MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 459 



this they keep not only the larger animals, but even man himself, in 

 awe and at a distance. But on these I enlarged sufficiently in a former 

 letter. 1 



These weapons, fearful as they are, would be of but little use to insects 

 if they had not courage so employ them : in this quality, however, they 

 are by no means deficient; for, their diminutive size considered, they are, 

 many of them, the most valiant animals in nature. The giant bulk 

 of an elephant would not deter a hornet, a bee, or even an ant, from 

 attacking it, if it was provoked. I once observed a small spider walking 

 in my path. On putting my stick to it, it immediately turned round as 

 if to defend itself. On the approach of my finger, it lifted itself up 

 and stretched out its legs to meet it. — In Ray's Letters mention is made 

 of a singular combat between a spider and a toad fought at Hetcorne 

 near Sittinghurst^ in Kent ; but as the particulars and issue of this famous 

 duel are not given, I can only mention the circumstance, and conjecture 

 that the spider was victorious P Terrible as is the dragon-fly to the 

 insect world in general, putting to flight and devouring whole hosts of 

 butterflies, May-flies, and others of its tribes, it instils no terror into the 

 stout heart of the scorpion-fly (Panorpn communis), though much its infe- 

 rior in size and strength. Lyonnet saw one attack a dragon-fly of ten 

 times its own bigness, bring it to the ground, pierce it repeatedly with its 

 proboscis ; and had he not by his eagerness parted them, he doubts not 

 it would have destroyed this tyrant of the insect creation.^ 



When the death's head hawk-moth was introduced by Huber into a 

 nest of humble-bees, they were not affected by it, like the hive-bees, but 

 attacked it and drove it out of their nest, and in one instance their stings 

 proved fatal to it.^ A black ground-beetle devours the eggs of the mole 

 cricket, or Gryllotalpa. To defend them, the female places herself at the 

 entrance of the nest — which is a neatly smoothed and rounded chamber 

 protected by labyrinths, ditches, and ramparts — and whenever the beetle 

 attempts to seize its prey, she catches it and bites it asunder.^ 



I know nothing more astonishing than the wonderful muscular strength 

 of insects, which, in proportion to their size, exceeds that of any other 

 class of animals, and is likewise to be reckoned amongst their means of 

 defence. Take one of the common chafers or dung-beetles (Geotrupes 

 stercorarius, or Copris lujiaris) into your hand, and observ^e how he makes 

 his way in spite of your utmost pressure ; and read the accounts which 

 authors have left us of the very great weights that a flea will easily move, 

 as if a single man should draw a waggon with forty or fifty hundred weight 

 of hay : — but upon this I shall touch hereafter, and therefore only hint at 

 it now. 



We are next to consider the modes of concealment to which insects 

 have recourse in order to escape the observation of their enemies. One 



' Mr. MacLeay relates to me, from the communications of Mr. E. Forster, the following 

 particulars respecting the history of Matilla coccinea, which from this account appears to be 

 one of the most redoubtable 'of stinging insects. The females are most plentiful in Mary- 

 land in the months of July and August, but are never very numerous. They are very 

 active, and have been observed to take flies by surprise. A person stung by one of them 

 lost his senses in five minutes, and was so ill for several days that his life was despaired of. 



* Hedcorne near Sittingbourne. ^ Dr. Long in Ray's Letters, 370. 



* Lesser, 1. i. 263. Note %. a Huber. Noiiv. Obs. ii. 301. 

 « Bingley, Animal Biogr. iii. 1st Ed. 247. "White, Nat. HiU. ii. 82. 



