded corks, but seem more likely to have been
attracted by the oozing wine than to have originally caused the damage. (Trans.
Ent. Soc. Land. i. proc. Iv.) Mr. Thwaites suggests that Blaps mortisaga is more
likely to have eaten the corks than cockroaches, which do not usually frequent
cellars, whereas the former are found very generally in those of Bristol ; and, as he
has observed the stomach of the individuals of these insects which he dissected to be
filled with what seemed saw-dust, they may probably also eat corks, which indeed
he found they did on putting them into a box along with the insects.
1 Ceylon, 307. 3 Voyage, &c. 72.
3 Williamson's £ast India Vade Mecum. * Calcutta, a Poem, 85.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 135
Drugs and medicines also, though often so nauseous to us, form occa-
sionally part of the food of insects. A small i)ectle (SinoHnulrum pusillitm^)
eats the roots of rhubarb, in which I detecteil it in the East Indian Com-
pany's warehouses. Opium is a dainty viorccau to the white ants'' ; — and,
what is more extraordinary, Aiwhiuni jxinkrioii'^ has been known to devour
the blister-beetle (Cantliam vcsicatoria), and even, as has been already
observed, Cajenne pepper. Swammerdam amongst his treasures mentions
" a detestable beetle," produced from a worm that cats the roots of gin-
seng ; and he likewise notices another, the larva of which devours the bag
of the musk.'* The cochineal, at Hio de Janeiro, is the prey of an insect
resembling an Ichneumon, but furnished with only two wings ; its station
is in the cotton that envelops the Coccus. Previous to its assumption of
the pupa, it ejects a large globule of pure red colouring matter,^ And
lastly, the Coccus that produces the lac (C. laced) is, we are told, devoured
by various insects.''
Perhaps you imagine that these universal destroyers spare at least our
garments, in which you may at first conceive there can be nothing very
tempting to excite even the appetite of an insect. Your houaekeeper,
however, would probably tell you a different story, and enlarge upon the
trouble and pains it costs her to guard those under her care against the
ravages of the moths. Upon further inquiry you would find that nothing
made of wool, whether cloth or stuff", comes amiss to them. There are
five species described by Linne, which are more or less engaged in this
v^'ork : — Tinea vestinncllo, tapetzeUa, pellioncllo, Laivrna sarcitcUn, and
Gallerin mclloncUa. Of tlie first we have no particular history, except that
it destroys garments in the summer ; but of the others Reaumur has
given a complete one. T. tapetzclla, or the tapestry moth, not uncommon
in our houses, is most injurious to the lining of carriages, which are more
exposed to the air than the furniture of our apartments. These do not
construct a moveable habitation like the common species, but, eating their
way in the thickness of the cloth, weave themselves silken galleries in
which they reside, and which they render close and warm by covering them
with some of the eroded wool.^ T.peUioneUn is a most destructive insect;
and ladies have often to deplore the ravages which it commits in their
valuable furs, whether made up into mufls or tippets. It pays no more
respect to the regal ermine than to the woollen habiHments of the poor ;
its proper food, indeed, being hair, though it devours both wool and fur.
This species, if hard pressed by hunger, will even eat horse-hair, and make
its habitation, a moveable house or case in which it travels from place to
place, of this untractable material. These little creatures will shave the
hair from a skin as neatly and closely as if a razor had been employed.®
The most natural food of the next species, L. sarcitella, is wool ; but in
1 Ftinus piceus M arsh .
2 On examining ninety-two chests of opium, part of the cargo saved from the
Charlton, previously to reshipping them from Chittagong for China, thirteen
were found to be lull of white ants, Avhich had ahiiost wholly devoured the
opium. (^Article from Chittagonq, Nov. 1812, in one of the Newspapers, July 31.
1813.)
s Ptinus rubellus Marsh. ■» Bibl. Nat. i. 125. b. 126. a.
' Sir Geo. Staunton's Voi/. 8vo. 189. ^ Kerr in Philos. Trans. 1781.
7 Reaum. iii. 26G. « Ibid. 59.
E 4
136 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
case of necessity it will eat fur and hair. To woollen cloths or stuffs it
often does incredible injury, especially if they are not kept dry and well
aired. ^ Of the devastation committed by Galleria mellonella in our bee-
hives I have before given you an account : to this I must here add, that if
it cannot come at wax, it will content itself with woollen cloth, leather, or
even paper.^ Mr. Curtis found the grub of a beetle (Ptinus fur) in an
old coat, which it devoured, making holes and channels in it ; and another
insect of the same order {Attagenus pellio), Linne tells us, will sometimes
entirely strip a fur garment of its hair.^ A small beetle of the Capricorn
tribe {CalMium pygmcoum Fabr.) I have good reason to believe devours
leather, since I have found it abundant in old shoes.*
Next to our garments, our houses and buildings, which shelter us and
our property from the inclemency and injuries of the atmosphere, are of
consequence to us : yet these, solid and substantial as they appear, are
not secure from the attack of insects ; and even our furniture often suffers
from them. A great part of our comfort within doors depends upon our
apartments being kept clean and neat. Spiders by their webs, which they
suspend in every angle, and flies by their excrements, which they scatter
indiscriminately upon every thing, interfere with this comfort, and add
much to the business of our servants. Even ants will sometimes plant
their colonies in our kitchens (I have known the horse-ant, Formica rufa,
do this), and are not easily expelled.^ Those of Sierra Leone, as I was
once informed by the learned Professor Afzelius, make their way by millions
through the houses. They resolutely pursue a straight course; and neither
buildings nor rivers, even though myriads perish in the attempt, can divert
them from it. Several tribes of insects seek their food in the timber em-
ployed in our houses; buildings, gates or fences, or made up into furniture.
The large oaken beams, which, according to the old mode of building,
support the joists of the upper floors in the houses at Brussels, as I had
an opportunity of observing when there in 1836, have often their extre-
mities so eaten away like a honeycomb by the larvae of a beetle (^Anobium
tesnellatum, some of the dead perfect insects of which I found in their
holes), that it is necessary to replace them at great expense to prevent the
floors coming down ; and I subsequently saw beams similarly attacked
which had been removed from houses at Antwerp.^ M. Audouin has laid
before the French Academy an account of the injury done by Termes luci-
fugus to the wood-work of buildings at Rochefort and La Rochelle ; and
of that of the new galleries of the Museum of Natural History at Paris by
the larva of a small beetle (Lyctus canaliculatus Fab.), which feeds on the
1 Reaum, iii. 42. 2 ibid. 257. s Aman. Acad. 346.
4 Hides and skins are attacked b3' several species of Dtrmestes, which are
sometimes so injurious in the large skin warehouses of London, that the mer-
chants offered 20,000Z. as a reward for an available remedy. (Westwood, Mod.
Class. Ins. i. p. 158.)
5 Within the last few years, a very minvite yellow ant (^Myrmica domestica
Shuckard) has become a great pest in many houses in Brighton, London, and
Li\if rpool ; in some cases to so great an extent as to cause the occupants to leave
them. Dr. Bostock was obliged to replace the floor of his kitchen, under which
the}' swarmed in incredible numbers, by a new one resting on tiles imbedded in
cement. (^Trans. Eiit. Soc. Lond. ii. 66. proc. li. Iii.; Shuckard in Mag. Nat.
Hist. BIS. ii. 626.)
^ Spence in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. ii. proc. s.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 137
sapwooil, ill which its esigs had |)roI)al)ly been deposited before the wood
was worked up.' Of one of tlie timber-eating beetles {Aitolmim pcrtinax)
Linne coinplanis " tercbravH ct (Ifsfni.rit scdiiia vica ; " - and I can renew
tlie same complaint against A. slnaluni, which not only has destroyed my
chairs, but also picture-frames, and has perforated in every direction the
deal floor of my chamber, from which it annually emerges through little
round ajjcrtures in great numbers. The utility of entomological knowledge
in economics was strikingly exemplified when the great naturalist just
mentioned, at the desire of the King of Sweden, traced out the cause of
the destruction of the oak-timber in the ro^al dock-yards ; and, iiaving
detected the hirking culprit under the form of a beetle {Lijincxi/lon navn/e),
by directing the timber to be immersed during the time of the metamor-
phosis of that insect anil its season of oviposition, furnishetl a remedy
which effectually secured it from its future attacks.* No Coleopterous
insects are more singular than those that belong to the genus Paus.ius L. ;
and one of them, at least, remarkable, it is said, for emitting a |)hosphoric
lieht from the globes of its antenna;, is also a timber-feeder '; and the genus
'J'ri//)o.ri//on, many species of Crabro, Etimcncs parictum, Latreille's genera
Xi/liK'opa, Clu'tostoma, Heriadcs, Mcgncliite, and Anthophora (all separated
from Apis L.), perforate posts and rails and other timber, to i'orm cells for
their young.*
The Linnean order Aptera furnishes another timber-eating insect, a kind
of wood-louse {Limnona terebrans of Dr. Leach), which though scarcely
an eighth of the size of the common one, in point of rapidity of execution
seems to surpass all its European brethren, and in many cases may be pro-
ductive of more serious injury than any of them, since it attacks the wood-
work of piers and jetties constructed in salt water, and so effectually as to
threaten the rapid destruction of those in which it has established itself.
In December, 1815, I was favoured by Charles Lutwidge, Esq. of Hull,
with specimens of svood from the piers at Bridlington Quay, which wofully
confirm the fears entertained of their total ruin by the hosts of these pigmy
assailants that have made good a lodgment in them, and which, though not
so big as a grain of rice, ply their masticatory organs with such assiduity
as to have reduced great part of the wood-work which constitutes their
foot! into a state resembling honeycomb. One specimen was a portion of
a three-inch fir plank nailed to the North Pier about three years before,
which is crumbled away to less than an inch in thickness — in fact, de-
ducting the space occupied by the cells, which cover both surfaces as
closely as possible, barely half an inch of solid wood is left ; and though
its progress is slower in oak, that wood is equally liable to be attacked by
it.'' If this insect were easily introduced to new stations, it might soon
prove as destructive to our jetties as the Teredo navalis to those of Holland,
and induce the necessity of substituting stone for wood universally, what-
1 Guerin-Meneville, Ttevue Zoolog. 1840, p. 151. ~ Syst. Nat. 565. 2.
^ Smith's Introduction to Botani/, Prt'f. xv.
* Afzelius in Linn. Trans, iv. 261.
5 Kirby, Mon. Ap. Ang. i. 152. 194. Latreille, Gen. iv. 161—.
^ See the elaborate memoir of Jlr. Coldstream in Edin. New Phil. Journ. April,
18.34; remarks on this insect by the Kev. F. W. Hope in Trans. Ent. Snc. Land. i.
ll'j. ; also by Dr. Moore, in Mag. of Nat. Hist. N. S. ii. 206., who states that its in-
jurious eft'ecis have been known at least forty years in the harbour at Plymouth,
where it is called the " gribble."
138 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
ever the expense : but happily it seems endowed with very limited powers
of migration ; for, though it has spread along both the South and East
Piers of Bridlington harbour, it has not jet, as Mr. Lutwidge informs me,
reached the dolphin nor an insulated jetty within the harbour. No other
remedy against its attacks is known than that of keeping the wood free
from salt water for three or four days, in which case it dies ; but this
method, it is obvious, can be rarely applicable.^
How dear are their books, their cabinets of the various productions of
nature, and their collections of prints and other works of art and science,
to the learned, the scientific, and the virtuosi ! Even these precious
treasures have their insect enemies. The larva of Aglossa pingumalis,
whose ravages in another quarter I have noticed before", will establish
itself upon the binding of a book, and spinning a robe, which it covers
with its own excrement^, will do it no little injury ; as also does a minute
beetle of the family of Scolt/tidcs {Hi/pothenemus eniditus Westw.), which
Mr. Westwood found burrowing in considerable numbers in the same
situation.^ A mite {Cheyletus eniditus ) eats the paste that fastens the
paper over the edges of the binding, and so loosens it.^ I have also often
observed the caterpillar of another little moth, of which I have not ascer-
tained the species, that takes its station in damp old books, between the
leaves, and there commits great ravages ; and many a black-letter rarity,
which in these days of Bibliomania would have been valued at its weight
in gold, has been snatched by these destroyers from the hands of book-
collectors. The little wood-boring beetles before mentioned (Anobimn
pertinax and striatum) also attacks books, and will even bore through
several volumes. M, Peignot mentions an instance where, in a public
library but little frequented, twenty-seven folio volumes were perforated in
a straight line by the same insect (probably one of these species), in such
a manner that, on passing a string through the perfectly round hole made
by it these twenty-seven volumes could be raised at once.*' The animals
last mentioned also destroy prints and drawings, whether framed or pre-
served in a portefeuille, and even paintings ; it appearing from a parlia-
liamentary report on the state of the paintings in the National Gallery,
and subsequent observations of M. Waagen, that the paste applied to the
canvass of the fine picture of the Raising of Lazarus, by Sebastian del
Piombo, has been so attacked by the larvas of an insect (supposed to be
Anobium paniceuni) that its destruction is to be feared if some remedy
cannot be found. The same insect has done considerable injury, as we
learn from Mr. Holme, to the Arabic manuscripts in the Cambridge
1 In order to ascertain how i&r pure sea water is essential to this insect, and con-
sequently what danger exists of its being introduced into the wood-work of our docks
and piers communicating with our salt-water rivers, as at Hull, Liverpool, Bristol,
Ipswich, &c., where it might be far more injurious than even on the coast, I have,
since December 15th, 1815, when Mr. Lutwidge was so kind as to furnish me with a
piece of oak full of the insects in a living state, poured a weak solution of common
salt over the -ivood every other day, so as to keep the insects constantly wet. On
examining it this day (Feb. 5tli, 1816) I found them alive ; and, what seems to prove
them in as good health as in their natural habitat, numbers having established them-
selves in a piece of fir-wood which I nailed to the oak, and have in this short inter-
val, and in winter too, bored many cells in it.
2 See p. 133. 5 Eeaum. iii. 270.
* Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. i. 34. 5 Schrank, Enum. Ins. Austr. 613. 1058,
® Home's Introd. to Bibliography, i. 311.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 139
Library brought from Cairo by Burckhardt.' Our collections of quadru-
pt'ds, birds, insects, and plants have likewise several terrible insect enemies,
which, without pity or remorse, often destroy or mutilate our most hii;hly
prized specimens. Pllnusfar and Antlirenus musccorum, two minute beetles,
are amongst the worst ; especially the latter, whose singular gliding larva,
when once it gets amongst them, makes astonishing havoc, the birds soon
sheiiding their feathers, and the insects falling to pieces. Mr. \V. S. MacLeay
informs me that at the Havana it is exceedingly difficult to preserve
insects, Sec, as the ants devour every thing. One of the worst plagues of
the entomologist is a m\ic {Acarus destructor Schrank) : this, if his spe-
cimens l)e at all ilami), cats up all the muscular parts (Canl/iaris vrsicaforia
being almost the only insect that is not to its taste), and thus entirely
destroys them. If spiilers by any means get amongst them, they will do
no little mischief. — Some I have observed to be devoured by a minute
moth, perhaps Tinea inscctellu" ; and in the posterior thighs of a species of
Locusta from China I once found, one in each thigh, a small beetle con-
generous with Autheropliagus pallcns, that had devoured the interior. It is,
I believe, either Acarus destructor or Cheyletus eruditiis that eats the gum
employed to fasten down dried plants.
There are other insects which do not confine themselves to one or two
articles, but make a general and indiscriminate attack upon our dead stock.
Ulloa mentions one peculiar to Carthagena, called there the comegen,
which he describes as a kind of moth or maggot so minute as to be scarcely
visible to the naked eye.^ This destroys, says he, the furniture of houses,
particularly all kinds of hangings, whether of cloth, linen or silk, gold or
silver stuffs, or lace; in short, every thing except solid metal. It will in a
single night ruin all the goods of a warehouse in which it has got footing,
reducing bales of merchandise to dust without altering their appearance, so
that the mischief is not perceived till they come to be handled.* If we
make some deduction from this account for exaggeration, still the amount
of damage will be very considerable.
There are three kinds of insects better known, to whose ravages, as
most prominent and celebrated, I shall last call your attention. The in-
sects I mean are the cock-roach {Btaffa orienlalis), the house-cricket
{Gri/llus dumesticus), and the various species of white ants (Tervws). The
last of these, most fortunately for us, are not yet naturalised.
The cock-roaches hate the light, at least the kind that is most abundant
in Britain (for B. gerinanica, which abounds in some houses, is bolder,
making its appearance in the day, and running up the walls and over the
tables, to the great annoyance of the inhabitants), and never come forth
from their hiding-places till the lights are removed or extinguished. In the
London houses, especially on the ground-floor, they are most abundant,
and consume every thing they can find, flour, bread, meat, clothes, and even
shoes.* As soon as light, natural or artificial, reappears, they all scamper
oflP as fast as they can, and vanish in an instant. These pests are not
1 Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. ii. proc. xlii. xliii. ; proc. 18. ix.
* Atropos puhatorius does much mischief by devouring the more delicate
parts of miuute insects in collections in which camphor or some other insectifuge
is not kept.
' It appears from Humboldt {Personal Narrative,^. T. v. IIG.) that the destruc-
tive insects called by this name are Termites.
* Ulloa, i. 67. ' Amcen. Acad. iii. 3i5.
140 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY IXSECTS.
indigenous here, and perhaps nowhere in Europe, but are one of the evils
which commerce has imported ; and we may think ourselves well off that
others of the larger species of the genus have not been introduced in the
same way — as, for instance, Blatta glgantea, a native of Asia, Africa, and
America, many times the size of the common one, which, not content with
devouring meat, clothes, and books, even attacks persons in their sleep,
and the extremities of the dead and dying. '
The house-cricket may perhaps be deemed a still more annoying insect
than the common cock-roach, adding an incessant noise to its ravages ;
since, although for a short time, it may not be unpleasant to hear
" the cricket chirrup in the hearth,"
so constant a din every evening must very much interrupt comfort and
conversation. These garrulous animals, which live in a kind of artificial
torrid zone, are very thirsty souls, and are frequently found drowned in
pans of water, milk, broth, and the like. Whatever is moist, even stock-
ings or linen hung out to dry, is to them a bonne houclie ; they will eat the
scummings of pots, yeast, crumbs of bread, and even salt, or any thing
•within their reach. Sometimes they are so abundant in houses as to
become absolute pests, flying into the candles and into people's faces.
At Cuddapa, in the ceded districts to the northward of Mysore, Captain
(ireen was much annoyed by a jumping insect, which, from his description,
I should take for the larva of a species of cricket. They were of a dun
colour, and from half to three fourths of an inch in length. They abounded
at night, and were very injurious to papers and books, which they both
discoloured and devoured ; leather also was eaten by them. Such was
their boldness and avidity, that they attacked the exposed parts of the body
when you were asleep, nibbling the ends of the fingers, particularly the skin
under the nails, which was only discoverable by a slight soreness that succeeded.
So great was their agihty that they could seldom be caught or crushed. They
were a mute insect, but probably the imago would make noise enough.
But the ivhite ants, wherever they prevail, are a still worse plague than
either of these insects — they are the great calamity, as Linne terms them,
of both the Indies. When they find their way into houses or warehouses,
nothing less hard than metal or glass escapes their ravages. Their favourite
food, however, is wood of all kinds, except the teak {Tectona grandis) and
iron-wood {Sideroxi/Ion), which are the only sorts known that they will
not touch ^ ; and so infinite are the multitudes of the assailants, and such
is the excellence of their tools, that all the timber-work of a spacious
apartment is often destroyed by them in a few nights. Exteriorly, how-
ever, every thing appears as if untouched ; for these wary depredators, and
this is what constitutes the greatest singularity of their history, carry on
all their operations by sap and mine, destroying first the inside of solid
1 Drurj''s Insects, iii. Preface.
2 It is not its hardness that protects the teak, as the Asiatic Termites attack Lig-
num Vita?, but probably some essential oil disagreeable to them with which it is
impregnated. This is the more likely, siuce they will eat it when it is old and has
been long exposed to the air. Tannin has been conjectured to be the protecting
substance, but erroneously, as leather of every kind is devoured by them. (Wil-
liamson's East India Vade Mecum, ii. 56.) It is its hardness probably that protects
the iron-wood from the African Termites. (Smeathman in Philos. Trans. 1781,
11. 47.)
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 141
substances, and scarcely ever attacking their outside, until first they have
concealed it and their operations with a coat of clay. A general similarity
runs through the procceilings of the whole trihe ; but the large African
species (called by Snieatlunan Tcrmr.i bcUicosus), T. fatalis, is the most
formidable. These insects live in large clay nests, from whence they
excavate tunnels all round, often to the extent of several hundred feet ;
from these they will descend a considerable depth below the foundation of
a house, anil rise again through the floors; or, boring through the posts
and sup|)orts of the building, enter the roof, and construct there their
galleries in various directions. If a post be a convenient path to the roof,
or has anv weight to support, which how they discover is not easily con-
jectured, they will fill it with their mortar, leaving only a track-way for
themselves ; and thus, as it were, convert it from wood into stone as hard
as many kinds of freestone, in this manner they soon destroy houses, and
sometimes even whole villages when deserted by their inhabitants, so that
in two or three years not a vestige of them will remain.
These insidious insects are not less expeditious in destroying the
wainscoting, shelves, and other fixtures of a house, than the house itself.
M'ith the most consummate art and skill they eat away the inside of what
thev attack, except a few fibres here and there, which exactly suffice to
keep the two sides, or top and bottom, connected, so as to retain the
a|)pearance of solidity after the reality is gone ; and all the while they
carefully avoid perforating the surface, unless a book or any other thing that
tempts them should be standing upon it. Koempfer, speaking of the white
ants of Japan, gives a remarkable instance of the rapidity with which these
miners proceed. Upon rising one morning he observed that one of their
galleries of the thickness of his little finger had been formed across his
table ; and upon a further examination he found that they had bored a
passage of that thickness up one foot of the table, formed a gallery across
it, and then pierced down another foot into the floor : all this was done in
the few hours that intervened between his retiring to rest and his rising. ^
They make their way also with the greatest ease into trunks and boxes,
even though made of mahogany, and destroy papers and every thing they
contain, constructing their galleries, and sometimes taking up their abode
in them. Hence, as Humboldt informs us, throughout all the warmer parts
of equinoctial America, where these and other destructive insects abound,
it is infinitely rare to find papers which go fifty or sixty years back. - In
one night they will devour all the boots and shoes that are left in their
way ; cloth, "linen, or books are equally to their taste ; but they will not
eat cotton, as Caj^tain Green informs me. I myself have to deplore that
they entirely consumed a collection of insects made for me by a friend in
India, more especially as it sickened him of the employment. In a word,
scarcely anv thing, as I said before, but metal or stone conies amiss to
them. Mr. Smeathman relates, that a party of them once took a fancy to
a pipe of fine old Madeira, not for the sake of the wine, almost the whole
of which they let out, but of the staves, which however I suppose were
strongly imbued with it, and perhaps on that account were not less to the
taste of our epicure Termites. Having left a compound microscope in a
warehouse at Tobaga for a few months, on his return he found that a colony
of a small species o*" white ant had established themselves in it, and had
1 Javan. ii. 127. ^ Political Essay on Neic Spain, iv. 135.
142 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.
devoured most of the wood-work, leaving little besides the metal and
glasses.' A shorter period sufficed for their demolition of some of
Mr. Forbes's furniture. On surveying a room which had been locked up
during an absence of a few weeks, he observed a number of advanced
works in various directions towards some prints and drawings in English
frames ; the glasses appeared to be uncommonly dull, and the frames
covered with dust. "On attempting," says he, "to wipe it off, I was
astonished to find the glasses fixed to the wall, not suspended in frames as
I left them, but completely surrounded by an incrustation cemented by the
white ants, who had actually eaten up the deal frames and back-boards,
and the greater part of the paper, and left the glasses upheld by the
incrustation, or covered way, which they had formed during their depreda-
tion."* It is even asserted that the superb residence of the Governor-
General at Calcutta, which cost the East India Company such immense
suras, is now rapidly going to decay in consequence of the attacks of
these insects. ^ But not content with the dominions they have acquired,
and the cities they have laid low on Terra Firma, encouraged by success
the white ants have also aimed at the sovereignty of the ocean, and once
had the hardihood to attack even a British ship of the line ; and in spite
of the efforts of her commander and his valiant crew, having boarded they
got possession of her, and handled her so roughly, that when brought into
port, being no longer fit for service, she was obliged to be broken up. *
And here, I think, I see you throw aside my papers, and hear you ex-
claim — " Will this enumeration of scourges, plagues, and torments never
be finished? Was the whole insect race created merely with punitive
views, and to mar the fair face of universal nature ? Are they all, as our
Saviour said figuratively of one genus, the scorpion, the powerful agents
and instruments of the great enemy of mankind?" ^ If you view the subject
in another light, you will soon, my friend, be convinced that, instead of
this, insects generally answer the most beneficial ends, and promote in
various ways, and in an extraordinary degree, the welfare of man and
animals ; and that the series of the evils I have been engaged in enume-
rating mostly occur partially, and where they exceed their natural limits;
God permitting this occasionally to take place, not merely with punitive
views, but also to show us what mighty effects he can produce by instru-
ments seemingly the most insignificant ; thus calling upon us to glorify his
power, wisdom, and goodness, so evidently manifested whether he relaxes
or draws tight the reins by which he guides insects in their course, and
regulates their progress ; and more particularly to acknowledge his over-
ruling Providence so conspicuously exhibited by his measuring them, as it
1 This account of the Termites is chiefly taken from Smeathman in Philos. Trans.
1781, and Percival's Ceylon, 307.
2 Oriental Memoirs, i. 362.
3 Morning Herald, Dec. 31st, 1814.
■* The ship here alluded to was the Albion, which was in such a condition from the
attack of insects, supposed to be white ants, that, had not the ship been firmly-
lashed together, it was thought she would have foundered on her voyage home. —
The late Mr. Kittoe informed me that the Droguers or Draguers, a kind of lighter
employed in the West Indies in collecting the sugar, sometimes so swarm with ants,
of the common kind, that they have no other way of getting rid of these troublesome
insects than bj' sinking the vessel in shallow water.
5 Luke, X. 19.
INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 143
were, ami weighing them, and telling them out, so that their numbers,
forces, anil powers being annually proportioned to tiie work he has pre-
scribed to them, they may neither exceed his pur|)ose nor fall short of it.
From the picture I have drawn, and I assure you it is not over-
charged, you will be disposed to admit, however, the empire of insects over
the work's of creation, ami to own that our i)rosperity, comfort, and hap-
piness are intimately connected with them ; and conse(|uently that the
knowledge ami study of them may be extremely useful and necessary to
promote these ilesirable ends, since the knowledge of the cause of any evil
is always a principal, if not an indispensable, step towards a remedy.
I shall now bid adieu to this unpromising subject, which has so long
occupied my pen, and I fear wearied your attention, and in my next bring
before vou a more agreeable scene, in which you will behold the benefits
we receive by the ministr\ of insects. * I am, &c.
144
LETTER IX.
BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
INDIRECT BENEFITS.
My last letters contained, I must own, a most melancholy though not an
overcharged picture of the injuries and devastation which man, in various
•ways, experiences through the instrumentality of the insect world. In
this and the following I hope to place before you a more agreeable scene,
since in them I shall endeavour to point out in what respects these minute
animals are made to benefit us, and what advantages we reap from their
extensive agency,
God, in all the evil which he permits to take place, whether spiritual,
moral, or natural, has the ultimate good of his creatures in view. The
evil that we suffer is often a countercheck which restrains us from greater
evil, or a spur to stimulate us to good : we should therefore consider
every thing, not according to the present sensation of pain, or the present
loss or injury that it occasions, but according to its more general, remote,
and permanent effects and bearings ; — whether by it we are not impelled
to the practice of many virtues which otherwise might lie dormant in us —
whether our moral habits are not improved— whether we are not rendered
by it more prudent, cautious, and wary, more watchful to prevent evil,
more ingenious and skilful to remedy it — and whether our higher faculties
are not brought more into play, and our mental powers more invigorated,
by the meditation and experiments necessary to secure ourselves. Viewed
in these lights, what was at first regarded as wholly made up of evil, may
be discovered to contain a considerable proportion of good.
This reasoning is here particularly applicable : and if the ultimate benefit
to man seems in any case problematical, it is merely because to discover it
requires more extended and remote views than we are enabled by our
limited faculties to take, and a knowledge of distant or concealed results
which we are incompetent to calculate or discover. The common good
of this terraqueous globe requires that all things endowed with vegetable
or animal life should bear certain proportions to each other ; and if any in-
dividual species exceeds that proportion, from beneficial it becomes noxious,
and interferes with the genera) welfare. It was requisite therefore for the
benefit of the whole system that certain means should be provided, by
which this hurtful luxuriance might be checked, and all things taught to
keep within their proper limits: hence it became necessary that some
should prey upon others, and a part be sacrificed for the good of the
whole.
Of the counterchecks thus provided, none act a more important part
than insects, particularly in the vegetable kingdom, every plant having its
insect enemies. Man, when he takes any plant from its natural state and
INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 145
makes it an object of cultivation, must expect that these agents will follow
it into the artificial state in which he has placed it, anil still prey upon it ;
and it is his business to exert his faculties in inventing means to guard
against their attacks. It is a wise provision that there should exist a race
of beings empowered to remove all her superfluous productions from the
face of nature ; and in ett'ecting this, whatever individual injury may arise,
insects must be deemed general benefactors. Even the locusts, which lay
waste whole countries, clear tiie way for the renovation of their vegetable
productions, which were in danger of being destroyed by the exuberance of
some individual species, and thus are fulfilling the great law of the Cre-
ator, that of all which he has made nothing should be lost. A region,
Sparrman tells us, which had been choked up by shrubs, perennial plants,
and hard half-withered and unpalatable grasses, after being made bare by
these scourges, soon appears in a far more beautifid dress, clothed with
new herbs, superb lilies, and tiesh annual grasses, and yoimg and juicy
shoots of the perennial kinds, affording delicious herbage for the wild
cattle and game.^ And though the interest of individual man is often
sacrificed to the general good, in many cases the insect pests which he
most execrates will be found to be positively beneficial to him, unless when
suffered to increase beyond their due bounds. Thus the insects that
attack the roots of the grasses, and, as has been before observed, so ma-
terially injure our herbage, the wire-worm, the larva; of Mclolontha vul-
garis, Tipula oleracca, &c., in ordinary seasons only devour so much as is
necessary to make room for fresh shoots, and the production of new
herbage ; in this manner maintaining a constant succession of young
plants, and causing an annual though partial renovation of our meadows
and pastures. In the rich fields near Rye in Sussex I particularly observed
this effect ; and I have since at home remarked, that at certain times of
the year dead plants may be everywhere observed, pulled up by the cattle
as they feed, whose place is supplied by new offsets. So that, when in
moderate numbers, these insects do no more harm to the grass than would
the sharp-toothed harrows which it has been sometimes advised to apply to
hide-bound pastures, and the beneficial operation of which in loosening
the sub-soil these insect borers closely imitate.
Nor would it be difficult to show that the ordinary good effects of some
of those insects, which torment ourselves and our cattle, preponderate over
their evil ones. Mr. Clark is inclined to think that the gentle irritation
of CEstrus Equi is advantageous to the stomach of the horse rather than
the contrary. On the same principle it is not improbable that the Tahani
often act as useful phlebotomists to our full-fed animals ; and that the
constant motion in which they are kept in summer by the attacks of the
Stomoxiis and other flies may |)revent diseases that would be brought on
by indolence and repletion. And in the case of man himself, if I do not go
so far as Linne to give the louse the credit of preserving full-fed boys from
coughs, epilepsy, &c., we may safely regard as no small good the stimulus
which these, and others of the insect assailants of the persons of the dirty
and the vicious, afford to personal cleanliness and purity.
I might enlarge greatly upon the foregoing view of the subject, but this is
unnecessary, as numerous facts will occur in subsequent letters which you
will readily perceive have an intimate bearing upon it ; and I shall, there-
1 Sparrman's Voyage, i. 3G7.
146 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
fore, proceed to point out the more evident benefits which we derive from
insects, arranging them under the two great heads of direct benefits, and
those which are indirect; beginning with the latter.
The insects which are indirectly beneficial to us may be considered
under three points of view ; first, as removing various miisances and de-
formities from the face of nature ; secondly, as destroying other insects, that
but for their agency would multiply so as greatly to injure and annoy us ;
and, thirdly, as supplying food to useful animals, particularly to fish and
birds.
To advert in the first place to the former. All substances must be
regarded as nuisances and deformities, when considered with relation to
the whole, which are deprived of the principle of animation. In this
relation stand a dead carcass, a dead tree, or a mass of excrement, which
are clearly incumbrances that it is desirable to have removed ; and the
office of effecting this removal is chiefly assigned to insects, which have been
justly called the great scavenger's of nature. Let us consider their little
but effective operations in each of their vocations.
How disgusting to the eye, how offensive to the smell, would be the
whole face of nature, were the vast quantity of excrement daily falling to
the earth from the various animals which inhabit it, suffered to remain
until gradually dissolved by the rain, or decomposed by the elements !
That it does not thus ofl^end us, we are indebted to an inconceivable host
of insects which attack it the moment it falls ; some immediately beginning
to devour it, others depositing in it eggs from which are soon hatched
larvae that concur in the same office with tenfold voracity ; and thus every
particle of dung, at least of the most offensive kinds, speedily swarms with
inhabitants which consume all the liquid and noisome particles, leaving
nothing but the undigested remains, that soon dry, and are scattered by
the winds, while the grass upon which it rested, no longer smothered by
an impenetrable mass, springs up witli increased vigour.
Numerous are the tribes of insects to which this office is assigned,
though chiefly, if not entirely, selected from the two orders, Coleoptera and
Diptera. A large proportion of the genera formed, by different authors,
from Scarabceiis of Linne, viz. Scarabceus, Copris, Ateuchus, Sisyphus, Onitis,
Onthophagus, Aphodiits, and Psammodiiis ; also Hister, Sphceridium ; and
amongst the Brachyptera, the majority of the Stajjhylimdce, many Aleo-
charcE, especially of Gravenhorst's third family, many Oxyteli, and some
Omalia, Tachini, and Tachypiri, of that author, including in the whole
many hundred species of beetles, unite their labours to effect this useful
purpose : and what is remarkable, though they all work their way in these
filthy masses, and at first can have no paths, yet their bodies are never
soiled by the ordure they inhabit. Many of these insects content them-
selves with burrowing in the dung alone ; but Ateuchus jnlidarius^, a species
1 The Coprinn, Cantliarus, and Heliocantharus of the ancients was eAndently this
beetle, or one nearly related to it, which is described as rolling backwards large
masses of dung, and attracted such general attention as to give rise to the proverb
Cantharus jnluium. It should seem fiom the name, derived from a word signifying
an ass, that the Grecian beetle made its pills of asses' dung ; and this is confirmed
by a passage in one of the plays of Aristophanes, the Irene, where a beetle of this
kind is introduced, on which one of the characters rides to heaven to petition Jupiter
for peace. The play begins with one domestic desiring another to feed the Can-
tharus with some bread, who afterwards orders his companion to give him another
kind of bread made of asses' dung.
INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 147
called in America the Tumblc'dnng, wliosc sinaular manoeuvres I shall
subsequently have to ailvert to, Copri.i /mifiris, (rtotru/Ks .<;/( rcorarius, and
many other laincllicorn beetles, make large cylnulrical holes, often of
great depth, umier the hca|), and there deposit their cgs^s surrounded by a
mass of dung in which they have previously enveloped them ; thus not
only dispersing the dung, but actually burying it at the roots of the ad-
joining plants, and by these means contributing considerably to the fertility
of our pastures, supplying the constant waste by an annual conveyance
of fresh dung laid at the very root ; by these canals, also, affording a con-
venient passage for a portion of it when dissolved to be carried thither by
the rain.
The coleopterous insects found in dung, inhabit it in their perfect as well
as imperfect states ; but this is not the case with those of the order Diptera,
whose larva," alone find their nutriment in it ; the imago, which would be
suffocated did it attempt to burrow into a material so soft, only laying its
eggs in the mass. These also are more select in their choice than the
Coleoptem — not indeed as to delicacy, — but they do not indiscriminately
oviposit in all kinds, some preferring horse-dung, others swine's-dung,
others cow-dung, which seems the most favourite pabulum of all the dung-
loving insects, and others that of birds. • The most disgusting of all is
the rat-tailed larva that inhabits our privies, which changes to a fly (Em-
talis tcnax), somewhat resembling a bee.
Still more would our olfactory nerves be offended, and our health liable
to fatal injuries, if the wisdom and goodness of Providence had not pro-
vided for the removal of another nuisance from our globe — the dead
carcasses of animals. When these begin to grow putrid, every one knows
what dreadful miasmata exhale from them, and taint the air we breathe.
But no sooner does life depart from the body of any creature, at least of
any which from its size is likely to become a nuisance, than myriads of
different sorts of insects attack it, and in various ways. First come the
Histers, and pierce the skin. Next follow the flesh-flies, some, that no
time may be lost (as Sarcophnga carnaria, &c.), depositing upon it their
young already hatched ; others {Miisca Ccesar, &c.), covering it with
millions of eggs, whence in a day or two proceed innumerable devourer."!.
An idea of the dispatch made by these gourmands may be gained from the
combined consitieration of their numbers, voracity, and rapid development.
One female of A', carnar'ui will give birth to 20,000 young ; and the larvae
of many flesh-flies, as Redi ascertained, will in twenty-tour hours devour
so much food, and grow so quickly, as to increase their weight two
hundred fold ! In five days after being hatched, they arrive at their full
growth and size, w hich is a remarkable instance of the care of Providence
1 According to ]\I. Robineau Desvoidy, the dung of the badger, which is placed in
a separate chamber of its subterranean galleries, has its peculiar fly, which he names
Leria melinu, the larvae of which there feed upon it ; and the parent flies never
ascend to the surface, but constantly reside in this dark and damp abode, and can
only be obtained by digging into it. Another fly, his Tlielida vespertUionea, in like
manner, lives in the larva state on the dung of bats deposited by them at the end of
the grottoes of D'Arcy-sur-Eure more than one liundred toises distant from their
entrance; and he describes a third fly, Leria muste.lina, which he believes to feed on
the dung of the weasel, arid names other distinct species to which the dung of the
fox, the rabbit, the water-rat, and the field-mouse respectively afford subsistence.
(-4nn. Soc. Ent. de France, x. 255— 2C0.)
L 2
148 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS^
in fitting them for the part the)' are destined to act : for if a longer time
was required for their growth, their food would not be a fit aliment for
them, or they would be too long in removing the nuisance it is given in
charge to them to dissipate. Thus we see there was some ground for
Linn^'s assertion, under M. vomitoria, that three of these flies will devour
a dead horse as quickly as would a lion.
As soon as the various tribes of Muscidce have opened the way, and
devoured the softer parts, a whole host of beetles, Necrophori, Si/p/ice,
Dermesfes, Cholevce, and SlaphylinidcB, actively second their labours. Wasps
and hornets also come in for their portion of the spoil ; and even ants,
which prowl every where, rival their giant competitors in the quantity con-
sumed by them ; so that in no very long time, especially in warm climates,
the muscular covering is removed from the skeleton, which is then
cleansed from all remains of it by the little Corynetes ccsruleus and ruficollis
(which last is so interesting, as having been the means of saving the life of
Latreille^), and several Nitidulae.'^ Even the horns of animals have an
appropriate genus {Trox) which inhabits them, and feeds upon their
contents. And not only are large animals thus disposed of, even the
smallest are not suffered long to annoy us. The burying beetle {Necro-
phoriis Vespillo), inters the bodies of small animals, such as mice, several
assisting each other in the work^ ; and those to which they commit their
eggs afford an ample supply of food to their larvae.* Ants also in some
degree emulate these burying insects, at least they will carry off the
carcasses of insects into their nests ; and I once saw some of the horse-
ants dragging away a half-dead snake of about the size of a goose-quill.^
In fact, in the extensive plains of South America and other tropical
regions, where ants are both larger and far more numerous than with us,
M. Lund conceives that they take the place of the Carabidcs, SilphidcB, and
other carnivorous tribes of more temperate climes, there rarely met with,
in removing all putrefying animal matter.® Some insects will even attack
living animals, and make them their prey, thus contributing to keep them
within due limits. The common earth-worm is attacked and devoured by
a centipede (^Geophilm electricus). Mr. Sheppard saw one attack a worm
ten times its own size, round which it twisted itself like a serpent, and
which it finally mastered and devoured.
But insects are not only useful in removing and dissipating dead animal
matter ; they are also intrusted with a similar office with respect to the
vegetable kingdom. The interior of rotten trees is inhabited by the larvae
1 See Latr.'Gen. i. 275.
2 This property in the carrion insects may be turned to a good account by the
comparative anatomist, who has only to flay, the body of one of the smaller animals,
anoint it with honey, and bury it in an ant-hill ; and in a short time he will obtain
a perfect skeleton, denudated of every fibril of muscle, though with the ligaments
and cartilages untouched.
' In India, as we learn from Col. Hearsey, a large species oi Platynotus replaces
the Necrophori in their burying habits.
4 Gleditsch, Abhandlungen, iii. 200.
* It is to be observed that in our cold climates, during the winter months, when
excrement and putrescent animal matter are not so offensive, they are left to the
action of the elements, insects being then torpid.
f> Lund in Ann. Sc. Nat., June 1831, quoted in Westwood's 3Iod. Class, of Ins.
ii. 230.
INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 149
of a particular kiiul of crane-fly with pectinated antenna; {Clenophora^),
and other insects, whicli there find an ap|)ropriate nutriment ; and a
similar diet is furnished to the j^rubs of the rose-beetle {Cctonia aiirnta) by
ti)e dead leaves and stalks usually to be found in the ant's nest. S/aj)//!/-
/iiiid<v, Sp/urriilia, and other Colcoplcni, are always iound uniler heaps of
putrescent vei;etables ; and an infinite number are to be met with in de-
composing fungi, which seem to be a kind of substance intermediate
between animal and vegetable. The JJolcli, in |)articular, have one genus
of coleopterous insects appropriated to them *, and the Jjj/ropcrtluits another.
— Stagnant waters, which would otherwise exhale putrid miasmata, and
be often the cause of fatal disorders, arc purified by the innumerable
larv;e of gnats, Ep/wuura; and other insects which live in them and ab-
stract from them all the unwholesome part of their contents. This, Linue
says, will easily appear if any one will make the experiment by filling two
vessels with putrid water, leaving the larv;c in one and taking them out of
the other ; for then he will soon find the water that is full of larvae pure
and without any stench, while that which is deprived of them will continue
stinking.*
Benefits equally great are rendered by the wood-destroying insects.
We indeed, in tiiis country, who find use for ten times more timber than
we produce, could dispense with their services ; but to estimate them at
their proper value, as att'ecting the great system of nature, we should
transport ourselves to tropical climes, or to those under the temperate
zones, where millions of acres are covered by one interminable forest.
How is it that these untrodden regions, where thousands of their giant
inhabitants fall victims to the slow ravages of time, or the more sudden
operatioHs of lightning and hurricanes, should yet exhibit none of those
scenes of ruin and desolation that might have been expected, but are
always found with the verdant characters of youth and beauty ? It is to
the insect world that this great charge of keeping the habitations of the
Dryads in perpetual freshness has been committed. A century would
almost elapse before the removal from the face of nature of the mighty
ruins of one of the hard-wooded tropical trees, by the mere influence of
the elements. But how speedy its decomposition when their operations
are assisted by insects ! As soon as a tree is fallen, one tribe attacks its
bark\ which is often the most indestructible part of it ; and thousands of
orifices into the solid trunk are bored by others. The rain thus insinuates
itself into every part, and the action of heat promotes the decomposition.
Various fungi now take possession and assist in the process, which is fol-
lowed up by the incessant attacks of other ins'ects, that feed only upon
wood in an incipient state of decay. And thus in a few months a mighty
mass which seemed inferior in hardness only to iron, is mouldered into
dust, and its place occupied by younger trees full of life and vigour. The
1 Curtis, Brit. Ent. t. 5.
2 Surely Mr. Marsham's name for this genus, Boktaria, is much more proper
than that of Fabricius, Mycetophagus (Agaric- eater), since these insects seldom eat
agarics. «
3 (Econ. Nat. Amaen. Ac. ii. 50. Stillingfleet's Tracts, 122.
* Maupertuis observes, that in Lapland he saw many birch trees lying on the
ground, which had probably been there for a very long time, with the bark entire,
though the wood was decayed. Hence we may probably infer, that in that country
there are few or none of the bark-boring insects.
L 3
150 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
insects to which this duty is intrusted have been already mentioned in a
former letter ; but none of them do their business so expeditiously or
effectually as the Termites, which ply themselves in such numbers and so
unremittingly, that Mr. Smeathman assures us they will in a few weeks
destroy and carry away the trunks of large trees, without leaving a particle
behind ; and in places where, two or three years before, there has been a
populous town, if the inhabitants, as is frequently the case, have chosen to
abandon it, there shall be a very thick wood, and not the vestige of a post
to be seen.
I observed in a former letter, that the devastations of insects are not the
same in every season, their power of mischief being evident only at cer-
tain times, when Providence, by permitting an unusual increase of their
numbers, gives them a commission to lay waste any particular country or
district. The great agents in preventing this increase, and keeping the
noxious species within proper limits, are other insects; and to these I
shall now call your attention.
Numerous are the tribes upon which this important task devolves, and
incalculable are the benefits which they are the means of bestowing upon
us ; for to them we are indebted, or rather to Providence who created
them for this purpose, that our crops and grain, our cattle, our fruit and
forest-trees, our pulse and flowers, and even the verdant covering of the
earth, are not totally destroyed. Of these insects, so friendly to man, some
exercise their destructive agency solely while in the larva state ; others in
the perfect state only ; others in both these states ; and, lastly, others
again in all the three states of larva, pupa, and imago. For order's sake,
and to give you a more distinct view of the subject, I shall say something
on each separately.
The first, those which are insectivorous only in their larva state, may be
further subdivided into parasites and imparasites, meaning by the former
term those that feed upon a living insect, and only destroy it when they
have attained their full growth ; and by the latter, those that prey upon
insects already dead, or that kill them in the act of devouring them.
The imparasific insect devourers chiefly belong to the Hymenopiera
order; and though it is in the larva state that their prowess is exhibited,
the task of providing the prey is usually left to the female, of which each
species for the most part selects a particular kind of insect. Thus many
species of Cerceris and the splendid Cluysicice or golden wasps feed upon
insects of their own order. One of the latter {Parnopes incarnata) com-
mits her eggs to the progeny of Benibex rostrata: another (Cliri/sis biden-
lata) attacks the young of Epipone spinipes.
Bembex and MelUnus confine themselves to Diptera, the former preying
upon Eristalis tenax, Bombylii, and the like^; the latter, amongst others,
ridding us of the troublesome S'^omo.rj/s calcitrans. One of these last I have
observed stationed on dung watching for flies, which, when seized, she
carried to her burrow. The numerous species of Crahro Fab. also store
up chiefly dipterous insects in their cells, some confining themselves to one
and the same species, others apparently taking any that offer.
Epipone spinipes, he\ox\gix\g*io t\\e. family of Wasps, feeds upon certain
green apod larvae, of which the female deposits ten or twelve with each
^ Latreille, Observations nouvetles sur les Hymenopteres. Annal, de Mtis. 11.
INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 151
egg. The common sand-wasp (Aviniop/ii/a vii/gririi) tlcstroys caterpillars
of a larger size, ami most of the otiier Vespoiil ami Spliecoid Ili/uunop-
icra, viz. Tn/poxiilou, PliUantlius, Larra, &c. assist in this great work.
Pumpiliis, to which genus prohabl}' several species mentioned hy Ueanmnr
as preying on these insects slionkl he referred, has it in charge to keep
the number of spiders within due bounds: and some sand-wasps lend their
aid. One ot these last, mentioned l)y Cateshy (Sp/iex caTu/tux), has been
known to seize a spider eight times its own weight.' Another s[)ecies of
this genus, which is common in the Isle of France, attacks an insect still
more difficult, one would think, to turn to its purpose, the all-devouring
lilatta, or cockroach, and is therefore one of the great benefactors to
mankind. When this insect perceives a Blatta (called there Kakerlac
and Cancrelas), it stops innnediately : both animals eye each other; but in
an instant the sand-wasp darts upon its prey, seizes it by the muzzle with
its strong jaws, and, bending its abdomen underneath it, pierces it with its
fatal sting. Sure of its victim, it now walks or flies away, leaving the
poison to work its effect ! but in a short time returns, and, findmg it
deprived of power to make resistance, seizes it again by the head, and
draiis it away, walking backwards to deposit it in a hole or chink of a
wall.*
Grasshoppers are the prey of another sand-wasp, supposed to be the
Sp/ic.v pensylvanica of Linne, a native of North America, each of which
in its larva state devours three of a large green species with which its
n)other has provided it.^
From none of the imparasitic insectivorous larvae do we derive more
advantage than from those which devour the destructive Ap/iulc.i, whose
ravages, as we have seen above, are more detrimental to us in this island
than those of any other insect. A great variety of species of different
orders and genera are employed to kee|) them within due limits. There is
a beautiful genus of four-winged flies, whose wings resemble the finest
lace, and whose eyes are often as brilliant as burnished metals {Hcvterubius),
the larvae of which, Reaumur, from their being insatiable devourers of
them, has named the lions of the Aphides. The singular pedunculated eggs
from which these larvae proceed, 1 shall describe when we come to treat
upon the eggs of insects ; the larvae themselves are furnished with a pair
of long crooked mandibles resembling horns, which terminate in a sharp
point, and, like those of the ant-lion, are perforated, serving the insect
instead of a mouth ; for through this orifice the nutriment passes down
into the stomach. When amongst the Aphides, like wolves in a sheep-fold,
they make dreadful havoc : half a minute suffices them to suck the largest;
and the individuals of one species clothe themselves, like Hercules, with
the spoils of their hapless victims.
Next in importance to these come the aphidivorous flies (many species
of SyrjjhidcE), whose grubs are armed with a singular mandible, furnished
like a trident with three points, with which they transfix their prey. They
may often be seen laid at their ease under a leaf or upon a twig, environed
by such hosts of Aphides, that they can devour hundreds without changing
their station ; and their silly helpless prey, who are provided with no
' Nat. Hist, of Carolina, ii. 105.
* Reaum. vi. 282. St. Pierre's Voyage, 72.
3 Bartram in Philos. Trans, xlvi. 120.
L 4
152 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
means of defence, so far from thinking of escaping, frequently walk over
the back of their enemy, and put themselves in his way. When disposed
to feed, he fixes himself by his tail , and, being blind, gropes about on
every side, as the Cyclops did for Ulysses and his companions, till he
touches one, which he immediately transfixes with his trident, elevates
into the air, that he may not be disturbed by its struggles, and soon de-
vours. The havoc which these grubs make amongst the Aphides is asto-
nishing. It was but last week that I observed the top of every young
shoot of the currant-trees in my garden curled up by myriads of these
insects. On examining them this day, not an individual remained ; but
beneath each leaf are three or four full-fed larvae of aphidivorous flies,
surrounded with heaps of the skins of the slain, the trophies of their suc-
cessful warfare ; and the young shoots, whose progress has been entirely
checked by the abstraction of sap, are again expanding vigorously.
But even these serviceable insects must yield the palm to the lady-bird
or lady-cow (^Coccinella), the lavourite of our childhood, which, as well as
most of its congeners, in the larva state, feeds entirely on Aphides^ ; and
the havoc made amongst them may be conceived from the myriads upon
myriads of these little interesting animals, which are often to be seen in
years when the plant-louse abounds. In 1807 the shore at Brighton, and
all the watering-places on the south coast, was literally covered with them,
to the great surprise, and even alarm, of the inhabitants, who were igno-
rant that their little visitors were emigrants from the neighbouring hop-
grounds, where, in their larva state, each had slain his thousands and tens
of thousands of the Aj)/iii, which, under the name of the F/j/, so fre-
quently blasts the hopes of the hop-grower. It is fortunate that in most
(oimtries the children have taken these friendly Coccinellae under their
protection. In France they regard them as sacred to the Virgin, and call
them Vaches a Dieu, Betes de la Vierge, &c. ; and with us, commisera-
tion for the hard fate of a mother, whose *' house is on fire and children
at home," insures them kind treatment and liberty. Even the hop-growers
are becoming sensible of their services, and, as I am informed, hire boys
to prevent birds from destroying them. If we could but discover a mode
of increasing these insects at will, we might not only, as Dr. Darwin has
suggested, clear our hot-houses of Apfiides by their means, but render our
crops of hops much more certain than they now are. Even without this
knowledge nothing is more easy, as I have experienced, than to clear a
plant or small tree by placing upon it several larvae of Coccinellae or of
aphidivorous flies collected from less valuable vegetables.
Lastly, to close this list of imparasitic insectivorous larvae, I may mention
those of Geoffrey's genus Volucella, so remarkable for their radiated anus,
which live in the nests of humble bees ( V. bombylans), braving the fury of
their stings and devouring their young ; those of another species of the
same genus ( V. zonaria Meig.), which MM. de St. Forgeau and Serville
have ascertained to live in wasps' nests and destroy great numbers of their
1 The larvEe of some species of Coccinellae feed, according to Prof. D. Eeich, solely
on the leaves of plants ; as that of C. hieroglyphka, which eats the leaves of common
heath (^Erica vulgaris) after the manner of the larvje of Lepidnptera. Der Gesell-
scliaft naturf. Fr. in Berlin Mag. &c. iii. 294. The larva of Cocchiella Argus, Scriba
(C. Il-mac2ilata Fab.), in like manner, Prof, Audouin found to feed on the leaves of
the common Bryonia. (Westwood, 3Iod. Class, of Ins. i. 397. )
INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 15^
larvae'; and the ant-lion (Mi/niiclron) and Rcannnir's improperly named
worm-lion {Ijcptis), whose sinijidar stratagems will be detailed in a sub-
se(|uent letter, both of which destroy numerous insects that arc so
unfortunate as to fall into their toils.
The rarasilic larvie, an extremely numerous tribe, must next be
eonsideretl. These chiefly belong to the order Ifymnioplrra, and were
iuchuled by Linne under his vast genus Ichneumon, so named from the
analogy between their services and those of the Egyptian Ichneumons
{Vivnra Ichneumon), the former as destroyers of insects, being equally
in^portant with the latter as devourers of serpents, the eggs of crocodiles,
&c.
The habits of the whole of this tribe ^, which properly includes several
families {IchneumonidcE, ChalchUdfc, kc.) and a great number of distinct
genera, are similar. They all oviposit in living insects, chiefly while in the
larva state, sometimes while j)U[)aj {Misocampus Pujmrum) ; at others
while in the r^ij state (Pteroma/us ocuhrum, and hifasciaUis, Chri/aolnwpus
tristis, &c.). the eggs thus deposited soon hatch into grubs, which imme-
diately attack their victim, and in the end insure its destruction. The
number of eggs committed to each individual varies according to its size,
and that of the grubs which are to spring from them ; being in most cases
one only, but in others amounting to some hundreds.
From the observations hitherto made by entomologists, the great body
of the Ichneumon tribe is principally employed in keeping within their
jiroper limits the infinite host of lep'idopterous larvae, destroying, however,
many insects of other orders ; and, perhaps, if the larvae of these last fell
equally under our observation with those of the former, we might discover
that few exist uninfested by their appropriate parasite. Such is the
activity and address of the Ichneumonidans, and their minute allies
(Pupivora Latr.), that scarcely any concealment, except, perhaps, the
waters, can secure their prey from them ; and neither bulk, courage, nor
ferocity avail to terrify them from effecting their purpose. They attack
the ruthless spider in his toils; they discover the retreat of the little
bee, that for safety bores deep into timber ; and though its enemy
Ichneumon cannot enter its cell, by means of her long ovipositor she
reaches the helpless grub, which its parent vainly thought secured from
every foe, and deposits in it an egg, which produces a larva that destroys
it.^ In vain does the destructive Cecidomi/ia of the wheat conceal its
larvEe within the glumes that so closely cover the grain ; three species of
these minute benefactors of our race, sent in mercy by Heaven, know how
to introduce their eggs into them, thus preventing the mischief they would
otherwise occasion, and saving mankind from the horrors of famine.' In
vain, also, the Cynips by its magic touch produces the curious excrescences
on various trees and plants, called galls, for the nutriment and defence of
its progeny ; the parasite species attached to it discovers its secret chamber,
1 Macquart, Dipteres, i. 482.
2 Latreille denominates this family, as he calls it, Pupivora; if by this he alludes
to their devouring the younri of insects, from the classical meaning of the ytord pupa,
the term is very proper ; but this should be borne in mind, as the majority of readers
would imagine'it to refer to the pupa state of insects, in which they are not so gene-
rally devoured by their parasites.
3 Marsham in Linn. Trans, iii. 26.
* See above, pp. 92, 93.
154 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
pierces its wall, however thick, and commits the destroying egg to its'
offspring. Even the clover-weevil is not secure within the legumen of that
plant; nor the wire-worm in the earth, from their ichnemmonidan foes.
1 have received from the late Mr. Mark wick that of the former, and
Mr. Paul has shown me the destroyer of the latter, which belongs to
Latreille's genus Proctotru'iies. Others are not more secured by the repulsive
nature of the substance they inhabit ; for two species at least of Icfmeumon^
know how to oviposit it in stercorarious larvae without soiling their wings
or bodies.
The ichneumonldan parasites are either external or internal. Thus the
species above alluded to, which attacks spiders, does not live within their
bodies, but remains on the outside^; and the larva of Ophion luteimi,
which adheres by one end to the shell of the bulbiriferous egg that pi'o-
duced it, does not enter the caterpillar of Euprepia villica, the moth upon
which it feeds.^ But the great majority of these animals oviposit within
the body of the insect to which they are assigned, from whence, after
having consumed the interior and become pupae, they emerge in their
perfect state. An idea of the services rendered to us by those Ichneumons
which prey upon noxious larvae may be formed from the fact, that out of
thirty individuals of the common cabbage caterpillar (the larvae of Pontia
BrassiccB) which Reaumur put into a glass to feed, twenty-five were fatally
pierced by an Ichneumon {Microgaster globatus^). And if we compare the
myriads of caterpillars that often attack our cabbages and brocoli with the
small number of butterflies of this species which usually appear, we may
conjecture that they are commonly destroyed in some such proportion — a
circumstance that will lead us thankfully to acknowledge the goodness of
Providence, which, by providing such a check, has prevented the utter
destruction of the Brassica genus, including some of our most esteemed and
useful vegetables.
The parasites are not wholly confined to the order Hymenoptera : a
considerable number are also found amongst the tribe of flies, many of the
species of the Dipterous genera Tachina Meig. ; and those separated from
it (as Ech'momyia, NemorcBO, Sec), as well as of Anthrax, and other genera
depositing their eggs in caterpillars and other larvae, often in such great
numbers, that from a larva of Sphinx atrojyos, bred by M. Serville, and
which had sufficient strength to assume the pupa state, not fewer than
eighty flies of Senomefopia atrojnvora came out of it.^ Many beetles also
are parasitic in their larva state, as the singular Ripiphorus paradoxus,
which is found in the nests of wasps; those of the genus Sitaris, which are
found in the nests of wild bees of the genus Anthophora ®, and those of
JBrachytarsus scabrosus, which feed on Coccidce'', &c,
^ Alysia Manducator ; and another species allied to Alomyia Debellator, which I
have named A. Stercorator.
2 De Geer, ii. 863. 3 Ibid. 851—855.
■* Reaum. ii. 419.
5 Macquart, Bipteres, ii. 105. Comp. De Geer, i. 196. vi. 14. 24. Reaum. ii.
440—444.
^ Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, viii. Bull. xvii. xlvii. Much obscurity exists as to
the economy of these insects, chiefly in consequence of the curious facts observed by
my friend M. Pecchioli of Pisa with regard to his new species Sitaris solieri, de-
scribed by him in the Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, viii. 5. 27. He always found both
sexes of this species, even in distant localities, on plants of rosemary; and these
For note "^ see p. 155.
INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 155
Generally speaking, parasitic larvae do not attack insects in their perfect
state ; but to this rule there arc several exceptions. M. Diifour found in
a beetle {Casmln viridis) a parasitic larva, from whidi lie bred a fly of the
genus Taclnna Meig. (^Casslda-Dii/ia Macc).) ; and also in a ficld-bug (^Pcn-
liitoma ij^risra), from which proceeded another fly (Oci/ptcm hicolor)^ ; and
T.atrcilk", Dufour, and other entomologists iiave confirmed the discovery of
Uaundiauer, that the larvae of flies of the genus Conops live in humble
bees, which IM. Robineau-Desvoidy has seen pursued by them, apparently
to deposit their eggs on them.'^ Tiie larva; of a beetle (Simbim lilattunini)
is parasitic in the bodies of Jilatln Americana on board of shijjs, and
]M. Audouin found Cocciiiclla \l-punctata, to be subject to the parasitic
attack of Microctonus (crminalh Wcsmael, and Encrijtus Jinminhis Dalman.'
Tlie order also of Stnpslptera ajjpears to be wiiolly |)arasitic ; but these
extraordinary animals are found only upon Ilymenoptera in their perfect
state, and do not appear to destroy the insects upon which they prey, but
probably prevent tiieir breeding. The species at present known are formed
into four genera, Xcnos Rossi ; Sttjiops Kiri)y ; Elcnchus Curtis ; and
llaUctopliagm Dale. The first is found in difl'erent species of wasps
{Vcspu, Folistes, Udipicrus, and also of Sj)fu'x) ; the second in the genus
separated from jMcldta K. under the name of Andncna, in upwards
of fourteen species of which Mr. Pickering has found them ; the third in
Polistes (?) ; and the fourth in Halictm {MeUtta K.) ; but it is probable,
from the fact of M. L. Dufour's having also found a larva of one of these
insects between the abdominal segments of Ammophila Sabulosa, that many
other hymenopterous insects will be found to be infested with them.*
plants, Tvhen JL Audouin examined them with him near Pisa in 1835, were covered
with eggs, which the former recognised as altogether similar to those of Sitaris hu-
meralis, with which he was well acquainted. As the species of Sitaris arc known to
be found in the nests of difl'erent Hymenoptera, and particularly in those of a wild
bee {Anthophora) on the larva; of which their larvK are probably parasitic, the ques-
tion occurs, with what view these eggs were placed on the rosemarj' ? The most
plausible supposition perhaps woidd seem to be that after the eggs are hatched the
larvse attach themselves, liiie the supposed larvsc of Me/oe {Pediculus MeUtta: K.) to
which they are related, to the Anthophora, frequenting the rosemary for honey, and
are thus conveyed into their cells ; but nothing certain can be inferred on this head
till the contradictory statements as to these last-named larv£e are cleared up ; and
it seems as yet almost equally doubtful (as it is also in the case of the other para-
sitic coleopterous genera Jloria, Ripiphorus, and Zonilis) whether the larvro are para-
sitic on the larva; of the insects in whose cells they are found, or on their stored-up
food.
"> Westwood, Mod. Class, of Ins. i. 332.
1 Macquart, Dipteres, ii. 69.
2 Ibid. ii. 23. Westwood, 3Iod. Class, of In». iL 561. .
3 Westwood, Mod. Class, i. 295. 397.
•* Kirby, 3/o7i. Ap. Ang. ii. 110. 113. and in Linn. Trans, xi. 86. Westwood's
Mod. Class, of Ins. ii. 288 — 305., to whi<h last the reader is referred for a full and
very interesting account of the facts hitherto recorded respecting these remarkable
insects, and references to the various works in which they occur. My friend G. H.
K. Thwaites, Esq., has had the singular good fortune, which has perhaps oc-
curred to no other entomologist, of seeing on the wing in May, 1838, not merely
a single sti/lops or two, but a .small swarm of at least twenty, and in as singular a
situation, the garden of his residence, situated in the suburbs of the populous city
of Bristol. This was most probably owing to the circumstance of the garden hav-
ing had brought into it a quantity of fresh earth, which apparently had been dug
156 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
The next description of insect destroyersyare those which devour them
in their first and last states. No beetles are more common after tlie
summer is confirmed than the species of the genus Telephorus. Preysler
informs us that the grub of T. fuscus destroys a great many other larvae ^;
and I have observed the imago devour these and also Di]}tera. Linne has
with justice denominated the Cic'mdelce the tigers of insects. Though
decorated with brilliant colours, they prey upon the whole insect race ;
their formidable jaws which cross each other are armed with fearful fangs,
showing to what use they are applicable ; and the extreme velocity with
•which they can either run or fl}', renders hopeless any attempt to elude
their pursuit. Their larvae are also equally tremendous with the imago,
having eight eyes, four on each side, seated on a lateral elevation of the
head, two above, and two very minute below, which look like those of
spiders, and besides their threatening jaws armed with a strong internal
tooth, being furnished with a pair of spines resembling somewhat the sting
of a scorpion, which stand erect upon the back of the abdomen, and give
them a most ferocious aspect. This last apparatus, according to Clairville,
serves the purpose of an anchor for retaining them at any height in thei^
deep cells.2 Most of the aquatic beetles, at least the Gyrini and Dytisci,
prey upon other insects both in their first and final state. The larvae of
the latter have long been observed and described under the name of
SquiUcB, and are remarkable for having their mandibles adapted for suction
like those of Hemerobius and Myrmeleon ; but they are not, like them,
deprived of a mouth, being able to devour by mastication as well as by
suction. Another tribe of this order whicli abounds in species, those
predaceous beetles which form Linne's great genus Carabus (Eidrechina^),
is universally insectivorous. One of the most destructive is the grub of
a very beautiful species, an English specimen of which would be a great
acquisition to your cabinet, it being one of our rarest insects *, I mean
Calosoma Sijcophanta. This animal takes up its station in the nests of
Cnethocampa jirocessioiiea and other moths, and sometimes fills itself so
full with these caterpillars, which we cannot handle or even approach
without injury, as to be rendered incapable of motion, and appear ready
to burst. Another beautiful insect of this tribe, Carabus auratus, known
from some bank or pathway, containing manj* of the nests ofAndrena convexiuscula,
which also abounded in the garden at the same time, and of which Mr. Thwaites
captured several, all containing the larva of a Stylops (in one instance of three), or
evident signs of a Stylops having escaped from them. These singular little animals,
whose economj' and systematic place are equally perplexing, Mr. Thwaites informs
us, " are exceedingly graceful in their flight, taking long sweeps as if carried along
by a gentle breeze," which, and their large expanse of wing, give them an appear-
ance in flying verj^ difi'erent from that of any other insect. (Thwaites in Trans. Ent.
Soc. Land. iii. 67.)
^ Preys. Bomisch. Insekt. 59. 61.
2 Entom. Helvetique,, ii. 158.
3 In the former edition of this work (Vol. IV. p. 392.), this tribe is deno-
minated Eupodina ; but as this seems too near to M. Latreille's Eupoda, belong-
ing to a different tribe of beetles, we have substituted the above name, which means
the same.
* One was taken at Aldeburgh in Suffolk by Dr. Crabbe, the celebrated poet ;
another by a young lady at Southwold, which is now in the cabinet of Joseph
Hooker, Esq. ; and a third by a boy at Norwich, crawling up a wall, which was pur-
chased of him by S. Wilkin,'Esq.
mDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 157
in France by the name of Vinaigrler, is supposed to destroy more cock-
chafers than nil their other enemies, attacking and killing the females at
the moment of oviposition, and thus preventing tlic birth of thousands of
young grubs. I Lastly come the lirochi/plcra, many of which prey upon
insects as well as on putrescent substances. Mr. Lehmann tells us that
some of them are very useful in destroying a weevil {Apiun jUmfcmo-
ra/ui)i'-)y the great enemy of our crops of clover seed.
Amongst the duvourers of insects in their perfect state only, must be
ranked a few of the social tribes, ants, wasps, and hornets. The first-
mentioned indefatigable and industrious creatures kill and carry off" great
numbers of insects of every description to their nests, and prodigious arc
their efforts in this work. I have seen an ant dragging a wild bee many
times bigger than itself; and there was brought to me this very morning,
while writing this letter, an Elatcr, quite alive and active, which three or
four ants, in s[)ite of its struggles, were carrying off! An observing friend
of n)ine-', who was some time in Antigua, informed me that in that island,
a kind of ant which construct their nests in the roofs of houses, when they
meet with any animal larger than they can carry off alive, such as a cock-
roach, &c., will hold it by the legs so that it cannot move, till some of
them get upon it and despatch it, and then, with incredible labour, carry
it up to their nest. Madam Merian, in her account of the periodical ants
mentioned to you before, and which is confirmed by Azara\ notices their
clearing the houses of cock-roaches and similar animals; and Mt/nnica
omnivora is very useful in Ceylon in destroying the former insect, the
larger ant, and the white ant.^
You are not perhaps accustomed to regard wasps and hornets as of
any use to us ; but they certainly destroy an infinite number of flies and
other annoying insects. The year IS 11 was remarkable for the small
number of wasps, though many females appeared in the spring, scarcely
any neuters being to be seen in the autunm "^ ; and probably in conse-
quence of this circumstance, flies in many places were so extremely nume-
rous as to be quite a nuisance. Reaumur has observed that in France,
the butchers are very glad to have wasps attend their stalls lor the sake of
their services in driving away the flesh-fly ; and, if we may believe the
author of Hector St. John's American Letters, the farmers in some parts of
the United States are so well aware of their utility in this respect, as to
suspend in their sitting rooms a hornet's nest, the occupants of which
prey upon the flies without molesting the family. There are other de-
vourers of insects in their perfect state, the manners and food of whose
larvae we are unacquainted with. St. Pierre speaks of a lady-bird, but it
probably belonged to some other genus, of a fine violet colour, with a
head like a ruby, which he saw carry off" a butterfly." Liime informs us
that Clcrus formicarim devours Anoliium perlinax . A fly related to I'unorpa
communis appears created to instd terror into the pitiless hearts of the
' Latr. Hist. Kat. x. ISl.
2 Linn. Trans, vi. 149. Kirby, Ihid. ix. 42, 43.
3 The late R. Kittoe, Esq.
* Voyagis, i. 185. 5 Percival's Cei/ton, 307.
* Mr. Knight made the same observation in 180(i, and supposes the scarcilv of
neuters arose from the want of mules to impregnate the females. Fliilos. Trans.
1807, p. 243.
7 St. Pierre, Vot/. 72.
158 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
tyrants of our lakes and pools — the all-devouring LibelluUna^ The AsUi
also, which are always upon the chase, seize insects with their anterior
legs and suck them with their haustellum. The cognate genus Dioctria,
particularly D. celandicn, prey upon Hymenoptera, by some unknown
means, instantaneously killing the insect they seize. Many species also
of Empis, whose haustellum resembles the beak of a bird, carry off in it
Tijmlarice and other small Diptera ; and, what is remarkable, you can
seldom take these insects in coitu, but the female has a gnat, some fly, or
sometimes a beetle, in her mouth. Can this be to deposit her eggs in, as
soon as they are impregnated by the male ? or is it designed for the nup-
tial feast ? Even Scatophaga stercoraria and scybalaria, and probably many
others of the same tribe, feed upon small flies, though their proboscis does
not seem so well adapted for animal as for vegetable food.
The most unrelenting devourers of insects appear to be those belonging
to my fourth division, which attack them under every form. These begin
the work of destruction when they are larvae, and continue it during the
whole of their existence. The earwig that haunts every close place in
our gardens, and defiles whatever it enters, probably in some degree makes
up for its ravages by diminishing the number of other insects. The
cowardly and cruel Mantis, which runs away from an ant, will destroy in
abundance helpless flies, using its anterior tibia, which with the thigh
form a kind of forceps, to seize its prey. The water-scorpions (Nepa,
Ranatra, and Naiicoris), whose fore-legs are made like those of the Mantis,
the water-boatman (N'otonecta), which always swims upon its back, and
Sigara, all live by rapine, and prey upon aquatic insects. Some of this
tribe are so savage that they seem to love destruction for its own sake.
One (^Nepa cinei-ea'), which was put into a basin of water with several
young tadpoles, killed them all without attempting to eat one.
Those remarkable genera of the tribe of water-bugs ( Hydrocorisce
Latr.), which glide over the surface of every pool with such rapidity, being
gifted with the faculty of walking upon the water, Hydrometra, Velia, and
Gerris, subsist also upon aquatic insects. A large number of the land-
bugs {Geocorisce Latr.), plunge their rostrum into the larvae of Lepidop-
tera, and suck the contents of their bodies ; and Reduvius personatiis,
which ought on that account to be encouraged, is particularly fond of the
bed-bug, as, according to Kuhn, is Pentatoma bidens, six or eight of which,
shut up in a room swarming with the bed-bug, for several weeks, com-
pletely extirpated the latter.^
But of all the insects that are locomotive and pursue their prey in
every state, none are greater enemies of their fellow tribes than the Lihel-
lu/ina, and none are provided with more powerful and singular instruments
of assault. In the larva and pupa states, during which they live in the
water and prey upon aquatic insects, they are furnished with two pair of
strong jaws, covered by a kind of mask armed with a pair of forceps or
claws, which the animal has the power of pushing from it to catch any
thing at a distance.^ When an aquatic insect passes within its reach, it
1 Lesser, L. i. 263. note.
2 Naturforscher, St. 6. and Fallen, Hemipt. Suec. 142. quoted by Westwood, 3Iod.
Class, of Ins. ii. 486.
5 Reaum. vi. 400. t. 36—38.
INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 159
suilclcnly darts forth the mask, opens the^forccps, seizes the unfortunate
victim, anil brings it within the action of its jaws.
When they assume the imago state, their iiabits do not, like those of
the white ants, become more mild and gentle, but, on the contrary, are
more sanguinary and rapacious than ever ; so that the name given to them
in Kngland, " l)ragon-Hics," seems much more applicable than " Demoi-
selles," by which the French distinguish them. Their motions, it is true,
are light and airy ; their dress is silky, brilliant, and variegated, and trimmed
with the finest lace: so far the resemblance holds; but their purpose,
except at the time of love, is always destruction, in which surely they
have no resemblance to the ladies. I have been much anmsed by ob-
serving the proceedings of a species not unconunon here, Ann.v Impcrator
of Dr. Leach. It keeps wheeling round and round, and backwards and
forwards, over a considerable portion of the pool it frequents. If one of
the same species comes in its way, a battle ensues ; if other species of
Li/)(//itli)ia presume to approach, it drives them away, and it is continually
engaged in catching case-worm files and other insects (for the species of
this tribe all catch their prey when on the wing, and their large eyes seem
given them to en.ible them the more readily to do this) that fly over the
water, pulling off their wings with great adroitness, and devouring in an
instant the contents of the body. From the number of insects of this
tribe which are every where to be observed, we may conjecture how
useful they must be in preventing too great a multiplication of the other
species of the class to which they belong.
Lastly, under this head, not to dwell upon some other apterous genera,
devourers of insects, as the scorpion and centipede, Plmlangium, Gnleodes,
nuist be enumerated the whole world of Spiders, extremely numerous,
both in species and individuals, which subsist entirely upon insects,
spreading with infinite art and skill their nets and webs to arrest the flight
of the heedless and unwary sununer tribes that fill the air, which are
hourly caught by thousantls in their toils; one of them {Theridium 13- '
guttatum Rossi), we are told, even attacking the redoubted Scorpion.^
So much for the insect benefactors to whom it is given in charge to
keep the animals of their own class within their proper limits ; and I
cannot doubt that you will recognise the goodness of the Great Parent in
providing such an army of counterchecks to the natural tendency of almost
all insects to incalculable increase. But before I quit this subject I must
call your attention to what may be denominated cannibal insects, since, in
spite of those declaimers who would persuade us that man is the only
animal that preys upon his own s[)ecies ^, a large number of insects are
guilty of the same offence. Reaumur tells us, that having put into a glass
vessel twenty caterpillars of the same species, which he was careful to
supply with their appropriate food, they nevertheless devoured each other
1 Thiebaut de Berneaud's Voyage to Elba, p. 31.
* " E'en Tiger fell and sullen Bear
Their likeness and tlieir lineage spare.
Man only mars kind >.'ature's plan, ,
And turns the fierce pursuit on Man."
Scott's Rolicby, canto iii. 1.
160 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERR'ED FEOM INSECTS.
until one only 'survived^ ; and De Geer relates several similar instances.'
The younger larvae of Calosoma Sycophania often take advantage of the
helpless inactivity into which the gluttony of their maturer comrades has
thrown them, and from mere wantonness, it should seem, when in no need
of other food, pierce and devour them. A ferocity not less savage exists
amongst the Mantes. These insects have their fore-legs of a construction
not unlike that of a sabre; and they can as dexterously cleave their anta-
gonist in two, or cut oft' his head at a stroke, as the most expert hussar.
In this way they often treat each other, even the sexes fighting with the
most savage animosity. Rosel endeavoured to rear several specimens of
M. religiosa, but always failed, the stronger constantly devouring the
weaker.^ This ferocious propensity the Chinese children have, according
to Mr. Barrow, employed as a source of barbarous amusement, selling to
their comrades bamboo cages containing each a Mantis, which are put
together to fight. You will think it singular that both in Europe and
Africa these cruel insects have obtained a character for gentleness of dis-
position, and even sanctity. This has arisen from the upright or sitting
position, with the fore legs bent, assumed in watching for their prey,
which the vulgar have supposed to be a praying posture, and hence adopted
the belief that a child or traveller that had lost his road would be guided
by taking one of these pious insects in his hand, and observing what way
it pointed. Mantis fausta, though not as some suppose worshipped by
the Hottentots, is yet greatly esteemed by them, and they regard the
person upon whom it alights as highly fortunate.* A similar unnatural
ferocity is exhibited by Gryllus campestris, of which, having put the sexes
into a box, I found on examining them that the female had begun to make
her meal off her companion. The malign aspect of the scorpion leads us
to expect from it unnatural cruelty, and its manners fulfil this expectation.
Maupertuis put a hundred scorpions together, and a general and murderous
battle immediately began. Almost all were massacred in the space of a
few days without distinction of age or sex, and devoured by the survivors.
He informs us also that they often devour their own offspring as soon as
they are born.* Spiders are equally ferocious in their habits, fighting
sanguinary battles, which sometimes end in the death of both combatants ;
and the females do not yield to the Mantes in their unnatural cruelty to
their mates. Woe be to the male spider that, after an union, does not
with all speed make his escape from the fangs of his partner ! Nay, De
Geer saw one that, in the midst of his preparatory caresses was seized by
the object of his attentions, enveloped by her in a web, and then devoured
— a sight which, he observes, filled him with horror and indignation.''
Such are the benefits which we derive from the insects that keep each
other in check. Here they are the destroyers to which we are chiefly
indebted ; but we are in another point of view under nearly equal obliga-
tions to the destroyed; for they are insects, either wholly or in [)art, that
1 Keaumur, ii. 413. This habit is well known to our practical Lepidopterists, who
have given the name of the 3/o?isfcr Caterpillar to one of these cannibal species; a
memoir upon which bv Mr. Thrupp was lately read before the Entomological Society.
2 De Geer, i. 533. iii. 361. v. 400. vi. 91. 3 Rosel, iv. 96.
* Thunberg's Travels, ii. 06.
* De Gear, vii. 335. o ibid. 180.
INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. Ifil
form the food of some of oiir most esteemed fishes, and of birds that are
not more vaUiable to us as articles for tiie table, than as the songsters that
enliven our groves. But before proceeding to the details which this view
of the subject involves, I ought not to omit (jointing out to you that many
quadrupeds, which, though not all of direct utility to us, are doubtless of
importance in the scale of being, derive a considerable part of their sub-
sistence from insects.
The harmless hedgehog and the mole, to begin at the lower end of
the series, are both said to be insectivorous' ; the latter devouring large
(|uantities of the wire-worms. The greedy swine will root up whole acres
in search of the grubs of cock-chafers, of which they are very fond ;
and [jcrbaps the good they do is greater than the harm, if their attack be
confined to grass that having been undermined by these grubs would soon
die : they also dig up the larvae of the destructive Cicada scplcndecim,
called the American locust -, on which, when in their perfect state, the
squirrels are said to grow fat.' The badger. Lesser informs us, will eat
beetles ; and its kinsman the bear has the character of being very fond of ants
and of honey ; which last is also said to be a favourite article with the fox,
who has sometimes the audacity to overturn bee -hives, and even to attack
wasps' nests in search of it. He will also eat beetles.
Sparrman has given an amusing account of the honey-ratel (Viverra
vifllivora'), which has a particular instinct enabling it to discover bees, and
attack them in their entrenchments. Near sunset the ratel will sit and
hold one of his paws before his eyes, in order to get a distinct view of the
object of his pursuit ; and when, in consequence of his peering about in
this manner, he sees any bees flying, he knows that at this time of the day
tlicy are making for their habitations, whither he follows them, and so
attains his end.' Another species of Viverra {V. prchcnsili^) is also reputed
to be an eager insect hunter. The young armadillos feed on a species of
locust ; but no quadruped can with more propriety be called insectivorous
than the ant-eaters {jllj/rmecop/iaga), which, as their name imports, live
upon ants. The great ant-eater, when he comes to an ant-hill, scratches
it up with his long claws, and then unfolds his slender worm-like tongue
(which is more than two feet long, and wet with saliva), and when covered
with ants draws it back into his mouth and swallows thousands of them
alive, renewing the operation till no more are to be found. He also climbs
trees in search of wood-lice and wild honey. Bats, as every one knows,
are always flitting about in summer evenings, hawking for insects : and the
Lemur and monkeys will also eat them.
Insects likewise afford a favourite kind of food to many reptiles : the
tortoise ; frogs and toads ; and lizards too of different kinds. St. Pierre
mentions a small and very handsome species in the island of Mauritius,
that pursues them into the houses, climbs up the walls, and even walks
over glass, watching with great patience for an opportunity of catchintf
them.^ The common snake also is said to receive part of its nutriment
from them.
But to revert to insects as indirectly advantageous to us, by furnishing
food to fishes and birds, beginning with the former.
1 Binffley, ii. 374. 2 Bingley, iii. 27.
3 Collinson in I'hilos. Trans. 17C3. * Sparrman, ii. 180.
^ St. I'ierre, Voij. 73.
162 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
Our rivers abound with ^sh of various kinds, which at particular seasons
derive a principal part of their food from insects, as the numerous species
of the salmon and carp genus. These chiefly prey upon the various kinds
of Tric/ioptera, in their larva state called case- or caddis-worms, and in
their imago may-flies (though this last denomination properly belongs
only to the Sialis hitaria, which generally appears in that month) and
Ephemera:. Besides these, the waters swarm with insects of every order
as numerous in proportion to the space they inhabit, as those that fill the
air, which form the sole nutriment of multitudes of our fish, and the partial
support of almost all.
Reaumur has given us a very entertaining account of the infinite hosts of
EphemercB that by myriads of millions emerge at. a certain season of the
year from some of the rivers in France, which, as it is well worth your
attention, I shall abridge for you.
These insects, in their first and intermediate state, are aquatic : they
either live in holes in the banks of rivers or brooks below the water, so
that it enters into their habitations, which they seldom quit ; or they swim
about and Walk upon the bed of the stream, or conceal themselves under
stones or upOn pieces of stick. Though their life, when they assume the
perfect state, is usually extremely short, some being disclosed after sunset,
laying their eggs and dying before sunrise ; and many not living more than
three hours ; yet in their preparatory state their existence is much longer,
in some one, in others two, in others even three years.
The different species assume the imago at different times of the year ;
but the same species appear regularly at nearly the same period annually,
and for a certain number of days fill the air in the neighbourhood of the
rivers, emerging also from the water at a certain hour of the day. Those
which Swammerdam observed began to fly about six o'clock in the
evening, or about two hours before sunset ; but the great body of those
noticed by Reaumur did not appear till after that time ; so that the season
of different harvests is not better known to the farmer, than that in which
the Ephemerae of a particular river are to emerge is to the fisherman. Yet
a greater degree of heat or cold, the rise or fall of the water, and other cir-
cumstances we are not aware of, may accelerate or retard their appearance.
Between the 10th and 15th of August is the time when those of the Seine
and Marne, which Reaumur described, are expected by the fishermen, who
call them manna: and when their season is come, they say, "The manna
begins to appear, the manna fell abundantly such a night ;" — alluding, by
this expression, either to the astonishing quantity of food which the
Ephemerae afford the fish, or to the large quantity of fish which they then
take.
Reaumur first observed these insects in the year 1738, when they did
not begin to show themselves in numbers till the 18th of August. On the
19th, having received notice from his fisherman that the flies had appeared,
he got into his boat about three hours before sunset, and detached from
the banks of the river several masses of earth filled with pupse, which he
put into a large tub full of water. This tub, after staying in the boat till
about eight o'clock, without seeing any remarkable number of the flies, and
being threatened with a storm, he caused to be landed and placed in his
garden, at the foot of which ran the Marne. Before the people had landed
it, an astonishing number of Ephemera emerged from it. Every piece of
earth that was above the surface of the water was covered by them, some
INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 163
Ijcginning to quit their slough, others prepared to fly, and others ah-eady on
the wing ; and every where under the water they were to be seen in
a greater or less degree of forwardness. The storm coming on, he was
obliged to quit the amusing scene ; but when the rain ceased to fail, he
returned to it. As soon as the cloth with which he iiad ordered the tub
to be covered was removed, the number of flies appeared to be greatly
augmented, and kept continually increasing ; many flew awav, but more
were drowned. Those already transformcil, and continually transforming,
would iiave been sufficient of themselves to have maile the tub seem full ;
but their number was soon very much enlarged by others attracted by the
light. To prevent their being drowned, he caused the tub to be again
covered with the cloth ; and over it he held the light, which was soon
concealed 'by a layer of these flies, that might have been taken by handfuls
from the candlestick.
But the scene round the tub was nothing to be compared with the
wonderful spectacle exhibited on the banks of the river. The excla-
mations of his gardener drew the illustrious naturalist thither; and such
a sight he had never witnessed, and could scarcely find words to describe.
" The myriads of Ephemerae," says he, " which filled the air over the
current of the river, and over the bank on which I stood, are neither to
be expressed nor conceived. When the snow falls with the largest flakes,
and with the least interval between them, the air is not so full of them as
that which surrounded us was of Ephemerae, Scarcely had I remained in
one place a few minutes, when the step on which I stood was quite con-
cealed with a layer of them from two to four inches in depth. Near the
lowest step a surface of water of five or six feet dimensions every way was
entirely and thickly covered by them ; and what the current carried off
was continually replaced. Many times I was obliged to abandon my
station, not being able to bear the shower of EphemerEe, which, falling
with an obliquity less constant than that of an ordinary shower, struck
continually, and in a manner extremely uncomfortable, every part of my
face — eyes, mouth, and nostrils were filled with them." To hold the
flambeau on this occasion was no pleasant office. The person who filled
it had his clothes covered in a few moments with these flies, which came
from all parts to overwhelm him. Before ten o'clock this interesting
spectacle had vanished. It was renewed for some nights afterwards, but
the flies were never in such prodigious numbers. The fishermen allow
only three successive days for the great fall of the manna ; but a i'ew flies
appear both before and after, their number increasing in one case, in the
other diminishing. Whatever be the temperature of the atmosphere,
whether it be cold or hot, these flies invariably appear at the same hour in
the evening, that is, between a quarter and half-past eight ; towards nine
they begin to fill the air; in the following half-hour they are in the
greatest numbers ; and at ten there are scarcely any to be seen. So that
in less than two hours this infinite host of flies emerge from their parent
stream, fill the air, perform their appointed work, and vanish. A very
large proportion of them falls into the river, where the fish have their
grand festival and the fishermen a good harvest.^
Under this head I may observe how much the patient angler is indebted
o insects for some of his choicest baits, for the best opportunities of
1 Keaum. vi. 479 — 487.
U 2
164 rSTDIRECT BENEFITS DERI\T:D FROM INSECTS.
showing his skill, and for the most gratifying part of his diversion. The
case-worm and several other larvae are the best standing bait for many
fish. The larva of the Ephemera, there called bait and , bank-bait', is
much used in some parts of Holland. The case-worms, and grubs (I
suppose of flies) from the tallow chandlers, and the larvae of wasps taken
out of the comb, are in request with us for roach and dace ; and I am told
by an acute observer of these things, the Rev. R. Sheppard, that the
Gcotrupes and MelulonthcE are good baits for chub." But to be an adept
in fly-fishing, which requires the most skill and furnishes the best di-
version, the angler ought to be conversant in Entomology, at least suffi-
ciently so to distinguish the different species of Phryganen and other Tri-
choptera, and to know the time of their appearance. The angler is not
only indebted to insects for some of his best baits, but also for the best
material to fasten his hooks to, and even for making his lines for smaller
fish — the Indian grass or gut, as it is called (termed in France Cheveiix de
Florence), which is said to be prepared in China from the matter con-
tained in the silk reservoirs of the silk-worm, but according to Latreille is
the silk vessel itself when dried. ^
One of the most important ends for which insects were gifted with such
powers of multiplication, giving birth to myriads of myriads of individuals,
•was to furnish the feathered part of the creation with a sufficient supply
of food. The number of birds that derive the whole or a principal part
of their subsistence from insects is, as is universally known, very great,
and includes species of almost every order.
Amongst the Accipitres the kestril (Falco tinminculus L.), devours
abundance of insects. A friend of mine, upon opening one, found its
stomach full of the remains of grasshoppers and beetles, particularly the
former, which he suspects constitute great part of the food of this species.
One of the shrikes, also, or butcher-birds (Lanim collurio) — and it is pro-
bable that other species of this numerous genus may have the same habits
— is known to feed upon insects, which it first impales alive on the thorns
of the sloe and other spinous plants, and then devours. If meat be given
it, when kept in a cage, it will fix it upon the wires before it eats it.
Laniits excubilor also impales insects ; but Heckewelder denies that it
feeds upon them. If he be correct, the object of this singular procedure
with that species may be to allure the birds which it preys upon to a
particular spot.*
Amongst the Pic(X or Pies the Crolophaga, called the Ani, which is a
1 Swamm. B\h. Nat. i. c. 4. 106. b.
2 In Col. Venable's Exjierienced Angler, a vast number of insects are enumerated
as good baits for fish, under the names of Bob, Cadbait, Cankers, Caterpillars, Pal-
mers, Gentles, Bark-woj-ms, Oak-worms, Colewort-worms, Flag-worms, Green-flies,
Ant-flies, Butterflies, Wasps, Hornets, Bees, Humble-bees, Grasshoppers, Dors,
Beetles, a great brown fly that lives upon the oak like a Scarabee {Melolontha vul-
garis, or Amphimalla solstitialis '?), and flies (i. e. May-flies) of various sorts. — See also
Mr. Konalds' Fly-fisiier''s Entomology.
3 Anderson's Recreations in Agrictitt. &c.iv. 478. ; Latr. Hist. Nat. xiv. 154.
■* According to Mr. Heckewelder {Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc. iv. 124.), L. excnbitor,
called in America the nine-killer, from an idea that it transfixes nine individuals
daily, treats in this manner Grasshoppers only ; while L. collurio would seem to
restrict itself chiefly to Geotrupes, two of which Mr. Sheppard once observed tran.s-
fixed in a hedge that he knew to be the residence of this bird. Kugellan even
INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 1G5
native of Africa anil America, lives upon the locust and Ixodes ricinw!,
which it picks in great numbers from the backs of cattle ; but none are
greater devourcrs of insects in tliis order than rooks. It is for the grubs
of Mclolontlia, Tipn/ti, &c., tliat they follow the plough ; and they always
frequent the meadows in which these larv;e abound, destroying them in
vast numbers. Kalm tells us, that when the little crow was extirpated
from Virginia at an enormous expense, the inhabitants would willingly
have brought them back again at double the price. ' The icteric oriole is
kept by the Americans in their houses for the sake of clearing them of
insects ; and the purple grackle is so useful in this respect, that when, on
account of their consuming grain, the American farmers in New England
offered a reward of threepence a head for them, and they were in con-
sequence nearly extirpated, insects increased to such a degree as to cause
a total loss of the herbage, and the inhabitants were obliged to obtain hay
for their cattle not only from Pennsylvania, but even from (ireat Britain.'^
Of this order also is the bee-cuckoo (Ciiruhts indivntor), so celebrated for
its instinct, by wh'ch it serves as a guide to the wild bees' nests in Africa.
Sparrman describes this bird, which is somewhat larger than a conmion
sparrow, as giving this information in a singular manner. In the evening
and morning, which arc its meal-times, it excites the attention of the
Hottentots, colonists, and honey-ratel, by the cry of clicir, chcrr, cherr,
and conducts them to the tree or spot in which the bees' nest is con-
cealed, continually repeating this cry. When arrived at the spot, it hovers
over it ; and then alighting on some neighbouring tree or bush, sits in
silence, expecting to come in for its share of the spoil, which is that part
of the comb containing the brood. ^ The wryneck and the woodpeckers,
the nuthatch and tree-creeper, live entirely upon insects and their eggs^,
which they pick out of decayed trees, and out of the bark of living ones.
The former also frequents grass-plots and ant-hills, into which it darts its
long flexible tongue, and so draws out its prey. The woodpecker likewise
draws insects out of their holes by means of the same organ, which for
thinks that it impales only G. vernalis, which he has often found transfixed, but
never G. stercorarius. (Schneitl. Mag. 259.) I must remark, however, that I last
summer observed two humble-bees quite alive impaled on the thorns of a hedge near
my house, which had most probably been so placed by this species, L. excubitor being
rarely found except in mountainous wilds. (Bewick's Birds, i. 61.) And Prof.
Sander states that on opening this bird (L. collurio) he has sometimes found in its
stomach nothing but grasshoppers, and at otliers small beetles and other insects.
(Naturforsclier, Stk. xviii. 234.) Mr. Uunlop, in a letter in Loudon's Gardener's
Magazine for May, 1842 (Xo. cxlvi. p. 259.), states, that upon examining a branch
of hawthorn on which he had for some days observed a pair of fly- catchers feeding
their young, he found upwards of a dozen humble-bees {Bombus terrestris) fixed
upon the spines as securely as if done by the hand of man, some being alive, and
others dead and partly devoured. Mr. Dunlop, after removing the bees to watch
the process of the birds in placing them, had soon the satisfaction of seeing the fly-
catchers catch them on the wing, carry them direct to the branch (which was a dead
one, apparently on account of the greater hardness of the spines), and thrust them
on the spines as above described. Mr. W. W. Saunders found a number of the
yellow underwing moth (Triphana pronuba) thus fixed.
' Stillingfl. Tracts, 175. Linn. Trans, v. 105. note \
2 Binglev, ii. 287— 290. 3 Sparrman, ii. 186.
* Bewick's Birds, i. Pref. xxii. 130.
M 3
166 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
this purpose is bony at the end and barbed, and furnished with a curious
apparatus of muscles to enable them to throw it forward with great force.
Some species spit the insects on their tongue, and thus bring them into
their mouth. In America, the tree-creeper is furnished with a box at the
end of a long pole to entice it to build in gardens, which it is found to be
particularly useful in clearing from noxious insects.
Amongst the Grall<js or Waders, many of the long-billed birds eat the
larvae of insects as well as worms ; and they form also no inconsiderable
part of the food of our domestic poultry, especially turkeys, which may be
daily seen busily engaged in hunting for them, and, as well as ducks, will
greedily devour the larger insects, as cockchafers, and in North America,
CicadcE. Mr, Sheppard was much amused, one day in July, with observing
a cow which had taken refuge in a pond, probably from the gad-fly, and
was standing nearly up to its belly in water. A fleet of ducks surrounded
it, which kept continually jumping at the flies that alighted upon it. The
cow, as if sensible of the service they were rendering her, stood perfectly
still, though assailed and pecked on all sides by them. The partridge
takes her young brood to an ant-hill, where they feast upon the larvae and
pupae, which Swammerdam informs us were sold at market in his time to
feed various kinds of birds.' Dr. Clarke also mentions having seen them,
as well as the ants themselves, exposed to sale in the market at Moscow,
as a food for nightingales. ^ Latreille tells us that singing birds are fed
in France with the larvae of the horse-ant (^Formica ritfd).
But the Linnean order of Passeres affords the greatest number of in-
sectivorous birds ; indeed almost all the species of this order, except
perhaps the pigeon-tribe, and the cross-bill, and other Loxiae, more or
less eat insects. Amongst the thrush tribe, the blackbird, though he will
have his share of our gooseberries and currants, assists greatly in clearing
our gardens of caterpillars; and the locust-eating thrush is still more
useful in the countries subject to that dreadful pest : these birds never
appear but with the locusts, and then accompany them in astonishing
numbers, preying upon them in their larva state. The common sparrow,
though proscribed as a most mischievous bird, destroys a vast number of
insects. Bradley has calculated that a single pair, having young to main-
tain, will destroy 3360 caterpillars in a week.^ They also prey upon
butterflies and other winged insects. The fly-catchers (Muscicapa), and
the warblers (^Motacilla), which include our sweetest songsters, are almost
entirely supported by insects ; so that were it not for these despised
creatures we should be deprived of some of our greatest pleasures, and
half the interest and delight of our vernal walks would be done away.
Our groves would no longer be vocal ; our little domestic favourites the
red-breast and the wren would desert us ; and the heavens would be de-
populated. We should lose too some of the most esteemed dainties of our
tables, one of which, the wheat-ear, is said to be attracted to our downs
by a particular insect.* Lastly, insects are the sole food of swallows,
which are always on the wing hawking for them, and their flight is regulated
by that of their prey. When the atmosphere is dry and clear, and their
small game flies high, they seek the skies ; when moist, and the insects are
low or upon the ground, they descend, and just skim the surface of the earth
1 Bib. Nat. i. 126. b. 2 Travels, i. 110.
5 Reaum. ii. 408. ■* Bingley, ii. 374.
INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 1G7
and waters ; and thus by tlieir fliglit arc regarded as prognosticating fair
or wet weather. 1 was one summer much interested and amused by ob-
serving the tender care and assiduity with which an old swallow supplied
her young with this kind of fooil. My attention was called to a young
brood, that, having left their nest before they were strong enough to take
wing, were stationed on the lead which covers a bay-window in my
house. The mother was perpetually going and returning, putting an insect
into the mouth first of one, then of the others in succession, all fluttering
and opening their mouths to receive her gift. She was scarcely ever more
than a minute away, and continued her excursions as long as we had time
to observe her. When the little ones were satisfied, they put their head
under their wing and went to sleep. The number of insects caught by
this tribe is inconceivable. But it is not in summer only that binls derive
their food from the insect tribes : even in winter the pupaj of Lepkloptera,
as Mr. White tells us, are the grand support of those that have a soft
bill.>
I shall close my list of the indirect benefits derived from insects, by ad-
verting to the very singular apparent subserviency of some of them to the
functions of certain vegetables.
You well know that some plants are gifted with the faculty of catching
Jiies. These vegetable Muscicajnc, which have been enumerated by Dr.
Barton of Philadelphia, who has published an ingenious paper on the sub-
ject^ may be divided into three classes : — First, those that entrap insects
by the irritability of their stamina, which close upon them when touched.
Under this head come Apocynuin androscEmifolium, Asclepias sijriaca and
ciirassavica, Xeriitm oleander, and a grass described by Michaux under the
name of Leersia Icnticularis. The second class includes those which
entrap them by some viscosity of the plant, as many species of Kliododen-
dron, Kalmia, Robinia, Si/ene, Lythruin, Populus bahamifera, &c.^ And
under the third class will arrange those which ensnare by their leaves,
whether from some irritability in them, as in Dioncea, Drosera, &c., or
mey^ly from their forming hollow vessels containing water into which the
flies are enticed either by their carrion-like odour, or the sweet fluid which
many of them secrete near the faux ; as in San-acenia, Nepenthes, Aqua-
rium, Cephalotus, Sec, the tubular leaves of which are usually found stored
with putrefying insects. In this last class may be placed the common Di-
psacu.1 of this country, the connate leaves of which form a kind of basin
round the stem that retains rain-water, in which many insects are drowned.
To these a fourth class might be added, consisting of those plants whose
flowers smelling like carrion (Stape/ia hirsuta, &c.) entice flies to lay their
eggs upon them, which thus perish.
The number of insects thus destroyed is prodigious. It is scarcely
possible to find a flower of the JMuscieapce asclepiadea; that has not
entrapped its victim, and some of them in the United States closely cover
hundreds of acres together.
1 White's Selbome, i. 181. 2 Philos. Mag. xxxix. 107.
' Small flies are sometimes found sticking to the glutinous stigma of some of the
Orchideae like birds on a limed twig (Sprengel, Entdecktes Geheimniss, 21.) ; and
ants are not unfrequently detained in the milky juice which the touch of even their
light feet causes to exude from the calyxes of the common garden lettuce. — Ann.
ofBot. ii. 590.
M 4
168 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
What may be the precise use of this faculty is not so apparent. Dr,
Barton doubts whether the flowers that catch insects, being only tempo-
rary organs, can derive any nutriment from them ; and he does not think it
probable that the leaves of DioruEa, &c., which are usually found in rich
boggy soil, can have any need of additional stimulus. As nothing, how-
ever, is made in vain, there can be little doubt that these ensnared insects
are subservient to some important purpose in the economy of the plants
which are endowed with the faculty of taking them, though we may be
ignorant what that purpose is ; and an experiment of Mr. Knight's, nur-
seryman in King's Road, London, seems to prove that, in the case of
DioncEa at least, the very end in view, contrary to Dr. Barton's supposi-
tion, is the supplying the leaves with animal manure ; for he found that
a plant upon whose leaves he laid fine filaments of raw beef was much
more luxuriant in its growth than others not so treated.^ Possibly the
air evolved from the putrefying insects with which Sarrace7iia jmrpi^'ca is
sometimes so filled as to scent the atmosphere round it, may be in a similar
manner favourable to its vegetation.
Most of the insects which are found in the tubular leaves of this and
similar plants enter into them voluntarily ; but Sir James Smith mentions
a curious fact, from which it appears that in some cases they are deposited
by other species. One of the gardeners of the Liverpool Botanic Garden
observed an insect, from the description one of the Crabronidce, which
dragged several large flies to the Sarracenia adunca, and having with some
difficulty forced them under the lid or cover of its leaf, deposited them in
its tubular part, which was half filled with water ; and on examination all
the leaves were found crowded with dead or drowning flies.^ What was
the object of this singular manoeuvre does not seem very obvious. At the
first glance one might suppose that, having deposited an egg in the fly, it
intended to avail itself of the tube of the leaf instead of a burrow. Yet
we know of no such strange deviation from natural instinct, which would
be the more remarkable, because the insect was European, while the plant
was American, and growing in a hot-house. And, at any rate it does not
seem very likely that the insect would commit her egg to the tube witJ|put
having previously examined it ; in which case she must have discovereu it
to be half full of water, and consequently unfit for her purpose. It is not
so wonderful that many large flies should, as Professor Barton informs us,
drop their eggs into the Ascidia furnished with dead carcases ; and it
seems very probable that Dytisci oviposit in them ; for the Sqidlla, which
Rumphius found there, was probably one of their larvae, this being the
old name for them.^
However problematical the agency of insects caught by plants as to their
nutriment, there can be no doubt that many species perform an important
function with regard to their impregnation, which indeed without their aid
would in some cases never take place at all. Thus, for the due fertilisation of
the common Barberry (Berberis vulgaris), it is necessary that the irritable
stamens should be brought into contact with the pistil by the application
of some stimulus to the base of the filament; but this would never take
place were not insects attracted by the melliferous glands of the flower to
^ Elements of the Science of Botany, 62.
' Smith's Introduction to Botany, 195.
3 MoufFet, 319.
INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 169
insinuate themselves anionj^st the filaments, and thus, while seeking their
own food, unknowingly lulfil the intentions of nature in another de-
partment.'
The agency of these little operators is not less indispensable in the
beautiful tribe of Iris. In these, as appears from the observations of
Ktilreuter, the true stigma is situated on the upper side of a transverse
membrane (arcus cmiiirns of Haller), which is stretched across the middle
of the under surface of the petal-like expansion or style-flag, the wiiole of
which has been often improperly regarded as fulfdling the office of a stigma.
Now, as the anther is situated at the base of the style-flag which covers
it, at a considerable distance from the stigma, and at the same time cut off
from all access to it by the intervening barrier formed by the arcus emincm,
it is clear that but for some extraneous agency the pollen could never
possibly arrive at the place of its destination. In this case the humblc-bec
is the operator. Led by insliiict, or, as the ingenious iSprengel supposes,
by one of those hojic^ mar/cs (Saflniaal) or spots of a dirtcrent colour from
the rest of the corolla, which, according to him, are placed in many flowers
expressly to guide insects to the nectaries, she pushes herself between the
stift' style-flag and elastic petal, which last, while she is in the interior,
presses her close to the anther, and thus causes her to brush ott" the pollen
with her hairy back, which ultimately, though not at once, conveys it to
the stigma. Having exhausted the nectar, she retreats backwards ; and
in doing this is indeed pressed by the petal to the arcus einbiens ; but it is
oidy to its lower or negative surface, which cannot influence impregnation.
She now takes her way to the second petal, and insinuating herself under
its style flag, her back comes into close contact with the true stigma, which
is thus impregnated with the pollen of the first visited anther ; and in
this manner migrating from one part of the corolla to another, and from
flower to flower, she fructifies one with pollen gathered in her search after
honey in another. Sprengel found that not only are insects indispensable
in fructifying the different species of Iris, but that some of them, as /.
xiphiuni, require the agency of the larger humble-bees, which alone are
strong enough to force their way beneath the style-flag; and hence, as
these insects are not so common as many others, this Iris is often barren,
or bears imperfect seeds.'^ Sprengel also contends, that insects are essen-
tially necessary in the impregnation of Asclepindece ; in which opinion he
is confirmed by the conckisive testimony of the celebrated botanist Jxobert
Brown, Esq., who states^ that there can be no doubt that the agency of
insects is very frequently, though not always, employed in the fecundation
of Orchid ece, " but that in those Asclcpiadccc that have been fully examined,
the abso/ute necessity for their assistance is manifest."
Arislolocliia c/ema/ilis, according to Professor Willdenow, is so formed,
that the anthers of themselves cannot impregnate the stigma ; but this
important artair is devolved upon a particular species of gnat (Cccidoiiii/ia
penuicoriiis). The tliroat of the flower is lined with dense hair, pointing
downward, so as to form a kintl of funnel or entrance like that of some
kinds of mouse-traps, through which the insects may easily enter, but not
^ Sniitli's Tracts, 165. Kblreuter, ^nn. of Bot. ii. 9.
* Chr. Conr. Sprengel, Entdecktes Geheimniss, &c. Berlin, 1793, 4to. ; quoted in
Ann. of Bot. i. 414.
' On the Organs and Mode of Fecundation in OrchidecE and Asclejuudete. Linn.
Trans, xvi. 731.
170 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
return ; several creep in, and, uneasy at their confinement, are constantly
moving to and fro, and so deposit the pollen upon the stigma ; but when
the work entrusted to them is completed, and impregnation has taken
place, the hair which prevented their escape shrinks, and adheres closely
to the sides of the flower, and these little go-betweens of Flora at length
leave their prison.^ Sir James Smith supposes that it is for want of some
insect of this kind that Amtolochia sipho never forms fruit in this country.
Equally important is the agency of insects in fructifying the plants of the
Linnean classes Monoecia, Ditecia, Polygamia, in which the stamens are in
one blossom and the pistil in another. In exploring these for honey and
pollen, which last is the food of several insects besides bees ^, it becomes
involved in the hair with which in many cases their bodies seem provided
for this express purpose, and is conveyed to the germen requiring its ferti-
lising influence. Sprengel supposes that with this view some plants have
particular insects appropriated to them ; as to the dicEcious nettle Cathe-
retes zirticce, to the toad-flax Catheretes gravidus, both minute beetles, &c.
Whether the operations of Cynips psenes be of that advantage in fertilising
the fig which the cultivators of that fruit in the East have long supposed,
is doubted by Hasselquist and Olivier*, both competent observers, who
have been on the spot.''^ Our own gardeners, however, will admit their
obligations to bees in setting their cucumbers and melons, to which they
find the necessity of themselves conveying pollen from a male flower, when
the early season of the year precludes the assistance of insects. Sprengel
asserts that, apparently with a view to prevent hybrid mixtures, insects
which derive their honey or pollen from different plants indiscriminately
will, during a whole day, confine their visits to that species on which they
first fixed in the morning, provided there be a sufficient supply of it'' ; and
the same observation was long since made with respect to bees by our
countryman Dobbs.®
Thus we see that the flowers which we vainly think are
" bom to blush unseen.
And waste their fragrance on the desert air,"
though unvisited by the lord of the creation, who boasts that they were
made for him, have nevertheless myriads of insect visitants and admirers,
which, though they pilfer their sweets, contribute to their fertility.
I am, &c.
' ^ Grundriss der Krauterkunde, 353. A writer, however, in the Annual Medical
Review (ii. 400.) doubts the accuracy of this fact, on the ground that he could never
find C. pennicornis, though A. dematitis has produced fruit two years at Brompton.
Meigen (Dipt. i. 100. e.) places this amongst his doubtful Cecidomyice. Fabricius
considers it as a Chironomus.
2 I have frequently observed Dermestes flavescens, Ent. Brit. {Byturus) eat both
the petals and stamens of Stellaria holosteum ; and 3Iordella will open the anthers
with the securiform joints of their palpi to get at the pollen.
S Hasselquist's Travels, 253. Latr. Hist. Nat. xiii. 204.
* For a full account of the various opinions on this disputed point, see an inter-
esting article by Mr. Westwood in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. ii. 214 — 224.
5 Willd. Grundriss, 352. 6 pui. Trans, xlvi. 536.
171
LETTER X.
BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
DIRECT BENEFITS.
My last letter was devoted to tlie indirect advantages which we derive
from insects ; in tlic present I sliall enumerate those oT a more dirccl nature
tor which we are indehtcd to them, beginning with their use as the food of
man, in which respect tiicy are of more importance than you may have
conceived.
One class of animals, which, till very lately, have been regarded as be-
longing to the entomological world, I mean the Crustacea, consisting prin-
cij)ally of the genus Cancer of Linne, are universally reckoned amongst our
greatest dainties ; and tliey who would turn with disgust from a locust or
the grub of a beetle, feel no symptoms of nausea when a lobster, crab, or
shrimp is set before them. The fact is, that habit has reconciled us to the
eating of these last, which, viewed in themselves, with their threatening
claws and many feet, are really more disgusting than the former. Had the
habit been reversed, we should have viewed the former with appetite and
the latter with abhorrence, as do the Arabs, " who are as much astonished
at our eating crabs, lobsters, and oysters, as we are at their eating locusts." ^
That this would have been the case is clear, at least as far as regards
the former position, from the practice in other parts of the world, both in
ancient and modern times, to which, begging you to lay aside your English
I)rcjudices, I shall now call your attention ; first observing by the way, that
the insects used as food, generally speaking, live on vegetable substances,
and are consequently nmch more select and cleanly in their diet than the
swine or the duck, which form a favourite part of ours.'^
Many larvae' that belong to the order Coleoptera are eaten in different
parts of the world. The grub of the palm-weevil {Cordylia^ ■palmarum},
1 Walpole in Clarke's Travels, ii. 187. Even Mr. Boyle speaks with abhorrence
of eating raw oysters. — Walton's Angler, Life, p. 12.
2 See a long "and interesting paper by the Rev. F. VV. Hope upon edible insects
in the Trans. Ent. Soc. (vol. iii. part 2.).
3 Baron Humboldt asks (^Person. Narr. VI. i. 8. note) — "What are those worms
(^Loul in Arabic) whicli Captain Lyon, the fellow-traveller of my brave and un-
fortunate friend Mr. Kitcliie, found in the pools of the desert of Fezzan, which served
the Arabs for food, and which have tlie taste of caviare? Are they not insects' eggs
re.«embling the Aguautle, which I saw sold in the markets of Mexico, and which are
collected on the surface of the lakes of Texcuco ? " For this latter fact he refers to
the Gazeta de Litterutura de Mexico, 1794, iii. No. 26. p. 201. It appears from this
note of the illustrious traveller, that insects are used as food in their eyg as well as
their other states.
■* Herbst and Schonherr call this distinct genus Bhyncnpliorus ; but as this is too
near the name of the tribe {Rhyncophora'), we have adopted Thunberg's name,
altering the termination, to distinguish it from Cordyle, a genus of Lizards.
172 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
which is the size of the thumb, has been long in request in both the Indies,
^lian speaks of an Indian king, who, for a dessert, instead of fruit, set
before his Grecian guests a roasted worm taken from a plant, probably the
larva of this insect, which he says the Indians esteem very delicious — a
character that was confirmed by some of the Greeks who tasted it.^ Ma-
dame Merian has figured one of these larvae, and says that the natives of
Surinam roast ancT eat them as something very exquisite.^ A friend of
mine, wh(j has resided a good deal in the West Indies, where the palm grub
is called Grugru, inforn)s me that the late Sir John La Forey, who was
somewhat of an epicure, was extremely fond of it when properly cooked.
The larvae also of the larger species of the Capricorn tribe {Ceramhyx L. ;
Longicornes Latr.) are accounted very great delicacies in many countries ;
and the Cossus of Pliny, which he tells us the Roman epicures fattened
with flour^, most probably belonged to this tribe. Linn^ indeed, following
the opinion of Ray*, supposes the caterpillar of the great goat-moth, the
anatomy of which has been so wonderfully traced by the eye and pencil of
the incomparable Lyonet, to be the Cossus. But there seems a strong
reason against this opinion ; for Linne's Cossus lives most commonly in
the willow, Pliny's in the oak ; and the former is a very disagreeable, ugly,
and fetid larva, not very likely to attract the Roman epicures. Probably
they were the larvae o( Prionus coriarius, which I have myself extracted from
the oak, or of one of its congeners.^ The grub of P. damicornis, which
is of the thickness of a man's finger, is eaten at Surinam, in America, and
in the West Indies, both by whites and blacks, who empty, wash, and roast
them, and find them delicious.*^ Mr. Hall informs me, that in Jamaica this
grub is called Macauco, and is in request at the principal tables. A simi-
lar insect is dressed at Mauritius under the name of Moutac, which the
whites as well as negroes eat greedily.' The larva of P. cervicornis is,
according to Linne, held in equal estimation : and that of Acanthoc'mus
tribidns, when roasted, forms an article of food in Africa.* It is probable
that all the species of this genus might be safely eaten, as well as many
other grubs of Coleoptera ; and although I do not feel disposed to recom-
mend with Reaumur^, that the larvae oi Oryctes nasicornis should besought
for "dans les couches defuniier," yet I think with Dr. Darwin ^°, that those
of the cockchafer which feed upon the roots of grass, or the perfect in-
sects themselves, which, if we may judge from the eagerness with which
cats, and turkeys and other birds, devour them, are no despicable boime
1 ^lian. Hist. 1. xiv. c. 13. ; quoted in Reaum. ii. 343.
a Lis. Sur. 48. 3 fjist. Nat. 1. xvii. c. 24.
^ Wisdom of God, 9th ed. 307. Ray first adopted the opinion here maintained,
that the Cossi were the larvie of some beetle ; but afterwards, from observing in
the caterpillar of Cossus ligniperda a power of retracting its prolegs within the body,
he conjectured that the hexapod lai-va from Jamaica (^Prionus damicornis?), given
him by Sir Hans Sloane, might have the same faculty, and so be the caterpillar of
a Bombj'x.
* Amoreux has collected the difierent opinions of entomologists on the subject of
Pliny's Cossus, which has been supposed to be the larva of Cordylia palmarum by
Geoffroy ; of Lucanus cervus by Scopoli, and of Prionvs damicornis by Drury.
The first and last, being neither natives of Italy, nor inhabiting the oak, are out
of the question. The larvag of Lucanus cervus and Prionus coriarius, which are found
in the oak as well as in other trees, may each have been eaten under this name, as
their diff'erence would not be discernible eitlier to collectors or cooks. — Amoreux, 154.
6 Merian, Lis. Sur. 24. 7 St. Pierre, Voy. 72. ^ Smeathman, 32.
y Reaum. ii. 344. lo Phytol. 364.
DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 173
bouchc, might be aclcleil to our cnlrcmctn. Tliis wouKl be one means of
keepini; clown tlie numbers of these occasionally destrtictive animals. The
Mexican liulians, acconling to M. Vasselet and Mailame Salle and her
son, who have transmitted such numbers of fine insects from Mexico to
M. Chevrolat of Paris, prepare a liijuor from a beetle {Cicindcla curvi/la)
by macerating it in water or sjjirit, which tiiey apparently use as a stimu-
lating beverajte.'
In the next order of insects, the Orthoptcra, the Gryllus, or locust tribe,
as they are the greatest destroyers of food, so as some recom|)ence thej'
furnish a considerable supply of it to numerous nations. They are re-
corded to have done this from the most remote antiquity, some Ethiopian
tribes having been named from this circumstance y/r;7V/oyj/;(7^'i(locust-eaters).'^
Plinv also relates that they were in high esteem as meat amongst the Par-
tliians.'' Hasselqiiist, in re|)ly to some inquiries which he made on this .
subject with respect to the Arabs, was informed that at Mecca, when there
was a scarcity of corn, as a substitute for Hour they would grind locusts in
their hand-mills, or pound them in stone mortars; that they mixed this
flour with water into a dough, and made their cakes of it, which they
baked like their other bread. lie adds, that it is not unusual for them to
eat locusts when there is no famine ; but then they boil them first a good
while in water, antl afterwards stew them with butter into a kind of fri-
cassee of no bad flavour.' Leo Africaiuis, as quoted by Bochart, gives
a similar account.* Sparrman informs us that the Hottentots are highly
rejoiced at The arrival of the locusts in their country, although they
destroy all its verdure, eating them in such quantities as to get visibly
fatter than before, and making of their eggs a brown or coffee-coloured
soup. He also relates a curious notion wliich they have with respect to
the origin of the locusts — that they proceed from the good-will of a great
master-conjuror a long way to the north, who, having removed the stone
from the mouth of a certain deep pit, lets loose these animals to be food
for them.'"' This is not unlike the account given by the author of the
Apocalypse, of the origin of the symbolical locusts, which are said to
ascend upon an angel's opening the pit of the abyss." Clenard, in his let-
ters quoted by Eochart, says that they bring waggon-loads of locusts to
Fez, as a usual article of food.* Major Moor informs me, that when the
cloud of locusts noticed in a former letter visited the Mahratta country,
the common people salted and ate them. This was anciently the custom
with many of the African nations, some of whom also .smoked them.' 1 hey
appear even to have been an article of food offered for sale in the markets
of Greece"^ ; and on a subject so well known, to quote no other writers,
Jackson observes that, when he was in Barbary in 1799, dishes of locusts
Mere generally served up at the principal tables and esteemed a great deli-
cacy. They are preferred by the Moors to pigeons ; and a person may
eat a plateful of two or three hundred without feeling any ill effects. They
usually boil them in water half an hour (having thrown away the head,
^ Silbermann, Rivue EtUom. i. 238.
2 Diod. Sic. 1. iii. c. 29. Strabonis, Geog. 1. xvi. &c.
3 Hist. Nat. 1. xi. c. 2U. 4 Travels, 232. 5 Ilicroz. ii. 1. 14. c. 7.
fi Sparnnan, i. 367. ^ Rev. ix. 2, 3.
8 Iliernz. ii. 1. 4. c. 7. 402. 9 Plinv, Hist. Nat. 1. vi. c. 30.
1" Id. ibid.
174 DIKECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
wings, and legs), then sprinkle them with salt and pepper, and fry them,
adding a little vinegar.* From this string of authorities 3'ou will readily
see how idle was the controversy concerning tlie locusts which formed
part of the sustenance of John the Baptist, agreeing with Hasselquist'^,
that they could be nothing but the animal locust, so common a food in the
East; and how apt even learned men are to perplex a plain question, from
ignorance of the customs of other countries.
In the hemipterous order of insects, none are more widely dispersed, or
(if you will forgive me a pun) have made more noise in the world, than the
Cicada tribe. From the time of Homer, who compares the garrulity of age
to the chirping of these insects ^, they have been celebrated by the poets ;
and Anacreon, as you well know, has inscribed a very beautiful little ode
to them. We learn from Aristotle, that these insects were eaten by the
polished Greeks, and accounted very delicious. The worm (Jarva), he
says, lives in the earth where it takes its growth : that it then becomes a
Tettigometra (pupa), when he observes they are most delicious, just before
they burst from their covering. From this state they change to the Tettix
or Cicada, when the males at first have the best flavour ; but after impreg-
nation the females are preferred on account of their white eggs.* Athe-
naeus also and Aristophanes mention their being eaten ; and ^lian is
extremely angry with the men of his age, that an animal sacred to the
Muses should be strung, sold, and greedily devoured.^ Pliny tells us that
the nations of the East, even the Parthians, whose wealth \m.s abundant,
use them as food.® The imago of the Cicada septendecim is still eaten by
the Indians in America, who pluck off the wings and boil them'' ; and
the aborigines of New South Wales, as we learn from Mr. Bennett,
formerly used various species of the Cicadidts as food, stripping off' the
wings and eating them raw. They are aware that the sounds made by
these insects which they call galang-galang, are peculiar to the males, and
depend upon their drums, observing to Mr. Bennett, in their peculiar
English, "Old woman galang-galang no got, no make a noise,"®
This ancient Greek taste for Cicadce seems now much gone out of
fashion ; but perhaps if it were revived in those countries where the insects
are to be found, for they inhabit only warm climates ^, it would be
ascertained that so polished a people did not relish them without reason.
No insects are more numerous in this island than the caterpillars of
Lepidoptera: if these could be used in aid of the stock of food in times of
scarcity, it might subserve the double purpose of ridding us of a nuisance,
and relieving the public pressure. Reaumur suggests this mode of diminish-
ing the numbers of destructive caterpillars, speaking of that of Pliisia
Gamma, a moth which did such infinite mischief in France in the year
1 Jackson's Travels in 3Iarocco, 53. The Rev. R. Sheppard caused some of our
large English grasshoppers {Acrida viridissima) to be cooked in the way here,
recommended, onlv substituting butter for vinegar, and found them excellent.
2 Travels, 230. ' 3 Hom. II. y. 150—154.
4 Arist. Hist. An. 1. v. c. 30. '
5 Vide Bochart, Hieroz. ii. 1. 4. c. 7. 491.
<5 Hist. Nat. 1. xi. c. 26. 7 p. Collinson in Phil. Trails. 1763, n. x.
8 Bennett's Wanderings in New South Wales, i. 237., quoted in Entoin. Mag.
iii. 211.
y One species, however, has been found in Hampshire in the New Forest. See
Samouelle's Entomologist's Useful Compendium, t. 5. f. 2,
DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 175
1735.' If, however, we were to take to eating caterpillars, I should for
my own part he of tlie niiiul of the rcil-hreusts, and cat only the naked ones.'^
But you will see that there is sonic encouragement from precedent to make
a meal of the caterpillars which infest our cahbagcs and cauliHowers.
Amongst the delicacies of a Bosliies-man's tabic, Sparrman reckons those
caterpillars from which butterHies proceed.' The (Ihinesc, who waste
nothing, after they have unwoiniil the silk from the cocoons of the silk-
worm, send the chrysalis to table : they also eat the larva of a hawk-moth
(iS)V//«.r*), some of which tril)e. Dr. Darwin tells us, are, in his opinion, very
delicious': and lastly, the natives of New Holland eat the caterpillars of a
species oi moth of a singular new genus, to which my friend, Alexander
MacLcay, Esq. has assigneil characters, and i'roni the circumstance of its
larva coming out oidy in the night to feed, has called it Ni/vlcrohius. A
species of butterfly also (^Kii plica hamnta MacLeay), as we learn from
Mr. Bennett, congregates on the insulated granitic rocks in a particular
district, which he visited in the months of November, December, and
January, in such countless myriads (with what object is unknown), that
the native blacks, who call them Bugong, assemble from far and near to
collect them, and, after removing the wings and down by stirring them on
the ground previously heated by a large fire, and winnowing them, eat the
bodies, or store them up lor use by pounding and smoking them. The
bodies of these butterflies abound in an oil with the taste of nuts ; and
when first eaten, produce violent vomitings, and other debilitating effects :
but these go off after a few days, and the natives then thrive and fatten
exceedingly on this diet, for which they have to contend with a black
crow, which is also attracted by the Bugongs in great numbers, and which
they despatch with their clubs, and use as food."
The next order, the Ncuroptcrn, contains the white ant tribe {Termes),
which, in return for the mischief it does at certain times, affords an
abundant supply of food to some of the African nations. The Hottentots
eat them boiled and raw, and soon get into good condition upon this food.^
Konig, quoted by Smeathman, says that in some parts of the East Indies
the natives make two holes in the nests of the white ants, one to the wind-
ward and the other to the leeward, placing at the latter opening a pot
rubbed with an aromatic herb, to receive the insects driven out of their
nest by a fire of stinking materials made at the former.^ Thus they catch great
quantities, of which they make with flour a variety of pastry, that they can
afford to sell clieap to the poorer people. Mr. Smeathman says he has not
found the Africans so ingenious in procuring or dressing them. They are
content with a very small part of those that fall into the waters at the
time of swarming, which they skim off with calabashes, bring large kettles
full of them to their habitations, and parch them in iron pots over a gentle
fire, stirring them about as is done in roasting coffee. In that state,
without sauce or other addition, they serve them up as delicious food, and
1 Reaum. ii. 341. 2 Ray's Letters, 135. 3 Sparrman, i. 201.
* Sir G. Staunton's Voy. iii. 24G. * Fliytol. 304.
6 Bennett's IVanderiwjs, ubi 'jtipra, \. 2Qb — 270.
7 Sparrman, i. 3G3.
* Captain Green relates that, in the ceded districts in India, they place tlie
branches of trees over tlie nests, and then by means of smoke drive out tlie
insects ; which, attempting to iiy, their wings arc broken oft' by tlie mere touch
of the branches.
176 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
eat them by handfiils as we do comfits. He has eaten them dressed in
this way several times, and thought them delicate, nourishing, and whole-
some, being sweeter than the grub of the weevil of the palms {Cordylia
Palniarum), and resembling in taste sugared cream or sweet almond paste. '
The female ant, in particular, is supposed by the Hindoos to be endowed
with highly nutritive properties, and, we are told by Mr. Broughton, was
carefully sought after and preserved for the use of the debilitated Surjee
Rao, prime-minister of Scindia, chief of the Mahrattas.^
The Hymenojitera order also furnishes a few articles to add to this head.
I do not allude to the nectar which the bees collect for us. But perhaps
you do not suspect that bees themselves in some places serve for food, yet
Knox tells us that they are eaten in Ceylon^: — an ungrateful return for
their honey and wax, which I would on no account recommend. Piso
speaks of yellow ants called Cupid inhabiting Brazil, the abdomen of which
many used for food, as well as a larger species under the name of Tama-
jjura* ; which account is confirmed by Humboldt, who informs us that
ants are eaten by the Marivatanos and Margueri tares, mixed with resin for
sauce; as are those of Yariba in Africa, as Lander informs us, stewed in
butter. Ants, I speak from experience, have no unpleasant flavour ; they
are very agreeably acid, and the taste of the trunk and abdomen is
different ; so that I am not so much surprised, as Mr. Consett seems to have
been, at the avidity with which the young Swede mentioned by him sat
down to the siege of an ants' nest. * This author states, that in some parts
of Sweden ants are distilled along with rye, to give a flavour to the inferior
kinds of brandy.^ Under this head may not improperly be mentioned
several galls, the product of different species of gall-flies (Cy?iips), particu-
larly those found on some kinds of Sage, viz. Salvia jjoijiifer-a, S. triloba, and
S. ojjicinalis, which are very juicy like apples, and crowned with rudiments
of leaves resembling the calyx of that fruit. They are esteemed in the
Levant for their aromatic and acid flavour, especially when prepared with
sugar, and form a considerable article of commerce from Scio to Con-
stantinople, where they are regularly exposed in the market. ^ The galls
of ground-ivy have also been eaten in France ; but Reaumur, who tasted
them, is doubtful whether they will ever rank with good fruits. *
To the Diptera order, as a source of food, man can scarcely be said to
be under any obligation ; the larva of Tyropliaga casei, which is so com-
monly found in cheese, being the only one ever eaten — a dainty as some
think it, of whom you will perhaps say with Scopoli, " quibus has delicias
non invideo."^
The order Aj^tera, now that the Crustacea are excluded, does not much
niore abound in esculent insects than the Diptera. The only species which
have tempted the appetite of man in this order are the cheese-mite
(Acarus Siro) — lice, which are eaten by the Hottentots and natives of the
western coast of Africa, who, from their love of this game, which they not
only collect themselves from their well-stored capital pasture, but employ
1 Snieathman, 31.
2 Letters written in a Mahratta Camp in 1809.
5 Knox's Ceylon, 25.
4 Piso, Ind. 1. v. c. 13, 291. * Travch in Sweden, 118. 6 ibJd.
7 Smith's Introd. to Bot. 34G. ( Jlivier's Travels, i. 139.
8 Reaum. iii. 416. ■' Scop. Carniol. 337.
DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 177
their wives in the chase, have been sometimes called riithirophagi.^
Insects of the class Araclinidn, which you will think still more re|)nlsive
than the last triiie, t'onn an article in Sparrman's list of the lioshies-man's
dainties'- ; and LahiUardicre tells us that the inhabitants of New Caledonia
seek for and eat with avidity lar^e quantities of a spider nearly an inch
loni; (which he calls Araxcn rdidis), and which they roast over the fire.*
Even individuals anioni^st the more polished nations ofEuro|)e arc re-
corded as having a similar taste ; so that, if you could rise aiiove vulgar
jirejudites, you would in all prol)ai)ility find them a most ticlicious morsel.
If you recpiire precedents, Reaumur tells us of a young lady who vviien
she walkcii in her grounds never saw a spider that she did not take and
crack upon the spot.' Another female, the celebrated Anna Maria
Schurman, used to cat them like nuts, wiiich she affirmed they mucii
resembled in taste, excusing her propensity by sa}ing that she was born
under the sign Scorpio.^ If you wish for the authority of the learned,
Lalande the celebrated French astronomer was, as Latreille witnessed",
equally fond of these delicacies. And lastly, if not content with taking
them seriatim, you shoidd feel desirous of eating them by handfids, you
may shelter yourself umler the authority of the (Jerman immortalised by
Hd^el', who used to spread them upon his bread like butter, observing
that he found them very useful, " uin sirh auszula.riren." These edible
Aptrra anil Araclinida are all sufficiently disgusting ; but we feel our nausea
quite turned into horror when we read in Humboldt, that he has seen the
Indian children drag out of the earth centipedes eighteen inches long and
more than half an inch broad, and devour them.*
After all I have said, you may perhaps still feci a prejudice against
insects as food ; but I think, when you recollect that Oberon and his
queen Titania, that renowned personage Robin Goodfellow, " with all the
fairy elves that be," number insects amongst their choicest cates, you will
no longer be heretical in this article, but yield with a good grace ; and as
a reward I will co|)y out for you a beautiful poetical description of
Oberon's feast, which was pointed out to me by a learned bibliographical
friend, John Crosse, Esq. of Hull, in Herrick's Hesperidcs, 1658.
Shapcot, to thee the fairy state
I with discretion dedicate ;
Because thou prizest things that are
Curious and unfamiliar.
Take tirst the feast ; these dishes gone,
We'll see the fairy court anon.
A little mushroom table spread ;
After short prayers, they set on bread,
A moon-parch'd grain of purest wheat.
With some small glitt'ring grit to eat
His choicest bits with ; then in a trice
They make a feast less great than nice.
But all this while his eye is serv'd,
We must not think his ear was starv'd ;
But that there was in place to stir
His spleen, the chirring grasshopper,
1 Latr. TTist. Nat. viii. 03. 2 Sparrman, i. 201.
3 Voyage u la Recherche de la Perouse, ii. 240. * lieaum. ii. 342.
5 Shaw, Nat. Misc. ^ Hist. Nat. vii. 227.
7 Rosel, iv. 257 8 Personal Travels, ii. 205
N
178 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
The meny cricket, puling fl}-,
The piping gnat for minstrelsy :
And now we must imagine first
The elves present, to quench his thirst,
A pure seed pearl of infant dew,
Brought and besweeten'd in a blue
And pregnant violet ; which done,
His kitling eyes begin to run
Quite through the table, where he spies
The hems of papery butterflies.
Of which he eats, and tastes a little
Of what we call the cuckoo's spittle ;
A little furze-ball pudding stands
By, yet not blessed by his hands.
That was too coarse ; but then forthwith
He ventures boldly on the pith
Of sugar'd rush, and eats the sag
And well be-strutted bee's sweet bag ;
Gladding his palate with some store
Of emmet's eggs : what would he more ?
But beards of mice, a newt's stew'd thigh,
A bloated earwig and a fly ;
With the red-capp'd worm that's shut
Within the concave of a nut.
Brown as his tooth ; a little moth
Late fatten'd in a piece of cloth.
With wither'd cherries, mandrakes' ears.
Moles' ej-es ; to these the slain stag's tears ;
The unctuous dewlaps of a snail ;
The broke heart of a nightingale
O'ercome in music ;
This done, commended
Grace by his priest, the feast is ended. —
Having considered insects as adding to the general stock of food, I shall
next request your attention while I detail to you how far tlie medical
science is indebted to them. Had I addressed you a century ago, I could
have made this an ample history. Amongst scores of infallible panaceas,
I should have recommended the wood-louse as a solvent and aperient ;
]50wder of silk-worm for vertigo and convulsions ; millepedes against the
jaundice ; earwigs to strengthen the nerves ; powdered scorpion for the
Ktone and gravel; fly-water for disorders in the eyes; and the tick for
erysipelas. I should have prescribed five gnats as an excellent purge ;
wasps as diuretics ; lady-birds for the colic and measles; the cock-chafer
for the bite of a mad dog and the plague ; and ants and their acid I should
have loudly praised as incomparable against leprosy and deafness, as
strengthening the memory, and giving vigour and animation to the whole
bodily frame.* In short, I could have easily added to the miserabl}'
meagre list of modern pharmacopoeias, a catalogue of approved insect-
remedies for every disease and evil
" that flesh is heir to ! "
But these good times are long gone by. You would, I fear, laugh at my
prescriptions notwithstanding the great authorities I could cite in their
^ For this list of remedies, sec Lesser, L. ii, 171— 17S.
DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 171)
f.ivour; and even doubt the efficacy of a more modern specific for tooth-
aclie, promulgated hv a learned Italian professor', who assures us that a
finger once iuil)ued with the juices of Uhliiobaliis (tiiti<Hl<»ilal<iicii.<i (a name
enoujih to give one the tootiiache to pronounce it) will retain its power
of curing this disease for a twelvemonth! 1 nuist content myself, there-
fore, with expatiating on the virtues of the very few insects to which the
suns of llipjiocrates and (iaien now ilcign to liave recourse. At the
same time I cannot help observing that their proscri|)tion of the renuiinder
may have been too indiscriminate. Mankind are apt to run from one
extreme to the other. I'Vom having ascribed too much efficacy to insect-
remedies, we may now ascribe too little. Many insects emit very powcrfid
odours, and some produce extraordinary effects upon tiie human frame;
and it is an idea not altogether to be rejecteil, that they may concentrate
into a smaller compass the properties and virtues of the |)lants u|)on which
they feed, and thus aftbrd medicines more powerful in ojieratiou than the
plants themselves. It is at least worth while to institute a set of expe-
riments with this view.
Meilicine at the present day is indebted to an ant (Formica hispinom
Oliv., fitngosn F.) for a kind of lint collected by that insect from the
IJombax or silk cotton-tree, which as a styptic is preferable to the i)uH-ball,
and at Cayenne is successfully used to stoj) the blood in the most violent
li;eniorrhages'- ; and gum ammoniac, according to Mr. .lackson ^, oozes out
of a i)lant like fennel, from incisions made in the bark by a beetle with a
large horn. But, with these exceptions (in which the remedy is rather
collected than produced by insects), and that of spiders' webs, which are
said to have been recently administered with success in ague, the only
insects which direct!)' supply us with medicine are some species of Can'
Ihiiris and Mi/hihris. These beetles however amply make up in efficacy
for their numerical insignificance ; and almost any article could be better
s|)ared from the Materia Medica than one of the former usually known
under the name o^ Canlltaridcs, which is not only of incalculable. importance
as a vesicatory, but is now administered internally in many cases with very
good effect. In Europe, the insect chiefly used with this view is the Can-
fliaris vcsicatorin^ ; but in America the C. cincrca and villain (which are ex-
tremely conmion and noxious insects, while the C. vcsicnloria is sold there
at sixteen dollars the pound) have been substituted with great success, and
are snid to vesicate more speedily, and with less pain, at the same time
that they cause no strangury^ : and in China they have long emjjloyed the
j^Ii/labris cir/iorci, which seems to have been considered the most powerful
vesicatory amongst the ancients, who however appear to have been ac-
(piainted with the common Canlliaris vesicaloria also, and to have made
use of it, as well as of Cctonia auiata anil some other insects mentioned by
1 Gerbi. Storia Xaturali d'un Xuov. Inset. 1794. The same virtues have been
ascribed to Cocchtclla sejitempmictata, Jj.
~ Liitr. Hist. Aat.des Fourmis, 48. 134.
3 Jackson's Morocco, 83. 8onie doubt, however, attaclies to this statement, from
the circumstance of the figure which Mr. Jackson gives of his beetle (Dibben
I'ltshnok), being clearly a mere copy of that of Mr. Uruce's Zimb.
■* This insect, generally so rare in England, appeared in the summer of 1837
in great numbers in Esse-x, Suffolk, and the Isle of Wight. (Ent. IJag. v. 208.
510.)
s lUiger, Mag. i. 256.
N 2
180 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
Pliny. ^ Another species of Mylabris has been described by Major-
General Hardwicke in the Asiatic Transactions'^, plentiful in all parts of
Bengal, Bahar, and Oiule, which is fully as efficacious as the common
Spanish fly ; and in other parts of India Cantharis gigas and violncea are
employed, as is C. rujiccps in Sumatra and Java ; C. atomaria in Brazil ;
C. Syriaca in Arabia; and in some parts of Europe Lydus {Mt/Iabris Fab.}
trimaculahis.^
But it is as supplying products valuable in the arts and mamifactiircs,
that we are chiefly indebted to insects. In adverting to them in this view,
I shall not dwell upon the articles derived from a few species in particular
districts, and confined to these alone, such as the soap which in some
parts of Africa is manufactured from a beetle (Ck/cenius saponarius*') ; the
oil which, Molina tells us, is obtained in Chili from large globular cellules
found upon the wild rosemary, and supposed to be produced by a kind of
gall-fly^ ; and the manure for which^Scopoli informs us the hosts o{ Ephe-
mercB that annually emerge in the month of June from the Laz, a river in
Carniola, are employed by the husbandmen, who think they have had a
bad harvest unless every one has collected at least twenty loads.^
Still less is it my intention to detain you in considering the purpose to
which in the West Indies and South America the fire-flies are put by the
natives, who employ them as lanterns in their journeys, and lamps in
their houses^; — or the use as ornaments to which some insects are
ingeniously applied by the ladies, who in China embroider their dresses
with the elytra and crust of a brilliant species of beetle {Biiprestis vittatd) ;
in Chili and the Brazils form splendid necklaces of the golden Chrysomelidce
and brilliant diamond beetles, &c.^ ; in some parts of the Continent string
together for the same purpose the burnished violet -coloured thighs of
Gcotrupes stercorarius, &c.^ ; and in India, as I am informed by Major
Moor and Captain Green, even have recourse to fire-flies, which they
inclose in gauze, and use as ornaments for their hair when they take their
evening walks. I shall confine my details to the more important and
1 Hist. Nat. 1. xix. c. 4. 2 Vol. v. 213.
' Westwood's 3Iod. Class, of Ins. i. 297. See also Burmeister's 3Ianual of Eiit.
p. 5fi2., who says that the species used by the ancients appears to have been Mt/labris
Fileslini Panz.,\vliich is very abundant in the south of Europe, and is sometimes found
in German}'. The active blistering principle iu all these insects has been detected
by M. Kobiquet, and named by him Cantharidine, which has been ascertained by M.
Bretonneau, and especiallj' by M. Leclerc, who has examined a great number of in-
sects with this view, to be found amongst coleopterous insects of the family of Can-
tharidxp only, though not in all the species of this family, nor even in ail the species
of the same genus. M. Leclerc, who conceives that Cantharidine is secreted by a
peculiar apparatus, states that it is not destroyed either by the action of the air or
of time; and as it must exist in a spider of the United States (Tegenaria medicinalis
Hentz. ; Jmirn. Acad. Nat. Sci. of Philadelphia, 1821, p. 53. pi. 5.), which is there
extensively employed as a vesicatorj', he examined if this principle is to be found in
the Tegenarice of France or in other spiders, but without success. (Leclerc, Essai
sur les Eplpastiqiies, Paris, 1835, quoted in Guerin, Bidletin Zuologique, i. 95.)
4 CarabiisflWv., Entnm. iii. 69. t. iii. f. 26. Compare Philanthropist, ii. 210.
i Molina's Chili, i. 174. 6 Ent. Carniol. 264.
7 Captain Green was accustomed to put afire-fly vmder the glass of his watch, when
he had occasion to rise very early for a march, which enabled him, without difficulty,
to distinguish the hour.
« Molina, i. 171. 285. n Latr. Hid. Nat. x. 143.
DIRECT BENEFITS DERFV^ED FROM INSECTS. 181
general products wliicli they supply to the arts, beginning with one indis-
pensable to our present correspondence, antl adverting in succession to
tlu" insects atibrdiiig di/cs, lac, wfi.v, lionci/, and silk.
