INTERNAL ANATOMY OF INSECTS. 79 
mersion in any fluid, it is often resumed, even when it 
lias been long and they are apparently dead, if they be 
brought into contact with the atmosphere. Reaumur 
found this to be the case with bees a ; and Swammerdam 
tells us thatthe maggot of the cheese-fly ( Tyrophaga Casei) 
lived six or seven days in rain-water b : he found it so 
difficult to kill the larva of Stratyomis Ckamaleon, which 
he first immersed twenty-four hours in spirits of wine, 
and then put them several days in water, without killing 
them, — that he lost his patience, and dissected them 
alive. He tried to drown them also in vinegar, in which 
they held out more than two days c . 
That the suspended animation and subsequent death 
of most terrestrial insects when thrown into water is 
caused by the want of air, is evident from this, — that the 
same effect ensues if the spiracles be covered with any 
oily or fatty matter. In this case too, their vital powers 
soon become suspended : they revive, if the suffocating 
matter be soon removed; and if this be not done, in- 
fallibly perish. This fact was known to the ancients, 
for Pliny observes that bees die if dipped in oil or ho- 
ney* 1 . One exception to this law has been before men- 
tioned 6 : a similar contrivance secures the cheese-mas- 
got from having its respiration interrupted by its moist 
and greasy food; the grub also of Sarcophaga carnaria, 
and of other Muscidce probably, has its posterior spira- 
cles placed in a plate at the bottom of a kind of fleshy 
pouch, which has the shape of a hollow, truncated, and 
3 Reaum. v. 540. b Swamm. Bibl. Nat. ii. 65. a. 
c Ibid. 48. a. d Hist. Nat. I. xi. c. ID. 
c Swamm. Bibl. Nat. ii. 64. a. 
