Chapter XV: Letter IX: Benefits Derived From Insects (2)

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 sun-set; but the great body of those noticed by Reaumur did not appear till after that time; so that the season of different harvests is not better known to the farmer, than that in which the Ephemeræ of a particular river are to emerge, is to the fishermen. Yet a greater degree of heat or cold, the rise or fall of the water, and other circumstances we are not aware of, may accelerate or retard 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 Ephemeræ 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 sun-set, and detached from the banks of the river several masses of earth filled with pupæ, 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 Ephemeræ emerged from it. Every piece of earth that was above the surface of the water was covered by them, some beginning to quit their slough, others prepared to fly, and others already 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 fall he returned to it. As soon as the cloth with which he had ordered the tub to be covered was removed, the number of flies appeared to be greatly augmented, and kept continually increasing: many flew away, but more were drowned. Those already transformed, and continually transforming, would have been sufficient of themselves to have made 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 handfulls 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 exclamations 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 Ephemeræ," 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 Ephemeræ. Scarcely had I remained in one place a few minutes, when the step on which I stood was quite concealed 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 Ephemeræ, 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 few 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, when the fish have their grand festival and the fishermen a good harvest[515].

Under this head I may observe how much the patient angler is indebted to insects for some of his choicest baits, for the best opportunities of showing his skill, and for the most gratifying part of his diversion. The case-worm and several other larvæ are the best standing bait for many fish. The larva of the Ephemera, there called bait and bank-bait[516], is much used in some parts of Holland. The case-worms, and grubs (I suppose of flies) from the tallow-chandlers 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 _Geotrupes_ and _Melolonthæ_ are good baits for chub[517]. But to be an adept in fly-fishing, which requires the most skill and furnishes the best diversion, the angler ought to be conversant in Entomology, at least sufficiently so to distinguish the different species of _Phryganea_ and other _Trichoptera_, 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 _Cheveux de Florence_,) which is said to be prepared in China from the matter contained in the silk reservoirs of the silk-worm, but according to Latreille is the silk vessel itself when dried[518].

* * * * *

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 Tinnunculus_, 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 (_Lanius Collurio_)--and it is probable 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. _Lanius Excubitor_ 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[519].

Amongst the _Picæ_ or Pies the _Crotophaga_, called the Ani, which is a native of Africa and America, lives upon the locust and _Ixodes Ricinus_, which it picks in great numbers from the backs of cattle; but none are greater devourers of insects in this order than rooks. It is for the grubs of _Melolontha_, _Tipula_, &c., that they follow the plough; and they always frequent the meadows in which these larvæ 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[520]. 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 consequence 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 Great Britain[521]. Of this order also is the bee-cuckoo (_Cuculus Indicator_) so celebrated for its instinct, by which it serves as a guide to the wild bees' nests in Africa. Sparrman describes this bird, which is somewhat larger than a common sparrow, as giving this information in a singular manner. In the evening and morning, which are its meal-times, it excites the attention of the Hottentots, colonists, and honey-ratel, by the cry of _cherr, cherr, cherr_, and conducts them to the tree or spot in which the bees' nest is concealed, continually repeating this 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[522].--The wryneck and the woodpeckers, the nut-hatch and tree-creeper, live entirely upon insects and their eggs[523], which they pick out of decayed trees and out of the bark of living ones. The former also frequents grass-plats 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 this purpose is bony at the end and barbed, and furnished with a curious apparatus of muscles to enable them to throw it forwards 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 _Grallæ_ or Waders, many of the long-billed birds eat the larvæ 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 _Cicadæ_. Mr. Sheppard was much amused one day in July last year 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 larvæ and pupæ, which Swammerdam informs us were sold at market in his time to feed various kinds of birds[524]. 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[525]. Latreille tells us that singing birds are fed in France with the larvæ of the horse-ant (_Formica rufa_).

But the Linnean order of _Passeres_ affords the greatest number of insectivorous birds; indeed almost all the species of this order, except perhaps the pigeon-tribe, and the cross-bill and other Loxiæ, 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 maintain, will destroy 3360 caterpillars in a week[526]. 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 depopulated.--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[527]. 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 and waters; and thus by their flight are regarded as prognosticating fair or wet weather. I was last summer much interested and amused by observing the tender care and assiduity with which an old swallow supplied her young with this kind of food. 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 bow window in my house. The mother was perpetually going and returning, putting an insect into the mouth first of one and then of the others in succession, 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 birds derive their food from the insect tribes: even in winter the pupæ of _Lepidoptera_, as Mr. White tells us, are the grand support of those that have a soft bill[528].