No [)resent tliat insects have made to the arts is equal in utility and
universal interest, conies more home to our best affections, or is the in-
strument of |)roducing more valuable fruits of human wisdom and genius,
than the product of the animal to which I have just alluded. You will
readily conjecture I mean the fly that gives birth to the iiall-uul, from
which ink is made. How infinitely are we indebted to this little creature,
which at once enables us to converse with our absent friemls and con-
nections, i)e their distance from us ever so great, and su|)plics the means
I)} which, to use the j)oet's language, we can
give to airy nothing
A local habitation aiid a name ! "
enabling the poet, the philosopher, the politician, the moralist, and the
ilivine, to embody their thoughts for the amusement, instruction, direc-
tion, and reformation of mankind. The insect which produces the gall-nut
is of the genus CV/^/yw of Linue, but was not known to him or to Fabricius,
Olivier first ilescribed it under the nanie of Diplok-pii galUc I'mvlor'icB}
The galls originate on the leaves of a species of oak (Qiurcua iiifccloria)
very conunou throughout Asia Minor, in many parts of which they are
collected by the poorer inhabitants, and ex|)orted from Smyrna, Aleppo,
and other jjorts in the Levant, as well as from the East Indies, whither a
|)art of those collected are now carried. The galls most esteemed are
those known in conunercc under the name oi blue galls, being the produce
of the first gathering before the Hy has issued from the gall. It will not be
uninteresting to you to know, that from these when bruised may occa-
sionally be obtained perfect specimens of the insect, one of which I lately
procured in this way. The galls which have escaped the first searches,
and from most of which the ffy has emerged, are called ivhite galls, and are
of a very inferior quality, containing less of the astringent principle than
the blue galls in the proportion of two to three.^ The white and blue
galls are usually imported mixed in about equal proportions, and are then
called " galls in sorts." If no substitute equal to galls as a constituent
part of ink has been discovered, the same may be said of these productions
as one of the most important of our dyeing materials constantly employed
in dyeing black. It is true that this colour may be communicated without
galls, but not at once so cheaply and effectually, as is found by their con-
tinued large consumption, notwithstanding all the improvements in the
art of dyeing.
Other dyeing drugs are afforded by insects, the principal of which are
Chermcs, the Scarlet Grain of Poland, Cochineal, Lac-lakc, and Lac-dye, all
of which are furnished by diff!'erent species of Coccus.
The first of these, the Coccus Ilicis, found abundantly upon a small
species of evergreen oak (Qucrcus cocci/era), common in the south ot*
France, and many other parts of the world, has been employed to impart
a blood red or crimson dye to cloth from the earliest ages, and was known
* Encyclop. Insect, vi. 281. It had better, perhaps, as compound trivial names aro
bad, be called Cynips Scriptoriim.
^ Olivier's Travels iu Kijijpt, &c. ii. C4.
N 3
182 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
to the Phoenicians before the time of Moses under the name of Tola or
Thola (y^in)' ^° '-'^^ Greeks under that of Coccus (Kokkoc), and to tlie
Arabians and Persians under that of Kermes or Alkernies ; whence, as
Beckmann has shown, and from the epithet vermiculatum given to it in the
middle ages, when it was ascertained to be the produce of a worm, have
sprung the Latin coccineus, the French cramoisi and vermeil, and our
ciimson and vermilion. It was most probably with this substance that the
curtains of the tabernacle (Exod. xxvi. &c.) were dyed deep red (which
the word scarlet, as our translators have rendered ^3C^ ny?in, then implied,
not the colour now so called, which was not known in James the First's
reign when the Bible was translated), — it was with this tliat the Grecians
and Romans produced their crimson ; and from the same source were de-
rived the imperishable reds of the Brussels and other Flemish tapestries.
In short, previous to the discovery of cochineal, this was the material
universally used for dyeing the most brilliant red then known ; and though
that production of the New World has, in some respects undeservedly ',
supplanted it in Europe, where it is little attended to except by the pea-
santry of the provinces in which it is found, it still continues to be em-
ployed in a great part of India and Persia.^
The scarlet grain of Poland (^Coccun polonicits) is found on the roots of
the perennial knawel [Sclcranthusperennis, a scarce plant in this country, but
abundant in the neighbourhood of Elvedon in Suffolk), and was at one
time collected in large quantities for dyeing red in the Ukraine, Lithuania,
&c. But though still employed by the Turks and Armenians for dyeing
wool, silk, and hair, as well as for staining the nails of women's fingers,
it is now rarely used in Europe except by the Polish peasantry. A similar
neglect has attended the Coccus found on the roots of Poterium San-
guisorha^, which was used by the Moors for dyeing silk and wool a rose
colour; and the Coccus Uva-ursi, which with alum affords a crimson
dye.*
Cochineal, the Coccus cacti, is doubtless the most valuable product for
which the dyer is indebted to insects, and, with the exception perhaps of
indigo, the most important of dyeing materials. Though the Spaniards
found it employed by the natives of Mexico, where alone it is cultivated,
on their arrival in that country in 1518, its true nature was not accurately
ascertained for nearly two centuries afterwards. Acosta, indeed, as early
as 1530, and Herrara and Hernandez subsequently, had stated it to be an
insect : but, led apparently by its external appearance, notwithstanding the
conjectures of Lister and assertions of Pere Plumier to the contrary, it
was believed by Europeans in general to be the seed of a plant, until
Hartsoeker in 1694, Leeuwenhoek and De la Hire in 170+, and Geoffro}',
1 The colour communicated by Kermes, with alum, the only mordant formerly
employed, is blood red ; but Dr. Bancroft found (i. 404.) that with the solution of
tin used with cochineal it is capable of imparting a scarlet quite as brilliant as that
dye, and perhaps more permanent. At the same time, however, as ten or twelve
pounds contain only as much colouring matter as one of cochineal, the latter at its
ordinary price is the cheapest.
2 Bochart, Hierozoic. ii. 1. iv. c. 27. Beckmann's History of Inventions, Engl.
Trans, ii. 171 — '205. Bancroft on Permanent Colours, i. 393. See also Parkhurst's
Ileb. Lexicon under ypj-) and ^Jt^'•
3 Rai. Hist. Plant, i. 401. 4 Bancroft,!. 401.
DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 183
ten years later, by dissections and microscopical observations, incontro-
vcrtibiy proved its real origin.'
This insect, whicli conies to us in the form of a reddish shrivelled grain
covered with a white powder or bloom, feeds on a particuhir kind of
Indian fig, called in Mexico, where alone cochineal is produced in any
(juantity, Xo/xi/, which lias always been supposed to be the Cttclun cor/iiui-
lij'cr, but according to Humboldt is unquestionably a distinct species, >A'hich
bears fruit internally white,
Cochineal is chiefly cultivated in the Intendency of Oaxaca ; and some
plantations contain j(),0()0 or G0,0()0 nopals in lines, each being kept about
four feet high for more easy access in collecting the dye. The cultivators
prefer tlie most prickly varieties of tiie plant, as affording protection to
the cochineal from insects; to prevent which from depositing their eggs
in the flower or fruit, both are carefully cut off. The greatest quantity,
however, of cochineal employed in commerce, is produced in small no-
palcries belonging to Indians of extreme poverty, called Nopalcros. They
plant their nopaleries in cleared ground on the slopes of mountains or
ravines two or three leagues distant I'rom their villages ; and when properly
cleaned, the plants are in a condition to maintain the cochineal in the third
year. As a stock, the proprietor in April or May purchases brandies or
joints of the Tnnn dc Casiilla, laden with small cochineal insects recently
hatched {Scmilla). Tiiese branches, which may be bought in the market
of Oaxaca for about three francs {2s. 6(1.) the hundred, are kept for
twenty days in the interior of their huts, and then exposed to the open
air under a shed, where, from their succulency, they continue to live for
several months. In August and September the mother cochineal insects,
now big with young, are placed in nests made of a species of Ttllands'ut
called Paxllc, wiiich are distributed upon the nopals. In about four
months, the first gathering, yielding twelve for one, may be made, which
in the course of the year is succeeded by two more profitable harvests.
This period of sowing and harvest refers chiefly to the districts of Sola
and Zimatlan. In colder climates the semilla is not placed upon the
nopals until October or even December, when it is necessary to shelter
the young insects by covering the nopals vvith rush mats, and the harvests
are proportionably later and unproductive. In the immediate vicinity of
the town of Oaxaca the Nopaleros feed their cochineal insects in the plains
iVom October to April, and at the beginning of the remaining months,
during which it rains in the plains, transport them to their plantations of
no[)als in tiie neighbouring mountains, where the weather is more favour-
able.
Much care is necesaary in the tedious operation of gathering the cochi-
neal from the nopals, which is performed with a squirrel or stag's tail by
the Indian women, who for this purpose squat down for hours together
beside one plant ; and notwithstanding the high price of the cochineal, it
is to be doubted if the cultivation would be profitable were the value of
labour more considerable.
The cochineal insects are killed cither by throwing them into boiling
water, by exposing them in heaps to the sun, or by placing them in the
ovens {TcmazealU) used for vapour baths. The last of these methods,
w hich is least in use, preserves the whitish powder on the body of the
' Bancroft,!. 413. Reamii. iv. 88.
N 4
184 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
cochineal, which, being thus less subject to the adulterations so often
practised by the Indians, bears a higher price both in America and
Europe.^
The quantity annually exported from South America was said by Hum-
boldt to be at the time he wrote .32,000 arrobas, there worth 500,040/.
sterling^ ; — a vast amount to arise from so small an insect, and well cal-
culated to show us the absurdity of despising any animals on account of
their minuteness. So important was the acquisition of this insect re-
garded, that the Court of Directors of the East India Company formerly
offered a reward of 6000/, to any one who should introduce it into India,
where hitherto the Company had only succeeded in procuring from Brazil
the wild kind producing the sylvestre cochineal, which is of very inferior
value. The true cochineal insect and the Cactus on which it feeds are
said to have been of late years successfully introduced into Spain and the
new P'rench colony of Algiers, and now exist both in the stores of the
Jardin des Plantes at Paris, and in those of King Leopold at Clare-
mont.^
Lac is the produce of an insect formerly supposed to be a kind of ant
or bee*, but now ascertained to be a species of Coccus; and it is col-
lected from various trees in India, where it is found so abundantly, that,
were the consumption ten times greater than it is, it could be readily
supplied. This substance is made use of in that country in the manu-
facture of beads, rings, and other female ornaments. Mixed with sand it
forms grindstones ; and added to lamp or ivory black, being first dissolved
in water with the addition of a little borax, it composes an ink not easily
acted upon when dry by damp or water. In this country, where it is dis-
tinguished by the names stick-lac^ when in its native state, unseparated
from the twigs to which it adheres ; seed-lac, when separated, pounded,
and the greater part of the colouring matter extracted by water ; himp-lac,
wben melted and made into cakes ; and shell-lac, when strained and formed
into transparent laminae ; it has hitherto been chiefly employed in the
composition of varnishes, japanned ware, and seaUng-wax: but for several
years past it has been applied to a still more important purpose, originally
suggested by Dr. Roxburgh — that of a substitute for cociiineal in dyeing
scarlet. The first preparations from it with this view were made in con-
sequence of a hint from Dr. Bancroft, and large quantities of a substance
termed lac-lake, consisting of the colouring matter of stick-lac precipitated
from an alkaline lixivium by alum, were manufactured at Calcutta and sent
to this country, where at first the consumption was so considerable, that
in the three years previous to 1810, Dr. Bancroft states that the sales of
it at the India House equalled in point of colouring matter half a million
of pounds weight of cochineal. More recently, however, a new pre-
paration of lac colour, under the name of lac-dye, has been imported from
India, which has been substituted for the lac-lake, and with such ad-
vantage, that the East India Company are said to have saved in a few
months 14,000/. in the purchase of scarlet cloths dyed with this colour
1 Humboldt's Political Essay on New Spain, iii. 72 — 79.
2 Ibid. iii. G4.— D.r. B.Tncroft estimated the annual consumption of cociiineal in
Great Britain at about 750 bags, or 150,000 lbs. ; worth 375,000/.
5 Trans. Eiit. Soc. Land. iii. proc. ix. * Lesser, L. ii. lG5.
DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 185
ami cocliincal conjointly, and without any inferiority in the colour
obtained.'
Some other insects besides the Cocci aH'ord dyes. Kcaunnir tells us,
tiiat in the Levant, Persia, and China, they use the galls oC a particular
species of A/>/iis for ilyeing silk crimson, which he thinks mii;ht lead us to
try ex|)erinients with those of oiu" own country.* That dyes might be
thus obtained seems probable from an observation of Liune's, in his
La|)laud Tour, upon the galls proiluced by Ap/iis j)ini on the extremities
of the leaves of the sprucc-fir, which, he informs us, when arrived at ma-
turity , burst asunder, and discharge an orange-coloured powder which
stains the clothes^; and Mr. Sheppanl confirms this observation, the galls
of this Aphis abounding upon fir trees in his garden. In fact, we are told
that TcrniindHa cilrina, a tree comiuon in India, yields a species of gall,
the product of an*insect, which is sold in every market, being one of the
most useful dyeing drugs known to the natives, who dye their best and
most ilurable jellow with it. ' A species of mite (^Troinbidium tinctoriuni),
a native of (iuinea and Surinam, is also employed as a dye ; and it wouKl
be worth while to try whether our T. holoscricciim, so remarkable for the
dazzling brilliancv of its crimson and the beautiful velvet texture of its
down, which seems nearly related to T. tlnctorium, woidd not also afford a
valuable tincture. It is not likely, perhaps, that many better and cheaper
dyes than we now possess can be obtained tioui insects ; but Reaumur has
suggested that water-colours of beautiful tints, not otherwise easdy ob-
tainable, might be procured from the excrements of the larvae of the
common clothes-moth, which retain the colour of the wool they have
eaten unimpaired in its lustre, and mix very well with water. To get a
fine red, yellow, blue, green, or any other colour or shade of colour, we
should merely have to feed our iarvie with cloth of that tint. ^
Wax, so valuable for many minor purposes, and deemed with us so in-
dispensable to tile comfort of the great, is of still more importance in those
parts of Europe and America in which it forms a considerable branch of
trade and manufacture, as an article of extensive use in the religious cere-
monies of the inhabitants. Humboldt informs us, that not fewer than
'io.OOO arrobas, value u[)wards of 83,000/., were formerly annually ex-
ported from Cuba to New Spain, where the quantity consumed in the
festivals of the church is inmiense, even in the smallest villages ; and that
the total export of the same island in 1803 was not less than 4-i,()70 ar-
robas, worth upwards of 130,000/.'' Nearly the whole of the wax em-
ployed in Europe, and by far the greater part of that consumed in America,
is the produce of the common hive-bee ; but in the latter-quarter of the
globe a quantity by no means trifling is obtained from various wild species.
According to Don F. de Azara, the inhabitants of Santiago del Estero
gather every year not less than 14,000 pounds of a whitish wax from the
trees of Chaco. ~'
In China wax is also produced by another insect, which from the de-
sci'iption of it by the Abbe Grosier seems to be a species of Coccus.
1 Bancroft on Permanent Colours, ii. 20. 49.
2 Reaum. iii. Preface, xxxi.
^ iMch. Lap}), i. 258. •* Trans, of the Soc. of Arts, xxiii. 411.
* Reaum. iii. 95.
^ Political Essay, iii. 62. "^ Voyage dans I'Ainer. Merid. i. 102.
186 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
With this insect the Chinese stock the two kinds of tree (Kan-la-chu and
Choni-la-chu), on which alone it is found, and which always afterwards
retain it. Towards the beginning of winter small tumours are perceived,
which increase until as big as a walnut. These are the nests (abdomens
of the females) filled with the eggs that are to give birth to the Cocci,
which, when hatched, disperse themselves over the leaves, and perforate
the bark under which they retire. The wax (called Pc-la, white wax, be-
cause so by nature) begins to appear about the middle of June. At first
a few filaments like fine soft wool are perceived, rising from the bark
round the body of the insect, and these increase more and more until the
gathering, which takes place before the first hoar frosts in September.
The wax is carried to court, and reserved for the emperor, the princes,
and chief mandarins. If an ounce of it be added to a pound of oil, it
forms a wax little inferior to that made by bees. The physicians employ
it in several diseases ; and the Chinese, when about to speak in public,
and assurance is necessary, previously eat an ounce of it to prevent
swoonings^ ; a use of it for which happily our less diffident orators have
no call. This account is in the main confirmed by Geomelli Careri, except
that he calls the wax insect a luorm which bores to the pith of certain
trees ; and says that it produces a sufficient supply for the whole empire,
the different provinces of which are furnished from Xantung, where it is
bred in the greatest perfection, with a stock of eggs.- A very different
origin, however, is assigned to the Pe-la by Sir George Staunton, who
informs us that it is produced by a species of Cicada {Plata limbctta), which
in its larva state feeds upon a plant like the privet, strewing upon the stem
a powder, which when collected forms the wax.^ But as he merely states
that this powder was "supposed" to form it, and does not himself appear
to have made the experiment of dissolving it in oil, it is most probable
that his information was incorrect, and that Grosier's statement is the
true one.
This probability is nearly converted into certainty by the fact that many
Aphides and Cocci secrete a wax-like substance, and that a kind of wax
very analogous to the Pe-la, and of the same class with bees' wax, only
containing more carbon, is actually produced in India by a nondescript
species of Coccus remarkable for providing itself with a small quantity of
honey like our bees. This substance, for specimens of which I am in-
tlebted to the kindness of Sir Joseph Banks, was first noticed by Dr.
Anderson, and called by him ivhite lac. It could be obtained in any quan-
tity from the neighbourhood of Madras, and at a much cheaper rate than
bees' wax : but the experiments of Dr. Pearson do not afford much ground
for supposing that it can be advantageously employed in making candles."*
De Azara speaks of a firm white wax apparently similar, and the produce
of an insect of the same tribe, which is collected in South America in the
form of pearl-like globules from the small branches of the Quabirumy, a
small shrub two or three feet high.^
Insects in some countries not only furnish the natives with wax, but
with resin, which is used instead of tar for their ships. Molina informs
us that, at Coquimbo in Chili, resin, either the product of an insect or the
1 Grosier's China, i. 439.
2 Quoted ia Southey's Thalaba, ii. IGG. 3 Embassy to China, i. 400.
4 Phil. Trans. 1794. xxi. 5 Voyage dans PAiner. Merid. i. 164.
DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 187
conscqiieiuc of an insect's biting off the buds of a particular species of
OnirriHitm, is collected in large (juantitics. The insect in <]Ucstion is a
small smooth red caterpillar about iialfan inch loni:, which ciianges into a
yellowish moth with black stripes upon the wings (P/ui/. ctnirifi Molina).
I'.arly in the spring vast numbers of these caterpillars collect on the
branches of the C/ii/a, where thty form their cells of a kind of soft wiiite
wax or resin, in which they undergo their transformations. This wax,
which is at firsl very white, but by degrees becomes yellow and finally
brown, is collected in autunui by the inhabitants, who boil it in water, ami
make it up into little cakes for market.'
Ilonci/, another well-known product of insects, has lost much of its im-
jiortance since the discovery of sugar; yet at the present day, whether
considered as a delicious article of food, or the base of a wholesome vinous
beverage of home manufacture, it is of no mean value even in this country ;
and in many inland parts of Europe, where its saccharine substitute is
imu-h dearer than witii us, few articles of rural economy, not of primary
importance, would be dispensed with more reluctantly. In the tikraine
some of tiie peasants have 400 or .500 bee-hives, and make more profit of
their bees than of corn'-; and ia Spain the number of bee-hives is said to
be incretlible ; a single parish priest was known to possess 3000.^
The domesticated or hive-bee, to which we are indebted for this article,
is the same according to Latreille in every part of Europe, except in some
districts of Italy, where a different species {Apis ligudicn of Spinola) is
kept — the same probably that is cultivated in the Morea and the isles of
the Archipelago.' Honey is obtained, however, from many other species
both wild and domestic. What is called rock honey in some parts of
America, which is as clear as water and very thin, is the produce of wild
bees, which suspend their clusters of thirty or forty waxen cells, resembling
a bunch of grapes, to a rock'': and in South America large quantities are
collected from the nests built in trees by Trigona Amalthea, and other
species of this genus recently separated from Apis*'; under which pro-
bably should be included the Bnvibjiros, whose honey, honest Robert Knox
informs us, whole towns in Ceylon go into the woods to gather.^ Accord-
ing to Azara, one of the chief articles of food of the Indians who live in
the w oods of Paraguay is wild honey. '^ Captain Green observes that, in
the island of Bourbon, where he was stationed for some time, there is a
bee which produces a kind of honey much esteemed there. It is quite of
a green colour, of the consistency of oil, and to the usual sweetness of
honey superadds a certain fragrance. It is called green honey, and is
exported to India, where it bears a high price." One of the species that
has probably been attended to ages before our hive-bee, is Apis fnsciata of
Latreille, a kind so extensively cultivated in Egypt, that Niebuhr states he
fell in upon the Nile, between Cairo and Damietta, with a convoy of 4000
1 Molina's ChiU,\. 174.
2 . Communications to the Board of Agricult. vii. 286.
^ Jlills on Bees, 77.
* Latr. in Humboldt and Boiiplaiid, Rccueil (VObserv. de Zoologie, &c.. (Paris,
180,5), 300. 5 Hill ia Swammerdam, i. 181. note.
<5 Latr. ubi supr. 300.
■? Knox's Ceylon, 25. ^ Toy. dans. VAmer. Mcrid. i. 102.
■' M. Latreille appears to have described this bee under the name of Ajiis uni-
color. Mcni. sur hs Abeilks, 8. 39.
188 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
hives, which were transporting from a region where the season for flowers
had passed, to one where the spring was later.^ Columella says that the
(Jreeks in like manner sent their bee-hives e\ery year from Achaia into
Attica ; and a similar custom is not unknown in Italy, and even in this
country in the neighbourhood of heaths. In Madagascar, according to
Latreille, the inhabitants have domesticated Aj)i.i unicolor ; A. indica is
cultivated in India at Pondicherry and in Bengal ; A. Adansonii Lair, at
Senegal^; and Fabricius thinks that A. acmensis (Centris Syst. Piez.)
laboriosa, and others in the East and West Indies, might be domesticated
with greater advantage than even A. mellifica?
Here also must be mentioned the manna used as an agreeable food in
the East, which, though not directly produced by insects, is caused to
flow from the Tamarix mannifera by the punctures of a small species of
Coccus.^
The last, and doubtless the most valuable, product of insects to which
I have to advert is Silk. To estimate justly the importance of this article,
it is not sufficient to view it as an appendage of luxury unrivalled for
richness, lustre, and beauty, and without which courts would lose half
their splendour. We must consider it, what it actually is, as the staple
article of cultivation in many large provinces in the south of Europe,
amongst the inhabitants of which the prospect of a deficient crop causes
as great alarm as a scanty harvest of grain with us ; and after giving em-
ployment to tens of thousands in its first production and transportation,
as furnishing subsistence to hundreds of thousands more in its final manu-
facture, and thus becoming one of the most important wheels that give
circulation to national wealth.^
But we must not confine our view to Europe. Wlien silk was so scarce
in this country, that James I., while King of Scotland, was forced to beg
of the Earl of Mar the loan of a pair of silk stockings to appear in before
tile English ambassador, enforcing his request with the cogent appeal,
" For ye would not, sure, that your king should appear as a scrub before
strangers ;" nay, long before this period, even prior to the time that silk
was valued at its weight of gold at Rome, and the Emperor Aurelian re-
fused his empress a robe of silk because of its dearness — the Chinese
peasantry in some of the provinces, millions in number, were clothed with
this material ; and for some thousand years to the present time, it has
been both there and in India (where a class whose occupation was to
attend silk-worms appears to have existed from time immemorial, being
1 Latr. Hht. Nat. xiv. 20,
2 Latr. in Humboldt and Bonpland, Recueil, &c. 302.
^ Vorlesungen, 324, 4 Burmeister, Manual of Ent. 561.
s The followiii"; facts and calculations from the Coui-ia- de Lyon, 1840, as to the
silk manufactured at Lyons, are wortli preserving: — Raw silk annually consumed
there one million of kilogrammes, equal to 2,205,714 pounds English, on which the
waste in manufacturing is five per cent. As four cocoons produce one graine (grain)
of silk, four thousand millions of cocoons are annually consumed, making the num-
ber of caterpillars reared (including the average allowance for caterpillars dying,
bad cocoons, and those kept for eggs) 4,292,400,000. The length of the silk of one
cocoon averages 500 metres (1526 feet English), so that the length of the total quan-
tity of silk spun at Lyons is 6,500,000,000,000 (or six and a half billions) of English
feet, equal to fourteen times the mean radius of the earth's orbit ; or 5494 times the
radius of the moon's orbit; or 62,505 times the equatorial circumference of the
earth ; or 200,000 times the circumference of the moon.
DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 189
mentioned in tlic oldest Sanscrit books'), one of tlie chief objects of culti-
vation and nianuractiirc. You will admit, therefore, that when nature
" — get to work millions of spinning worms,
That in their green shops weave the smooth-liair'd silk
To deck her sous," 2
she was conferring upon them a benefit scarcely inferior to that con-
se(iuent upon the gift of wool to the fleecy race, or a fibrous rind to the
(lax or hemp |)lants ; and that mankind is not under much less obligation
to Pamphila, who. according to Aristotle, was the discoverer of the art of
unwinding and weaving silk, than tu the inventors of the spinning of those
products.^
It seems to have been in Asia that silk was first manufactured ; and it
was from thence that the ancients obtained it, calling it, from tlie name of
the country whence it was supposed to be brought, Serinim. Of its origin
they w ere in a great measure ignorant, some supposing it to be the entrails
of a spider-like insect with eight legs, which was fed for four years upon a
kind of pa?>te, and then with the leaves of the green willow, until it burfit
w ith lat ' ; others, that it was the produce of a worm which built clay nests,
anil collected wax''; Aristotle, with more truth, that it was unwound from
the /;///.»« of a large horned caterpillar." Nor was the mode of [)roducing
and manufacturing this precious material known to Europe until long after
the Christian a;ni, being first learnt about the year 550, by two monks,
who procured in India the eggs of the silk-worm moth, with which, con-
cealing them in hollow canes, they hastened to Constantinople, where they
speedily multiplied, and were subsequently introduced into Italy, of which
country silk was long a peculiar and staple connnodity. It was not cul-
tivated in France until the time of Henry IV., who, considering that mul-
berries grew in his kingdom as well as in Italy, resolved, in opposition to
the opinion of Sully, to attempt introduciug it, and fully succeeded.
The whole of the silk produced in Europe, and the greater proportion
of that manufactured in China, is obtained from the common silk-worm ;
but in India considerable quantities are procured from the cocoons of the
larvae of other moths. Of these the most important species known are
the Tusseh and Ariudy silk-worms, of which an interesting history is given
by Dr. Roxburgh in the Ijimtcan TransacHons."' These insects are both
natives of Bengal. The first (Sdluniia I'aphia) feeds upon the leaves of
the Jujube tree {Rhannuts Jiijiihri), or B^cr of the Hindoos, and of the
Tcnniiuilin afaia glabra Roxburgh, the As.s'cen of the Hindoos, and is found
in such abundance as fiom time immemorial to have afforded a constant
su[)ply of a very durable, coarse, dark-coloured silk, which is woven into
a cloth called Tussclidoot'lilcs, much worn by the Brahmins and other sects,
and would, doubtless, be highly useful to the inhabitants of many parts oi
America, and of the south of Europe, where a light and cool, and at the
1 Colebrook in Asiatic Researches, v. CI. 3 Milton's Cmims.
3 Hist. Animal. 1. v. c. 19. * Pausanias, quoted by Goldsmith, vi. SO,
5 Pliny, Hist. Nat. 1. xi. c. 22.
^ Aristot. nhi supr. He does not expressly say the pvpa, but this we must sup-
pose. Tlie larva he moans could not be the common silkworm, since he describes it
as large, and having as it were horns.
' vii. 33 — 18. Coniiiare Lord Valentia's Travels, i. 78.
190 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.
same time cheap and durable dress, such as this silk furnishes, is much-
wanted. The durability of this silk is indeed astonishing. After constant
use for nine or ten years it does not show any signs of decay. These
insects are thought by the natives of so much consequence, that they guard
them by day to preserve them from crows and otlier birds, and by night
from the bats. The Arindy silk-worm (Saftirnia Cijnthia Drury), which
feeds solely on the leaves of the Pa/ma ChrisH, produces remarkably soft
cocoons, the silk of which is so delicate and flossy, that it is impracticable
to wind it off: it is, therefore, spun like cotton; and the thread thus
manufactured is woven into a coarse kind of white cloth of a loose texture,
but of still more incredible durability than the last, the life of one person
being seldom sufficient to wear out a garment made of it. It is used not
only for clothing, but for packing fine cloths, &c. Some manufacturers in
England to whom the silk was shown seemed to think that it could be
made here into shawls equal to any received from India. A moth allied
to this last species, but distinct, has been described and figured by Colonel
Sykes, who met with its leather-like cocoons composed of silk so strong,
that a single filament supported a weight of 198 grains, in that part of the
Deccan in India lying between the sources and junction of the Bema and
Mota Mold rivers. These cocoons are called kolcsurra by the Mahrattas,
who use them cut into thongs, which are more durable than leather for
binding the matchlock barrel to the stock ; but as far as Colonel Sykes
could ascertain, no use is made of the silk in Western India, though there
can be little doubt that it might be advantageously produced, as the cater-
pillars which spin it feed indiscriminately on the Teak tree ( I'ecfona grandis),
the Mulberry (Moms Lndica), the Bor (Zizyphus jujuba), and the Osana
(Terminalia alula glabra)}
Other species, as may be inferred from an extract of a letter given in
Young's Annals of Agriculhirc^, are known in China, and have been intro-
duced into India. " We have obtained," says the writer, " a monthly
silk-worm from China, which I have reared with my own hands, and in
twenty-five days have had the cocoons in my basins, and by the twenty-
ninth or thirty-first day a new progeny feeding in my trays. This makes
it a mine to whoever would undertake the cultivation of it."
Whether it will ever be expedient to attempt the breeding of the larvae
of any European moths, as Catocala facta, sfonsa, &c. proposed with this
view by Fabricius^, seems doubtful, though certainly many of them afford
a very strong silk, and might be readily propagated ; and I have now in
my possession some thread more like cotton than silk spun by the larva
of a moth, which when I was a very young entomologist I observed (if
my memory does not deceive me) upon the Euonymus, and from the twigs
of which (not the cocoon) I unwound it. It is even asserted that in
Germany a manufacture of silk from the cocoons of the emperor moth
(Saturnia Pavonia major) was at one time established.* There seems no
question, however, that silk might be advantageously derived from many
native silk-worms in America. An account is given in the Philosop/iical
Transactions of one found there, whose cocoon is not only heavier and
more productive of silk than that of the common kind, but is so much
1 Trans. Royal Asiat. Sac. 1834. vol. iii. 2 xxiii. 235.
s Vorlesuvgen, 325. * Latr. Hist. Nat. xiv. 150.
DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 191
sfronijer that twenty tlircails will carry an ounce more.' Don Luis Ncc
<)l),servecl on I's'uUttm pomifcnnn and pi/rifcrum ovate nests of caterpillars
eif;lit inches lonj;, of grey silk, which the inhabitants of Ciiiipancingo,
Tixtala, Sec, in America, manufacture into stockings and haiuikerchiefs. ^
(Ireat numl)ers of similar nests of a dense tissue, resembling Ciiinesc
paper, of a brilliant wiiitencss, and formed of distinct and separable layers,
tiie interior being the thinnest and extraordinarily transparent, were ob-
served by Humboldt in the provinces of Mechoacan and the mountains of
iSantarosa, at a height of 1(),J0() feet above the level of the sea, upon the
Arhnlun ]\Iadn'iito, anil other trees. The silk of these nests, which are the
work of the social caterpillars of a Bombyx (B. Madrono), was an object
of commerce even in the time of Montezimia ; and the ancient Mexicans
jiasted together the interior layers, whicii may be written upon without
jireparation, to form a white glossy pasteboard. Handkerchiefs are still
manufactured of it in the Intendency of Oaxaca.^ I)e Azara states that
in Paraguay, a spider, which is found to near the thirtieth degree of
latitude, forms a s|)herical cocoon (for its egg;-;) an inch in diameter, of a
yellow silk, which the inhabitants spin on account of the permanency of
the colour.' And according to M. B. de Lozieres, large quantities of a
very beautiful silk, of dazzling whiteness, may be collected from the
cocoons even of the Ichneumons that destroy the larvae of some moth in
the ^^'est Indies, which feed upon the indigo and cassacla.""
It is probable, too, that other articles besides silk might be obtained
from the larva; which usually produce it, particularly cements and varnishes
of ditlerent kinds, some hanl, others clastic, from their gum and silk
reservoirs, from which it is said the (^hinese procure a fine varnish, and
fabricate what is called by anglers Indian grassfi The diminutive size of
the animal will be thought no objection, when we recollect that the vcrj'
small quantity of purple dye afforded by the Purpura of the ancients did
not prevent them from collecting it.
I now conclude this long series of letters on the injuries caused by
insects to man, and the benefits which he derives from them; and I think
you will readily admit that I have sufficiently made good my position, that
the study of agents which peifbrm such ini[)ortant functions in the eco-
nomy of nature nuist be worthy of attention. Our subsequent corre-
spondence will be devoted to the most interesting traits in their history —
as their affection to their voung, their food and modes of procuring it,
habitations, societies, &c.
I am, &c.
1 Pullein in Phil. Trans. 1759. 51.
2 Annals nf Botany, ii. 104.
5 Political Essaij on N. Spain, iii. 60.
* Voyage dans I'Amer. Merid. i. 212. It may here be observed as a licnrfit
derived by the higher walks of iihilosophy fioni insects, that astronomers enijiloy
the strongest thread of spiders, the one namely that supports the web, for the divi'-
sions of tltc micrometer. IJy its ductilit}' this thread acquires about a fifth of its
ordinary length. No7ir. Diet. d'JIist. JVat. ii. 280.
'' American Phil. I'rans. v. .'525.
^ Anderson's PecretUiuns in Agriculture, &c. iv, 399.
192
LETTER XL
ON THE AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOE THEIR YOUNG.
Amongst the larger animals, every observer of nature has witnessed with
admiration, that love of jtheir offspring which the beneficent Creator, with
equal regard to the happiness of the parent and the progeny, has inter-
woven in the constitution of his creatures. Who that has any sensibility,
has not felt his heart dilate with gratitude to the Giver of all good, in
observing amongst the domestic animals which surround him, the effects
of this divine storge, so fruitful of the most delightful sensations ? Who
that is not a stock or a stone has read unmoved the anecdote recorded in
books of Natural History, of the poor bitch, which in the agonies of a
cruel dissection licked with parental fondness her new-born offspring; or
the affecting account of the she-bear related in Phipps's Voyage to the
North Pole^ which, herself severely wounded by the same shot that killed
her cubs, spent her last moments in tearing and laying before them the
food she had collected, aud died licking their wounds ?
These feelings you must have experienced, but it has scarcely occurred
to you that you would have any room for exercising them in your new
pursuit. You have not, I dare say, suspected that any similar example
could have been adduced amongst insects, to which at the first glance
there seems even something absurd in attributing anything like parental
affection. An animal not so big perhaps as a grain of wheat, feel love for
its offspring — how preposterous! we are ready to exclaim. Yet the ex-
clamation would be very much misplaced. Nothing is more certain than
that insects are capable of feeling quite as much attachment to their
offspring as the largest quadrupeds. They undergo as severe privations
in nourishing them ; expose themselves to as great risk in defending them ;
and in the very article of death exhibit as much anxiety for their preser-
vation. Not that this can be said of all insects. A very large proportion
of them are doomed to die before their young come into existence. But
in these the passion is not extinguished. It is merely modified, and its
direction changed. And when you witness the solicitude with which they
[)rovide for the security and sustenance of their future young, you can
scarcely deny to them love for a progeny they are never destined to
behold. Like affectionate parents in simiUir circumstances, their last
efforts are employed in providing for the children that are to succeed
them.
I. Observe the motions of that common white butterfly which you see
flying from herb to herb. You perceive that it is not food she is in
pursuit of: for flowers have no attraction for her. Her object is the dis-
covery of a plant that will supply the sustenance appropriated by Pro-
vidence to her young, upon which to deposit her eggs. Iler own food
AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 193
has been honey draw n from the nectary of a flower. This, therefore, or
its neighbourhood, we might expect would be tlic situation she would
select for them. But no : as if aware that this food would be to them
poison, she is in search of some plant of the cabbage tribe. But how is
she to distinguish it from the surrounding vegetables ? She is taught of
God ! Led by an instinct far more unerring than the practised eye of the
botanist, she recognises the desired plant the moment she approaches it ;
and upon this she places her precious burden, yet not without tlie further
precaution of ascertaining that it is not pre-occupied by the eggs of some
other butterfly ! Having fulfilled this dulj-, from which no obstacle short
of absolute impossibility, no danger however threatening, can divert her,
the affectionate mother dies.
This may serve as one instance of the solicitude of insects for their
future progeny. But almost every species will supply examples similar in
principle, and in their particular circumstances even more extraordinary.
In every case (except in some remarkable instances of mistakes of instinct,
as they may be termed, which will be subsequently adverted to), the
parent unerringly distinguishes the food suitable for her offspring, how-
ever dissimilar to her own ; or at least invariably jjlaces her eggs, often
defended from external injury by a variety of admirable contrivances, in
the exact spot where, when hatched, the larvtc can have access to it. —
The dragon-fly is an inhabitant of the air, and could not exist in water:
yet in this last element, which is alone adapted for her young, she ever
carefully drops her eggs. The larvae of the gad-fly {(Estrns equi), whose
history has been before described to you, are destined to live in the
stomach of the horse. How shall the parent, a two-winged fly, convey
them thither? By a mode truly extraordinary. Flying round the animal,
she curiously poises her body for an instant while she glues a single ejig
to one of the hairs of his skin, and repeats this process until she has fixed
in a similar way many hundred eggs. These, after a few days, on the
application of the slightest moisture attended by warmth, hatch into little
grubs. Whenever, therefore, the horse chances to lick any part of his
body to which they are attached, the moisture of the tongue discloses
one or more grubs, which, adhering to it by means of the saliva, are con-
veyed into the mouth, and thence find their way into the stomach. But
here a question occurs to you. It is but a small portion of the horse's
body which he can reach with his tongue : what, you ask, becomes of the
eggs deposited on other parts ? 1 will tell you how the gad-fly avoids
this dilemma ; and I will then ask you if she does not discover a pro-
vident forethought, a depth of instinct, which almost casts into shade the
boasted reason of man ? She places her eggs only on those parts of the
skin which the horse is able to reach with his tongue ; nay, she confines
them almost exclusively to the knee or the shoulder, which he is sure to
lick. What could the most refined reason, the most precise adaptation of
means to an end, do more ? ^
Not less admirable is the parental instinct of that vast tribe of insects
already introduced to you by the name of Ichneumons, whose young are
destined to feed upon the living bodies of other insects. These, as \ou
know, are so numerous, that scarcely an insect exists, which in its larva
state is not exposed to the attacks of one or other of them ; and even the
1 Clark in Linn. Trans, iii. .304.
O
194 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG
pupae, nay the very eggs of these animals, are not safe from their insidious
manoeuvres. The size of the different species varies in proportion to that
of the bodies which are to be their food ; some being so inconceivably
small that the egg of a butterfly not bigger than a pin's head is of sufficient
magnitude to nourish two of them to maturity^; others so large, that the
body of a full-grown caterpillar is not more than enough for one. They
are the larvas of these Ichneumons which make such havoc of our pigmy
tribes : the perfect insect is a four-winged fly, which takes no other food
than a little honey ; and the great object of the female is to discover a
proper nidus for her eggs. In search of this she is in constant motion.
Is the caterpillar of a butterfly or moth the appropriate food for her
young ? you see her alight upon the plants where they are most usually
to be met with, run quickly over them, carefully examining every leaf,
and, having found the unfortunate object of her search, insert her sting
into its flesh and there deposit an egg. In vain her victim, as if conscious
of its fate, writhes its body, spits out an acid fluid, menaces with its ten-
tacula, or briuL's into action the other organs of defence with which it
is provided. The active Ichneumon braves every danger, and does not
desist until her courage and address have insured subsistence for one of
her future progeny. Perhaps, however, she discovers, by a sense the
existence of which we perceive, though we have no conception of its
nature, that she has been forestalled by some precursor of her own tribe,
that has already buried an egg in the caterpillar she is examining. In this
case she leaves it, aware that it would not suffice for the support of two,
and proceeds in search of some other yet unoccupied. The process is of
course varied in the case of those minute species of which several, some-
times as many as 150, can subsist in a single caterpillar. The little Ich-
neumon then repeats her operations, until she has darted into her victim
the requisite number of eggs.
The larvae hatched from the eggs thus ingeniously deposited, find a
delicious banquet in the body of the caterpillar, which is sure eventually
to fall a victim to their ravages. So accurately, however, is the supply of
food proportioned to the demand, that this event does not take place
until the young Ichneumons have attained their full growth : when the
caterpillar either dies, or retaining just vitality enough to assume the pupa
state, then finishes its existence; the pupa disclosing not a moth or a
butterfly, but one or more full-grown Ichneumons.
In this strange and apparently cruel operation one circumstance is truly
remarkable. The larva of the Ichneumon, though every day, perhaps for
months, it gnaws the inside of the caterpillar, and though at last it has
devoured almost every part of it except the skin and intestines, carefully
all this time avoids injuring the vital organs, as if aware that its own exist-
ence depends on that of the insect on which it preys ! Thus the cater-
pillar continues to eat, to digest, and to move, apparently little injured, to
the last, and only perishes when the parasitic grub within it no longer re-
quires its aid. What would be the impression which a similar instance
amongst the race of quadrupeds would make upon us ? If, for example, an
animal — such as some impostors have pretended to carry within them —
should be found to feed upon the inside of a dog, devouring only those
parts not essential to life, while it cautiously left uninjured the heart
1 Bonnet, ii. 344.
AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 195
arteries, lungs, and intestines, — should we not regard such an instance
as a perfect prodigy, as an example of instinctive forbearance almost
miraculous ?
Some Ichneumons, instead of burying their eggs in tiie body of the
larvje that are to serve their young for food, content themselves with
gluing them to the skin of their prey. This is the case with Sco/ia jia-
vi/rous, which my learned entomological friend M. Passerini of Florence
lias found places its eggs on the larva of a large beetle {On/rdx nnsiconiis),
upon which when hatched the larva of the Sco/ia feeds, by introducing the
three first segments of its body into the belly of its victim, always between
the sixth and seventh segment, so that this insect is a semi-internal
parasite.' Another tribe, whose activity and perseverance are equally
conspicuous, which includes the beautiful genus Chri/xis and many other
hymenopterous anil dipterous insects, imitating the insidious cuckoo,
contrive to introduce their eggs into the nests in which bees and other
insects have deposited theirs. With this view they are constantly on the
watch, and the moment the unsuspecting mother has quitted her cell for
the purpose of collecting a store of food or materials, glide into it and
leave an egg, the genu of a future assassin of the larva that is to spring
from that deposited by its side.
The females of the insects of which we have been speaking, in pro-
viding for their offspring, are saved the trouble of furnishing them with
any habitation. Either they occupy that of another insect, or find a con-
venient abode within the body of that on which they feed. But upon the
maternal affection of another large hymenopterous tribe, belonging to
Latreille's Family of Burrowers (Fossores), whose young in like manner
feed on other insects, is imposed the arduous task not merelv of collecting
a supply of food, but of inclosing it along with their eggs in cells or
burrows often of considerable depth, and dug with great labour in sand,
wood, or the solid earth.
The general economy of these insects is similar. Having first dug a
cylindrical cavity of the requisite dimensions, and deposited an egg at the
bottom, they inclose along with it one or more caterpillars, spiders, or other
insects, each particular species for the most part selecting a distinct kind,
as a provision for the young one when hatched, and sufficiently abundant
to nourish it until it becomes a pupa. Many thus furnish several cells.
This process, however, is varied by different species, some of whose
operations are worthy of a more detailed description.
One of the most early histories of the procedure of an insect of this
kind, probably the common sand-wasp (^AmmojMla vulgaris), is left us by
the excellent Ray, who observed it along with his friend Willughby. On
the 22nd of June, 1667, he tells us, they noticed this insect dragging a
green caterpillar thrice as big as itself, which, after thus conveying about
fifteen feet, it deposited at the entrance of a hole previously dug in the
sand. Then removing a pellet of earth from its mouth, it descended into
the cavity, and, presently returning, dragged alonij with it the caterpillar.
After staying awhile it again ascended, then rolled pieces of earth into
the hole, at intervals scratching the dust into it like a dog with its fore
feet, and entering it as if to press down and consolidate the mass, flying also
1 Osservazioni sulle Larve, Ninfe, §c. (Pise, 1840). Guerin-Mcneville, Revue
Zoolog. 1841, p. 240.
o 2
196 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.
once or twice to an adjoining fir-tree, possibly to procure resin for agglu-
tinating the whole. Having filled the burrow to a level with the sur-
rounding earth so as to conceal the entrance, it took two fir-leaves lying
at hand, and placed them near the orifice as if to mark the place. — Such
is the anecdote left on record by our illustrious countryman, of whose
accuracy of observation there can be no doubt. ^ Who that reads it can
refrain from joining in the reflection which it calls from him, " Qnis hcEc
710)1 mihi miretur et stupeat ? Qiiis hujusmodi opera merce machince possit
attribuei'e ? " ^
I ra\self, when walking with a friend some months ago, observed nearly
similar manoeuvres performed by another hymenopterous insect which
may be called a spider-wasp {Pompiliis), which attracted our attention
as it was dragging a spider to its cell. The attitude in which it carried its
prey, namely with its feet constantly upwards ; its singular mode of walk-
ing, which was backwards, except for a foot or two when it went forwards,
moving by jerks and making a sort of pause every few steps ; and the asto-
nishing agility with which, notwithstanding its heavy burthen, it glided over
or between the grass, weeds, and other numerous impediments in the
rough path along which it passed — together formed a spectacle which we
contemplated with admiration. The distance which we thus observed it to
traverse was not less than twenty-seven feet; and great part of its journey
had probably been performed before we saw it. Once or twice, when we
first noticed it, it laid down the spider, and making a small circuit returned
and took it up again. But for the ensuing twenty or twenty-five feet it
never stopped, but proceeded in a direct line for its burrow with the
utmost speed. When opposite the hole, which was in a sand bank by the
way side, it made a sharp turn, as evidently aware of being in the neigh-
bourhood of its abode, but when advanced a Utile further laid down its
burthen and went to reconnoitre. At first it climbed up the bank, but, as
if discovering that this was not the direction, soon returned, and after
another survey perceiving the hole, took up the spider and dragged it in
after it.
In the two instances above given, one dead caterpillar or spider onlj' was
deposited in each hole. But an insect described by Reaumur under the
name of the mason-wasp (^Ep'ij^one spinipes), very common in some parts
of England, after having excavated a burrow, with an ingenuity to which
on a future occasion I shall draw your attention, places along with its egg
as food for the future young, about twelve little green grubs without feet,
which it has carefully selected full grown and conveyed without injuring
them. You will inquire, Why this difference of procedure? With regard
to the choice of a number of small grubs rather than of one large cater-
pillar, what I have said in a former letter on the subject of different species
of this tribe being appointed to prey upon and thus keep within due limits
the larvae of different kinds of insects, will be a sufficient answer. But one
circumstance creditable to the talents of the mason-wasp as a skilful pur-
1 The Rev. Dr. Sutton of Norwich made similar observations upon the proceedings
of this insect in his garden for two successive seasons.
2 Rai. Hist. Ins. 254. For an interesting account of the procedures of a female of
this species in dragging a very large spider up the nearly perpendicular side of a
smd-bank at least twenty-feet high, as well as of other curious facts in the economy
of sand- wasps, the reader is referred to the very excellent " Essay on the Indige-
nous Fossorial Hymenoptera," byW. E. Shuckard, Esq. p. 77, &c.
AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 197
vcyor should not be omitted, namely, tliat the number of grubs laid up is
not always the same, but is exactly proportioned to their hize, eleven or
twelve being stored when they are small, but only eight or nine when
larger. With respect, however, to the caution of the was|) in selecting
full-grown grubs and conveying them uninjured to her hole, a satisfactory
explanation may be given. If those that are but partly grown were chosen,
they would die in a short time for want of food, and putrefying would
destroy the enclosed egg, or the young one which springs from it. But
when larvaL; of any kind have attained their full size, and are about to pass
into the pupa state, they can exist for a long period without any further
supply. By selecting these, therefore, and placing them uninjured in the
hole, however long the interval before the egg hatches, the disclosed larva
is sure of a sufficiency of fresh and wholesome nutriment. — To prevent the
possibility of any injury to its egg from the motions or voracity of this
living prey, the wasp is careful to pack the whole so closely, each grub
being coiled above the other in a series of rings, and to consolidate the
earth so firmly above them, that they have not the slightest power of
motion.* — Those which select more powerful caterpillars, or revenge the
injuries of their insect brethren by devoting spiders to the destruction they
have so often caused, take care to sting them in such a manner as, without
killing them outright, will incapacitate them from doing any injury.
Zeal and activity in providing for the well-being of their future progeny,
not inferior to what are exhibited by the tribe of Ichneumons, Sphccma^,
and mason-wasps, though less cruelly exerted, are also shown by various
species of wild bees, of which we have in this country a great number.
Having first excavated a proper cell with a dexterity and persevering
labour never enough to be admired, they next deposit in it an egg, which
they cover with a mass of pollen or honey collected with unwearied assiduity
from a thousand flowers. As soon as the grub is hatched, it finds itself
enveloped in this delicious banquet provided for it by the cares of a mother
it is doomed never to behold ; and so accurately is the repast proportioned
to its a()petite and its wants, that as soon as the whole is consumed it has
no longer need of food ; it clothes itself in a silken cocoon, becomes a
pupa, and after a deep sleep of a few days bursts from its cell an active
bee.
A considerable number of wild bees, however (those of the genera
Komada, Melecta, &c.), being unprovided with an apparatus for collecting
pollen, save themselves not only this labour but also that of excavating
cells; and gliding into those in which their more industrious brethren have
deposited their eggs and the necessary supply of pollen moistened with
honey for food, they also, cuckoo-Uke, insinuate their own eggs (imitating
in this respect the carnivorous parasites lately noticed), the larvae from
which live at the cost of the rightful occupants.
No circumstance connected with the storge of insects is more striking
than the herculean and incessant labour which it leads them cheerfully to
undergo. Some of these exertions are so disproportionate to the size of
the insect, that nothing short of ocular conviction could attribute them to
* Reaum. vi. 252.
2 By this term I would distinguish the tribe of Fossores of Latreiile, which the
French call Wasp- Ichneumons, and which form the Linnean genus Sphex, divisible
into several families a.s Sphecidcc, PompilideB, Bembecida, Sec.
o 3
198 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.
such an agent. A wild bee or a Sphex, for instance, will dig a hole in a
hard bank of earth some inches deep and five or six times its own size, and
labour unremittingly at this arduous undertaking for several days, scarcely
allowing itself a moment for eating or repose. It will then occupy as
much time in searching for a store of food ; and no sooner is this task
finished, than it will set about repeating the process, and before it dies
will have completed five or six similar cells or even more. If you would
estimate this industry at its proper value, you should reflect what kind of
exertion it would require in a man to dig in a few days out of hard clay or
sand, with no other tools than his nails and teeth, five or six caverns
twenty feet deep and four or five wide — for such an undertaking would
not be comparatively greater than that of the insects in question.
Similar laborious exertions are not confined to the bee or Sphex tribe.
Several beetles in depositing their eggs exhibit examples of industry ecjually
extraordinary. The common dor or clock (Geotrupes stercorarius), which
may be found beneath every heap of dung, digs a deep cylindrical hole, and
carrying down a mass of the dung to the bottom, in it deposits its eggs. And
many of the species of the Scarabcsides ^ roll together wet dung into round
pellets, deposit an egg in the midst of each, and when dry push them back-
wards by their hind feet, sometimes three or four assisting, into holes of the
surprising depth of three feet, which they have previously dug for their
reception, and which are often several yards distant. Frequently the road
lies across a depression in the surface, and the pellet when nearly pushed
to the summit rolls back again. But our patient Sisyphi are not easily
discouraged. They repeat their efforts again and again, and in the end
their perseverance is rewarded by success.'^ The attention of these insects
to their egg-balls is so remarkable, that it was observed in the earliest ages,
and is mentioned by ancient writers, but with the addition of many fables,
as that they were all of the male sex, that they became young again every
year, that they rolled the pellets containing their eggs from sunrise to sunset
every day, for twenty-eight days without intermission *, &c. It is one of
1 Mr. W. S. MacLeay in his very remarkable and learned work {HorcB Entomoh-
fficce} has very properly restored its name to the true ScarabcBus of the ancients,
which gives its name to this group.
2 The precise mode in which these dung-pellets are formed, and the object of roll-
ing them greater distances than would seem to be required for merely depositing
them in their holes, which it might have been supposed would, like "those of our
common dung-beetle, be made close to (if not under) the dung employed, do not
appear to have been very clearly ascertained. According to a newspaper extract
given from the travels of an author, whose name is not given, the Scarabceida fre-
quenting the Egyptian deserts form their egg-balls of a mixture of clay (sand?)
and camels' dung, and they keep rolling them the whole day, apparently to Ary the
surfiice, as they ceased rolling them if clouds overshadowed the sun in the day time ;
and invariably at sunset (thus confirming the ancient idea) betaking themselves to
their holes, and leaving their egg-balls till sunrise the next day. If this account be
supposed to be correct only as respects clay (or sand) entering into the composition
of the exterior crust of the egg-balls, it may perhaps throw light on the formation
of the singular shot -like balls, two inches in diameter, with a very hard shell, of
which Col. Sj-kes has given an interesting account ( Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. i. 130.),
which produced specimens of the Indian dung-beetle, Gopris 3Iidas. In fact, the
mere long rolling of a ball of very moist dung upon sand or powdery clay would
press so much of either into the surface as to give it when dry a very hard shell,
which would remain much as Col. Sykes describes when the larva had eaten all the
central portion of dung.
5 Mouffet, 153.
AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 199
this tribe of beetles (S. saccr) whose iinaije is so often met with !uiionu;st
the hieroiilyphics of tlie Ejiyptiaiis, with wlioiii it was a symbol of the
world, of the sun, and of a couraj^eoiis warrior. Of the world, as P. Vale-
rianus su|)[)Oses, on account of the orbicular form of its pellets of dung, anil
the notion of tlieir beinj:j rolled from sunrise to sunset ; of the sun, because
of the angular projections from its hcatl rcseml)ling rays, and the thirty
joints of the six tarsi of its feet answering; to the days of the month ; and
of a warrior, from the idea of manly courage being connected with its sup-
posed birth from a male only.' It was as symbolical of this last that its
ima^e was worn upon the signets of the Roman soldiers ; and as typical
of the sun, the source of fertility, it is yet, as Dr. Clarke informs us, eaten
by the women to render them prolific*
These beetles, however, in point of industry must yield the palm to one
( yrcrup/wrus Vcspillo), whose singular history was first detailed by iM.
Gleditsch in the Acts of the Berlin Society/ for 1752. He begins by inform-
ing us that he had often remarked that dead moles when laid upon the
ground, especially if upon loose earth, were almost sure to disappear in
the course of two or three days, often of twelve hours. To ascertain the
cause, he placed a mole upon one of the beds in his garden. It had
vanished by the third morning ; and on digging where it had been laid,
he found it buried to the depth of three inches, and under it four beetles,
which seemed to have been the agents in this singular inhumation. Not
perceiving any thing particular in the mole, he buried it again ; and on
examining it at the end of six days he found it swarming with maggots
apparently the issue of the beetles, which M. Gleditsch now naturally con-
cluded had buried the carcass for the food of their future young. To
determine these points more clearly, he put four of these insects into a
glass vessel half filled with earth and properly secured, and ufjon the sur-
face of the earth two frogs. In less than twelve hours one of the frogs
was interred by two of the beetles : the other two ran about the whole
day as if busied in measuring the dimensions of the remaining corpse, which
on the third day was also found buried. He then introduced a dead linnet.
A pair of the beetles were soon engaged upon the bird. They began their
operations by pushing out the earth from under the body so as to form a
cavity for its reception ; and it was curious to see the efforts which the
beetles made by dragging at the feathers of the bird from below to pull it
into its grave. The male having driven the female away continued the
work alone for five hours. He lifted up the bird, changed its place, turned
it, and arranged it in the grave, and from time to time came out of the
hole, mounted upon it and trod it under foot, and then retired below and
pulled it down. At length, apparently wearied with this uninterrupted
labour, it came forth and leaned its head upon the earth beside the bird
without the smallest motion as if to rest itself, for a full hour, when it
again crept under the earth. The next day in the morning the bird was an
inch and a half under ground, and the trench remained open the whole
day, the corpse seeming as if laid out upon a bier, surroimded with a
rampart of mould. In the evening it had sunk half an inch lower, and in
^ J. Pierii Valeriani Hieroghjphica, 93 — 95. Mouffet, lo6.
2 Travels, ii. 306. Compare M. Latreille's learned Memoir entitled Des Jnsectes
oeints ou sculptes sur les Monumens uyitigiies de VEgi/pte. Ann. du 3Ius. 1819; and
also the Rev. F. W. Hope's Observations in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lotid, ii. 172,
O 4
200 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.
another day the work was completed and the bird covered. — M. Gleditsch
continued to add other small dead animals, which were all sooner or later
buried : and the result of his experiment was, that in fifty days four beetles
had interred in the very small space of earth allotted to them, twelve car-
casses; viz. four frogs, three small birds, two fishes, one mole, and two
grasshoppers, besides the entrails of a fish, and two morsels of the lungs
of an ox. In another experiment a single beetle buried a mole forty times
its own bulk and weight in two days.^ It is plain that all this labour is
incurred for the sake of placing in security the future young of these in-
dustrious insects along with a necessary provision of food. One mole
would have sufficed a long time for the repast of the beetles themselves,
and they could have more conveniently fed upon it above ground than
below. But if they had left thus exposed the carcass in which their eggs
were deposited, both would have been exposed to the imminent risk of
being destroyed at a mouthful by the first fox or kite that chanced to
espy them.
At the first view I dare say you feel almost inclined to pity the little
animals doomed to exertions apparently so disproportioned to their size.
You are ready to exclaim that the pains of so short an existence, engrossed
with such arduous and incessant toil, must far outweigh the pleasures.
Yet the inference would be altogether erroneous. What strikes us as
wearisome toil, is to the little agents delightful occupation. The kind
Author of their being has associated the performance of an essential duty
with feelings evidently of the most pleasurable description ; and, hke the
affectionate father whose love for his children sweetens the most painful
labours, these little insects are never more happy than when thus actively
engaged. " A bee," as Dr. Paley has well observed, " amongst the flowers
in spring (when it is occupied without intermission in collecting farina for
its young or honey for its associates), is one of the cheerfuUest objects
than can be looked upon. Its life appears to be all enjoyment — so busy
and so pleased."^
Of the sources of exquisite gratification which every rural walk will
open to you, while witnessing in the animals themselves those marks of
affection for their unseen progeny of which I have endeavoured to give
you a slight sketch, it will be none of the least fertile to examine the
various and appropriate instruments with which insects have been fur-
nished for the effective execution of their labours. The young of the saw-
fly tribe (Serrifera^) are destined to feed upon the leaves of rose-trees and
various other plants. Upon the branches of these the parent fly deposits
her eggs in cells symmetrically arranged; and the instrument with which
she forms them is a saw, somewhat like ours, but far more ingenious and
perfect, being toothed on each side, or rather consisting of two distinct
saws, with their backs (the teeth or serratures of which are themselves
often serrated, and the exterior flat sides scored and toothed), which play
alternately ; and, while their vertical effect is that of a saw, act laterall}'
as a rasp. When by this alternate motion the incision, or cell, is made,
the two saws, receding from each other, conduct the egg between them
1 Gleditsch, Physic. Bot. CEcon. Abliandl. iii. 200 — 227.
2 Natural Theology, 497.
5 Latreille denominates this tribe Securifera; but as the tool of these insects re-
rembles a saw and not a hatchet, we have ventured to change it to Serrifera, which
is more appropriate.
AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 201
into it.' Tlic Cicada, so celebrateJ by the poets of antiquity, wliicli lays
its eggs in dry wooil, requires a stronger instrument of a dirferent construc-
tion. Accordingly it is provided with an excellent double auger, the sides
of which play alternately and parallel to each other, and bore a hole of
the requisite depth in very iiard substances without ever being dis-
placed.-
The construction of the sting or ovipositor with which the different
species of Ichneumon are provided, is not less nicely adapted to its various
purposes. In those which lay their eggs in the bodies of caterpillars that
feed exposed on the leaves of plants it is short, often in very large species
not the eighth of an inch long : having free access to their victims, a longer
sting would have been useless. But a consiilerable number oviposit in
iarvie which lie concealed where so short an instrument could not possibly
approach them. In these, therefore, the sting is [)roportionably elongated,
so much so that in some small species it is three or four times the length
of the body. Thus in Pinipla Mauifcstalor, whose economy has been so
pleasingly illustrated by Mr. Marsham*, and which attacks the larva of a
wild bee {Chcloslomn* maxillosa) lying at the bottom of dee|) holes in old
wood, the sting is nearly two inches long : and it is not much shorter in
the more minute /. StrobilclUv L., which lays its eggs in larvae concealed in
the interior of fir cones, which without such an apparatus it would never
be able to reach.
The tail of the females of nl&ny moths, whose eggs require to be pro-
tected from too severe a cold and too strong a light, is furnished, evidently
for application to this very purpose, with a thick tuft of hair. But how
shall the moth detach this non-conducting material and arrange it upon
her eggs ? Her ovipositor is provided at the end with an instrument re-
sembling a pair of pincers, which for this purpose are as good as hands.
With these, having previously deposited her eggs upon a leaf, she pulls off
her tuft of hairs, with which she so closely envelops them as effectually
to preserve them of the required temperature, and having performed this
last duty to her progeny she expires.
The ovipositor of the Capricorn beetles, an infinite host, is a flattened
retractile tube, of a hard substance, by means of which it can introduce its
eggs under the bark of timber, and so place them where its progeny will
find their appropriate food.'' The auger used by certain species of CEstriis,
to enable them to penetrate the hides of oxen or deer and form a nidus
for their eggs, has been before described. — But to enumerate all the
varieties of these instruments would be endless.
The purpose which in the insects above mentioned is answered by their
anal apparatus is fulfilled in the numerous tribes of weevils by the long
slender snout with which their head is provided. It is with this that Ba-
laninus Xucum pierces the shell of the nut, and the weevil (Calandra gra-
1 Prof. Peck's Nat. Hist, of the Slug-worm, t. 12. f. 12 — 14.
3 Dr. Burmeister and I\I. Doy^re consider the central piece of the borer of the
Cicada as the really piercing organ, and the lateral files as only serving as a point of
support; but Jlr. Westwood states that numerous dissections of these parts have
convinced him of the correctness of Reaumur's description, that the lateral serrated
pieces are the real organs of perforation. {Mod. Class, of Ins. ii. 424.)
3 Linn. Trans, iii. 23. 4 /tnix. **. c.
» See Kirby in Linn. Trans, v. 254. t. 12. f. 15.
202 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.
7iarid) the skin of the grains of wheat, in which they respectively deposit
their eggs, prudently introducing one only into each nut or grain, which is
sufficient, but not more than sufficient, for the nourishment of the grub
that will inhabit it.
II. Hitherto I have adverted to those insects only which perish before
their young come into existence, and can therefore evince their affection
for them in no other way than by placing the eggs whence they are to
spring in secure situations stored with food ; and these include by far the
largest portion of the race. A very considerable number, however, extend
their cares much further: they not only watch over their eggs after deposit-
ing them, but attend upon their young when excluded, with an affectionate
assiduity equal to any thing exhibited amongst the larger animals, and in
the highest degree interesting. Of this description are some solitary
insects, as several species of the Linnean genus Sphex, earwigs, field-bugs,
and spiders : and those insects which live in societies, namely, ants, bees,
wasps, and termites : the most striking traits of whose history in these
respects I shall endeavour to lay before you.
You have seen that the greater number of the Sphecina, after depositing
their eggs in cells stored with a supply of food, take no further care of
them. Some, however, adopt a different procedure. One of these, called
by Bonnet the Mason-wasp^ but different from Reaumur's, not only incloses
a living caterpillar along with its eggs in the cell, which it carefully closes,
but at the expiration of a few days, when the young grub has appeared
and has consumed its provision, re-opens the nest, incloses a second cater-
pillar, and again shuts the mouth : and this operation it repeats until the
young one has attained its full growth.^ A similar mode, according to
Rolander, is followed by Ammophila vulgaris, as well as by the yellowish
wasp of Pennsylvania, described by Bartram in the Philosophical Transac-
tions'^, and by another related to Mellinits arvensis, observed by DuhameP;
both of which, however, instead of caterpillars, supply their larvae with a
periodical provision of living flies.
What a crowd of interesting reflections are these most singular facts cal-
culated to excite ! With what foresight must the parent insect be en-
dowed, thus to be aware at what period her eggs will be hatched into
grubs, and how long the provision she has laid up will suffice for their
support ! What an extent of judgment, thus, in the midst of various other
occupations, to know the precise day when a repetition of her cares will
be required ! What an accuracy of memory, to recollect with such pre-
cision the entrance to her cell, which the most acute eye could not dis-
cover ; and without compass or direction unerringly to fly to it, often from
a great distance, and after the most intricate and varied wanderings ! If
we refer the whole to instinct, and to instinct doubtless it must in the main
if not wholly be referred, our admiration is not lessened. Instinct, when
simple and directed to one object, is less astonishing ; but such a compli-
cation of instincts, applied to actions so varied and dissimilar, is beyond
our conception. We can but wonder and adore !
The female of Po-ga Lewisii (Westwood), one of the TenthredinidcE, or
Saw-flies, was observed by Mr. Lewis at Hobarton, Van Diemen's Land,
to sit upon the leaf into which she has inserted her eggs, about eighty in
1 Bonnet, ix. 398. 2 liij. 37. Pehpaus spirifex? ' Reaum. vi. 269.
AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 203
number, till they are batched. This takes place in a few days; and after-
wards she carefully feeds thcin in the larva state, in wiiich the brood keeps
together, whether "eating or sleeping, in an oval mass, sitting ujjon them
with outstretched wings, shading them from the heat of tiie sun, and pro-
tecting them with admirable perseverance from the attacks of jjarasites and
other enemies, for a period of from four to six weeks until her death.'
According to M. Schmidberger, the female of a small wood-boring beetle
{Tn/po(lc)i(lnm tlispar Steph.) bores in young healthy apple-trees passages
of about an inch and a half in length, jjenetrating near to the centre, and
deposits at the end of them in a sort of chamber from seven to ten eggs,
the larva; from which when excluded arrange themselves in the passages
one after another, and there feed on a white powdery substance, which he
calls ambrosia, and supposes to be prepared by the female from the sap.
This female, he says, never quits the passages and chambers in which her
larval reside, but remains with them two months or more, till they are
become perfect beetles, and he conceives is occupied partly in laying other
eggs, but partly also in preparing " ambrosia" for them and defending
them from their enemies.- These procedures are certainly very different
from those we should expect in an insect in this tribe, yet as the facts are
stated so fully and circumstantially by a close observer, they deserve farther
investigation from entomologists who have an opportunity of studymg the
economy of this species.
We are indebted to De Geer for the history of a field-bug {Acanthosoma
grisea)^ a species found in this country, which shows marks of affection for
her young, such as I trust will lead you, notwithstanding any repugnant
association that the name may call up, to search upon the birch tree, which
it inhabits, for so interesting an insect. The family of this field-bug con-
sists of thirty or forty young ones, which she conducts as a hen does her
chickens. She never leaves them ; and as soon as she begins to move,
all the little ones closely follow, and whenever she stops assemble in a
cluster round her. De Geer having had occasion to cut a branch of birch
peopled with one of those families, the mother showed every symptom of
excessive uneasiness. In other circumstances such an alarm would have
caused her immediate flight ; but now she never stirred from her young,
but kept beating her wings incessantly with a very rapid motion, evidently
for the purpose of protecting them from the apprehended danger.^ — As far
as our knowledge of the economy of this tribe of insects extends, there is
no other species that manifests a similar attachment to its progeny ; but
such may probably be discovered by future observers. It is De Geer also
that we have to thank for a series of interesting observations on the ma-
ternal affection exhibited by the common earwig. This curious insect, so
unjustly traduced by a vulgar prejudice, — as if the Creator had willed that
the insect world should combine within itself examples of all that is most
1 Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. i. 233. For a figure of Perga Lewisii see Mr. West-
wood's valuable and beautiful " Arcana Entoniologica," 2so. 2. plate 7. fig. 1.
2 KciUar's Ins. inj. to Gardeners, &c. 254 — 2G2. There seems to be a considerable
resemblance between the "ambrosia" above mentioned and the globules of a kind
of " miicor," found by Smeathman and Konig in the nurseries of the African and
East Indian Termites, and still more the "gelatinous particles not unlike gum
arable," which Latreille observed in the galleries of Termes lucifugus in the trunks
of pines and oaks. (See Lkttek XVII. On Perfect Societies of Insects— White
Ants. 5 De Geer, iii. 262.
204 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.
remarkable in every other department of nature, — still more nearly ap-
proaches the habits of the hen in her care of her family. She absolutely
sits upon her eggs as if to hatch them — a fact which Frisch appears first
to have noticed — and guards them with the greatest care. De Geer,
having found an earwig thus occupied, removed her into a box where was
some earth, and scattered the eggs in all directions. She soon, however,
collected them one by one with her jaws into a heap, and assiduously
sat upon them as before. The young ones, which resemble the parent
except in wanting elytra and wings, and, strange to say, are as soon as
born larger than the eggs which contained them, immediately upon being
hatched creep like a brood of chickens under the belly of the mother, who
very quietly suffers them to push between her feet, and will often, as De
Geer found, sit over them in this posture for some hours.^ This remark-
able fact I have myself witnessed, having found an earwig under a stone
which I accidentally turned over, sitting upon a cluster of young ones,
just as this celebrated naturalist has described.
We are so accustomed to associate the ideas of cruelty and ferocity with
the name of spider, that to attribute parental affection to any of the tribe
seems at first view almost preposterous. Who, indeed, could suspect that
animals which greedily devour their own species whenever they have op-
portunity, should be susceptible of the finer feelings ? Yet such is the
fact. There is a spider common under clods of earth {Lycosa saccata)
which may at once be distinguished by a white globular silken bag about
the size of a pea, in which she has deposited her eggs, attached to the
extremity of her body. Never miser clung to his treasure with more
tenacious solicitude than this spider to her bag. Though apparently a
considerable incumbrance, she carries it with her everywhere. If you
deprive her of it, she makes the most strenuous efforts for its recovery ;
and no personal danger can force her to quit the precious load. Are her
efforts ineffectual ? a stupefying melancholy seems to seize her, and,
when deprived of this first object of her cares, existence itself appears to
have lost its charms. If she succeeds in regaining her bag, or you restore
it to her, her actions demonstrate the excess of her joy. She eagerly
seizes it, and with the utmost agility runs off with it to a place of security.
Bonnet put this wonderful attachment to an affecting and decisive test.
He threw a spider with her bag into the cavern of a large ant-lion, a fero-
cious insect which conceals itself at the bottom of a conical hole con-
structed in the sand for the purpose of catching any unfortunate victim
that may chance to fall in. The spider endeavoured to run away, but was
not sufficiently active to prevent the ant-lion from seizing her bag of eggs,
which it attempted to pull under the sand. She made the most violent
efforts to defeat the aim of her invisible foe, and on her part struggled with
all her might. The gluten, however, which fastened her bag, at length gave
way, and it separated : but the spider instantly regained it with her jaws,
and redoubled her efforts to rescue the prize from her opponent. It was
in vain : the ant-lion was the stronger of the two, and in spite of all her
struggles dragged the object of contestation under the sand. The unfor-
tunate mother might have preserved her own life from the enemy : she had
but to relinquish the bag, and escape out of the pit. But, wonderful
example of maternal affection ! she preferred allowing herself to be buried
» De Geer, iii. 548.
AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 205
nlivc along with the treasure dearer to her tlian her existence ; and it wag
only by force that Bonnet at length withdrew her from the unequal conflict.
But the bag of eggs remained witii the assassin: and though he pushed her
repeatedly with a twig of wood, she still persisted in continuing on the spot.
Life seemed to have become a burden to her, and all her pleasures to
have been buried in the grave which containeil the germ of her progeny ! ^
The attachment of this affectionate mother is not confined to her egf^s.
After the young s|)iders are hatched, they make their way out of the bag
by an orifice which she is careful to open for them, and without which
tlu'y could never escape* ; and then, like the young of the Surinam toad
( liana }>i/>a), they attach themselves in clusters upon her back, belly,
head, and even legs ; ami in this situation, where they present a very sin-
gular appearance, she carries them about with her and feeds them until
their first moult, when they are big enough to provide their own sub-
sistence. I have more than once been gratified by a sight of the former
part of this interesting spectacle ; and when I nearly touched the mother,
thus covered by hundreds of her progeny, it was most amusing to see them
all leap from her back and riui away in every direction.'
A similar attachment to their eggs and young is manifested by many
other species of the same tribe, particularly of the genera Lycosa and Dolo-
vicdes. Clubiona holosericea was found by De Geer in her nest with fifty
or sixty young ones, when manifesting nothing of her usual timidity, so
obstinately did she persist in remaining with them, that to drive her away
it was necessary to cut her whole nest in pieces.*
I must now conduct you to a hasty survey of those insects which live to-
gether in societies, and fabricate dwellings for the communitv, such as antSy
?rflr.v/w,ief. ?,//M7HA/c-Aecs, and to-7H//c5,whosegreat object (sometimes combined,
indeed, with the storing up of a stock of winter provisions for themselves)
is the nutrition and education of their young. Of the proceedings of manj-
of these insects we know comparatively nothing. There are, it is likelj-,
some hundreds of distinct species of bees which live in societies, and form
nests of a different and peculiar construction. The constitution of these
societies is probably as various as the exterior forms of their nests, and
their habits possibly curious in the highest degree; yet our knowledge is
almost confined to the economy of the hire-bee and of some species of
humble-bees. The same may be said of wasps, ants, and termites, of
which, though there is a vast variety of different kinds, w-e are acquainted
with the history of but a very few. You will not therefore expect more
than a sketch of the most interesting traits of affection for their younw
manifested by the common species of each genus.
1 Bonnet, ii. 435. 2 De Geer, vii. 194.
3 Dr. Heineken, whose zeal for Entomology as manifested by his vakiable communi-
ations in spite of ill health to the Zoological Journal shows how great a loss the science
sustained by his untimely death, states that having placed a large female Lycosa
covered with her young, just hatched, in a cage so constructed that they could quit
it while she could not, he fed her with flies for fifteen davs, but never observed her
to feed her young ones, nor them to quit their station on her body, nor to seem at
all interested or excited when she was engaged in eating. At length, fifteen davs
after their birth, they quitted the mother and escaped from the cage. Dr. Heineken,
however, admits that observations of this kind made on insects in confinement are
bv no means conclusive. (^ZooL Journ. v. 102.)
■* De Geer, vu. 2G8.
206 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.
One circumstance must be premised with regard to the education of the
young of most of those insects which Hve in society, truly extraordinary,
and without parallel in any other department of nature ; namely, that this
office, except under particular circumstances, is not undertaken by the
female which has given birth to them, but by the workers, or neuters, as
as they are sometimes called, which, though bound to the offspring of the
common mother of the society by no other than fraternal ties, exhibit to-
wards them all the marks of the most ardent parental affection, building
habitations for their use, feeding them, and tending them with incessant
solicitude, and willingly sacrificing their lives in defence of the precious
charge. Thus sterility itself is made an instrument of the preservation and
multiplication of species ; and females too fruitful to educate all their
young are indulged by Providence with a privilege without which nine
tenths of their progeny must perish.
The most determined despiser of insects and their concerns — he who
never deigned to open his eyes to any other part of their economy — must
yet have observed, even in spite of himself, the remarkable attachment
which the inhabitants of a disturbed nest of ants manifest towards certain
small white oblong bodies with which it is usually stored. He must have
perceived that the ants are much less intently occupied with providing for
their own safety, than in carrying off these little bodies to a place of
security. To effect this purpose the whole community is in motion, and
no danger can divert them from attempting its accomplishment. An
observer having cut an ant in two, the poor mutilated animal did not relax
in its affectionate exertions. With that half of the body to which the head
remained attached it contrived previously to expiring to carry off ten of
these white masses into the interior of the nest I You will readily divine
that these attractive objects are the young of the ants in one of the first
or imperfect states. They are, in fact, not the eggs, as they are vulgarly
called, but the pup^e, which the working ants tend with the most patient
assiduity. But I must give you a more detailed account of their opera-
tions, beginning with the actual eggs.
These, which are so small as to be scarcely visible to the naked eye, as
soon as deposited by the queen ant, who drops them at random in her
progress through the nest, are taken charge of by the workers, who im-
mediately seize them and carry them in their mouths, in small parcels,
incessantly turning them backwards and forwards with their tongue for the
purpose of moistening them, without which they would come to nothing.
They then lay them in heaps, which they place in separate apartments ^,
and constantly tend until hatched into larvae ; frequently in the course of
the day removing them from one quarter of the nest to another, as they
require a warmer or cooler, a moister or drier atmosphere ; and at intervals
brooding over them as if to impart a genial warmth.'^ Experiments have
been made to ascertain whether these assiduous nurses could distinguish
their eggs if intermixed with particles of salt and sugar, which, to an ordi-
nary observer, they very much resemble ; but the result was constantly
in favour of the sagacity of the ants. They invariably selected the eggs
from whatever materials they were mixed with, and re-arranged them as
before.^
1 Huber, 69. 2 De Geer, ii. 1099. 5 Gould, 37.
AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 207
New and more severe labours succeed the birth of the younc <jrubs
whicli are disclosed from the eggs alter a few days. The workin" ants are
now ahnost without remission engaged in supplying their wants and for-
warding their growth. Every evening an hour before sunset they regularly
remove the whole brood, as well as the eggs and pup;c, which in an old
nest all require attention at the same time, to cells situated lower down in
the earth, where they will be safe from the cold ; and in the morning they
as constantly remove them again towards the surface of the nest. If,
however, there is a prospect of cold or wet weather, the provident ants
forbear on that day transporting their young from the inner cells, aware
that their tender frames are unable to withstand an inclement sky. What
is particularly worthy of notice in this herculean task, the ants constantly
regulate their proceedings by the sun, removing their young according to the
earlier or later rising and setting of that luminary. As soon as his first rays
begin to shine on the exterior of the nest, the ants that are at the top go
below in great haste to rouse their companions, whom they strike wiUi
their antenna;, or, when they do not seem to comprehend them, dra" with
their jaws to the summit till a swarm of busy labourers fill every passage.
These take up the larvae and pupce, which they hastily transport to the
u[)per part of their habitation, where they leave them a quarter of an hour,
and then carry them into apartments where they are sheltered from the
sun's direct rays.^
Severe as this constant and unremitted daily labour seems, it is but a
small part of what the affection of the working ants leads them readily to
undertake. The fecdmg of the young brood, which rests solely upon tliem,
is a more serious charge. The nest is constantly stored with larvte the
year round, during all which time, except in winter when the whole society
is torpid, they require feeding several times a day with a viscid half-
digested fluid that the workers disgorge into their mouths, which when
hungry they stretch out to meet those of their nurses. Add to which, that
in an old nest there are generally two distinct broods of different ages re-
quiring separate attention, and that the observations of Uuber make it
probable that at one period they require a more substantial food than at
another. It is true that the youngest brood at first want but little nutri-
ment ; but still, when we consider that they must not be neglected, that
the older brood demand incessant supplies, and in a well stocked nest
amount to 7000 or 8000, and that the task of satisfying all these cravings,
as well as providing for their own subsistence, falls to the lot of the work-
ing ants, we are almost ready to regard the burden as greater than can be
borne by such minute agents ; and we shall not wonder at the incessant
activity with which we see them foraging on every side.
Their labour does not end here. It is necessary that the larvae should
be kept extremely clean ; and for this purpose the ants are perpetually
passing their tongue and mandibles over their body, rendering them by
this means perfectly white.'^ After the young grubs have attained their
full growth, they surround themselves with a silken cocoon and become
puptr, which, food excepted, require as much attention as in the larva
state. Every morning they are transported from the bottom of the nest
to the surface, and every evening returned to their former quarters. And
if, as is often the case, the nest be thrown into ruins by the unlucky foot
» Ilubcr, 74. 3 Ibid. 78.
208 AFPECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.
of a passing animal, in addition to all these daily and hourly avocations is
superadded the immediate necessity of collecting the pupae from the earth
with which they have been mixed, and of restoring the nest to its pristine
state.^
Nothing can be more curious than the view of the interior of a fully
peopled ants' nest in summer. In one part are stored the eggs ; in
another the pupae are heaped up by hundreds in spacious apartments ;
and in a third we see the larvae surrounded by the workers, some of
which feed them, while others keep guard, standing erect upon their hind
legs with their abdomen elevated in the position for ejaculating their acid,
than which, gunpowder would not be more formidable to the majority of
their foes. Some again are occupied in cleaning the alleys from obstruc-
tions of various kinds ; and others rest in perfect repose, recruiting their
strength for new labours.
Contrary to what is observed amongst other insects, even the extrica-
tion of the young ants from the silken cocoon which incloses them is im-
posed upon the workers, who are taught, by some sensation to us incom-
prehensible, that the perfect insect is now ready to burst from the shroud,
but too weak to effect its purpose unaided. When the workers discover
that this period has arrived, a great bustle prevails in their apartment.
Three or four mount upon one cocoon, and with their mandibles begin to
open it where the head lies. First they pull off a few threads to render
the place thinner ; they then make several small openings, and with great
patience cut the threads which separate them, one by one, till an orifice
is formed sufficiently large for extricating the prisoner ; which operation
they perform with the utmost gentleness. The ant is still enveloped in
its pellicle; this the workers also pull off, carefully disengaging every
member from its case, and nicely expanding the wings of such as are fur-
nished with them. After thus liberating and afterwards feeding the new-
born insects, they still for several days watch and follow them everywhere,
teaching them to unravel the paths and winding labyrinths of the common
habitation- ; and when the males and females at length take flight, these
affectionate stepmothers accompany them, mounting with them to the
summit of the highest herbs, showing the most tender solicitude for them
(some even endeavour to retain them), feeding them for the last time,
caressing them ; and at length, when they rise into the air and disappear,
seeming to linger tor some seconds over the footsteps of these favoured
beings, of whom they have taken such exemplary care, and whom they will
never behold again.*
In the above account, exclusive of the bare fact of their laying the eggs,
no mention is made of the female ants, the real parents of the republic.
You are not from this to suppose that they never feel the influence of this
divine principle of love for their offspring. When, indeed, a colony is
estabhshed and peopled, they have enough to do to furnish it with eggs
J- The Russian shepherds ingeniously avail themselves of the attachment of ants
to their young, for obtaining with little trouble a collection of the pupa», which they
sell as a dainty food for nightingales. They scatter an ants' nest upon a dry plot of
ground, surrounded with a shallow trench of water, and place on one side of it a few
fir branches. Under these the ants, having no other alternative, carefully arrange
all their pupfe, and in an hour or two the shepherd finds a large^heap clean and
readv for market. Anderson's Recreations in Agriculture, &c. iv. 168.
2 JFIuber, 83. s Ibid. 93.
AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 209
to produce its necessary supply of future females, males, and workers,
wliich, according to Ciould, arc laid at three different seasons.' This is
the ordinary duty assigned to them by Providence. Yet at the first for-
mation of a nest, the female acts the kind part, and |)erf()rms all the
maternal ofliccs which I have just described as peculiar to tlie workers ;
and it is only when these become sufficiently numerous to relieve her,
that she resigns this charge and devotes herself exclusively to oviposi-
tion.'-
There is one circumstance occurring at this period of their history
which affords a very affecting example of the self-denial and self-devotion
of these admirable creatures. If you have paid any attention to what is
going forward in ant hill, you will have observed some larger than the
rest, which at first sight appear, as well as the workers, to have no wings,
but which upon a closer examination exhibit a small portion of their base,
or the sockets in which they were inserted. These are females that have
cast their wings, not accitlentally but by a voluntan/ act. When an ant
of this sex first emerges from the pupa, she is adorned with two pairs of
wings, the upper or outer pair being larger than her body. With these,
when a virgin, she is enabled to traverse the fields of ether, surrounded bv
myriads of the other sex, who are candidates for her favour. But when
once connubial rites are celebrated, the unhap|)y husband dies, and the
widowed bride seeks only how she may provide for their mutual offspring.
Panting no more to join the choir of aerial dancers, her only thought
is to construct a subterranean abode in which she may deposit and
attend to her eggs, and cherish her embryo young till, having passed
through their various changes, they arrive at their perfect state, and she
can devolve upon them a portion of her maternal cares. Her ample wings,
wliich before were her chief ornament and the instruments of her pleasure,
are now an encumbrance which incommode her in the fidfilment of the
great duty u|)permost in her mind ; she therefore, without a moment's
hesitation, plucks them from her shouUlers. Might we not then address
females who have families, in words like those of Solomon, " Go to the
ant, ye mothers ; consider her ways, and be wise?"
M. P. Huber was more than once witness to this proceeding. He saw
one female stretch her wings with a strong effort so as to bring them before
her head — she then crossed them in all directions — next she reversed
them alternately on each side — at last, in consequence of some violent
contortions, the four wings fell at the same moment in his presence.
Another, in addition to these motions, used her legs to assist in the
work.^
Thus, from the very moment of the extrusion of the egg to the maturity
of the perfect insect, are the ants unremittingly occupied in the care of the
young of the society, and that with an ardour of affectionate attachment
to which, when its intensity and duration are taken into the account, we may
fairly say there is nothing parallel in the whole animal world.* Amongst
» p. 35. 2 Huber, 110.
3 Huber, 109. — Gould had, long before Huber, observed that female ants cast
their wings, pp. 59. 02. 64. I have frequently observed them, sometimes with only
one wing, at others with only fragments of the wings ; and again, at others they
were so completely pulled off, that it could not be known that they formerly had
them, only by the sockets in which they were inserted.
•* Huber, 93.
P
210 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.
birds and quadrupeds we have instances of affection as strong perhaps
while it lasts ; but how much shorter tiie period during which it is exerted !
In a month or two the young of the former require no further attention ;
and if in a state of nature some of the latter give suck to their offspring
for a longer period, it is on their parts without effort or labour ; and in
both cases the time given up to their young forms a very small part of the
life of the animal. But the little insects in question not only spend a greater
portion of time in the education of their progen}', but devote even
the whole of their existence, from their birth to their death, to this one
occupation !
The common hive-bee and the wasp in their attention to their young
exhibit the same general features. Both build for their reception hexa-
gonal cells, differing in size according to the future sex of the included
grubs, which as soon as hatched they both feed and assiduously tend
until their transformation into pupee. There are peculiarities, however, in
their modes of procedure, which require a distinct notice.
The economy of a nest of zvasps differs from that of bees, in that the
eggs are laid not by a single mother or queen, but by several ; and that
these mothers take the same care as the M'orkers in feeding the young
grubs : indeed those first hatched are fed entirely by the female which
produced them, the solitary founder of the colonj'. The sole survivor
probably of a last year's swarm of many thousands, this female, as soon as
revived by the warmth of spring, proceeds to construct a few cells, and
deposits in them the eggs of working wasps. The eggs are covered with
a gluten, which fixes them so strongly against the sides of the cells, that
it is not easy to separate them unbroken. These eggs seem to require
care from the time they are laid, for the wasps many times in a day put
their heads into the cells which contain them. When they are hatched,
it is amusing to witness the activit}' with which the female runs from cell
to cell, putting her head into those in which the grubs are very young,
while those that are more advanced in age thrust their heads out of their
cells, and by little movements seem to be asking for their food. As soon
as they receive their portion, the}' draw them back and remain quiet.
These she feeds until they become pupae ; and within twelve hours after
being excluded in their perfect state, they eagerly set to work in con-
structing fresh cells, and in lightening the burden of their parent by as-
sisting her in feeding the grubs of other workers and females which are by
this time born. In a few weeks the society will have received an ac-
cession of several hundred workers and many females, which without dis-
tinction apply themselves to provide food for the growing grubs, now
become exceedingly numerous. With this object in view, as they collect
little or no honey from flowers, they are constantly engaged in predator)'
expeditions. One party will attack a hive of bees, a grocer's sugar hogs-
head, or other saccharine repository; or, if these fail, the juice of a ripe
peach or pear. You will be less indignant than formerly at these auda-
cious robbers now you know that self is little considered in their attacks,
and that your ravaged fruit has supplied an exquisite banquet to the
most tender grubs of the nest, into whose extended mouths the successful
marauders, running with astonishing agility from one cell to another, dis-
gorge successively a small portion of their booty in the same way that a
bird supplies her young. ^ Another party is charged with providing more
1 See Wilhighby in Rai. Hist. Ins. 251. and Eeaum.
AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. ill
substantial aliment for the grubs of niaturcr growth. These wage war
upon bees, flies, ami even tlic meat of a butchers stall, and joyfully return
to the nest huleu with the well-filled bodies of tiie former, or pieces of
the latter as large as they can carry. Tliis solid food they distribute in
like manner to the larger grubs, which may be seen eagerly protruding
their heads out of the cells to receive the welcome meal. As wasps liiy
up no store of food \ these exertions are the task of every day during the
sununer, fresh broods of grubs constantly succeciling to those wiiich have
become pupa> or perfect insects ; and in autunui, when the colony is aug-
menteil to 20,000 or oO,000, and the grubs in proportion, the scene of
bustle which it presents may be readily conceived.
Though sncii is the love of wasps for their young, that if their nest be
broken almost entirely in jiieces they will not abandon it-, yet when the
cold weather approaches, a melancholy change ensues, followed by a cruel
catastrophe, which at first you will be apt to regard as ill comporting with
this aflectionate character. As soon as the first sharp frost of October
has been felt, the exterior of a was[)'s nest becomes a perfect scene of
horror. The old wasps drag out of the cells all the grubs and unrelent-
ingly destroy them, strewing their dead carcasses around the door of their
now desolate habitation. " What monsters of cruelty ! " I hear you ex-
claim, "what detestable barbarians I" But be not too hasty. When
you have coolly considered the circumstances of the case, you will view
this seemingly cruel sacrifice in a different light. The old wasps have no
stock of provisions : the benumbing hand of Winter is about to incapacitate
them from exertion ; while the season itself affords no supply. What
resource then is left ? Their young must linger on a short period, suf-
fering all the agonies of hunger, and at length expire. They have it in
their power at least to shorten the term of this misery — to cut off" its
bitterest moments. A sudden death by their own hands is comparatively
a merciful stroke. This is the only alternative ; and thus, in fact, this
apparent ferocity is the last effort of tender affection, active even to the
end of life, I do not mean to say that this train of reasoning actually
passes through the mind of the wasps. It is more correct to regard it as
liaving actuated the benevolent Author of the instinct so singularlv, and
without doubt so wisely, excited. Were a nest of wasps to siu'vive the
winter, they would increase so rapidly, that not only would all the bees,
flies, and other animals on which they prey, be extirjiated, but man him-
self find them a grievous pest. It is necessary, therefore, that the great
mass should annually perish ; but that they may suffer as little as possible,
the Creator, mindfiil of the lia[)piness of the smallest of his creatures, has
endowed a part of the society-, at the destined time, with the wonderful
instinct which, previously to their own death, makes them the executioners
of the rest.
1 There are, however, exceptions to this rule, as in the nests of some species of
Polistes, which fix them to trees, <i.c., are found about a dozen cells filled with honey
at the time tliese nests contain cells destined to receive the larvaj of females and of
males, which renders the opinion of M. Lepelletier de Saint-Fargcau probable, that
this honey is destined in part to nourisli the former and to exercise some influence on
the development of their genital organs. Polistes Leclieguana, found in Paraguay
and Monte Video, also stores up honey as before mentioned (Lacord;nre, Introd. a
I'Entom. ii. oil.), as does 3Jyrupetra scutdlaris, AVhite. {Aim. JS'at. Hist. vii. 'o'lO.)
* Keaum. vi. 174.
P 2
212 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.
Wasps in the construction of their nests have solely in view the accom-
modation of their young ones; and to these their cells are exclusively
devoted. Bees, on the contrary (I am speaking of the common hive-bee),
appropriate a considerable number of their cell.-; to tiie reception of honey
intended for the use of the society. Yet the education of the young
brood is their chief object ; and to this they constantly sacrifice all per-
sonal and selfish considerations. In a new swarm the first care is to
build a series of cells to serve as cradles ; and little or no honey is col-
lected until an ample store of bee-bread, as it is called, has been laid up
for their food. This bee-bread is composed of the pollen of flowers, which
the workers are incessantly employed in gathering, flying from flower to
flower, brushing from the stamens their yellow treasure, and collecting it
in the little baskets with which their hind legs are so admirably provided ;
then hastening to the hive, and having deposited their booty, returning for
a new load. The provision thus furnished by one set of labourers is care-
fully stored up by another, until the eggs which the queen-bee has laid,
and which, adhering by a glutinous covering, she places nearly upright in
the bottom of the cell, are hatched. Witli this bee-bread, after it has
undergone a conversion into a sort of whitish jelly by being received into
the bee's stomach, where it is probably mixed with honey ' and regurgi-
tated, the young brood immediately upon their exclusion, and until their
change into nymphs, are diligently fed by other bees, which anxiouslv
attend upon them and several times a dayafTord a fresh supply. Different
bees are seen successively to introduce their heads into the cells containing
them, and after remaining in that position some moments, during which
they replace the expended provision, pass on to those in the neighbour-
hood. Others often immediately succeed, and in like manner put in their
heads as if to see that the young ones have everything necessary ; which
being ascertained by a glance, they immediately proceed, and stop only
when they find a cell almost exhausted of food. That the office of these
purveyors is no very simple affair will be admitted, when it is understood
that the food of all the grubs is not the same, but that it varies according
to their age, being insipid when they are young, and, when they have
nearly attained maturity, more sugary and somewhat acid. The larvae
destined for queen-bees, too, require a food altogether different from that
appropriated to those of drones and workers. It may be recognised by
its sharp and pungent taste.
So accurately is the supply of food proportioned to the wants of the
larvae, that when they have attained their full growth and are ready to
become nymphs, not an atom is left unconsumed. At this period, intui-
tively known to their assiduous foster-parents, they terminate their cares
by sealing up each cell with a lid of wax, convex in those containing the
larvjE of drones, and nearly flat in those containing the larvae of workers,
beneath which the enclosed tenants spin in security their cocoon. In all
these labours neither the queen nor the drones take the slightest share.
They fall exclusively upon the workers, who, constantly called upon to
tend fresh broods, as those brought to maturity are disposed of, devote
nearly the whole of their existence to these maternal offices.
1 It is not unlikely that it may undergo some other alteration in the bee's sto-
mach, which may possibly secrete some peculiar substance, as John Hunter discovered
that the crop of the pigeon does.
AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 213
Hiimble-ht-cs \ which in respect of their general policy nuist, when com-
pared witii l)ccs aiui wasps, be regarded as rude ami untutored villagers,
exhibit, nevertheless, marks of affection to their ^oung (juite as strong as
their more polisheil neighbours. The females, like tho^jc of wasps, take
a considerable siiare in their education. When one of them has with
great labour constructed a commodious waxen cell, she next furnishes it
with a store of pollen moistened with honey ; and then, having dcfiosited
six or seven eggs, carefully closes the orifice and minutest interstices with
wax. But this is not the whole of her task. By a strange instinct, which,
however, may be necessary to keep the population within due bounds, the
workers, while she is occupied in laying her eggs, endeavoiu- to seize
them from her, and, if they succeed, greedily devour them. To prevent
this violence, her utmost activity is scarcely adequate ; and it is only
after she has again and again beat oft" the murderous intruders and pursued
them to the furthest verge of the nest, that she succeeds in her operation.
When finished, she is still under the necessity of closely guarding tiie cell,
which the gluttonous workers would otherwise tear open, and devour the
eggs. This duty she performs for six or eight hours with the vigilance of
an Argus, at the end of which time they lose their taste for this food, and
will not touch it even when presented to them. Here the labours of the
mother cease, and are succeeded by those of the workers. These know
the precise hour when the grubs have consumed their stock of food, and
from that time to their maturity regularly feed them with either honey or
pollen, introduced in their proboscis through a small hole in the cover of
the cell opened for the occasion and then carefully closed.
They are equally assiduous in another operation. As the grubs increase
in size, the cell which contained them becomes too small, and in their
exertions to be more at ease they split its thin sides. To fill up these
breaches as fast as they occur with a j)atch of wax is the office of the
workers, who are constantly on the watch to discover when their services
are wanted ; and thus the cells daily increase in size, in a way which to
an observer ignorant of the process seems very extraordinary.
The last duty of these affectionate foster-parents is to assist the young
bees in cutting open the cocoons which have enclosed them in the state
of pupcc. A [)revious labour, however, must not be omitted. The -workers
adopt similar measures with the hive-bee for maintaining the young pupse
concealed in these cocoons in a genial temperature. In cold weather and
at night they get upon them and impart the necessary warmth by brooding
over them in clusters.' Connected with this part of their domestic eco-
1 Dr. Jolmson was ignorant of the etymology of this word. It is clearly derived
from the German Hummel or Hummel Bieiie, a name probably given it from its
sound. Our Englisli name would be more significant were it altered to Hum-
ming-bee or Booming-bee.
2 A new and very remarkable fact observed by Mr. Newport, and communicated
in his valuable paper on the temperature of insects, is that in the process of incuba-
tion above referred to, especially that adopted ten or twelve hours before the nymph
makes its appearance as a perfect humble-bee, the required augmentation of lieat is
produced by the nurse or brooding-bees voluntarily increasing the number of their
respirations, which at first are very gradual, but become more and more frequent
mitil they reacli sometimes I'-'O or 130 per minute ; and ]\Ir. xsewport lias seen a bee
on the combs continue perseveringly to respire at this rate for eight or ten hours till
its temperature was greatly increased and its body bathed in perspiration, when she
would generally discontinue her office for a time, and an individual occasionally talie
P 3
214 AFFECTIOI^ OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.
nomy, M. P. Huber, a worthy scion of a celebrated stock, and an inheritor
of the science and merits of the great Huber as well as of his name, in his
excellent paper on these insects in the sixth volume of the Linnean Trans-
actions, from which most of these facts are drawn, relates a singularly
curious anecdote.
In the course of his ingenious and numerous experiments, M. Huber
put under a bell-glass about a dozen humble-bees without any store of
wax, along with a comb of about ten silken cocoons so unequal in height
that it was impossible the mass should stand firmly. Its unsteadiness dis-
quieted the humble-bees extremely. Their affection for their young led
them to mount upon the cocoons for the sake of imparting warmth to the
enclosed little ones, but in attempting this the comb tottered so violently
that the scheme was almost impracticable. To remedy this inconvenience,
and to make the comb steady, they had recourse to a most ingenious
expedient. Two or three bees got upon the comb, stretched themselves
over its edge, and with their heads downwards fixed their fore feet on the
table upon which it stood, whilst with their hind feet they kept it from
falling. In this constrained and painful posture, fresh bees relieving their
comrades when weary, did these affectionate little insects support the
comb for nearly three days. At the end of this period they had prepared
a sufficiency of wax, with which they built pillars that kept it in a firm
position : but by some accident afterwards these got displaced, when they
had again recourse to their former manceuvre for supplying their place ;
and this operation they perseveringly continued until M. Huber, pitying
their hard case, relieved them by fixing the object of their attention firmly
on the table. ^
It is impossible not to be struck with the reflection that this most sin-
gular fact is inexplicable on the supposition that insects are impelled to
their operations by a blind instinct alone. How could mere machines
have thus provided for a case which in a state of nature has probably
never occurred to ten nests of humble-bees since the creation? If in this
instance these little animals were not guided by a process of reasoning,
what is the distinction between reason and instinct? How could the
most profound architect have better adapted the means to the end — how
more dexterously shored up a tottering edifice, until his beams and his
props were in readiness ?
With respect to the operations of the termites or white ants in rearing
their young I have not much to observe. All that is known is, that they
build commodious cells for their reception, into which the eggs of the
queen are conveyed by the workers as soon as laid, and where when
hatched they are assiduously fed by them until they are able to provide
for themselves.
In concluding this subject, it may not be superfluous to advert to an ob-
jection which is sometimes thrown out against regarding with any parti-
her place. From an observation made at noon, July 13., he found that while the
thermometer stood at 7U''-2 in the external air, and at 80^'2 on the tops of the cells
of the hive not brooded on, it stood at 92''-5 when placed in contact with the bodies
of the incubating nurse-bees, which thus by their voluntary rapid respiration im-
parted an additional heat of li^-S to the enclosed nymph. (^Phil. Trans. 1837,
p. 296.)
1 Linn. Trans, vi. 247, &c.
AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 215
ciilar synipatliy the affection of the lower animals to their yonng, on the
grouiul that this t'oclini; is in them the result of corporeal sensation only,
and wholly different from tiiat love which human parents feel for their
offspring. It is true that the latter involves moral considerations which
cannot have place in the brute creation ; but it would puzzle such ob-
jectors to explain in what respect the affection which a mother feels for
her new-born infant the moment it has seen the light differs from that of
an insect for its |)rogeny. The affection of both is purely physical, and in
each case springs from sensations interwoven by the Creator in the con-
stitution of his creatures. If the parental love of the former is worthy of
our tenderest sympathies, that of the latter cannot be undeserving of some
portion of similar feeling.
I am, &c.
P 4
216
LETTER XII. .
ON THE FOOD OF INSECTS.
Insects, like other animals, draw their food from the vegetable and animal
kingdoms ; but a very slight survey will suffice to show that they enjoy a
range over far more extensive territories.
To begin with the vegetable kingdom. — Of this vast field the larger
animals are confined to a comparatively small portion. Of the thousands
of plants which clothe the face of the earth, when we have separated the
grasses and a trifling number of herbs and shrubs, the rest are disgusting
to them, if not absolute poisons. But how infinitely more plenteous is
the feast to which Flora invites the insect tribes ! From the gigantic
banyan which covers acres with its shade, to the tiny fungus scarcely visible
to the naked eye, the vegetable creation is one vast banquet at which her
insect guests sit down. Perhaps not a single plant exists which does not
afford a delicious food to some insect, not excluding even those most nau-
seous and poisonous to other animals — the acrid euphorbias, and the
lurid henbane and nightshade. Nor is it a presumptuous supposition, that
a considerable proportion of these vegetables were created expressly for
their entertainment and support. The common neti/e is of little use either
to mankind or the larger animals ; but you will not doubt its importance
to the class of insects, when told that at least thirty distinct species feed
upon it ; and however important the oak may be to us, it is still more so
to the insect world, of which Rcisel calculated that two hundred species
either feed upon it, or upon other insects which do. But this is not all.
The larger herbivorous animals are confined to a foliaceous or farinaceous
diet. They can subsist on no other part of a plant than its leaves and
seeds, either in a recent or dried state, with the addition sometimes of the
tender twigs or bark. Not so the insect race, to different tribes of which
everv jiart of a plant supplies appropriate food. Some attack its roots ;
others select the trunk and branches ; a third class feed upon the leaves ;
a fourth, with yet more delicate appetite, prefer the flowers ; and a fifth
the fruit or seeds. Even still further selection takes place. Of those
which feed upon the roots, stem, and branches of vegetables, some
larvae eat only the bark ; others both the inner bark and alburnum (Sco-
/i/tus,&ic.) ; others the exuding resinous or other excretions (^Orthotcenia
resineUa) ; a third class the pith (^^ger'i/i tipulformis) ; and a fourth pe-
netrate into the heart of the solid wood (Priunus, Lamia, Cerambt/x, &c.).
Of those which prefer the leaves, some taste nothing but the sap which
fills their veins (^Aphides in all their states) ; others eat only the paren-
chyma, never touching the cuticle (subcutaneous Tinecs) ; others only the
lower surface of the leaf (many Tortrices) ; while a fourth description de-
vour the whole substance of the leaf (most Lepidoptcra). And of the flower-
FOOD OF IN^CTS. 217
feeders, while some eat tlie very p&ttih {(SicuU'Kt Vcrbnxci, Xi/Hna Liiiarui;
6:c.); others in their perfect state select the |)ollen which swells the anthers
(bees, Lrp/iiru\ and j\ lor del he) ; and a still lartjer class of these the honey
secreted in the nectaries (n)ost of the Lcpuhptera, Hi/mnwpUra, and
Dipttra ).
Nor are insects confined to vegetables in their recent or unmanufactured
state. A beam of oak, when it has supported the roof of a castle five
hundred years, is as much to the taste of some (Anobia) as the same tree
was in its growing state to tliat of others ; another class (Piini) would
sooner feast on the herbarium of Bruufelsius than on the greenest herbs
that grow ; and a third (some Tinea', Termites), to whom
" a river and a sea
Are a ilish of tea,
And a kingdom bread and butter,"
would prefer the geographical treasures of Saxton or Speed, in spite of
their ink and alum, to the freshest rind of the flax plant. The larva of
a little fly {Oscinis cellaris), whose economy, as I can witness from rny
my own observations, is admirably described by Mentzelius ', disdains to
feed on anytiiing but wine or beer, which, like Boniface in the plav, it may
be said both to eat and drink ; though, uidike its toping counterpart, in-
different to the age of its liquor, which, whether sweet or sour, is equally
acceptable.
A iliversity of food almost as great may be boasted by the insects which
feed on animal substances. Some (flesh-flies, carrion-beetles, &c.) devour
dead carcasses only, which they will not touch until imbued with the haul
gout of putridity. Others, like Mr. Bruce's Abyssinians, preferring their
meat before it has passed through the hands of the butcher, select it from
living victims, and may with justice pride themselves upon the peculiar
freshness of their diet. Of these last, diflTerent tribes follow different pro-
cedures. The Ichneinnons devour the flesh of the insects into which they
have insinuated themselves. Some of the CEstri, fixed in a spacious apart-
ment beneath the skin of an ox or deer, regale themselves on a purulent
secretion with which they are surrounded. Others of the same tribe,
partial to a higher temperature, attach themselves to the interior of the
stomach of a horse, and in a bath of chyme of 102 degrees of Fahrenheit
revel on its juices. The various species of horse-flies dart their sharp
lancets into the veins of quadrupeds, and satiate themselves in living
streams ; while the gnat, the flea, the bug, and the louse, plunge their pro-
boscis even into those of us lorils of the creation, and ban(juet on " the
ruddy drops which warm our hearts." Some make their repast upon birds
only, as the fly of the swallow, and other Ornitliomijia;, and tiie bird-louse ;
insects nearly allied, though one is dipterous and the other apterous.
And a most singular animal belonging to the latter tribe (Xi/rtcridia Ves-
pertiliouis) revenges upon the b;it its ravages of the msect world " ; while
snails give subsistence to Drilus Jtavesecns, a beetle, and its singular apte-
rous female, in the larva state, as well as to the larva; of glow-worms.^
1 Ephem. German. Ann. sii. Obs. 58. Ray, Ilist. Ins. 2G1.
- Linn. Trans, xi. 11. t. 3. f. 5 — 7.
3 Desmarest and Audouin iu Ann. des Sciences Nat. i. 67. ii. 129. 443. vii. 353. ;
quoted in Burmeister's Manual of Ent. p. 552.
218 FOOD OF INSECTS.
Another numerous class kill their prey outright, either devouring its solid
parts, as the predaceous and rove-beetles, &c., or imbibing its juices only,
as the infinite hordes of the field-bug tribe. And the larvae of the gnat,
chameleon (St}'at^o)nis), and other flies aquatic in that state, the leviathans
of the world of animalcules, swallow whole hosts of these minute inhabi-
tants of pools and ponds at a gulp, causing, with their oral apparatus, a
vortex in the water, down which myriads of victims are incessantly hurried
into their destructive maw.
But not only animals themselves, almost every animal substance that can
be named, is the appropriate food of some insect. Multitudes find a de-
licious nutriment in excrements of various kinds. Matters apparently so
indigestible as hair, wool and leather, are the sole food of many moths in
the larva state (Tinea tapetzel/a, pel/ionella, &c.). Even feathers are not
rejected by others ; and the grub of a beetle (Anthreniis Musceorum), with
powers of stomach which the dyspeptic sufferer may envy, will live luxuri-
ously upon horn.^
For the most part, insects feeding upon animal substances will not touch
vegetables, and luce versa. You must not, however, take the rule without
exceptions. Many caterpillars (as those of Thyatira derasa, Chariclea
Dtlphhiii, &c.), though plarirk are their proper food, will occasionally de-
vour other caterpillars, and sometimes even their own species- The large
green grasshopper {Acricia viridhsima), and probably others of the Order,
will eat smaller insects as well as its usual vegetable food - ; so also will
the larvas of many Fhryganea: . Allantus marginellus, as I was last summer
amused by witnessing, like many Scntophagcs, sips the nectar of umbel-
liferous plants only till a fly comes within its reach, pouncing upon which
it gladly quits its vegetable for an animal repast. Anobium pmiiceuiii, which
ordinarily feeds upon biscuit, was, as I have before mentioned, once found
by Mr. Sheppard, in great abundance living upon the dried Cantharides
(Cantharis vesicatoria) of the shops. On the other hand, Necrophorns
mortuorum, which subsists on carcasses, and many other carnivorous
species, will make a hearty meal of a putrid fungus. Ptinus Fur devours
indifferently dried birds or plants, not refusing even tobacco ; and from
the impossibility that one of a million of the innumerable swarms of gnats
which abound in swampy places, particularly in regions which but for them
would be lost to sensitive existence, should ever taste blood, it seems clear
that they are usually contented with vegetable aliment. Indeed the males,
as well as those of the horse-fly, of which even the females readily imbibed
the sugared fluid offered to them by Reaumur^, never suck blood at all;
so that they must either feed on vegetable matter, which in fact I have ob-
served them do, or fast during their whole existence in the perfect
state.
Though insects, generally considered, have thus a much more extensive
bill of fare than the larger animals, each individual species is commonly
limited to a more restricted diet. Many both of animal and vegetable
feeders are absolutely confined to one kind of food, and cannot exist upon
any other. The larva of CEstnis Equi can subsist no where but in the
stomach of the horse or ass; which animals, therefore, this insect might
boast with some show of reason to have been created for its use rather than
1 De Geer, iv. 210. 2 Brahm, Insekien Kalender, i. 190.
3 Eeaum. iv. 280,
FOOD OF INSECTS. 219
for ours, being to us useful only, but to it indispensable. The larvae of
Sccevn Pi/rastri, according to Do (iecr, eat no otlier Ap/iis but that of the
rose.' Most Iclinrumons and Splicrbin prey each u])ou a siuijle species
of insect only, wliich therefore tliey would seem to iiave lieen tbrnied for
the cx|)rcss purpose of keeping vvitliiu due limits. Reauuuu' mentions
having once fomul in a parcel of decaying wood the nests of six different
kinds of tlie latter tribe, eacii of which was filled with flies of a distinct
species.^ Ccrccris niirifus and Pliilaiithus luius in the larva state feed solely
on tile weevil tribe of Cok-optcra, the latter being restricteil even to the
short-rostriuned family, as Otiorhi/nclius rauciis, ikc.^ ; while Bemhex
rostmta, another hymenopterous insect, selects flies, as Musca Cccsar,
&c.^
A very large proportion of species, however, are able to subsist on seve-
ral kinds of food. Amongst the carnivorous tribes, it is inditterent to most
of tilo^e which prey upon putrid substances from what source they have
been derived : and the predaceous insects, such as the Ijihellulina, 'J'clc-
plionis, Ell) pis, the Aiviiieida; &c., will attack most smaller insects inferior
to them in strength, not excepting in many instances their own species.
The wax-moth larva {Gallcriu Cercana) will for want of wax eat paper,
waters, wool, &c.^ J ,\x\oihcv Tinea described by Reaumur, and before ad-
verted to, attacks chocolate '\ which cannot have been its natural fooil,
even selecting that most highly perfumed ; and the Tinece which devour
dressed wool, but happily for the farmer and wool-stapler refuse it when
unwashed, must have existed when no manufactured wool was accessible.
The vegetable feeders are under greater restrictions, yet probably the majo-
rity can subsist on different kinds of food. This is certainly true of most
lepidopterous larva?, several of which, as well as many Colroptera (^Haltica
olcmcea. Sec), are polyphagous, eating almost every plant. It is worthy of
remark, however, that when some of these have fed for a time on one
plant they will die rather than eat another, which would have been per-
fectly acceptable to them if accustomed to it from the first." Here too it
must be borne in mind, that by far the greater part of insects feed upon
different substances in their different states of existence, eating one kind
of food in the larva and another in the imago state. This is the case with
the whole order Lepidoptcra, which in the former eat plants chiefly, in
the latter nothing but honey or the sweet juices of fruit, which they have
often been observed to imbibe ; and the same rule obtains also in regard to
most dipterous anci hymenopterous insects. Those which eat one kind of
food in both states are chiefly of the remaining orders.
I have said that insects, like other animals, draw their subsistence from
the vegetable or animal kingdoms. But I ought not to omit noticing that
some authors have conceived that several species feed upon mineral sub-
stances.^ Not to dwell upon Barchewitz's idle tale of East Indian ants
1 DeGeer, vi. 112.
2 Keaum. vi. 271.; and M. L. Dufour has recently described a species of sand-
wasp ( Cerceris) which selects various species of Buprestis as the food of its progeny,
some of which are of the greatest rarity to collectors.
^ Entomnlogisvhe Beiiierkmigen (Braunschweig, 1799), p. G.
■* Latreille, Ohs. sur les Hyinenoptires. Ann. de Mus. xiv. 412.
5 Reauni. iii. 257. 6 \\^\Cl. iii. 277. 7 ibid. ii. 324.
8 For an instance in which an insect, usually subsisting upon animal food,
derived nutriment from a mineral substance, see Phitos. Mag. &c. for January
1»23.
220 FOOD OF INSECTS.
which eat iron^, or on the stone-eating caterpillars recorded in the Memoirs
of the French Academy^, which are now known to erode the walls on
which they are found solely for the purpose of forming their cocoons,
Reaumur and Swammerdam have both stated the food of the larvae of
Epheinerce to be earth, that being the only substance ever found in the
stomachs and intestines, which are filled with it. This supposition, which
if correct renders invalid the definition by which Mirbel (and my friend
Dr. Alderson of Hull long before him) proposed to distinguish the animal
and vegetable kingdoms, is certainly not inadmissible ; for, though we might
not be inclined to give much weight to Father Paulian's history of a Hint-
eater who digested flints and stone*, the testimony of Humboldt seems to
prove that the human race is capable of drawing nutriment from earth,
which, if the odious Ottomaques can digest and assimilate, ma)' doubtless
afford support to the larvae of Ephemerae. Yet, after all, it is perhaps
more probable that these insects feed on the decaying vegetable matter
intermixed with the earth in which they reside, from which after being
swallowed it is extracted by the action of the stomach : like the sand that,
from being found in a similar situation, Borelli erroneously supposed to be
the food of many Testacea, though in fact a mere extraneous substance.
The majority of insects, either imbibing their food in a liquid state, or
feeding on succulent substances, require no aqueous fluid for diluting it.
Water, however, is essential to bees, ants, and some other tribes, which
drink it with avidity ; as well as in warm climates to many Lejndoptera,
which are there chiefly taken in court-yards, near the margins of drains,
&C.'* Even some larvae which feed upon juicy leaves have been observed
to swallow drops of dew; and one of them (Odonesfis potatoria), which
(according to Goedart) after drinking lifts up its head like a hen, has re-
ceived its name from this circumstance. That it is not the mere want of
succulency in the food which induces the necessity of drink is plain from
those larvae which live entirely on substances so dry that it is almost un-
accountable whence the juices of their body are derived. The grub of an
Anob'mm will feed for months upon a chair that has been baking before the
fire for half a century, and from which even the chemist's retort could
scarcely extract a drop of moisture ; and will yet have its body as well
filled with fluids as that of a leaf-fed caterpillar.
By far the greater part of insects always feed themselves. The young,
however, of those which live in societies, as the hive and humble-bees,
wasps, ants, «S;c., are fed by the older inhabitants of tha community, which
also frequently feed each other. Many of these last insects are distin-
guished from the majority of their race, which live from day to day and
take no thought for the morrow, by the circumstance of storing up food.
Of those which feed themselves, the larger proportion have imposed upon
them the task of providing for their own wants ; but the tribe of Spheges,
wild bees, and some others, are furnished in the larva state by the parent
insect with a supply of food sufficient for their consumption until they
have attained maturity.
J Lesser, L. i. 2.59. 2 x. 458, ^ Dictionnaire Physique.
•* Mr. Doubleday has observed the habit which butterflies have of settling on
damp mud on road sides in the United States, where they congregate in groups,
sometimes htcrally consisting of hundreds of individuals clustered together on a
few yards of mud (Westwood, Arc. Ent. i. p. 144.). The same habit may occa-
sionally be noticed in this country.
FOOD OP INSECTS. 221
As to their time of feeding, insects may be diviiicil into three great
classes : the day-feeders, the iiiizht-fceders, and tliose wliich feed indif-
fcrentlv at all times. You have been apt to think, I dare say, that when
the sun's warmer beams have waked the insect youth, and
" Ten thousand forms, ten thousnnd diUcrent tribes,
People the blaze,"
yon see before yon the whole insect world. You are not aware that a
host as ninnerons shun the i;larc of day, and, like the votaries of fashion,
rise not from their couch until their more vulgar brethren have retired to
rest. While the painted butterfly, the " fervent bees," and the quivering
nations of flies, which sport
" Thick in yon stream of licjht, a thousand ways,
Upwaril and downward thwarting and convolved,"
love to bask in the sun's brightest rays, and search for their food amidst
his noontide fervour, an immense multitude stir not before the sober time
of twilight, and eat only when night has overshadowed the earth. Then
only the vast tribe of moths quit their hiding-places; the shard- born'
beetle with his drowsy hum," accompanied by numerous others of his
order, sallies forth ; the airy gnat-flies institute their dances ; and the soli-
tary spider stretches his net. All these retire into concealment at the
approach of light. Some few Inrvx (Agrofis exdnwafioms, Sec) have simi-
lar habits, anil those of one singular genus before adverted to (^Ntjctcrobins')
are remarkable for providing in the night a store of food which they con-
sume in the day : but to the generality of these the period of feeding is
indifferent, and most of them seem to eat with little intermission night Jind
day.
Insects, like other animals, take in their food by the mouth (in Chermcs
and Coccus, intleed, the rostrimi seems to be, but really is not, inserted in
the breast, between the fore-legs); but there is one exception to this rule.
The singular Uropoda vegetans, which is such a plague to some beetles,
derives its nutriment from them by means of a filiform pedicle or umbilical
cord attached to its anus ; and what increases the singularity, sometimes
several of these mites form a kind of chain, of which the first only is fi.Ked
J In the controversy between the commentators on Shakespeare, as to whether
sharrl * means wng-cases, dung, or a fragment of earthenware, and whether bom
should be spelled with or without the e, it might have thrown some weight into the
scale of those who contend for the orthography adopted above, and that the meaning
of shard in this place is dung, if they had been aware that the beetle {Gentrupes
strrcorarius) is actually horn amongst dung, and no where else; and that no
beetle which makes a hum in flying can with propriety be said, as Dr. Johnson has
interpreted the epithet in his Dictionary, " to be born amongst broken stones or
pots." That Shakespeare alluded to the Beetle, and not to the Cockchafer (i)/e/o-
lontlia vulgaris), seems clear from the fact of the former being to be heard in all
places almost every fine evening in the summer, while the latter is common only iu
l)articular districts, and at one period of the year. — S.
* Sham is the common name of cow-dung in the North ; therefore Shakes-
peare probably wrote s/iorH-born. (3/r. MacLeny.') See for various authorities on
this question a note by Mr. Bennett in the Znoligical Journal, v. 11)8. ; and Mr.
I'atterson's "Letters on the Natural History of the Insects mentioned in Shake-
speare's Plays."
222 FOOD OF INSECTS.
by its pedicle to the beetle, each of the remainder being similarly connected
with the one that precedes it ; so that the nutriment drawn from the
beetle passes to the last through the bodies and umbilical cords of the
individuals which are intermediate.^ Some have regarded these bodies as
true eggs ; and their analogy with the pedunculated eggs of Trombidiutn
aquaticum, which also seem to derive nourishment from the water-boatmen,
&c., to which they are fixed, and still more the circumstance of their ulti-
mately losing their pedicle and detaching themselves from the infested
beetles, give plausibility to the idea. Yet these animals are certainly fur-
nished with feet, and have, according to De Geer^ a part resembling a
mouth — characters which cannot be attributed to any egg.
In the variety of their instruments of nutrition, which you must bear in
mind are often quite different in the larva and perfect states, insects leave all
other animals far behind. In common with them, a vast number (the orders
Coleoptera, Hymenoptera^ and Orthoptera, and the larvae of Lejndojjtera,
some Di'ptern, &c.) are furnished with jaws, but of very different construc-
tions, and all admirably adapted for their intended services ; some sharp,
and armed with spines and branches for tearing flesh, others hooked for
seizing, and at the same time hollow for suction ; some calculated like
shears for gnawing leaves, others more resembling grindstones, of a
strength and solidity sufficient to reduce the hardest wood to powder : and
this singularity attends the major part of these insects, that they possess
in fact two pairs of jaws, an upper and an under pair, both placed horizon-
tall}', not vertically ; the former apparently in most cases for the seizure
and mastication of their prey ; the latter, when hooked, for retaining and
tearing, while the upper comminute it previously to its being swallowed.
To the remainder of the class of insects, a mighty host, jaws would have
been useless. Their refined liquid food requires instruments of a different
construction, and with these they are profusely furnished. The innume-
rable tribes of moths and butterflies eat nothing but the honey secreted in
the nectaries of flowers, which are frequently situated at the bottom of a
tube of great length. They are accordingly provided with an organ exqui-
sitely fitted for its office — a slender tubular tongue, more or less long,
sometimes not shorter than three inches, but spirally convoluted when at
rest, hke the mainspring of a watch, into a convenient compass. This
tongue, which they liave the power of instantly unrolling, they dart into
the bottom of a flower, and, as through a siphon, draw up a supply of the
delicious nectar on which they feed. A letter would scarcely suffice for
describing fully the admirable structure of this organ. I must content my-
self, therefore, with here briefly observing that it is of a cartilaginous
substance, and apparently composed of a series of innumerable rings,
which, to be capable of such rapid convolution, must be moved by an
equal number of distinct muscles ; and that, though seemingly simple, it is
in fact composed of three distinct tubes — the two lateral ones cylin-
drical and entire, intended, as Reaumur thinks, for the reception of air,
and the intermediate one, through which alone the honey is conveyed,
nearly square, and formed of two separate grooves projecting from the
lateral tubes ; which grooves, by means of a most curious apparatus of
hooks Hke those in the laminEeof a feather, inosculate into each other, and
1 De Geer, vii. 123. 2 id. ibid. 126.
FOOD OF INSECTS. 223
can be either uniteil into an air-tight canal, or be instantly separated, at the
pleasure of the insect.'
Anotlier numerous race, the whole of the onlcr Hiinip/cra, ai)stract tiie
juices of [)lauts or of animals by means of an instrument of a construction
altoijethcr ilirt'erent — a hollow grooveil beak, often jointed, and containing
four bristU-formed lancets, which at the same time that they pierce the
food, apjily to each other so accurately as to form one air-tight tube,
through whicii the little animals suck up- their repast ; thus forming a
puiii[i. which, more ettective than ours, digs the well from which it draws
the riuid.
A third description of insects, those of the order Diplera, comprising
the whole tribe of flies, have a sucker formed on the same general plan as
that last described, but of a much more complicated and varied structure.
It is in like manner composed of a grooved case and several included
lancets; but the case, although horny, rigid, and beak-like in some, is in
others fleshy, flexible, and more resembling the proboscis of an elephant, and
terminates in two turgid liplets : ami the accompanying lancets are them-
selves included in an up|)er hollow case, in connexion with which they
probably compose an air-tight tube for suction. The number and form of
tiiese instruments are extremely various. In some genera {Musca ) there
is but one, which resembles a sharp lancet. Others {Empis, Asi/iis) have
three, the two lateral ones needle-shaped, that in the middle like a scimitar ;
together forming so keen an apparatus, that De (lieer has seen an Asilus
pierce with it the elytra of a lady-bird ; and I have myself caught them
with not only an Elaler and weevil, but even a Histcr in their mouths. In
many horse-flies we find four; two precisely resembling lancets, and two,
even to the very handles, buck-hafted carving knives. The blood-thirsty
gnat has five, some acutely lanced at the extremity, and others serrated on
one side. The flea, the spider, the scorpion, have all instruments for
taking their food of a construction altogether ditterent. But it is impos-
sible here to attempt even a sketch of the variations in these organs which
take place in the apterous genera, and in many of the dipterous larvae.
Suffice it to say, that they all manifest the most consummate skill in their
adaptation to the purposes of the insects which are provided with them,
and which can often employ them not only as instruments for preparing
food, but as weapons of offence and defence, as tools in the building of
their nests, and even as feet.
Some insects in their perfect state, though furnished with organs of
feeding, make no use of them, and consume no food whatever. Of this
description are the moth which proceeds from the silk-worm, and several
others of the same order ; the different species of gad-flies, and the Ephe-
merae— insects whose history is so well known as to afford a moral or a
simile to those most ignorant of natural history. All these live so short
a time in the perfect state as to need no food. Indeed it may be laid down
as a general rule, that almost all insects in this state eat much less than
1 For a full description of this instrument, see Eeaum. i. 125, &c.
- The mode, however, in which this is effected, in all insects furnished with a
proboscis, can scarcely be by suction, strictl\- so called, or the abstraction of air, since
the air-vessels of insects do not communicate with their mouths : it is more pro-
bably performed in part by capillary attraction ; aii^, as Lamarck has suggested
(Si/st. des Anim. sans Vertibres, p. I'Jo.), in part by a succession of undulations and
contractions of the sides of the organ.
224 FOOD OF INSECTS.
in that of larvae. The voracious caterpillar, when transformed into a
butterfly, needs only a small quantity of honey ; and the gluttonous maggot,
when become a fly, contents itself with an occasional drop or two of any
sweet liquid.
While in the state of larvae the quantity of food consumed by insects is
vastly greater in proportion to their bulk than that required by larger
animals. Many caterpillars eat daily twice their weight of leaves, which is
as if an ox, weighing sixty stone, were to devour every twenty-four hours
three quarters of a ton of grass — a power of stomach which our graziers
may thank their stars that their oxen are not endowed with. A probable
proximate cause for this voracity in the case of herbivorous larvae has been
assigned by John Hunter, who attributes it to the circumstance of their
stomach not having the power of dissolving the vegetable matters received
into it, but merely of extracting from them a juice.^ This is proved both
by their excrement, which consists of coiled-up and hardened particles of
leaf, that being put into water expand like tea ; and by the great propor-
tion which the excrement bears to the quantity of food consumed. From
experiments, with a detail of which he has favoured me, made by Colonel
Machell of Beverley on the caterpillars of Euprejna Caja, he ascertained
that, though a larva weighing thirty-six grains voided every twelve hours
from fifteen to eighteen grains' weight of excrement, it did not increase in
weight in the same period more than one or two grains. On the otiier hand,
many carnivorous larvse increase in weight in full proportion to the food
consumed, and that in an astonishing degree. Redi found that the maggots
of flesh-flies, of which, one day, twenty-five or thirty did not weigh above
a grain, the next weighed seven grains each ; having thus in twenty-four
hours become about two hundred times heavier than before.^
Some insects have the faculty of sustaining a long abstinence from all
kinds of food. This seems to depend upon the nature of their habits. If
the insect feeds on a substance of a deficiency of which there is not much
probability, as on vegetables, &c., it commonly requires a frequent supply ;
if, on the contrary, it is an insect of prey, and exposed to the danger of
being long deprived of its food, it is often endowed with a power of fast-
ing, which would be incredible but for the numerous facts by which it is
authenticated. The ant-lion will exist without the smallest supply of food,
apparently uninjured, for six months ; though, when it can get it, it will
devour daily an insect of its own size. Vaillant, whose authority may be
here taken, assures us that he kept a spider without food under a sealed
glass for ten months, at the end of which time, though shrunk in size, it
was as vigorous as ever.^ And Mr. Baker, so well known for his micro-
scopical discoveries, states that he kept a darkling beetle (Blaps mortisaga)
alive for three years without food of any kind.* Some insects, not of a
predaceous description, are gifted with a similar power of abstinence.
Leeuwenhoek tells us that a mite, which he had gummed alive to the point
of a needle and placed before his microscope, lived in that situation eleven
weeks ^; and Mr. Stephens, having, in June, 1831, put a specimen of
1 Ohs. on the Animal CEconomy, p. 221. Compare Eeaum. ii. 167.
2 Redi de Insectis, 39.
3 New Tavels, i. xxxix.
4 Phil. Trans. 1740, p. 441» I confess, notwithstanding Mr. Baker's general ac-
ciirac}', that I suspect some mistake here.
5 Leeuw. Op. ii. 303.
FOOD OF INSECTS. 225
Le-pisma mccharina (the common " wood " or " sugar fish ") in a pill-box
containing only a few grains of magnesia, found it, to his great surprise,
alive and active in June, 1833, after this protracted confinement, without
food, of two years.'
In some cases the very want of food, however paradoxical the proposi-
tion, seems actually to be a mean of prolonging the life of insects. At
least one such instance has fallen under my own observation. The aphidi-
vorons flies, such as Sca-rn Pi/mxlri, (Src, live in the larva state ton or
twelve flays, in the pupa state about a fortnight, and as perfect insects pos-
sibly as long, the whole term of their existence in summer not exceeding at
tiie very utmost six weeks. But one-, which I put under a glass on the 2d of
June, 1811, when about half-grown, and, after snpi)lying it with Aphides once
or twice, by accident forgot, I found, to my great astonishment, alive three
months after ; and it actually lived until the June following without a par-
ticle of food. It had, therefore, existed in the larva state more than eiiiht
times as long as it woulil have lived in all its states, if it had regular!}
iMidergone its metamorphoses, which is as extraordinary a prolongation of
life as if a man were to live o6() years. It is true that its existence was
not worth having even to the larva of a fly. For the last eight months it
remained without motion, attached by its posterior pair of tubercles to the
paper on which it was placed, manifesting no other symptoms of life than
by moving the fore part of the body when touched, and replacing itself on
its belly if turned upon its back. But this was quite enough to prove it
still alive. I can attribute this singular result to no other circumstance
than its having been deprived of a sufficient quantity of food to bring it
into the pupa state, though provided with enough for the attainment of
nearly its full growth as larva. Possibly the same remote cause might act
in this case, as operates to prolong the term of existence of annual plants
that have been prevented from perfecting their seed ; and it would almost
seem to favour the hypothesis of some physiologists, who contend that
every organised being has a certain portion of irritability originally im-
parted to it, and that its life will be long or short as this is slowly or
rapidly excited — no great consolation this for the advocates for fast-living,
unless they are in good earnest in their affected preference of a " short life
and a merry one ;" though it must be admitted that they would have the
best of the argument, were the alternative such a state of torpid insensi-
bility as that with which our larva purchased the prolongation of its
existence.
After this general view of the food of insects, and of circumstances con-
nected with it, I proceed to give you an account of some peculiarities in
their modes of procuring it.
1 Entom. Mag. i. 526.
2 Not having ever met with another specimen, I am unable to say of what
precise species of aphidivorous fly it is the larva ; nor can I find a figure of it.
though it approaches near to one given by De Geer (vi. t. 7. f. 1 — 3.). Its
shape is oblong-oval, length about four lines, and colour pale red speckled with
black. Each of the seven or eight segments which compose the body projects
on each side into three serrated flat aculei or teeth ; three or four similar but
smaller aculei arm the head ; and two, much larger than the rest, the anu.s, one
on each side of the usual bifid protuberance which bears the respiratory plates.
A bifid tubercular elevation is also placed in the middle of the back" of eacb
segment.
226 FOOD OP INSECTS.
The vegetable feeders have, for the most part, but]little difficulty in sup-
plying their wants. In the larva state they generally find themselves placed
by the parent insect upon the very plant or substance which is to nourish
them; and in their perfect state their wings or feet afford a ready convey-
ance to the banquet to which, by an unerring sense, they are directed. All
nature lies before them, and it is only when their numbers are extraordi-
narily increased, or in consequence of some unusual destruction of their
appropriate aliment, that they perish for want. The description of their
food renders unnecessary those artifices to which many of the carnivorous
insects are obliged to have recourse; and none of them, if we except the
white ants, whose cunning mode of insinuating themselves into houses in
tropical climates has been detailed in a former letter, can be said to use
stratagem in obtaining their food.
Of the carnivorous species, the greater proportion attack their prey
by open violence ; such as the predaceous beetles, the Ichneumons, bur-
rowing wasps, and true wasps ; the preying insects (Mantis) ; the bugs
{Geocorisce Latr.) ; dragon flies (Libellulma), &c., which have been before
adverted to. But a very considerable number, chiefly, however, of one
tribe, that of spiders, provide their sustenance solely by artifice and
stratagem, the singularity of which, and the admirable adaptation of the
instruments by which they take their prey to the end in view, afford a
most wonderful instance of the power and wisdom of the Creator, and
have attracted admiration in all ages. A description of these, however,
which will require a detailed survey, I must defer to another letter.
I am, &c.
227
LETTER XIII.
FOOD OF mSECTS — continued.
STRATAGEMS EMPLOYED IN PROCURING IT.
The stratagems of insects in obtaining their food are now to engage our at-
tention. I shall not dwell on those inartificial modes of surprising tiieir
prey, of which examples may be found amongst almost every order of
insects, such as watching behind a leaf or other object affording conceal-
ment until its approach, but shall proceed to describe the various artifices
of the race of spiders, of which there are several hundred distinct species,
differing essentially from each other both in characters and manners.
jNIany of these are constantly under our eyes ; and were it not that we
are accustomed to neglect what is the subject of daily occurrence, we
should never behold a spider's web without astonishment. What, if we
had not witnessed it, would seem more incredible than that any animal
should spin threads ; weave these threads into nets more admirable than
ever fowler or fisherman fabricated ; suspend them with the nicest judg-
ment in the place most abounding in the wished-for prey, and there, con-
cealed, watch patiently its approach ? In this case, as in so many others,
we neglect actions in minute animals, which in the larger would excite our
endless admiration. How would the world crowd to see a fox which
should spin ropes, weave them into an accurately meshed net, and extend
this net between two trees for the purpose of entangling a flight of birds !
Or should we think we had ever expressed sufficient wonder at seeing a
fish which obtained its prey by a sin)ilar contrivance ? Yet there would,
in reality, be nothing more marvellous in their procedures than in those of
spiders, which, indeed, the minuteness of the agent renders more won-
derful.
All spiders do not spin webs. A considerable number adopt other
means for catching insects. Of these I shall speak hereafter. At present
I shall endeavour to give you a clear idea of the operations of the iveavers,
explaining successively the instruments by which they spin, the mode of
forming their nets, together with the various descriptions of them, and the
manner in which they entrap and secure their prey.
The thread spun by spiders is in substance similar to the silk of the silk-
worm and other caterpillars, but of a much finer quality. As in them, it
proceeds from reservoirs, into which it is secreted in the form of a viscid
gum ; but in the mode of its extrication is very dissimilar, issuing not from
the mouth, but the hinder part of the abdomen. If you examine a spider,
you will perceive in this part four or six little teat-like protuberances or
spinners. These are the machinery through which, by a process more
singular than than that of rope-spinning, the thread is drawn. Each spin-
Q 2
228 FOOD OF IXSECTS.
ner is furnished with a multitude of tubes, so numerous and so exquisitely
fine, that a space often not much bigger than tlie pointed end of a pin, is
furnished, according to Reaumur \ with a thousand of them. From each
of these tubes, consisting of two pieces, the last of which terminates in a
point infinitely fine, proceeds a thread of inconceivable tenuity, which,
immediately after issuing from it, unites with all the other threads into one.
Hence from each spinner proceeds a compound thread ; and these four
(or six) threads, at the distance of about one-tenth of an inch from the
apex of the spinners, again unite, and form the thread we are accustomed
to see, which the spider uses in forming its web. The threads, however,
are not all of the same thickness, for Leeuwenhoek observed that some of
the tubes were larger than others, and furnished a larger thread. Thus, a
spider's thread, even spun by the smallest species, and when so fine that it
is almost imperceptible to our senses, is not, as we suppose, a single line,
but a rope composed of at least four thousand strands. - But to feel all
tlie wonder of this fact we must follow Leeuwenhoek in one of his calcu-
lations on the subject. This renowned microscopic observer estimated that
the threads of the minutest spiders, some of which are not larger than a
grain of sand, are so fine that four millions of them would not equal in
thickness one of the hairs of his beard — a tenuity utterly beyond the
power of the imagination to conceive. Of the probable accuracy of this
calculation you may any day in summer convince yourself, by taking one
of the large diadem spiders (Epeira Diadema), and, after pressing its
abdomen against a leaf or other substance, so as to attach the threads to
the surface — the same preliminary step which the spider adopts in spinning
— drawing it gradually to a small distance. You will plainly perceive that
the proper thread of the spider is formed of four smaller threads, and these
again of threads so fine and numerous, that there cannot be fewer than a
thousand issue from each spinner ; and if you pursue your researches with
the microscope, you will find that precisely the same takes place in the
minutest species that spins. You will inquire what can be the end of
1 Reautn. 3Iem. de VAcad. de Paris, An. 1713. 211. — De Geer, vii. 187. See also
Hoole"s Leeuwenhoek, i. 41. — t. 2. f. 20 — 22. Leeuwenlioek examined a spinner
that was not so big as a common grain of sand, and the number of tubes issuing from
it was more than a hundred. He affirms that, besides the larger spinners, in the
space between them there are four smaller ones, each furnished with organs for
spinning threads, but smaller and fewer in number. Latreille speaks only of a
thousand spinners from each teat, and of six thousand threads from the whole —
but he does not enter further into the subject. Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. ii. 278.
2 Mr. Blackwall, however, as the result of his examinations with microscopes
of high powers, denies that spiders' threads are composed of so many fine lines as
Leeuwenhoek, Lyonnet, Treviranus, &c., have supposed. He has not, he says,
found that any lines ever issue, as they describe, from the minute apertures without
projecting margins, situated between the papillae or spinning tubes, which last alone
lie regards as the sole line-forming instruments, and the total number of these in the
larger adult species of Epeira, which are best pro%ided with them, he does not esti-
mate at much above a thousand, while in the common house spider they are below
four hundred, and in other species not above one hundred, and in some much fewer.
As the statements of such careful and generally accurate observers as Reaumur, De
Geer, Leeuwenhoek, Lyonnet, Treviranus, and other eminent naturalists, all in the
main agreeing and confirming each other, ought not to be hastily set aside and
without the fullest investigation, it has been thought best, without materially
altering the text, simply to point out in the present note Mr. Blackwall's different
conclusions, and to refer the reader for the details on which they rest to his paper
on the Mammulse of Spiders in the 18th vol. of the Linnean Transactions, p. 219.
FOOD OF INSECTS. 229
machinery so coiiii)lcx ? One probable reason is, that it was necessary for
drying the gum siitTiciently to form a tenacious Hne, tliat an extensive sur-
face should be cxposeil to the air, wiiich is admirably etfcttcd by iliviiling
it at its exit from tiie abdomen into such numerous threads. But the chief
cause, perhaps, is the occasion (hereal'ter to be adverteil to) which the
spider sometimes has to employ its threads in their finer and unconnected
state before they unite to form "a single one. The spider is gifted by her
Creator with the power of closing the orifices of the spinners at [)leasure,
and can thus, in dropping from a iieight by her line, stop her progress at
any point of her descent ; and, according to Lister', she is also able to
retract her threads within the abdomen ; but this is doubted, and with
apjiarent reason, by De (»eer.*
The only other instruments employed by the spider in weaving are her
feet, with the claws of which she usually guides, or kee|)s separated into
two or more, the line from behind ; and in many s|)ecies these are ailmirably
adapted for the purpose, two of them being furnished underneath with teeth
like those of a comb, by means of which the threads are kept asunder.
But another instrument was wanting. The spider, in ascemling the line
by which she has dropped herself from an eminence, winds up the su|)erfluous
cord into a ball. In performing this the pectinated claws would not have
been suitable. She is therefore furnished with a Ihhd claw between the
other two-', and is thus provided for every occasion.
The situations in which spiders place their nests are as various as their
construction. Some prefer the open air, and suspend them in the midst of
shrubs or plants most frequented by flies and other small insects, fixing
them in a horizontal, a vertical, or an oblique direction. Others select the
corners of windows and of rooms, where prey always abounds; while many
establish themselves in stables and neglected out-houses, and even in
cellars and desolate places in which one would scarcely expect a fly to be
caught in a month. It is with the operations of these last especially that
we are accustomed to associate the ideas of neglect and desertion by man
— associations which, both in painting and allegory, have been often happily
applied. Hogarth, when he wished to produce a speaking picture of
neglected charity, clothed the poor's box in one of his pieces with a spider's
net ; and the Jews, in one of the fables with which they have disfigured
the records of Holy Writ, have not less ingeniously availed themselves of
the same idea. They relate that the reason why Saul did not discover
David and his men "in the cave of Adullam ^ was, that God had sent a
spider which had quickly woven a web across the entrance of the cave in
which they were concealed ; which being observed by Saul, he thought it
useless to investigate further a spot bearing such evident proofs of the
absence of any human being. ^
The most "incurious observer must have remarked the great difference
which exists in the construction of spiders' webs. Those which we most
^ Hist. Anim. Aug. p. 8.
