280 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



death of both combatants ; and the females do not yield 

 to the Mantes in their unnatural cruelty to their mates. 

 Woe be to the male spider that after an union does not 

 with all speed make his escape from the fangs of his part- 

 ner ! Nay, De Geer saw one that, in the midst of his 

 preparatory caresses, was seized by the object of his at- 

 tentions, enveloped by her in a web, and then devoured 

 — a sight which, he observes, filled him with horror and 

 indignation^. 



Such are the benefits which we derive from the insects 

 that keep each other in check. Here they are the de- 

 stroyers to which we are chiefly indebted : but we are in 

 another point of view under nearly equal obligations to 

 the destroyed ; for they are insects, either wholly or in 

 part, that form the food of some of our most esteemed 

 fishes, and of birds that are not more valuable to us as 

 articles for the table, than as the songsters that enliven 

 our gi'oves. But before proceeding to the details which 

 this view of the subject involves, I ought not to omit 

 pointing out to j-ou that many quadrupeds, which though 

 not all of direct utility to us are doubtless of imj)ortance 

 in the scale of being, derive a considerable part of their 

 subsistence from insects. 



The harmless hedgehog and the mole, to begin at the 

 lower end of the series, are both said to be insectivorous''; 

 the latter devouring large quantities of the wire-worms. 

 The greedy swine will root up whole acres in search of 

 the grubs of cockchafers, of which they are very fond ; 

 and i^erhaps the good they do is greater than the harm, 

 if their attack be confined to fjrass that havino- been un- 

 " De Geer, vii. 1^0. •- Ringloy, ii. .^74. 



