INSECTS : WINGS AND THEIR APPENDAGES. 7 1 



will in the same space of time go more than the third of 

 a mile. Now compare the immense difference in size of 

 the two animals (ten millions of the fly would hardly 

 counterpoise one racer), and how wonderful will the 

 velocity of this minute creature appear ! Did the fly 

 equal the race-horse in size, and retain its present powers 

 in the ratio of its magnitude, it would traverse the globe 

 with the rapidity of lightning." * 



Bees, again, are accomplished masters of aerial motion. 

 The Humble-bees, notwithstanding their heavy bodies, 

 are the most powerful fliers of this class. The same 

 excellent entomologist tells us that they " traverse the 

 air in segments of a circle, the arc of which is alternately 

 to right and left. The rapidity of their flight is so great 

 that could it be calculated, it would be found, the size of 

 the creature considered, far to exceed that of any bird, 

 as has been proved by the observations of a traveller in 

 a railway carriage proceeding at the rate of twenty miles 

 an hour, which was accompanied, though the wind was 

 against them, for a considerable distance by a Humble- 

 bee (fiombus siibinterrujrtus), not merely with the same 

 rapidity, but even greater, as it not unfrequently flew to 

 and fro about the carriage, or described zig-zag lines in 

 its flight. The aerial movements of the Hive-bee are 

 more distinct and leisurely." f 



You have doubtless often admired the noble Dragon- 

 fly, with its four ample and wide-spread wings of gauze, 

 hawking in a green lane or over a pool in the noon of 

 summer. It sails, or rather shoots with arrowy fleetness 

 hither and thither, now forwards, now backwards, now to 

 the right, now to the left, without turning its body, but 

 simply by the action of its powerful and elegant wings. 

 Leeuwenhoek once saw an insect of this tribe chased by a 

 swallow in a menagerie a hundred feet long. The Dragon- 

 fly shot along with such astonishing power of wing, to the 

 * "Intr. to Entorr." ; Lett, xx f Ibid. 



