20 



THE REPORT OF THE 



No. Id 



A Wasp ( Ve.ipa maculala} 



side of the abdomen is covered with a thick brown pile, like that of plush. This channel is 

 probably a receptacle for a suppl/ of air, for use when the insect takes a plunge into the 

 depths. 



Who fitted the water bug to the part it has to play ? It did not fit itself. Man could not 

 do so, any more than he, by taking thought, could add one cubit to his stature , or make one hair 

 white or black. Did Nature ? No — we do not deify Nature. There is a Divine Being who 

 originated and controls natural forces— who designed this creature, so admirable in every part. 

 (1) The exactitude with which every species of insect is formed excites our admiration. 

 Consider the wasp (Fig 7). The male has 13 joints in the 

 antenna : the female has 12 — neither more nor less in either A. \ /^J^ 



case. The male has invariably 7 segments in the abdomen, and 

 the female 6. Then, moreover, the limbs of the wasp consist 

 of five parts — coxa, trocanter, femur, tibia and tarsus ; and in the 

 tarsus there »re five joints. Who counted out these things and 

 fixed the rule ? Who traced out the lines and spaces in the 

 wings, so exactly that the species of the insect may be told from 

 the wings alone ? The same God of whom David wrote : — 



" Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect ; and 

 in Thy book all my membei's were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet 

 there were none of them." Ps. CXXXIX, 16. 

 The God who counts and measures. 



Who taught Fe.spa Maculata Linn, to build its wonderful nest of wood-pulp ; and gave ifc 



the geometrical and mechanical skill to form 

 its hexago' al cells (Fig. 8), and suspend 

 them, tier below tier, in such a marvell us 

 way ? 



The same God, " Who hath measured the 

 waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted 

 out heaven with the span, and comprehend- 

 ed the dust of the earth in a measure, and 

 weighed the mountains in scales, and the 

 hills in a balance." Is XL. 12. 



(3) What exquisite beauty does the insect world display to the admiring gaze of men. Who 

 was it gave to I'hUosamia Cynthia its lovely dress of fawn colour embellished with delicate 

 mauve, and ornamented with the pale lunettes to which it owes its name ? 



And who gave to Phleciethonthis cingulata its wonderful gradations of colouring — its lings 

 and Vandykes, its bars of black and carmine, and its white-spotted borders ? It was that B ne- 

 ficent Being who delights in beauty and grace, who in love to His creatures has made all nature — 



" Rf-auty to the e^'c, 



And music to the ear." 



(4) In 1873, before the moth Cvstiiis Cv')iteri nsii hnd been named and described by Dr. 

 Lintner, J found protruding from the trunks of B ilsaim Poplars growing on the banks of the 

 Yamaska River a number of empty chrys dis cases of this species. I examined the bolls of the 

 trees carefully and was rewarded by finding a fine female of the moth. I was not then suffi_ 

 ciently acquainted with the Cossidie to know that this belonged to anew species I then peeled 

 away some of the bark from one of the trees and found the mouth of a tunnel— over this I 

 fastened a piece of netting — so as to form a bag ; and, by this means, I secured a male of the 

 species. I have the piir in my collection still. 



Cossua Centerensis lays an egg in a crevice of the bark of a tree. The little caterpillar that 

 comes from it bites its way into the wood. Its tunnel is at first a mere pin-hole, and is sooa 



Fig. 8. Wasp (Polistes) and its Comb. 



