THE INSECT WORLD. 3 



holes in the soil or in old walls, and building cells, or rushing from 

 flower to flower gathering honey, collecting pollen, and not in a 

 temper to be disturbed at their business, for they are putting by for 

 the rainy day, and thinking of the store they must lay up with 

 their eggs. A caterpillar is in great distress, and is traversing the 

 sunshine in the strong grip of a gaily-coloured Sphex, which is 

 about to place it in the nest, where its young will make a meal 

 of it some day or other; and an Ichneumon fly, with its slim 

 waist and long, slender body, armed with a sharp ovipositor, is 

 just about to attack another heavy feeder, and to lay an o.^'g 

 beneath its skin. Well armed and cuirassed carnivorous beetles 

 and dragon-flies are busy slaying and eating the quiet munchers 

 of leaves and the suckers of flowers ; and the delicate water 

 insects are revelling in a constant fight, or are gormandising on 

 their weaker prey. 



Elsewhere there is a different scene of intense vitality. The 

 blow-flies are hovering around, and are placing their eggs in the 

 putrid dead body of a small animal, some beetles are burying 

 portions of it, and soon a mass of maggots will revel in the rest. 



Most wonderful are the uses of insects. They fertilise the soil 

 by scattering decomposing matters, and prevent them from vitiating 

 the atmosphere. A plant grows luxuriantly and increases too 

 rapidly ; the caterpillars arrest its growth and propagation ; the 

 caterpillars after a while become too destructive, and the Ichneu- 

 mons kill them by myriads. The vegetarian insects which lead 

 a luxurious and quiet life tend to increase greatly in number, 

 and yet the carnivorous kinds are ever at hand to keep this 

 prolific race within bounds. Century after century this curious 

 equilibrium is maintained in Nature, and although occasionally 

 locusts increase to such an extent as to ruin great districts, still, 

 as a rule, the interference of man produces the ravages of the flies 

 that injure his crops, for he constantly disarranges the balance 

 of insect power. 



The crab tribe represents the insects in the seas, along the 

 coasts, and in the rivers, and its members lead all sorts of lives 

 under very diverse circumstances. 



It would appear that Nature requires the multiplication of the 

 Articulata to be carried to the greatest excess, and that they 



B 2 