* * * * *

I shall close my list of the indirect benefits derived from insects, by adverting to the very singular apparent subserviency of some of them to the functions of certain vegetables.

You well know that some plants are gifted with the faculty of catching flies. These vegetable Muscicapæ, which have been enumerated by Dr. Barton of Philadelphia, who has published an ingenious paper on the subject[529], 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 _Apocynum androsæmifolium_, _Asclepias syriaca_ and _curassavica_, _Nerium Oleander_, and a grass described by Michaux under the name of _Leersia lenticularis_. The second class includes those which entrap them by some viscosity of the plant, as many species of _Rhododendron_, _Kalmia_, _Robinia_, _Silene_, _Lythrum_, _Populus balsamifera_, &c.[530] And under the third class will arrange those which ensnare by their leaves, whether from some irritability in them, as in _Dionæa_, _Drosera_, &c., or merely from their forming hollow vessels containing water, into which the flies are enticed either by their carrion-like odour, or the sweet fluid which many of them secrete near the faux, as in _Sarracenia_, _Nepenthes_, _Aquarium_, _Cephalotus_, &c., the tubular leaves of which are usually found stored with putrefying insects. In this last class may be placed the common _Dipsacus_ of this country, the connate leaves of which form a kind of basin round the stem, that retains rain-water in which many insects are drowned. To these a fourth class might be added, consisting of those plants whose flowers smelling like carrion (_Stapelia 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 _Muscicapæ Asclepiadeæ_ that has not entrapped its victim, and some of them in the United States closely cover hundreds of acres together.

What may be the precise use of this faculty is not so apparent. Dr. Barton doubts whether the flowers that catch insects, being only temporary organs, can derive any nutriment from them; and he does not think it probable that the leaves of _Dionæa_, &c., which are usually found in rich boggy soil, can have any need of additional stimulus. As nothing however is made in vain, there can be little doubt that these 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, nurseryman in King's Road, London, seems to prove that in the case of Dionæa, at least, the very end in view, contrary to Dr. Barton's supposition, is the supplying the leaves with animal manure; for he found that a plant upon whose leaves he laid fine filaments of raw beef, was much more luxuriant in its growth than others not so treated[531]. Possibly the air evolved from the putrefying insects with which _Sarracenia purpurea_ 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 _Crabronidæ_, 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[532]. What was the object of this singular manœuvre 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 without having previously examined it; in which case she must have discovered it to be half full of water, and consequently unfit for her purpose.--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 Squilla which Rumphius found there was probably one of their larvæ, this being the old name for them[533].

However problematical the agency of insects caught by plants as to their _nutriment_, there can be no doubt that many species perform an important function with regard to their _impregnation_, which indeed without their aid would in some cases never take place at all. Thus, for the due fertilization of the common 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 insinuate themselves amongst the filaments, and thus, while seeking their own food, unknowingly fulfill the intentions of nature in another department[534].

The agency of these little operators is not less indispensable in the beautiful tribe of _Iris_. In these, as appears from the observations of Kölreuter, the true stigma is situated on the upper side of a transverse membrane (_arcus eminens_ of Haller) which is stretched across the middle of the under surface of the petal-like expansion or style-flag, the whole of which has been often improperly regarded as fulfilling the office of a stigma. Now as the anther is situated at the base of the style-flag which covers it, at a considerable distance from the stigma, and at the same time cut off from all access to it, by the intervening barrier formed by the _arcus eminens_, it is clear that but for some extraneous agency the pollen could never possibly arrive at the place of its destination. In this case the _humble-bee_ is the operator. Led by instinct, or, as the ingenious Sprengel supposes, by one of those honey marks (_Saftmaal_) or spots of a different 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 stiff style-flag and elastic petal, which last, while she is in the interior, presses her close to the anther, and thus causes her to brush off 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 eminens_; but it is only 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.--Mr. Sprengel found, that not only are insects indispensable in fructifying the different species of Iris, but that some of them, as _I. Xiphium_, 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[535].

