Chapter XII: Letter XXI (2)

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 Proscarabæus_), and I dare say, when you took it, have observed orange-coloured or deep-yellow drops appear at its joints. As these insects feed upon acrid plants, the species of crowfoot or _Ranunculus_, 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 (_Ellenophorus collaris_) has likewise this faculty.--The lady-bird, we know, has been recommended as a cure for the tooth-ache. This idea may have taken its rise from a secretion of this kind being noticed upon it. I have observed that one species (_Coccinella bipunctata_) when taken ejects from its joints a yellow fluid which yields a powerful but not agreeable scent of opium.--_Asilus crabroniformis_, a dipterous insect, once when I took it, emitted a white milky fluid from its proboscis, the joints of the legs and abdomen, and the anus.--The common scorpion-fly, likewise, upon the same occasion ejects from its proboscis a brown and fetid drop[359]. Some insects have peculiar organs from which their fluids issue, or are ejaculated. Thus the larvæ of saw-flies when taken into the hand cover themselves with drops, exuding from all parts of their body, of an unpleasant penetrating scent[360]. That of _Cimbex lutea_, of the same tribe, from a small hole just above each spiracle, syringes a similar fluid in horizontal jets of the diameter of a thread, sometimes to the distance of more than a foot[361].--The caterpillar of the great emperor moth (_Saturnia Pyri_,) also spirts out, when the spines that cover them are touched, clear lymph from its pierced tubercles[362].--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[363]; and what may confirm his statement, I have more than once observed such a fluid issue from the male of this genus.--The caterpillar of the puss-moth (_Cerura vinula_), 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 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[364].--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[365].

The next active means of defence with which Creative Wisdom has endowed these busy tribes, are those _limbs_ or _weapons_ 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 dissimilar to the anal termination of the abdomen of most other caterpillars. This tail is composed of two long cylindrical tubes moveable at their base, and beset with a great number of short stiff spines. When the animal walks, the two branches of the tail are separated from each other, and at every step are lowered so as to touch the plane of position; hence we may conclude that they assist it in this 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 representing 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 Geer, from whom this account is taken, says that this caterpillar will bite very sharply[366].--Several larvæ of butterflies, distinguished at their head by a semicoronet of strong spines, figured by Madame Merian, are armed with singular anal organs[367], which may have a similar use. Rösel 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[368]! The caterpillar of the gold-tail moth (_Arctia chrysorhœa_) has a remarkable aperture, which it can open and shut, surrounded by a rim on the upper part of each segment. This aperture includes a little cavity, from which it has the power of darting forth small flocks of a cottony matter that fills it[369]. This manœuvre is probably connected with our present subject, and employed to defend it from its enemies. It also ejects a fluid from its anus.

There is a moth in 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[370].

The caterpillar of the moth of the beech (_Stauropus Fagi_), called the lobster, is distinguished by the uncommon length of its anterior legs. Mr. Stephens, an acute entomologist, relates to me that he once saw this animal use them to rid itself of a mite that incommoded it. They are probably equally useful in delivering it from the ichneumon and its other insect enemies.--Dr. Arnold has made a curious observation (confirmed by Dr. Forsström with respect to others of the genus) on the use of the long processes or tails that distinguish the secondary wings of _Thecla Iarbas_. These processes, he remarks, resemble antennæ, and when the butterfly is sitting it keeps them in constant motion; so that at first sight it appears to have a head at each extremity; which deception is much increased by a spot resembling an eye at the base of the processes. These insects, perhaps, thus perplex or alarm their assailants.--Goedart pretended that the anal horn with which the caterpillars of so many hawk-moths (_Sphingidæ_) 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[371]. Their use is still unknown.

Whether the long and often threatening horns on the head, thorax, and even elytra, with which many insects are armed, are beneficial to them in the view under consideration, is very uncertain. They are frequently sexual distinctions, and have a reference probably rather to sexual purposes and the economy of the animal, than to any thing else. They may, however, in some instances deter enemies from attacking them, and therefore it was right not to omit them wholly, though I shall not further enlarge upon them.--Their mandibles or upper jaws, though principally intended for mastication,--and in the case of the _Hymenoptera_, as instruments for various economical and mechanical uses,--are often employed to annoy their enemies or assailants. I once suffered considerable pain from the bite of the common water-beetle (_Dytiscus marginalis_), as well as from that of the great rove-beetle (_Goerius olens_); 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[372].

