THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID London : Printed by Richard Clay, Bread-street Hill. LONDON : FREDERICK WESTLEY AND A. H. DAVIS, STATION ERS'-H ALL-COURT 1835. My wish and judgment about the affair has always been this ; that I should much prefer that some one of those, more skilful than myself, had undertaken it; but still that it is better even I should undertake it, than it be left undone. PREFACE. TEACHERS in science are nearly equally divided into two classes ; those who know too much, and those who know too little. Those of the first class, overloaded with science, cannot admit the possibility of meeting with readers who have none ; and, therefore, their essays and introductions are so worded that it requires a tolerable proficiency to under- stand them. The teachers of the second class fall into the opposite error ; they curtail, garble, and popularize the writings of others without understanding them, forgetful that it requires a consummate knowledge of any science to abridge a work which treats of it Vlli PREFACE. ably and at large. The Author submits, with much humility, that both classes are in error : he submits also that introductory works should be written for those who know nothing of the subject on which they read, and by those who possess, in themselves, some prac- tical knowledge of the subject on which they write. 4 In accordance with these views, the Author has written the following pages ; he supposes his reader utterly ignorant of Entomology, and endeavours to show him that it is the History of Insects, and the Physiology of Insects, and the Classification of Insects, and the Art of Preserving Insects : he does not address himself to the professed entomologist ; to such this work will be of little value. The First Book, entitled History of Insects, is a complete compilation ; a series of histories PREFACE. IX copied, in many instances verbatim, from the accounts of those authors who relate what themselves have witnessed. Objections will probably be raised to this plan, but the Author thinks without reason. What good purpose would have been answered, had he so curtailed, transposed, and altered these histories, that their very authors should not have known them ? On the contrary, is there not a good purpose answered in collecting together the most interesting observations of Huber, Smeathman, Rusticus, Kirby, Spence, Clark, Fries, Bevan, Delta, and Haliday ? No concealment is attempted : the authority for each history is given, except when dependent on the Author's own observation. The Second Book, entitled Physiology of Insects, is the record of the Author's own observations: he has given the names em- ployed by other writers, when he could under- PREFACE. stand to what parts they referred, but in names alone has he availed himself of their labours ; the facts, the descriptions, are en- tirely his own. For one chapter, that on the Organs of Circulation, he is indebted to Mr. Bowerbank : by means of that gentle- man's splendid microscope he made the obser- vations therein recorded. Mr. Bowerbank's account of the same observations has been given in the Entomological Magazine, (vol. i. p. 239) : his account and the Author's some- what differ, but not sufficiently to cause the slightest doubt of the correctness of either, in the mind of a candid reader. The differ- ences are those of opinion only. The Third Book, entitled Classification of Insects, may be charged with being too ori- ginal : it may be said that the Author should have given the views and arrangements of others in preference to his own. He would ask, PREFACE. XI whose system was he to select? That his own is the most simple and the most readily understood, no one will deny: that it is more perfect, or more accurate, or more philosophical, than any other, he does not presume to contend. As for a disquisition on system, it would have been dangerous ground; pleasurable to the writer, but un- profitable to the reader : it would have doubled the size of the volume without add- ing a fraction to its value. The Fourth Book, entitled the Preserva- tion of Insects, contains nothing worthy of comment ; it will be useful to those who wish to make it so, and that has been the Author's only object in writing it. The want of an easy introductory work on Insects has been obvious to many. or the last two years, during which time it has been Xll PREFACE. generally known that he has contemplated the task, the Author has received numerous and pressing solicitations to proceed with it : he has at last made the attempt. He has done his best ; whether successfully or not, others must decide. TABLE OF CONTENTS. BOOK I. HISTORY OF INSECTS. Chap. Page I. History of Insects in general 3 II. The Silkworm 7 III. Apple Moth 13 IV. Musquito 18 V. Bot 23 VI. . Bee 27 VII. Ichneumon 40 VIII. Burying Beetle 46 IX. -Apple Weevil 51 X. Earwig 54 XI. Locust 58 XII. Coccus of the Vine ... 62 XIII. Hop-fly 66 XIV. Ant Lion 72 XV. White Ant 77 XVI. Concluding Observations 86 BOOK II. PHYSIOLOGY OF INSECTS. I. Physiology of Insects in general 93 II. Of the Organs of Support in general ... 97 III. - in the head . . .106 IV. Of the Wings and Legs of Insects .... 121 V. Of the Characters of Surface 129 VI. Of Muscles, the Organs of Motion . ... 133 VII. Of Nerves, the Organs of Sensation . . . 137 XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS. Chap. Page VIII. Of the Alimentary Canal, or Organs of Digestion 143 IX. Of the Organs of Circulation 147 X. Of the Organs of Respiration 152 XI. Concluding Observations 156 BOOK III. CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. I. Classification of Insects in general . . .163 II. Lepidoptera 173 III. Diptera 181 IV. Hymenoptera 198 V. Coleoptera .' 218 VI. Orthoptera 239 VII. Hemiptera 242 VIII. Neuroptera 246 IX. Of Ticklers, Bee-Parasites, Fleas, Thysanura, Anop- lura; and concluding Obser- vations 250 BOOK IV. PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. I. Apology for the Collector of Insects . . . 259 II. Of the Dress and Instruments for the collection of Insects 262 III. Of capturing Insects 268 IV. Of killing and setting Insects 274 V. Of Entomological Cabinets 282 VI. Of Entomological Books 287 VII. Of investigating Insects 294 VIII. Of Entomological Societies 298 EXPLANATION OF PLATES. PLATE I. To face the Title of Book I. represents the Ant-lion at the bottom of his pit. (See Book I. Chapter XIV.) II. To face the Title of Book II. Fig. 1. Copper Butterfly (Lyccena dispar), caterpillar (larva), 4. 2. Copper Butterfly, chrysalis (pupa), 4. 3. Copper Butterfly, perfect insect (imago), 4. 4. Head of Copper Butterfly. CE Eye (Oculus), 385. o 4 Blade of feeler jaw (lacinia), 411, 412. Lower lip (labium), 394. u Labial feelers (labipalpi), 398. 5. Horse Bot (CEstrus Equi), grub (larva), 69. 6. Ditto (Ditto), chrysalis (pupa), 72. 7. Ditto (Ditto), perfect insect, (imago), 73. 8. Mouth of the Gad-fly (Tabanus bovinus). a Upper lip (labrum), 391. e Tongue (lingua), 406. * i Mandibles (mandibulce). 423. 425. 4 Blade of feeler jaw (lacinia), 411. 413. 6 6 Maxillary feeler (maxipalpus), 422. 4 Tip of lower lip (ligula), 399. 401. 9. Ichneumon of the Tiger-moth (Pimpla Instigator), maggot (larva), 131. 10. Ichneumon of the Tiger-moth, chrysalis (pupa), 134. 11. Ichneumon of the Tiger-moth, perfect insect (imago), 124. 12. Mouth of the Ichneumon. a Upper lip (labrum,) 391. 1 Mandible (mandibula), 423, 428. o 2 Disk of feeler jaw (maxilla), 409. o 3 Feeler bearer (palpifer), 410. XVI EXPLANATION OF PLATES. PLATE II. Fig. 12. o 4 Blade (lacinia), 411. o Helmet (galea), 418. 420. 6 Maxillary feeler (maxipalpus), 422. u 2 Lower lip proper (labium), 394. u 4 Tip of lower lip (ligula), 399. 401. u Labial feeler (labipalpus), 398. III. To face the Title of Book III. Fig. 1. (Orchesia micans), grub (larva). 2. (Ditto), chrysalis (pupa). 3. (Ditto), perfect insect (imago). 4. Common Cricket (Acheta domestica), (larva). 5. Lower lip of Common Cricket (labium), 394. u 1 Insertion (Insertio), 395. u 2 Lip proper (labium proprium), 396. u 3 Feeler bearer (palpiger), 397. 4 Tip of the lower lip (ligula), 399. 405. # Labial feeler (labipalpus), 398. 6. Painted Plant-bug (Acanthosoma picta), perfect insect (imago). 7. Pearl-fly (Perla bicaudata), (larva), 8. Feeler jaw of the Pearl-fly. o 2 Disk (maxilla), 409. o4 Blade (lacinia), 411. o Helmet (galea), 418. 6 Maxillary feeler (maxipalpus), 422. 9. Fore wing (proala) of the Pearl-fly, 441. 10. Hind leg (metapes) of Ditto, 451. b The hip (coxa), divided by a line, 454. d The thigh (femur), its first and second joint being minute, and adjointing the coxa, 455. f The shank (tibia), 456. g The foot (tarsus), 460. h The claws (unguiculi), 462. k The little cushion (pulvinulus), 465. IV. To face the Title of Book IV. Fig. 1. Water net, 849. 2. Clap net, 851. 3. Forceps, 848. 4. Bent pin, 899. 5. Minute insect mounted, 893. 6. Beetle pinned, 887. 7. Vial for minute Hymenoptera, 854. 8. Laj-va cage, 874. Platel ran Go to the ant, thou sluggard ; consider her ways, and be -wise. , BOOK I. HISTORY OF INSECTS. CHAPTER I. HISTORY OF INSECTS IN GENERAL. 1. THE history of an insect, like the history of a man, is an account of life from first to last, from birth to death. Insects are so constituted, that the history of an individual is the history of its race : climate, season, or circumstance, exercises little power of creating differences among them ; a bee is as essentially a bee, and a butterfly a but- terfly, at the equator as at the poles ; and in either situations performs the same acts. 2. Insects of all kinds and in all situations re- semble each other in these points : they proceed from the parent as eggs, the eggs are hatched and become grubs, in which state they eat, increase rapidly in size, and are invariably without wings ; B 2 4 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. the grubs, when full grown, become for a time motionless ; their skin opens, and from it comes forth the perfect insect, which has four wings, and which does not increase in size. 3. In a very great number of insects, the grub changes its skin, and completely alters its form on becoming motionless ; indeed, almost as great a change in appearance takes place, as in the change from the grub to the perfect state ; when this is the case, the motionless state is called the chry- salis. 4. Thus we have four stages in the life of an insect, four states which it is necessary thoroughly to understand ; the egg (ovum) which is motion- less, and apparently lifeless ; the grub (larva), which is active, but without wings, voracious, and grows rapidly ; the chrysalis (pupa), which is quite motionless, and which does not occur in all in- sects ; the perfect insect (imago), which is active, has wings, does not grow, and which, by laying eggs, perpetuates its kind. 5. The names egg, larva, pupa arid imago, are the terms generally employed in descriptions ; the three last answer equally well for Latin or Eng- lish, but it must be borne in mind that the words grub, maggot, and caterpillar, are synonymous with the term larva ; and perfect insect, fly, &c. are synonymous with the term imago ; and the English and Latin words are used in English descriptions almost indifferently. HISTORY OF INSECTS. 5 6. These transformations are in reality nothing more than a continual casting of the outer skin ; the larva often casts its skin four or five times without any very remarkable change of form ; every casting of the skin is a step towards arriv- ing at ultimate perfection. In every insect the skin must be cast a certain number of times, and the last casting brings it to maturity. 7- On account of their small size, it is difficult to find common examples of the eggs of insects ; those laid on meat by the blue-bottle fly must be known to many ; the silk-worm's eggs again are not unknown ; but the generality of insects' eggs are so concealed and so little conspicuous, that they are found with difficulty. 8. Examples of larvae are numerous ; the maggots found in wasps' nests, and used in fish- ing ; the maggots in apples and in nuts ; the mag- gots in cheese, and in decaying substances ; and the caterpillars, which devour our cabbages, which spin webs on our apple, pear, and plum trees, in the spring, are familiar to us all : these are insects in the larva state. 9. The pupa state is more difficult to find, be- cause insects generally crawl away into crevices or underground, and hide themselves before chang- ing to this state ; an angular pupa of a green colour, with small black spots, which produces a common white butterfly, may, however, be con- tinually seen on palings and walls of gardens, and GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. the smooth brown pupae of moths are continually dug up in gardens. 10. The imago, or perfect state, is exemplified in butterflies, moths, gnats, flies, wasps, bees, ants, beetles, grasshoppers, earwigs, cockroaches, bugs, fleas, may-flies, and dragon-flies. All descriptions of insects in scientific works, relate to the imago state, unless the contrary is distinctly expressed. 1 1 . All perfect insects have two feelers (antennce) rising from their heads, like horns; four wings, the first pair called fore wings (proalte), the second pair hind wings (metalce) ; six legs in pairs, the first pair called fore legs (propedes), the se- cond pair, middle legs (mesopedes), and the third pair, hind legs (metapedes). 12. These parts are believed always to exist, yet are sometimes very indistinct ; when they are conspicuous, they are said to be developed (pate- facti\ when small, and scarcely performing their usual functions, rudimental (incipientes), when un- discovered, and therefore not possibly applicable to their usual functions, obsolete (obsoleti). 13. The mode in which the life of an insect is passed, differs very widely in the states of its existence : it often happens that the larva inhabits the water, and the imago the air ; sometimes the larva inhabits the water, the pupa inhabits the earth, and the imago returns to the water. The fol- lowing chapters will in some degree exemplify this. HISTORY OF INSECTS. CHAPTER II. HISTORY OF THE SILKWORM. Class Lepidoptera. i Genus Bombyx. Order Bombycites. j Species Mori. 14. SILK has been a valuable article of commerce, and a favourite one for dress from time immemorial ; the archives of China are said to speak of its existence five thousand years ago, but the period at which it was first appropriated to the uses of man cannot be traced. 15. The manufacture of silk, in this country alone, is supposed to find constant employment and means of support for about five hundred thousand human beings ; in France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, and the continent of Asia, it is also an article of great commercial importance. 16. Silk is a native production of China and India; it was introduced into Europe A.D. 550, by two monks, who brought the eggs of the silk-worm, in hollow canes, to Constantinople, 8 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. and there succeeded in rearing the worms and obtaining their produce. 17. Silk is now produced abundantly in Europe, principally in Murcia, in Spain, the south of France, and in Italy ; in Hungary it is cultivated, but with less success ; and in England, probably from the want of sufficient warmth, all attempts hitherto made have proved unsuccessful. 18. Silk is spun by a caterpillar, which feeds on the leaves of the mulberry-tree ; it is called the silk-worm ; it comes from eggs laid by a moth in the autumn of the preceding year. 19. In May the eggs are hatched, and produce small black caterpillars, less than the tenth of an inch in length ; these increase daily in size, and gradually alter their colour till they become nearly white. 