It was

by these merciless insects, and their flesh devoured to the bone. No anatomist in the world can strip a skeleton so cleanly as they, and no animal, how strong soever, when they have once seized upon it as power to escape. It often happens that these insects quit their retreat in a body, and go in quest of adventures. During my stay," says Smith, "at Cape Corfe Castle, a body of these ants came to pay us a visit in our fortification. about day-break when the advanced-guard of this famished crew entered the chapel, where some Negro servants were asleep upon the floor. The men were quickly alarmed at the invasion of this unexpected army, and prepared as well as they could for a defence. While the foremost battalion of insects had already taken possession of the place, the rear-guard was more than a quarter of a mile distant. The whole ground seemed alive, and crawling with unceasing destruction. After deliberating a few moments upon what was to be done, it was resolved to lay a large train of gunpowder along the path they had taken; by this means millions were blown to picces, and the rear-guard, perceiving the destruction of their leaders, thought proper instantly to return, and make back to their original habitation.

The order which these ants observe seems very extraordinary; whenever they sally forth, fifty or sixty larger than the rest are seen to head the band, and conduct them to their destined prey. If they have a fixed spot where their prey continues to resort, they form a vaulted gallery, which is sometimes a quarter of a mile in length, and yet they will hollow it out in the space of ten or twelve hours.

CHAP. VI.

OF THE BEETLE AND ITS VARIETIES.

Hitherto we have been treating of insects with four transparent wings; we now come to a tribe with two transparent wings, with cases that cover them close while at rest, but which allow them their proper play when flying. The principal of these are the beetle, the May-bug, and the cantharis. These are all bred like the rest of their order-first from eggs, then they become grubs, then a chrysalis, in which the parts of the future fly are distinctly seen, and lastly the animal leaves its prison, breaking forth as a winged animal in full maturity.

Of the beetle there are various kinds-all, however, concurring in one common formation of having cases to their wings, which are the more necessary to those insects, as they often live under the surface of the earth in holes, which they dig out by their own industry. These cases prevent the various injuries their real wings might sustain by rubbing or crushing against the sides of their abode. These, though they do not assist flight, yet keep the internal wings clean and even, and produce a loud buzzing noise when the animal rises in the air.

If we examine the formation of all animals of the beetle kind, we shall find, as in shell-fish, that their bones are placed externally and their muscles within. These muscles are formed very much like those of quadrupeds, and are endued with such surprising strength that, bulk for bulk, they are a thousand times stronger than those of a man. The strength of these muscles is of much use in digging the animal's subterraneous abode, where it is most usually hatched, and to which it most frequently returns, even after it becomes a winged insect capable of flying.

Beside the difference which results from the shape and colour of these animals, the size also makes a considerable one-some beetles being not larger than the head of a pin, while others, such as the elephant beetle, are as big as one's fist. But the greatest difference

To

among them is that some are produced in a month, and in a single season go through all the stages of their existence, while others take near four years to their production, and live as winged insects a year more. give the histroy of all animals, that are bred pretty much in the same way, would be insipid and endless; it will suffice to select one or two from the number, the origin of which may serve as specimens of the rest. I will therefore offer the history of the May-bug to the reader's attention, premising that most other beetles, though not so long-lived, are bred in the same manner.

The May-bug, or dorr-beetle as some call it, has, like all the rest, a pair of cases to its wings, which are of a redish brown colour sprinkled with a whitish dust, which easily comes off. In some years their necks are seen covered with a red plate, and in others with a black one; these, however, are distinct sorts, and their difference is by no means accidental. The fore-legs are very short, and the better calculated for burrowing in the ground, where this insect makes its retreat. It is well known to children by its evening buzz; but still it is more formidably introduced to the acquaintance of husbandmen and gardeners, for in some seasons it has been found to swarm in such numbers as to eat up every vegetable production.