2 De Geer, vii. 189. Mr. Blackwall has explained that this apparent retraction
which 13 chiefly perceptible in tlie line I'oimiug the concentric circles of the geo-
metric spiders, is an optical illusion, depending upon its extreme elasticity, \yhich
admits of its being extended several inches and of contracting again into a minute
globule. (^Zool. Journ. v. 187.)
3 Leeuw. Opusc. iii. 317. f. 1.
* 1 Sam. xxiv. 4. 5 Lesser, h ii. 291.
Q 3
230 FOOD OF INSECTS.
commonly see in houses are of a woven texture similar to fine gauze, and
are appropriately termed 7vebs ; while those most frequently met with in
the fields are composed of a series of concentric circles united by radii
diverging from the centre, the threads being remote from each other.
These last, which in their simple state, or still more when studded with
dew drops, you must have a thousand times admired, are with greater pro-
priety termed nets; and the insects which form them proceeding on
geometrical principles may be called geometricians, while the former can
aspire only to the humbler denomination of weavers. I shall endeavour to
describe the process followed in the construction of both, beginning with
the latter.
The weaving spider which is found in houses, having selected some
corner for the site of her web, and determined its extent, presses her
spinners against one of the walls, and thus glues to it one end of her
thread. She then walks along the wall to the opposite side, and there in
like manner fastens the other end. This thread, which is to form the outer
margin or selvage of her web, and requires strength, she triples or qua-
druples by a repetition of the operation just described; and from it she
draws other threads in various directions, the interstices of which she fills
up by running from one to the other, and connecting them by new threads
until the whole has assumed the gauze-hke texture which we see. Books
of natural history, all copying from one another, have described these kinds
of web as fabricated of a regular warp and woof, or of parallel longitudinal
lines crossed at right angles by transverse ones glued to them at the points
of intersection. This, however, is clearly erroneous, as you will see by
the slightest examination of a web of this kind, in which no such regularity
of texture can be discovered.
The webs just described present merely a simple horizontal surface, but
others more frequently seen in out-houses and amongst bushes possess a
verv artificial appendage. Besides the main web, the spider carries up
from its edges and surface a number of single threads, often to the height
of many feet, joining and crossing each other in various directions. Across
these hues, which may be compared to the tackling of a ship, flies seem
unable to avoid directing their flight. The certain consequence is, that in
striking against these ropes they become slightly entangled, and, in their
endeavours to disengage themselves, rarely escape being precipitated into
the net spread underneath for their reception, where their doom is ine-
vitable.
But the net is still incomplete. It is necessary that our hunter should
conceal her grim visage from the game for which she lies in wait. She
does not, therefore, station herself upon the surface of her net, but in u
small silken apartment constructed below it, and completely hidden from
view. " In this corner," to use the quaint translation of Pliny by Phile-
mon Holland, Doctor in Physic S " v,'ith what subtiltie doth she retire,
making semblance as though she meant nothing less than that she doth,
and as if she went about some other business ! nay, how close lieth she,
that it is impossible to see whether any one be within or no ! " But thus
removed to a distance from her net and entirely out of sight of it, how is
she to know when her prey is entrapped? For this diffiiculty our inge-
nious weaver has provided. She has taken care to spin several threads
1 L. xi. c. 24.
FOOD OF INSECTS. 231
from the edge of the net to that of her hole, which at once inform her
bv their vibrations of the capture of a fly, and serve as a bridge on which
in an instant she can run to secure it.
Another species, Cluhionn atrox, for an account of whose habits we are
indebted to Mr. Blackwali, resides in a lunnel-shaped silken tube of slight
texture, in the corners of windows, or crevices in old walls, iSrc., whence it
extends lines intersecting each other irregularly at various angles, to which
it attaches other lines, or rather fasciculi, of very fine zig-zag threads of a
pale blue tint when recent, and of a much more complicated structure
than the former, and which adhere strongly to any flies, &'c. coming into
contact with them, not from any viscidity, but from their extremely fine
filaments attaching themselves to the inequalities in the surface of their
prey. These pale-blue fasciculi Mr. Blackwali found to proceed from two
additional spinners (or mammula?) peculiar to this species and to three
species of Drasxict, which are also all four remarkable for having the meta-
tarsal joint of their posterior legs furnished with a very curious combing or
rather curling instrument, composed of two parallel rows of curved spines,
named by Mr. Blackwali Calanii.ilnm, with which they comb out the pecu-
liar silky material as it issues from these mammute into that flocculous
texture which gives the pale-blue fasciculi in question their power of re-
taining the insects that touch them.'
You will readily conceive that the geometrical spiders, in forming their
concentric circled nets, follow a process very different from that just de-
scribed, than which, indeed, it is in many respects more curious. As the
net is usually fixed in a perpendicular or somewhat oblique direction, in an
opening between the leaves of some shrub or plant, it is obvious that
round its whole extent will be required lines to which can be attached
those ends of the railii that are furthest from the centre. Accordingly the
construction of these exterior lines is the spider's first operation. She
seems careless about the shape of the area which they enclose, well aware
that she can as readily inscribe a circle in a triangle as in a square, and in
this respect she is guided by the distance or proximity of the points to
which she can attach theni.'^ She spares no pains, however, to strengthen
1 Linn. Tram. xvi. 472. and xviii. 223. According to M. Walckenaer's arrange-
ment, the genus Clubiona comes under his division of Errantes, or Wanderers, but
certainh' C. atrox, which, since my attention was directed to it by Mr. Blackwall's
verj- interesting account of its economy as above, I have very frequently observed
in its natural abode and in glasses in which I have kept it, ranges better under his
Sidentaires or Sedentary Spiders, as 1 have placed it, as I do not believe that it
ever stirs from its nest until summoned by the vibrations of its net extended round
the opening ; and this net, though more irregular in its structure, is as tnilj' a net
as those of Epeira. I maj- here mention respecting this species two facts not no-
ticed by Mr. Blackwali, that it has not the power of climbing up a vertical surface
of glass'; and that, however old and dusty its main net may be, the pale blue curled
or looped fasciculi seem very often renewed, as a pocket-lens rarely fails to detect
them in a recent state.
2 It sometimes happens that the end of the lower line of the triangle in which
the geometric spiders usually fix their nets, having been attached to a small pebble
(or bit of gravel) lying on the ground, this pebble (probably from the spider's
tightening its horizontal lines) is drawn up to a considerable height, and swings
like a penduhim, as I saw many instances, at first, to my no small surprise, in the
Giardino Publico of Milan in 1832 {vide Spence in Loudon's Mag. of A'at. Hist.
v. r,89.) ; and as has since been obser\-ed by W. W. Saunders, Esq. at Wandsworth.
{Trans. Ent. Sac. Lond. i. 127.) In an American newspaper, the Lowell Courier,
Q 4
232 FOOD OF INSECTS.
and keep them in a proper degree of tension. With the former view she
composes each line of five or six or even more threads glued together ;
and with the latter she fixes to them from different points a numerous
and intricate apparatus of smaller threads. Having thus completed the
foundations of her snare^, she proceeds to fill up the outline. Attaching a
thread to one of the main lines, she walks along it, guiding it with one of
her hind feet that it may not touch in any part and be prematurely glued,
and crosses over to the opposite side, where, by applying her spinners, she
firmly fixes it. To the middle of this diagonal thread, which is to form
the centre of her net, she fixes a second, which in like manner sLe conveys
and fastens to another part of the lines encircling the area. Her work
now proceeds rapidly. During the preliminary operations she sometimes
rests, as though her plan required meditation. But no sooner are the
marginal lines of her net firmly stretched, and two or three radii spun
from its centre, than she continues her labour so quickly and unremittingly
that the eye can scarcely follow her progress. The radii, to the number of
about twenty, giving the net the appearance of a wheel, are speedily
finished. She then proceeds to the centre, quickly turns herself round,
and pulls each thread with her feet to ascertain its strength, breaking any
one that seems defective and replacing it by another. Next, she glues
immediately round the centre five or six small concentric circles, dis-
tant about half a line from each other, and then foiu- or five larger ones,
each separated by a space of half an inch or more. These last serve as a
sort of temporary scaffolding to walk over, and to keep the radii properly
stretched while she glues to them the concentric circles that are to remain,
which she now proceeds to construct. Placing herself at the circum-
ference, and fastening her thread to the end of one of the radii, she walks
up that one, towards the centre, to such a distance as to draw the thread
from her body of a sufficient length to reach to the next ; then stepping
across, and conducting the thread with one of her hind feet, she glues it
with her spinners to the point in the adjoining radius to which it is to be
fixed. This process she repeats until she has filled op nearly the whole
space from the circumference to the centre with concentric circles, distant
from each other about two : lines. She always, however, leaves a vacant
interval around the smallest first spun circles that are nearest to the centre,
but for what end I am unable to conjecture. Lastly, she runs to the
centre and bites away the small cotton-like tuft that united all the radii,
which being now held together by the circular threads, have thus pro-
bably their elasticity increased ; and in the circular opening resulting from
this procedure, she takes her station and watches for her prey.^
was an account of a watchmaker having found one morning a gold ring weighing
twelve grains, which he had left on his bench, suspended an inch high to a spider's
thread, by which in the course of a week it was elevated eight inches.
1 I am not certain whether the garden spider does not more frequently form one
or two of the principal radii of the net, before she spins the exterior lines.
2 Mr. Blaokwall, in his valuable paper " On the Manner in which the Geometric
Spiders construct their Nets," in the Zoological Journal, vol. v. p. 181., has remarked
that the above description is not applicable throughout to all geometric spiders, as
some of them do not entirely surround the radii of their nets with concentric circles,
but leave one radius free, which serves as a sort of ladder for access to the net ; and
as in general thej' do not bite away the small cotton-like tuft that unites the radii
in the centre, nor place themselves there to watch their prey, but retire under a leaf
FOOD OF INSECTS. 233
111 the above description, which is from my own observations, I have
supposed the spider to fix tiie first anil main line of her net to points from
one of which she could readily climb to the other, draijging it after her ;
and many of these nets arc placed in situations where this is very prac-
ticable. They are frecjucntly, however, stretched in ])laces where it is
quite impossible for the spicier thus to convey her main line — between the
branches of lofty trees having no connection with each other; between
two distinct and elevated buildings ; and even between^ plants growing in
water. Here then a difficulty occurs. How does the spider contrive to
extend her main line, which is often many feet in length, across inacces-
sible openings of this descri|)tion ?
With the view of deciding this question, to which I could find no very
satisfactory answer in books, I made an experiment, for the idea of which
I am indebted to a similar one recorded by Mr. Knight', wdio informs us
that if a s|)ider be placed upon an upright stick having its bottom innnersed
in water, it will, after trying in vain all other modes of escape, dart out
numerous fine threads so light as to float in the air, some one of which,
attaching itself to a neighbouring object, furnishes a bridge for its escape.
It was clear that if this mode is pursued by the geometric spiders, it
would go considerably towards furnishing a solution of the difficulty in
question. I accordingly placed the large diadem spider {Epeira J)i(idcma)
upon a stick about a loot long, set upright in a vessel containing water.
After fastening its thread (as all spiders do before they move) at the top of
the stick, it crept down the side until it felt the water with its fore feet,
which seem to serve as antenuEc: it then immediately swung itself from
the stick (which was slightly bent) and climbed up by the thread to
the top. This it repeated perhaps a score times, sometimes creeping
down a diffiirent part of the stick, but more frequently down the very side
it had so often traversed in vain. Wearied with this sameness in its ope-
rations, I left the room for some hours. On my return I was surprised
to find my prisoner escaped, and not a little pleased to discover, on further
examination, a thread extended from the top of the stick to a cabinet
or other shelter, and there construct a cell in which the spider remains concealed
till the vibrations of a strong line of communication, composed of several united
threads, which she has spun from the centre of the net to her cell, inform her of the
capture of a tly, to which she then rushes along this bridge. This criticism as to
the too extensive generalisation of the procedures of the garden spi<ler above de-
scribed is perfectly just, as my own observations since the publication of the last
edition of this work, but long before I had seen IMr. Blackwall's paper, had shown
me. My excuse must be that the observations above recorded (whicli are left pre-
cisely as originally written about the year 1812), having been made on the spur of
the occasion in my garden at Drypool near Hull, when to my surprise I could not
find in books any intelligible account of the way in which the geometric spiders
construct their nets, were necessarih- confined to the common garden species alone
found there, and my attention having been subsecjuently fully occupied in other
directions, it did not occur to me that probably the operations of other species might
differ from those I had witnessed. These variations, however, do not affect the
accurac}' of the descrijjtion above given of the procedures of the species referred to,
one of the commonest of the tribe, which description also, except in the two parti-
culars above stated, is generally applicable to the whole geometric race, and has
been in great part adopted by Mr. Blackwall in his more full detail of their
operations.
1 Treatise on the Apple and Pear, p. 97.
234 FOOD OF mSECTS.
seven or eight inches distant, which thread had doubtless served as its
bridge. Eager to witness the process by which the Hne was constructed,
I replaced the spider in its former position. After frequently creeping
down and mounting up again as before, at length it let itself drop from
the top of the stick, not as before by a single thread, but by two, each dis-
tant from the other about the twelfth of an inch, guided as usual by one of
its hind feet, and one apparently smaller than the other. When it had
suffered itself to descend nearly to the surface of the water, it stopped
short, and, by some means which I could not distinctly see, broke off close
to the spinners the smallest thread, which, still adhering by the other end
to the top of the stick, floated in the air, and was so light as to be carried
about by the shghtest breath. On approaching a pencil to the loose end of
this line, it did not adhere from mere contact. I therefore twisted it
once or twice round the pencil, and then drew it tight. The spider, which
had previously climbed to the top of the stick, immediately pulled at it with
one of its feet, and, finding it sufficiently tense, crept along it, strengthen-
ing it as it proceeded by another thread, and thus reached the pencil.^
That this therefore is one mode by which the geometric spiders convey
the main line of their nets between distant objects, there can be no doubt,
but that it is the only one is not so clear. If the position of the main line
be thus determined by the accidental influence of the wind, we might ex-
pect to see these nets arranged with great irregularity, and crossing each
other in every direction ; yet it is the fact that, however closely crowded
they may be, they constantly appear to be placed not by accident but de-
sign, commonly running parallel with each other at right angles with the
points of support, and never interfering. Another objection too presents
itself. From the experiment related, it is clear that the main line of
the net can never be longer than the height of the object from which
the spider dropped in forming it. But it is no uncommon thing to see nets
in which these lines are a yard or two long fastened to twigs of grass not a
foot in height, and yet separated by obstacles effectually precluding the
possibility of the spider's having dragged the lines from one to tJie other.
Here, therefore, some other process must have been used.
Both these difficulties would be removed by adopting the explanation of
an anonymous author in the Journal de Physique'^ founded, as he asserts,
on actual observation. He says that he saw a small spider, which he had
forced to suspend itself by its thread from the point of a feather, shoot out
obliquely in opposite directions other smaller threads, which attached
themselves in. the still air of a room, without any influence of the wind, to
the objects towards which they were directed. He, therefore, infers that
1 Some time after making this experiment I stumbled upon a passage in Eedi
(Z)e Insectis, p. 119.), from which it appears that Blancanus, in his Commentaries
upon Aristotle, has related a series of observations which led him to precisely the
same result. Lehmann, too, in a paper in the Transactions of the Societt/ of Natu-
ralists at Berlin (translated in the Philosophical Magazine, xi. 323.), has given an
explanation somewhat similar of the operations of this very spider, but I am in-
clined to think erroneous in some particulars. He describes it as emitting numerous
floating threads at the commencement of its descent. That he is mistaken in sup-
posing these threads to be more than one, is proved by the fact which 1 have ob-
served— that even that one sometimes breaks by the weight of the spider. How
then could an insect almost as big as a gooseberry be supported by a line of the
tenuity here attributed to it?
2 An. vii. Vindemiaire. Translated in Phil. Mag. ii. 275.
FOOD OF INSECTS. [SSS
spiders have the power of shooting out threads and directing them at
pleasure towards a determined point, Judging of the distance and position
of the object by some sense of which we arc ignorant. Something like
this mana-iivre I once myself witnessed in a male of the small garden
spider ( Epciru Y reticulata). It was standing midway on a long ])erpeniiicular
fixed tbread, ami an appearance cauglit my eye of what seemed to i)e the
emission of threads from its projected spinners. I therefore moved my
arm in the direction in whicli they apparently proceeded, and, as I sus-
pected, a floating thread attached itself to my coat, along which the spider
crept. As this was connected with the spinners of the spider, it could
not have been formed in the same way with the secondary thread of E.
Diadema above described.
Probably in this case, as in so many others, we bewilder ourselves by
attempting to make nature bend to generalities to which she disdains to
submit. Different spiders may lay the foundations of their net in a dif-
ferent manner ; some on the plan adopted by E. Diadema ; others, as
Lister long ago conjectured ', by shooting out threads in the mode of the
flying species, as in the instances recorded by the anonymous observer and
Mr. Knight. Nor is it improbable that the same species has the power
of varying its procedures according to circumstances.
How far these suppositions are correct it is impossible to determine
without further experiments, which it is somewhat strange should not
before now have been instituted. Pliny thought it nothing to the credit
of the philosophers of his day, that while they were disputing al)oat the
number of heroes of the name of Hercules, and the site of the sepulchre of
Bacchus, they should not have decided whether the queen bee had a sting
or not'; but it seems much more discreditable to the entomologists of
ours, that they should yet be ignorant how the geometric spiders fix their
nets. One excuse for them is, that these insects generally begin their
operaticms in the night, so that, though it is very easy to see them spin-
ning their concentric circles, it is seldom that they can be caught laying
the foundations of their snares. Yet doubtless the lucky moment might
be hit by an attentive observer, and I shall be glad if my attempt to de-
scribe their more onlinary operations should induce you to aim at sig-
naUsing yourself by the discovery. If you failed in solving every difficultv,
you would at least be rewarded by witnessing their industry, ingenuity',
and patience.
For the latter virtue they have no small occasion. Incapable of ac-
tively pursuing their prey, they are dependent upon what chance conducts
into their toils, which, especially those spread in neglected buildings, often re-
main for a long period empty. Even the geometrical spiders, which fix them-
selves in the midst of a well-peoj)led district in the open air, have frequently
to sustain a protracted abstinence. A continued storm of wind and rain
will demolish their nets, and preclude the possibihty of reconstructing them
for many days or sometimes weeks, during which not even a single gnat
regales their sharp-set appetites. And when at length formed anew or
repaired, an unlucky bee or wasp, or an overgrown fly, will perversely
entangle itself in toils not intended for insects of its bulk, and in disen-
gaging itself once more leave the net in ruin. All these trials move not
our philosophic race. They patiently sit in their watching |)lace in the
same posture, scarcely ever stirring but when the expected prey appears.
1 Hist. Anim. Ang. p. 7. 2 pijn. Hist. Nat. 1. xi. C. 17.
236 FOOD OF INSECTS.
And however repeatedly their nets are injured or destroyed, as long as
their store of silk is unexhausted, they repair or reconstruct them without
loss of time.
The web of a house-spider will, with occasional repairs, serve for a con-
siderable period ; but the nets of the geometric spiders are in favourable
weather renewed either wholly, or at least their concentric circles, every
twenty-four hours, even when not apparently injured. This difference in
the operations of the two tribes depends upon a very remarkable pecu-
liarity in the conformation of their snares. The threads of the house-
spider's web are all of the same kind of silk ; and flies are caught in thera
from their claws becoming entangled in the fine meshes which form the
texture. On the other hand, the net of the garden spider is composed
of two distinct kinds of silk ; that of the radii not adhesive, that of the
circles extremely viscid.' The cause of this difference, which, when it is
considered that both sorts of silk proceed from the same instrument, is
truly wonderful, may be readily perceived. If you examine a newly
formed net with a microscope, you will find that the threads composing
the outline and the radii are simple, those of the circles closely studded
with minute dew-like globules, which, from the elasticity of the thread,
are easily separable from each other. That these are in fact globules of
viscid gum, is proved by their adhering to the finger and retaining dust
thrown upon the net, while the unadhesive radii and exterior threads re-
main unsoiled. It is these gummed threads alone which retain the insects
that fly into the net ; and as they lose their viscid properties by the action
of the air, it is necessary that they should be frequently renewed.^
1 May not the spinners mentioned by Leeuwenhoek be peculiar to the retiary
spiders, and furnish this viscid thread ?
2 The accuracy of the fact above stated as to the essential difference between the
radii and concentric circles from the presence of globules of gum on the latter only
has been denied by the author of Insect Architecture; but as it has been fully con-
firmed by Mr. Blackwall, and as any one, who will examine a newly-made spider's
net Avith a common pocket lens, and throw a little dust on it, will see for himself
what is here described, it is needless to refute an error that has most probably arisen
from the examination of old nets, which, after being exposed to wind and rain, often
lose the globules of gum from the circles. ( Vide ISpence in Loudon's 3Iag. of JVat.
Hist. 1832, vol. V. p. 689.)
When the writer of these letters on the food of insects, in examining for himself
the whole process, from first to last, of the construction of the nets of the garden
geometric spider, observed this remarkable diflPerence between the radii and con-
centric circles, he had certainly no idea that he had made any discovery, as he never
dreamed that so obvious a peculiarity in objects so constantly in view had not been
very frequently noticed, and even described, in books, though he had not himself
chanced to meet with any such description. But the denial of the fact itself having
subsequently drawn his attention to the subject, he is inclined to believe (but with-
out speaking positively on a question which he has not now an opportunity of in-
vestigating) that the existence of these gum globules and their peculiar object were
first distinctly made known in the present work * ; a circumstance which,_if the fact
* Dr. Hooke, indeed, in a passage in his 3Iicrographia, p. 202., quoted by Mr.
Blackwall {Litm. Trans, xvi. 479.), speaks of the radii of geometric spiders' nests
being "all over knotted or pearled with small transparent globules, not unlike small
crystal beads or seed-pearls strung on a clew of silk ; " but, as he immediately adds,
" which, whether they were so spun by the spider or by the adventitious moisture
of a fog (which I have observed to cover all these filaments with such crystalline
beads), 1 shall not now dispute ; " it is clear that he had no distinct or correct ideas
as to the origin of these globules, nor the slightest conception of their use.
FOOD OF INSECTS. ' 237
In tliis renewal, as above hinted, tlie geometrical spiJers are constantly
regulated by the future probable state of the atniosj)here, of which they
have such a nice |)erception, that M. Q. O'Isjonval, to whom we are in-
debted for the fact, has jiroposed them as most accurate barometers. Pie
asserts that if the weather be about to be variable, wet and stormy, the
main threads which support the net will be certainly short ; but if fine
settled weather be on the point of commencing, these threads will be as
invariably very long.' Without going the length, with M. D'Isjonval,
of deeming his discoveries important enough to regulate the march of
armies, or the sailing of fleets, or of proposing that the first appearance
of these barometrical spiders in spring should be announced by the sound
of trumpet, I have reason to suppose from my own observations that his
statements are in the main accurate, and that a very good idea of the
weather may be formed from attending to these insects.
The s|)iders which form geometrical nets differ from the weavers also
w ith respect to the situation in which they watch for their prey. They
do not conceal themselves under their net, but either place themselves
prove to have been so, deserves being held out to tlie young entomologist in proof
how wide a field of discovery must yet remain to be explored, when points at once
so curious and yet obvious in the economy of a spider, found in every garden, had
so long remained unnoticed.
Another reason for directing attention to this fact is to recommend strongly to
comparative anatomists and microscopical observers ^n investigation of tlie mode
in which the geometric spiders are enabled to spin two dift'erent kinds of silk, one
giunniy and the other not, and whether the spinners noticed by Leeuwenhoek, as
suggested in a preceding note, are concerned in the process — points to which
Jlr. Blackwall, in his examination of the spinning apparatus of spiders {Linn.
Trans, xviii. 219.), has not adverted. It is obvious that these spiders must either
have two distinct sets of spinners, of which one spins the gummy and the other the
unadhesive threads, or else, if all the threads proceed from the same spinners, the
spider must have the means of passing the threads of the concentric circles through
a reservoir of gum so as to stud them with the globules of this substance which
give them their dy-catching viscidity. There is, however, a considerable difficulty
in the way of this last supposition, for as the threads at their issuing from the
spinners are, as has been already explained, so numerous, it is not easy to conceive
how, after being united into one, they can be passed through any gum reservoir, nor
how, if they were so passed, the gum, instead of being applied to the entire surface
of the threads, should come to be divided in the process into distinct and bead-like
globules. The subject is certainly highly curious and interesting, and well deserves
investigation for an additional reason originally noticed above and confirmed by
Mr. Blackwall, that the circular lines differ from the radii and main lines of the
net, not only in being studded with gum globules, but in being far more elastic,
which elasticity (as well as the viscidity of the gum globules) he found remained
unimpaired for more than seven months in a net of Epeira diadema constructed in a
glass jar which was placed in a dark closet. {Linn. Trans. x\n. 479.)
Before concluding this long note, an omission in the account of the geometric
spiders' forming their nets, in the text, which has been supplied by Sir. Blackwall,
should be given, namely, that in the process of spinning the concentric gummy
circles, the spider, as she proceeds, destroys the first made distant unadhesive circles
which had .served her as a scaffolding in placing the former. (Zonl. Jonrn. v. 183.)
A curious calculation, also, of Mr. Blackwall's, as to the number of distinct globules
of gum in a geometric spider's net, should be noticed. These he found to be 87,360
in a net of average dimensions, and 120,000 in a large net of fourteen or sixteen
inches diameter ; and yet Epeira apodysa will, if uninterrupted, complete its snare
on an average in forty minutes, (p. 478.)
1 Brez, La Flore des Lisectophiles, 129.
238 FOOD OF INSECTS.
in the centre with their head downwards, and retire to a little apartment
formed on one side under some leaf of a plant, only when obliged by
danger or the state of the weather, or, as before stated, constantly hide
themselves in a similar retreat. The moment an unfortunate fly or other
insect touches the net, the spider rushes towards it, seizes it with her
fangs, and if it be a small species at once carries it to her little cell, and,
having there at leisure sucked its juices, throws out the carcass. If the
insect be larger, and struggle to escape, with surprising address she en-
velops it with threads in various directions, until both its wings and legs
being effectually fastened, she carries it off" to her den. If the captured
insect be a bee or a large fly so strong that the spider is sensible that it is
more than a match for her, she never attempts to seize or even entangle
it, but on the contrary assists it to disengage itself, and often breaks off
that part of the net to which it hangs, content to be rid of such an un-«
manageable intruder at any price. — When larger booty is plentiful, these
spiders seem not to regard smaller insects. I have observed them in
autumn, when their nets were almost covered with the Aphides which
filled the air, impatiently pulling them off" and dropping them untouched
over the sides, as though irritated that their meshes should be occupied
with such insignificant game. — A species of spider described by Lister
(^Epeira conic(i) more provident than its brethren, suspends its prey in the
meshes above and below the centre, and it is not uncommon to see its
larder thus stored with several flies.'
You must not infer that the toils of spiders are in every part of the
world formed of such fragile materials as those which we are accustomed
to see, or that they are everywhere contented with small insects for their
food. An author in the Philosophical Transactions asserts, that the
spiders of Bermudas spin webs between trees seven and eight fathoms dis-
tant, which are strong enough to ensnare a bird as large as a thrush.* And
Sir G. Staunton informs us, that in the forests of Java, spiders' webs are
met with of so strong a texture as to require a sharp cutting instrument
to make way through them.^ The nets of a large geometric spider, Nephila
(Epeira) clavipes, are sufficiently strong to arrest and entangle the smaller
species of humming-birds ; but Mr. W. S. MacLeay, in whose garden at
Cuba these nets abounded, never saw or heard of any birds being caught
in them.* On the other hand, however, he observed in the grounds of
Elizabeth Bay, near Sydney (Australia), in the beginning of 1840, a
young bird (Zosterops dorsalis), which had been apparently dead some
days, suspended in the geometrical net of an enormous undescribed spider
of the same family (Epeiridce), which was in the act of sucking its juices ;
and his father, Alexander MacLeay, Esq., informed him that he had also
been witness to a similar occurrence ; but he considers these facts as ex-
ceptions to the general rule of this spider's insectivorous habits and to be
of rare occurrence, since, as far as he could learn, no other persons had
observed them.^
Nor must you suppose that all the spiders of this country which catch
their prey by means of snares follow the same plan in constructing them
as the weavers and geometricians whose operations I have endeavoured to
describe. The form of their snares and the situation in which they place
1 Lister, Hist. Anim. Ang. 32, tit. 4. 2 phU. Tr. 1668, p. 792.
3 Embassy to China, i. 343.
4 Trans. Zool. Soc. Lo7id. i. 193. 5 j,„n, JS^at. Hist. viii. 324.
FOOD OF INSECTS. 239
them are so various, that it is impossible to enumerate more than a few of
the most remarkable. Agelcne labyrinthica extciuls over the blailes of grass
a large white horizontal net, having at its margin a cylindrical cell, in the
bottom of which, secure from birds and defended from the rays of the sun,
the spider lies concealed, whence, on the slightest movement of her nee,
she rushes out upon her prey. Amncn latcns F. conceals itself under a
small net spun upon the upper surface of a leaf, and thence seizes upon any
insect that chances to pass over it. Thcridiiim \'i-guitatum forms under
stones and in slight furrows in the ground a net consisting of threads spun
without any regularity in all directions, but so strong as to entra|> grass-
hoppers, which are said to be its principal food ; and a similar inartificial
snare of simple threads is often spun in windows by Tlwridiuni hipiuictntiim
and several other species. Scgcstr'ia seiwculata and its affinities conceal
themselves in a long cylindrical straight silken tube, from the mouth of
which they stretch out their six anterior feet, whose extremities rest upon
as many diverging threads: thus, as soon as an insect walks across any of
the threads (which are eight or ten inches long) the insect's toes give it
warning of prey being at hand, when it rushes out and seldom fails to
secure its victim.
" The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine !
Feels at each thread, and lives along the line."
]M. Homberg tells us that he has seen a vigorous wasp carried off and
destroyed by one of these species.
The spiders to which I have hitherto adverted seize their prey by means
of webs or nets ; but a very large number, though, like the former, they
spin silken cocoons for containing their eggs, and often line their cells and
places of retreat with silk, never employ the same material in constructing
similar snares, of which they make no use.
These may be separated into two grand divisions : the first comprising
those which conceal themselves and lie in ambuscade for their prey, and
sometimes run after it a short distance ; the second, those which are con-
stantly roaming about in every direction in search of it, and seize it by open
violence. The former Walckenaer, in his admirable work on spiders, has
designated by the name of Vagrants, the latter by that of Hunters ; term-
ing those already mentioned which spin webs and nets, Sedentaries : if to
these you add the Sumnniers, or those species which catch their prey in
the water, you will have an idea of the general manners of the whole race
of spiders.^
The artifices of that tribe which Walckenaer has named vagrants are
various and singular. Several species conceal themselves in a little cell
formed of the rolled up leaf of a plant, and thence dart upon any insect
which chances to pass ; while others select for their place of ambush a hole
in a v.all, or lurk behind a stone, or in the bark of a tree. Aranea calycina
L. more ingeniously places herself at the bottom of the calyx of a dead
flower, and pounces upon the unwary flies that come in search of honey ;
and A. arundinacea buries herself in the thick panicle of a reed, and seizes
the luckless visitors enticed to rest upon her silvery concealment. Many
1 Some slight alterations in M. Walckenaer's original divisions, but which need
not be here particularised, have been made in his later works on spiders.
•240 FOOD OP INSECTS.
of this tribe at times quit their habitations, and by various stratagems con-
trive to come within reach of their prey, as by pretending to be dead, hiding
themselves behind any shght projection, &c. A white species I have often
observed squatted in "the blossom of the hawthorn or on the flowers of um-
belliferous plants, and is thus effectually concealed by the similarity of
colour.
Foremost amongst the spiders comprehended by Walckenaer under the
general name of hunters, which search after and openly seize their prey,
must be enumerated the monstrous Mi/gale avicularia, at least two inches
long, and the expansion of whose feet has been sometimes found to extend
nearly a foot wide, which takes up its abode in the woods of South
America, and has been reputed by Madame Merian to seize and devour
even small birds ; but this is wholly denied by Langsdorf, who declares that
it eats only insects ^ ; a conclusion which is confirmed by Mr. W. S. Mac-
Leay from his own observations on this species, which was very common
in his garden in Cuba, and did him great service by devouring the Juli,
AchetcB, cockroaches, &c., which are so injurious there to cultivated vege-
tables. It issues from its hole at night only (never in the day time) to
attack these insects ; and so far from having any bird-catching propensities,
Mr. MacLeay having placed a living humming-bird in the tube of a Mygale,
it deserted it, leaving the bird untouched.^ It is, however, very possible
that other species may attack birds, as is asserted of Mygale Blond'd by
Palisot de Beauvais, of M. fasciata by Percival in his Account of Ceylon,
and of a species common in Martinique by M. Moreau de Jonnes.^
Mygale avicularia, as well as other tropical species, the European Cteniza
cementaria, and many others, construct in the ground very singular cylin-
drical cavities, and therein carry and devour their prey. These, being
rather the habitations of insects than snares, I shall describe in a subsequent
letter. Lycosa saccata, the species whose affection for its young I have
before detailed, and not a few others of the same family, common in this
country, in like manner seize their prey openly, and when caught carry it
to little inartificial cavities under stones. Dolomedes fimhriatus'' hunts along
the margins of pools ; and hycosa firatica and its congeners not only chase
their prey in the same situation, but, venturing to skate upon the surface
of the water itself,
"... bathe unwet their oily fonns, and dwell
With feet repulsive on the dimpling well."
The Rev. R. Sheppard has often noticed, in the fen ditches of Norfolk,
a very large spider, which actually forms a raft for the purpose of obtaining
its prey with more facility. Keeping its station upon a ball of weeds about
three inches in diameter, probably held together by slight silken cords, it
is wafted along the surface of the water upon this floating island, which it
quits the moment it sees a drowning insect, — not, as you may conceive,
for the sake of applying to it the process of the Humane Society, but of
1 Bermerkungen auf einer Seise um die Welt. i. 63.
2 Trans. Zool. Soc. Land. i. 191.
S Shuckard in Ann. of Nat. Hist. viii. 436.
■* According to M. Walckenaer this spider {Aranea fimbriata L.), A. marginata
and A. paludosa De Geer ; as well as Dolomedes limbatus Hahn, and D. marginatus
of his Faune Frangaise, are mere varieties of the same species. (^Ann. Soc. Ent. de
France, ii. 424.)
FOOD OF INSFXTS. 241
hastening its exit by a more speedy engine of destruction. Tlie booty thus
seized it devours at leisure upon its raft, under which it retires when
ahirmed by any danger.
The last of tlie tribe of hunters that it is necessary to particuhirise are
those which, liiie the tigers amongst tlie larger animals, seize their victims
by leaping upon them. To this division belongs a very pretty small banded
species, Salticus scctiicus, which in summer may be seen running on every
wall.
ToWalckcnaer's sifimmcrs, the last of his grand tribes of spiders, including
the sini;le genus ami species, Arii;i/roiicfn n(piatica, the first line of the above
quotation from Ur. Darwin is particularly applicable; for these actually
seize their food by diving under the water, their bodies being kept unwet
by a coating of air which constantly surrounds them. — Thus one single race
of insects exemplify in miniature almost all the modes of obtaining food
which prevail amongst predaceous quadrupeds — the audacious attack of
the lion, the wily spring of the tiger, the sedentary cunning of the lynx,
and the amphibious dexterity of the otter.
This general view of the stratagems by which the spider tribe obtain
their food, imperfect as it is, will, I trust, have interested you sufficiently
to drive away the associations of disgust with which you, like almost every
one, have [irobabiy been accustomed to regard these insects. Instead of
considering them as repulsive compounds of cruelty and ferocity, you will
henceforward see in their procedures only the ingenious contrivances of
patient and industrious hunters, who, while obe\ing the great law of nature
in procuring their sustenance, are actively serviceable to the himian race in
destroying noxious insects. You will allow the poet to stigmatise them
as
" . . . . ennning and fierce,
Mixture abhorred ! "
but you will see that these epithets are in reality as unjustly applied to
them (at least with reference to the mode in which they procure their
necessary subsistence) as to the patient sportsman who lays snares for the
birds that are to serve for the dinner of his family ; and when you hear
" . . . . the fluttering wing
And shriller sound declare extreme distress,"
you will as little think it the part of true mercy to stretch forth " the
helping hospitable hand" to the entrapped fly as to the captive birds.
The spider requires his meal as well as the Indian ; and, however, to our
weak capacity, the great law of creation "eat or be eaten" may seem cruel
or unnecessary, knowing as we do that it is the ordinance of a beneficent
Being, who does all things well, and that in fact the sum of happiness is
greatly augmented by it, no man, who does not let a morbid sensibility get
the better of his judgment, will on account of their subjection to this rule,
look upon predaceous animals with abhorrence.
One more instance of the stratagems of insects in procuring their prey
shall conclude this letter. Other examples might be adduced, but the
enumeration would be tedious. This, from an order of insects widely
differing from that which includes the race of spiders, is perhaps more
curious and interesting than any of those hitherto recited. The insect to
s,
242 FOOD OF INSECTS.
■which I allude, an inhabitant of the south of Europe, is the larva of a
species of ant-lion (^Myrmeleon), so called from its singular manners in this
state. It belongs to a genus between tlie dragon-fly and the Hemerobius.
When full grown its length is about half an inch : in shape it has a slight
resemblance to a wood-louse, but the outline of the body is more triangular,
the anterior part being considerably wider than the posterior: it has six
legs, and the mouth is furnished with a forceps consisting of two incurved
jaws, which give it a formidable appearance. If we looked only at its external
conformation and habits, we should be apt to conclude it one of the most
helpless animals in the creation. Its sole food is the juices of other insects,
particularly ants, but at the first view it seems impossible that it should ever
secure a single meal. Not only is its pace slow, but it can walk in no
other direction than bacfc wards ; 3'ou may judge, therefore, what would be
such a hunter's chance of seizing an active ant. Nor would a stationary
posture be more favourable ; for its grim aspect would infallibly impress
upon all wnnderers the prudence of keeping at a respectful distance. What
then is to become of our poor ant-lion ? In its appetite it is a perfect
epicure, never, however great may be its hunger, deigning to taste of a
carcass unless it has previously hari the enjoyment of killing it; and then
extracting only the finer juices. In what possible way can it contrive to
supply such a succession of delicacies, when its ordinary habits seem to
unfit it for obtaining even the coarsest provision ? You shall hear. It
accomplishes by artifice what all its open efforts would have been unequal
to. It digs in loose sand a conical pit, in the bottom of which it conceals
itself, and there seizes upon the insects which, chancing to stumble over
the margin, are precipitated down the sides to the centre. '* How won-
derful ! " you exclaim : but you will be still more surprised when I have
described the whole process by which it excavates its trap, and the ingenious
contrivances to which it has recourse.
Its first concern is to find a soil of loose dry sand, in the neighbourhood
of which, indeed, its provident mother has previously taken care to place
it, and in a sheltered spot near an old wall, or at the foot of a tree. This
is necessary on two accounts : the prey most acceptable to it abounds
there, and no other soil would suit tor the construction of its snare. Its
next step is to trace in the sand a circle, which, like the furrow with which
Romulus marked out the limits of his new city, is to determine the extent
of its future abode. This being done, it proceeds to excavate the cavity
by throwing out the sand in a mode not less singular than effective Placing
itself in the inside of the circle which it has traced, it thrusts the hind part
of its body under the sand, and with one of its fore-legs, serving as a
shovel, it charges its flat and square head with a load, which it immediately
throws over the outside of the circle with a jerk strong enough to carry it
to the distance of several inches. This little n)anoeuvre is executed with
surprising promptitude and address. A gardener does not operate so
quickly or so well with his spade and his foot, as the ant-lion with its
head and leg. Walking backwards, and constantly re|]eating the process,
it soon arrives at the part of the circle fiom which it set out. It then
traces a new one, excavates another furrow in a similar manner, and, by a
repetition of these operations, at length arrives at the centre of its cavity.
One circumstance deserves remark, — that it never loads its head with the
sand lying on the outside of the circle, though it would be as easy to do
this with the outward leg, as to remove the sand within the circle by the
FOOD OF INSECTS. 243
inner leg. But it knows that it is the sand in the interior of the circle only
that is to be cxcavateil, and it thercrore constantly uses the Icir next the
centre. It will rcailily occur, however, that to use one leg as a shovel
exclusively throughout the whole of such a toilsome operation, would be
extrenicK wearisome luul jiainlul. For this difficulty our ingenious pioneer
has a resource. After finishing the excavation of one circular hirrovv, it
traces tiie next in an opposite direction ; aud thus alternately exercises
each of ils legs without tiring either.
In the course of its labours it frequcptly meets with small stones: these
it places upon its head one by one, and jerks over the margin of the pit.
But sometimes, when near the bottom, a [)ct)l)le presents itself of a size so
large that this process is impossible, its head not being sufficiently broad
and strong to biar so great a weight, and the height being too considerable
to admit of projecting so large a body to the top. A more impatient
labourer would despair, but not so our insect. A new plan is adopted.
By a manoeuvre, not easily docribed, it lifts the stone upon its back, keeps
it in a stcaily po>ition bv an alternate motion of the segments which com-
pose that [lart ; and carefully walking up the ascent with the burthen,
de|)o^its it on tiie outsiiie of the margin. When, as occasionall}' happens,
the stone is round, the labour becomes most difiicult and painlul. A
spectator watching the motions of the ant-lion feels an inexpressible
interest in its behalf. He sees it with vast exertion elevate the stone, and
begin its arduous retrograde ascent: at every noment the burthen totters
to one side or the other : the adroit porter lifts up the segments of its l)ack
to balance it, and has already nearly reached the top of the pit, when a
stumble or a jolt mocks all its etibrts, and the stone tumbles headlong to
the bottom. Mortified, but not despairing, the ant-lion returns to the
charge; again replaces the stone on its back ; again ascends the side, and
artfully avails himself, for a road, of the channel formed by the falling
stone, against the sides of which he can support his load. This time pos-
sibly he succeeds ; or it may be, as is often the case, the stone again rolls
down. When thus unfortunate, our little Sis\phushas been seen t;i.v times
patiently to renew his attempt, and was at lust, as such heroic resolution
deserved, successful. It is only alter a series of trials have demonstrated
the imjjossibility of succeeiling that our engineer yields to fate, and, quit-
ting his half-excavated pit, be::ins the formation of another.
When all obstacles are overcome, and the pit is finished, it presents it-
self as a conical hole rather more than two inches deep, gradually con-
tracting to a point at the bottom, and about three inches wide at the top.^
The ant-lion now takes its station at the bottom of the pit, and, that its
gruff appearance may not scare the passengers which approach its den,
covers itself with sand all except the points of its expanded forceps. It is
not long before an ant on its travels, fearing no harm, steps upon tiie margin
of the pit, either accidentally or fur the purpose of exploring the depth
below. Alas! its curiosity is dearly gratifitd. The faithless sand slides
from under its feet; its struggles but hasten its descent; and it is pre-
1 The nests of this animal which I saw at Fontainebleau (in the pit producing
the fo-sil named after that place) were scarcely halt" tiie dimensions here given, but
they miglit pmbalily be younger insects. I ke[)t one in a box of sand several days,
in wliicii it regularly formed its pit, whenever obliterated by shaking. The bottom
of tiie bo.x unfortuuately came out as I was upon my return to England, and the
animal was killed.
B 2
244 FOOD OF INSECTS.
cipitated headlong into the jaws of the concealed devourer. Sometimes,
however, it chances that the ant is able to stop itself midway, and with all
haste scrambles up again. No sooner does the ant-lion perceive this (for,
being furnished with six eyes on each side of his head, he is sufficiently
sharp-sighted), than, shaking off his inactivity, he hastily shovels loads of
sand upon his head, and vigorously throws them up in quick succession
upon the escaping insect, which, attacked by such a heavy shower from
below, and treading on so unstable a path, is almost inevitably carried to
the bottom. The instant his victim is fairly within reach, the ant-lion
seizes him between his jaws, which are admirable instruments, at the same
time hooked for holding, and grooved on the inner side, so as to form
with the adjoining maxillae, which move up and down in the groove, a
tube for sucking, and at his leisure extracting all the juices of the body,
regales upon formic acid. The dry carcass he subsequently jerks out of
his den, that it may not encumber him in his future contests, or betray the
" horrid secrets of his prison-house: " and if the sides of the pit have re-
ceived any damage, he leaves his concealment for awhile to repair it ; which
having done, he resumes his station.
In this manner in its larva state this insect lives nearly two years,
during all which time it receives no food but what has been caught through
the artifice above described. Though all living insects, for I have fed it
with flies, are equally acceptable to it, as the winged tribe can easily take
flight from its pit should they chance to fall into it, its prey consists chiefly
of apterous species, of which ants form by far the largest portion, with
occasionally an unwary spider or wood-louse. When the full period of its
growth is attained, it retires under the sand ; spins with its anus a silken co-
coon; remains a chrysalis a few weeks ; and then breaks forth a four-winged
insect, resembling, as before observed, the dragon-fly both in appearance
and manners, and preying, in like manner, on moths, butterflies, and other
insects,^
The larva of Myrmeleon Forviicaleo is not the only insect which avails
itself of a trap for obtaining its prey. A plan in most respects similar is
adopted by that of a fly (Leptis Vermileo), in form somewhat resembling
the common flesh maggot. This al^^o digs a funnel-shaped cavity in loose
earth or sand, but deeper in proportion to its width than that of M. For-
micaleo, and excavated not by regular circles, but by throwing out the
earth obliquely on all sides. When its trap is finished, it stretches itself
near the bottom, remaining stifl'and without motion like a piece of wood,
and the last segment bentM an angle with the rest, so as to form a strong
point of support in the struggles which it often necessarily has with
vigorous prey. The moment an insect falls into the pitfall, the larva
writhes itself round it hke a serpent, transfixes it with its mandibles, and
sucks its juices at its ease. If the insect escapes, the larva casts above it
jets of sand with surprising rapidity.'^
I am, &c.
1 Reaum. vi. 333—378. Bonnet, ii. 380.
2 Bonnet, ix. 414. De Geer, vi. 168. t. 10.
245
LETTER XIV.
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.
In forming an estimate of the civilisation and intellectual prepress of a
newly discovered people, we usually pay attention to their buildinjis, and
other proofs of architectural skill. It' we find them, like the wretched in-
habitants of V'an Dienien's Lantl, without other abodes than natural ca-
verns or miserable jjenthouses of bark, we at once regard them as the most
ignorant and unhumanisetl of their race. If, like the natives of the South
iSea Isles, they have advanced a step further, and enjoy houses formed of
timber, thatched with leaves, and furnished with utensils of different kinds,
we are inclined to j)lace them considerably higher in the scale. When,
as in the case of ancient Mexico, we discover a nation inhabituig towns,
containing stone houses, regularly disposed into streets, we do not hesitate
without other inquiry to decide that it must have been civilised in no
ordinary degree. And if it were to chance that some future Park in
Africa should stumble upon the ruins of a large city, where, in addition to
these proofs of science, every building was constructed on just geometrical
and architectural principles ; where the materials were so employed as to
unite strength with lightness, and a confined site so artfully occupied as to
obtain spacious synuuetrical apartments, we should eagerly inquire into the
history of the iniiabitants, and sigh over the remains of a race whose in-
tellectual advances we should iul'er with certainty were not inferior to
our own.
Were we by the same test to estimate the sagacity of the different classes
of animals, we should, beyond all doubt, assign the highest place to insects,
which, in the construction of their habitations, leave all the rest far behind.
The nests of birds, from the rook's rude assemblage of sticks to the pensile
dwellings of the tailor bird, wonderful as they doubtless are, are indis-
putably eclipsed by the structures formed by many insects; and the regular
villages of the beaver, by far the most sagacious architect amongst qua-
drupeds, nuist yield the palm to a wasp's nest. You will think me here
guilty of exaggeration, and that, blinded by my attachment to a favourite
pursuit, I am elevating the little objects, which I wish to reconunend to
your study, to a rank beyond their just claim. So far, however, am I
from being conscious of any such prejudice, that I do not hesitate to go
further, and assert that the pyramids of Egypt, as the work of man, are
not more wonderful for their size and solidity than are the structures built
bysome insects.
To describe the most remarkable of these is my present object : and
that some method may be observed, I shall in this letter describe the
habitations of insects living in a state of solitude, and built each by a
single architect ; and in a subsequent one, those of insects living in so-
R 3
246 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.
cieties, built by the united labours of many. The former class may be
conveniently subdivided into habitations built by tlie parent insect, not for
its own use, but for the convenience of its future young; and those which
are formed by the insect that inhabits them for its own accommodation.
To the first I shall now call your attention.
The solitary insects which construct habitations for their future young
■without any view to their own accommodation, chiefly belong to the order
Hymen ptcra, and are principally different species of wild bees and wasps.
Of these the most simple are built by Culle/ca^ sitccincta, fodiens, &c. The
situation which the parent hee chooses, is either the dry earth of a bank,
or the vacuities of stone walls cemented with earth instead of mortar.
Having excavated a cylinder about two inches in depth, running usually
in a horizontal direction, the bee occupies it with tliree or four cells about
half an inch long, and one sixth broad, shaped like a thimble, the end of
one fitting into the mouth of another. The substance of which these cells
are formed is two or three layers of a silky membrane, composed of a kind
of glue secreted by the animal, resembling gold-beater's leaf, but much
finer, and so thin and transparent that the colour of an included object
may be seen through them. As soon as one cell is completed, the l)ee
deposits an egg within, and nearly fills it with a paste composed of pollen
and honey ; which having done, she proceeds to form another cell, storing
it in like manner until the whole is finished, when she carefully stops up
the mouth of the orifice with earth. Our countryman Grew seems to
have found a series of these nests in a singular situation — the middle of
the pith of an old elder branch — in which they were placed lengthwise
one afccr another with a thin boundary between each.-
Cells composed of a similar membranaceous stdistance, but placed in a
different situation, are constructed by Anlhidhim manicatinn.^ This gay
insect does not excavate holes for their reception, but places them in the
cavities of old trees, or of any other object that suits its purpose. Sir
Thomas Cullum discovered the nest of one in the inside of the lock of a
garden-gate, in which I have also since twice found them. It should
seem, however, that such situations would be too cold for the grubs with-
out a coating of some non-conducting substance. The parent bee, there-
fore, after having constructed the cells, laid an egg in each, and filled them
with a store of suitable food, plasters them with a covering of vermiform
masses, apparently composed of honey and pollen ; and having done this,
aware, long before Coimt Rumford's experiments, what materials conduct
heat most slowly, she attacks the woolly leaves of Slnchys lanata, Agro-
stemvia coronaria, and similar plants, and with her mandibles industriously
scrapes off' the wool, which with her fore legs she rolls into a little ball
and carries to her nest. This wool she sticks upon the plaster that
covers her cells, and thus closely envelops them with a warm coating of
down, impervious to every change of temperature. "* '
1 Melitta. * . a. K.
2 Grew's Rarities of Gresham College, 154. Kirbj', 3Ion. Ap. Avgl. i. 131. Me-
litta. *. a.
3 Curtis, Brit. Ent. t. 61.
4 3Ion. Ap. Angl. i. 173. Apis. **. c. 2. a. From later observations! am inclined
to think that these cells may possibly, as in the case of the humble bee, be in fact
formed by the larva previously to becoming a pupa, after having eateu the provision
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 247
The bee last doscriheil may be said to exercise tlie trade of a clolhicr.
Another minicrous Cainily would be more properly compared to carpenters,
boring' with incredible labour out of the solid wood long cylindrical tubes,
and dividing,' them into various cells. Amongst these, one of the most
remarkable is Xi/loco/ia^ violacea, a large species, a native of ndddle and
sontiicrn l-lnrope, distinguished by beautiful wings of a deep violet colour,
and found conunonly in gardens, in the upright putrescent espaliers or
vine-|)rops, of which, and occasionally in the garden seats, doors, and
window -shutters, she makes her nest. In the beginning of spring, after
re|)eateil and careful surveys, she fixes upon a piece of wood suitable for
her pnr|)('se, and with her strong nuuidibles begins the |)rocess of boring.
First pruceciling obliquely downwards, she soon points her course in a
direction parallel with the sides of the wood, and at length with unwearied
exertion forms a c\lindrical hole or tunnel not less than twelve or fifteen
inches long and half an inch liroad. Sometimes, where the iliameter will
admit of it, three or four of these pipes, nearly parallel with each other,
are boreil in the same piece. Herculean as this task, which is the labour
of several days, appears, it is but a small part of what our industrious bee
cheerfully undertakes. As yet she has completed but the shell of the
destined habitation of her offspring ; each of which, to the number of ten
or twelve, will require a separate and distinct apartment. How, you will
ask, is she, to form these ? With what materials can she construct the
floors and ceilings? Why truly God "doth instruct her to discretion
and doth teach her." In excavating her tunnel she has detached a large
quantity of fibres, which lie on the ground like a heap of saw-dust. This
material supplies all her wants. Having deposited an egg at the bottom
of the cylinder along with the requisite store of pollen and honey, she
next, at the height of about three quarters of an inch (which is the depth
of each cell), constructs of particles of the saw-dust glued together, and
also to the sides of the tunnel, what may be called an annular stage or
scaffolding. When this is sufficiently hardened, its interior edge affords
su[)port for a second ring of the same materials, and thus the ceiling is
grailually formed of these concentric circles, till there remains only a
small orifice in its centre, which is also closed with a circular mass of
agglutinated particles of saw-dust. When this partition, which serves as
the ceiling of the first cell and the flooring of the second, is finished, it
is about the thickness of a crown-piece, and exhibits the appearance of as
many concentric circles as the animal has made pauses in her labour.
One cell being finished, she proceeds to another, which she furnishes and
completes in the same manner, and so on until she has divided her
whole tunnel into ten or twelve apartments.
Here, if you have followed me in this detail with the interest which I
wish it to inspire, a query will suggest itself. It will strike you that such
a laborious undertaking as the constructing and furnishing these cells
cannot be the work of one or even of two days. Considermg that every
of pollen and honey with which the parent bee had surrounded it. The vermicular
shape, however, of the masses with which the cases are surrounded does not seem
easily reconcileable with this supposition, unless they are considered as the ex-
crement of the larva.
1 Apis. **. d. 2. /3. K.
R 4
248 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.
cell requires a store of honey and pollen, not to be collected but with
long toil, and that a considerable interval must be spent in agglutinating
the floors of each, it will be very obvious to you that the last egg in the
last cell must be laid many days after the first. We are certain, therefore,
that the first egg will become a grub, and consequently a perfect bee,
many days before the last. What then becomes of it ? you will ask. It
is impossible that it should make its escape through eleven superin-
cumbent cells without destroying the immature tenants ; and it seems
equally impossible that it should remain patiently in confinement below
them until they are all disclosed. This dilemma our heaven-taught ar-
chitect has provided against. With forethought never enough to be
admired she has not constructed her tunnel with one opening only, but at
the further end has pierced another orifice, a kind of back door, through
which the insects produced by the first-laid eggs successively emerge into
day. In fact, all the young bees, even the uppermost, go out by this road ;
for, by an exquisite instinct, each grub, when about to become a pupa,
places itself in its cell with its head downwards, and thus is necessitated,
when arrived at its last state, to pierce its cell in this direction.^
Ceratina albilnhris of Spinola, who has given an interesting account of its
manners, forms its cell upon the general plan of the bee just described, but,
more economical of labour, chooses a branch of briar or bramble, in the pith
of which she excavates a canal about a foot long, and one line, or some-
times more, in diameter, with from eight to twelve cells separated from
each other by partitions of particles of pith glued together^; and from the
dead sticks of the same plants, in which they had formed their cells in a
similar way, MM. Dufour and Ferris have bred in the sandy district of the
Landes in the south-west of France not fewer than twelve distinct species
of wild bees and other Hymenoptera, namely, four species of Oswia, two
of Ceratina, three of Odynenis, two of Solenius, and Trypoxylon figulus,
besides fifteen species of parasitic Hymenoptera of the genera Stelis, Pro-
sopis, Iclineiimon, Chrysis, &c., making in all twenty-seven species of hymen-
opterous insects obtained from this prolific habitat, for which, too, they were
indebted for very rare insects, which they had never before met with. ^
Mr. Thvvaites has been also very successful in obtaining Hymenoptera from
this source, having bred from dead bramble sticks found near Bristol HijIcbus
annularis and a new species, Ceratina albilabris Sp. ci/anea K., Osmia leuco-
melana, Epipone levipes, Cenwnus unicolor, Spilomena Troglodytes, a new
species of Trypoxylon, and an unascertained one of Cladius, besides seven
species of parasitic Hymenoptera, including Stelis minuta, Chrysis cyanea,
Hedychrum auratum, Cryptus bellosus, and three other Ichneumonidas, in
all, sixteen species. — Crabro tibialis, which M. Ferris says is parasitic on
Hymenoptera residing in bramble-sticks {Ann. Soc. Ent. de Erance, ix. 407.),
has been also found in this habitat near Bristol by Thomas Lighten, Esq.
Such are the curious habitations of the carpenter bees and their
analogues. Next I shall introduce you to the not less interesting struc-
tures of another group of bees, which carry on the trade o{ masons {Mega-
chile muraria), buildmg their solid houses solely of artificial stone. The
first step of the mother bee is to fix upon a proper situation for the future
1 Reaum. vi. 39—52. Man. Ap. Angl. i. 189. Apis. **. a. 2. /3.
2 Ann. du Mus. x. 236.
' Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, ix. 1 — 53.
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 249
mansion of her offsprin;j. For this she usually selects an angle, sheltered
by any projection, on tiie south side of a stone wall. Her next care is to
provide materials for the structure. Tlie chief of these is sand, wliich she
carefully selects grain by grain from such as contains some mixture of earth.
These grains siie glues together with her viscid saliva into masses the size
of small shot, anil transports by means of her jaws to the site of her castle.'
With a number of these masses, which are the artificial stone of which her
building is to be composed, united by a cement preferalde to ours, she first
forms the basis or foundation of the whole. Next she raises the walls of a
cell, which is about an inch m length, and hall' an inch bioad, and, before its
orifice is closed, in form resembles a thimble. This, after depositing an egg
and a supply of honey and pollen, she covers in, and then proceeds to the erec-
tion of a second, w hich she finishes in the same manner, until the whole num-
ber, which varies from four to eight, is completed. The vacuities between
the cells, which are not placed in any regular order, some bemg parallel to the
wall, others perpendicular to it, and others inclined to it at ditJ'crent angles,
this laborious architect fills u[) with the same material of which the cells
are composed, and then bestows upon the whole group a common cover-
ing of coarser grains of sand. The form of the whole nest, which when
finished is a solid mass of stone so hard as not to be easily penetrated with
the blade of a knife, is an irregular oblong of the same colour as the sand,
and to a casual observer more resembling a splash of mud tlian An artificial
structure. These bees sometimes are more economical of their labour, and
repair old nests, for the possession of which they have very desperate com-
bats. One would have supposed that the inhabitants of a castle so fortified
might defy the attacks of every insect marauder. Yet an Ichneumon and
a beetle (C/eriis apiarius') both contrive to introduce their eggs into the
cells, and the larvae proceeding from them devour their inhabitants.'-
Otlier bees of the same group with that last described use different
materials in the construction of their ne.^ts. Some employ fine earth made
into a kind of mortar with gluten. Another (Osviia^ ccEritlcsccns), as we
learn from De Geer, forms its nest of argillaceous earth mixed with chalk,
upon stone walls, and sometimes probably nidificates in chalk pits. 0.
bicornis, according to Reaumur, selects the hollows of large stones for the
site of its dwelling ; but in England seems to prefer rotten posts and
palings, in which it bores upwards, and then forms the partitions of its cells
of clay and sand glued together. One species of this genus (O. gallnrum)
saves itself trouble by placing its cells in an abandoned gall of the oak, and
1 Reaumur plausibly supposes that it has been from observing this bee thus
loaded that the tale mentioned by Aristotle and Pliny, oft he hive-bee's ballasting
itself with a bit of stone previously to flying home in a high wind, has arisen.
2 Keaum. vi. 57 — 88. 3Ton. Ap. Aiigl. i. 179. According to M. Goureau, Reaumur
and succeeding entomologists have always confounded under Megachile muraria two
very distinct species. The first, which he considers the true one, constructs its nest
in April, — selecting the exposed surface of a rock, stone, or wall (not an angle),
and preferring solitary places distant botli from tlie noise of the abode of man and
from the habitations of its own tribe; whereas the other, which does not begin its
nest till the end of May or beginning of June, always places it in the angle of some
wall or pilaster, &c. of a building, seeming to prefer inhabited houses and to be near
others of its species, close to whose nests it often places its own. {Ann. Soc. Ent.
de France, ix. 118.)
3 Apis. •*. C.2. 8. K.
250 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.
others select, with the like object, empty snail-shells.^ One remarkable
peculiarity of some of these insects is, that they conceal the place where
their cells are situated with some extraneous material. Thus O. gallnrum
hides the galls it has adopted by glueing round them oak leaves, and a
species which M. Goureau conceives to be O. 6;co/or employed a whole day
in arranging over the mouth (as he supposes) of its cell pieces of grass
about two inches long, in a conical or tent-like form^ ; ant! that this species
em[)loys tiiis material for some pur[)ose connected with its nest is confirmed
by Mr. Thwaites, who observed a female for a considerable time fetching
similar pieces of grass, and laving them over a snuil-shell, where he had
every reason to believe she had formed her cells. Unfortunately neither
M. Goureau nor Mr. Thwaites could pursue their observations, not having
been able the following day to fmd any trace of the labours they had ob-
served on that preceding.
The works thus far described require in general less genius than labour
and patience : but it is far otherwise with the nests of the last tribe of arti-
ficers amongst wild bees, to which I shall advert — the hangers of tapestry,
or upholsterers — those which line the holes excavated in the earth for the
reception of their young with an elegant coating of flowers or of leaves.
Amongst the most interesting of these is Megaclide * Pnpaveris, a species
whose manners have been admirably described by Reaumur. This little
bee, as though fascinated with the colour most attractive to our eyes, in-
variably chooses for the hangings of her apartments the most brilliant
scarlet, selecting for its material the petals of the wild poppy, which she
dexterously cuts into the proper form. Her first process is to excavate in
some pathway a burrow, cylindrical at the entrance, but swelled out below
to the depth of about three inches. Having polishetl the walls of this little
apartment, she next flies to a neighbouring field, cuts out oval portions of
the flowers of poppies, seizes them between her legs and returns with them
to her cell; and though separated from the wrinkled petal of a half-
expanded flower, she knows how to straighten their folds, and, if too large,
to fit them for her purpose by cutting off the superfluous parts. Beginning
at the bottom, she overlays the walls of her mansion with this brilliant
tapestry, extending it also on the surface of the ground round the margin
of the orifice. The bottom is rendered warm by three or four coats, and
the sides have never less than two. The little upholsterer, having com-
pleted the hangings of her apartment, next fills it with [)ol!en and honey to
the height of about half an inch ; then, after committing an egg to it, she
wraps over the poppy lining so that even the roof may be of this material,
and lastly closes its mouth with a small hillock of earth.* The great depth
of the cell compared with the space which the single egg and the accom-
panying food deposited in it occupy deserves particular notice. This is not
more than half an inch at the bottom, the remaining two inches and a half
being subsequently filled with earth. — When you next favour me with a
visit, I can show you the cells of this interesting insect, as yet unknown to
British entomologists, for which I am indebted to the kindness of M.
Latreille, who first scientifically described the species.^
Megachile centuncidaris, M. Willitghbiella, and other species of the same
1 Westwood, Mnd. Class, of Ins. ii. 274.
2 Anyi. Soc. Eiit. de France, ix. 123. ^ Apis. **. c. 2. a. K.
■* Reaum. vi. 139—148. 5 Latr. Hist. Nat. des Fourinis, 297.
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 251
family, like the prcccdins;, cover the walls of their cells with a coatinc; of
leaves, hut are content with a more soher colour, generally sclectin}^ for
their hangings the leaves of trees, especially of the rose, whence they have
been known hy the name of the Icaf-ciittcr bees. Thi'v differ also from
M. Ptip'tvcns in excavating longer burrows, anil filling them with several
thimble-shaped cells composed of pitrtions of leaves so curiously convo-
luted, that, if we were ignorant in what school they have been tLuight to
construct them, we should never credit their being the work of an insect.
Their entertaining history, so ioni; ago as 1070, attracted the attention of
our countrymen Ray, Lister, Willughby, and Sir Edward King; but
we are indebted for the most complete account of their procedures to
Ileannuir.
The mother bee first excavates a cylindrical hole eight or ten inches
long, in a hitrizontal direction, either in the ground or in the trunk of a
rotten willow-tree, or occasionally in other decaying wood. 'J'his cavity
she fills with six or seven cells wholly composed of portions of leaf, of the
shape of a thimble, tiie convex end of one closely fitting into the open end
of another. Her first process is to form the exterior coating, which is com-
posed of three or four pieces of larger dimensions than the rest, and of an
oval form. The secoml coating is formed of |)c)rtions of equal hize, narrow at
one end, but gradually witlening towards the other, where the width equals
half the length. One side of tiiese pieces is the serrate margin of the leaf
from w hich it was taken, which, as the pieces are made to laj) one over the
other, is kept on the outside, and that which has been cut within. The
little animal now forms a third coating of similar materials, the middle of
which, as the most skillul workman woidd do in similar circumstances,
she places over the margins of those that form the first tube, thus covering
and strengthening the junctures. Rt'[)eating the same process, she gives a
fourth and sometimes a fifth coating to her nest, taking care, at the closed
end or narrmv extremity of the cell, to bend the leaves so as to form a
convex termination. Having thus finished a cell, her next business is to
fill it to within half a line of the orifice with a rose-colotu'ed conserve com-
posed of honey and pollen, usually collected from the flowers of thistles;
and then havmg deposited her egg, she clo.-es the orifice with three pieces
of leaf so exactly circular, that a pair of compasses could not define
their margin with more truth ; and coinciding so precisely with the walls of
the cell, as to be retained in their situation merely by the nicety of their
adaptation. After this covering is fittetl in, there remains still a concavity
which receives the convex end of the succeeding cell ; and in this manner
the indefatigable little animal proceeds until she has completed the six
or seven cells which compose her cylinder.
The process which one of these bees employs in cutting the pieces of
leaf that compose her nest is worthy of attention. Nothing«can be more
expeditions : she is not longer about it than we should be with a pair of
scissors. After hovering for some moments over a rose-bush, as if to recon-
noitre the ground, the bee alights upon the leaf which she has selected, usually
taking her station u[)on its edge, so that the margin passes between her
legs. With her strong mandibles she cuts without intermission in a curve
line, so as to detach a triangular portion. When this hangs by the last
fibre, lest its weight should carry her to the ground, she balances her
little wings for flight, and the very moment it parts from the leaf flies off
with it in triumph ; the detached portion remaining bent between her legs
252 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.
in a direction perpendicular to her body, Thus, without rule or compasses
do these diminutive creatures mete out the materials of their work into
portions of an ellipse, into ovals or circles, accurately accommodating the
dimensions of the several pieces of each figure to each other. What other
architect could carry impressed upon the tablet of his memory the entire
idea of the edifice which he has to erect, and, destitute of square or plumb-
line, cut out his materials in their exact dimensions without making a
single mistake? Yet this is what our little bee invariably does. So far
are human art and reason excelled by the teaching of the Almighty.'
Other insects besides bees construct habitations of different kinds for
their young, as various species of burrowing wasps (Fus.sores), Geotrupes,
&c., which deposit their eggs in cylindrical excavations that become the
abode of the future larvae. In the procedures of most of these, nothing
worth particularising occurs; but one species, called by Reaumur the
mason-wasp (^Odijnerus miirarhis), referred to in a former letter, works
upon so singular a plan, that it would be improper to pass it over in silence,
especially as these nests may be found in this country in most sandy banks
exposed to the sun. This insect bores a cylindrical cavity from two to
three inches deep, in hard sand which its mandibles alone would be
scarcely capable of penetrating, were it not provided with a slightly gluti-
nous liquor which it pours out of its mouth, that, like the vinegar with
which Hannibal softened the Alps, acts upon the cement of the sand, and
renders the separation of the grains eas^' to the double pickaxe with which
our little pioneer is furnished. But the most remarkable circumstance is
the mode in which it disposes of the excavated materials. Instead of throw-
ing them at random on a heap, it carefully forms them into little oblong
pellets, and arranges them round the entrance of the hole so as to form a
tunnel, which, when the excavation is completed, is often not less than
two or three inches in length. For the greater part of its height this tun-
nel is upright, but towards the top it bends into a curve, always, however,
retaining its cylindrical form. The little masses are so attached to each
other in this cylinder as to leave numerous vacuities between them, which
give it the appearance of filagree-work. You will readily divine that the
excavated hole is intended for the reception of an egg, but for what pur-
pose the external tunnel is meant is not so apparent. One use, and perhaps
the most important, would seem to be to prevent the incursions of the
artful Ichneumons, ChrysidcB, &c., which are ever on the watch to insinuate
their parasitic young into the nests of other insects : it may render their
access to the nest more difficult ; they may dread to enter into so long
and dark a defile. I have seen, however, more than once a Chrysis come
out of these tunnels. That its use is only temporary is plain from the
circumstance that the insect employs the whole fabric, when its egg is laid
and store of fruit procured, in filling up the remaining vacuity of the hole ;
taking down the pellets, which are very conveniently at hand, and placing
them in it until the entrance is filled.^ — Latreille informs us that a nearly
similar tunnel, but composed of grains of earth, is built at the entrance of
its cell by a bee of his family oi pioneers .^
The habitations hitherto described are used simply as an abode for the
future larva springing from the egg deposited in them by the parent female,
and as a storehouse for its food ; but in another class of insect habitations
1 Reaum. vi. 971 — 24. Mon. Ap. Angl. i. 157. Apis. **. c. 2. «.
2 Reaum. vi. 251 — 257. t. xxvi. f. 1. ' Latr. Fourmis, 419.
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 253
the house itself serves both for the protection of the occupant and also for
its subsistence, the larva eating the inner portion of its very walls.
This is the case with the habitations constructed for their future larvas
by the beautiful weevils or long-snouted beetles of the genera Klnincliitc.i,
Attilabus, and Apodcrus, which consist of the whole, or more conunonly a
part, of a leaf of the tree on which they are to feed, rolled up with great
art by the mother into a sort of cylinder sometimes resembling a little
horn, ami at others a wallet more or less elongated, thus giving a singular
appearance to the leaves so treated, which, while their basal portion re-
tains its usual form, have their extremities metamorphosed into these odd-
looking appendages. A very interesting description of the niotle in which
these nests are constructed has been lately given by M. Huber of (ieneva ',
who has detailed the procwlures of li/ii/iic/iifes Bacchus with the leaves
of the vine, of li. I'opiili with those of the poplar, of R. BcluUe with
those of the beech and l)ircli, of Apodcrus Cori/li with those of the
hazel, and of Attrlnbttx Curcuiumoidcs with those of the oak, of which last,
as more fully described by M. (ioureau, I will give you a short account.
The female having deposited a single egg, which adheres by its natural
gluten, near the mid-rib of the end of the upper side of the leaf she has
selected, passes to the under surface, and slightly but repeatedly gnaws
with her small jaws both the mid-rib and epidermis in every part until
both are rendered jierfectly pliable. If the leaf be a small one, she treats
the whole of it in this way and rolls up the whole ; if a large one, she thus
prepares only about one-third or one-half of it, and cuts it across, all except
the mid-rib, with her jaws at the proper point, so as to leave a sufhcient
extent of pliable leaf for her operations. Her next business is to roll up
this terminal portion of the leaf, in effecting which she thus proceeds.
First she folds it together longitudinally so as to cover her egg, the mid-
rib forming one edge of the folded part, and its marginal serratures the
other. Next she places herself at a right angle with the mid-rib, towards
which her tail is directed while her head points to the serratures, and fix-
ing the claws of her two hind left legs into the leaf, she em[)loys those of
the two hind right legs to pull the point of it towards her; and by a repe-
tition of these manoeuvres, not easily described, she at last succeeds in
rolling the whole into a little cylinder having at one end the mid-rib whose
spirals there resemble those of the main-spring of a watch, and at the
other, which is of a less regular shape, the serratures of the leaf, so pushed
in by means of her trunk and fore-legs as to retain the whole in its cylin-
drical form. The larva proceeding from the egg thus deposited towards
the end of May is hatched early in June, and never quits the habitation
which its provident and truly laborious mother (for each egg requires its
separate leaf and the long process above described) has prepared for it,
eating in succession the different rolls of its cylinder, till it has attained its
full growth.-
Under this head, too, may be most conveniently arranged the very sin-
gular habitations of the larvas of the Linnean genus Cijnips, the gall-fly,
though they can with no propriety be said to be constructed by the n)other,
who, provided with an instrument as potent as an enchanter's wand, has
1 Memoires de la Socivti de Ptitjsique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Geneve, viii. 2tle
pariie, 1839, quoted by M. Gourcau, Ann. Soc, Ent. de France, x. 21.
* Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, x. 21 — 27,
254 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.
but to pierce the site of the foundation, and commodious apartments, as if
by magic, spring up and surround the germ of her future descenilants. I
allude to those vegetable excrescences termed gnlls, some of which re-
semhling beautiful berries and others apples, you must have frequently
observed on the leaves of the oak, and of which one species, the Aleppo
gall, as I have before noticed, is of such importance in the ingenious art
" de peindre la parole et de parler aux yeux^ All these tumours owe their
origin to the deposition of an egg in the substance out of which they
grow. This e;»g, too small almost for perception, the parent insect, a little
four-winged fly, introduces into a puncture made by her curious spiral
sting, and in a few hoars it becomes surrounded with a fleshy chamber,
which not only serves its young for shelter anil defence, but also, like
those habitations last described, for food ; the future little hermit feeding
upon its interior and there undergoing its metamorphosis. Nothing can
be more varied than these habitations. Some are of a globular form, a
bright red colour, and smooth fleshy consistence, resembling beautiful
fruits, for which, indeed, as you have before been told, they are eaten in
the Levant : others, beset with spines or clothed with hair, are so much
like seed-vessels, that an eminent modern chemist has contended re-
specting the A'ep|)o gall that it is actually a capsule.^ Some are exactly
round ; others like little mushrooms ; others resemble artichokes ; while
others again might be taken for flowers ; in short, they are of a hundred
different forms, and of all sizes from that of a pin's head to that of a
walnut. Nor is their situation on the plant less diversified. Some are
found upon the leaf itself ; others upon the foot-stalks only ; others upon
the roots, and others upon the buds.^ Some of them cause the branches
upon which they grow to shoot out into such singular forms, that the
plants producing them were esteemed by the old botanists distinct species.
Of this kind is the Roae-willoiv, which old Gerard figures and describes as
" not only making a gallant shew, but also yeelding a most cooling aire in
the heat of summer, being set up in houses for the decking of the same."
This willow is nothing niore than one of the conunon species, whose twigs,
in consequence of the deposition of the egg of a Cynips in their summits,
there shoot out into numerous leaves totally different in shape from the
other leaves of the tree, and arranged not much unlike those composing
the flower of a rose, adhering to the stem even after the others fall off.
Sir James Smith mentions a similar lusns on the Provence willows, which
at first he took for a tufted lichen.^ From the same cause the twigs of
the common wild rose often shoot out into a beautiful tuft of numerous
reddish moss-like fibres wholly dissimilar from the leaves of the plant,
deemed by the old naturalists a very valuable medical substance, to which
they erroneously gave the name of" Bedeguar. None of these variations
is ac( idental or comiuon to several of the tribe, but each peculiar to the
galls formed by a single and distinct species oi Ci/nips.
The Poma Sodomitica, mala insana, or apples of the Dead Sea, beautiful
to the eye, but filling the mouth with bitter ashes if tasted, whose exist-
1 Aikin's Dictionary of Chemistry, i. 455. What have probably been taken by
Mr. Aikin for " kernels," in the imperforated nuts, are the cocoons of the inhabitants
of these g;ills in the pupa state, which often extremely resemble the seeds of a
capsule, as Reaumur (iii. 429.) has remarked.
2 Eeaum. iii. 417, &c. 3 Introd. to Botany, 349.
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 255
encc, though mentioned by Tacitus, Straho, and Josephiis, has been
questioned by Kiland, Maundrell, and Shaw, and respecting wiiich nu-
merous contradictory and erroneous opinions by more recent authors
have l)een collected by Mr Condei' in his Modern Trnvcl/cr, haxi: at length
liad their true history developed by tlie late venerable vice-prc^idcnt of
the Linnean Society, A. B. Lam!)ert, Escj.', Walter Elliot, Escp, and
J. (). Westwood, Esq.* From their combined observations, it has been
ascertained that the Poma Sodomiticn are actual galls, two inches long and
an inch and a half in diameter, of a beautiful rich glossy purplish red ex-
teriorly, and filled with an intensely bitter, porous, and easily pulverised
substance, surronniling the insect {Cj/ii//)x insana Westwood), which has
given birth to them, and were found by Mr. Flliot growing on various
species of dwarf oaks beyontl the Jortlan and in the Troad, to the twigs of
which Mr. Westwood remarks they are attached in a curious manner,
unlike what he has seen in any other galls, the narrow end " rising
upwards on each side and bending inwards, so as to clasp the extremity
oi'the twig somewhat like a pair of wide and curved nippers."
How the mere insertion of an egg into the substance of a leaf or twig,
even if accompanied, as some imagine, by a peculiar fluid, should cause
the growth of such singular protuberances around it, philosophers are as
little able to explain, as why the insertion of a particle of variolous matter
into a chilli's arm should cover it with pustules of small pox. In both
cases the effects seem to proceed from some action of the foreign sub-
stance upon the secreting vessels of the animal or vegetable : but of the
nature of this action we know nothing. Thus much is ascertained by the
observations of Reaumur and Malpiiihi — that the production of the gall,
which, however large, attains its full size in a day or two^, is caused by
the egg or some accompanying fluid ; not by the larva, which does not
appear until the gall is fully formed ': that the galls which spring from
/caves almost constantly take their origin from nerves^ ; and that the egg,
at the same time that it causes the growth of the gall, itself derives
nourishment from the substance that surrounds it, becoming consiJerably
larger before it is hatched than it was when first deposited.*^ When che-
mically analysed, galls are found to contain only the same primiples as
the plant from which they spring, but in a more concentrated state.
No productions of nature seem to have puzzled the anciei;t philo-
sophers more than galls. The conunentator on Dioscorides, Mathiolus,
who agreeably to the doctrine of those days ascribed their origin to spon-
taneous generation, gravely informs us that weighty prognostications as
to the events of the ensuing year may be deduced from ascertaining
■whether they contain spiders, worms, or flies. Other philosophers, who
knew that, except by rare accident, no other animals are to be found in
galls besides grubs of different kinds, which they rationally conceived to
spring from egus, were chiefly at a loss to account for the conveyance of
these esii^s into the middle of a substance in which they could find no
external orifice. They therefore inferred that they were the eggs of
insects deposited in the earth, which had been drawn up by the roots of
trees along with the sap, and after passing through different vessels had
1 Linn. Trans, xvii. 445. ^ Trmis. Eiit. Soc. Lnnd. ii. IG.
3 Heauni. iii. 474. •* Ibid. 479.
* Ibid. 501. *' Ibid. 479.
256 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.
stoppeil, some in the leaves, others in the twitjs, and had there hatched
and produced galls! Redi's solution of the difficulty was even more ex-
traordinary. This philosopher, who had so triumphantly combated the
absurdities of spontaneous generation, fell himself into greater. Not
having been able to witness the deposition of eggs by the parent flies in
the plants that produce galls, he took it for granted that the grubs which
he found within them could not spring from eggs : and he was equally
unwilling to admit their origin from spontaneous generation, — an ad-
mission which would have been fatal to his own most brilliant discoveries.
He therefore cut the knot, by supposing that to the same vegetative soul
by which fruits and plants are produced is committed the charge of
creating the larvae founil in galls !^ An instance truly humiliating : how
little we can infer, from a man's just ideas on one point, that he will not
be guilty of the most pitiable absurdity on another !
Though by far the greater part of the vegetable excrescences termed
galls are caused by insects of the genus Ct/nips, they do not always ori-
ginate from this tribe. Some are produced by weevils of different genera
and species. Thus those on the roots of kedlock (^Siiiapis arve»sis) I
have ascertained to be inhabited by the larvae of Kedyus contractus and
assmilis. From the knob-iike galls on turnips, called in some places the
ambttry, I have bred another of these weevils {Citrculio pleurostigma Marsh.,
RhynchcEnus sulcico/lis G\ll.), and I have little doubt that the same insects,
or species allied to them, cause the clubbing of the roots of cabbages.^ It
seems to be a beetle of the same family that is figured by Reaumur ^ as
causing the galls on the leaves of the lime-tree. Mr. Westwood has
traced the transformations of a minute species o'l Balaninus, which resides
in the large and fleshy galls on the leaves of willows, occasionally in com-
pany with the larvae of Nematus intercns ; Bouche has also described the
larva of Balanhms salicivorus Schon., which is found in the galls on the
leaves o{ Sa/ixvitelUna, and that of Gymncetron villosidus, which lives in a
gall formed on Veronica beccahiinga. According to Hammerschmidt Cleojjus
ajjinis also resides in galls upon the roots of Sinapis arvensis, C/eonus Li-
naricE in galls at the roots of Antirrhlmun LbiaricB, and Baris carutescens in
the stems of Reseda lutea, all in their larva state ^ ; and M. Perris has
obtained an Apion (A. ulicicola P.) from galls on the young branches of
Ulejc nanus ^, an interesting fact, as proving, with a similar one observed
by Mr. Westwood as to Apion Radiolum which he found undergoing its
transformations in the stems of the hollyhock'', that all the species of this
genus do not pass their larva state in the interior of seeds as most of them
do. Other galls owe their origin to moths, as those resembling a nutmeg
1 De Lisectis, 233, &c.
2 Mr. Westwood informs us that he has not detected any other larvse in the chibs
at the roots of cabbages than those of a species of Muscidw (^Andiomyia hrassicce),
and which had evidently been produced from eggs laid in crevices of the already
formed clubs.
3 Reaum. iii. t. 38. f. 2, 3.
4 Bouche Naturgesch, &c. and Hammerschmidt Observ. Physiol. Pathol, de Plant.
Gallarum Ort'i, quoted in Westwood's Modern Classif. i. 342. I have some sus-
picion that a little weevil, Leinsoma ovatula, of which I found ten or twelve early in
the spring of 1842, near Bristol, under the leaves of Ranuncidus bulbosus, which they
had pierced with numerous holes, may reside in the larva state in galls on the root
of this plant.
5 Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, is.. 90. * Westwood, uli supra, i. 337.
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 257
which Reaunnir received from Cyprus ^ ; ami others again to two-winged
Hies, as the woody galls of the thistle caused by Trtfpctn Cardni"^, and
the cottony galls found on grouutl ivy, wild thyn)e, cS:c., as wtli as a very
singular one ou the juniper reseiubliug a flower, described by De (ieer ^,
all which are the work, of minute gall-gnats (Cccidomi/hi: Latr.). iSouie of
these last convert even the flowers of plants into a kuui of galls, as T. Loti
of De (ieer ', which inhabits the blossoms o\' lAtlux roniicii/ft/iis ; and one
which I have myself observed to render the ftowcvs of Eri/siviiim Harharea
like a hop blossom. A similar monstrous ap[)earance is connnunicated to
the flowers of T'curriiiin .fiipiniini by a little field-bug, 2^/«g/'.v Ti-ucni of
Host '', and to another plant of the same genus by one of the same tribe
described by Reaumur.'' In these two last instances, however, the habita-
tions do not seem strictly entitled to the ap|)ellation of galls, as they ori-
ginate not from the egL', but from the larva, which, in the operation of
extracting the sap, in some way imparts a morbid action to the juices,
causing the flower to expauil unnaturally ; and the same remark is appli-
cable to the gall-like swellings formed by many Aphides, as A. PktacicE,
which causes the leaves of ditterent species of Pistacia to expand into red
finger-like cavities ; A. Ahietis, which converts the buds or young shoots
of the fir into a very beautiful gall, somewhat resembling a fir-cone, or a
pine-apple in miniature ; and A. Ihtrxaruc, which with its brood inhabits
angular utricidi on the leaf-stalk of the black poplar, ninnhers of which I
have observed on those trees by the road-side Irom Hull to Cottingham.
The majority of galls are what entomologists have denominated monotha-
lamous, or consisting of only one chamber or cell; but some are polytha-
lamous, or consisting of several.
Among the more remarkable galls are those so much resembling minute
fungi as to have been actually described as such ; as Sclcroiiumfa.'ictctilatiim
Schumacher, which is a conunon gall on oak leaves ; and the Rev. M, J.
Berkeley has given an account of a similar one found by W. S. MacLeay,
Esq., in Cuba, on the leaf of a plant of the order OchnacccE, which on a
cursory examination was regarded by some of our first botanists as an
epiphytous fungus, but proved on dissection to be a true gall, and ilistin-
guishcd from all previously known by its very curious operculum or lid,
evidently meant for the more ready egress of the occupant (which has not
yet been ascertained) in its perfect state.'
Having thus described the most remarkable of the habitations constructed
by the parent insects for the accommodation of their future young, I pro-
ceed to the second kind mentioned; namely, tiiose which are formed by
the insect itself for its own use. These may be again subdivided into
such as are the work of the insects in their larva state ; and such as are
formed by perfect insects.
jNIany larvaj of all orders need no other habitations than the holes which
they form in seeking for, or eating, the substances upon which they feed.
Of this description are the majority of subterranean larva;, and those
which feed on wood; as the Bostriclii oi* labyrinth beetles; \\\e Anobia,
which excavate the little circular holes frequently met with in ancient fur-
1 Keaum. iii. 448. 2 Ibid. 455. 3 De Geer, vi. 409.
■* Ibid. vi. 421. 5 Jacquin Collect, ii. 255.
6 IJeaum. iii. 427. 7 Trans. Linn. Sue. xviii. 576.
258 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.
nilure and the wood-work of old houses; and many Inrv^ of other orders,
particularly LepidojHera. One of these Uist, the larva of Cossus ligni-
perda, differs from its congeners in fabricating for its residence during win-
ter a habitation of pieces of wood hned with fine silk.^ Under this divi-
sion, too, come the singular habitations of the subcutaneous larvae, so
called from the circumstance of their feeding upon the parenciiyma in-
cluded between the upper and imder cuticles of the leaves of plants, be-
tween which, though the whole leaf is often not thicker than a sheet of
writing-paper, they find at once food and lodging. You must have been
at some time struck by certain white zigzag or labyrinth-like lines on the
leaves of the dandelion, bramble, and numerous other plants ; the next
time you meet with one of them, if you hold it up to the light you will
perceive that the colour of these lines is owing to the pulpy substance of
the leaf having there been removed ; and at the further end you will pro-
bably reaiaik a dark-coloured speck, which, when carefully extricated from
its covering, you will find to be the little miner of the tortuous galleries
which you are admiring. Some of these minute larvae, to which the paren-
chyma of a leaf is a vast country, requiring several weeks to be traversed
by the slow process of mining which they adopt — that of eating the exca-
vated materials as they proceed — are transformed into beetles (Ciomis
tha2)si,&c.) ; others into flies ; and a still greater number into very minute
moths, as Heribeia Cltrkella, &c. Many of these last are little miracles of
nature, which has lavished on them the most splendid tints tastefully
combined with gold, silver and pearl, so that, were they but formed upon
a larger scale, they would far eclipse all other animals in richness of deco-
ration.
Another tribe of larvos, not very numerous, content themselves for their
habitations with simple holes, into which they retire occasionally. Many
of these are merely cylindrical burrows in the groumi, as those formed by
the larvfe of field-crickets, Cicindelse, and Ephemerae. But the larvae of
the very remarkable lepidopterous genus {Ni/cterubiits of Mr. MacLeay)
before alluded to, excavate for themselves dwellings of a more artificial con-
struction ; forming cylindrical holes in the trees of New Holland, [)articu-
larly the different species of Banksia, to which they are very destructive,
and defending the entrance against the attacks of the Mantes and other
carnivorous insects by a sort of trap-door composed of silk interwoven
with leaves and pieces of excrement, securely fastened at the upper end,
but left loose at the lower for the free passage of the occupant. This
abode they regularly quit at sunset, for the purpose of la3ing in a store of
the leaves on which they feed. These they drag by one at a time into
their cell until the approach of light, when they retreat precipitately into
it, and there remain closely secluded the whole day, enjoying the booty
which their nocturnal range has provided. One species lifts up the loose
end of its door by its tail, and enters backward, dragging after it a leaf of
Banhsia serrata, which it holds by the foot-stalk.^
A third description of larvae, chiefly of the two lepidopterous tribes of
TortricidcE and Tmeidce, form into convenient habitations the leaves of the
])huits on which they feed. Some of these merely connect together with
a few silken threads several leaves so as to form an irregular packet, in the
1 Lyonet, Anat. of Coss. 9.
2 Lewin's Prodromus Entom. p. 8.
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 259
centre of wliich the little hermit lives. Others confine themselves to a
sinirle leaf, of which they sinipl}' fold one part over the other. A third
description form ami iniial)it a sort of roll, by some species made cylindri-
cal, by others conical, rcseml)lini; the papers into which grocers put their
suirar, and as accurately constructed; only there is an opening kit at the
smaller cNtremity for the egress of the insect in case of nceil. If you
were to see one of these rolls, you would immediately ask by what mecha-
nism it coulil possibly be made — how an insect without fingers couKI con-
trive to bend a leaf into a roll, and to keep it in that form until fastened
with the silk which holds it together? The following is the operation.
The little caterpillar first fixes a series of silken cables from one side of
the leaf to the other. She next pidls at these cables with her feet ; and
when she has forced the sides to approach, she fasten},- them together with
shorter threads of silk. If the insect finds that one of the larger nerves of
the leaf is so strong as to resist her efforts, she weakens it by gnawing it
here and there h.df through. What engineer could act more sagaciously?
To form one of the conical or horn-shaped rolls, which are not composed
of a whole leaf, but of a long triangular portion cut out of the edge, some
other manoeuvres are requisite. Placing herself upon the leaf, the cater-
pillar cuts out with her jaws the piece which is to comjjose her roll. She
docs not, however, entirely detach it : it would then want a base. She
detaches that part only which is to form the contour of the horn. This
portion is a triangular strap, which she rolls as she cuts. "When the body
of the horn is finished, as it is intended to be fixed upon the leaf in nearly
an upright position, it is necessary to elevate it. To effect this, she pro-
ceeds as we shoultl with an inclined obelisk. She attaches threads or little
cables towards the point of the pyramiil, and raises it by the weight of her
body.'
A still greater degree of dexterity is manifested in fabricating the habi-
tations of the larvce of some other moths which feed on the leaves of the
rose-tree, apple, elm, and oak, on the underside of which they may in sum-
mer be often found. These form an oblong cavity in the interior of a leaf
by eating the parenchyma between the two membranes composing its upper
and under side, which, after having detached them from the surrounding
portion, it joins with silk so artfully that the seams are scarcely discover-
able even with a lens, so as to compose a case or horn, cylindrical in the
middle, its anterior orifice circidar, its posterior triangular. Were this
dwelling cylindrical in every part, the form of the two pieces that compose
it woidd be very simple ; but the diff"crent shape of the two ends renders
it necessary that each side should have peculiar and dissimilar curvatures ;
and Reaumur assures us that these are as complex and difficult to imitate
as the contours of the pieces of cloth that compo-e the back of a coat.
Some of this tribe, whose proceedings I had the pleasure of witness-
ing a short time since upon the alders in the Hull Botanic Garden, more
ingenious than their brethren, and willing to save the labour of sewing up
two seams in their dwelling, insinuate themselves near the edge of a leaf
instead of in its middle. Here they form their excavation, mining into the
very crenaturcs between the two surfaces of the leaf, which, being joined
together at the edge, there form one seam of the case, and from their den-
tated figure give it a very singular appearance, not unlike that of some
1 Bonnet, ix. 188.
S 2
260 HABITATIONS OF IXSECTS.
fishes which have fins upon their backs. The opposite side they are necessarily
forced to cut and sew up ; but even in this operation they show an inuenuity
and contrivance worthy of admiration. The moths which cut out their suit
from the middle of the leaf wholly detach the two surfaces that compose
it before they proceed to join them together; the serrated incisions made
by their teeth, which, if they do not cut as fast, in this respect are more
effective than any scissors, interlacing each other so as to support the
separated portions until they are properly joined. But it is obvious that
this process caimot be followed by those moths which cut out their house
from the edge of a leaf. If these were to detach the inner side before they
had joined the two pieces together, the builder as well as his dwelling
would inevitably fall. They therefore, before making any incision, pru-
dently run (as a sempstress would call it) loosely together in distant points
the two meaibranes on that side. Then putting out their heads they cut
the intermediate portions, carefully avoiding the larger nerves of the leaf ;
afterwards they sew up the detached sides more closely, and only intersect
the nerves when their labour is completed. ^ The habitation made by a
moth which lives upon a species o( Astragnlus is in like manner formed of
the epidermis of the leaves ; but in this several corrugated pieces project
over each other, so as to resemble the furbelows once in fashion.^
Other larvae construct their habitations wholly of silk. Of this descrip-
tion is that of a moth, whose abode, except as to the materials which
compose it, is formed on the same general plan as that just described, and
the larva in like manner feeds only on the parenchyma of the leaf. In the
beginning of spring, if you examine the leaves of your pear trees, j'ou will
scarcely fail to meet with some beset on the under surface with several
perpendicular downy russet-coloured projections, about a quarter of an
inch high, and not much thicker than a pin, of a cylindrical shape, with a
protuberance at the base, and altonether resembling at first sight so many
spines growing out of the leaf. You would never suspect that these could
be the habitations of insects ; yet that they are is certain. Detach one of
them, and give it a gentle squeeze, and you will see emerge from the lower
end a minute caterpillar, with a yellowish body and black head. Examine
the place from which you have removed it, and you will perceive a round
excavation in the cuticle and parenchyma of the leaf, the size of the end
of the tube by which it was concealed. This excavation is the work of
the above-mentioned caterpillar, which obtains its food by moving its little
tent from one part of the leaf to the other, and eating away the space im-
mediately under it. It touches no other part; and when these insects
abound, as they often do to the great injury of pear trees ^ you will perceive
every leaf bristled with them, and covered with little withered specks, the
vestiges of their former meals. The case in which the caterpillar resides, and
which is quite essential to its existence, is composed of silk spun from its
mouth almost as soon as it is excluded from the egg. As it increases in
size, it enlarges its habitation by slitting it in two, and introducing a strip
of new materials. But the most curious circumstance in the history of
this little Arab, is the mode by which it retains its tent in a perpendicular
posture. This it effects partly by attaching silken threails from the pro-
tuberance at the base to the surrounding surface of the leaf But being not
1 Reaum. iii. inO— 120. 2 ibid. 146.
5 Forsyth on Fruit Trees, 4to. edit. 271,
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 2G1
merely a nicclianician, but a profouiul natural philosopher, well acquainted
with the prc)j)crties of air, it has anotlior resource when any extraordinary
violence tlire.itens to overturn its sleiuler turret. It ibrnis a vf/ciiiiiii in
the protuberance at the base, and thus as effectually fastens it to the leaf
as if an air-pump had been eni[)loyed ! This vacuum is caused by the
insect's retrcatini; on the least alarm up its narrow case, which its body
com|)lc'tely fills, and thus leaving the space below free of air. In detach-
ing one of these cases you may easily convince yourself of the fact. If
you seize it suddenly while the insect is at the bottom, you will find that
it is readily pulled oH", the silken cords giving way to a very slight force ;
but if, proceeding gently, you give the insect time to retreat, the case will
be held so closely to the leaf as to require a nuich stronger effort to loosen
it. As if aware that, should the air get ailmission from below, and thus
render a vacuum impracticable, the strongest bulwark of its fortress would
be destroyed, our little philosopher carefidly avoids gnawing a hole in the
leaf, contenting itself with the pasturage afforded by the parenchyma above
the lower epidermis; and when the produce of this area is consumed, it
gnaws asuiulcr the cords of its tent, and pitches it at a short distance as
before. Having attained its full growth, it assumes the pn|)a state, and
after a while issues out of its confinement a small brown moth, with long
hind legs, the PliaUena Tiin-n scn-fitclla of Linne.^
Some larvtE, which form their covering of pure silk, are not content
with a single coating, but actually envelop themselves in another, open on
one side, and very much resembling a cloak; whence Reaumur called them
*' Teigiics a foiinrnu a iiinnfi'nii." What is very striking in the construc-
tion of this cloak is, that the silk, instead of being woven into one uniform
close texture, is formed into numerous transparent scales overwrapping each
other, and altogether very much resembling the scales of a fish.'- These
mantle-covered cases, one of which I once had the pleasure of discovering,
are inhabited by the larva of a little moth apparently first described by Dr.
Zincken genannt Sommer, who calls it Tinea pallialella?
Various substances besides silk are fabricated into habitations by other
larvae, though usually joined together either with silk or an analogous
gummy material. '}l\\k\^ D'lnrnca? /R'/ic/n/w forms of pieces of lichen a
dwelling resembling one of the turreted Ililices, man}' of which I observeil
in June, 181 2, on an oak in Barham. The larva of another moth, which
also feeds upon lichens, instead of employing these vegetables in forming
its habitation, composes it of grains of stone eroded from the walls of
buililings upon which its food is found, and connected by a silken cement.
These insects were the subject of a paper in the Memoirs of the French
Academy*, by M. de la Voye, who, from the circumstance of their
being found in great abundance on mouldering walls, attributed to them
the power of eating stone, and regarded them as the authors of injuries
proceeding solely from the hand of time ; for the insects themselves are
so minute, and tiie coating of grains of stone composing their cases is so
trifling, that Reaumur observes they could scarcely make any perceptible
impression on a wall from which they had procured materials for ages.^
^ Goeze, Natur. Menschenleben und Vorsthung. Anderson's Recreations, ii. 409.
See above, p. 8.
2 lleauiii. iii. 206. ' Germar's Mag. fib- Entomologk, i. 40.
* X. 458, 5 Keaum. iii. 183.
S 3
262 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.
Another lepidopterous larva, but of a much larger size and different
genus, the case of which is preserved in the cabinet of the late President
of the Linnean Societ\', who pointed it out to nie, employs the spines ap-
parently of some species of JMiniosa, which are ranged side by side, so as
to form a very elegant fluted cylinder. A similar arrangement of pieces of
small twigs is observable in the habitation of the females^ of the larvae
of a moth referred by Von Scheven to Bombyx vestita F. (which Ochsen-
heimer regards as synon\mous with Psyche gramineUa) ; while P. Viciella
of the Wiener Verzeichnks covers itself with short portions of the stems of
grasses placed transversely, and united by means of silk into a five-or-
six-sided case. The habitation of a third larva of the same family,
described and figured by Reaiinmr (P. grmninella Ochsenh., just named),
is composed of squarish pieces of the leaves of grass fastened only at
one end, and overwn-apping each other like the tiles of a house ; and
that of another noticed by the same author, of portions of the smallest
twigs of broom arranged on the same plan." Indeed the larvae of the whole
of this tribe of moths, now separated into a distinct genus {Psyche Schrank,
Ochsenh., Fitmea Haworth), but which, according to Germar, needs fur-
ther subdivision, reside in cases or sacks (whence they are calle<l by the
Germans Sacktrnger) composed of silk, and fragments of grass, bark, &c.^
The larvae of a small beetle {C/ytra longimana) reside in oviform cases,
apparently of a calcareous or earthy substance, joineil by a gunjmy
cement, and covered with red hairs, the origin of which Hiibner, who first
discovered them, could not account for ; and from the observations of
Amstein and the French translator of Fuessly's Archives, it seems pro-
bable that the larv£e of all the species of Clytrn, and, according to Z^chorn,
at least of one species of Cry^Aocephalus (C. diiodeciiiijmnctatiis), live in
moveable cases'*; as do also the larvae of Chlaniys, a splendid Brazilian
genus of the same family, and those of the equally brilliant genus Lampro-
sonia, forming them of their excrement, which in the former assume a sin-
gular appearance, from a very large and conical hollow mantle fitted to the
mouth of the case.* The larvae of a specis oi' I.imniiis (L. cEiieus) inhabit
a fixed case made of particles of stone or sand ; and the same materials
probably serve for the abode of the other species of this and those of
allied genera which reside under water.
Wax is the principal substance employed in the habitations of the larvae
before mentioned, occasionally so destructive to bee-hives. These insidi-
ous depredators, which are mentioned by Aristotle '^, tying together, with
silk, grains of wax (which, and not honey, forms their food), construct
1 The larviB of the males intermix with the pieces of twigs, which are less closely
and regularly arranged, bits of dried leaves and other light materials. See the ex-
cellent ekicidation of the history of this tribe, whose mode of generation is so sin-
gidar, by Von Scheven, in the Naturforscher, Stk. xx. 61., &c. j also a valuable
paper by Dr. Zincken genannt Soinmer, in Germar's Mag. fur Ent. i. li) — 40.
2 Reaum. iii. 148, 149. n. 11. f. 10, 11.
3 In the hotter regions of the globe, this group is replaced by the gigantic Oike-
tici, se\eral species of whicli have been figured bj^ tlie late L. Guilding in the
Transactions of the Linnean Society. The cases of some of these insects exhibit an
extraordinary degree of instinct in their construction, and are of a much larger
size than a hen's egg. (See Westw. 3Iod. Class. Ins. ii. 388.)
■* Fuessly, Archiv. 53. t. 31. Germar's 3Iag. fiir. Ent. i. 136.
5 Westwood in Trans. Ent. Soc. Loud. iii. proc. xxviii.
6 Aristot. Hist. Anim. 1. viii. c. 27.
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 263
galleries of a considerable lenutii ; and thus concciilud from the siuiit, and
protected from the stinj^s of the armed people wlioiii they liave attacked,
push their mines into the very heart of llie fortress, and pursue their rob-
beries in perfect safety. '
As many of the habitations which I liave been describing fit tlie i)ody of
the insects as close as a coat, tliey niijiht periiaps witii more |)r()j)riety, be
called clothes. Tiiis is certainly the most appropriate desii^nation of the
al)odes of some s|)ecies of Ti)ic(C (the clothes' moths), which not only
cover themselves with a coat, but en)ploy the very same material in its com-
position as we do in ours, forming it of wool or hair curiously felted
together. Like us, they are born naked; but not, like us, helpless at that
perioil : scarcely have they breatheil before they begin to clothe themselves ;
thus contradicting; Dr, Paley's a.'-scrtion, that " \.\k huninn animal is the only
one which is naked, and the only one which can clothe itself ^ ;" and,
wisely inattentive to change of fashion, the same suit serves them from
their birth to mature age. The shape of their dress is adapted to that of
their body — a cylindrical case open at both ends. The stuff of which it
is composeil is the manufacture of the larva of the moth {Tinea), which
incorporates wool or hair, artfully cut from our clothes or furniture, with
silk drawn from its own mouth, into a warm and thick tissue; and as this
would not be soft enough for its tender skin, it also lines the inside of its
coat with a layer of pure silk. Since this suit of clothes liuring the
earliest age of the insect accurately fits its body, you will readily conceive
that it will frequently require enlarging. This the little occupant accom-
plishes as dexterously as any tailor. If the case merely requires lengtlien-
ing, the task is easy. All that is needful is to add a new ring of hair or
wool and silk to each end. But to enlarge it in width is not so simple an
affair. Yet it sets to work precisely as we should, slitting the case on the
two opposite sides, and then adroitly inserting between them two pieces of
the requisite size. It does not, however, cut open the case from one end to
the other at once : the sides would separate too liar asunder, and the insect
be left naked. It therefore first cuts each side about half way down, and
then, alter having filled up the fissure, proceeds to cut the remaining half ;
so that, in fact, four enlargements are made, and four separate pieces in-
serted. The colour of the habit is always the same as tiiat of the stuff
froni which it is taken. Thus, if its original colour be blue, and the insect
previously to enlarging it be put upon red cloth, the circles at the end and
two stripes down the middle will l)e red. If placed alternately upon cloths
of different hues, its dress will be parti-coloured, like that of a Harlequin.
The injury occasioned to us by these insects is not confined to the quantity
of materials consumed in clothing and feeding themselves. In moving from
place to place they seem to be as much incommoded by the long hairs
which surroimil them as we are by walking amongst high grass ; and ac-
cordingly, marching scythe in hand, with their teeth they cut out a smooth
road, from time to time reposing themselves, and anchoring their little case
with small silken cables.
If', as I hope, you are induced to investigate the manners of these in-
sects, you have but to leave an old coat for a few months undisturbed in a
dark closet, and you may be pretty certain of meeting with an abundant
colony.
^ Eeaum. iii, mdm. 8. 2 Xat. Tlieol 230.
s 4
264 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.
Not merely wool or hair, but another substance analogous to one em-
|>]o3ed in our dress, is adopted for their clothing by other insects. The
larva of a fly which lives on the seeds of willows makes itself a very
beautiful case of their cottony down, not only impervioii&to wet and cold,
but servins, if accidentally blown into the water, which, from the situation
of these trees, frequently happens, as a buoyant little barge which is wafted
safely to the shore.^
The habitations which we have hitherto been considering are formed by
larvse that live on land: but others equally remarkal)le are constructed by
aquatic species, the larvas of the various Phri/ganecB L., a tribe of four-
winged insects, which an ordinaiy observer would call moths, but which are
even of a distinct order (TricJiopfera), not having their wings covered by
the sca/es which adorn the lepidopterous race. If j'ou are desirous of
examining the insects to which I am alluding, you have only to place
yourself bv the side of a clear and shallow pool of water, and you cannot
fail to observe at the bottom little oblong moving masses, resembling pieces
of straw, wood, or even stone. These are the larvae in question, well
known to fishermen by the title of Caddix- worms, and which, if you take
them out of the water, you will observe to inhabit cases of a very singu-
lar conformation. Of the larva itself, which somewhat resembles the cater-
pillars o? many Lepidoptera, nothing is to be seen but the head and six legs,
by means of which it moves itself in the water, and drags after it the case
in which the rest of the body is inclosed, and into which on any alarm it
wholly retires. The construction of these habitations is very various.
Some select four or five pieces of the leaves of gras?, which thej' glue to-
gether into a shapely polygonal case ; others employ portions of the stems
of rushes, placed side by side, so as to form an elegant fluted cylinder ; some
arrange round them pieces of leaves like a spirally-rolled ribbon ; others
inclose themselves in a mass of the leaves of any aquatic plants united
without regularity ; and others again form their abode of minute pieces of
wood, either fresh or decayed." One, like the Snbel/cB ^, forms a horn-shaped
case composed of grains of sand, so equal in size, and so nicely and regu-
larly gummed together, the sides throughout being of the thickness of one
grain only, that the first time I viewed it 1 could scarcely persuade myself
it could be the work of an insect. The case of Leptocerits bimacuhitus,
which is less artificially constructed of a mixture of mud and sand, is pyri-
form, and has its end curiously stopped by a [date formed of grains of sand,
with a central aperture.^ Other species construct houses which may be
called alive, forming them of the shells of various aquatic snails of different
kinds and sizes, even while inhabited, all of which are immoveably fixed to
it, and dragged about at its pleasure — a covering as singular as if a savage,
instead of clothing himself with squirrels' skins, should sew together into a
coat the animals themselves. However various may be the form of the
case externally, within it is usually cylindrical, and lined with silk ; and
though seldom apparently wider than just to admit the body of the insect,
some species have the power of turning round in it, and of putting out
their head at either end.^ Some larvae constantly make their cases of the
same materials ; others employ indifferently any that are at hand ; and the
1 Eeaum. iii. 130. 3 Ibid. 156—159.
^ Sowerbj''s Nat. Miscell. No. is, t. 51.
4 De Geer, ii. oGi. 5 ibid.
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 2GJ
new ones wliich they construct as tliey increase in size (for they have not
the faculty, hke the larva of the moth, of enlar>iing them) have often an
appearance quite dissimilar to that of tiie old. Even those that are most
careless ahout the nature of the materials of their house arc solicitously
attentive to one circumstance res|)ectiii<;; them, namely tUclr .yucijic ni-tirili/.
Not liavinj; the posver of swinnuinj;, hut only of walking at tiie hottom of
the water by aid of the six legs attaclied to the fore i)art of the body, which
is usually protruded out of the case, and the insect itself being heavier
than water, it is of great im|)ortance that its house should be of a specific
gravity so nearly that of the element in which it resitlcs, as while walking
neither to inconuiiode it by its weight, nor by too great buoyancy; and it
is as essential that it should be so equally hiillmled in every part as to be
readily moveable in any position. Under these circumstances our caddis-
worms evince their proficiency in hytirostatics, selecting the most suitable
substances; antl, if the cell be too heavy, glueing to it a hit of leaf or
straw ; or, if too light, a shell or piece of gravel. It is from this necessity
of regulating the specific gravity, that to the cases formed with the
greatest regularity we often see attached a seemingly superfluous piece of
wood, leaf, or the like.'
A larva of one of the aquatic Tlpidar'uc lives in cases somewhat similar
to those of some Plin/gaiictc. Several of these of a fusiform shape, and
brown colour, composed partly of silk, and partly perhaps of fragments of
leaves, and inhabited by a red larva, ap|)arently of a Chiro?i(»)ius, were
found by Reaumur upon dead leaves in a pool of water in the Bois do
Boulogne.-
In concluding this head I may observe, that here might have been de-
scribed the various abodes which solitary larvte prepare for themselves
previous to assuming the pupa, and intended for their protection in that
defenceless stage of existence ; but as 1 shall have occasion again to
refer to them in speaking of the larva state of insects, I shall defer their
their description to that letter, to which they more strictly belong.
From the next division of the habitations of insects, those formed by
solitary /Jfvye'c^ insects for their o(/'7j acconuriotlation, I shall select for de-
scription only two, both the work of spiders, and alluded to in a former
letter ; which indeed, with the exception of the inartificial retreats made
by the Gn/Hi, Cicindclcc, and a few others, are the only ones pro[)erly
belonging to it.
The habitation of one of these (Cleniza cccmentarta^ is subterraneous ;
not a mere shallow cavity, but a tube or gallery upwards of two feet in
length, and half an inch broad. This tunnel, so vast compared with the
size of the insect, it digs by means of its strong jaws in a steep bank ol
bare clay, so that the rain may readily run off' without penetrating to its
dwelling. Its next operation is to line the whole from top to bottom with
a web of fine silk, which serves the double purpose of preventing the earth
that composes the walls from falling in, and, by its connection with the
door of the orifice, of giving information to the spider of what is passing
^ For a description of various other habitations of this tribe, and of peculiarities
in their construction, see M. Pictet's valuable work, Recherches pour servir a CHia-
toire et a I'Anatovde des Phryganides, in which the I^innean genus Phryynnea is
divided into seven genera, and the metamorphoses of lifty-two species are described.
2 Reaum. iii. 179.
266 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.
above. You doubtless suppose that in saying door, I am speaking meta-
phorically. It could never enter into 30ur conception that any animal,
much less an insect, could construct anything really deserving of that name
— anything like our doors, turning upon a hinge, and accurately fitted to
the frame oi the opening which it is intended to close. Yet such a door,
incredible as it may seem, is actually framed by this spider. It does not,
indeed, like us, compose it of vvooci, but of several coats of dried earth
fastened to each other with silk. When finished, its outline is as perfectly
circular as if traced with compasses ; the inferior surface is convex and
smooth, the superior flat and rough, and so like the adjoining earth as not
to be distinguishable from it. This door the ingenious artist fixes to the
entrance of her gallery by a hinge of silk, which |)lays with the greatest
freedom, and allows it to be opened and shut with ease ; and, as if ac-
quainted with the laws of gravity, she invariably fixes the hinge at the
highest side of the opening, so that the door when pushed up shuts again
by its own weight. She has not less sagaciously left a little edge or groove
just within the entrance, upon which the door closes, and to which it fits
with such precision that it seems to make but one surface with it. Such
is the astonishing structure of this little animal's abode ; nor is its defence
of its subterraneous cavern less surprising. If an observer adroitly insi-
nuates the point of a pin under the edge of the door, and elevates it a little,
he immediately perceives a very strong resistance. What is its cause ?
The spider, warned by the vibrations of the threads which extend from the
door to the bottom of her gallery, runs with all speed to the door, fastens
its legs to it on one side, and on the other to the walls, and, turning upon
its back, pulls with all its might. Thus the door is alternately shut or
opened, as the exertions of the observer or of the spider prevail. It is easy
to guess which will in the end conquer ; and the spider, when it finds all
resistance ineflectual, betakes itself to flight, and retreats. If, to make a
further experiment, the observer fastens down the door so that it cannot
be forced open, the next morning he will find a new entrance, with a new
door formed at a small distance | or, if he take the door entirelj' away,
another will be constructed in less than twelve hours.
The habitation thus singularly formed and defended is not at all used as
a snare, but merely as a safe abode tor the spider, which hunts its prey at
night only ; and, when caught, devours it in security at the bottom of its
den, which is generally strewed with the remains of coleopterous insects.^
From some curious observations of M. Dorthes on this species in the
second volume of the Linnean Transactions, it appears that both tlie male
and female spider, and as many as thirty young ones, occasionally inhabit
one of these galleries. Miigale Sauvagesii of Rossi (^Al.fodiens Wakk.),
which is a distinct species found in Corsica, forms a similar habitation, of
which M. Audouin has given us an interesting description.^
The galleries just described are the work of European spiders ; but
similar ones are fabricated by Aciinopus nidulans, an inhabitant of the West
India islands, as well as by many other tropical species. I have seen one
of these, which had been dug out of the earth, in the cabinet of Thomas
Hall, Esq., F. L. S., that was nearly a foot in length, and above an inch in
1 Sauvages, Hist, de I'Acad. des Sc. de Paris, 1758, p. 26.
2 Audouia in Ann. Soc. Ent, de France, ii. 69.
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 267
diameter, forniin;; a cylinilrical bag of (l;irk-colourccl silk, closed at the
bottom, aiul accurately fitteil at the to|) by a door or lid.'
The iiabitation of Argi/ronchi fKpuiticd, tlic other spider to wiiicli I
alluded, is cliiefly remarkable lor the clement in which it is constructed and
the materials tiiat compose it. It is l)iiilt in tiie midst of water, and formed,
in fact, of air ! Spiilers are usually terrestrial, but this is aquatic, or rather
amphibious; for though she resitles in the midst of water, in which she
swims with great celerity, sometimes on her belly, but more frequently on
her back, and is an admirable diver, she not uufrequently bunts on shore,
and, having caught her prey, plunges with it to the bottom of tiie water.
Here it is she forms her singular and unique abode. She would evidently
have but a very uncomfortalile time were she constantly wet, but tiiis she
is sagacious enough to avoid ; and by availing herself of some well-known
philosophical princijiles, she constructs for herself an apartment in which,
like the mermaids and sea-nymphs of tid)le, she resides in cond'ort and
security. The following is her process. First she spins loose threads in
various directions attaclied to the leaves of aquatic plants, which may be
called the frame-work of her chamber, and over them she spreads a trans-
parent varnish resembling licputl glass, which issues from the middle of her
spinners, and which is so elastic that it is capable of" great expansion and
contraction ; and if a hole be made in it, it inunediately closes again. Next
she s|)reads over her belly a pellicle of the same material, and ascends to
the siu'face. The precise mode in which she transfers a bubble of air
beneath this pellicle is not accurately known ; but from an observation made
by tiie ingenious author of the little work from which this account is
abstracted, he concludes that she draws the air into her body by the anus,
which she presents to the surface of the pool, and then pumps it out from
an opening at the base of the belly between the pellicle and that part of the
body, the hairs of which kecj) it extended. Clothed with this aerial mantle,
which to tlie spectator seems formed of resplendent quicksilver, she plunges
to the bottom, and, with as much dexterity as a chemist transfers gas with
a gas-holder, introduces her bui)ble of air beneath the roof prepared for its
reception. This manoeuvre she repeats ten or twelve times, until at length
in about a quarter of an hour she has transported as much air as suffices
to expand her apartment to its intended extent, and now finds herself in
possession of a little aerial edifice, I had almost said an enchanted palace,
affording her a commodious and dry retreat in the very midst of the water.
Here she reposes unmoved by the storms that agitate the surface of the
pool, and devours her prey at ease and in safety. Both sexes form these
lodgings. At a particular season of the year the male quits his apartment,
approaches that of the female, enters it, and eidarging it by the bubble of
air that he carries with him, it becomes a common abode for the hap|)y pair.^
The s[)ider which forms these singular habitations is one of the largest
European species, and in some countries not unconunon in stagnant pools.
I am, &c.
1 See several Memoirs upon tliis and some allied species by Messrs. Sells,
Saunders, and Westwood, in itie Trans, of the Ent. Soc. of Londait, vols. ii. and iii.
2 Memoir e pour servir a commencer I'llistoire des Araignees Aquatiques, 12mo.
268
LETTER XV.
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS — coHimweJ.
The habitations of insects which I shall next proceed to describe are those
formed by the united labour of several individuals. The societies which
thus combine their operations may be divided into two kinds : 1st, those
of which the object is simply the conservation of the individuals composing
them ; and 2dly, those whose object is also the nurture and education of
their young. To the last head belong bees, wasps, &c. : to the former the
larvEe of some species of moths, whose labours, being the most simple, I
shall first describe.
You cannot fail to have observed in gardens the fruit trees disfigured, as
you would probably tliink them, with what at first view seem very strong
and thick spiders' webs. If you have bestowed upon these webs the
slightest attention, you must have likewise remarked that they differ very
materially in their construction from those spun by spiders, inclosing on
every side an angular space, and being besides filled with caterpillars.
These are the larvae of Porthesia chrysorrltan, and the wl4i which contains
them is spun by their united labour for the protection of the common
society. As soon as the cluster of eggs deposited by the parent moth is
hatched, the young caterpillars, to the number of three or four hundred,
commence their operations. At first they content themselves by forming
a sort of hammock of the single leaf upon which they find themselves
assembled, covering it with a roof composetl of a number of silken threads
drawn from one edge to the other; and under one or more of these tem-
porary habitations they reside for a few days, until they are become large
and strong enough to undertake a more solid and spacious building suffi-
cient to contain the whole society. In constructing this new habitation,
they spin a close silken web round the end of two or three adjoining twigs
and the leaves attached to them, so as to include the requisite space.
They are not curious in giving any particular form to the edifice : some-
times it is flat, often roundish, but always more or less angular. The
interior is divided by partitions of silk into several irregular apartments, to
each of which there is purposely left an appropriate door. Within these
the caterpillars retire at night, or in rainy weather, quitting the nest on
fine days, and dispersing themselves over the neighbouring leaves, upon
which they feed. Here, too, they repose during the critical period of the
change of their skins. On the approach of winter the whole con)munity
shut themselves up in the nest, which, by the addition of repeated layers
of silk, lias at this time become so thick and strong as to be impervious to
the wind and rain. They remain in a state of torpidity during the cold
months, but towards the beginning of April are awakened to activity by
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 269
the genial breath of sprino;, and be^in to fccil with greediness upon the
young leaves that surrountl their habitation, whieh, as they soon greatly
increase in si7,e, they find it necessary to enlarge. One niigiit fear tiiat a
structure fornieil of such materials would at this |)eriod be sadly damaged
by the growtli of the young shoots and leaves of the twigs wiiich it incloses ;
but the inhabitants, as if to guard against such an accident, have gnawed
off all the buds within their dwelling, and thus secured themselves from
this inconvenience.^
The nest of tiie larvae of another species of moth, the Cnelkocampa pro-
ccssioiica, unfortunately not a native of this country, to which, on account
of their singular manners, that will be detailed to you in a subsecjuent
letter, TJeaunnu' has given the title of /jrort-M/oz/ffn/ caterpillars, is some-
what ilitlerent in its construction from that just described, though formed
of the same material. As the caterpillars which fabricate it feed upon the
leaves of the oak, it is always found upon this tree, attached not to the
branches but the trunk, sometimes at a considerable height from the
ground. In shape it resembles an irregular knob or protuberance, and the
silk which composes it being of a grey colour, at a distance it would be
taken for a mass of lichens. Sometimes this nest is upwards of eighteen
inches long, and six broad, rising in the middle about four inches from the
surface of the tree. Between the trunk and the silken covering, a single
hole is left which serves for the entrance and exit of the inhabitants.
These tlifFer in their manners from those last mentioned. While very
young they have no fixeil habitation, contenting themselves with a succes-
sion of different temporary camps until they have attained two-thirds of
their growth. Then it is they unite their labours in spinning the nest just
described ; and in this they continue to reside in harmony until they
become perfect insects, assuming in it even the state of chrysalis.^
Habitations similar, as to their general structure, to the above, though
differing in several minute circumstances, are formed by the larv;c of
several either moths, as of Porthesin phceorrhcea, Cllsiocampa nenslrin. Sec,
as well as those of Vanessa To, JSIelitcEa Cinxia, and some other butter-
flies ^, and even of some saw-flics (Scrrifera), which, however, have each a
separate silken covering. Bnt as it would be tedious to describe these par-
ticularly, I pass on to the habitations formed by insects in their perfect
state, which have in view the education of their young as well of self-pre-
servation, describing in succession those of ants, bees, wasps, and wliite
ants.
Of these the most simple in their structure are the nests of different
kinds o{ ants, many of which externally present the appearance of hillocks
more or less conical, formed of earth or other substances.
The nest of the large red or horse ants (F. rufa), which are common in
woods, at the first aspect seems a very confused mass. Exteriorly it is a
conical mount composed of jjieces of straw, fragments of wooil, little
stones, leaves, grain ; in short, of any portable materials within their reach.
1 Reaum. ii. 128.
2 Ibid. 179.
' The habits of a Mexican species of butterfly (Eucheira socialis Westw.), of
which the iarviu construct a strong white parchment-like bag, in which they reside
and undergo their transformations, have been described by Mr. Westwood iu the
Traits, of the Ent. Soc of London, vi. pi, vi.
270 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.
But however rude its outward appearance, and the articles of which it
consists, interiorly it presents an arrangement admirably calculated at once
for protection against the excessive heat of the sun, and yet to retain a due
degree of genial warmth. It is wholly composed of numerous small apart-
ments of different sizes, conuiuinicating with each other by means of gal-
leries and arranged in separate stories, some very deep in the earth, others
a considerable height above it : the former for the recf ption of the yonng
in cold weather and at night, the latter adapted to their use in the daytime.
In forming these, the ants mix the earth excavated from the bottom of the
nest with the other materials of which the mount consists, aud thus give
solidity to the whole. Besides the avenues which join the apartments
together, other galleries varying in dimensions communicate with the out-
side of the nest at the top of the mount. These open doors would seem
ill-calculated for precluding the admission of wet or of nocturnal enemies :
but the ants alter their dimensions continually according to circumstances;
and they wholly close them at night, when all gradually retire to the in-
terior, and a few sentinels only are left to guard the gates. On rainy
days, too, they keep them shut, and when the sky is cloudy open them
partially.^
The habitations of these ants are much larger than those of any other
species in this country, and sometimes as big as a small haycock ; but they
are mere molehills when compared with the enormous mounds which other
.species, apparently of the same family, but much larger, construct in \\armer
cHmates. Malouet states, that in the forests of Guiana, he once saw ant-
hills which, though his companion would not suffer him to approach nearer
than forty paces for fear of his being devoured, seemed to him to be fifteen
or twenty feet high, and thirty or forty in diameter at the base, assuming
the form of a pyramid, truncated at one-third of its height-; and Stedman,
when in Surinam, once passed ant-hills six feet high, and at least one hun-
dred feet in circumference.^ In the plains of Paraguay, where the ants
commit great devastations, a species described liy Dobrizhoffer forms conical
earthen nests three or more ells high, and as hard as stone ; and in the
Bungo forest in New South Wales, a very small ant builds nests of indu-
rated clay eight or ten feet high.*
The nest of Formica brunnea is composed wholly of earth, and consists
of a great number of stories sometimes not fewer than forty, twenty below
the level of the soil, and as many above, which last, following the slope of
the ant-hill, are concentric. Each story, separately examined, exhibits
cavities in the shape of saloons, narrower apartments, and long galleries
which preserve the communication between both. The arched roo's of the
most spacious rooms are sufiported by very thin walls, or occasionally by
small pillars and true buttrtsses ; some having only one entrance from
above, others a second communicating with the lower story. The main
galleries, of which in some places several meet in one large saloon, com-
municating with other subterranean passages, which are often carried to
the distance of several feet trom the hill. These insects work chiefly after
sunset. In building their nest they eniploy soft clay onl^r, scraped from its
bottom when sufficiently moistened by a shower, which, far from injuring,
1 Huber, Secherches sur les Mceurs des Fourmis, pp. 21 — 29.
2 Ibid. p. 168. 5 Stedman's Surinam, i. 169.
* Westwood, 3Iod. Class, of Ins. ii. 223. 231.
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 271
consoliilates and strengthens tlicir architecture. Different labourers con-
vey small nia-ses ofthis tluctile material bi'tween tluir niamiibles, ami with
the same instrument they spread and mould it to their will, the antennae
accompanyini; every moven)ent. Tlicy render all firm by pressing the sur-
face lightly with their fore ("eet ; and howLver numerous the masses of
clay composing these walls, and though connected by no glutinous material,
they appear when finished one single layer, well united, consolidated and
smoothed. Having traced the plan of their structure, by placing here
and there the foundations of the pillars and partition-walls, tliey add
successively new portions ; and when tiie walls of a gallery or apartment,
which are half a line thick, are elevated about half an inch in height,
they join them by springing a flatfish arch or roof from one side to the
other. Nothing can be a more interesting spectacle than one of these cities
while building. In one place vertical walls form the outline, which com-
municate with different corridors by openings made in the masonry ; in
another we see a true saloon, whose vaults are supported by numerous
pillars ; and further on are tiie cross ways or squares where several streets
meet, and whose roofs, though often more than two inches across, the ants
are under no difficulty in constructing, beginning the sides of the arch in
the auLzIo formed by two walls, and extending them by successive layers of
clay till they meet ; while crowds of masons arrive from all parts with
their particle of mortar, and work with a regularity, harmony, and activity,
which can never enough be admired. So assiduous are they in their opera*
tions, that they will complete a story with all its saloons, vaulted roofs,
partitions and galleries, in seven or eight hours. If they begin a story, and
for want of moisture are unable to finish it, they pull down again all the
crumbling apartments that are not covered in.^
Another species of ants (F.fusca) are also masons. When they wish to
heighten their habitations, they begin by covering the top with a thick
layer of clay, which they transport from the interior. In this laver they
trace out the plan of the new story, first hollowing out little cavities of
almost equal depth at different distances from each other, and of a size
adapted to their purposes. The elevations of earth left between them
serve for bases to the interior walls, which, when they have removed all the
loose earth from the floors of the apartments, and reduced the foundations
to a due thickness, they heighten, and lastly cover all in. M. Ruber saw
a single working ant make and cover in a gallery which was two or three
inches long, and of which the interior was rendered perfectly concave,
without assistance.^
The societies of F. fuligiiiosa make their habitations in the trunks of old
oaks or .wdlow trees, gnawing the wood into numberless stories more or
less horizontal, the ceilings ami floors of which are about five or six lines
asunder, black, and as thin as card, sometimes supported by vertical parti-
tions, forming an infinity of apartments which communicate by small aper-
tures; at others by small light cylindrical pillars furnished with a base and
capital which are arranged in colonnades, leaving acommuin'cation perfectly
free throughout the whole extent of tlie story.^
Two other tril)es of carpenter ants (F. CBtliiops and F.Jlnva') use saw-
dust in forming their buildings. The former applies this material only to
1 Uuber, Recherches, &c. 30 — 40. ~ Ibid. 45.
3 Ibid. 53.
272 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.
the building of walls and stopping up chinks : the latter composes whole
stages or stories of it made into a sort oi 2>a2ner mache with earth and spi-
ders' web.^
Some ants form their nests of the leaves of trees. One of these was
observed by Sir Joseph Banks in New South Wales, which was formed by
glueing together several leaves as large as a hand. To keep these leaves
in a proper position, thousands of ants united their strength, and if driven
awav the leaves spring back with great violence.^ Another species of ant
{Myriuica Kirbii Sj'kes), found in the Poona Collectorate, India, described
by Colonel Sykes, forms its globular battoon-shaped nest, which is com-
posed of a congeries of tile-like laminae of cow-dung, with the usual assem-
blage of cells antl nurseries, &c., composed of the same material, in the
branches of trees and shrubs.^ Another East Indian species (^Formica
smaragdina) forms its nest of aver)' thin but doubled silk-like tissue ""^ ;
while Formica elata Lund builds its nest on the trunks of trees of earth
mixed with leaves, and other species use the hairs of plants for the same
purpose.'' F. bispinosa in Cayenne employs the down enveloping the
seeds of the Bombax crlba, which it felts into a sort of cotton}' sub-
stance.®
The most profound philosopher, equally with the most incurious of
mortals, is struck with astonishment on inspecting the interior of a bee-
hive. He beholds a city in miniature. He sees this city divided into
regular streets, these streets composed of houses constructed on the most
exact geometrical principles and the most symmetrical plan, some serving
for store-houses for food, others for the habitations of the citizens, and a
few, much more extensive than the rest, destined for the palaces of the
sovereign. He perceives that the substance of which the whole city is
built is one which man, with all his skill, is unable to fabricate ; and that
the edifices in which it is employed are such, as the most expert artist
would find himself incompetent to erect. And the whole is the work of
a society of insects ! Que/ abime (he exclaims with Bonnet) aux yeux du
sage (piune ruche d^Abeilles ! Quelle sagesse profonde se cache dans cet
abime! Quel philosophe osera le fonder !" Nor have its mysteries yet
been fathomed. Philosophers have in all ages devoted their lives to the
subject ; from Aristomachus of Soli in Cilicia, who, we are told by Pliny,
for fifty-eii>ht years attended solely to bees, and Philiscus the Thracian,
who spent his whole time in forests investigating their manners, to Swam-
merdam, Reaumur, Hunter, and Hiiber of modern times. Still the con-
struction of the combs of a bee-hive is a miracle which overwhelms our
faculties.
You are probably aware that the hives with which we provide bees are
not essential to their labours, and that they can equally form their city in
the hollow of a tree or any other cavity. In whatever situation it is
placed, the general plan which they follow is the same. You have seen a
honeycomb, and must have observed that it is a fluttish cake, composed of
a vast number of cells, for the most part hexagonal, regularly applied to
each other's sides, and arranged in two strata or layers placed end to end.
1 Huber, Becherches, &c. 61. 2 Hawkeswortli's Conk's Voyages, iii. 223.
3 Trans. Eiit. Soc. Lond. i. 101. 4 Hji,j, j. prgc. Ixxii.
5 Westwood, Mod. Class, of Ins. ii. 223.
6 Lacordaire, Intr. a VEntom. ii. 503.
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 273
The interior of a bee-hive consists of severaKof these combs fixed to its
upper part and sides, arranged vcrt'wnllif at a small distance from each
other, so that the cells composing them are jjlaccil in a /lorizon/al position,
and have their openings in opposite directions — not the best position one
would have tht)nght lor retaining a Haiti like honey, yet the bees find no
inconvenience on this score. The distance of the combs from each other
is about half an inch, that is, sufficient to allow two bees busied upon tiie
opposite cells to pass each other with facility. Besides these vacancies,
which form the high roads of their community, the combs are here and
there pierceil with holes which serve as posterns tor easy communication
from one to the other without losing time by going round.
The arrangement of the combs is well adapted for its purpose, but it is
the construction of the cells which is most admirable and astonishing. As
these are formed of wax, a substance secreted by the bees in no great
abundance, it is important that as little as possible of such a precious ma-
terial should be consumed. Bees, therefore, in the formation of their cells
have to solve a problem which would puzzle some geometers, namely, a
quantity of wax being given, to form of it similar and equal cells of a de-
terminate capacity, but of the lari^est size in proportion to the quantity of
matter em|)loyetl, and disposed in such a manner as to occupy in the hive
the least possible space. Every part of this problem is practically solved
by bees. If their cells had been cylindrical, which form seems best adapted
to the shape of a bee, they could not have been applied to each other with-
out leaving numberless superfluous vacuities. If the cells were made square
or triangular, this last objection, indeed, would be removed : but besides
that a greater quantity of wax would have been required, the shape would
have been inconvenient to a cylindrical-bodied animal. All these difficulties
are obviated by the adoption of hexagonal cells, which are admirably fitted
to the form of the insect, at the same time that their sides apply to each
other without the smallest vacant intervals. Another important sav-
ing in materials is gained by making a common base serve for two strata of
cells. Much more wax as well as room would have been required, had
the combs consisted of a single stratum only. But this is not all. The
base of each cell is not an exact plane, but is usually composed of three
rliomboidal or lozenge-shaped pieces, placed so as to form a pyramidal con-
cavity. From this form it follows that the base of a cell on one side or
stratum of the comb is composed of portions of the bases of f/ircc cells on
the other. You will inquire, Where is the advantage of this arrangement ?
First, a greater degree o( strength ; aed secondly, precisely the same as
results from the hexagonal sides — a greater capacity with less expenditure
of wax. Not only has this been indisputably ascertained, but that the
angles of the base of the cell are exactly those which require the smallest
quantity of wax. It is obvious that these angles might vary infinitely;
but, by a very accurate admeasurement, Maraldi found that the great
angles were in general 109° 2S', the smaller ones 70° 32'. Reaumur, in-
geniously suspecting that the ol)ject of choosing these angles from amongst
so many was to spare wax, proposed to M. Kcinig, a skilful geome'rician,
who was ignorant of INIaraldi's experiments, to determine by calculations
what ought to be the angle of a hexagonal cell, with a pyramidal bottom
formed of three similar and equal rhomboid plates, so that the least matter
possible might enter into its construction. For the solution of this pro-
blem the geometrician had recourse to the infinitesimal calculus, and fiaund
T
274 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.
that the great angles of the rhombs should be 109° 26', and of the small
angles 70° 34/^ What a surprising agreement between the solution of the
problem and the actual admeasurement ! "^
Besides the saving of wax effected by the form of the cells, the bees adopt
another economical plan suited to the same end. They compose the bottoms
and sides of wax of very great tenuity, not thicker than a sheet of writing-
paper. But as walls of this thinness at the entrance would be perpetually in-
jured by the ingress and egress of the workers, they prudently make the mar-
gin at the opening of each cell three or four times thicker than the walls. Dr.
Barclay discovered that, though of such excessive tenuity, the sides and
bottom of each cell are actually dotib/e, or, in other words, that each cell is
a distinct, separate, and in some measure an independent structure, agglu-
tinated only to the neighbouring cells, and that when the agglutinating sub-
stance is destroyed, each cell may be entirely separated from the rest.^_
You must not imagine that all the cells of a hive are of precisely simi-
lar dimensions. As the society consists of three orders of insects differing
in size, the cells which are to contain the larvse of each proportionally
differ, those built for the males being considerably larger than those which
are intended for the workers. The abode of the larva; of the queen bee
differs still more. It is not only much larger than any of the rest, but of a
quite different form, being shaped Hke a pear or Florence flask, and composed
of a material much coarser than comnion wax, of which above one hundred
times as much is used in its construction as of pure wax in that of a com-
mon cell. The situation, too, of these cells (for there are generally three
or four and sometimes many more, even up to thirty or forty, in each hive)
is very different from that of the common cells. Instead of being in a
horizontal they are placed in a vertical direction, with the mouth down-
wards, and are usually fixed to the lower edge of the combs, from which
they irregularly project like stalactites from the roof of a cavern. The
cells destined for the reception of honey and pollen differ from those which
the larv£E of the males and workers inhabit only by being deeper, and thus
more capacious ; in fact, the very same cells are successively applied to
both purposes. When the honey is collected in great abundance, and
1 Reaum. v. 390.
2 Father Boscovich observes, that all the angles that form the planes which
compose the cell are equal, i. e. 120°; and he supposes that this equality of incli-
nation facilitates much the construction of the cell, which may be a motive for pre-
ferring it, as well as economy. He shows that the bees do not economise the wax
necessary for a flat bottom in the construction of every cell, near so much as
MM. Konig and Keaumur thought.
MacLaurin says, that the difference of a cell with a pyramidal from one with a
flat bottom, in which is comprised the economy of the bees, is equal to the fourth
part of six triangles, which it would be necessary to add to the trapeziums, the
faces of the cell, in order to make them right angles.
M. L'Hullier, professor of Geneva, values the economy of the bees at J^ of the
whole expense ; and he shows that it might have been one-fifth if the bees had no
other circumstances to attend to ; but he concludes, that if it is not very sensible in
everv cell, it may be considerable in the whole of a comb, on account of the mutual
setting of the two opposite orders of cells. Huber, Nouvelles Observations, &c.,
ii. 34.
3 Memoirs of the Wernerian Society, ii. 259. This, however, has been denied by
Mr. Waterhouse, and seems inconsistent Avith the account given by Huber hereafter
detailed; but Mr. G. Newport asserts that even the virgin cells are lined with a
delicate membrane. Westwood, Mod. Class. <f Ins. ii. 284.
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 275
there is not time to construct fresh cells, the bees lengthen the honey cells
In' acUiinji a rim to them.
Yoti will lie anxious to learn the process which these ingenious artificers
follow in constructing tiieir habitations ; and on this head I am happy that
the recent |)ublication of a new edition of the celebrated Huher's Xew Ob'
snvaliotis on Bees, in which this subject is for the first time elucidated, will
enable me to gratify your curiosity.
But in the first place you must be told of an important and unlooked-
for discovery of this unrivalled detector of the hidden mysteries of nature
— that the workers or neuters, as they are calleil, of a hive, consist of two
descriptions of imlividuals, one of which he calls abeilles nourrices, or pclites
ahcilks, the other abeilles cirieres. The former, or nurse bees, are smaller than
the latter ; their stomach is not capable of such distension ; and their office
is to build the combs and cells after the foundation has been laid by the
cirieres, to collect honey, and to feed the larvic. The abeilles cirieres
are the makers of wax, which substance Huber has now indisputably ascer-
tained to be secreted, as John Hunter long ago suspected, beneath the ven-
tral segments, from between which it is taken by the bees when wanted, in
the form of thin scales. The apparatus in which the wax is secreted con-
sists of four pair of membranous bags or wax-pocliets, situated at the base
of each intermediate segment, one on each side, which can only be seen by
pressing the alidomen so as to lengthen it, being usually concealed by the
overlapping of the preceding segments. It should be observed that this
discovery was nearly made by our countryman Thorley, who, in his
Female jMonarchy (174-t), says that he has taken bees with six pieces of
wax within the plaits of the abdomen, three on each side. In these pockets
the wax is secreted by some unknown process from the food taken into the
stomach, which in the wax-making bees is much larger than in the nurse-
bees, and afterwards transpires through the membrane of the wax-pocket
in thin laminas. The nurse-bees, however, do secrete wax, but in very
small quantities. When wax is not wanted in the hive, the wax-makers
disgorge their honey into the cells.
The process of building the combs in a bee-hive, as observed by Huber,
is as follows : —
The wax-makers, having taken a due portion of honey or sugar, from
either of which wax can be elaborated, suspend themselves to each other,
the claws of the forelegs of the lowermost being attached to those of the
hind pair of the uppermost, and form themselves into a cluster, the exterior
layer of which looks like a kind of curtain. This cluster consists of a
series of festoons or garlands, which cross each other in all directions, and
in which most of the bees turn their back upon the observer; the curtain
has no other motion than what it receives from the interior layers, the fluc-
tuations of which are communicated to it. All this time the ntirse-bees
preserve their wonted activity and pursue their usual employments. The
wax-makers remain immoveable for about twenty-four hours, during which
period the formation of wax takes place, and thin laminjE of this material
may be generally perceived under their abdomen. One of these bees is
now seen to detach itself from one of the central garlands of the cluster,
to make a way amongst its companions to the middle of the vault
or top of the hive, and by turning itself round to form a kind of void, in
which it can move itself freely. It then suspends itself to the centre of
the space, which it has cleared, the diameter of which is about an inch. It
T 2
276 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.
next seizes one of the laminae of wax with a pincer formed by the posterior
metatarsus and tibia \ and drawing it from beneath the abdominal segment,'
one of the anterior legs takes it with its claws and carries it to the mouth.
This leg holds the lamina with its claws vertically, the tongue rolled up
serving for a support, and, by elevating or depressing it at will, causes the
whole of its circumference to be exposed to the action of the mandibles,
so that the margin is soon gnawed into pieces, which drop as they are de-
tached into the double cavity, bordered with hairs, of the mandibles.