20. In this country, the caterpillar takes fifty- six days to arrive at perfection, during which time it invariably sheds its skin as many as four, and occasionally five times ; the cause of this occasional additional change is not known. After every change the caterpillar is lighter in colour, and has a larger head than previous to the change ; it spins during five or six days, making about sixty-two days. 21. In warmer climates the caterpillar arrives at its full growth in forty-seven days, and has finished spinning in five more, making together fifty-two days ; these may be counted thus : HISTORY OF INSECTS. 9 hatching to first change, seven days ; changing, two days ; before the second change, seven days ; changing, two days ; before the third change, seven days ; changing, three days ; before the fourth change, seven days ; changing, four days ; before beginning to spin, eight days ; spinning, five days. 22. When the caterpillar is about to change its skin, it ceases to eat, holds its head up stiff, and appears ill and sulky ; the new head is plainly to be discovered through the transparent skin, behind the old one, and rather of a triangular shape the apex of the triangle being uppermost ; after remaining in this state two or three days, as above stated, the skin opens behind the head, which cracks longitudinally, and is cast with the skin ; the caterpillar then twists itself from side to side, and writhes about, while the skin gra- dually slips from its body, and comes off at the tail. 23. Whilst the silk- worms are feeding, they should be kept very clean, and abundantly sup- plied with fresh leaves ; open trays, made of pasteboard, are very convenient for holding them ; and from these, if supplied with food, they never wander. 24. Care should be taken to preserve silk- worms from birds and mice, both of which are excessively fond of them ; the influence of the sun is highly injurious to them, as are also cold 10 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. north and east winds ; but plenty of air in warm weather is beneficial. The leaves should be given to them perfectly dry ; if brought from a distance, they preserve their freshness for many days in a tin box, or on the cold bricks or stones of a cellar. 25. After the fourth change, the silk- worms require constant watching ; twice a day they should be carefully looked over, and those ready to spin picked out, and placed in little cells, made of writing-paper, about as large as one's thumb, open at one end, and closely screwed up at the other ; their paper cells may be pinned to lines crossing a room, and placed touching each other on the line. 26. The period of a silk-worm being ready to spin is plainly indicated by its ceasing to eat, and becoming suddenly more transparent and of a yellow colour ; it will also begin to spin a few threads of silk among the leaves, or in a corner of the tray. 27. The silk-worm, when placed in the cell, spins a few loose connecting threads, attached to every side of the cell : it then forms a regular oval ball of silk, which is suspended in the centre of the cell, and in the interior of which it continues to work for five days. 28. If the cells containing the spinning silk- worms, are placed regularly on the line in the order in which they begin spinning, then there will occur no difficulty in taking them off, in the succession in which they stand, as the first in HISTORY OF INSECTS. 11 order on the line will be the first requiring to be wound off. 29. After a silk-worm has been ten days in its cell, its cocoon of yellow silk will be compact and complete ; this must be taken out of the cell, the exterior or waste silk stripped off, until a single thread runs by itself; an operation which will be much assisted by occasionally dipping the cocoon in warm water. 30. When the single threads of half a dozen of these cocoons are found, they may be guided with one hand on a small reel, which is constructed for the purpose, and may be turned with the other hand, the cocoons at the same time floating on a basin of warm water ; by a little management in separating the thread, a great number may thus be wound off at the same time. 31. When so much of the silk has been wound off, that the remainder appears of a thinner, paler, and inferior quality, the thread should be broken, the remaining portion of the cocoon is weak, gum- my, and of little value ; it should be taken out of the water, and laid aside to prevent its getting entangled with the others. 32. Within the cocoon is the chrysalis, from which the future moth is produced ; these may be thrown on a tray containing bran, which absorbs the water which would otherwise remain on them after their long soaking. When silk-worms are reared for profit, there are a far greater number 12 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. of chrysalides than are wanted ; these may be given to fowls, which are exceedingly fond of them, and to which they afford a wholesome and nutritious diet. 33. In a fortnight or three weeks after the winding of the silk, some of the chrysalides will be found cracking and opening, and the perfect moth will then appear : these are small sluggish creatures, of a pale buff colour, seldom leaving the tray, mat, or paper, on which they are placed, and on which the females lay their eggs. 34. As regards the hatching of the eggs, it is important to know that this may be retarded as long as the owner pleases, by subjection to a low temperature ; and it will be well for those who purpose keeping silk-worms for the sake of profit to defer the hatching of the eggs until the mul- berry-trees are sufficiently forward to ensure a constant supply of food. 35. The usual time for the hatching of silk- worms' eggs in this country is about the 12th of May, but a fortnight later is much better ; for at that time the mulberry-trees have not generally put forth their leaves, and a great difficulty con- stantly occurs in procuring food. 36. No other food than mulberry leaves, as far as we have yet learned, affords to silk-worms wholesome nutriment ; lettuce, dog-wood, and black-currant leaves, have been repeatedly tried, but without success. HISTORY OF INSECTS. 13 CHAPTER III. HISTORY OF THE APPLE MOTH.* Class Lepidoptera. Order Tortricites. Genus Cydia. Species Pomonana. 37. THE apple-moth is a beautiful little crea- ture ; its wings are studded with silvery shining specks, as though they were inlaid with precious gems : it is the most beautiful of the beautiful tribe to which it belongs, yet, from it shabits not being known, it is seldom seen in the moth state, and the apple-grower knows no more than the man in the moon to what cause he is indebted for his basketsful of worm-eaten windfalls in the stillest weather. 38. To find the moth in the day-time, the trunks of the apple-trees should be carefully looked over ; or if your orchard be surrounded by a wooden fence, it may frequently be found sitting against it, with its pretty wings neatly folded round it. * Rusxirus, in the Entomological Magazine. 14 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. 39. Towards evening, in fact, just at sunset, it begins to move, and may then be seen hovering about the little apples, which, by the time the moth leaves the chrysalis, the middle of June, are well knit, and consequently fit for the reception of its eggs, which it lays in the eyes, one only in each, by introducing its long ovipositor between the leaves of the calyx, which form a tent above it that effectually shields it from the inclemency of the weather, or any other casualty. 40. As soon as the egg hatches, the little grub gnaws a hole in the crown of the apple, and soon buries itsel/ in its substance ; and it is worthy of remark that the rind of the apple, as if to afford every facility to the destroyer, is thinner here than in any other part, and consequently more easily pierced : the apple most commonly attacked is the codling, a large early sort, which ripens in July and August. 41. The grub, controlled by an unvarying instinct, eats into the apple obliquely downwards, and by thus avoiding the core and pips in no way hinders its growth : at first it makes but slow progress, being little bigger than a thread, but after a fortnight its size and its operations have much increased ; it has now eaten half way down the apple, and the position of the hole at the top, if the apple continue upright, or nearly so, is inconvenient for a purpose it has up to this time been used for, that is, as a pass to get rid of its HISTORY OF INSECTS. 15 little pellets of excrement, which are something like fine sawdust or coarse sand. 42. Another communication with the outer air is for this purpose required, and it must be so constructed as to allow the power of gravity to assist in keeping it clear ; it is accordingly made directly downwards towards that part of the apple which is lowest, and thus the trouble of thrusting the pellets upwards through the eye of the apple is saved, and a constant admission given to a supply of air without any labour. 43. The hole now made is not, however, suffi- ciently open for an observer to gain by its means any knowledge of what is going on within ; this is only to be obtained by cutting open a number of the apples as they gradually advance towards ripeness ; the hole is, however, very easily seen, from its always having adhering to it on the out-^ side an accumulation of the little grains which have been thrust through. 44. Having completed this work, the grub returns towards the centre of the apple, where he feeds at his ease. When within a few days of being full fed, he for the first time enters the core through a round hole gnawed in the hard, horny substance which always separates the pips from the pulp of the fruit, and the destroyer now finds himself in that spacious chamber which codlings in particular always have in their centre. 45. From this time he eats only the pips, 16 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. never again tasting the more common pulp which hitherto had satisfied his unsophisticated palate : now nothing less than the highly-flavoured, aro- matic kernels will suit his tooth, and on these for a few days he feasts in luxury. 46. Somehow or other, the pips of an apple are connected with its growth, as the heart of an animal with its life; injure the heart, an animal dies : injure the pips, an apple falls : whether the fall of his house gives the tenant warning to quit, is not known, but quit he does, and that almost immediately ; he leaves the eore, crawls along his breathing and clearing-out gal- lery, the mouth of which, before nearly closed, he now gnaws into a smooth, round hole, which will permit him free passage without hurting his fat, soft, round body ; then out he comes, and for the first time in his life finds himself in the open air. 47. He now wanders about on the ground till he finds the stem of a tree : up this he climbs, and hides himself in some nice little crack in the bark : we should remark, that the fall of the apple, the exit of the grub, and his wandering to this place of security, usually take place in the night- time. In this situation he remains without stirring for a day or two, as if to rest himself after the uncommon fatigue of a two yards' march ; he then gnaws away the bark a little in order to get further in out of the way of observation ; and HISTORY OF INSECTS. 17 having made a smooth chamber big enough for his wants, he spins a beautiful little milk-white silken case, in which, after a few weeks, he becomes a chrysalis. 48. In this state he remains throughout the winter and until the following June, unless some unlucky, blackheaded tit, running up the trunk, peeping into every cranny, and whistling out his merry see-saw, happen to spy him, in which case he is plucked without ceremony from his retreat, and his last moments are spent in the bird's crop ; but supposing no such ill-fortune betide him, by the middle of June he is again on the wing, and hovering round the young apples on a midsummer evening as before. 49. By burning weeds in your gardens at this time of year you will effectually drive away this little moth. If you have trees, the crops of which you value, make a smoking (mind, not a blazing) fire under each; it will put you to some incon- venience if your garden be near your house, but the apples will repay you for that. 18 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. CHAPTER IV. HISTORY OF THE MOSQUITO/ Class Diptera. Order Simuliites. Genus Simulia. 50. THE eggs of the mosquito (Simulia), and the mode in which they are laid, appear to be at pre- sent unknown ; there is, however, little doubt but that, like those of other gnats, they are deposited on the surface of the water, and in that situation are hatched by the warmth of the sun combined with the moisture of the water. 51. The larva is found on the stems of water- plants (Phellandrium, &c.) ; on those portions which are always covered by the water : it is long, cylindrical, considerably thickened posteriorly, and nearly transparent : its head is distinctly separated from the body, and is of an oblong form ; it has four jaws moving horizontally, each bifid at the tip, and two little horns in the usual place of * M. Fries in Entomologisches Archives. HISTORY OF INSECTS. 19 antennae, inserted in the front of the head, rather towards each side : each of these is composed of two joints, the first, or basal joint, stout, the second, or apical one, divided into many rays, which fold back on the first joint : it has two very small eyes on each side of the head. 52. The body of the larva is divided into twelve segments besides the head ; of these, the second is incrassated, and furnished below with a retrac- tile conical foot ; the last segment is very minute, and furnished with two small prehensile feet : the air tubes, so very plainly seen in other aquatic larvae, are totally wanting ; neither is there the least appearance of spiracles or breathing holes in the sides. 53. The motion of the larva in the water is tolerably brisk ; but on any object coming in contact with it, it instantly becomes motionless, attaches itself by the anterior prehensile foot, and remains a long time perfectly still and immov- able. When it moves from one place to another, its progression is undulating, somewhat like that of a leech, being performed in this manner : the anterior foot is firmly attached to some object, then the posterior pair of feet are brought up to it, the back arching up during the operation : the anterior foot then releases its ^hold ; the body is again elongated, the foot attached further on, and the posterior feet again brought up to it. 54. The food of the larva is unknown : when c 2 20 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. full grown, it spins a little silken sheath, in shape like a watchpocket, which is attached to the plant which the larva frequents, and in which the larva changes to a pupa in an upright position : the case being always open at top, the head and shoulders of the pupa are seen projecting above it. 55. The pupa much resembles that of a moth: it is perfectly motionless, of a brown colour, and exhibits very distinctly the parts of the perfect insect through its skin : from the back of its head arise on each side four hair-like appendages; these are tubular, and appear to be designed for breathing. 56. About the sixth of July the little creature bursts from its sheath ; the case of the chrysalis opens in a right line down the back, and the perfect insect emerges through the opening, sur- rounded by a bubble of air, and slowly begins to unfold its wings under the water ; finally, its skin being cast, and its maturity attained, it disengages itself from its former habitation, and mounts within its bubble to the surface of the water, when the bubble bursts, and the creature has acquired new organs and a new element. 