Two sexes in the May-bug are easily distinguished from each other, by the superior length of the tufts at the end of the horns in the male. They begin to copu late in summer, and at that season they are seen joined together for a considerable time. The female, being impregnated, quickly falls to boring a hole in the ground in which to deposit her burthen. This is generally about half a foot deep, and in it she places her eggs, which are of an oblong shape, with great regularity one by the other. They are of a bright yellow colour, and no way wrapped up in a common covering as some have imagined. When the female is lightened of her burthen she again ascends from her hole, to live as before upon leaves and vegetables, to buzz in the summer evening, and to lie hid among the branches of trees in the heat of the day

In about three months after these eggs have been thus deposited in the earth the contained insect begins to break its shell, and a small grub or maggot crawls forth, and feeds upon tlie roots of whatever vegetable it happens to be nearest. All substances of this kind seem equally grateful, yet it is probable the mother insect has a choice among what kind of vegetables she shall deposit her young. In this manner these voracious creatures continue in the worm state for more than three years, devouring the roots of every plant they approach, and making their way under-ground in quest of food with great dispatch and facility. At length they grow to above the size of a walnut, being a great, thick, white maggot with a red head, which is seen most frequently in new-turned earth, and which is so eagerly sought after by birds of every species. When largest, they are found an inch and a half long, of a whitish-yellow colour, with a body consisting of twelve segments or joints, on each side of which there are nine breathing holes and three red feet. The head is large in proportion to the body, of a redish colour, with a pincer before and a semi-circular lip, with which it cuts the roots of plants and sucks out their moisture. As this insect lives entirely under-ground it has no occasion for eyes, and accordingly it is found to have none; but it is furnished with two feelers, which, like the crutch of a blind man, serves it to direct its motions. Such is the form of this animal, that lives for years in the worm state underground, still voracious, and every year changing its skin.

It is not till the end of the fourth year that this extraordinary insect prepares to emerge from its subterraneous abode, and even this is not effected but by a tedious preparation. About the latter end of autumn

the grub begins to perceive the approaches of its transformation; it then buries itself deeper and deeper in the earth, sometimes six feet beneath the surface, and there forms itself a capacious apartment, the walls of which it renders smooth and shining by the excretions of its body. Its abode being thus formed, it begins soon after to shorten itself, to swell, and to burst its last skin, in order to assume the form of a chrysalis. This, in the beginning, appears of a yellowish colour, which heightens by degrees, till at last it is seen nearly red. Its exterior form plainly discovers all the vestiges of the future winged insect, all the fore-parts being distinctly seen; while behind, the animal seems as if wrapped in swaddling clothes.

The young May-bug continues in this state for about three months longer, and it is not till the beginning of January that the aurelia divests itself of all its impediments, and becomes a winged insect completely formed. Yet still the animal is far from attaining its natural strength, health, and appetite. It undergoes a kind of infant imbecility, and, like most other insects (which the instant they become flies are arrived at their state of full perfection), the May-bug continues feeble and sickly. Its colour is much brighter than in the perfect animal, all its parts are soft, and its voracious nature seems for a while to have entirely forsaken it. As the animal is very often found in this state, it is supposed by those unacquainted with its real history that the old ones of the former season have buried themselves for the winter, in order to revisit the sun the ensuing summer. But the fact is, the old one never survives the season, but dies, like all the other winged tribe of insects, from the severity of cold in winter.