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 my path. On putting my stick to it, it immediately turned round as if to defend itself. On the approach of my finger, it lifted itself up and stretched out its legs to meet it.--In Ray's Letters mention is made of a singular combat between a spider and a toad fought at Hetcorne near Sittinghurst[373] 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[374]! 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 instills no terror into the stout heart of the scorpion-fly (_Panorpa communis_), though much its inferior in size and strength. Lyonnet saw one attack a dragon-fly of ten times its own bigness, bring it to the ground, pierce it repeatedly with its proboscis; and had he not by his eagerness parted them, he doubts not it would have destroyed this tyrant of the insect creation[375].

When the death's-head-hawk-moth was introduced by Huber into a nest of humble-bees, they were not affected by it, like the hive-bees, but attacked it and drove it out of their nest, and in one instance their stings proved fatal to it[376].--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[377].

I know nothing more astonishing than the wonderful muscular 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 (_Geotrupes stercorarius_, or _Copris lunaris_), 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 I 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 (_Elophorus aquaticus_), which 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 (_Limnius æneus_) that is found in rivulets under stones and the like, sometimes conceals its elytra 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 minute coleopterous genus (_Georyssus areniferus_[378]), which lives in wet spots where the toad-rush (_Juncus bufonius_) grows, covers itself with sand; and another nearly related to it (_Chætophorus cretiferus_, K.) which frequents chalk, whitens itself all over with that substance. As this animal, when clean, is very black, were it not for this manœuvre, it would be too conspicuous upon its white territory 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 personatus_, a kind of bug sometimes found in houses. When in its two preparatory states, every part of its body, even its legs and antennæ, 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 removed, 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[379]. Its slow movements, combined with its covering, seem to indicate that the object of these manœuvres 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 (_Hemerobius Chrysops_, a lace-winged fly with golden eyes,) covers itself with the skins of the luckless Aphides that it has slain and devoured. From the head to the tail, this pygmy destroyer of the helpless is defended by a thick coat, or rather mountain 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 time 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[380].

Insects in general are remarkable for their cleanliness;--however filthy the substances which they inhabit, yet they so manage as to keep themselves personally neat. Several, however, by no means deserve this character; and I fear you will scarcely credit me when I tell you that some shelter themselves under an umbrella formed of their own excrement! You will exclaim, perhaps, that there is no parallel case in all nature;--it may be so;--yet as I am bound to confess the faults of insects as well as to extol their virtues, I must not conceal from you this opprobrium. Beetles of three different genera are given to this Hottentot habit. The first to which I shall introduce you is one that has long been celebrated under the name of the beetle of the lily (_Lema merdigera_, _Cantaride de' Gigli_, Vallisn.) The larvæ 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 following one, so that it necessarily moves that way. Although, when discharged, it has a longitudinal direction, by the same action of the segments the animal contrives to place every grain transversely. Thus, when laid quite bare, it will cover itself in about two hours. There are often many layers of these grains upon the back of the insect, so as to form a coat of greater diameter than its body. When it becomes too heavy and stiff, it is thrown off, and a new one begun[381].--The larvæ of the various species of the tortoise-beetles (_Cassida_, L.) have all of them, as far as they are known, similar habits, and are furnished besides with a singular apparatus, by means of which they can elevate or drop their stercorarious parasol so as most effectually to shelter or shade them. The instrument by which they effect this is an anal fork, upon which they deposit their excrement, and which 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[382]. In some species the excrement is not so disgusting as you may suppose, being formed into fine branching filaments. This is the case with _C. maculata_, L.[383].--In the cognate genus _Imatidium_, the larvæ also are merdigerous; and that of _I. 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 _Tineæ_, clothes-moths and others, and also of the case-worms, having enlarged upon in a former letter[384], 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 bee (_Heriades_[385] _Campanularum_), a true Sybarite, dozes voluptuously in the bells of the different species of _Campanula_--in which, indeed, I have often found other kinds asleep. Linné named another species _florisomnis_ on account of a similar propensity. A third, a most curious and rare species (_Andrena_[386] _spinigera_), shelters itself when sleeping, at least I once found it there so circumstanced, in the nest-like umbel of the wild carrot. You would think it a most 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 _Sus Babyroussa_ one something like it,)--yet insects do this occasionally. Linné informs us that a little bee (_Epeolus_[387] _variegatus_) passes the night thus suspended to the beak of the flowers of _Geranium phæum_: and I once found one of the vespiform bees (_Nomada_[388] _Goodeniana_) hanging by its mandibles from the edge of a hazel-leaf, apparently 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 that intermediate state of repose which precedes their coming forth in their perfect forms. I formerly explained to you how large a portion of them during this state cease to be locomotive, and assume an appearance of death[389]. In this helpless condition, 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 instinct, 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 are sometimes double. Thus the larvæ of certain saw-flies spin for themselves a cocoon of a soft, flexible, and close texture, which they surround with an exterior one composed of a strong kind of net-work, which withstands pressure like a racket[390]. Here nature has provided that the inclosed animal shall be protected by the interior cocoon from the injury it might be exposed to from the harshness of the exterior, while the latter by its strength and tension prevents it from being hurt by any 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[391]. Since they must reside in these cases, when they are become pupæ, till the time of their final change approaches, if they are left open, how are the animals, now become torpid, to keep out their enemies? Or, if they are wholly closed, how is 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, described 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 regularly as the radii of a circle or the spokes of a wheel. These radii are traversed again by other ridges, which follow the direction of the circles of holes; so that the two kinds of ridges crossing each other form compartments, in the centre of each of which is a hole[392].