These fragments, pressed by others newly separated, fall on one side of the
mouth, and issue from it in the form of a very narrow riband. They are
then presented to the tongue, which impregnates them with a frothy liquor
like a boidUie. During this operation the tongue assumes all sorts of
forms ; sometimes it is flattened like a spatula ; then like a trowel, which
applies itself to the riband of wax ; at other times it resembles a pencil
terminating in a point. After having moistened the whole of the riband,
the tongue pushes it so as to make it re-enter the mandibes, but in an op-
posite direction, where it is worked up anew. The liquor mixed with the
wax comnmnicates to it a whiteness and opacity which it had not before ;
and the object of this mixture of boidUie, whicli did not escape the obser-
vation of Reaumur-, is doubtless to give it that ductility and tenacity
which it possesses in its perfect state.
The foundress-bee, a name which this first beginner of a comb deserves,
next applies these prepared parcels of wax against the vault of the hive,
disposing them with the point of her mandibles in the direction which she
wishes them to take : and she continues these manoeuvres until she has
employed the whole lamina that she had separated from her body, when
she takes a second, jn'oceeding in the same manner. She gives herself no
care to compress the molecules of wax which she has heaped together;
she is satisfied if they adhere to each other. At length she leaves her
work, and is lost in the crowd of her companions. Another succeeds,
and resumes the employment; then a third ; all follow the same plan of
placing their little masses ; and if any by chance gives them a contrary
direction, another coming removes them to their proper place. The result
of all these operations is a mass or little wall of wax with uneven surfaces,
five or six lines long, two lines high, and half a line thick, which descends
perpendicularly below the vault of the hive. In this first work is no angle
nor any trace of the figure of the cells. It is a simple partition in a right
line without any inflection.
The wax-makers having thus laid the foundation of a comb, are suc-
ceeded by the nurse-bees, which are alone competent to model and perfect
the work. The former are the labourers, who convey the stone and mor-
tar ; the latter the masons, who work them up into the form which the
intended structure requires. One of the nurse-bees now places itself
horizontally on the vault of the hive, its head corresponding to the centre
of the mass or wall which the wax-makers have left, and which is to form
the partition of the comb into two opposite assemblages of cells ; and
with its mandibles, rapidly moving its head, it moulds in that side of the
wall a cavity which is to form the base of one of the cells, to the diameter
of which it is equal. When it has worked some minutes it departs, and
1 Vide Mon. Ap. Aug. t. 12. * * e. 1. neut. fig. 19.
2 Reauni. v. 42 1.
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 277
another takes its place, deepening tlie cavity, heiglitening its lateral mar-
gins by heaping ii|) the wax to right and left by means of its teeth and fore-
feet, and giving tlu-ni a more npright form. More than twenty bees suc-
cessively employ themselves in this work. When arrived at a certain
point, other bees begin on the yet nntonched and opposite side of the
mass, and, connnencing tiie bottom of lico cells, are in turn relieved by
others. While still engaged in this labour, the wax-makers return and
adil to the mass, augmenting its extent every way, the nurse-bees again
continuing their operations. After having worked the bottoms of the cells
of the first row into their |)roper forms, tliey polish them and give them
their finish, while others begin the outline of a new series.
The cells themselves, or prisms, Avhich result from the reunion and
meeting of the sides, are next constructed. These are engrafted on the
borders of the cavities hollowed in the mass. The bees begin them by
making the contour of the bottoms, which at first is unequal, of equal
height ; thus all the margins of the cells oHer an uniformly level surface
from their first origin, and until they have acquired their i)roper length.
The sides are heightened in an order analogous to that which the insects
follow in finishing the bottoms of the cells ; and the length of these tubes
is so perfectly proportioned that there is no observable inecpuiiity between
them. It is to be remarked, that though the general form of the cells is
hexagonal, that of those first begun is pcnfngoiia/, the side next the top of
the hive, and by which the comb is attached, being much broader than the
rest; whence the comb is more strongly united to the hive than if these
cells were of the ordinary shape. It of course follows that the base of
these cells, instead of being formed, like those of the hexagonal cells, of
three rhomboids, consist of one rhomboid and two trapeziums.
The form of a new comb is lenticular, its thickness always diminishing
towards the edges. This gradation is constantly observable whilst it keeps
enlargins; in circumference ; but as soon as the bees get sufficient space to
lengthen it, it begins to lose this form, and to assume parallel surfaces : it
has then received the shape which it will always preserve.
The bees appear to give the proper forms to the bottoms of the cells by
means of their antennae, which extraordinary organs they seem to employ
as directors by which their other instruments are instructed to execute a
very complex work. They do not remove a single particle of wax until the
antennae have explorec4 the siu'face that is to be sculptured. By the use of
these organs, which are so flexible and so readily applied to all parts, how-
ever delicate, that they can perform the functions of compasses in measur-
ing very minute objects, they can work in the dark, and raise those wonder-
ful combs tiie first production of insects.
Every part of the work appears a natural consequence of that which
precedes it, so that chance has no share in the admirable results witnessed.
The bees cannot depart from their prescribed route, except in consequence
of particular circumstances which alter the basis of their labour. The ori-
ginal mass of wax is never augmented but by an uniform quantity ; and,
what is most astonishing, this augmentation is made by the wax-makers
■who are the depositaries of the primary matter, and possess not the art of
sculpturing the cells.
The bees never begin two masses for combs at the same time; but
scarcely are some rows of cells constructed in the first, when two other
masses, one on each side of it, are established at equal distances from it
T 3
278 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.
and parallel to it, and then again two more exterior to these. The combs are
always enlarged and lengthened in a progression proportioned to the priority
of their origin ; the middle comb being constantly advanced beyond the two
adjoining ones by some rows of cells, and they beyond those that are ex-
terior to them. Was it permitted to these insects to lay the foundation
of all their combs at the same time, they could not be placed conveniently
or parallel to each other. So with respect to the cells, the first cavity de-
termines the place of all that succeed it.
A large number of bees work at the same time on the same comb ; but
they are not moved to it by a simultaneous but by a successive impulse. A
single bee begins every partial operation, and many others in succession
add their efforts to hers, each appearing to act individually in a direction
impressed either by the workers who have preceded it, or by the
condition in which it finds the work. The whole population of wax-makers
is in a state of the most complete inaction till one bee goes forth to lay
the foundations of the first comb. Immediately others second her inten-
tions, adding to the height and length of the mass ; and when they cease
to act, a bee, if the term may be used, of another profession, one of the
nurse-bees, goes to form the draft of the first cell, in which she is succeeded
by others.^
The diameters of the cells intended for the larvae of workers is always
2f lines, that of those meant for the larvae of the males or drones 3^ lines.
The male cells are generally in the middle of the combs, or in their sides
rarely in their upper part. They are never insulated, but form a corre-
sponding group on both sides the comb. When the bees form male cells
below those of neuters, they construct many rows o'i intermediate ones, the
diameter of which augments progressively till it attains that of a male cell ;
and they observe the same method when they revert from male cells to
those of neuters. It appears to be the oviposition of the queen which de-
cides the kind of cells that are to be made : while she lays the eggs of
workers, no male cells are constructed ; but when she is about to lay the
eggs of males, the neuters appear to know it, and act accordingly. When
there is a very large harvest of honey, the bees increase the diameter and
even the length of their cells. At this time many irregular combs may be
seen with cells of twelve, fifteen, and even eighteen lines in length. Some-
times, also, they have occasion to shorten the cells. When they wish to
lengthen an old comb, the tubes of which have acquired their full dimen-
sions, they gradually diminish the thickness of its edges, gnawing down the
sides of the cells till it assumes the lenticular form; they then engraft a
mass of wax round it, and so proceed with new cells.
Variations, as has been already hinted, sometimes take place in the
position and even form of the combs. Occasionally the bees construct
^ Some late physiologists and entomologists have contended with BufFon that
there is in fact nothing wonderful in the hexagonal form of the cells of bees, which
are at first really cylindrical (thus corresponding with the form of their bodies), but
forced to assume the six-sided form by the pressure on their sides of the multitude
of bees engaged upon them ; but surely if these authors had read Huber's work
with attention they must have perceived that the fact stated bj' him above, that
however large the number of bees at work on a comb, they do not work simul-
taneously, but successively, " each appearing to act individually in a direction im-
pressed either by the workers who have preceded it, or by the condition in which it
finds the work," is utterly at variance with their theory, as is indeed the whole of
Huber's lucid and distinct relation.
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 279
cells of the coniinon shape upon the wood to which the combs are fixed,
without pyramidal bottoms, and from them continue their work as usual.
These cells with a Hat bottom, or rather with the wood for their bottom,
are more irreijidar than the common ones ; some of their orifices are not
angular, and their dimensions are not exact, but all are more or less hexa-
gonal. Once when disturbed, Huber observed them to be^in their combs
on one of the vertical sides of the hive instead of on the roof. Wlien par-
ticular circumstances caused it, as, for instance, when iilass was introiluced,
to which thev do not like to fix their combs, he remarked that they con-
stantly varied their direction ; and by repeatinij the attempt he forced them
to form their combs in the most fantastic manner. Yet glass is an artificial
substance, against which instinct merely cannot have provided them : there
is nothing in hollow trees, their natural habitation, resembling it. When
they change the direction of their combs, they enlarge the cells of one side
to two or three times the diameter of those of the other, which gives the
requisite curve.
To complete the detail of these interesting discoveries of the elder
Huber, I nmst lay before you the following additional observations of his
son.
The first base of the combs upon which the bees work holds three or
four cells, sometimes more. The comb continues of the same width for
three or four inches, and then begins to widen for three quarters of its
length. The bees engaged at the bottom lengthen it downwards ; those on
the sides widen it to right and left ; and those which are eniijloyed above
the thickest part extend its dimensions upwards. The more a comb is
enlarged below, the more it is necessary that it sliould be enlarged upwards
to the top of the hive. The bees that are engaged in lengthening the comb
work with more celerity than those which increase its width ; and those
that ascend or increase its width upwards, more slowly than the rest.
Hence it arises that it is lonsrer than wide, and narrower towards the top
than towards the middle. The first formed cells are usually not so deep
as those in the middle ; but when the comb is of a certain height, they are
in haste to lengthen these cells so essential to the solidity of the whole,
sometimes even making them longer than the rest. The cells are not |)er-
fectly horizontal ; they are almost always a little higher towards their
mouth than at their base, so that their axis is not perpendicular to the par-
tition that separates the tw o assemblages. They sometimes vary from the
horizontal Une more than 20°, usually 4° or b° . When the bees enlarge
the diameter of the cells preparatory to the formation of male cells, the
bottoms often consist of two rhomboids and two hexagons, the size and
form of which vary, and they correspond with four instead of three oppo-
site cells. The works of bees are symmetrical less perhaps in minute de-
tails than considered as a whole. Sometimes, indeed, their combs have a
fantastic form ; but this, if traced, will be found to be caused by circum-
stances; one irregularity occasions another, and both usually have their
origin in the dispositions which we make them adopt. The inconstancy of
climate, too, occasions frequent interruptions, and injures the symmetry of
the combs ; for a work resumed is always less perfect than one followed up
until completed.
At first the substance of the cells is of a dead white, semi-transparent,
soft, and though even, not smooth : but in a few days it loses most of
these qualities, or rather acquires new ones ; a yellow tint spreads. over the
T 4
280 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.
cells, particularly their interior surface : their edges become thicker, and
they have acquired a consistence, which at first they did not possess. The
combs, also, when finished are heavier than the unfinished ones; these
last are broken by the slightest touch, whereas the former will bend sooner
than break. Their orifices also have something adhesive, and they melt
less readily ; whence it is evident that the finished combs contain something
not present in the unfinished ones. In examining the orifice of the yellow
cells, their contour appeared to the younger Huber to be besmeared with
a reddish varnish, unctuous, strong-scented, and similar to, if not the same
ViS, propolis. Sometimes there were red threads in the interior, which were
also applied round the sides, rhombs, or trapeziums. This solder, as it
may be called, placed at the point of contact of the different parts, and at
the summit of the angles formed by their meeting, seemed to give solidity
to the cells, round the axis of the longest of which there were sometimes
one or two red zones. From subsequent experiments, M. Huber ascer-
tained that this substance was actually jyropolis, collected from the buds of
the poplar. He saw them with their mandibles draw a thread from the
mass of propolis that was most conveniently situated, and, breaking it by a
sudden jerk of the head, take it with the claws of their fore-legs, and then,
entering the cell, place it at the angles and sides, &c., which they had pre-
viously planished. The yellow colour, however, is not given by the pro-
polis, and it is not certain to what it is owing. The bees sometimes mix
wax and propolis and make an amalgam, known to the ancients and called
by them mitys and pissoceros, which they use in rebuilding cells that have
been destroyed, in order to strengthen and support the edifice.^
We know but little of the proceedings of the species of bees not indi-
genous to Europe, which live in societies and construct combs like that
cultivated by us. A traveller in Brazil mentions one there which builds
a kind of natural hive : " On an excursion towards Upper Tapagippe,"
says he, " and skirting the dreary woods which extend to the interior, I
observed the trees more loaded with bees' nests than even in the neigh-
bourhood of Porto Segiiro. They consist of a ponderous shell of clay,
cemented similarly to martins' nests, swelling from high trees about a foot
thick, and forming an oval mass full two feet in diameter. When broken,
the wax is arranged as in our hives, and the honey abundant.^
Humble-bees are the only tribe besides the hive-bee, that in this part of
the world construct nests by the united labour of the society. The habita-
tions composing them are of a rude construction, and the streets are ar-
ranged with little architectural regularity. The number of inhabitants, too,
is small, rarely exceeding two or three hundred, and often not more than
twenty. The nests of some species, as oi Bombus^ lapidarms, terrestris, &c.,
are found under-ground, at the depth of afoot or more below the surface ; but
as the internal structiu'e of these does not essentially differ from that of
the more singular habitations of B. miiscorum, and as some of the subter-
ranean species occasionally adopt the same situation, I shall confine my
description to the latter.
1 Nouvelles Observations siir les Abeilles, par Fran(;ois Huber, ii. 101—288. I
liave observed the bees collecting propolis in the spring from the buds of Populus
halsamifera.
2 Lindlev in R. Military Chronicle, March 1815, 449.
2 Apis. •♦. e, 2. K.
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 281
These nests, which do not exceed six or eiirht inches in diameter, are
generally ioiiiu! in meadows and |)asturcs, and sometimes in hedge-rows
where the soil is entannlcil witli rot)ts. The losver half occnpics a cavity
in the soil, either accidentally found ready made, or excavated with great
labour by the bees. The upper |)art or dome of the nest is composed of a
thick felted covering of moss, having the interior ceiling coated with a thin
roof of coarse wax for the purpose of kecpirig out the wet. The entrance
is in tiie lower part, and is generally through a gallery or covered way,
sometimes more tiian a foot in length and half an inch in diameter, by
means of which the nest is more eft'cctually concealed from observation.
On removing the coping of moss, the interior presents to our view a very
dili'ereut scene from that witnessed in a bee-hive. Instead of numerous
vertical combs of wax, we see merely a few irregular horizontal combs
placed one above the other, the uppermost resting upon the more elevated
parts of the lower, and connected together by small pillars of wax. Each
of these combs consists of several groups of pale-yellow oval bodies of
three ditt'erent sizes, those in the middle being the largest, closely joined
to each other, and each group connected with those next it by slight join-
ings of wax. These oval bodies are not, as you might sujjpose, the work
of the old bees, but the silken cocoons spun by the young larvae. Some
are closed at the upper extremity; others, which chiefly occupy the lower
combs, have this part oj)en. The former are those which yet include their
immature tenants ; the latter are the empty cases from which the young
bees have escaped. On the surface of the upper comb are seen several
masses of wax of a flattened spheroidal shape, and of very various dimen-
sions : some above an inch, and others not a quarter of an inch, in dia-
meter ; which, on being opened, are found to include a number of larvaj
surrounded with a supply of pollen moistened with honey. These, which
are the true cells, are chiefly the work of the female, which, after
depositing her eggs in them, furnishes them with a store of pollen and
honey ; and, when this is consumed, supplies the larvae with a daily pro-
vision, as has been described in a former letter, until they are sufficiently
grown to spin the cocoons before spoken of. Lastly, in all the corners of
the combs, and especially in the middle, we observe a considerable nimiber
of small goblet-like vessels, filled with honey and pollen, which are not, as
in the case of the hive-bee, the fabrication of the workers, but are chiefly
the empty cocoons lelt by the larvae. It falls to the workers, however, to
cut oft' the fragments of silk from the orifice of the cocoon, which, after
giving it a regular circular form, they strengthen by a ring or elevated tube
of wax made in a different shape by different species; and to coat them
internally with a lining of the same material. They even occasionally con-
struct honey-pots entirely of wax.^
The most curious circumstance in the construction of these nests is the
mode in which the bees transport the moss employed in forming the roof.
When they have discovered a parcel of this material conveniently situated
upon the ground, five or six insects place themselves upon it in a file,
turning the hinder part of their bodies towards the quarter to which it is
meant to be conveyed. The first takes a small portion, and, with its jaws
and fore-legs, as it were felts it together. W hen the fibres are sufficiently
1 Huber, Linn. Trans, vi. 215—298."
282 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.
entangled, it pushes them under its body by means of the first pair of legs ;
the intermediate pair receives the moss, and delivers it to the last, which
protrudes it as far as possible beyond the anus. When by this process tiie
insect has formed behind it a small ball of well-carded moss, the next bee
pushes it to the third, which consigns it, in like manner, to that behind it ;
and thus the balls are conveyed to the foot of the nest, and from thence
elevated to the summit much in the same way that a file of labourers trans-
fer a parcel of cheeses from a vessel or cart to a warehouse.^ It is easy
to perceive that a vast saving of time must ensue from this well contrived
division of labour ; the structure rising much more rapidly than if every
individual had been employed first in carding his materials, and then in
transferring them to the spot.
Wasps, though ferocious and cruel towards their fellow-insects, are
civilised and polished in their intercourse with each other, and form a
community whose architectural labours will not suffer on comparison even
with those of the peaceful inhabitants of a bee-hive. Like these, the great
object of their industry is the erection of a structure for their beloved pro-
geny, towards which they discover the greatest tenderness and affection,
and they even, in like manner, construct combs consisting of hexagonal
cells for their reception ; but the substance which they make use of is very
dissimilar to the wax employed by bees ; and the general plan of their city
differs in many respects from that of a bee-hive.
The common wasp's nest, usually situated in a cavity underground, is of
an oval figure, about sixteen or eighteen inches long by twelve or thirteen
broad. Externally, it is surrounded by a thick coating of numerous leaves
of a sort of greyish paper, which do not touch each other, but have a
small interval between each, so that if the rain should chance to penetrate
one or two of them, its progress is speedily arrested. On removing this
external covering, we perceive that the interior consists of from twelve to
fifteen circular combs of different sizes, not ranged verticallij as in a bee-
hive, but horizontally, so as to form so many distinct and parallel stories.
Each comb is composed of a numerous assemblage of hexagonal cells
formed of the same paper-like substance as the exterior covering of the
nest, and, according to Dr. Barclay, each, as in those of bees, a distinct
cell, the partition walls being double." These cells, which, as wasps do
not store up any food, serve merely as the habitations of their young, are
not, like those of the honey-bee, arranged in two opposite layers, but in one
only, their entrance being always downwards : consequently the upper part
of the comb, composed of the bases of the cells, which are not pyramidal
but slightly convex, forms a nearly level floor, on which the inhabitants
can conveniently pass and repass, spaces of about half an inch high being
left between each comb. Although the combs are fixed to the sides of the
nest, they would not be sufficiently strong without further support. The
ingenious builders, therefore, connect each comb to that below it by a
number of strong cylindrical columns or pillars, having according to the
rules of architecture their base and capital wider than the shaft, and com-
posed of the same paper-like material used in other parfs of the nest, but
of a more compact substance. The middle combs are connected by a rustic
1 Reaum. vi. 7 — 10.
' 3Iemoirs of the IVernerian Society, ii. 2G0.
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 283
colonnade of from forty to fifty of these pillars ; the upper and lower
coiiil)s by a smaller number.
The cells, which in a populous nest are not fewer than Ifi.OOO, are of
difil-rent sizes, corrcspondinij to that of the tliree ortiers of individuals
which compose the community; the largest for the grubs of females, the
smallest for those of workers. The last always occupy an entire comb,
while the cells of the males and females are often intermixed. — Besides
o|)enings which are left between the walls of the combs to admit of access
from one to the other, there are at the bottom of each nest two holes, by
one of which the wasps uniformly enter, and through the other issue from
the nest, and thus avoid all confusion or interruption of their conunoii
labours. As the nest is often a foot and a half under ground, it is requi-
site that a covered way should lead to its entrance. This is excavated by
the wasps, who are excellent miners, and is often very long and tortuous,
forming a beaten road to the subterranean city, well known to the inha-
bitants, though its entrance is concealetl from incurious eyes. The cavity
itself, which "contains the nest, is either the abandoned habitation of moles
or field-mice, or a cavern purposely dug out by the wasps, which exert
themselves with such industry as to accomplish the arduous undertaking in
a few days.
When the cavity and entrance to it are completed, the next part of the
process is to lay the foundations of the city to be included in it, which,
contrary to the usual custom of builders, wasps begin at the top, con-
tinuinir downwards. I have already told you that the coatings which com-
pose the dome are a sort of rough but thin paper, and that the rest of the
nest is composed of the same substance variously applied. " Whence,"
you will inquire, "do the wasps derive it?" They are manufac-
turers of the article, and prepare it from a material even more singular
than any of those which have of late been proposed for this purpose;
namely, the fibres of wood.^ These they detach by means of their jaws
from window-frames, posts, and rails, &c., and when they have amassed a
heap of the filament, moisten the whole with a few drops of a viscid glue
from their mouth, and, kneading it with their jaws into a sort of paste or
j)opier murhc, fly off' with it to their nest. This ductile mass they attach
to that part of the building upon which they are at work, walking back-
wards and spreading it into laminjE of the requisite thinness by means of
their jaws, tongue, and legs. This operation is repeated several limes,
until at length, by aid of fresh supplies of the material and the combined
exertion of so many workmen, the projier number of layers of paper that
are to compose the roof is finished. This paper is as thin as that of the
letter which you are reading; and you may form an idea of the labour
which even the exterior of a wasp's nest requires, on being told that not
fewer than fifteen or sixteen sheets of it are usually placed above each
other with slight intervening spaces, making the whole upwards of an inch
and a half in thickness. When the dome is completed, the uppermost
comb is next begun, in which, as well as all the other parts of the build-
ing, precisely the same material and the same process, with little variation,
are employed. In the structure of the connecting pillars, there seems a
1 Reaumur says decayinj]^ wood, vi. 182. ; but White asserts (and my own ob-
servations confirm his opinion) that wasps obtain tlieir paper from sound timber;
Lorncts, only from that which is decayed. White's Nat. Hist, by Markwick, ii. 228.
284 HABITATIONS OP INSECTS.
greater quantity of glue made use of than in the rest of the work, doubt-
less with the view of giving them a superior solidity. When the first
comb is finished, the continuation of the roof or walls of the building is
brought down lower ; a new comb is erected ; and thus the work succes-
sively proceeds until the whole is finished. As a comparatively small
proportion of the society is engaged in constructing the nest, its entire
completion is the work of several months ; yet, though the fruit of such
severe labour, it has not been finished many weeks before winter comes on,
when it merely serves for the abode of a few benumbed females, and is
entirely abandoned at the approach of spring; wasps never using the same
nest for more than one season.'
The nests of the hornet in their general construction resemble those of
the common wasp, but the paper of which they are composed is of a much
more rough texture ; the columns which support the comb are higher and
more massive, and that in the centre larger than the rest.
These last, as well as wasps, conceal their nest, suspending it in the
corners of out-houses, &c. ; but there are other species which construct
their habitations in open daylight, affixing them to the branches of shrubs
or trees.
One of these, described by Latreille, the work of Vespa holsafica., a species
not uncommon with us, resembles in shape a cone of the cedar of Lebanon,
and is composed of an envelope and the comb, the former consisting of
three partial envelopes. The comb com[)rises about thirty hexagonal
cells circularly arranged, those of the circumference being lower and
smaller.^
A vespiary somewhat similar to the above, but of a depressed globular
figure, and composed of more numerous envelopes, so as to assimie a con-
siderable resemblance to a half-expanded Provence rose, is figured by
Reaumur * : and for a very beautiful specimen apparently of the same kind,
except that it contains but one stage of cells, which was found in the
garden at East Dale, 1 am indebted to the kindness of Henry Thompson,
Esq., of Hull.
Another species * attaches its small group of about twenty inverted
crucible-like cells to a piece of wood without any covering ^ and similar
nests, having their cells exposed without any general envelope, and fixed
laterally to the stems of plants, walls, &c., are formed by PoUstes galiica,
and others of the same genus.
But all these yield in point of singularity of structure to the habitation
oi Charter gits nidulans,^ native of Cayenne, which constructs its nest of a
beautifully polished white and soHd pasteboard, impenetrable by the
weather. These are in shape somewhat like a bell, often a foot and a half
long, or even more, and fixed by their upper end to the branch of a tree
from which they are securely suspended. Their interior is composed of
numerous concave horizontal combs, with the openings of the cells turned
1 Reaum. vi. mem. 6. 2 Jnnnles du 3Iiis. d'Hist. Nat. i. 289.
3 vi. t. 19. f. i. 2. 4 Rosel's Vesp. t. 7. f. 8.
5 Eosel, II. viii. 30. Descriptions of several other wasps' nests have been pub-
lished in various works; but much uncertainty exists as to the different species
forming each, and as to how far their apparent dissimilarity has resulted from one
having been in a more or less forward state than another. See Westwood's Mod.
Class, of Ins. ii. 250., and Shuckard's Notes on the Pensile Nests of British Wasps
in Mag. Nat. Hist. iii. 458.
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 285
(lownwarcl-i, fastened to the sides without any piUars, and having a hole
tlirough c;ich to admit of access to the nppcrniost. ' A nest constructed
on a similar plan, but having its exterior surface beset with numerous
conical knobs, is constructeil bv another 8outii American wasp, remark-
able for colKctiui,' honey, for a valuable article on which we are indebted
to Mr. Adam White, who has named it Mijrnpctra sculcllarisr
I close my account of the habitations of insects with the description
of those constructed by the white ants, or Tcrmilcs, a tribe alluded to in
former letters.
The (liferent species, which arc numerous, build nests of various forms.
Some (7'. atrox and viordax) construct upon the ground a c}liiuirical
turret of clay about three-quarters of a yard high, surrounded by a project-
ing conical roof, so as in sh;ipc considerably to resemble a nnisliroom, and
composed interiorly of innumerable cells of various figures and dimensions.
Others (as T. destructor, T. arborutn Sm.) prefer a more elevated site, and
builii their nesls, which are of ilirterent sizes, from that of a hat to that of
a sugar-cask, and composed of pieces of wood glued together, aniongst the
branches of trees often seventy or eighty feet high. But by far the most
curious habitations, and to which, therefore, I shall confine a minute de-
scription, are those formed by the 'J'cniicsjhta/is, a species very conuuon
in (iiuinea and other parts of the coast of Africa, of whose proceedings we
have a very particular and interesting account in the 71st volume of the
PInlosophical Transactionx, from the pen of Mr. Sn)eathn)an.
These nests are formed entirely of clay, and are generally twelve feet
high and broad in proportion, so that when a cluster of them, as is often
the case, are placed together, they may be taken for an Indian village, and
are in fact sometimes larger than the huts which the natives inhabit. The
first process in the erection of these singular structures is the elevation of
two or three turrets of clay about a foot high, and in shape like a sugar-
loaf. These, which seem to be the scaffolds of the future building, rapidly
increase in number and height, until at length being widened at the base,
joined at the top into one dome, and consolidated all round into a thick
wall of clay, they form a building of the size above mentioned, and of the
shape of a hay-cock, which when clothed, as it generally soon becomes,
with a coating of grass, it at a distance very much resembles. When the
building has as>umed this its final form, the inner turrets, all but the tops,
which project like pinnacles from different parts of it, are removed, and
the clay employed over again in other services.
It is the lower part alone of the building that is occupied by the inhabi-
tants. The upper portion or dome, which is very strong and solid, is left
empty, serving princi[)ally as a defence from the vicissitudes of the weather,
aiui the attacks of natural or accidental enemies, and to keep up in the
lower part a genial warmth and moi.'-ture necessary to the hatching of
the eggs and cherishing of the ^onng ones. The inhabited portion is
occupied by the roi/al chamber, or habitation of the king and queen, the
nurseries, for the young, the storehouses for food, ami innumerable gal
leries, passages, and empty rooms, arranged according to the following plan.
In the centre of the building, just under the apex, and nearly on a level
' Reaum. vi. 22 1. Compare Lacordaire, Introd. a VEntom. ii. 508.
2 Annali of Nat. Hist. vii. 315.
286 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.
■with the surface of the ground, is placed the royal chamber, an arched
vault of a semi-oval shape, or not unlike a long oven ; at first not above
an inch long, but enlarged as the queen increases in bulk to the length of
eight inches or more. In this apartment the king and queen constantly
reside ; and from the smallness of the entrances, which are barely large
enough to admit their more diminutive subjects, can never possibly come
out ; thus, like many human potentates, purchasing their sovereignty at
the dear rate of the sacrifice of liberty. Immediately adjoining the royal
chamber, and surrounding it on all sides to the extent of a foot or more,
are placed what Mr. Smeathman calls the royal apartments, an inextricable
labyrinth of innumerable arched rooms of different shapes and sizes, either
opening into each other or communicating by common passages, and in-
tended for the accommodation of the soldiers and attendants, of whom
many thousands are always in waiting on their royal master and mistress.
Next to the royal apartments come the nurseries and the magazines. The
former are invariably occujued by the eggs and young ones, and in the
infant state of the nest are placed close to the royal chamber; but when
the queen's augmented size requires a larger apartment, as well as ad-
ditional rooms for the increased number of attendants wanted to remove
her eggs, the small nurseries are taken to pieces, rebuilt at a greater dis-
tance, a size bigger, and their number increased at the same time. In
substance they differ from all the other apartments, being formed of par-
ticles of wood apparently joined together with gums. A collection of
these compact, irregular, and small wooden chambers, not one of which is
half an' inch in width, is inclosed in a common chamber of clay sometimes
as big as a child's head. Intermixed with the nurseries lie the magazines,
whicii are chambers of clay always well stored with provisions, consisting
of particles of wood, gums, and the inspissated juices of plants.
These magazines and nurseries, separated by small empty chambers and
galleries, which run round them or communicate from one to the other,
are continued on all sides to the outer wall of the building, and reach up
within it two-thirds or three-fourths of its height. They do not, however,
fill up the whole of the lower part of the hill, but are confined to the
sides, leaving an open area in the middle, under, the dome, very much
resembling the nave of an old cathedral, having its roof supported by three
or four very large Gothic arches, of which those in the middle of the area
are sometimes two and three feet high, but as they recede on each side,
rapidly diminish like the arches of aisles in perspective. A flattish roof,
imperforated in order to keep out the wet, if the dome should chance to
be injured, covers the top of the assemblage of chambers, nurseries, &c. ;
and the area, which is a short height above the royal chamber, has a flattish
floor, also water-proof, and so contrived as to let any rain that may chance
to get in run off" into the subterraneous passages.
These passages or galleries, which are of an astonishing size, some being
above a foot in diameter and perfectly cylindrical, lined with the same
kind of clay of which the hill is composed, served originally, like the cata-
combs in Paris, as the quarries whence the materials of the building were
derived, and afterwards as the grand outlets by which the Termites carry
on their depredations at a distance from their habitations. They run in
a sloping direction under the bottom of the hill to the depth of three or
four feet, and then branching out horizontally on every side, are carried
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 287
under-ground, near to the surface, to a vast distance. At their entrance
into the interior tliey conununicate witii other sn)aller galleries, which
ascend the inside of the outer sliell in a spiral manner, and, winding round
the whole building to the top, intersect each other at different iieights,
opening either immediately into the dome in various places, and into the
lower half of the building, or conununicating with every j)art of it by other
smaller circuhir or oval galleries of different diameters. The necessity for
the vast size of the main under-ground galleries evidently arises from the
circumstance of their being the great thoroughfares for the inhabitants, by
•which they fetch their clay, wood, water, or provision ; and their spiral
and gradual ascent is recpiisite for the easy access of the Termites, which
cannot but with great difficulty ascend a perpendicular. To avoid this
inconvenience, in the interior vertical parts of the building, a flat pathway,
half an inch wide, is often made to wind gradually, like a road cut out of
the side of a mountain, by which they travel with great facility up ascents
otherwise impracticable. The same ingenious propensity to shorten their
labour seems to have given birth to a contrivance still more extraordinary.
This is a kind of bridge of one vast arch, sprung from the floor of the area
to the upper apartments at the side of the building, which answers the
purpose of a flight of stairs, and nuist shorten the distance exceedingly in
transporting eggs from the royal chambers to the upjier nurseries, which in
.some hills would be four or five feet in the straightest line, and much
more if carried through all the winding passages which lead through the
inner chambers and apartments. Mr. Smeathman measured one of these
bridges, which was half an inch broad, a quarter of an inch thick, and ten
inches long, making the side of an elliptic arch of proportionable size, so
that it is wonderful it did not fall over or break by its own weight before
they got it joined to the side of the column above. It was strengthened
by a small arch at the bottom, and had a hollow or groove all the length
of the upper surHice, either made purposely for the greater safety of the
passengers, or else worn by frequent treading. It is not the least
surprising circumstance attending this bridge, the Gothic arches before
spoken of, and in general all the arches of the various galleries and
apartments, that, as Mr. Smeathman saw every reason for believing, the
Termites project their arches, and do not, as one would have supposed,
excavate them.
Consider what incredible labour and diligence, accompanied by the most
unremitting activity and the most unwearied celerity of movement, must be
necessary to enable these creatures to accomplish, their size considered,
these truly gigantic works. That such diminutive insects, for they are
scarcely the fourth of an inch in length, however numerous, should, in the
space of three or four years, be able to erect a building twelve feet high and
of a proportionable bulk, covered by a vast dome, adorned without by
numerous pinnacles and turrets, and sheltering under its ample arch my-
riads of vaulted apartments of various dimensions, and constructed of
different materials — that they should moreover excavate, in different
directions and at different depths, innumerable subterranean roails or
tunnels, some twelve or thirteen inches in diameter, or throw an arch of
stone over other roads leading from the metropolis into the adjoining
country to the distance of several hundred feet — that they should project
and finish the, for them, vast interior stair-cases or bridges lately described —
288 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS.
and, finally, that the millions necessary to execute such Herculean labours,
perpetually passing to and fro, should never interrupt or interfere with
each other, is a miracle of nature, or rather of the Author of nature, far
exceeding the most boasted works and structures of man : for, did these
creatures equal him in size, retaining their usual instincts and activity,
their buildings would soar to the astonishing height of more than half a
mile, and their tunnels would expand to a magnificent cylinder of more than
three hundred feet in diameter; before which the pyramids of Egypt and
the aqueducts of Rome would lose all their celebrity, and dwindle into
nothings.^ So that when in the commencement of my last letter I pro-
mised to introduce you to insects whose labours produced edifices more
astonishing than those of the mightiest Egyptian monarchs, the pyramids,
my promise, whatever you then thought of it, was the reverse of hyper-
bolical.
I am, &c.
1 The most elevated of the p3'raiTiids of Egypt is not more than 600 feet high,
which, setting the average height of man at only five feet, is not more than 120
times the height of the workmen employed. Whereas the nests of the Termites
being at least twelve feet high, and the insects themselves not exceeding a quarter
of an inch in stature, their edifice is upwards of 500 times the height of the
builders ; which, supposing them of human dimensions, would be more than half a
mile. The shaft of the Roman aqueducts was lofty enough to permit a man on
horseback to travel in them.
Addition to the note on Scoli/tus destructor, p. 122.
Since writing the note above referred to upon Scoli/tus destructor, I have seen, in
passing through Paris to Italy, so striking an instance of the way in which the
little beetle to which it refers has i-evenged the neglect and contempt thrown upon
its class by destroying in a great degree the effect of one of the most vaunted and
cost!}- productions of modern architecture, that the fiict maj' be worth recording as
an instructive warning for the future. The avenue of elms connecting the Place de
la Concorde and Champs Elysees with the Barriere de I'Etoile leading to Neuillj',
St. Germains, &c., has alwaj's been described as the most magnificent approach to
Paris, and was on that account selected by Napoleon for the entree of his new
empress Marie-Louise, and as the site, at its most elevated point, of the " Arc de
Triomphe," commemorating his victories and companions in arms, of which he laid
the foundations, but which has onlj' recently been completed at a vast expense. It
is needless to point out how essentially the effect of this splendid monument of art
must depend upon the size, health, and beauty of the lines of trees connecting it
with those which occupy the Champs Elysees, and garden of the Tuileries ; yet at
this time (September 10. 1842) there are lying from twenty to thirty of their finest
elms very lately cut down, in consequence of having died from the attacks of Sco-
lyti; and as many others have been previously removed and replaced by young
trees, and the full-grown ones offer, from their dead tops, the numerous holes in
their bark, and the oozing sap, ample proof that their pigmy but effective assailants
are silently at work on the rest, it is evident that the whole avenue is eventually
doomed to destruction, and that a century must elapse before it can resume that
grandeur which it might have retained for ages had the economj^ of these insects
been understood, and the proper measures for extirpating them taken at the outset.
It has been well observed, that in many cases a palace had better be burnt than the
fine old trees that surricund and ornament it destroyed, as the former may be
HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 289
rebuilt in a few yp.irs, while no cost can replace the latter; and a reflection some-
what SMiiihir must liave passed through the mind of Napoleon, had lie lived to
witness tho present broken, patched, and miserable aspect of one of the most
striking; and iiuhspensable features of his triumphal arch, and to see in i)rospect,
that even when tiie last victims to the destructive attacks of the despised Scolyti —
foes which, from his ignorance of entomology, had conquered even him — should
have been cut down, and the unsightly gaps attempted to be filled up bv planting
young trees m their jtlace, neither he nor his successor could ever witness in this
tlie proudest inonument of his reign the mingled s])lendour and grace which it
would have exhibited, if approached, as he meant it to have been, through a full-
grown, entire, and majestic avenue.
290
LETTER XVI.
SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
IMPERFECT SOCIETIES.
I SEE already, and I see it with pleasure, that you will not content your-
self with being a mere collector of insects. To possess a cabinet well
stored, and to know by what name each described individual which it
contains should be distinguished, will not satisfy the love already grown
strong in you for my favourite pursuit ; and you now anticipate with a
laudable eagerness, the discoveries which you may make respecting the
history ami 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 hallowed steps of Swammerdam, Leeuwenhoek, Redi,
Malpighi, Vallisnieri, Ray, Lister, Reaumur, De Geer, Lyonnet, Bonnet,
the Hul)ers, &:c. ; and I am confident that a man of your abilities, discern-
ment, and observation will contribute, in no small degree, to the treasures
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
resolution. Assure yourself I shall think no labour lost which 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 extraordinary, have had
power to produce such an effect upon you, what will be the momentum,
when I lay before you more at large, as I next purpose, the more striking
particulars of the proceedings of insects in society, and show the almost
incredibly wonderful results of the combined instincts and labours of these
minute beings ? Jr. comparison with these, all that is the fruit of solitary
efforts, though some of them sufficiently marvellous, appears trifling and
insignificant : as the works of man himself, when they are the product 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 extraordinary by the side of a stately
palace, or a small village when in the vicinity of a populous and magnificent
city ?
Insects in society may be viewed under several lights, and their associa-
tions are for various purposes and of different durations.
There are societies the object of which is mutual defence ; while that
of others is the propagation of the species. Some form marauding parties,
and associate for prey and plunder ; others meet, as it should seem, under
IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 291
certain circumstances, merely for the sake of company ; again, others are
brouuht together by accidental causes, anil disperse when these cease to
operate ; ami, finally, others, wiiich may be said to form pru[)er societies,
are associated for tlie nurture of their young, and, l)y the union of their
labours ami instincts, for mutual society, help and comfort, in erecting or
repairing their connnon hahitation, in collecting provisions, and in defending
their fortress when attacked.
With respect to the duration of the societies of insects, some last only
during their first or larva state, and are occasionally even restricted to its
earliest perioil ; some again only associate in their jierfect or imago state ;
■while with others, the j)ropcr societies for instance, the association is for
life. But if I divide societies of insects into perfect and imperfect, it will,
I think, enable me to give you a clearer and better view of the snhject.
By perfect societies I mean those that are associated in all their states, live
in a connnon habitation, and unite t! civ lal)ours to promote a common
object ; ami by imperfect societies, those that are either associated during
part of their existence only, or else do not dwell in a connnon hahitation,
nor unite their labours to promote a common object. In the present
letter I shall confine myself to giving you some account of imperfect
societies.
Imperfect societies may be considered as of five descriptions : associa-
tions for the sake of company only ; associations of mules during the
season for pairing; associations formed for the purpose of travelling or
emigrating together ; associations for feeding together ; and associations
that undertake some common work.
The first of these associations consists chiefly of insects in their perfect
state. The little beetles called whirlvvigs (Gt/rinus), which may be seen
clustering in groups umler warm banks in every river and every pool, and
wheeling round and roimd with great velocit}', at your ajiproach dispersing
and diving under w ater, but as soon as you retire resuming their accustomed
movements, seem to be under the influence of the social principle, and to
form their assemblies for no other purpose than to enjoy together, in the
sunbeam, the mazy dance. Impelled by the same feeling, in the very depth
of winter, even when the earth is covered with snow, the tribes of Tipti/aria:
(usually, but improperly, called gnats) assemble in sheltered situations at
mid-day, when the sun shines, and form themselves into choirs, that
alternately rise and fall with rapid evolutions.^ To see these little aery
beings apparently so full of joy and life, and feeling the entire force of the
social principle in that dreary season, when the whole animal creation
appears to suffer, and the rest of the insect tribes are torpid, always con-
veys 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. Wordsworth, in one of his poems", has alluded to in
the following beautiful lines : —
" Nor wanting here to entertain the thought.
Creatures that in communities e.N.ist
Less, as might .seem, for general guardianship
Or through dependence upon mutual aid,
Than by participation of delight.
And a strict love of fellowship combined.
1 See also Markwick in ^^'hite's Kut. Hist. ii. 25G. 2 fhe Excursion.
V 2
292 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
What other spirit can it be that prompts
The gilded summer flies to mix and weave
Their sports together in the solar beam,
Or in the gloom and twilight hum their joy ? "
Another association is that of males during the season of pairing. Of
this nature seems to be that of the cockchafer and fernchafer {Melolontha
vulgaris and Amphimalla solstitialis), which, at certain periods of the year
and hours of the day, hover over the summits of the trees and hedges like
swarms of bees, affording, when they alight on the ground, a grateful food
to cats, pigs, and poultry. The males of another root-devouring beetle
{Hoplia argentea ) assemble by myriads before noon in the meadows, when
in these infinite hosts you will not find even" one female. ^ After noon
the congregation is dissolved, and not a single individual is to be seen
in the air ~ : while those of M. vulgaris and A. solstitialis are on the wing
only in the evening.
At the same time of the day some of the short-lived Ephemerae assemble
in numerous troops, and keep rising and falling alternately in the air, so as
to exhibit a very amusing scene. Man}' 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 spectacle of this kind,
which afforded me a more sublime gratification than any work or exhibition
of art has power to communicate. The first was in 1811. Taking an
evening walk near my house, when the sun, declining fast towards the
horizon, shone forth without a cloud, the whole atmosphere over and near
the stream swarmed with infinite myriads of Ephemerae and little gnats of
the genus Chironomiis, which in the sunbeam appeared as numerous and
more lucid than the drops of rain, as if the heavens were showering down
brilliant gems. Afterwards, in the following year, one Sunday, a little
before sunset, I was enjoying a stroll with a friend at a greater distance
from the river, when in a field by the road side the same pleasing 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 Kphemcra, but
there were also some of Chxronomi: the former, however, being most con-
spicuous, attracted our chief attention. Alternately rising and falhng, in
the full beam they appeared so transparent and glorious, that they scarcely
resembled any thing material : they reminded us of angels and glorified
spirits drinking hfe and joy in the effiilgence 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 Lock, seems to have witnessed
the pleasing scene here described : —
" Some to the sun their insect wings unfold.
Waft on the breeze, or sink in clouds of gold ;
Transparent forms, too fine for mortal sight,
Their fluid bodies half dissolv'd in light ;
1 The females {Scarahceus argenteus Marsh.) have red legs, and the males (iSca-
rahaus pulvendentus Marsh.) black.
2 Kirby in Linn. Trans, v. 256.
3 The authors of this work were the witnesses of the magnificent scene here
described. It was on the second of September. The first was on the ninth of that
month.
IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 293
Loose to the wind their airy parinonts flew,
Tliin flittering textures of tlie filmy dew,
Dipt in the richest tincture of tlie slvies,
Wliere ii{;lit dis()orts in ever niin^dinff dyes,
While every beam new transient colours flings,
Colours that change whene'er they wave their wings."
I wish yoii may liavc the good fortune next year to be a spectator of
this all hilt celestial tiancc. In the nicantiiDc, in May and .lune, their
season of love, you may often receive nuich gratification from observing
the motions of a countless host of little black Hies of the genus llilara
(//. iiiaiira), which at this period of the year assemble to wheel in aery
circles over stagnant waters, with a rush resembling that of a iiasty shower
driven by the wind.
Here, also, must be noticed the bonibartlier beetles (Brachintis crepitans),
which, with several others of the same family, are usually found together
in considerable numbers under stones, &c., and the red field-bugs Cinie.v
(lyrr/inrorix) aptcnis, which, in like manner, have a very social propensity,
though in both instances we are ignorant of any couunon labours or other
motive than the love of society, which can lead them to associate. The
same may be also said as to the numerous assemblages of a moth (Scoto-
j)//i/a 7Wii^(>/)o<iiiiix), mentioned by M. de Villiers, which he finds in July
uniler the bark of willows, ranged side by side, generally touching each
other, and with the head always turned the same way, and which if you
disturb them do not attempt to Hy, but run upon the backs of their com-
panions, which exhibit no marks of alarm. ^
The next description of insect associations is of those that congregate
for the purpose of travelling or emigrating together. De Geer has given
an account of the larvae of certain gnats {7'iptilaria;) which assemble in con-
siderable 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 disturbed they separate without
difficulty.* Kuhn mentions another of the same tribe — from the antennae
in his figure, which is very indirterent, it should seem a species of agaric-
gnat (7l/?/fY'/o/j////«), — the larvaj of which live in society, and emigrate in
files, like the caterpillar of the procession-moth. First goes one, next
follow two, then three, &c., so as to exhibit a serpentine appearance,
probably from their simultaneous undulating motion, and the continuity of
the files, whence the common people in Germany call them (or rather the
file when on march) heerivitnn, and view them with great dread, regarding
them as ominous of war. These larva? are apodes, white, sub-transparent,
with black heads. ^ The cater|)illars of a moth Noctiia {Xijhphasia? )
Ewingii Westw., a native of Van Diemen's Land, exhibited a singular
migrating propensity as described by Thomas 1. Ewing, Esq., who has
given them the name of the " migrating caterpillars." Passing, about
December 20th, from a barley field which had been ploughed up, and
' Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, xi. bull. xii.
2 De Geer, vi. 338.
3 Naturforsch. xvii. 226.
D 3
294 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
which seemed literally in motion with them, they proceeded up the road,
entered at the gateway into the lawn, then crossed the verandah in front
of the house, and through two gardens until they reached a field laid down
with English grasses, on which they committed sad havoc. Many of them did
not stop there, as the whole road from the field to the town was black,
with them. They did not cease migrating for a fortnight, proceeding with
a quick and almost running motion over every obstacle, whether walls or
shrubs, &c., and making a sudden halt at noon wherever they chanced to
be, and reposing in that spot till four the next morning, when they were
again in motion. ^ It is probable that these cater[)illars were in search of
fresh pasture like others feeding on trees, of which mstances are on record
of a whole army having at once quitted a forest of which they had entirely
consumed the leaves in quest of another. One of these hosts (as we may
conclude) is stated by an American newspaper, the Charleston Cotuier, to
have availed themselves in May, 1842, in passing from Richland to the St.
Mathew's shore, of a new railway there running over the Cangaree Swamp,
as a convenient bridge, in such countless swarms that a solid column of
them filled the railway for upwards of a mile, and actually arrested the
course of a locomotive drawing a full train of waggons laden with iron,
though moving with a speed of ten to twelve miles an hour, and which
was only able to proceed by throwing sand on the fore wheels.
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 sunbeams, 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 occasion again to enlarge. The same tendency to shift their
quarters has been observed in our little indigenous devonrers, the Aphides.
Mr. White tells us, that about three o'clock in the afternoon of the 1st of
August, 1785, the people of the village of Selborne were surprised by a
shower of Aphides or smother flies, which fell in those parts. Those that
walked in the street at that juncture found themselves covered with these
insects, which settled also upon the hedges and in the gardens, blackening
all 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 state of emigration,
and shifting their quarters, and might have come from the great hop planta-
tions of Kent or Sussex, the wind being all that day in the east. They
were observed at the same time in great clouds about Farnham, and all
along the vale from Farnham to Alton.^ A similar emigration of these
flies I once witnessed, to my great annoyance, when 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 vicinity of Ipswich, as to be noticed with surprise by the
most incurious observers ; as they were September 26th and 27th, 1836, at
Hull, where, as the local newspapers stated, such swarms filled the air that
it was impossible to walk with comfort from their entering the eyes and
mouth at every step ; and on the same days they were equally numerous
at York and Derby.
1 Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. ii. proc. Ivi. ^ Nat. Hist, ii. 101.
IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 29J
As the locust-eating thrush (Turdiis (hi/Ilivonis) accompanies the locusts,
so the huly-bircls {Coccincllu-) seem to jxiihue the Aphiilcs; for I know no
other reason to assi^n for the va^t number that are sometiiiies, especially
in the autumn, to be met with on the sea-coast, or tlie banks of" lar"e
rivers. Many years aijo, those of the Ilumber were so tliiiklv strewed
with tlie common huly-bird (C. Srj)tc»i/)iiiicia/(i), that it was ciifficult to
avoid treading upon them. Some years afterwards I noticed a mixture of
species, collected in vast numbers, on the sand-hills on the sea shore, at
the north-west extremity of Norfolk. INly friend, the llev. l\-ter Lathbur\',
maile long since a similar observation at Orford, on the Suffolk coast ; and
about five or six years ago they covered the cliffs, as I have before remarked,
of all the watering places on the Kentish ami Sussex coasts, to the no
small alarm of the superstitious, who thought them forerunners of some
direi'ul cvil.^ These last probably emigrated with the Aphides fi-om the
hop grounds. Whether the latter and their devourers cross the sea has
not been ascertained ; that the Coccinellae attempt it, is evident from their
alighting upon ships at sea, as I have witnessed myself." This appears
clearly to have been the case with another emigrating insect, the saw-fly
{Athalia coifijo/kc) of the turnip.^ It is the general opinion in Norfolk,
Mr. Marshall informs us ', that these insects come from over sea. A farmer
declared he saw them arrive in clouds so as to darken the air; the fisher-
men 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 quantities, that they miuht have been taken up by shovels
full. Three miles inland they were described as resembling swarms of bees.
This was in August, 1782. Unentomological observers, such as fanners
and fishermen, might easily mistake one kind of insect for another; but
sup|iosing them correct, the swarms in question might perhaps have passed
from Lincolnshire to Norfolk. Meinecken tells us, that he once saw in a
village in Anhalt, on a clear day, about tour in the afternoon, such a cloud
of dragon-flies (Libcl/ulhia) as almost concealed the sun, and not a little
alarmed the villagers, under the idea that they were locusts''; several
instances are given by Rosel of similar clouds of these insects having been
seen in Silesia and other districts'^; and Mr. Woolnough of Hollesley in
Suffolk, a most attentive observer of nature, once witnessed such an army
of the smaller dragou-fiies (Agrion) flying inland from the sea as to cast "a
sligiit shadow over a field of four acres as they passed. A migration of
dragon-flies was witnessed at Weimar in Germany in 1816, and one far
more considerable, perhaps the. greatest on record. May 30th and 31st
1 Some sucli terrific idea would seem to have entered tlie sapient heads of the
authorities of one of the principal towns of Berkshire, which in October, 1835, ac-
cording to the Reading Mercury, having had " a most formidable invasion of this
beautiful insect [lady-birds] . . . the parish engines, as well as private ones, were
called into requisition, with tobacco-fumigated water, to attack and disperse
them." [! ! !]
2 Mr. Curtis informs us that the aphidivorous flies (Scmva Ribesii, Pyrastri, &c.),
like the lady-birds, sometimes appear in myriads on the sea-coast, all flying in one
directioH, and not even avoiding objects that lie in their course. (Brit. Ent
fol. 50'J.)
3 Fn. Germ. Init. xlix. 18, ■* PhUos. Trans. Ixxiii. 217.
5 Naturforsch. vi. 110. 6 ii_ 135,
U 4
296 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
1839, when cloud-like swarms of these insects (chiefly L, depressd) were
seen at Weimar, Eisenach, Leipsig, Halle, and Gottingen, and the inter-
vening country, extending over a very large district.^ Professor Walch
states, that one night about eleven o'clock, hitting in his study, his attention
was attracted by what seemed the pelting of hail against his window, which
surprising him by its long continuance, he opened the window, and found
the noise was occasioned by a flight of the froth frog-hopper {Aphrophora
spumaria), whicli entered 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 obliquely.- He afterwards witnessed,
in August, a similar emigration of myriads of a kind of ground beetle
{^Amara vulgaris).^ But the most remarkable migrations of beetles are
those recorded by M. Lacordaire, who informs us that for two successive
years, when he was at Buenos Ayres, that city was for about eight days in
the spring of each year inundated by such millions of Harpalus cupripennis,
which arrived daily towards nightfall, that it was necessary every morning
to sweep them from the exterior of the houses to a height of several feet
above the ground.^ Another writer in the Katurforscher, H. Kapp, ob-
served on a calm sunny day a prodigious flight of the noxious cabbage
butterfly {Pontia Brassicce), which passed from north-east to south-west,
and lasted two hours.^ Kalm saw these last insects midway in the British
Channel.® A similar migratory column of the universally spread Vanessa
Cardui, of from ten to fifteen feet in breadth, and the passage of which
occupied two hours, was observed in 183G in the canton of Vaud, Switzer-
land.'' Lindley, a writer in the Royal Military Chronicle, tells us, that in
Brazil, 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 settle, but
proceeded in a direction from north-west to south-east. No buildings
seemed to stop them from steadily pursuing their course, which being to
the 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.* In the instance of the
butterflies mostly of a species similar to, if not identical with, the common
English Colias Edusa, seen by Mr. Darwin and Captain Fitzroy when at
sea, about ten miles from the bay of St. Bias, on the coast of South
America, and wiiich were in such countless myriads (occupying, according
to Captain Fitzroy 's calculation, a space of not less than a mile in width,
several miles in length, and two hundred yards in height) that the sailors
exclaimed, " it is snowing butterflies : " their object in fl3ing out so far to
sea would seem to have been a voluntary migration, as Mr. Darwin states
that the day had been fine and calm. ^ Major Moor, while stationed at
1 Weissenborn in Mag. Nat. Hist. N. S. iii. 516.
2 Naturforsch. vi. 111. 3 Ibid. xi. 95.
^ Laconlaire, Jntrod. a VEntom. ii. 494.
5 Naturforsch. 94. ^ Travels, i. 13.
7 Silbermann, Revue Entom. ii. 142.
8 R. Milit. Cliron. for Marcli 1815, p. 452.
" Narrative of the surveying Voyages of his 3Iajesty^s Ships Adventure and
Beagle, iii. 185.
IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 297
Bombay, as lie was playing at chess one evening with a friend in Old
Woman's Islanii, near that place, witnessed an immense flight of bngs
(GcocorUa) whicli were going westward. Tliey were so numerous as to
cover every tiling in tiie apartment in wiiich lie was sitting. Wiien staying
at Aldeburgh, on the eastern coast, 1 iiave, at certain times, seen innume-
rable insects upon the beach dose to the waves, and ajiparently washed up
by them. Though wetted, they were (|uite alive. It is remarkable, that
of the emigrating insects here enumerated, the majority — for instance, the
lady-birds, saw-flies, dragon-flies, ground-beetles, frog-hoppers, &c. — are
not usually social insects, but seem to congregate, like swallows, merely
for tlie purpose of emigration. What incites them to this is one of tliose
masteries of nature, whicli at present we cannot penetrate. A scarcity of
food urges the locusts to shift their (piarters, and too confined a space to
accommodate their numbers occasions the bees to swanii ; but neither of
these motives can operate in causing unsocial insects to congregate. It is
still more difficult to account for the imjiulse that urges these creatures,
with their filmy wings and iragile form, to attemjit to cross the ocean, and
expose themselves, one would think, to inevitable destruction. Yet,
though we are unable to assign the cause of this singular instinct, some of
the reasons which induced tiie Creator to endow them with it may be con-
jectured. This is clearly one of the modes by which their numbers are
kept within due limits, as, doubtless, the great majority of these adventurers
jierish in the waters. Thus, also, a great supply of food is furnished to
those fish in the sea itself, which at other seasons ascend the rivers in
search of them : and this jirobably is one of the means, if not the only one,
to which the numerous islands of this globe are intlebted for their insect
population. M'hether 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 flying as far as they could, and then
falling had been brought by the waves, cannot certainly be ascertained ;
but Kalnvs observation inclines me to the latter opinion.
The next order of imperfect associations is that of those insects which
feed together : these are of two descriptions ; those that associate in their
Jirst or l//st state only, and those that associate in all their states. The
first o{ these associations is often very short-lived: a patch of eggs is glued
to a leaf; when hatched, the little larvte feed side by side very amicably,
and a pleasant sight it is to see the regularity with which this work is often
done, as if by word of command ; but when the leaf that served for their
cradle is consumed, their society is dissolved, and each goes where he can
to seek his own fortune, regardless of the fate or lot of his brethren. Of
this kind are the larvae of the saw-fly of the gooseberry, whose ravages I
have recorded before, and that of the cabbage butterfly ; the latter, how-
ever, keep longer together, and seldom wholly separate. In their final
state, I have noticed that the individuals of Tlirips Pliijsajnts, 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 though a wheat-field, I observed that all the blossoms oi Convol-
vulus arvcmky 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
298 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
in all their states. Two populous tribes, the great devastators of the vege-
table world, the one in warm and the other in cold climates, to which I have
already alluded under the head of emigration — you perceive I am speak-
ing 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 suffered from these animals, 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 Profes-
sor Pallas, in his Travels into the Southern Provinces of the Russian Empire.
The species to which his principal attention was paid appears to have been
the Locusta Italica, in its larva and pupa state. " In serene warm wea-
ther," says he, " the locusts are 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 are lying partly
compressed upon the ground, at the side of small eminences, and partly
attached to tall plants and shrubs. Shortly after, the whole body begins to
move forward in one direction and with little deviation. They resemble a
swarm of ants, all taking the same course, at sn)all 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, in-
deed, they disperse, but soon collect again and follow their former route.
In this mvmner they advance from morning to evening without halting,
frequently at the rate of a hundred fathoms and upwards 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 moisture. Often, however, they endeavour to gain the opposite
bank with the aid of overhanging boughs ; and if the stalks of plants or
shrubs be laid across the water, they pass in close columns over these tem-
porary bridges, on which they even seem to rest and enjoy the refreshing
coolness. Towards sunset the whole swarm gradually collect in parties,
and creep up the plants, or encamp on slight eminences. On cold, cloud}', or
rainy days they do not travel. As soon as they acquire wings they pro-
gressively disperse, but still fly about in large swarms." ^
" In the month of May, when the ovaries of these insects were ripe and
turgid," says Dr. Shaw ^, " each of these swarms began gradually to dis-
appear, and retired 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 itself into a compact body, of a furlong or more in
square, and marching afterwards directly forwards toward the sea, tliey let
nothing escape them — they kept their ranks like menof 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 so many thieves. A day
or two after one of these hordes was in motion, others were already
1 Pallas, ii. 422-426. 2 Travels, 187.
IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 299
hatclied to march ami j^Ican after them. Having lived near a month in
this manner, they arriveil at their full growth, and threw off their vi/mpha-
stntc by casting their oiitwanl skin. To prepare tiieinselves lor this change,
they cinng by tlieir hinder feet to sosne bush, twig, or corner of a stone;
and immediately, by using an undulating motion, tiieir heads would first
break out, and then the rest of their bodies. The whole transformation
was performed in seven or eight minutes, after whicli they lay for a small
time in a torpid anil seemingly in a languishing condition ; but as soon as
the siui and the air had hardened their wings, by drying up the moisture
that remaineil upon them after casting their sloughs, they reassnmed their
former voracity, with an addition of strength and agility. Yet they con-
tinued not long in this state before they were entirely (lis|)ersed." The
species Dr, Shaw here speaks of is probably not the Locusla ))iigrnforia.
The old Arabian fable, that thoy are directed in their Higlits by a leader
or king', has been adopted, but I think without sufficient reason, by several
travellers. Thus Benjamin Bullivant, in his " Observations on the
Natural History of New Englantl"," says that "the locusts have a kind of
regimental discipline, and as it were some commanciers, which show greater
anil more splcniliil wings than the common ones, anil arise first when |)ur-
sued by the fowls or the feet of the traveller, as I have often seriously re-
niarkeil." And in like terms .Jackson observes, that " they have a govern-
ment amongst themselves similar to that of tiie bees and ants ; and when
the (Sit/laii JerranJ) king of the locusts rises, the whole body follow him,
not one solitary 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
sati^factory eviilence ; 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 derived 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 families, all derived from
ditt'erent mothers, who have laid their eggs in separate cells or houses in
the earth ; so that there is little or no analogy between the societies of
locusts and those of bees and ants; and this jiretended sultan is something
quite different from the queen bee or the female ants. It follows, there-
fore, that as the locusts have no common mother, like the bees, to lead
their swarms, there is no one that nature, by a difierent organisation 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 o|)inion, ami seems much the most reasonable.'^ The
absurdity of the other supposition, that an election is made, will appear
from such queries as these, at which you ma^' smile. Who are the elec-
tors ? Are the myriads of millions all consulted, or is the elective fran-
chise 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.
' Bochart, Hierozoic. ii. 1. 4. c. 2. 460, 2 Jn Philos. Trans, for 1698.
3 Jackson's Marocco, 51. * Bochart Hierozoic, ubi supra.
300 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
Is the monarch then chosen by his peers when they first leave the egg and
emerge from their subterranean caverns y or have larva, pupa, and imago
each their separate king? The account given us in Scripture is certainly
much the most probable, that the locusts have no king, though they ob-
serve 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 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 changing; 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 columns 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 iu the van. Whether anything like this takes place for
the reirulation of their motions in the innumerable locust-armies, which are
sometimes co-extensive with vast kingdoms ; or whether their instinct
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 fu-
ture 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 common work for the benefit of the community.
Amongst the Coleoptera, Afeuchits pihdarius, a beetle before mentioned,
acts under the influence of this principle. " I have attentively admired
their industry and mutual assisting of each other," says Catesby, " in
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
sonietunes engaged in trundling one ball, which, from meeting with im-
pediments 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, where they are constrained to leave
t; but they continue 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 larvae also of Lejiidoptera associate with this view, some of
which are social ^only during part of their existence, and others during
the whole of it. The first of these continue together, while their united
labours are beneficial to them ; but when they reach a certain period of
their life, they disperse and become solitary. Of this kind are the cater-
pillars of a little butterfly {Melittsa Cinxia) which devour the narrow-
leaved plantain. The families of these, usually amounting to about a
hundred, unite to form a pyramidal silken tent, containing several apart-
• Proverbs, xxx. 27. 3 Jogl, ii, 8.
3 Catesby 's Carolina, ii. 111.
IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 301
merits, wliich is pitched over some of tiie phints that constitute their
food, and sIrUcis tiu-m both from the sun and the rain. When they have
consumed tlie provision which it covers, they construct a new one over
other roots of tiiis phuit ; and sometimes tour or five of these encamp-
ments may be seen within a fo4i| or two of eacli other. Against winter
tiiey weave and erect a stronger habitation of a rounder form, not divided
by any partitions, in which they He heajjcd one upon another, each being
rolled u|). About April they separate, and continue solitary till they
assume the pupa.
Keaunuir, to whom I am indebted for this account, has also given us
an interesting history of another insect, the gold-tail moth {Porthcsia
chri/xorr/iu-n) before mentioned, whose cater|)iilars are of this description.
They belong to that family of Boiii/n/rida; which envelop their eggs ia
hair plucked from their own body. As soon as one of these young cater-
pillars is ilisclosed from the egg it begins to feed ; another quickly joins it,
placing itself by its side ; thus they proceed in succession till a fde is
formed across the leaf: — a second is then begim ; and after this is com-
|)Ieted a third, — and so they proceed till the whole upper surface of the
leaf is covered: — but as a single leaf will not contain the whole family,
the remainder take their station upon the adjoining ones. No sooner
have they satisfied the cravings of hunger, tiian 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 as 1 have de-
scribed in a former letter in due time grows into a magnificent tent of silk,
containing various apartments sufficient to defend and shelter them all
from the attacks of enemies and the inclemency of the seasons. As our
caterpillars, like eastern monarchs, are too delicate to adventure their feet
upon the rough bark of the tree upon which they feed, they lay a silken
carpet over every roatl and pathway leading to their palace, which ex-
tends as far as they have occasion to go for food. To the habitation just
described, they retreat during heavy rains, and when the sun is too hot :
— they likewise 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 pupas, which takes place in
about a month. When they desert 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 saw-flies (Serrifera) 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 Lt/da.
A small East Indian hair-streak butterfly (T/iec/a Isocrates), of whose
economy Mr. WY-stwood has given an interesting account, resides in the
larva state in small societies of at least seven or eight individuals in the
1 Reaumur, ii. 125. * De Geer, ii. 1029.
302 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
inside of the pomegranate, on the seeds and pulp of which it feeds. The
fruit being thus rendered weak and unable to support its own weight would
be liable to have its stalk broken and to fall to the ground witii the first
wind and there rot, in which state it would most probably be destructive
to the inclosed larvae. To obviate this avil, the caterpillars when full fed
have the remarkable instinct to gnaw a hole about a quarter of an inch in
diameter through the hard shell of the fruit while it still remains on the
tree, and issuing through this hole to spin in common (as it would seem)
a silken web attached both to the stalk and the base of the fruit, and suf-
ficiently strong to support the pomegranate from falling in the event of the
stalk being broken by the wind ; and having thus secured the stability of
their chamber, they retire again into it, and there undergo their metamor-
phosis, the butterflies while their wings are still unexpanded creeping out
of the hole above mentioned, which thus serves a second important pur-
pose in their economy, of allowing them a free passage in their perfect
state through the hard shell of the pomegranate, which if this door in it
had not previously been provided by the caterpillar with its jaws, would
have jM'oved a fatal prison to the butterfly which has no such instru-
ments.i
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 agreeable sight, says one of
Nature's most favoured admirers. Bonnet, to see several hundreds of the
larvae of Ctisiocam'pa jieustria marching after each othei", some in straight
lines, others in curves of various inflection, resembHng, from their fiery
colour, a moving cord of gold stretched upon a silken riband of the purest
white ; this riband is the carpeted causeway that leads to their leafy pasture
from their nest. Equally amusing is the progress of another moth, the
Piii/ocamj)a, before noticed ; they march together from their conuuon
citadel, consisting of pine leaves united and inwoven with the silk which
they spin, in a single line ; in following each other they describe a nud-
titude of graceful curves of varying figure, thus forming a series of living
wreaths, which change their shape every moment : — all move with a
uniform pace, no one pressing too forward or loitering behind ; when the
first stops, all stop, each defihng in exact military order.^
A still more singular and pleasing spectacle, when their regiments march
out to forage, is exhibited by the caterpillars of the Processionary moth
{Cnethocampa processioned^. 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 habita-
tion, 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, before described.
About sunset the regiment leaves its quarters ; or, to make the metaphor
harmonise with the trivial name of the anunal, the monks their coenobium.
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
1 Westwood in Trans. Eiit. Soc. Lond. ii. 1. tab. 1. The Mexican butterfly
{Eucheira soctalis Westw.), previously noticed, is also (as its name implies) social in
its larva state.
2 Bonnet, ii. 57.
IMrERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 303
his immediate followers succeed in the same line, the head of the second
toiichin!: the tail of the first : then comes an equal series of pairs, next of
threes, and so on as far as fifteen or twenty. The wliole procession moves
regnlarly on with an even pace, each file treadini; nfion the steps of those
that precede it. If the leader, arriving at a particniar point, pursues a
ditfcrcnt direction, all march to that point before they turn. Probahiy in
this they are guided by some scent imparted to the tracks by those that
pass over them. Sometimes the order of procession is diHerent ; 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
iliHers from the rest, and is [)robab!y the caterpiHar nearest the entrance to
the nest, followed, 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
marcii is resumed, and all follow as regnlarly n., if they kept time to music.
These larv;e may be occasionally found at mid-day out of their nests,
jiackeil close one to another without making any movement ; so that,
although they occupy a space sufficiently ample, it is not easy to discover
them. At other times, instead of being simply laid side by side, they are
formed into singular masses, in which they are heaped one upon another,
anil, as it were, interwoven together. Thus, also, they are disposed in
their nests. Sometimes their families divide into two bands, which never
afterwards unite.'
Tiie processionary caterpillars of the fir (those of Cncthocampa 'p'ltyo-.
campa), like the preceding, live in a common silken net placed at the extre-
mities of Its branches, on which they feed ; and when they leave one tree
to proceed to another they also move in procession, but with tliis striking
difference, that they all range themselves in a .siiiiilc file, the head of each
so exactly touching the tail of that before it as to form apparently one vast
caterpillar of from fifteen to twenty feet long, and thus traversing by a
continuous and occasionally slightly jerking motion, without ever breaking
their line, the path they have chosen. What is singular is, that if the first
caterpillar of the file be touched with the hand or a stick, it shrinks and is
visibly agitated, as if it feared to be stung by an IchnciDnon, and the last of
the file, even if composed of six hundred, makes at the same instant, as
well as every intermetliate individual, the same movements, as if struck by
an electric shock." — The individuals of another processionary cater|)illar,
the perfect insect of which Mr. Ewing had not been able to rear, he informs
lis inarch in circles, or rather ovals, and, when young, follow one another
round and round for hours together!^
I have nothing further of importance to communicate to you on imper-
fect societies : in my next I shall begin the most interesting subject that
Entomology offc'rs ; a subject, to say the least, including as great a portion
both of instruction and amusement as any branch of Natural History
affords; — I mean X.ho?,G perfect associations. which iiave 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 fertile a theme to be
confined to a single letter, but must occupy several.
I am, Sec.
^ Reaumur, ii. 180.
~ I)e Viiliors, Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, i. 201.
' Westwood in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. ii. proc. Iv.
304
LETTER XVII.
SOCIETIES OF INSECTS — continued.
PERFECT SOCIETIES. (wHITE ANTS AND ANTS.)
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 residts, to the societies of man
himself. There are two kindred sentiments that in these last act with
most powerful energy — desire and affection. From the first proceed many
wants that cannot be satisfied without the intercourse, aid, and co-opera-
tion 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 combines with
philanthropy to produce the social principle, both desire and love alter-
nately urging us to an intercourse with each other ; and from these in
union originate the multiplication and preservation of the species. These
two passions are the master-movers in this business ; but there is a third
subsidiary to them, which, though it trenches upon the sociid principle,
considered abstractedlj', 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 common enemy, and to raise
works of munition that may resist his attack.
The main instrument of association is language, and no association can
be perfect where there is not a common tongue. The origin of nationality
was difference of speech : at Babel, when tongues were divided, nations
separated. Language may be understood in a larger sense than to signify
inflections of the voice, — it may well include all the means of making
yourself understood by another, whether by gestures, sounds, signs, or
words : the first two of these kinds may be called natural language, and the
last two arbitrary or artificial.
I have said that perfect societies of insects exhibit the semblance of a
nearer approach, both in their principle and its results to the societies of
man himself, because, unless we could perfectly understand what instinct
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 multipHcation of the species, and the means by which that object is
attained, the united labours and co-operation of perhaps millions of indi-
viduals, it seems as if they were impelled by passions very similar to those
main-springs of human associations 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
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF IXSECTS. 305
not this look as if desire were the operatini; cause, which induces them to
unite tlieir hibours to construct the one and provide the other y Their
nests contain a numerous f'aniiiy of lieipless brood. Does not h>ve here
seem to urue tiiem to tliat exen)j)hiry and fond attention, and those un-
remitted and indefatigable exertions manifested by the whole connnunity
for tile benefit of these dear objects ? Is it not also evidencetl bv their
general and singuUir attachment to tiieir females, by their mutual caresses,
by their feeding each other, by their a|)parent sympathy with suffering
individuals and endeavours to relieve them, by their readiness to help
those that are in difficulty, and fmally by their bports and assemblies for
relaxation? Tiiat tear proiluces its iuHuence upon them seems no less
evident, when we see them, agitated by theapproaci) of enemies, endeavour
to remove what is most dear t>) them beyond their reach, unite their efforts
to lepel their attacks, ami to construct works of defence. They ap()ear to
have besides a common language; for they possess the faculty, by significa-
tive gestures and sounds, of con)municating 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 attach-
ment, 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
instinctive patriotism that is extemled to the whole communitv, never
distinguishing individuals, unless, as in the instance of the female bee, con-
nected with that great object.
Man also, endowed with reason, forms a judgment from circumstances,
and by a variety of means can attain the same end. Besides the language
of nature, gestures, and exclamations, which the passions produce, he is
gifted with the divine faculty of speech, and can express his thoughts by
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 impe-
rious circumstances ; for in particular instances, as you will see when I
come to treat of their instincts, they know how to vary, though not very
materially, from the usual mode." 13ut they never 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 wonderful proceedings they give
man an occasion of glorifying his great Creator ; but in their instincts, ex-
traordinary 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
1 It is not here meant to be asserted that insects are actuated l)y these passions
in the same way that man is, but only tliat in their various instincts they exhibit
the semblance of them, and, as it were, symbolize them.
^ Plusieurs d'entre eux {Insectes) savent user de ressources ing^nieuses dans les
circonstances difficiles : ils sortent alors de leur routine accoutume'e, et semblent
agir d'aprfes la position dans laquelle ils se trouvent; c'est lu sans doute I'un des
pha'nonienes les plus curieux de I'histoire naturelle. Huber, jVouveiles Observations
sur les Abeilles, ii. 198. — Compare also ibid. 250. note N. B.
X
306 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
scene to which I am eager to introduce you ; but the following observations
of M- P. Huber on this subject are so just and striking, that I cannot re-
frain from copying them.
"The history of insects that live in solitude consists 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 form numerous societies is not confined to some remark-
able 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 these relations
suppose a connection between the different individuals of which it con-
sists that can scarcely exist but by the intervention of language : for such
may be called every mode of expressing their wishes, their wants, and
even 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 individuals in
each society, which, freed from sexual pursuits, 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 working for the society, as these insects belong to
an order whose metamorphosis is semi-cowplete, devolves upon 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 divided 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 Hymenoptei-a to the latter.
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 essential to the full development of the instinct of social
animals. This has been observed by Bonnet with respect to the beaver-;
by Reaumur of the hive-bee ; and by M. P. Huber of the humble-bee.*
Amongst hymenopterous 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
foundation 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 Termites, the species of which constitute
1 I employ occasionally the term neuters, though it is not perfectly proper, for
the sake of convenience; — strictly speaking, they may rather be regarded as im-
perfect or sterile females. Yet certainly, as the imperfection of their organisatioa
unfits them for sexual purposes, the term neuter is not absolutely improper.
« (Euv. ix. 163.
5 M. P. Huber in Linn. Trans, vi. 256. Reaum. v.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF I:N' SECTS. 307
the first class of perfect societies; I shall now relate to you some furlher
particulars of their history, which will, I hope, give you a better opinion
of them.
The majority of these animals are natives of tropical countries, thou<;h
two species are iuciigenous to Europe ; one of which, thouuht to have
been imported, is come so near to us as Bourdcaux. The fullest account
hitherto given of their iiistory is that of Mr. Smeuthnian, in the I'hiloso-
pfiical T'rnu.saclioiis for 1781, which, since it has in many [jarticulars been
confirmeil bv the observations of succeetling naturalists, though in some
things he was eviilently mistaken, I shall abridge for you, correcting him
where he appears to be in error, and adding from Latreiile, and the MN.
of a French naturalist resident on the spot, kindly furnished by Professor
Hooker, what they have observed with respect to those of Bourdcaux and
Ceylon. The white ants, though they belong to the Xcur()]>tcra order,
borrow their instinct from the hymenopterous social tribes, and in con-
junction svith the ants (Formica) connect the two orders. Their societies
consist of five descri|)tions of individuals — workers or larvae — nymphs or
pupa; — neuters or soldiers — males and females.
1. The worluTS or larva*, answering to the hymenopterous neuters, are
the most numerous and at the same time the most active part of the com-
munity, upon whom devolves the office of erecting and repairing the
buildings, collecting provisions, attending upon the female, conveying the
eggs when laid to what Smeathman calls the nurseries, and feeding the
young larvae till they are olil enough to take care of themselves. They are
distinguished from the soldiers by their diminutive size, by their round
heads and shorter mandibles.
2. The nymphs or pu|)ae. 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 foKied up in cases {pterot/teca;). They were first ob-
.served by Latreiile; nor did they esca[)e the author of the MS. above al-
luded to, who mistook them for a different kind of larvae.
3. The ju'ulers, erroneously called by Smeathman pupae. These are
much less numerous than the workers, bearing the proportion of one to
one hundred, and exceeding them greatly in bulk. They are also distin-
guishable 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 couunitted the task of defending it. These neuters are quite
unlike those in tiie Ili/menoptera perfect societies, which seem to be a kind
of abortive females, and there is nothing analogous to them in any other
department of Entomology.
4. and 5. Males and Jhnnles, or the insects arrived at their state of
perfection, and capable of continuing the species. There is only one of
each in every separate society ; they are exempted from all participation
in the labours and employments occupying the rest of the comnmuity,
that they may be wholly devoted to the furnishing of constant accessions
to the population of the colony. Though at their first disclosure from the
pupa they have four wings, like the iemale ants they soon cast them ;
but they may then be distinguished from the blind larvae, pupa;, and
neuters, by their large and prominent eyes.^
1 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 larvae, perhaps of the
X 2
308 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
The first establishment of a colony of Terwites takes place in the follow-
ing manner. In the evening, soon after the first tornado, which at the
latter end of the dry season proclaims the approach of the ensning 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 myriads 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 disco-
vered covering the surface of the earth and waters ; deprived of the wings
which before enabled them to avoid their numerous enemies, and which
are only calculated to carry 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
resistance. Insects, especially ants, which are always on the hunt for
them, leaving no place unexplored ; birds, reptiles, beasts, and even man
himself, look upon this event as their harvest, and, as you iiave been told
before, make them their food ; so that scarcely a single pair in many
millions get into a place of safety, fulfil the first law of nature, and lay the
foundation of a new 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 described, suited to their size, the entrances
to whicli are only large enough to admit themselves and the neuters, but
much 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 existence. 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 care of feeding her and her male com-
panion devolves upon the industrious larvae, who supply them both with
every thing that they want. As she increases in dimensions, they keep en-
larging 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
males. Huber seems to doubt their being neuters. Nouv. Obs. ii. 444. rote *.
Great differences of opinion continue to exist amongst entomologists as to the real
nature of the individuals above described of this verj"- anomalous tribe, for the
details of which, and of the arguments employed, see Westwood, Mod. Classif. of
Ins. ii. 1.5.
1 In this these animals vary from the usual instinct of the social Hymenoptera,
the ants, the wasps, and the bumblebees — 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.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 309
mirseries. Her abdomen now bei^ins gradually to extend, till in process
of time it is cnlariied to loOO or '2000 times the size of the rest of her
body, and her balk equals that of 20,000 or ^0,000 workers. This |)art,
often more than three inches in length, is now a vast matrix of eggs,
which make lon^ circumvolutions through numberless slender serpentine
vessels: it is also remarkable for its peristaltic motion (in this resembling
the female ant'), which, like the undulations of water, produces a per-
petual and successive rise and fall over the whole surface of the abdomen,
and occasions a constant extrusion of the eggs, amounting sometimes 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
astonishing must be the number [)roduced in that time !
This incessant extrusion of eggs nmst call for the attention of a large
number of the workers in the royal chamber (and indeed it is always full
of them), to take them as they come forth and carry them to the nurseries;
in which, when hatched, they are provided with food, and receive every
necessary attention till they are able to shift for themselves. — One remark-
able circumstance attends these nurseries — they are always covered with
a kind of moulil, amongst which arise numerous globules about the size of
a small pin's head. This is probably a species of Alucor, and by Mr.
Konig, who found them also in nests of an East India species of Termes,
is conjectured to be the food of the larvae.
The royal cell has, besides some soldiers in it, a kind of body-guard to
the royal pair that inhabit it : and the surrounding a[)artments contain
always many, both labourers 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 their 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 creatur?s exhibit 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 wouUl be millions going and returning bv a thousand different ways.
Unless I possessed the power of Asmodeus in Le Diahle Boitcux, 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 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 [)erpendicularj 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
1 Gould's Account of English Ants, 22.
2 John Hunter dissected two young queens. In the abdomen he found two
ovaries, consisting of manv hundred oviducts, each containing innumerable eggs.
X 3
310 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
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, observes,
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 apart-
ments : — 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 cavities of the nest or cone, that it does not com-
municate with any other, nor with the exterior of the cone, — a very curious
circumstance, which I will not undertake to explain. Other cavities com-
municate by a very narrow tunnel." By not looking for subterranean
communications, 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.
Getting out of sight as soon as possible — and they run as fast or faster
than any insect of their size — in a single 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 apart-
ments, 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 amd its approaches. The
royal presence-chamber, as the female increases in size, must be gradually
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 increasing 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 tfie colony is another em-
ployment, which necessarily calls for incessant attention : these to the
naked eye appear like raspings of wood ; — and they are, as you have seen,
great destroyers of timber, whether wrought or unwrought : — but when
examined by the microscope, they are found to consist chiefly of gun)s
and the inspissated juices of plants, which, formed into little masses, are
stored up in magazines of clay.
When any one is bold enough to attack their nest and make a breach
in its walls, the labourers, who are 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 alter the other ; — to these succeed a large body, who rush forth
with as much speed as the breach will permit, their numbers continually
increasing during the attack. It is not easy to describe the rage and fury
by which these dinnnutivc heroes seem actuated. In their haste they
frequently miss their hold, and tumble down the sides of their bill : they
soon, however, recover themselves, and, being blind, bite every thing they
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 311
run against. If the attack proceeds, the hustle and agitation increase to
a tenfold degree, and thiir fury is raised to its highest pitch. Woe to hun
whose iiaiuis or le^s they can come at! for they will make their fanged
jaws meet at the very first stroke, drawing as n)uch hlood as will counter-
poise their vvholo body, and never quitting their holil, even though they
are |iullc(l limh from limb. The naked legs of the Negroes expose them
frequently to this injury ; and the stockings of the European are not suf-
ficient 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 directions towards the breach,
evtry one carrying in his month a mass of mortar half as big as his Ixidy',
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 pro|)tr consistence, hardens to the solid
substance resembling stone, of which their nests are constructed. As fast
as they come up, each sticks its burden upon the breach; and tiiis is done
with so much reuularity and despatch, that althoiigli thousands, nay,
millions, are employed, they never appear to embarrass or interrupt 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 them, but never assists in the work. One, in particular, places
himself close to the wall which 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 tlie nest, he makes a particular noise, which is answered by a
loud hiss from all the labourers, and appears to be a signal for despatch ;
for, every time it is heard, they may be seen to redouble their pace, and
apply to their work with increased diligence. Renew the attack, and
this amusing scene will be repeated : — in rush the labourers, all disappear-
ing in a few seconds, and out march the military as numerous and vind-
liictive as before. When all is once more quiet, the busy labourers re-
appear, and resume their work, 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
attempts to fight, or the other to work.
You have seen how solicitous the Termites are to move and work
under cover and concealed from observation ; this, however, is not always
the case: — there is a species larger than T. bellicosus, whose proceedings
I have been principally describing, which Mr. Smeathman calls the march-
ing Termes (Tcnncs viorum). 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 repetition of the sound, which he then re-
1 The anon3'raous author hefore alluded to, who observed the Ceylon white ants,
says, that such was the size of the masses, which were tempered with a strong
gluten, that they adhered though laid on the upper part of the breach.
X 4
312 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
cognised to be that of white ants ; yet he was surprised at seeing none
of their hills or covered ways. Following the noise, to his great astonish-
ment 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
utmost 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 Hke an ox in a flock of sheep, who marched on in the same
manner. At the 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 suddenly surprise their unwarlike comrades;
— other soldiers, which was the most extraordinary and amusing part of
the scene, having mounted some plants and placed themselves on the
points of their leaves, elevated from ten to fifteen inches from the ground,
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 returned a hiss, and obeyed it by increasing their pace.
The soldiers at these signal stations sat quite still during the intervals of
silence, except now and then making a slight turn of the head, and seemed
as solicitous to keep their posts as regular sentinels. The two columns of
this army united after continuing separate for twelve or fifteen paces,
having in no part been above three yards asunder, and then descended
i nto the earth by two or three holes. Mr. Smeathman continued watch-
ing them for above an hour, during which time their numbers appeared
neither to increase nor diminish : — the soldiers, however, who quitted the
line of march and acted as sentinels, became much more numerous before
he quitted the spot. The larvae and neuters of this species are furnished
with eyes.
The societies of Tennes liicifugus, discovered by Latreille at Bourdeaux,
are very numerous ; but instead of erecting artificial nests, they make their
lodgment 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, with-
out attacking the interior, 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 observations on the Termites of Ceylon seems to have discovered a
sentry-box in his nests. " 1 found," says he, " in a very small cell in the
middle of the solid mass (a cell about half an inch in height, and very nar-
row), a larva with an enormous head. Two of these individuals 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 degree to the destruc-
1 Latr. Hist. Nat. xiii. 64. 2 N. Diet. D'Hist. Nat. xxii. 57, 58.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 813
tive Termites : — I shall next introduce you to social insects, concerning
most of which you have probably conceived a more favourable opinion —
I mean those which constitute the second class of perfect societies, whose
workers are not larva\ but neuters. Tliese all beloni; to tiie Ihimciwjdern
order of Linne : — there are four kinds of insects in this order (which
you will find as fertile in the instructors of mankiiul, as you have seen it
to be in our benefactors), that, varying considerably from each other in
their proceedings as social animals, separately merit your attention ;
namely, ants, wasps and hornets, humble-bees, and the hive-bee. 1 begin
with tlie first.
Full of interesting traits as are the history and economy of the white
ants, and however earnestly they may induce you to wish you could be a
spectator of them, yet they scarcely exceed those of an industrious tribe
of insects, which are constantly passing untlcr our eye. 'i'he anl has
attracted universal notice, and been celebrated from the earliest ages, both
by sacred ami profane writers, as a |)attern of prudence, foresight, wisdom
and diligence. I |)on Solomon's testimony in their favour I have en-
larged before; and for those of other ancient writers, I must refer you to
the learned Bochart, who has collected them in his Iliaozoicon.
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 sha|)c, the lion in its feet,
and the leo|)ard 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 when we find the writers of all nations and
ages unite in affirming, that, having deprived it of the power of vegetating,
ants store u[) grain in their nests, we 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 attribute more sagacity and foresight to these insects than in
other instances they are found to possess. Writers in general, therefore,
who have consitlered this subject, ami 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 hordes 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,
observing them carry about their jyiqya, 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 enclosed insect, mistook the one for the other,
and this action for depriving the grain of the corculum. Mr. Gould, our
countryman, was one of the first historians 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 magazines 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
tlie rainy seasons, when they are probably confined to their nests, a store
1 Bochart, Ilierozoic. ii. 1. iv. c. 22.
314 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
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 insects, and many other such things into their
nests ? Solomon's lesson to the sluggard has been generally adduced as a
strong confirmation of the ancient o])inion : it can, however, only relate to
the species of a warm climate, the habits of which, as I have just observed,
are probably different from those of a cold one ; — so that iiis words, as
commonly interpreted, may be perfectly 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 properly considered, it will be found
that this interpretation 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, nor ruler, prepares her bread in the
summer, and gathers her food in the harvest." These words may very
well be interpreted simply to mean, that the ant, with commen(lai)le 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 im-
plying 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 violence, will
apply to our European species as well as to those that are not indi-
genous.
I shall now bid farewell to the ancients, and proceed to lay before you
what the observations of modern authors have enabled me to add to the
history of ants : — the principal of these are Leeuwenhoek, Swammerdam
(who was the first that had recourse to artificial means for observing
their proceedings), Linne, Bonnet, and especially the illustrious Swedish
entomologist, De Geer. Gould, also, who, though no systematical natu-
ralist, was a man of sense and observation, has thrown great light upon
the history of ants, and anticipated several of what are accounted the dis-
coveries of more modern writers on this subject.* Latreille's Natural
1 This supposition has been verified by Col. Sykes's discover}' at Poona in India
of a species of ants ( 4tta providens Sykes), which store up the seeds of a kind of
grass {Panicum) at the period of their being ripe in Januarj' and February, and
■which he saw them in June and October bringing up and exposing on tlie outside
of their nests to the sun in heaps as big as a handful, apparently for the purpose of
drying them after being wetted b_v the rains of the monsoon. (TVaws. Ent. Soc.
Land. i. 103.) It does not seem easy to assign any plausible reason for the original
collecting and storing, and subsequent drying and airing of these seeds, except on
the supposition of their being intended in some way for food ; and though we have
no previously recorded instance of ants feeding on any other vegetable substance
than such as are saccharine, yet, as all our experience proves how constantly in
entomology exceptions are occurring to supposed general laws, there seems good
reason to believe that this is one of them. (See the Kev, F. VV. Hope's remarks on
this subject in Trails. Ent. Soc. Land. ii. 211.)
2 M. P. Huber, in the account which, in imitation of De Geer, he has given of
the discoveries made by his predecessors in the history of ants, having passed with-
out notice, probably ignorant of the existence of such a writer, those of our intel-
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 315
Historic of Ants is likewise extremely valuable, not only as giving a sys-
tematic arrangement ami descriptions of the species, but as concentrating
the accounts of preceding authors, and adding several interesting facts
ex propria prnn. Tlie great historiographer of ants, however, is M. P.
Huber, who has lately published a most admirable anil interesting work
upon them, in which he has far outstripped all his predecessors. Such
are the sources from which the follownig account of ants is principally
drawn, intermixed with which you will find some occasional observations
ligent countrj'man Gould, I shall here give a short analysis of them ; from which it
will appear tliat he was one of tlieir best, or rather their very best, historian, till
31. Uuber's work I'anie out. His Account of English Ants was publisheil in 1747,
long before eillier Linne or De Geer iiad written upon the subject.
I. Species. He describes five species of English ants; viz. 1. The hill ant (For-
mica rufu L.). 2. The jet ant (/■'. futiyinosa Latr.). 3. The red ant {Mynnica
rxdira Latr., Formica Lin.). He observes, that this species alone is armed with a
sting; whereas the otliers make a wound with tlieir mandibles, and inject the
formic acid into it. 4. The common yellow ant (F. _/fai;a Latr.). And o. The small
black ant (/'. fusca L.).
II. Eqih lie observes that the eggs producing males and females are laid the
earliest, and are tlie larfjest : — he seems, however, to have confounded 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 larvjB of Jli/rmica rubra do not, as other ants do, spin a cocoon when they
assume the pui)a.
IV. Pupa. He found that female ants continue in this state about six weeks,
and males and neuters only a month.
V. Iinacio. He knew perfectly the sexes, and was aware that females cast their
wngs previously to their becoming mothers ; that at the time of their swarms large
numbers of both sexes become the prey of birds and fishes ; that the surviving
females, sometimes in numbers, go under-ground, particularly in mole-hills, and lay
eggs: but he had not discovered that they 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 to 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, appears often to be temporary and
local — ceasing at certain times, and being renewed upon achansje of residence. He
enlarges upon their exemplaiy care of the eggs, larvas, and pupai. 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 pupre, daily from the interior to the surface of the nest and back again,
according to tiie temperature; and that they feed the larvie bj- disgorging the food
from their own stomach. He speaks also of their opening the cocoons when the
pupjB 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 consolidated by no cement, but consists merely of mould ; that they form roads
and trackways to and from their nests; that the 3- carry each other in sport, and
sometimes lie heaped one on another in the sun. He suspects that they occasionally
emigrate: — he proves by a variety of experiments that they do not hoard up pro-
visions. He found they were often infested by a particular kind of Gordius: — he
had noticed, also, that the neuters of t'. rufa and flava (which escaped 31. Huber,
though he observed it in Poli/ergus rufcscens Latr.) are of two sizes, wliich the
writer of this note can contirni by producing specimens; — and, lastly, with Swam-
merdam, he had recourse to artificial colonies, the better to enable him to examine
their proceedings, but not comparable to the ingenious apparatus of M. Huber.
316 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
— which your partiality 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 Ht/menoplera, differ from those of
the Termites in having inactive larvae and pupaj, the neuters or workers
combining in themselves both the military and civil functions. Besides the
helpless larvae and pupae, which have no locomotive powers, these societies
consist of females, males, and workers. The office oiihejhnnles, at their
first exclusion distinguished by a pair of ample wings (which, however, as
you have heard, tliey soon cast), is the foundation of new colonies, and the
lurnisiiing of a constant supply of eggs for the maintenance of the popula-
tion 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 tiie time of swarming are extremely numerous, is merely
the ini|)regnation of the females : after the season for this is past, they die.
Upon the workers'" devolves, except in nascent colonies, all the work, as
well as the defence of the communit)', of which they are the most nume-
rous |)ortion. In some societies of ants the workers are of two dimensions.
In the nests of F. rufa andjiava such were observed by Gonid, 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.fiava 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
Polycrgusrujescens^^ but he could not ascertain their office. More light,
however, has been of late thrown on this subject by the observations
of M. Lacordaire and M. Lund u|)on these large workers, as they occur in
the nests of South American ants. They have ascertained them to be
strictly the soldiers, which, though of a difierent origin, like those of the
Termites before described, have it expressly in charge to defend the
rest of the community; for which office their size — full twice that of
the other workers — and their immense heads and Jaws in proportion, ad-
mirably adapt them. M. Lacordaire informs us that, both in Cayenne and
Brazil, he has been a thousand times witness of the accuracy of the facts
stated by M. Lund as to the military office of these large and big-headed
workers of Attn ccplialotcs, and allied species, during the marches and ex-
cursions undertaken by the society. They never mix themselves with the
mass of the moving columns; but, stationed on their flanks, they are seen
sometimes to march forward ; then to return and halt a moment, as if to
1 Gould says that the males and females are nearly equal in number (p. 62.) ;
but from Hiiber's observations it seems to follow that the former are most nu-
merous (p. 96.).
2 That the neuter ants, like those of the hive-bee, are imperfectly organised
females, appears from the following observation of M. Huber {Nouv. Observ. &c.
ii. 443.) — " Les fourmis nous ont encore ofFert a cet egard une analogie trfes-
frappante ; h la verite, nous n'avons jamais vu pondre les ouvrieres, niais nous avons
ete temoins de leur accouplenient. Ce fait pourroit ctre atteste par plusieurs
membres de la Societe d'Histoire Naturelle de Geneve, h. qui nous I'avons fait voir;
I'approche du male etoit toujours suivie de la mort de I'ouvrifere ; leur conformation
ne permet done pas qu'elles deviennent mferes, mais I'instinct du male prouve du
inoins que ce sont des femelles."
3 Gould, 103.
* M. Huber calls this an apterous female ; yet he could not discover that they
laid eggs ; and he owns that they more nearly resemble the workers than the
females, and that he should have considered them as such, had he seen them mix
with them in their excursions. — Huber, p. 261.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 317
observe the troop defile before them ; traversing its ranks ; hastening to
any point where their presence seems necessary, especially if it have met
\viti> any obstacle on its route ; ami even climbinir, as M. Lacordaire has
often witnessed, ii[) the adjoining plants, and, perched on the marjiin of a
leaf, surveying its passage from this elevated position.' M. Lnnd observed
four oftiiese large-headed neuters of a Brazilian species of Mi/rmirri to
guard the entrance to their nest, and otiiers attending the column while on
march, and hastening to the spot and alarming their comrades when some
of the ants were pur|)osely killed."
An equally singular modification of form and function takes place in the
neuters of a Mexican ant — Mi/rmccoci/stiis Mciicanux of RI. Wesmael,
w ho has described their economy in a paper read to the Acridciiiic lioi^alc
of Brussels. Of this species, while some of the neuters have the ordinary-
form, others, which never quit the nest and are almost inactive, have their
abdomen swollen into an immense siibdiaphanous sphere, filled by a kind
of honey which they are solely occupied in elaborating, and which they
subsequently discharge into cells analogous to those of hces.^
Having introduced you to the individuals of which the associations of
ants consist, I shall now advert to the principal events of their history, re-
lating first the fates of the viakx ani.\ females. In the warm days that occur
from the end of Jidy to the beginning of iSeptembcr, and sometimes later,
the habitations of the various species of ants may be seen to swarm with
winged insects, which arethe males and females preparing to quit forever the
sceneof their nativity and education.' Every thingis in motion ; and the silver
wings, contrasted 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 were by a general impulse, 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 zigzag motion, and the females, though they follow the
general movement of the column, appearing suspended in the air, like bal-
loons, seemingly with no individual motion, and having their heads turned
towards the wind.
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-boreaiis. 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 [irogress 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 c;mdidates for their favour, each till some fortunate lover darts upon
her, and, as the Roman youth did the Saliine virgins, drags his bride from
the sportive crowd, and the nuptials are consummated in miil-air; though
sometimes the union takes place on the summit of plants, but rarely in the
1 Lacordaire, Introd. a PEntom. ii. 498.
- Lund in Ann. des Sciences Nut. xxiii. 113. ; quoted by Lacordaire, ubi supr., and
Westwood, Mod. C/as.i. ii. 225.
3 Bull. Acad. Hoy. Bruxell. v. 771. ; quoted by Westwood, ubi supr. ii. 225.
318 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
nests.' After is danse de I'amour is celebrated, the males disappear, pro-
bably 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 neuters. 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, 1812, I was going
up the Orford river in Suffolk, in a row-boat, in the evening, when my at-
tention was caught by an infinite number of winged ants, both males and
females, at which the fish were everywhere 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 which had
ust fallen. And M. Huber after the same event observed 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 ap-
pearance of ants observed by him in the Medway, in the autumn of 1814,
when he was first-lieutenant of the Clorinde, 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 Clorinde, my
attention was drawn to the water by the first-lieutenant (Haverfield) ob-
serving there was something black floating down with the tide. On looking
with a glass, 1 discovered they were insects. The boat was sent, and
brought a bucket full of them on board ; — they proved to be a large spe-
cies of ant, and extended from the upper part of Salt-pan Reach out
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 inches,
■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, 161.3, I was in the Island of Foulness on our Essex shore,
■where were such clouds of these flying pismires, that we could nowhere
fl)f 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, in the first instance here related, this
immense column came was not ascertained. From the numbers here ag-
glomerated, 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 sur-
veying on the 6th of October, 1813, the scene of the battle of the Pyrenees
from the summit 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 re-
move to another station, in order to get nd of them.
The females that escape from the injury of the elements and their various
1 De Geer, ii. 1104. 2 Gould, 99.
3 Huber, 105. * Pilgrimage, 1090.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 819
enemies become tlie founders of new colonies, doing all the work, as I have
related in a former letter, that is usually done by the neuters.' M. P. Hu-
ber has foiuid incipient colonies, in which were only a few workers engiiged
with their mother in the care of a small ncunber of larva- ; ami M. Perrot,
liis friend, once discovered a small nest, occupied by a solitary female, who
was attending u|)on four pupie only. Such are the foundation and first
establishment of those populous nations of ants with which we everywhere
meet.
But though the majority of females produced in a nest [)robal)ly thus
desert it, all are not allowed this liberty. The prudent workers are taught
by theu" instinct that the existence of their comnuuiity tlepends upon the
[)resence of a sufficient number of females. Some, therefore, that are
ieciuulated in or near the s|K)t they forcibly detain, |)ulling off their wings,
and keeping them prisoners till they arc ready to lay their eggs, or are re-
conciled to their fate. De (ieer in a nest of F. utfn observed that the
workers compelled some females that were come out of the nest to re-
enter it'-; and from M. P. Iluber we learn that, being seized at the
moment of fecundation, they are conducted into tiie interior of the for-
micary, when they become entirely dependent upon the neuters, who
hanging pertinaciously to each leg prevent their going out, but at the same
time attend upon them with the greatest care, feeding them regularly, and
conducting them where the temperature is suitable to them, but never
quitting them a single moment. By degrees these females become recon-
ciled to their fate, and lose all desire of making their escape ; — their
abdomen enlarges, antl they are no longer detained as prisoners, yet each
is still attended by a body-guard — a single ant, which always accompanies
her, and |)revents her wants. Its station is remarkable, it being mounted
U|)on her abdomen, with its posterior legs upon the ground. These
sentinels are constantly relieved ; and to watch the moment when the
female begins the important work of oviposition, and carry off the eggs, of
which she lays four or five thousand or more in the course of the year,
seems to be their principal office.
Wlien 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
through the difficult or steep passages of the formicary ; nay, they some-
times 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 butterfly, she is packed so close as to incommode the carrier but little.
When she sets her down, others surround and caress her, one alter another
tappintr her on the head with their antennas. " In whatever apartment,"
says Gould, "a queen condescends to be present, she conmiands 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 hind-legs, and
prancing with the others. These frolics they niake use of, both to con-
gratulate each other when they meet, and to show their regard for the
1 M. Huber observes that fecundated females, after they have lost their wings,
make themselves a subterranean cell ; some singly, others in common. From
which it appears that some colonies have more than one female from their first
establishment.
2 ii. 1071.
320 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
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 enclose her in the
midst." ' Nay, even if she dies, as if they were unwilling to believe it,
they continue sometimes 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 workers to their queens, according to Gould,
is temporary and local ; — when she has laid eggs in any cell, their atten-
tions, he observed, 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 believe that, having deposited a parcel in one, she retires to another for
the same purpose, thus frequently changing her situation and attendants.
As there are always a number of lodgments 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 oviposition is net invariable ; the female and
neuter sometimes unite together in the same cell after the eggs are laid.
On this occasion the workers divide their attention ; and if you disturb
them, some will run to the defence of their queen, as well as of the eggs,
which last, however, are the great objects of their solicitude. This state-
ment differs somewhat from M. Huber's ; but different species vary in
their instincts, which will account for this and similar dissonances in
authors who have observed their proceedings. Mr. Gould also noticed
but very few females in ant-nests, sometimes only one ; but M. Huber,
who had better opportunities, found several, which he says live very peace-
ably together, showing none of that spirit of rivalry so remarkable 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 still more
interesting proceedings of the workers, I think you will not regret the ex-
change. I shall show these to you in many different views, under each of
which you will find fresh reason to admire them and their wonderful in-
stincts. 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 larger animals in wisdom, foresight, and sagacity, and make so
near an approach in these respects to man himself. My facts, however,
are derived from authorities so respectable, that I think they will do away
with any bias of this kind that you may feel in your mmd,^
I need not here repeat what I have said in a former letter concerning
the exemplary attention paid by these kind foster-mothers to the young
brood of their colonies ; nor shall 1 enlarge upon the building and nature
1 Gould, p. 24—.
~ Compare Gould, p. 25., with Huber, 125. note (1).
^ It may be thought that many of the anecdotes related in the following history
of the proceedings of neuter ants could not have been observed by any one, unless
he had been admitted into an ant-hill ; but it must be recollected that M. P. Huber,
from whose work the most extraordinary facts are copied, invented a kind of ant-
hive, so constructed as to enable him to observe their proceedings without disturbing
them.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 321
of their habitations, whicli have been already noticed: — but, without
either of tiicse, I have matter enough to fill the rest of this letter with in-
terestiuij traits, while I endeavour to teach you their lancuaire, to develope
their attections and passions, and to delineate their virtues,— while I show
them to you when engaged in war, and enable you to accompanv them
lioth in their military expeditions and in their emigrations, — while I make
you a witness of their indefatigable industry and incessant labours, or invite
you to be present, during their hours of relaxation, at their sports and
amusements.
That ants, though they are mute animals, have the means of communi-
cating 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
()uarter; the greatest inquietude seems to possess the comnumity ; and they
carry with all possible despatch their treasures, the larvse and pupte, down
to the lowest apartments. Amongst those species of ants that do not no
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. fiaim, which is of this description, I was struck by ob-
serving a single ant immediately come out, as if to see what was the matter
and this three separate times.
The F. hrrculatica inhabits the trunks of hollow trees on the Continent
(for it has not yet been found in England), upon which thev 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 towards them,
and, striking their head against them, communicated their cause of fear or
anger, — that these, in their turn, conveyed in the same wav the intelli'^ence
to others, till the whole colony was in a ferment, those neuters which
were vvithin the tree running out in crowds to join their companions in
the defence of their habitation. The same signals that excited the courage
of the neuters produced fear in the males and females, w hicii, as soon as
the news of the danger was thus communicated to them, retreated into the
tree as to an asylum.
The legs of one of this gentleman's artificial formicaries were plunged
into pans of water, to prevent the escape of the ants ; — this proved a
source of great enjoyment to these little beings, for they are a very thirsty
race, and lap water like dogs.' One day, when he observed many of them
tippling very merrilv, he was so cruel as to disturb them, which sent most
ot the ants in a fright to the nest ; but some more thirstv than the rest
continued their potations. Upon this, one of those that had retreated re-
turns to inform his thoughtless companions of their danger ; one he pushes
with his jaws ; another he strikes first upon the belly,"and then upon the
breast; and so obliges three of them to leave off theircarousing, and march
homewards ; but the fourth, more resolute to drink it out, is' not to be
discomfited, and pays not the least regard to the kind blows with which
his compeer, solicitous for his safety, repeatedly belabours him. At length,
determined to have his way, he seizes him by one of his hind-legs, and'
gives him a violent pull : — upon this, leaving his liquor, the loiterer turns
1 Gould, 92. De Geer, ii. 10C7. Huber, o. 132.
y
322 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
round, and opening his threatening jaws with every appearance of anger,
goes very coolly to drinking again ; but his monitor without further
ceremony, rushing before him, seizes him by his jaws, and at last drags him
off in triumph to the formicary.^
The language of ants, however, is not confined merely to giving intelli-
gence of the approach or presence of danger : it is also coextensive with
all their other occasions for communicating their ideas to each other.
Some, whose extraordinary history I shall soon relate to you, engage in
military expeditions, and often previously send out spies to collect informa-
tion. These, as soon as they return from exploring the vicinity, enter the
nest ; upon which, as if they had communicated their intelligence, the
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
necessarv, couriers are dispatched to the formicary for reinforcements. ^
If you scatter the ruins of an ant's nest in your apartment, you will be
furnished with another proof of their language. The ants will take a
thousand different paths, each going by itself, to increase the chance of
discovery ; they will meet and cross each other in all directions, and per-
haps will wander long before they can 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 companions, and, by
means of certain motions of its antennae, makes some of them comprehend
what 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 information when they
have discovered any store of provision. 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 which conserves were kept, which they con-
stantly 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 cleaning of the rooms discomfit them, or cause
them to pursue a different route. *
Here may be related an amusing experiment of Gould's. Having de-
posited several colonies of ants (F.fusca) in flower-pots, he placed tiieni
in some earthen pans full of water, which [)revented them from making
excursions from their nest. When they had been accustomed some days
to this imprisonment, he fastened small threads to the upper part of the
pots, and extending 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 castle. The discovery was communicated to the whole
society, and in a short time the threads were filled with trains of busy
workers passing to and fro.*
Ligon's account of the ants in Barbadoes affords another most convincing
1 Huber, 133. 2 ibid. 167. 217. 237. 5 Ibid. 137.
4 Bradley, 134. 5 Gould, 85.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 323
proof of this : as he has told his tale in a lively and intcit'sting 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 liave all one soul. If I should say
they are here or there, I should do them wrong, for they are everywhere ;
under ground, where any hollow or loose earth is ; amongst the roots of
trees ; u|)on the bodies, branches, leaves, and fruit of all trees ; in all places
without the houses and within; upon the sides, walls, windovvs, and roofs
witiiout ; and on the floors, side-walls, ceilings, and windows within ;
tables, cupboards, beds, stools, all are covered with them, so that they are
a kind of uhiquitaries. We sometimes kill a cockroach, and throw him on
the ground ; and mark what they will do with him : his body is bigger than
a hundred of them, and yet they will fiml 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 assistants, if any be weary ; and some are the officers
that lead and show the way to the hole into which he muht pass; and if
the vancouriers 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, autl the body turned endwise, and this is done a foot
before they come to the hole, and that without any stop or stay ; and this
is observable, that they never pull contrary ways. A tai)le being cleared
with great care, by way of experiment, of all the ants that were upon it,
and some sugar being |)ut upon it, some, after a circuitous route, were ob-
served to arrive at it, when again de()arting without tasting the treasure,
they hastened away to inform their friends of their discovery, 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 them 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 gallipot 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
gallipot is nearest ; and there the most venturous amongst them commits
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." ^
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 docs not
appear that, like the bees, they emit any significative sounds ; their language,
therefore, nuist 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 antenna;, are
the principal instruments of their speech, if I may so call it, supplying the
1 Hist, of Barbadoes, p. G3.
Y 2
324 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
place both of voice and words. When the military ants before alluded to
go upon their expeditions, and are out of the formicar_y, 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 lias
received it, he is immediately in motion. When they have any discovery
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 antennas, moving them very rapidly, those of the individual 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 im-
perative organs. The helpless larvae 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
which they express their affections and aversions. Whether ants, with
man and some of the larger animals, experience anything like attachment
to individuals, is not easily ascertained; but that they feel the full force of
the sentiment which we term patriotism, or the love of the community to
which they belong, is evident from the whole series of their proceedings,
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 antenna^
of an ant ; and its companions, evidently pitying its sufferings, anointed
the wounded part with a drop of transparent fluid from their mouth ; and
whoever attends to what is going forward in the neighbourhood 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 repel-
ling it.
The satisfaction they express at meeting after absence is very striking,
and gives some degree of individuahty 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 together. Though this was equal to one fourth
of their existence as perfect insects, they immediately recognised 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 companions 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 cer-
tain 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 in-
telligence to their compatriots, whom they even carried suspended 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 susceptible of the emo-
tions of anger ; and when they are menaced or attacked, no insects show
a greater degree of it. Providence, moreover, has furnished them with
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 825
weapons and faculties which render it extremely formidable to their insect
enemies, and sometimes, as I have rehited in a former letter, a great annoy-
ance to man liimself. Two strong mandibles arm tlieir moutii, with which
they sometimes fix themselves so obstinately to the object of their attack,
that tliey will sooner be torn limb from limb than let go their hold ; and
alter their battles, the head of a conquered enemy may often be seen sns-
pendeil to tiie antennae or legs of the victor, a trophy of his valour, which,
however troublesome, he will be com|)elled to carry about with him to the
day of his deatii. Their abdomen is also fiuniished with a poison-bag
(Io/criii»i), in which is secreted a powerful and venouu)us fluid, long cele-
brateil in chemical researches, and called foiinic ucid^, which, when their
enemy is beyond the reach of their mandibles (I speak here particularly of
tlie hill-ant, or F. rit/ii), 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 sul|)hureous odour,
sufiicient to overpower or repel any insect or small animal. Such is the
fury of some species, that with the acid, according to Gould", they some-
times partly eject, drawing it back however directly, the poison-bag itself.
If a stick be stuck into one of the nests of tiie hill-ant, it is so saturated
with the acid as to retain the scent for many hours. A more formitlable
weapon arms the species of the genus Mjjrmica Latr. ; for, besides the
poison-bag, they are furnished with a sting ; and their aspect is also often
rendered peculiarly revolting by the extraordinary length of their jaws, and
by the spines which defend their head and trunk.
But weapons without valour are of but little use ; and this is one distin-
guishing feature of our pigmy race. Their courage and pertinacity are un-
conquerable, and often sublimed into the most inconceivable rage and
fury. It makes no clitFerence to them whether they attack a mite or an
elephant ; and man himself instils no terror into their warlike breasts.
Point your finger towards any individual of F. Rufi, instead of running
away, it instantly faces about ; and that it may make the most of itself,
stiffening its legs into a nearly straight line, it gives its body the utmost ele-
vation it is capable of, and thus
" Collecting all its might dilated stands "
prepared to repel your attack. Put your finger a little nearer, it imme-
diately opens its jaws to bite you, and rearing upon its hind legs bends its
abilomen 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 dissen-
sion may arise to light the Hame of war between the inhabitants of nests
not far distant from each other. To these little bustling creatures a square
foot of earth is a territory worth contending for ; their droves of Aphides
equally valuable witli 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 acqui-
sition as important as the treasures of a Lima fleet to our seamen. Their
1 This acid may be prepared artificially, and with all the properties of that pro-
duced by ants, by distillatiou from a mixture of sulphuric acid, black oxide of
manganese, and starch.
'•< F. 34.
5 See Fourcroy, Annales du 3Iuseum, No. 5. 343.
Y 3
323 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
wars are usually between nests of different species ; sometimes, 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/rmica
rubra, combats occasionally take place, contrary to the general habits of
the tribe of ants, between those of the same nest, I shall give you some
account of ail 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 being very peaceable creatures, and always
glad to get out of harm's way.
The wars of the red ant '{M. rubra) are usually between a small number
of the citizens ; and the object, according to Gould, is to get rid of a use-
less member of the community (it does not argue much in favour ot the
humanity of this species if it be by sickness that this member is disabled),
rather than any real civil contest. " The red colonies," says this author,
" are the only ones I could ever observe to feed upon their own species.
You may frequently discern a party of from five or six to twenty sur-
rounding one of their own kind, or even fraternity, and pulHng it to pieces.
The ant they attack is generally feeble, and of a languid complexion, occa-
sioned, perhaps, by some disorder or other accident." ^ I once saw one of
these ants dragged ont 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 we ad-
mit Gould's idea, and suppose it to have suffered because it was an un-
profitable 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 opponents as if it was
unhurt. This did not look like languor or sickness.
The wars of ants that are not oi the same species take place usually
between those that differ in size ; and the great endeavouring to oppress
the small are nevertheless often outnumbered by them, and defeated.
Their battles have long been celebrated ; and the date of them, as if it were
an event of the first importance, has been formally recorded. ^Eneas
Sylvius, after giving a very circumstantial account of one contested with
great obstinacy by a great and small species on the trunk of a pear tree,
gravely states, " This action was fought in the pontificate of Eugenius IV.,
in the presence of Nicholas Pistoriensis, an eminent lawyer, who related
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 bodies
of their own soldiers, but lett those of their giant enemies a prey to the
birds. This event happened previous to the expulsion of the tyrant
Christiern II, from Sweden,^
1 Gould, 104.
2 One would think the writer of the account of ants in Mouffet had been witness
to something similar. " If they see any one idle," says he, " they not only drive
him as spurious, without 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."
— Theatr. Ins. 241. '" Ibiii- '-^42.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 327
M. P. Huber is the only modem 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 upon them by the u])per [)art of the body,
they strangle them with their mandibles ; but when the small have time
to foresee the attack, they give notice to their companions, who rush in
nrowds to their succour. Sometimes, however, after suffering a signal
defeat, the smaller species are obliged to shift their (juarters, and to seek
an establishment more out of the way of danger. In order to cover their
march, many small boilies are then posted at a little distance from the nest.
As soon as the large ants approach the camp, the foremost sentinels in-
stantly fly at them with the greatest rage ; a violent struggle ensues ; mul-
tituiles of their friends come to their assistance ; 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 pro-
ceedings M. Huber observed were F. hcrculdncci and F. sanguinca, 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. rufa) erects
its habitations. There you will sometimes behold po[)ulous and rival
cities, like Home and Carthage, as if they had vowed each other's destruc-
tion, 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 the exploits of frogs and
mice were the theme of Homer's muse, so, were I gifted like him, might
1 celebrate on this occasion the exhibition of Myrmidonian valour ; but,
alas! I am Davus, not CEdipus; you must, therefore, rest contented, if I
do my best in plain prose ; and I trust you will not complain if, being
unable to ascertain the name of any one of my heroes, my Ali/rmklono-
machia be perfectly anonymous.
Figure to yourself two of these cities equal in size and population, and
situated about a hundred paces from each other ; observe their count-
less numbers, equal to the population of two mighty empires. The uhole
space which separates them for the breadth of twenty-four inches ap-
j)ears alive with prodigious crowds of their inhabitants. The armies
meet midway between their respective habitations, and there join battle.
Thousands of champions, mounted on more elevated spots, engage in single
combiit, and seize each other with their powerful jaws ; a still greater
number are engaged on both sides in taking prisoners, which make vain
efforts to escape, as if conscious of the cruel fate which awaits them when
arrived at the hostile formicary. The spot where the battle most rages
is about two or three square feet in dimensions : a penetrating odour ex-
hales on all sides, — numbers of ants are here lying dead covered with
venom, — others, composing groups and chains, are hooked together by
their legs or jaws, and drag each other alternately in contrary directions.
These groups are formed grailually. At first a pair of combatants seize
each other, and rearing upon their hind legs mutually spirt their acid ;
then closing, they fall and wrestle in the dust. Again recovering their
feet, each endeavours to drag off" his antagonist. If their strength be
1 Huber, ICO.
Y 4
328 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
equal, they remain immoveable 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 six, eight, or sometimes ten, all hooked together, and strug-
gling pertinaciously for the mastery ; the equilibrium 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 following dawn the combat is renewed with redoubled fury, and occu-
pies a greater extent of ground. These daily fights continue 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 tliem exa-
mining their proceedings, they paid not the least attention to him, being
absorbed by one sole object, that of finding 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 immediately discovered by the assailant,
and caresses succeeded to blows. Though all was fury and carnage in the
space between the two nests, on the otiier side the paths were full of ants
going to and fro on the ordinary business of the societ}', 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 ^, which
it is to be feared are the devoted victims of a cannibal feast.
Having, I apprehend, satiated you with the fury and carnage of Myrmi-
donian wars, 1 shall next bring forward a scene still more astonishing, which
at first, perhaps, you will be disposed to regard as a mere illusion of a lively
imagination. What will you say when I tell you that certain ants are af-
firmed to sally forth from their nests on predatory expeditions, for the
singular purpose of procuring slaves to employ in tiieir 'domestic business;
and that these ants are usually a ruddy race, v/hile 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 extraordinary 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 1 perfectly approve your caution ; such a solecism in nature ought not
to be believed till it has undergone the ordeal of a most thorough investi-
gation. Unfortunately in this country we have not the means of satisfying
ourselves by ocular demonstration, since none of the slave-dealing ants
appear to be natives of Britain. We must be satisfied, therefore, with
weighing the evidence of others. Hear what M. P. Huber, the discoverer
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 testimony is in a very high degree
satisfactory.
^ See Huber, chap, v.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 329
" My readers," says he, " will periiaps be tempted to believe that I have
suffered myself to be carried away by the love of the marvellous, and that,
in order to impart greater interest to my narration, I liave given way to an
inclination to embellish the facts that I have ol)serveil. lint the more the
wonders of nature have attractions for me, the less do I feel inclined to
alter them by a mixture of the reveries of imagination. 1 have sought to
divest myself of every illusion and prejudice, of the ambition of sayinj; new
things, of the prepossessions oltcn attached to perce[)tions too rapid, the
love of system, and the like. And I have endeavoured to keep myself, if
I may so say, in a disposition of mind perfectly neuter, and reatly to admit
all facts, of whatever nature they might be, that patient observation should
confirm. Amongst the persons whom 1 have taken as witnesses to the
discovery of mixed ant-hills, 1 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 it to
repeat his ex|)erinients, which he is sure will soon satisfy them, — a satisfac-
tion 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,
Po/i/crgiis rufcacois and Formica sfuigiiinca ; but they do not, like the
African kings, make slaves of adults, their sole object being to carry oft"
the hel|)less infants of the colony which they attack, the larv;c and pupae ;
these they educate in their own nests till they arrive at their perfect state,
when thev undertake all the business of the society.'- In the following
account 1 shall chiefly confine myself to what Hui)er relates of the first
of these species, and conclude my 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 th.e males are ready to emerge into the
perfect state ; and it is vei-y 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, which would be their total destruction, without being any benefit
to their assailants, to whom 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 they send out scouts to explore
the vicinity ; upon whose return they emerge from their subterranean city,
1 Huber, 287. Jurine, Ifi/mennpteres, 273.
2 It is not clear that our Willughby had not some knowledge of this extra-
ordinary fact ; for in his description of ants, speaking of tiieir care of their pupa-, he
says, " that t/wt/ also carry the aureliie of others into their jiests, as if the// tverc their
own." (llai. Hist. Ins. ()9.) Gould remarks concerning the hill-ant, "This species
is very rapacious Jifter the cermides and ni/mphs of other ants. If you place a parcel
before or near their colonies, they will, with remarkable greediness, seize and carry
them off." 91. note*. Query — Do they do this to devour them, or educate them.'
White made the same observation (Nat. Hist. ii. 278.).
5 This species forms a kind of link which connects Latreille's two genera Formica
and Myrmica, borrowing the abdominal squama from the former, and the sting
from the latter.
330 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. '
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 forehead, or playing with the antennas ; the oliject of which
is probably to excite their martial ardour, to give the word for marching,
or to indicate the route they 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 nder," as Solomon observes, their army being composed
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 winding 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 antennaR to detect the
traces of the game they are pursuing. The negro formicary, the object of
their search, is soon discovered : 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 vain ; for the besiegers, precipitating themselves upon them, by
the ardour of their attack compel them to retreat 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, through which the
victorious army marches into the besieged city. In a kw minutes, by the
same passages, they as hastily evacuate it, each carrying off in its mouth a
larva or pupa which it has seized io 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 expeditions 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 animal; for some-
times a very small body of them, not more than 150, has been known to
succeed in their attack and to carry oft" their booty, i
1 Since the publication of the first edition of this volume I have met witli fresh
confirmation of the extraordinary history here related. Having been induced to
visit Paris, and calling upon M. Latreille (so justly celebrated as one of the 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 Huber. He has
also said the same in his Considerations nouvelles et generates sur les Insectes vivant en
Societe. (Me'm. 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 25th of June, 1817. The day
was excessively hot and sultry. A little before five in the afternoon we began our
search. At first we could not discern a single ant in motion. In a minute or two,
however, my friend directed my attention to one individual — two or three more
next appeared — and soon a numerous army was to be seen winding through the
long grass of a low ridge in which was their formicary. Just at the 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 entering it divided into two columns, which traversed it rapidly and with
great apparent eagerness ; all the while exploring the ground with their antennae,
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 331
When, from their proximity, they are more readily to be come at than
those of the negroes, they sometimes assault with the same view the nest
of another species of ant, which I siuill call the miners (F. ciuilcularia).
This species beini; more courageous than the other, on this account tiie
rufescent host marches to the attack in closer order than usual, moving
with astonisiiing rapiility. As soon as they begin to enter tiieir habitation,
myriads of the miners rushing out fall upon them with great fury ; while
others, well aware of their purpose, making a [)assage through the midst
of them, carry off in their mouth the larvte and pupae. The surface of
the nest thus becomes the scene of an obstinate conflict, and the assailants
are often deprived of the prey which they had seized. Tiie miners dart
upon them, fight them foot to foot, dispute every inch of their territory,
and tlefend their progeny with unexampled courage and rage. When the
rufescents, laden vvitli pillage, retire, they do it in close order — a ])recau-
tion highly necessary, since their 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 ; hunch'cds of its iniiabitants may be seen
making their escape, and carrying off in different directions, to a place of
security, some the \oung 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 saui'idnca, as 1 observed above, is" another of the slave-making
ants ; and its proceedings merit separate notice, since they differ consider-
ably from those of the rufescents. They construct their nests under
hedges of a southern aspect, and likewise attack the hills both of the
as beagles with their noses, eviflently as if in pursuit of game. Those in the van,
as Huber also observed, kept perpetually falling back into the main body. When
they had passed this inclosure, they appeared for some time to be at a loss, making
no progress, but on!}- coursing about : but after a few minutes' delay, as if they had
received some intelligence, they resumed their march and soon arrived at a negro
nest, which they entered by one or two apertures. We could not observe that any
negroes 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 interval between the
appearance of these negroes and the entry of their assailants. However this might
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, almost ever}' individual carrying its burthen. Most that I ob-
served seeineil to have pup;e. I then traced the expedition back to the spot from
which I lirst saw them set out, which according to my steps was about 15G feet
from the negro formicary. The whole business was transacted in little more than
an hour. Though I could ti;ace the ants back to a certain spot in the ridge before
mentioned, where they first appeared in the long grass, I did not succeed in finding
the entrance to their nest, so that 1 was deprived of the pleasure of seeing the
mixed society. As we dined at an auberge close to the spot, 1 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 rufesced,
ants (^Pi)lyergus rufcscens), on account of the form of their jaws and the accessory
parts of their mouth, either to prepare habitations for their family, to procure iuont
or to feed them. — Considerations nouvelles, Sec, p. 408.
332 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
negroes and miners. On the 15th of July, at ten in the morning, Hiiher
observed a small band of these ants sallying forth from their formicary,
and marching rapidly to a neighbouring nest of negroes, around which it
dispersed. The inhabitants, rushmg out in crowds, attacked them and
took several prisoners : those that escaped advanced no further, but ap-
peared to wait for succours ; small brigades kept frequently arriving to
reinforce them, which emboldened them to approach nearer to the city
they had blockaded ; upon this their anxiety to send couriers to their own
nest seemed to increase ; these spreading a general alarm, a large rein-
forcement 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 Teet square in front of it,
and there expected the enemy. Frequent skirmishes were the prelude to
the main conflict, which was begun by the negroes. Long before success
appeared dubious they carried off their pupse, 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 san-
guine ants at length rush upon the negroes, and attacking them on all
sides, after a stout resistance the latter, renouncing all defence, endeavour
to make off to a distance with the pupse they have heaped up : — the host
of assailants pursues, and strives to force from them these objects of their
care. Many also enter the formicary, and begin to carry off the young
brood that are left in it, A continued chain of ants engaged in this em-
ployment extends from nest to nest, and the day and part of the night
pass before all is finished. A garrison being left in the captured city, on
the following morning the business of transporting the brood is renewed.
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
valour has gained. All the inciu'sions of F. sanguinca take place in the
space of a month, and they make only five or six in the year. They will
sometimes travel 1.50 paces to attack a negro colony.
After reading this account of expeditions undertaken by ants for so ex-
traordinary a purpose, you will be curious to know how the slaves are
treated in the nests of these marauders — whether they live happily, or
labour under an oppressive yoke. You must recollect that they are
not carried off, like our negroes, at an age when the amor jmtricE and all
the charities of life which bind them to their country, kindred, and
friends, are in their full strength, but in what may be called the helpless
days of infancy, or in their state of repose, before they can have formed
any associations or imbibed anv notions that render one place and society
more dear to them than another. Preconceived ideas, therefore, 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, although it has gifted
these creatures with an instinct so extraordinary, and seemingly so unna-
tural, has not made it a source of misery to the objects of it.
You will here, perhaps, imagine that I have not sufficiently taken into
consideration the anxiety and privations undergone by the poor neuters,
in beholding those foster-children, for which they have all along manifested
such tender solicitude, thus violently snatched fi'om them : but when you
reflect that they are the common property of the whole colony, and that,
consequently, there can scarcely be any separate attachment to particular
rERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 3^3
indivitliials, you will admit that, after tlie frii^iit and liorror of the conflict
are over, antl their enemies have retreated, they are not likely to experience
the |)oii;nant affliction felt by parents when deprived of their children ;
especially when you further consider, that most jirohably 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
su|)|ily them with those objects of attention, the larv;r, &c., so necessary
to that development of their instincts in which consists their happiness.
But to return to the point from which I digresseil. — The negro and
miner ants suffer no diminution of happiness, and are exposed to no un-
usual hardships and op|)ression in consequence of being tran>|)lanted into
a foreign nest. Their life is passed in much the san)e enij)loynieiits as
would have occupied it in their native residence. They builil or repair the
conunon dwelling ; they make excursions to collect food; they attend upon
the females; they feed them and the larvic; 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 occupations of their own
colonies: but when you consider the greater division of labour in these
mixed societies, which sometimes unite both negroes ami 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 keej) to their work?" — No such thing, I assure you — the sole
motive for their predatory excursions seems to be mere laziness and hatred
of labour. Active and intrepid 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 de[)endent, 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
return from their excursions without their usual boot3', they give them a
very indifferent rece|)tion, showing their displeasure (which, however, soon
ceases) by attacking them; and when they attempt to enter the nest, drag-
ging them out. To ascertain what they would do when obliged to trust to
their own exertions, Huber shut up thirty of the rufescent ants in a glazed
box, sup|)lying them with larvae and pupae of their own kind, with the
addition of several negro pupae, excluding very carefully all their slaves,
antl placing some honey in a 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 a[)peared
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 pre-
served the life of the neuter rufescents that still survived. What a picture
of beneficent industry, contrasted with the baleful effects of sloth, does this
334 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
interesting anecdote afford ! 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 entrance
of a kind of hive. The second day the tube was crowded with negroes
going and returning: — the indefatigable diligence and activity manifested
by them in transporting the young brood and their rufescent masters,
whose bodies were suspended upon their mandibles, 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 themselves with depositing them at the en-
trance of the tube, it was that they might use greater dispatch in fetching
the rest. The rufescent when thus set down remained for a moment
coiled up without motion, and then leisurely 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 antennge seemed 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 sup-
posed 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, with respect to the indolence of our slave-
dealers, relate principally to the rufescent species; for the sanguine ants are
not altogether so listless and helpless ; they assist their negroes in the con-
struction of their nests, they collect their sweet fluid from the Aphides ;
and 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 s!)ow their value for these faithful servants by carrying them down
into the lowest apartments, as to a place of the greatest security. Some-
times even the rufescents rouse themselves from the torpor that usually
benumbs them. In one instance, when they wished to emigrate from their
own to a deserted 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 species,
they take upon themselves the whole charge of the nascent colony. I
must not here omit a most extraordinary anecdote related by M. Huber.
He put into one of his artificial formicaries pupae of both species of the
slave-collecting ants, which, 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 what 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 famihar 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 further change in their character, since the master and slave, brought
up with the same care and under the same superintendence, are associated
in the mixed formicary under laws entirely opposite.^
1 See Huber, chap, vii — xi. Mixed societies, similar to the above described,
have been observed amongst exotic ants by M. Lund, who mentions a species of
TERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 336
Unparalleled ami uni(|iie in the animal kinsdoin as this iiistorv niav
appear, von will scarcely deem the next I have to relate less sinfjnlar and
less worthy of admiration. That ants shonld have their mi/c/i cntllr is as
extraorthiiary as that they shonld have slaves. Here, perhaps, von may
again teel a fit of incredulity shake you ; — but the evidence for the fact
I am now stating being abundant and satisfactory, I flatter myself it will
not shake you long.
The loves of the ants and the Aphides (for these last are the kine in
(]uestion) have long been celebrated ; and that there is a connexion
between them you may at any time, in the proper season, convince vonr-
sclf; for you will always find the former very busy on those trees and
plants on which the latter abound : and if you examine more closelv. you
will discover that their object in thus attending upon them is to obtain the
saccharine fluid, which may well be denominated their milk ', that they
.secrete.
This fluid, which is scarcely inferior to honey in swetness, issues in
limpid ilrops from the abdomen of these insects, not only I'y 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 rcular
intervals, they ejaculate 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 absolutely possess the art of making them yield it at their pleasure;
or, in other words, of milking them. On this occasion their antenna 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 {Myrmica rubra)
conducting it with its antennas, which are somewhat swelled at the end.
When it has thus milked one, it proceeds to another, and so on, till beinc
satiated it returns to the nest.
But you are not arrived at the most singular part of this history, — that
ants make a ])roperfi/ of these cows, for the possession of which they con-
tend with great earnestness, and use every means to keep them to them-
selves. Sometimes they seem to claim a right to the Aphides that inhabit
the branches of a tree or the stalksof a plant ; and if stranger ants attempt
to share their treasure with them, they endeavour to drive them away, and
may be seen running about in a great bustle, and exhibiting every symptom
of inquietude and anger. Sometimes, to rescue them from their rivids, they
take their Aphides in their mouth ; they generally keep guard round them
and when the branch is conveniently situated, they have recourse to an
expedient still more effectual to keep oft' interlopers, — they inclose it in a
Myrmica (M. paleata) found in Brazil, whose nest contains the neuters (doubtless
employed as slaves, though unfortunately M. Lund had not an opportunity of ob-
serving the excursions in which the pupa; they sprung from were captured) of a
neighbouring species, M. erythrothorax. (Lacordaire, Introd. a VEntom. ii. i>03.)
1 The ant ascends the tree, sa\-s Linn^, that it may milk its cows, the Aphides, not
kill them. Syst. Nat. 9G2. Sp. 3.
336 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
tube of earth or other materials, and thus confine them in a kind of pad-
dock near their nest, and often communicating with it.
The greatest cow-keeper of all the ants is one to be met with in most
of our pastures, residing in hemispherical formicaries, which are sometimes
of considerable diameter. I mean the yellow ant of Gould (F. flava).
This species, which is not fond of roaming from home, and likes to have
all its conveniences within reach, usually 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 subterranean galleries, excavated for the jjurpose,
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 soHcitude 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
opening one of these ant-hills early in the spring, on a sunny day, I ob-
served 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 consequence to them to forward
the hatching of these eggs as much as possible, in order to insure 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. Huber, in a nest of the same ant, at the foot of an oak, once found the
eggs of Aphis Querciis.
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 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 the wealth and prosperity of the community
is in proportion to the number of their cattle. Several other species keep
Aphides in their nests, but none in such numbers as those of which 1 am
speaking.^
Not only the Aphides yield this repast to the ants, but also the Cocci,
with whom they have recourse to similar manoeuvres, and with equal suc-
cess ; only in this case the movement of the antennae over their body may
be compared to the thrill of the finger over the keys of a pianoforte ; and
in the tropical regions of India and Brazil (where no Aphides occur) it
appears, from the observations of General Hardwicke, M. Lund, M. Bescke,
ami MM. Spix and Martins, that the ants milk the larvae and pupae of
various species of Cercopis and Mevibracis.^ But what is still more extra-
ordinary, even beetles are occasionally made cows of by Formica flava, the
^ Huber, 195. I have more than once found these Aphides in the nests of this
species of ant.
2 See Huber, chap. vi. I have found Aphides in the nest of Myrmica ruhra.
Boisier de Sauvages speaks of ants keeping their own Aphides, and gives an in-
teresting account of them. Journ. de Physique, i. 195.
s Westwood, 3Iod. Class, of Lis. ii. 239. 434.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 337
yellow ant, which, according to Miillcr's very curious account of its habits,
confirmed by iM. VVcsniael, keeps in its iioht the sini;nlar little C/aviger
fovculalux (which Mr. Westwood has discovered in this abode in Engl:;nd),
and obtains from the bristles terminatini; its el\tra a <;nnmiy secretion
which it uses for food, as it does that obtained from Aphides, feeding the
Clavigers in return for this servicc,and carefully guarding them from straying,
which if they attempt it seizes them with its jaws.' Their herds of these
hard-coateil yellow cattle are often numerous ; for when paying a visit in
18^9 to my Iriend Professor Germar at Halle in Prussia, lie showed me a
whole row of specimens from which he begged me to select at [)leasure,
all of which, if I recollect right, he had obtained from one ant's nest. It
is probable that another species of CUivigrr (C. longicurnis), which M.
Robert found also in an ant's nest, is made a similar nse of by them.
One of the singular circumstances in the history of ants, and which
requires further explanation, is, that besides the two beetles just named,
many other species of the same tribe, mostly of small size, are also found
in their nests, and so constantly, that it cannot arise from accident. My
friend M. Chevrolat of Paris, who has been more successful in procuring
new anil rare coleopterous insects from this habitat than perhaps any other
entomologist, has obtained the greatest number from the nests of Furniica
rtifa Latr., in which he has found Lomcchum strumoxn and denlala, a new
species of Xant/io/ijim, Dcndropliilus pt/gma'us Pa}k., D. fonuicetorum
Anbe, and D. Guerini Chevr., and Aionotoma coiiicollis, and M. fonuice-
torum Chevr. He has also found several specimens of lymiechusa paracloxa
in the nest of Formica cuuicu/aria Latr., and Abrccus globulus Payk.,
Batrmis formicarius De la Porte, and B. oculalu.s, and B. vcnustm Aube,
as well as his singular new insect Mt/nnecluxcnus subterraneus, in other
nests ; and M. Reiche has also found Htetcrius quadra/us in the nest of
Myrmica nnifasc'uita, as has Mr. MacLeay a crepitating species of Ccrapterus
in ants' nests in Australia." Besides the above, M. Chevrolat has observed
in some of these ants' nests isolated larvas, as he supposes, of a Clythra,
clothed with a case of gluten combined with particles of earth and small
stones ^ ; and Mr. Westwood states that he has often found in the nests
both of Formica: and Myrviiccc many very young specimens of a white
colour of a species of Oniscus, of which genus also, M. Lund in Brazil
observed many of the ants of a column of ilfi/rmica ft/p/ilos to carry each
an individual beneath the abdomen.* Thus we have sixteen or seventeen
coleopterous insects of different genera and species, besides one or more
species of Oniscus, habitually residing in ants' nests ; but whether these,
like the Clavigers, are subservient to the purp9ses of the ants, or whether
they make the ants subservient to theirs, or what is the precise object of
the companionship, must be left for future investigation, and are points to
which I would strongly recommend your attention.^
1 Gemiar, Magazin der Entom. iii. t. 2. Westwood, Mod. Class, of Ins. i. 176.
2 Westwood, Mod. Class, of Ins. i. xii.
' Silbermann, Revue Entom. iii. 2G3.
* .Westwood, Mod. Class, of Ins. ii. 234.
* As there can be little doubt that several of M. Chevrolat's insects might be
found in ants' nests in this country, as well as Claviger foveolalus, if sought for in
the way which this indefatigable entomologist employs, it may not be amiss to
indicate his mode of procedure. Before attacking an ants' nest he ties the legs of
his pantaloons over his boots and puts on gloves, and then proceeds to shovel the
338 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
When the population exceeds the produce of a country, 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 globe ; 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 particu-
larly influenced by them. The former, confined in a narrow hive, when
their society becomes too numerous to be contained conveniently in it,
must necessarily send forth the redundant part of their population to seek
for new 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 de-
parture of the males and females from the nest — are often disgusted with
their present habitation, and seek to establish themselves in a new one : —
either the near neighbourhood of enemies of their own species ; annoy-
ance from frequent attacks of man or other animals ; their exposure to cold
or wet from the removal of some species of shelter; or the discovery of a
station better circumstanced or more abundant in aphides; — all these may
operate as inducements to them to change their residence. 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 liis 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. riifa), though several other species occasionally emigrate.
Some of the neuters having found a spot which they judge convenient
for a new habitation, apparently without consulting the rest of the society,
determine upon an emigration, and thus they compass their intention : —
The lirst step is to raise recruits : with this view they eagerly accost
several fellow citizens of their own order, caress them with their antennae,
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 he may be called, prepares to carry off his recruit, who, suspending
himself upon his mandibles, hangs coiled up spirally under his neck ; — all
this passes in an amicable manner alter mutual 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 recruiter in its turn. The pair return to the old
nest, and each carries off afresh recruit, which being arrived at the spot
oins in the undertaking : — thus the number of recruiters keeps pro-
gressively 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
whole contents of the nest (of course to the very bottom) into a bag, of the contents
of which he spreads successive portions upon a cloth so as to allow the ants to
escape, and afterwards examines what remains at liis leisure. M. JNIarkel has re-
cently published a memoir on the coleopterous insects found in ants' nests in Saxon
Switzerland, amounting to nearly fifty species. (Germar's Zeitschrift, iii. 203.)
1 Gould, 42.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 839
singular and amusinii scene is then exhibited of the little people thus em-
ployed ! When an emigration of a rul'escent colony is going forward, the
negroes are seen carrying tlieir masters ; and the contrast of the red with
the black renders it peculiarly striking. The little tnrf-unts (Mi/r mica?
cccspUiiDi) upon these occasions carry their recruits uncoded, with their
heail downwards and their body in the air.
This extraordinary scene continues several days ; but when all the neu-
ters are accpiainted witli the road to the new city, the recruitinir 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 CDncluded. Wlien the spot thus selected for their re-
sidence is at a considerable distance from the old nest, the ants construct
some intermediate receptacles, resembling small ant-hills, consisting of a
cavity filled with fragments of straw and other materials, in which they
form several cells ; ami here at first they deposit their recruits, males,
females, and brood, which they afterwards conduct to the final settlement.
These intermediate stations sonietunes become permanent nests, which,
however, maintain a connection with the capital city. '
While the recruiting is proceeding it appears to occasion no sensation
in the original nest ; all goes on in it as usual, and the ants thitt are not
yet recruited pursue their ordinary occupations : whence it is evident that
the change of station is not an enterprise undertaken by the whole com-
munity. Sometimes many neuters set about this business at the same
time, which gives a short existence (for in the end they 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 wdi sometimes return to their original one before thev are entirely
settled in the new station ; when the recruitini: 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 awav his
recruit.^
These European emigrations, however, are somewhat insignificant when
compared with those which the neuters of some of the tropical species under-
take, the extent of which would be incredible if not so well authenticated.