57. The imago is a small black fly, with two large transparent wings, which, when at rest, repose horizontally on its back ; moderately long- legs, and short stout antennae ; it flies with ease, and somewhat sportively, rising and falling. In this country it is found in the damp parts of HISTORY OF INSECTS. 21 woods, and other similar situations ; but, happily, in very limited numbers. 58. There is scarcely any animal more annoying to men and animals than this little fly : its attacks are made in innumerable multitudes, and it is trou- blesome not only from the pain and inflammation caused by its bite, but also from the intolerable itching occasioned by its crawling over the skin. 59. In the woody and marshy parts of Lapland, the mosquitoes swarm in the months of July and August ; nay, even the summits of the highest mountains, though capped with perpetual snow, impose no obstacle to their progress. Among the numerous gnats and flies which feed on blood, these are the most to be feared ; impelled by an insatiate thirst, they make their attack, and will have blood : nothing can repel or deter them. 60. Whenever the garment of a traveller has by accident slipped aside, and discovered a portion of his skin, however small, that exposed portion is instantly streaming with blood : in the southern parts of Lapland they are less troublesome than in the northern, although clouds of them occa- sionally appear performing their evolutions in the air. 61. The mosquito seems to have adopted the world for its country ; no known land appears to be without it ; all temperatures suit it the polar snows, and the blaze of tropical sands. Yet all the flies of which travellers complain as so dreadfully 22 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. annoying, are not mosquitoes ; many of our com- monest gnats have a similar taste for blood. 62. Although, from what is related, there can be no doubt that the blood of man is an acceptable food to the mosquito, yet it is remarkable that the greatest multitudes of these creatures inhabit those bleak, inhospitable, and almost inaccessible regions where the foot of man seldom treads, and where other warm-blooded animals are scarcely known to exist. 63. It is clearly ascertained that the female mosquitoes alone suck the blood of man ; the males spend their lives among the leaves of trees, or settle on flowers, from which they appear to derive nutriment ; it is therefore far from impos- sible that, in the failure of animal, the females also may have recourse to vegetable nutriment. HISTORY OF INSECTS. 23 CHAPTER V. Class Diptera. | Genus CEstrus. Order GEstrites. I Species Equi, 64. THE opinions respecting this singular insect, as to the benefit or injury which horses derive from it, are very various ; but observation leads us to suppose that, like many other insect parasites in various parts of the bodies of animals, its existence is scarcely perceptible to the animal which supports it. 65. The female bot flies round the horse, carrying her body nearly upright in the air, and projecting a long tube (ovipositor) from the ex- tremity of her body, this tube being bent inwards and upwards : in this way she approaches the part where she designs to deposit the egg ; and suspending herself for a few seconds, darts for- ward, and leaves the egg adhering to the hair. * Bracy Clark's History of the Bots of Horses. 24 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. 66. The egg appears to be held out at the extremity of the ovipositor, so that the insect has no occasion to settle, but simply touches the hair, and the egg at once firmly adheres by means of a glutinous matter with which it is covered ; she then withdraws to a short distance, prepares an- other egg, again poises herself before the chosen part, and deposits it in the same way as before : the operation is sometimes repeated until four or five hundred eggs are laid on one horse. 67. The female bot does not lay her eggs at random on any part of the body, but constantly on those parts which are most liable to be licked by the tongue ; and never on the head, or parts which cannot be reached by the tongue ; the inside of the knee, and the side and back part of the shoulder, are the parts usually selected. 68. When the eggs have remained on the hairs four or five days, the slightest application of warmth and moisture is sufficient to hatch them ; at this time, if the tongue of the horse touches the egg, it immediately opens, and a small active worm is produced, which adheres readily to the moist surface of the tongue, and is thence conveyed with the food into the stomach. 69. The maggots are at first long in proportion to their thickness, but as their age advances, they become proportionally thicker and broader ; they adhere to the white insensible tissue, or coat of the stomach, usually hanging in dense clusters, HISTORY OF INSECTS. 25 and maintaining their hold by means of their hooked jaws. 70. The maggots make small round holes in the white tissue, sometimes so deep as to go com- pletely through it, but not through the other coats of the stomach ; the colour of the maggot is a whitish red, and the segments of its body are surrounded with a double row of horny bristles, a longer and a shorter series ; the last two seg- ments are destitute of these bristles : the bristles are of a reddish colour, with black points, which are directed towards the posterior extremity of the maggot. 71. The food of the maggot appears to consist entirely of the coat of the horse's stomach, or of some fluid secreted from it, and not in any degree of the vegetable matter taken into the horse's stomach as food : the maggots pass the autumn, winter, and spring in the stomach of the horse, thus taking nearly a year to arrive at their growth. 72. When full grown, these maggots quit their hold of the coat of the stomach, are carried through the intestines with the food, and fall to the ground, where their skin hardens, and they become pupae, in which state they turn to a darker colour, but preserve, in a great degree, the shape and character which they possessed as larvae. 73. In about twenty days after falling to the ground, the shell of the pupa opens at the smaller 26 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. end, a portion of the shell falling completely off; and the perfect insect then emerging through the aperture, escapes from his confinement, and soon attains hardness and maturity, and flies away. 74. A second species of hot lays its egg on the lips of the horse, occasioning an annoying itching, at which the animal is much distressed, rubbing his nose violently against the ground, the stein of a tree, or his own legs, or galloping away with all his might : both the larva and perfect insect of this species are smaller than those of the fore- going. HISTORY OF INSECTS. 27 CHAPTER VI. HISTORY OF THE BEE.* Class Hymenoptera. i Genus Apis. Order Apites. ! Species Mellifica. 75. To the bee we are indebted for two valuable articles of commerce, honey and wax : since the introduction of sugar, honey has become less an article of general use, and more one of luxury : but wax is still extensively consumed throughout the civilized world. 76. Honey is collected from flowers, is swal- lowed by the bees, and afterwards regurgitated : the bee, laden with honey, returns to the hive, enters a cell, pierces a hole in the crust on the surface of the honey already therein, disgorges the honey in large drops from its mouth, new models the crust, and closes up the hole ; this mode of proceeding is regularly adopted by every bee that contributes to the general store. * Dr. Sevan's Honey Bee ; original authority, Huber's History of the Hive Bee. 28 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. 77- Wax is^secreted, as occasion may require, from small sacks, situated between the segments of the body of the bee, on the under side ; it is used for constructing the combs in which the family provision of honey and the young brood are deposited ; the wax of commerce is produced by melting down these combs. 78. A bee-hive contains three kinds of indi- viduals, a queen, drones, and workers ; the queen is a female, and not only the ruler, but, in great part, the mother of the community ; the drones are males, and the workers are abortive females. 79. The sole office of the queen appears to be the laying of eggs, and this occupies her almost incessantly, as a single one only is deposited in each cell, thus causing her to be in continual motion : she is slow and majestic in her move- ments, and differs from the workers in being larger, having a longer body, shorter wings, and a curved sting. 80. The queen is accompanied by a guard of twelve workers, an office which is taken in turn, but never intermitted : in whatever direction she wishes to travel, these guards clear the way before her, always with the utmost courtesy turning their faces towards her, and when she rests from her labours, approaching her with humility, licking her face, mouth, and eyes, and fondling her with their antennae. HISTORY OF INSECTS. 29 81. The drones are all males ;- they are less than the queen, but larger than the workers ; they live on the honey of flowers, but bring none home, and are wholly useless, except as being the fathers of the future progeny ; when this office is accom- plished, they are destroyed by the workers. 82. A buzzing commences in the hive ; the drones and the workers sally forth together, grapple each other in the air, hug and scuffle for a minute, during which operation the stings of the workers are plunged into the side of the drones, who, overpowered by the poison, almost instantly die. 83. The workers are the smallest bees in the hive, and by far the most numerous ; they have a longer lip for sucking honey than either of the others ; their thighs are furnished with a brush for the reception of the honey of flowers, and their sting is straight. 84. The workers do the entire work of the community ; they build the cells, guard the hive and the queen, collect and store the honey, elaborate the wax, feed the young, kill the drones, &c. The average number of these three kinds of bees in a hive is one queen, 2,000 drones, and 20,000 workers. 85. The eggs are long, slightly curved, and of a bluish colour ; when laid, they are covered with a glutinous matter, which instantly dries, attaching them to the bottom of the cell. 30 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. 86. For eleven months the queen lays only workers' eggs ; after that, those which produce drones : as soon as this change has taken place, the workers begin to construct royal cells, in which, without discontinuing laying the drones' eggs, the queen deposits here and there, about once in three days, an egg which is destined to produce a queen. 87. The workers' eggs hatch in a few days, and become little white maggots, which imme- diately open their mouth to be fed ; these the workers attend to with unerring assiduity : in six days each maggot fills up its cell; it is then roofed in by the workers, spins a silk cocoon, and becomes a chrysalis ; and on the twenty-first day it comes forth a perfect bee. The drones emerge on the twenty-fifth day, and the queens on the sixteenth. 88. It has been already stated, that the queen, for nearly a year, lays no eggs that are destined to produce queens; it therefore follows, that if any evil befall her, the hive is left without a queen- : it sometimes happens that she dies, or is taken away by the owner of the hive, to observe the result. 89. For twelve hours little notice is taken of the loss ; it appears not to be known, and the workers labour as usual : after that period, a hubbub commences ; work is abandoned ; the whole hive is in an uproar ; every bee traverses HISTORY OF INSECTS. 31 the hive at random, and with the most evident want of purpose. 90. This state of anarchy sometimes continues for two days ; then the bees gather in clusters of a dozen or so, as though engaged in consultation ; shortly after, a resolution appears to have been made ; a few of the workers go to work at the cells in which are deposited the eggs of workers ; three of these cells are quickly broken into one, the edges polished, and the sides smoothed and rounded, a single egg being allowed to remain at the bottom. 91. When this egg hatches, the maggot is fed with a peculiarly nutritive food, called royal bee-bread, which is never given to any maggots but such as are to produce queens ; work is now resumed over the whole hive, and goes on as briskly as before : on the sixteenth day the workers' egg produces a queen, whose appearance is hailed with every demonstration of delight, and who at once assumes sovereignty over the hive. 92. When, under ordinary circumstances, a young queen emerges from the chrysalis, the old one frequently leaves the hive, heading the first swarm for the season, and flying to some neigh- bouring resting-place, is observed by the owner, captured, placed under a new hive, and a new colony is immediately commenced. 93. Before a swarm leaves the hive, sure 32 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. indications are given of the intended movement ; the workers leave their various occupations, and collect in groups, especially near the door of the hive, as though in consultation on the important event about to take place. 94. As the summer advances, many queens are hatched ; but the workers do not allow them instant liberty, as severe battles would take place between them and the reigning queen, in which one would be killed : the workers, there- fore, make a small hole in the ceiling of the royal cell, through which the captive queen thrusts her tongue, and receives food from the workers. In this state of confinement the young queen utters a low querulous note, which has been com- pared to singing. 95. When the reigning, or a newly created queen, finds one of these captives, she uses every effort to tear open the cell, and destroy her rival : to prevent this, the workers often interpose, pulling her away by the legs and wings ; to this she submits for a short time, when, uttering a peculiar cry, called her voice of sovereignty, she commands instant attention and obedience, and is at once freed from her assailants. 96. The cocoon spun by the maggots of the workers and drones completely envelopes the chrysalis ; but that spun by the maggot of the queen appears imperfect, covering only the upper end of the chrysalis : it has been supposed HISTORY OF INSECTS. 33 that they are thus designedly exposed to the attacks of other queens, and their destruction, before emerging, facilitated. 97. When the chrysalis of the queen is about to change to a perfect insect, the bees make the cover of the cell thinner by gnawing away part of the wax ; and with so much nicety do they perform this operation, that the cover at last becomes pellucid, owing to its extreme thinness. 98. The combs of a bee-hive comprise a con- geries of hexagonal cells, built by the bees as a receptacle for honey, and for the nurseries of their young : each comb in a hive is composed of two ranges of cells, backed against each other : the base or partition between this double row of cells is so disposed as to form a pyramidical cavity at the bottom of each. 99. There is a continued series of these double combs in every well-filled hive ; the spaces be- tween them being just sufficient to allow two bees, one on the surface of each comb, to pass without touching. 100. Each cell is hexagonal, the six sides being perfectly equal. This figure ensures the greatest possible economy of material and space ; the outer edges of the cells are slightly thickened, in order to gain strength ; the same part is also covered with a beautiful varnish, which is sup- posed to give additional strength. 