572 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



done by the ant-lion and another Insect. Or, to omit the endless instances 

 furnished by wasps, ants, the Termites, &c., what animals can be adduced 

 which, like the hive-bee, associating in societies, build regular cities com- 

 posed of cells formed with geometrical precision, divided into dwellings 

 adapted in capacity to different orders of the society, and storehouses for 

 containing a supply of provision ? Even the erections of the beaver, and 

 the pensile dwelling of the tailor-bird, must be referred to a less elaborate 

 instinct than that which guides the procedures of these little insects, the 

 complexness and yet perfection of whose operations, when contrasted with 

 the insignificance of the architect, have at all times caused the reflecting 

 observer to be lost in astonishment. 



It is, however, in the deviations of the instincts of insects, and their 

 accommodation to circumstances, that the exquisiteness of these faculties 

 is most decidedly manifested. The instincts of the larger animals seem 

 capable of but slight modification. They are either exercised in their full 

 extent or not at all. A bird when its nest is pulled out of a bush, though 

 it should be laid uninjured close by, never attempts to replace it in its 

 situation ; it contents itself with building another. But insects in similar 

 contingencies often exhibit the most ingenious resources, their instincts 

 surprisingly accommodating themselves to the new circumstances in which 

 they are placed, in a manner more wonderful and incomprehensible than 

 the existence of the faculties themselves. Take a honey-comb for 

 instance. If every comb that bees fabricate were always made precisely 

 alike — with the same general form, placed in the same position, the cells 

 all exactly similar, or where varying with the variations always alike — 

 this structure would perhaps in reality be not more astonishing than many 

 of a much simpler conformation. But when we know that in nine 

 instances out of ten the combs in a bee-hive are thus similar in their pro- 

 perties, and yet that the tenth one shall be found of a form altogether 

 peculiar ; placed in a different position ; with cells of a difierent shape — 

 and all these variations evidently adapted to some new circumstance not 

 present when the other nine were constructed, — we are constrained to 

 admit that nothing in the instinct of other animals can be adduced exhibit- 

 ing similar exquisiteness : just as we must confess an ordinary loom, how- 

 ever ingeniously contrived, far excelled by one capable of repairing its 

 defects when out of order. 



The examples of this variation and accommodation to circumstances 

 among insects are very numerous ; and as presenting many interesting 

 facts in their history not before related, I shall not fear wearying you with 

 a pretty copious detail of them, beginning with the more simple. 



It is the instinct of Geotrupes vernalis to roll up pellets of dung, in 

 each of which it deposits one of its eggs ; and in places where it meets 

 with cow or horse-dung only, it is constantly under the necessity of 

 having recourse to this process. But in districts where sheep are kept, 

 this baetle wisely saves its labor, and ingeniously avails itself of the pellet- 

 shaped balls ready made to its hands which the excrement of these animals 

 supplies.^ 



A caterpillar described by Bonnet, which from being confined in a box 

 was unable to obtain a supply of the bark with which its ordinary instinct 



' Sturm, Deutschlands Fauna, i. 27. 