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 (_Phalæna_, 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,--exclusive of the _Hymenoptera_ and _Diptera_, which are mostly day-fliers,--are of the same description. Many _larvæ_ of moths also come out only in the night after their food, lying hid all day in subterraneous or other retreats. Of this kind is that of _Fumea pulla_ and _Nycterobius_, whose proceedings have been before described[393]. The caterpillar of another moth (_Noctua subterranea_, F.) never ascends the stems of plants, but remains, a true Troglodyte, always in its cell under ground, biting the stems at their base, which falling, bring thus their foliage within its reach[394].

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[395], that it would be superfluous to do more than mention it here.

I am now to lay before you some examples of the contrivances, requiring skill and ingenuity, by which our busy animals occasionally defend themselves from the designs and attack of their foes. Of these I have already detailed to you many instances, which I shall not here repeat; my history therefore will not be very prolix.--I observed in my account of the societies of wasps, that they place sentinels at the mouth of their nests. The same precaution is taken by the hive-bees, particularly in the night, when they may expect that the great destroyers of their combs, _Galleria mellonella_ and its associates[396], will endeavour to make their way into the hive. Observe them by moonlight, and you will see the sentinels pacing about with their antennæ extended, and alternately directed to the right and left. In the mean time the moths flutter round the entrance; and it is curious to see with what art they know how to profit of the disadvantage that the bees, which cannot discern objects but in a strong light, labour under at that time. But should they touch a moth with these organs of nice sensation, 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 she were sensible that her safety depended upon it, all contact with their antennæ. 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 antennæ, 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[397].

To defend themselves from the death's-head hawk-moth, they have recourse 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 propolis. This wall is built immediately behind and sometimes in the gateway, which it entirely stops up; but it is itself pierced with an opening or two sufficient for the passage of one or two workers. These fortifications are occasionally varied: sometimes there is only one wall, as just 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 walls, 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[398], which places the instinct of these animals in a wonderful light, and shows how well they know how to adapt their proceedings to circumstances. Can this be merely sensitive? When attacked by strange bees, they have recourse to a similar manœuvre; 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[399]. What will you say, if humble-bees have recourse to a similar manœuvre? It is related to me by Dr. Leach, from the communications of Mr. Daniel Bydder--an indefatigable and well-informed collector of insects, and observer of their proceedings--that _Bombus_[400] _terrestris_, when labouring under _Acariasis_[401] from the numbers of a small mite (_Gamasus Gymnopterorum_) that infest it, will take its station in an ant-hill; where beginning to scratch, and kick, and make a disturbance, the ants immediately come out to attack it, and falling foul of the mites, they destroy or carry them all off; when the bee, thus delivered from its enemies, takes its flight.