101. The construction of several combs is 34 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. generally going on at the same time : no sooner is the foundation of one laid, with a few rows of cells attached to it, than a second and a third are founded on each side, .parallel to the first, and so on till the hive is filled, the combs which were commenced first, being always in the most advanced state, and therefore the first completed. 102. The design of every comb is sketched out, and the first rudiments laid, by a single bee : this foundress-bee forms a block out of a rough mass of wax, drawn partly from its own resources, but principally from those of other bees, which furnish wax from the small sacks before described, taking out the plates of wax with their hind feet, and carrying it with their fore feet to their mouths, where it is moistened, masticated, and rendered soft and ductile. 103. The foundress-bee determines the relative position of the combs, and their distance from each other ; the foundations which she marks serving as guides to the ulterior labours of the wax-working bees, and of those which build the cells, giving them the advantage of the margins and angles already formed. 104. The mass of wax prepared by the assist- ants, is applied by the foundress-bee to the roof or bottom of the hive, and thus a slightly double- convex mass is formed : when of sufficient size^ a cell is sculptured on one side of it by the bees, who relieve one another in the labour, HISTORY OF INSECTS. 35 105. At the back, and on each side of this first cell, two others are sketched out and excavated : by this proceeding the foundations of two cells are laid, the line betwixt them corresponding with the centre of the opposite cells : as the comb extends, the first excavations are rendered deeper and broader ; and when a pyramidical base is finished, the bees build up walls from its edges, so as to complete what may be called the prismatic part of the cell. 106. The cells intended for the drones are considerably larger and more substantial than those for the workers; and being formed subse- quently, they usually appear nearer the bottom of the combs : last of all, are built the royal cells for the queens ; of these there are usually three or four, sometimes ten or twelve, in a hive, attached commonly to the central part, but not unfrequently to the edge of the comb. 107. The form of the royal cells is an oblong spheroid, tapering gradually downwards, and having the exterior full of holes : the mouth of the cell, which is always at the bottom, remains open until the maggot is ready for transformation, and it is then closed like the rest. 108. When a queen has emerged, the cell m which she was reared is destroyed, and its place supplied by a range of common cells : the site of this range may always be traced by that part of D 3 36 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. the comb being thicker than the rest, and forming a kind of knot. 109. The common breeding cells of drones and workers are occasionally made the depositories of honey ; but the cells are never made sufficiently clean to preserve the honey undeteriorated. The finest honey is stored in new cells, constructed for the purpose of receiving it, their form resembling precisely that of the common breeding cells : these honey cells vary in size, being larger or smaller according to the productiveness of the sources from which the bees are collecting, and also ac- cording to the season. 110. The cells formed in July and August being intended only for honey, are larger and deeper than those formed earlier : the texture of their walls is thinner, and thus they have more dip or inclination : this dip diminishes the risk of the honey's running out, which, from the heat of the weather at this season, and its consequent thinness, it is liable to do. 111. When the cells intended for holding the winter's provision are filled, they are always closed with waxen lids, and are never re-opened till the whole of the honey in the unfilled cells is expended : the waxen lids are thus formed : the bees first construct a ring of wax within the verge of the cells, to which other rings are successively added, till the aperture of the cell is finally closed by a lid composed of concentric circles. HISTORY OF INSECTS. 37 1 1 2. The flower-sleeping bee* is a wild species,-f nearly black, and of small size : the male may be found throughout the summer, apparently fast asleep, in the blossoms of buttercups, and other flowers, or flying over them : the female is the very model of maternal industry, her whole life being spent in providing for her family. 113. This bee may be observed anxiously examining posts, rails, trellis-work, &c., especially on the sunny side : having found a part quite dry, and a little going to decay, she commences by piercing a hole nearly horizontally, about an inch deep ; then changing the direction, she proceeds as nearly in a perpendicular line as circumstances will allow : her strong jaws are the sole instru- ments with which nature has furnished her for this difficult task ; but with these she contrives to gnaw the wood to a sort of sawdust, which she kicks out behind her, passing it from one pair of feet to the next. 114. Occasionally she comes to the mouth of the hole, it may be to rest herself, or to look round, and see that no enemies are near. The excavation, which, when finished, is cylindrical, and about ten or twelve inches long, is to be divided into nearly twenty cells, which are to be filled with food for her little ones, one of which will occupy each cell. * Chelostoma florisomne. t DELTA, in Entomological Magazine. 38 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. 115. The egg which is first deposited will of course be the first to hatch, and become the first maggot; the first maggot will first become a chrysalis, and will also undergo the final change sooner than the younger part of the brood above. 116. To guard against the confusion which must necessarily arise from this, she continues the hole, changing its direction, until it assumes a horizontal course, and at length arrives again at the outside, thus leaving an easy escape for the first of the brood, without disturbing those above, which will not appear till four or five days later. 117. She now closes the hole just above the lower bend with a partition consisting of fine sand, firmly glued together by means of a viscid saliva, with which she is copiously furnished : having stored a sufficient quantity of food, which consists of pollen, from the anthers, and honey from the nectaries of flowers, for the support of one larva, she deposits an egg, and then closes the cell in the same manner as she formed its bottom. 118. She then stores up more food, deposits another egg, and closes up another cell, pro- ceeding thus until she has quite filled the perpendicular part of the hole. Her task now draws to a conclusion ; she has only to close the two apertures : the lower one, intended for the outlet, is merely closed in the same way as the cells, with very fine sand ; but as the upper one is much more exposed to danger from rain, HISTORY OF INSECTS. 39 which might penetrate it, and, getting into the nest, destroy the young maggots, she uses first the fine sand, as before, and then adds a layer of larger grains. 119. Alighting on a gravel path, she selects a grain suited to her purpose, carries it to her nest, holding it in her mandibles, moves it about to find where it will fit best, and, covering it with saliva, presses it into its place, and flies off for another and another, till the aperture is securely closed, and her labour done: she has provided for the continuance of her race; and, with her care, ends also her life. 40 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. CHAPTER VII. HISTORY OF THE ICHNEUMON. Class Hymenoptera. | Genus Pimpla. Order Ichneumonites. | Species Instigator. 120. THERE are many butterflies and moths which increase so rapidly, that, without a check, their caterpillars would, in two or three years at the utmost, devour every green leaf on the face of the earth, and render it incapable of supporting its present inhabitants. 121. The ichneumons are evidently created to act as a check to this devastation : they are gene- rally small insects, with slender bodies, and have four transparent wings : they are very active, running about the stems and leaves of plants in search of caterpillars, and fly very readily. 122. The ichneumons are of many kinds: more than a thousand varieties have been described by naturalists ; and it is supposed that every butterfly, and every moth, indeed, almost every insect, has one peculiar to itself: the history of them all is nearly similar. HISTORY OF INSECTS. 41 123. The caterpillar of the tiger-moth is one of the most destructive in our gardens ; it devours, indiscriminately, lettuces, radishes, beans, peas, and every other early produce of our gardens, and is most abundant in the spring, when these plants are being reared : it is a very rough hairy caterpillar, black above, with a red fringe on each side : it is preyed on by several ich- neumons. 124. The largest ichneumon (Pimpla Insti- gator} of the tiger-moth ( Arctia caia) is often about an inch long, but is of very various size ; it has a black body and red legs, and has a re- markably strong smell, something like burning pitch. 125. In the spring, this ichneumon may be seen coursing over the leaves of lettuces, in cur- rant bushes, on strawberry beds, nettles, &c. hunting for the object of its attack. 126. When it has found a caterpillar, it seizes it behind the head with its jaws, at which opera- tion the caterpillar looses its hold of the plant on which it was feeding, rolls itself suddenly in a ring, erects its bristles as stiffly as possible, and falls on the ground ; if the fall is far, and among twigs, the ichneumon is sometimes dislodged, but this rarely happens. 127. The female ichneumon has three bristles at its tail, of which the middle one appears to be a tube for conveying its eggs into the body of the 42 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. caterpillar, and is called an ovipositor ; the outer ones seem to serve as protectors to this ovi- positor, and not to be used for piercing the caterpillar. 128. When the caterpillar can fall no further, it frequently unfolds itself, and writhes about to dislodge its enemy ; but its struggles are useless : the ichneumon elevates its body in a kind of arch, bending the ovipositor forward beneath it nearly to its mouth ; it then steadies the ovi- positor by its hind legs, and, with a slight jerk, drives it into the skin of the caterpillar behind its head ; the egg is instantly deposited, the ovi- positor withdrawn, and the ichneumon flies away. 129. The caterpillar, immediately on the con- clusion of this operation, remounts the plant on which it had previously been, and begins feeding eagerly as before ; no difference whatever is to be discovered in its manner, in the quantity of food it consumes, or in the rapidity of its growth. 130. When the caterpillar has attained its full size, it spins a web among leaves, on the ground, in a bush, or against palings, intermixing a con- siderable quantity of its own hairs ; and in this web it becomes a chrysalis. 131. The egg of the ichneumon is very soon hatched, and becomes a white maggot, without feet and with very little appearance of head ; it begins eating that part of the flesh of the caterpillar which is immediately in its neighbourhood, and continues HISTORY OF INSECTS. 43 its course towards the tail, devouring all the fat and muscular parts not absolutely essential to motion and life ; and, by the time the caterpillar of the moth is full grown, and changes to a chrysalis, the maggot of the ichneumon is full grown also, and occupies more than half of its interior. 132. It is worthy of remark, that this maggot thus inhabiting for weeks the body of a living caterpillar, and devouring its living flesh, always instinctively avoids those parts which are essen- tial to life, as though aware that the cessation of life in the caterpillar would ensure its own death, as it could not subsist on the putrifying carcase. 133. After laying quiescent for many days, and often weeks, and sometimes through the whole winter, the skin of the maggot is thrown off, and it becomes a chrysalis, exhibiting very exactly the shape and appearance of the future fly ; the antennae and legs being placed before it, the wings small, and folded by its side, and the ovipositor being turned up a little over its back. 134. The chrysalis is without motion, and much resembles that of the bee : in both instances the limbs are quite distinct from the body, and not united with it in a hard crustaceous case, as is the case in the chrysalis of the silk -worm : this kind of chrysalis is said to be necromor- phous {pupa necromorpha), from its resemblance to the perfect insect, with its limbs neatly arranged, and motionless, as in death. 44 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. 135. The chrysalis state lasts but a few days, and the perfect insect emerges from it ; after this first escape, it has to penetrate the shell of the chrysalis of the tiger-moth, in which it is still imprisoned, and which is made much harder by the drying of the portions of animal matter which the maggot of the ichneumon had left unconsumed. 136. The ichneumon overcomes this difficulty by gnawing a hole with its sharp and strong jaws, generally in that thin portion of the shell which covers the wing of the future insect : almost immediately on emerging, the ichneumon vibrates its wings and flies away. 137. The caterpillar of the tiger-moth is preyed on in a similar manner by the maggot of a two-winged fly ; and this maggot, while thus devouring the interior of the caterpillar, is itself a prey to a minute kind of ichneumon, twenty of which sometimes feed in the maggot of a single fly. 138. The manner in which the egg of this little ichneumon is introduced into the maggot of the fly, is at present unknown ; but as the fly fastens its egg exteriorly on the skin of the cater- pillar, and does not perforate the skin, and deposit it inside, as in the case of the great ichneumon before described, it is supposed the small ichneu- mon's egg is laid in the egg of the fly while the latter is adhering to the skin of the caterpillar. HISTORY OF INSECTS. 45 139. The egg of the fly, which is placed on the neck of the caterpillar, the only part from which the caterpillar could not remove it, is very conspicuous to an observer : in this situation, we cannot wonder, then, the little ichneumon should discover it ; nor does it appear an improbable supposition, that the little creature seizes this opportunity of piercing its shell with her oviduct, and depositing her egg amidst its contents. 140. The maggot of the fly, as soon as hatched, pierces the skin of the caterpillar, and commences devouring, carrying within it a horde of insidious parasites, which, though they inter- fere not with the due performance of its appointed work of destruction, yet, in the end, so weaken it, that it never arrives at perfection. 141. Ichneumons of different kinds attack the eggs, larvae, chrysalides, or imagines, of nearly all insects; and very ingenious experiments and cal- culations have proved, that four out of every five eggs that are laid, are prevented from arriving at maturity by parasites attacking them in one or other of these stages. 46 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. CHAPTER VIII. HISTORY OF THE BURYING-BEETLE/ Class Coleoptera. i Genus Necrophorus. Order Silphiites. | Species Vespilly. 