M. Lund states that he once followed one of these vast hosts for five
days ; and M. Lacordaire informs us that when in Cayenne he saw a mi-
gratory army of this description pass his residence which was ai)out a
hundred paces broad, and which occupied more than a day and a half in
passing, though the ants marched rapidly and made no halt. It is to a
species of the ants making these migrations, that Madame Merian gave the
name of Anis of Visitation, before alluded to, as so useful by enterin<» all
the houses on their march, and clearing them of all noxious insects or other
animals. M. Lacordaire, however, denies that any such oliject actuates
these migrating ants, which he says often pass houses without entering
them ; and that when they do, it is for want of food on their route, though
he admits that in this case they leave no living animal in the houses which
1 Walkincf one day early in July in a spot wliere I used to notice a single nest of
Formica rufa, I observed that a new colony had been formed of considerable magni-
tude ; and between it and the original nest were six or seven smaller settlements.
' See Huber, chap. iv. § 3.
z 2
340 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
they visit, as he himself once witnessed at Cayenne.^ But whatever may
be the fact as to the migrating ants of Cayenne, the Chanseur-Ants of Tri-
nidad would seem to migrate for the express purpose' of scouring human
habitations for food, according to the account given by Mrs. Carmichael,
which presents so graphic a picture of their proceedings, that I shall give it
to you entire, especially as its minute and circumstantial details seem to
vouch for its accuracy : —
" One morning mv attention was arrested at Laurel Hill by an unusual
number of black birds, whose appearance was foreign to me : they were
smaller, but not unlike an English crow ; and were perched on a calibash-
tree near the kitchen. 1 asked the house-negress, who at that moment
came up from the garden, what could be the cause of the appearance of
those black birds ? She said, ' Misses, dem be a sign of the blessing of
God ; dey are not de blessing, but only de sign, as we say, of God's
blessin". Misses, you'll see afore noontime how the ants will come and
clear the houses.' At this moment I was called to breakfast, and thinking
it was some superstitious idea of hers, I paid no further attention to it.
" In about two hours after this, I observed an uncommon number of
chasseur-ants crawling about the floor of the room : my children were
annoyed by them, and seated themselves on a table, where their legs did
not communicate with the floor. The ants did not crawl upon my person,
but I was now surrounded by them. Shortly after this, the walls of the
room became covered by them ; and next they began to take possession
of the tables and chairs. I now thought it necessary to take refuge in an
adjoining room, separated only by a few ascending steps from the one we
occupied, and this was not accomplished without great care and generalship,
for had we trodden upon one we should have been summarily punished.
There were several ants on the step of the stair, but they were not nearly
so numerous as in the room we had left; but the upper room presented a
singular spectacle, for not only were the floor and the walls covered like
the other room, but the roof was covered also.
" The open rafters of a West India house at all times afford shelter to a
numerous tribe of insects, more particularly the cockroach ; but now their
destruction was inevitable. The chasseur-ants, as if trained for battle,
ascended in regular, thick files, to the rafters, and threw down the cock-
roaches to their comrades on the floor, who as regularly marched off with
the dead bodies of cockroaches, dragging them away by their united efforts
with amazing rapidity. Either the cockroaches were stung to death on
the rafters, or else the fall killed them. The ants never stopped to devour
their prey, but conveyed it all to their storehouses.
" The windward windows of this room were of glass, and a battle now
ensued between the ants and the jack-spaniards on the panes of glass.
The jack-spaniard may be called the wasp of the West Indies; it is twice
as large as a British wasp, and its sting is in proportion more painful : it
builds its nests in trees and old houses, and sometimes in the rafters of a
room. These jack-spaniards were not quite such easy prey as the cock-
roaches had been, for they used their wings, which not one cockroach had
attempted to do. Two jack-spaniards, hotly pursued on the window,
alighted on the dress of one of my children. I entreated her to sit still,
^ Lacordaire, Introd. a VEntom. ii. 504.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 341
and remain quiet. In an inconceivably short space of time, a party'of ants
crawled upon her frock, surrounded, covered the two jack -Spaniards, and
crawled down again to the floor, dragging ofi" their prey, and doing the
child no harm.
" From this room I went to the adjoining bed-chamber and dressing-
room, and found them ecpially in possession of the chasseurs. 1 opened
a large military chest full of linen, which had been much infested ; for I
was determined to take every advantage of such able hunters. I found
the ants already inside ; 1 suppose they must have got in at some o|)ening
at the liinges. I pulled out the linens on the floor, and with them hun-
dreds of cockroaches, not one of which escaped.
" We now left the house, and went to the chambers built at a little
distance ; but these also were in the same state. I next proceeded to
open a store-room at the end of the other house for a place of retreat ;
but, to get the key, I had to return to the under room, where the battle
was now more hot than ever. Tiie ants had commenced an attack upon
the rats and mice, which, strange as it may a[)pear, were no match for
their apparently insignificant foes. They surrounded them as they had
the insect tribe, covered them over, and dragged them oft" with a celerity
and union of strength, that no one who has not watched such a scene
can comprehend. I did not see one rat or mouse escape, and I am sure
I saw a score carried oft' during a very short period. We next tried the
kitchen, for the store-room and boy's pantry were already occupied ; but
the kitchen was equally the field of battle, between rats, mice, cock-
roaches, and ants killing them. A huckster negro came up selling cakes ;
and seeing the uproar, and the family and servants standing out in the
sun, he said, ' Ah, misses, you've got the blessing of God to-day, and a
great blessing it is to get such a cleaning.'
•' 1 think it was about ten when I first observed the ants ; about
twelve the battle was formidable ; soon after one o'clock the great strife
began with the rats and mice ; and about three the houses were cleared.
In a quarter of an hour more the ants began to decamp, and soon not one
was to be seen within doors. But the grass round the house was full of
them ; and they seemed now feasting on the remnants of their prey,
whicii had been left on the road to their nests ; and so the feasting con-
tinued till about four o'clock, when the black birds, who had never been
long absent from the calibask and jjoisdoux trees in the neigiibourhood,
darted down among them, and destroyed by millions those who were too
sluggish to make good their retreat. By five o'clock the whole was over ;
before sun-down, the negro-houses were all cleared in the same way; and
they told me that they had seen the black birds hovering about the almond
trees close to the negro-houses, as early as seven in the morning. I never
saw those black birds before or since, and the negroes assured me that
they were never seen but at such times." i
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 in-
credible diligence, labour, and ingenuity.
^ Mrs. Carmichael on the West Indies, quoted in Saturday Magazine, 1833,
p. 150.
z 3
342 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
In this country it is common!}' in March, earlier or later according to
the season, that ants first make their appearance, and they continue their
labours till the middle or latter end of October. They emerge usually
from their subterranean winter-quarters on some sunny day ; when,
assembling in crowds on the surface of the formicary, they may be ob-
served 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. rufa), all the upper stories of whose dwellings are generally laid flat
by the winter rains and snow ; but every species, it may well be sup-
posed, 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 ignorant 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 carried, 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. For the ants employ each moment, by day
and night, almost without intermission, unless hindered by e.Kcessive
rains." ' M. Huber also, speaking of a mason-ant, not found with us,
tells us that they work after sunset, and in the night.* To tiiese I can
add some observations of my own, which fully confirm these accounts.
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. nifa), which, according to
M. Huber, shut their gates, or rather barricade them, every night, and
remain at home.^ Bemg 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 neighbouring oaks, doubtless
to milk their Aphides. The number of comers and goers at that hour,
however, was nothing compared with the myriads that may always be
1 Gould, 67. De Geer, ii. 1054. « Hist Animal. 1. ix. c. 38.
5 Gould, 68. 4 Huber, 35. 42.
5 Huber, 23.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 343
seen on these nests durini^ the day. It so happened that our visit was
paid while the moon was near the full ; so that whether this sjjceies is
equally vi<;ilant and active in tiie ahsence of tiiat lumin;iry yet remains un-
eertaiu. Perhaps this circumstance might reconcile lluher's ohservation
witii ours, ami confirm the accuracy of Aristotle's statement hcfore quoted.
To the red ant, indeed, it is perfectly iutlifferent whether the moon shine
or not ; they are alwa\s husy, though not in such numl)ers as during the
day. It is proi>al)le that these creatures take their repose at all hours
inilifrereiitly ; for it cannot be supposed that they are employed day and
night without rest.
1 have related to you in this and former letters most of the works and
employments of ants, but as yet 1 have given jou no account of their
roads and trackways. Don't be alarmed, and imagine 1 am going to
repeat to you the fable of the ancients, that they wear a path in the
stones ' ; for 1 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 eflisct employ the formic acid : but
more s|)ecies than one do really form roads which lead from their for-
micaries into the adjoining country. Gould, speaking of his jet-ant (7'"'.
J'uliginosa), says that they make several main track-ways (streets he calls
them), with smaller |)aths striking off" from them, extending sometimes to
the distance of forty feet from their nest, and leading to those spots in
which they collect their provisions ; thai upon these roads they always
travel, and are very careful to remove from them bits of sticks, straw, or
any thing that may impede tlieir progress ; nay, that tliey even keep low
the herbs and grass which grow in them, by constantly biting them oft"^,
so that they may be said to mow their walks. But the best constructors
of roads are the hill ants (F. rvj'n). 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 distinguished, and which
are formed by the going and coming of innumerable ants, whose custom
it is always to travel in the same route." ^ From Huber we further learn
that these roads of the hill-ants are 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 alto-
gether correct, are very beautiful : —
" So when the pismires, an industrious train.
Embodied rob some golden heap of grain.
Studious ere stormy winter frowns to lay
Safe in their darksoriie cells tiie treasured prey ;
Jn one long track the dusky legions lead
Their prize in triunipli through the verdant mead;
Here, bending with the load, a panting throng
With force conjoin'd heave some huge grain along,
1 Plin. Nat. Hist. Ixi. c. 29. 2 Gould, 87.
3 De Geer, ii. 1067. 4 Huber, 146.
z 4
344 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
Some lash the stragglers to the task assign'd,
Some to their ranks the bands that lag behind :
They crowd the peopled path in thick array,
Glow at the work, and darken all 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 thev
have made any discovery of agreeable food, that they possess the means
of directing their companions to it, though it is scarcely possible that
the path can have been sufficiently impregnated 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 suf-
ficient 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 diminish the quantum of
labour, yet by numbers, strength, and perseverance they effect what at
first sight seems quite beyond their powers. Their strength is wonderful.
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
carrying off a Patagonian centipede. They had seized it by all its legs,
and bore it along as workmen do a large piece of timber.* The Ma-
hometans 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 pertinaciously persist in it though at the
expense of their lives. I iiave in my cabinet a specimen of CoHiuris lovgi-
coUis 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 exceed
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 endeavour to swim over it.
This quality of perseverance in ants on one occasion led to very im-
portant results, which affected a large portion of this habitable globe ;
for the celebrated conqueror Timour, being once forced to take shelter
from his enemies in a rumed building, where he sat alone many hours,
1 (Euv. de Bonnet, i. 535. Huber, 197.
2 Voy. to Maurlt. 71.
3 I was much amused, when dining in the forest of Fontainebleau, by the perti-
nacity with which the hill-ant (F. rufa) attacked our food, haling from our very
plates, while we were eating, long strips of meat many times their own size.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 845
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 eHbrts that it
made to accomplish tiiis 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 conveyed."'
Madame Merian, in her Surinam Insects, speaking of the large-headed
ant {Attn cvphalvlcs), affirms tiiat, if they wish to emigrate, they will con-
struct a living bridge in this manner: — one imlividual first fixes itself to a
piece of wood by means of its jaws, and remains stationary ; witii this a
second connects itself; a third takes hold of the second, and a fourth of
tile thin!, 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 the 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 cor-
rect in her statements, I regarded this as altogether fabulous, till I 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.
Wlien an inundation takes place, they are heaped together out of the nest
into a circular mass, about a foot in diameter, and four fingers in depth.
Tims they remain 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 |)alms' length, and of
tlie 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 remain 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 pismires are doomed by the law of tiieir
nature ; I shall therefore endeavour to relieve your mind by introducing
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 basking in the sun, and
that on a fine serene morning you may see them conglomerated like bees
on tiie 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 lie saw many employed in various ways, he noticed some
reposing which appeared to be asleep.^
1 Related in the Quarterly Review for August, 1816, p. 259.
2 Insect. Surinam, p. 18. In her plate the ants are represented so connected.
5 Voyages dans C Ainirique Merid. i. 187.
< Gould, 69. s Huber, 73.
346 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
But they have not only their time for repose ; they also devote some
to relaxation, durino; which they amuse themselves with sports and jrames.
" You may frequently perceive one of these ants {F. rufa) (sajs our Gould)
run to and fro with a fellow-labourer in his forceps, of the same species
and colony. It appeared first in the light of provisions; but I was soon
undeceived by observing that after being carried for some time it was let
go in a friendly manner, and received no personal injury. This amuse-
ment, 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 holding with his maudibles
the neck of his horse, and embracing it closely with his legs.* But the
most circumstantial account of their sports is given by Huber. " 1 ap-
proached one day," says he, "one of their formicaries (he is speaking of
F. rufa) exposed to the sun and sheltered from the north. The ants were
heaped together in great numbers, and seemed to enjoy the temperature
which they experienced at the surface of the nest. None of them were
working : this multitude of accumulated insects exhibited the appearance
of a boiling fluid, upon which at first the eye could scarce fix itself with-
out difficulty. But when I set myself to follow 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-legs
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 endeavoured to catch others. I.have
seen some who engaged 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 formerly made. *' On the 9th
of May, at half past two, as I was walking on the Piumstead road near
Norwich, on a sunny bank I observed alargenumber of ants ( Formica fusca)
agglomerated in crowds near the entrances of their nest. They seemed to
make no long excursions, as if intent upon enjoying the sunshine at home ;
but all the while they were coursing about, and appeared to accost each
other with their antennae. Examining them very attentively, I at length
saw one dragging another, which it absolutely lifted up by its antennae, and
carrying it in the air. I followed it with my eye, till it concealed itself and
its antagonist in the nest. 1 soon noticed another that had recourse to
the same manoeuvres; but in this instance the ant that was attacked re-
sisted 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 mandibles. What was the precise object of these
proceedings, whether sport or violence, I could not ascertain. I walked
1 Gould, 103—. 2 Bonnet, ii. 407. ^ Huber, 170—.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 347
the same way on the following morning, but at an earlier hour, when only a
few comers ami goers were to be seen near the nest." And soon leaving
the place, I liail no furtiicr opportunity to attend to them.
And now having conducted you through every apartment of the formi-
cary, and shown you its inhabitants in every iijilit, I shall leave you to
nieilitate on the extraordinary instincts with wliich their Creator has
gifted them, reserving what I have to say on the other social insects for a
future occasion.
I am, &c.
348
LETTER XVIII.
SOCIETIES OF mSECTS— continued.
PERFECT SOCIETIES — Continued, (wasps and humble-bees.)
I SHALL now call your attention to such parts of the history of two
other descriptions of social insects, ivasps, namely, and humhle-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 communicate, though
not devoid of interest, is not to be compared with the preceding account of
the ants, nor with that which will follow of the hive-bee. This, however,
may arise more from the deficiency of observations than the barrenness of
the subject.
The first of these animals, wasps (Vespa) — with whose proceedings 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
season of the year in which they appear, they are sure to enter. When
they visit us, they stand upon no ceremony, but make free with everything
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 they 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, and industrious subjects, whose
persons are attacked and property plundered by them. Yet with all this
love of pillage and other bad propensities, they are not altogether dis-
agreeable 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 Hymeiioptera,
consist of females, males, and workers. The females rmy 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 respects they do not materially differ) in weight, and laying
both male and female eggs. Then the small females, 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 Huber's.^ The
large females are produced later than the workers, and make their appear-
ance 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
1 Huber, Nouv. Observ. ii. 443.
TERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 349
are more wortliv of praise than the queen-bee : since upon the latter,
from her very first a|)|)earance in the perfect state, no hibour devolves —
all her wants being prevented by a host of workers, some of which are
constantly attendinj; ujjou her, feeding her, and permitting her to suffer no
fatigue ; while others take every step that is necessary for the safety and
subsistence of the colony. Not so our female wasp ; — she is at first an
insulatetl being that has had the fortune to survive the rigours of winter.
When in the spring she lays the foundation of her future empire, she has
not a single worker at her disposal ; w ith her own hands and teeth she
often hollows out a cave wherein she may lay the first foundations of her
paper metropolis ; she must herself build the first houses, 'and produce
from her own womb their first inhabitants, which in their infant state she
must feed and educate, before they can assist her in the great design. At
length she receives the reward of her perseverance and labour ; and from
being a solitary unconnected imlividual, in the autumn is enabled to rival
the (pieen 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 some-
times 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 generations 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 nnmerous 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
(jueen-mother perishes, the neuters cease their labours, lose their instincts,
and die.
The number oi females in a populous vespiary is considerable, 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 October,
wiien they pair. Of this large number of females, 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 lay-
ing 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 antennje 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 sometimes heavy burdens 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 an-
swered; but they share the general lot of the community, and are suffered
to survive till the cold cuts off them and the workers together.
350 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
The workers are the most numerous, and to us the only troublesome
part of the community; upon whom devolves the main business of the
nest. In the summer and autumnal months, they go forth l)y 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 fortifying the vespiary. This division is volun-
tarily made, without the slightest symptom of compulsion. Several wasps
assemble round each of the returning workers, and receive their respective
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.
Wasps do not in general store up honey, but it is found in the cells of
some European s|)ecies of Polistes, as well as in those of America; and M.
A. de St. Hilaire was nearly poisoned by eating that collected by P. leche-
guana, which inhabits Paraguay and Monte Video.^ Another wasp before
referred to under "habitations of insects," as forming a nest somewhat
similar to that of Chatergus nidulans, also stores up honey, as we learn from
the interesting paper of Mr. Adam White, who has named it Mi/rapetra
scti'ellaris!^
Another principal employment of the workers is the enlarging and re-
pairing of the nest. It is extremely amusing to see them engaged upon
this foliaceous covering. 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 portion of work assigned to it, extending from an
inch to an inch and a half, and is furnished with a ball of ligneous fibre,
scraped or rather plucked by its powerful jaws from posts, rails, and the
like. This is carried in its mouth, and is thus ready for immediate use: —
but upon 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
the Philosophical Transactions ^, that if a nest of wasps be approached
without alarming the inhabitants, and all communication be suddenly cut
off between those out of the nest and those within it, no provocation will
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 pubhc wrongs, and prepared to sacrifice its life in the execution
of its orders, lie discovered this when quite a boy.
It sometimes happens that when a large number of female wasps have
been observed in the spring, and an abundance of workers has in conse-
quence been expected to make their attack upon us in the summer and
1 Lacordaire, Introd. a I'Entom. ii. 511. 2 Annals of Nat. Hist. vii. 316.
? For 1807, 242—.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 351
autumn, but few have appeared. Mr. Kniirht observed this in 1806, and
supposes it to be caused hy a failure of nudes." I have since more than
once made the same observation, and Major Moor, as well as myself,
noticed it in the year 1815. Wiiat took place here in the following year
may in some degree account for it. Though tiie siunmer had bcin very
wet. and one may almost say winterly, there were in the neigiibourhood
in which I reside al)undancc of wasps at the usual time; but except on
some few warm days, in which they were very active, beniniibed by the
colli they were crawling about on the floors of my house, and seemed
unable to fly. In this vicinity numbers make their nests in the banks of
the river. In the beginning of the month of October there was a very con-
siderable inundation, after which not a single wasp was to be seeti. The
contiiuied wet that produces an inundation may also destroy those nests
that arc out of the reach of the waters ; and perhaps this cause may have
operated in those jears above alluded to, in which the appearance of the
workers in the sununer and autiunn did not correspond with the large
numbers of females ob>erved in the spring.
In ordmary seasons, in the month lately mentioned, October, wasps
seem to become less savage and sanguinary; for even flies, of which earlier
in the sinnmer they are the pitiless destroyers, may be seen to enter their
nests with impimity. 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 (seethe sixth Memoir of his last vobmie) 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 of their history, concerning which we are now in dark-
ness.
Having given you some idea, imperfect indeed from the want of mate-
rials, of the societies of wasps, I must next draw up for you the best
accoimt I can of those of the kumhle-bees? These form a kind of inter-
mediate link bctsveen the wasps and the hive-bees, collertnig honey indeed
and u)aking wax, but constructing their combs and cells without the geo-
metric precision of the latter, and of a more rude and rustic kind of
architectiu'c ; and distinguished from both, though they approach nearer to
the bees, by the extreme hairiness of their bodies.
The |)()pulation of a humble-bees' nesf may be divided into four orders
of individuals: the large females; the small females ; tiic males; and the
workers.
The large fcmnles, 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 workers, which in every other respect they exactly resemb'e, they
look like giants opposed to pigmies. 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 underground, and, as
appears from an observation of M. P. Huber, in a particular apartment,
1 Phil. Trans, for 1807. 243. » Bombus. Apis **. e. 2. K.
352 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
separate from the nest, and rendered warm by a carpeting of moss and
grass, but without any supply of food. Early in the spring (for they make
their first appearance as soon as the catkins of the sallows and willows are
in flower), like the female wasps, they lay the foundations of a new colony
without the assistance of any neuters, which all perish before the winter.
In some instances, however, if a conjecture 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 Bovibus Syl-
vnrum 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 extremity, by means of some
very brown wax applied above and below. ^ This he conceives to be a pre-
caution taken by the other bees to oblige these individuals to remain in the
nest, and take care of the brood that was next year to renew the popula-
tion of the colony. I feel, however, great hesitation in admitting this con-
jecture, founded upon an insulated and perhaps 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 collecting of honey and pollen, is principally the
constructing of the cells in which her eggs are to be laid ; which M. P.
Huber seems to think, though they often 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 eggs 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 labours ;
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 differs ; 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 develop 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 ovipo-
sition), 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 small kind o? female has
been discovered : this is the case also amongst the humble-bees, in whose
societies they are more readily detected ; not, indeed, by any observable
1 JMimoires du Museum, &c. i. 55.
2 P. Huber, in TAnn. Trans, vi. 264. — This author says, however, inj'another
place {ibid. 285.), that the male eggs are laid in the spring, at the same time with
those that are to produce workers. Perhaps bj' the former he means the male
offspring of the small females, and by the latter those of the large ?
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 353
difference between them and the workers, but chiefly by the diversity of
their instincts : — from the other females tiiey 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 fertilise the
young females that found the vernal colonies. M. P. Ilubcr suspects that,
as in the case of the female bee, it is a diflerent kind of food that develops
their ovaries, and so distinguishes them from the workers. They are
generally attendetl 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 inhabitants 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 extremely jealous of her
pigmy rivals, came and drove them away from the cell ; — she in her turn
was ilriven awa}' l)y 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 them away
again, put her head into the cell, when, seizing the eggs that had been laid,
she was observed to devour 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, several of the 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 fili-
form, and slenderer antennae ; by the different shape and by the beard of
their mandibles. Their posterior tibiae also want the corbicula and pecten
that distinguish the individuals of the other sex, and their posterior plantae
have no auricle. 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 befal the common habitation.'
The workers, which are the first-fruits of the queen-mother's vernal par-
turition, 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 occa-
sions the honey to fall into the reservoir. Sixty of these honey-pots are
occasionally found in a single nest, and more than forty are sometimes filled
1 It should be here observed that, besides the proper occupants of some humble-
bees' nests, there are occasionally met with in them individuals of another genus of
the same family, so closely resembling them as to be often confounded with them,
which, being unprovided with the usual polliniferous organs, are supposed to be, in
their larva state, parasitic inhabitants of the nest. This genus, wiiieh includes Apis
riipestris F. &c., has been named Apathus by Mr. Newman, Psithyrns by il. de St.
Fargeau, and Pseudo-Bombus by Jlr. Stephens. In like manner, the exotic genus
Chnjsantheda is supposed to be parasitic on the metallic Englossa {Hist, of Ins. by
Swainson and Shuckard, 1G9. \\'estwood's Mod. Class, of Jus. ii. 281.)
A A
354 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
in a day. In collecting honey, humble-bees, if they cannot get at that con-
tained in any flower by its natural opening, will often make an aperture at
the base of the corolla, or even in the calyx, that they may insert their
proboscis in the verj' place where nature has stored up her nectar.^ M.
1 Hub. Nnuv. Observ. ii. 375. Of the especial love of humble-bees for the nectar
of the Passion-flower (^Passiflora cceruka), and the effect which it has on them, the
following paragraph gives a graphic description.
" We regret extremely to announce that some honest humble-bees of our ac-
quaintance have taken to drinking, and to such excess that they are daily found
reeling and tumbling about the door of their houses of call — the blossoms of the
Passion-flower, which flow over with intoxicating beverage ; and there, not con-
tent with drinking like decent bees, they plunge their great hairy heads into the
beautiful goblet that nature has formed in such plants, thrusting each other aside,
or climbing over each other's shoulders, till the flowers bend beneath their weight.
After a time they become so stupid that it is in vain to pull them by the skirts, and
advise them to go home, instead of wasting their time in tippling : they are, how-
ever, good-natured in their cups, and show no resentment at being disturbed ; on
the contrary, thej' cling to their wine goblet, and crawl back to it as fast as they
are pulled away, unless, indeed, they fairly lose their legs and tumble down, in
which case they lie sprawling on the ground, quite unable to get up again."
(^Gardeners' Chronicle, 1841, p. 519.) If this account be not over-coloured these
jovial, reckless proceedings of humble-bees are in strong contrast with the temperate
habits of hive-bees, which, to judge from the interesting account Mr. Wailes has
given lis of their visits to his Passion-flowers (Ent. Mag. i. 525.), hurried back to
the hive as soon as they had imbibed their supply of nectar; and certainly the
anecdote given below, from Huber, of the waj' in wliich humble-bees suffered them-
selves to be cajoled out of their honey by hive-bees indicates such a good-natured
weakness of disposition as may easily be supposed to be combined with a propensity
to carousing when the opportunity presents itself. To speak seriously, however, it
would be well worth ascertaining, by exact observations, whether as great a
contrast between the temperance of humble-bees and hive-bees in feeding really
exists, as between their easiness of temper. There can be no doubt that some races
of insects varj' as much in this last respect as some races of men. The difference as
to irritability between the temper of wasps and that of bees is known to every one,
but has never been so happily hit off as by Christopher North, whose universal
genius adorns everj' subject, in the description of it, which he has put into the
mouth of the " Shepherd," in one of the Nodes, and which well deserves trans-
cription here from the pages of the voluminous periodical in which it has lain
entombed these sixteen years.
" Shepherd. — 0' a' God's creturs the wasp is the only ane that's eternally out o'
temper. There's nae sic thing as pleasin' him. In the gracious sunshine, ....
when the bees are at work murmurin' in their gauzy flight, although no gauze
indeed be coinparable to the filaments o' their woven wings, or, clinging silently
to the flowers, sook, sookin' out the hiney-dew, till their verra doups dirl wi' delight,
— when a' the flees that are ephemeral, and weel contented wi' the licht and the
heat o' ae single sun, keep danciu' in their burnished beauty, up and down, to and
fro, and backwards and forwards, and sideways, in millions upon millions, and yet
are never joistling anither, but a' harmoniously blended together in amity, like ima-
gination's thochts, — why, amid this ' general dance of minstrelsy,' in comes a
shower o' infuriated wasps, red het, as if let out o' a fiery furnace, pickin' quarrels
wi' their ain shadows — then roun and roun the hair o' your head, bizzin' against
the drum o' your ear till you think they are in at the ae hole and out at the ither —
back again after makin' a circuit, as if they had repentit o' lettin' you be unharmed,
dashin' against the face o' you who are wishin' ill to nae livin' thing, and althougli
you are engaged out to dinner, stickin' a lang poishoned stang in just below your
ee, that afore you can rin hame frae the garden swells up to a fearsome hicht,
makin' you on that side look like a blackamoor, and on the opposite white as death,
sae intolerable is the agony frae the tail o' the yellow imp that, according to his
bulk, is stronger far than the dragon o' the desert." (Blackwood's Edinburgh 3Iag.
Oct. 1826.)
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 355
Huber relates a singular anecdote of some liive-bces paying a visit to a nest
of humble-bees placed under a box not far from tlieir bive, in order to steal
or beg their hoiicy, which places in a strong light the gooil temper of the
latter. This happened in a time of scarcity. The hive-bees, after pillaging,
had taken almost entire possession of the nest. ISome 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 bive-bees followed them, and did not quit them until they bad
obtained the fruit of their labours. They licked them, presented to'tbeni
tiieir proboscis, surrounded them, and thus at last persuaded them to part
with the contents 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 persua-
sion 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 community, but are
nothing when compared with the numbers to be found in a vespiary or a
bee-hive: two or 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 observer.'-
I am, &c.
1 Hub. iVour. Ohserv. ii. 373.
2 This account of the proceedings of humble-bees is chiefly taken from Reaumur,
vi. 3Iem. 1. : and M. P. Huber in Linn. Trans, vi. 214.
A A 2
356
LETTER XIX.
SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
PERFECT SOCIETIES — Continued, (the hive-bee.)
The glory of an all-wise and omnipotent Creator, you will acknowledge,
is wonderfully manifested by the varied 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 common hive-bee (Apis mel-
lifica) ^, and which I am next to lay before you. Of all the insect associa-
tions, 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 consistent 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 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 adopted 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, derived probably from swarms of bees having been ob-
served, as in the case of Samson *, to take possession of the dried car-
casses of these animals, or, perhaps, from the myriads of flies (for the
vulgar do not readily distinguish flies from bees) often generated in their
putrescent 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. 3 These
specimens of ancient credulity will suffice.
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 what some of our best modern apiarists have advanced. Ac-
1 Apis ** . I. K. 2 Judges, xiv. 8, 9.
3 See Aristot. Hist. Animal. 1. v. c. 22. ; Virgil, Georgia. I. iv. ; and MoufFet, 12.
TERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 357
cording to him, the kings (so he denominates the quecn-bec) generate
both kings and workers ; and the hitter the drones. This he seems to
have learned from keepers of bees. Tlie kings, says he, in another place,
are the parents of the bees, and the drones their children. It is right, he
observes again, that the kings (which by some were called mothers) should
remain within the hive unfettered by any employment, because tiity are
made for the multiplication of the species.' To tiie same purpose Riem
of Lauten of the Paldlinatc Apiarian Socicli/, and Wilhelmi of the Liimlian,
affirm that the queen lays the eggs which produce the queens and workers ;
and the workers those that produce the drones or males.'- Aristotle also
tells us that some in his time affirmed that the bees (the workers) were
the females, and the drones the males : an o|)inion which he combats
from an analogy, pushed rather too far, that nature would never give
ofl'ensivc 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, '• /i/ce plants, the male and the female. " •*
Fables and absurdities, however, are not confined to the ancients, nor
even to those moderns who lived before Swammerdam, Maraldi, Reaumur,
Bonnet, Schirach, John Hunter, Iluber, and their followers, by their ob-
servations and discoveries had thrown so nmch light upon this interesting
subject. Even in our own times, a Neapolitan professor, Monticelli,
asserts, on the authority of a certain father Tanoya, that in every hive
there are three sorts of bees independent of each otiier; viz., male and
female drones — male and female, I must not say queens — call them what
you will — and male and female workers ; and that each construct their
own cells ! ! ! Enough, however, upon this subject. I shall now endea-
vour to lay before you the best authenticated facts in the history of these
animals ; but you must net expect an account of them complete in all its
parts ; for, much as we know, Bonnet's observation will still hold good:
" The more I am engaged in making fresh observations upon bees, the
more steadfast is my conviction that the time is not yet arrived in which
we can draw satisfactory conclusions with respect to their policy. It is
only by var\ing and combining experiments in a thousand ways, and by
placing these industrious flies in circumstances more or less removed 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 admirable creatures will
be principally taken from the two authors who have given the clearest
and most satisfactory 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 brood, consists of
one female or queen ; several hundreds of males or drones j and many
thousand workers.
T\\e female, or queen, first demands our attention. Two sorts of females
have been observed amongst the bees, a large one and a small. Mr.
1 Aristot. ubi siipr. c. 21. De General. Animal. 1, iii. c. 10., where there is some
curious reasoning upon this subject.
2 Bonnet, x. 199. 236. 3 Hist. Animal. 1. v. c. 22.
♦ De General. Animal. 1. iii. c. 10. 5 O^uvr. x. 194.
A A 3
358 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
Needham was the first that observed the latter ; and their existence, M.
P. Huber 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 female, the genuine monarch of the hive.^
1 Bonnet, x. P. Huber in Linn. Trans, vi. 283. Reaumur (v. 37.3.) 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.
2 As every reader is not aware of tlie differences of form, &c,, that distinguish
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 lagopoda L.), I shall here subjoin
a description of each.
i. 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 — not to insist upon Virgil's roj'al bees glittering with ruddy or golden
spots and scales, where allowance must be made for poetic licence — Reaumur
affirms, after describing some differences of colour in diifereut individuals of this
sex, that a queen may always be distinguished, 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 applj' 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 have stated it,
is the same.
The head is not larger than that of the workers ; but the tongue is shorter and
more slender, with straighter maxilla. The 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 exterior being acute, and the interior blunt
or truncated. The lahrum or upper lip is fulvous ; and the antennas are piceous.
In the trunk, the tegulce or scales that defend the base of the wings are rufo-piceous.
The wijigs reach only to the tip of the third abdominal segment. The tarsi and the
apex of "the tibice are rufo-fulvous. The posterior tibiw are plane above, and covered
with short adpressed hairs, having neither the corbicula (or marginal fringe of
hairs for carrying the masses of pollen) nor the, fiecten; and the posterior />fante
have neither the brush formed of hairs set in striie, nor the auricle at the base.
The abdomen is considerably longer than the head and trunk taken together, re-
ceding from the trunk, elongato-conical, and rather sharp at the anus. The dorsal
segments are fulvous at the tip ; covered with very short, pallid, and, in certain
lights, shining adpressed hairs; the first segment being very short, and covered
with longer hairs. The ventral segments, except the anal, which is black, are ful-
vescent or rufo-fulvous, and covered with soft longer hairs. The vagina of the
spicula (commonly called the sting) is curved.
ii. The 3fale bee, or drone, is quite the reverse of his roj'al paramour; his bodj-
being thick, short, and clumsy, and very obtuse at each extremity, f It is covered
also, as to the head and ti-unk. 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 eyes are very large, meeting at the back part of the head. In the
space between them are placed the antenna and stemmata. The former consist of
* Reaumur, v. 375.
I Virgil seems to have regarded the drone as one of the sorts of kings or leaders
of the bees, when he says, speaking of the latter,
" lUe horridus alter
Desidia, latamque trahens inglorius alvum."
Georgic. iv. 1. 93.
rEUFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 3o9
There are two descriptions of males — one not biirgcr than the w orkers,
sup[)oseil to he proiluccd from a male 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 tiiere are two 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 su|)poscd to
to have partaken of some portion of the royal jelly, lay male eggs. There
is found in some hives, according to lliiber, a kind of bees, wiiicli, from
having less down upon the head and tliorax, a[)pcar blacker than the
others, by whom they are always expelled from the hive, and often killed.
Perfect ovaries, upon dissection, were discovered in these bees, though
not furnished with eggs. This discovery induced Mile. Jurine, the lady
who dissected them, to examine the common workers in the same way ;
ami she found in all that she examined, what had escaped Swanmierdam,
perfect though sterile ovaries.' It is worth inquiry, though M. Huber
gives no hint of this kind, whether these were not in fact superannuated
bees, that could no longer take part in the la!)ours of the hive. Thorley
remarks, which confirms this idea, that if you closely observe a hive of
bees in July, you may perceive many amongst them of a dark colour, with
fourteen joints, including the radicle, the fourth and fifth being veiy short, and not
easily distinguished.
Tlie trunk is large. The wtTtgs are longer than the body. The legs are short and
slender. The posterior tibia are long, club-shaped, and covered with inconspicuous
hairs. The jxtsterior planta: are furnished underneath with thick-set scopuloe, which
they use to brush their bodies.
The claw joints are fulvescent.
The abdomen is cordate, very short, being scarcely so long as the head and trunk
together, consisting of seven segments, which are fulvous at their apex. The 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 be perceived ; — the
remaining cues are hairy, the three last being iuflexed. The ventral segments are
very narrow, hairy-, ami fulvous.
iii. The bodi/ 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 t07>gue and maxilla are long and incurved ;
the labrum and antenna black.
In the trunk the tegula are black. The wings extend only to the apex of the
fourth segment of the abdomen. The legs are all black, with the digits only rather
piceous. The posterior tibia are naked above, exteriorly longitudinally concave,
and interiorly longitudinally convex ; furnished with lateral and recumbent hairs
to form the corblcida, and armed at the end with the pecten. The upper surface of
the posterior plantie resembles that of the tibia ; 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.
The abdomen is a little longer than the head and tnmk together ; oblong, and
rather heart-shaped : a transverse section of it is triangular. It is covered with
longish, liavo-pallid hairs : the first segment is short with longer hairs ; the base
of the three intermediate segments is covered, and as it were banded, with pale
hairs. The apex of the three intermediate ventral segments is rather fulvescent,
and their base is distinguished on each side by a trapeziform wax pocket covered by
a thin membrane. The sting, or rather vagina of the spicula, is straight.
1 See p. 275.
' In hives where a queen laying male eggs has been killed, the workers con-
tinue to make only male cells, though supplied with a fertile queen, and the
fertile workers lay eggs in them. Schirach, 258.
5 Huber, ii. 4".'5
AA 4
360 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
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 superannuated insects the hair is often rubbed off
the body, which gives them a darker hue than that of more recent indi-
viduals of the same species. Should this conjecture turn out true, their
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 evident from their destruction of the drones after
their work 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 336 weighed
an ounce, and 3376 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 I should other-
wise have done, in order that you may be the better able to form a judg-
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 educated as queens ; which, by having a royal
cell erected for their habitation, and being fed with royal jelly for not more
than two days, when they emerge from the pupa state (though, if thev
had remained in the cells which they originally inhabited, they would have
turned out workers) will come forth complete queens, with their form,
instincts, and powers of generation entirely different. In order to produce
this effect, the grub must not be more than three days old ; and this is
the age at which, according to Schirach (the first apiarist who called the
pubhc attention to this miracle of nature), the bees usually elect the larvae
to be royally educated ; though it appears from Huber's observations, that
a larva two days or even twenty-four hours old will do.'^ 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 down the
partitions which separate these three cells ; and, leaving the bottoms
untouched, raise round the selected worm a cylindrical 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 direc-
tion, they gnaw away the cells below it, and sacrifice without pity the
grubs they contain, using the wax of which tiiey were formed to construct
a new pyramidal tube, which they join at right angles to the horizontal
one, the diameter of the former diminishing 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
I Thorley On Bees, 179. 2 Huber, i. 137.
s Eeaumur, who was, however, unacquainted with this extraordinary fact, has
figuied one of these cells, v. t. 32. / 3. h.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 361
round its body. The aiiiiiial, which can only move in a spiral direction,
keeps incessantly turnin;;; to take the jelly deposited before it ; and thus
slowly working downwards, arrives insensibly near the orifice of the cell,
just at the time that it is ready to assume the pupa ; when, as before de-
scribed, the workers shut up its cradle with an ap|)ropriate 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
u|)on me to bring forth my " strong reasons " in su|)port of it. What ! —
you will e.Kclaim — can a larger and warmer house (for the royal cells are
"affirmed to enjoy a higher temperature than those of the otiier bees ^),
a dirt'erent and more pungent kind of food, and a vertical instead of a
horizontal posture, in the Hrst place, give a bee a differently shaped tongue
and mandibles ; render the surface of its posterior tibiaj flat instead of
concave ; deprive them of the fringe of hairs that forms the basket for
carrving the masses of pollen ; of the auricle and pecten which enable the
workers to use these tibise as i)incers ^ ; of the brush that lines the inside
of their plantae "? Can they lengthen its abdomen ; alter its colour and
clothing ; give a curve to its sting ; deprive it of its wax-pockets, and of
the vessels for secreting that substance ; and render its ovaries more con-
spicuous, and capable of yielding female as well as male eggs ? Can, in
the next place, the seemingly trivial circumstances just enumerated alto-
gether alter the instinct of these creatures ? Can they give to one de-
scription of animals address and industry ; and to the other astonishing
fecundity '•' Can we conceive them to change the very passions, tempers,
and manners ? That the very same foetus if fed with more pungent food,
in a higher temperature and in a vertical 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 horizontal 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
— laborious, industrious, patient, ingenious, skilful — incessantly engaged
in the nurture of the young ; in collecting honey and pollen ; in elaborat-
ing wax ; in constructing cells, and the like ! — paying the most respectful
and assiduous attention to objects which, had its ovaries been developed,
it would have hated, and pursued 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 improbable, 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 astonish-
ing and seemingly incredible fact rests upon strong foundations, and is
established by experiments made at different times, by different persons of
the highest credit, in diiitjrent parts of Europe. The first who brought
it before the public (as I lately observed) was M. Schirach, secretary
1 Compare Bonnet, x. 15G. with Huber, 1. 134. 2 Scliirach, C9.
5 Huber, t. 4. /. 4—6, * Iluber, i. 292.
362 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF IXSECTS.
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 the result was almost uni-
formly the same. In one instance he tried it with a single cell, and it suc-
ceeded.^ This curious fact was communicated to the celebrated Bonnet,
who, though he hesitated long before he admitted it, was at length fully
convinced. M. Wilhelmi (Schirach'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 convinced of the truth of Schirach's po-
sition.^
The fact in question, though the public attention was first called to it
by the latter gentleman, had indeed been practically known long before he
wrote. M. Vogel, in a letter to Wilhelmi, asserts that numerous expe-
riments confirming this extraordinary fact had been made by more than a
hundred different persons, in the course of more than a hundred years ;
and that he himself had known old cultivators of bees who had unanimously
declared to him, that when proper precautions were taken in a practice
of more than fifty years, the experiment had never failed.^ Signer Monti-
celli, 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 Aristotle 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 par-
ticular 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 com-
mon ones. He also informs me that he has found Ruber'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 detailed to you is
J Bonnet, x.
2 Huber, i. 132, 5 Schirach, 121.
* Huber, ii. 453. s Bonner On Bees, 56.
^ The same gentleman subsequently sent me the following memoranda: —
July 10. 1820. A late second swarm was hived into a box constructed so that
each comb could be taken out and examined separately. On the 7th of August the
queen was removed, and each comb taken out and closely examined ; there was
not the least appearance of any royal cells, but much brood and eggs in the common
ones. On the 14th, three roj'al cells were observed nearly tinished, with a large
grub each. On the IGth, the three cells were sealed. On the 18th and 21st, they
remained in the same state. On the 22d. two queens were found hatched ; one was
removed, and the other left with the stock, the remaining royal cell being still closed.
On the morning of the 23d, a dead queen was thrown out of the hive ; upon which
examination being made, the royal cell left closed on the 22d was found open, and
a living queen in the stock, which was allowed to remain.
TERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 363
abundantly sufficient to establish the fact in question, we will now see
whether any satisfactory account can lie given for such changes iieing pro-
duced by such causes. " It does not appear to nie ini|)robable," says
Bonnet, "that a certain kind of nutriment, and in more tlian usual abun-
ilance, may cause a development in the grubs of bees of organs whicii would
never he developed without it. I can reailily conceive, also, that a liabita-
tion considerably more spacious, and differently placed, is al)soliitely ne-
cessary to the complete development of organs whicli the new nutriment
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 beingof a substance too stiff
to admit of their extension. Tliose 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 |)()sition 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 pro|)ortion of parts,
occur continually. The cause of these differences we cannot always as-
certain ; yet in many instances they may either be derived from the nutri-
ment which the embryo receives in the womb, or from the greater or less
dimensions or higher or lower temperature of that organ — a case that
analogically would not be very wide of that of the grub or embryo of a
bee enclosed 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 the Per-
sians, who covereil the head with a turbAn or mitre, were distinguished by
the tenuity of theirs. Again the inhabitants of certain districts are often
remarkable 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,
in swaddling bands, without being allowed the free play of its little limbs,
fed with unwholesome food, or Uncherished by genial warmth, may from
these circumstances 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 characters 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 dwelling and a smaller share of nutriment
seem to prevent the development of the ovaries.
The following observations, mostly taken from an essay of the cele-
brated 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 pecuharities of shape, exclusive of the primary distinctions, by
^ Huber, ii. 445.
2 See J. Hunter's Treatise on certain Parts of the Animal CEconomij.
364 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
■which one sex may be known from the other. Thus secondarj- distinc-
tive characters, such as the beard in men, and the breasts in women, are
produced at a certain period of 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 multiply," ceases to operate. Thus women in
advanced life 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 ornithologists, more particularly with
respect to the pheasant and the pea-hen.* For females to assume the
secondary characters of males, seems certainly 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 character which result from
the different modes of training 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 fully 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 kingdoms 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 inhabiting a certain dwelling, in a certain position, will
produce certain effects upon it, rendering it different from what it would
have been under ordinary circumstances, and fitted to answer their peculiar
wants.
I trust that these arguments and probabilities will in some degree reconcile
you to what at first sight seems so extraordinary and extravagant a doc-
trine. If not yet fully satisfied, I can only recommend your having re-
course to experiments 3'ourself. Leaving you, therefore, to this best mode
of proof, I shall proceed to another 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 sufficient 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 introduced
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 warmth to the pupse they contained ; and on the following day they
began to work upon the portions of comb with which he had supplied
them, 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 object 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
1 Philos. Trans. 1792, viii. 167. Hunter On certain Parts of the Animal (Eco-
nomy, p. 65. Latham, Synovs. ii. 672. t. 60.
2 Keaum. v. 271.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 365
bees, which, before I enter upon the 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 reatiy to emerge
from her cell. Three she remains in the egg ; when hatched she conthnies
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 per-
fectly still for two days and sixteen hours ; and then assumes the pupa,
in which state she remains exactly four days and cigiit hours — inakmg in
all the jjcriod I have just named. A longer time, by four days, is recjuired
to bring the wuiLcrs to perfection ; their prei)aratory states occupying
twenty days, anil those of the male even twenty-four. The former con-
sumes half a day more than the queen in spinning its cocoon, — a circum-
stance most probably occasioned by a singular difference in the structure
and dimensions of this envelop, which I shall explain to you presently.
Thus you see that the peculiar circumstances which change the form and
functions of a bee accelerate its appearance as a perfect insect ; and that
by choosing a grub three days oki, when the bees want a queen, they ac-
tually 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 larvae of bees, though without feet, are not altogether without
motion. They advance from their first 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 quarters; 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
inhabitants of a horizontal cell to be always perpendicular to the horizon,
and that of a vertical one to be parallel with it.
A niost remarkable difference, as I lately observed, takes place in spin-
ning their cocoons, — the grubs of workers and drones s|)inning complete
coccons, 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 seg-
ment of the abdomen. This variation is probably occasioned by the dif-
ferent forms of the cells : for, if a female larva be placed in a worker's 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 (Jreat
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 accomplished ;
they either would not be able to reach them with their stings, or the
stings might be iletained by their barbs in the meshes of the cocoon, so
that they would not be able to disengage them. On the use of this in-
stinctive and murderous hatred of their rivals I shall soon enlarge.
1 Iluber, i. 21.5. Schirach asserts, that in cold weather the disclosure of the
imago takes place two days later than in warm; and Riem, that in a had .season
the eggs will remain iu the cells many months without liatcliing. (Schirach, 79.
241.)
2 Schiracli, t. 3. f. 10. 5 Huber, i. 224.
366 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
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 generally 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 Httle 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 introduce you to a scene more inte-
resting 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 happi-
ness of the apiarian community altogether depend. I 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 mo-
ments 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 ex-
treme peril and vindictive and mortal warfare. The Homeric maxim, that
" the government of many is not good ^," 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 is wanted to govern
her native hive ; in others several are necessary to lead the swarms. In
the first case, inevitable death is the 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 direction of an all-wise Providence, by
the workers. I shall enlarge a little on each of these cases. In the for-
micary, as we have seen, rival queens live together 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 another in
the hive than she is put into a state of the most extreme agitation, and is
not easy until she has attacked 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 Schirach and Riem) that the workers destroyed the supernumeraries.
Reaumur, however, conjectured that these queens attacked each other ;
and his conjecture has been since confirmed by the actual observation of
other naturalists. Blassiere, the translator of Schirach, tells us, as what
he had himself witnessed, that the strongest queen kills her rival with her
sting; and the same is asserted by Huber, whose opportunities of observa-
tion were greater than those of any of his precursors.^
The queen that is first liberated from her confinement, and has assumed
1 Ovx xyaSri r, rro\vx»ifeiviyi, 8'V xtn^avi; irn/.
2 Schirach, 209. note ♦. Huber, i. 170.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 367
the perfect or iruago state (it is to be supposed that the "author is here
speaking of a hive wliich has lost the oiil queen), soon after tiiis event
goes to visit the royal cells that are still inliabited. JSiie darts with furv
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 mortal wound. The workers, who re-
main |)assive spectators of this assassination, after she quits the victim of
lier jealousy, enlarge the breach that she has made, and drag forth the
carcass of a (|ueen just emerged from the thin membrane that envelops
the pupa. If the object of her attack be still in the pupa state, she is
stimulated by a less violent degree o\. rage, and contents herself with
making a breach in the cell : when this happens, the death of the inclosed
insect is equally certain, 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 each other as if panic-struck.
" Two young queens," says M. 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 inHamed by the most ungovernable 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 heail, trunk to trunk, abdo-
men to abdomen ; and they had only to bend the extremity of the latter,
and they would have fallen reci|)rocal victims to each other's sting." But
nature having decreed tht\t these duels should not be fatal to both combat-
ants, as soon as they were thus circumstanced a panic fear seemed to
strike them, and they disengaged themselves, and each fled away. After a
few minutes were expired, the attack was renewed in a similar manner with
the same issue ; till at last one suddenly seizing the other by her wing,
mounted u|)on 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. When another fertile queen had been introduced
into this hive, a singular scene ensued, which proves how well aware the
workers are that they cannot pros[)er with two sovereigns. Soon after
she was introduced, a circle of bees was formed round the stranger, — not
to complement her on her arrival, or pay her the usual hon)age, but to
confine her, and prevent her escape ; for they insensibly agglomerated
themselves in such numbers round her, and hemmed her in so closely,
that in about a minute she was completely a prisoner. While this wa.s
transacting, what was equally remarkable, other workers assembled in
clusters round the legitimate 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
appeared to avoid each other. To witness the homage, respect, and love
that they usually manifest to their lawful ruler, the anxiety concerning her
1 Huber, i. 171. ' 2 Huber, i. 174.
368 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
which they often exhibit, and the distrust which for a time (as we shall
see hereafter) the}' 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 sovereign, and cause the
interloper to perish under the stroke of their fatal stings. But no ; the
contest for empire must be between the rival candidates ; no worker must
interfere in any other way than that which I have described ; no contend-
ing armies must fight the battles of their sovereigns, for the law of succes-
sion seems to be " deticr fortiori." But to return to my narrative. The
legitimate queen appearing inclined to move towards that part of the comb
on which her rival was stationed, the 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 wings, and, after fixing her without power of
motion against the comb, with one stroke of her sting despatched 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 attempts 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 impossible 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, supposing 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 imme-
diately ^ ; but Huber, who had better means of observing them, and studied
them with more undivided 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 cala-
mity, 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 past,
they will receive any queen that is presented to them with the customary
homage, and she may occupy the vacant throne.*
I must now beg you to attend to what takes place in the second case
that I mentioned, where queens are wanted 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
successively produced ; and being so much older and stronger, the proba-
bility 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
circumstance which invariably takes place — that the first swarm is con-
ducted by this queen, and not by a newly disclosed one, as Reaumur and
others have supposed. Previously to her departure, after her great laying
1 Huber, i. 186. 2 Reaum. v. 268. 5 Huber, i. 190.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 369
of male eggs in the month of May, she oviposits in the roval cells when
about three or four lines in length, which the workers have in the mean-
tmie constructed. These, however, are not ail furnished in one day, — a
most essential provision, in consequence of which the (jnecns come forth
successively, in order to lead successive swarms. There is somethin<; sin-
gular in the manner in which the workers treat the young {|uccns that are
to lead the swarms. After the cells are covered '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 unetjual; and ininieiliatelv before the last meta-
morphosis takes place, the walls are so thin that all' the motions of the in-
closed [)upa are perceptible through them. On the seventh day the part
covermg the head and trunk of the young female, if I may so sjjcak, is
almost entirely unwaxed. This operation of the bees facilitates her exit,
and probably renders the eva|)oration of the superabundant fluids of the
body of the pupa more easy.
You will conclude, perhaps, when all things are thus prepared for the
coming forth of the inclosed female, that she will quit her cell at the
regular period, which is seven days :— but you woidd 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 guitled in tiieir instinct
by circumstances and the wants of their society I for did the new queen
leave her cell, she would immediately attack and destroy those in the other
cells ; a proceeding which they permit, as I have before stated, when they
only want a successor to a defunct or a lost sovereiijn. As soon, there-
fore, as the workers perceive —which the trans[)arency of the cell permits
them to do — that the young queen has cut circularly throuuh her cocoon,
they mimediately 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 confinement. 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 understand tiiat she is in want of
food. Upon perceiving this they give her honey, till her hunger bein-
satisfied she draws her tongue back — upon which they stop the orifice
with wax.'
\ ou may think it perhaps extraordinary that the workers shoidd thus
endeavour to retard the appearance of their younij females beyond its
natural limit; but when I explain to you the reason for this seemin<r incon-
gruity 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 flight, and to lead forth a swarm';
during which interval a troublesome task would be imjjosed upon the'
workers, who must constantly detain her a prisoner to prevent her from
destroying her rivals, which would require the labours and attention of a
much larger number than are necessary to keep her confined to her cell.
On this account they never suffer her t'o come forth till she is perfectly fit
to take her flight. "When at length she is permitted to do this, if she'ap-
proaches the other royal cells tiie workers on guard seem creatlv irritated
against her, and pull and bite and chase her away ; and she enjoys tran-
1 IJuber, i. 256.
A B B
370 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
qiiillity 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, standing in a particular and commanding attitude,
she utters that authoritative sound which so much affects the 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 agi-
tated, and communicating her agitation to others, the confusion 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 sufficiently 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
difficult 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 covered them in, and he found that they were
all liberated according to seniority. Those first covered first emit the
sound, and so on successively; whence he conjectures that this is the sign
by which the workers discover their age. As their captivity, however, is
sometimes 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 round the mute queens
bred according to the Lusatian method, which, when the time for their ap-
pearance is come, are not detained in captivity a single moment; but, as
you have heard, are left to fight, conquer, or die.i
You must not think, however, from what I have been saying, that the
old queen never destroys the young ones previously 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 several ; but finding it too laborious, for
they are often numerous, to destroy the whole, the same agitation is caused
in her as if she were forcibly prevented, and she becomes disposed to dejjart,
rather than remain in the midst of her rivals, though her own offspring.
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 manifest such disregard to
1 Huber, i. 286.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 371
their wishes ; yet when they are once acknowledged as governors of the
hive, ami leaders of the colony, their instinct assumes a new and wonderful
direction. From this moment tlicy become the "/;«W/V« r^ra," the ol)jects
of constant and universal attention ; and wlicrevcr they <,'o, are jjreeted by
a homaijc wliich evinces the entire ilevotion of tlieir subjects. You seemed
amused and interested in no sliglit dei;ree by what I related in a former
letter of tiie marked respect paid by the ants to their feniales ' ; but this
will bear no comparison with that shown by the inhabitants of the hive to
their queen. She appears to be the very soul of all their actions, and the
centre of their instincts. When they are depriveil of her, or of the means
of rcphicing her, they lose all their activity, and pursue no longer their
daily labours. In vain the flowers tempt them with their nectar and am-
brosial dust: they collect neither; they elaborate no wax, and build no
cells; they scarcely seem to exist; and, intieed, would soon perish, were
not the means of restoring their monarch ])ut 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 imme-
diately set about building royal cells : they feed with their a[)[)ropriate food
the grubs they have selected, and everything proceeds in the usual routine.
Virgil has described this attachment of the bees to their sovereign with
great truth and spirit in the following lines : —
" Lydian nor Merle so much his king adores,
Nor those on Nilus' or Ilydaspes' shores:
The state united stands wliile he remains;
But should he fall, what dire confusion reigns!
Their waxen combs and honey, late their joy,
With grief and rage distracted, they destroy :
He guards the works, with awe 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."
M. Huber thus describes the consequences of the loss of a 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 proceed-
ing as usual. About an hour after her departure, inquietude begins to
manifest itself amongst them ; the care of the young brood no longer en-
gages their attention, and they run here and there as if in great agitation.
This agitation, however, is at first confined to a small portion of the com-
munity. The bees that are first sensible of their loss meet with others ;
they mutually cross their antennae, and strike them lightly. By this action
they appear to communicate the sad intelligence 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 population is in a tumult.
Then the workers may be seen running over the combs, and against each
other, impetuously 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
tumult, which lasts two or three hours, rarely four or five: 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
1 See above, p. 320.
B B 2
372 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
that they have taken steps to repair their loss by filling some of the cells
with a larger quantity of jelly than is the usual portion of common larvae ;
which, however, is intended, it seems, not for the food of the inhabitant,
but for a cushion to elevate it, since it is found unconsumed in the cell
when the grub has descended into the pyramidal habitation afterwards pre-
pared 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 intro-
duce a new one, at the moment you set this stranger upon a comb the
workers that are near her first touch her with their antennae, 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 communicated to tlie 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 sovereign. 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 demon-
strations of loyalty in the other parts of the hive, is soon acknowledged
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 in a box, in which she had covered
herself with powder. The bees immediately owned her for their queen,
employed themselves 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 habitation.^ 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 constantly on the watch to make themselves useful to her, and to
render her every kind ofiice ; 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 maintain the population of the hive: all they do
being with a 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 dis-
tinguish a partially fertile queen from one that is universally so. What I
mean is this; a queen, whose impregnation is retarded beyond the twenty-
1 Huber, ii. 396. 2 Reaum. v. 262.
3 Ibid. v. Pref. xv. 4 Huber, i. 269.
TERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 373
eighth (lay of her whole existence, hiys only male eggs, which are of no
use whatever to the community, unless they are at the same time jjrovided
with a sufficient supply of workers. Yet even a (|ueen of this description,
and sometimes one that is entirely sterile, is treateii by them with the same
respect and homage as a fertile one. This seems to evince an amiable
feeling in these creatures, attachment to the person as well as to the func-
tions of the sovereign; which is further manifested by their unwillingness
at first to receive a new sovereign upon the loss or death of their old one.
Nay, this respect is sometimes shown to the carcass of a detunct cjueen,
which II liber assures us he has seen bees treat with the same attention
that tiu-y had shown her when alive, for a long time preferring her inani-
mate corpse to the fertile queens that he olfeied to them.' He attributes
this to some agreeable sensation which they experience from their queens,
iiulependent of their fecunility. But since virgin queens, as we have seen,
do not excite it, more probably it is a remnant of their former attaciuiient,
first excited by her fecundity, and afterwards strengthened and continued
by habit.
I may here introduce an interesting anecdote relatetl by Reaumur, which
strongly marks the attachment of bees to their queen when apparently
lifeless. He took one out of the water quite motionless, and seemingly
deati, which had lost part of one of its legs. Bringing it home, he placed
it amongst some workers, that he had found in the same situation, most of
which he had revived by means of warmth ; some, however, still being in
as bad a state as the poor queen. No sooner ilid these revived workers
perceive the latter in this wretched condition, than they a[)peared to com-
passionate her case, and did not cease to lick her with their tongues till
she showed signs of returning animation ; which the bees no sooner per-
ceived, 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 were 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 enlarge upon it, I shall now explain
the process more in detail. In a subsequent letter I shall notice what has
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
oviposits: a former fecundation, therefore, must fertilise all the eggs laid in
this 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 ovaries become so viti-
ated 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 pri-
vilege 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 en-
larged that she is no longer able to fly ' ; and what is remarkable, 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
1 Huber, i. 322. 2 Reaum. v. 265. 3 Huber, i. G3— .
* Schirach, 257. " Huber, i. 319—.
BBS
374 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.]
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 them
solely; and it is only after this period that an uninterrupted 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 female, both those that are to precede them
and those that are to follow them. Is it impossible that the sex of the
embryo may be determined by the period at which the aura seminalis vivi-
fies 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, in another
males. And something of this kind perhaps may be the cause of herma-
phrodites 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 fertilises all the eggs that a queen
will produce during her 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, however, invariable. When her impregnation
takes place late in the year, she does not begin laying till the following
spring. Sciiirach 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, sometimes so early as January.* After this, in
the spring, the great laying of male eggs commences, lasting thirty days; in
which time about 2000 of these eggs are laid. Another laying of them,
but less considerable, takes place in autumn. In the season of oviposition,
the queen may be discerned traversing the combs in all directions with a
slow step, and seeking for cells proper to receive her eggs. As she
walks she keeps her head inchned, and seems to examine, one by one, all
the cells she meets with. When she finds one to her purpose, she inime-
^ This conjecture receives strong confirmation from the following observations of
Sir E. Home, which I met with since it came into my mind. From the nipples
present in man, which sometimes even afford milk, and from the general analogy
between the male and female organs of generation, he supposes the germ is ori-
ginally fitted to become either sex ; and that which it shall be is determined at
the time of impregnation by some unknown cause. — Philos. Trans., 1799, 157.
2 i. 106—. 5 Schirach,7. 13.
4 Schirach, 13. Thorley, 105.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 375
diately gives to her abdomen the curve necessary to enable it to reach the
orifice of the cell, ami to introikice it within it. The egfjis are set in the
angle of the pyramidal bottom of the cell, or in one of the hollows formed
by the coiiHiix of the sides of the rhombs, and being besmeared with a
kind of gluten, staml upright. If, however, it be a fem;Ue tliat lays only
male eugs, they are deposited upon the lowest of the sides of the cell, as
she is unable to reach the bottom.'
W hile our prolific lady is engaged in this employment, her court consists
of from four to twelve attendants, 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 s[)eaking, 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 consequences, 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 ceds ; for when he confined one, during her course
of laying worker eggs, where she could 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 larvas with royal
jelly, and treat tiiem as they would a real queen. Though male eggs
deposited in worker cells produce small males, their education in a royal
cell with "royal dainties" adds nothing to their ordinary dimensions.'-
The swarviing of bees is a very curious and interesting subject, to
which, since a female is the xine qua mm on this occasion, I may very pro-
perly call your attention here. You will recollect that I said something
upon the principle of emigrations, when I was amusing you with the his-
tory 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
diminish a superabundant population. Whereas in the societies of the
hive-bee, the latter is the general cause of 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 enlarge-
ment, therefore want of room does not cause emigration ; — but
bees being confined to a given space, which they possess not the means of
enlarging, to avoid the ill effects resulting from being too much crowded,
when their population 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 an 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
1 Bonnet, x. 258. 8vo. ed. 2 Huber, i. 122.
B B 4
376 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
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 weather 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 col-
lected. This circumstance, he observes, must be very embarrassing to one
who attempts to explain all their proceedings upon principles purelj^ me-
chanical. 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 be-
fore noon, or some hours later ? For why should bees, who worked the
day before with so 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, andthe clustering of the po-
pulation 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 atmosphere and the state of the weather either to accelerate 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 me-
ditates — the founding of a new empire. There sometimes seem to
happen 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 panic terror, may be seen (juitting
their various labours, and running off in different directions. At these
moments if a young queen goes out she will be followed by a numerous
troop.
Huber has given a very lively and interesting account of the interior
proceedings of the hive on this occasion. The queen, as soon as she began
to exhibit signs of agitation, no longer laid her eggs as before, but irregu-
larly, 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 tranquil 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
1 Keys On Bees, 76. 2 Reaum. v. Cll.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 377
at its height, no sooner entered the hive than they participated in these
tunuiltiioiis movements, and, neglecting to free themselves from the masses
of pollen on their hind legs, rau wildly abont. At length there was a general
rnsh to the ontlets of the hive, which the (jiieen accompanied, and the
swarm took place.'
It is to be observed that this agitation, excited by the qnecn, increases
the cnstomary heat of the hive to a very high temperatnre, which the ac-
tion of the sun augments till it becomes intolerable, and which often
causes the bees accunudated near the month 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. Innnediately before the swarming, a
louder hum than usual is hearti ; 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 fall-
ing 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 clustered, she joins
it : after this it thickens more an<l more, all the bees that are in the air
hastening to their companions and their queen, so as to form a living mass
of animals supporting themselves upon each by the claws of their feet.
Thus they sometimes are so concatenated, each [)ee suspending its legs to
those of another, as to form living chaplets." After this they soon be-
come 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, accompanied by the
queen to whom they had attached themselves ; and when they are hived,
this unfortunate candidate for empire falls sooner or later a victim to 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 monarchies, so in this of the bees, the first-born is proba-
bly 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, resplendent with goUl and purple, and her rival
hideous, slothful, and unwieldy*, yet some differences are observable ; the
successful candidate is usually redder and larger than the others ; these
last, upon dissection, appear to have no eggs ready for laying, while the
1 Huber, i. 251.
- Some critics have found fault with Mr. Southey for ascribing, in his Curse of
Kehama, to Camdeo, the Cupid of Indian mythology, a bow 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
into strings or chaplets. — See Keaum. v. t. xxii. f. 3.
3 Reaumur, 615 — 644. 1
* " Alter erit maculis auro squalentibus ardens
(Nam duo sunt genera), hie melior, insignis et ore,
Et rutilis clarus squamis: ille horridus alter
Desidia, latamque trahens iuglorius alvum."
Georg. iv. 91 — .
378 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
former, which is a powerful recommendation, is usually full of them. Eggs
are commonly found in the cells twenty-four hours after swarming, or at
the latest two or three days.
You may think, perhaps, that the bees which emigrate 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 than three times that number (40,000). A
swarm seldom or never takes place except when the sun shines, and the air
is calm. Sometimes, when everything seems to prognosticate swarming, a
cloud passing over the sun calms the agitation ; and afterwards, ujjon his
shining forth again, the tumult is renewed, keeps augmenting, 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 intervenes 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 con-
ducted 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 con-
dition 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
such as produce workers. And it is the first employment of her subjects
to construct cells for this purpose.'' The young queens that conduct the
secondary swarms usually pair 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 homage.
We may suppose that one motive with the bees for i'ollowing 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 assigned. Probably the
high temperature of the hive during these times of tumultuous agitation
may be the principal cause that operates upon them. In a populous hive
the thermometer commonly stands between 92° and 97° ; but during the
tumult that precedes swarming it rises above 104'°, a heat intolerable to
these animals.* This is M. Ruber'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 when this cause no longer
operates upon them, they should agglomerate about her, as they always
do, be unsettled and agitated without her, and quiet when she is with
them ? Is it not reasonable to suppose that the instinct which teaches
them what is necessary for the preservation of their society, — at the
* 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 overtaken by a very heavy shower at
2 Huber, i. 271. 3 i^id. j. 305. 4 Huber, i. 280.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 379
same time that it shows them that without a queen that society cannot be
preserved, — impels them in every case to the mode of treating her which
will most effectually influence her conduct, and give it that direction which
is most beneficial to the community ?
Yet, with respect to the treatment of queens, instinct does not invari-
ably 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 eggs only, deposit
them in all cells indifferently, even in royal ones. These last are treated
by the workers as if they were actually to become queens. Here their in-
stinct seems defective : — it appears unaccountable that they should know
these eggs, as they do when deposited in worker cells, and give them a con-
vex covering when about to assume the pupa; unless, perhaps, the size of
the larva directs them in this case.
The amputation of one of the antennae of a queen-bee appears not
to aflfect 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 ; everything is
done at random ; yet the respect and homage of the workers towards her,
though they are received 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
confinement, and treat her very unhandsomely. One may conjecture from
this circumstance that it is by 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 con-
tinues 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 preparatory agitation.^
I am, &c.
1 Huber, i. 316.
380
LETTER XX.
SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
PERFECT SOCIETIES — concluded.
Having given you a history sufficiently ample of the queen or female bee,
1 shall next add some account of the drone or male bee ; but this vpill not
detain you long, since "to be born and die" is nearly the sum 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
gluttony have become proverbial. Indeed, at first sight, it seems extraor-
dinary that seven or eight hundred individuals 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 v/e 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 particular 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 revelation, even in those
things that fall under our daily observation, mysteries to exercise our faith
and humility ; 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 ?"
Various have been the conjectures of naturalists, even in very recent
times, with respect to the fertilisation of the eggs of the bee. Some have
supposed, — and the number of males seemed to countenance the suppo-
sition, — that this was effected after they were deposited in the cells. Of
this opinion Maraldi seems to have been the author; and it was adopted by
Mr. Debraw of Cambridge, who asserts that he has seen the smaller
males (those that are occasionally produced in cells usually appropriated
to workers) introduce their abdomen into cells containing eggs, and fer-
tilise 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 in-
troduced into male and royal cells. Bonnet, however, saw some motions
of one of these drones, which, while it passed by those that were empty,
appeared to strike with its abdomen the mouth of the cells containing
[PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.' 381
eggs.^ Swammerdam thought that the female was impregnated by effluvia
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 supposed, within the hive.^ The former
part of this opinion Huber has confirmed by indubitable proofs; but he
further discovered that these animals pair abroad, in the air, during the
flight of the queen : a fact which renders a large number of males neces-
sary, to insure her impregnation in due time to lay eggs that will produce
workers.^ Huber 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, upon a nearer inspection, he discovered
that it was an illusion 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 re-
sult being invariably the death of the drone. No one has yet discovered,
unless the proceedings observed by Debraw and Bonnet may be so inter-
preted, that when in the hive they take any share in the business of it,
their great employment within doors being to eat. Their life, however, is
of very short duration, the eggs that produce drones being laid in the
course of April and May, and their destruction being usually accom-
plished 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 carcasses of
drones may be seen on the ground before the hives. Hence he conjec-
tured, though he never could detect them engaged 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 employed the patient and inde-
fatigable Burnens, who was to him instead of eyes, to watch their pro-
ceedings. On the 4th of July this accurate observer saw the massacre
going on in all the hives at the same time, and attended by the same cir-
cumstances. The table was crowded with workers, who, apparently in
great rage, darted upon the drones as soon as they arrived at the bottom
of the hive, seizing them by their antennte, their less, and their wings, and
killing them by violent strokes of their sting, which they generally inserted
between the segments of the abdomen. The moment this fearful weapon
entered their body, the poor helpless creatures expanded their wings and
expired. After this, as if fearful that they were not sufficiently despatched,
the bees repeated their strokes, so that they often found it difficult to ex-
tricate 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 neighbour-
ing hives, had sought refuge with them. Not content with destroying
those that were in the perfect state, they attacked also such male pupa; 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
lays both worker and male eggs) this is the unhappy fate of the drones,
1 Bonnet, x. 259. « Bibl. Nat. i. 221, b. ed. Hill.
3 Reaum. v. 503—. * Huber, i. 24—.
5 Ibid. 37—. 6 Ibid. i. 195.
382 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
yet in those where the queen only lays male eggs they are suffered to re-
main unmolested ; and in hives deprived of their queen, they also find a
secure asylum.^
What it is that, in the former instance, excites the fury of the bees
against the males, is not easy to discover ; 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 connected with
their utility : when the queen is impregnated, which lasts for her whole
life, as if tliey knew that the drones could be of no further use, and would
only consume their winter stores of provision, they destroy them ; which
surely is more merciful than expelling them, in which case they must in-
evitably 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 uneventful histor}', I
shall now, at last, call you to attend to the proceedings of the tvorJeers
themselves ; and here I am afraid, long as I have detained you, I must
still press you to expatiate with me in a more ample field ; but the spec-
tacles you will behold during our excursion will repay, I promise you, any
delay or trouble it may occasion.
When I consider the proceedings of these little creatures, both in the
hive and out of it, they are so numerous and multifarious that I scared}''
know where to begin. You have already, however, heard much of 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 will therefore change the scene a little, if we accom-
pany 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
1 Huber, i. 199.
2 The following beautiful lines by Professor Smyth are extremely applicable to
this part of a bee's labours : —
" Thou cheerful Bee ! come, freely come.
And travel round my woodbine bower;
Delight me with thy wandering hum,
And rouse me from my musing hour.
Oh ! try no more those tedious tields,
Come taste the sweets my garden yields :
The treasures of each blooming mine,
The bud, the blossom, — all are thine.
" And, careless of this noontide 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 th}' envied ardour ply !
Then o'er the stem, tho' fair it grow.
With touch rejecting, glance, and go.]
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 383
furnish themselves with three different materials : — the nectar of flowers,
from whicli they elaborate iioney and wax ; the pollen or fertilising dust
of the anthers, 6i' which they make what is called bee-bread, serving as
food both to old and young ; and the resinous substance called by the an-
cients Propolis, Pissoccros, 6cc., used in various ways in rendering the hive
secure and giving the finish to the combs. • The first of these substances
is the pure fluid secreted in the nectaries of flowers, which 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 inflated', 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 tlie 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 resembles a cask covered with hoops from one end to the other^,
but only in the first : in the latter and the intestines the bee-bread only is
discovered. How the wax is secreted, or what vessels are appropriated
to that purpose, is not j'et 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 dis-
covered 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 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 laminae 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 Thorley, 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 in-
dustrious creatures had made themselves intimate with every form and
variety of them ; and no botanist, even in this enlightened era of botanical
science, can compare with a bee in this respect. The station of these re-
" 0 Nature kind ! 0 labourer wise !
That roam'st along- the summer's ray.,
Glean'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,
And shame each idler of the day."
I Reaum. v. t. xxviii. f. 1, 2. 2 jbid. f. 7. o.
3 Huber, ii. 5. t. ii. f. 8. 4 Wildman, 43.
384 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
servoirs, 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 materials for bee-bread
as well as for honey and wax. Observe 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 unfolds her tongue, which
before was rolled up under her head. With what rapidity does she dart
this organ between the petals and the stamina ! At one time she extends
it to its full length, then she contracts it : she moves it about in all direc-
tions, so that it may be applied both to the concave and convex 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 butterfly, 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 constitute a supply of food for
the rest of the community.
In collecting honey, bees do not solely confine themselves 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 Ruber'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 possession 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 all that is fluid in
their abdomen after they are destroyed by their rivals.^ Several flowers
that produce much honey they pass by ; in some instances, from inability
to get at it. Thus, for this reason probably, they do not attempt those of
the trumpet-honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervireiis), which, if separated from
the germen 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 obtained from a small number of plants. In
other cases, it appears to be the poisonous quality of their honey that in-
duces bees to neglect certain flowers. You have doubtless observed the
conspicuous white nectaries of the crown imperial (Frifillaria imperialist,
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 Oleander) yields a honey that proves fatal to thou-
sands of imprudent flies ; but our bees, more wise and cautious, avoid it.
Occasionally, perhaps, in particular seasons, when flowers are less numerous
than common, this instinct of the bees appears to fail them, or to be over-
powered by their desire to collect a sufficient store of honey for their pur-
1 Huber, ii. 82.
2 Abbe Boisier, quoted in Mills On Bees, 24.
3 Schirach, 45. Huber, i. 479.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 385
poses, and they suffer for their want of self-denial. Sometimes whole
swarms have been destroyed 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). In the following morning the imprudent animals were all found
dead, and swelled to more than double their usual size.' Whether the
honey extracted from the species of the genus Kalmia, Andromeda, Rhodo-
dendron, &c., be hurtful to the bees themselves, is not ascertained ; but, as
has been before observed, it is often poisonous to man ; and that found at
Trebisond on theEuxine coast, as I have formerly noticed, threatened fatal
effects to such of the Greek army, in the celebrated retreat after the death
of the younger Cyrus, as partook of it. Pliny, who mentions this honey,
calls it McEnomenon, 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 fertilising dust of the anthers, the pollen ; which is equally necessary
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 who on this account thought
his bees were different from the common kind.* He suspected, and it
proved, that the circumstance just mentioned occasioned the mistaken
notion. When the 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^ o« 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 in-
discriminately from one to another : but Mr. Dobbs, in the Philosophical
Transactions'^, and Butler before him, asserts that he has frequently followed
a bee engaged in collecting pollen, &c., and invariably observed that it
continued collecting from the same kind of flowers with which it first be-
gan ; passing over every other s^^ecies, however 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 w ith
red ones, others again with whitish ones, and that sometimes they are even
green : upon which he observes, that this arises from their being collected
from particular flowers, the pollen of whose anthers is of those colours.^
Sprengel, as before intimated, has made an observation similar to that of
1 Nicholson's Journal, xxiii. 287.
2 Xenoph. Anahas. 1. iv. Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. xxi. c. 13.
3 Eeaum. v. t. xxvi. f. 1.
*■ Reaum. 295.
6 Kirby, Monogr. Ap. Angl. i. t. 12. * *. e. 1. neut. f. 19. a. b.
6 Hist. Anim. \. ix. c. 40. 7 xlvi. 536.
* Uiii supra, 301.
c c
386 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
Dobbs. It seems not improbable that the reason why the bee visits the
same 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 the bees passing from one to an-
other ; and the avoiding the production of hybrid plants, from the applica-
tion of the pollen of one kind of plant to the stigma of another. When
the anthers are not yet burst, tlie bee opens them with her mandibles ;
takes a parcel of pollen, which one of the first pairs 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 examination, 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 some-
times 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 established, it is generally brought in at all parts of the
day. He supposes, in order for its being formed into pellets, that it re-
quires some moisture, which the heat evaporates after the above hour ;
but in the case of recently colonised hives, that the bees go a great way 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 re-
ceive it, and is discharged from the honey-bag by its alternate contraction
and dilatation. A cell will contain the contents of many honey-bags. When
a bee comes to disgorge the honey, with 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 com-
panions 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 season : these are
covered with a waxen hd. ^
The pollen is employed as circumstances direct. When the bee laden
1 Reaum. v. 302.— comp. 433. I have seen bees out before it was light.
2 Huber observes that the honey for store is collected by the wax-making bees
only iaheillcs cirieres), and that the nurses {abeilles nourrices) gather no more than
what is wanted for themselves and companions at work in the hive. (ii. 66.)
5 Eeaum. v. 448.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 387
with it arrives at the hive, she sometimes stops at the entrance, and very
leisurely detaches it by piecemeal, devours one or both the pellets on her
le.<^s, chewing them with her jaws, and passing them then down the little
orifice before noticed. Sometimes she enters die hive, and walks upon the
combs ; and whether she walks or stands, still keeps beating her win-'s.
By the noise thus produced, which seems a call to some of her fellow-
citizens, three or four go to her, and placing themselves round her, begin
to lighten her of her load, each taking and devouring 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.^ Wildman observed 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 their 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 de-
vour this when they are busily engaged in constructing combs.^ When
more pollen is collected than the bees have immediate occasion for, thev
store it up in some of the empty cells. The laden bee puts her two hind
legs mto the cell, and with the intermediate pair pushes ofF the pellets.
When this is done, she, or another bee if she is too much fatigued with her
day's labours, enters the cell with her head first, and remains there some
tune: she is engaged in diluting the pellets, kneading them, and packino-
them close ; and so they proceed, till the cell is filled.* A larce portion o1'
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 ; I must now advert to the third — the Propolis. Huber
was a long time uncertain from whence the bees procured this gummy
resm ; but it at last occurred to him to plant some cuttings of a species of
poplar (before their leaves were developed, when their leaf-buds were
swelling and besmeared and filled with a viscid juice) in some pots which
he placed in the way of the bees that went from his hives. Almost imme-
diately a bee alighted upon a twig, and soon with 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 bahamifera). But this is an old discoverv, confirmed by recent
observation ; for Mouffet tells us, from Cordus, that it is collected h-om
the gems of the 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 polished
metals. It is employed in the hive not only in finishing the combs, as I
related in my letter on Habitations ; but also in stopping every chink or
1 Reaum. v 418. 2 ibid. v. p. 38. 3 Ubi supra, 419.
* Compare Reaum. 420., and Huber, ii. 24., with Wildman, 40.
5 For much vahiable information on the economy of bees, the reader will do well
to consult Dr. Bevan's veiy interesting work on the Honeu Bee
6 Huber, ii. 260. ^
7 Insect. Theatr. 36. Schirach, 241.
CC 2
388 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
orifice by which cold, wet, or any enemy, can enter. They coyer 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 tibias, but the masses are lenticular.
Mr Kni"ht mentions an instance of Bees using an artificial kind ot pro-
polis. He'had caused the decorticated part of some tree to be covered
with a cement composed of bees' wax and turpentine ; findmg 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 be-
hind and despoiled it of all it had collected ; 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 .2 . • j-
Bees in their excursions do not confine themselves to the spot immedi-
ately 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 vnll
discover honey with as much certainty as if it was within their sight, lo
prove that it is by their scent that bees find it out, he put some behmd a
window- shutter, in a place where it could not be seen, leaving the shutter
just open enough for insects, if they liked, to get at it. In less than a
quarter of an hour four bees, a butterfly, and some house-flies had dis-
covered 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 industriously, 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 acute-
ness of their scent enables 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 devia-
tion I must leave to others to explain. Connected with this circumstance,
and 'the acuteness of their smell, is the following curious account given in
the Philosophical Transactions for 1721, of the method practised in New
England for discovering where the wild hive-bees live in the woods, m
order to get their honey. The honey-hunters set a plate containing honey
or sugar upon the ground in a clear day. The bees soon discover and
attack if 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
lettin-^ a second fly, observes its course by his pocket compass; and the
point^where the two courses intersect is that where the nest is situated.
The natural station of bees is in the cavities of decayed trees ; such
trees Mr Knight tells us they will discover in the closest recesses, and at
an extraordinary 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 ot scouts,
may be found examining and keeping possession of it. They seem to ex-
1 Reaum. id>i supra, 437. 2 philos. Trans. 1807, 242.
3 xxxi. 148.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 389
plore every part of it and of the tree with the greatest attention, even sur-
veying the dead knots and the like.^ ^Vhen 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 ex-
cursion I cannot precisely say. In a hive the greatest part of the inhabi-
tants generally appear in repose, lying together, says Reaumur, but this
probably for a short time. Huber tells us, that bees may always be ob-
served 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 situa-
tion fifteen or twenty minutes, so motionless that, did not the dilatation of
the segments of the abdomen prove the contrary, they might be mistaken
for dead. He supposes their object is to repose from their labours.-
The queen, for this purpose, enters the large cells of the males, and con-
tinues in them without motion 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 remain 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, al-
lowing fourteen 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 numerous. 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, sup-
posing only half the number to collect it, that it would amount to moi'e
than a pound ; so that in one season one such a hive might collect a
hundred 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 societies 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 will 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
1 Knight in Philos. Trans, for 1807, 237. Marshall, Agricult. of Norfolk.
2 It has been supposed, and the supposition was adopted originally in this work
(Vol. I. 1st ed. p. 371.), that the object in this case is brooding the eggs ; but upon
further consideration we incline to Huber's opinion, that it has no connection with
it, the ordinary temperature of the hive being sufficient for this purpose ; and the
circumstance of their entering unoccupied cells proves that this attitude has no
particular connection with the eggs, {Huber, i. 212.) " When large pieces of comb,"
says Wildman (p. 45.), " were broken oif 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 the}^ would come
to nothing, pull out and destroy all the larv£E. They might perhaps remain per-
pendicular in the case observed by Wildman.
5 Reaum. v. 431. Huber, ii. 212. * Reaum. v. 432.
5 Ibid. v. 434.
C C 3
390 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
account Keaumur has given from Maillet of the transportation of hives in
Egypt from one place to another, before aUuded 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
husbandmen can sow their land, sainfoin is one of the first things that is
sown ; and as Upper Eirypt is warmer than the Lower, the sainfoin gets
there first into blossom. 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 whom 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.
A transportation of bee-hives, in some respects similar, prevails, as we
learn from Mr. Willock, at the present day throughout Persia, Asia Minor,
and he believes Greece ; in which countries an inhabitant even of a town
will sometimes possess fifty or sixty hives, from the honey and wax of
which a considerable profit is derived. These hives are wicker-work
cylinders, two feet eight inches long by nine inches in diameter, plastered
inside and outside with cow-dung ; having one end filled up with a cir-
cular earthenware plate, and the other with a circular wooden door, in
the middle of which is a small hole for the entrance of the bees. In
spring, when the herbage of the low country has become parched, the
proprietor of the hives, after closing them, conveys them (six or seven
being an ass load) to some village in the neighbouring mountains where
fragrant shrubs abound ; and having sealed the doors, leaves them in
charge of a villager, whom he pays for watching them, when he removes
them in October back to his home. Near villages in the mountains of
Sahund, in the vicinity of Tabreez, Mr. Willock has seen ranges of these
hives thus pzf^ out to board to the number of 500 or 600."
John Hunler observes, that when the season for laying is over, that
for collecting honey comes on (he means, probably, for making the prin-
cipal 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 them from going out being
left open.^ Sometimes, when the year is remarkably favourable for
collecting honey, the bees will 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 grew 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. 1^ dram.*
W^ater is a thing of the first necessity to these insects ; but they are
not very dehcate as to its quality, but rather the reverse ; often preferring
1 Keaum. v. 698. 2 Gardener's Chronicle, 1841, p. 84.
3 Philos. Trans. 1792, 160. Comp. Reaum. v. 450.
* Reaum. ibid. 591. Hunter, ibid. 161.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 391
what is stagnant 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 instruction, what are to be its duties and
employments for the rest of its life. It appears to know that it is born
for society, and not for selfish pursuits; and therefore it invariably devotes
itself and its labours to the benefit of the community to which it belongs.
Walking upon the cornbs, it seeks for the door of the hive, that it may
sally forth and be useful. Fuji of life and activity, it then takes its first
flight ; and, unconducted but by its instinct, visits hke the rest the subjects
of Flora, absorbs 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 favourites accomplish
their various objects you have had several ; but this is never more re-
markable 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 consider 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 enters, you will readily conceive how soon
it must be rendered 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 exterior 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 ;
introduce 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 facidty of attracting the
external air, and at the same time of expeUing that 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 instrument 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 pair of wings into one plane
slightly concave, thus acting upon the air by a surface nearly as large as
possible, and forming for them a pair of very ample fans, which in their
vibrations describe an arch of 90°. These 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 pos-
sible to the place they stand upon. The first pair of legs is stretched out
before ; the second extended to the right and left ; whilst the third,
1 Reaum. Phil Trans. 1792, 697. 2 Reaum. v. 602.
3 Ibid. 656, * ii. 339.
392 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
placed very near each other, are perpendicular to the abdomen, so as to
give that part considerable elevation.
Maraldi, and after him Reaumur, long ago noticed this action of the
bees ; bat they attributed to it an effect the reverse of that which it really
produces ; the former imagining it to occasion directly the high tempe-
rature of the hive, and the latter indirectly.^ It 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 summer a 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 number 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, probably 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 circumscribed. The time also that they devote
to this function is longer or shorter, according to circumstances : 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 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 perpetual and complete.
To be convinced that such an effect is produced, approach 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 satisfactory.
On a calm day, at the time when the bees had returned to their habitation
— -having fixed a screen before 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 alter-
nately attracted and repelled to and from the aperture of the hive with
considerable rapidity. These attractions and repulsions were propor-
tioned to the number of bees engaged in ventilation, and though some-
times less perceptible, were never entirely suspended. 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
1 Reaum. v. 672. 2 Huber, ii. 338—362.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 393
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 tliin 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 admeasurement, 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. He then made an open-
ing 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 pendulum 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 produce an analogous effect, got a mechanical
friend to construct for him a little mdl with eighteen sails of tin. He also
prepared a large cylindrical vase, into which he could, at an aperture in
the box upon winch it was fixed, introduce a lighted taper. In one side
of this box 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 vessel was about 3228 cubic inches, the flame
soon diminished, and went out in about eight minutes, and the anemo-
meters continued motionless. The same experiment 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 venti-
lator set in motion : innnediately, as appeared 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 thermo-
meter placed in the lower part of the apparatus rose to 112° ; and the
temperature was evidently still more elevated at the top of the receiver.
The Creator often has one end in view in the actions of animals (and
nothing more conspicuously displays the invisible hand that governs the
universe), while the agents themselves have another. This probablj' 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
relieve themselves from some disagreeable sensation which 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 humming, 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 them-
selves with 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
394 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
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, therefore, 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 congregated myriads of the hive
may be amongst the principal motives that impel its inhabitants to this
necessary action.
Whatever be the proximate cause, it is, 1 trust, now evident to you that
the Author of nature, having assigned to these insects a habitation into
■which the air cannot easily penetrate, has gifted them with the means of
preventing the fatal effects which 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 I shall enlarge
hereafter.
Bees are extremely neat in their persons and habitations, and remove all
nuisances witii great assiduity, at least as far as their powers enable them.
Sometimes slugs or snails will creep into a hive, which with all their
address they cannot readily expel or carry out. 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 un-
happy snail, that had travelled up the sides of a glazed hive, and v\hich
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 excrements they go apart, that they
may not defile their companions ; and in winter, when prevented by
extreme 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 accumulation of faeces 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 disclosed from the pupa and has left its cell, a worker comes, and
taking out its envelop carries it from the hive ; another removes the exuvia;
of the larva ; and a third any filth or ordure that may remain, or any j)ieces
of wax that may have fallen in when the nascent imago broke from its con-
finement. 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 fa-
vourites both within doors and without, I shall next enlarge a little upon
their language, memory, 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 anger ; but they seem unable to transmit
any impression they have received from external objects. But the language
1 Huber, ii. 359. 2 Reaum. v. 442.
3 Bonner On Bees, 102. 4 Reaum. uhi supra, 580 — 600.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 395
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 (intelligence 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, which ke|)t 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 was no queen, the
bees were soon in great agitation ; 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 tiiem by a partition through which they
could pass their antennae, 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 vicinity, and
to communicate with her, was to pass their antennas through the openings
of the grate. An infinite number of these organs might be seen at once,
as it were inquiring in all directions ; and the queen was observed answering
these anxious inquiries of her subjects 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 instruments 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 indeed produced by the mouth, but by
other parts of their body : — but upon this subject I shall have occasion 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 with a shutter all the winter. In the
spring, when it was reopened, the bees returned, though no fresh honey
had been placed there.^
From the earliest times our little citizens of the hive have had the cha-
racter 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 do not usually attack me; but I remember one
day last year, when the asparagus was in blossom, which a large number
were attending, I happened to go between my asparagus beds ; which dis-
composed 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, who, 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
1 In Phihs. Trans. 1807, 239.
2 Huber, ii. 407, 3 Ibid. 375.
396 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
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 constitution 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. >■
In 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 indiscriminately, put them all to
the rout. One horse and six asses were either killed or missing in conse-
quence of their attack ; and for half an hour the bees seemed to have com-
pletely put an end to their journey. Isaaco upon another occasion lost
one of his asses, and one of his men was almost killed, by them.^
Bees, however, if they are not molested, are not usually ill-tempered : it
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 ot this
kind, to the great astonishment and apprehension of the uninformed spec-
tators. 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 would 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 employments about the hives. i
Many means have been had recourse to for the dispersion of mobs and
the allaying of popular tumults. In St. Peterburgh (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 discomfiture would be certain.
The experiment has been tried. Lesser tells us, that in 1525, during the
confusion occasioned by a time of war, a mob of peasants assembhng m
Hohnstein (in Thuringia) attempted to pillage the house ot the minister ot
Elende; who having in vain employed all his eloquence to dissuade them
from their design, ordered his domestics to fetch his bee hives, and throw
them in the middle of this furious mob. The eilect was what might be
expected ; they were immediately put to flight, and happy if they escaped
unstung.* .
The anger of bees is not confined to man ; it is not seldom excited
1 Thorlev, IG. The Psalmist alludes to the fury of these creatures, when he says
of his enemies, " They compassed me about like bees." (f s. cxviii. 12.)
2 Park's Last Mission, 153. 297. Comp. Journal, 331.
5 Thorley, 150. * Lesser, I. u. 171.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 397
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
object in these battles^, which take place, he observes, in fine or warm
weather. On these occasions the bees are sometimes so eager, that exa-
mining 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 nuiscies, is mortal. In these engagements the conqueror is not
always able to extricate this weapon, and both perish. The duration of
the conflict is uncertain; sometimes it lasts an hour, and at others is very
soon determined: and occasionally it happens that both parties, fatigued
and despairing of victory, give up the contest and fly away.
But the wars of bees are not confined to single combats ; general actions
now and then take place between two swarms. This happens when one
takes a fancy to a hive that another has preoccupied. In fine warm weather,
strangers that wish to be received amongst them meet with but an indif-
ferent welcome, and a bloody battle is the consequence. Reaumur wit-
nessed one that lasted a whole afternoon, in which many victims fell. In
this case the battle is still between individuals, who at one time decide the
business within the hive, and at another at some distance without. In the
former case t!ie 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 anterior legs, and rubbing
the two hinder ones against each other. If the battle is not concluded
within the hive, the enemy is carried to a little distance, and then dis-
patched.
This strange fury, however, does not always show itself on this occa-
sion ; 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. On the tenth morn-
ing, however, the intercourse ceased, ending in a furious battle. On
another occasion, an intimacy took place between two hives of his own,
at twice the distance, which ceased on the fifth day. Sometimes he
observed that this communication terminated in the union of two swarms : as
in one instance, where a swarm had taken possession of a hollow tree ^, it
is probable that the reception of one swarm by another may depend upon
their numbers, 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.^
1 See above, p. 359. 2 Reaum. v. 360—365.
3 Philos. Trans. 1807, 234. * 166.
* Thorley, ibid. Comp, Mills On Bees, G3. — The following account of an apiarian
battle was copied from the Carlisle Patriot Newspaper: — On Saturday last, in the
village of Cargo, a combat of a truly novel description was witnessed. A hive of
bees belonging to a professional gentleman of this city swarmed on Thursday last ;
398 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
These apiarian battles are often foiiglit in defence of the property of the
hive. Bees that are ill managed, and not properly fed, instead of collect-
ing for themselves, will now and then get a habit of pillaging from 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 July, 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 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 insects, 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 contention for the best share.
As the poison of bees exhales a penetrating odour, M. Ilnber was
curious to observe the effect it might produce upon them. Having ex-
tracted with |)incers 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 mansion. 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, how-
ever, the poison was coagulated, they were not in the least affected by it.
after which they were hived in the regular way, and appeared to be doing well.
On the Saturday after, a swarm of bees, from some ^neighbouring hive, appeared to
be flying over the garden in which the hive above mentioned was placed, when,
they instantly darted down upon the hive of the new settlers, and completely co-
vered it : in a little time they began to enter the hive, and poured into it in such
numbers that it soon became completely filled. A loud humming noise was heard,
and the worlt of destruction immediately ensued ; the winged combatants sallied
forth from the hive, until it became entirely empt}^ and a furious battle com-
menced in " upper air," between the besiegers and the besieged. A spectator in-
forms us, that these intrepid little warriors were so numerous, that they literally
darkened the sky over-head like a cloud ; meanwhile the destructive battle raged
with fury on both sides, and the ground beneath was covered with the wounded and
the slain ; hundreds of them were Ijing dead, or crawling about, disabled from
reascending to the scene of action. To one party, however, the palm of victory was
at last awarded ; and they settled upon the branch of an adjoining apple-tree, from
which they were safely placed in the empty hive, which had been the object of
their valiant contention, and where they now continue peacefully and industriously
employed in adding to the stores of their commonwealth.
1 Comp. Schirach, 49. Mills, 62. Thorley, 163. 2 51.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 399
A tube impregnated witli the odour of poison recently ejected being pre-
sented to them, affected them in the 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 thera
for the preservation of themselves and their property, which, besides those
of their own species, are exposed to the ravages of numerous enemies.
Of these I have already enumerated several of the class of insects, and
also some beasts and birds that have a taste for bees and their produce.
Tlie jMerops apinster (which has been taken in England), the lark and
other birds, catch them as they flj'. 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, if the 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 titmouse, ac-
cording 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 eat 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 theii* 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 tlie account Mr. White has given of an idiot boy, who from a child
showed a strong 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 fireside, 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 endea-
voured to confine 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
what he called bee-ivine. 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 cadaverous complexion ; and except in his favourite
pursuit, in which he was wonderfully adroit, discovered no mannerof under-
standing. 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
exhibitor of bees ; and we may justly say of him now,
■ Thou,
Had thy presiding star propitious shone,
Shouldst Wildman be.'"6
1 ii. 380. 2 Schirach, 53. 5 170.
* Reaum. v. 710. ^ Thorley, 171. 6 White's Nat. Hist. 8vo. i. 339.
400 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
The worker bees are annual insects, though the queen will sometimes
live more than two years ; but, as every swarm consists of old and young,
this is no argument for burning them. It is a saying of bee-keepers in
Holland, that the first swallow and the first bee foretel each other, i This
perhaps may be correct there; but with us the appearance of bees con-
siderably 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. Reau-
mur mentions a countryman who preserved bees in the same hive for
thirty years ^ Thorley tells us that a swarm took possession of a spot
under the leads of the study of Ludovicus Vives in Oxford, where they
continued a hundred and ten years, from 1520 to 1630. ^ These circum-
stances have led authors to ascribe to bees a greater age than they can
claim Thus MouflFet, because he knew a bees' nest which had remained
thirty years in the same quarters, concludes that they are very long-lived,
and very sapiently doubts whether they even die of old age at all !" which
is just as wise as if a man should contend, because London had existed
from before the time of Julius Caesar, that therefore its inhabitants must
be immortal. . , , x u -j u
Bees are subject to many accidents ; particularly, as 1 have said above,
they often fall or are precipkated by the wind into water; and though like
the cat a bee has not nine lives, nor
" Nine times emerging from the crj^stal flood.
She mews to every watery god,"
vet she will bear submersion nine hours ; and, if exposed to sufficient heat,
be reanimated. In this case their proboscis is generally unfolded, and
stretched to its full length. At the extremity of this, motion is first per-
ceived, and then at the end 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 ot bees
when they want to examine them particularly, for they will all revive upon
bein<r set to the fire. Reaumur says that in winter, during frosts, the bees
remain in a torpid state. He must mean severe frosts ; lor Huber relates
an instance, when upon a sudden emergency the bees of one ot his hives
set themselves to work in the middle of January ; and he observes that
they are so little torpid in winter, that even when the thermometer abroad
is below the freezing point, it stands high in populous hives. Swammer-
dam and after him the two authors last quoted, found that sometimes, 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 Huber the thermometer stood in the hive at about 92°. In colder cli-
mates however, the bees will probably be less active in the Nvinter. They
are then generally situated between the combs towards their lower part.
1 Swamm. Bih. Nat. ed. Hill. i. 160. __
2 ?76t s»/»r«, 665. "^ 178.
4 Theatr Ins 21. ^ Reaum. v. 540.
6 January 11. 1818. Mv bees were out, and very alert this day. The thermo-
meter stood abroad in the" shade at 51 i °. When the sun shone there was quite a
cluster of them at the mouth of the hives, and great numbers were buzzing about
in the air before them.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 401
But when the air grows milder, especially if the ra^s 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 re-
turning, 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 hive 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
combs, where the bees themselves were agglomerated, the mercury, Reau-
mur conjectures, would have risen as high as it does abroad in the warm
days in summer.^ 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 indicated a degree of heat
above that of the hottest days of simimer.^ He observes that tlieir motion,
and even the agitation of their wings, increases the heat of their atmo-
sphere. Often, when the squares of glass in a hive appeared cold to the
touch, if either by design or chance he happened to disturb the bees, and
the agglomerated mass in a tumult began to move difterent ways, sending
forth a great hum, in a very short time so considerable an accession of
heat was produced, that when he 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.*
Theabo\e conclusions, however, of Reaumur and Huber, as to the
greiit temperature of the interior of bee-hives in winter, are contrarj' to the
results obtained by George Newport, Esq., from his minute and very valu-
able series of experiments to determine this point, which will be further
adverted to in directing your attention to the hyl)ernation of insects ; but
this excellent comparative anatomist, of whose labours British entomology
is so justly proud, has not only fully confirmed what these entomologists
have advanced as to the extra heat generated by bees in their hives in
summer, but, after showing that all insects have a temperature greater
than that of the surrounding atmosphere, and that this temperature, as in
vertebrate animals, is intimately dependent on the volume and velocity of
their circulation, and the quantity and activity of their respiration, has
proved that it is in consecjuence of the greater energy of this last function
in bees and humble-bees, owing to the superior development and capacity
of their trachea and vesicular dilatations, that their power of producing
heat is so much greater than that of most other insects If, as happened
to myself a few days ago, a wild bee should chance to drop on a newspaper
you are reading in the open air, and }ou observe it attentively, you will see
it patit like a greyhound after a chase, the alternate rapid contraction and
expansion of its abdominal segments corresponding with the numerous
and rapid acts of respiration which the exertion of its recent flight has
caused ; and Mr. Newport found that in the hive-bee, when very mode-
1 V. 671. 2 i_ 354 note *.
3 Ubi supr. 4 Reaum. v. 672.
D D
402 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
rately active, the number of respirations did rot exceed 40 per minute,
while, when in violent action or a state of excitement, they were from 110
to 120 per minute. The degree of heat developed by the hive-bee is thus
always in proportion to the activity of its respiration, which again usuallj'
depends on the greater or less activity of its motions ; and hence it is in
summer often 25° Fahr. above that of the atmosphere, and as much or
more even in winter, if the bees be in any way excited.^
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 redeemed my pledge, when I taught you to expect that this
history would exceed in interest and variety and marvellous results every
thing that I had before related to you. I trust, moreover, that you will
scarcely feel disposed to subscribe to that opinion, though it has the sanc-
tion of some great names, which attributes these almost miraculous in-
stincts to mere sensation ; which tells us that the sensorium of these
insects is so modelled with respect to the different operations that are
given them iu 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 succession of their different labours is preordained, 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 provisions; — this is the result of no plans, of
no affection, of no foresight; but that the sole determining motive is the
enjoyment of an agreeable sensation attached 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 which M. Huber, who
adopts this theory from Bonnet, has so ably given of these creatures.
That they may experience agreeable sensations from their various employ-
ments, nobody will deny; but that such sensations instruct them how to
perform their several operations, without any plan previously impressed
upon their sensorium, is contrary both to reason and experience. They
have a plan, it is evident ; and that plan, which proves that it is not mere
sensation, they vary according to circumstances. As to affection — 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 individual
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 attending all
theories that give them some degree of these qualities, to resolve all into
mere sensation is removing one difficulty by a greater.
1 Newport " Oa the Temperature of Insects," in Phil. Trans. 1837, pp. 309.
311, &c.
3 Huber, i. 313.
PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 403
That these creatures from mere selfishness build their combs, replenish
them with the fruit of their unwearied 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 naturd that ought never to be admitted, unless esta-
blished by the most irrefragable demonstration ; and I think you will not
be disposed without full proof to yield yourself to a mere theory, so con-
tradictory of all the facts we know relative to this subject.
After all, there are mysteries, as to the prbmtm mobile, amongst these
social tribes, that with all our boasted reason we cannot fathom ; nor
develop satisfactorily the motives that urge them to fulfil in so remarkable
though diversified a way their different destinies. One thing is clear to
demonstration, that by these creatures and their instincts the power, wis-
dom, and goodness of the Great Father of the universe are loudly
proclaimed ; the atheist and infidel confuted ; the believer confirmed in
his faith and trust in Providence, which he thus beholds watching, with
incessant 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, diligence, and self-denial. But it is time at length to put an
end to this long disquisition.
I am, &c,
DD 2
404
LETTER XXI.
MEANS BY WHICH INSECTS DEFEND THEMSELVES.
When a country is particularly open to attack, or surrounded 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 dffnice? 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
continual war, many of whom derive the whole of their subsistence from
them : and amongst their own tribes there are numerous civil broils, the
strong often preying upon the weak, and the cunning u[)on the simple : so
that unless a watchful Providence (which cares for all its creatures, even
the most insignificant) had supplied 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 de-
tail to you some of the most remarkable means of defence with which they
are provided. For the sake of distinctness I shall consider these under
two separate heads, into which, indeed, they naturally divide themselves : —
Passive means of defence, such as are independent of any efforts of the
insect ; and active means of defence, such as result from certain efforts of
the insect, in the employment of those 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 colour and form, by which they either deceive, daz-
zle, alarm, or annoy their enemies ; or from their substance, involuntary
secretions, vitality, and numbers.
They often deceive them by imitating various substances. Sometimes
they so exactly resemble the soil which they inhabit, that it must be a
practised eye which can distinguish them from it. Thus, one of our
scarcest British weevils (C/eonus nebvlosiis), by its gray colour, spotted
■with black, so closely imitates the soil, consisting of white sand mixed
with black earth, on which I have alw-ays found it, that its chance of escape,
even though it be hunted for by the lyncean eye of an entomologist, is not
small. Another insect of the same tribe {Tl.ijlacites scabricuhis), of which
I have observed several species of ground-beetles {Harpalus, Sic.) make
great havoc, abounds in pits of a loamy soil of the same colour precisely
with itself; a circumstance that doubtless occasions many to escape from
their pitiless iocs. Several other weevils, for instance Chloiinia nivea and
cretacea, resemble chalk, and perhaps inhabit a chalky or white soil. But
the most surprising instance of this adaptation of the colour of an insect to
that of the soil where it resides, is f^und in some of the Mantis tribe sepa-
rated by M Lefebvre under the generic name of Eremi'iphila, of which he
has given so interesting an account. These insects (which he met with in
the n\mph state only, in the very midst of the African desert, leading to
the Oasis of Bahryah, about f lur days' journey from the Nile, where he
MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 405
coiiid not discover the slightest trace of any other insect or substance on
which it could by possibility feed, but apparently passing a hfe of absolute
solitude in the midst of these burning sands) had the most perfect identity
of colour with that of the soil on which they were found, being brown where
the soil was brown, and at not above a hundred paces distant of a silvery
white, when found amongst the white particles of broken shells or calca-
reous rocks of a similar dazzling colour. That it was the same species
vi^hich exhil)ited this change of colour, M. Lefebvre did not doubt, nor
that the object was its protection from its enemies, which it was so well
calculated to effect that he could scarcely detect it by the closest inspec-
tion ; but he confesses himself unable to explain whether the different
coloured Eremiaphila' were confined to the soils of the same tints re-
spectively, or, as in the case of the birds and quadrupeds which become
white in winter in the Polar regions, they have the faculty of changing their
colour as they change their abode.'
Many insects, also, are like pebbles and stones, both rough and polished,
and of various colours ; but since this resemblance sometimes results I'rom
their attitudes, 1 shall enlarge upon it under my second head: whether,
however, it be merely passive, or combined with action, we may safely re-
gard it as given to enable them to elude the vigilance of their enemies.
A numerous host of our little animals escape from birds and other as-
sailants by imitating the colour of the plants, or parts of them, which they
inhabit ; or the twigs of shrubs or trees, their foliage, flowers, and fruit.
Many of the mottled moths, which take their station of diurnal repose on
tlie north side of the trunks of trees, are with difficulty distinguished from
the gray and green lichens that cover them. Of this kind are Aliselia apri-
lina and Acronycta Psi. The caterpillar of Bryophila AlgcB, when it feeds
on the yellow Lichen juniperinus, is always yellow ; but when upon the
gray Lichen saxatilis its hue becomes gray." This change is probably pro-
duced by the colour of its food. Leptocerus atratus, a kind of May-fly,
frequents the black flower-spikes of the common sedge (^Carex riparia\
which fringes the hanks of our rivers. I have often been unable to dis-
tinguish 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 Schellen-
berg *, also much resembles the lichens of the oak on which 1 took it.
The spectre tribe {Phaama) go still further in this mimicry, representing
a small branch 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 imitation can be more accurate. Perhaps this may be
the species mentioned by Molina"*, which the natives of Chili call " The
Devil's Horse." ^
Other insects, of various tribes, represent the leaves of plants, living,
decaying, and dead ; some in their colour, and some both in their colour
and shape. The caterpillar of a moth (Haclena Ligustri) that feeds upon
the privet is so exactly of the colour of the underside of the leaf, upon
1 Ann. Snc. Ent. de France, iv. 455. |
* Fabr. Vorksnngen, 321. 3 Cimic. Helvet. t. iii. f. 3.
4 Hist, of Chili, 'i. 172.
5 Since the first edition of this volume was printed, a lady from the West Indies,
looking at my cabinet, upon being shown this insect, exclaimed " Oh, that is The
Devil's Horse I "
D D 3
406 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.
which it usually sits in the day-time, that you may have the leaf in your
hand and yet not discover it.' — The tribe of grass-hoppers called Locustce
by Fabricius, though the true Locust does not belong to it, in the veining,
colour, and texture of their elytra, resemble green leaves.^ — The tribe of
Phasmma — named praying-insects and spectres — also of the Orthoptera
order, often exhibit the same peculiarity. — Others of them, by the spots and
mixtures of colour observable in these organs, represent leaves that are
decaying in various degrees. — Those of several species of MantidcB like-
wise imitate dry leaves, and so exactly, by their opacity, colour, rigidity,
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 Phyll'mm siccifolium, and two or three Brazilian species
in my cabinet, that seem undescribed, which I will show you when you
give me an opportunity. But these imitations of dry leaves are not con-
fined to the Orlhoptera order solely. Amongst the Hemiftera, the Phi/Ilo-
morplia ptiradoxa, a kind of bug, surprised Sparrman not a little. He was
sheltering himself from the mid-day sun when the air was so still 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,
fluttering from the tree. The sight appeared to him so very extraordinary,
that he left his place of shelter to contemplate 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 (Gasti-o-
jiacha quercifolia), called by collectors the Lappet moth, affords an example
from the Lepidoptera order of the imitation in question, its wings repre-
senting, both in shape and colour, an arid brown leaf. Some bugs, belong-
ing to the genus Dictyonota of Mr. Curtis*, simulate portions of leaves in
a still further state of decay, when the veins only are left ; for, the thorax
and elytra of these insects being reticulated, with the little areas or meshes
of the net-work transparent, this circumstance gives them exactly the ap-
pearance of small fragments of skeletons of leaves.
But you have probably heard of most of these species 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.
Mason at the Cape of Good Hope, a species of the orthopterous genus
Pnetmiorri, the elytra of which were of a rose or pink colour, which shroud-
ing its vesiculose abdomen, gave it much the appearance of a fine flower. —
A most beautiful and brilliant beetle, of the genus C/tlawt/s (C'A. Bacca),
found by Captain Hancock in Brazil, by the inequalities of its ruby-coloured
surface, strikingly resembles some kinds of fruit. — And to make the series
of imitations complete, a minute black beetle, with ridges upon its elytra
(Onihop/iilus sulcatiis^), when lying without motion, is very like the seed
of an umbelliferous plant. The dog-tick is not unlike a small bean; which
1 Brahm, Jnsecten Kalender, ii. 383.
2 Hence we have Locusta citrifolia, laurifolia, camellifoUa, myrtifolia, salvifolia,
&c., which, I believe, all belong to a genus 1 have named Pterophylla.
3 Voyage, &c. ii. 16. Westw. ^rc. Ent. Plate II.
4 Brit. Ent. t. 154. 5 Oliv. Entomolog. i. no. 8. 17.
MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 407
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 Ricinus given to it from the similitude of its seed to a tick.
Another tribe of these little animals, before alliuled to, is secured from
harm by a ditJerent kind of imitation, and affords a beautiful instance of
the wisdom of Providence in adapting means to their end. ISome singular
larvae, with a radiated anus ^, live in the nests of humble-bees, and are the
offspring of a particular genus of flies (Voluce/la) , 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 pre-
sumption. Mr. Sheppard once found one of these larvae in the nest of
JBombits^ Raielhis, but we could not ascertain what the fly was. Perhaps
it might be Volucella bombylans, which resembles those humble-bees that
have had a red anus.^ In like manner Mr. W. S. MacLeay informs us
that he has discovered that the larvae of those tropical Bombylii which
have such a bee-like form live on the larvae of the bees they so strikingly
represent ; and he suggests that probably the object of nature in giving
such an ant-like form to the singular spider described by him under the
name of Myrmarachne vielanocephala is to deceive the ants on which they
prey.*
The brilliant colours in which many insects are arrayed may decorate
them with some other view than that of mere ornament, 'ihey may dazzle
their enemies. The radiant blue of the upper surface of the wings of a
giant butterfly, abundant in Brazil (Moi-pko Menelaus), which from its
size would be a ready prey for any insectivorous birds, by its splendour
(which I am told, when the insect is flying in the sunshine, is inconceiv-
ably 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
respect to the golden wasps (Chiysis L.). These animals lay their eggs in
the nests of such Hymenoptera, wasps, bee-wasps (Bembex), 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 frequented by these insects,
may dazzle the eyes of their enemies, and enable them to efl^ect unhurt the
purpose for which they were created.*
The frightful aspect of certain insects is another passive means of de-
fence by which the)' sometimes strike beholders, especially children, often
great insect tormentors, with alarm, and so escape. The terrific and pre-
tended jaws of the stag-beetle {Liccanus Cervus) in Europe, and of the
' Latreille, Gen. Crust, et Ins. iv. 322.
2 Apis. * *. 8. 2. K.
^ Dr. Fleming, however (zra Literis), doubts whether the reason here assigned is
the cause of the resemblance between the Bomhus and Volucella; he thinks if a bee
knows a stranger of its own species, it could not be deceived b}' a fly in the disguise
of a bee. But the fact that these insects lay their eggs in their nests, and that they
resemble humble-bees, seems to justify the conclusion drawn in the text. They
must get in often undiscovered.
4 Ann. Nat. Hist. ii. 12. 5 Latreille, Annal. du 3Ius. 1810, 5.
D D 4
408 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.
stag-horn Capricorn beetle (^Prionus Cemccryiis) 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 threatening horns also, prominent eyes, or black and dis-
mal hue of many other Coleoptera belonging to Linne's genera ScarabcEus,
Cicindela, and Carabus, may produce the same effect.
But the most striking instances of armour are to be found amongst the
homopterous Hemiptera. 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 Cicada spinosa Stoll^ the Centrohts
clavatus ^, and more particularly the Centrotus g/obu/aris "*, so remarkable 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
varieties of armour with which these little creatures are furnished it is not
easy to sa}', but they may probably defend them from the attack of some
enemies.
Under this head I may mention the long hairs, stiff bristles, sharp
spines, and hard tubercular prominences with which many caterpillars are
clothed, bristled, and studded. That these are means of defence is ren-
dered more probable by the fact that, in several instances, the animals so
distinguished at their last moult, previous 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 spines i'or which they
were before remarkable.* Wonderftd are the varieties of this kind which
insects exhibit : — but 1 shall only here select a few facts more particularly
connected with my present subject. The caterpillar of the great tiger-
moth (Eiiprejna Cnja), which is beset with long dense hairs, when rolled
up — an attitude it usually assumes if alarmed — cannot then be taken
without great difficulty, slipping repeatedly from the pressure of the
fingers. If its hairs do not render it distasteful, this may often be the
means of its escape from the birds. That little destructive beetle Aiithrenus
Musoriim, which so annoys the entomologist, if it gets into his cabinets,
when in the larva state being covered with bunches of diverging hairs,
glides from between your fingers 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 whole length, and terminating in a sharp
halberd-shaped point.^ I have a small lepidopterous caterpillar from
Brazil, the upper side of which is thickly beset with strong, sharp, branch-
ing spines, which would enter into the finger, and would probably render
it a painful morsel to any minor enemy.
The powers of annoyance by means of their hairs, with which the moth
of the fir, and the procession-moth, before noticed, are gifted, are doubtless
1 One would almost wish that the same superstition prevailed here which
Sparrman observes is common in Sweden, with respect to these animals. " Simple
people," says he, " believe that their sins will be forgiven if they set a cockchafer
on its legs." — Voyage, i. 28.
2 Cigales, f. 85.
3 Ibid. f. 11.5. Coquebert, lllust. Ic. ii. t. xxviii. f. 5.
4 Stoll, Cigales, f. 163. Comp. Pallas, Spicil. Zool. t. i. f. 12.
s Reaum. v. 94.
^ This was first pointed out to me by Mr. Briggs of the post-office, who sent me
an accurate drawing of the animal and of one of its hairs. I did not at that time
discover that it had been figured by De Geer, iv. t. viii. f. 1. 7.
MEAN^S OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 409
a defensive armour to them. Madame Merian has figured an enormous
caterpillar of this kind, — which unfortunately she could not trace to the
perfect insect, — by the very touch of which her hands, she says, were in-
flamed, and that the inflammation was succeeded by the most excruciating
pain.^ The vesicatory beetles, likewise {Cantliaris vesicatorla. Arc), are not
improbably defended 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 baldness of the substance that covers great numbers of them. The
elytra of many beetles of the genus Hister are so nearly impenetrable, that
it is very difficult to make a pin pass through them ; and the smaller stag-
beetle (i)o?r«i' parallelipipedus) will bear almost any weight — the head
and trunk forming a slight angle with the abdomen — which passes over it
upon the ground. Other insects are [)rotected by tiie toughness of
their skin. A remarkable instance of this is afforded by the com-
mon forest-fly (Hippobosca equina), which, as was before observed, can
scarcely be killed by the utmost pressure 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 difficult to be attacked, or render them less palatable. Thus, the
white froth often observable upon rose-bushes, and other shrubs and
plants, called by the vulgar frog-spittle, — but which, if examined, will be
found to envelope the larva of a small hemipterous insect {Apbrojj/wra
spumaria), from whose anus it exudes, although it is sometimes discovered
even in this concealment 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 Eriosoma", and some species of 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 anything 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 (Se/an-
dria Cerasi, Allantus Sa'ophularicB, ike). The coat of slime of these ani-
mals, as Professor Peck observes^, retains its humidity though exposed to
the fiercest sun. Under this head I shall also mention the [)hosphoric in-
sects : the glow-worm {Lampyris); the lanttrn-fly (^Fidgora) ; the firefly
{Elater) ; and the electric centipede (Geophilus electricus) ; since the light
emitted by these animals may defend them from the attack of some
enemies. Mr. Sheppard once noticed a Carabus running round the last-
mentioned insect, when shining, as if wishing, but afraid to attack it.
Various insects, doubtless, find the wonderful vitality* with which they
1 Insect. Surinam, t. 57. Two different species of caterpillars apparently related
to this of Madame Merian were in the late Mr. Francilloii's cabinet, and are now in
my possession.
2 To this genus belongs the apple Aphis, called A. lanigera.
^ ]Vat. Hist, of ttie Slug-worm, 7.
* Tlie penetrating genius 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 tiiat their
vital spirits are more ditfused tliorowout all their parts, and lesse confiued to organs
than in perfect creatures." — Sylv. Sylvar, cent, vii. § 697.
410 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.
are endowed another means 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 Lepido-
jjtera, especially of the larger kinds, will scarcely die, do what yon will, till
they have laid their eggs. Dr. Arnold, a most acute observer, relates to
Mr. MacLeay, that having pinned Sculici qiiadrimacidata, a hymenopterous
insect, down in the same box with many others, amongst which was the
humming-bird hawk-moth ( Alacroglossa stellatariim), its proper food ; it
freed itself from the pin that transfixed it, and, neglecting all the other in-
sects in the box, attacked the Sphinx, anil pulling it to pieces devoured a
large portion of its abdomen.
We often wonder how the cheese-mite {Acariis Siro) 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 with-
out food, our wonder will be diminished.^ Another species of mite
( Uropoda vegetans) was observed by De Geer to live some time in spirits
of wine.^ This last circumstance reminds me of an event which befel ni)'-
self, that I cannot refrain from relating to you, since it was the cause of
my taking up the pursuit I am recommending to you. One morning I ob-
served on my study window a little lady -bird yellow with black dots {Coc-
cinella 22-puncta) — "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 immersed it in geneva.
After leaving it in this situation a day and a night, and seeing it without
motion, I concluded it was dead, and laid it in the sun to drj'. It no
sooner, however, felt the warmth than it began to move, and afterwards flew
awaj'. From this time I began to attend to insects. — The chamaeleon-fly
{Strafyonils Chamceleon) was observed by Swammerdam 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 chamaeleon, will live nine
months without food ; a circumstance, if true, more wonderful than what
I formerly related 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 hollows are filled with
water : but when the water is dried up, it is seldom that any dead car-
casses of insects are to be seen in them. Mr. Curtis submerged the 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.*
The late ingenious, learned, and lamented Dr. Keeve of Norwich, once
related to me that he found in a hot fountain on the top of a mountain,
near Leuk in Valais in Switzerland, in which the thermometer stood at
205°, transparent larvae, probably of gnats, or some such insect. — Lord
Bute also, in a letter to my late revered fi'iend, the Rev. William Jones of
Nayland, imparts a similar observation made by his Lordship at the baths
of Abano, near the Eugaiiian mountains, on the borders of the Paduan
states. They are strong, sulphureous, boiling springs, oozing out of a
rocky eminence in great numbers, and spreading over an acre of the top
1 Leeuw. Epist. 77., 1694. 2 De Geer, vii. 127.
3 Bib. Nat. ii, c. 3. * Linn. Trans, vi. 84.
MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 411
of a gentle hill. In the midst of these boiling springs, within three feet
of five or six of them, rises a tepiti one about blood-warm. But the
most extraordinary circumstance which he relates is, that not only con-
fervas were found in the boiling springs, but numbers 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
( Si/iickifa Jiig/aiidis), I immersed it in boiling water ; and, after keeping it
submerged a sufficient 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 temperature. Providence has fitted it for it, by giving it
extraordinary powers of sustaining heat. Other insects 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 mass of ice:
and Reaumur relates many similar instances.'^
The last passive means of defence that I mentioned, was the multiplica-
tion of insects. Some species, the Aphides for instance, and the Grass-
hoppers and Locusts, have such an infinite host of enemies, that were it
not tor 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; in which the volition of the animal bears some part.
II. The active means of defence, which tend to secure insects from
injury or attack, are much more numerous and diversified than the pas-
sive ; 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 it, either by having recourse to certain attitudes
or motions ; producing particular noises ; emitting disagreeable scents or
fluids ; em'ploying their limbs, or weapons, and valour ; concealing them-
selves in various ways, or by counteracting the designs and attacks 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 my atten-
tion was attracted as a very minute, shining, round black pebble. This
successful imitation was produced by folding its head under its breast, and
turning up its abdomen over its elytra ; so that the most piercing and dis-
criminating eye would never have discovered it to be an insect. 1 have
observed that a carrion beetle (Si/pha thoracica) when alarmed has re-
course to a similar mancEuvre. Its orange-coloured thorax, the rest of
the body being black, renders it particularly conspicuous. 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, when it
resembles a rough stone. The species of another genus of beetles {Aga-
ihidium) 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 (Uasi/pus) amongst qua-
drupeds, is that of one of the species of woodlouse {^Armadillo vulgaris),
1 J. Mason Good's Anniversary Oration, delivered March 8. 1808, before the il/e-
dical Society of London, p. 31.
2 De Geer, vi. 355. ; comp. 320., and Eeaum. ii. 141 — 147.
412 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.
This insect, when alarmed, rolls itself up into a little ball. In this attitude
its legs and the underside 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 spherical, 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 Swainmerdam's maid, who, finding a
number of these instcts thus rolled up in her master's garden, mistaking
them for beads, employed herself in stringing them on a thread ; when to
to her great surprise, the poor animals beginning to move and struggle for
their libertv, crying out and running away in the utmost alarm, she threw
down her prize.^ The golden-wasp tribe also {Chrysididce), ail 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 Hymenvptera whose nests they
enter with the view of depositing their eggs in their offspring. Latreille
noticed this attitude in Pamopes carnea, w hich, he tells us, Bembex ro-
strata 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." M. Lepelletier de Saint-Fargeau, to whom
entomology is indebted for so many new facts relative to the manners of
hymenopterous insects, has given us a striking account of a contest be-
tween the art of one of these parasites (Hedychnnn regium) and the
courage of one of the mason-bees, in endeavouring to defend its nest from
its attack. The mason-bee had partly finished one of her cells, and flown
away to collect a store of pollen and honey. During her absence the
female parasitic Hedychrum, after having examined this cell by entering it
head foremost, came out again, and walking backwards, had begun to
introduce the posterior part of her body into it, preparatory to deposit-
ing an egg, when the mason-bee arriving laden with her pollen paste threw
herself upon her enemy, which, availing herself of the means of defence
above adverted to, rolled herself up into a con'.pact ball, with nothing but
the wings exposed, and equally invulnerable to the sting or mandibles of
her assailant. In one point, however, our little defender of her domicile
saw that her insidious foe was accessible ; and, accordingly, with her
mandibles cut off her four winus, and let her fall to the ground, and then
entering her cell with a sort of inquietude, deposited her store of food,
and flew to the fields for a fresh suply ; but scarcely was she gone before
the Hfdychmm, unrolling herself, and, faithful to her instinct and her object,
though deprived of her wings, crept up the wall directly to tlie cell trora
whence she had been precipitated, and quietly placed her egg in it against
the side below the level of the pollen-paste, so as to prevent the mason-bee
from seeing it on her return.^
Other insects endeavour to protect themselves from danger by simu-
lating death. The common dung-chafer {Geotrupes stercorarius), when
touched, or in fear, sets out its legs as stifle as if they were made of iron-
wire — which is their posture when dead — and remaining perfectly-
motionless, thus deceives the rooks which prey upon them, and, like the
1 Hill's Swamm. i. 174. « Ann. du Mus. 1810, 5.
3 Encycl. Method, x. 8. Lacordaire, Introd. a VEntom. ii. 488.
MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 413
ant-lion before celebrated, will eat them only when alive. A different
attitude is assumed by one of the tree-chafers (Hop/ia pidverulenta), pro-
bably with the same view. It sometimes 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 insects of the same order, the pill-
beetles (Bj/rr/nis), have recourse to a method the reverse of this. They
pack their legs, which are short 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 tril)e, most
of tlie species of Germar's genus Cri/ptoripicIiHs, including several modern
genera or subgenera, when an entomological finger approaches them, as I
have often experienced to my great disappointment, applying their rostrum
and legs to the underside of their trunk, fall from the station ou which you
hope to entrap 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 {Ambium per-
iinax, 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 simulation 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 experi-
ments 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 concurrent
testimony of respectable witnesses, without feeling any temptation to put
the constancy of the poor insect again to the test. — A similar apathy is
shown by some species of saw-flies (Scrrifcra), which, when alarmed, con-
ceal their antennae under their body, place their legs close to it, and remain
without motion even when tran^flxed 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 exhibiting the slightest symptom of pain.-
There is a certain tribe of caterpillars called surveyors {Geo metres), that
will sometimes support themselves for whole hours, by means of their
posterior legs,, solely upon their anal extremity, forming an angle 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 kept stiff and immoveable with the separations of the seg-
ments scarcely visible ; it terminates in a knob, the legs being applied
close, so as to resemble the bud at the end of a twig ; besides which it
often exhibits intermediate tubercles which increase the resemblance. Its
colour, too, is usually obscure, and similar to that of the bark of a tree.
So that, doubtless, the sparrows and other birds are frequently- deceived
by this manoeuvre, and thus baulked of their prey. Rosefs gardener,
mistaking one of these caterpillars for a dead twig, started back in great
1 De Geer, iv. 229. 2 Smellie, Fhil. of Nat. Hist. i. 150.
414 ' MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.
alarm when upon attempting to break it off he found it was a living
animal.^
But insects do not always confine themselves to attitudes by which
they meditate escape or concealment ; they sometimes, to show their
courage, put themselves in a posture of defence, and even have in view
the annoyance as well as the repelling of their foes. The great rove-
beetle (Goerius olem) presents an object sufficiently terrific, when with its
large jaws expanded, 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 (Labidura
giganted), 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 ap-
pearance still more alarming.^
The caterpillars of some hawk-moths (Sphinx), particularly that which
feeds upon the privet, when they repose, holding strongly with their
jirolegs 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 enemies, or alarming them, — perhaps for hours. Reaumur relates that
a gardener in the employment of the celebrated Jussieu used to be quite dis-
concerted by the self-sufficient air of these animals, saying they must be
very proud, for he had never seen any other caterpillars hold their heads
so high.* From this attitude, which precisely resembles that which sculp-
tors have assigned to the fabulous monster called by that name, the term
Sphinx has been used to designate this genus of insects. — The caterpillar
of a moth {Lophopteryx camelina) 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 extremity 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 quadru-
ped in miniature ; the tail being its head — the horns its ears — and the
reflexed head simulating a tail curled over its biick.''- In this seem-
ingly unnatural attitude it will remain without motion for a very long
time.
Some lepidopterous larvse, 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 them.^ The giant caterpillar of a large Jiorth
American moth {Ceracampa rega/is) is armed behind the head and at the
back of the anterior segments with seven or eight strong curved spines
from half to three fourths of an inch in length. Mr. Abbot 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 general 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 named
1 Ros. I. V. 27. 2 jr,mn. Trans, x. 404. ^ Reaum. ii. 253.
4 Reaum. ii. 260. t. 20. f. 10, 11. Compare Sepp. IV. t. i. f. 3—7.
* Keaum. i. 100, ^ Smith's Abbot's Ins. of Georgia, ii. 121.
MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 415
Malachius endeavour to alarm their' enemies and show their rage by puff-
ing out and inflating four vesicles from the sides of their body, which are of
a bright red, soft, and of an irregular 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 assailants 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 in-
truders. I have often been interrupteil myself while contemplating 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
ex[)edient, 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 disturbed, whether out of the nest or in it, assume
some very grotesque and at the same time threatening attitudes. 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. Some-
times they will even spirt out that liquor. When in the nest, if it be at-
tacked, they also beat their wings violently and emit a great huni.^
These motions menace vengeance ; those of some other insects are
merely to effect their escape. Thus I have observed that the species of
the Ma)-fly tribe (Trichoptera'^), when I have attempted to take them, have
often glided away from under my hand — without moving their limbs that
I could discover — in a remarkable manner.^ M. de Villiers informs us
that different species of moths of the genera Orthosia and Cerastis never
avail themselves of their wings to escape the dangers which threaten them;
but if you attempt to seize them immediately let themselves fall to the ground,
and then begin running with such rapidity, that it is very difficult to obtain
possession of them.*^ And in like manner various CurcuUonidce and other cole-
opterous insects, if they see any one approach, contract their legs, and suffer
themselves to fall from the leaf or other surface on which thev rest, among the
grass or plants below, and thus escape. To notice the ordinary motions of
insects, which are often means by which they avoid danger, would here be
premature, since they will be fully considered in a subsequent letter. I
shall, therefore, only mention the zigzag flight of butterflies and the traverse
sailing of humble-bees, which certainly render it more difficult for the birds
to catch them while on the wing.
Noises are another means of defence to which insects have occasional
recourse. I have heard the lunar dung-beetle (Copris lunaris), when dis-
turbed, utter a shrill sound. Dijnastes Oromedon, another of the lamel-
licorn insects, was observed by Dr. Arnold to make, when alarmed, a kind
of creaking noise, which it produced by rubbing its abdomen against its
elytra. A third of the same tribe {Trox sabulosus) emits a small sibilant or
chirping noise, as 1 once observed when I found several feeding in a ram's
1 De Geer, iv. 74. 2 Nat. Hist. ii. 268.
3 P. Huber in Limi. Trans, vi. 219. Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl. i. 201.
* Kirby in Linn. Trans, xi. 87. note *.
5 Evidently by the action of the numerous spines on the legs all directed back-
wards, just as an ear of barley will mount up the sleeve of a coat,
s Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, xi, bull. xii.
416 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.
horn.^ The " drowsy hum" of beetles, humble-bees, and other insects 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 dis-
tinguishable from their ordinary sounds, may be regarded as warning voices
to those from whom they apprehend evil or an attack. I have before ob-
served that the death's-head liawk-moth {Acheroni'ta Atropos\ when me-
naced by the stings of ten thousand bees enraged at her depredations upon
their property, possesses the secret to disarm them of their fury. This
insect, when in fear or danger, is known to produce a sharp, shrill, mourn-
ful cry, which, with the superstitious, has added to the alarm produced by
the symbol of death which signalises its thorax. This cry, there is reason
to believe, affects 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 was 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
this subject of defensive noises, but I shall reserve what I have further to
communicate, to a letter w hich I purpose devoting to the sounds produced
or emitted by insects.
You are acquainted with the singular property of the skunk (l^iverra jm-
torhis L.), which repels its assailants by the fetid vapour that it explodes ;
but perh;ips are not aware that the Creator has endowed many insects
with the same property, and for the same purpose, 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 particular organs,
and when they are attacked.
Of the former description of defensive scents there are numerous ex-
amples, in almost every order; for,' next to plants and vegetable sub-
stances, insects, of any part of the creation, afford the greatest diversity of
odours. In the CoJcoplcra onler a very common beetle, the whirlwig
{Gyiimiis vatalor^,vi\\\ infect your finger for a long time with a disagree-
able rancid smell; while two other species, G. viinulns and vi/losus, are
scentless. Those unclean feeders, the carrion beetles ( Si/p/in 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 evidently the
darkling-beetle (^/f/;j.s Jiiorfisaga), and which he recommends as an infallible
nostrum, when applied with oil extracted from the cedar, in otherwise in-
curable ulcers, that was an object of general disgust on account of its ill
scent, a character which it still maintains ^ ; which scent, from Mr. Thwaite's
investigation of the internal anatomy of this insect, proceeds from two
small oblong vesicles near the anus, the fluid contents of which, v/hen they
are extracted ami dissected under water, rise in a bubble to the surface,
and there becoming vaporised diffuse the fetid smell pecuhar to the
species. Numbers of the ground-beetles (^Eiitrcchhia), that are found under
1 Numerous other beetles make the same kind of sound, either by the friction of
the head in the anterior protlioracic cavity, or b}' rubbing the narrowed front of the
mesothorax against the sides of the posterior prothoracic cavity, or the abdomen
against the el3'tra.
2 Huber appears to be of this opinion ; he does not, however, lay great stress
upon it. Yet tliere seems no other way of accounting for the impunity with which
this animal commits its depredation. Huber, ii. 299.
5 Hist. Nat. 1. xxix. c. U.
MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 417
stones, and in 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, fronni
an unctuous matter that transpires through the body^ ; but I am rather in-
clined to think it proceeds from the extremity. I have noticed that some
small beetles of the Omalhim genus, for instance O. rivu/are, and another
species that I once found in abundance on the primrose (O. PrimuUe K.
Ms.), especially the latter, are abominably fetid when taken, and that it re-
quires more than one washing to free the fingers from it. Every one knows
that the cock-roach {Blntta orientalls), belonging to the OrthojHera order,
is not remarkable for a pleasant scent ; but none are more notorious for
their bad character in this respect than the bug tribe (Geocorisa:), which
almost universally exhale an odour that mixes with the scent of cucumbers
another extremely unpleasant and annoying. Some, however, are less dis-
gusting, particularly Li/gcE2is Hyoscymm, which yields, De Geer found, an
agreeable odour of thyme. '^ — Several lepidopterous larvae are defended
by their ill smell ; but I shall only particularise the silk-worms which on
that account are said to be unwholesome. — Phri/ganen grandis, a kind of
May-fly, is a trichopterous insect that offends the nostrils in this way ; but a
worse is Chrysopa Perla, a golden-eyed and lace-winged fly, of the next
order, whose beauty is counterbalanced by a strong scent of human ordure
that proceeds from it. — Numberless Hymenoptera act upon the olfactory
nerves by their ill or powerful efliuvia. One of them, an ant {Formica
foetida De Geer, fcetens Oliv.), has the same smell with the insect last men-
tioned.^ Our common black ant {F. fu/ighiosa), 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 ; and Fabricius distinguishes another (F. analis Latr,, fcetens F.)
by an epithet (faeiidissima) which sufficiently declares its properties. Many
wild bees (Andrena) are distinguished by their pungent alliaceous smell.
Crabro U-Jlavum, a wasp-like insect, is remarkable for the penetrating and
spirituous effluvia of ether that it exhales.* Indeed there is scarcely any
species in this order that has not a peculiar scent. — Some dipterous in-
sects— though these in general neither offend nor delight us by it — are
distinguished by their smell. Thus Mescmbrina mystacea, a fly that in its
grub state lives in cow-dung, savours in this respect, when a denizen of the
air, of the substance in which it first drew breath.^ And another {Sepsis
cynipsea) emits a fragrant odour of beaum.*^ ■ — I have not much to tell
you with respect to apterous insects, except that Tulus terrestris, a com-
mon millepede, leaves a strong and disagreeable 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 vapours that exhale
from them ; and perhaps some in the list produce it from particular or-
gans not yet noticed.
I shall next beg your attention to those insects that emit their smell from
1 iv. 86.
2 De Geer, iii. 249. 374. 3 Ibid. iii. GU.
* Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl. i. 136. note a.
* De Geer, vi. 134. Meigen, Dipt. v. 12.
6 De Geer, vi. 135. 33. ^ Ibid. vii. 581.
E E
418 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.
particular organs. Of these some are furnished with a kind of scent-vessels
which I shall call osmateria ; while in others it issues from the intestines
at the ordinary passage. In tlie former instance the organ is usually re-
tractile within the body, being only exserted when it is used : it is gene-
rally a bifid vessel, something in the shape of the letter Y. Linne, in his
generic character of the rove-beetles {Sta-pliylmidcB), 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
Ocijpiis brunnipes, are remarkable. If you press the abdomen hard, you
will find that these vesicles are only branches from a common stem ; and
you may easily ascertain that the smell of this insect, which mixes some-
thing extremely fetid with a spicy odour, proceeds from their extremity. —
A similar organ, half an inch in length, and of the same shape, issues from
the neck of the caterpillar of the swallow-tail-butterfly {Pajnlio Ma-
c/mon). 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 P. Anchises
and many other Equites^, as also Parnassiiis Apollo. Another insect, thelarva
of a species of saw-fly described by De Geer, is furnished with osmateria, or
scent-organs, of a different kind. They are situated between the first five
pair of intermediate 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 re-
mains long upon the finger ; but when the pressure is removed they are
withdrawn within the body.^ The grub of the poplar-beetle {Chrysomela
PopuU) also is remarkable for similar organs. On each of the nine inter-
mediate dorsal segments of its body is a pair of black, elevated, conical
tubercles of a hard substance ; from all of these when touched the animal
emits a small drop of a white milky fluid, the smell of which, De Geer ob-
serves, 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 mo-
ment and dispensing its perfume, is withdrawn 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, and combat their
enemies with repeated discharges of smoke and noise. The most famous
for their exploits in this' way are those beetles which on this account are
distinguished by the name of bombardiers (Brachmus). The most common
species (B. crcjntans), which is found occasionally in many parts of Britain,
when pursued by its great enemy, Calosovia inquisitor, seems at first to have
no mode of escape : when suddenly a loud explosion is heard, and a blue
1 Merian Surinam, 17. Jones in Linn. Trans, ii. 64.
2 De Geer, ii. 989. t. xxxvii. f. 6.
3 Ibid. v. 291. Compare Ray's Letters, 43.
MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 419
smoke, attended by a very disagreeable scent, is seen to proceed from its
anus, ■which inmiediately stops the progress of its assailant : when it has
recovered from the effect of it, and the pursuit is renewed, a second dis-
charge again arrests its course. The bombardier can fire its artillery twenty
times in succession if necessary, and so gain time to effect its escape ; and
what is still more remarkable, Mr. Holme found that by pressing the abdo-
men near the anus, the discharges may be produced after death. In this
way two specimens which had been dead eighteen hours gave, one fifteen,
and the other nineteen discharges before being exhausted, and he even
obtained explosions from some specimens which had been dead four days ;
but most of these, along with the noise, discharged a black grainy fluid
without smoke.^ Anotlier species {B. disp/osor) makes explosions similar
to those of B. crepitans : when irritated it can give ten or twelve good dis-
charges ; 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 parti-
cular point. M. Leon Dufour observes that this smoke has a strong and
pungent odour, which has a striking analogy with that exhaled by 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 remain several days." This burning sensation, M. Lacor-
daire informs us, when arising from the discharges of the large exotic
species, is so painful, that he has often been obliged to let those which he
had taken escape. The same power of emitting explosions, as a means of
defence, is found also in some other coleopterous species, as in those of
the genus Paussus, according to M. Payen, who had an opportunity of
studying their habits in the isles of Sunda and the Moluccas ^ ; in those of
Cerapterus according to Mr. MacLeay "* j and in those of OzcEiia in a slight
degree, according to M. Lacordaire.
Another expedient to which insects have recourse, to rid themselves of
their enemies, is the emission of disagreeable7?Mif/5. 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
(Galiiim), called by some the bloody-nose beetle (Timarcha tenebricosd).
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-
beetles {Silpha and Necrophonis), as also the larger Carabi, defile us, if
handled roughly, with brown fetid saliva. Mr. Sheppard having taken one
of the latter (C. violaceus), applied it in joke to his son's face, and was
surprised to hear him immediately cry out as if hurt : repeating the ex-
periment 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 being harmless. Hence he conjectures that its caustic nature, in the
instance here recorded, might arise from its food j which he had reason to
1 Trans. Ent. Soc. Land. ii. proc. vii.
2 Ann. du Mus. xviii. 70. 3 Lacordaire, Introd. a VEntom. ii. 56.
^ Westwood, Mod. Classif. of Ins. i. 15L
EE 2
420 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.
think had at that time been the electric centipede (Geophilus electricus).
