240 .MRANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS- 



notorious for their bad cliaracter in tliis respect than the 

 bug tribe (Geocoriscc), which almost universally exhale 

 an odour that mixes with the scent of cucumbers another 

 extremely unpleasant and annoying. Some however are 

 less disgusting, particularly Lrjgaus Hyoscyami, which 

 yields, De Geer found, an agreeable odour of thyme^. — 

 Several lepidopterous larvae are defended by their ill 

 smell ; but I shall only particularize the silk-worms, 

 which on that account are said to be unwholesome. — 

 Phryganea grcmdis^ a kind of May-fly, is a trichoptei'ous 

 insect that offends the nostrils in this way ; but a worse 

 is Chrysopa Pcrla, a golden-eyed and lace-winged fly, 

 of the next order, whose beauty is counterbalanced by a 

 strong scent of human ordure that proceeds from it. — 

 Numberless Hymenoptera act upon the olfactory nerves 

 by their ill or powerful effluvia. One of them, an ant 

 {Formica fvctida De Geer, /(letcns Oliv.), has the same 

 smell with the insect last mentioned''. Our common 

 black ant [F. fuliginosa), whose curious nests in trees 

 have been before described to you*^, is an insect of a 

 powerful and penetrating scent, which it imparts to every 

 thing with which it comes in contact; and Fabricius dis- 

 tinguishes another {F. ajialis, L,a.tr., Jbeiens, F.) by an 

 epithet {fcetidissima) which sufficiently declares its pro- 

 perties. Many wild bees {Andrcna) are distinguished 

 by their pungent alliaceous smell. Crabro U. Jtaxnim, a 

 wasp-like insect, is remarkable for the penetrating and 

 spirituous effluvia of ether that it exhales"^. Indeed there 

 is scarcely any species in this order that has not a pecu- 



•' De Geer, iii. 249. 374. " Ibid. 611. ' Vol. I. 480. 



•^ Kirby, Mon. Ap. Aug/, i. 13G. note a. 