142. THE bury ing-beetle is about an inch in length ; it is black, with two bands across its back of a bright orange colour ; these bands are formed by two large blotches on each of the upper wings : though in such a gay dress, it is a dis- gusting insect, being so foetid that the hands smell for hours after handling it ; and if it crawls on woollen clothes, which are not washed, the smell continues for days. 143. The burying-beetle lays its eggs in the bodies of putrefying dead animals, which, when practicable, it buries in the ground. In Russia, where the poor people are buried but a few inches below the surface of the ground, the burying- beetles avail themselves of the bodies for this From Rusticus' MS. ; with permission. HISTORY OF INSECTS. 47 purpose, and the graves are pierced with their holes in every direction ; at evening, hundreds of these beetles may be seen in the church-yards, either buzzing over recent graves, or emerging from them. 144. The bury ing-beetle in this country seldom finds so convenient a provision for him, and he is under the necessity of taking much more trouble ; he sometimes avails himself of dead dogs and horses, but these are too great rarities to be his constant resort : the usual objects of his search are dead mice, rats, birds, frogs, and moles; of these, a bird is most commonly obtained. 145. In the neighbourhood of towns, every kind of garbage that is thrown out attracts these beetles as soon as it begins to smell ; and it is not unusual to see them settling in our streets, enticed by the grateful odour of such substances. 146. The burying-beetles hunt in couples, male and female ; and when six or eight are found in a large animal, they are almost sure to be males and females, in equal numbers : they hunt by scent only, the chase being mostly performed when no other sense would be very available, viz. in the night. 147. When they have found a bird, great comfort is expressed by the male, who wheels round and round above it, like an eagle, the female settles on it at once, without this testi- monial of satisfaction ; the male at last settles 48 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. also, and the bird undergoes the scrutiny of four, at least, of the senses, touch, smell, sight, and taste, for their heads are continually diving among the feathers of the bird, and a savoury and ample meal is made before the great work is begun. 148. After the beetles have appeased the calls of hunger, the bird is abandoned for a while ; they both leave it to explore the earth in the neighbourhood, and ascertain whether there is a place suitable for interment : if on a ploughed field, there is no difficulty ; but if on grass, or among stones, much labour is required to draw it to a more suitable place. 149. The operation of burying is performed almost entirely by the male beetle, the female mostly hiding herself in the body of the bird about to be buried, or sitting quietly upon it, and allowing herself to be buried with it : the male begins by digging a furrow all round the bird, at the distance of about half an inch, turning the earth outside ; his head is the only tool used in this operation ; it is held sloping outwards, and is exceedingly powerful. 1 50. After the first furrow is completed, another is made within it, and the earth is thrown into the first furrow : then a third furrow is made, which, being under the bird, the beetle is out of sight : now the operation can only be traced by the heaving of the earth, which soon forms a HISTORY OF INSECTS. 49 little rampart round the bird ; as the earth is moved from beneath, and the surrounding ram- part increases in height, the bird sinks. After incessant labour for about three hours, the beetle emerges, crawls upon the bird, and takes a survey of his work. 151. If the female is on the bird, she is driven away by the male, who does not choose to be intruded on during the important business. The male beetle then remains for about an hour per- fectly still, does not stir hand or foot ; he then dismounts, diving again into the grave, and pulls the bird down by the feathers, for half an hour: its own weight appears to sink it but very little. 152. The earth then begins heaving and rising all round, as though under the influence of a little earthquake : the feathers of the bird are again pulled, and again the bird descends. At last, after two or three hours' more labour, the beetle comes up, again gets on the bird, and again takes a survey, and then drops down, as though dead, or fallen suddenly fast asleep. 153. When sufficiently rested, he rouses himself, treads the bird firmly into its grave, pulls it by the feathers this way and that way, and, having settled it to his mind, begins to shovel in the earth : this is done in a very short time, by means of his broad head. He goes behind the rampart of earth, and pushes it into the grave with amazing strength and dexterity ; the head being bent 50 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. directly downward at first, and then the nose elevated with a kind of jerk, which sends the earth forwards. 154. After the grave is thus filled up, the earth is trodden in, and undergoes another keen scrutiny all round, the bird being completely hidden ; the beetle then makes a hole in the still loose earth, and having buried the bird and his own bride, next buries himself. 155. The female lays her eggs in the carcase of the bird, in number proportioned to its size ; and after this operation is over, and the pair have eaten as much of the savoury viand as they please, they make their way out, and fly away in quest of further adventures. 156. The eggs are hatched in two days, and produce flat scaly grubs, which run about with great activity ; these grubs grow excessively fast, and very soon consume all that their parents had left. As soon as they are full grown, they cease eating, and burrowing further in the earth, become pupae. The length of time they remain in this state appears uncertain ; but when arrived at the perfect state, they make round holes in the ground, from which they come forth. HISTORY OF INSECTS. 51 CHAPTER IX. HISTORY OF THE APPLE WEEVIL.* Class Coleoptera. i Genus Anthonomus. Order Curculionites. | Species Pomorum. 157- THE apple weevil is frequently in Here- fordshire the cause of the total failure of the crop of apples, and of a consequent heavy loss to the grower ; it is a small beetle, about half the size of a grain of wheat, of a reddish brown colour, with the appearance of a letter V obscurely chalked on its back. 158. With the first sunshiny day in March, these weevils leave their winter quarters, the crevices in the bark, crawl up the trunk along the twigs, perch themselves so as to receive the full benefit of the sun's rays, and plume them- selves all over in the same manner that a cat washes her face with her hands, stretch their limbs one at a time, unfold their wings, and fly away in search of their consorts. * From RUSTICUS, in Entomological Magazine. E 2 52 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. 159. By the time the female weevil is ready for the important task of depositing her eggs, the spring has considerably advanced ; the apple buds have burst ; and the little bunches of blossom are readily to be distinguished. The weevil soon finds out these, and selecting a blossom every- way to her mind, commences her operations. 160. The beak, or trunk of the weevil, is a curious instrument; it is very long, and, from each side of it, springs a feeler, which bends for- wards at a right angle, so that it appears to be three-pronged, like a trident ; it is furnished at the extremity with short teeth, or mandibles. 161. With these teeth the female weevil gnaws a very minute hole into the calyx of the future blossom, and continues gnawing until the trunk is plunged in up to her eyes ; the trunk is then withdrawn, and the hole carefully examined by the introduction of one of the feelers : if it requires alteration, the trunk goes to work again, and again the feelers. 162. Being at last fully satisfied that the work is well accomplished, she turns about, and, standing with the extremity of her abdomen over the hole, thrusts into it her long ovipositor, an instrument composed of a set of tubes, retractile one within the other, and deposits a single egg (never more) in the very centre of the future flower : another examination with hei* feeler now takes place, to ascertain that all is right, and away she flies to HISTORY OF INSECTS. 53 perform the same task again and again, never tiring while there is an egg to lay. 163. The bud continues to grow like the other buds : the little perforation becomes invisible. By and by the egg bursts, and out comes a little white maggot, without legs, which, directly it is hatched, begins to devour the young and tender stamens ; next to these the style is attacked, and eaten down to the fruit, the upper part of which is quickly consumed. The maggot is then full fed ; it casts its skin, becomes a chrysalis, and lays perfectly still. 164. Up to this time the blossom has continued perfectly healthy, no trace of the enemy being discovered without ; but when the neighbouring blossoms are expanding their petals to the genial breath of spring, those of the mutilated bud remain closed, and retain the arched balloon-like appear- ance of a bud about to burst. For a few days they preserve their lovely pink colour, and then, by degrees, fade to a dingy brown. 165. On opening these brown, or rather rust- coloured blossoms, about the 10th to the 15th of June, the chrysalis will be found to have changed to a perfect beetle, similar to its parent, which, had it been left to itself, would, in a few days, have eaten its way through the weather-beaten case of dried petals, and left its prison-house, flying about to take its pleasure till the chilly winds of autumn should drive it to its winter habitation. 54 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. CHAPTER X. HISTORY OF THE EARWIG. Class Orthoptera. i Genus Forficula. Order Forficulites. |i Species Auricularia, 166. THE earwig is one of our most common insects ; it is well known to every one, and is very generally an object of unconquerable dislike; the forceps at its tail, and the threatening manner in which these are turned over its back to pinch any thing of which it is afraid, render it pecu- liarly disgusting. 167. The fore wings of the earwig are square, short, leathery pieces, which cover but a very small portion of the body : the insect is in- capable of bending or folding them in any direction, or of using them as organs of flight. 168. The hind wings of the earwig are very different from the fore wings. They are folded into a very small compass, and covered by the fore wings, except a small portion which protrudes HISTORY OF INSECTS. 55 from beneath them ; and, when examined in this position, appear totally useless as organs of flight. 169. When unfolded, the hind wings are re- markahly beautiful ; they are of ample size, perfectly transparent, displaying prismatic colours when moved in the light, and are intersected by veins, which radiate from near the centre to the margin. 170. The shape of these wings, when fully opened, is precisely that of the human ear ; and from this circumstance, it seems highly probable that the original name of this insect was earwing, and not earwig, which appears to be entirely without a meaning. 171. Earwigs subsist principally on the leaves and flowers of plants, and on fruit, and they are entirely nocturnal insects, retiring by day into dark crevices and corners, where they are screened from observation. The rapidity with which they devour the petals of a flower is remarkable : they clasp the edge of a petal in their fore legs, and then, stretching out their head as far as possible, bite out a mouthful ; then another mouthful nearer, and so on till the head is brought to the fore legs. 172. This mode of eating is exactly that which is used by the caterpillars of butterflies and moths ; the part of the leaf or petal is eaten out in a semicircular form, anft the head is thrust out to the extreme part after every series of mouthfuls. 56 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. Pinks, carnations, and dahlias, very frequently lose all their beauty from the voracity of these insects. 173. When the time of breeding has arrived, which is generally in the autumn, the female retires for protection to the cracks in the bark of old trees, or the interstices of weather-boarding, or under heavy stones on the ground : here she makes a smooth place, and commences laying her eggs. 174. The eggs are usually from twenty to fifty in number : when she has finished laying them, she does not forsake them, as is the habit of other insects, but sits on them in the manner of a hen until they are hatched. 175. When the little ones leave the shell, they are instantly very perceptibly larger than the eggs which contained them. They precisely re- semble the parent in structure and habit, except that they are without wings ; and they differ also in colour, being perfectly white. 176. The care of the mother does not cease with the hatching of the eggs : the young ones run after her wherever she moves, and she con- tinues to sit on them and brood over them with the greatest affection for many days. 177. If the young ones are disturbed or scat- tered, or if the parent is taken away from them, she. will, on the first opportunity, collect them again, and brood over them as carefully as before, HISTORY OF INSECTS. 57 allowing them to push her about, and cautiously moving one foot after another for fear of hurting them. 178. How the young ones are fed until the mother's care for them has ceased, does not seem to have been ascertained ; for it is not until they are nearly half grown that they are seen feeding on vegetables with the rest. 58 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. CHAPTER XL HISTORY OF THE LOCUST.* Class Orthoptera. . Genus Locusta. Order Locustites. j Species Migratoria. 179. THE locust, from the remotest ages, has had a greater power to injure man, than any other living creature. Its course is almost invariably accompanied with famine and pestilence : man is armed with no power to resist it. 180. The locust was sent as a plague to the Egyptians, especially to punish them for the detention and oppression of the Israelites : the whole face of the country was covered by their multitudes. 181. Afterwards, about the date B.C. 200, we have it on record, that locusts again swarmed in the same part of Africa. 182. St. Augustin mentions another enormous swarm in the same region, which devoured every * From Kirby and Spence's Introduction to Entomology. HISTORY OF INSECTS. 59 green leaf, and eventually reaching the sea, perished by drowning ; and the mass of their corrupted bodies created so great a stench, that a pestilence ensued, which carried off nearly a million human beings. 183. We are told by Mouffet, that in the year 591 a swarm of locusts visited Italy ; they pur- sued their destructive course, devouring every thing, until they reached the sea, in which they perished. The pestilence arising from the stench carried off men and beasts to the number of more than a million. 184. In 1478, the Venetian territory was visited by a swarm of locusts, which so com- pletely destroyed the crops as to cause a famine, in which more than thirty thousand persons died of starvation. 185. In 1650, a swarm of locusts entered Russia. As they passed, the air was darkened by their numbers ; they covered the face of the earth ; the trees bent with their weight : and in places the mass of their dead bodies was four feet in depth. 186. In 1748, a swarm of locusts visited the Austrian dominions : at Vienna the breadth of the swarm exceeded three miles, and so darkened the air, that one person could not see another at the distance of twenty paces. 187- Major Moor witnessed in the Mahrattas the ravages of a swarm of locusts, that was five 60 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. hundred miles in length, and so compact as com- pletely to hide the sun, and occasion darkness. 