In this long detail, the first idea that will, I should hope, strike the mind of every thinking being, is the truth of the Psalmist's observation--that the tender mercies of God are over all his works. Not the least and most insignificant of his creatures is, we see, deprived of his paternal care and attention; none are exiled from his all-directing providence. Why then should man, the head of the visible creation, for whom all the inferior animals were created and endowed; for whose well-being, in some sense, all these wonderful creatures with their miraculous instincts, whose history I am giving you, were put in action,--why should he ever doubt, if he uses his powers and faculties rightly, 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, reversing the words of our Saviour, that not a _hair_ is given to them without our Heavenly Father.

I am, &c.

FOOTNOTES:

[289] Fabr. _Vorlesungen_, 321.

[290] _Cimic. Helvet._ _t._ iii. _f._ 3.

[291] _Hist. of Chili_, i. 172.

[292] 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_!"

[293] Brahm _Insekten Kalender_, ii. 383.

[294] Hence we have _Locusta citrifolia_, _laurifolia_, _camellifolia_, _myrtifolia_, _salvifolia_, &c. which, I believe, all belong to a genus I have named _Pterophylla_.

[295] _Voyage_, &c. ii. 16.

[296] _Brit. Ent._ _t._ 154.

[297] Oliv. _Entomolog._ i. no. 8. 17.

[298] PLATE XIX. Fig. 11. VOL. I. 267. Latreille _Gen. Crust. et Ins._ iv. 322.

[299] _Apis._ * * e. 2. K.

[300] Dr. Fleming however, _in Literis_, doubts whether the reason here assigned is the cause of the resemblance between the _Bombus_ and _Volucella_; he thinks if a bee knows a stranger of its own species, it could not be deceived by 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.

[301] Latreille, _Annal. du Mus._ 1810. 5.

[302] 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.

[303] _Cigales_, _f._ 85.

[304] Ibid. _f._ 115. Coquebert, _Illustr. Ic._ ii. _t._ xxviii. _f._ 5.

[305] Stoll, _Cigales_, _f._ 163. Comp. Pallas, _Spicil. Zool._ _t._ i. _f._ 12.

[306] Reaum. v. 94.

[307] 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.

[308] VOL. I. p. 130.

[309] _Insect. Surinam._ _t._ 57. Two different species of caterpillars apparently related to this of Madame Merian were in the late Mr. Francillon's cabinet, and are now in my possession.

[310] VOL. I. p. 149.

[311] To this genus belongs the apple Aphis, called _A. lanigera_.

[312] _Nat. Hist. of the Slug-worm_, 7.

[313] The 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 that their vital spirits are more diffused thorowout all their parts, and lesse confined to organs than in perfect creatures." _Sylv. Sylvar. cent._. vii. § 697.

[314] Leeuw. _Epist._ 77, 1694.

[315] De Geer, vii. 127.

[316] _Bib. Nat._ ii. c. 3. VOL. I. p. 399.

[317] _Linn. Trans._ vi. 84.

[318] J. Mason Good's _Anniversary Oration, delivered March_ 8, 1808, _before the Medical Society of London_, p. 31.

[319] De Geer, vi. 355; comp. 320, and Reaum. ii. 141-147.

[320] Hill's _Swamm._ i. 174.

[321] _Ann. du Mus._ 1810. 5.

[322] VOL. I. p. 426.

[323] De Geer, iv. 229.

[324] Smellic, _Phil. of Nat. Hist._ i. 150.

[325] Rös. I. v. 27.

[326] PLATE I. FIG. 7. _Linn. Trans._ x. 404--.

[327] Reaum. ii. 253.

[328] Reaum. ii. 260. _t._ 20. _f._ 10. 11. Compare Sepp. IV. _t._ i. _f._ 3-7.

[329] Ibid. i. 100.

[330] Smith's _Abbot's Ins. of Georgia_, ii. 121.

[331] De Geer, iv. 74.

[332] _Nat. Hist._ ii. 268.

[333] P. Huber in _Linn. Trans._ vi. 219. Kirby, _Mon. Ap. Angl._ i. 201.

[334] Kirby in _Linn. Trans._ xi. 87, note *.

[335] VOL. I. p. 164.

[336] Ibid. 34.

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

[338] _Hist. Nat._ l. xxix. c. 6.

[339] iv. 86.

[340] De Geer, iii. 249. 374.

[341] Ibid. 611.

[342] VOL. I. 480.

[343] Kirby, _Mon. Ap. Angl._ i. 136. note _a._

[344] De Geer, vi. 134. Meigen _Dipt._ v. 12.