_Aristolochia Clematitis_, according to Professor Willdenow, is so formed, that the anthers of themselves cannot impregnate the stigma; but this important affair is devolved upon a particular species of gnat (_Cecidomyia pennicornis_). The throat of the flower is lined with dense hair, pointing downward so as to form a kind of funnel or entrance like that of some kinds of mouse-traps, through which the insects may easily enter but not return: several creep in, and, uneasy at their 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[536]. Sir James Smith supposes that it is for want of some insect of this kind that _Aristolochia Sipho_ never forms fruit in this country.

Equally important is the agency of insects in fructifying the plants of the Linnean classes _Monoecia_, _Dioecia_ and _Polygamia_, in which the stamens are in one blossom and the pistil in another. In exploring these for honey and pollen, which last is the food of several insects besides bees[537], 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 fertilizing influence. Sprengel supposes that with this view some plants have particular insects appropriated to them, as to the dioecious nettle _Catheretes Urticæ_, to the toad-flax _Catheretes gravidus_, both minute beetles, &c. Whether the operations of _Cynips Psenes_ be of that advantage in fertilizing the fig, which the cultivators of that fruit in the East have long supposed, is doubted by Hasselquist and Olivier[538], 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[539]; and the same observation was long since made with respect to bees by our countryman Dobbs[540].

Thus we see that the flowers which we vainly think are

"... born 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.

FOOTNOTES:

[457] Sparrman's _Voyage_, i. 367.

[458] The _Coprion_, _Cantharus_, and _Heliocantharus_ of the ancients was evidently 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 pilulam_. It should seem from 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 Cantharus with some bread, who afterwards orders his companion to give him another kind of bread made of _asses'_ dung.

[459] PLATE XXII. FIG. 4, 5.

[460] See Latr. _Gen._ i. 275.

[461] 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.

[462] Gleditsch, _Abhandlungen_, iii. 200.

[463] 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.

[464] Curtis _Brit. Ent. t._ 5.

[465] Surely Mr. Marsham's name for this genus, _Boletaria_, is much more proper than that of Fabricius, _Mycetophagus_ (Agaric-eater), since these insects seldom eat agarics.

[466] _Œcon. Nat. Amœn. Ac._ ii. 50. Stillingfleet's _Tracts_, 122.

[467] 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.

[468] Latreille, _Observations nouvelles sur les Hyménoptères_. _Annal. de Mus._ 11.

[469] _Nat. Hist. of Carolina_, ii. 105.

[470] Reaum. vi. 282. St. Pierre's _Voyage_, 72.

[471] Bartram in _Philos. Trans._ xlvi. 126.

[472] The larvæ of some species of Coccinellæ feed, according to Prof. D. Reich, solely on the leaves of plants; as that of _C. hieroglyphica_, which eats the leaves of common heath (_Erica vulgaris_) after the manner of the larvæ of _Lepidoptera_. I suspect, however, that there is some mistake in this statement. _Der Gesellschaft naturf. Fr. in Berlin Mag._ &c. iii. 294.

[473] Latreille denominates this family, as he calls it, _Pupivora_: if by this he alludes to their devouring the young of insects, from the _classical_ meaning of the word _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 generally devoured by their parasites.

[474] Not having had it in my power to consult Dalman's work on the _Chalcidites_ of Latreille, referred to by that learned Entomologist in his _Familles Naturelles du Règne Animal_, I am not able to refer them to their proper genera.

[475] PLATE XVI. FIG. 1.

[476] Marsham in _Linn. Trans._ iii. 26.

[477] See above, p. 169-170.

[478] _Alysia Manducator_; and another species allied to _Alomyia Debellator_, which I have named _A. Stercorator_.

[479] De Geer, ii. 863.

[480] Ibid. 851-5.

[481] Reaum. ii. 419.

[482] De Geer, i. 196. vi. 14. 24.

[483] Reaum. ii. 440-4.

[484] _Linn. Trans._ xi. 86.

[485] Kirby's _Mon. Ap. Ang._ ii. 110-113.

[486] Rossi _Fn. Etrusc. Mant._

[487] Preys. _Bömisch. Insekt._ 59. 61.

[488] PLATE XVII. FIG. 13.

[489] _Entom. Helvétique_, ii. 158.

[490] In the former edition of this work (Vol. IV. p. 392), this tribe is denominated _Eupodina_; but as this seems too near to M. Latreille's _Eupoda_, belonging to a different tribe of beetles, we have substituted the above name, which means the same.

[491] 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 W. J. Hooker, esq.; and a third by a boy at Norwich, crawling up a wall, which was purchased of him by S. Wilkin, esq.