188. Mr. Barrow relates that, in Southern Africa, in the years 1784 and 1797, a swarm of locusts covered an area of nearly two thousand square miles. When driven by a north-west wind into the sea, they formed upon the shore, for fifty miles, a bank three or four feet high : the stench from their putrefying bodies was perceptible at the distance of one hundred and fifty miles. 189. In 1778 and 1780, a swarm of locusts visited Morocco ; every green thing was eaten, and a dreadful famine ensuing, such vast numbers of people died of hunger in the streets of the towns, that their bodies lay unburied. 190. The egg of the locust is deposited in the ground ; when it is hatched, it has all the appear- ance of a locust in miniature, except that it is without wings. Its work of destruction imme- diately commences ; it devours every blade of grass, every green leaf that it can obtain. 191. In the autumn it assumes the winged state, and then myriads assemble, and having stripped the earth of its mantle of green, rise in the air, and are driven by the wind, carrying with them destruction, famine, and pestilence. 192. The shape and. appearance of the locust is that of our commonest grasshopper, but it greatly exceeds that insect in size ; it leaps with HISTORY OF INSECTS. 61 ease and agility, but, excepting in its migrations, does not readily fly. 193. The jaws of the locust are excessively hard and strong, capable of devouring not only the leaves, but, when these fail, the bark and even the solid wood of trees. The sound of their feeding, when in swarms, is as the rushing of flames driven by the wind. 194. Happily in this country the locust is very rare ; it has occasionally been driven here by winds, but has never been known to breed here. In the year 1748, a considerable number were observed, but not enough to do any serious injury. GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. CHAPTER XII. Class Hemiptera. i Genus Coccus. Order Coccites. | Species Vitis. 195. OUR vines are often disfigured, and some- times rendered unfruitful, by an insect which is called the vine-gall, or vine-coccus. The injury it causes to the vines is occasioned by perforating the tender rind, and thus causing the sap to flow, or, as the gardeners usually term it, making the vines bleed. 196. Our climate is not usually hot enough for this insect to increase to any alarming extent on our out-door vines ; but in hot-houses it breeds in incredible numbers, often doing great mischief : sometimes it is so abundant that the young shoots appear to be covered with white cotton, which is in reality a resinous gum, exuded from the cocci in a filamentous form. * From RUSTICUS' MS. with permission. HISTORY OF INSECTS. D 197- The coccus pierces the bark by means or a sharp and long under lip, which penetrates the shoot to the very centre, causing the sap to flow in great abundance : this piercing apparatus, though, like the mouth of other insects, in the head, is bent so far under the breast that it appears to proceed from that part, and is generally so described. 198. The cocci, in the young or larva state, are all alike ; they appear like little tortoises fixed to the rind, and sometimes leaves of the vine. When the period for this state is over, the males burst their skins along the back, and fly away : the females undergo no change in form on arriving at perfection, nor do they become loco- motive. 199. The male and female coccus are remark- ably different, not only in size but structure : the male is a small, active, two-winged fly ; the female is a large, inactive, and apparently lifeless lump, twice the size of the male, without wings, and so closely attached to the rind of the young shoots on which it feeds, that it cannot be removed without causing its death. 200. When the female has attained this immense size, and her whole body is full of eggs, she begins laying them, her body being glued down all round at the edges to the rind of the twig ; but between her body and the rind, except just round the edges, is a quantity of the cottony gum 64 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. spread over the whole area which she covers. The laying of eggs is on a different system to that of any other insect. 201. The first egg is laid in the cottony sub- stance, without causing any disturbance to the points of attachment to the rind. It does not stick, as most other insects' eggs do, but lies quite loose in the cotton ; then another is laid, which pushes the first a little further forwards ; and then another and another, none of them being visible from without ; so that all the eggs the female lays she may be said to sit on like a hen, for that is really the case. 202. The female, as we often find to be the case in insects, is, when arrived at perfection, a complete bag of eggs. Now it will be observed, that as she lays them, and then pushes them under her body, they must raise up the under skin of her body into a manifest concavity ; thus the body itself becomes daily thinner and thinner, and the pile of eggs concealed by it thicker and thicker. 203. The rapidity with which the eggs are laid is surprising. If the female has been forcibly sepa- rated from the twig to which she was attached, and suspended on a pin, while at the height of her laying, a string of eggs, all attached, like a delicate necklace, an inch and three quarters in length, has been found in a single night, although the coccus exhibited no other symptoms of life. HISTORY OF INSECTS. 65 204. At last, when the eggs are exhausted, the under skin of the body meets the upper skin, and adheres to it ; the mother dies ; and her body, like the roof of a house, protects the inhabitants below from the inclemency of the weather. 205. After a few days from the death of the mother, the eggs hatch, and become lively little animals, of a bright red colour ; these devour the cottony gum among which they are born : after a few days, they manage to lift up the edge of their covering, and away they run, helter-skelter. This active life lasts but a short time ; they soon get hungry, pierce the rind of the twigs, anchor themselves by the beak, and, settling down to serious eating, become fixtures for life. 66 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. CHAPTER XIII. HISTORY OF THE HOP-FLY.* Class Hemiptera. i Genus Aphis. Order Aphites. Species Humuli. 206. THE crop of hops is entirely dependent on a little, and apparently insignificant fly, well known to hop growers under the name of the hop-fly. 207. The duty on hops is a considerable source of revenue to the British Government : when the hop-fly has been unusually numerous, the whole duty on hops throughout the kingdom has amounted only to 15,000^.; when, on the contrary, the fly has not appeared, the duty has been 468, OOO/. : this little insect thus appears capable of abstracting from the British treasury 453,OOOZ. per annum. 208. The duty, 18s. 8d. per cwt., is but about a sixth part of the value of hops ; so that the real sum over which this little creature exer- cises its influence is at least 2, 700, OOO/. per * RXJSTICUS, in the Entomological Magazine. HISTORY OF INSECTS. 67 annum ; and this amount, owing to unceasing speculation, changes hands many times in the year. 209. The principal hop counties in England are Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Worcester, and Here- ford. The hops grown at Farnham, in Surrey, fetch the highest price. 210. The hop-fly makes its first appearance in May, generally about the 12th, and always be- tween the 10th and 30th ; it is remarkable that it mostly appears on the same day in all the hop districts, however distant. 211. The hop-fly makes its first appearance in the winged state, a solitary fly being found settled here and there on the under side of the young leaves ; if the weather is warm, with mild rains during the last twenty days of May, these flies produce young ones, which are very small, and are called deposit, or knits : these grow very fast, and, in a few days, become green lice, which is merely a larger form of the same animal. 212. As soon as these creatures are born, they insert their tube-like mouth into the leaf of the hop, and begin sucking its sap : in this position they remain fixed and stationary, daily increasing in size for about ten days ; and then each indi- vidual, without either love, courtship, or matri- mony, begins bringing forth young ones, and continues to do so at the rate of about eighteen per day all the remainder of its life. 213. The parent still continues growing; and r 2 68 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. the young ones being so much smaller, and fasten- ing themselves close by their respective parents, remind one of a flock of sheep, with oxen here and there scattered among them ; if the weather continues warm and moist, they increase so fast as completely to cover the plant, deprive it of life, and frequently perish with it. 214. It is seldom until September that many of the hop-flies attain the winged state : they then wing their way over the country, floating in the sunbeams, till, tired of the sport, they seek a safe winter habitation beneath the bark of trees, shrivelled leaves, the cracks of hop-poles, and a thousand other secure hiding-places. 215. Frequently, when the weather in May has been dry, and cold, and windy, the hop-fly has been known to leave the plant, and entirely disappear, even after remaining several days ; yet, whilst it tarried, showing very evident signs of being uneasy, continually crawling about on the upper, as well as the under side of the leaves, and leaving no deposit whatever. 216. The hop-fly is eagerly sought as food by various other insects ; which, though they con- sume immense numbers, seem to cause no sensible diminution in their countless myriads. 217. The principal enemy of the hop-fly is a queer looking creature, like a fat lizard ; it feeds on them most voraciously, a single individual devouring forty or fifty in the course of a day : HISTORY OF INSECTS. ()9 it turns to the common ]ady-bird, or lady-cow, a pretty little beetle, which always preys in the same way. 218. Another enemy of the hop-fly, is a green ungainly looking grub, without legs, which lays flat on the surface of the leaf, and stretches out its neck, just like a leech, till it touches one of them ; directly he feels one, he seizes it in his teeth, and holds it up wriggling in the air till he has sucked all its juices, and left it a mere empty skin. 219. This curious creature turns to a fly, which has a body banded with different colours ; and which, in summer, may be often observed under trees and about flowers, standing quite still in the air, as though asleep ; yet, if you try to catch it, darting off like an arrow : the fly is called Syrphus balteatus. 220. A third enemy of the hop-fly has six legs, and very large, strong, curved jaws, and is a most ferocious looking animal, frequently parad- ing about a leaf, covered with the skins of the hop-flies which he has destroyed : this fierce creature comes to a very beautiful fly, with four reticulated wings and two brilliant golden eyes ; it smells very unpleasantly. 221. A fourth enemy to the hop-fly, is a minute ichneumon, similar to that which is para- sitical of the blight of the rose : the males of these ichneumons are active, flying about, and coursing over the leaves ; but the female is of less roving 70 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. habits, and will generally be found busy in pro- viding for the establishment of her numerous pro- geny : placed, at her birth, among myriads of hop-flies, she has no dwelling to construct with artful industry, nor stores of food to collect by distant rovings. 222. With extended antennae, and wings shiver- ing with desire, she paces leisurely amongst the defenceless herd ; and as soon as she has selected one by a light touch of her antennae, she stops short at about her own length from it, and rising on stiffened legs, bends her body under her breast till the end of it projects beyond her mouth ; then erecting her back by depressing the hinder part, she simultaneously makes a lunge forward with the body, which is then extraordinarily lengthened, and, by a momentary touch, deposits an egg on the under- side of the hop-fly, near its tail. 223. The hop-fly will sometimes kick and sprawl, so as to discompose the ichneumon ; but being anchored by its sucker plunged in the bark, can make no effectual attempt to elude the deadly weapon : should it, however, be wandering at large, and free to struggle, she shews great activity, by traversing round it in the attitude of attack, till she can take it in flank. 224. The delicate sense of the antennae seems to warn her where a germ has been already de- posited, as she will pass by those which have been stung some days before ; and there is never HISTORY OF INSECTS. 71 found more than a single grub in each individual : when all the interior of the hop-fly is consumed by the grub of the ichneumon, it will be found separate from its fellows, and motionless, usually on the upper side of the leaf, to which it is glued by some viscid exudation. 225. The hop- fly now appears distended, and of an opaque hazel or lighter tint ; if opened, the full fed grub of the ichneumon will be dis- covered doubled up and filling the cavity, its head being next the tail of the hop-fly : in a short time the parts of the perfect insect are developed in a quiescent state, and in the same position, the integuments of the grub being doubled up below it in black grains : it spins no cocoon, being adequately protected by the indu- rated skin of its victim. 226. A few days are sufficient to give con- sistence to its parts ; and while the new-risen sun is yet glistening in the early dews, the winged insect, by a push of its head, detaches the latter rings of its case, which separate in the form of a circular lid, often springing back to close the orifice after the inhabitant has gone forth, born in the maturity of her energies and instincts to renew the circle of existence.* The account of this parasite is copied from Mr. Haliday's Essay on Parasitic Hymenoptera, in the Entomological Magazine: the author has witnessed precisely the same facts, in regard to the hop- fly, which Mr. Haliday relates of the aphis of the rose. 72 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. CHAPTER XIV. HISTORY OF THE ANT-LION.' Class Neuroptera. i Genus Myrmeleon. Order Myrmeleonites. I Species Formicaleo. 227. THE ant-lion is a native of Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, and Turkey, and, probably, of most of the tropical countries : it is a large fly with four long wings, beautifully reticulated, like those of a common dragon-fly. 228. The egg is laid by this fly on the surface of the ground, or just below it, in sandy and loose soils ; the heat of the sun soon causes it to hatch and produce a larva. 229. The larva, in shape, has a slight resem- blance to a wood-louse ; but the outline of its body is more triangular, the anterior part being considerably wider than the posterior : it has six legs, and the mouth is furnished with a pair of forceps, consisting of two incurved jaws, which give it a formidable appearance. * From KIRBY and SPENCE'S Introduction to Entomology. HISTORY OF INSECTS. 73 230. Its sole food is the juices of other insects, particularly ants ; at first view it seems scarcely possible that it should ever procure a single meal : not only is its pace slow, but it can walk in no other direction than backwards ; its grim aspect, combined with this awkwardness in progression, appear to offer insuperable obstacles to the cap- ture of its prey. 231. Its first step is to trace in the sand a circle, the destined boundary of its future abode : this being done, it proceeds to excavate the cavity by throwing out the sand by a process not less singular than effective. 