THE STUDY OF ANIMAL LIFE 



mother, hanging to a jellyfish, on some sea-urchins hidden 

 in tents of spines, in various sea-cucumbers half buried 

 in the skin, adhering to the naked ventral surface of the 

 common brook-leech (Cosine), imprisoned in modified 

 tentacles in some marine worms, carried about in a dorsal 

 brood-chamber in many water-fleas, or under the curved 

 tail of higher crustaceans, retained within the gills of 

 bivalves, and so on. Such adaptations are interesting, 

 they involve prolonged physical contact between mother 

 and offspring, but we are in search of cases where the 

 parent acts as if she cared for her young. 



But this care, as we said, begins very gradually. Thus, 

 in some lowly crustaceans the young may return to the 

 brood-chamber of the mother, even after hatching and 

 moulting ; and young crayfish are said to return to the 

 shelter of the maternal tail after they have been set adrift. 

 Strange, too, are the males of some sea-spiders (Pycno- 

 gonida), who carry about the ova on their legs. The 

 freshwater mussel keeps the embryos imprisoned even 

 after the normal period, until some freshwater fish be 

 present, to which they may attach themselves ; some 

 cuttlefishes exert themselves in keeping their egg-clusters 

 clean and safe. 



But it is among insects, with their full, free life, that 

 we see the best examples of parental care in backboneless 

 animals. Some scoff at the " beetle-pricker ' or the 

 scarabeist, and such genial laughter as that of the 

 Professor at the Breakjast Table has a healthy resonance,- 

 but those who scoff have not read Kirby's Letters or 

 Fabre's Souvenirs, else they would know that the student 

 of insects watches at a well-head of romance and marvel 

 inexhaustibly fresh. What, for instance, shall we say 

 of the worker-bees, who, though no parents, tend and 

 nurse the grubs with constant care ; or of the likewise 

 sexless worker-ants, whose first endeavour when the 

 nest is disturbed is to save, not themselves, but the 

 young ; or of the elaborate provisions that many of 

 the digger-wasps and solitary bees make for offspring 

 which they never survive to sec ? In regard to the puzzle 

 presented by long-continued exertions towards an end 



