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SECTION III. 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC HABITS OF INSECTS. 



Chapter IX. 



PAIRING OP INSECTS. 



The diversity of character and habit exhibited by 

 various animals, with regard to sociahty, seems to 

 have been originally impressed upon them by Provi- 

 dence, in conformity to their several w^ants, and the 

 purposes they were designed to fulfil in the scale of 

 creation. Those, for example, which have been in- 

 tended to subsist by rapine are, for the most part, 

 disposed to live solitary ; and accordingly, the lion, 

 the eagle, and the dragon-fly, pursue their prey alone, 

 two individuals being rarely seen in the same circle. 

 To this, however, there are some exceptions : — the 

 most remarkable which occur to us take place among 

 wolves, who often hunt in troops, as well as wild- 

 dogs and jackalls ; swallows, who congregate to 

 hawk for flies ; and spiders, of various species, 

 whose nets are often spread contiguous to one an- 

 other, sometimes even in contact. The latter appears 

 the more singular, that spiders, though of the same 

 species, have no hesitation in devouring one another 

 when they can make a capture ; but we have re- 

 marked, that those who weave snares, will not touch 

 anything which they have not themselves entrapped; 