Lesser having once touched the anal horn of the caterpillar of some
sphinx, suddenly turning its head round it vomited upon his hand a quan-
tity of green viscous and very fetid fluid, which, though 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 web of one of our largest spiders, by
means of a fluid which it sent forth, entirely dissolve the great breadth of
t!u-eads with which the latter endeavoured to envelop it, as fast as pro-
duced till the spider appeared quite exhausted. ^ The caterpillars also of
u particular tribe of saw-flies, remarkable for the beautiful pennated
antenna; of the males (PteronnsY, when disturbed, eject a drop of fluid
from their mouth. Those of one species inhabiting the fir-tree {PL Pint)
are ordinarily stationed on the narrow leaves of that tree — which they
devour most voraciously in the manner that we eat radishes — with then-
head towards the point. Sometimes two are engaged opposite to each
other on the same leaf. They collect in groups often of more than a huri-
dred, 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 simi-
lar both in'odour and consistence to that of the fir.^ What is still more
remarkable, 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 annoy-
ers, the scent of which is probably sufficient to discomfit any ichneumons,
flies, 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 hps, occasions considerable pain.'' — The rose-
scented Capricorn (Cerambi/x moschatus) produced a similar effect upon
Mr. Sheppard by similar 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
effluvia produced by which are so subtile and penetrating, that it is impos-
sible to hold your head near the nest of the hill-ant (Formica rufa), when
the ants are much disturbed, without being almost suffocated.^ This odour
thus proceeding from myriads of ants is powerful enough, it is said, to kill
1 Lesser, 1. i. 284. note C.
'•^ De Araneis, 27. /■ i • i •
3 This gentleman is of opinion that spiders possess the means of re-clissolving
their webs He obsei-ved 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 winding up a powerful prey, a spider can form its
threads into a broad sheet.
•• Jurine, Hymenopt. t. vi. f. 8.
» De Geer, ii. 971.
6 I owe the knowledge of this circumstance to Mr. MacLeay.
'' De Geer, iv. 86. Geoff'r. i. 14L
MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 421
a frog, and is probably the means of securing the nest from the attack of
many enemies. — Dr. Arnold observed a species of bug {Scutellera)
abundant upon some polygamous plants 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), 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 crow-foot
or Raminculus, it is probable that this fluid partakes of the nature 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 conspicuous
animal. Another beetle {Elenophonts co/laris) has likewise this faculty.
— The lady-bird, we know, has been recommended as a cure for the tooth-
ache. Tliis idea may have taken its rise from a secretion of this kind
being noticed upon it. I have observed that one species (jCocci)ieUa bipunc-
tata), when taken, ejects from its joints a yellow fluid, which yields a
powerful but not agreeable scent of opium. — Asihis crabroniform'u, a dip-
terous insect, once when 1 took it emitted a white milky fluid from its
proboscis, the joints of the legs and abdomen, and the anus. The common
scorpion-fly (liaphidia ojihiopsis) likewise, upon the same occasion ejects
from its proboscis a brown and fetid drop.^ Some insects have peculiar
organs from which their fluids issue, or are ejaculated. Thus the larvae of
saw-flies, when taken into the hand, cover themselves with drops, exuding
from all parts of their body, of an unpleasant penetrating scent.'^ That of
Cimbex lutea, o( the same tribe, from a small hole just above each spiracle,
syringes a similar fluid in horizontal jets of the diameter of a thread, some-
times to the distance of more than a foot.^ — The caterpillar of the great
emperor moth {Saturnia Pavonia major) also spirts out, when the spines
that cover them are touched, clear lymph from its pierced tubercles.* —
Willughby has remarked a curious circumstance with respect to a water
beetle (Acilius sulcatus) 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 confirm his state-
ment, I have more than once observed such a fluid issue from the male of
this genus. — The caterpillar of the puss-moth {Cerura vinitla), 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 nipple
perforated like the rose of a watering-pot. By means of this organ, when
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 when taken
J D e Geer, ii. 734. 2 Reaumur, v. 96. 3 De Geer, ii. 937.
* Eosel, iv. 162. De Geer, i. 273. * Rai, Hist. Ins. 94. n. 3.
E,E 3
422 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.
from the tree on which it feeds, though supplied with its leaves, loses this
faculty, with which it is probably endowed to drive off the ichneumons that
infest it.^ — And, to name no more, the great tiger-moth (Euprepia Caja),
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 transparent water issue, doubtless for some
similar purpose.'-
The next active means of defence with which Creative Wisdom has en-
dowed these busy tribes, are those limbs or tucapons with which they are
furnished. The insect lately mentioned, the puss-moth, besides the
syringes just described, is remarkable for its singular forked tail, entirely dis-
similar to the anal termination of the abdomen of most other caterpillars.
This tail is composed of two long cylindrical tubes movable 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 motion, 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 inflection, 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 or slugs. These tails form a kind of double whip, the tubes repre-
senting 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 incommode it. De Oeer, from whom this account is taken,
says that this caterpillar will bite very sharply.^ — Several larvae of butter-
flies, distinguished at their head by a semi-coronet of strong spines, figured
by Madame Merian, are armed with singular anal organs*, which may have
a similar use. Rosel, 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, apprehending 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!* The
caterpillar of the gold-tail moth {Porthesia clirysorhced) has a remarkable
aperture, which it can open and shut, surroimded 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 it.*^
This manoeuvre is probably connected with our present subject, and em-
ployed to defend it from its enemies. It also ejects a fluid from its anus.
Tliere is a moth in New Holland, the larva of which annoys its foes
in a different way : from eight tubercles in its back it darts forth, when
alarmed, as many bunches of little stings, by which it inflicts very painful
and venomous wounds.'^
1 De Geer, i. 324. 2 Pbid. i. 208.
5 Ibid. i. 322. 4 j^g^ Surinam, t. viii. xxiii. xxxiii.
5 1. iv. 122. 6 Reaum. ii. 155. t. vii. f. 4—7.
^ Lemn's Prodrormis.
MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS/ 423
The caterpillar of the moth of the beach (^Staiirojms Fagi), called the
lobster, is distinguished by the uncommon length of its anterior legs. INIr.
Stephens, an acute entomologist, relates to me that he once saw this
animal use them to rid itself of a mite tiiat incommoded it. They are pro-
bably equally useful in delivering it from the ichneumon and its other insect
enemies. Dr. Arnold has made a curious observation (confirmetl by Dr.
Forsstrom with respect to others of the genus) on the use of tiie long pro-
cesses or tails that distinguish the secondary wings of Thccla Tarhin.
These processes, he remarks, resemble antennje, 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 u
spot resembling an eye at the base of the processes. These insects, per-
haps, thus perplex or alarm their assailants. — Goedart pretended that the
anal horn with which the caterpillars of so many hawk-moths (Sphiiigicfcc)
are armed, answers the end of a sting, instilling a dangerous venom : but
the observations of modern entomologists 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 threatening horns on the head, the thorax,
and even elytra, with which many insects are armed, are beneficial to
them in the view under consideration, is very uncertain. They are fre-
quently sexual distinctions, and have a reference probably rather to
sexual purposes and the economy of the animal, than to anything else.
They may, however, in some instances deter enemies from attacking
them ; and therefore it was right not to omit them wholly, though 1 shall
not further enlarge upon them. Their mandibles or upper jaws, thougii
principally intended for mastication, — and in the case of the Hi/menoptera,
as instruments for various economical and mechanical uses, — are often
employed to annoy their enemies or assailants. I once suffered consider-
able pain from the bite of the common water-beetle (Di/tiscus marginalis),
as well as from that of the great rove-beetle (&'ofn'z<s olcns); but the most
tremendous and effectual weapon with which insects are armed — though
this, except in the case of the scorpion, is also a sexual instrument, 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 on these I enlarged sufficiently in a former letter.^
These weapons, fearful 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 means 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 deter a hornet, a bee, or even an ant, from attacking
it, if it was provoked. I once observed a small spider walking in ray
path. On putting ray stick to it, it immediately turned round as if to
defend itself. On the approach of my finger, it lifted itself up and stretched
1 De Geer, i. 149.
2 Mr. MacLeay relates to me, from tlie communications of Mr. E. Forster, the
following particulars respecting tlie history of 3Iutilla coccinea, which from this
account appears to be one of the most redoubtable of stinging insects. The females
are most plentiful in Maryland in the months of July and August, but are never
very numerous. They are very active, and have been observed to take flies by
surprise. A person stung by one of them lost his senses in five minutes, and was
■=0 ill for several days that his life was despaired of
E E 4
424 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.
out its legs to meet it. — In Ray's Letters mention is made of a singular
combat between a spicier and a toad fought at Hetcorne near Sittinghurst^
in Kent ; but as the particulars and issue of this famous duel are not
given, I can only mention the circumstance, and conjecture that the
spider was victorious ! " 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 instils no terror into the stout heart of
the scorpion-fly {Panorpa coynmnnis), though much its inferior in size and
strength. Lyonnet saw one attack a dragon-fly often times its own big-
ness, 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 slings
proved fatal to it.* A black ground-beetle devours the eggs of the mole
cricket, or Gryllotalpa. 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 wonderful nmscular strength
of insects, which, in proportion to their size, exceeds that of any other
class of animals, and is likewise to be reckoned amongst their means of
defence. Take one of the common chafers or dung-beetles (Geotnipes
stercorarius, or Copris limaris) into your hand, and observe how he makes
his way in spite of your utmost pressure; and read the accounts 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 1 shall touch hereafter, and therefore only hint at
it now.
We are next to consider the modes of concealment to which insects have
recourse in order to escape the observation of their enemies. One is by
covering themselves with various substances. Of this description is a little
water-beetle (E'/op/ioras aquaticus),vi\\\c\i is always found covered with mud,
and so when feeding at the bottom of a pool or pond can scarcely be
distinguished, by the predaceous aquatic insects, from the soil on which
it rests. Another very minute insect of the same order {Limnhis ceneus)
that is found in rivulets under stones and the like, sometimes conceals its
el} tra with a thick coating of sand, that becomes nearly as hard as stone.
I never met with these animals so circumstanced but once; then, however,
there were several which had thus defended themselves, and I can now
show you a specimen. — A species of a mitmte coleopterous genus {Geo-
ryssus arewferus^), which lives in wet spots where the toad-rush (Juncus
1 Hedcorne near Sittingbourne. ^ j)r. Long in Ray's Letters, 370.
3 Lesser, 1. i. 263. Note J.
4 Huber, Nouv. Obs. ii. SOL
s Bingley, Animal. Biogi: iii. 1st Ed. 247. White, Nat. Hist. ii. 82.
6 In fbniier editions of this work this insect was stated to be synonj'mous with
Trox dubiiis of Panzer, wliicli it much resembles, except in the sculpture of the
protliorax {Fn. Ins. Germ. Init. Ixii. t. 5.) ; but as Schonherr and Gyllenhal, who
had better means of ascertaining the point, regard Georyssus pygmceus Latr. as
Panzer's insect, the reference is now omitted. G. areniferus differs considerably
from G. pygmceus, as described by Gyllenhal {Insect, Suec. I. iii. 675.) The front is
MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 425
bufoJiius) grows, covers itself with sand ; and another nearly related to it
(C/iceiop/ionis cretiferits K.) which frequents chalk, whitens itself all over
with that substance. As this animal, when clean, is very black, were it
not for this manoeuvre, it would be too conspicuous upon its white ter-
ritory to have any chance of escape from the birds and its other assailants.
— No insect is more celebrated for rendering itself hideous by a coat of
dirt than the Reduvius persoiiafus, 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, consisting
of a mixture 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 appearance is aided and increased by motions
equally awkward and grotesque, upon which I shall enlarge hereafter. If
you touch it with a hair-pencil or a feather, this clothing will soon be re-
moved, and you may behold 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 conceal itself from observation, probably, both of its enemies 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 insect {Hemerohius chri/sops, 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 of the tail, this pigmy de-
stroyer of the helpless is defended by a thick coat, or rather mountain
composed of the skins, limbs, and down of these creatures. Reaumur, in
order to ascertain how far this covering was necessary, removed it, and
put the animal into a glass, at one tmie with a silk cocoon, and at
another with raspings of paper. In the first instance, in the space of an
hour it had clothed itself with particles of the silk ; and in the second,
being again laid bare, it found the paper so convenient a material, that it
made of it a coat of unusual thickness.^
Insects in general are remarkable for their cleanliness j — however filthy
the substances which they inhabit, yet they so manage as to keep them-
selves personally neat. Several, however, by no means deserve this
character : and I fear you will scarcely credit me when I tell you that
not rugiilose, the vertex is channelled, the antennae shorter than the head ; the pro-
thorax is rather shining, marked anteriorly with several excavations, in the middle
of which is a channel forming a reversed cross with a transverse impression.
Mr. Westwood remarks that the earth with which this insect is coated cannot be for
concealment, as above stated, because it is but rarely found so covered, and only
when it has by chance found its way into soft muddy ground. (3/orf. Class, of Ins.
i. 119.) My own observations, however, lead to the different conclusion given
above. I remember as if yesterday, though thirty-six years since, the surprise
with which I saw creeping in a moist (but not watery) sand-pit at Elloughton,
near Hull, when entomologising, scores of what seemed little moving masses of
sand, and my delight on finding the, to me, new and singular insect which was
concealed beneath ; and as I afterwards repeatedly found the same insect in similar
situations, invariablj' coated with sand (not earth), and never without this covering,
1 cannot think this circumstance accidental.
1 De Geer, iii. 283. Geoff. Hist. Ins. i. 437.
« Keaum. iii. 391.
426 ^ MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.
some shelter themselves under an umbrella formed of their own excre-
ment ! You will exclaim, perhaps, that there is not a parallel case in all
nature ; — it ma}' be so; — yet as lam bound to confess the faults of insects
as well as to extol their virtues, I must not conceal from you this op-
probrium. Beetles of three different genera are given to this Hottentot
habit. The first to which I shall introduce you is one that has long been
celebrated under the name of the beetle of the lily (Crioceris Dwrdigera,
Cantaride de' Gigli Vallisn.). The larvae 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 remarkably situated, being on the back of the last
segment 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 movement 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 deposited, and contracting the follov/mg one, so that it ne-
cessarily moves that way. Although, when discharged, it has a longitu-
dinal 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 oft', and
a new one begun.^ — The larvae of the various species of the tortoise-
beetles (i!assida 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 ef-
fectually to shelter or shade them. The instrument by which they effect
this is an anal fork, upon which they deposit their excrement, and which
in some is turned up and lies flat upon their backs; and in others forms
different angles, from very acute to very obtuse, with their body ; and
occasionally 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. macidata L.^ — In the
cognate genus ImatkUum, the larvEe also are merdigerous ; and that of /.
Leayanum Latr., taken by Major- General Hardwicke in the East Indies,
also produces an assemblage 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 reposing, conceal themselves in flowers. The
male of a little hee{Heriades'^ Campanularum), a true Sybarite, dozes volup-
tuously in the bells of the different species of Campanida — in which, in-
1 Reaum. iii. 220. Compare Vallisnieri, Esperienz. ed Osservaz. 195. Ed. 1726.
2 Reaum. 233. 3 Kirby in Linn. Trans, iii. 10.
* Apis. * *. c. 2. y. K.
MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 427
deed, I have often found other kinds asleep. Linn^ named another species
Jlorisomnis on account of a similar propensitj'. A third, a most curious
and rare species (^Andrena ^ spinigcra), shelters itself when sleepinjr, at
least I once found it there so circumstanced, in the ncst-like umbel of the
wild carrot. You would think it a most extraordinary freak of nature,
should any quadruped sleep suspended by its jaws (some birds, however,
are said, I think, to have such a habit, and Siis Babyroussa one something
like it), — yet insects do this occasionally. Linne informs us that a little
bee {Epeolus ^ variegatus) passes the night thus suspended to the beak of
the flowers of Geranium p/neum : and I once found one of the vespiform
bees (Noniada ^ Goodeniana) hanging by its mandibles from the edge of a
hazel-leaf, apparentlj' asleep, with its limbs relaxed and folded. On being
disengaged 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 tiiat intermediate state of repose
•which precedes their coming forth in their perfect forms. I formerly ex-
plained to you how large a portion of them during this state cease to be
locomotive, and assume an appearance of death. In this helpless con-
dition, unless Providence had furnished them with some means of security,
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 burying
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 themselves 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 materials, through which
few of its enemies can make their way ; — and to this curious insect, as I
long since observed, we owe one of the most valuable articles of commerce,
the silk that gives lustre to the beauty of our females. These shrouds arfe
sometimes double. Thus the larvae of certain saw-flies spin for them-
selves a cocoon of a soft, flexible, and close texture, which the}' surround
with an exterior one composed of a strong kind of net-work, which with-
stands pressure like a racket.* Here nature has provided that the in-
closed 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 external
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 ^Trichoptera') have recourse for this purpose. You have heard before
that these insects are at first aquatic, and inhabit curious cases made of
a variety of materials, which are usually open at each end. Since they
must reside in these cases, when they are become pupae, till the time of their
final change approaches, if they are left open, how are the animals, now
1 3Mitta. * *. c. K. 2 Apis. * *. b. K.
» Apis. b. * K. 4 Reaum. v. 100.
428 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.
become torpid, to keep out their enemies? Or, if they are wholly closed,
how is the water, which is necessary to their respiration and life, to be
introduced ? These sagacious creatures know how to compass both these
ends at once. They fix a grate or portcullis to each extremity of their
fortress, which at the same time keeps out intruders and admits the water.
These grates they weave with silk spun from their anus into strong threads,
which cross each other, and are not soluble in water. One of them, de-
scribed by De Geer, is very remarkable. It consists of a small, thickish,
circular lamina of brown silk, becoming as hard 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 re-
gularly as the radii of a circle or the spokes of a wheel. These radii are
traversed again bj^ other ridges, which follow the direction of the circles of
holes ; so that the two kinds of ridges crossing each other form compart-
ments, 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 innumerable insects : — I mean their coming forth
for flight or for food only in the night, and taking their repose in various
places of concealment during the day. The infinite hosts of moths {P/ta-
la:na L ) — amounting in this country to more than a thousand species —
with few exceptions, are all night-fliers. And a considerable proportion of
the other orders — exclusively of the Hi/menojjtera and Diptera, which are
mostly day-fliers — are of the same description. One of the well-known
whirl wigs or water-fleas, Gijriniis (^Orectocheilus villosus'), differs from its
congeners, according to the observations of M. Robeit, in running along
the surface of the water only at night, hiding itself under stones on the
banks by day.^ Many larvcE of moths also come out only in the night after
iheir food, lying hid all day in subterraneous or other retreats. Of this
kind is that of Fnmea jnilla and Nt/cterohius, whose proceedings have been
before described. The caterpillar of another moth {Noctua subterranea F.)
never ascends the stems of plants, but remains, a true Troglodyte, always
in its cell imder 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
them from many of their enemies : but I have 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 them-
selves 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 so-
cieties 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, Galleria
mellonella and its associates, will endeavour to make their way into the hive.
Observe them by moonlight, and you will see the sentinels pacing about
1 Reaum. iii. 170. De Geer, ii. 519. 545.
2 Ann. Snc. Ent. de France, iv. bull. Ixxx.
3 Fab. Ent. Syst. Em. iii. 70. 200.
MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 429
with their antennae extended, and alternately directed to the right and left.
In the meantime the moths flutter round the entrance ; and it is curious
to see with wliat 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 a moth with these^organs of nice sensa-
tion, it falls an immediate victim to their just anger. The moth, however,
seeks to glide between the sentinels, avoiding with the utmost caution, as
if siie were sensible that her safety depended upon it, 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 antennse than the guard is put into a commotion, and
the hum becomes louder, resembling 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 re-
course to a different 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 propohs. This wall is buiit 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 described, 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 wails, and not
corresponding with those in them, are made in the second line of building.
These casemated gates are not constructed 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 won-
derful light, and shows how well they know how to adapt their proceed-
ings to circumstances. Can this be merely sensitive ? When attacked by
strange bees, they have recourse to a similar manoeuvre ; 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 re-
course to a similar manoeuvre ? It is related to me by Dr. Leach from the
communications of Mr. Daniel BydJer — an indefatigable and well-informed
collector of insects, and observer of their proceedings — that Bombus'^ ter-
restris, when labouring under Acariasis from the numbers of a small mite (Ga-
7)iasus Gi/mnopterorum) 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 oif ; 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 most
insignificant of his creatures is, we see, deprived of his paternal care and
attention ; none are exiled from his all-directing providence. Whv then
should man, the head of the visible creation, for whom all the inferior
1 Huber, Nouv. Obs. ii. 412. 2 Ibid. ii. 294.
5 Hist. iYa<. 1. viii. c. 36, ^ Apis. * '. e. 2. K.
430 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS.
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, that his Creator will provide him
with what is necessary 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 wickedness, will ever cut him off from his care
and providence ?
Another idea that upon this occasion must force itself into our mind is,
that nothing is made in vain. When we find that so many seemingly
trivial variations in the colour, clothing, form, structure, motions, habits,
and economy of insects are of very great importance to them, we may
safely conclude that the peculiarities in all these respects, of which we do
not yet know the use, are equally necessary ; and we may almost say, re-
versing the words of our Saviour, that not a hair is given to them without
our Heavenly Father,
I am, &c.
431
LETTER XXII.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. {Larva and pupa.)
Amongst the means of defence to which insects have recourse, I have
noticed their motions. These shall be the subject of the present letter. I
shall not, however, confine myself to those by which they seek to escape
from their enemies ; but take a larger and more comprehensive survey of
them, including not only every species of locomotion, but also the move-
ments they give to different parts of their body when in a state of repose :
and in order to render this survey more complete, I shall add to it some
account of the various organs 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 every-
where in the air ; dancing in the sun or in the shade ; creeping slowly, or
marching soberly, or running swiftly, or jumping upon the ground ; travers-
ing your path in all directions ; coursing over the surface of the waters, or
swimming at every depth beneath ; emerging from a subterranean habita-
tion, or going into one ; climbing up the trees, or descending from thera ;
glancing from flower to flower ; now alighting upon the earth and waters,
and now leaving them to follow the impulse of their various instincts ;
sometimes travelling singly ; at other times in countless swarms : these the
busy children of the day, and those of the night. If you return to your
apartment — there are these ubiquitaries — some flying about — others
pacing against gravity up the walls or upon the ceiling — others walking
with ease upon the glass of your windows, and some even venturing to
take their 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 the most arid
desert interesting. From their visitations every leaf and flower becomes
animated ; the very dust seems to quicken into life, and the stones, like
those thrown by Deucalion and Pyrrha, to be metamorphosed into loco-
motive beings. In the variety of motions which they exhibit, we see, as
Cuvier remarks ^, those of every other description of animals. They walk,
run, and jump with the quadrupeds ; they fly with the birds ; they glide
with the serpents ; and they swim with the fish. And the provision 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 insects that swim and walk ; the incom-
^ Anatom. Compar. i. 444.
432 MOTIONS OF lis SECTS.
parable provision made in the feet of such as walk or hang upon smooth
surfaces ; the great strength and spring in the legs of such as leap ; the
strong-made leet and talons of such as dig ; and, to name no more, the
admirable faculty of such as cannot fly, to convey themselves with speed
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 insects are usually
very different in their preparatory states, from what they are in the imago
or perfect state, I shall therefore consider them separately, and divide m}'
subject into — motions of larvae, motions of pupae, and motions of perfect
insects.
I. Amongst larva there are two classes of movers ; Apodous larvae, or
those that move without legs, and Pedate larva?, 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, tiiat have free motion, and can walk
or step alternately ; not those spurious legs without joints, that have no
free motion, and cannot walk or take alternate steps ; such as support the
middle and anus of the larvae o( most Lepidoptera and saw-flies {Serrifera).
Apodous larvae seldom have occasion to take long journeys ; and many
of them, except when about to assume the pupa, only want to change
their place or posture, and to follow their food in the substance, whether
animal or vegetable, to which, when included in the egg, the parent insect
conmiitted them. Legs, therefore, 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 walking in an im-
proper sense, for want of a better term equally comprehensive : for some
may be said to move by gliding, and others (I mean those that, faxing the
head to any point, bring the tail up to it, and so proceed) by stepping.
The motion of serpents was ascribed by some of the ancients (who were
unable to conceive that it could be effected naturally, unless by the aid of
legs, wings, or fins) to a preternatural cause. It was supposed to resemble
the " incessus deorum," 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 dis-
covery, that some serpents push themselves along by the points of their
ribs, whic-h Sir E. Home found to be curiously constructed for this pur-
pose, their wonder would have been diminished, and their serpent gods
undeified. But though serpents can no longer inake good their claim to
motion viore deorinn, some insects may take their places ; for there are
numbers of larvae that having neither legs, nor ribs, nor any other points
by which they can push themselves forward on a plane, glide along by the
alternate contraction and extension of the segments of their body. Had
the 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 their origin within the body.^
' Phjdco-Theol Ed. 13. 363.
2 Encycl. Brit., art. Physiology, 709.
2 Cuvier, Anat. Comp. i. 430.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 433
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-weevil (Bn/rniinus Kiicum). Wiien placed upon a' table,
after lying some 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 does
with more speed than might be expected. Rijsel fancied 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 contraction and extension
of the segments of the body, assisted, perhaps, by the fleshy prominences
of its sides. Other larvae have this annular motion aided by a slimy secre-
tion, which gives them further hold upon the plane on which thev are
moving, and supplies in some degree the place of legs or claws. That of
the weevil of the common figwort {Clonus ScrophuIaricE) 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 irs'
segments, upon the leaves of that plant.i Of this kind, also, ai^ 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 the breadth of the hand,
whence the natives call their bands G'drds-dragr
As a further help, others again call in the assistance of their unguiform
mandibles. These, which are peculiar to grubs with a variable membrana-
ceous, or rather retractile head^ especially those of the fly tribe {Mmcidce),
when the animal does not use them, are retracted not onlv within the head,'
but even within the segments behind \t* ; but when it .is'movinir, they are
protruded, and lay hold of the surface on which it is placed. Thev were
long ago noticed by the accurate Ray. " This blackness in the "head,"
says he, speaking of the maggot of the common flesh-fly, " is caused by
two black spines or hooks, which when in motion it puts forth, and fixino-
them in the ground, so drags along its body." ^ The larva of the aphidi*
vorous flies {Scava, &c.), the ravages of which amongst the Aphides I 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
substances on which they are moving, they give their body its greatest
possible tension ; and, if I may so speak, thus take as long a step as thev
can : next, laying hold of it with their mandibles, by setting free the tail,
ancl relaxing the tension, the former is brought near the head. Thus the'
animal proceeds, and thus will even walk upon glass.^ Some grubs, as
those of the lesser house-fly {Antlwmi/ia canicidaris), 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 mandibleh\ is
obliged to spin, at certain intervals, httle 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 supply the want of
1 DeGeer, V. 210. 2 Ibid. vi. 338.
■> See MacLeay in Pkilos. 3Iag. &c., N. Ser. No. 9. 178.
•* De Geer, vi. 65.
7 ^"o '^'"' ^"'^' ^ Reaumur, iii. 369.
De Geer, vi. 76. Reaumur, iv. 376. Swamm. Bibl. Nat. Ed. Hill, ii. 46. a. t.
xxxix. f. 3. h. h.
PF
434 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
legs by means of claws at their anus. Thus that of the flesh-fly, Ray tells
us in the place just quoted, pushes itself by the protruded spines of its tail.
The larva, also, of a long-legged gnat (Limnohia rep/icata), which in that
state lives in the water, is furnished with these anal claws, which, in con-
junction with its annul ir tension and relaxation, and the hooks of its
mouth, assist it in walking over the aquatic plants.^
A remarkable difference, according to their station, obtains in the bots
of gad-flies (OEsfridtre); those that are subcutaneous (CuticolcB Clark) having
no unuuiform mandibles ; while those that are gastric {Gndricokc Clark),
and those that inliabit the maxillary sinuses of animals (^Cavicolcs Clark),
are furnishetl with them. In this we evidently see Creative Wisdom adapt-
ing 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 superflnous. But they are furnished with other means by which
they can accomplish such motions, and in contrary directions, as are neces-
sary to them; the anterior part of each segment being beset with numbers
of very minute spines, not visible 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 conceive, when the animal wants to move forward,
that it pushes itself by the first set of hooks, keeping the rest, which
would otherwise impede motion in that direction, pressed close toils skin,
or it may depress that part of the segment, and when it would move back-
wards that it employs the second." The other descriptions of bots, 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 larvae of
flies, as well as the bots, are furnished with spines or hooks — by which
the}' take stronger hold — to assist them in their motions. Those men-
tioned 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 loco-
motion, have the margin of their body fringed with a double row of short
spines, which are, doubtless, useful in the same way.
Tlie next order of walkers amongst apodous larvae are those that move
by means of fleshy tuberculi form or peditbrm prominences, — which last
resemble the spurious legs of the caterpillars of most Lepidoptei'a. Some,
akind of monopods, haveonly one of such prominences, which, being always
fixed a'most under the head, may serve, in some decree, the purpose of an
unguiform mandible. The grub of a kind of gnat (^Cldronnmns stercornrius),
and also another, probably of the Tipn'arian tribe (found by De Geer in
a subputrescent stalk of Angelica, which he was unable to trace to the fly),
have each a fleshy leg on the underside of the first segment, which jioints
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
1 De Geer, vi. 355.
2 Reaum. iv. 416. t. xxxvi. f. 5. Compare Clark On the Bots, &c. 48.
5 Mr. Clark (ibid. 62.) observed only rouirh points on the bots of ttie sheep, but
these also have spines or hooks looking towards the anus. Reaum. iv. 556, t. xxxv.
f. 11. 13. 15. I also observed them myself in the same grub.
* De Geer, vi. t. xxii. f. 15. i. t. xviii. f. 8, p.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 435
tribe, fissured by Reaumur, is thus circumstanced. In this case the pro-
cesses in question proceed from the head, and are armed with claws.^
Would you think it — another Tipularian grub is distinguished by tin-ee
legs of" this kind ? It was first noticed by De Geer under the name of
Tipiila macitlata {Tanypus moiii/is 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 ser-
pent, 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 improperly, tenta-
cula. They resemble, by their length and rigidity, wooden legs. The an-
terior leg is attached to the under side, but towards the head, of the first
segment of the body. It is long and cylindrical, placed perpendicularly or
obliquely, according to the different movements the animal gives if, and
ternuuaies in two feet, armed at their extremity by a coronet of long
moveahle 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 without. 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 walking, this larva uses these two legs
much as the caterpillars of the moths, called GeometrcB, do theirs. By the
inflection of the anus it can give them any kind of lateral movement, except
that it can neither bend nor shorten them, since like a wooden leg, as I
have before observed, they always remain stiff and extended.- 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. Probably, when he examined
them, the common base, from which the feet are branches, was retracted
within the body.^
Generally speaking, howevei', in these apodous walkers the place of legs
is supplied by fleshy and often retractile mamills or tubercles. By means
of th( se and a slimy secretion, unaided by mandibular hooks, the caterpillar
of a little moth (^Apoda Testudo) moves from place to place.'' A subcu-
taneous 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 suiface, whether horizontal, inclined, or
even vertical.^ But the greatest number of legs of this kind that distin-
guish any known larva is to be observed in that of a two-winged fly
( Scceva Pyrastri) 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
"^ Keaum. v. t. vi. f. 5. m m.
2 De Ge r, vi. 395. Mr. W. S. MacLeay is of opinion that these legs are pedun-
culated spiracles {Fhilos. Mag. X. Series, No. 9. 178.) ; but it is e\'ident from De
Gear's account that the animal uses them as legs, and like legs they are armed
with hooks or claws.
3 Lesser, 1. i. 96. note f. * Klemann, Beitrage, 324.
' De Geer, i. 447. t. xxxi. f. 17. 6 Jbij. yj. m.
FF 2
436 MOTIONS OF INSFXTS.
(Hvpera Rumicu) has twenty-four tubercular legs : but, what is remarkable,
the six anterior ones, being longer than the rest, seem to represent the
real le"S, while the others represent the spurious ones, of lepulopterous
larva." These legs, however, are all fleshy tubercles, and have no c aws
the place of which is supplied by slime, which covers all the underside ot
the body, and hinders the animal from falling.^ Another weevil (L^xms
paraplecticus) produces a grub inhabiting the water-hemlock, which has only
six tubercles that occupy the place and are representatives ot the legs ot
the perfect insect.^ . , , _,, . n
Some larvje have these tubercles armed with claws. The maggot ot a
fly described by De Geer (VoluceUa i^hnnata) has six pair of them each ot
Which has three long claws. This animal 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 i" many
instances, sometimes realise the wildest fictions of the imagination. Should
a traveller tell you that he had seen a quadruped whose legs were on its
back you would immediately conclude that he was playing upon your
credulity, and had lost all regard to truth. What then will you say to me,
when 1 affirm, upon the evidence of two most unexceptionable witnesses,
Reaumur and De Geer, that there are insects which exhibit this extra-
ordinary structure ? The grub of a little gall-fly, appearing to be Cymps
Quercm inferiis 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 retractile fleshy pro-
tuberance that resembled strikingly the spurious legs of some caterpillars
A little attention will convince any one, argues Reaumur, that the legs ot
insects circumstanced like the one under consideration, if it has any,
should be on its back. For this grub, inhabiting a spherical cavity, ui
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 means
of let's on the middle of its back, than if they were in their ordinary
situation. 4 So wisely has Providence ordered every thing. Another
similar instance is recorded by De Geer, which indeed had been previous y
noticed, though cursorily, by the illustrious Frenchman. = There is a little
larva, he observes, to be found at all seasons ot the year, the depth ot
winter excepted, in stagnant waters, which keeps its body always doubled
as if were in two, against the sides of ditches or the stalks ot aquatic
plants. If it Is placed in a glass half full of ^^ater, 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
bein" the longest. When this animal is disposed to feed, it litts its head
and "places it horizontally on the surface of the water, so that it forms a
rit'ht an<-le with the rest of the body, which always remains in a situation
perpendicular to the surface. It then agitates, 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 animalcula, abounding in stagnant waters, that come within the
1 De Geer, v. 233. I Ibid- v. 228
3 Ibid. vi. 137. t. viii. f. 8, 9. * Reaum. ui. 49G._^t. xlv. f. 3.
5 Ibid. Mem. de VAcad. Roy. des Sciences de Paris, An. 1(14. p. 20o.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 437
%'ortex 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 fur-
nished with minute legs armed with black claws, by which tliey are enabled
to adhere to it. Tliey iiave ten of these legs : tiie 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 jioint 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, wiiich is without
feet, and forms the summit of the curve, goes first. ^ De Geer named the
fly it produces Tipula amphibia: it seems not clear, from his figure, to which
of the modern genera of the Tipuhiricc it belongs ; nor is it referred to by
Meigen.
Income now to the jumping apodes ; and one of this description will
immediately occur to your recollection, — that I mean which revels in
our richest cheeses, and produces a little black shining fly {Tyrojihaga
Casei). 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
accomplish — in nearlv 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
cavities in its anal tubercles. All being thus prepared, it next 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 produced
by its mandibles may be readily heard, and the leap takes place. Swam-
merdam 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 a 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 {Ckironomus stercorariiis) has a similar faculty, though executed in
a manner rather diflJerent. These larvee, which inhabit horse-dung, though
deprived of feet, cannot move by annular contraction and dilatation ; but
are able, by various serpentine contortions, aided by their mandibles, to
move in the substance which constitutes their food. Siiould any accident
remove them from it. Providence has enabled them to recover their natural
station by the power I am speaking of. When about to leap, they do not,
like the cheese-fly, erect themselves so as to form an angle with the plane
of position ; but" lying horizontally, they brmg the anus near the head,
regulating the distance by the length of the leap they mean to take ; when
fixing 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 wiiich it may probably act as a sucker,
and so be more firmly fixable.^ The grub of a "fly, whose proceedings in
1 De Geer, vi. 380. t. xxiv. f. 1—9. Mr. Westwood refers this insect to the modem
genus Dixa. (Mod. Class, ii. p. 527.)
2 Swamm. Bibt. Nat. Ed. HilJ, ii. 64. b. 3 De Geer, vi. 389.
F F 3
438 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
that state I have before noticed (Leptis Vennileo), will, when removed
from its habitation, endeavour to recover it by leaping. Indeed this mode
of motion seems often to be given to this description of larva.' by Pro-
vidence, to enable tliem to return to their natural station, when by any
accident they have wandered away from it.
Many apoilous larvae inhabit the water, and therefore must be furnished
with means of locomotion proper to that element. To this class belongs
the common gnat (Cule.r pipiens), which, being one of our greatest tor-
ments, compels us to feel some curiosity about its history. Its larva is a
very singular creature, furnished with a remarkable anal apparatus for
respiration, by which it usually remains suspended at the surface of the
water. If disposed to descend, it seems to sink by the weight of its body;
but when it would move upwards again, it effects its purpose by alternate
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 downward?-,
and vice versa. — Another dipterous larva (Coretlira culicifunuis), 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 downwards, 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 saltiis. It descends again gradually by its own weight, and regains its
equilibrium by a single stroke of the tail.- — A well-known fly (Shafi/ouiis
Chaviceleon), in its first state an aquatic animal, often remains suspended,
by its radiated anus, at the surface of the water, with its head downwards.
But when it is disposed 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. When it would return to the surface it is by means of 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
itself into the form of the letter S ; and then extending itself again into a
straight line, by these alternate movements it makes its way slowly in the
water. ^
I have dwelt longer upon the apodous larvae, or those that are without
what may be called proper legs, analogous to those of perfect insects,
because the absence 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 wisdom of the Creator is so conspicuously, or I should
rather say, so strikingly manifested, since it is doubtless equally conspicuous
in the ordinary routine of nature. But aberrations from her general laws,
and modes, and instruments of action, often of rare occurrence, 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 (generally six in number, and attached to the
underside of the three first segments of the body) vary in larvae of the
1 Eeaum. iv. t. 43. f. 3. nn. 2 De Geer, vi. 375. t. xxiii. f. 4, 5.
5 Svvamm. Bibl. Nat. Ed. Hill, ii. 44. b. 47. a.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 439
different orders : but they seem in most to have joints answering to the hip
(coxa); trochanter; thigh {fcviur); shank {tibia); foot {tarsus), o^ perfect
insects, the legs of which they include. Cuvier, speaking of Colcoptera
and some Ncurojitcra, mentions only three joints. But many in these
orders (amongst which he inckided the Trichoptera) have the joints I have
enumerated. To name no more, the LnmelUcornia, Di/tisci, S//p//ce, Sla-
j^hylini, Cuindelce, and Gt/rini, 6zc. amongst coleopterous larvae; and the
Trulioptcra, as well as the LihelluHna and Ephemerina, amongst Cuvier's
Ncuroptcra, — have these joints, and in many the last terminates in a double
claw. ^ In some coleopterous genera the tarsus seems absent or obsolete.
The larva of the lady-l)ird {Coccinella) affords an example of the former
kind, and that o{ Chrysovx(da of the latter.^ These joints are very visible
in the legs of caterpillars oi Lcpidoptcra, and their tarsus is armed with a
single claw.* The larvae that have these legs walk with them sometimes
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 alternately on each side.
Pedate larvae 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 temporary, vanishing alto-
gether 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 long
body, when it walks, from trailing on the ground; to push against the
plane of position ; and, by means of their hooks or claws, to fix itself
firmly to its station when it feeds or reposes, — I shall therefore call them
prolegs (propedes^). These organs consist of three or four folds, and are
conuiionly 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 ends, and are attached to the j)roleg
by the back by means of a membrane, which covers about two thirds of
their length, leaving their two extremities naked. Of these the upper one
is sharp, and the lower blunt. The sole, or part of the prolegs within the
claws, is capable of opening and shutting. When the animal walks, that
they may not impede its motion, it is shut, and the claws are laid flat with
their points inwards ; but when it wishes to fix itself, the sole is opened,
becoming of greater diameter than before, and the claws stand erect with
^ For examples of larvte having these joints, see De Geer, iv. 289. t. xiii. f. 20.
t. XV. f. 14. ii. t. xii. f. 3. t. xvi. f. 5, 6. t. xix. f. 4, &c.
2 Ibid. V. t. xi. f. 11. t. ix. f. 9. o.
3 Lyonet, Tr. Anat. t. iii. f. 8.
4 Mr. W. S. MacLeay, where quoted above, objects to this term ; but as the
organs in question are generally given to the animal to assist in its motions, and
have been universally regarded as a kind of legs, it was judged best, for the sake of
distinction, to give them a different name from perfect legs, and at the same time
one that showed some affinity to them.
F F 4
440 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
their points outwards. Thus they can lay stronger hold of the plane of
position.'
The number of these prolegs varies in different species and families. In
the numerous tribes of saw-flies (^Serrifera) , the larvs of which resemble
those Lcpidoj^fera, and are called by Reaumur spurious caterpillars (fausses
chenilles), one family {Lophi/rus) has sixteen prolegs ; a second {Hylotoma,
&c.) fourteen; another (Tentkredo F.) twelve ; and a fourth (L^da) none
at all, having only the six perfect legs. The majority of larva^ of Lepidoptcra
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 {Centra Vinula) and some
others, instead of the anal prolegs, have two tails or horns. A hemi-
geometer, 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 Plusia Gamma, have only six prolegs, four inter-
mediate and two anal. The true geometers or surveyors (Geomefra:) have
only two intermediate and two anal prolegs. Many grubs of Coleoptera,
especially those of Siaphi/liiiidce, Sdphidcs, &c., which are long and narrow,
are furnished with a stiff joint at the anus, which they bend downwards and
use as a jirop to prevent their body from trailing. This joint, though with-
out claws, may be regarded as a kind of proleg, which supports them wiien
they walk*; and probably may assist their motion by pushing against the
plane of position.
With respect to the larvae that have only perfect legs, having just given
you an account of these organs, 1 have nothing more to state relating to
their structure. I shall therefore now consider the motions of pedate
larvae, under the several heads of walking or running, jumping, climbing,
and swimming.
Amongst those that 7valk, some are remarkable for the slowness of their
motion, while others are extremely swift. The caterpillar of the hawk-moth
of the Filipendula {Zi/gena FUii^endidce') is of the former description, moving
in the most leisurely manner; while that of Aj)atela leporina, a moth un-
known in Britain, is named after the hare, from its great speed. The
caterpillar 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 tis well as forwards, giving its body an
undulating motion with such force and rapidity, that it seems to fly from
side to side.* Cuvier observes, that the grubs of some coleopterous and
neuropterous 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 violaceiim is an apode^)
have these legs excessively minute and almost 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 [)ush
1 Lyonet, 82. t. iii. f. 10—16. 2 i\yi,\^ t. i. f. 4.
3 De Geer, i, 379. t. xxv. f. 1. 3.
4 Ibid. i. 12. 40. t. i, f. 27. q. t. vi. f. 11. e.
5 Ibid i. 424. 6 Kirby in Liim. Trans, v. 258.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 441
themselves along, in the same manner as a chimney-sweeper — by the
pressure of his knees, elbows, shoulder-blades, and other promment parts
— pushes himself up a chimney. ^ The larva of the ant-lion {Myrmdion),
with the exception of one species, which moves in the common way, always
walks backwards, even when its legs are cut oft'.
The junipers, amongst pedate larvae, as far as they are known, are not
very numerous, and will not detain you long. When the caterpillar of
Litliosln Quadra, 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 sta-
tioned, 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 anotiier moth (^Herminia rostralis)
will also leap to a considerable height."
Another species of motion which is peculiar to larvae, — their mode I
mean oi 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 for this purpose, or a single rope. You may often have seen the
caterpillar 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 circumstance, if you observe closely the square upon which the
animal is travelling, you will find that, like a snail, it leaves a visible track
behind it. Examine tiiis with your microscope, and you will see that it
consists 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 fluid, which
hardens in the air ; so that it has no difficulty in making it stick to the
glass. Many caterpillars that feed upon trees, particularly the geometers,
have often occasion to descend from branch to branch, and sometimes, es-
pecially |)reviously 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 nmst they take before they could accomplish
their purpose! Providence, ever watchful over the welfare of the most
insignificant of its creatures, has gifted them with the means of attaining
these 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 stationed ; and however sudden your
attack, they are nevertheless still provided for it, and will all descend by
means of the silken cord just alluded to, and hang suspended in the air.
Their name of geometer was given to a large division of the caterpillars
•which have this power of descending by silken threads, because they seem
to measure the surface they pass over, as they walk, with a chain. If you
place one upon your hand, you will 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
1 Anat. Comp. i. 430. , ^ Rosel, I. iv. 112. vi. 14.
442 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
path that it may find it aaain ; but thus, whenever the caterpillar falls or
would descend from a leaf, it has a cord always ready to support il m the
air by len'^thening which 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 <^reat- and its descent too rapid, so as to cause it to fall with violence
upon the earth. The little animal knows how to [)revent such an accident,
by descending 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 wi'thout a shock. From hence it appears that these
larvjE have power to contract the orifice of the spinners, so as that no more
of the silky gum shall issue from it ; and to relax it again when tney intenu
to resume" their motion downwards : consequently there must be a mus-
cular 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 gamed a degree ot
consistence even before it leaves the spinner, since as soon as it emerges it
can support the weight of the caterpillar. In ascending, the animal seizes
the thread with its jaws as high as it can reach it ; and then elevating that
part of the back that corresponds with the six perlect legs, till these legs
become hioher 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 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, how-
ever, it soon disengages itself, between the two last pairs of perfect legs.
To see hundreds of these httle animals pendent at the same time from the
bouc^hs of a tree, suspended at different heights, some working then- way
dow^nwards and some upwards, affords a very amusing spectacle. Some-
times, when the wind is high, they are blown to the distance of several
yards from the tree, and yet maintain their threads unbroken. 1 witnessed
an instance of this last summer, when numbers were driven far irom the
most extended branches, and looked as if they were floating in the air.
Havino- related to you what is pecuUar in the motions ot pedate larvas
upon the" earth and in the air, I must next say something with respect to
their locomotive powers in the tuater. Numbers of this description in-
habit that element. Amongst the beetles, the genera Dijtiscus, Hydro-
philus, Gyrinus, Umiiius, Parnus, Heterocenis, Eloplwrus, HydrcEim &c.
amongst the bug tribes, Gerris, Velia, Hydromcira, Notonecta,S>gara, ^epa,
Ranatra, Kaucoris ; a fe^v Lepidoptcra ; the majority ot Tnchoptera ; Li-
bellula, Aeshna, Agrion, Sialis, Ephemera, &c. amongst the Neuroptera ;
Culexand many of the Ttpularics Latr. from the dipterous insects ; and
from the Aptera, Atax, some Podurce, and many of the Oimcidce, &c. All
these, in their larva state, are aquatic animals.
The motions of these creatures in this state are various. Some wa.k
on the ground under water ; some move in mid-water, either by the same
motion of the legs as they use in walking, or by strokes, as m swimming;
others for this purpose employ certain laminae, which terminate then-
tails as oars ; others again swim like fish, with an equable motion ; some
move by the force of the water which they spirt from their anus ; others
1 Eeaum. ii. 375.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 443
again swim about in cases, or crawl over the submerged bottom ; and
others walk even on the surface 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 larvae of Hi/drop/iitidce, one furnished with
swimmers or anal appendages, by means of which they are enabled to
swim ; the other have theni not, and hence are not able to rise from the
bottom. ^ The larvas of Di/Hsci, by means of these natatory organs, will
swim, though slowly, and every now and then rise to the surface for the
sake of respiration. Those of Ephemera:, when they swim, apply their
legs to the body, and swim with the swiftness and motions offish.'- Those
of the true May-fly (Sialis lutaria)^ 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 larvae of certain dragon-
flies (Aes/uia anil Libellula) will afford you the most amusement l)y their
motions. These larvas commonly swim very little, being generally found
walking at the bottom on aquatic plants : when necessary, however, they
can swim well, thougii in a singular nianner. If you see one swimming,
you will find that the body is pushed forward liy strokes, between 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
ejaculation of water from the anus. When I treat upon the respira-
tion of insects, I shall explain to you the apparatus by which these
animals separate the air from the water for that purpose; in the present
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
pi(pa 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 Dermaptern, Orthuj}tera, Hemi-
ptera, many of the Neuroptera, and the majority of the Aptera, are of this
description. With respect to their motions, we may therefore consider
pupae as of two kinds — active pupae, and quiescent pupas.
The motions of most insects wliose pupas are active are so similar in all
their states, except where the wings are concerned, as not to need any
separate account. 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,
1 Miger, Ann. du Mus. xiv. 441. a De Geer, ii. 621.
3 Ibid. 725.
* Ibid. ii. 675. Compare Keaum. vi. 393.
444 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
of this kind, moving differently in its preparatory states, is entitled to notice
under the present head. In a late letter, I mentioned to you a bug
{Reduvhis 2^ersonatus), 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 Httle 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 sub-
stance. It therefore hitches along in the most leisurely manner [)ossible,
as if it was counting its steps. Having set one foot forwards (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 respiratory organs in the anterior part of the trunk, 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 {Lampijris noctiluc(i) will sometimes push
itself along by the alternate extension and contraction of the segments of
its body.2 Others turn round when disturbed. That of a weevil {Hypera
arator)y which spins itself a beautiful cocoon like fine gauze, and which it
fixes to the stalks of the common spurrey (Sc/ghia ai-vensis), upon my
touching this stalk, whirled round several times with astonishing rapidity.
The chrysalis of a moth (Hypogi/nma dispar) 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 gy-
rations alternately from left to right and from right to left.* Generally
speaking, quiescent pupae when distm-bed show that they have life, by
giving their abdomen violent contortions.
But the most extraordinary motion of pupae is jumping. In the year
1810 I received an account from a very intelhgent young lady, who collected
and stutlied insects with more than connnon ardoin- and ability, that a friend
had brought her a chrysalis endueil with this faculty. It was scarcely a
quarter of an inch in length ; of an oval form ; its colour was a semi-
transparent brown, with a white opake band round the middle. It was
found attached, by one end, to the leaf of a bramble. It repeatedly jumped
out of an open pill-box that was an inch in height. When put into a
drawer in which some other insects were impaled, it skipped from side to
side, passing 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 October 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. Some time after I received
1 De Geer, iii. 284. 2 ibid. vi. 308.
5 Ibid. iv. 43. •* Dumeril, Trait. Element, ii. 49. n. 603.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 445
this history, I happened to have occasion to look at Heanmur's memoir
upon the enemies of caterpillars, where I met with an account of a similar
juinpinir chrysalis, if not the same. Round the nests of the caterpillar of
the processionary moth, before noticed, he found numerous little cocoons
suspended by a thread three or four inches long to a twig or a leaf, of a
shorteneil oval form, and close texture, but so as the meshes might be dis-
tinguished. These cocoons were rather transparent, of a cotfee-brown
colour, 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 sutldenly changes its ordinary posture (in which the back
is convex and touches the upper part of the cocoon, ami the head and anus
rest upon the lower), and strikes the upper part with the head and tail,
before its belly, which then becomes the convex part, touches the bottom.
This occasions the cocoon to rise in the air to a height proportioned to the
force of the blow. At first sight this faculty seems of no great use to an
animal that is suspended in the air ; but the winds may probably sometimes
place it in a different and unsuitable position, and lodge it upon a leaf or
twig : in this case it has it in its power to recover its natural station.
Reaumur could not ascertain the fly that should legitimately come from
this cocoon \ for different cocoons gave different flies : whence it was evi-
dent that these ichneumons 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 enclosed itself
in its cocoon, I consider it as belonging to the present head.
You may probably here feel some curiosity to be informed 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 shrouded in a winding-sheet and cased in a coffin. In most, how-
ever, if you examine this coffin closely, you will see resurgam written
upon it. What I mean is this. The pujiuriuin, or case of the animal, is
furnished with certain acute points {adminicula), 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 the
sides or the margins of the segments. By this simple contrivance, aided
by new-born vigour, when the time for its great change is arrived, the
included prisoner of hope, if under ground, pusiies itself gradually upwards,
till reaching the surface its head ami 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 liberty and tiie joys of life. Those that are in-
closed in trees and spin a cocoon, are furnished with points on the head,
with which they make an opening in the cocoon. The pupa of the great
goat-moth (Coasus ligniperda) thus, by divers movements, keeps disengaging
itself from this envelope, till it arrives at a hole in the tree which it had
made when a caterpillar ; when its anterior part having emerged, it stops
1 Mr. Westwood states tliat it belongs to the genus Perilihis, belonging to tlie
Ichneumonidaj. See 3Iod. Class. Ins. ii. p. 149. for t'urttier notices upon it.
2 Reaum. ii. 450.
446 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
short, and so escapes a fall that might destroy it. After some repose, in
consequence of very violent efforts, it bursts through the front of the pu-
parium, and thus escapes from its prison.^
The insects of the Trichoptera order, or case-worm flies, are quiescent
when they first assume the pupa, but become locomotive towards the close
of their existence in that state. Jsince they inhabit the water when they
become 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 state is their proper sphere of action. I have before
described to you the grates which shut up their cases when they become
quiescent ; if they had no means of piercing these grates, they would perish
in the waters. The head of these pupae is provided at first with a particular
instrument, which enables them to effect this purpose ; its anterior part is
armed with a pair of hooks in form resemhling 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 envelope which covers her body, she emerges from the water,
and fixes herself upon some plant or other o!>ject, the summit of which is
not overflowed. But you will here, perhaps, ask — How can a pupa in her
envelope, with all her limbs set fast, do this ? This affords another instance
of the wise provision of the beneficent Father of the universe for the wel-
fare of his creatures. 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 general envelope; but each in a separate one, so as to
allow it free motion. Thus the insect, when the time is come for its last
change, can use them (except the hind-legs, which being partly covered by
the wing-cases remain without motion) with ease. It then stretches out
its antennae, and steering with its legs makes for the surface. J)e Geer saw
one just escaped from its case run and swim 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 |)iece 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 posterior ones of Dt^lisci, 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-
umstanced.
I am, &c.
» Lyonet, Trait. Anat. 15. 2 pg Geer, ii. 518.
447
LETTER XXIII.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. (^Imago.)
III. The 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 eqiudiy diversified and wonderful. It will be con-
venient to divide this mnltifarious 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 (Tipu/ce).
When at rest upon any wall or ceiling, sometimes standing upon four legs,
and sometimes upon five, you may observe them elevate and de|)ress their
body alternately. This oscillating movement is produced by the weight
of their body and the elasticity of their legs, and is constant and uninter-
rupted during their repose. Unless it be connected with the respiration
of the animal, it is not easy to saV what is the object of it. Moths when
feehng the stimulus of desire, or under alarm, set their whole body into a
tremor.^ A living specimen of the hawk-moth of the willow being once
brought to me, upon placing it upon my hand, after ejecting a milky fluid
from its anus, it put its wings and body in a most rapid vibration, which
continued more than a minute, when it flew away. A butterfly, called by
Aurelians " The large skipper " (Hcsperia sylvanus), 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 towards
you.
Others of the motions in question are merely those of parts. But-
terflies, when standing still in the sun, as you have doubtless often ob-
served,
" Their golden pinions ope and close ; "
thus, it should seem, unless this motion be connected with their respi-
ration, alternately warming and cooling 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 (Seioptera vibrans^). It has received its trivial name
^ Peck in Linn. Trans, xi. 92.
2 Meigen considers this as an Ortalis; but its peculiar habit of constantly vi-
brating its wings indicates a distinct genus ; especially as the habit is not condned
to a single species.
448 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
(vib7-ans) from the constant vibration which, when reposing, it imparts to
its wings. This motion, also, I have reason to think, assists its respira-
tion. Some insects when awake are very active with their antenna,
though their bodies are at rest. I remember one evening attending for
some time to the proceedings of one of those caseworm-flies {Leptooeriis),
that are remarkable, hke certain moths, for their long antennae. It was
percheil upon a blade of grass, and kept moving these organs, which were
twice as long as itself, in all directions, as if by means of them it was
exploring every thing that occurred in its vicinity. Many Tipul*, and
likewise some mites (^Acarus vibrans and Gavutaus motatorms), distinguished
by long anterior legs, from this circumstance denominated pedes motatorii
by Linne, holding them up in the air impart to them a vibratory motion,
resembling that of the antennae of some insects.' I scarcely need mention,
what must often 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 the use to which the rove-
beetles (Staphi/linus L.) put their long abtlomen. They turn it over their
back not only to put themselves in a threatening attitude, as I lately re-
lated, 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, running, jumping, climbing,
flying, swimming, and burrowing. I begin with the imlkers.
The mode of their walking depends upon the number and kind of their
legs. With regard to these, insects may be divided into four classes ; viz.
Herapocls, or those that have onl}' six legs : such are those of every order
except the Aptera of Linne, of which only three or four genera belong to
this class ; — Octopuds, or those that have eiglif legs, including the tribes of
mites (^Acarina^ ; s[)iders (Ai-aneidce) ; long-legged spiders {Plialangiidce) i
and scorpions (^Scorjmnidce) : — Polijpods, or those that have fourteen legs,
consisting of the wood-lice tribe {Oiiiscidte) ; — and Myriapods, or those
that have more than fourteen legs — often more than a hundred — com-
posed of the two tril)es of centipedes {Scolopendridce) and millepedes
(^lididce). The first of these classes may be denominated proper, and the
rest improper insects. The legs of all seem to consist of the same general
parts ; the hip, trochanter, thigh, shank, and foot ; the four first being
usually without joints (though in the Arnneidcs, &c. the shank has two},
and the foot having from one to above forty.'
1 De Geer, vi. 335.
2 The most common number of joints in the tarsus is from two to five ; but the
Phalangida; have sometimes more than forty. In these, under a lens, this part
looks like a jointed antenna.
Geoffmy, and after him most modern entomologists, has taken the primary
divisions of the Colcoptera order from the number of joints in the tarsus; but this,
although perhaps in tiie majority of cases it may alford a natural division, will not
viniversally. For — not to mention the instance of PseZa/jAMS, clearly belonging to
the Brachyptera — both Oxytelus Grav., and anotlier genus that I have separated
from it (Carpalimus K. Ms.), have only two joints in their tarsi. In this tribe,
therefore, it can only be used for secondary divisions. — K.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 449
In u-a/kmg and rwmijig, the hexapods, like the larvae that have perfect
legs, move the anterior and posterior leg of one side and the intermediate
of the other alternately, 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 that have
more than six feet move in this way, which is not improbable, from the dif-
ficulty of attending at the same time to the movements of so many mem-
bers, is not easily ascertained.
The dog-tick (Ixodes Ricintis), if when young and active it moves in the
the same way that it does when swollen 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
carcass along.^ Redi observes that when scorpions walk they use those
remarkable comb-hke 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 swimmers.^ I have often noticed a millepede
(lulus tetrestris), frequently found under the bark of trees, and where
there is not a free 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 move-
ment is accomplished. Alternate portions of its numerous legs are ex-
tended beyond the Une 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 see the
undulating line of motion successive!}' beginning at the head and passing
off at the tail. The motion of centipedes (Scolujjendra), as well as that of
this insect and its congeners, is retrogressive as well as progressive. Put
your finger to the common one {Lithobius forficalics), and it will imme-
diately retrograde, and with the same facility as if it was going forwards.
This difference, 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 for-
wards. Bonnet mentions a spider (not a spinner) that always walked
backwards when it attacked a large insect of its own tribe; but when it
had succeeded in driving it from a captive fly, which, however, 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 wiih a very quick step. The field-
cricket (G'?v///((5 campestris) creeps very slowly — the bloody-nose beetle
{Timarcha tenebricosa) and the oil-beetle (^Meloe Proscai-abceus) march very
leisurely; the spider-wasps (Pompilus) walk by starts, as it were, vibrating
their wings at the same time without expanding them ; while flies, ichneu-
mons, wasps, &c., and many beetles, walk as fast as they can. One insect,
1 De Geer, iii. 284. 2 ffigt. Jns. 10.
3 Kedi, Opusc. i. 80. Amoreux, 44. •* CEuvr. ii. 426.
G G
450 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
a kind of snake-fly {Alantispa pagana), is said to walk upon its knees.
The crane-flies {Tipiila oleracea) and shepherd-spiders {Phalangium.) have
legs so disproportionately long, that they seem to walk upon stilts ; but when
we consider that they have to walk over and amongst grass — the former
laying its eggs in meadows — we shall see the reason of this conformation.
Insects do not always walk in a right line ; for I have often observed the
little midges (^Psychoda Latr.), when M'alking up glass, moving alternately
from right to left and from left to right, as humble-bees fly, so as to describe
small zigzags.
Numerous are the insects that run. Almost all the predaceous tribes,
the black dors, clocks, or ground-beetles (^Eutrechina), and their fellow
destroyers the CicindelcE, ?ini\ other Enpterina — which Linne, with much
propriety, has denominated the tigers of the insect world — are gifted with
uncommon powers of motion, and run with great rapidity. The velocit}',
in this respect, of ants, is also very great. Mr. Delisle 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 (Hippoboscfi), and its kindred genus Ornithyomia parasitic 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 Hiaticnia), and which appeared
to be nondescript. Another most singular insect, which though apterous
is nearly related to these — I mean the louse of the bat {Nycteribia Fesper-
tilionis), is still more remarkable for its swiftness. Its legs, as appears
from the observations of Colonel Montague, are fixed in an unusual posi-
tion on the upper side of the trunk. " It transports 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 ob-
structed 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 v<i&s 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 with astonishing velocity, accompanied by the same gyra-
tions : if by accident they escaped each other, they very soon became mo-
tionless ; 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 rapidit}' with which a little reddish mite, with two black dots
on the anterior part of its back (^Gamasus Baccarum) , common upon straw-
berries, 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 antennae
are removed from their station of repose and set in action. When the
chafers or petalocerous beetles are about to move, these organs, before
1 Lesser, 1. i. 248. note 24. 2 Linn. Trans, xi. 13.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 451
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 antennne, however, not as feelers to explore surround-
ing objects, — their palpi being rather used for that purpose, — but, it should
seem, merely to receive vibrations, or impressions from the atmosphere, to
which these laminas, especially in the male cock-chafers, or rather tree-
chafers {?>Icl()lonth(p), present a considerable surface. Yet insects that
have filiform or setaceous antennae appear often to use them for exploring.
When the turnip-flea (Hal/ica uleracea) walks, its antennae are alternately
elevated and depressed. The same thing takes place with some woodlice
(Oiiiscidce), which use them as tactors, touching the surface on eacli side
with them, as they go along. This is not, however, constantly the use of
this kind of antennae ; for I have observed that Telephorus Uvidiis, — a nar-
row 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 Hymenojdtra, 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
(Ploiaiia vagabunda) has very short anterior legs, or rather arms ; while the
two posterior pair are very long. Its antennae also are long. When 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 bod>', and the antenuEe being bent, their extremity, which is
rather thick, is made to rest upon the surlace on which the animal moves,
and so supply the place of fore-legs.- Mr. Curtis suspects that Xyela
jnisilh, a hymenopterous insect related to Xiphydria, uses its maxillary
palpi as legs.^ I have observed that mites often use the long hairs with
which the tail of some species is furnished, to assist them in walking.
Another mode of motion with which many insects are endowed is
jumping. This is generally the result of the sudden unbending of the arti-
culations of the posterior legs and other organs, which before had received
more than their natural bend. This unbending impresses 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 deter-
minate velocity, opposed to its weight more or less du-ectly.* Various are
the organs by which these creatures are enabled to effect this motion.
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 ap-
pendages to the abdomen.
The hind legs of many beetles are furnished with remarkably large and
thick thighs. Of this description are several species of weevils ; for in-
stance, drchestes and Raviphus ; the whole tribe of skippers (Hallica), and
the spendid Asiatic tribe of Sagra^, &c. The object of these dispropor-
tioned and clumsy thighs is to allow space for more powerful muscles, by
^ Marsham in Linn. Trans, iii. 26.
2 De Geer, iii. 324. 3 Brit. Ent. i. t. xxx. f. 4.
4 Cuvier, Anat. Comp. i. 396. 5 Oliv. Entom. n. 90. t. i. ,^
GO 2
452 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
which the tibiae, when the legs are unbent, are impelled with greater force.
In the Orthoptera order, all the grasshoppers, including the genera Gryl-
lotalpa, Grijllus, Tridactylus, Locusta, Acrida, Pterophijlln, Pneumora, Trux-
alU, Acri/(liwn, Tetriv, &c., are distinguished by incrassated posterior
thighs ; which, however, are much longer, more tapering and shapely
(they are indeed somewFiat 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.' — Aristophanes, in order to make
the great and good Athenian philosopher Socrates appear ridiculous, re-
presents 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, comparatively, it equalled that of the locust, being also
two hundred times its length. Being eiFected by muscular force, without
the aid of wings, this is an astonishing leap. There are several insects,
however, which, although they are furnished with incrassated posterior
thighs, do not jump. Of this description are some beetles belonging to
the genus Necydalk (CEdemera Oliv.), in which this seems a peculiarity
of the male, and amongst the Hymenoptera, not to mention others, several
species of Chalcis, and all that 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 Pti/hius, found by our friend the Rev. R. Sheppard, and which I have
named after him C/iorngus Slieppardi, is similarly circumstanced. In the
various tribes of frog-hoppers {Cercopidce, Sec), the posterior tibiae appear
to be principally concerned in their leaping. These are often very long,
and furnished, on their exterior margin, 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 less like the grasshoppers, and then unbending kick them out
with violence.* Many of them, amongst the rest Anihrophora spumaria,
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, when about to leap, [)laces its posterior thighs in a direction
perpendicular to the plane of position, keeping them close to the body ;
it next with great violence pushes them out backwards, so as to stretch
the 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 230 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 quarter of a mile. Upon glass, where the spines are of no
1 Swamm. Bibl. Nat. Ed. Hill, i. 123. b.
2 Aristoph. Nubes, Act i. Sc. 2.
3 Trost, Beitrage, 40. ■* De Geer, iii. IGl.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 453
use, the insect cannot leap more than six inches.^ The species of another
genus of the homopterous Hemiptera (Chermes), that jump very nimbly by
pushing out their shanks, are perhaps assisted in this motion by a remark-
able horn looking towards the anus, which arms their posterior hip. Some
bugs that leap well, Acanthia saltatoria,&c., seem to have no particular ap-
paratus to assist them, except that their posterior tibia; 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 (Sa/tims scenicm),
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 with short
steps, till they come within a convenient distance, when they spring upon
it suddenly like a tiger. Bartram observed 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 celebrated Evelyn in his
Travels. When at Rome, he often observed a spider of this kind hunt-
ing the flies which alighted 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
stealing up it would attempt 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 exactly as if they were actuated by one spirit, moving back-
wards, 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
appearance as immovable 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 scenicus.
But the legs of insects are not the only organs by which they leap. The
numerous species of the elastic beetles {Elatei-), skip-jacks as some call
them, perform this motion by means of a pectoral process or mucro.
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 instrument
which, when they are so circumstanced, enables them to spring into the
air and recover their standing. If you examine the breast (pectus) of one
of these insects, you will observe between the base of the anterior pair of
legs a short and rather blunt process, the point of which is towards the
anus. Opposite to this point, and a little before the base of the inter-
mediate legs, you will discover in the after-breast (posfpectus) a rather
deep cavity, 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
1 De Geer, iii. 178.
2 Evelyn, quoted in Hooke's Microgr. 200.
GO 3
454 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
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 in
the air, regain 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
the 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, belonging to the IchneumoiiidcB,
and to the genus Cryptus, takes long leaps I)}' first bending its abdomen
inwards, as De Geer thinks, and then pushing it with force along the
plane of position." There is a tribe of minute insects amongst the Aptvra,
found often under bark, sometimes on the water, and in various other
situations, which Linne has named Podurn, a term implying that they
have a leg in their tail. This is literally the fact. For the tail, or anal
extremity, of these insects is furnished with an inflexed 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 position, enables the animal to leap sometimes two or three
inches. What is more remarkable, these little animals are by this organ
even empowered to leap upon water. There is a minute black species
(^P.aquritica), which in the spring is often seen floating on tiiat contained
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 tiieir pressure. The insects of another genus,
separated from Podura by Latreille under the name of Smintlmrus, 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. fnscus, besides the caudal fork, has a very singular organ, the use
of which is to prevent it from faUing froin 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, flexible, transparent threads
covered with a slimy secretion. By these, 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 Latreille Machilis polypoda, 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 won-
derful distance, and with the greatest agility.
Clivibing is another motion of insects that merits particular considera-
tion : since, as this includes their power of moving against gravity — as we
1 Anat. Comp. i. 498. 2 ii. giQ.
3 De Geer, vii. 38. t. iii. f. 10. r r.
4 This insect abounds at East Farleigh, near Maidstone.
MOTION'S OF INSECTS. 455
see flies and spiders do upon our ceilings, and up perpendicular surfaces
even when of glass, it affords room for much interesting and curious in-
quiry. Climbing insects may be divided 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, hues the underside of the joints of their tarsi,
the claw-joint excepted ; those that climb by the aid of suckers, which
adhere (a vacuum 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 substance which they have the power of secreting."
The first order of climbers — those that climb by means of their claivs
— includes a large proportion of insects, especially in the Coleoptcra order
— the majority of those that have five joints in their tarsi being of this de-
scription. The predaceous tribes, particularly the numerous and prowling
ground-beetles {Eutrechina), often thus ascend the plants and trees after
their prey. Thus one of them, the beautiful but ferocious Ca/osoma si/co-
]3hn)ita, mounts the trunk and branches of the oak to commit fearful
ravages amongst the hordes of caterpillars that inhabit it^ By these the
less savage but equally destructive tree-chafers {MelolonthcE), and those
enemies of vegetable beauty the rose-ciiafers (Cefouia aurata), are enabled
to maintain their station on the trees and shrubs that they lay waste.
And by these also the water-beetles {Dytiscus, HydrophUus,^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
appear to be aided by stiff" hairs or bristles.
Other climbers ascend by means oi foot-cushions {pidviUi) composed
of hairs, as thick set as in plush or velvet, with which the under sides
of the joints of their tarsi — the claw-joint, which is always naked, ex-
cepted— are covered. These cushions are particularly conspicuous
in the beautiful tribe of plant-beetles {C/in/somelidce). A common in-
sect of this kind before mentioned, called the bloody-nose beetle
(Timarcka tenebricosa), by the aid of these is enabled to adhere to the
trailing plants, the various species of bed-straw {Galium), on which it
feeds ; and by these will support itself against gravity ; for both this and
Chrysomela Goettingensis will walk upon the hand with their back down-
wards, and it then requires a rather strong pull to disengage them from
their station. The whole tribe of weevils (^Rhynchophora Latr.) are also
furnished with these cushions, but not always upon all their joints, some
having them only at their apex ; and the palm-weevil {Cordylia Palmaricm)
at the extremity solely of the last joint but one. Those brilhant beetles the
jBuprestes have also these cushions, as have likewise the numerous tribes
of capricorn-beetles (^Longicornes Latr.). The larvse of these being timber-
borers, the parent insect is probably thus enabled to adhere to this sub-
stance whilst it deposits its eggs. Indeed, in some species of the former
genus the cushions wear the appearance of suckers. While the linear
species of Helops are without them, they clothe all the tarsi of H. ceneus
(Chalcites K. Ms).^ 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 large water-beetles
1 Reaum. ii. 457.
2 The insect here alluded to is figured by Olivier under the name of Tenebrio
nitiiis (No. 57. t. i. f. 4.) : his Helops aneus (No. 58. t. i. f. 7.) is a different insect.
G G 4
456 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
{Dytisci), as given for sexual purposes.^ The three first joints of the anterior
tarsi of many of the larger rove-beetles {Staphylinus L.) are dilated so as
to form, as in the last-mentioned insects, an orbicular patella, but covered l)y
cushions. Since in them this is not peculiar to the males, it is probably
given that they may be able to support tlieir long bodies when climbing.
But the most remarkable class of climbers consists of those that are
furnished with an apparatus by which they can form a vacuum, so as to
adhere to the plane on which they are moving by atmosjjheric pressure.
That flies can walk u|)on glass placed vertically, and in general against
gravity, has long been a source of wonder and inquiry ; and various have
been the opinions of scientific men upon the subject. Some imagined that
the suckers on the feet of these animals were sponges 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 seem ; since we
have seen above in many instances, and very lately in that of the Smin-
thurus fuscus, that insects are often aided in their motions by a secretion of
this kind. Hooke app:;ars to have been one of the first who remarked that
the suspension of these animals was produced by some mechanical con-
trivance in their feet. Observing that the claws alone could not effect
this purpose, he justly concluded that it must be principally owing to the
mechanism of the two palms, pattens, or soles, as he calls the suckers ; these
he describes as beset underneath with small bristles or tenters, like the wire
teeth of a card for working wool, which having a contrary direction to the
claws, and both pulling different ways, if ther,e be any irregularity 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 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 sharped 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 common 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 difficulty, 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,
noticing Dr. Derham's opinion as just stated, he further remarks that they
easily overcome the atmospheric pressure when they are bz'isk and alert.
1 See Kirby, in Fauna Boreali- Americana, on various modifications of these foot-
cushions amongst some tribes of beetles.
2 Microgr. 170. 3 jy. 259.
* Physico-Theol ed. 13. 363. note 6.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 457
But, he proceeds, in the decline of the year this resistance becomes too
mighty for their diminished strength ; and we see files 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 has been
so much indebted, excited an inquiry, the results of which confirmed
Derham'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* {Lacerta Gecko), 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 hands of Sir Everard Home,
who was assisted in it by the incomparable pencil of Mr. Bauer ; and it
was proved most satisfactorily that it is by producing a vacuum between
certain organs destined for that purpose and the plane of position, suffi-
cient to cause atmospheric 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 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 tarsus 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 capable of extension
and contraction ; they are concavo-convex, with serrated edges, the con-
cave 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 sufficiently 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 may be seen by looking at the movements of a fly in the inside of a glass
tumbler with a common microscope.^ Thus the fly, you see, does no more
than the leech has been long known to do, when 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.^
1 Nat. Hist. ii. 274.
2 Amcen. 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 patience. These lizards are sometimes so
tame that they will feed out of the hand. ( Voyage, &c. 73.) Major Moor and
Captain Green observed several lizards in India, that run up the walls and over the
ceilings after the mosquitos. Hasselquist 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 endeavoured to catch it; and immediately
little pustules, resembling those occasioned by the stinging-nettle, rose all over the
parts the creature had touched. ( Voyage, 220.) M. JSavign}', however, who exa-
mined this animal in Egypt, assures me that this account of Hasselquist's, as far as
it relates to the venom of the Gecko, is not correct.
3 Philos. Trans. 1816, 325. t. xviii. f. 1—7.
4 Mr. Blackwall, in a paper " On the Pulvilli of Insects," having found that flies
458 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
Dipterous insects, -which in general have these organs, and some three
on each foot\ are not exclusively gifted with them ; for various others
could walk up the sides of an exhausted receiver, denies that their suckers have any-
such power of forming a vacuum as is above ascribed to them, and explained their
abilitj' to climb up vertical polished bodies, such as glass, by the mechanical action
of the minute hairs which clothe the inferior surfaces of the suckers, nearly as
Dr. Hooke had suggested ; but further experiments having shown him that flies
cannot -walk up glass which is made moist by breathing on it, or is thinh' coated
■with oil or flour, he was led to the conclusion that these hairs are in fact tubular,
and excrete a viscid fluid, by means of which they adhere to dry polished surfaces;
and on close inspection with an adequate magnifying power, he w^as always able to
discover traces of this adhesive material on the track on glass both of flies and
various insects with pulvilli, and of those spiders which have the same power of
climbing polished surfaces, such as Salticus scenicus, &c. (^Linn. Trans, xvi. 490.
768. ; compare also Entom. Mag. i. 557.)
On repeating Mr. Blackwall's experiments, I found, just as he states, that when
a pane of glass of a window was slightly moistened by breathing on it, or dusted
with flour, blue-bottle flies, the common house-flies, and the common bee-fly (^Eris-
talis tenax) all slipped down again the instant they attempted to walk up these
portions of the glass ; and I moreover remarked that each time after thus slipping
down, they immediately began to rub first the two fore tarsi, and then the two hind
tarsi, together, as flies are so often seen to do, and continued this operation for some
moments before they attempted again to walk. This last fact struck me very
forcibly, as ai>pearing to give an importance to these habitual procedures of flies
that has not hitherto, as far as I am aware, been attached to them. These move-
ments I had alwaj's regarded as meant to remove any particle of dust from the legs,
but simply as an affair of instinctive cleanliness, like that of the cat when she licks
herself, and not as serving any more important object; and such entomological
friends as I have had an opportunity of consulting tell me that their view of the
matter -was precisely the same ; nor does Mr. Blackwall appear to have seen it
in a different light, since, though so strongly bearing on his explanation of the
•wav in -which flies mount smooth vertical surfaces, he never at all refers to it.
Yet, from the absolute necessity which the flies on which I experimented appeared
to feel of cleaning their pulvilli immediately after being wetted or clogged with
flour, however frequently this occurred, there certainly seems ground for suppos-
ing that their usual and frequent operation for efi"ecting this by rubbing their
tarsi together is by no means one of mere cleanliness or amusement, but a very
important point of their economy, essentially necessary for keeping their pul-
villi in a fit state for climbing up smooth vertical substances by constantly removing
from them all moisture, and still more all dust, which they are perpetually liable to
collect. In this operation the two fore and two hind tarsi are respectively rubbed
together for their whole length, whence it might be inferred that the intention is to
remove impurities from the entire tarsi ; but this, I am persuaded, is not usually
the object, which is simply that of cleaning the under side of the pulvilli by rubbing
them backward and forward along the whole surface of the hairs with which the
tarsi are clothed, and which seem intended to serve as a brush for this particular
purpose. Sometimes, indeed, when the hairs of the tarsi are filled with dust
throughout, the operation of rubbing them together is intended to cleanse these
hairs; because without these brushes were themselves clean, they could not act
upon the hairs of the under side of the pulvilli. Of this I -ivitnessed an interesting
instance in an Eristalis tenax, which by walking on a surface dusted with flour had
the hairs of the whole length of the tarsi, as well as the pulvilli, thus clogged with
it. After slipping down from the painted surface of the window-frame, which she
in vain attempted to climb, she seemed sensible that before the pulvilli could be
brushed it was requisite that the brushes themselves should be clean, and full two
1 Fhilos. Trans. 1816, 325. t. xviii. f. 8—11.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 459
in different orders have them, and some in greater numbers. As I lately
observed, the foot-cushions of the Buprestes are something ver)' like them.
minutes were employed to make them so by stretching out her trunk, and passing
them repeatedly along its sides, apparent!}' for the sake of moistening the flour and
causing its grains to adhere; for after this operation, on rubbing her tarsi together,
which she next proceeded to do, 1 saw distinct little pellets of flour fall down. A
process almost exactly similar I have always seen used by blue-bottle flies and
common house-flies which had their tarsi clogged with flour by walking over it, or
by having it dusted over them ; but these manoeuvres are required for an especial
purpose, and on ordinary occasions, as before observed, the object in rubbing the
tarsi together is not to clean them, but the pulvilli, for which they serve as brushes.
Besides rubbing the tarsi together, flies are often seen, while thus employed, to pass
the two fore tarsi and tibii© with sudden jerks over the back of the head and eyes,
and the two hind tarsi and tibias over and under the wings, and especially over their
outer margins, and occasionalh' also over the back of the abdomen. That one object
of these operations is often to clean these parts from dust I have no doubt, as on
powdering flies with flour they thus employ themselves, sometimes for ten minutes,
in detaching every part of it from their eyes, wings, and abdomen; but I am also
inclined to believe that, in general, when this passing of the legs over the back of
the head and outer margin of the wings takes place in connection with the ordinary
rubbing of the tarsi together, as it usually does, that the object is rather for the
purpose of completing the entire cleansing of the tarsal brushes (for which the row
of strong hairs visible under a lens on the exterior margin of the wings seems well
adapted), so that they may act more perfectly on the pulvilli. Here, too, it should
be noticed, in proof of the importance of all the pulvilli being kept clean, that as
the tarsi of the two middle legs cannot be applied to each other, flies are constantly
in the habit of rubbing one of these tarsi and its pulvillus sometimes between the
two fore tarsi, and at other times between the two hind ones. 1 ought also not to
omit stating, that having taken out of a spider's net one of the minute CliakididcB
just caught, and pulled away the threads attached to it, it spent some time in
passing iis hinder tarsi over its wings and abdomen, and then in passing its fore
tarsi through its palpi, apparently, as in the case of flies, to clean its pulvilli from
an}- remains of the spider's net; and that having surrounded a minute beetle {Meli-
getlies teneus), which chanced to be on the window, with a slight circle of moisture,
it was unable to pass through it, and repeatedly drew its wetted fore tarsi through
its mouth, and rubbed the hind tarsi together ; and that precisely the same results
took place in the case of an Ichneumon placed in similar circumstances, only it spent
much more time in rubbing both its fore and hind tarsi together after being wetted,
and in passing the former over its antennis and through its mouth ; and when
powdered with flour, it spent, like the flies before mentioned, some minutes in
cleaning itself by the same processes.
Though the above observations, hastily made on the spur of the occasion since
beginning this note, seem to prove that it is necessary the pulvilli of flies and of
some other insects should be kept free from moisture and dust to enable them to
ascend vertical polished surfaces, they cannot be considered as wholly settling the
question as to the precise way in which these pulvilli, and those of insects generally,
act in effecting a similar mode of progression ; and my main reason for here giving
these slight hints is the hope of directing the attention of entomological and micro-
scopical observers to a field evidently, as yet, so imperfectly explored.
After writing the above, intended as the conclusion of this long note, I witnessed
to-day (July 11, 1842), a fact which I cannot forbear adding to it. Observing a
house-fly on the window, whose motions seemed very strange, I approached it, and
foimd that it was making violent contortions, as though every leg were affected
with St. Vitus's dance, in order to pull its pulvilli from the surface of the glass, to
which they adhered so strongly that though it could drag them a little way, or
sometimes by a violent effort get first one and then another detached, yet the
moment they were placed on the glass again, they adhered as if their under side
were smeared with bird-lime. Once it succeeded in dragging off its two fore legs,
460 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
particularly those of B. fascicularis. A Brazilian beetle in my cabinet,
belonging to the family of the CleridcB, but not arranging well under any of
Latreille's genera, which I have named Priocera variegata, has curious in-
voluted suckers on its feet. The strepsipterous genera Stylops and Xenos
are remarkable for the vesicles of membrane that cover the under side of
their tarsi, which, though flaccid in old specimens, appear to be inflated in
the living animal or those that are recent.^ It is not improbable that these
vesicles, which are large and hairy, may act in some degree as suckers,
and assist it in climbing.
The insects of the Orlhoptera order are, many of them, remarkable for
two kinds of appendages connected with my present subject, being fur-
nished both with 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
Cimbex liitea.^ The latter, the foot- cushions, are usually convex appen-
dages, of an oblong form, and often, though not always, divided in the
middle by a very deep longitudinal furrow, attached to the under side of
the tarsal joints. Sir E. Home is of opinion that the object of these foot-
cushions is to take off" the jar when the body of 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 militate
against its being the only one. By their elasticity 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 use
will be best ascertained by a review of the principal genera of the order.
Of these the cock-roaches (Blatta), the spectres (Phmma), and the prey-
ing insects {Mantis), are distinguished by tarsi of five joints.^ The grass-
when it immediately began to rub the pulvilli against the tarsal brushes ; but on
replacing them on the glass they adhered as closel}' as before, and it was only by
efforts almost convulsive, and which seemed to threaten to pull off its limbs from
its body, tliat it could succeed in nio\'ing a quarter of an inch at a time. After
watching it with much interest for five minutes, it at last by its continued exertions
got its feet released and flew awaj', and alighted on a curtain, on which it walked
quite briskly, but soon again flew back to the window, where it had precisely the
same difficulty in pulling its pulvilli from the glass as before ; but after observing
it some time, and at last tiying to catch it, that I might examine its feet with a
lens, it seemed by a vigorous effort to regain its powers, and ran quite actively on
the glass, and then flying away I lost sight of it. I am unable to give any satis-
factory solution of this singular fact. The season, and the fly's final activity,
preclude the idea of its arising from cold or debilitj% to which Mr. White attributes
the dragging of flies' legs at the close of autumn. The pulvilli certainly had much
more the appearance of adhering to the glass by a viscid material than by any
pressure of the atmosphere, and it is so far in favour of Mr. Blackwall's hypothesis,
on which one might conjecture that from some cause (perhaps of disease) the hairs
of the pulvilli had poured out a greater quantity of this viscid material than usual,
and more than the muscular strength of the fly was able to cope with.
1 Kirby in Linn. Trans, xi. 106. t. viii. f. 13. a.
2 I observed this in the hind legs of a varietv of Locusta migratoria.
3 Philos. Trans. 1816, 325. t. xix. f. 5.
* Ibid. p. 325.
s lu a specimen in my cabinet of Blatta gigantea, the posterior and anterior tarsi
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 461
hoppers with setaceous antennae (Aoida) have four tarsal joints. Those
with filiform antennae {Locusta and Acrydhini), those with ensiform
(Truxalis '), and the crickets (Gri/lhts), have only three. In Blatia, the
variations with respect to the suckers and cushions (for many species are
furnished with both) are remarkable. The former in some (Blatta gigantea^
are altogether wanting ; in others {B. Petiverinna) they are mere rudi-
ments ; and in others (B. Maderce) they are more conspicuous, and re-
semble those of the Gri/UidcB. The foot-cushions also in some are nearly
obsolete, and occupy the mere extremity of the four first tarsal joints
(J5. orientalis, Ainericmia, Capensis, &c.). In B. Petiveriana there is none
upon the first joint; but upon the extremity of the four last, not excepting
the claw-joint, there is a n)inute orbicular concave one, resembling a
sucker. In others {B. gigantea, &c.), they extend the length of the four
first joints, and are very conspicuous. In some {B. Monffeti 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 foot-cushions are
usually of a pale colour; but in one specimen of a hairy female which I
have, from Brazil, they are black. The spectre genus (Phasma) 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 orbi-
cular sucker between 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,
thouiih smaller, are shaped much like those in Phasma. In Acrida the
feet have no suckers between the claws ; but they are distinguished by
two oval, soft, concave, and movable processes attached to the base of
the first joint of the tarsus, which probably act as suckers.^ In this genus
there are two foot-cushions on the first joint of the tarsi, and one on each
of the two following ones.* The species of the genus Locusta come next.
This genus is called Acrydiinn b}' Latreille after Geoffroy ; but, since it
includes the true /oc?«<, it ougiit to retain the name Locusta gwen by Linne
to the tribe to which it belongs.^ All these insects have the terminal
sucker between the claws, three foot-cushions on the first joint of the tarsus,
and one on the second ^ ; and the same conformation also distinguishes
the feet of TruxalU. In the species of Acrydium F. (Tetrw Latr.), the foot-
of one side have only four joints, while the intermediate one has five. On the other
side the hind leg is broken off, but the anterior and intermediate tarsi have both
five joints. In another specimen one posterior tarsus has four and the other five
joints.
1 The name of this genus, properly spelled, is Troxallis, from the Greek Ti<ulx.X)js,
Gryllus.
2 This insect, which is remarkable for having the margin of its thorax reflexed,
was long since well figured in Mouft'et's work (130. fig. infima). It has not, how-
ever, been described by any other author I have met with. It is common in Brazil.
Some specimens are pallid, while others are of a dark brown. It is to be observed
that the Blattina are resolvable into several genera.
3 De Geer, iii. 421. t. xxi. f. 13. h. This author has also noticed the cushions in
this genus and Locusta, and the claw-sucker in the latter, which he thinks are
analogous to those of the flv. Ibid. 462. t. xxii. f. 7, 8.
* Phihs. Trans. 1816. t. xxi. f. 8—13.
5 See Zool. Journ. for 1825. No. iv. 431.
6 Pldtos. Trans. 1816. t. xxi. f 1—9.
462 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
cushions, I believe — for in the dead insect they are the reverse of con-
spicuous— are arranged nearly as in the two preceding genera, but these
insects are without the claw-sucker. And lastly, Gri/llus has neither
suckers nor cushions. From this statement it seems to follow — since
Blatta^ Phasma, and Mantis^ that do not leap, are provided with cushions,
and Gryllus, 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 the Blattcc, many of which have no suckers, or very
small ones, are climbing insects (1 have seen B. Germanica run up and
down the walls of an apartment with great agility), and that the long and
gigantic apterous spectres, &c. (P/m^wa ) 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 ia
some degree as suckers, may promote these ends.
Amongst the homopterous Hemiptera, Chermes and many of the Cer-
copidcB^ are furnished with the claw-suckers : but the noisy Cicada;, as well as
the heteropterous section, 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 2^hr/sapus), that the extremity of its feet is furnished
with a transparent membranaceous flexible process, like a bladder. He
further says that when the animal fixes and presses this vesicle on the
surface on which it walks, its diameter is increased, and it sometimes
appears concave, the concavity 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 foot-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 become
concave, particularly in Acrida viridissima.
In Cimbcx, and others amongst the saw-fly tribes, the claw-sucker is dis-
tinguished by this remarkable peculiarity, that its upper siu'face is con-
cave ^, so that before it is used it must be bent inwards. Besides these,
at the extremity of each tarsal joint these animals are furnished with a
spoon-sha[)ed sucker, which seems analogous to the cushions in the Grijl-
lina, Locustina, &c. ; and, what is more remarkable, the two spurs {calcarid)
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 wasp ( Vesjja vulgaris) is by these enabled to walk up and down
our glass windows.
We learn from De Geer that several mites (to finish with the Aptera)
have something of this kind. Among these is the cheese-mite (^Acanis
siro) ; 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) is similarly circumstanced. Ixodes Biciniti
1 De Geer, iii. 132. 173.
2 Ibid. iii. 7. 3 Philos. Trans. 181G. t. xix. f. 3, 4.
4 Philns. Trans. 1816. t. six. f. 1—9.
5 De Geer, vii. 91. t. v. f. 6, 7.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 463
and Reduvius have also these vesicles — which are armed with two claws
— on all their feet.*
1 am next to consider those climbers that ascend and descend, and pro-
bably maintain themselves in their station, by the assistance of a secretion
which they have the power of producing. You will immediately perceive
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 thi-ead that issues from
them-!; but perhaps everyone has 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 animals, although they have no suckers or other ap-
paratus— except the hairs of their legs and the three claws of their biarti-
culate 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,
seems 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 accomplished by alternately
fixing one and then the other. But you will remember I give you this
merely as conjecture, having never verified it by observation.^
It may not be amiss to mention here another apterous insect that re-
poses on perpendicular or prone surfaces, without either suckers or any
viscous secretion by which it can adhere to them. I mean the long-legged
or shepherd spiders {Phalanghmi). The tarsi of these insects are seta-
ceous, and nearly as fine as a hair, consisting sometimes of more than forty
joints, those towards the extremity being very minute, and scarcely dis-
cernible, and terminating in a single claw. These tarsi, which resemble
antennee rather than feet, are capable of every kind of inflexion, sometimes
even of a spiral one. These circumstances enable them to apply their feet
to the inequalities of the surface on which they repose, so that every joint
may in some measure 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 \s flying. ' 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.
• De Geer, 96. t. v. f. 13, 14. 17. 19. t. vi. f. 2. 5.
2 The caterpillars of many Lepidopterous insects possess the same power.
5 65.
* Mr. Blackwall, as before stated, conceives that the power possessed by spiders
which use no threads, such as Drassvsmelanogaster, Salticus scenicus, Sec, of walking
up polished surfaces, is derived from an adhesive fluid emitted from the tubular
hair-like appendages of their tarsi. {Linn. Trans, xvi. 480. 769.)
464 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
I dare say you are anxious to be told how any animals can fly ivithout
wings, and wish me to begin with them. As an observer of nature, you
have often, without doubt, been astonished by that sight occasionally
noticed in fine days in the autumn, of webs — commonly called gossamer
webs — covering the earth and floating in the air; and have frequently
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 absurd, was that adopted
by a learned man and good natural philosopher, and one of the first fellows
of the Royal Society, Robert Hooke, the author of Micrographia. " Much
resembling a cobweb," says he, " or a confused lock of these cylinders, is
a certain white substance which, after a fog, may be observed to fly up
and down the air : catching several of these, and examining them with my
mycroscope, 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 imagined : they were of the
same weight, or very little heavier than the air ; and 'tis not iin/ikeli/ but
that those great luhite clouds, that appear all the summer time, may be of the
same substance" ^ So liable are even the wisest men to error, when, leav-
ing fact and experiment, they follow the guidance of fancy. Some French
naturalists have supposed that these/?/;? de la Vierge, as they are called,
are composed of the cottony matter in which the eggs of the Coccus of
the vine (C. Vitis) are enveloped.^ In a country abounding 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 the wanton summer air,
And yet not fall,"
but spiders, who, long before Montgolfier, nay, ever since the creation, have
been in the habit of sailing through the fields of ether in these air-light
chariots ! This seems to have been suspected long ago by Henry Moore,
who says,
" As light and thin as cobwebs that do fly
In the blew air, caus'd by the autumnal sun,
That boils the dew that on the earth doth lie,
May seem this whitish rag then is the scum ;
Unless that wiser men make't the field-spider'' s loom : " '
1 JUicroffr. 202. It has been objected to an excellent primitive writer (C&wicns
Romanvs), that he believed the absurd fable of the phoenix. But 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 !
2 Latreille, Hist. Nat. xii. 388. 3 Quoted in the Athenceum, v. 126.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 465
where he also alliules 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 an-
other occasion, whilst he was watching the proceedings of a common
spider, the animal, 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 height. Numerous observations
afterwards confirmed this extraordinary fact ; and he further 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 flake. The height to which spiders will thus ascend he affirms is pro-
digious. One day in the autumn, Avhen the air was full of webs, he mounted
to the top 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 supposed 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.
subfnscus mhmtissinns oculis, &c., he says, " Certainly this is an 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 other-
wise 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 ac-
count. " Every day in fine weather in autumn," says he, " do I see these
spiders shooting out their webs, and mounting aloft : they will go off from
tlie finger, if you 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 oft' with considerable velocity
in a place where no air was stirring ; and I am sure that I diil not assist
it with my breath. So that these little crawlers seem to have while
mounting some locomotive power without the use of wings, and move
faster than the aii- in the air itself." *' A writer in the last number of
1 Ray's Letters, 36. 69.
2 Kay's Letters, 37, 87. Lister, De Aran. 80. Lister illustrates the force with
which these creatures shoot their thread, by a homely though very forcible simile :
" Resupinata (says he) anum in ventum dedit, filumque ejaculata est quo plane modo
robustissimus juvenise distentissima vesica urinam."
3 De Araneis, 8. 27. 64. 75. 79. 4 Ibid. 79. 5 ibjd. %o.
6 Nat. Hist. i. 327.
466 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
Thomson's Annals of Philosophy ^, under the signature of Carolan, has
given some curious observations 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 by 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 sus-
pended. 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 been attached to it, and continued flying smoothly upwards till it
nearly reached the roof of the room, when it veered on one side and
alighted on the wall. In flying, 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. I 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 of from its station." It is not often, however, that an ob-
server 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 floating 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 a nearer view, they have lowered
it again, and persisted in disappointing my wish to see them mount aloft.
The rapidity with which the spider vanishes from the sight upon this oc-
casion, 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 analogous to the natatory vesicles of fishes '^, which
contributes 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 them-
selves to the air, and are carried here and there in these chariots ? I must
here give you Mr. White's very curious account of a shower of these webs
that he witnessed. On the 21st of September, 1741, intent upon field
diversions, he rose before daybreak ; 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 velocity which showed that they
were considerably heavier than the atmosphere. When the most elevated
station in the country where this was observed was ascended, the webs
I No. lii. 306. 2 Cuvier, Anat. Cmnp. i. 504.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 467
were still to be seen descending from above, and twinklin? like stars in 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 swarm 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 German}' these flights of gossamer appear so constantly in autumn,
that they are there metaphorically called " Z)er //.^ge^f/t';- Sommer" (the
flymg or departing sunmier) ; and authors speak of the web as often hang-
ing 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 morninfr is
spread over stubbles and fallows — and sometimes so thickly as to nfake
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 observations render this very doubtful ;
for he kept many of the spiders tiiat produce these webs in a large glass
upon turf, where they spun as when at liberty, and he could never obs^erve
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 tor 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 ques-
tion ; 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 object with them ? So prodigious are their num-
bers, that sometimes every stalk of straw in the stubbles, and every clod and
stone in the fallows, swarms with them. Dr. Strack assures us that twenty
or thirty often sit upon a single straw, and that he collected about 2000 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 diflTerent
opinions. Mr. White conjectures that these threads, when first shot, might
be entangled 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 inadmissible as that of Hooke, before related. An ingenious and
1 Wat Hist. i. 32.5.
2 Neue Shriften der Natwforschenden Gessekchaft zu Halle, 1810, v. Heft
3 JSfat. Hist. i. 326. ' ' J ■
HH 2
468 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
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
equinoctial gale, sweeping along the fallows and stubbles coated with the
gossamer,'must bring many single threads into contact, which, adhering to-
gether, 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 often convey even sand and earth to great heights,
he deems it highly probable that so light a substance may be transported to
so great an elevation as not to fall to the earth for some days after, when
the weather has become serene, 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, though
gossamer 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 recorded 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 web from the
ground into the air. Again, it is stated that these showers take place after
several calm days'; but, 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 no-
ticed these spiders in the air in such prodigious numbers, that he deemed
them sufficient to produce the effect. I shall not, however, decide posi-
tively ; but, having stated the different opinions, leave you to your own
judgment.
The next query is. What occasions the spiders to mount their chariots
and seek the clouds ? Is it in pursuit of their food ? Insects, in the fine
warm days in which this phenomenon occurs, probably take higher flights
than usual, and seek the upper regions of the atmosphere; and that the
.spiders catch them there, appears by the exuvia; 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 thesfe 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 concluded ;
but the former, as I lately observed to you, often occurs without being
followed by the latter. Yet, since it should 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
gossamer in Germany under the name of Aranea obtextrix. But it is not
1 Ray's Letters, 36. 2 jbid. 42. Lister, De Araneis, 8.
2 Lichtenberg und Vo'tqht Maejazin.. 1789, vi. 53.
* Neue Schriften der JVatwJorsdt. &c. 1810, v. Heft. 41—56.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 469
clear, unless the)' have described it at different 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, with its eight eyes
disposed in a circle, having a black brown body and light yellow legs : while
Dr. Strack represents his A. obtextrix 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
copper brown, with a dentated white spot running longitudinally down the
middle. The first of these, if distinct, as I suspect they are, agrees very
well with the young of one which Lister observed as remarkable for taking
aerial flights ^, and which I have most usually seen so engaged. The other
may possibly be that before noticed, which he found in such infinite num-
bers in Cambridgeshire. " If this conjecture be correct, it will prove that
the same species first produce the gossamer that covers the ground, and
then, shooting other threads, mount upon them into the air.
My last query was, What causes these webs ultimately to fall to the
earth ? Mr. White's observation will, I think, furnish the best answer.
" If the spiders have the posver 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 term ? — were correct in their account of
this singular phenomenon ; and think, with me, that Swammerdam (who,
however, admits that spiders sail on their webs), and after him De Geer,
were rather hasty when they stigmatised 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 authenticated, is indeed strange and
wonderful, and affords another proof of the extraordinary powers, unpa-
ralleled 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 propensities, 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 Wis-
dom, Power, and Goodness, that has distinguished these next to nothings
by such peculiar endowments for our preservation as if given to the strong
and mighty vvould work our destruction.
After the foregoing marvellous detail of the aerial excursions of our in-
sect air-balloonists, I fear you will think the motions of those which fly by
means o^ wings less interesting. You will find, however, that they are not
altogether barren of amusement. Though the wings are the principal
instruments of the flight of insects, 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 (^elytra,
tegmhia, and hemeli/tra); winglets (alu/ce) ; poisers {ha/feres); tailets
(caudulcs} ; booklets {hamuli); base-covers {tegidcB); &c. Besides, their
tails, legs, and even antenncB, assist them in some instances in this motion.
As wings are common to almost the whole class, I shall consider their
structure here. Every wing consists of two membranes, more or less
1 De Araneis, 66. 2 ibid. 79. 3 j^r^t. Hist, i, 326.
* Swamm. BiOl. Nat. ed. Hill, i. 24. De Geer, vii. 190.
HH 3
470 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
transparent, applied to each other : the upper membrane being very strongly
attached to the nervures {neurcE), and the lower adhering more looselv, so
as to be separable from them. The nervures^ are a kind of hollow tube,
— above elastic, horny, and convex; and flat and nearly membranaceous
below, — which take their origin in the trunk, and keep diminishing gradu-
ally, the marginal ones excepted, to their termination. The vessels contained
in the nervures consist of a spiral thread, whence they appear to be air-
vessels communicating with the tracheae in the trunk. The expansion of
the wing at the will of the insect is a problem that can only be solved by
su[)posing that a subtile fluid is introduced into these vessels -, which seem
perfectly analogous 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 (Libe/Iu/ina) for instance, have their wines
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 Coleoptera or beetles. Their subsidiary in-
struments of flight are their wing-cases (e/^tra), and in one instance winglets
{ahdcE). 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. 1 know at
present of only one coleopterous insect that has them (Di/thcus marginalk).
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 \n Molorchiis, Airactocerus, Xeci/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 ex-
tremity. \\'hen they prepare for flight, their antennae beina set out, 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 oft', striking the air by the vertical
motion of these organs, the elytra all the while remaining immoveable.
The CetonicE, however, as noticed by M. Audouin, diflfer from most if not
all other coleopterous insects in keeping their elytra closed during their
flight.* During their flight the bodies of insects of this order, as far as I
have observed them, are always in a position nearly vertical, which gives
to the larger sorts, the stag-beetle for instance, a very singular appearance.
Olivier, probably having some of the larger and heavier beetles in his eye,
1 French naturalists use this term (nervure) for the veins of wings, leaves, &c., re-
stricting nerve (nerf) to the ramifications from the brain and spinal marrow. We
have adopted the term, which we express in Latin by neura, from the Greek vsupo.
2 Eecent observations by several distinguished microscopical naturalists fully con-
firm this opinion.
3 Jurine, Hymenopt. 19.
* Ann, Soc. Ent. de France, viii. p. xlviii.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 471
affirms that the -w'm^s of insects of this order are not usually proportioned
to the weight of their bodies, and that the muscular apparatus that moves
them is deficient in force. In consequence 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 bodies are lighter, rise into the
air and fly with a little more ease, especially when the weather is warm. and
dry ; their flights, however, being short, though frequent. He asserts also,
that no coleopterous insect can fly against the wind.' These observations
may hold, perhaps, with respect to many species ; but they will by no
means apply generally. The cockchafer (Me/o/onf/ia 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 {^Geotrupes sfercornrius) — 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 probably often against the wind, to its food. The
root devourers or tree-chafers {Alelolonfha, Hoplia, &c.) support themselves,
like swarming bees, in the air and over the trees, flying round in all direc-
tions. The Brachuptcra and Donacice, in warm weather, fly off from their
station with the utmost ease ; — their wings are unfolded, and they are in
the air in an instant, es])ecially the latter, as I have often found when I
have attempted to take them. None are more remarkable for this than
the Ciciiide/cE, which, however, taking very short flights, are as easily
marked down as a partridge, and afford as much amusement to the ento-
mologist 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
Denimptera, can fly ; but earwigs (Forjicii/a), their size considered, are
furnished with very ample and curious wings, the principal nervures of
which are so many radii, diverging from a common point near the an-
terior 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 tlian once folded both transversely and longitudinally.
Wings equally ample, forming thfe quadrant of a circle, and with five or
six nervures diverging from their base, distinguish the Strepsipterous tribe.
When unemployed, these are folded longitudinally.-
Probably in the next order {Orthoptera) the tegmina, or wing-covers —
since they are usually of a much thinner substance than elytra — assist
them in flying. They are, however, quite covered bj' irregular reticulations,
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 different genera there is a singular variation in
this circumstance. Thus in Blatta, Phasma, and male Acridtv, and generally
speaking, but not invariably, in Lnciiata and Tru.valis, the left elytrum laps
over the right ; but in Mantis, Mantisjici, some female Acridcp, Gryllits, and
1 Entomol. i. 1.
2 It has been ascertained that the spurious elytra of these insects are sen-iceable
in their flight. As M. Latreille now allows this, he ought to have restored its ori-
ginal name, which he had altered, to this order. .
HH 4
472 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
Gryllotalpa, 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 intei'sected alternately by transverse ones, which thus form qua-
drangular areas, arranged like bricks in a wall. When at rest, they are
longitudinally folded. The flight of these insects, as far as it has been ob-
served, nmch resembles, it is said, that of certain birds. Ray tells us that
both sexes of the house-cricket ( Gryllus domesiicus) fly with an undulating
motion, like a woodpecker, alternately ascending with expanded wings, and
descending with folded ones.^ The field and mole-crickets (Gryllus cam-
jufstris and Gryllotalpa vulgaris), as we learn from Mr, White '^, — and,
since the structure of their wings is similar, probably the other Orthoplera,
— fly in the same way.
Hemipterous insects, with respect to their liemelyiru, may be divided into
two classes. Those in which they are all of the same substance — vary-
ing from membrane to a leathery or horny crust — and those in which the
base and the apex are of different substances ; the first being generally
corneous, and the latter membranaceous. The former or homopterous
division includes the Cicadarice Latr., Aphis, Cliermes, Thrips, and Coccus ; —
and the latter the heteropterous division, comprehending, besides the
GeocoriscB Latr., Notonecta, Sigara, Nepa, Rcinatra, and Naucoris of
Fabricius. The posterior tibias of some of this last division {hygaeus
phyllopus, foliaceus, &c. F.) are furnished on each side with a foliaceous
process — which may act the part of outriggers, and assist them in their
flight.^ I can give you no particular information with respect to the
aerial movements of the insects of this oi'der : the British species tiiat
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 wings,
which are larger than the upper, fold longitudinally. 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 flying they often apply
their antennas to each other, stretching them out straight, and thus pro-
bably are assisted in their motion.
The Lepidoptera vary so infinitely in the shape, comparative magnitude,
and appendages of their wings, that I should detain you too long did I
enlarge upon so multifarious a subject. I shall therefore only observe,
that one species is described, both by Lyonet and De Geer* {Lobophora
hexapterci), as having six wings; for, besides the four ordinary ones, it has
a winglet (alula) attached to the base of the lower one, and placed, when
the vvmgs are folded, between it and the upper. These organs in this
order, you know, are covered with scales of various shapes. Their ner-
1 Hiit. Ins. 63. 2 jSfat. Hist. ii. 82.
3 I have separated this tribe from the rest under the name of Petahpus
K. Ms.
4 Lesser, 1. i. 109, note *. De Geer, ii. 460. t. ix. f. 9.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 473
vures are diverging rays, which issue either from a basal area or from the
base itself, and terminate in the txterior margin. The wings of many
male buttei-flies, hawk-moths, and moths, are distinguished by a remarkable
apparatus, noticed by De Geer, and since by many other naturalists \ for
keeping them steady and underanged in their flight. The upper wings, on
their under side near their base, have a minute process, bent into a hook
(Jinmus), and covered with hairs and scales. In this hook one or more
bristles {tench), attached to the base of the under wing, 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) belonging to the hawk-moth tribe are
expanded when they fly, so as to form a kind of rudder, which enables
them to steer their course with more certainty.
The insects of this and of every other order, except the Coleoptera, 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 ex-
cellent fliers. Indeed they seem to flit untired from flower to flower, and
from field to field ; im[)elled at one while by hunger, and at another by
love or maternal solicitude. The distance to which some males will fly is
astonishing. That of one of the silk-worm moths (Attacus Paphia) is
stated to travel sometimes more than a hundred miles in this way." Our
most beautiful butterfly, the purple emperor {Apatura Iris), 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 [Spkiiw F.) are carried 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
zigzag line with vertical angles, which the animal often describes with a
skipping motion, so that each zigzag consists of smaller ones. This doubt-
less renders it more diflicult for the birds to take them as they fly ; and
thus the male, when paired, often flits away with the female.
Amongst the neurojiterous tribes the most conspicuous insects are the
dragon-flies (Libelhtliria), which — their metamorphosis, habits, mode of
life, and characters 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
Avhich are usually filled by a pure, transparent, glassy membrane. In two
1 De Geer, i. 173. t, x. f. 4. Linn. Trans, i. 135.
3 Linn. Trans, vii. 40.
3 Haworth, Lepidopt. Brit. i. 19. Mr. Hewitson, in an interestin/j notice of this
species, informs us that at Kissengen in Bavaria, where he had an opportunity of ob-
serving its habits in June and July, 1839, after long and rapid flights in the out-
•skirts of a neighbouring forest, they would enter its most shady recesses to cool
themselves, and lap the moisture from any puddles of water (preferring the most
filthy) with their long trunks ; and were so eager in this occupation that he has had
seven under a small flat net at once, and could even take them readily with his finger
and thumb. {Entomologist, June, 1842, p. 324.)
474 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
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
unfolding of these organs being necessary. In Agrion, the other genus of
the tribe, the wings when they repose are not expanded. I have observed
of thege insects, 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 forwards. 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 a Mor-
della, in a menagerie about a hundred feet long. The little creature flew
with such astonishing velocity — to the right, to the left, and in all direc-
tions— 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 distinguished, particularly in JEslina and
Libellula, and such the force of the muscles that move them, that they
seem never to be wearied with flying. I have observed one of the former
genus {Anax imperator Leach) sailing for hours over 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 seem-
ing tired, or inclined to alight. Another species {JEshna variegata), very
common in lanes and along hedges, which flies, like the Orthoptera, 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. A Libel-
lula, resembling this last insect, flew on board the vessel in which Mr.
Davis was sailing, Dec. 11. 1837, when at sea, and the nearest land was
the coast of Africa, 500 miles distant — a striking proof of its powers of
wing.^ The species of the genus Agrion cut the air with less velocity ;
but so rapid is the motion of their wings that they become quite invisible.
Hawking always about for prey, the Agrions, from the variety of the
colours of diflferent individuals, form no uninteresting object during a
summer stroll. With respect to the mode of flight of the other neu-
ropterous tribes I have nothing to remark ; for that of the EpheinercB,
which has been most noticed, I shall consider under another head.
The next order of insects, the Hymenoptern, attract also general atten-
tion as fliers, and from our earliest years. The ferocious hornet, with its
trumpet of terror ; the intrusive and indomitable wasp ; the booming and
pacific humble-bee, the frequent prey of merciless schoolboys; and that
universal favourite, the industrious inhabitant of the hive, — all belonging
to it, — are familiar to every one ; and in summer there is scarcely a flower
or leaf in field or garden, which is not 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
(Serrifei-a), whose wings are nearly as much reticulated as those of some
Neuroptera, to the minute Chalcis and Ps'tlus, in which these organs are
without nervures, there is every intermediate variety of reticulation that
can be 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
1 Leeuw. Epist. 6. Mart. 1717. 3 Jurine, HymCnopt. t. 2 — 5.
2 Entom. Mag. v. 251.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 475
generally bodies thicker than those of most other Hi/menoptera,'<f!h\\e those
that have fewer nervures are more slender. This, however, does not
liold 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 consideration. 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, which lay hold of the posterior
margin of the upper.^ Another peculiarity also distinguishes them. Base
covers ( tegulce), or small concavo-convex shields, protect the base of the
winijs from injury " or displacement.
The most powerful fliers in this order are the humble-bees, which, like
the dung-chafers (Geotnipes), traverse the air in segments of a circle, the
arc of which is alternately to right and left. The rapidity of their flight is
so great that, could it be calculated, it would be found, the size of the crea-
ture considered, far to exceed that of any bird, as has been proved by the
observations of a traveller in a railway carriage proceeding at the rate of
twenty miles an hour, which was accompanied, though the wind was against
them, for a considerable distance by a humble-bee \Bombus sub'mterruptiis
K.), not merely with the same rapidity, but even greater, as it not unfre-
quently flew to and fro about the carriage or described zigzag lines in its
flight.^ 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 ofl". 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 hke 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, begins her flight by describing circles of consider-
able diameter, thus rising spirally with a rapid motion.** The object of these
gyrations is probably to increase her chance of meeting with a drSne. I
have not much to tell you with respect to the flight of other insects of this
order, except that a spider-wasp (Pompilus viaticus), whose sting is redoubt-
able, and which often, when we are in the vicinity of sandy sunny banks,
accompanies our steps, has a kind of jumping movement when it flies.
The next order, the DijHera, consists altogether of two-winged flies ; but,
to replace the under wings of the tetrapterous insects, they are furnished
with poisers, and nimibers of them also with winglets. The poisers (/laKeres)
are little membranaceous threads placed one under the origin ol each wing,
near a spiracle, and terminated by an oval, round, or triangular button,
which seems capable of ddatation and contraction. The animal moves
these organs with great vivacity, often when at rest, and probably when
flying. Their winglets (alulcs) are different from those of Dytiscus mar-
ginalis, and the moth before noticed. Like them, they are of rigid membrane,
and fringed ; but they consist generally of two concavo-convex pieces
(sometimes surrounded by a nervure), situated between the wing and the
1 Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl i. 96. 108. t. xiii. f. 19.
2 Ibid. i. 96. 107. t. V. f. 8. dd.
3 Philos. Mag., quoted in Burmeister's Manual of Ent. 464.
•* Huber, i. 38.
476 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
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 ascertained. Dr. Derharn
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 over-
balanced 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 some very
necessary part. ' Shelver cut off the winglets of a i\y, 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 (Tipu/a crocata)
moved the knee of the hinder tibia in connection with the wing and poiser,
he cut it off, and it could no longer fly : this last experiment, however,
seems contradicted by the fact, which "has been often observed, tiiat the
insects of this genus will fly when half their legs are gone. He afterwards
cut off both its poisers, when it could neither fly nor walk. Hence he con-
jectures that the poisers are connected with the feet, and are air-holders.*
I have often seen flies move their poisers very briskly when at rest,
particularly Seioptera vibrans, before mentioned. This renders Shelver's
conjecture — that they are connected with respiration — not improbable.
Perhaps by their action some effect may be produced upon the spiracle in
their vicinity, either as to the opening or closmg of it.
There are three classes of fliers in this order, the form of whose bodies,
as well as the shape and circumstances of their wings, is different. First
are the slender flies — the gnats, gnat-like flies, and crane-flies {Tipidaria:).
The bodies of these are light, their wings narrow, and their legs long, and
they have no winglets. Next to those whose bodies, though slender, are
more weighty — the Asilida; Conopsidce, &c. ; these have larger wings, shorter
legs, and very minute and sometimes even obsolete winglets. Lastly come
the flies, the Muscidce. &c., and their affinities, whose bodies being short, thick,
and often very heavy, are furnished not only with proportionate wings and
shorter legs, but also with conspicuous winglets. From these comparative
differences and distinctions, we may conjecture in the first place — since
the lightest bodies are furnished with the longest legs, and the heaviest
with the shortest — that the legs act as poisers and rudders, that keep them
steady while they flj-, and assist them in directing their course ^ ; and in the
next — since the winglets are largest in the heaviest bodies, and altogether
wanting in the lightest — that one of their principal uses is to assist the
wings when the insect is flying.
The flight of the Tipularian genera is very various. Sometimes, as I
have observed, they fly up and down with a zigzag course ; at others in
vertical curves of small diameter, like some birds ; at others, again, in
horizontal curves : — all these lines they describe with a kind of skipping
motion. Sometimes they would seem to flit in every possible way — up-
wards, downwards, athwart, obliquely, and sometimes almost in circles.
The common gnat (Culex 2npiens) seems to sail along also in various di-
1 Phys. Theol. 13th ed. 366. note (i).
2 Wiedemann's Archio. ii. 210.
3 To those that frequent meadows and pastures {Tlpula oleracea L. &c.) they are
also useful, as I have before observed, as stilts, to enable them to walk over the grass.
Eeauiu. v. Pref. i. t. iii. f. 10.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 477
rections. The motion of its wiriirs, if it does not fly like a hawk, is so
rapid as not to be perceptible. When the crane-fly {Tipnia oleraced) is
upon the wing, its fore-legs are placed horizontally, pointing forwards, and
the four hind ones stretched out in an opposite direction, the one forming
the prow and the other the stern of the vessel, in its voyage through the
ocean of air. The legs of another insect of this tribe (Hirtcca Murci) 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 motions of the hornet-
fly {Asilus crnbromformis), belonging 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 whole length of a long field. This usually takes place, I seem to have
observed, when a path lies under 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 genus have the same habit.
The aerial progress of the fly tribes, including the gad-flies (Q'Jstridcs),
horse-flies (Tabanida;), carrion-flies {Muscidce), and many other genera —
which constitute the heavy horse amongst our two-winged fliers — is won-
derfull^r rapid, and usually in a direct line. An CEstnis about to attack a
horse urged to its full speed will yet keep close to it, and, at last, when
foiled in its object, fly away before it at a still more rapid rate. ^ The male
Tabani, according to the observations of M. de St. Fargeau, when met with
in the long avenues of the continental forests, are seen to dart impetuously
from one end to the other, then to rest awhile immoveable, suspended in
the air, and look around on every side, and again to rush with equal velocity
to the other end, repeating these manoeuvres till they have discovered a
female, upon which they precipitate themselves, and then mount together
to a height which the eye cannot reach.- An anonymous observer in
Nicholson's Journal^ calculates that, in its ordinary flight, the common
house-fly {Musca domestical makes with its wings about 600 strokes, which
carry it five feet, every second. But if alarmed, he states, then- 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 compare 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 minute 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 rapidity of lightning. I
would here observe, however, that 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 flights depend much upon the heat or coolness of the
atmosphere, especially the appearance of the sun. The warmer and more
1 Burmeister, Manual of Ent. 463. 3 4to. iii. 36,
* Macqiiart, Diptires, i. 20. 191.
478 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
unclouded his beam, the more insects are there upon the wing, and every
diurnal species seems fitted for longer and more frequent excursions.
Having given you all the information that I can collect with respect to
the motions of perfect insects in the air, I must next say something con-
cerning their modes of locomotion in or upon the wafer. These are of two
kinds, swimming and walking. Observe — I 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 (Dt/tiscus^, or the water-boatmen (Noionecfa) ; or by having their
terminal joints very much dilated — as in the whirlgig (Gyrinus) — so as to
resemble the paddle of an oar.^ When the Dytisci rise to the surface 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 specifically 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 their swimming legs. While they remain suspended
at the surface, these legs are extended so as to form a right angle with their
body. The water-boatmen swim upon their back, which enables them to
see readily and seize the insects that fall upon the water, which are their
prey. Sigara, however, a cognate genus, separated from Notonecta by
Fabricius, swims in the ordinary way. As the Gyrini are usually in motion
at the surface, whirling 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 {Genis
lacustris), though it never goes under water, will sometimes swim upon the
surface, which it does by strokes of the intermediate and posterior legs.-
These, however, are neither fringed nor dilated, but very long, and slen-
der, with claws, not easily detected, situated under the apex of the last joint
of the foot, which covers and conceals them. The under side of their
body — as is the case with Elophorus, and many other aquatic insects — is
clothed with a thick coat of grey hairs like satin, which in certain lights
have no small degree of lustre, and protect its body from the effects of the
water. Some insects, that are not naturally aquatic, if they fall into the
water will swim very well, I once saw a kind of grasshopper {Acrydiuvi),
which by the powerful strokes of its hind legs pushed itself across a stream
with great rapidity.
Other insects lualk, as it were, in the water, moving their legs in much
the same way as they do on the land. Many smaller species of water-beetles,
belonginc; to the genera HydropJiilus, Elophorus, Hydrcena, Parnns, Limniiis,
&c., thus win their way in the waves. — Thus also the water-scorpion
(Nepa) pursues its prey ; and the little water-mites (^Hydi-ac/ma) 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 sur-
face of the waters, but as you have heard with respect to one, descend into
their bosom. There are other insects moving in this way that are not
1 Mr. Briggs observes that this insect appears to move all its legs at once, with
wonderful rapidity, by which motion it produces a radiating vibration on the sur-
face of the water.
'- De Geer, iii. 314.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 479
(livers. Of this kind are the aquatic bugs {Gerris lacustris, Hydrometra
stagnorum, Velin nimlorum, &c. Latr.). The first can walk, run, or 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 prominent hemi-
spherical 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-
siderable numbers, in most stagnant waters. The Velia is to be met
with chieflv in running streams and rivers, coursing very rapidly over their
waves. ' The two last species neither jump nor swim. The species of one
genus of this group (Halobates Eschscholtz) course about on the surface
of the sea between the tropics, and are remarkable for being the only in-
sects that have adopted the sea for their abode '^j at least if we except the
genera of beetles jEpus, Pogonus, Bledius, Hesj^erojihUiis, &c., which burrow
in the sand while covered with the tide, and thus are partially inhabitants
of the ocean. ^ One species of Halobutes {H. Strealfieldana Templeton)
was captured nearly midway between the continent of Africa and America,
by Colonel Streatfield, 87tli R. T. F., where numbers of them attended the
Medusae.*
I am next to say a few words upon the motions of insects that burrow,
either to conceal themselves or their young. Though burrowing is not
always a locomotion, I shall consider it under this head, to preserve the
unity of the subject. Many enter the earth by means of fore-legs particu-
larly formed for the purpose. The flat dentated anterior shanks, with
slender feet, that distinguish the chafers (Fetalocera) — most of which in
their first states live under ground, and many occasionally 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 with longer teeth at their extremity, for the same
purpose. But the most remarkable burrower amongst perfect insects is
that singular animal the mole-cricket {Gryllotalpa vulgaris). This crea-
ture 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 remarkably fitted
for burrowing, both by their strength and construction. The shanks are
very broad, and terminate obliquely in four enormous sharp teeth, 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
sharp claws. This foot is placed inside the shank, so as to resemble a
thumb, and perform the office of one. The direction and motion of these
hands, as in moles, is outwards ; thus enabling the animal m.ost effectually
to remove the earth when it burrows. By the help of these powerful
instruments, it is astonishmg how instantaneously it buries itself. This
creature works under ground like a field-mouse, raising a ridge as it goes ;
but it does not throw up heaps like its name-sake the mole. They will
in this manner undermine whole gardens; and thus in wet and swampy
situations, in which they delight, they excavate their curious apartments,
before described. The field-cricket {Gryllus campestris) is also a burrower,
but by means of different instruments ; for with its strong jaws, toothed
1 Curtis, Brit. Ent. t. ii. 2 Burmeister, Manual of Ent. 567.
' Spence in Trans. Ent. Soc. Land. i. 180.
* Templeton in Trans. Ent. Soc. Land. i. 230.
480 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
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
{G.domesficus), 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 numerous as those of the
order Hi/menoj)tera. Wherever you see a bare bank, of a sunny exposure,
you usually find it full of the habitations of these insects ; — and almost
every rail and old piece of timber is with the same view perforated by
them. Bees, wasps, bee-wasps (Benibex), spider-wasps {Ponijjilus), fly-
wasps {Mclliniis, Cerceris, Crabrv), with many others, excavate subter-
ranean or ligneous habitations for their young. None is more remarkable
in this respect than the sand-wasp (Aninwphi/a). It digs its burrows, b}'
scratching with its fore-legs like a dog or a rabbit, dispersing with its hind
ones, which are particularly constructed for that purpose, the sand so
collected.^
Since most of these burrows are designed for the reception of the eggs
of the burrowers, I shall next describe to you the manner in which one of
the long-legged gnats, or crane-flies {Tijmla variegata^ — 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
herself half round backwards and forwards alternately. Thus the ovipo-
sitor, which terminates her long cylindrical 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 sus-
pended by one of his legs on a twig, not far from her. The common turf-
boring crane-fly (Z". olcracea), when engaged in laying eggs, moves over
the grass with her body in a vertical position, by the help — her four an-
terior 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, she turns half round and back, does not appear from Reau-
mur's account.^
I now come to motions whose object seems to be sport and amusement
rather than locomotion. They may be considered as of three kinds —
hovering — gyrations — 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 hovering, which seems peculiar to the aphidivorous flies,
has been also noticed by De Geer."^ I have frequently amused myself with
watching them ; but when I have endeavoured to entrap them with my
forceps, they have immediately shifted their quarters, and resumed their
amusement elsewhere. That their object is simply amusement seems
proved by the fact noticed by Mr. Curtis, that " If you catch a dozen in
your morning's walk, they are all males who are thus enjoying them-
1 White, Nat. Hist ii 72. 76. 80.
~ Linn. Trans, iv. 200. See Westw. in Trans. Ent. Soc. vol. i. p. 198. on the con-
struction of the burrows of this and some allied species.
5 V. 20. ♦ vi. 104.
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 481
selves." ^ 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, and wipe its sweets from any nectariferous
flower, they always keep upon the wing, suspending themselves over it
till they have exhausted them, when they fly away to another. The
species called by collectors the humming-bird (Macroglossa stellataruni) ,
and by some persons mistaken for a real one, is remarkable for this, and
the motion of its wings is inconceivably rapid.^
The gi/rations of insects take place either when they are reposing, or
■when tiiey are flying or swimming. — I was once much diverted by observ-
ing the actions of a minute moth upon a leaf on which it was stationed.
Making its head the centre of its revolutions, it turned round and round
-with considerable rapidity, as if it had the vertigo, for some time.^ I did
not, however, succeed in my attempts to take it. — Scaliger noticed a si-
milar motion in the book-crab (Che/ifir cancroides).'^
Reaumur describes in a very interesting and lively way the gyrations of
the Ephemerae, 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 Ephemerae — which appearing after
sunset, and dying before sunrise, are destined never to behold the light of
that orb — should have so strong an inclination for any luminous object.
To hold a flambeau when they appeared was no very pleasant office ; for
he wiio 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 ex-
hibited a spectacle which enchanted every one that beheld it. All
that were present, even the most ignorant and stupid of his domestics,
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 directions, and of every imaginable inclination — all of which were
more or less eccentric. Each zone was composed of an unbroken string
of Ephemerae, resembling 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 of the flies, which was all of them that could then be distinguished,
formed this appearance. Each of these creatures, after having described
one or two orbits, fell upon the earth or into the water, but not in conse-
quence of being burned.^ Reaumur was one of the most accurate of ob-
servers ; and yet I suspect that the appearance he describes was a visual
deception, and for the following 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
1 Gardener's Chronicle, 1841, p. 52.
2 Rai. Hist. Ins. 133, 1.
s Mr. Westwood informs us that he has repeatedly observed the same proceeding,
and that the insect is Simaethis fabriciana.
4 Lesser, 1. i. 248. note 22.
5 Reaum. vi. 484. t. xlv. f. 7.
6 The persons observing the appearance here related were the authors of this
work.
482 MOTIONS OF INSECTS.
they appeared a concatenated series of insects (as Reaumur has here de-
scribed his Ephemerae) moving in a spiral direction upwards : — but each
series, upon close examination, we found was produced by the astonish-
ingly rapid movement of a single fly. Indeed, when we consider 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
present 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 round like a whirlwig, or GyrinusA 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 pursuing 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 effect of the sun-beam : if you approach they
are instantaneously 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 reappear, 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 Tipulariae. In the morning before twelve, the HopUce, root-beetles
before mentioned, have their dances in the air, and the solstitial and com-
mon cockchafer appear in the evening — the former generally coming
forth at the summer solstice — and fill the air over the trees and hedges
with their myriads and their hum. Other dancing insects resemble moving
columns — each individual rising and falling in a vertical line a certain
space, and which will follow the passing traveller -r- often intent upon
other business, and all unconscious of his aerial companions — for a con-
siderable distance.
Towards sunset the common Ephemerae {E. vulgata), distinguished by
their spotted wings and three long tails (caudulcs), commence their dances
in the meadows near the rivers. They assemble in troops, consisting some-
times of several hundreds, and keep rising and falHng continually, usually
over some high tree. They rise beating the air rapidly with their wings,
till they have ascended five or six feet above the tree ; when the)' descend
to it with their wings extended and motionless, 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
^ Lack. Lapp. i. 194.
2 Compare Oliv. Entomol. iii. Gyrinus 4. One species, however, Gyrinus (Orech-
tocheibis) villosus, which, as before observed, pursues its dances only at night, differs
also from its congeners in not having the same habit of diving, or at least not in the
daytime, when, if forced into the water from its hiding-places under stones, all
its efforts are confined to endeavouring to regain the shore. (^Ann. Soc. Ent. de
France, iv. bull. Ixxs.)
MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 483
them to balance their bodies when they descend which they do in a hori-
zontal position. This motion continues two or three hours without ceas-
ing, and commences in fine clear weather about an hour before sunset,
lasting till the copious falling of the dew compels them to retire to their
nocturnal station.! Our most common species, which I have usually taken
for the E. vulgatn, 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
described, about a foot, and then descending, at the distance of about four
or five feet from the ground. Another species, common here, rises seven
or eight feet. I have also seen Ephemerge flying over the water in a hori-
zontal 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 antennae. — Hihra maiira, a little beaked fly, I have observed rushing
in infinite numbers like a shower of rain driven by the wind, as before
observed, over waters, and then returning back.
It is remarkable that the smaller T'lindaria; will fly unwetted in a heavy
shover of rain, as I have often 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
beings are thus gifted ; since it is by them that he maintains this ter-
raqueous globe in order and beauty, thus rendering it fit for the resid ence
of his creature man.
I am, &c.
1 De Geer, ii. 638.
n 2
484
LETTER XXIV.
ON THE NOISES PRODUCED BY INSECTS.
That insects, though thej' fill the air with a varietj' of sounds, have no
voice, may seem to j'ou a paradox, and jou may be tempted to exclaim with
the Roman naturalist. What, amidst this incessant diurnal hum of bees ;
this evening boom of beetles ; this nocturnal buzz of gnats ; this merry
chirp of crickets and grasshoppers ; this deafening drum of Cicadae, 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 all perfectly mute ; and though incessantly noisy, are ever-
lastingly silent. Of this fact the Stagyrite was not ignorant, since, den}'-
ing 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 ani-
mals determine those of their own species to certain actions, merit the
name of voice ; then I will grant that insects have a voice. But, decide
this question as we will, we all know that by some means or other, at
certain seasons and on various occasions, these little creatures make a
great din in the world. I must therefore now bespeak your attention to
this department of their history.
In discussing this subject, I shall consider the noises insects emit —
during their motions — when they are feeding, or otherwise employed —
when they are calling or commanding — or when they are under the in-
fluence of the passions ; of fear, of anger, of sorrow, joy, or love.
The only kind of locomolion during which these animals produce sounds
is flying: for though the hill-ants (Formica rufa), 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 walking on pattens ! That
the flight of numbers of insects is attended by a humming or booming is
known to almost 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 greatest force and rapidity, and with wings
seem.ingly motionless, 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 conunon dung-
chafer {Geotrnpes siercorariiis) and its affinities. Linne affirms — but the
NOISES OF INSECTS. 485
prognostic sometimes fails — that when these insects fly in numbers, it
indicates a subsequent fine day.^ The truth is, they only fly in fine wea-
ther. Mr. White has remarked, that in the dusk of the evening beetles
begin to buzz, and that partridges begin to call exactly at the same time.'*
The common cockchafer, and that which appears at the summer solstice
(^Melolontha vulgaris and Amphimalla solstitiulis), 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 hum-
ming in the air mentioned by Mr. White, and which you and I have olten
heard in other places. " There is," says he, " a natural occurrence 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
respect 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 sup-
pose that a large swarm 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 reclined."
The hotter the weather, the higher insects will soar ; and it is not im-
probable that the sound produced by numbers may be heard, when those
that produce it are out of sight. The burying beetle (^Necropkorus Ves-
pillo), whose singular history so much amused you, as well as Cicindela
sylvatica of the same order, flies likewise, as I have more than once wit-
nessed, with a considerable hum.
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 ; the 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 locusts mentioned 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 species that is of noisy
flight ; though doubtless, were the attention of entomologists directed to
that subject, others would be found exhibiting the same peculiarity. The
insect I allude to {^Coreus marginatus) 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 lepidopteroics insects would not be silent in their flight ; and
indeed many of the hawk-moths {Sphinx F.), and some of the larger moths
(^Bomhi/x F.), are not so ; Cossus ligiiiperda, for instance, is said to emulate
the booming of beetles by means of its large stiff wings ; whence in Ger-
many it is called the humming-bird {Bruinm-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
1 Syst. Nat. 42. 550. 2 jvii/. ffist. ii. 254.
3 White, Nat. Hist. ii. 256. * Kev. ix. 9.
II 3
486 NOISES OF INSECTS.
them, as well as the Trichoptera and Neuroptera, which are equally barren
of insects of sounding wing, and proceed to an order, the Hymenoptera,
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
observer 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 engaged 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 apart-
ments, their hum often brings terror with it. But the most sonorous flies
of this order are the larger humble-bees, whose bombination, booming, or
bombing, may be heard from a considerable distance, gradually increasing as
the animal approaches you, 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 dipterous 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 body, — the gnat
genus (Culex) excepted, — explore the air in silence. Of this description
are the Tipularice, the Asilidie, the genus Empis, and their affinities. The
rest are more or less insects of a humming flight ; and with respect to
many of them, their hum is a sound of terror and dismay to those who hear
it. To man, the trumpet of the gnat or mosquito, and to beasts, that of
the gad-fly, of various kinds of horse-flies, and of the Ethiopian zimb, as I
have before related at large, is the signal of intolerable annoyance. Homer,
in his Batrachomyomachia, long celebrated the first of these as a trum-
peter :^ —
" For their sonorous trumpets far renown'd.
Of battle the dire charge mosquito's 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. 18.) 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 precede 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, which, 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 poise, the elytra
contribute more or less to produce it, seems not to have been clearly ascer-
tained : yet, since they fly with force as well as velocity, the action of the air
^ Stedman's Surinam, i. 24.
NOISES OF INSECTS. 487
may cause some motion in them, enough to occasion friction. With
respect to Diptera, Latreille contends that the noise of flies 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 aphidivorous flies are hovering, the ver-
tical play of their wings, though very rapid, is easily seen ; but when they
fly oft' it is no longer visible. Repeated experiments 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 con-
vinced of this, he affirms, the observer has nothing to do but to hold each
wing with 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 off the wings of one of these flies
very near the base ; but finding that it still continued to buzz as before,
he thought that the winglets and poisers, which he remarked were in a
constant vibration, might occasion the sound. Upon this, cutting both off,
he examined the mutilated fly with a microscope, and found that the
remaining fragments of the wings were in constant 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 my last letter, go to
prove, with respect to the insects that he examined, that the winglets are
more particularly concerned with the buzzing. Upon cutting off the wings
of a fly — 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 experiment was repeated eighteen times with the same result.
Lastly, when he took off the winglets, either wholly or partially, the buzz-
ing ceased. This, however, if correct, can only be a cause of this noise in
the insects that have winglets. Numbers have them not. He next, there-
fore, cut off the poisers of a crane-fly {Tipula crocata), 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."
Dr. Burmeister, however, was led by his experiments to a different con-
clusion. Finding that the buzz of a large fly {Emtaiis tenax) still con-
tinued after the winglets, the poisers, and even the wings had been quite
cut off except their very stumps (only in this last case the sound was
somewhat weaker and higher), he conceived that the spiracles lying between
the meso- and meta-thorax must be the instruments of the sound, which
accordingly he found to cease entirely when they were stopped with gum,
though while the wings were in vibration. Pursuing his researches, he
extracted one of these spiracles, and opening it carefully, found its poste-
rior and inner lip, which is directed towards the commencement of the
trachea, to be expanded into a small flat crescent-shaped plate, upon which
are nine parallel very delicate horny laminae, the central one being the
J De Geer, vi. 13. 2 Wiedemann's Archw. ii. 210. 217.
II 4
488 NOISES OF INSECTS.
largest, while those on each side became gradually smaller and lower ; and
it is, he is persuaded, in consequence of the air being forcibly driven out
of the trachea and touching these laminae that they are made to vibrate and
sound precisely in the same way with the glottis of the larynx. Dr. Bur-
meister (who remarks that Chabrier in his Essai sur le Vol des Insectes,
p. 45, &c., has also explained the hum of insects as produced by the air
streaming from the thorax during flight, and also speaks of laminae which
lie at the aperture of the spiracle), in order to be certain that the laminae
in question in the posterior spiracles of the thorax are alone concerned in
producing sound, also inspected the anterior ones, but without finding in
them any trace of these laminae. He explains the weaker and sharper
tones produced when the wings all but the very roots are cut off as resulting
from the weaker vibrations of the contracting muscles, and consequent less
forcible expulsion of the air when the vibratory organs are removed ; and
he thinks with Chabrier that some air may escape through the open trachea
of the wings which are cut off. Though he regards these laminae as the
cause of humming in bees and flies, he does not decide that other causes
may not produce the buzz of cockchafers, &c., in the thoracic spiracles of
which he could not discern them.^
Aristophanes, in his Clouds, deriding Socrates, introduces Charephon as
asking that philosopher whether gnats made their buzz with their mouth or
their tail.^ Upon which Mouflet very gravely observes, that the sound of
one of these insects approaching is much more acute than that of one re-
tiring ; from whence he very sapiently concludes, that not the tail but the
mouth must be their organ of sound. ^ But after all, the friction of the base
of the wings against the thorax teems to be the sole cause of the alarming
buzz of the gnat 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 or their wings more rapid, and the sound produced by that
motion more intense. In the night — but perhaps this may arise from the
universal stillness that then reigns — their hum appears louder than in
the day : whence its tones may seem to be modified by the will of the
animal.
Sounds, also, are sometimes emitted by insects when they me feeding or
otherwise emj)loyed. The action of the jaws of a large number of cock-
chafers 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 beetles ; and particu-
larly the capricorn-beetles — the mandibles of whose larvae resemble a pair
of mill-stones'* — most probably do not feed in silence. A little wood-
louse {Atropos pu/satoria) — 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 {Bombylius), 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-bird {Macroglossa stellatannn), which,
while it hovers over them, unfolding its long tongue, pilfers their sweets
1 Burmeister, Manual of Ent. 468—470. 2 j^cti. Sc. 2.
5 Mouffet, 81. * Linn. Trans, v. 225. t. xii. f. 7. b.
NOISES OF INSECTS. 489
without interrupting its song. The giant cock-roach (Blatta giganten)
which abounds in old timber houses in the warmer parts of the world
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 Indies it is called the Drummer ; and they
sometimes beat such a reveille, that only good sleepers can rest for them.^
As the animals of this genus generally come forth in the night for the pur-
pose 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 employments. If an ear be applied to a wasps' or
humble-bees' nest, or a bee-hive, a hum more or less intense may always
be perceived. Were 1 disposed to play upon your credulity, 1 niiglit tell
you with Goedart, 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 in-
habitants 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 with 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 {Ammoplnia ? cyanea), 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 oi caUing, com-
manding, or giving an alarm. I have before mentioned the noise made by
the neuters or soldiers amongst the white ants, by which 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 man-
dibles, Smeathman 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 alluded 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, supposed 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-wonn
That lies in old wood, like a hare in her form :
1 Drury's Insects, iii. Preface.
2 Lister's Gcedart, 244. Compare Eeaum. vi. 30.
^ Bingley, Animal Biogr. iii. 1st ed. 335. Mr. Westwood has also observed the
same peculiarity in Ammophila hirsuta whilst similarly engaged.
* Fhilos. Trans. 1781, 48. 38. 5 Nat. Hist. ii. 262.
490 NOISES OF INSECTS.
With teeth or with claws it will bite or will scratch,
And chambermaids christen this worm a death-watch :
Because like a watch it always cries click ;
Then woe be to those in the house who are sick !
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 ejected,
Infallibly cures the timber affected :
The omen is broken, the danger is over,
The maggot will 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 observed, and others to a spider; but it is a received opinion now,
adopted upon satisfactory evidence, that it is produced by some little
beetles belonging to the timber-boring genus Anobhtm. Swammerdam ob-
serves, that a small beetle, which he had in his collection, having firmly
fixed its fore legs, and put its inflexed head between them, makes a con-
tinual noise in old pieces of wood, walls, and ceilings, which is sometimes
so loud, that, upon hearing it, people have fancied that hobgoblins, ghosts,
or fairies were wandering around them.' Evidently this was one of the
death-watches. Latreille observed Anobium striatum produce the sound in
question by a stroke of its mandibles upon the wood, which was answered
by a similar noise from within it. But the species whose proceedings
have been most noticed by British observers is A. tessellatum. 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 returned, 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 impression if they fall upon any
substance softer than wood. The general number of distinct strokes in
succession is from seven to nine or eleven. They follow each other
quickly, and are repeated at uncertain intervals. 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 familiarised the insect will answer
very readily the tap of the nail.^
The queen-bee has long been celebrated for a peculiar 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 vibra-
tion of the wings of a single bee. This, it has been pretended, is the
harangue of the new queen to her subjects, to inspire them with courage
to achieve the foundation of a new empire. But Butler gives to it a dif-
ferent interpretation. He asserts that the candidate for the new throne
1 Bibl. Nat. Ed. Hill, i. 125.
2 Shaw's Nat. Misc. iii. 104. Phil. Trans, xsxiii. 159. Compare Dumeril, TraitS
Element, ii. 91. n. 694.
