64 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



These all belong to the Linnean order Hymenoplera ; and the tremendous 

 arms with which they annoy us, are two darts finer than a hair, furnished 

 on their outer side at the end with several Ijarbs not visible to the naked 

 eye, and each moving in the groove of a strong and often curved sheath, 

 frequently mistaken for the sting, which, when the darts enter the flesh, 

 visually injects a drop of subtle venom, furnished from a peculiar vessel in 

 which it is secreted, into the wound, occasioning, especially if the darts be 

 not extracted, a considerable tumour, accompanied by very acute pain. 

 Many insects are thus armed and have this power. Twice I have been 

 stung by an Ichneumon ; fiist by one with a concealed sting, and after- 

 wards by another of the family of Pimpla Manijestator, with a very long 

 exserted one. I had held the insect by its sting, which it withdrew from 

 between my fingers with surprising force, and then, as if in revenge, stung 

 nie. Pompilus viaticus, one of the spider-wasps, once, in this way, gave 

 me acute pain. Mr. W. S. MacLeay states that at the Havana he was 

 once stung by a gigantic Pomp/Ins (probably P. Hcros), from which he 

 suffered a very short-lived pain, but the wound bled as if punctured by a 

 pin. The bleeding, he conjectures, carried off the venom. But the insects 

 which in this respect principally attract our notice by exciting our fears, 

 are the hive-bee, the wasp, and the hornet. The first of these, the hee, 

 sometimes manifests an antipathy to particular individuals, whom it attacks 

 and wounds without provocation ; but the two last, though apparently 

 the most formidable, are not so ill-tempered as they are conceived to be, 

 seldom molesting those who do not first interfere with or disturb them. 

 We learn from Scripture that the hornet, (but whether it was the common 

 species is uncertain) was employed by Providence to drive out the im- 

 pious inhabitants of Canaan, or subdue them under the hands of the 

 Israelites.^ — The effect produced by the sting of these animals is different 

 in different persons. To some they occasion only a very slight incon- 

 venience or a momentary pain ; others feel the smart of the wounds which 

 they inflict for several days, and ai-e thrown into fevers by them ; and to 

 some they have even proved fatal.* Yet these insects are certainly, in 

 general, but a trifling evil. They become, however, especially wasps, a 

 very serious one to many, from the mere dread of being stung by them, 

 even thouuh they should not carry their fears to the same length with the 

 lady mentioned by Dr. Fairfax ^ in the P/iilosop/iical Transactions, who had 

 such a horror of them that during the season in which they abound in 

 houses, she always confined herself to her apartment. An insect of a 

 tribe never before suspected Of being endowed with such a mode of annoy- 

 ance, one of the order Lcpidoptera, found at the Cape of Good Hope, is 

 said to defend itself when captured by stinging, whence it is there named 

 the Bec-iiiot/i, and it is adiled that the puncture, which is very painful, is 

 speedily followed by swelling and inflammation.* 



Ants are insects of this order, which, though our indigenous species may 

 be regarded as harmless, in some countries are gifted w ith double means 

 of annoyance, both from their sting and their bite. A green kind in New 

 iSouth Wales was observed by Sir Joseph Banks to inflict a wound 



1 Deut. vii. 20. Josh. xxiv. 12. 2 Amoreux, 242. 



5 Philos. Trans, i. 201. 



4 Okeii's Isis, 1831, p. 1917., from a letter received by Dr. Reich, from the Cape of 

 Good Hope, quoted in Bm-meister's Manual of Ent. p, oSl. 