232. Placing itself in the inside of the circle which it has traced, it thrusts the hind part of its body into the sand, and with one of its fore legs, serving as a shovel, it charges its flat and square head with a load, which it immediately throws over the outside of the circle, with a jerk suffi- ciently strong to carry it many inches. 233. Walking backwards, and constantly re- peating the process, it soon arrives at the part of the circle from which it set out : it then traces a new circle within the first, and excavates a second furrow ; then a third within this, and so on until, by a repetition of these operations, it arrives at the centre. 234. 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, 74 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. as to remove the sand within the circle with the inner leg ; but it knows that it is the sand within the circle that is to be excavated, and it therefore constantly uses the leg next the centre. 235. After the first series of circles is com- pleted, a second, of less diameter, and deeper, is commenced within it; and so on with others, until the hole assumes the shape of the impression of an inverted cone, when the work is finished. 236. As the constant use of one leg during the whole of this operation would necessarily exhaust the animal so much that it would be compelled to waste much time in recovering its strength, it adopts a plan which prevents this : the first circle is excavated with one foot; it then turns completely round, so that the second is excavated with the opposite foot ; and this alternation proceeds regularly through the whole work. 237. Small stones are jerked out by its head in the same manner as the sand, but larger ones occasion more trouble : when it meets with one too heavy to jerk out, the ant-lion poises it on its back, keeps it in a steady position by the motion of the segments of its body, and care- fully walking up the ascent with its burden, deposits it on the outside of the margin. 238. Sometimes the stone, from its roundness, will slip from the back of the labourer, and roll down the side of the hole a dozen times ; as often HISTORY OF INSECTS. 75 does the patient creature renew the task, and never fails to accomplish it at last : but if a large or immovable stone obstructs its way, the work is abandoned, and a more suitable spot selected, and another hole is forthwith commenced. 239. The hole is rather more than two inches deep ; the length of the ant-lion is about half an inch. When the hole is ready, the ant-lion buries itself in the sand at the bottom, its jaws alone being visible, and in this position waits quietly the arrival of its prey. 240. It is not long before an ant, or some other insect, steps on the margin of the pit, either accidentally, or to examine its contents ; the pul- verized sand slides from under its feet, its strug- gles but hasten its descent, and it is precipitated headlong into the jaws of the concealed devourer. 241. Sometimes, especially after rain, when the particles of sand adhere to each other, the intruding insect is able to arrest its downward progress, and begins to scramble up again ; no sooner does the ant-lion perceive this, than he shovels loads of sand on his head, and throws them with such skill on the poor ant, or whatever insect it may be, that it is soon overcome and carried to the bottom. 242. The insect, when caught, is pierced by the strong jaws of the ant-lion, and its juices sucked until nothing but an empty shell is left ; this it jerks out of the pit to a considerable 76 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. distance, as if to avoid giving any cause of alarm to any new comers. 243. After a period of nearly two years, its full growth being attained, it retires further below the sand, spins a silken cocoon, and changes into a chrysalis, in which state it remains about three weeks, after which time it emerges a perfect insect. HISTORY OF INSECTS. 77 CHAPTER XV. HISTORY OF THE WHITE ANT.* Class Neuroptera. | Order Termites. Genus Termes. 244. THE white ants may be reckoned, next to the locusts, the most destructive insects known to man ; not merely articles of food, but clothing, fences, trees, and even houses, are doomed to fall before them. 245. The white ants live in immense com- munities, consisting of a king and queen, soldiers and labourers ; the king and queen are the perfect insect, male and female ; the soldiers are said to be the pupa state, and the labourers, the larva state of the same insect. 246. It is the only office of the king and queen to increase their kind, the queen laying eggs to the amount of eighty thousand every day. 247. It is the office of the soldiers to attack every object or living thing that in any way * From KIRBY and SPENCE'S Introduction to Entomology, abridged by those authors from Smeathman. 78 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. injures or endangers the safety of the nest ; this duty they perform with the most reckless bravery, the labourers retiring within the nest during the time of danger. 248. The offices of the labourers are manifold : they take the eggs from the queen as fast as she lays them, convey them to the nurseries, tend them till hatched ; they feed the young, they store provisions, build the nest, repair damages, and perform every kind of labour requisite for the good of the community. 249. The nests of the white ants are formed entirely of clay ; they are about twelve feet high, and broad in proportion. The first step in the erection of these structures is the elevation of two or three turrets, about a foot high, and in shape like a sugarloaf. 250. These turrets rapidly increase in number and height, until at length being widened at the base, joined at the top into one dome, and con- solidated all round into a thick wall of clay, they assume the shape of a haycock, which soon be- comes clothed with grass. 251. When the building has assumed 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 is used for other purposes. 252. The upper portion, or dome, which is very strong and solid, serving as a defence from the weather and the attacks of enemies, is left empty : HISTORY OF INSECTS. 79 it *is the lower part only of the building that is inhabited. 253. The inhabited portion is occupied by the royal chamber, or habitation of the king and queen, the nurseries for the young, the storehouses for the food, and innumerable galleries, passages, and empty rooms. 254. In the centre of the building, just under the apex of the dome, and nearly on a level with the surface of the ground, is the royal chamber, an arched vault of a semi-oval shape, at first not more than an inch in length, but enlarged as the queen increases in bulk, to the length of eight inches or more. 255. In this apartment the king and queen constantly reside ; and by the smallness of the entrances, which will only admit their much more diminutive subjects, they are prevented from ever emerging. 256. Immediately adjoining the royal chamber, and completely surrounding it, to the extent of more than a foot, are the royal apartments, a number of arched rooms of various shapes and sizes, either opening into each other, or commu- nicating by passages ; these are occupied by a guard of soldiers and the attendant domestics, thousands of whom are ever waiting on the royal pair. 257. Beyond the royal apartments are the nur- series and magazines ; the nurseries are occupied 80 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. by the eggs and young, and the domestics in waiting on these : in substance they differ from the other apartments, being composed of triturated wood cemented by gum. 258. A collection of these compact, irregular, and wooden chambers, not one of which is half an inch in length, is enclosed in a common cham- ber of clay, sometimes as large as a child's head. 259. Intermixed with the nurseries are the magazines, which are chambers of clay, always well stored with provisions, consisting of particles of wood, gums, and the inspissated juices of plants. 260. These nurseries and magazines are sepa- rated by small empty chambers and galleries, which run round them, or communicate from one to the other, and are continued on all sides to the outer wall of the building, reaching up within it to two-thirds or three-fourths of its height. 261. The magazines and nurseries are confined to the sides of the hill, leaving an open area in the middle under the dome, the roof of which is sup- ported by Gothic arches, of which those nearest the middle are from two to three feet in height, but those towards the sides are much lower. 262. A flattish roof, impervious to wet, covers the top of the assemblage of nurseries and maga- zines, protecting them in case the dome suffers any injury ; and the area above the royal cham- ber has a flattish roof, also waterproof, and so contrived as to allow any wet that by chance HISTORY OF INSECTS. 81 gains admittance, to pass off into subterraneous passages. 263. These passages, some of which are a foot in diameter, and perfectly cylindrical, are lined with clay. They originally served as quarries, whence the materials of the building were derived, and afterwards as the galleries by which the inmates travel under ground, to carry on their depredations at a distance from their home. 264. These galleries run slantingly downwards to the depth of two or three feet, then branching out in every direction, rise nearly to the surface, and are carried under ground to an almost incre- dible distance. 265. There are numerous minor galleries inter- secting every part of the nest, and winding round it in different directions to the very top, conti- nually cross each other ; many of these open into the dome in various places. All these minor galleries eventually merge in the large ones be- neath the nest. 266. The white ants cannot ascend a perpendi- cular surface ; yet these galleries in parts are quite perpendicular. The difficulty is overcome by the formation of a spiral pathway of easy ascent, and half an inch in width, which is con- structed of clay, against the wall of the gallery, in the way of a geometrical staircase. 267. In order to convey the eggs from the royal chamber to the upper nurseries, several G 82 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. elliptic bridges are formed, which save much labour and distance : these bridges are very slight and elegant, and are furnished on each side with a kind of parapet wall to prevent the la- bourers from falling over with their burdens. The width of these beautiful bridges is frequently less than half an inch. 268. The royal chamber contains, besides the king and queen, numerous labourers and soldiers : the labourers are incessantly engaged in feeding the royal pair, or carrying away the eggs laid by the queen ; the soldiers apparently act merely as a guard of honour, as there is never any demon- stration of rebellion or ill-will on the part of the subjects. 269. If any accident happens to the building by the tread of some large animal, or the wilful aggression of the inquiring traveller, the soldiers instantly appear in the breach, at first two or three, then more, and if the attack continues they issue forth by hundreds, and even thousands ; being provided with immense jaws, they bite with ex- ceeding sharpness, and never relinquish their hold. 270. When the aggressor has retreated, the soldiers retire within the building, and the la- bourers, who had during the attack kept closely within, hasten to repair the breach, each carrying in his mouth a mass of clay ready prepared for use, which on being placed instantly adheres, and HISTORY OF INSECTS. 83 thus, by the united labour of millions, damages of great extent are repaired in a few hours. 271. If, during the operation of rebuilding, the aggressor again appears, and molests them, the labourers instantly retire, and the soldiers again sally forth, biting every thing they can reach with the utmost fury ; when all is quiet they again withdraw, and the labourers again appear : these scenes may be renewed constantly without the least diminution of the zeal and ferocity of the soldiers, or of the industry of the labourers. 272. Whilst the labourers are thus engaged, a few soldiers remain among them as sentinels, and also as overseers, to encourage and direct them. When the labourers appear to weary in the per- formance of their duty, these soldiers strike their jaws against the wall of the nest, producing a loud ticking noise, at which the labourers utter a loud hiss, and redouble their exertions. 273. Excepting in these repairs, when they are necessarily exposed, the whole of the operations of the white ants are carried on under cover. If a peculiar part of a tree is to be attacked, a covered way is made along the bark until it is attained. 274. The favourite food of the white ants ap- pears to be wood, no kinds except teak and iron wood escaping them : they much prefer it when converted as timber to the living state. The pro- visions stored in the nests appear like particles G 2 84 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. of wood gnawed off with their jaws, but when examined under a lens are found to consist prin- cipally of gum, or the inspissated juices of plants. 275. Their mode of proceeding is to consume the interior of whatever they attack, leaving the exterior quite perfect ; thus fences, wainscots, bed-posts, &c. are often totally consumed, except- ing an exterior surface not thicker than a wafer, which yields to the slightest pressure : houses and whole villages are thus frequently rendered unin- habitable. 276. When an upright post leading to rafters or a roof which is an object of attack, bears too great a weight to allow of this excavating, the parts consumed are supplied by the mortar of which the nest is fabricated, a small gallery for ascent only being left : this mortar becomes hard as stone, so that a wooden is often converted into a stone pillar. 277. The rapidity of their operations is so great that in two or three days a table may be completely consumed, if allowed to stand in the same place : they enter through the floor, exca- vate a leg, then the top, and descend by another leg ; leaving the whole as perfect in appearance as before touched, though in reality a mere shell. 278. Portmanteaus, trunks, &c. are served in the same manner, the linen, papers, and every substance they contained, excepting metal and glass, being consumed; the frames of pictures and HISTORY OF INSECTS. 85 looking-glasses, books, collections of insects, and other specimens of natural history, boots, shoes, coats, and hats, are equally acceptable. 279. Like the locust, the white ant is not to be resisted by man; wherever instinct directs its path, that path is implicitly followed ; the hovel and the palace, rags and the purple robes of royalty, are alike liable to be its food: myriads may be destroyed, but myriads instantly supply the void. 86 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. CHAPTER XVI. CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 280. Cantharides, a drug of great value, and which, as the principal ingredient of blisters, is yet unequalled, is the name given to beetles collected in great abundance from ash and other trees in the south of Europe ; they are merely dried and pounded, and are at once fit for use. 281. Silk, an article of dress, and one which gives employment, and consequent means of sub- sistence, to millions of human beings, is, as we have already related, the produce of the silk- worm. 282. Inky an article of immense importance in our communications with each other, and in the preservation of knowledge, is principally made from galls produced on trees by a minute insect called the gall fly. 283. Cochineal, the most valuable and beautiful of dyes, is an insect which feeds on a species of cactus in Mexico, and other parts of the continent of America. HISTORY OF INSECTS. 