NOISES OF INSECTS. 491
is then with earnest entreaties, lamentations 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 relenting gives her fiat in a fuller and stronger
tone. That should the former presume to imitate the tones of the sove-
reign, 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
former motionless. When she emits this authoritative sound, recUning 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 confinement 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 the queen about, hung down their heads and remained altogether
motionless ; 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 regard 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 organs, may be distinctly per-
ceived 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 by the intensity of the vibrations of the wings. Reaumur re-
marks, 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 inclination may
vary the sound. The friction 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 (Jeguke), may produce 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 their 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 remarkable fact, that the queens educated accord-
ing to M. Schirach's method are absolutely mute ; on which account the
bees keep no guard around their cells, nor retain them an instant in them
after their transformation.^
The passions, also, which urge us to various exclamations, ehcit from
1 Reaum. v. 615. Butler's Female Monarchy, c. v. § 4.
2 Huber, i. 260. ii. 292.
3 Keaum. v. 617. 4 Philos. Trans. 1792. 5 Huber, i. 292.
492 NOISES OF INSECTS.
insects occasionally certain sounds. Fear, anger, sorrow, joy, or love and
desire, they express 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 re-
markable for the same faculty : I alhide to Acherontia Alropos. Its cater-
pillar, 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 pupce 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 in-
cluded that of its parasite Ichneumon (/. cantator De G.), the insect con-
cealed within the latter uttered a little cry, similar to the chirping of a small
grasshopper, continuing it for a long time together. The sound was pro-
duced by the friction of its body against the elastic substance of its own
cocoon, and was easilj^ imitated by rubbing a knife against its surface.^
But to come to perfect insects. Many beetles when taken show their
alarm by the emission of a shrill, sibilant, or creaking sound — which some
compare to the chirping of young birds — produced by rubbing their elytra
with the extremity of their abdomen. This is the case with the dung-
chafers {Geotrupes vernaHs, stercorarius, and Copris lunaris) ; with the
carrion-chafer {Trox sabulosus) ; and others of the lamellicorn beetles. The
burying-beetle {Necrophorus Vespillo), Crioceris melanopa and merdigera, and
Hygrohia Hermanni, and many other Coleoptera, produce a similar 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. Rdsel found this with respect to the ScarabceidcE ^ , and I have
repeated the experiment with success upon Necrophorus Vespillo. The
Capricorn tribes (Prionus, Lamia, Ceravibyx, &c.) emit under alarm an
acute or creaking sound — which Lister calls querulous, and Dumeril com-
pares 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 this, Prionus corinrius is called the
fiddler in Germany.® Two other coleopterous genera, Cychrus and Clytus,
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 Coleoptera, if ob-
served, would be found to express their fears by similar means.
In the other orders the examples of cries of terror are much less nume-
rous. A bug (Cimex subaptcrus De G.) when taken emits a sharp sound,
probably with its rostrum, by moving its head up and down.^ Ray makes
a similar remark with respect to another bug {Reduvius perso7iatus), the
cry of which he compares to the chirping of a grasshopper.'^ Midilla
Europoea a hymenopterous insect, makes a sibilant chirping, as 1 once ob-
^ Fuessl. Archiv. 8. 10. Mr. Raddon assures me that on one occasion taking up
the caterpillar of another moth, Gastropacha quercifolia by the hairs, it uttered a
distinct squeak.
2 De Geer, vii. 594.
3 Rosel II. 208.
4 Raj% Hist. Ins. 384. Dumeril, Trait. Element, ii. 100. n. 17.
5 De Geer, v. 58. 6S). Rosel, II. iii. 5. 6 Rosel, ibid.
7 Latr. Hist. Nat. x. 264. 8 De Geer, iii. 289. 9 Hist. Ins. 56.
NOISES OF INSECTS. 493
served at Southwold, where it abounds ; but how produced I cannot say.
The praying mantis (J\I. religiosa), as we learn from M. Goureau, when
alarmed and having put itself" in an attitude of defence, rubs the sides of
the abdomen against the interior borders of the wings and elytra, so as to
produce a noise like that of parchment rubbed together.' The most re-
markable 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, re-
sembling, some say, that of a mouse, but more plaintive, and even lament-
able, 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 ab-
domen are held down, it becomes still louder. Schrceter says that the
animal, when it utters its cry, rubs its tongue against its head ^ ; and
Rosel, that it produces it by the friction of the thorax and abdomen.^
But Reaumur believed, after the most attentive 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. When, by
means of a pin, he unfolded the spiral tongue, the cry ceased ; but
as soon as it was rolled up again between the palpi it was renewed.
He next prevented the palpi from touching it, and the sound also ceased ;
and upon removing only one of them, though it continued, it became
much more feeble.* -Ruber, however, denies that it is produced by the
friction of the tongue and palpi ^ : as does M. Passerini, wiio con-
ceives that it is owing to the alternate inspiration and expiration of air
from the central canal of the proboscis into a peculiar cavity in the head
destined for giving it the required resonance. But on the other hand
MM. Duponchei, Aube, Boisduval, Pierret, and Rambur, members of the
Entomological Society of France, who expressly instituted a series of
experiments in order to ascertain the actual cause of the noise, came to
the conclusion that it is not owing to any of those hitherto assigned, and
yet remains to be discovered, and that the noise itself has little of the
plaintive cry attributed to it, but has the greatest analogy with that made
by most of the Capricorn beetles (Prionus, Lamia, &c.), as above described.®
If the observation of a friend of Mr. Raddon^ that this noise is sometimes
made by the moth just before issuing from the pupa^, be correct, it would
go far to prove that it is simply owing, as Riisel thought, to the same cause
as that of the Capricorn beetles, since the confined posture of the insect in
the pupa case, and the very limited quantity of air there inclosed, seem to
forbid the supposition that this last has any share in producing it.
I must next say a few words upon the angry chidings of our little crea-
tures ; for their anger sometimes vents itself in sounds. I have often been
amused with hearing the indignant tones of a humble-bee while lying on
its back. When I held my finger to it, it kicked and scolded with all its
1 An7i. Soc. Ent. de France, x. bull, xviii. 2 Naturforscher, Stk. xxi. 77.
s III. 16. * Reaum. ii. 290.
s Nouv. Obs. ii. 300. note *.
^ Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, viii. 59. and ix. 125.
7 Trans. Ent. Soc. Loud. ii. proc. Ixxvi.
494 NOISES OF INSECTS.
might. Hive-bees when irritated emit a shrill and peevish sound, con-
tinuing even when they are held under water, which John 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 oi joy and cries of sorroiu I have little to re-
cord : that pleasure or pain makes a difference 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 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 plaintive sound, as if they were all deploring their loss ; when their
sovereign was restored to them, these lugubrious sounds were succeeded by
an agreeable humming, which announced their joy at the event.^ Huber
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 despon-
dency. 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 reigned in the hive.^
But love is the soul of song with those that may be esteemed the most
musical insects, the grasshopper tribes (Gri/lUna and Locustina), and the
long celebrated Cicada. 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 decent Amaryllida sylvas."
With respect to the Cicadee, this was observed by Aristotle ; and Pliny,
as usual, has retailed it after him.* The observation also holds good
with respect to the Gryllina, &c., and other insects, probably, whose love
is musical. Olivier, however, has noticed an exception to this doctrine ;
for he relates, that in a species of beetle {iloluris striata), the female has a
round granulated spot in the middle of the second segment 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.^ Both sexes, also, in the genus ^jihippiger, separated by Latreille
from Acrida, and characterised as being without wings and with very short
wing-covers, are musical (?).®
As I have nothing to communicate to you with respect to the love-songs
1 In Philos. Trans. 1792. This fact strongly confirms Dr. Burmeister's experi-
ments before related, showing that the humming of bees, as of flies, is caused not by
the wings, but by the action of the air on the laminae of the thoracic spiracles as
there described.
2 Schirach, 73. s i. 226.
* Aristot. Hist. Anim. 1. v. c. 30. Plin. Hist. JVat. 1. xi. c. 26.
5 Oliv. Entomol. L Pref ix.
<> Goureau, Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, vi. 31. and translation in Entom. Mag.
NOISES OF INSECTS. 495
of other insects, my further observations will be confined to the tribes
lately mentioned, the Gri/llina, &c., and the Cicada.
No sound is to me more agreeable than the cliirping of most of the
Gri/lima, Locustina, &c. ; it gives life to solitude, and always conveys to my
mind the idea of a perfectly happy being. As these creatures are now very
properly divided into several genera, I shall say a few words upon the song
of such as are known to be vocal, separately.
The remarkable genus Pnumora — 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.^ The species of this genus have a claim to the name of Fid-
dlers, since their sound is produced by passing the hind-legs, which are
furnished with a series of smooth elevated ridges, and may be called the
fiddle-sticks, over a number of short transverse elevated ridges, of a similar
though slightly different structure, on the abdomen, which may be called
the strings."^
The cricket tribe are a very noisy race, and their chirping is caused by
the friction of the cases of their elytra against each other. For this pur-
pose there is something peculiar 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 horizon-
tal or dorsal one, which covers the back. In the female both these por-
tions resemble each other in their nervures ; which running obliquely in two
directions, by their intersection, form numerous small lozenge-shaped or
romboidal 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 females ; 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 inflexions, describing curves, spirals, and other figures difficult and
tedious to describe, and producing a variety of areolets of different size
and shape, but generally larger than those of the female ; particularly to-
wards the extremity of the elytrum you may observe a space nearly cir-
cular, surrounded by one nervure, and divided 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 friction, and
thus produce the sound for which these creatures are noted ; which, how-
ever, according to M. Goureau, in his elaborate essay on the stridulation
of insects, is chiefly owing to the circumstance of one of the strong ner-
vures called by him the boiv (Varchet) being striated or cut transversely
like a file, whence it has a much more powerful action on another
collection of nervures which he calls the treble-string {la chanfer.elle)^
The merry inhabitant of our dwellings, the house-cricket {Gryllus do-
mesticus), though it is often heard by day, is most noisy in the night. As
1 Sparrman, Voy. i. 312.
2 Charpentier in Silbermann's Revue Entom. iii. 314.
' Compare De Geer, iii. 512.
* Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, and Entom. Mag. v. 94.
496 NOISES OF INSECTS.
soon as it grows dusk, its shrill note increases till it becomes quite an
annoyance, and interrupts conversation. When the male sings, 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 amuse-
ment. We are told that they have been sold in Africa at a high price,
and employed to procure sleep." If they could be 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 then)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 drums
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 (Gri/l/us campestrls) makes a shrilling noise — still more
sonorous than that of the house-cricket — which may be heard at a great
distance. Mouftet 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
thing that is rural, verdurous, and joyous." One of these 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 is sitting.^
Having never seen a female of that extraordinary animal the mole-
cricket {Gryllotalpa vulgaris'), I cannot say what difference 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, towards
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 crea-
ture 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 {Caprimulgus Euro-
pcEus), but more inward.^ I remember once tracing one by its shrilling to
the very hole, under a stone in the bank of my canal, in which it was con-
cealed. We learn from Mr. Newport, who, in his very valuable treatise on
■ 1 De Geer, iii. 517. See also White, Nat. Hist. ii. 76. ; — and Eaj-, Hist.
Ins. 63.
2 Mouffet, 136.
5 Goldsmith's Animat. Nat. vi. 28. ■* Ins. Theatr. 134.
5 Nat. Hist. ii. 73. Yet it would appear that when wholly removed from the
scent of their mother-earth they are silent, for it is stated by Southey that on the
ship of Cabeza de Vaca approaching the coast of Brazil, the proximity of land was
inferred, and as the result proved, trulj', by a ground-cricket which a soldier had
brought from Cadiz then beginning again lo sing. {Hist, of Brazil.)
6 Nat. Hist. ii. 81.
NOISES OP INSECTS. 497
insects in the CychpcEdia of Anatomy and Physiology^ has so admirably
illustrated their structure, both internal and eKternal, that this low jarring
sound is owing to the shortness of the nervures, and the much greater
number of those on the under side of the wing-covers being scored with
the same notches as in a file (p. 928.) ; pointed out in the crickets by M.
Goureau, who also saw them in the mole-cricket, but seems to have over-
looked their extending to so many of the nervures as Mr. Newport has
observed to be furnished with them.
Another tribe of grasshoppers (Acrkla, Pterophylla, &c.^) — the females
of which are distinguished by their long ensiform ovipositor — like the
crickets, make their noise by the friction of the bases of their elytra. And
the chirping they thus produce is long, and seldom interrupted, which dis-
tinguishes it from that of the common grasshoppers (Locusta). What is
remarkable, the grasshopper lark {Sylvia locustella), which preys upon them,
makes a similar noise. Professor Lichtenstein, in the Linna;an Transac-
tions, has called the attention of naturalists to the eye-like area in the
right elytrum 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, supposes it to assist these animals in the sounds
they produce. Speaking of Acrida viridissima — 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 membrane is surrounded by a strong and
prominent nervure, and is concealed under the fold of the left elytrum,
which has also several prominent nervures answering to the margin of the
membrane or ocellus. There is," he further remarks, " every reason to
believe that the brisk movement with which the grasshopper rubs these
nervures against each other produces a vibration in the membrane aug-
menting the sound. The males in question sing continually in the hedges
and trees during the months of July and August, especially towards
sunset and part of the night. When any one approaches, they immediately
cease their song."^ In these insects, as in the crickets, M. Goureau has
detected in the strong horny ridge immediately behind the mirror or tym-
panum, near the base of the upper surface of the left elytrum, the same
transverse notches as in Aclieta and GryllotaljM, while on the under surface
of the right elytrum a similar but less strongly notched file-like ridge is
found ; and it is obviously by the rubbing of these rasps against the pro-
jecting nervures of the borders of the wings, that the sounds resulting
from the brisk friction of the elytra proceed. Dr. Burmeister conceives
that they are chiefly caused by the forcible expiration of air from the
thoracic tracheas and spiracles, first driven against the inflected external
margin of the wing, and subsequently against the tympanum, which is thus
caused to vibrate and resound ; but Mr. Newport has pointed out that
this cannot be the cause, because in Acrida brachdytra the elytra are so ex-
ceedingly short and narrow that they do not cover, nor are near, any part
of the spiracles, so that the air in passing from these orifices cannot pos-
sibly be driven against the tympanum ; which, however, being accom-
panied by notched nervures, as in A. viridissima, though differently arranged,
1 See Kirby in Zool. Journ. p. iv. 429.
~ Linn. Trans, iv. 51. ' De Geer, iii. 429.
K K
498 ^ NOISES OF INSECTS.
produces similar sounds. A still farther proof that these notched nervures
or files are the main agents in producing the sounds, is afforded by the
facts that their notches are more distinct in newlv disclosed specimens,
especially of Acrida viridisxinia, than in older individuals, in which they
have been partially obliterated by use ; and that the sounds, as M.
Goiireau has remarked, may be readily produced in the dead insect by
gently rubbing the bases of the elytra together, which could not happen if
the rushing of the air from the spiracles had any effect in producing
them.^
The last description of singers that I shall notice amongst the Locushna,
and which includes the migratory locust, are those that are more com-
monly denominated grasshoppers. To this genus belong the little chirpers
that we heai- in every sunny bank, and which make vocal every heath.
They begin their song — which is a short chirp regularly interrupted, in
which it differs from that of the Acridce—long before sunrise. In the heat
of the day it is intermitted, and resumed in the evening. This sound is
thus produced : — Applying its posterior shank to the thigh, the animal
rubs 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 Tettigoniae, they have
also a tympanum or drum. De Geer, who examined the insects he de-
scribes with the eye of an anatomist, seems to be the only entomologist that
has noticed this organ. " On each side of the first segment of the ab-
domen," says he, " immediately 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 hard substance,
but covered by a wrinkled flexible membrane. The opening left by this
operculum is semilunar, 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 the head there is a little oval hole, into
which the point of a pin may be introduced without resistance. When
the pellicle is removed, a large cavity appears. In my opinion this aperture,
cavity, and above all the membrane in tension, contribute much to produce
and augment the sound emitted by the grasshopper." ^ This description,
which was taken from the migratory locust (L. migraforia), answers tole-
rably well to the tympanum of our common grasshoppers ; only in them
the aperture seems to be rather semicircular, and the wrinkled plate —
which has no marginal hairs — is clearly a continuation of the substance of
the segment. This apparatus 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 intenseness is given to the sound.* In Spain, we are told
that people of fashion keep these animals — called there Grillo—'m cages,
which they name Grilleria, for the sake of their song.^
I shall conclude this diatribe upon the noises of insects with a tribe that
have long been celebrated for their musical powers : I mean the CicadiadcB,
1 Bumieister, 3Ianual of Entom. 470. Goureau, vhi supra. Newport, uhi supra,
929.
2 De Geer, iii. 470. ' Ibid. 471. t. xxiii. f. 2, 3.
4 Goureau {op. cit.) and MiUler (Burmeister, Manual, 572.) regard this drum as an
auditory organ, but probably without sufficient grounds.
5 Osbeck's Foi/. i. 71.
NOISES OF INSECTS. 499
including the genera Fulgora, Cicada, Tettijc, and Tettigonia} The Fulgorcs
appear to be night singers, while the Cicadte sing usually in the day. The
great lantern-fly {FtiJgoj-a laternai-ia), from 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 sunset.^
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 small beagles
at a distance ; and so Hvely 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 has no intermission till morning, and then all is husht."^
The species of the other genus, Cicada, called by the ancient Greeks —
by whom they were often kept in cages for the sake of their song — Tettix,
seem to have been the favourites of every Grecian bard from Homer and
Hesiod to Anacreon and Theocritus. Supposed to be perfectly harmless,
and to live only upon the dew, they were addressed by the most endear-
ing epithets, and were regarded as all 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, Phoebus himself loves thee, and has given thee a shrill
song ; old age does not wear thee out ; 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 Cicad^e, were Terrce fihi. They were regarded
indeed by all as the happiest as well as the most innocent of animals —
not, we will suppose, for the reason given by the saucy Rhodian Xenar-
ehus, when he says,
' Happy the Cicadas, lives,
Since they all have voiceless wives."
If the Grecian Tettix or Cicada had been distinguished by a harsh and
deafening note, like those of some other countries, it would hardly have
been an object of such affection. That it was not, is clearly proved by
the connection which was 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 Cicada sitting upon a harp was a usual emblem of the science
of music, which was thus accounted for : — When two rival musicians,
Eunonius and Ariston, were contending upon that instrument, a Cicada
flying to the former and sitting upon his harp supplied the place of a
1 Zoolog. Joum. No. iv. 429.
2 Steclraan's Surinam, ii. 37. Dr. Hancock, however {Proceed. Zool. Soc. June
24. 1834), states that the razor-grinder, or aria-aria of the natives, is a species of
Cicada ( C. clariso7ia), and that the Fulgora rarely sing.
•> Hist, of Barbadoes, 65.
* Epigramm. Delect. 45. 234. ^ Gr. npsTto'/Jia.
SK 2
500 NOISES OF INSECTS.
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 eloquence of Plato was not thought to suffer b)' a comparison
with it.* At Surinam the noise of the Cicada 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 Cicadse 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 Italy of bursting the very
shrubs with their noise"*; and Sir J. E. Smith observes that this species,
which is very common, makes a most disagreeable dull chirping.* Another,
Cicada septe7idecim — which fortunately, as its name imports, appears only
once in seventeen years — makes such a continual din from morning to
evening that people cannot hear each other speak. They appear in Penn-
sylvania in incredible numbers in the middle of May.*' " In the hotter
months of summer," says Dr. Shaw, " especially from midday to the middle
of the afternoon, the Cicada, rtTTi^, or grasshopper, as we falsely translate
it, is perpetually stunning our ears with its most excessively shrill and un-
gratefid noise. It is in this respect the most troublesome and impertinent
of insects, perching upon a twig and squalHng sometimes two or three
hours without ceasing; thereby too often disturbing the studies, or short
repose that is frequently indulged, in these hot climates, at those hours.
The TETTi^ 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 mentioned {Cicada Anglica Curtis ^) in the New
Forest, Hampshire. Previously to this it was not thought that any of
these insect musicians were natives of the British Isles. Captain Hancock
informs me that the Brazilian Cicadae sing so loud as to be heard at 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 becomes a mute when compared with
these insects.
You feel very curious, doubtless, to know by what means these little
animals are enabled to emit such prodigious sounds. I have lately men-
tioned 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 Cicadse 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, which 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
1 Mouffet, Theair. IBO. ^ 'HSusiTTOf nAartuv, xa/ T£TT(|iv <i7o\aAof.
3 Merian, Surinam, 49.
■* Et cantu querulag nimpent arbusta cicadae. Georg. iii. 328.
5 Smith's Tour, iii. 95
« Collinson in Philos. Trans. 1763. Stoll, Cigales, 26.
7 Travels, 2d ed. 186. 8 Brit. Ent. t. 114.
NOISES OF INSECTS. 501
between the abdomen and the hind legs.^ These are the drum-covers or
opercLila, from beneath which the sound issues. At the base of the
posterior legs, just above each operculum, there is a small pointed trian-
gular process {pesselluni) ", the object of which, as Reaumur supposes, is to
prevent them iVoni 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 ab-
domen ^ : 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 the posterior is lined obliquely with a beautiful membrane, which is
very tense — in some species semi-opaque, and in others transparent — and
reflects all the colours of the rainbow. This mirror is not the real organ 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, common to both drums.^ Between the plate and the after-
breast (^j)^^tpechis) another membrane, folded transversely, fills an oblique,
oblong, or semilunar cavity.® In some species I have seen this membrane
in tension ; proiiably the insect can stretch or relax it at its pleasure. But
even all this apparatus is insufficient to produce the sound of these animals ;
one still 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 answers to the drums, two bundles of muscles meeting each other in
an acute angle, attached to a place opposite to the point of the mucro of
the first ventral segment of the abdomen, will appear.^ In Reaumur's spe-
cimens these bundles of muscles seem to have been cylindrical ; but in one
I dissected (Cicada Capensis) they were tubiform, the end to which the
true drum is attached being dilated.® These bundles consist of a prodi-
gious number of muscular fibres applied to each other, but easily separable.
Whilst Reaunmr 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 emitted. On each side of the drum-cavities,
when the opercula are removed, another cavity of a lunulate shape, opening
into the interior of the abdomen, is observable.^ In this is the true drum,
the principal organ 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
membranes, and the central portions, with their cavities, all assist in it. In
the cavity last described, if you remove the lateral part of the first dorsal
segment of the abdomen, you will discover a serai-opaque and nearly semi-
circular concavo-convex membrane with transverse folds : this is the
drum.^° Each bundle of muscles, before mentioned, is terminated by a
tendinous plate nearly circular, from which issue several little tendons that,
forming a thread, pass through an aperture in the horny piece that supports
the drum, and are attached to its under or concave surface. Thus the
1 Reaum, v. t. xvi. f. 5. u u. * Reaum. vhi supra, t. xvi. f. 11. b.
3 Reaum. ibid. f. S. IL * Ibid, ubi supra, f. 3. m m.
5 Ibid. q. q. c. ^ Reaum. t. xvi. f. 3. n n.
7 Ibid, vbi supr, f. 6.//. » Ibid. f. 9. //.
9 Ibid. f. 3. /. 10 Ibid, f, 6. ( t. f. 9.
KK 3
502 NOISES OF INSECTS.
bundle of muscles being alternately and briskl}' 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 pro-
duced by the eiFort to recover its convexity ; which, striking upon the
mirror and other membranes before it escapes from under the operculum,
will be modulated and augmented by them. I should imagine that the
muscular bundles are extended and contracted by the alternate approach
and recession of the trunk and abdomen to and from each other.
And now, my friend, what adorable wisdom, what consummate art and
skill are displayed in the admirable contrivance and complex structure of
this wonderful, this unparalleled apparatus ! The Great Creator has
placed in these insects an organ for producing and emitting sounds, which
in the intricacy of its construction 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.
I am, &c.
503
ll J
LETTER XXV. t -'^
£7 I'J
ON LUMINOUS INSECTS. Q^ v.;f
P -^
We boast of our candles, our wax-lights, and our Argand Tamps, and pity
our fellow-men who, ignorant of our methods of producing artificial light,
are condemned to pass their nights in darkness. We regard these inven-
tions as the results of a great exertion of human intellect^ and «ever con-
ceive it possible that other animals are able to avail themsefves 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
rushlight which glimmers in the peasant's cottage ; others exhibit two or
three, which cast a stronger radiance ; and a few can display a lamp little
inferior in brilliancy to some of ours. Not that these insects are actually
possessed of candles and lamps. You are aware that I am speaking figura-
tively. 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 incapable of burning ; and whose lustre
is maintained without needing fresh supplies of oil or the application of the
snuffers.
Of the insects thus singularly provided, the common glow-worm {Lam-
pyris 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 find that in shape it somewhat resembles a caterpillar, only that it
is much more depressed ; and you will observe that the light proceeds from
a pale-coloured patch that terminates the under side of the abdomen. It
is not, however, the larva of an insect, but the perfect female of a winged
KK 4
504 LUMINOUS INSECTS.
beetle, from which it is altogether so different that nothing but actual
observation could have inferred the fact of their being the sexes of the
same insect. In the course of our inquiries you will find that sexual dif-
ferences even more extraordinary exist in the insect world.
It has been supposed by many that the males of the different species of
Lampyris do not possess the property of giving out any light ; but it is now
ascertained that this supposition is inaccurate, though their light is much
less vivid than that of the female. Kay first pointed out this fact with
respect to L. noctiluca^ , which has two luminous points on the penultimate
abdominal segment. In the males of i. splendidula ax\A of L. hemiptera the
light is very distinct, and may be seen in the former while .flying.* The
females, like the males, 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 they regularly put it out be-
tween 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 the common 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 dorsal 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 distin-
guished by two round and very 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 segments each ex-
hibit.ed a middle transverse band of yellow 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 Lampyrldce are without wings, and
even elytra (in which circumstance they differ from all other apterous Cole-
optera), this is not the case with all. The female of Pi/golampis ^ Italica, a
species common in Ital}', and which, if we may trust to the accuracy of the
account given by Mr. Waller in the Philosophical Transactions for 1684,
would seem to have been taken by him in Hertfordshire, is winged: and when
a number of these moving stars are seen to dart through the air in a dark
night, nothing can have a more beautiful effect. Sir J. E. Smith tells us
that the beaux of Italy are accustomed in an evening to adorn the heads of
the ladies with these artificial diamonds, by sticking them into their hair ;
and a similar custom, as I have before informed you, prevails amongst the
ladies of India.
1 Hist. Ins. 81. 3 Illiger, 3Iag. iv. 195.
5 Nat. Hist. ii. 279. < Geoffr. i. 167. De Geer, iv. 35.
5 I call by this name all those Lampyridce whose head is not at all, or but
little, concealed by the shield of the prothorax, and both sexes of which are
winged.
LUMINOUS INSECTS. 505
Besides the different species of the genus Lampt/ris, all of which, to the
number of nearly two hundred, now divided into several distinct genera,
are probably more or less luminous, another insect of the beetle tribe,
Elater noctilucus, is endowed with the same property, and that in a much
higher degree. This insect, which is called the fire-fly, and 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 is
also a luminous patch in the posterior and inferior region of the meta-
thorax, in a somewhat triangular and depressed cavity ordinarily concealed
by the elytra, but when these are expanded in the act of flying giving out a
more considerable but more diffused light than the thoracic reservoirs ; in
fact the whole body is full of light, which shines out between the abdo-
minal segments when stretched ; and being strongly reflected by the two
basal abdominal segments, gives an appearance of the two luminous patches
there which De Geer has described, but which do not actually exist.^ 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 conmion, tiie natives were formerly accustomed to employ these living
lamps, which they call Cucuij, instead of candles in performing their
evening household occupations. In travelling at night, they used to tie
one to each great toe ; and in fishing and hunting required no other flam-
beau.^ Southey has happily introduced this insect in his " Madoc," as
furnishing the lamp by which Coatel rescued the British hero from the
hands of the Mexican priests.
" She beckon'd and descended, and drew out
From underneath her vest a cage, or net
It rather might be call'd, so finte 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 guide."
Pietro Martire tells us that the Cucuij serve the natives of the
Spanish West India Islands not only instead of candles, but as extirpators
of the gnats, which are a dreadful pest to the inhabitants of the low grounds.
They introduce a few fire-flies, to which the gnats are a grateful food, into
their houses, and by means of these " commodious hunters" are soon rid
of the intruders. " 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 the next hillock that the Cucuij may see it, and he swingeth
the fire-brand about, calling Cucuius aloud, and beating 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 is the magnet. Having obtained a
sufficient number of Cucuij, the beetle-hunter returns home and lets them
fly loose in the house, where they diligently seek the gnats about the beds
1 Lacordaire, Introd. a VEntom. ii. 141.
2 Pietro Martire, The Decades of the New World, quoted in Madoc, p. 543.
506 LUMINOUS INSECTS.
and the faces of those asleep, and devour them.^ — These insects are also
applied to purposes 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
ornamented, 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 gerns.^ And according to P. Martire, " many
wanton wilde fellowes " rub their faces with the flesh of a killed Cucuius,
as boys with us use phosphorus, " with purpose to meet their neighbours
•with a flaming countenance," and derive amusement from their fright.
Besides Elater nodilucus, E. ignitus and several others of the same
genus are luminous. Not fewer than twelve species of this family are de-
scribed by Illiger in the Berlin Naturalist Society'' s Magazine ^, under the
name of Pi/rophorus ; and at least seventy species are now known, all
natives of the hot and temperate regions of America, from Chili to the
south of the United States, where they are to be seen almost the whole
year at the approach of night, both the sexes being equally luminous.*
The brilliant nocturnal spectacle presented by these insects to the inha-
bitants 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
eflfect upon the British visitors of the new world : —
" Sorrowing we beheld
The night come on ; but soon did night display
More wonders than it veil'd : innumerous tribes
From the wood-cover swarm'd, and darkness made
Their beauties visible : one while they stream'd
A bright blue radiance upon flowers that closed
Their gorgeoi^p colours from the eye of day ;
Now motionless and dark, eluded search,
Self-shrouded ; and anon, starring the sky,
Rose like a shower of iire."
The beautiful poetical imagery with which Mr. Southey has decorated
this and a few other entomological facts, will make you join in my regret
that a more extensive acquaintance with the science has not enabled him
to spread his embellishments over a greater number. The gratification
which the entomologist derives from seeing his favourite study adorned
with the graces of poetry is seldom unalloyed with pain, arising 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
1 P. Martire, ubi supr. Dr. Burmeister disbelieves this account, because Elaters
are not carnivorous, but feed upon nectar and pollen {Manual, 492. ) ; but consider-
ing what numerous exceptions we are constantly finding occur to all such supposed
general rules, it seems premature to reject on such grounds the very circumstantial
details of P. Martire. In the same way as some of the Carabidce and CoccineUidte
have been ascertained to feed on vegetable food, though both families are in general
carnivorous, it may be found that some of the Elaterida prefer an animal diet and
will eat gnats.
2 Walton's Present State of the Spanish Colonies, i. 128.
3 Jahrgang, i. 141.
4 Lacordaire, Introd. a TEntom. ii. 140. See Dr. Germar's monograph on this
genus, containing descriptions of seventy-nine species, in the Zeitschr. f. d. EiU.
vol. iii. (1841.)
LUMINOUS INSECTS. 507
least if he be an admirer of the Darwinian style) as he reads 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 room for pause, and he
recollects that they are built wholly upon an incorrect supposition, the
Curculio never inhabiting the nut in its beetle shape, nor employing its
ivory or rather ebony 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 : he confounds the
fire-fly of St. Domingo {Elater noctilucus) with a quite different insect, the
lantern-fly (Fufgora laternaria) of Madame Merian ; but happily this error
does not affect his poetry.
But to return from this digression. — If we are to believe Mouffet (and
the story is not incredible), the appearance of the tropical fire-flies on one
occasion led to a more important result than might have been expected
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 the 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 Spaniards tell (and the
story is confirmed by an anniversary Fiesta de los Cangrejos), by their clat-
tering — mistaken 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 J. E. Smith of the effect of the first sight of the Italian
glow-worms 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 respectable inhabitants of the city; a party of
whom, on going one evening, were surprised to find the house closely shut
up, and their Moorish friends in the greatest grief and consternation. On
inquiring into the cause, they ascertained that some of the Pygolavipis
Italica had 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 relations ; 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.^
In addition to the Lampyrida and Elateridce, it seems probable that other
coleopterous families include luminous species. Chiroscelis bifenestrata of
1 112. ' Walton's Hispaniola, i. 39.
3 Tour on the Continent, 2d Edit. iii. 85.
508 LUMINOUS INSECTS.
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 organ, perhaps luminous^ ; and M. Latreille informed 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 Biiprestis ocellata
were luminous. One of the longicorn beetles, Dadoychun flavocinctus
Chevrolat (allied to Saperda), has the third and fourth segments of the
abdomen with the same yellow colour and appearance of the luminous seg-
ments of the Lampyridcc, whence M. Chevrolat infers that it is like them
luminous ; and M. de Laporte informs him that a considerable number of
Brazilian Helopldce, allied to Stenochia, present a similar character indicating
a hke property."
The insects hitherto adverted to have been beetles, or of the order Cole-
optera. But besides these, a genus in the order Hemiptera, called Fulgora,
includes several species which are supposed to emit so powerful a light as to
have obtained in English the generic appellation of Lantei-n-/lies. Two of the
most conspicuous of this tribe are the jP. laternaria and F. candelaria ; the
former a native of South America, the latter of China. Both, as indeed is
the case with the whole genus, are supposed to have the material which
diffuses their light included in a 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. In F.
hternaria, 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 bril-
liancy of which is said to transcend that of any other luminous insect.
Madame 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 these insects, which by daylight exhibited no extraordinary appearance,
and she 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
she opened the box, the inside of which to her great astonishment appeared
all in a blaze ; and in her fright letting it fall, she was not less surprised to
see each of the insects apparently on fire. She soon, however, divined the
cause of this unexpected phenomenon, and re-inclosed her briUiant 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 foun-
dation, she doubtless might have done so if she had chosen, ^
1 Latr. Hist. Nat. x. 262.
2 Chevrolat in Silbermann's Rev. Entom. i.'t. 14.
2 Ins. Sur. 49, — The above account of the luminous properties of Fulgora laternaria
is given, because negative evidence ought not hastily to be allowed to set aside facts
positively asserted by an author who could have no conceivable motive for inventing
such a fable ; but it is necessary to state, that not only have several of the inhabitants
of Cayenne, according to the French Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle, denied that
this insect shines, in which denial they are joined by M. Richard, who reared the
species (^Encyclopedic, art. Fulgora) ; but the learned and accurate Count HofFmansegg
informs us, that his insect collector Sieber, a practised entomologist of thirty years'
standing, and who, when in the Brazils for some years, took manj' specimens, afiirms
that he never saw a single one in the least luminous. {Der Gesellschaft Xaturf. Fr.
zu Berlin Mag. i. 153.) On the other hand M. Lacordaire states that, though he
never saw a Ivuninous individual of this species, either in Brazil or Cayenne, and
LUMINOUS INSECTS. 509
In addition to the insects already mentioned, some others have the
power of diffusing light, as two species of Centipedes {Geop/nlus eiectricus
and phosphoreus), and probably others of the same genus. In these the
light is not confined to one part, but proceeds from the whole body. G.
eiectricus is a common insect in this country, residing under clods of earth,
and often visible at night in gardens. G. ? phosphoreus, a native of Asia,
is an obscure species, described by Linne, on the authority of C. G. Eke-
berg, the captain of a Swedish East Indiaman, 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 continent. However sin-
gular this statement, it is not incredible. The insect may either, as Linne sus-
pects, have been elevated into the atmosphere by wings, with which, accord-
ing to him, one species of the genus is provided ; or more probablj',
perhaps, by a strong wind, such as that which raised into the air the shower
of insects mentioned by De Geer as occurring in Sweden 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 the wind may convey
the light body of an insect to the above-mentioned distance from land, you
will not dispute when you call to mind that our friend Hooker, in his in-
teresting Tour in Iceland, tells us that the ashes from the eruption of one
of the Icelandic volcanoes in 1755 were conveyed to Ferrol, a distance of
upwards of 300 miles.- — Lastly, to conclude my list of luminous insects.
Professor Afzehus observed "a dim phosphoric light " to be emitted from
the singular hollow antennse of Pausus sphcBrocerus? A similar appear-
ance has been noticed in the eyes of Acronycta Psi, Cossus ligniperda, and
other moths ; and M. Audouin stated to the Entomological Society of
France that a Russian naturalist (M. Gimmerthal) had observed the cater-
though the majority of the inhabitants of the latter country whom he questioned on
the subject equally denied its being luminous, yet that others asserted the fact ; and
as he himself, a cautious observer on the spot, asks if this contradictory testimony
may not be reconciled by supposing that one of the sexes is luminous and the
other not, it seems clearly best to infer with this acute entomologist, that the lumi-
nosity of Fidgoria taternaria is a point rather requiring new observations than yet
absolutely decided either way {Introd. a VEnt. ii. 143.), especially when we find the
Marquis Spinola, in his elaborate paper on this tribe in the Ann. Soc. Ent. de France
(viii. 163.), strongly contending for the luminous character of the cephalic protuber-
ance of the whole tribe, and when moreover a friend of M. VVesraael assured him that
he had himself seen'^F. taternaria luminous when alive. (Westwood, 3Iod. Class, ii.
430.) We learn from Mr. Westwood that Dr. Cantor, who is at present (184"2)
engaged in the Chinese expedition, has informed Mr. Hope that he has not observed
the slightest luminosity in the common Chinese species.
1 De Geer, iv. 63. These insects, which were chiefly Brachyptera L., Aphodii,
spiders, caterpillars, but particularly the larvre of Telephorus fuscus, 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 (^Epliem. Nat. Curios. 1673, 80.), and one mentioned in the newspapers of July
2d, IKIO, to have fallen in France the January preceding, accompanied by a shower
of red snow, mav evidently be explained in the same manner.
2 p. 407.
2 Linn. Trans, iv. 261. Mr. Westwood, however, in his monograph on thij
genus, attributes this rather to the action of the light upon the highly polished sur-
face of the spherical club of the antennae.
510 LUMINOUS INSECTS.
pillars of Noctua (Polia) occulta to be luminous.^ This observation as to
another species has been confirmed by Dr. Boisduval, who one evening of
the hot days of June found on the stems of grass caterpillars which spread
a phosphorescent light, and which he thought were those of Mamestra ole-
racea, though they seemed larger than common ; and whether from want
of care, or that their luminosity depended on disease, none of them assumed
the pupa state. They certainly, he says, were not the larvae of Polia
occulta.^
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
curate 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 has imagined to be so, seems to afford a clue to
the, at least, partial explanation of the very obscure subject of ignea 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 lam-
bent flames, mentioned by Beccaria to be very common in some parts of
Italy, and the luminous globes seen by Dr. Shaw '' cannot be thus ex-
plained, is obvious. These were probably electrical phenomena : certainly
not explosions of phosphuretted hydrogen, 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 luminous 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 being an insect. The wind was very high : consequently,
had it been a vapour, it must have been carried forward in a direct
line ; but this was not the case. It had the same motions as a Tipula,
flying upwards and downwards, backwards and forwards, sometimes ap-
pearing as settled, and sometimes as hovering in the air. — Whatever be
the true nature of these meteors, of which so much is said and so little
known, it is singular 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 appear, times without number, he had never seen any thing of the
kind : and from the silence of other philosophers of our own times, it
should seem that their experience is similar.®
'^ Ann. Soc. Ent. de France,' i. 424. 2 Silbermann, Rev. Entom. i. 226.
8 Rev. Dr. Sutton of Norwich. •* Travels, 2d ed. 334.
5 Phil. Trans. 1729, 204.
<5 A paper bj' Kichard Chambers, Esq., in t\\Q 3Iagazine of Nat. Hist. (New Series,
i. 353.), relates several facts observed bj- the celebrated botanists Mr, James Dickson,
and Mr. Curtis, author of the Flora Londinensis, T. Stothard, Esq., R.A. (who was,
as before mentioned, a zealous entomologist), his father, Mr. A. Chambers, and
LUMINOUS INSECTS. 511
With refrard to the immediate source of the luminous properties of in-
sects, Mr. Macartney ascertained that in the common glow-worm, and in
Elater noctilucus and ignitiis, the light proceeds from masses of a substance
not generally differing, except in its yellow colour, from the interstitial sub-
stance {corps grameux) 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 intersti-
tial substance, he observed on the inner side of the last abdominal segment
two minute oval sacs formed of an elastic spirally-wound fibre similar to
that of the tracheae, containing a soft yellow substance of a closer texture
than that which lines the adjoining region, and affording a more permanent
Joseph Simpson, a fisherman, at Frieston near Boston, all strongly coiToborating the
above statements as to the probability that at least some ignes fatui are caused by
luminous insects. George Wailes, Esq., on the other hand, has given in the Entom.
3Iag. i. 351. the result of his father's observations and his own, and has also quoted
those of Maj or Blesson, from .Jameson's Edinb. New Phil. Journ. for Jan. 1833, in proof
" that the moving ignis fatuus of this country always owes its origin to the sponta-
neous ignition of gaseous particles " (meaning, I presume, phosphuretted or carbu-
retted hydrogen gas), and consequently cannot be an insect. Without pretending to
deny that these gases may be a cause ai stationary ignes fatui, I confess myself quite
unable to conceive of a small mass of these inflammable materials '* about the size of
the hand " moving at the height of " three feet from the surface of the ground " and
" for the distance of fifty yards nearly parallel with the road," as in the instance
seen by Mr. Wailes's father, and being luminous all the time. A mass of hydrogen
gas and its compounds, as is well known, whether large or small, when once inflamed
(and if not inflamed it cannot be luminous), burns but for an instant except renewed
by a fresh supply. In passing the Apennines between Bologna and Florence in 1827,
my two sons and myself amused ourselves the night we slept at Pietramala, in ob-
serving the well known miniature volcano of hydrogen gas, near to that place, which
has been burning for centuries ; but though there, if any where, as it is probable that
hydrogen gas rises more or less from crevices in the whole adjoining district, there
ought to be travelling or flitting lights, if such be possible, we neither saw nor heard
of any thing of the kind. On the whole, therefore, the evidence up to this time
would seem to be in favour of the supposition that igjies fatui which flit about and
travel considerable distances are actually luminous insects as above supposed, how-
ever rarely they may have come under the notice of entomologists. In the ignes fatui
observed by M." Weissenborn (Mag. of Nat. Hist. N. S. i. 553.), which were clearly
caused by the explosion of phosphuretted hydrogen, there was " a succession of
flashes " extending for perhaps half a mile, but they passed over this distance " in
less than a second," — an appearance entirely different from those leisurely move-
ments mentioned by Mr. Chambers and Mr. Wailes, or that by Mr. Main {Mag. of
Nat Hist. X. S i. 549.), in which the farmer who said he had knocked the luminous
object down, described it as exactly like a " Maggy long-legs "( T())M/a oleracea), the
very same insect with which Mr. "Sheppard compared the luminous appearance he
witnessed. I -wiU conclude this long note with observing that a very strong argu-
ment for the possibility of some fljnng insects being occasionally luminous is
afforded by the facts above stated of luminous caterpillars having been within these
few years observed for the first time since entomology has been attended to, and that
by observers every way competent. If caterpillars so very common as those of 3Ia-
mestra oleracea may sometimes, though so rarely, be luminous, and if, as Dr. Bois-
duval suggests, and is very probable, this appearance was caused by disease, it is
obvious that flpng insects may be also occasionally (though seldom) luminous from
disease, — a supposition which will at once explain the rarity of the occurrence,
and the circumstance that insects of such different genera, and even orders, are said
to have exhibited this phenomenon.
512 LUMINOUS INSECTS.
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 uninter-
ruptedly for several hours. Mr. Macartney conceives, from the radiated
structure of the interstitial substance surrounding the oval yellow masses
immediately under the transparent spots in the thorax of Elater noctilucus,
and the subtransparency of the adjoining crust, that the interstitial sub-
stance in this situation has also the property of shining — a supposition
which, adverting to the luminous patch under its elytra, and the fact that
the incisures between the abdominal segments shine when stretched, may
jirobably be extended to the whole of the interstitial substance of its body.^
What peculiar organisation contributes to the production of light in the
hollow projection of Fulgora Internaria, the hollow antennae of Pausus
sphcerocerus, and under the whole integument of Geophihis electriciis, Mr.
Macartney was unable to ascertain. Respecting this last he remarks, what
I have myself observed, that there is an apparent effusion of a luminous
fluid on its surface, that may be received upon the hand, which exhibits a
phosphoric light for a few seconds afterwards ; and that it will not shine
unless it have been previously exposed for a short time to the solar
light.2
1 The following interesting facts, in addition to those of Mr. Macartney, have been
observed by M. Morren, Professor of Botany in the University of Liege. The cor-
neous transparent cap (calotte), which covers the sac enclosing the luminous matter
in each luminous point of the penultimate abdominal segment of Lampyris noctiluca,
presents on its exterior surface a network of hexagonal facets, convex above and con-
cave below, constituting an apparatus absolutely similar to that invented by Fresnet
for increasing the diffusion of light, and when this exterior portion of the cap is re-
moved, the luminous matter loses a great portion of its lustre, which mainly de-
pends on this curious and beautiful contrivance for augmenting it. The central
facets are larger and more regular than those of the margins, and each facet has in
the middle a corneous hair bent backwards, which hairs M. Morren conceives are in-
tended to prevent the adhesion of dust. The luminous masses contained in the two
sacs are intersected in everj' part with a vast multitude of trachean ramifications,
which compose also their common envelope, the whole proceeding from a large
trachea, which issues from a spiracle situated immediately at the side of the luminous
mass, with which it communicates by a small round lateral orifice near the margin
of this last; thus full}' confirming the opinion of those physiologists who conceive
that the luminous power under consideration is essentially connected with the act of
respiration. In fact, M. Morren found that when the spiracle next to the luminous
material is closed, the light is immediately extinguished, and re-appears when it is
opened. If the luminous sac be removed with its accompanying trachea, it continues
to shine ; but if this trachea be taken away or compressed so as to hinder the access
of air, the sac becomes obscure. This fact explains how, in the insects of the genus
Lampyris, as well as those of Elater (Pyrophorus), the light is not constant, but
becomes more feeble at inter\'als, and why it is increased during the flight or other
energetic movement of the insect, and diminished when it is in repose. It is, in fact,
always in proportion to the energy of the respiration of the insect, which, having the
power of opening or closing its spiracles at will, can thus also increase or diminish
its light at pleasure, though whenever it respires it cannot prevent it from shining.
Some differences excepted, the luminous apparatus of Lampyris splendidula is similar
lo that of L. noctiluca above described ; and it is probable that a similar organisation
exists in the genus Pyrophorus.
2 Phil. Trans. 1810, p. 281. Mr. Macartney's statement on this point is not very
LUMINOUS INSECTS. 513
With respect to the remote cause of the luminous property of insects,
philosophers are considerably divided in opinion. The disciples of modern
chemistry have in general, with Dr. Darwin, referred it to the slow com-
bustion of some combination of phosphorus secreted from their fluids by an
appropriate organisation, and entering into combination with the oxygen
supplied in respiration. This opinion is very plausibly built upon the ascer-
tained existence of phosphoric acid as an animal secretion ; the great re-
semblance between the light of phosphorus in slow combustion and animal
light ; the remarkably large spiracula in glow-worms, and the decided con-
nexion of their light with respiration ; and upon the statement, that the
light of the glow-worm is rendered more brilliant by the application of heat
and oxygen gas, and is extinguished by cold and by hydrogen and carbonic
acid gases. From these last facts Spallanzani was led to regard the luminous
matter as a compound of hydrogen and carburetted hydrogen gas. Carradori
having found that the luminous portion of the belly of the Italian glow-
worm {Pygolamjns Italicci) shone in vacuo, in oil, in water, and when under
other circumstances where the presence of oxygen gas was precluded, with
Brugnatelli, ascribed the property in question to the imbibition of light
separated from the food or air taken into the body, and afterwards secreted
in a sensible form.^ Mr. Macartney having ascertained by experiment that
the light of a glow-worm is not diminished by immersion in water, or in-
creased by the application of heat; that the substance affording it, though
poetically employed for lighting the fairies' tapers ^, is incapable of inflam-
mation 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 hypothesis as unsatisfactory, but
without substituting any other explanation ; suggesting, however, that the
facts he observed are more favourable to the supposition of light being a
quality of matter than a substance.^ Lastly, Dr. Todd finding that the
luminous substance of Lamjn/rk continues to shine when detached, some-
times for a longer and at others a shorter period, but never exceeding
twenty minutes, and that under mercury, various gases, water, and in vacuo,
considers it solely as an effect of vitality.*
clear. He probably means that the insect will not shine in a dark place in the day-
time, unless previously exposed to the solar light ; for it ^is often seen to shine at
night when it could have had no recent exposure to the sun.
1 Amial di Chimica, xiii. 1797. Phil. Mag. ii. 80.
2 " And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs,
And light them at the fiery glow-worms' eyes."
5 Some experiments made by my friend the Eev. R. Sheppard on the glow-worm
are worthy of being recorded. — One of the receptacles being extracted with a pen-
knife, continued luminous ; but on being immersed 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 receptacle continued luminous for five minutes, the light gradually disappear-
ing. — Having extracted the luminous matter from the receptacles, in two davs tbev
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 thr^e glow-worms, and covered
with liquid gum-arabic, it continued luminous for upwards of a quarter of an hour.
* Phil. Trans. 1824.
514 LUMINOUS INSECTS.
"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 existence of any ordinary combination of phosphorus in lu-
minous insects, there exists a contradiction in many of the statements,
which requires reconciling before final decision can be pronounced. The
different results obtained by Forster and Spallanzani, who assert that glow-
worms shine more brilliantly in oxygen gas, and by Beckerheim, Dr. Hulme,
and Sir H. Davy, who could perceive no such effect, may perhaps be
accounted for by the supposition tliat in the latter instances the insects
having been taken more recently, might be less sensible to the stimulus of
the gas than in the former, in which perhaps their irritability was accumulated
bv a longer abstinence : but it is not so easy to reconcile the experiment of
Sir H. Davy, who found the liglit of the glow-worm not to be sensibly
diminished in hydrogen gas*, with those of Spallanzani and Dr. Hulme,
who found it to be extinguished by the same gas, as well as by carbonic
acid, nitrous and sulphuretted hydrogen gases.^ Possibly some of these
contradictory results were occasioned by not adverting to the faculty which
the living insect possesses of extinguishing its lights at pleasure. At the same
time, however, it may be here observed, that as this luminous substance
can be collected in considerable quantities, there can be no difficulty in
deciding by chemical analysis whether it is really phosphoric or not ;
and that till this analysis has been made it is premature to build any hy-
pothesis on the assumption of its being so, or to apply this epithet to it, as
is so generally done.
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 insects, however, it may pro-
bably have a different object. Thus in the lantern-flies (Fulgora), whose
light precedes them, it may act the part that their name imports, enabling
them to discover their prey, and to steer themselves safely in the night.
In the fire-flies {Elater), if we consider the infinite numbers that in certain
climates and situations present themselves every where in the night, it may
distract the attention of their enemies 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 when 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 con-
duct the sexes to each other. This seems evidently the design in view in
those species in which, as in the common glow-worm {L. noctUucd), 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, however, to this
explanation, that — since both larva and pupa, as De Geer observed '', 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
a[)pears to me easily surmounted. As the light proceeds from a peculiarly
organised substance, which probably must in part be elaborated in the larva
1 Phil Trans. 1810. p. 287. 2 Phil. Trans. 1801, p. 483.
3 MUller in. lUig. Mag. iv. 178. * iv. 49.
LUMINOUS INSECTS. 515
and pupa states, there seems nothing inconsistent in the fact of some light
being then emitted, with the supposition of its being destined solely for use
in the perfect state : and the circumstance of the male having the same
luminous 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 the sex of
the ovum is undetermined S traces of an organisation in one sex indisputably
intended for the sole use of the other,
I am, &c.
1 Phil. Trans. 1799, 157.
LL 2
516
LETTER XXVI.
ON THE HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.
If insects can boast of enjoying a greater variety of food than many other
tribes of animals, this advantage seems at first sight more than counter-
balanced in our climates by the temporary nature of their supply. The
graminivorous quadrupeds, with few exceptions, however scanty their bill
of fare, and their carnivorous brethren, as well as the whole race of birds
and fishes, 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
predaceous beetles, parasitic Hymenoptera^ Sphecma, &c., would at that
period of the year in vain look for their accustomed 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 faculty, common also to some of the larger
animals, of passing the winter in a state of torpor — by ordaining that the
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 hy-
bernacula, or winter quarters, and in them fall into a profound sleep, during
which a supply of food is equally unnecessary.
In two of the four states of existence common to insects, 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 de-
vefoped, and consequently the animal is incapable of eating. The existence
of insects in these states during the winter differs from their existence in
the same form in summer only in the greater length of its terrn. In both
seasons food is ahke unnecessary, so that their hybernation in these cir-
cumstances has little or nothing analogous to that of larger animals. With
this, however, 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. — 1 shall attend to the peculiarities of their hybernation in each of
these states in the order just laid down ; premising that we have yet much
to learn on this subject, no observations having been instituted respecting
the state in which multitudes of insects pass the winter.
HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 517
It is probable that some insects of almost every order hybernate in the
egg state ; though that these must be comparatively few in number, seems
proved from two considerations : first, That the majority of insects assume
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 larvas springing from them, conditions
only to be fulfilled in summer, 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. 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 tliat, requiring more heat for their development
than then exists, necessarily 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 larvse. Thus, with the former view,
Acrida ven-ucivora and many other insects whose eggs are of a tender con-
sistence, deposit them deep in the eartii out of the reach of frost ; and with
the latter, Clisiocampa neustria, Lasiocampa castrensis, Hi/pogymna clispar,
and some other moths, departing from the ordinary instinct of their con-
geners, which teaches them to place their eggs upon the leaves 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 hatched in summer
usually fix them slightly to the leaves upon which the larvae are to feed.
But it is evident that, were this plan to be adopted by those whose eggs
remain through the winter, 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 of CUsiocampa neustria, which curiously gums her
eggs in bracelets round the twigs of the hawthorn, &c. But another pro-
vision is demanded. Were these eggs of the usual delicate consistence, and
to be attached with the ordinary slight gluten, they would have a poor
chance of surviving 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 tenacious gum, which soon
hardens the whole into a solid mass almost capable of resisting a penknife.
Thus secured, they defy the elements, and brave the blasts of winter uninjured.
The female of Hypogymna dispar, whose eggs have a more tender shell,
glues them in an oval mass to the stem of a tree (whence the German gar-
deners call the larvae Stamm-raupe), and then covers them with a warm
non-conducting coat of hairs plucked from her own body, equally impervious
to cold and wet.
Another of those beautiful relations between objects at first sight
apparently unconnected, which at every step reward the votaries of en-
tomology, 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 larvse are to
LL 3
51 g HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.
feed ; which two events, requiring exactly the same temperature, are always
simultaneous. Of this fact I had a striking exemplification in the spring
of 1816. On the 20th of February, 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 a jar 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. betul<E, 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 feasting. 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 admi-
ration, you must bear in mind the extremely different periods at which
many trees acquire their leaves, and the consequent difference demanded
in the constitution of the eggs which hybernate upon dissimilar species, to
ensure their exclusion, though acted upon by the same temperature, earlier
or later, according to the early or late foliation of these species. There is
no visible difference between the conformation of the eggs of the Aphis of
the birch and 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 earlier than those of tlie latter; thus demonstrabI\'
proving that the hybernation of these eggs is not accidental, but has been
specially ordained by the Author of nature, who has conferred on those of
each species a peculiar and appropriate organisation.
A much 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 Hi/nienoptera, and several in other orders. In placing these pupas
in security from the too great cold of winter and the attacks of enemies,
the larvae from which they are to be metamorphosed exhibit an anxiety
and ingenuity evidently imparted to them for this express design. A ievf
are suspended without any covering, though usually in a sheltered situa-
tion. But by far the larger number are concealed under leaves, in the
crevices or in the trunk of trees, &c., or inclosed in cocoons of silk or
other materials, 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 certainty of being in the neighbourhood of their ap-
propriate food the next spring. By wintering in the pupa state, these
accidents are effectually 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 MelolonthcB, Elateres, Cerambyces, Buprestes, and several species
of Libellula, Ephemera, &c. There are also many larvae which, though
their term of life is not a year, being hatched from the egg in autumn,
HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 519
necessarily pass the winter in that state, as those of several Anobia and
other wood-boring insects ; of Semasia Wcchcrana and others of the same
family ; of the second broods of several butterflies, &c. Many of these
residing in the ground, or in the interior of trees, need no other hyber-
nacula than the holes which they constantly inhabit ; some, as the aquatic
larvae, merely hide themselves 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 Cossus ligniperda, as formerly observed in describing
the habitations of insects, forms a covering of pieces of wood lined with
fine silk ; those of Hepiolus Hamuli, Xylina radicea, and some other moths,
excavate under a stone a cavity exactly the size of their bodies, to which
they give all round a coating of silk ^, and the larvae of Pieris Cratcrgi in-
close 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 ludicrous. 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 caterpillars partly pro-
trude itself out of its case, the hind feet first, to eject a similar grain ; so
that it would seem the society have on 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 impro-
bable from the fact that beavers dig in their habitations holes solely destined
for a like purpose *, as also do badgers.
A very considerable number of insects hybernate in the perfect state,
chiefly of the orders Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, and Dipfera, and
especially of the first. Vanessa UrticcB, lo, and a few other lepidopterous
species, with a small proportion of the other orders, 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 finding a hybernating individual of the com-
mon cock-chafer {Alelolontha lyulgaris), or of the stag-beetle (^Lucanus
Cerviis) ; and suggests that it is only those insects which exist but a short
period as larva;, as most of the tribes of weevils, lady-birds, &c., that sur-
vive 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.
1 Brahm. 7«s. Kal. ii. 59. 118.
2 1 have reason to think that the larvre of some species of Hemerohius thiis pro -
tect themselves by a net-like case of silken threads ; at least I found one to-day
(December 3d, 181G) inclosed in a case of this description concealed under the bark
of a tree; and it is not very likely that it could be a cocoon, both because the in-
habitant 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.
3 CEuv. ii. 72. 4 Ibid. ix. 167.
5 Ilhg. Mag. i. 209—228.
LL 4
520 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.
Towards the close of autumn the whole insect world, particularly* the
tribe of beetles, is in motion. A general 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 lady-birds, field-bugs,
and flies are found out of their winter quarters even after the commence-
ment of frost ; while others, as Schmid has remarked, 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, pathways, &c., and
running into crevices and cracks, evidently in search of some object very
different from those which ordinarily guide their movements. I have
noticed this assemblage in different years, but more particularly in the
autumn of 1816. Walking on the banks of the Humber on the 14th of
October about noon, — the day bright, calm, and deliciously mild, Fahren-
heit's thermometer 58° in the shade, — my attention was first attracted by
the pathways swarming with numerous species of rove-beetles (Stapki/linm,
Oxi/teiiis, Aleochara, &c.), which kept incessantly alighting, and hurrying
about in every direction. On further examination I found a similar as-
semblage, with the addition of multitudes of other beetles, Halticce, Niti-
dulce, Rhi/nco])hora, CryjHophagi, &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 previously to hybernating,
which it is so difficult to explain on any of the received theories of
torpidity, except the pious Lesser, who so expressly alludes to it, and
without quoting any other authority, that he would seem to have derived
the fact from his own observation.'
The site chosen by different perfect insects for their hybernacula is very
various. Some are content with insinuating themselves under any large
stone, a collection 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 Dytisci, Hydrophili, &c., burrow into the mud of their
pools ; but some of these are occasionally met with under stones, bark,
&c. In every instance the selected dormitory is admirably adapted to the
constitution, mode of life, and wants of the occupant. Those insects
which can bear considerable cold without injury are careless of providing
1 Lesser, 1. i. 256. Lyonet inserts a note to explain that Lesser's remark is to be
understood only of such insects as live in societies ; and adds, that solitary species
do not assemble to pass the winter together. Lesser, however, says nothing about
these insects passing the winter together, as his translator erroneously understands
him ; but merely that they assemble as if preparing to retire for the winter, which
my own observations, as above, confirm. His expression in the original German is,
" gleichsam als wenn sie sich zu ihrer winter-ruhe fertig machen wolten." Edit.
Frankfurt und Leipsig, 1738, p. 152.
HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 521
other than a shght covering ; while the more tender species either enter
the earth beyond the reach of frost, or prepare for themselves 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 fabricating for
itself a winter abode similar to those formed of silk, &c., by some larvae.
Schmid, indeed, has mentioned finding Rhagium mordax and Inqidsitor in
such abodes, constructed, as he thought, of the inner bark of trees ; but
these, as lUiger has suggested, were more probably the deserted dwellings
of lepidopterous larvae, of which the beetles in question had taken posses-
sion.' Most insects place themselves in their hybernacula in the attitude
which they ordinarily assume when at rest ; but others choose a position
peculiar to their winter abode. So most of the ground-beetles {Eu-
trechina) 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 effectually protected from wet. Gyrohypnus san-
guinolentus, and other rove-beetles of the same genus, coils itself up like a
snake, with the head in the centre.
The majority of insects pass the winter in perfect solitude. Occasion-
ally, however, several individuals of one species, not merely of such insects
as Anchomenus prasinus, a beetle, Pyrrhocoris apterus, a bug, &c., which
usually in summer also live in a sort of society, but of others which are
never seen thus to associate, as Haltica oleracea, Carabus intricatus, and
several CoccuiellcB, Sec, 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 not 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 together. Schmid once in February found the
rare Lomechusa strumosa torpid in an ant-hill, in the midst of a conglome-
rated lump of ants, with which it was closely intertwined."
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 hybernate in more than one. Some species, however, depart
from this rule. Thus Aphis Roscb, Cardid, and probably many others of
the genus, hybernate both in the egg and perfect state,^ ; Cynthia Cardui,
Gonejiteryx' Rhamni, and some other species, usually in the pupa, but often
in the perfect state also ; and Vanessa 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 impreg-
nated, 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 similar 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 insect, if touched, is still capable
of moving its organs. But as the cold increases all the animal functions
cease. The insect breathes no longer, and has no need of a supply of air^ ;
its nutritive secretions cease ; no more food is required ; and it has all the
' Illig. Mag i. 216. 2 ibjd. i. 491.
5 Kyber in Germar, Magazin der Entomologie, ii. 2.
* Ins. Kal. ii. 188. * Spallauzani, Rapports de I'Air, &c., i. 30,
522 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.
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 disturbed,
its limbs and antennae resume their power of extension, and even the faculty
of spirting out their defensive fluid is re-acquired by many beetles.' But
however mild the atmosphere in winter, the great bulk of hybernating in-
sects, as if conscious of the deceptious nature of their pleasurable feelings,
and that no food could then be procured, never quit their quarters, but
quietly wait for a renewal of their insensibility 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 2d 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 (^Trichocera hiemalis), which frisked under every bush ;
to numerous Psychodce ; and even to the flesh-fly, of which two or three
individuals buzzed past me while digging in my garden. Yet though these
insects, which I shall shortly advert to as exceptions to the general rule,
were thus active, the heat was not sufficient to induce their hybernating
brethren to quit their retreats. Removing some of the dead bark of an old
apple-tree, I soon discovered several insects in their winter quarters. Of
the little beetle Dromius quadrinotatus, I found six or eight individuals, and
all so lively, that, though remaining perfectly quiet in their abode until dis-
turbed, they ran about with their ordinary activity as soon as the covering
of bark was displaced. The same was the case with a colony of earwigs.
Two or three individuals of Dromius quadrimacidatus showed more tor-
pidity. When first uncovered, their antennae were laid back ; and it was
only after the sun had shone some seconds upon them that they exhibited
symptoms of animation, and, after stretching out these organs, began to
walk. Close by them lay a single weevil {Anthonomus Pomorum), 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 exercise of digging; and it was onlj'
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 ditferently affected, were on the same side of the
tree, under a similar covering of bark, and apparently equally exposed to
the sun, which shone full upon the covering of their retreat.^
1 Schmid in Illig. Mag. i. 222.
2 Since writing the above, I have had another opportunity of confirming the ob-
servations here made. The last week of January', 1817, in the neighbourhood of
Hull, was most delicious weather — calm, sunny, C.ry, and genial — the wind south-
west, the thermometer from 47'' to 52'' ever}^ 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 delightful day of the whole : the air swarmed with Trichocera
hiemalis, Psychoda, and numerous other Diptera, and the bushes were hung with the
lines of the gossamer-spider as in autumn. Yet with the exception of Apltodius con-
taminatus, 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 Haltka Nemomin
HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 523
All insects, however, do not undergo this degree of torpidity. In fact,
there are some, though but few, which cannot, at least in our climate,
strictly be said to hybernate, understanding by that term passing the winter
in one selected situation in a greater or less degree of torpor, without food.
Not to mention C/iehnatobia brumata, and some other moths, which are
disclosed from the pupas in the middle of winter, and can therefore be
scarcely regarded as exceptions to the rule, some insects 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 JEnprepia fu/igmosa ' ; and Lyonet asserts that
there are many other caterpillars which eat and grow even in the midst of
slight frost.^ Amongst perfect insects, troops of Trichocera hiema/is, the
gnat whose choral dances have been before descrilied, may be constantly
seen gambolling in the air in the depth of winter, when it is mild and calm,
accompanied by the little Psychoda, so common in windows, several AIiis-
cidce, spiders, and occasionally some Aphndii and Sfap/ii/linidcB : 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 approach is gradual, by clus-
tering together. When the temperature is above this point they follow
their ordinary 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, by an admirable provision, become lethargic at precisely
the same degree of cold as the ants, and awake at the same period with
them.^ Humboldt also found insects upon the Cordilleras, above the limits
of snow, which, although not natives of this altitude, retained their vivacity
at this low temperature.*
Lastly, there are some few insects which do not seem ever to be torpid,
as Podura nivalis L., Boreus hiemalis Latr., and the singular apterous insect,
first described by Dalnian, CInonea araneides^, all of which run with agility
on the snow itself ; and which last, both from its spider-like form and sin-
gular habitat, must, as Macquart has well observed ^, have caused its fortu-
nate discoverer as much astonishment as that felt by the botanist who first
found the red-coloured Protococcus nivalis (whatever may be decided as to
its being a plant or an animalcule) in a similar situation ; or, as may be
added, that of M. Lefebvre on first observing the Mantis (^Eremiophila),
were still very lethargic -, and two of Geotrupes stercorarius, which I accidentally dug
up from their hybernacula in the earth, at the depth of six or eight inches, though
the Acari upon them were quite alert, exhibited every symptom of complete torpor.
1 Brahm, Ins. Kal. ii. 31. 2 Lesser, 1. i. 255.
s Recherches, 202. In digging in my garden on the 26th of January, 1817, I
turned up in three or four places colonies of Myrmica rubra Latr. in their winter re-
treats, each of which comprised apparently one or two hundred ants, with several
larvfe as big as a grain of mustard, closely clustered together, occupying a cavity
the size of a hen's egg, in tenacious clay, at the depth of six inches from tbe surface.
They were verj' lively ; but though Fahrenheit's thermometer stood at 47" in the
shade, I did not then, nor at any other time during the very mild winter, see a single
ant out of its hybernaculum.
■* Burmeister, Manual of Ent. 508.
5 Kongl. Vet, Acad. Handling. 1816, 104. 6 2)ipteres, i. 74.
524 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.
mentioned in a former letter, living in an absolute solitude in the desert of
Africa.
The common hive-bee, too, is probably never, strictly speaking, torpid,
though with regard to the precise state in which it passes the winter a con-
siderable difference of opinion has obtained.
Many authors have conceived that it is the most natural state of bees in
winter to be perfectly torpid at a certain degree of cold, and that their
partial reviviscency, 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 war-
ranted, that Huber expressly affirms that, instead of being torpid in winter,
the heat in a well-peopled hive continues + 24° or 25° of Reaumur (86°
or 88° Fahrenheit), when it is several degrees below zero in the open air ;
that they then cluster together and keep themselves in 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
described.*^ He asserts also that, like Reaumur, he has in winter found in
the combs brood of all ages ; which, too, the observant Bonnet says he
has witnessed^; and which is confirmed by Swammerdara, 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 noticed, found a hive to grow lighter in a cold than in a warm
week of winter ; and that a hive from November 10th to February 9th
lost more than four pounds in weight*; whence the conclusion seems
inevitable, that bees do eat in winter.
On the other hand, Reaumur adopts (or rather, perhaps, 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 which
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 nou-
rishment ceases to be necessary to them : it keeps them in a sort of
torpidity (engourdissemeni), in which no transpiration from them takes
place; or, at least, during which the quantity of that which transpires is
so inconsiderable that it cannot be restored by aliment without 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, speak-
ing 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
1 Huber, i. 134. 2 Ibid. ii. 344. 358.
5 Bonnet, on Bees, 104. 4 Huber, i. 354.
* Phil. Trans. 1790, 161. 6 Reaum. v. 667.
HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 525
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 usually in the
day 10° or 12° R. above freezing (54° or 59° F.), though provided with a
plentiful supply of honey, that if they had been in a garden would have
served them 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, and ventilate their hive, — if, as both he and Swammerdam
state, they feed their young brood in the depth of winter, — it seems im-
possible to admit that they ever can be in the torpid condition which
Reaumur supjioses, in which food, so far from being necessary, is injurious
to them. In fact, Reaumur himself in another place informs us, that bees
are so infinitely more sensible of cold than the generality of insects, that
they perish when in numbers so small as to be unable to generate sufiicient
animal heat to counteract the external cold, even at 11° R. above freezing^
(57° F. ) ; which corresponds with what Huber has observed (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 observers has 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 againt 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 trunks 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 temperature sufficient to counteract the intensest cold to
which they are ordinarily exposed. At the same time, however, I think
we may infer, that though bees are not strictly torpid at that lowest degree
of heat which they can sustain, yet that when exposed to that degree they
consume considerably less food than at a higher temperature ; and conse-
quently, that the plan of placing hives in a north aspect in sunny and mild
winters may be adopted by the apiarist with advantage. John Hunter'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 conclusion ; but an
insulated observation of this kind, which we do not know to have been
instituted with a due regard to all the circumstances that required atten-
tion, must not be allowed to set aside the striking facts of a contrary de-
scription recorded by Reaumur and corroborated by the almost universal
sentiment of writers on bees. After all, however, on this point, as well as
on many others connected with the winter economy of these endlessly-
1 Reaum. v. 682. 2 Ibid. 668.
3 Ibid. 678. Compare also 673.
526 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.
wonderful insects, there is evidently much yet to be observed, and manv
doubts which can be satisfactorily dispelled onlj' by new experiments.^
The degree of cold which most insects in their different states, while
torpid, are able to endure with impunity 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 sensibility 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 themselves under non-conducting
substances ; and there can be little doubt that it is with this view that so
many species while pupae are thus secured from cold by cocoons of silk or
other materials. Yet a very great proportion of insects, in all their states,
are necessarily subjected to an extreme degree of cold. Many eggs and
pupa are exposed to the air without any covering ; and many, both larvae
and perfect insects, are sheltered too slightly to be secure from the frost.
This they are able to resist, remaining unfrozen though exposed to the
severest cold, or, which is still more surprising, are uninjured by its in-
tensest action, recovering their vitality even after having been frozen into
lumps of ice.
The eggs of insects are filled with a fluid matter, included in a skin in-
finitely thinner than that of hens' eggs, which John Hunter found to
freeze at about 13° of Fahrenheit. Yet on exposing several of the former,
including those of the silk-worm, for five hours to a freezing mixture which
made Fahrenheit's thermometer fall to 38° below zero, Spallanzani found
that they were not frozen, nor their fertility in the slightest degree im-
1 Mr. Newport, from his numerous experiments on the temperature of the interior
of bee-hives in winter, recorded, in his valuable paper in the Philosophical Transac-
tions, " On the Temperature of Insects," has come to the conclusion that Huber is
altogether in error in assigning a heat of 86° or SS'' Fahr. to a populous hive, which,
he contends, has its temperature sometimes (though rarely) lower than that of the
freezing point (p. 303.), and in the winter months does not average more than from
7 to 9 degrees above that of the atmosphere, or about 52° (Table XVI. p. 335.),
though merely tapping on the outside of the hive, by exciting the bees, will, at any
time, greatly increase the heat; in one instance (Feb. 2.) to 102°, when the tempera-
ture of an adjoining hive was only 488 5 (p. 304.) ; and it is from this circumstance
that he supposes Rubers error to have arisen, as the mere excitement caused by in-
troducing a thermometer is sufficient to raise the heat to the point (86° or 88°)
which that observer mentions. Mr. Newport admits that hive-bees are never
strictly torpid, but pass the winter in a state of hybernating sleep, liable to constant
interruption by considerable external variations of temperature or accidental excite-
ment (p. 300.). — Without entering on a discussion which would require much
greater space than can here be given, it may be remarked that something more than
thermometrical observations seem required, before the express assertions, as above
quoted of such careful observers as Swammerdam and Bonnet — that bees feed and
tend their young even in the midst of ■\vinter, and those of Huber, that bees then cluster
together, and keep themselves in motion in order to preserve their heat,' that they do
not cease to ventilate the hive, and, on an emergency, set themselves to work in the
middle of January — can be put aside as wholly unfounded. It may be true that
Huber was deceived as to the actual thermometrical heat of the interior of his hive,
yet the result of Mr. Newport's own observations shows that bees preserve their
activity, and even leave the hive and collect pollen, when the external temperature
is 40°-38, and that of the hive only 470-28 (Table XVI. Nov. 6), and they may, con-
sequently, feed their brood, and attend to the usual interior occupations of the hive,
at a temperature not lower than this, to which lower temperature it does not appear
likely, from Mr. Newport's observations, the interior of their hives often descends in
our winters.
HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 527
paired. Others were exposed even to 56° below zero, without being
injured.^
A less degree of cold suffices to freeze many pupae and larvae, in both
which states the consistency of the animal is almost as fluid as in that of
the egi!;. Their vitality enables them to resist it to a certain extent, and
it must be considerably below the freezing point to affect them. The
winter of 1813-14 was one of the severest we had had for many years,
Fahrenheit's thermometer 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 commencement of spring, were
numbers of the caterpillars of the gooseberry-moth {Abraxas ^rossulariata),
which, though they had passed the winter with no other shelter than the
slightly projecting rim of some large garden-pots, were alive and quite un-
injured ; 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 surprise, 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 pupse 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 impossible
that they should ever revive. That an animal whose juices, muscles, and
whole body have been subjected to a process which splits bombshells, and
converted 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 wheel animal {Rotife?- vul-
garis) and of snails, &c., after years of desiccation, had not made us famihar
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 no-
ticed by Lister, who relates that he had found caterpillars so frozen, that
when dropped into a glass they chinked like stones, which nevertheless
revived.^ Reaumur, indeed, repeated this experiment without success ; and
found that when the larvge of Cnethocampa Piti/ocampa were frozen into
ice by a cold of \o° R. below zero (2° F. below zero), they could not be
made to revive.* But other trials have fully confirmed Lister's observa-
tions. My friend Mr. Stickney, before mentioned as the author of a
valuable Essay on the Grub (larva of Tipiila oleracea) — to ascertain 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 Pontia Brassicce, which, by exposing to a frost of 14° R. below-
zero (0° F.), became lumps of ice, and yet produced butterflies^; and in
an experiment made during Sir John Ross's voyage on the caterpillars
of a moth {Laria Rossii) two of them revived, and one assumed the
1 Tracts, '22.
2 Vid. Spence in Transactions of the Horticult. Soc. of London, ii. 148. Compare
Reaum. ii. 141.
3 Lister, Goedart, I)e Insectis, 76.
4 Eeaum. ii. 142. ^ (Euvres, vi. 12.
528 HYBERXATION OF IXSECTS.
imago state, after being four times in succession exposed to a cold of 40°
below zero, and four times revivified by being brought into the warm at-
mosphere of the cabin. Indeed, the circumstance that animals of a much
more complex organisation than insects, namely serpents 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 attempts
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 what principle a faculty so extraordinary and so contrary to our com-
mon conceptions of the nature of animal life depends, I shall not attempt
to explain. Nor can anything very satisfactory be advanced with regard
to the source of the power which many insects in some states, and almost
all in the egg state, have of resisting intense degrees of cold without be-
coming frozen. It is clear that the usual explanation of the same faculty
to a less degree in the warm-blooded animals — the constant production
of animal heat from the caloric set free in the decomposition of the re-
spired air — will not avail us here. For, many large larvte, as Reaumur
has observed, are destroyed by a less degree of cold than smaller species
whose respiratory organisation is necessarily on a much less extensive
scale; and the eggs of insects, in which, though they probably are in some
degree acted upon by the oxygen of the atmosphere, nothing like respira-
tion takes place, can endure a much greater intensity of cold than either
the larvae or pupae produced from them.
Nor can we refer the effect in question to the thinness 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 exposed pupae of
Pontia Brossiccs and other species endured 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 pupee, is regulated by their
power of resisting cold) ; but no difference in the substance of the exterior
skin is perceptible. And the eggs of insects have usually thinner skins
than pupae, and yet they are unaffected by a degree of cold much su-
perior.
In the present state, then, of our knowledge of animal 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, indeed, 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 artificial cold ; or that, as John Hunter
seems to infer, with respect to a similar faculty in a n)inor degree in the
hen's egg, the whole are to be referred to some unknown 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 Fahrenheit, freezes at a much higher
temperature when drawn from the animal^; and it is reasonable to con-
^ Observations on the Animal Economy, 99.
2 Reaum. ii. 146 — .
3 Rapports de VAir, &c. ii. 215.
HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 529
jecture 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 dormitories, and again enter the active scenes of life. It is im-
possible to deny that the increased temperature of this season is the im-
mediate cause of their reappearance ; for they leave their retreats much
earlier in forward than in backward springs. Thus in the early spring of
1805 (to me a memorable one, since in it I began my entomological career,
and had anxiously watched its first approaches in order to study practi-
cally the science of which I had gained some theoretical knowledge in the
winter) insects were generally out by the middle of March ; and before
the .SOth, 1 find, on referring to my entomological journal, that I had taken
and investigated (I scarcely need add, not always with a correct result)
fifty-eight coleopterous species ; while in the untoward spring of 1816
I did not observe even a bee abroad until the 20th of April ; and the first
butterfly that I saw did not aj)pear until the 26th.
There are, however, circumstances connected with this reappearance,
which seem to prove that something more than the mere sensation of
warmth is concerned in causing it. I shall not insist upon the remarkable
fact which Spallanzani has noticed, that insects reappear in spring at a
temperature considerably lower than that at which they retired in autumn ;
because it maj' be plausibly enough explained by reference to their in-
creased irritabihty in spring, the result of so long an abstinence from food,
and their consequent augmented sensibihty 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
organisation, 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 larvae of Melitcea C'lnxia quitted their nest a full
month sooner than those of Porthesia chrysorrhen} The reason is obvious,
but cannot be referred to mere sensation. The former live on grass and
on the leaves of plantain, which 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 supposing that the organisa-
tion of these two species of larva, though apparently 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 solution would be satis-
factory if the torpidity of these larvse were uninterrupted up to the very
period at which they quit their nest. But facts do not warrant any snch
supposition. You have seen that the temperature of a mild day, even in
winter, awakens man}' insects from their torpidity, though without in-
ducing them to leave their hybernacula; and it is therefore highly impro-
bable that the larvse of P. Chrysorrhca 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 50°. Yet as
they still do not, like the larvae of M. Cinxia, leave their nest, it seems
1 Reaum. ii. 170.
M M
530 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.
obvious that something more than the sensation of heat is the regulator of
the movements of each. Not, however, to detain you here unnecessarily,
I shall not enlarge on this point, but shall pass on, in concluding this letter,
to advert to the causes which have been assigned for the hybernation and
torpidity of animals, and to state my own 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! re-
ferred them to the operation of cold upon the animals in which they are
witnessed, but acting in a different manner. Some conceive that cold, com-
bined with a degree of fatness arising from abundance of food in autumn,
produces in them an agreeable sensation of drowsiness, such as we know,
from the experience 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 which, 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 retreats in which hyber-
nating animals pass the winter are selected in consequence of their endea-
vours to escape from the disagreeable influence of cold.
I have before had occasion to remark the inconclusiveness of many of
the physiological speculations of very eminent 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 once have set aside their
most confidently-asserted hypotheses. If those who adopt the former of
the opinions above alluded to had been aware that numerous insects retire
to their hybernacula (as has been bei'ore observed) on some of the finest
days at the close of autumn, they could never have contended that this
movement, in which insects display extraordinary activity, is caused by the
agreeable drowsiness consequent on severe cold ; and the very same fact
is equally conclusive against the theory that it is to escape the pain arising
from a low temperature that insects bury themselves in their winter
quarters.
In fact, the great source of the confused and unsatisfactory reasoning
which has obtained on this subject is, that no author, as far as my know-
ledge extends, has kept steadily in view, or indeed has distinctly perceived,
the difference between torpidity and hybernation ; or, in other words,
between the state in which animals pass the winter, and their selection of a
sitiiation in which they may become subject to that state.
That the torpidity of insects, as well as of other hybernating animals, is,
with us, caused by cold, is unquestionable. However early the period at
which a beetle, for example, takes up its winter quarters, it does not suffer
that cessation of the powers of active life which we understand by tor-
pidity, 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
1 Here must be excepted my lamented friend the late Dr. Eeeve of Norwich,
who, in his ingenious Essay on the Torpif^ity of Animals, has come to nearlj"- the
sariie conclusion as is adopted in this letter ; but, by omitting to make a distinction
between torpidity and hybernation, he has not done justice to his own ideas.
HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 531
would not become torpid at all — at least this has proved the fact with
marmots and dormice thus treated ; and the Aphis of the rose (A. Roscp),
which becomes torpid in winter in the open air \ retains its activity, and
gives birth to a numerous progeny, upon rose trees preserved in green-
houses and warm apartments.
But can we, in the same way, regard mere cold as the cause of the hyber-
nation 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 — tiiat, previously to becoming torpid, they select or fabricate commo-
dious retreats precisely adapted to the constitution and wants of different
species, in which they quietly wait the accession of torpidity 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 pro-
portion 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 meaning, 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 14th of October, 181 6, when I observed
vast numbers thus employed, was at 58° : — this, then, on the theory in ques-
tion, is a temperature sufficiently low to induce the requisite sensations.
But it so happens, as I learn from my meteorological journal (which re-
gisters the greatest and least daily temperature as indicated by a Six's ther-
mometer), that on the 31st of August, 1816, the greatest heat was not
more than 52°, or six degrees lower than on the 14th 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 de-
gree of cold prevailing on the day when insects select their hybernacula,
that regulates their movements, as the lower degree which may have ob-
tained for a few nights previously, and which may act upon their delicate
organisation so as to influence their future proceedings. Facts, however,
are again in direct opposition to the explanation ; for I find that, for a
week previously to the 14th of October, 1816, the thermometer was never
lower at night than 48°, while in the first week in August it was twice as
low as 46°, and never higher than 50°.^
As a last resource, the advocates of the doctrine I am opposing may
urge, that possibly insects may even have their sensations aflfected by the
1 Kyber. in Germar's Mag. der Ent. ii. 3.
2 Since the publication of the first edition of this volume, I have had an oppor-
tunity of making some observations which strongly corroborate the above reasoning.
The month of October in the year 1817 set in extremely cold. From the 1st to the
6th, piercing north and north-west winds blew; thethermometer at Hull, though the
sun shone brightly in the day-time, was never higher than from 52° to 56°,
nor at night than 38° ; in fact, on the 1st and 3d it sank as low as 34°, and on
the 2d to 31°: and on those days, at eight in the morning, the grass was covered
with a white hoar frost ; in short, to every one's feelings the weather indicated De-
cember rather than October. Here, then, was every condition fulfilled that the
theory I am opposing can require ; consequently, according to that theory, such a
state of the atmosphere should have driven every hj-bernating insect to its winter
quarters. But so far was this from being the case, that on the 5th, when I made an
excursion purposely to ascertain the fact, I found all the insects still abroad which I
had met with six weeks before in similar situations.
M M 2
532 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.
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 pre-
viously to their actual occurrence. But once more I refer to my meteoro-
logical journal ; and I find that the average lowest height of the thermo-
meter, in the week comprising the latter end of October and beginning of
November, 1816, was 43f° ; while in the week comprising the same days
of the month of the end of August and beginning of September it was only
44f ° — a diflference surely too inconsiderable to build a theory upon.
I have entered into this tedious detail, because it is of importance to
the spirit of true philosophising to show what Httle agreement there often
is between facts and many of the hypotheses which authors of the present
day are, from their determination to explain everything, led to promulgate.
But in truth there was no absolute need for imposing this fatigue upon
your attention ; for the single notorious consideration that in this climate,
as well as in more southern 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
notion that mere cold is tlie cause of the phenomenon. If, indeed, the
hybernacula of insects were simply the underside 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 always resorted to by them
on the occurrence of a certain degree 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 di-
rected their attention. But had they been acquainted (as surely 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 quadru-
peds, but one half or three fourths of the whole, in our climates, hybernate,
they would have known that their hybernacula are in general totally dis-
tinct from their ordinary retreats in casual cold weather ; and that many of
them even fabricate habitations requiring considerable time and labour, ex-
pressly for the purpose of their winter residence — which last fact in par-
ticular, 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 hybernation, 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 hyber-
nating, 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' inactivity and absti-
nence, they do not leave them, but quietly remain until a fresh accession of
cold again induces 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 climates of
HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 533
Europe would be leading them into perpetual and fatal errors — which in
spring would be inducing them to quit their ordinary occupations, and
prepare retreats and habitations for winter, to be quitted 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 30° 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 tiie Creator has
intrusted the safety of so important a part of his creatures : their destinies
are regulated by feehngs 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
be referred ; and which alone can adequately account for the phenomena
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
previously to becoming pupas, and the cocoons which they then fabricate ;
and why should we not attribute to the same energy their retreat into
appropriate hybernacula, and the construction by many species of habita-
tions expressly destined for their winter residence ? The cases are exactly
analogous ; and the insect knows no more that 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 beau-
teous moth.^
I am, &c.
1 The reasoning in the preceding pages, as to cold not being the sole and direct
cause of hybernation in insects, is strongly confirmed by the facts observed with re-
gard to the hybernation of snails by M. Gaspard, who found that he could not bring
on this state of existence out of its proper season by submitting them to artificial
cold nearly to the freezing point, while he ascertained that at theproper period they
prepare for hybernating at very different degrees of temperature, varj'ing from ST'^
to 77° Fahr. (Zoological Journ. i. 93). If it be said that some change in the sensa-
tions of insects, either from an internal or external cause, must probably exist, in
order to lead them to adopt a state so difi^erent from that of their usual habits as
hybernation, this is readily admitted ; but what is contended in tlie preceding letter
is, that these causes are not simply cold, and that we are as yet ignorant of their
nature. Dr. Jenner has argued {Phil. Trans. 1823) that it is not cold, but the tumid
state of the testes and ovaria in swallows, and other migratory birds, which is the
proximate cause of their leaving us at the approach of winter ; and some analogous,
though different, internal change may have a share in causing insects to exercise
their hybernating instinct ; but this change remains to be ascertained. Mr. New-
port's idea that it is caused by an accumulation of fat pressing upon the tracheae, and
thus inducing a plethoric condition of body, and consequent inclination to sleep,
might explain why insects become torpid after entering their winter quarters ; but
not distinguishing, as it appears to me, the two very distinct actions of seeking out
for and preparing hybernacula, and becoming torpid after entering them, it leaves,
as the theories of other physiologists have done, the former, which is so essential a
peculiarity of hybernation, wholly unexplained: just as Dr. Jenner's hypothesis,
though it may explain why swallows should be uneasy and desirous of changing
their abode, throws no light on that mysterious faculty by which they are directed,
with unerring certainty', through the trackless air to the very spots, perhaps a thou-
sand miles distant, that suit their new corporeal sensations. An accumulation of
fat, supposing it to exist, may induce drowsiness and torpor, whether in cold
climates like ours, in winter, or in tropical regions, where insects, as well as lizards,
and even crocodiles, &c., retire under ground, and sleep during the excessive heat ;
but there is obviously no natural connection between this plethoric state and the act
of seeking out and preparing and retiring to a suitable dormitory. If fat and
plethora are sufficient to induce this propensity, why do not these conditions, which
MM 3
534 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS.
are constantly taking place in many European carnivorous perfect insects in summer,
when their food is abundant, lead them then, in Europe as in tropical countries to
seek out or prepare a suitable retreat? Yet, however full fed insects in temperate
chrnes may be in summer, we know that they do not retire to become torpid at that
period. All, therefore, that the present state of our knowledge seems to entitle us to
say, is, as expressed in the close of the above letter, written thirty vears ao'o, that
the act of hybernation is dependent on the instinct of the insect, and thatlh'ough
this instinct may be, and probably is, excited by some bodily sensation, we as yet
know no more of the precise nature of this than of that of a thousand other sensa-
tions which may give rise to the endless instincts of different kinds observed in the
insect tribes.
535
LETTER XXVII.
ON THE INSTINCT OF INSECTS.
The greater part of those surprising facts connected with the manners
and economy of insects, of which the relation has occupied the preceding
letters, is to be referred, I have told you, to their instinct. But what, you
will ask, is this instinct? — of what nature is this faculty which produces
effects so extraordinary ?
To this query I do not pretend to give any satisfactory answer. As I
am quite of Bonnet's opinion, that philosophers will in vain torment them-
selves 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 ntever passed — I shall not attempt to explain what
this mysterious energy is. It will not, however, I imagine, be very difficult
to show what it is not ; and some observations with this view, followed by
an enumeration 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 some of the philosophers of the old school,'such as
that of Cud worth, who referred this fiiculty to a certain plastic nature ; or
that of Des Cartes, who contended that animals are mere machines. 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 effect of painful corporeal feelings ; the cocoon of a caterpillar, for
instance, being the result of a fit of the colic, produced by a superabun-
dance of the gum which fills its silk-bags, and which exuding 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 spider is impressed at the birth of the
insect with certain geometrical figures, according to vvhich models its works
are constructed — a position which these gentlemen demonstrate very satis-
factorily 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 Buffon, 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 internal 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 companions ; whence results a regular, well-pro-
MM 4
536 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.
portioned, and symmetrical structure : and he gravely tells us that the
boasted hexagonal cells of bees are produced by the reciprocal pressure of
the cylindrical bodies of these insects against each other !! ^
Nor is it requisite to advert at length to the explanations of instinctive
actions more recently given by Steffens, a German author (one of the
transcendentalists, I conclude, from the incomprehensibility of his book to
my ordinary intellect), who says that the products of the vaunted instinct
of insects are nothing but "shootings out of inorganic animal masses"
(anorgische anschusse) ^ ; and by Lamarck ', who attributes them to certain
inherent inclinations arising from habits impressed 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 dis-
placed in their endeavours to perform certain actions which their neces-
sities have given birth to. The mere statement of a 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 unnecessary 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 impulse of the Deity ; which, to
omit other obvious objections, is sufficiently refuted by the fact, that ani-
mals 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, contending for the identity of this faculty
with reason in man, maintains that all the actions of animals, however com-
plicated, are, like those of the human race, the result of observation, inven-
tion, and experience. This theory, maintained by the sceptics, Pythagoras,
Plato, and some other ancient piiilosophers, and in modern times b}' Hel-
vetius, Condillac, and Smellie, has been by none more ingeniously supported
than by Dr. Darwin, who, in the chapter treating on instinct, in the first
volume of his Zoonomia, has brought forward a collection 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 instinct and reason than of their identity: and that those
few which seem to support the latter position are built upon the relations
of persons ignorant of natural history, who have confused together dis-
tinct species of animals. Thus, because some anonymous informant told
him that hive-bees when transported to Barbadoes, where there is no
winter, ceased to lay up a store of honey, Dr. Darwin infers that all the ope-
rations of these insects are guided by reason and the adaptation of means to
an end — a very just inference, if the statement from which it is drawn
1 Hist. Nat. Edit. 1785, v. 277.
2 Beitrage zur innern Naturgeschichte der Erde, 1801, p. 298.
3 In his Fhilosophie Zoohgique, Paris, 1809 (ii. 325.) — a work which every
zoologist will, I think, join with me in regretting should be devoted to metaphysical
disquisitions built on the most gratuitous assumptions, instead of comprising that
luminous generalisation of facts relative to the animal world which is so great a
desideratum, and for performing which satisfactorily this eminent naturalist is so
well qualified.
INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 537
were accurate ; but that it is not so is known to every 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 precisely what they were
in Greece in the time of Aristotle, and in Italy in the days of Virgil. In-
deed the single fact, depending on the assertions of such accurate observers
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 pos-
sible that it should have received any instruction, betakes itself to the
collecting of honey or the fabrication of a cell, which operation it performs
as adroitly as the most hoary inhabitant of the hive, is alone sufficient to
set aside all the hearsay statements of Dr. Darwin, and should have led
him, as it must every logical reasoner, to the conclusion, that these and
similar actions of animals cannot be referred to any reasoning process, nor
be deemed the result of observation and experience. It is true, it does not
follow that animals, besides instinct, have not, in a degree, the faculty of
reason alsoj and 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 caterpillar
weaves its cocoon, or the unerring care with which the moth places her
eggs upon food that she herself can never use, are the effects of instinct,
is as unphilosophical and contrary to fact as to insist that the 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 ma-
chinery; of diseased bodily action ; of models impressed on the brain ; nor
of organic shootings-out : — it is not the effect of the habitual determination
for ages of the nervous fluid to certain organs ; nor is it either the impulse
of the Deity, or reason. Without pretending to give a logical definition 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, obser-
vation, 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 de-
scription, 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 connection of the instinct of animals
with their sensations, which has been introduced into many definitions of
this mysterious 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
predisposition 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 appetite ? But, secondly, this connection of instinct with
bodily sensation, though probable enough in some instances, is by no means
generally evident. We may explain in this way the instincts connected
with hunger and the sexual passion, and some other particular facts, as the
laying of the eggs of the flesh-fly in the flowers of Stapelia hirsiita, instead
of in carrion, their proper nidus, and of those of the common house-fly in
538 IN^STIJJCT OP INSECTS.
snufF' instead of dung ; for in these instances the smell seems so clearly
the guide, that it even leads into error. But what connection between
sensation and instinct do we see in the conduct of the working-bees, which
fabricate some of the cells in a comb larger than others, expressly to con-
tain the eggs and future grubs of drones, though these eggs are not laid by
themselves, and are still in the ovaries of the queen V So we may plausibly
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 proceeding
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 omit here a hundred other instances, as
many of them will be subsequently adverted to, if we may with some show
of reason suppose 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 ?
After these observations on the 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 in-
stincts, 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 pro-
pagate their species ; to defend themselves and their young from harm ;
to express their sensations by various vocal modulations ; and to a few
other actions which need not be particularised. Others of the larger
animals, in addition to these simpler instinctive propensities, are gifted
■with more extensive powers ; storing up food for their winter consump-
tion, 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 endowed with instincts of an ejrquisiteness to which the higher
animals can lay no claim. What bird or fish, for example, catches its
prey by means of nets as artfully woven and as admirably adapted to their
purposes as any that ever fisherman or fowler fabricated ? Yet such nets
are constructed by the race of spiders. What beast of prey thinks of
digging a pitfall in the 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 fur-
nished by wasps, ants, the Termites, &c., what animals can be adduced
which, like the hive-bee, associating in societies, build regular cities com-
posed of cells /ormed with geometrical precision, divided into dwellings
1 Dr. Zinken genannt Sommer says, that if in August and September a snuff-box
be left open, it will be seen to be frequented by the common house-fly {Musca domes-
tica), the eggs of which vnW be found to have been deposited amongst the snuff.
Germar, Mag. der Ent. I. ii. 189.
INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 539
adapted in capacity to different orders of the society, and storehouses for
containing a supply of provision ? Even the erections of the beaver, and
the pensile dwelling of the tailor-bird, must be referred to a less elaborate
instinct than that which guides the procedures of these little insects, the
complexness and yet perfection of whose operations, when contrasted with
the insignificance of the architect, have at all times caused the reflecting
observer to be lost in astonishment.
It is, however, in the deviations of the instincts of insects, and their
accommodation to circumstances, that the exquisiteness of these faculties
is most decidedly manifested. The instincts of the larger animals seem
capable of but slight modification. They are either exercised 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 and incompre-
hensible than the existence of the faculties themselves. Take a honey-
comb, for instance. If every comb that bees fabricate were always made
precisely 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 structure would perhaps in reality be not more astonishing
than many of a much simpler conformation. But when we know that in
nine instances out of ten the combs in a bee-hive are thus similar in their
properties, and yet that the tenth one shall be found of a form altogether
peculiar ; placed in a different position ; with cells of a different shape —
and all these variations evidently adapted to some new circumstance not
present when the other nine were constructed, — we are constrained to
admit that nothing in the instinct of other animals can be adduced exhibit-
ing similar exquisiteness : 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 instinct of Geotriipes vernalis to roll up pellets of dung, in each
of which 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 having
recourse to this process. But in districts where sheep are kept, this beetle
wisely saves its labour, and ingeniously avails itself of the pellet-shaped
balls ready made to its hands which the excrement of these animals sup-
plies.^
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 (^Cucidlia Verbasci}, which are composed of a mixture
of grains of earth and silk, just after being finished, the larvag did not
repair the injury in the same manner. Some employed both earth and silk ;
1 Sturm, Deutschlands Fauna, i. 27.
540 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.
others contented themselves with spinning a silken veil before the open-
ing.i
The larva of the cabbage-butterfly (Ponlia Brassicce), when about to
assume the pupa state, commonly fixes itself to the under side of the cop-
ing of a wall or some similar projection ; but the ends of the 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 proceed-
ing, 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 a piece of muslin, they attached
themselves to this covering ; but as its texture afforded a firm hold to
their girth, they span no preparatory web.
Bombm '^ Muscoi-um, and some other species of humble-bees, cover their
nests with a roof of moss. M. P. Huber having placed a nest of the
former under a bell-glass, he stuffed the interstices between its bottom and
the irregular surface on which it rested witii a linen cloth. This cloth,
the bees, finding themselves in a situation where no moss was to be had,
tore thread from thread, carded it with their feet irito 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 of Cossus /igniperda, which feeds in the interior of trees, pre-
viously 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 suit-
able 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 entirely quits the cocoon, and pushes itself half way out of the hole,
where it remains secure from falling until the moth is disclosed. But if
the orifice, having 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 halfway out of the cocoon, which thus seizes for
the support which in the former case the wood itself afforded.*
The variations in the procedures of the larva of a little moth described
by Reaumur, whose habitation has been before noticed — one of those
which constantly reside in a sub-cylindrical case — are still more remarkable.
This little caterpillar feeds upon the elm, the leaves of which serve it at
once for food and clothing. It eats the parenchyma or inner pulp, bur-
rowing between the upper and under membranes ; of portions of which
cut out, and properly sewed together, it forms its case. Its usual plan is
to insinuate itself between the epidermal membranes of the leaf, close to
one of the edges. Parallel with this it excavates a cavity of suitable form
and dimensions, gnawing the pulp even out of every projection of the
serratures, but carefully avoiding to separate the membranes at the very
edge, which with a wise saving of labour it intends should form one of the
1 (Euvres, ii. 238. See above, p. 211. 2 Apis, * *. e. 2. K.
3 Liym. Trans, vi. 254. •* Lyonet, Traite Anntomique, &c. 16.
INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 541
seams of its coat ; and as the little miner is not embarrassed with the
removal of the excavated materials, which it swallows as it proceeds, a
cavity sufficiently large is but tiie work of a few hours. It then lines it
with silk, at the same time pushing it into a more cylindrical shape ; and
lasth', 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 pro-
vided with a case or coat exactly fitting its body, open at the two ends,
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 commonly
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, — when it is
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 accommodated to such a figure, — it must
be admitted, are the result of an instinct of no very simple kind. Compli-
cated, however, as these manoeuvres seem, our ingenious workman is not
confined to them. By way of putting its resources to the test, Reaumur
cut off the serrated edge from the nearly finished coat of one of them, and
exposed the little occupant to the day. He expected that it would have
quitted its mutilated garment and commenced another ; and so it certainly
would, had it been guided by an invariable instinct. But he calculated
erroneously. Like one of its brother tailors of the biped race, it knew
how " to cut its coat according to its cloth," and immediately setting
about repairing the injury sewed up the rent. Nor was this all. The
scissors having cut off one of the projections intended to enter into the
construction of the 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 ope-
rations wholly different must be adopted, the two membranes composing
it necessarily requiring to be cut and sewed on tioo sides instead of on one
only. But what was most striking in this new procedure was the altera-
tion which the caterpillar made in the period of sewing up its garment.
When these larvae cut out their case from the edge of a leaf, they seem
aware that if they were to detach it entirely from the inner side before the
process of sewing, lining, &c., is completed, having no support on the
exterior edge, it would be hable to fall down ; at the same time they
could not sew together the membranes composing it at the inner side,
without cutting them in part from the leaf. While, therefore, they divide
the major part of their inner side from the leaf, they artfully leave them
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
firma of the disk of the leaf. In this instance, therefore, the larvae do not
wholly separate their case from the leaf, until it is sewed. But when the
same larvae cut out their materials from the middle of the leaf, where,
though completely cut round, they are retained in their situation secure
from all danger of faUing by the serratures of the incisions made by the
jaws of the larvae, these little tailors vary their mode, and entirely detach
542 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.
the pieces from the surrounding leaf before they proceed to set a stitch
into them.^
A remarkable instance of variation of instinct in the common house-
spider (^Araiiea domestical is mentioned by an anonymous writer in the
Zoological Journal. He states that having placed one on a piece of wood
fixed in the middle of a glass of water, the spider, finding its other efforts
to escape ineffectual, enveloped its abdomen by means of its hinder legs in
a loose web which it spun, and then descended at once without the least
hesitation into the water, surrounded under its mantle with a bubble of air,
evidently intended for respiration as it included the spiracles ; and in this
extemporaneous diving-bell, like that of the water-spider (^Argyroneta
aquatica) before described, it endeavoured to make its escape on every side,
but, on account of the sHpperiness of the glass, in vain ; and after remain-
ing at the bottom of the water for thirteen minutes, it returned apparently
much exhausted, as it coiled itself under its wooden platform without mo-
tion.^ As we cannot refer so philosophical a contrivance to reason, we
must regard it as a variation of instinct ; but certainly, if correctly reported,
a very curious one, as the occasions on which the house-spider can want to
escape through water must be very rare.
In the preceding instances the variation of instinct takes place in the
same individual ; but Bonnet mentions a very curious fact in which it oc-
curs 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 destructive to wheat : the first appear in May
and June, and lay their eggs upon the ears of wheat in the fields ; the
second appear at the end of the summer or in autumn, and these
la}"^ their eggs upon wheat in the granaries. These last pass the
winter in the state of larvae, from which proceeds the first genera-
tion of moths. But what is extremely singular as a variation of instinct,
those moths which are disclosed in May and June in the granaries quit
them with a rapid flight at sunset, and betake themselves to the yet un-
reaped fields, where they lay their eggs ; while the moths whicii are disclosed
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 inex-
plicable 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, however, into the history of the hive-bee that we must look for the
most striking examples of variation 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 foundation of theircombs
at the top of the hive, building them perpendicularly dowinuards ; and they
pursue this plan so constantly, that you might examine a thousand (proba-
bably ten thousand) hives, without finding any material deviation from it.
Yet Huber in the course of his experiments forced them to build their
combs perpendicularly upward * ; and, what seems even more remarkable,
in an horizontal direction.^
The combs of bees are always at an uniform distance from each other,
1 Reaum. iii. 112—119.
2 Zoological Journ. i. 284. ^ CEuvres, ix. 370.
4 Huber, ii. 134. 5 ibjd. ji. 216.
INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 543
namely, about one-third of an inch, which is just wide enough to allow them
to pass easily and have access to the young 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 con-
tracted ; but in winter well-stored magazines are essential, while from their
state of comparative inactivity spacious communications are less necessarj'.
On the return of spring, however, when the cells are wanted for the recep-
tion 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 emer-
gency a much greater diameter 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 so swelled that she was
unable to reach the bottom of the cells. She tlierefore 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 assigned
them. But the working-bees, as if aware that in these circumstances the
cells would be too short to contain the larvae when fully grown, added to
their length, even before the eggs were hatched.^
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, in closing up the cells containing larvae, invariably
give a convex lid to the large cells 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 larvas, he trans-
ferred the larvae of workers to the cells of drones. What was the result ?
Did the bees still continue blindly to exercise their ordinary instinct ? On
1 Huber, i. 348. 2 ibid. ii. 227.
3 Ibid. i. 119.
544 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.
the contrary, they now placed a neavXy Jlal 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 Huber's arrangements in the
interior of their habitations, have begun to build a comb nearer to the ad-
joining 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 distance."
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 difficulty, gradually bent their
edges so as to make them join with such exactness that they could after-
wards continue them conjointly.'
In constructing their combs, bees, as you have been before told, in my
letter on the habitations of insects, 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, is pentagonal, having
the fifth broadest side fixed to the top of the hive, whence the comb is
much more securely cemented to that part than if the first range of cells
had been of the ordinary construction. For some time after their fabrica-
tion 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 without touch-
ing the lozenge-shaped bottoms ; and, having mixed the wax with propolis,
they form a cement well known to the ancients under the names of Mitys,
Conimosis, and Pissoceros, which they substitute in the place of the re-
moved 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 witnessed 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 partially filled with honey, the first range of cells
originally established as the base and the guide for the pyramidal 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 dan-
ger of such a weight proving too heavy for the thin waxen walls by which
the combs are suspended, and providentially 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
1 Huber, i. 233. 2 itjd, ii, 239. s Ibid. ii. 240.
INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 545
down by the weight of the honey, did not the bees ensure their stabihty
by introducing large irregular masses of wax between their edges and the
sides of the hive. A striking instance of this art of securing "tlieir maga-
zines occurred to Huber. A comb, not having been originally well fastened
to the top of his glass hive, fell down daring the winter 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 hesitated to build a new comb upon the old one; but it being in-
expedient at that period to expend their provision of honey in the elabora-
tion of wax, they provided 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 eloni:ated than the rest, and then
betook themselves in crowds, some upon the edges of the fallen comb,
others between its sides and those of the adjoining combs ; and there
securely fixed it, by constructing several ties of different shapes between it
and the glass of the hive : some were pillars, others buttresses, and others
beams artfully disposed and adapted to the localities of the surfaces joined.
Nor did they content themselves with repairing the accidents which their
masonry had experienced ; they provided against those which mi'dit
happen, and appeared to profit by the warning given by the foil of one of
the combs to consolidate the others, and prevent a second accident of the
same nature. These last had not been displaced, and appeared solidly
attached by t heir base ; whence Huber was not a little surprised to see
the bees strengthen their principal points of connection by makino- 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 resources of the archi-
tectural instinct of bees are truly admirable. If, in the case of the substi-
tution of mitys for the first range of waxen cells, this procedure invariahly
took place in every bee-hive at & fixed -^moA — when, for example, the
combs are two-thirds filled with honey — it would be less surprisino- ;
but there is nothing of this invariable character about it. It does not,
as Huber expressly informs us -, occur at any marked and regular period,
but appears to depend on several circumstances not always combined.
Sometiujes the bees content themselves with bordering the sides of the upper
cells with propoli.-> alone, without altering their form or giving them greater
thickness. And it is not less remarkable that, li-om the instances last cited,
it appears that they are not confined to one kind of cement for strengthen-
ing 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 extend the dimensions of an old comb ; the second, of that
■which they adopt in constructing the male cells and connecting them with
1 Huber, ii. 280. 2 ibid. ii. 284. note *.
NN
546 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.
the smaller cells of workers ; and the last, of the plan pursued by them
when it becomes 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 elongatecl to the depth of the rest. Now sup-
pose 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 original lenticular form, and then construct upon
their edges the pyramidal lozenge-shaped bottoms of cells, upon which
the hexagonal sides are subsequently raised, as in their operation of
cell-building. 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
surprising law which obliges bees partially to demolish the cells situ-
ated upon the edges of the combs, that it deserves a more close ex-
amination than he found himself competent to give it ; for if we may to
a certain point form a conception of the instinct which leads these animals
to employ their art of building cells, yet how can we conceive of that
which in particular circumstances forces them to act in an opposite di-
rection, and determines them to demolish what they have so laboriously
constructed ? ^
Drones, or male bees, are more bulky than the workers ; and you have
been told, in speaking of the habitations of insects, that the cells vv-hich
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 3^ 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 thought they might be adopted as an uni-
versal and invariable scale of measure, which would have the great recom-
mendation of being every where at hand, and at all events would be
preferable to our barley-corns. Several ranges of male cells, sometimes
from thirty to forty, are usually 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 diameter 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 modelling 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
1 Huber, ii. 228,
INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 547
before coming to those of males ; the first ranges of which participate in
some measure in the irreguhirity 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 regular cells of bees are, as you are aware, composeil oi three
equal-sized rhomboidal pieces ; and the base of a cell on one side of the
comb is composed of portions of the bases oi three cells on the other; but
the bottoms of the intermediate cells in question (though their orifices are
perfectly hexagonal) are composed of four pieces, of which two are hexa-
gonal and two rhomboidal ; and each, instead of corresponding with three
cells on the opposite side, corresponds withyb^^r. The size and the shape
of the four pieces composing the bottom varj- ; and these intermediate
cells, a little larger than the third part of the three opposite cells, comprise
in their contour a portion of the bottom of the fourth cell. Just below the
last range of cells with regular pyramidal bottoms are found cells with
bottoms of four pieces, of which three are very large, and one very small,
and this last is a rhomb. The two rhombs of the transition cells are sepa-
rated by a considerable interval ; but the two hexagonal pieces are adja-
cent, 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. Lastl}', we find cells in pretty
considerable number of which the bottom is composed of four pieces per-
fectly regular — namely, two elongated hexagons and two equal rhombs,
but smaller than those of the pyramidal bottoms. In proportion as we
remove our view from the cells with regular tetrahedral bottoms, whether in
descending or from right to left, we see that the subsequent cells resume
their ordinary form : that is to say, that one of their rhombs is gradually
lessened until 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 ; afterwards the cells diminish in size, and
we again remark the tetrahedral bottoms just described, until the cells have
once more resumed the proper diameter of those of workers.
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 continue to em-
ploy it in several consecutive ranges of cells ; but it is to the intermediate
decree that they appear to confine themselves for the longest period, and
we then find a great number of cells of which the bottoms of four pieces
are perfectly regular. They might, then, construct the whole comb on
this plan, if their object w^ere not to revert to the pyramidal form with
which they set out. In building the male cells, the bees begin their founda-
tion with a block or mass of wax thicker and higher than that employed
for the cells of workers, without which it would be impracticable for them
to preserve the same order and symmetry 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
NN 2
548 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.
imperfections. What would have been their astonishment if they had
been aware that part of these anomalies 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 occasionally constructed some of their cells unequal,
or of parts 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 astonishing that they know how to quit their ordinary routine
when circumstances require that they should build male cells ; that they
should be instructed to vary the 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 them-
selves from such a difficulty — from such a complicated structure ? how
pass from the little to the great, from a regular plan to an irregular one,
and again resume the former? These are questions which no known
system can explain.'
Here again, as observed in a former instance, the wonder would be less
if everi) comb contained a certain number of transition and of male cells,
constantly situated in one and the same part of it ; but this is far from
being the case. The event which alone, at whatever 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 prepare suitable
ranges of cradles for all the male race.^ You must perceive how absurd it
would be to refer this astonishing variation of instinct to any mere change
in the sensations of the bees ; and to what far-fetched and gratuitous sup-
positions 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 admeasurements are made on high, the
apparent errors appreciated by a divine geometry ; and order often results
from partial diversity. This is not the first instance which science has pre-
sented to us of preordained irregularities 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 laws 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 transition cells, and even those
cells which being built immediately upon wood or glass were entirely without
bottoms, still preserved their usual shape of hexagonal prisms. But a re-
markable experiment of the elder Huber shows that bees can alter even
1 Huber, ii. 221—226. 244—247. 2 Ibid. ii. 226.
3 Ibid. ii. 230.
INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 549
the form of their cells when circumstances require it, and that in a way
which one would not have expected,
Havino; placed in front of a comb which the bees were constructinc; a
slip of glass, they seemed immediately aware that it would be very difficult
to attach it to so slij)pery a surface ; and instead of continuing the comb in
a straight line, they bent it at a right angle, so as to extend beyond the slip
of glass, and ultimately 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 iiave evinced no small
ingenuity ; but you will bear in miml 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 resoiures of their instinct, how-
ever, were adequate to the emergency. 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 having three or four times the
diameter of the latter. But this was not all. As the bottoms of the small
and large 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 com-
prehend the mode in which such a crowd of labourers, 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
together to construct on one face cells so small, while on the other they
imparted to them such enlarged dimensions ? And how can we feel
adequate astonishment that they should have the art of making cells of
such different sizes correspond ? '
After this long but I flatter myself not wholly uninteresting enumeration,
you will scarcely hesitate to admit that insects, and of these the bee pre-
eminently, are endowed with a much more exquisite and flexible instinct
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
adaptation of means for accomplishing an end — rather the result of
reasoji ?
You will not doubt my allowing the appositeness of this question, when
ITrankly tell you that so strikingly do many of the preceding facts seem at
first 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. ]3ut
mature consideration has convinced me (though I confess the svibject has
great difficulties) 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 regarding them as 1 have here done, as examples of variations of particular
instincts: — and this on two accounts.
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, but not to increase that number. Bees cemented their
1 Huber, ii. 219,
HN 3
550 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.
combs, when becoming heav}', 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 circumstances
adopt other modes of strengthening their combs ? Why not, when wax and
propolis are scarce, employ mud, which they might see the martin avail
herbelf of so successfully ? Or why should it not come into the head of
some hoar}' 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 what faculty the
works of the beaver are to be referred), " niais ce sont eternellement des
cabanes 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 mit3's, pissoceros, 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 Umits — as they were
two thousand years ago ; and since the bees emerged from their pupas but
a few hours before will set themselves as adroitly to work, and pursue their
operations as scientifically as their brethren, who can boast the experience
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 complicated as those we have been considering, and which, if
the result of reason, would involve the most extensive and varied know-
ledge in the agents. Suppose a man to have attained by long practice the
art of modelling wax into a congeries of uniform hexagonal cells, with
pyramidal 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 inter-
vals or patching at the junctions either of the tubes or the bottoms
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
twelvemonth, thougii gifted with a clear head and a competent store of
geometrical knowledge, and which, if destitute 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 simi-
lar 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 instirict that is their
guide.
The second head, under which I proposed contrasting the instinct of
insects with those of the larger animals, was that of their member in the
same individual. In the latter this is for the most part very limited, not
1 (Euvres, ix. 159.
INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 551
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 egs 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 extri-
cating themselves 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 extends, 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
these variations, they may be referred with great plausibility to those striking
changes in the organic structure of the animal which occur at the two periods
of its existence. It is to the number 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 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 Huber
ci?-ieres (wax makers) : but only to enumerate those presented by that por-
tion of tiie workers termed by Huber nomrices or petltes abeilles (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 being
stored, the principal labours of the hive devolve. It will be these indi-
viduals alone that I shall understand by the term bees, under the present
head ; and though the other inhabitants of the hive may occasionally concur
in some of their actions and labours, yet it is obvious 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 previously 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 fourth 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 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 an-
gles 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
1 Huber, ii. 102. 2 Ibid. i. 186. ii. 412. s Ibid. ii. 264.
NN 4
552 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.
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 experiments that this tinge is not owing to the heat
of the hives ; to any vapours in the air which they include ; to any emana-
tions from the wax or honey ; nor to the deposition of this last in the cells ;
but he inclines 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 repeated strokes of these organs and of the fore-
feet. ^
In their out-of-door operations several distinct instincts are concerned.
By one they are led to extract honey from the nectaries of flowers; by"
another to collect pollen after a process involving very comphcated mani-
pulations, and requiring a singular apparatus of brushes and baskets ; and
that must surely be considered a third which so remarkably and bene-
ficially restricts each gathering to the same plant. It is clearly 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 fly to it
with an extreme rapidity, and as straight as a ball from a musket * ; 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 embowered in
wood, and in the midst of villages surrounded 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 famous Pays de Waes
in Flanders, where the country is a perfect flat, and the inhabitants so
enamoured either of the beauty or profit of trees that their fields, which
are rarely above three acres in extent, are constmitly 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 eyesight for retrac-
ing 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 intercepted the view in
every direction ; and I defy any inhabitant bee of this rural metropolis,
after once quitting its hive, ever to gain a glimpse of it again until nearly
perpendicularly over it. The bees, therefore, 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 dis-
tances.^ When they have reached the hive, another instinct leads them to
1 Huber, ii. 274. 2 Ibid. ii. 275.
3 Ibid. i. 356. 4 Ibid. ii. 367.
s The following striking anecdote of this last species of instinct, in an animal not
famed for sagacitj', was related to me by Lieutenant (now Lieut.-Colonel) Allersou
(Royal Engineers), who was pei'sonally acquainted with the facts. — In March,
1816, an ass, the property of Captain Dundas, R.N., then at Malta, was shipped on
board the Ister frigate. Captain Forrest, bound 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
INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 553
regurgitate into the extended proboscis of their hungr}' companions 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 masses of pollen, and
to store it in the ceils for future use.
Several distinct instincts, again, are called into action 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
in elaboration fitting it for the food of the grubs ; and another to regur-
gitate it when duly concocted, and to administer it to their charge, pro-
portioning the supply to the age and condition of the recipients. 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 already enumerated, 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 tliey retain the young queens that are to leatl off' a swarm, until
their wings be sufficiently expanded to enable them to fly the moment
they are at liberty, gratlually 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 hd
of her cell ; the watchfulness with which, when at the period of swarming
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 invariably release the
oldest queens the first from their confinement ; the singular love of monar-
chical dominion, by which, when two queens in other circumstances 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 the return of their rightful sove-
reign ; and (to omit a further enumeration) the obedience which in the
utmost noise and confusion they show to her well-known hum.
— 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 51 r. 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 mj-stery was
explained ; and it turned 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 pea-
sants, who have a superstitious horror of such asses, by the holes in his ears, to
which the persons flogged were tied.
554 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.
I 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 bodies 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 pe-
netrable by it; their annual autumnal murder of the drones, &c. &c. — it
is certain that this number might be very considerably increased, perhaps
doubled.
At the first view you will be inclined to suspect some fallacy in this
enumeration, and that this variety of actions ought to be referred rather to
some general principle, capable of accommodating itself to different cir-
cumstances, than to so many different kinds of instinct. But to what
principle ? Not to reason, tlie 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 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, though 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 me that it would be as con-
trary to philosophical accuracy of language in the former case to call the
two instincts modifications 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 circumlocution, I 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 instincts. That it is not
always easy to determine what actions are to be referred to a distinct in-
stinct and what to a modification of an instinct, I am very ready to admit;
but this is no solid ground for regarding all instincts as modifications of
some one principle. It is often equally difficult to fix the limits between
instinct and reason ; but we are not on this account justified in deeming
them the same.
This multitude of instincts in the same individual becomes more wonder-
ful when considered in another point of view. Were they constantly to
follow each 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 development of
its organs, in the same way as on similar principles we explain the sexual
instincts of the superior tribes. But it is certain that no such consecutive
series prevails. The different instincts of the bee are called into action in
an order regulated solely by the needs of the society. If combs be wanted,
no bee collects honey for storing until they are provided ^ ; 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
1 Huber, ii. 64. 2 Ibid. ii. 138.
INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 555
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 mo-
ment 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 construction 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 un-
deviating accuracy with which the precise instinct wanted is excited — this
total absence of all confusion in the employment, by each inhabitant of the
hive, of that; particular instinct out of so many which the good of the
community requires ? No thinking man ever witnesses the complexness
and yet regularity and efficiency of a great establishment, such as the Bank
of England or the Post-Office, without marvelling that even human reason
can put together, with so little friction and such slight deviations from
correctness, machines whose wheels are composed not of wood and iron,
but of fickle mortals of a thousand different inclinations, powers, and
capacities. But if such estatilishments 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 detains 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 company 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 building cells to prevail ; in
another that of ventilating the hive ; in a third that of feeding the young
brood ? For my own part, I confess that the more I reflect on this
subject, and contrast the diversity of the means with the regularity and
uniformity of the end, the more 1 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 numbers of the instincts 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 strik-
ing. These corroborating proofs I shall leave to your own inference, and
556 INSTINCT OF INSECTS
proceed to the third liead, under which I proposed to consider the instincts
of insects — that of their extraordinary 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 succession
of different instincts in the same insect, in its larva and perfect state, is
closely analogous. But what I have now in view is that extraordinary de-
velopment of instinct which is dependent not upon the age or any change
in the organisation of the animal, but upon external events — which in in-
dividuals of the same species, age, and structure, in some circumstances
slumbers unmoved, but may in others be excited to the most singular and
unlooked-for action. In illustrating 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 ascertained, though it is
highly probable that other species living in societies may exhibit 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
attention.
If a hive of bees be this year in possession of a queen duly fertilised,
and consequently sure the next season of a succession of males, all the drones,
as I have before stated, towards the approach of winter are massacred by
the workers with the most unrelenting ferocity. To this seemingly cruel
course tiiey are doubtless impelled by an imperious instinct ; and as it
is regularly followed in every hive thus circumstanced, it would seem at the
first view to be an impulse as intimately connected with the organisation
and very existence of the workers, and as incapable of change, as that
which leads them to build cells or to store up honey. 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 fertilised queen, their undisturbed 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 difference of conduct ? Are we
to su|)pose that the bees know and reason upon this alteration in the cir-
cumstances of their community — that they infer the possibility of their
entire 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 otherwise 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 society
of men, and is obviously unwarrantable. The only probable suppo-
sition is, clearly, that a new instinct is developed suited to the extraor-
INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 557
dinary situation in which the community stands, leading them ""now to
re^iard 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 equally wonderful) that the old instinct was extin-
guished ; 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 develop-
ment of a new ami peculiar instinct is indisputable.
In a iiive 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
heatl of a new swarm in spring — than to [irepare a certain number of
cells of extraordinary capacity for their reception while in the egg, and
to feed them when become grubs with a peculiar food until they have at-
tained maturity. This, therefore, is their ordinary instinct ; 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 inactive despair which was for-
merly attributed to them, after the commotion which the rapidly-circulated
news of their calamity gave birth to has subsided, they betake 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 ap-
propriate royal i'oocl to maturity. Thus sure of once more acquiring a
head, the hive return to their ordinary labours, 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 Catherine the First of Rus-
sia, steps into day and assumes the reins of state.
To this remarkable deviation from the usual procedures of the commu-
nity, the observations above made in the ase of the drones must be
ap|)lied. We cannot account for it by conceiving the working-bees to be
acquainted with the end which their operations have in view. If we sup-
pose them to know that the queen and working-grubs are originally the
same, and that to convert one of the latter into the former it is only neces-
.sary to transfer it to an apartment sufficiently spacious and to feed it with a
peculiar food, we confer upon them a depth of reason to which Prome-
theus, when he made his clay man, had no pretensions — an original dis-
covery, in short, to which man has but just attained after some thousand
years of painful research, having escaped all the observers of bees from
Aristomachus to Swammerdam and Reaumur of modern times. We have
no other alternative, then, but to refer this phenomenon to the extraor-
dinary development of a new instinct suited for the exigency, however in-
comprehensible to us the manner of its excitement 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
their actions ? Are they in every case the blind agents of irresistible im-
pulse V These queries, I have already hinted, cannot in my o|)inion be
replied to in the affirmative ; and 1 now proceed to show that though in-
558 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.
stlnct is the chief guide of insects, they are endowed also with no incon-
siderable portion of reason.
Some share of reason is denied by few philosophers of the present day
to the larger animals. But its existence has not generally (except by
those who reject instinct altogether) been recognised in insects : probably
on the ground that, as the proportions of reason and of instinct seem to
coexist in an inverse ratio, the former might be expected to be extinct in
a class in which the latter is found in such perfection. This rule, however,
though it may hold good in man, whose instincts are so few and imper-
fect, and whose reason is so pre-eminent, is far from being confirmed by an
extended survey of the classes of animals generally. Many quadrupeds,
birds, and fishes, with instincts apparently not very acute, do not seem to
have their place supplied by a proportionably superior share of reason ;
and insects, as I think the facts T have to adduce will prove, though rank-
ing so low in the scale of creation, seem to enjoy as great a degree of
reason as many animals of the superior classes, yet in combination with
instincts much more numerous and exquisite.
I must premise, however, that in so |)erplexed and intricate afield, lam
sensible how necessary it is to tread with caution. A far greater collec-
tion 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 purely instinctive, and which the result of reason. What 1
advance, therefore, on this head, I wish to be regarded rather as conjec-
tures, that, after the best consideration 1 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 in-
sects is clear, as I have before observed, from the determinateness and
perfection of these actions, and from their being performed independently
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
individual bee be thus destitute of the very materials of reasoning as to its
main operations, so must the society in general.
Nor in those remarkable deviations and accommodations to circumstances,
instanced under a former head, can we, for considerations there assigned,
suppose insects to be influenced by reason. These deviations are still
limited in number, and involve acts far too complex and recondite to spring
from any process of ratiocination in an animal whose term of life does not
exceed 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 instinctive. I do not pretend to explain in what way or degree they
are combined ; but certainly some of the facts do not seem to admit of
explanation, except on this suppo>ition. 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 variations 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 observes, to indicate
INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 559
somethinc: more than instinct, since glass is not a substance against which
nature can be supposed to have forewarned bees, there being nothing in
hollow trees (their natural abodes) resembling it either in polish or sub-
stance; 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 tbey 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 in the same opera-
tion, or to define precisely the limits of each, instances of these viixed
actions are sufficiently common among animals to leave little douht of the
fact. It is instinct which leads a greyhound to pursue a hare ; but it must
be reason that directs " an old greyliound 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 former more decidedly, may be cited the
account which Huber gives of the manner in which the bees of some of
his neighbours protected themselves against the attacks of the death's head
moth {AcherontJa atropon), laid before j ou in a former letter, by so closing
the entrance 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 themselves.
We can scarcely attribute these elaborate fortifications to reason
simply ; for it appears that bees have recourse to a similar defensive ex-
pedient 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 tliis faculty
in a bee.
But, on the other hand, if it be most probable that in this instance in-
stinct was chiefly concerned, if we impartially 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 themselves on the frst
attack. If the occupants of a hive had been taken unaw ares 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
Hnber, that it was not until the hives had been repeatedly attacked and
robbed of nearly their whole stock of honey, that the bees betook them-
selves to the plan so successfully adopted for the security of their remain-
ing treasures ; so that reason, taught by experience, seems to have called
into action their dormant instincts.^
If it be thus probable that reason has some influence upon the actions
of insects which must be mainly regarded as instinctive, the existence of
this faculty is still more evident in numerous traits of their history where
instinct 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 reasonably suppose insects to be gifted with
instincts adapted for occasions that are never likely to happen. If,
1 Huber, ii. 219. 2 Hume's Essay on the Reason of Animals,
3 Huber, ii. 289.
560 INSTINCT OPi INSECTS.
therefore, we find them, in these extraordinary and improbable 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 reason, 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 striking that occur to me.
First, then, insects often, in cases not likely to be provided for by in-
stinct, 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 purjjose. But
if any one had ever seen a hen make her nest in aheap of fermenting dung,
among the bark of a hot-bed, or in the vicinity of a baker's oven, where,
the heat being as well adapted as the stoves of ihe 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 an old wo-
man ^, a Hindoo metaphysician at least could not doubt of her body, how-
ever 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 deviation from their usual instinct, which to me seems
quite as extraordinary and as indicative of reason as would be that sup-
posed in a hen. A certain degree of warmth is required for the exclusion
and rearing of their eggs, larvae, and pups ; 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 refuting 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
colonies between the exterior wooden shutters and panes of his glass
hives, where, owing to the latter substance being a tolerably good con-
ductor of heat, their progeny was at all times, and without any necessity
of changing their situation, in a constant, equable, and sufficient tempera-
ture.'- 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 disturbed they
run 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 consistently to refer them to instinct, or to
account for them without supposing some stray ant, that had insinuated
herself into this tropical crevice, first to have been struck with the thought
of what a prodigious saving of labour and anxiety would occur to her com-
patriots 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
1 See Fischer's Beschreibung eines Hulins mit menschenahnlichem Profile, 8vo. St.
Petersburg, 1816 ; and a translation in Thomson's Annals of Phil. vii. 241.
2 Keaum. v. 709. ' CEum-es, ii. 416.
INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 56)
advantages which no other situation could offer. Neither instinct, nor any
conceivable modification of instinct, could have taught the ants to avail
themselves of a good fortune which but for the invention 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 accidental mass of fer-
menting materials soon ceasing, and no heat being given out from a society
of bees when lodged in a hollow tree, their natural residence. The con-
clusion, 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 hen 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 purpose, 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, detached a thread of this ma-
terial 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 complex, 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 as 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 of the fly turned
round the wasp with its burthen, and 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 embarrass-
ment, flew off with its booty. ^ Could any process of ratiocination be more
perfect? *' Something 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
effiect 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 inex-
plicable. 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, — discovered 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
I Huber, ii. 268. 2 Zoonomia, i. 183.
^ Mr. Newport has argued, in a paper read to the Entomological Society
( Trans, i. 228.), that the instinct of wasps is always to cut off the wings of flies
o o
562 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.
authority of M. Cossigny, who vfitnessed it in the Isle of France, where
the Sphecina are accustomed to bury the bodies of cockroaches along with
their e^es for provision for their young. He sometimes saw an insect ot
this tribe attempt to drag after it into its hole a dead cockroach which was
too h\<y to be made to enter by all its efforts. After several ineffectual
trials the animal came out, cut off its elytra and some of its legs, and thus
reduced in compass drew in its prey without difficulty. . .- a c
Under this head I shall mention but one fact more A friend of
Gleditsch, the observer of the singular economy of the burying beetle
(Necrophorus vespillo) related in a former letter, being desirous ot drying a
dead toad, fixed it to the top of a piece of wood which he stuck mto the
ground But, a short time afterwards, he found that a body of these inde-
fatic^able little sextons had circumvented him in spite of his precautions.
Not beincr able to reach the toad, they had undermined the base ot the
stick until it fell, and then buried both stick and toad.
In the second place, insects gain knowledge from experience 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
miciht be brought forward four only, one of which has been abeady slightly
adverted to. . , • i i r ^u r ,,, „
M P Huber, in his valuable paper in the sixth volume of the Linn^an
Tramactions\ 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
with the exterior horny parts of their proboscis, and then insert their pro-
boscis 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 m at
the top of the corolla. Now, from this statement it seems evident that
the larger bees did not pierce the bottoms of the flowers until they had
ascertained by trial that they 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
wav pierced the bottoms of «// the flowers which they wished to rifle of
their sweets M. Aubert du Petit-Thouars observed that humble-bees and
the carpenter-bee {Xylocopa^ violacea) gained access ma similar manner to
the nectar o( Antirrhinum Linaria and majus and Mirabilis Jalapa, as do the
common bees of the Isle of France to that o^ Canna indica^ ; and I have
myself more than once noticed holes at the base of the long nectaries of
Aquilegia vulgaris, which I attribute to the same agency.
before flying away with them, and that, consequently, ^te above fact proves no-
thng aTto the reason of insects. Here, however I must beg to differ from
him? for, supposing Dr. Darwin's statement to be ^.^^^^^te, which f,omth
minute particulars into which he enters, we have no right to doubt, tne circum
s ances of the"^ wasp's first violating its natural instinct by flying away with the fly
before cutting off its wings, and then, on finding the wind act upon them ahghtmg
t: do ;hl?it\ad neglected at first,.cannot well be -Plaine^ except on the sivppo-
sitionof some reasoning process ha^dng passed through f^i",^^J"^°\f ^'^Jich
is no need of this particular fact to prove the existence of reason in insects, ot wtticn
such numerous other instances have been adduced. ...
1 Reaum vi. 283. « Gleditsch, Fhysic. Bot. (Econ^ Ahhandl m. 220
5 Keaum. vi. ^ ^^ ^^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ Muv.Bul. des Scvences, i. 45.
6 See an interesting article by Mr. C. Darwin in the Gardeners Chronicle, 1841,
INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 563
A similar instance of knowledge gained by experience in tlie hive-bee is
related by Mr. Wailes. He observed tliat all the bees, on their first visit
to the blossoms of a passion-flower (P«5.?//?o;-a cccndea) on the wall of his
house, were for a considerable time puzzled by the numerous overwrapping
rays of the nectary, and only after many trials, sometimes lasting two or
three minutes, succeeded in finding the shortest way to the honey at the
bottom of the calyx ; but experience having taught them this knowledge,
they afterwards constantly proceeded at once to the most direct mode "of
obtaining the honey ; so that he could always distinguish bees that had
been oKl visiters of the flowers from new ones, the last being invariably at
first long at a loss, while the former flew at once to their object.^
My third fact is supplied by the same ants whose sagacious choice of
the vicinity of Reaumur's glass hives for their colony has been just rein ted
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 dif-
ficulty in finding crevices to enter in at, they were kept without, solely
from fear of the consequences." Whence arose this fear ? ^ye have no
ground for supposing ants endowed with any instinctive dread of bees ;
and Reaumur tells us, that when he happened to leave in his garden hives
of M-hich the bees had died, the ants then never failed to enter them and
regale themselves with the honey. It seems reasonable, therefore, to
attribute it to experience. Some of the ants, no doubt, had tried to
enter the peopled as they did the empty hive, but had been punished for
their presumption ; and the dear-bought lesson was not lost on the rest of
the community.
The fourth instance under this head which I shall mention is that sup-
plied by an Indian species of ant {Formica indefessn Sykes). A colony of
these voracious insects in Col. Sykes's house at Poona having been cir-
cumvented in their repeated and successful attacks on the sweetmeats
always left on a side board, when it was removed to a distance from the
p. 550., on the variations in the mode in which humble-bees pierce, as above de-
scribed, the long-tubed corollas of different labiated phints. In Stachys cnccinea,
Mirabilis jalappa, and Salvia coccinea, each corolla had a hole on its upper side near
the base, whereas in Salvia Grabami, which has a more elongated calvx, tliis part also
was invariably pierced ; and in Pentstemon argatus the rather broader corolla had
always two holes, in order to give the bees more ready access to the nectar on both
sides of the germen. All these holes are on the upper side of the base of the corolla ;
but in the < ommon Antirrhinum they are on the under side, so as to be directly in
front of the nectary. Town-educated humble-bees Mr. Darwin found always draw
off the nectar from these last-named flowers growing in the London Zoological
Gardens through these artiticial orifices; while from two years' observations he is
persuaded that their rustic brethren are less clever, and invariably gain access to the
nectar of snap-dragons growing in the country by forcing open the elastic lower lip
and creeping into the flower. Possibly difterent species or sexes of iiumble-bees
may be here concerned ; but one instance, in which the same individual bee cut
holes in the base of some flowers of Rhododendron azaleoides and entered the mouth of
others, seems as strong a proof of reason as can well be imagined, as the proceedin"-s
of the little animal were evidently varied according to the varying necessity of the
case; and if, as Mr. Darwin thinks he has observed, the hive-bees frequenting these
flowers by degrees came to discover and avail themselves of the orifices made by the
humble-bees, this fact, as he justly remarks, offers a very striking proof of acqiiired
knowledge in insects.
1 Entom. Mag. i. 525. 2 Eeaum. v. 709.
oo 2
564 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.
wall sufficient to prevent their reaching it, climbed up the wall to the height
of about a foot above its level, and then let themselves fall so as to alight
on the table, as Colonel Sykes himself witnessed with equal surprise and
admiration.' Here it is obvious that it was only after experience had
shown the ants the inefficacy, in the altered position of the table, of their
former modes of attacking the sweetmeats, that they adopted this novel
and ingenious way of getting access to them, which, whether we refer it to
reason or a variation of instinct, is equally remarkable.
Insects, in the third place, are able mutually to communicate 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 refer
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 communicate their ideas
to each other; it 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 ceihng. 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 continued until the treacle was all consumed, one swarm
running up the string while another passed down.^ It 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 eyewitness to the following occurrence. He
observed a species of Scarabaeus (^Ateuchus pilularius ?) busily engaged in
making, for the reception of its egg, a pellet of dung, which 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 adhered 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 companions.
All four now applied their united strength to the pellet, and at length suc-
ceeded 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 memory, which (at least in connection
with the purposes to which it is subservient) implies some degree of reason
1 Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. i. 105.
2 Kalm's Travels in North America, i. 239.
5 Illiger, Mag. i. 488.
INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 565
also ; and their historian may exclaim with the poet who has so well sung
the pleasures of this faculty,
" Hail, Mejiory, hail ! thy universal reign
Guards the least link of Being's glorious chain."
In the elegant lines in which this couplet occurs \ which were pointed
out to me by my friend Dr. Alderson of Hull, Mr. Rogers supposes the
bee to be conducted to its hive by retracing the scents of the various flowers
which it has visited ; but this idea is more poetical 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 $imilar instances, we
have to regret the want of more correct entomological information in the
poet, who might have employed with as much etFect, 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 recollect their own
hive rather from ^its situation, than from any observations on the hive
itself^ : just as a man 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 replaced by
another with a similar entrance, I should probably even in the day-time,
enter it, without being struck by the change ; and bees, if during their ab-
sence 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
connection.^
If pursuing my illustration, 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 mind that I am not aiming to show that bees have as pre-
1 " Hark ! the bee winds her small but mellow horn,
Blithe to salute the sunny smile of morn.
O'er thymy downs she bends her busy 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,
Now vainly asks the scenes she left behind ;
Its orb so full, its vision so confined !
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."
' If a hire be removed out of its ordinary position, the first day after this re-
moval the bees do not fly to a distance without having visited all the neighbouring
otijects. The queen does the same thing when flying into the air for fecundation.
(Huber, Recherches sur les Fourmis, 100.)
3 See the account of the mode in which the Favignanais increase the number of
their hives by thus dividing them. (Huber, ii. 459.)
O O 3
566 INSTINCT OF INSECTS.
cise 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 oar correspondence: such as the mutual greet-
ings of ants of the same society when brought together after a separation
of four months; and the return of a party of bees in spring to a window
where in tiie preceding autumn they had regaled on honey, though none of
this substance 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 possession 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 possession of the hole
frequented it as above stated, and not those of any other swarms ; having
constantly noticed them, and ascertained that they 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. Stickney 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 convey traditionary information from one
generation to another ; and at the first glance the circumstance of the
descendants of the same stock retaining a knowledge of the same fact for
twenty years, during which period there must have been as many genera-
tions of bees, would seem to warrant the inference. But as it is more
probable that the party of surveying scouts of the first generation was the
next vear accompanied by others of a second, who in like manner con-
ducted their brethren of the third, and these last again others of the fourth
generation, and so on, — I draw no other conclusion from it than that bees
are endowed with memory, which I think it proves most satisfactorily.
I am, &c.
1 A remarkable fact, proving at once that insects are endowed with memory,
association of ideas, and the sense of hearing, has been recorded by M. Goureau,
the author of the valuable observations on the stridulation of insects, before re-
ferred to in treating of their noises. He kept for several daj-s spraying mantis (M.
religiosa) in a box, and fed it with flies. On first placing it in its new abode he
irritated it with a pen, and at the same time gave a slight whistle. Apparently-
fearing an enemj', it put itself in a state of defence, reared up its long thorax,
placed its fore feet as if to seize its prev, and half expanded its wings and elytra,
rubbing its abdomen repeatedly against their sides, so as to produce a noise like
that of parchment. " From the first moment (continues M. Goureau) to the last
day that I kept it, every time that I visited it and gave the same slight whistle
it assumed its defensive attitude, and did not quit it till it judged the danger
past." {Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, x. bull, xviii.)
APPENDIX.
O 0 4
APPENDIX.
[chapter XV. Of MR. freeman's life op MR. KIRBT.]
It is with a mournful pleasure I contribute to my friend Mr. Freeman's
Life of Mr. Kirby a slight sketch of the history of our friendship of
nearly half a century, and of the origin and progress of the " Introduction
to Entomology," the source of so much interest and delight to us both ;
partly from recollection, but chiefly from Mr. Kirby's letters to me
during that time, and from mine to him.*
Our acquaintance began in this way. Chancing, one evening, in
August 1805, when walking on the Humber bank, to meet my friend
George Rodwell, Esq., then a resident at Hull, he told me he was about
to visit Barham in a few days, and said if I had any insects to send to
Mr. Kirby he should be happy to convey them. This offer I gladly
* These letters, with which Mr. Freeman has furnished me, are between four and
five hundred in number ; and those from Mr. Kirby, which I have preser\'ed vnih as
much care as he had mine, are nearly as many. About half of the two series of
letters refer almost wholly to entomology and our book, but a great part of the re-
mainder, exchanged during my eight years' travels and residence on the Continent,
and after my return to England, are more occupied with accounts of our tours, &c.,
and of domestic matters. Our entomological letters, in those days of dear postage,
were mostly written on sheets of large folio paper, so closely, that each would equal
a printed sheet of sixteen pages of ordinary type. These we called our " first-rates,"
or sometimes " seventy -fours," the few on ordinary-sized paper being " frigates ; "
but one I. find from" Mr. Kirby, which he calls the " Royal Harrj^" written
on a sheet nearly the size of a "Times" supplement, and closely filled on
three pages, and which he begins and concludes thus : — " Barham, March 23.
1816. My Dear Friend, — This doubtless will be the greatest rarity in the
epistolary way that you ever received. I hope it will long be kept among your
xei/j.ri\ia, and be shown, not as a black, but as a black and white swan, which since
the discovery of the former in N.S.W., must be held as the true rara avis. . . . And
now, having manned this Royal Harry with as large a complement of men as I
could muster, I shall launch her. I question whether ever one of equal tonnage be-
fore crossed the Humber." With the love of order which Mr. Kirb3''s study of
natural history had so deeply implanted in him, all my letters are folded across the
sheet, so as to be of the same breadth of about two inches, and have an index on the
back of each, referring to the various subjects (often 15 to 20) of the letter, which
he marked in it by large figures in brackets, so as readily to catch the eye ; and they
were then docketed with red tape into a packet for each year.
570 APPENDIX.
accepted, and prepared a box, which was taken by Mr. Rodwell, along
with a letter, which is placed first in Mr. Kii'by's packet of mine of 1805,
and which it is necessary to give here to make his reply intellible.
"Drypool, Hull, 26th August, 1805.