About the latter end of May these insects, after having lived for four years under-ground, burst from the earth when the first mild evening invites them abroad. They are at that time seen rising from their long imprisonment, from living only upon roots and imbibing only the moisture of the earth, to visit the mildness of the summer air, to choose the sweetest vegetables for their banquet, and to drink the dew of the evening. Wherever an attentive observer then walks abroad, he will see them bursting up before him in his pathway like ghosts in a theatre. He will see every part of the earth, that had its surface beaten into hardness, perforated by their egression. When the season is favourable for them they are seen by myriads, buzzing along, hitting against every object that intercepts their flight. The mid-day sun, however, seems too powerful for their constitutions; they then lurk under the leaves and branches of some shady tree; but the willow seems particularly their most favourite food; they lurk in clusters, and seldom quit the tree till they have devoured all its verdure. In those seasons which are favourable to their propagation they are seen in the evening as thick as flakes of snow, and hitting against every object with a sort of capricious blindness. Their duration, however, is but short, as they never survive the season. They begin to join shortly after they have been let loose from their prison, and when the female is impregnated she cautiously bores a hole in the ground with an instrument fitted for that purpose, which she is furnished with at the tail, and there deposits her eggs, generally to the number of three score. If the season and the soil be adapted to their propagation, these soon multiply as already described, and go through the noxious stages of their contemptible existence. This insect, however, in its worm state, though prejudicial to man, makes one of the chief repasts of the feathered tribe, and is generally the first nourishment with which they supply their young. Rooks and hogs are particularly fond of these worms, and devour them in great numbers. The inhabitants of the county of Norfolk some time since commenced destroying their rookeries; but in proportion as they destroyed one plague they were pestered with a greater;

and these insects multiplied in such an amazing abundance as to destroy not only the verdure of the fields, but even the roots of vegetables not yet shot forth. One farm in particular was so injured by them in the year 1751, that the occupier was not able to pay his rent, and the landlord was not only content to lose his income for that year, but also gave money for the support of the farmer and his family. In Ireland they suffered so much by these insects, that they came to a resolution of setting fire to a wood of some miles in extent, to prevent their mischievous propagation.

Of all the beetle kind this is the most numerous, and therefore deserves the chief attention of history. The numerous varieties of other kinds might repay the curiosity of the diligent observer, but we must be content in general to observe, that in the great outlines of their history they resemble those of which we have just been giving a description; like them, all other beetles are bred from the egg, which is deposited in the ground, or sometimes, though seldom, in the barks of trees; they change iuto a worm; they subsist in that state by living upon the roots of vegetables or the succulent parts of the bark round them. They generally live a year at least before they change into an aurelia; in that state they are not entirely motionless, nor entirely swaddled up without form.

It would be tedious and endless to give a description of all, and yet it would be an unpardonable omission not to mention the particularities of some beetles, which are singular rather from their size, their manners, or their formation. That beetle which the Americans call the "tumble-dung" particularly demands our attention; it is all over of a dusky black, rounder than those animals are generally found to be, and so strong, though not much larger than the common black beetle, that if one of them be put under a brass candlestick it will cause it to move backwards and forwards, as if it were by an invisible hand, to the admiration of those who are not accustomed to the sight; but this strength is given it for much more useful purposes than those of exciting human curiosity, for there is no creature more laborious, either in seeking subsistence or in providing a proper retreat for its young. They are endowed with sagacity to discover subsistence by their excellent smelling, which directs them to excrements just fallen from man or beast, on which they instantly drop, and fall unanimously to work in forming round balls or pellets thereof, in the middle of which they lay an egg. These pellets in September they convey three feet deep into the earth, where they lie till the approach of spring, when the eggs are hatched, the nest bursts, and the insects find their way out of the earth. They assist each other with indefatigable industry in rolling these globular pellets to the place where they are to be buried. This they are to perform with the tail foremost, by rising up their hinder part and shoving along the ball with their hindfeet. They are always accompanied with other beetles of a larger size, and of a more elegant structure and colour. The breast of this is covered with a shield of crimson colour, and shining like metal; the head is of the like colour, mixed with green, and on the crown of the head stands a shining black horn, bending backwards. These are called the kings of the beetles-but for what reason is uncertain, since they partake of the same dirty drudgery with the rest.

The elephant-beetle is the largest of this kind hitherto known, and is found in South America, particularly Guiana and Surinam, as well as about the river Oroonoko. It is of a black colour, and the whole body is covered with a very hard shell, full as thick and as strong as that of a small crab. Its length from the hinder part to the eyes is almost four inches, and from the same part to the end of the proboscis or trunk four inches and three quarters. The transverse diameter of the body is two inches and a quarter, and the breadth

of each elytron or case for the wings is an inch and three-tenths. The antennæ or feelers are quite horny; for which reason the proboscis or trunk is moveable at its insertion into the head, and seems to supply the place of feelers. The horns are eight-tenths of an inch long, and terminate in points. The proboscis is an inch and a quarter long, and turns upwards, making a crooked line, terminating in two horns, each of which is near a quarter of an inch long, but they are not perforated at the end like the proboscis of other insects. About four-tenths of an inch above the head, or that side next the body, is a prominence or small horn, which, if the rest of the trunk were away, would cause this part to resemble the horn of a rhinoceros. There is indeed a beetle so called; but then the horns or trunk has no fork at the end, though the lower horn resembles this. The feet are all forked at the end, but not

like a lobster's claws.