87 284. Kermes, the most brilliant scarlet dye known previously to the discovery of America, is an insect found abundantly on the quercus cocci/era, in the south of Europe : this was the celebrated Phoenician dye. 285. Shell-lac, a glutinous substance, now of very great importance in the manufacture of hats, and of value as an ingredient of printers' ink, is secreted by an insect which swarms on the trunks of several kinds of trees in India. 286. Wax, that enlightens our drawing-rooms, and in combination is applied to a great variety of purposes, is manufactured by the bee, whose history has already been related. 287. Honey is another production of the same industrious insect, and though much of its value has departed since the introduction of sugar, it is still an article of luxury. 288. Mead, a wholesome and delicious beve- rage, for which this country has long been famous, and the manufacture of which is still carried on with great skill and success in some of our counties, is made from honey. 289. Locusts, as an article of food, are spoken of in Scripture. The inhabitants of Fez, Morocco, and adjacent countries, eat them at this day ; and the Hottentots hail the coming of the locusts with delight, and are said to fatten on them. 290. The fructification of many plants is en- tirely accomplished by the different species of 88 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. bees, which convey the farina from plant to plant, and also from the stamens to the pointal of the same plant. 291. As food to birds and fishes, insects may be considered by far the principal article ; there is scarcely a bird or a fish but devours them with avidity. 292. The turnip fly has the power of destroy- ing almost the whole crop of that excellent and useful vegetable, and as yet no certain cure is known for its ravages. Rusticus, an author be- fore quoted, has ascertained that salting the seed acts in a good degree, as a preventive. 293. The hop fly has the power of destroying the produce of the hop in the most remarkable manner : the crop appears exclusively dependent on the scarcity or abundance of this insect. 294. The locust, by pestilence or famine, has had, in all ages, the power of sweeping millions of human beings from the face of the earth. 295. The mosquito, by its unceasing attacks, is capable of rendering life an almost insupportable burden : gnats, and other flies, in hot countries, have an influence over us scarcely less fearful. 296. Economy of space and materials in archi- tecture is taught us by the bee ; the construction of the honeycomb in hexagonal cells, with trian- gular bottoms, accomplishes these objects in per- fection : geometricians can discover no possible improvement on the plan which bees adopt. HISTORY OF INSECTS. 89 297. The strength of an arch is taught us by the white ant, whose plastered domes are so strong that men may safely stand on them, and it has been said that wild bulls fight on them. 298. Mortar is made by several kinds of bees, and of the best possible composition ; that which hardens almost instantly on exposure, and is not liable to be moistened again by wet. 299. Nocturnal lights are recommended to us by the use made of them by the various fire-flies which illuminate the trees in tropical countries all night long with their sparkling lamps. 300. These facts, combined with the foregoing histories, tend to show that insects perform no very inconsiderable part in creation ; and that, whether as instruments of convenience and utility, sources of injury and annoyance, or examples of industry and economy, they cannot reasonably be END OF THE HISTORY OF INSECTS. Plate 11. Tiff. 6. Fig. 7. TJngaUSc. THS To trace in Nature's most minute design The signature and stamp of power divine ; Contrivance intricate expressed with ease, "Where unassisted sight no beauty sees ; The shapely limb, the lubricated joint, Within the small dimensions of a point, Muscle and nerve miraculously spun, His mighty work, who speaks, and it is done. BOOK II. s PHYSIOLOGY OF INSECTS. CHAPTER I. PHYSIOLOGY OF INSECTS IN GENERAL. 301. THE Physiology of Insects is the account of how they are made : there are in every animal four essential elements, matter ; motion, sensation, and mind. 302. Matter is inert it does not move by its own powers ; it is tangible the touch ascertains that it resists : matter in animals has various degrees of consistency ; convenience, however, has suggested its division into solid and fluid. 303. Matter, chiefly in its solid form, is the element of which the systems of organs are com- posed ; and organs are the instruments by which functions are performed : in all animals there are seven systems of organs to perform seven series of functions. 94 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. 304. The seven systems of organs and their respective functions are these : bones, for sup- port ; muscles, for motion ; air-tubes, for respi- ration ; blood-vessels, for circulation ; alimentary canal, for digestion; nerves, for sensation; and the organs of the sexes, for reproduction. ' 305. The fluids in insects are blood and various secretions : the blood is supplied by nutriment transmitted from the alimentary canal : the solid parts are renewed by secretions from the blood. 306. Motion, in the animal frame, is of two kinds ; dominant motion, which acknowledges not the authority of the mind ; for instance, circulation of the blood ; and subservient motion, which operates only in accordance with the behests of mind. 307. Sensation is the ultimate power of matter so perfected as to take cognizance of facts beyond the limits of the body : sensation is of two kinds ; that derived from external objects, which appears the aim of animal life, and conduces to its main- tenance, and that which conveys information from matter to mind, and behest from mind to matter. 308. Mind is the commanding element ; the other elements in acting obey it, but in existence and characters are independent of it : no powers of mind can prevent the existence, or change the characters of matter, motion, or sensation : mind PHYSIOLOGY OF INSECTS. 95 argues, then commands ; it takes cognizance of causes, and provides for consequent effects, before the other elements can obey its behests. 309. The great powers of mind are specu- lation and retention : speculation is the power which supposes an event that has not yet oc- curred ; and retention is the power of preserving an image left on the mind by an event that has occurred. 310. Of the connexion of mind with the organs which it commands we know nothing ; mind itself is only known by its effects : its commands are carried by the nerves ; a fact ascertained by separating a nerve ; after which separation, the mind no longer controls the parts to which that nerve extended its branches. 311. The physiology of insects is, however, properly confined to the description of their systems of organs, and to the functions which these organs perform : therefore, excepting as connected with the organs, no farther notice will be taken of any other element than matter. 312. It must be observed that parts perform- ing obvious offices, are commonly called the organs of those offices ; thus legs are termed organs of locomotion, and jaws, organs of mandu- cation : these terms are not in themselves im- proper, but lead, in some degree, to a vagueness of phraseology. 313. In the following chapters of this book, GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. the term organs will therefore be strictly con- fined to the grand systems of organs ; and the wings, legs, mouth, &c. treated of simply as such. PHYSIOLOGY OF INSECTS. 97 CHAPTER II. OF THE ORGANS OF SUPPORT IN GENERAL. 314. INSECTS, instead of having internally a frame-work of bones supporting the softer parts, in which are included all the other systems of organs, have their external skin or covering indurated, incrassated, ossified, and invested with the same power as the frame-work of bones in ourselves possesses, of supporting the softer parts, and affording points of attachment for the muscles. 315. This indurated and incrassated skin com- pletely envelopes the animal in the manner of a suit of armour, inclosing the softer parts, and pro- tecting them from injury : in its composition it possesses most of the elements 'found in the bones of vertebrated animals, but not in the same proportions. 316. To admit of perfect freedom of motion in the performance of those numerous acts H GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. which an insect's life is passed, and many of which we have recorded in the preceding Book, it is essential that this bony covering should be in some way jointed, otherwise constant difficulty must occur. 317. The body, therefore, which is very long in proportion to its breadth, is divided into thir- teen rings or segments (segmenta), the interstices between these being filled by a softer and more flexible portion of the same skin, which, in its indurated state, forms the segments. 318. This alternation of flexible and inflexible portions of skin, allows not merely a free motion to the right or left, upwards or downwards, but of great increase or decrease of length at the pleasure of the insect. 319. Contraction is readily performed by the rings being drawn one within another ; and elon- gation, by extending and separating the rings : their action is in some degree represented by the sliding of the tubes of a telescope. The body of the common wasp will illustrate this contracting and elongating power. 320. With the exception of the first, which is the head in all insects, the segments have no English names ; the Latin ones are, therefore, universally used ; and this is preferable to burthen- ing the mind with two names for the same part. 321. The first segment is the head (capuf) ; it consists of a skull, in which are situated two PHYSIOLOGY OF INSECTS. 99 antennae or feelers, two eyes, and a mouth : the head is very distinct from the following segments, and is generally so articulated to the second seg- ment, as to possess freedom of motion in every direction. 322. The second segment (prothorax) is the one which is so very large and convex in the common chafer, and which appears to receive the head into an excavation or cup : in a locust, or a cricket, it is equally large ; but in a butterfly, fly, or bee, it is exceeding narrow, and scarcely per- ceptible. 323. The prothorax bears a pair of legs, which are called fore legs (propedes); these legs are so articulated to the prothorax, as to allow perfect freedom to their movements. 324. The third segment (mesothorax) is the large convex part so prominent in butterflies, bees, and flies ; it is a narrow segment in beetles, crickets, &c : it is so articulated with the pro- thorax, as to allow that segment less freedom of motion than is possessed by the head. 325. The mesothorax bears two wings, one of which is attached to each side of it ; these are called fore wings (proal post- PHYSIOLOGY OF INSECTS. 103 sternellum) ; these divisions are but rarely dis- tinguishable. 341. The pleura are also divided by sutural lines or indentations into four smaller portions, called their first, second, third, and fourth sections (prtepleura, pleura, pleurella, post-pleurella) ; these divisions are rarely distinguishable on more than one segment of an insect. 342. The wings and legs being invariably inserted in the pleura or sternum of the seg- ments, generally force out of their places the portions in the neighbourhood of their origin, so that care is required in deciding on and applying the names to each. 343. The upper, or scutal portion of each segment, has no such interruption to simple development ; this portion, therefore, is employed in description in preference to the others. 344. When the scutum of either segment is apparently undivided, it is called simply scutum ; when, as in the mesothorax of the hornet, one obvious line crosses it, the anterior portion is the scutum, the posterior, the scutellum ; when, as in the bluebottle-fly, two obvious lines cross the mesothorax, the first section is the prce- scutum, the second, the scutum, and the third, the scutellum. 345. The propodeon in the hornet, and a vast number of other insects which resemble it in structure, has a longitudinal line or indentation 104 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. down its centre, but is not, in any instance, divided transversely. 346. An infinite number of descriptions refer to the parts now under consideration ; and it is, therefore, essential that we thoroughly understand them : let us take a hornet in hand, and examine them. 347. A hornet is nearly nipped in two in the middle by the smallness of the podeon ; the part below is now generally termed the body, formerly, the abdomen ; both names are used in descrip- tions : the part above the podeon, between that segment and the head, is often called the thorax ; its parts are these : 348. Adjoining the head is the scutum of the prothorax (prothoracis scutum) ; this is, cen- trally, a very narrow piece, but extends and widens on each side nearly to the base of the fore wings. 349. Adjoining this is a large triangular piece, the apex of the triangle almost touching the head of the insect, and its base being below the inser- tion of the fore wings, and extending across the insect from side to side : this is the scutum of the mesothorax (mesothoracis scutum). 350. At the base of each fore wing, between it and each lateral angle of the scutum of the meso- thorax, is a small raised lump : these are called little scales (squamulce). 351. Immediately following the scutum of the PHYSIOLOGY OF INSECTS. 105 mesothorax, is a narrow section, extending across the insect from side to side between the hind wings : this is the scutellum of the mesothorax (mesothoracis scutellum). 352. The next section is of similar shape, but still narrower; this also extends from side to side across the insect, and is the scutum of the metathorax (metathoracis scutum). 353. Now follows a large square section, into the lower part of which is inserted the podeon, or peduncle ; this is the scutum of the propo- deon (propodeonis scutum). 354. The sections developed are five in number, being only one more than the number of segments : it may be also observed, that the three anterior sections are in a horizontal posi- tion, the two posterior are in a vertical position. 355. In beetles, butterflies, and many other insects, these parts are not employed or men- tioned in descriptions ; but in all insects with transparent wings, they afford excellent characters for distinguishing divisions. 356. The telum, or last segment, frequently bears appendages, the use of which appears doubtful ; in some insects these are like bristles ; in others, like forceps ; in others, like leaves, &c. 106 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. CHAPTER III. OF THE ORGANS OF SUPPORT IN THE HEAD. 357. THE head of insects, like the following segments, is composed of four smaller portions ; in this instance, however, not merely distinguished by sutural lines, but perfectly separated, and freely articulated : these are the skull (cranium), the upper and lower lips (labrum, labium\ the feeler- jaws (maxillce), and the jaws or mandibles (mandi- bulte) : the lips, feeler-jaws, and jaws, constitute the mouth of an insect. 358. Each section of the head has a tendency to produce two feelers : on the last, the man- dibles, they are obsolete ; on the skull, lips, and feeler-jaws, they are very distinct : in the lobster, and other animals resembling it, which are closely related to insects, the mandibles are furnished with distinct feelers. 359. The skull consists of four portions ; the superior surface or crown (e