" Sir, — Your friend Mr. Rodwell, knowing me to be a smatterer in that
branch of natural history to the advancement of which, in Britain, you have so
largely contributed, told me the other day that he was about to visit your
neighbourhood, and said he would be glad to convey to you any duplicates of
insects I might have, that I judged might possibly be new to you. I embraced
his offer with pleasure, and I have accordingly sent a few insects which I have
reason to think scarce, or not described in ' Entomologia Britannica.' If they
are already known to you, as perhaps the major part are, I must beg you to take
the will for the deed. Such as are new, if any be so, I request your acceptance
of, as a small return for the high gratification I have derived from the perusal
of your admirable papers in the ' Linnaean Transactions,' and the introduction
to your ' Monograph of English Bees.' From that work itself I have not been
able to derive the advantage which I have no doubt I shall reap from it when I
have made a greater progress in entomology. At present, the order Coleoptera,
to the investigation of which Mr. Marsham's excellent work, including so many
of your discoveries, affords such facility, exclusively engages my attention.
But I proceed to my immediate object, which is, to make a few short remarks on
the insects I send. i
" No. 1. is a CurcuUo belonging to Section A.b.** in E. B., which I do not
find described there. I found it the other day in great numbers, feeding upon
young oak trees, the leaves of which it corrodes in the same manner as Chryso-
mela vitellincE, Sec. do those of willows. From its habitat, it should be C. fer-
Tugineus of E. B. ; but as neither its head, rostrum, nor knees are black, it
cannot be that, and there appears to me no other in the Section with which it at
all accords. C. rufus I have, which is very different. May it not be C. Betu-
leti of Panzer's 'Entomologia Germanica ?' which is the more likely, as I did
find a few of the same insect upon Betulus Alnus, in the neighbourhood of the
oaks upon which it chiefly was. It also strikes me that it, as well as Panzer's C.
Betuleti, may possibly be C. Quercus of Linne, if that properly belongs to the
Saltatorii section, which Fabricius seems to believe by his synonyming it with
his C. Viminalis, for I do not believe that C. Quercus of Linne, which is ' pallide
flavus,' even though belonging to this Section, can be synonymous with C.
Viminalis, which, if that be, and doubtless it is, C. rufus of E. B., is of a rufous
colour, with the fore-part of the abdomen, as well as the eyes black. Fabricius
appears to me extremely lax in his definition of colour ; at least, if the insects
he describes from be of the same colour as English ones. Neither C. Alni nor
C. Viminalis are of a testaceous colour. C. No. 1., when first caught, has, in a
certain light, a large triangular spot at the base of the elytra, of a lighter shade
than the rest.
" No. 2., which has also incrassated bind thighs, appears to me undescribed in
E. B. : indeed if I am correct in my supposition, it does not belong to any
section there ; for, as far as I can see with the deepest magnifier I possess, its
antennae are not broken, but entire, though of this, owing to its minuteness, I
am not positive. However that may be, I see no CurcuUo in Section A.b.** of
E. B. which, like this, is wholly black, with reddish antenn£e. I found it on
some species of willow, and then on Mespilus Oxyacantha.
"No. 3. is doubtless Curcw/io variabilis of Fabricius and Panzer. Whether
Mr. Marsham had not seen it. or he deemed it a variety of C. nigrirostris, I know
not, but it is not described in E. B. That it is a variety of that I can scarcely
believe, though Paykull, on his usual plan of making as many varieties as pos-
sible, chooses to consider it so. I sent lately to Mr. Marsham, who has honoured
APPENDIX. 571
me with a letter, ten or twelve Curculiones, which I am not able to name from
E. B. Perhaps some of them are new, but I have no duplicates.
" Before I found the true Dijtiscus recurvus, I had called, though in great
doubt, No. 4. by that name. As it is not that, I see nothing in E. B. which it
can be. D. lineatus I have; and though its liriece are somewhat like those of
that, yet the two-lobed spot on its thorax, and ferruginous abdomen, suffici-
ently distinguish it.
"No. 5. is doubtless D. flexuosus. It is not unfrequent here; and as it
appears from E. B. not very common, I send a couple of specimens.
" Mr. Marsham tells me he has not Hydrophilus Cicindeloides, and as this may
be the case with you, I send a specimen. It is not very uncommon here. Is
not this Elophorus elongcitus of Fabricius, with the description of which it
appears to me wholly to agree ?
" I send a specimen of Carabus purpuro-cceruleus, which, from there being a
local habitat to it in E. B. I conclude rare. I have found five or six specimens
of it in a particular clayev bank.
" No. 6. is so much like what I call Carabus littoraUs, except in wanting the
macule at the base of the elytra, that it can hardly be considered other than a
variety of that ; vet I never found it in company with C. littoraUs, nor, indeed,
any where but on the shore of the Humber, where it is not very common, and
I never found a single specimen of C. littoraUs near to this habitat.
" No. 7. is a small Carabus, which I also find on the banks of the Humber,
and only there. Its truncated and smooth, or most obsoletely striated elytra,
so obviously characterise it, that I have little doubt of its being undescribed in
E. B.
" No. 8. is so exactly like Carabus marginatus, except in wanting its testa-
ceous mai-gin, that I imagine it is merely a variety of that.
" No. 9. (1, 2, 3.), though differing considerably in colour, are, as you will at
once perceive, the same insect, which is common under clods of earth on the
shores of the Humber, in company with a species of Oniscus. Elsewhere I have
not seen it. I at first imagined the testaceous specimens (No. .\.\ which are
most numerous, had been but lately disclosed from the chrysalis ; and to deter-
mine this, I fed and kept alive one of them for a month, but at the end of that
period its colour was not aUered. The punctulate pilose surface of these
Carabi furnish characteristics not very common in this genus; yet I am uncer-
tain whether any one of the varieties be described in E B. No. 2. agrees, in
colour and several other respects, with C. echinatus, but its elytra are not
' punctato- striate,' but striate, with puncta in the interstices. No. 3. would do
pretty well for C. punctulatus, but its feet are not of the same colour as the
abdomen, and no mention is made of any pubescence on the surface of that.
All the specimens of No. 9. which I have examined,— and I have observed
many, — are furnished with a very good characteristic, independent of colour.
They have (like Carabus tibialis) no abbreviated stria next the suture at the base
of the elytra. I send several specimens of this for examination : you will at
once know whether it is new or not.
"No. 10. I have called Carabus foraminalosus, but with some hesitation, for
neither does the colour altogether accord, nor can the strice be called ' sub-
obsolete,' according to my idea of that term. In its punctulate and sub-
pubescent surface, as well as colour, it agrees with the fuscous specimens of
No. 9.; but its greater size, abbreviated strise next the suture (as is usual in
this genus), and shorter impressed line on the thorax, afford sufficient dis-
criminations. It inhabits a particular clayey bank near us, on breaking lumps
of which you may often find it in oval holes, in the inside of them, apparently
just excluded from the chrysalis.
"Nos. 11. and 12., though extremely common, I am not able to refer satis-
572 APPENDIX.
factorily to any in E. B., and I therefore send them, though I have no idea but
that they are well known to you.
" My friend Mr. Watson informs me that you are writing a Monograph of
Staphylini, which I am extremely glad to hear, as my little experience has
convinced me that there are many English ones yet undescribed ; and, in a
genus where so many species are of the same colour, long and full descriptions
are peculiarly requisite. All the unnamed specimens I had of this genus I
sent to Mr. Marsham, and if he finds any likely to be new to you, he will
doubtless send them to you. I herewith enclose a few specimens. I shall be
glad if any of them are new to you : if not, you will oblige me by returning
them, named, by Mr. Rodwell, for my information.
"No. 13. I have called 5. obscurus. It is common on the shore of the
Humber.
"No. 14. must be 5. cruentatus, not uncommon here. I send these two, be-
cause of their having local habitats given them in E. B.
" No. 17. is not uncommon here, but I can find no one in E. B. with which
it accords well. The remaining Staphylini, chiefly minute ones, I have not
particularly examined, and probably many of them are described in E. B.
" No. 18. is a Cassida which I took some months ago, but I forget where. I
am doubtful if it be described in E. B. With the specific character of C. si-
milis it perfectly accords, but not with the size or the description, for neither is
the thorax longitudinally elevated, nor are the feet pallid, — the thighs, except
the apex, being wholly black. Can it be your C. Uriophora ? yet I see nothing
of the macula and black puncta you mention. This I shall be able to determine
shortty, as I have at present by me two or three of the pupte of, I expect, your
C. Uriophora, which I have found and fed, as you direct, on Carduus arvensis.
" Scarites thoracicus of Illiger's ' Kafer Preussens,' I have found abundantly
in the dried-up mouth of a pond, along with Heterocerus marginatus. Mr.
Marsham tells me he has had it sent him, perhaps by yourself. I send, how-
ever, one or two specimens.
" As Mr. Marsham mentions the place where, and person by whom, Cocci-
nella 1 S-jrw^tata was taken, I presume it is not found by every entomologist
every where, and I therefore send a specimen. Its habitat is Pinus sylvestris,
from different trees of which I shook, the other day, five or six specimens.
" This ends my list of duplicates of insects in my possession that there is a
possibility of being new to you, I am sorry it is not in my power to send a
greater number.
" Since I began my entomological career, which is within these six months, I
have stumbled on a few insects to a certainty not described in E. B., viz.
Donacia appendiculata. and Carabus spinilabris of Panzer, ' Faun. Germ.,' and
Carabus dorsalis and C. discus of Fabricius, ' Ent. Syst.' Of these I have not
duplicates, and I have sent them to Mr. Marsham. Since I wrote to him, I
have found four or five specimens of Carabus elevatus of Fab. ' Ent. Syst.' No.
1 66. (not 33., which very absurdly has the same trivial name). One of these,
No. 20., I enclose. Whether these have been found by any one else since the
publication of E. B., I am ignorant. — But I hasten to conclude this long
letter.
I am, sir, respectfully,
" Your most obedient servant,
" William Spence."
To this letter I had the pleasure of receiving the following reply from
Mr. Kirby : —
APPENDIX. 573
"Barham, Nov. 30. 1805.
" Sir, — When your obliging letter and box of insects arrived here I was in
London, and did not return till towards the middle of October, when Mr. George
Rodwcll had left Suftblk, or I would, if possible, have returned your box and
an answer by him. Since that time I have been so busily engaged, principally
in preparing my paper upon the genus Apion for the press, that I have not had
time to consider the contents of the little box you were so good as to send.
Having now despatched that business, and besides having an opportunity by a
private conveyance of getting this as far as Pocklington in Yorkshire, I shall at
length endeavour to answer your queries as well as I am able. Your letters to
my friend Marsham, of which he hud indulged me with a sight, excited in my
mind a strong inclination to con-espond with a naturalist who, from his very
outset, seemed to enter so deeply into the subject, — who, so far from falling
into the errors usual with beginners, determined his species with the judgment
and precision of the most experienced naturalist. But I leave prefacing, as I
have but little time allowed me to prepare my letter.
" 1. Your Curculio No. 1. I have long been acquainted with, and have al-
ways taken it for the Cure. Quercus, Linn. The description in 'Faun. Suec'
mentions the triangle observable in certain lights at the base of the elytra. A
correspondent of mine in Sweden, to whom I sent it, writes me word that it is
certainly C. Viminalis of Fabr. and Paykull. I have not Panzer's ' Ent. Germ.,'
only his 'Faun. Ins. Germ. Init.'; therefore I cannot say whether the insect in
question appears to me his C. Behdeti.
"2. The specimen sent me is Curc.AveUana, Marsh.: it has black antennce.
That taken upon the willow, which I once found here, is Cure. Salieeti of Fa-
bricius. It is distinguished by a white scutellum, rufous stalk to the antenni3e,
and rufous tibiiB. In both these species the antennae are broken, though the
first joint is not so long as is often the case ; but the insects being very minute,
it is not easy to unfold the antenniB, and they usually are so closely folded as to
look as if they were inserted at the base of the rostrum, and were unbroken ;
but I have specimens of both, with the antennae unfolded.
" 3. Cure, variabilis of Fabr., doubtless ; but I think Faykull right in giving
it as a variety of C. vigrirostris. What hairs are left upon the elytra are green,
and the colour of the substance of the elytra in nigrirostris is rufous. C. va-
riabilis is probably a late-disclosed specimen. I have it from Sweden of all
shades.
" 4. It comes very near Dytiscus lineatus of Marsham, but may be distinct,
unless, as is probable, it is a sexual variety. My specimen of D. lineatus is a
female, and No. 4. is a male. Neither of these is D. lineatus of Fabr. and Payk.,
which I have from Major Gyllenhal, my Swedish correspondent. I have only
a single specimen of 1). lineatus; one more I took and gave Mr. Marsham.
No. 4. I never saw before ; for the specimen you sent Mr. M., as this variety,
was a black -abdomened one.
"5. D. flexuosus, E. B.; D. pictus, Fabr. Payk. ; arenatus, Panz, xxvi. 1. ?
" 6. Carubus. I think, with you, that this is only a variety of C. littoralis.
I had not seen it before. Observe, that most of these little Carabi, which we
find in moist places, are of a different habit from the others. They come near
to Elaphrus of Fabr , and are reckoned as such by some authors, but I think
they would form a distinct genus. I had named it Ocys (Gr. okvs, eeler), but
Latreille has called it Bembidion ( ' Hist, des Crustac. et Ins.' vol. iii. p. 8., and
vii. p. 232.). The exterior palpi are exactly those of Cieindela flavipes {Ela-
phrus), and so are their habits. The last joint but one of the former is in-
crassate, and the last very minute and setiform. To this genus belong 51, 52,
53, 54. 56, 57. 73. 75. 77 ? 80, 81., of 'Ent. Brit.'
" 7. Carabus truncatellus, ' Ent. Brit.'
574 APPENDIX.
" 8. is, I think, distinct from C. marginatus. It is more shining ; proportion-
alh^ shorter ; the legs arc entirely black, and the hind-legs not so long in pro-
portion. I take it to be C. viduus, Panz., or very near it, or perhaps a variety
of C. 8-punctatus, Marsh.
"9. (1 ). C. punctulatus, E. B. I think from a meraorandnm I made as
to that insect. Corpus parum villosum. It is doubtless only a variety of 9. (2,3.).
" 9. (2, 3.). C. echinatus, E. B. C. Pubescens, Payk. I have found it more
than once near the salt-water rivers, sub alga.
" 10. is C. puncticollis of Paykull. It is certainly similar to C. foraminulosus,
but it is smaller and blacker, the thorax something shorter in proportion ; per-
haps it is the male ; in other respects they exactly resemble each other. Sub-
obsolete may be rendered between stria that are of the usual depth and those
that are but just visible : it is an indefinite term, and must be taken indefinitely.
In my specimens of C. foraminulosus the striae are as deep as they commonly
are in this genus.
"11. C. apricarius, Yabr.
"12. C. nigriceps, 'TAit. 'Brit.'
" 20. C. elevatus is C. unifasciatus, ' Ent. Brit.' It is scarcely C. elevatus
of Fabricius, who says of his, ' Statura et magnitudo omnino C. crux minor.'
C. crux minor is of a ditferent shape, and larger. This insect is very scarce.
" 13. is, I believe, Staph, punctulatus, ' Ent. Brit.' It is not S. obscurus.
The punctula upon the head and thorax of this latter are more numerous, and
there is an impunctate line observable on the thorax. In punctulatus, too, the
the head and thorax are nitida, but not so in obscurus.
" 14. St. cruentatus, ' Ent. Brit.' St. glabratus, Gravenhorst, 'Insect. Micropt.
Brunsvic. p. 178. No. 38.'
" 15. St. tricolor, Fabr. var. ? not of Marsham. St. tricolor, 'Ent. Brit.' is
Paderus melanocephalus of Fabr.
"16. I have this for a vainety of St. linearis, 'Ent. Brit.' St. punctulatus,
Gravenhorst, No. 37.
"17. St. pyrrhopus, Mihi.
"18. I think this is merely a small variety of Cassida similis, 'Ent. Brit.'
(C. rubiginosa, lUig. Herbst. ; C. viridis, Fabr. and Paykull, according to Major
Gyllenhal). The base of the thighs is in all the specimens black. The thorax
in this specimen is a Uttle elevated longitudinally, at least anteriorly.
" Scarites tkoracicus appears somewhat ditferent from the species we find
here, but I believe it to be the true one,
" Coccinella \8-guttata. Since that specimen was taken mentioned in ' Ent.
Brit.' by my pupil Mr. Sheppard, I have found it plentifully myself.
" With respect to the other insects without a label, I find one new species of
the Staphylinus tribe ; but upon these I shall reserve myself till I return the
box, into which I hope I shall have it in my power to put a few things that
may not be unacceptable to you, in return for your kindness ; but, having last
year disposed of 1400 or 1500 specimens to various correspondents, my duplicate
drawer is rather poor at this time. I have received Donacia appendiculata
from my Swedish friend, but hope you will find more, as I should be glad to
possess a British specimen. It is D. Equiseti of Fabricius. There are a number
of curious things amongst those you sent to Mr. Marsham, but I had not time
to examine them all. After you have supplied him, I shall feel much obliged
if you occasionally think of me, and I shall be happy to make such a return as
lam able. Carabus spinilabris, F^nz., is C brunneus, Marsh., 'Ent. Brit. ;'
C. rufescens, Fabr. , and C. ferrugineus of the Linnsean Cabinet. With C. spini-
barbis, and a non-descript I have, it forms a distinct genus, but is not a Manti-
cora. Latreille calls it Pogonophorus. Tom. 3. p. 88.
" I should be much obliged to you to give my compliments to IVIr. Watson,
APPENDIX. 575
and thanks for his obliging letter, which I would have answered by this con-
veyance, but I had not time ; but it shall not remain long unanswered. My
best compliments and kind remembrances also to Mr. George Kodwell. Should
you ever by pleasure or business be induced to visit Surtolk, I should be ex-
tremely happy to have the pleasure of your company at Barham for a few days.
My cabinet is tolerably rich both in indigenous and foreign insects.
" I have enclosed a list of my desiderata with respect to ' Ent. Brit.' that you
may not have the trouble of sending me insects that I am already possessed of.
If you could do the same with respect to your own insects, I should better
know what to send. I have referred above to Gravenhorst's ' Insecta Micro -
ptera Brunsvicensia :' it is the most complete work upon Staphf/linus, Linn,
that has yet appeared. And now my paper admonishes me that it is time to
assure you that I am, Sir,
" Your obliged and obedient, humble servant,
" Wm. Kirby."
These two letters are given in full, as specimens of the way in which
our entomological correspondence was carried on, but from the remain-
ing twenty-seven letters which passed between us up to October 22.
1808 (most of them very long, one of mine accompanying 214 insects
sent to Mr. Kirby, with remarks on them, filling sixteen ordinary folio
pages, which received an answer occupying almost as many), I shall give
only extracts, as the letters themselves being purely scientific would
have no interest for the general reader, and not much for the entomo-
logist, now that the points we so earnestly discussed as to identity of
species, &c., have been mostly long since settled : —
" Barham, March 6th, 1806.
"Dear Sir, — After thanking you, which I do very heartily, for your kind
and intelligent letter, I shall proceed immediately to business, lest I should not
find this sheet long enough for what I have to say."
Then follow three closely-written pages of comments on my remarks
and queries as to his observations on the insects I sent him, and the
letter concludes as below : —
"And now, my dear Sir, I think you will be almost inclined to say, well,
here's a Rowland for my Oliver. I fear you will not get through my disserta-
tions with so little tedium as I did yours. I beg you will never apologise to
me for the queries you propose, for they lead to useful inquiries and the acqui-
sition of knowledge, and mutually improve us in our favourite science. I shall
be much disappointed, indeed, if, when you make your journey to London, you
do not return via Barham ; it is only going two sides of an obtuse-angled
triangle ; if it was time of peace, vessels are often sailing from Ipswich to
Hull. From London here, is about 72 miles, Cambridge 49 ; you know I
imagine how far it is from thence to Hull, — Lynn, probably, would be the
shortest way. Pray remember me very kindly to Mr. George Rodwell, and
tell him his brother and sister here are both well. I had a letter from Mr.
Marsham the other day; he was well. I expect another to-morrow. I shall
be glad to fill up any vacancies in your cabinet in my power, and, therefore,
request your list of desiderata. I have, I suppose, the best part of 1000 Cole-
optera sent by my Swedish correspondent. Major Gyllenhal, by which I am
enabled to ascertain a large proportion of PaykuU's insects, and I have many
English you will not see elsewhere. If you collect foreign insects you will see
here the best collection of foreign Hymenoptera, I believe, now in England, —
576 APPENDIX.
without Francillon's be excepted. You see I can't willingly quit the subject of
your visiting Barham.
" Darkness is coming on, and admonishes me to conclude this long epistle.
" I am, Dear Sir,
" Your obliged and sincere friend and servant,
" Wm. Kikby."
" P. S. — Do you see Sowerby's ' British Miscellany ? ' the Entomological
part of it is now done by me. In No. 1 0. are figures of four very scarce British
Coleoptera, viz. Staphrjlinus Concolor, E. B. (which is the true dilatatus of
authors) ; Scarabaiis pumilus $ $ do. ; Cerambyx fulminans, Fabr., and
Carabus chrysostomos, E. B., which is D?ypta emarginata, Fabr. ' Syst. Eleuth.,'
Cicindela emarginata, ' Ent. Syst.,' and Panzer, &c. The Lepidopterous part I
have no concern in. There are several curious insects in the other numbers,
and particularly my Stylops Melitta, with which my descriptions begin.
March 11."
In June 1806, I accepted Mr. Kirby's pressing invitation to visit him
on my way from London to Hull, and spent ten delightful days with
him at Barham. Five or six of these were devoted to a minute exa-
mination together of his Coleoptera, species by species, and I need not say
what a fund of knowledge I derived from this inspection, accompanied
by his comments, nor what a large accession my collection received
from his very liberal contribution of his duplicates. Three or four days
were given to an entomological excursion in his gig, to visit the shores
of the Orwell, where I found many insects new to me.
From the first letter I had from Mr. Kirby after my return to Hull,
copious extracts may be given, as they will be intelligible to entomo-
logists without the letter to which it refers ; and also from another con-
taining the details of a pedestrian tour to which it alludes, which may
interest non- entomological i-eaders.
" Barham, August 11. 1806.
" Dear Sir, — Your kind letter was particularly acceptable, as I began to
feel uneasy at not hearing from you, and was thinking of writing to you when
it arrived. You will, perhaps, be disappointed at not receiving a folio sheet,
but this is to go in a frank with other letters, and therefore I must content my-
self with the usual size. To make amends I will write as small and close as
possible. And now to answer the entomological part of your letter. My large
Curculio resinosus stands in my catalogue under the name of Colon. Fabricius
had a Citrc. Colon, but it is now a Rhynchcenus. Did you take many of Hister
pygmaus? I have not an English specimen.
" Your frontispiece came safe : it lost not a joint either from antennae
or tarsi. I am speaking of your Carabus Bruntoni, under which name I have
entered it in my catalogue. I feel much concern at the unexpected death of
this gentleman, and regret your loss and that of natural history Of Ca-
rabus vivalis I should be glad of another specimen or two when you can spare
them I rejoice to find you have taken more of Donacia Zosterce. Gyl-
lenhal made Zosterce and Equiseti as varieties, but not as sexual I have
compared Dytiscus /rater with D. elegans, and believe you are right. There is
also a pair of lines of points on the disk of the elytra, yet under three glasses I
sometimes think I discover these points on f rater I have found no more
specimens of Curculio globostis in our old favourite haunt, the chalk-pit. I have
been there but twice since vou left Barham. The first time I found a new
APPENDIX. 577
Pselaphus like AntJiicus JDresdensis (Panz. 98, i.), but with a nan'o-wer thorax,
and palpi equally i-emarkable, and a very minute Cistela, nearly related to
Cistela maritima, E. B., but much more diminutive, with the same characters
exactly, except that the feet are red. This, with maritima^ seem pi-operly to
form a distinct genus, intermediate between Bjirrhus and Cistela. I also found
a nigro-reneous Omalium (once Acidota). of which I had never taken but one
before in the same spot. The last time I took only a black Anisotoma, which I
had taken there once before ; nothing else of consequence has found its way
into my phials. Sheppard's Tetratoma that he finds upon the fir, of which he
gave you a pair, is Spkcpridium humerale, Fabr. ' Ent. Syst.' i. 79. 9. You re-
member my taking a small ferrugineous Nitidida upon the new pales as we
went to the pit ; it turned out Sp/iceridium Colon of Panzer, 84, i., but certainly
not of Fabricius. Sheppard writes me word he has taken two more of Apion
nigriiarse upon Corylus, and above thirty Trox Sabulosus, under the old ram's
horn, where I took three. One of the StapkyUni which yon took at Levington
you left here : it proved to be Staph, cephalotes of Gravenhorst, and looking at
my MS., I find I had referred to your cabinet for it : therefore, concluding you
had a specimen, I put it in my own cabinet : if you find I am wTong, tell me,
and I M'ill send it with the rest. The Apion you found upon Lathyrus pratensis
proves to be my Apion siibulatum ; that upon Ononis, a variety of my Ervi. I
found a nondescript one among Mr. Hooker's parcel, which I have called
rotundicolle, from its globose thorax. There were forty insects in the two
boxes [Mr. Hooker's] that were either new or very rare.
"I am going, if stout enough, — for I have been much troubled since you
left Barham, with lumbago, — on Monday next, to take the tour of the Suffolk
Coast on foot, from Walton, where we slept, to Yarmouth, and hope I shall
make some additions to the catalogue of British insects, and to the collections
of myself and friends. I take a fortnight for the purpose ; shall go to Sheppard's
on Sunday evening, and then proceed leisurely, and return home, I believe,
inland. If the weather continues as fair as it is now, the expedition Avill be
delightful, and I shall only wish you were my comes in via, but I must go solus
cum solo Rangero.* Poor Sheppard can't foot it so far, and there is no other
Hews entomologicus in this neighbourhood. I wrote to Mr. Mac Leay, but he
can't get out for even a single day, he says. I had a letter from our good friend
Marsham not long since ; he has been to visit the Dean of Rochester and Mr.
Lambert (at least he was going when he wrote), but, I suppose, will soon
return. I have been extremely busy upon the natural characters of Staphy-
linus, and have made drawings of the antennae, palpi, &c., of several of my
families. I have not yet determined whether it is to be Callicerus Spencii
or Aleochara Spencii, the palpi come so very near the latter genus. I often
wish for you at my elbow to give me a lift, when occasionally I feel my-
self stupid. I find it difficult to get a clear idea of the interior palpi of
Sfenus. In this drawing, a, is the end of the tongue, and, b, the interior
palpi as they appear from a specimen of mine. I think they are biarticulate,
but cannot satisfy myself on this point. Be so good as to examine one of
yours, and give me your ideas. When you go to Eipon I shall be glad to
hear of your success, and shall detail to you the result of my expedition.
" Believe me, &c."
"Barham, Sept. 24, 1806.
" Dear Sir, — I was gratified to find your tour was so pleasant and suc-
cessful. Mine, unfortunately, terminated differently, and my entomological
captures (of consequence) did not reach a Greek plural, being in number only
* His dog " Ranger."
F P
578 APPENDIX.
two — one specimen of Tenebrio cadaverinus, Fabr., where Sheppard used to
find it in tolerable plenty ; and a new Carabus, connecting catenulatus of
Marsham with violaceus of ditto. I take it to be catenatus of Panzer (87, 4.),
but am not certain, as it does not quite agree with his description. An un-
happy foot had trod upon my specimen, and very much injured it. I looked,
as you may suppose, very earnestly for more, but could not find one. I
showed it to an intelligent gentleman in the neighbourhood, who said, if he
met with anything like it, he would take it.
" Now for my misfortunes. The first day of my travels proved exceedingly
hot. I had at my back, under my coat, a pad called an ' Independent,' which
was suspended from my shoulders and buttoned close to the small of m)' back.
I found this friend, for a new acquaintance, much too warm in his attachment;
he earned for me a double change of linen. I had, besides, ten pockets,
disposed here and there about me, in which I carried, to little purpose as you
find, all the needfuls for a Heros Entomologicus who would have a successful
campaign. Hot as I was, I was so unfortunate as to be disappointed in most
of my efforts to procure refreshment; and at the public-house where I proposed
sleeping, the hostess could produce only a negative bill of fare, so that I was
forced, after a long march, to content myself with bread and butter and bad
beer for my dinner. Indignant at this, and being resolved to taste flesh before
I slept, I pushed forward to another village, and was hospitably received and
entertained by a gentleman-fanner of whom I had some knowledge. I was,
however, not a little fatigued ; and to add to my disasters, the next day, when
I proposed walking only -four miles, and going by water the rest of my day's
allotment, I unluckily missed my way, and was obliged to walk eleven miles,
and great part through a very heavy sand. The fatigues of these two days, and
the privations of the first, brought a neiwous complaint upon me, attended by
a most uncomfortable depression of spirits. However, between walking and
riding, I managed to get as far as Lowestoft, from whence, at the end of the
first week, I started with another gentleman in post-chaises for Barham, where
I arrived on the Saturday morning. I was out of order for some time after my
return home, but have now recovered my usual health. I saw all the towns
upon the coast I had not seen before, and every place that was worthy of
notice. Thus much for my tour. I shall now begin my reply to your letter in
order. [From the two closely-written pages that follow, such short extracts
only are given as are likely to interest the entomologist.]
" Staphylinus caraboides was never before taken in England, that I know of,
and I shall be thankful for British specimens. Carabus secalis, Payk., is cer-
tainly synonymous with your C- Bruntoni .... I suspect your Paderus,
like orbiculatus, to be different from mine, on the head of which I can discover
no impunctate line . . . Your conjecture is right, that Carabus ochropus, E. B.,
is rotundatus, Payk. I have both an English and Swedish specimen .... To
your great satisfaction, I can assure you that your Dytiscus f rater is not assi-
milis of Payk I have observed that the puncta upon the head and thorax
of Staphylinus stercorarius are larger than in erythropterus and castanopterus ;
but with my triple glass I have not been able to see that they are ocellated : a
hair arises from each, but that is also the case in erythropterus; so you see that
the epithet lyncean belongs rather to your eyes than mine ... I have the
Hydrophilus like luridus you mention ; but I have considered it only as a
variety .... And now, I think, I have finished my reply to all your queries,
&c. ; and must thank you both for the information you give me (always fur-
nishing me with something valuable of which I was before ignorant) and
enabling me to attain by putting me upon research. I shall only farther
observe upon this subject, that if you do not furnish us with some valuable
work upon some department of our favourite science, you will be inexcusable.
APPENDIX. 579
" Mr. Haworth spent a day with me about a month ago. He left me a speci-
men of what appears to be Dijtiscus viinhmis of Schrank .... He left me like-
wise a Gyrinns very like vatator, with rufous elytra .... I don't recollect whether
we made out the Copris you took at Landguard-fort. I had received one of
the same species from Dilhvyn, and named it reticuhlus. I since find by com-
paring it with Gyllenhal's insects, that it is Scar. Xiphias of PaykuU, Copris
nuchicornis of Sturm, Illiger, and Panzer, but not of E. B I have now
given you all the entomological intelligence my budget contains. A later
letter from my friend Marsham tells me he had no success in that way in his
late expedition. I shall hope to see something new in Norfolk, whither I am
going for a month next Monday fortnight : I am sure I shall, at least, in
Hooker's cabinet: so that if you write between the 20th of Sept. and the 20th
of Nov., your letter must be directed to me. Rev. Dr. Sutton's, Lower Close,
Norwich. I shall not forget to inform you of what occurs in my way .... I
hope you will do what you hint at — take a walk Barbara- way next summer.
I think I could meet you on the road, at least as far as Cambridge, and
accompany you here.
" Believe me, &c,"
"Barham, March 22, 1807.
"Dear Sir, — I don't wonder at your surprise at my long silence ; yet the
reason of it is contained in your favoui', for which I thank you the more,
because I do not deserve it. You say — 'The fact is, that for the two months
succeeding my last I was so occupied with M?i-entomological aft'airs that I had
not leisure to look at an insect.' This has been precisely my case ....
I have boxes of insects both from Haworth and Hooker to name, which I
am afraid the owners think I have cribbed ; and when I shall have leisure to
look them over and return them, I cannot tell : so I trust you will accept of this
my apology. In London, I went over Sir Joseph's Staphjlini; but there was
nothing very remarkable amongst them except S. aureus, which is of the same
family with 5. murinus, &c. I found several non-descript species in Mr.
M'Leay's cabinet, which he purchased from the Leverian Museum, and one
large and blue one from old Drury's cabinet. Another piece of entomological
news I can tell you, — that M'Leay has purchased all Donovan's foreign
insects — a most valuable addition to his collection, which in value falls not very
far short of Fraucillon's. I will now endeavour to answer your letter . . . ."
" Barham, April 1, 1807.
" Dear Sir, — Your box amved here safe last Thursday or Friday without
any damage of consequence .... I have looked over the contents of your
box and Mr. Watson's, but have not yet had leisure to compare either with my
own cabinet; but the following in your parcel at the first glance seem to me
new: — No. 4, Carabus scitulus. No. 14, Dytiscus scitulus — a ver'y pretty
species. No. 1 9, Haliplus mucronatus ? I have one very near it, I am sure.
No. 20. Helophorus lojigipalpis, appears to me quite a new insect, and not flt/d.
longipalpis of E. B No. 41, Catheretes Junci and nitidus, are both
new to me, except one be in Sheppard's cabinet. 44 is new to me. 76, Cur-
culio Geranii, new to me as British. Apion, Nos. 81, 82. 93. 96, seem tome
all new. Ill, Mordella picea, new to me. 138, Staph, fulvipennis, new I think;
139 also, and 144. Aleochara, No. 160, is a very pretty species; the pile
glitters like silver in certain lights. 194: I believe this may be distinct from
IcBvior ; 197, also, is new I think. I don't think what you have sent me as Antho-
phagus caraboides is that insect; it seems to me to come nearer to Anth. aJpinus.
There are many others, concerning which I am dubious, but shall tell you more
when 1 can compare them with my own insects . . . My entomological studies
p p 2
580 APPENDIX.
are pnrsixed only between dinner and tea, so that you may imagine they do not
proceed very rapidly. I am now engaged in making out the synonyms of
Gravenhorst, which I find tedious enough. To save trouble, I mark in the
margin of his family of Staphylinus the number of pimcta in the thoracic series
thus : . I find this save some trouble, and recommend it to you ... I have
the pleasure to tell you that I found, after you left me, the remains of Mordella
fasciata, E. B., which you may recollect I looked for in vain, and have put al-
together very adroitly" .... [A letter, dated July 7, of ten pages, contained
observations on the 214 insects sent in the box alluded to above.]
"Holme [Norfolk], July 31, 1807.
" My Dear Sir, — Being so very near you as to discern, by the help of a
glass, the Humber's mouth, it will not be so well if I do not speak a few words
to you, and give you some account of what I have been doing since I left my
own door." [After a description of his journey and of Holme, and of twelve
insects he had taken, the letter continues :] — "But the pride and joy of my dis-
coveries here is a new Apion. which I have found in tolerable numbers upon
Statice Limonium. It is by far the most splendid and beautiful, and I think
also the largest species of the genus that I yet am acquainted with. I have
akeady taken fifty specimens, and shall endeavour to get more. I call it Apion
Limonii, and it will form the concluding species of my paper; and so I may
well say, jprn/s coronal opus." [Then follows a description and reference to a
coloured figure on the blank page of the letter.] " The figure is tolerably cor-
rect, though I know not how to give the metallic hues of the original.
" I have no further communication now to make, except that we made some
inquiry whether there were any vessel going from this neighbourhood to Hull ;
but we could not hear of any. If we had met with one with fair accommodation,
I don't know whether we should not have paid you a flying visit." ....
"Barham, Aug. 31, 1807.
" My dear Friend, — At length I have gone through all the contents of your
box, and that of Messrs. Watson and Simpson" .... [Then follow two
pages of descriptions of the new Staphylinidce sent him.]
" In my last I detailed to you many of my captures at Holme, ending with
what I termed the pride and joy of my discoveries, Apion Limonii ; but since
that capture I have taken two insects in the same village, which are still more
valuable : they are both of the Staphylinidce. One of these is a Tachinvs, of
which I took a pair in putrid wood. Its peculiarity consists in its antennte,
which are uncommonly slender, with a knob at the end of each joint, and ver-
ticils of hairs, thus, as in fig. 1. [Here follow two pencil sketches.] No. 2
represents the head and thorax of an Oxytelus, related to O. morsitans and
cornutus., but with four long horns upon the head, the two anterior arising from
the base of the maxillte and protruded before the head. It is, I think, a more
curious insect than even tricornis, of which, by the bye, I have also at last got a
specimen : I took it one morning upon Mrs. Kirby's chemisette, as the ladies
denominate their neck-handkerchiefs, as she was walking before breakfast in
Dr. Sutton's garden. In vain I laid traps of white linen for it; I could not
meet with a second, although I also placed the same attraction in the same
place. I found at Holme, and in a neighbouring village, an abundant supply
of Apion nigritarse upon the dock, the hazel, the hawthorn, the elm, &c. : so
farewell my habitat, which seemed so remarkably confirmed by your taking it
upon the same tree in the north.
" A remarkable event befell me last week. I had been much afflicted in the
course of the week by the ear-ache (a disoi-der which, if you never knew, I
hope you never will, and which, by the by, must apologise for any mistakes
APPENDIX. 581
you may find with respect to your insects). Mrs. Kirby went to our party [a
weekly evening one], when the mail-coach horn blew, and the coach stopped:
my servant went to the gate. In the interim, a gentleman got out, met the ser-
vant, left not his name but his compliments, and he would call the following day:
then again mounted and disappeared. We were all puzzled who it should be;
and I thought it must be Joseph Hooker (who is coming to-night), obliged by
some circumstance to ante-date his visit. I sent my man in the morning,
thinking it possible the gentleman might have stopped at Claydon, to request
his company at breakfast. When he came, instead of Hooker, I saw the coun-
tenance of a perfect stranger, who said his name was Peck; that he was an
American, and had been at Norwich with Dr. Smith, but that he had brought
no letter of introduction, and that he came on purpose to see me. Though he
spoke English well, I thought his accent rather French, and his having no
vouchers were unpleasant circumstances ; but I thought there could be no harm
in showing him my cabinet. His observations showed me that he understood
the subject, and was a man of considerable information in Natural History.
He promised to send me a publication of his upon Tenthredo Cerasi, seemed
much gratified with what he saw, and professed himself greatly obliged. Upon
the whole, I was much ]3leased with him, and it was doing some violence to
myself that I did not ask him to take a bed at my house ; but his want of
introductory letters and vouchers of any kind would have made that an impru-
dent step ... ."
"Barham, Jan. 7, 1808.
" ' Barham ! ! ! So, then, the rector of Barham is not dead, as I imagined ! '
This, my dear sir, would be a very natural exclamation upon seeing a letter
from me. It is necessary, therefore, that I should make some apology for not
sooner sending the boxes [of insects] and for my long silence .... As to
writing, I have been as deeply immersed in theology as yourself in political
economy, so that I have not cast my eye upon an insect for months ; and having
nothing to write about, I did not think a letter of conmion chit-chat would pay
the postage." ....
We now come to the origin of the " Introduction to Entomology," the
history of which will be best given by quoting the passages in our letters
referring to it.
In the three or four letters I received from Mr. Kirby in the summer
of 1808, nothing occurs generally interesting. In that of October 12,
after three folio pages of remarks on insects I had sent him, or in answer
to queries as to former ones, he observes at its close : —
" I attend to what you say with respect to pointing out the differences between
allied species, and shall do my best in that way. I think it is now time to spare
your eyes, which will have some difficulty in making out this scrawl. I have
heard nothing lately either from Marsham or M'Leay. ' Ent. Brit.'* I fear will
never go on. A general English work on British Entomology I am sm-e would
sell. Marsham could never have time to do it. You and I in partnership
might very well, if it could be without hurting his feelings, and an English
work properly would not interfere with his Latin one : let foreigners afterwards,
if they liked, translate it. As your time is not taken up by secular business,
you could occasionally come here for a few weeks, each having specified genera
* Marsham 's " Entomologia Britannica."
p p 3
582 APPENDIX.
and looking over each other's descriptions. I think we should show foreigners
we are not so backward in this science as they imagine us to be.
" Farewell, and believe me to be,
" Yours very truly,
"Wm. lilKBT."
The prececHniT letter was followed by another long one from Mr.
Kirby, dated November 15th, wholly occupied by a synopsis of the
families, and sections of his Monograph of the Staphylinidce, on which he
was then hard at work. My reply, dated Drypool, November 23rd,
1808, to these two and a former letter was chiefly filled by remarks on
this synopsis, and on his paper on Apion, in the Linnean " Transactions,"
and by giving an outline of my proposed Monograph of the genus Cho-
eva : after which it proceeded as follows : —
" I will not here attempt to reply to the whole of the three valuable letters
for which I am indebted to you since my last At present I must only
advert to two of their topics, — your hint relative to a co-partnership English
' Entomologia Britaunica,' and your remarks on the Linnean cabinet. The
former scheme much pleased me, for, would you think it ? the very same idea
fome time ago glanced across my mind. I have nothing more at heart than
being able to contribute to the advance of our science in this country, and in
thinking on an English description of our insects, the only mode of etfecting
this, the thought has struck me, ' could not my friend Kirby and I manage
such a work ? ' I dismissed the idea as a mere pleasing fancy, partly from the
reason you allude to, — the fear that our friend's feelings might suffer, and
partly because I know you are at present otherwise engaged. But really, on
second thoughts, when confirmed by the similarity of youi-s, the plan does not
want feasibility. As IVIr. Marsham certainly cannot himself take any share in
an English work, he could not be sorry that others undertook it, and so far
from interfering with his Latin one, it would, indeed, greatly assist the sale.
On the whole, I am inclined to think your scheme well worthy of further con-
sideration, and I think we should not lose sight of it. I should, to be sure, be
but a sorry partner in the concern, but my knowledge of German might be of
some use, and greater dispatch might be made by two than one. My idea is,
that such a work should be published in numbers or parts, monthly or quar-
terly. We should thus have more time ; purchasers would more easily be
' found ; and from these, which would rather be the materials of a more perfect
work than a complete ' Entomologia Britannica,' eventually a regular work
might be fabricated. The greatest obstacle with me is the risk of its not pay-
ing itself Having tasted the sweets of literary profit (I got my bookseller's
account a few weeks since : my six editions of ' Britain independent of Com-
merce,' leave about 230/. clear, — the first of the ' Radical Cause of the present
Distresses of the West India Planters,' 30/. ; the second of this last, and my
last pamphlets, are yet unsettled; my expense of advertising was about 80/., —
what a parenthesis ! pray don't hold your breath to the close of the sentence),
I should not like to lose by such an undertaking, though I should not care if it
only paid its way. But it is too bad to give one's labour, and lose money into
the bargain. I confess I am not so sanguine as you on this head . I fear we
could not expect a greater sale than Konig and Sims had for their ' Annals of
Botany,' which did not answer. And yet, surely 250 English entomologists
could be had for purchasers ; and if so, by charging a good price, I think it
might be made to pay, if published in parts. The best plan to ensure success
would be to have a respectable bookseller engaged with one. But to me there
appears a desideratum whose acquisition would greatly contribute to the sue-
APPENDIX. 583
cess of such a work — I mean a popular ' Introduction to Entomology : ' and so
long have I been convinced that this want is the greatest bar to the spread of
the science amongst lis, that in my solitary rambles I have sometimes occupied
myself in sketching mentally the plan upon which I conceived it should be
composed. If you give me encouragement I think I should be induced to give
some form to my project. But it would be still better if you would become a
partner in the speculation — and why not ? I heartily wish you would let our
partnership begin here. I could give you a sketch of my scheme ; you could
correct, add to it, or propose another. Out of both one could be made, and we
might then divide the several parts between us, and finally jointly amalgamate
them into a whole. Pray think of this, and give me your opinion.*
" Believe me, my dear Sir,
" Ever yours,
" W. Spence."
Mr. Kirby's answer to the preceding remarks was dated Barham, Dec
17, 1808. After referring to various entomological matters in my letter
he observes : —
" As our thoughts jumped, as they say, about a ' British Entomology,' so did
they as to the preparatory step — an ' Introduction to Entomology, ' — at least,
I had such a work in my thoughts, and had gone so far as to draw up a list of
* It is proper to advert here to a discrepancy between my proposal in the above
letter of a popular Introduction to Entomology when I lirst started the idea, and the
short account of the origin of our book in my letter to the President of the Entomo-
logical Society, announcing the death of Mr. Kirby (" Transactions of the Entomo-
logical Society, Vol. i. New Series, Proceedings," p. 19.), in which the plan of
giving it a popular form is spoken of as subsequent to a first idea I had men-
tioned to him, of making it scientific only. The fact is, that this was my impres-
sion both in writing our Preface (in which the plural number is necessarily used)
and the letter to the President of the Entomological Society; and this impres-
sion remained until Mr. Freeman had sent me my letters to Mr. Kirby, and I
had read the above extract. From it I now see, that though my first idea of
an Introduction to Entomolog}' was, as I well remember, that of making it scien-
tific merely, but very soon changed into the conviction that a popular way of
treating the subject was alone likely to fulfil my aim, — that of making converts to
a study which 1 found yield me so much delight, — I never mentioned the idea of
a merely scientific Introduction to Mr. Kirby at all, but from the first proposed to
him its being popular. This, in the many j'ears which elapsed between the project
of our book and the writing the Preface, as well as the letter to the President of
the Entomological Society, had wholly escaped my recollection, and gave rise to
the discrepancy alluded to. In fact, from the moment Mr. Kirby had agreed to
join me in carrying out my plan of an Introductory work, any reference to its pre-
cise origin vanished from my mind ; all my thoughts, for the many years the work
occupied us, being devoted to executing and perfecting the design in conjunction
with my illustrious friend, without whose aid it could not have been satisfactorily
realised. And that I should thus have proposed to him, and induced him to join
me in carrying out my original idea, has always been to me a subject of self-gratu-
lation ; for not only did our work, in a great degree, dispel the prejudices which had
impeded the study of Entomology, and largely increase the number of its votaries,
but it was of essential service to the science, by offering, under its various heads,
fit opportunities for the reception from his note-book of the numerous detached
observations collected by Mr. Kirby during many years, on the economy and habits
of insects, which would otherwise, in all probability, have been lost to the world ;
and by placing him imder the necessity of extending liis former studies to a much
wider and closer investigation of every department of Entomology, which led to a
great accession to his previous knowledge, yielding a rich harvest to the science
both in our work and his subsequent ones.
p p 4
584 APPENDIX.
parts, and of terms applied to those parts. In order to break the matter g;ra-
dually to Marsham, I have told him of our plan of an * Introduction to En-
tomology.' With MacLeay, upon whose secrecy and judgment I can rely,
I have gone further, having opened to him our whole plan, and requested his
sentiments, as we would both wish to do every thing as much as possible in a
way not to hurt our friend Marsham's feelings. The former I expect to hear
from daily ; from the latter I have heard, but he took no notice of what I said
about our ' Introduction to Entomology.' And now let me reply to what you
say about terms," &c.
My reply to this letter is dated Drypool, Jan. 2, 1809, and six closely-
written pages are filled with further comments on his proposed mono-
graph of StaphylinidoB. I then proceed towards the end as follows : —
'' I am quite delighted that we have been so much in unison with regard to
an ' Introduction to Entomology,' and I am glad that you have broken our
scheme to Marsham, and fully unfolded it to Mac Leay. Yet I fear, from the
former's silence, it is not quite what he approves, though I think it might be
easily proved to him that nothing would be so likely to promote the sale of
his work as an elementary work on the science. I shall be impatient for Mac
Leay's opinion of the scheme."
In another letter to Mr. Kirby, dated January 25, 1809, principally
devoted to giving my reasons for making as few changes as possible in old
and generally-received entomological nomenclature, though it may not
be strictly correct, I observe towards its close : —
" To turn to another subject, — our embryo ' Introduction to Entomology,' —
I will here give you my ideas as to the plan of such a work, which I submit to
your consideration. Tell me what you think of it, and propose any that ycu
may deem better. The first requisite of such a work is, I think, that it should
be popular, — that it be a book which might be read with pleasure and in-
struction even by those who have no intention of studying the technicals of the
science. Entomology is at such a low ebb amongst us, and so many obstacles
and prejudices are to be overcome in rendering its study general, that the first
approach cannot be made too attractive. In this view I would throw the work
into Letters, — a form which admits of much latitude in amusing digressions,
and for which Rousseau's 'Letters on Botany,' Sprengel's recent 'Letters on
Cryptogamic Terminology,' &c. are sufficient precedents. From my own ex-
perience in studying the science of botany, I know how much more pleasant it
is to have the at best rather dry materials of terminology conveyed in a familiar
style, and made palatable by an attractive vehicle. Having fixed on the epis-
tolary form, the first letter I would devote to refuting objections on the score of
the trifling nature of the science, — pointing out the advantages which man al-
ready derives from the insect world ; — the probability of his greatly augment-
ing them ; — the vast power of insects to injure him; — the necessity, in warding
off this evil, of ascertaining them scientifically ; — the pleasures to be derived
from the study, &c. &c. Then I would proceed to the mode of collecting in-
sects, preserving them, &c., which would fill three or four letters. Lastly, I
would enter upon the terminology, — first giving a general idea of the system,
and then teaching the terms by supposing the correspondent to have before him
some very common Coleopterous species, the parts of which might be still fur-
ther illustrated by a few good outline figures. In this description of parts I
would confine myself chiefly to the order Coleoptera, since that alone can at
present be satisfactorily studied in this country. The peculiar terminology of
APPENDIX. 585
the other orders, a synopsis and ehicidation of all the British genera (a grand
desideratum), various critical remarks, Sec, would fully make up a second vo-
lume, if the first should be well received .- and the interest of our pockets dis-
suades from risking too much at once. To the end of the volume I would add
a cjosc-printed dictionary of terms, which would be useful for reference. The
above outline, you perceive, wants a deal of tilling up ; but this sketch is sufficient
to enable you to judge of the merits of the plan. I have thought a good deal
about it, and I am persuaded that some such plan, as far as making the work
attractive is concerned, will be infinitely preferable to any dry chapter-and-
verse bare enumeration of the parts of insects, like Yeats's, or even Linnc's and
Fabricius's immortal 'Fundamenta' and ' Philosophia.' Every body reads with
avidity anecdotes of the uses, injurious properties, habits, &c. of insects ; and
only admit your readers through such a vestibule, you will win numbers to the
science, who would have been deterred at the very threshold of mere technical
discussions. Indeed, I very much doubt whether fifty copies of a work of the
latter description would be sold ; of the former, I am sure, five hundred might.
As I look upon our 'Introduction' scheme as determined on, ought we to lose
much more time in setting about it ? "
Mr. Kirby's next letter to me is dated Feb. 13, 1809 : and after three
pages of remarks as to the expediency of retaining old and generally-used
names, even though strictly not proper (as mandibulse for maxillie),
which I bad contended for, but to which he objected, he says towards
the end of the letter —
" With respect to our copartnership, I do not think it is much concerned in
this argument, for as our terms must be Enghsh we should do no more than
mention the names of Latin writers. The plan of the work which you have
drawn up in your letter, upon the whole pleases me much. I see with you the
necessity of making it a popular work, and with a view to it, have been making
extracts from Latreille, and have got so forward as to have written a great
part of the Introductory letter containing a defence of Entomology from all the
objections that have been made to it. I think separate Letters should be al-
lotted to the injuries and benefits of insects, another to the wonderful particu-
lars of their history, and then the mode of collecting and preserving them.
But in my opinion the part that relates to tenns should not be confined to Co-
leoptera, — it should take in all the orders, for which I have materials prepared
from Latreille, whose Introduction will be a great help with respect to the
Crustacea and Aptera, which you and I perhaps know at present little of. I
want another term instead of terminology, which is a word of base origin, having
a Latin father and a Greek mother. Orismohgy, though new-born, is a le-
gitimate word, and I think would soon be received into good company, since
he deseiwes it as well as Orychtology, Ornithology, and many other children of
his mother \6yia .
"I have had a letter from my friend Marsham the other day, containing a
long philippic against our innovations, and the multiplication of genera, in
which he seems to say that he gives up all intention of going further in ' En-
tomologia Britannica.' In my answer I gave him a further hint of our in-
tention, by saying that besides our Introduction to Entomology, we had an-
other plan in view, which we hoped would tend to promote the sale of ' E. B.'
also, but that at present it was an unlicked cub, and therefore I should not say
what it was at present. 'Tis best to break the ice gradually; for though he
ought not to be displeased at it, and our works do not interfere, yet I can
plainly see there is a little jealousy hanging about him. I have a great regard
for him, and you may observe in my Apion how tenderly I have treated him
586 APPENDIX.
when in eiTor ; and this I wish to do. In our 'Introduction' we should cer-
tainly recommend 'Ent. Brit.' to all Entomological students as the first sys-
tematical work that ever appeared in this country. I think it will be highly
necessary that you and I should meet this year to settle termini. I hope you
will be able to come here for a month or two, and then all points could be much
better settled and discussed than they could by letter. If you could come be-
tween Easter and Midsummer I should be highly gratified."
Agreeably to Mr. Kirby's invitation I transferred myself to Barham
in the summer of 1809, and for several weeks we were hard at work
laying the foundations of our book, which conceiving to be the Letters
on External Anatomy and Orismology, it was to these we first directed
our attention, and before I left Barham we had drawn out a general
sketch of the whole, founded on the examination of Mr. Kirby's insects,
and discussions, often very long, as to the propriety of various terms.
We had no leisure time for excursions, but as a short one we made
one day led to a ludicrous adventure, which Mr. Kirby used often to
refer to, and relate with great zest to his entomological visitors, its his-
tory may be here given. Mr. (now Sir William J.) Hooker was at
that time staying at Barham, and being desirous to have pointed out to
him, and to gather with his own hands, the rare Targionia hypophylla,
from its habitat, first discovered by Mr. Kirby, near Nayland, some miles
distant, it was agreed we three should walk thither, entomologising by
the way, and after dinner proceed to the hedge-bank where it grew.
Entering the head inn yard on foot, with dusty shoes, and without other
baggage than our insect-nets in our hands, we met with but a cool recep-
tion, which, however, visibly warmed as soon as we had desired to be
shown into the best dining-room, and had ordered a good dinner and
wine. We intended to walk back in the evening, but as the bank where
the Targionia grew was a mile or two out of the direct road, and it
came on to rain, we ordered out a post-chaise, merely saying we wanted
to drive a short way on a road which Mr. Kirby indicated to the posti-
lion.
When we arrived at the gate of the field where the bank was, the rain
had become very heavy : so, calling to the postilion to stop and open the
door, we scampered out of the chaise, all laughing, and hastily telling
liim to wait there, without other explanation we climbed over the gate,
and not to be long in the rain, set off running as fast as we could along
the field-side of the hedge, to the bank we were looking for. We saw
amazement in the face of our postilion at what possible motive could
have made three guests of his master clamber pell-mell over a gate into
a fieltl that led nowhere, in the midst of a heavy shower of rain, and then
run away as if pursued ; and it was the expression in his countenance
which caused our mirth, which was increased to peals of merriment when
we saw that instead of waiting for us at the gate, as we had directed, he
mounted his horses with all speed, and pushed on in a gallop along the
road on the other side of the hedge, evidently to circumvent our nefarious
plan (as he conceived) of bilking his master both of our dinners and the
chaise-hire. When the cessation of our uncontrollable mirth had allowed
us to gather specimens of our plant, perceiving through the hedge where-
abouts we stopped, he also halted to watch our motions, and when he saw
us run back, he obeyed our orders to return to the gate, — where we got
APPENDIX. 587
into the chaise, still in a roar of laughter at the whole affair, and at his
awkward attempt to explain away his not having waited for us there, as
we had directed, and evident high satisfaction at bringing back in triumph
to our inn the three cheats whose intended plans he had so cleverly frus-
trated, as he no doubt told his master ; to whom, being too much amused
with the adventure, we did not make any explanation, but left it to form
one of the traditions of the inn.
To return to our book : we had found the various investigations re-
quired, so much more numerous and difficult than we had calculated on, that
at the time of our separation in consequence of other engagements, we
had not done anything towards the preliminary and popular portion, not
having even definitely fixed what particular letters each should take ;
and though we had drawn up a provisional table of all the anatomical and
orismological terms which the science seemed to demand, there were
many of these still requiring further discussion before they could be
finally adopted. To these discussions, the thirty-seven letters we ex-
changed during the years 1809 and 1810 were mainly devoted, and of
these I shall give two of the earliest, to serve, as in the former instance
of our first Entomological correspondence, as a specimen of our Avay of
carrying on these investigations, and to show that we spared no labour,
either of mind or pen to attain accurate notions on the subject. Of the
remaining letters (upwards of 100) which passed between us between
1809 and 1815, when the first volume of the work appeared, a great
portion of which was occupied with similar discussions, and with contri-
butions by each to the " Letters " of the other, I shall as before quote
only such detached passages, from a very few, as may be likely to inter-
est the entomologist and general reader.
" Drypool, Nov. 20, 1809.
" My Dear Sir, — I have been long very impatient for the pleasure of
hearing from you, and but that for the last month we have been up to the
ears in brick and mortar, during which my time was fully occupied with look-
ing after the workmen, I should before now have beat up yom* quarters ; for
by this time you have doubtless ended your metropolitan campaign, and are
safely seated in your Barhamian hybernacula, — rendered doubly agreeable by
your long absence. It is only such domesticated animals as you and I that
can feel all that is comprised in the word home, — feelings unknown to
the votaries of variety and dissipation. I take it for granted you duly re-
ceived the last long letter which I sent you through Mac Leay about six
weeks ago, containing divers cogitations and suggestions relative to our work,
on which I long for your opinion ; for having made a collection of materials
for the letters I am to undertake, I wish much to make a beginning upon
them : but this I cannot satisfactorily do until I have your ideas as to the
plan we are to follow.
" As I never lose sight of the importance of putting our terms (doubtless
to be immortal!) to the ordeal of every possible objection, I have several
additional doubts and difficulties to propose to your consideration : and, first,
as to the Ilia and Ischia, about which latter term I believe I said something
in my last. I am now fully convinced that both terms are radically im-
proper, both as being anatomically incorrect, and as being unnecessary. In
the first place, Ilia employed in the plural number, as we must often employ
it, is quite incorrect, for the Ilia in anatomy are the flanks or sides of the
umbilical region of the abdomen. Anatomists always say Os ilium when they
588 APPENDIX.
refer to the bone of the hip. Secondly, from a careful examination of some
species of every order of insects, I am now persuaded that both lUiger and
we are wrong, also, iu considering the Coxa as formed of two parts, and the
Ischium as forming one of them. On the contrary, it is clearly a part of
the thigh, to which it is generally closely attached by a membrane admitting
only a very slight degree of motion, but perhaps never by a distinct joint.
The joint is always between the Hium and the Ischium, the latter serving
as a sort of fulcrum to the base of the thigh, often with a hole between them
for the reception of the pivot of the Ilium. If you will dissect and examine
a large foreign Geotrupes, you will see all this very clearly. You will find
that even when the insect has had its joints made pliant by being immersed
in hot water, there is little or no motion can be produced between the Ischium
and the thigh, which are attached to each other by that articulation called
by anatomists amphiarthrosis ; whereas there is a distinct ginglymus joint be-
tween the Ilium and the Ischium. It is true that in Hymenoptera, Diptera,
and some Coleoptera, where the Ischia are not fixed obliquely to the base
of the thigh, but transversely, the Ilium and Ischium do seem at first view
like the two parts of one joint ; but even then, as I have ascertained by
examining living insects, the Ischium is still fixed to the thigh by a mem-
brane and no joint, and the joint is still between the Ischium and Ilium.
Now, such being the facts, there cannot, I think, be a moment's hesitation
in deciding that it can never be proper to consider a part as forming a portion
of a limb with which it is connected by a true ginglymus joint ; or not to
consider it as portion of a limb with which in many cases it seems truly
connate, and in all others closely connected by a membrane admitting of little
or no motion. It appears to me, therefore, that our Ilium should be regarded
,as a peculiar and distinct joint, namely, the true hip-joint ; and we cannot
have a better name for it than Coxa, which Latreille also gives to it. Our
Ischium must be considered part of the thigh, and cannot,. I think, have a
better name than trochanter, which has the right of priority, and, though not
strictly anatomically correct, is as near as in such cases we can expect to
come : both are processes of the base of the thigh; only in man the trochanter
is a mere projection of the base of the thigh ; in insects, a distinct part
joined by a suture and membrane. Observe, some Ichneumons have a double
trochanter.
" I ]3articularly wish you would examine the claAV-joint of the tarsi of a
large Cerambyx, Leptura, or Chrysomela, and I think you will agree with me
that the small part of the base, though separated by a suture, is no distinct
joint, but in fact a trochanter afiixed to the claw-joint by the anarthrosis articu-
lation, and very closely analogous to the trochanters of the thighs. To me it
seems that it would be quite as pi'oper to consider this minute basal part a por-
tion of the third joint (not of the claw -joint) of the tarsi as to call the trochan-
ters parts of the Cox^. Attention to the mode of articulation (evidently a
material point) will lead to another good consequence — we can thus avoid
regarding this supplementary part in the tarsi of Leptura, &c. as a true joint,
the reverse of which would sadly curtail our grand divisions founded on the
tarsi ; and, by calling it a trochanter, we may possibly gain some good ge-
neric characters, if, as I suspect, the same circumstance holds good iu some
other tribes.
" I have been puzzling myself a good deal to discover what parts in the
postpectus of Hymenoptera and Coleoptera are analogous to each other. I have
not yet by any means satisfied myself on every point, but two or three fixed
landmarks I think I have ascertained. One is, that your Collare (' Monograph.
Apum Ang.') is not, as we have supposed, analogous to the upper part of the
thorax in Coleoptera. I was made pretty sure of this in the course of dissect-
APPENDIX. 689
ing several dried bees, ichneumons, &c., in which the coUare always remained
attached to the thorax, when the fore-feet were pulled off, and nerer came off
along with them. But I was fully convinced from a large female ant which I
took a few days ago alive. In making eiibits to release itself, the fore-feet were
pulled to a considerable distance from the coUare, to which they were attached
above merely by a dilatable membrane ; but the collare was immovcably fixed
to the dorsum, and thougii there is a suture between them, it was with difficulty
I could separate them by dissection. Another observation which proves that
the collare is no part of the thorax, is, that putting a pin under it, and endea-
vouring to push it off, the wings were strongly moved, so that their muscles must
be attached to the under side of it. Now we know that the wings in Coleoptera
have no connection with the thorax. I am now persuaded that the upper side
of that part in Hymenoptera analogous to the thorax in Coleoi)tera is rarely or
never visible, the part itself being extremely thin, and wholly concealed by the
collare. The question then comes — ' What is the collai'C analogous to ? ' and
here I confess that I have not altogether satisfied myself, but must apply to
your more extensive acquaintance with the order. Illiger says your tubercula
are analogous to the scapularia of Coleoptera, and I am inclined to think
rightly. If so, as the scapularia, seem in general to be connate with the collare,
or separated from it by an apparent suture, probably this part is analogous to a
concealed vertical piece which I find at the base of the scutelkim in a large
foreign Geotrupes, and which you will easily see on dissection. Now, if this
supposition be correct, then taking this Geotrupes for our Coleopterous instance,
we shall see in it pretty clearly the parts to be seen in Hymenoptera ( Vespa
Crabro, for instance). Having separated the postpectus in the Geotrupes, we
see at the base of the scutellura, first a vertical part forming a right angle with
it. This I conceive to answer to the collare, which in Vespa is deflcxed nearly
in the same manner. The tubercula in Vespa, or lateral triangular parts of the
collare, I conceive to answer to the scapularia in Geotrupes. (I must here ob-
serve, in order to obviate the objection that the scapularia are not placed so
high up, that the scapulare is not merely the triangular white part which I
mentioned to you as being present in Coccinella 7 punctata, but includes also
another part at the base of that, the base of the true scapulare, which is
divided into two portions by an apparent, not real, suture, being in a line
with the base of the peristethium.) Next in the Geotrupes comes the con-
cealed, horny, horizontal base of the scutellum ; doubtless, as we have always
considered it, equivalent to our dorsum in Hymenoptera, and the exposed or
tnie scutellum is equivalent to your scutellum in Hymenoptera. Now comes
in Vespa between the scutellum and your quondam metathorax, another trans-
verse piece, which, as you have not named in Apis, I suppose is not found
in them. To what in Coleoptera is this analogous? Here, again, our Geo-
trupes comes into play. If you take off the scutellum, you will find con-
cealed by it at the base of the channelled lumbi, with which it forms a right
angle, a curious vertical, square, horny plate. This seems to me analogous
to the above intermediate part in Vespa. Lastly, in Vespa comes your quon-
dam metathorax, doubtless analogous to Illiger's interscapuliam, or the chan-
nelled part in Coleoptera, covered by the base of the elytra. So much for
the upper side. Next as to the under side of the postpectus in Vespa. The
large dilated part between the fore and middle feet must be analogous to
the peristethium in beetles. The sides of this part seem to form your pleura.
The scapularia I have mentioned before. The mesostethium must be a very
small part between the four hind legs, and between the sides of this and
the peristethium lie two smaller parts, which I conjecture to be our hypochon-
dria. Thus I have made out, in one way or other, all the same parts in
Hymenoptera which are found in Coleoptera ; and vice versa. You must de-
590 APPENDIX.
cide whether rightly or not, and, as I have no hypothesis, I am perfectly
open to conviction.
"I have now somewhat to observe respecting the names of these parts.
First as to your coUare. Though this is not the thorax, I think we should still
call it collare. This term is not here absolutely improper, as it is like, though
not in reality, a collar ; it has been introduced by your 'Monog. Apura Ang.,'
and adopted by Eliger, and we shall not easily find a better. In Coleoptera,
of course, we shall very rarely have occasion to make use of it, but in every
other order it will be of constant occurrence. Dorsum, I think as before, is
very objectionable, from being a word of such general import, and so often
improperly used for tergum. For this part I think we should have some word
equivalent either to our good English term, after-corselet, or to ante-scutellum,
the coining of which I give up to you, the master of our mint.
" I do not exactly recollect what parts we meant by lumbi, or interlumbium.
If the former were intended for your quondam vietathorax, 1 think it is objec-
tionable, as being a plural name for one flat surface, and because in anatomy
the terms apply only to the sides of the lumbar region ; but I see no objection
to interlumbium for this part. We still want a name for the transverse part be-
tween the scuteUum and interlumbium. Might not this be the post-scutellum
or something equivalent ? Hypochondria. — In refen-ing to a system of anatomy
I find that this term, as we use it, is anatomically incorrect, the hypochondria
being, in fact, the sides of the epigastric region of the abdomen, but though in
part covered by the false-ribs, forming no portion of the true pectus. As
we apply the term epigastrium to the base of the abdomen, it will of course
be highly improper to apply a term appropriated to the sides of the epigas-
trium to the pectus. On this account, and as Linne evidently in Cerambyx
Tubus applied this term to the whole sides of the postpectus (which was correct,
according to his idea of regarding that part as the epigastrium — see Con-
tharis rufa) had not we better drop it, and adopt Knoch's parapleura, which
seems unobjectionable ?
" I cannot guess what we meant by Intercosta, Fetnoralia, and CostulcB, though
I very well remember giving those names to particular parts. But though
I have since examined the postpectus of many Coleopterous insects, I see
no parts but what may be referred to the peristethium, mesostethium, sca-
pularia, and parapleura. These, indeed, are sometimes crossed by apparent
sutures, but I do not think this is a sufficient reason for dividing them into
more distinct parts. Knoch's meriaese, are clearly the hind coxse. Of course
we have nothing to do with them.
" Squamula. — I stumbled lately upon an objection to the use of this term in
the sense you have given to it in 'Mon. Apum Ang.,' viz., that Linne had
applied it to the angular elevation of Formica. We should certainly, there-
fore, have a distinct name. Illiger's name, tegula, does not seem very much
amiss, as in Hymenoptera this part aptly enough may be compared to a little
tile. Our English base-cover cannot be improved.
" So much for objections. Besides which I have to notice two or three
things that we yet seem to want names for. 1st. Should we not have a name
for the upper wing-cases of Grylli, &c., which being of so different a sub-
stance can scarcely with propriety have the terms elytra and coleoptera applied
to them. Illiger uses tegmina, but perhaps a better term might be selected. I
perceive in a large foreign Gryllus, which doubtless you possess, a curious
concave shell-like process, between the claws of the tarsi, to which neither
pulvillus nor onychium is applicable. What shall it be called? Would it not
be very convenient to have a term signifying that the surface of any part of an
insect is free from all inequality, in opposition to Joveolce, striae, &c. ? Lavis
is not sufficient, as properly it should be restricted to denote the absence of
puncta, scabrities, &c. only. Thus the thorax of an Apian might be foveolate.
APPENDIX. 591
and yet lavis ; and If it should chance to be neither, the absence of the former
character could not at present be expressed without a periphrasis. At present
we are forced to say haud striatus, canaliculatus, &c., wliich is contrary to the
Linnean rule of not using negatives. Would aquatus, in EngHsh, even,
do ? . . . ,
" I am, &c.,
" W. Spence."
The following is Mr. Kirby's answer to the preceding letter : —
" Barbara, November 27th, 1809.
" My Dear Sir, — I now mean to take my revenge, and show you that I also
can write a long letter, a faculty which, from your late experience, you may
begin to doubt ray possessing. I shall not, however, waste ray time and yours
in preliminary matters, but go directly to the unanswered parts of your letters.
I shall begin with your last, by saying that I admit the validity of your reason-
ing with respect to Ilium and Ischium, and had on the last made a note in
pencil, ' melius trochanter.' But if this is considered as part of the thigh,
would not a term be necessary to distinguish what is commonly called the
thigh ? Perhaps it would be better to consider the trochanter as per se, and so
arrange coxa, trochanter, femur, one under the other, as primary parts of the
Pedes. I cannot look at your letters without wishing I had been with you
during your examination and dissection of insects, to have taken some of your
labour off your shoulders. Your success has been answerable to your pains,
and no small degree of light will be thrown upon Entomology by your disco-
veries and observations. I must brush up my memory a little, for I seem to
have forgot the reference of many of our terms. As I go on with this letter,
I propose to write the definitions of the terms of our anatomical table, which
I shall then send to you for your observations.
" I admit the justice of your observations, that the joint at the base of the
claw-joint in Cerambyx, &e., is perfectly analogous to that at the base of the
thigh, but I think neither of them a true trochanter ; which all the joints have
independent of it. Is this an anomaly, or are we to look upon it (regarding
the thigh as the tibia, with Dr. Wilmot), as analogous with the fibula? I
strongly suspect he is correct in this opinion, for though the fibula in large
animals is parallel with the tibial bone, it seems in other respects to answer to
this, and in many insects it seems to run in that direction. I have no anato.
mical book, so I may speak rather incorrectly, for I forget whether the name
of the bone parallel with the fibula be called tibia or not. Observe — the
insects that have this anarthrous joint at the base of the claw-joint have no
onychium or pulvillus, or else an obsolete one. With respect to this term ony-
chiura, I must observe that it is by no means coiTcct, for onychium signifies a
little claw ; now even in the Lucanides this little joint is terminated by
bristles rather than claws, and I believe in the majority of genera it has
nothing like claws. I am not wedded to pulvillus, which is certainly not
generally proper, and yet one term ought to distinguish the same part in
all cases. It seems to me more analogous to the ball of the foot than any
other part, but planta would generate confusion ; what think you of plan-
tula, its diminutive ? Now I am upon the subject of legs, I will observe that
the part you notice in the anterior tibia; of Lamprima (male) is one of the
spinulcE. I don't recollect whether in answer to your remarks upon antenna,
and my terms radicle, scape, stalklet, a,nd Jlagellum, I observed that these were
not mqant to be applied universally to the three first joints, and the whole of
the rest, but only in cases where they are remarkable, which, I believe, are
more numerous than you seem to think, for you will find in most of the
592 APPENDIX.
Hemiptera, Neuroptera, and Diptcra, that these parts are distinguishable from
the rest. Take Tabanus, for example. How useful will the term flagellum
be to describe the six last joints, together of so singular a shape, which cannot
be described taking them joint by joint ; and in Gryllus the Jlagellum is often
compressuin, while the stalklet and scape are nearly globose. In Cimex and
the Neuroptera, the scape, at least, is always remarkable. "We want a fourth
terra for antennae, viz., Capitulum, to be applied to Scarabceus, &c. , &c. I ob-
serve in Geotrupes that the inner spinula is moveable, and the other fixed ;
but whether this is so in the other orders I cannot clearly determine, but I
think in Vespa both are moveable. I observe in Gryllus the plantula you
mention, but the same name may apply to it.
^'■Thorax or Collare. — I continue to think the parts that have been known
by these names in Coleoptera and Hymenoptera are analogous to each other.
The collare being connected by membrane, &c., with the tubercula or scapu-
laria, might on being taken oft' move them, and occasion the motion of the wings
you mention. I have taken off" some this morning without producing this
effect. If you take off" the head of a Vespa, it will carry the forelegs with it,
and leave the collar behind ; but I have just taken oft' the heads of several
Apes, Ichneumons, MeUttce, and other Hymenoptera, and they have more
generally left the forelegs behind. The thorax in Coleoptera seems to me
exactly in the place of the collare in Hymenoptera. I have taken to pieces
the Geotrupes you describe, and see the piece you think analogous to the col-
lare ; but this piece appears to me to belong to the interior anatomy, and to be
part of the mediastinum, or of the strong membrane that separates this part
from the pectus. Dytiscus, Mylabris, Buprestis, Curculio, all of which I have
been examining, have nothing analogous to it, but mere membrane ; in these
large insects I suppose it is of a more cartilaginous nature. In order to make
it analogous to the collare, it ought to be universal. You seem to me to have
made out the analogous parts of Coleoptera and Hymenoptera extremely well ;
but what answers to the mesostethium appears to me not so very small, for it
seems to me to extend more than half way towai-ds the wings. The term
dorsum might give place for post-coUare, then we should have thorax and
metathorax, collare and post-collare, and pectus and postpectus, which would
give concinnity to our terms. The part you notice in Vespa, as succeeding
the scutellum, and to which your accurate eye has discovered an analogous
part under the scutellum of Geotrupes, might be called antelumbium, or post-
scutellum, as you suggest. This part seems not to be separated by a suture,
but only by an impressed line in Vespa ; but a suture distinguishes it in some
genera : it is not very obvious in Apis. By the term lumbi we agreed to dis-
tinguish those parts that lie on each side of the channel that runs from the
antelumbium to the abdomen. The channel itself, which in Coleopterous in-
sects has often an elevated line running through it, or kind of vertebrte, we
called interlumbium : this part exactly represents the loins with the back bone
between them. We did wrong when we constructed our termini anatomici, in
not making definitions when we named them, for I forget exactly now what
we meant by femorale, unless we ])roposed to distinguish by it the dilated flat
coxse of the posterior legs in Dytiscus and Buprestis. The intercosta was
intended for a piece observable in Buprestis vittata, which is between the
mesostethium and the posterior coxse. The term costula was intended for a
little piece which seemed inserted between the scapularia and the peristethium
in the same Buprestis; but it is dubious whether they exist, and therefore I
think with you we may strike out these terms. I see that it would be very
convenient to have a term to distinguish sides from edge : in English we can
say very well, sides deflexed, edge rounded. Perhaps, in Latin we mi^'ht say,
lateribus deflexis acie rotundata ; but even this might be liable to be misun-
APPENDIX.. 593
dcrstood, for a rounded edge might be construed to mean round instead of
sharp, applying the term not to curvature of the sides. But on further con-
sideration, it seems to me that the adverb utrinqite, applied in this case, will
do as well as coining a new word. Thorace utrinque deflexo lateribus rotundatis,
or vice versa, utrinque rotundato, lateribus dejlexis, seems to me quite clear of
objection. What do you think ? I don't see that we have any term for the
point of meeting of two joints. With respect to tibia and femur, geniculus
will do very well ; the other end of tibia and tarsus, if necessary to be noticed,
would with equal propriety be denominated calx or heel. With respect to the
point of meeting of two joints of antennje or palpi, no term strikes me that would
be proper : can you think of one, or would one be necessary ? You observe
Me have no term for ligula, Fabr. We agreed to call this part lingua. If a
diminutive for lingua is to be used, it might as well be used for all tongues of
insects that are properly such. I think the same name should be given to the
same part in all orders ; in fact, in use the ligula comes nearer to the tongue
of animals than the sucker-tongues. Palpi. — I have no objection to employ
this as English instead of feelers.
" Ovate and obovate. — With respect to the abdomen of Coleoptera, I look
upon them to be ovate when broadest towards the thcyax, and obovate when
broadest towards the anus ; and so with respect to the whole insect. With
respect to the thorax, Linne seems to reverse this plan, calling the thorax in
Carabus, obcordatus. His idea of ovatus is plain, from his calling Sphceridium
scarabcEoides, ovatus. With respect to the head, Fabricius makes it ovate when
it is broadest at the thorax in the Staphylini of the family of linearis. The
thorax of Curculio Palmarum, Linne makes ovatus ; Curculio Germanus is cor-
pore ovato. So that, as it should seem, the ovate body is broadest towards the
head ; the ovate head is broadest towards the thorax ; the ovate thorax is
broadest towards the elytra; but the ovate elytra or abdomen are broadest to-
'Vards the thorax: the reason of this seems to be, that the apex of the elytra or
abdomen must be reckoned at the anus ; but one would think the apex of the
whole body should not be reckoned as there.
" Hypochondria. — Having no anatomical books, I rely on the correctness of
your statement with respect to its station. I thought the second cavity of the
abdomen, which is analogous to our postpectus, was the region of the Hypo-
chondria, in which case the temi would be proper, I have no objection (stating
oiu: reasons ybr receding from Linne), to adopting Parapleura.
" LcEvis et cequatus, ^c. — We have a terai (Icevigatus) which seems to answer
for this purpose, ' very smooth without elevations or depressions,' but somehow
or other we have not got Icevis. I see in the book in which I arranged Linne's
terms alphabetically, we have 'Icevis, smooth, without elevations,' and 'Icevigatus
smooth, without depressions.' I suppose we then thought one term suiBcient.
Linne uses the term cequalis for your cequatus, it should seem, under Tenebrio
gigas and mortisagus. He appears to have wanted a term of this sort when he
describes Teneb. Icevigatus, and latipes, for he says, ' Icevis, elytris Icevibus,' to
distinguish them from T. variabilis, which is Icevis, elytris elevato-punctatis. If
we use Icevis and Icevigatus, the former should signify the absence of strice, chan-
nels,/oi^eote, or fossulce, and similar kinds of sculpture; and the latter, which
implies a more intense degree, should denote the absence of points, granules,
or any roughnesses of surface. It would sound well to say Icevis, elytris
Icevigatis. But, perhaps, you will think three terms necessary, one for the ab-
sence of smaller inequalities, another for the absence of larger, and a third for
the absence of all inequalities; then it would be cequatus or cequalis, without
larger elevations or depressions ; Icevis, without smaller elevations or depres-
sions; Icevigatus, without any elevations or depressions.
594 APPENDIX.
" Upper wings of Grylli, §-c. — The term elytrum is not improperly applied to
these case-wings; it means merely an integument, and I don't see that any con-
fusion is generated by the use of it. Even amongst the Coleoptera, the elytra
of some are scarcely more than coriaceous, while in others they are a very hard
crast. The term elytrum of itself does not properly convey the idea either of a
corneous, coriaceous, or membraneous wing-cover, but merely of a wing-cover.
The same observation holds good with respect to the Coleoptra, which is so
convenient that it will not be easy to do without it, and it is used without im-
propriety, strictly considered, for when thus used it is merely saying wing-cases
so and so. The term Hemelytrum is more applied to Cimices, I believe ; elytrum
would be proper for Cicada, but not for Chermes, Aphis, and Thrips. All that
seems necessary is under each order or section to define the substance of the
elytra. You seem not to have noticed the difference between the terms Coleo-
ptera and Coleoptra. You will find, when it is applied to the elytra of indivi-
duals, it is always spelled in the latter way.
" Squamula. — Linne, indeed, in his generic character of Formica, uses the
term squamula, but never once in his description of the species; here it is always
squama. Fabricius and Latreille invariably have it squama. Linne's generic
character will not be adopted, because it does not include all the speciesj ; or if
it should be adopted,' squamula would properly be changed to squama. I
therefore see no reason for giving up my own term, which I think every im-
partial person will prefer to Illiger's. A little scale is certainly much better than
a little tile, for the part in question; indeed, the latter strikes me as bordering
upon the ridiculous.
" I am sorry to find, that in my haste in putting up the insects, for Mr. Rod-
well to take, I forgot the Scymnus I reserved for you, and also a little Aleo-
ckara (rufangula) which I have of yours, taken when you were here, under some
moss in Shrubland Park.
" Nov. 29. — I have carefully read over your excellent sketch for a plan of
our work, and upon the whole very much approve of it. What we say in the
first letter with respect to objections farther than glancing at them, should be to
meet and refute the charge of cruelty, which is also one great objection with
the fair sex from pursuing the study. The cui bono objections will be answered
partly when we detail the general advantages, and more fully as you propose,
and have done excellently, in the 12th letter. I am not altogether of your
opinion with respect to the mode of treating the Noxce Insectorum, for I tliink
the general effect will be much the most striking and alluring, if we conclude
with the ravages of the locusts. We are giving a general view of the subject.
Our Introduction is a general Introduction to Entomology, and if we give a par-
ticular detail of the injuries our country receives, as we should of course do,
this will be sufBcient to interest the reader, and will remain longest upon his
mind, because always under his eyes, though we leave off with exotic depreda-
tions. Don't let us expose ourselves to the sneers of hypercritics, that we are
proficients in the Bathos, or art of sinking. This is all material that I find to
object to in your plan; the rest is admirable. I think the directions for taking
insects, preserving, &c., should follow the technical part, for, as my friend Mac
Leay observed, we shoidd first tell our correspondent what an insect is, before
we set him to catch it. From your plan, which urges strongly the placing
JVoxdE before the Beneficia, you seem to have imagined I had placed the latter
first, but in this your memory failed you; it is always best to leave off with the
fan- side Pray tell me in your next what parts of the work, besides the
History of Entomology, you would like best to do, as I shall soon set hard to
work, and 'tis pity we should both gnaw the same bone. When you have
gnawed your bones, send them to me, and I will do the same by mine ; so they
will stand a good chance of being picked quite clean. I shall hope for much
APPENDIX. 595
from you upon the miracula, as I have few authors to consult, and scarcely any
travellers. I have never met with BaiTOw or Jackson
" Yours very aflfeciionately,
" W. KiRBT.
"Barham, January 23rd, 1810."
[In this letter, after mentioning the severe illnesses of two near rela-
tives at Ipswich requiring his frequent visits, he proceeds : — ]
" To my great discomfort also, the business of settling the affairs of a man
who has involved himself deeply in debt, has also unavoidably fallen upon me.
I hope they will be settled in another fortnight. I mention all these circum-
stances, that you may see that it [the delay of wi'iting] has not been for want
of inclination, but of leisure. The misfortune is, I am fitted by Nature for a
contemplative rather than an active life; business, and the settlement of secular
affairs, makes my head wild, and I would gladly, if possible, disengage myself
from it altogether ; but this is at pi-esent out of my power, so you must not be
surprised if I am unable to do much for the present. This you may be sure of,
when I am at leisure I will endeavour to make up for lost time."
The above extract is chiefly given for the sake of remarking, that
though Mr. Kirby's natural dispositions were, as he states, more contem-
plative than active, yet no man ever less suffered his inclinations in this
respect to encroach on or set aside his social duties. During the long
course of our correspondence there is scarcely a letter without a refe-
rence to some executorship he had to carry out for a deceased relative
or friend, to some secretaryship he had to fill for a charitable or other
benevolent institution, or to some active services, like those referred to
in the above letter, in arranging the affairs of persons often but distantly
connected with him ; but all these duties, however contrary to his natural
inclinations, he scrupulously fulfilled, in addition to those of his sacred
office, before giving up any portion of his time to his scientific pursuits.
"Barham, Feb. 17, 1810.
" My Dear Sir, — Many thanks for your kind attention to my request to send
the copy of the anatomical terms [to replace his, which he had mislaid]. I
have already profited so far by it as to draw out the definitions, and have been
for some days hard at work, one way or other, upon our work I shall
begin with attending to your request with respect to what part of the work each
should undertake. As I have made a pretty ample sketch for the three first
letters, — viz. the Introductory, Noxse, and Beneficia, — if you approve it, I will
fill up the outline I have drawn up for them. Then you may take the three
next, — viz. Storge, Food, and Habitations ; then to my lot again might fall 7,
8, 0, -viz. — Societies, Defence, and Noises; next to you, 10, 11, 12, Phospho-
rescence, &c.. Recapitulation, and Defence of Systematic Entomology; and like-
wise, if you please, the 13th, on the States of Insects, in return for my having
done the 14th, General Exterior Anatomy. 15, 16, 17, and 19, Head and
parts, Trunk and do., Abdomen and do., and Orismology, are already in great
forwardness. 18, on the Interior Anatomy, you may take. 20, Class, Order,
&c., I will take. 21, Making out insects, let Spence take, — nobody makes out
insects with more accuracy. 22, Seasons, Ivirby had thought about, and will
take; and also 23, Haunts and Times of Flight. 24, Catching, Spence ; 25,
Killing, Preser\ang, Cabinets, &c., Spence; 26, Breeding, Kirby; 27, History,
Spence ; 28, Conclusion and Dictionary, W. K. and W. S. conjointly, W. K.
QQ 2
596 APPENDIX.
giving terms from Lirnie, Fabricius's works (except ' Fundamenta Entomo-
logia,' which K. has not an opportunity of consulting), Latreille's ' Genera
Ins.,' Scopoli, Schrank, Walckenaer, De Geer, Reaumur ; W. S. Illiger and the
German entomologists, and ' Fundament. Entomolog.' Motions of Insects I
forgot: Kirby will take. Short accounts of books, W. S. The plan that strikes
me as the best, with respect to the parts which each undertakes is this — When
you or I ha-ve finished a letter, or (perhaps better) the whole of our parts, I to
send mine to you, and you yours to me, that each may make his observations,
and give his sanction to what the other has written, and add any particulars
omitted by the other that may have occurred to him. If you wish any altera-
tion made in the above apportionment of parts, you will state it in your next
packet ..,."*
* The above extract is mainly given for the purpose of adding to it some further
explanation on the subject to which it refers.
In our Preface, p. xxi. [here, and throughout this chapter, the 5th edition (1828)
is referred to]i, we have declined stating which letters were written by each ; and in
the thirty-seven years which have elapsed since we "excused ourselves from gratify-
ing the curiosity " to ascertain this fact (if any such were ever felt), no clue to it
has been given, except the disclaimer by Mr. Kirby, in the advertisement to our
third and fourth volumes, of agreeing with me in opinion on the theory of instinct
in the letter on that subject. Vol. II., and the remarks, in Vol. IV. p. 19 — 33 : both,
as he wished it to be stated, written by me.
As this disclaimer, however, has broken the charm of secrecy, and as some future
ingenious entomologist may think it worth his while to endeavour, from internal
evidence, still further to solve the mystery, in attempting which he would be sure
to fall into gross errors, it has seemed to me best (and Mr. Freeman coincides with
me) to give here the entire list of the letters of our work which were ultimately agreed
on, and which vary in some respects from that proposed above, with the name of
the writer affixed to each, and such observations as are necessary to make the infor-
mation correct and complete.
Vol. I.
Preface. — Mr. Spence.
[The two paragraphs relative to the religious bearing of the work pp. xiii.
and xiv. [pp. xii. and xiii.] ; the first half of one at p. xvi. [p. xiv.], begin-
ning "The authors," &c., and one at p. xviii. [p. xv.], beginning "Besides
these," &c., were added by Mr. Kirby.]
Letters.
I. — Introductory. Mr. Kirby.
II. — Objections answered.
The first part, to p. 39. [20.] Mr. Kirby.
The second part, in defence of Sj'stematic Entomology, pp. 40 — 53. [20-—
27.] Mr. Spence.
The concluding part as to cruelty. Mr. Kirby and Mr. Spence.
III. — Metamorphoses. Mr. Spence.
[From p. 72—77. [37—40], by Mr. Kirby.]
''V. to VIII. — Injuries caused by insects. Mr. Kirby.
IX. and X. — Benefits derived from insects. Mr. Kirby.
[A large proportion of the facts, and several entire paragraphs and pages
in these seven letters, were furnished by Mr. Spence.]
XI. — Affection of insects for their young. Mr. Spence.
XII. and XIII. — Food of insects. Mr. Spence.
XIV. and XV. — Habitations of insects. Mr. Spence.
Vol. II.
Letters.
XVI. to XX. — Societies of insects. Mr. Kirby.
XXI. — Means by which insects defend themselves. Mr. Kirby.
XXII. and XXIII.— Motions of insects. Mr. Kirby.
XXIV. — Noises produced by insects. Mr. Kirby.
' The pages referred to in this 7th Ed. follow between brackets.
APPENDIX. 597
It will have been observed that, in our letters of Nov. 20 and 27, 1809,
a discussion is begun as to what portions of the thorax (Linn.), in the
XXV. — Luminous insects. Mr. Spence.
XXVI. — Hybernation and torpiclitj' of insects. Mr. Spence.
XXVII. — Instinct of insects. Mr. Spence.
Vol. III.
Letteks.
XXVIII. — Definition of the term insect. Mr. Kirby and Mr. Spence.
XXIX. to XXXII. — States of insects. Mr. Kirby and Mr. Spence.
[These four letters were originally assigned to Mr. Spence,
and rough copies of them were prepared by him, extendin;^
to 120 pages of MS. in large 4to. ; but, owing to his ill health
(as explained in the advertisement to Vol. III.), the accumu-
lation of new matter required the whole to be prepared for
the press by Mr. Kirby.]
XXXIII. to XXXVI. — External anatomy of insects. Mr. Kirby and Mr. Spence.
[This department of the work, as has been previously here
explained and in the advertisement to Vol. III., was that to
which the authors, both during Mr. Spence's visits to Bar-
ham and in their long subsequent correspondence, mainly
devoted their attention ; and the tabular ^^ew of the parts
of insects was the very first portion of the work drawn up b}'
them as the result of their joint examination of a great
number of insects of all orders, and of long discussions (both
orallj' and by letter) as to their homological relations : but
the more extended and connected survey of the whole sub-
ject contained in those letters was drawn up by Mr. Kirby.]
Vol. IV.
Letters.
XXXVII. to XLIII. — Internal anatomy and physiology of insects. Mr. Kirby and
Mr. Spence.
[The explanation given above as to the letters on the
states of insects, applies equally to these seven letters on their
internal anatomy and physiology. They were originally as-
signed to Mr. Spence, whose rough draughts of the letters fill
125 MS. 4to. pages; but it was necessarj', in consequence of
his ill health, that the whole should be prepared for the press
by Mr. Kirby, so as to incorporate the new facts with those
which Mr. Spence had collected.]
XLIV. — Diseases of insects. Mr. Kirby.
XLV. — Senses of insects. Mr. Kirby.
XLVI. — Orismology, or explanation of terms. Mr. Kirby and Mr.
Spence'
XL VII. — System of insects. Mr. Kirby.
XLVIII. — History of entomology. Mr. Kirby and Mr. Spence.
XLIX. — Geographical distribution of insects, &c.
[The first part, on general geographical distribution, by Mr.
Kirby; the remainder by Mr. Kirby and Mr. Spence.]
L Entomological instruments, &c. Mr. Kirby and Mr. Spence.
LI. — Investigation of insects. Mr. Kirby and Mr. Spence.
Appendix. — Mr. Kirby.
[An enumeration of entomological works, and of papers in
Transactions, Journals, &c., drawn up by Mr. Spence, and ex-
tending in MS. to 126 pages large 4to., was unavoidably
omitted, owing to the much greater bulk of the work than
had been originally calculated on.]
I beg to conclude this long note, which assigns to each, as far as practicable, his
share in the work, with a repetition of our desire, expressed in the Preface, — and
QQ 3
598 APPENDIX.
two orders Coleoptera and Hymeiioptera, are really homologous. When
at Barham, we had decided to regard Mr. Kirby's Collare of his " Mo-
nog. Apum Ang.," as he had then considered it, as the equivalent of the
so-called thorax in Coleoj^tera : but on reaching home, and dissecting
many insects of the two orders, I was led to suspect we had decided
wrongly ; and the anatomical facts on which my doubts rested, are de-
tailed in the preceding letter of Nov. 20 (p. 588). Mr. Kirby, it will
have been seen, in his reply (p. 592), adhered to his original opinion;
and the discussion on this knotty point was continued at great length,
by reference to dissections we had made with this view, and arguments
built on them, in the eight or ten letters which we exchanged in the
spring of 1810, without conviction on either side: but a letter from Llr.
Kirby, dated May 14, begins as follows, with an admission that he had
seen reason to come over to my way of thmking on this subject, — an
admission my candid friend could well afford to make, seeing how often
he had convinced me of error, and brought me to adopt his views on
points on which we had differed and as thoroughly discussed as this : —
"Barham, May 14, 1810.
" My Dear Sir, — I began a letter to you before breakfast this morning upon
a common sheet of paper, because I did not expect to have matter to fill a
folio. I had not proceeded down one side before your letter arrived, the reply
to which will, I think, enable me to eke out this 74 ; and therefore I shall begin
anew. You probably got my letter the day after yours was despatched, whicli
I hope set your mind at rest on that score. My object in writing again so
soon was to express to you my full conviction that you are perfectly accurate
which I know was Mr. Kirby's as much as mine, — that in any reference to our work
we ma}' be always jointly referred to, with two exceptions: these are — 1st. The
Letter "on instinct (Vol. ll.), and my farther remarks upon this subject (Vol. IV.
pp. 19 — 33.), on which Mr. Kirby differed in opinion from me, as he has stated in the
advertisement to Vol. III., and for taking which different view from mine he has
given his reasons at large in the Bridgewater Treatise (Vol. II. p. 222 — 280.) ; and
2nd. The Letter on hybernation (Vol. II.), in which the denial of the possibility of
satisfactorily explaining the retreat of insects to their winter quarters, and often the
preparing of these previously, from the mere direct sensation of cold, I think it due
to him to state (though he did not himself care to advert to it in the advertisement
above quoted) was in opposition to his opinions on the subject, and no portion of this
Letter, nor of that on instinct, was written by him. With these slight exceptions, no
reference to our book can ever be justly made except in our joint names ; for the
chances are, that even in the Letters here stated to have been written by one of the
authors, the particular facts or obsers'ations referred to (often extending to whole
paragraphs and several pages) may have been supplied by the other, as perpetually
occurs. It was, indeed, next to that of criticising and perfecting our anatomical
and orismological terms, expressly for the purpose of thus adding to the stores of
his coadjutor, that the greater part of the long letters that passed between us, during
the extended period employed in the composition of the work, amounting in quantity
of matter, if printed, to far more pages than its four volumes, were written by each.
In fact, there probably never was a work, composed by two authors, more thoroughly
dove-tailed with the contributions of each, than ours. Our book was always in our
thoughts ; and our reading, even on dissimilar subjects, was constantly furnishing
facts, or hints, or illustrations, bearing on the portions of each other, which were
duly noted and transmitted, and most generally adopted : and, if it have merit, this
is in a great degree owing to its being what it professes to be — a really joint pro-
duction of two varioush'-instructed minds, anxious only to contribute to the per-
fection of their labour of love, — for such the work truly was to them, — during the
many years it occupied them.
APPENDIX. 599
in conceiving that the thorax, as it has been usually called, in Coleoptera is not
analogous to the collare in Hymenoptera, and thus to do you ample justice for
that penetration and discernment which enabled you so early to make this very
important discovery. Truth seemed to me at first on the other side ; but tlie
observations I have made this spring, and another circumstance, which I shall
presently explain to you, have made me a convert to your sentiments. If I
know myself, I love truth better than opinion ; and though I may be sometimes
over warm, from the natural hastiness of my temper, in maintaining what ap-
pears to me so at the time, yet I am never backward to own and embrace it,
however contrary to my former opinions, when, the clouds being removed, I see
it in its native beauty. In my last letter you observed, I dare say, that I was
become nearly of your opinion ; I will now state what has made my conviction
complete. After I had finished the Orismology, I thought to begin the Letter
which treats of the body of an insect considered more at large. Beginning
■with the ci'ust, or skeleton, I next turned my attention to its articulations, dis-
tinguishing those that have free motion, — I mean motion independent of that
of the parts to which they are attached on any side. In this view, taking a
coleopterous insect for my example, the body to me appeared to consist of
four, instead of three great joints — viz. the head, the thorax, the metathorax,
and the abdomen. (With respect to the two last, — the metathorax and the
abdomen, — they are much more closely connected in this order than the head
and the thorax. I have not yet ascertained by observation whether they have
free motion ; but as they certainly have in Hymenoptera, &c., I for the present
take it for granted.) Considering, then, that the upper part, or shield, of the
thorax moves with the under part or breast, and together form the second joint,
this convinced me that the collar in Hymenoptera, which has no free motion,
and is therefore part of the metathorax, with which it moves, could not be re-
garded as analogous to the shield of the thorax, which moves with the breast,
independently of the metathorax. The instances refeiTcd to in my last, ■ — ■ viz.
Foenus and Xyphydria, in which the breast is evidently independent of the
collar, — confirm this triumphantly. So in Hymenoptera, as well as Coleo-
ptera, there are four free divisions ; for I imagine that, although the head can
move the thorax or breast, yet the breast can move (as in Coleoptera) inde-
pendently of the he:id : but this, observation must ascertain. This grand dis-
covery of yours leads to some very important consequences, affording an
admirable clue for a new order, and also for two great divisions of insects —
viz. into Thoracici and Collares; the latter subdivisible into Collares, Collari
distincto, and Collari evanescente. The Thoracici would include Coleoptera,
Orthoptera, Hemiptera, and Neuroptera (excluding Phiyganea and Psocus) ;
and the Collares, Collari distincto, Hymenoptera, Trichoptera ?, and Lepido-
ptera ? ; and the collares collari evanescente, would contain the Diptera. As to
the Aptera, I cannot at present speak in this respect. With regard to my new
order Trichoptera, every hour more convinces me of the propriety of it. In the
LibellulidcB, Myrmeleon, Ascalaphus, Hemerobiiis, Semblis, Ephemera, Raphidia,
Sec, the pectus is covered by a thoracic shield ; but in Phryganea and Psocus,
and Panorpa? it is not. I have no specimen of Termes to enable me to as-
certain to which of these it belongs ; but, from the veins of the wings, I
should suspect to the latter. Upon looking again at Panorpa, it seems to have
a small thoracic shield ; and as its wings have veins as well as nerves, it pro-
bably belongs to the genuine Neuroptera : I wish much to have your sen-
timents upon this idea. I use the term Trichoptera, because most of the insects
(the genus Psocus excepted) that belong to this order have hairs upon their
wings, and it distinguishes them, I think, well from their affinities, — the Le-
pidoptera. The next thing to be considered^ is, by what name we shall de-
nominate the shield of the thorax in the thoracic insects : for certainly the term
QQ 4
600 APPENDIX.
collare should be restricted to the collar in the coUaric tribe ; corselet and collar
will do extremely well for English terms, but I don't know what to do for Latin.
If we restrict Thorax to the shield, what term shall we use for the breast and
shield together ? Then, also, we must turn post-coUare into metathorax, and
have a new term for the after-bi-east and after-corselet taken together. Chest
and after-chest would do in English, but I cannot at present find a good Latin
term. Will not anatomy help us here ? Having said my say upon this subject,
I shall next turn to the queries of your letter received this morning "•
[Three folio pages of remarks follow on various matters I had adverted to.]
I am aware that, in giving this extract I shall be liable to the impu-
tation of vanity ; but if laudari a laudato vi?'o is allowed to excite a plea-
surable feeling, which, being common to humanity, we mutually excuse,
I shall scarcely be expected to form an exception to the general rule, by
keeping back the expression of the good opinion of my friend, which
gave me so much delight in my youthful days of entomological enthu-
siasm. But, in quoting this letter, I have another object in view, — that
of presenting the remarkable example which it offers of Mr. Kirby's
candour and love of truth. How few men in his position as one of the
first of European Entomologists, in which his " Monographia Apum
Angliae " had placed him, would have had their minds open to the con-
viction of having been in error In one of its main anatomical details, and
would have had the candour to admit that this error had been pointed
out by a mere tyro In the science ! For It must be observed that the
question is not free from difficulties, but one on which much may be said
on both sides f ; and It would have been easy for one jealous of his autho-
rity, to have shut his eyes, and sheltered himself under this plea, and the
weighty sanction of Illiger, who had adopted his views, from swerving
from the decision he at first came to when I started my objections, —
that he continued of his former opinion as to the identity of the collare and
thorax. But not so my excellent friend, who did not shrink from the
closest contest of fact and argument, and frankly gave up his own opi-
nions when convinced they were untenable. And so I ever found him
during the course of our long friendship; — tenacious of the opinions
which careful examination of any question had led him to form, but
quite willing to listen to any fair arguments brought against them, and,
when convinced, to admit their incorrectness.
* In a letter written two days after (Maj' 16), Mr. Kirby has the following fur-
ther remarks on collare and thorax: — "I find it necessarj, before this sieve-like
memory of mine loses all traces of them, to lay before j'ou some further obsei-vations
and concessions upon the subject of thorax, collar, &c. I have been examining
several thoracic insects this morning for something analogous to the Hymenoptera
collar, and I find that what you took for the part in Coleoptera is certainly so. It
exists in most Coleoptera, — perhaps in all, — in Hemiptera, and even in Lepido-
ptera, Avhich have a true, though very slender thoracic shield. It is usually concealed
under the membrane or ligament that unites the thorax to the metathorax, and its
direction is downwards into the chest ; so that in this order of insects it is a part of
interior anatomy. The collar of Hymenoptera, in some instances at least (try
Nomada, Apis, Melitta), is not merely a dorsal piece, but a belt which smTounds
the whole metathorax, behind the pectus, though very slender at the breast. I
have taken two, from a Nomada and Apis, ofi" whole. This confirms bej'ond all
doubt your discovery, and at the same time gives additional propriety to the term
collare "
t See « Int. to Ent," Vol. iii. p. 546—550.
APPENDIX. 601
In May 1810, i received from Mr, Kirby four of his longest letters.
There was then a pause of nearly three months ; and his next letter,
begun May 29, was not finished and sent off till August 15. The be-
ginning of this last portion is given, as it will interest entomologists, and
as furnishing some traits of my friend of his own sketching, but very
similar, I fancy, to what we most of us experience in similar circum-
stances.
"Aug. 15, 1810. — Your reproof, my dear friend, was not unmerited ; and
what can I do but appeal to your good nature for forgiveness, after having
stated circumstances which may a little extenuate, though not excuse, my in-
dolence and procrastination ? About the middle of June, I went to Livermere,
near Bury, to visit a friend who was formerly entomologically inclined* : he
lives in a spot very favourable to the entomologist. Here I picked up many
good things, particularly Ncuroptera, Hymenoptcra, and Diptera ; besides
which, my friend permitted me to rummage over his collection and take what
I liked, so that I carried home a large box full of insects. This set me, when
returned to Barham, to looking over my collection in Orthoptera, Hemiptera,
Neuroptcra, Hymenoptera, and Diptera, a great many of which were scattered
about in boxes, &c., and which, upon inspecting them, I found were going fast
to ruin ; and I saw it was necessary, if I meant to preserve the niany good
things I had collected, to put them in order, and in a place of security.^ This
has employed all my leisure hours since my return from the above visit. I
have now nearly finished the Hymenoptera, which occasioned me infinite
labour, and have then only the Diptera to put to rights. During this interval,
also, my house has been full of guests. Yet with all this business I have been
daily thinking of writing to you, but my employment kept seducing me ; so I
said to myself, when I get through this genus I will write. Before your letter
arrived, I had determined, as soon as I had done the Hymenoptera, to dis-
charge the debt upon my conscience. It is too much my way, when I have
begun to delay writing to any friend, to procrastinate in this way ; and when
I engage in any pursuit, it is with ardour ; but if anything occiu-s to suspend
my career, so that I lose the habit, I get a horror against it, which prevents my
returning to it till after many efforts, — so that, as you justly say, sometimes I
come down like a tropical torrent, and then follows a season of drought. You
will see by this that I have not lately done much in our opus magnum
With respect to your letters, I shall answer the last first. You say your
letter on internal anatomy occupies fifty pages. Don't you think you can reduce
it to smaller compass ? for it strikes me that, considering the variety of matter
we have to handle, that, unless we attend to brevity, we shall have our work
extend to two or three volumes." [Then follow two folio pages of various
remarks on the anatomy of insects, &c.]
In the summer of 1812, 1 spent four or five months in London, occupy-
ing the mornings chiefly in Sir Joseph Banks's rich library, which he threw
open so liberally and unreservedly to the researches of naturalists, in
collecting materials for our work ; and about two months at Barham,
where we jointly read and corrected the Letters that were to form the
first volume of our work.
In the spring of 1814 I had the great delight to receive a long- pro-
mised visit from Mr. Kirby, but which, unfortunately, the delicate state
of Mrs. Kirby's health obliged him to restrict to about ten days. These
* The Kev. Peter Lathburj-.
602 APPENDIX.
were chiefly spent in seeing the lions of Hull and the neighbourhood,
and in visiting the many friends eagei- to pay their respects to him. We
did little in insect-collecting ; but I had the great satisfaction of seeing
him fish out with his own hands and secure a specimen of the then rare
Donacia {Macroplea) Zoster a, from the pond on the banks of the Hum-
ber, a quarter of a mile from my house, where I first took it, and the
source for a considerable period of the first British specimens.
He then returned home by York, Newark, Huntingdon, and Cam-
bridge. From his letter of May 30, announcing his arrival at Barham,
with a full account of his journey, a few passages may be extracted : —
" I arrived safe at Barham on Saturday night, and found my dear Mrs. K,
though far from so well as I wished and expected, yet better than she had been
the beginning of last week. ... I had a pleasant though a very cold ride to York,
especially upon the wolds. I saw Mrs. Sandwith and her sons at Beverley,
and I took particular notice of your native village. Bishop Burton, paid due
respect to your old Elm, and assure you without flattery that I think it alto-
gether the prettiest spot I saw in Yorkshire. We arrived at York about twelve,
and after putting on clean linen, I marched to your friend Mr. H.'s, who re-
ceived me veiy civilly. ... He would not be satisfied without my engaging to
dine with him, and then dismissed me, under the care of Mr. WiUiam H., to
survey the Minster. I was much struck with this noble; building, which ex-
ceeds eveiything of the kind I have ever seen ; but I need not describe it to
you. I then returned to dinner, and was sorry to find Mr. H. had decanted a
bottle of fourteen-years old port for me, of which I could not partake. [Mr.
Kirby at this time found his digestion improved by abstaining from wine.]
After dinner he took me under his own care to show me the other York
lions. . . ."
In the remainder of the letter he adverts to the mode of burning lime
at Brotherton ; the very long and narrow canal barges he saw near Ret-
ford ; the gypsum pits near Newark ; and to Southwell Minster, of which
he describes the peculiar style of architecture, and sends a message
respecting it to John Crosse, Esq., of Hull, the eminent antiquary, with
whom we had breakfasted.
At length, in the spring of 1815, the first edition of 750 copies of
Volume I. of our book appeared, — just in time to allow me to take one
with me to show to our entomological friends on the Continent, where I
made a four months' tour after the battle of Waterloo. A second edition
was called for the next year, and a third in 1817, when also was pub-
lished Volume II., of which a second edition was required in 1818, and a
third in 1822.
A sad interruption of our joint labours took place in 1818, in conse-
quence of my ill-health, caused by severe head-aches, gradually increas-
ing, until at last they were excited by the slightest eifort of attention in
reading or writing. After struggling against them a year or more, and
tryingvariousremedies recommended by my medical advisers, I was obliged
to give in, and, adopting Dr. Baillie's prescription of being " for several
years an idle man," to lock up my books and cabinets ; to put in order
and send to my coadjutor, whose grief and disappointment were equal
to my own*, my large pile of unfinished MSS. for my share of the work;
* A letter from Mr. Kirby, dated Jan. 18. 1819, with an account of some expe-
riments with acids, &c., on the exterior crust of insects, concludes thus: — "You
APPENDIX. 603
and to transfer myself and family from Yorkshire to the more genial
climate of Exmouth, where we resided several years.
During this period, though I took no active share in the completion
of our book, I gave suggestions on various points in the letters wliich we
still regularly exchanged ; and one summer Mr. Kirby, accompanied by
Mrs. Kirby, made the journey from Barham to Exmouth, expressly to
spend a few days with us, — I need not say how greatly to my delight.
In 1826, our concluding Volumes (Vols. III. and IV.), appeared ; and
in this same year, as I found travelling always suit my health, which was
still far from being re-established, I removed with my family to the Con-
tinent, where we spent the next eight years, visiting in succession most
of the European capitals, and residing four years in Italy, but migrating
to Switzerland in summer. During the whole of this time, as well
as on our return to England, my correspondence with my old friend was
regularly kept up ; and we frequently saw each other on the visits made
by Mr. Kirby to London, and one winter at Leamington, where Mr. and
Mrs. Kirby joined us, and we spent a month together. Space can be
here afforded for extracts from only two of Mr. Kirby's many letters
during this period, — one addressed to Milan, and the other to Leam-
ington.
" Barham, June 13, 1832.
" My Dear Friend, — I this morning received your kind and interesting letter
from Pisa, and lose no time in setting an answer on the stocks, though it may
be some days before I shall have leisure to finish it. I did not answer yoiu*
last letters, because I was uncertain where to direct to you. I must begin by
thanking you for the variety of new and interesting information your enter-
taining letters contain. They make my mouth water to be with you; but,
alas ! it is not given to me to be partaker with you in your enjoyments. But
I will not repine ; I have too much to be thankful for, far beyond my merits,
to feel any lasting emotions of envy; but when I read your letters the wish will
I'ise in the heart. I have very little scientific inteUigence to communicate, for I
know very little what is going on in the scientific world, having had very little
communication with it of late.
"June 15. — I very recently completed the fiftieth year of my residence at
this place, and received some very gratifying marks of regard and attachment
from my neighbours. The members of the Claydon Book Ckib had a jubilee
dinner on the occasion, and, as a token of their regard, presented me with a
very elegant piece of plate ; and yesterday evening, they and their ladies, at
least such as could come, were entertained here, about twenty-seven altogether;
and a very happy and pleasant party we had. Bernard Barton, the Quaker
poet, a very friendly Friend, who before addressed some very pretty verses to
me, inserted in our provincial paper a very beautiful address to me, but above
my deserts, but which showed great liberality on his part to eulogise a receiver
cannot conceive how much I feel the loss of your assistance in the variety of subjects
that come before me. I want your opinion upon so many points, that I sometimes
feel half disposed to throw aside my pen. I have nobody upon whose judgment I can
depend to consult, for Mac Leay, who would on such occasions occur to me, is so
extremely negligent as a correspondent (owing to his incessant official duties), that
if I asked him ten questions he would not give me an answer to five, and that in
a hasty manner. I must do, however, as well as I can, but I shall hail witli ioy
the day that restores you to the moderate use of your pen."
604 APPENDIX.
of tithes, and to acknowledge him as a minister of the Gospel. They are too
long to insert here, or I would send you a copy.
" You ask me to report progress witli regard to my present undertaking.
[The ' Bridgewater Treatise.'] It requires more time than I calculated to bring
it out in a satisfactory form. I have written nearly 200 pages, but I fear I shall
not get all I have to say in a single volume ; but this, time will show. I find
my memory does not help me as it used to do. [A summary of his plan fol-
lows, and queries as to any observations made by my Italian friends on the
animals of Ai-istotle or Pliny, especially the Poh/pus.'] I forget whether I
mentioned to you that the second volume of Dr. Richardson's ' Fauna Boreali-
Americana ' is published. It is a most splendid volume, with coloured figures
of the more rare IST. American birds. We are establishing a Literary Insti-
tution and Museum at Ipswich. I have promised them my herbarium, which
is considerable, and shall also give them my fossils We have escaped
the cholera in this part of the kingdom, in spite of the communication between
Ipswich and London, Newcastle, &c I have not taken an insect for
ages. At seventy-three one cannot see.
" Yours, my Dear Friend,
" Very affectionately,
" Wm. Kikbt.
" Wm. Spence, Esq., Paste restante, Milan."
"Barham, Januaiy 11th, 1841.
" My Dear Friend, — I fear you have wondered and felt disappointed by the
non-arrival of any letters from Barham since tlie rector and his lady reached
that place. At first, I was prevented from writing by an accumulation of
business which called for immediate attention ; and since, with one thing or
other, my time has been so fully occupied, that I have delayed from day to day
beginning an epistle to the sojourners at Leamington. But though I have not
written, we have daily thought of them, and spoke of them, and not seldom
wished that we were again enjoying with them the morning rambles and social
evenings that were so pleasant to us. But I must tell your our history since
we left Cambridge : — After spending a week at the latter place and Stretham
very pleasantly, we packed ourselves into the Ipswich coach, and arrived at
dear old Barham once more, on Friday, December 18th, which we left October
14th. We found all our connections and friends well, and were received with
hearty welcomes ; and were thankful to see them again, and be settled down
for the winter amongst them. And winter, indeed, it is, for the country has
been covered with snow since the beginning of this month ; but this morning a
rapid thaw appears to have commenced, so that I shall content myself with
perambulating my passage instead of my parish. I wonder whether your
Leamington meadows have been covered with the above winter garment ; this,
I fear, would confine your rambles Avithin a naiuTow space.
" Have you seen Henslow's paper on the diseases of wheat ? I
received it, not long since, from the author. It is printed in folio, and contains
about seventeen pages. It was printed for private circulation, so I expect is
not to be purchased. If you have not received a copy, I can send you mine.
This is all the scientific news that I have to communicate "
The first volume of a translation of the " Introduction " into German
by Professor Oken was published at Stuttgart in 1823; the second in
1824; the third in 1827; and the fourth in 1833.
A fifth edition of our book had been called for in 1828, and on its
being exhausted it was necessary to bring forward a sixth edition of
Vols. I. and II., which it fell to my share to prepare, as my venerable
APPENDIX. 605
friend's age precluded any attention to it on bis part. This edition,
•which was brought up to the then state of the science by the addition of
upwards of 100 MS. pages of new matter, appeared early in 1843.
On our return at the close of 1843 from a twelvemonth's visit to Italy,
Mr. and Mrs. Kirby came to London for some weeks to meet us, and be-
tween this jDeriod and his death I visited him twice at Barham : when,
though his memory and bodily strength had greatly failed, I found him
still the same kind-hearted friend, — still, as ever, happy and contented,
ready to inform and be informed, to amuse and be amused, and taking
the same interest he always did in the progress of science generally, and
especially of Entomology.
I give copies or extracts of a few of his last letters, which will show
that though the lamp of life was beginning to fade, his friendliness of dis-
position and love of science suffered no abatement.
"Barham, November 23rd, 1843.
" My Dear Friend, — You will be pleased to learn that we arrived here salvi
et sani, on Tuesday, in very good time to make up our dinner, which was not
accomplished all at once. We travelled by railroad, accompanied by one of
the officials of the concern, who appeared to be a very good specimen of a tra-
ATlling companion. He quitted us, however, before we reached the Colchester
Station. At Kelvedon we met our servant with a carriage and horses, which
took us home much more rapidly than I expected. We were very loth to leave you
and your cara sposa behind us, and talked often of you ; but it is in vain to
wish for what cannot be, so we must be contented with looking forward to our
next merry meeting ; in the meantime often taking the pen to relate to each
other our mutual adventures. We hope ]\Irs. Speuce is now able to take the
air, and look about her again, and see all the London sights that are worth
looking at ; and when she has mn the roiind of sight-seeing, that she and you
will come and renew your acquaintance with the lions of Barham. Nothing
is usually more strongly recommended to invalids that are convalescent than
change of air.
" We are both, thank God, at this time veiy bonny, and I am resuming my
old favourite pedestrian exercise.* How I should enjoy it with you ! Yet
the great beauty of the coimtry, the foliage of the trees, is fast departing. Yet
those of the grove in my garden seem to hang on, while those of the vicinity
are aU fallen One thing I must not forget, — to return our best thanks
to you and dear Mrs. Spence, for your great kindness and attention to us during
our stay in London. I don't know that I ever enjoyed a visit to the metropolis
so much, and our enjoyment chiefly arose from your society and that of your
better half. I shall leave the other side to Charlotte, who will address a line
to her.f
" I am, my Dear Friend,
" Yours very affectionately,
" Wm. Kirby,
" W. Spence, Esq., 18, Lower Seymour Street,
Portman Square, Loudon."
* Mr. Kirbj^'s love of walking exercise was remarkable. In one of his letters he
says, " I never feel so happy as when on mv ten toes."
f I had marked this complimentary paragraph to be omitted ; but, on seconcl
thoughts, it is given, as exemplifying that fine feature of Mr. Kirby's character
which so much endeared him to all who had the happiness of knowing him, — his
genuine friendliness of nature, which led him to over-estimate and gratefvUly acknow-
ledge any attention his friends showed him.
G06 APPENDIX.
"Barham, June 14, 1847.
"My Dear Friend, — I must begin by thanking you for another supply of
excellent ginger, which arrived on Friday. I find it a very good stomachic ;
and I must lilvewise thank you for your interesting and amusing note.
" I should Uke to have been at your elbow at the meeting where Sir R. Peel
was present. You made a handsome collection.
"I hope Mr. Patterson's work* will succeed, as it was much wanted, and is
well executed. I have lent my copy to Sir W. Middleton, who will show it to
his friends. I was asked by a friend of his, if I was not going to publish a new
edition of my Bridgewater Treatise, as he inquired for a copy and could not
procure one in town. I shall consult my friends about it. What is your opinion ?
" I was sorry Professor Owen has been suffering from dissecting poor Jack
the elephant in the Zoological Gardens, of whose death I read this morning.
" My movements have not been far from my own liouse of late, but I do
think I shall go with Miss Rodwell, her sister, and Mrs. Kedington, to the sea
coast for a few nights ; we probably shall select Lowestoffe, or rather Felixstow,
for our station, but we have not yet positively determined. I shall give you
a line on our arrival at the coast ; I don't expect our stay will exceed a few
nights. I wish you and Mrs. S. could meet us there. I don't know whether you
have any thouglits of attending the great meeting at Cambridge, for the election
of a Chancellor ; had I a vote I should be happy to give it to Prince Albert.
" I heard you had been drinking tea lately with my poor dear Charlotte's
brother, George Rodwell ; when you see him again give my love to him. Pray
remember me kindly to all my scientific friends who do me the honour to
enquire for me "
"Barham, October 4th, 1848.
" My dear Friend, — Thanks for your kind note, which arrived on my bu'th-
day, September 19th. Pray what is your birthday,?
" I was amused with the portrait of Miss Silpha, and the verses that accom-
panied it. I have been much troubled by a painful attack of neuralgia in my
left breast, which must be my apology for this short note ; when it has left me
I will send you a longer "
"Barham, March 15, 1849.
"My Dear Friend, — I have received from Mr. Ransome the parcel contain-
ing copies of your address to the Entomological Society, and distributed them
as directed. I heard it read, and liked it very much, and heartily wish
your efforts, and those of our friends, may be cro\vned with the success that
they merit, and that our number of members may be increased.
"I have been troubled by an attack of Neuralgia pectoris, which disables me
from writing much, which must be my apology for my brevity.
" Miss Rodwell desires her kind regards to yourself and Mrs. Spence, &c, &c.
" I am, my Dear Friend.
" Yours affectionately,
" Wm. KlEBT."
One of the last notes I had from Mr. Kirby, of only a few lines, and
written in a tremulous hand, was in answer to a letter enclosing the pro-
spectus of the " Insecta Britannica," proposed to be published under the
auspices of the Entomological Society, for which we were desirous of
having his sanction as its venerated Honorary President. This he gave
emphatically, desiring tliat his name should be added to our list of sub-
scribers, and expressing his strong wishes for the success of the plan, —
* " Introduction to Zoology, for the use of Schools."
APPENDIX. 607
thus showing that, to the latest period of his life, the extension of his
favourite science was one of the objects nearest his heart.
I will not encroach on the province of my friend Mr. Freeman, who is
so well able to do justice to it, by expatiatinsj; more largely on the admi-
rable traits which, in every point of view, distinguished the character of
my dear old friend ; but I will conclude this slight sketch of the history
of our long friendship, which for forty-five years formed one of the great
pleasures of our existence, — I know that I may truly say of his as of
mine, — by pointing out to our brother entomologists, whom I have had
chiefly in view in writing it, two circumstances in his study of insects by
which I was always forcibly struck on my visits to him at Barham.
The first was the little parade of apparatus with which his extensive
and valuable acquisitions were made. If going to any distance, he would
put into his pocket a forceps-net and small water-net, with which to catch
bees, flies, and aquatic insects ; but, in general, I do not remember to
have seen him use a net of any other description. His numerous cap-
tures of rare and new Coleoptera were mostly made by carefully search"
ing for them in their haunts, from which, — if trees, shrubs, or long grass,
&c., — he would beat them with his walking-stick into a newspaper; and,
collected In this way, he would bring home in a few small phials in his
waistcoat pockets, and in a moderate-sized collecting-box, after an after-
noon's excursion, a booty often much richer than his companions had
secured with their more elaborate apparatus.
The second circumstance in Mr, Kirby's study of insects to which I
allude was the deliberate and careful way in which he investigated the
nomenclature of his species. Every author likely to have described them
was consulted, their descriptions duly estimated ; and it was only after
thus coming to the decision that the insect before him had not been pre-
viously described that he placed It In his cabinet under a new name. It
was owing to this cautious mode of proceeding — which young entomolo-
gists would do well to follow — that he fell into so few errors, and
rendered such solid service to the science ; and a not less careful con-
sideration was always exercised by him in the forming of new genera and
in his published descriptions of new species ; as his admirable papers In
the Linnean Transactions amply testify.
The above remarks are meant for entomologists ; but there Is another
moral to be derived from Mr. Kirby's life, to which, in concluding, I
would fain draw the attention of all who, like him, hare some leisure
time to command, and reside in the country, — the great accession of
happiness which he derived from his entomological pursuits, which not
only supplied him with objects of interest for every Avalk, and for every
spare moment within doors, but introduced him to a large circle of esti-
mable naturalists at home and abroad, and thus virtually doubled the
pleasures of his existence ; and this without neglecting any one of his
professional or social duties, with which, much as he did for Entomology,
he never allowed his study of it to interfere.
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London: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, and LONGMANS.
A CATALOGUE
OF
NEW WORKS
IN GENERAL LITERATURE,
PUBLISHED BY
Messrs. LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, and LONGMANS,
39, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
CLASSIFIED INDEX.
Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
Pages
Bayldon on Valuing Rents, etc. . . S
Caird's Letters on Aijriculture . . , /
Cecil's Stud Karm 7
Loudon's Kncyclopeedia of Ag:riciiUure . 14
Low's Elements of Ajrriculture . . 14
„ Domesticated Animals . . . 14
M'lntosh and Kemp's Year Book for the
Country 1,5
Arts, Manufactvires, and
Architecture.
Arnott on Ventilation
Bourne on the Screw Propeller
Brande's Dictionary of Science, e
i'hevreul on Colour
Cresy's Eucvclo. of Civil Engineering
Eastlake on Oil Painting .
Gwilt's Encyclop.Tdia of Architecture
Herring on "Paper Making .
Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art
,, Commonplace Book
Loudon's Rural Architecture
Moselev's Engineering and Architecture
Piesse's Art of Perfumery .
Richardson's Art of Horsemanship
Scrivener on the Iron Trade
Stark's Printing ....
Steam Engine, by the Artisan Club
Tate on Strength of Materials
Ure's Dictionary of Arts, etc.
Biography.
Arago's Autobiography
,, Lives of Scientific Men
Bodenstedt and Wagner's Schamyl
Buckingham's (J. S.) Memoirs
Bunsen"'s Hippolvtns
Clinton's (Fvncs) Antnbiography
Cockayne's JlarshalTurenne .
Dennistonn's Strange and Lumisden
Fnrster's De Foe and Churchill
Haydon's Autobiography, by Tom Taylor
Hayward's Chesterfield and Selwyn
Holcroft's Memoirs .
Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopeedia
Maunder's Biographical Treasury
Memoir of the Duke of Wellington
Memoirs of James Montgomery
Merivale's Memoirs of Cicero
Russell's Memoirs of Moore
„ Life of Lord William Russ
St.Jolm'8 Auilubnn the Naturalist
Southey's Life of Wesley
Southey's Life and Correspondence
,, Select Correspondence
Pages
Stephen's Ecclesiastical Biography
Taylor's Loyola
„ Wesley
Waterton's Autobiography and Essays ,
Wheeler's Life of Herodotus .
Books of General Utility.
Acton's Modern Cookery Book
Black's Treatise on brewing
Cabinet Gazetteer
,, Lawyer
Cust's Invalid's Oivn Book
Gilbart's Logic for the Million
Hints on Etiquette
How to Nurse Sick Children
Hudson's Executor'stiuide . . .
,, On Making Wills
Kesteven's Domestic Medicine
Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopajdla .
Maunder's Treasury of Knowledge
,, Biographical Treasury
,, Scientific Treasury
,, Treasury of History
,, Natural Histoiy ...
Piscator's Cookery of Fish
Pocket and the Stud ....
Pycroft's English Reading
Recce's Medical Guide ....
Rich's Companion to Latin Dictionary
Richardson's Art of Horsemanship
Riddle's Latin Dictionaries
Roget's English Thesaurus ...
Rowton's Debater
Short Whist ;
Thomson's InterestTables . . , :
Webster's Domestic Economy . , :
West on Children's Diseases . . . !
Willich's Popular Tables . . . :
Wilmot's Blackstone's Commentaries . ;
Botany and Gardening.
Hooker's British Flora . . . . :
,, Guide to Kew Gardens . . 1
„ ,, Kew Museum . . i
Llndley's Introduction to Botany . . ]
Theory of Horticulture . . ]
Loudon's HortusBritannicus . . . 1
,, (Mrs.) Amateur Gardener . 1
,, EncyclopKdiaof Trees & Shrubs 1
,, ,, Gardening . 1
„ .. Plants . . 1
M'lntosh and Kemp's Year Book for the
Country ]
Pereira's Materia Medics . . . . 1
Rivers's Rose Amateur's Guide . . 1
Wilson'i British Mosses .... 2
London: Printed by M. Mason, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Piow.
CLASSIFIED INDEX
Chronology.
Blnir's Chronological Tables ... 6
Bunsen's Ancient E^ypt .... 6
Haydn's Beatson's Index .... 10
Jai'quemet's Chronolotjy . . . .12
Johns and Nicolas's Calendar of Victory 12
Nicolas's ChronoloCT of History . . 13
Commerce & Mercantile Affairs.
Krancis on the Stock Exchange . . 9
Gilbart's Practical Treatise on Banking . 9
Lorimer's Letters to aYoungM aster islariuer 14
M'CuUoch-s Commerce and Navigation . 15
MacLeod's Banking 15
Scrivenor on the Iron Trade ... 19
Thomson's Interest Tables ... 23
Tooke's History of Prices . . .23
Criticism, History, & Memoirs.
Austin's Germany 5
Blair's Chron. and Historical Tables . 6
Bunsen's Ancient Egypt ... 6
,, Hippolytns .... 7
Burton's History of Scotland ... 7
Chapman's Giist'avus Adolplms . . 8
Convbeare and Howson's St. Paul . . 8
Eastlake's History of Oil Painting . 8
Erskine's History of India ... 9
Gleig's Leipsic Campaign . . .22
Gurney's Historical Sketches ... 9
Hamilton's Discussions in Philosophy, etc. 10
Haydon's Autobiographv, by Tom Taylor 10
Jeffrey's (Lord) Contributions . . 12
Johns and Nicolas's Calendar of Victory 12
Kemble's Anglo-Saxons in England • 12
Larditer's Cabinet Cyclopaedia . . 13
Le Qncsue's History of Jersey . . 12
Macaulay's Essays 14
„ History of England . . 14
,, Speeches .... 14
Mackintosh's Miscellaneous Works . H
„ History of England . . H
M'CuUoch's Geographical Dictionary . 15
Manstein's Memoirs of Russia . . 15
Maunder's Treasury of History . . 16
" of the Duke of Wellington . 22
Merivale's Hi
Ro
Miln
•'sChu
itory of Rome
an Republic
h History .
Raike
; Ranke's Ferdinand and Maximilian . . 22
Rich's Companion to Latin Dictionary . 18
Riddle's Latin Dictionaries . . .19
Rogers's Essays from Edinburgh Ueview 19
1 Roget's English Thesaurus ^ . . '9
, Russell's (Lady Rachel) Lettert . . 19
„ Life of Lord William Russell . 19
; Schmitz's History of Greece . . .19
] Smith's Sacred Annals . . . .20
1 Soiithey's The Doctor, etc. . . .21
; Stephen's Ecclesiastical Biography . 21
I ,, Lectures on French History . 21
Sydney Smith's Works . . . . 20
), Select Works . . 2J
» Lectures on MoralPhilosophy iO
9f Memoirs 2U
Taylor's Loyola 21
,, Wesley 21
Thirlwall's History of Greece . . .21
Thorubury's Shak'speare's England . . 23
Townseud'a State Trials .... 23
Turkey luid Christendom ', , J 22
Turner's Anglo-Saxons ....
„ Middle Ages . . . .
,, Sacred History of the World .
Vehse's .Austrian Court . . . .
Whitelocke's Swedish Embassy . .
Woods' Crimean Canipaign
Young's Christ of History
Geography and Atlases.
Arrowsmith's Geoi. Diet, of the Bible .
Brewer's Historical Atlas .
Butler's Geography and Atlases
Cabinet Gazetteer
Cornwall, its Mines, Scenery, etc.
Durrieu's Morocco
Hughes's Australian Colonies .
Johnston's General Gazetteer .
Lewis's English Rivers
M'CuUoch's Geographical Dictionary
,, Russia and Turkey
Milner's Baltic Sea .
Crimea
Murray's Encyclopiedia of Geography
Sharp's British Gazetteer .
Wheeler's Geography of Herodotus
Juvenile Books.
Amy Herbert
Cleve Hall ....
Earl's Daughter (The)
Experience of Life
Gertrude ....
Gilbart's Logic for the Young
Howitt's Boy's Country Book
,, (Mary) Children's Year
Katharine Asl.ton
Laneton Parsonage .
Mrs. Marcet's Conversations
Margaret Percival
Pycroft's English Reading
Medicine and Surgery.
Brodie's Psychological Inquiries
Bull's Hints to Mothers .
,, Management of Children
Copland's Dictionary of Medicine •
Gust's Invalid's Own Book
Holland's Medical l-^otcs and Reflections
,, Mental Physiology , ,
How to Nurse Sick Children .
Kesteveu's Domestic Medicine
Latham On Diseases of the Heart .
Moore On Health, Disease, and Remedy
Pereira On Food and Diet
„ Materia Medica .
Recce's Medical Guide
West on the Diseases of Infancy
Miscellaneous and General
Literature.
Austin's Sketches of German Life .
Ciirlisle's Lectures and Addresses .
Chalvba^us's Speculative Philosophy
Greg's Political and Social F:«says .
Gurney's Evening Recreations •
Hassail on Adulteration of Food ,
Haydn's Book of Dignities
Holland's Mental Physiology .
Hooker's Kew Guide
Howitt's Rural Life of England
,, Visits to Remarkat)le Places
Jameson's Commonplace Book .
Jeffrey's (Lord) Essays
Last of the Old Squires
Mackintosh's(SirJ.) Miscellaneous Works li
TO Messus. LONGMAN and Co.'s CATALOGUE.
Page
Mnrtineau's Miscellanies .
Memoirs of a Mattre il'Armes
Pascal's Works, by Pearce
Pycroft's English lleadi II K
aowtoii's Debater
Sir RoKCr Oe Coverley
Smith's (Rev. Sydney) Works .
Southey's Common-Plate Books
,, Doctor
Souvestre's Attic Pbilosoplier
,, Confessions of a VVorking Man :
Spencer's Principles of Psyi holoity . :
,, Railvray Morals and Policy * '
Stephen's Ksaays . . . . :
Stow's Training System . . . :
Strachey's Hebrew Politirs . . . 1
Tagart on i^ocke's Philosophy .
Thomson's Outline ol the Laws of Thought
Townsend's State Trials . ...
Tuson's British Consul's Manual
Willich'sPopnlarTables ....
Vonge's English Greek Lexicon •
,, Latin Gradus ....
Zumpt's Latin Grammar ....
Natural History in General.
Catlow's Popular Conchology .
Ephemera and Young on the Salmon
Gosse's Natural History of Jamaica
Kemp's lifatural History of Creation
Kirby and Spence's Entomology
Lee's Elements of Natural History
Mann on Reproduction
Maunder's Treasury of Natural History
Turlon's Shells of the British Islands
VonTschudi's Animal Life in the Alps
Waterton's Essays on Natural History
youatt'sThe Dog
,, The Horse ....
1-Volume Encyclopaedias and
Dictionaries.
Arrowsmith'sGeog. Diet, of the Bible . 5
Blaine s Rural Sports .... 6
Brande'sScience, Literature, and Art , 6
Copland's Dictionary of Medicine . . S
Cresy's Civil Engineering ... 8
Gwilt's Architecture 9
Johnston's Geographical Dictionary . 12
Loudon's Agriculture . . . . 14
,, Rural Architecture . . 14
,, Gardening . , , ,14
,, Plants 14
„ Trees and Shrubs . . . 14
M'Culloch'sGeOi;raphical Dictionary . 15
,, Dictionaiy of Commerce' , 15
Murray'sEncyclopacdiaof Geography . 17
Sh.arp's British Gazetteer .... 211
Ure's Dictionary of Arts, etc. , . , 2:i
Webster'sUomestic Economy . . 2i
Religious and Moral Works.
Amy Herbert \i
Arrowsmith's Geog. Diet, of the Bible . t
Bloomfielri's GreekTestaments
Bode's Bampton Lectures .
Calvert's Wife's Manual .
Cleve Hall
Conybeare's Essays
Conybeare and Howsou's St. Paul
Dale's Domestic Liturgy .
Defence ol Eclipse o/ Faith ,
Dcsprez'a .Apocaljpse Fulfilled .
Discipline
Earl's Daughter (The)
Eclipse of Knith ....
Englishman's (Jreck Concordance
Hcb. andCh.ald.Couc
Experience of Life (The) .
HarrisOLi's Light of the Forge .
Hook's (Dr.) Lectures on I'assionWeek
Horne'sliitroduction to Sirriptures •
„ Abridgment of ditto .
,, Communicant's f;orapanlon •
Jameson's Sacred Legends
„ Monastic Legends .
1) Legends of the Madonna
,, Sisters of Charity .
Jeremy Taylor's Works
Kalisch's Commentary on Erodut
Katharine Ashton
Laueton Parsonage . . •
Letters to my Unknown Friends
,, on Happiness
Long's Inquiry concerning Religion
Lyra Germanica
Maitland's Church in the Catacombs
filargaret Percival
Martineau's Christian Life .
Milner's Church of Christ .
Montgomery's Original Hvmnj
Moore On the Use of the Body .
„ ,, Soul and Body .
„ 's Man aud his Motives .
Mormonisra ....
Neale's Closing Scene
Newman's fJ, H.) Discourses .
Ranke's Ferdinand and Maximili
Readings for Lent
,, Condrmation
Robins against the Roman Church
Roiiinson's Lexicon to Greek Testament
Saints our Example
Sermon in the Mount . . . .
Sinclair's Journey of Life .
Smith's (Sydney) Moral Philosophy
,, (G.) Sacred Annals .
Southey's Life of Wesley ...
Stephen's (Sir J.) Ecclesiastical Biography
Tayler's (J. J.) Discourses
Taylor's Loyola
„ W4sley
Theologia Germanica ■ • . •
Thumb Bible (The)
Turner'sSacred History . . . .
Twining's Bible Types . . . .
Wheeler's Popular Bible Harmony .
Young's Christ of History
,, Mystery of Time ,
Poetry and the Drama.
' .Arnold's Poems ....
! Aikin's(Ur.) British Poets
I Baillie's (Joanna) Poetical Works
1 liode's Ballads from Herodotus
I Calvert's Wife's Manual .
Pnc
Flowers and their Kindred Thought;
Goldsmith's Poems, illustrated
L.E. L.'sPoeticalWorks
Linwood's Anthologia Oxoniensis
Lyratiermani.a ....
Macaulay's Lavs of Ancient Rome
MacDonald's Within and Without
Montgomery'sPoetical Works
,, Orijjiual Hymns
CLASSIFIED INDEX.
Phges
Moore's Poetical Works
,, LallaRnoUh . . -
,, Irish Melodies . . . • '7
,, Songs and Ballads • • • \i
Reade's Man in Paradise .
Shaltspeare, by Bowdler .
Southey's Poetical WorliS
„ British Poets .
Thomson's Seasons, illustrated
Political Economy & Statistics.
Cttird's Letters on Agriculture .
Census of 1831 . . . •
Dodd's Fond in London
Gres's Political and Social Essays
Laintt's Notes of a Traveller .
M'CuUoch's Geojjrahpical Dictiona:
,, Dictionary of Commerce
,, London
Marcet's Political F.conoray
Tegohorski's Russian Statistics
VVillich's Popular Tables .
The Sciences in General and
Matliematics.
Arago's Meteorological Essays
,, Popular Astronomy . .
Bonine on the Screw Propeller
Brande's Dictionary of Science.etc. .
Lectures on Organic Chemistry
Brougham and Routh's Prir.cipio .
Cresv's Civil Engineering • „• .
DelaBeche's Geology of Cornvfall, etc
De la Rive's F.lectricity . .
Fairbairn's Information for Engineers
Faraday's Non-Metallic Elements .
I Grove's Correlation of Physical Forces
i Herschel's Outlines of Astronomy .
I Holland's Mental Physiology .
Humboldt's Aspects of Nature
,, Cosmos
Hunt's Researches on Light .
Kemp's Phasis of Matter .
Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia .
Mann on Reproduction
Marcet's (Mrs.) Conversation
1 Club
Marcet's (Mrs.) Conversations
Moseley's Engineering and Architecture
Owen's Lectiiies on Comparative Anatomy
Our Coal Fields and our Coal Pits
Pereira on Polarised Light
Peschel's Elements of Physics
Phillips's Fossils of Cornwall, etc
„ Mineralogy
„ Guide to lieology
Portlock's Geology of Londonderry
Powell's Unity of Worlds .
Smee's Klcctro-Metallurgy
Steam Engine, hy the Artis
Tate on Strength of Materi.-..., .
Wilson's Electricity and the Electric
Telegraph
Rural Sports.
Baker's Rifle and Hound in Ceylon
Berkeley's Reminiscences .
Blaine's Uictionarv of Sports
Cecil's Stable Practice
Records of the Chase .
,, Stud Farm
The Cricket Field
Davy's Angling Colloquies
Epliemera on Angling
,, 's Book of the Salmon
Hawker's Young Sportsman
The Hunting Field .
Idle's Hints on Shooting .
Pocket and the Stud .
Practical Horsemanship _.
Richardson's Horsemanship
Stable Talk and Table Talk
Stonehenge ontheGreyhou
The Stud, for Practical Purpose
Page
Veterinary Medicine, etc.
Cecil's Stable Practice
,, Stud Farm
The Hunting Field .
Miles's Horse Shoeing
„ on the Horse's Foot
Pocket and the Stud .
Practical Horsemanship .
Richardson's Horsemanship
Stable Talk and Table Talk
The Stud for Practical Purpose
Yonatt'sThe Dog
The Horse
Voyages and Travels.
Allen's Dead Sea ■ • •
Raines's Vaudois of Piedmont .
Baker's Wanderings in Ceylon .
Barrow's Continental Tour . .
Barth's African Travels . . • •
Burton's Medina and Mecca
Carlisle's Turkey and Greece .
De Custine's Russia . .
Duherly's Journal of the War .
Ferguson's Swiss MeA and Mountains .
Forester's Rambles in Nor^vay .
Giroui^re's Philippines . . • •
Gregorovius's Corsica , . • •
Hill's Travels in Siberia . .
Hope's Brittany and the Bible .
,, Chase in Brittany . .
Howitt's Art Student in Munich . .
,, Victoria
Hue's Chinese Empire • • .. -
Hue and Gabet's Tartary and Thibet
Hughes's Australian Colonies .
Humboldt's Aspects of Nature
Hutchinson's African Exploration .
Jameson's Canada ••„*:*
Jerrmann's Picture.? from St. Petersburg
Kennard's Eastern Tour . . . .
Laing's Norway . . .
,, Notes of a Traveller .
M'Clure's Narrative of Arctic Discovery .
Marrvat's California
Mason's Zulus of Natal . . . .
Mayne's Artie Discoveries
Miles' Rambles in Iceland
Monteith's Kars and Erzeroum
Pfeiffer's Voyage round the World .
,, Second ditto . . . •
Scott's Danes and Svjedes . . . .
Seaward's Narrative of his Shipwreck
Weld's United States .ind Canada .
Wheeler's Travels of Herodotus
Werne's African Wanderings .
Whittingham's Pacific Kxpedition . .
Wilberlorce's Brazil and the Slave Trade
Works of riction.
Arnold's Oakficld
Ladv Willoughbv's Diary .
Macdonald's Villa Verocchio .
Sir Roger De Coverley .
Southey's Doctor
Trollope's Warden . .
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■ nll-
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Mich
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osi-
.... -'ith-
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