Il6 Rev. L. Guilding's Account of Margarodes. 



death ensues in consequence, unless immediate relief be afforded. 

 Vinegar is poured down the throat, which probably dissolves 

 these substances in the crop, and thus removes the distention 

 they had occasioned. The astonishing quantity in the land 

 puzzles me. I know of no insect sufficiently abundant to pro- 

 duce them in such vast quantity. The ant and the musquito 

 are the only insects whose number bears any proportion to these 

 little substances." 



With the musquito they are of course in no way connected ; 

 but I have every reason to believe that the animal is placed 

 by a merciful Providence in the dry colonies, as a parasite to 

 keep down the numbers of those little invincible and voracious 

 creatures the ants, which would otherwise swarm in countless 

 myriads uninjured by the rains which thin their ranks in the 

 mountainous and more rainy islands. They occur plentifully 

 in the Bahamas ; and, under the name of ant-eggs, are strung 

 into necklaces and ornamental purses by the ladies. In the 

 rainy climate of St. Vincent they have not been found ; but in 

 the smaller islands of the Government, which, from the absence 

 of gigantic mountain ranges, are subject to continued drought, 

 these bodies are met with in abundance. On a late visit to the 

 Union Island I collected a boxfull ; and suspecting that others 

 had failed in tracing the animals to maturity from improperly 

 placing them in too dry a situation, I brought them home in 

 moist marl, and had soon the satisfaction to observe the insects 

 which are here figured issuing from the pearls. I lament to say, 

 that from the distance of this island, it may be a long time before 

 I am able to obtain an animal so delicate and small in its state 

 of ovum and larva ; or have an opportunity of observing them 

 in coitu, to ascertain whether there be any apparent difference 

 in the structure of the sexes. 



I met with them most plentifully in marly soil about stones, 



under 



