170 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



These insects, according to the observation of all 

 naturalists, are very warlike, voracious, and did our 

 limits allow, we should quote many very interesting 

 accounts of them from the works of that eminent 

 German Entomologist, Roesel. Like Reaumur, in 

 France, he was occupied the greatest part of his life 

 in making observations concerning the life, habits, 

 manners, use, and injury of insects, and published the 

 result of his labors in four volumes, from 1746 to 

 1761, under the title " Insecten Belustigungen," ento- 

 mological amusements. Roesel was born in Germany 

 in 1705, was a contemporary of Linnaeus, Buffon, 

 Tournefort, and Jussieu. In the early part of his life 

 he practised miniature painting in Nurenberg, but 

 afterwards devoted himself entirely to the represen- 

 tation of insects, which he drew from nature with un- 

 common accuracy. He then wrote his valuable and 

 classical work on that branch of Natural History, and 

 illustrated it with plates. He died in 1759. 



To witness the warlike disposition and cruelty of 

 these soothsayers, it is only necessary to put several 

 of them in a box together, when they will immediate- 

 ly commence fighting, furiously striking at each other 

 with their long fore-legs. The males are consider- 

 ably smaller than the females, and in these encoun- 

 ters generally fall victims to the voracity of their 

 " better-halves," who cut off their heads and then de- 

 vour their whole body piecemeal. 



