340 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



glance there seems even something absurd in attributing 

 any thing like parental affection. An animal not so big 

 perhaps as a grain of wheat, feel love for its offspring — 

 how preposterous ! we are ready to exclaim. Yet the 

 exclamation would be very much misplaced. Nothing 

 is more certain than that insects are capable of feeling 

 quite as much attachment to their offspring as the largest 

 quadrupeds. They undergo as severe privations in nou- 

 rishing them ; expose themselves to as great risk in de- 

 fending them ; and in the very ai'ticle of death exhibit as 

 much anxiety for their preservation. Not that this can 

 be said of all insects. A very large proportion of them 

 are doomed to die before their young come into exist- 

 ence. But in these the passion is not extinguished. It is 

 merely modified, and its direction changed. And when 

 you witness the solicitude with which they provide for 

 the secui'ity and sustenance of their future young, you 

 can scarcely deny to them love for a progeny they are 

 never destined to behold. Like affectionate parents in 

 similar circumstances, their last efforts are employed in 

 providing for the children that are to succeed them. 



I. Observe the motions of that common white butter- 

 fly which you see flying from herb to herb. You perceive 

 that it is not food she is in pursuit of; for flowers have 

 no attraction for her. Her object is the discovery of a 

 plant that will supply the sustenance appropriated by 

 Providence to her young, upon which to deposit her 

 eggs. Her own food has been honey drawn from the 

 nectary of a flower. This, therefore, or its neighbour- 

 hood, we might expect would be the situation she would 

 select for them. But no : as if aware that this food would 



