HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



249 



member in— the dickens knows what, — mount it 

 in Canada balsam or castor oil, and then bring a 

 popular microscope to bear upon it, the view 

 then presented being " magnificent," " wonderful," 

 " perfect," " altogether indescribable," mixed up 

 with a profusion of "dear me's" and "good 

 graciouses," from the feminine operators. I do not 

 wish to be thought a contemner of the microscope, 

 far from it ; on the contrary, I appreciate its useful- 

 ness, and look upon it as one of the few and pure 

 sources of profit and pleasure combined ; but is it 

 not humiliating to see so many translations of 

 French works on insects issuing from the press, 

 while England, practically speaking, is too much 

 engaged with her microscope-mania to pay much 

 attention to the wonders of transformation or any 

 similar subject ? However, let • us hope for better 

 times ; let us hope that many worthy English 

 Reaumurs, Lewenhoecks, and De Geers will shortly 

 appear on the entomological horizon, and thus 

 wipe off the stain which the Field reviewer has so 

 unhesitatingly bestowed on our character. 



In the article previously referred to, the writer 

 gives an amusing recital of the deportment of a very 

 harmless moth, which, in addition to bearing a great 

 resemblance to the ferocious hornet, was likewise 

 gifted with the power of mimicking the actions of 

 that insect, and by various significant hints to show 

 that it was capable of making as vigorous a defence 

 as crabro himself. I wonder whether other ento- 

 mologists have noted this habit of the Lunar Hornet 

 Sphinx — the popular English name of the moth in 

 question, — and whether the other species of clear- 

 wings, resembling flies, bees, &c, have ever been 

 observed to display the same power of mimicry ? It 

 is certainly a very singular faculty, aud the writer 

 has well styled it "protective mimicry." In the 

 present article on the defensive resources of insects 

 the power they possess in active mimicry will be 

 waived, and mention only made of that passive 

 counterfeit of death and insensible mimicry of in- 

 animate objects, which in many cases is their only 

 means of defence. Insects have so many enemies 

 that if some means of defence had not been pro. 

 vided them they would doubtless have soou 

 disappeared from the earth. I say this advisedly, 

 notwithstanding the extraordinary fecundity of 

 insects. A perpetual war is being waged upon 

 them. Thousands, nay millions, of animals derive 

 their entire subsistence from the insect world, and 

 as the numbers of the finny tribe are affirmed to be 

 diminishing, so, perhaps, a hundred years hence the 

 same may be said of insects. Next to the great 

 fecundity of insects the reluctance with which many 

 of them part with life may be brought forward as 

 another reason why their numbers are so immense. 

 I have seen a moth (Spilosoma meuthastri), when 

 deprived of head, thorax, legs, and wings, so that 

 nothing but the abdomen remained, continue to ex- ' 



trude its eggs for a long time, aud not till this act 

 for the perpetuation of its species had been com- 

 pleted did the convulsions of the dismembered body 

 cease. If cats have nine lives, surely beetles have 

 ninety-nine. Cockchafers, dor-beetles, and wasps 

 may sometimes be seen alive though destitute of 

 viscera, and moths and flies headless but still lively 

 are very common occurrences. 



Kirby and Spence, the eminent entomologists, 

 have placed the defensive powers of insects under 

 two heads, viz., active and passive. The first of 

 these consists of the employment by the insect of 

 weapons or other active means of defence, and the 

 second by insensible means of resistance, indepen- 

 dent of the will or effort of the insect. Eamiliar 

 examples of the first are the poison-laden stings of 

 the hornet, the wasp, and the bee. These insects, 

 and those allied to or similar to them in structure, 

 are the best fitted for the successful resistance of 

 enemies, and to these effective means of defence is 

 owing their plenitude. Were the honey-bee desti- 

 tute of a sting, the presence of the straw hive in 

 cottage gardens would, I venture to say, be a less 

 common occurrence than it is at present. The Rev. 

 J. G. Wood says that the swallow — a most per- 

 severing collector of insects — devours only the sting- 

 less bees, and allows the better-provided ones to 

 escape. Truly the swallow must be a discriminating 

 bird, and an entomologist of no mean order, if it is 

 able in its aerial flights to distinguish the drone 

 from the working bee. But probably that wonderful 

 power instinct, which, though denied to mankind, is 

 present in birds and beasts, might have been given 

 to the swallow in a super-abundant degree. This 

 hackneyed term "instinct" has always to stand 

 sponsor to statements in natural history which bear 

 a resemblance to that reason on which we pride 

 ourselves as being the only possessors. 



Instinct to reason sure is near allied, 

 And thin partitions do their bounds divide. 



The dragon-flies and many of the British beetles 

 have active means of defence. The heads of the 

 former are often terribly armed, and their bites 

 very severe. Their disposition is also cruel and 

 rapacious, and they have even been known to 

 devour their own tails. Some of the species are 

 likewise cannibals. I have caught that lovely 

 species the Demoiselle with a piece of another in its 

 mouth. This beautiful fly is common by the sides 

 of streams in May and June. The male has a rich 

 blue body and a deep purple spot on each wing ; 

 the female has a bronzed-green body and is spotted 

 on the wings. The grasshoppers, especially the giant 

 species viridissimus, are gifted with great powers of 

 biting, and will readily seize a finger when pre- 

 sented to them; so also will any of the ants. The 

 bites of the red and the wood ants are often followed 

 by painful blisters. The common gnat does not (I 

 believe) use its collection of surgical instruments as 