[492] Latr. _Hist. Nat._ x. 181.

[493] _Linn. Trans._ vi. 149. Kirby, _Ibid._ ix. 42. 23.

[494] The late R. Kittoe, Esq.

[495] p. 123.

[496] _Voyages_, i. 185.

[497] Percival's _Ceylon_, 307.

[498] Mr. Knight made the same observation in 1806, and supposes the scarcity of neuters arose from the want of males to impregnate the females. _Philos. Trans._ 1807, p. 243.

[499] St. Pierre, _Voy._ 72.

[500] Lesser, _L._ i. 263, note.

[501] Reaum. vi. 400. _t._ 36-38. PLATE XVI. FIG. 5. _a._

[502] Thiebaut de Berneaud's _Voyage to Elba_, p. 31.

[503]

"Even Tiger fell and sullen Bear
Their likeness and their lineage spare.
Man only mars kind nature's plan,
And turns the fierce pursuit on Man!"
Scott's _Rokeby_, canto iii. 1.

[504] Reaumur, ii. 413.

[505] De Geer, i. 533. iii. 361. v. 400. vi. 91.

[506] Rösel, iv. 96.

[507] Thunberg's _Travels_, ii. 66.

[508] De Geer, vii. 335.

[509] De Geer, vii. 180.

[510] Bingley, ii. 374.

[511] Bingley, iii. 27.

[512] Collinson in _Philos. Trans._ 1763.

[513] Sparrman, ii. 180.

[514] St. Pierre, _Voy._ 73.

[515] Reaum. vi. 479-487.

[516] Swamm. _Bib. Nat._ i. c. 4. 106. b.

[517] In Col. Venable's _Experienced Angler_, a vast number of insects are enumerated as good baits for fish, under the names of _Bob_, _Cadbait_, _Cankers_, _Caterpillars_, _Palmers_, _Gentles_, _Bark-worms_, _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 vulgaris_ or _Amphimalla solstitialis_?) and _flies_ (_i. e._ may-flies) of various sorts.

[518] Anderson's _Recreations in Agricult. &c._, iv. 478. Latr. _Hist. Nat._ xiv. 154.

[519] According to Mr. Heckewelder (_Trans. Am. Phil. Soc._ iv. 124.) _L. Excubitor_, 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 transfixed in a hedge that he knew to be the residence of this bird. Kugellan even thinks that it impales only _G. vernalis_, which he has often found transfixed, but never _G. stercorarius_. (Schneid. _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 others small beetles and other insects. _Naturforscher_ Stk. xviii. 234.

[520] Stillingfl. _Tracts_, 175. _Linn. Trans._ v. 105. note^b.

[521] Bingley, ii. 287-290.

[522] Sparrman, ii. 186.

[523] See above p. 208. note^b. and Bewick's _Birds._ i. Pref. xxii. 130.

[524] _Bib. Nat._ i. 126. b.

[525] _Travels_, i. 110.

[526] Reaum. ii. 408.

[527] Bingley, ii. 374.

[528] White's _Selborne_, i. 181.

[529] _Philos. Mag._ xxxix. 107.

[530] Small flies are sometimes found sticking to the glutinous stigma of some of the Orchideæ 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. of Bot._ ii. 590.

[531] _Elements of the Science of Botany_, 62.

[532] Smith's _Introduction to Botany_, 195.

[533] Mouffet, 319.

[534] Smith's _Tracts_, 165. Kölreuter, _Ann. of Bot._ ii. 9.

[535] Chr. Conr. Sprengel _Entdecktes Geheimniss, &c._ Berlin 1793, 4to. quoted in _Ann. of Bot._ i. 414.

[536] _Grundriss der Kräuterkunde_, 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. Clematitis_ has produced fruit two years at Brompton. Meigen (Dipt. i. 100. e.) places this amongst his doubtful _Cecidomyiæ_. Fabricius considers it as a _Chironomus_.

[537] I have frequently observed _Dermestes flavescens_, Ent. Brit. (_Byturus_) eat both the petals and stamens of _Stellaria Holosteum_; and _Mordellæ_ will open the anthers with the securiform joints of their palpi to get at the pollen.

[538] Hasselquist's _Travels_, 253. Latr. _Hist. Nat._ xiii. 204.

[539] Willd. _Grundriss_, 352.

[540] _Phil. Trans._ xlvi. 536.