FOOD OF INSECTS, 217 



feeders, while some eat the very petals {CuaiUia Verhnsci, Xi/Hna Lmancs, 

 &c.), others in their perfect state select the pollen which swells the anthers 

 (bees, LcpturcB, and Mordellce) ; and a still larger class of these the honey 

 secreted in the nectaries (most of the Lepidoptem, Hpnenoptera, and 

 Diptera). 



Nor are insects confined to vegetables in their recent or unmanufactured 

 state. A beam of oak, when it has supported the roof of a castle five 

 hundred years, is as much to the taste ot some (Anobia ) as the same tree 

 was in its growing state to that of others ; another class (Ptini) would 

 sooner feast on the herbarium of Brunfelsius than on the greenest herbs 

 that grow ; and a third (some Tinece, Termites), to whom 



" a river and a sea 



Are a dish of tea, 



And a kingdom bread aud butter," 



would prefer the geographical treasures of Saxton or Speed, in spite of 

 their ink and alum, to the freshest rind of the flax plant. The larva of 

 a little fly {Oscinis ceUnris), whose economy, as I can witness from my 

 own observations, is admirably described by Mentzelius ^, disdains to feed 

 on anything but wine or beer, which, like Boniface in the play, it may 

 be said both to eat and drink ; though, unlike its toping counterpart, in- 

 different to the age of its liquor, which, whether sweet or sour, is equally 

 accejitable. 



A diversity of food almost as great may be boasted by the insects which 

 feed on animal substances. Some (flesh-flies, carrion-beetles, &c.) devour 

 dead carcasses only, which they will not touch until imbued with the haut 

 gout of putridity. Others, like Mr. Bruce's Abyssinians, preferring their 

 meat before it has passed through the hands of the butcher, select it from 

 living victims, and may with justice pride themselves upon the peculiar 

 freshness of their diet. Of these last, different tribes follow different pro- 

 cedures. The Ichneiimom devour the flesh of the insects into which they 

 have insinuated themselves. Some of the (Extri, fi.xed in a spacious apart- 

 ment beneath the skin of an ox or deer, regale themselves on a purulent 

 secretion with which they are surrounded. Others of the same tribe, 

 partial to a higher temperature, attach themselves to the interior of the 

 stomach of a horse, and in a bath of chyme of 102 degrees of Fahrenheit 

 revel on its juices. The various species of horse-flies dart their sharp 

 lancets into the veins of quadrupeds, and satiate themselves in living 

 streams; while the gnat, the flea, the bug, and the louse, plunge their pro- 

 boscis even into those of us lords of the creation, and banquet on " the 

 ruddy drops which warm oUr hearts." Some make their repast upon birds 

 only, as the fly of the swallow, and other Oriiithuiuyice, and the bird-louse ; 

 insects nearly allied, though one is dipterous and the other apterous. 

 And a most singular animal belonging to the latter tribe (Ni/c/eribia Ves- 

 pertiUonis) revenues upon the bat its ravages of the insect world ^; while 

 snails give subsistence to Drilus Jiavescens, a beetle, and its singular apte- 

 rous female, in the larva state, as well as to the larvae of glow-worms.^ 



1 Epfiem. German. Ann. xii. Obs. 58. Kay, Hist. Ins. 2G1. 



2 Linn. Trans, xi. 11. t. 3. f. 5 — 7. 



3 Desmarest and Audouin in Anyi. des Sciences Nat. i. 67. ; ii. 129. 443. ; vii. 353. ; • 

 quoted in Burmcister's Manual of Ent. p. 552. 