To this class we may also refer the glow-worm, that little animal which makes such a distinguished figure in the description of our poets. No two insects can differ more than the male and female of this species from each other. The male is in every respect a beetle, having cases to its wings, and rising in the air at pleasure; the female, on the contrary, has none, but is entirely a creeping insect, and is obliged to wait the approaches of her capricious companion. The body of the female has eleven joints, with a shield breastplate, the shape of which is oval; the head is placed over this, and is very small, and the three last joints of her body are of a yellowish colour; but what distinguishes it from all other animals, at least in this part of the world, is the shining light which it emits by night, and which is supposed by some philosophers to be an emanation which she sends forth to allure the male to her company. Most travellers who have gone through sandy countries must well remember the little shining sparks with which the ditches are studded on each side of the road. If incited by curiosity to approach more nearly, he will find the light sent forth by the glowworm; if he should keep the little animal for some time, its light continues to grow paler, and at last appears totally extinct. The manner in which this light is produced has hitherto continued inexplicable; it is probable the little animal is supplied with some electrical powers, so that by rubbing the joints of its body against each other it thus supplies a stream of light, which, if it allures the male (as we are told it does), serves for very useful purposes.

The cantharis is of the beetle kind, from whence come cantharides, well known in the shops by the name of Spanish flies, and for their use in blisters. They have feelers like bristles, flexible cases to the wings, a breast pretty plain, and the sides of the belly wrinkled. Cantharides differ from each other in their size, shape, and colour; those used in the shops also do the same. The largest in these parts are about an inch long, and as much in circumference, but others are not above three quarters of an inch. Some are of a pure azure colour, others of pure gold, and others again have a mixture of pure gold and azure colours; but they are all very brilliant and extremely beautiful. These insects, as is well known, are of the greatest benefit to mankind, making a part in many medicines conducive to human preservation. They are chiefly natives of Spain, Italy, and Portugal; but they are to be met with also about Paris in the summer time, upon the leaves of the ash, the poplar, and the rose-tree, and also among wheat and in meadows. It is very certain that these insects are ford of ash-leaves, insomuch that they will sometimes strip one of these trees quite bare. Some affirm that these flies delight in sweet-smelling herbs; and it is very certain that they are fond of honey-suckles, lilac, and wild cherry-shrubs; but some that have sought after them declare they never could find them on elder-trees,

nut trees, nor among wheat. We are told that the country people expect the return of these insects every seven years. It is very certain that such a number of these insects have been seen together in the air, that they appeared like swarms of bees; and that they have so disagreeable a smell that it may be distinguished a great way off, especially about sun-set, though they are not seen at that time. This bad smell is a guide for those who make it their business to catch them. When they are caught they dry them, after which they are so light, that fifty will hardly weigh a drachm. Those that gather them tie them in a bag, or a piece of linen cloth that has been well worn, and then they kill them with the vapours of hot vinegar, after which they dry them in the sun, and keep them in boxes. These flies, thus dried, being chymically analysed, yield a great deal of volatile, caustic salt, mixed with a little oil, phlegm, and earth. Cantharides are penetrating, corrosive, and, applied to the skin, raise blisters, from whence proceeds a great deal of serosity. They are made use of both inwardly and outwardly. However, it is somewhat strange that the effects of these flies should fall principally upon the urinary passages; for though some authors have endeavoured to account for this, we are still in the dark, for all they have said amounts to no more than that they affect these parts in a manner which may be very learnedly described, but very obscurely comprehended.