[345] De Geer, vi. 135. 33.

[346] Ibid. vii. 581.

[347] PLATE XIX. FIG. 1. a.

[348] Merian _Surinam._ 17. Jones in _Linn. Trans._ ii. 64.

[349] De Geer, ii. 989-- _t._ xxxvii. _f._ 6.

[350] De Geer, v. 291. Compare Ray's _Letters_, 43. See PLATE XVIII. FIG. 1.

[351] _Ann. du Mus._ xviii. 70.

[352] Lesser _L._ i. 284, note 6.

[353] _De Araneis_ 27.

[354] This gentleman is of opinion that spiders possess the means of re-dissolving their webs. He observed one, when its net was broken run up its thread, and gathering a considerable mass of the web into a ball, suddenly dissolve it with fluid. He also observes, that when winding up a powerful prey, a spider can form its threads into a broad sheet.

[355] Jurine _Hymenopt._ _t._ vi. _f._ 8.

[356] De Geer, ii. 971.

[357] I owe the knowledge of this circumstance to Mr. MacLeay.

[358] De Geer, iv. 86. Geoffr. i. 141.

[359] De Geer, ii. 734.

[360] Reaumur. v. 96.

[361] De Geer, ii. 937--.

[362] Rösel, iv. 162. De Geer, i. 273.

[363] Rai. _Hist. Ins._ 94. _n._ 3.

[364] De Geer, i. 324--.

[365] Ibid. i. 208.

[366] De Geer, i. 322--.

[367] _Ins. Surinam._ t. viii. xxiii. xxxii.

[368] I. iv. 122.

[369] Reaum. ii. 155. _t._ vii. _f._ 4-7.

[370] Lewin's _Prodromus_.

[371] De Geer, i. 149--.

[372] Mr. MacLeay relates to me, from the communications of Mr. E. Forster, the following particulars respecting the history of _Mutilla 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 so ill for several days that his life was despaired of.

[373] Hedcorne near Sittingbourne.

[374] Dr. Long in Ray's _Letters_, 370.

[375] Lesser _L._ i. 263. Note ‡.

[376] Huber, _Nouv. Obs._ ii. 301--.

[377] Bingley, _Animal Biogr._ iii. 1st Ed. 247--. White, _Nat. Hist._ ii. 82.

[378] In the former Editions of this work this insect was stated to be synonymous with _Trox dubius_ of Panzer, which it much resembles, except in the sculpture of the prothorax, (_Fn. Ins. Germ. Init._ lxii. _t._ 5.); but as Schönherr and Gyllenhal, who had better means of ascertaining the point, regard _Georyssus pygmæus_, Latr., as Panzer's insect, the reference is now omitted. _G. areniferus_ differs considerably from _G. pygmæus_, as described by Gyllenhal (_Insect. Suec._ I. iii. 675.) The front is not rugulose, the vertex is channeled, the antennæ shorter than the head; the prothorax is rather shining, marked anteriorly with several excavations, in the middle of which is a channel forming a reversed cross with a transverse impression.

[379] De Geer, iii. 283-- Geoffr. _Hist. Ins._ i. 437.

[380] Reaum. iii. 391.

[381] Reaum. iii. 220-- Compare Vallisnieri _Esperienz. ed Osservaz._ 195. Ed. 1726.

[382] Reaum. 233--.

[383] Kirby in _Linn. Trans._ iii. 10.

[384] VOL. I. 457-67.

[385] _Apis._ **. c. 2. γ. K.

[386] _Melitta._ **. c. K.

[387] _Apis._ **. b. K.

[388] _Apis._ b. *. K.

[389] VOL. I. 64--.

[390] Reaum. v. 100.

[391] VOL. I. 464--.

[392] Reaum. iii. 170. De Geer, ii. 519. 545. PLATE XVII. FIG. 11.

[393] VOL. I. 453.

[394] Fab. _Ent. Syst. Em._ iii. 70. 200.

[395] VOL. I. 432--.

[396] VOL. I. 165.

[397] Huber, _Nouv. Obs._ ii. 412.

[398] Huber, _Nouv. Obs._ ii. 294--.

[399] _Hist. Nat._ l. viii. c. 36.

[400] _Apis._ * *. e. 2. K.

[401] VOL. I. 97--.