An insect of great, though, perhaps, not equal use in medicine, is that which is known by the name of the kermes; it is produced in the excrescence of an oak, called the berry-bearing ilex, and appears at first wrapt up in a membraneous bladder of the size of a pen, smooth and shining, of a brownish red colour, and covered with very fine ash-coloured powder. This bag teems with a number of redish eggs or insects, which being rubbed with the fingers pour out a crimson liquor. It is only met with in warm countries in the months of May and June. In the month of April this insect becomes of the size and shape of a pea, and its eggs some time after burst from the womb, and, soon turning to worms, run about the branches and leaves of the tree. They are of two sexes, and the females have been hitherto described; but the males are very distinct from the former, and are a sort of small flies like gnats, with six feet, of which the four forward are short and the two backward long, divided into four joints, and armed with three crooked nails. There are two feelers on the head, a line and a half long, which are moveable, streaked, and articulated. The tail at the back part of the body is half a line long, and forked. The whole body is covered with two transparent wings, and they leap about in the manner of fleas. The harvest of the kermes is greater or less in proportion to the severity of the winter, and the women gather them before sun-rising, tearing them off with their nails, for fear there should be any loss from the hatching of the insects. They sprinkle them with vinegar, and lay them in the sun to dry, where they acquire a red colour.

An insect, perhaps still more useful than either of the former, is the cochineal, which has been very variously described by authors; some have supposed it a vegetable excrescence from the tree upon which it is found; some have described it as a louse, some as a bug, and some as a beetle. As they appear in our shops when brought from America they are of an irregular shape, convex on one side, and a little concave on the other, but are both marked with transverse streaks or wrinkles. They are of a scarlet colour within, and without of a blackish red, and sometimes of a white, redish, or ash-colour, which are accounted the best, and are brought to us from Mexico. The cochineal insect is of an oval form, of the size of a small pea, with six feet, and a snout or trunk. It brings forth its young alive, and is nourished by sucking the juice of the plant. Its body consists of several

rings, and when it is once fixed on the plant it continues immoveable, being subject to no change. Some pretend there are two sorts-the one domestic, which is best, and the other wild, which is of a vivid colour; however, they appear to be the same, only with this difference, that the wild feeds upon uncultivated trees without any assistance, whereas the domestic is carefully at a stated season removed to cultivated trees, where it feeds upon a purer juice. Those who take care of these insects place them on the prickly pear-plant in a certain order, and are very industrious in defending them from other insects; for if any other kind come among them they take care to brush them off with foxes' tails. Towards the end of the year, when the rains and cold weather are coming on, which are fatal to these insects, they take off the leaves or branches covered with cochineal that have not attained their utmost degree of perfection, and keep them in their houses till winter is past. These leaves are very thick and juicy, and supply them with sufficient nourishment while they remain within doors. When the milder weather returns, and these animals are about to exclude their young, the natives make them nests like those of birds, but less, of tree-moss or soft hay, or the down of cocoa-nuts, placing twelve in every nest. These they fix on the thorns of the prickly pear plant, and in three or four days' time they bring forth their young, which leave their nests in a few days, and creep upon the branches of the plant till they find a proper place to rest in and take in their nourishment, and also until the females are fecundated by the males -which, as in the former tribe, differs very widely, from the females being winged insects, whereas the others only creep, and are at most stationary. When they are impregnated they produce a new offspring, so that the propagator has a new harvest thrice a-year. When the native Americans have gathered the cochineal they put them into holes in the ground, where they kill them with boiling water, and afterwards dry them in the sun or in an oven, or lay them upon hot plates. From the various methods of killing them arise the different colours which they appear in when brought to us. While they are living they seem to be sprinkled over with a white powder, which they lose as soon as the boiling water is poured upon them. Those that are dried upon hot plates are the blackest. What we call the cochineal are only the females, for the males are a sort of fly already observed in the kermes. They are used both for dyeing and medicine, and are said to have much the same virtue as the kermes, though they are now seldom used alone, but are mixed with other things for the sake of the colour.

I shall end this account of the beetle tribe with the history of an animal which cannot properly be ranked under this species, and yet cannot be more methodically ranged under any other. This is the insect that forms and resides in the gall-nut, the spoils of which are converted to such useful porposes. The gall-insects are bred in a sort of bodies adhering to a kind of oak in Asia, which differ with regard to their colour, size, roughness, smoothness, and shape, and which we call galls. They are not fruit, as some have imagined, but preternatural tumours, owing to the wounds given to the buds, leaves, and twigs of the tree by a kind of insect that lays its eggs within them. This animal is furnished with an implement by which the female penetrates into the bark of the tree, or into that spot which just begins to bud, and there sheds a drop of corrosive fluid into the cavity. Having thus formed a receptacle for her eggs, she deposits them in the place and dies soon after. The heart of the bud being thus wounded, the circulation of the nutritive juice is interrupted, and the fermentation thereof, with the poison injected by the fly, burns the parts adjacent, and then alters the natural colour of the plant. The juice or sap, turned back from its natural course, extravasates and flows round the egg. After which it

swells and dilates by the assistance of some bubbles of air, which get admission through the pores of the bark, and which run in the vessels with the sap. The external coat of this excrescence is dried by the air, and grows into a figure which bears some resemblance to the bow of an arch or the roundness of a kernel. This little ball receives its nutriment, growth, and vegetation as the other parts of the tree, by slow degrees, and is what we call the "gall-nut." The worm that is hatched under this spacious vault finds in the substance of the ball, which is as yet very tender, a subsistence suitable to its nature; gnaws and digests it till the time comes for its transformation to a nymph, and from that state of existence changes into a fly. After this the insect, perceiving itself duly provided with all things requisite, disengages itself soon from its confinement, and takes its flight into the open air. The case, however, is not similar with respect to the gall-nut-that grows in autumn. The cold weather frequently comes on before the worm is transformed into a fly, or before the fly can pierce through its enclosure. The nut falls with the leaves, and although you may imagine that the fly which lies within is lost, yet in reality it is not so; on the contrary, its being covered up so close is the means of its preservation. Thus it spends the winter in a warm house, where every crack and cranny of the nut is well stopped up, and lies buried as it were under a heap of leaves, which preserve it from the injuries of the weather. This apartment, however, though so commodious a retreat in winter, is a perfect prison in the spring. The fly, roused out of its lethargy by the first heats, breaks its way through and ranges where it pleases. A very small aperture is sufficient, since at this time the fly is but a diminutive creature. Besides, the ringlets whereof its body is composed dilate and become pliant in the passage.

CHAP. VII.

OF THE GNAT AND THE TIPULA

There are two insects which entirely resemble each other in their form, and yet widely differ in their habits, manners, and propagation. Those who have seen the tipula, or long-legs, and the larger kind of gnat have most probably mistaken the one for the other; they have often accused the tipula, a harmless insect, of depredations made by the gnat, and the innocent have suffered for the guilty; indeed, the differences in their form are so very minute, that it often requires the assistance of a microscope to distinguish the one from the other: they are both mounted on long legs, both furnished with two wings and a slender body; their heads are large, and they seem to be hump-backed; the chief and only difference, therefore, is, that the tipula wants a trunk, while the gnat has a large one, which it often exerts to very mischievous purposes. The tipula is a harmless, peaceful insect, that offers injury to nothing, the gnat is sanguinary and predaceous, ever seeking out for a place in which to bury its trunk, and pumping up the blood from the animal in large quantities.

The gnat proceeds from a little worm which is usually seen at the bottom of standing waters. The manner in which the insect lays its eggs is particularly curious; after having laid the proper number on the surface of the water it surrounds them with a kind of unctuous matter, which prevents them from sinking, but at the same time fastens them with a thread to the bottom, to prevent their floating away at the mercy of every breeze from a place of warmth, which is proper for their production, to any other where the water may be too cold or the animals its enemies too numerous. Thus the insects in their egg state resemble a buoy, which is fixed